"Why can't things be the way they used to be?" "I wish we could could go back to the good old days." Have you ever heard anyone say this? My guess is you've heard it a lot recently. Maybe you have even said it yourself. Certainly we all can get nostalgic for times in the past when life seemed simpler. In many cases it is a desire to go back to a time when we were younger... maybe when our grandparents or maybe even our parents were still alive. On the other hand, it may be a time when you felt more comfortable, more in control, more in charge of things.
So if you have a yearning to reverse course and go back to the "way things used to be," I'd be curious to know what time in your past you specifically are talking about. What time in American history do you consider to be the "good old days?"
Unless you are over 100 years old, the earliest a very small number of you may look back on fondly would be the 1930's. Not to give a history lesson here but, I believe the 1930's was one of the toughest decades in our history. The Great Depression began at the end of the prior decade so, unless you were unaffected by the stock market crash, bank closures and job losses, you experienced some serious financial hardships, possible homelessness and hunger during those years. The Great Plains states suffered through the Dust Bowl causing many to lose everything and forcing them to uproot their families and head to California seeking opportunity. Unemployment in the US was as high as 50% for African-Americans (who, if they had jobs, were generally paid 30% less than whites) while the rest of America experienced 30% unemployment. Other minorities in America also suffered as many whites felt that any job held by a minority was taking their rightful job away from them. Lynchings of blacks continued into the 1930's. Congress attempted to pass anti-lynching legislation but it was thwarted by Southern legislators.
Of course, you may mean the 1940's as the times in which you'd like to return. Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939 and World War II began, throwing the world into war in the 1940's. The Japanese surprise attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Within 3 days the US entered the war, declaring war on Japan as well as Germany and Italy. 110,000 Japanese, most of whom were loyal Americans (75,000 were US citizens,) were rounded up and placed in detention camps because of their Japanese ancestry. Over 400,000 Americans were killed during the war. Many more times than that were wounded. Race riots in Detroit and Harlem in 1943 caused 40 deaths and 700 injuries. Racial segregation continued to exist in the 1940's. In 1945, California passed legislation "prohibiting marriage between whites and 'Negroes, mulattos, Mongolians, and Malays.'" Equal treatment for women in the workplace was not practiced nor required in the 1940's. Good times.
You probably mean the 1950's. World War II was over for nearly 5 years but the Cold War was already in full swing. Six months into the 1950's, North Korea crossed the 38th parallel invading South Korea thus beginning the Korean War. Nearly 40,000 Americans died and over 100,000 were wounded in the three years before the cease fire was finally agreed upon. The US began its presence in Vietnam by providing training to the South Vietnamese. The US Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Southern states continue their fight to keep schools segregated. In 1957, Arkansas National Guard troops are ordered by the governor to Little Rock to prevent nine black students from attending Central High, an all-white school. In December 1955, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat (in the "colored" section) to a white man on a Montgomery, AL bus after the whites-only section had filled up. Her act of defiance and the later bus boycott gives traction to the modern civil rights movement. Many look fondly on the 1950's as the US economy rebounded from the war years. Unfortunately, minorities who fought bravely during WWII and Korea were still treated as second class citizens at home. Might have been the good old days for you... not so much for them.
So maybe you are talking about the 1960's? John F. Kennedy, the space race (eventually landing a man on the moon in 1969,) and the explosion of pop music of many persuasions, television, and cool cars were notables of the 1960's. Civil rights legislation passed through Congress banning discrimination in jobs, voting and accommodation. President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to include outlawing the requirement of potential voters to pass a literacy test. Thurgood Marshall becomes the first black Supreme Court justice in 1967. But the 1960's also produces the Bay of Pigs debacle in Cuba and the resulting Cuban Missile crisis, where the US and Russia were on the brink of nuclear war. US involvement in Vietnam escalates to the point of over 300,000 US troops involved. Over 50,000 would die before the war ends. Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and presidential hopeful Senator Robert F. Kennedy all occur in the 1960's. Racial tensions remained very high with race riots occurring all over the country. The notion of racial equality continued to be vigorously challenged throughout portions of the United States. So much occurred during the 1960's that itemization of the events seems almost impossible. To say the 1960's were turbulent would be a gross understatement. Were these the the good old days you speak of?
The 70's saw the end of the Vietnam war and the shunning of many of its veterans. Spit upon and called baby killers, these soldiers never experienced the affection from their country afforded to their WWII and Korean war predecessors. The 70's were when we learned of the Watergate scandal eventually leading to the resignation of President Richard Nixon as well as the conviction of many of his top aides including the former Attorney General John Mitchell. In a very controversial move, Nixon was pardoned by President Gerald Ford who had assumed the presidency upon Nixon's resignation. Four students, protesting the Vietnam war at Kent State University, were shot and killed by National Guard troops. The Supreme Court ruled in Roe vs. Wade that a state cannot prevent a woman from having an abortion performed during the first six months of pregnancy. The 1970's sees the Middle East oil embargo causing significant gas shortages and further tensions in that region. Sixty-three American embassy workers are taken hostage by Iran. Popularity of disco music and bell bottoms become widespread in the 1970's...enough said about that. In a hugely surprising election, former Governor of Georgia Jimmy Carter is elected president in 1976. The economy falls into recession and mortgage interest rates begin a rise that peaks in the early 1980's. Do you want to return to the 1970's?
Rather than continuing this decade by decade itemization, let me ask a question. If you are white and are yearning for things to be "like they used to be," what do you mean? Because I don't hear black people talking about the "good old days." As Americans, shouldn't the good old days be good old days for all of us? If you are white and believe that this country primarily belongs to you, I vigorously reject your thinking and attitude. This is supposed to be a country of us. Stop trying to defend things in our past that are indefensible. Stop trying to find moral equivalences in every situation. Stop using the word "them" with disgust in your voice. Stop relying on politicians to solve what is wrong in our country. Examine your own heart. Be honest. Whites comprise an overwhelming majority in this country. If you are white and have lived in the US your whole life, you have no idea what it is like to live as a minority. You may want to believe that the inequality that minorities experience is entirely of their own making but then I would say you are delusional. If you think that legislation can eliminate this reality you are wrong. No law can make a person respect and perceive another as an equal. But that's what our American covenant with one another says we are to do. The good old days are a work in progress. They are not in the past.
