“This Could Be the Start of Something Big”

“This Could Be the Start of Something Big” a song written by Steve Allen could have been written about the decade of the sixties.

Fifty years ago Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream which was a pivotal chapter in the civil rights movement. Betty Friedan wrote the controversial bestselling book, Feminine Mystique, which held revolutionary ideas regarding women’s liberation and equality with men. Democrat Alabama Governor George Wallace gave fiery pro segregation speeches, while peaceful marchers came from across the country to Birmingham demonstrating solidarity with the reforms MLK wanted in prelude to the Equal Rights Act. 

Liberals evoke warnings that Republicans want to turn back the hands of time to the years before President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, the years before President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, and the years before the Supreme Court legalized national abortion in Roe v. Wade.  

Equal Pay   In 1963 President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act requiring equal pay for women and men performing equal work. In 2009 President Obama amended the Act, which only changed the statute of limitations, and called it the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Mythology asserts that Obama was the force behind equal pay for women, rather than the reality that it has been the law since JFK. Liberals parrot the fallacy.

Women’s Rights   Leaders of women’s rights issues in the 1960s were Betty Friedan, who  wrote The Feminine Mystique;  Shirley Chisholm  the first black woman to run for president of the United States, and then elected to Congress; and  Pauli Murray, the first black female Episcopal priest. They founded the National Organization for Women (NOW), with goals of political and economic equality; 300 women and men members challenged the assumption that a woman must choose between marriage, motherhood and a career and advocated legal equality of women and men. In the 2012 presidential election, a law school student was put on the Democrat platform to tout taxpayer funded birth control and tax payer funded abortion, claiming these were among women’s rights.  

Roe v. Wade   Prior to 1973 each state determined whether abortion was legal. In Texas it was not, except to save the life of the mother. In 1971 a pregnant unmarried women, who was given the pseudonym of Jane Roe, challenged the Dallas District Attorney, Henry Wade. She claimed that the Texas law violated her rights because she could not afford to leave the state for an abortion. The Supreme Court ruled that Texas abortion policy was unconstitutional, and that abortions must be performed during the first trimester; it became federal law. Abortion advocates have evolved this from first trimester to partial birth abortion.  

The Democrat Presidential Campaign of 2012 introduced a theoretical theme: A world where Roe v. Wade would be overturned by Republicans. Women carried signs saying “Republicans, stay out of my womb,” as they demanded taxpayer funded abortions and birth control. The inconsistency of that message escaped them. Single women voted 68% for Obama.

I Had a Dream   Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Judge not by the color of one’s skin, but by the content of their character.”  Liberals do the opposite, wanting decisions based on skin color.  It cannot be documented what MLK’s party affiliation might have been.  He maintained a policy of not endorsing any political party.  An inconvenient truth is that the pro segregation, anti-civil rights Governor Wallace of his state was a Democrat. Democrats claim MLK, but his relative Alveda King says that he was a Republican. 

Prominent black conservatives such as Justice Clarence Thomas, Herman Cain, Ward Connerly, Larry Elder, Ken Hamblin, Kenneth Hobbs, Alan Keyes, Mia Love, Condoleezza Rice, Thomas Sowell, J.C. Watts, Allen West, and Walter E. Williams are recipients of personal affronts and name calling such as “Oreos: black on the outside, white on the inside” because they do not ascribe to liberal policies.  Liberal dogma maintains that black citizens are obligated to be Democrats; 93% of the black vote went for Obama. 

Also during the sixties: 

• President John F. Kennedy was shot on November 22, 1963.  Every American living that day remembers where they were when the tragic news broke.
  
• Martin Luther King Jr., a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Baptist Minister, civil rights peace activist, and founder of the Southern Conference Leadership Council, was assassinated on April 4, 1968.  Unprecedented donations flooded the Council as people mourned his death. 
  
• The Berlin Wall "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart" (German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall)  went up, East Germans were imprisoned until 1989. 
  
• The Beatles, Elvis Presley, the Supremes, Fats Domino, and the Muppets all got their big break on the Ed Sullivan Show. The Fantasticks and Oliver Twist were on Broadway. Motown brought soul music to the big time.
  
• John Glenn was the first man to orbit the earth.

A Virginia Slims cigarette ad said
 “You’ve come a long way baby.”   They had no idea!