Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten released from prison after 53 years

[BumRushDaShow]

24. "there is no common connection like it was during the Vietnam era"

You're showing your age!

The younger generation is probably the "opposite" - overly "connected". You just don't "see" (or fathom) how they do it. It's called cell phones and social media. They can and do "connect" LIVE via text and/or video chats, with other young people, not just in their neighborhoods or schools, but from around the country, and literally from around the world.

They have been "internationalized", which is fascinating in itself. We used to do that via "pen pals" and air mail. They just get in some WhatsApp session and have at it - live and real-time.

Any appearance of "disengagement" is probably because they are operating on a different plane of "communications" and are forming opinions, not just from home, but from who they engage with outside of the home - magnified by that unlimited access to "the world" (or at least those who also have access nationally and internationally).

The whole "gun violence" issue (and soon-to-be "abortion" issue) is very much their battle. Don't ignore the "David Hoggs" of that younger generation and the movement that he and so many others started, and that hasn't let up. Schools around the country have had walkouts periodically the past year. It has also filtered into the state legislatures with new young Reps. (like Justin Jones and Justin Peterson) who have literally sacrificed their positions and run the gauntlet, to make their and their constituents and supporters' voices heard with respect to halting the idolization and proliferation of guns.

The country wasn't drowning in guns and mass shootings in the '60s, but it is now, and that is probably top of their list as homicide by gun has become a leading cause of death among young people.

And as a note - there was no "common connection" during the '60s (other than maybe the ages of the youth participating) because the Vietnam War protestors, although having some overlap with the Civil Rights protestors, did not really have that much "in common", socioeconomically or anything else. They acknowledged each other's focus but one group was just trying to be able to vote, live where they wanted, eat where they wanted, and go to school where they wanted without de jure and/or de facto racism standing in their way. Alternately, the other group was protesting the waste of lives in a "war" that was never declared a "war", and that was destroying families.

Until we are all truly on a "level playing field", there will be no "common connection".