Coming home in a box

[dr_hermes.insanejournal.com]

To understand why the 1960s were so whacky and unruly, you'd have to remember the ominous feeling of doom that hung over most young men in those years. When a boy hit 18, he was required by law to register with the Selective Service Board. His draft number was entered in a national lottery and if his number was selected, he would receive a letter ("Greetings!")and off to war he would go. There were exemptions, if he had a medical condition or dependents or was in college. But for most, he would get shipped out or go to prison for resisting. ("Draft dodger" was as hateful an epithet as any ethnic slur in those days).

The usual number you see is that close to 60,000 young men were killed in Viet Nam and shipped home to their families. (Many more, of course, came back with a leg gone or part of a face burned off or addicted to painkillers.) All the "crack" of the 1960s, all the silliness and surreal humor of that era can be seen as a reaction to the grim news on TV every night.

Here's Jules Feiffer on the situation, as three Presidents make the same empty speeches.