By Andy Goldberg
SAN FRANCISCO: Sheri Parris remembers the year 1968 like it was yesterday. “It was the formative year of my life — the year I went from being an idealist to being a cynic,” says the California-based literature professor.
“It transformed me and it transformed my generation. Before ‘68 we thought that change was just around the corner. Afterwards it seemed it was never going to come.”
Parris says three events defined her experience of that era. First was the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King that sparked off major riots in cities around the country.
Two months later US Presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy was shot after winning the Democratic California primary.
Then in August violence erupted at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago where thousands of police tried to brutally disperse legions of peace protesters who wanted to press their anti-Vietnam war message on the party which was electing its presidential candidate.
“Tragedy followed tragedy — there were tragedies around the globe — and this huge wave of hope became a wave of despair,” Parris says.
“We saw our country erupt in violence after King was killed. The shock was so incredible because the civil rights movement was so unassailably good. There was no way to make Martin Luther King seem like a bad guy. The emotional drama was that the good guys were going to make things right and when that started to unravel it was devastating.”
The despair mounted when Bobby Kennedy — the crown prince of US politics —  was assassinated.
“It seemed that there would be no way out of Vietnam. It was the end of innocence in a sense — if innocence is thinking that the world can be changed for the better. One minute there were amazing things happening and then bang bang it was all gone.”
The nadir came at the Democratic party convention in Chicago where Parris was one of those demonstrating — a young idealistic college girl who had volunteered in the campaign of George McGovern.
She was one of the McGovern Girls, a cheerleading outfit for the man who had become the party’s anti-war standard bearer in the aftermath of Kennedy’s death.
She still recalls being baton-swiped by police. “We couldn’t believe it was happening,” she recalls.
Her shock made even more surreal by the fact that she was wearing her red, white and blue cheerleading outfit at the time. It’s powerful and symbolic image.
Yet when Parris talks of her experiences that year her words and thoughts repeatedly return to the parallels of today — a desperately — felt need for change and a young Democratic presidential candidate inspiring the young people she teaches with energy and enthusiasm.
“There was an idealism alive then that I haven’t seen since,” says Parris who teaches the seminal texts of the 1960s to students at the University of California in Santa Cruz, a bastion of counter-culture values. Yet her analysis of the current situation is tinged with the cynicism of ‘68.
“When I look at Obama — if this guy is elected he will disappoint,” she predicts. “Presidents don’t have the unbridled power that I used to think they did — It’s all trade-offs.”
The 40 years since those events have hardened Parris’ sense of cynicism — but she’s still a strong believer in the ideals and commitment of her generation.
“The kids I now teach say they are really sorry to have missed the ‘60s. They feel they were born too late and it was great to feel part of a movement that was going to change things.” – DPA