When and why did you become politically aware? And what was the result?

Answer 1

My political learning began when JFK was elected president in 1959. This was a defeat (Nixon) that nobody anticipated, but once it sank in everyone was ready to rally around our new leader. The Camelot thing was fun, while it lasted, however it didn't seem much like Camelot when we had other things going on, such as the bay of pigs fiasco that Kennedy screwed up, royally. The stand off with the Russians over missile deployment in Cuba, and the goings on in Vietnam.

The early sixties was a time of turmoil, and it wasn't about to get any better. Next JFK was assassinated, Johnson came on board and before you know it, old Lyndon is ready to show Ho Che Mien how it's done, and before you know it we have a half million troops over there.

By then, even I, the hawk is questioning Johnson and this damned war he got us in with no apparent exit strategy in place.

My commitment to the democrats was exhausted by now, and I started second guessing the wisdom of the democrats. Before you knew it, a new republican born.

Answer 2

Political awareness was more of a process for me.

When I was about twelve, after the riots in other parts of our city, the National Guard had a presence in our neighborhood. We were surrounded by white neighborhoods and they weren't there to protect us, but to keep us in our place. I was walking down the street with my sister and some friends and they tear gassed us because they could. They thought it was a funny.

I remember Kennedy's assassination. I watched it on television over and over again. In black and white. "He was killed because he was for civil rights," some people said.

In 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. got shot. I was in high school and we had a sit-in around the school tower. The teachers took photos of the participants and sent home special delivery letters that night, suspending us all for protesting.

In high school, male students were drafted into the military as soon as they graduated. I remember the going away parties, not long after basic training and their returns home from Viet Nam in caskets. I remember the funerals and knowing so many nice boys who were no longer living because of a war we shouldn't have been in.

I remember the Kent State shootings, how those kids, my age, were shot down for protesting.

I remember the protest songs from the sixties and seventies. "Stop the War Now" and "Four Dead In Ohio," "What's Going On," and others and getting sad each time I heard one.

That's how I became politically aware.

Answer 3

Excellent question and I am so glad that you asked.

I became politically aware in November of 1963.

I was in the fifth grade and my class was in the library. We should have been in religion class, but we were all to excited to do anything because we were to go see President Kennedy the next day.

Suddenly, Carol Priddy came RUNNING into the library hollering, "They've killed President Kennedy; they've killed the President."

Instead of going to see the President we all attended a special requeium mass.

My mother had just lost a baby so we were already in mourning. Then, on a cold and very rainy day, we were watching our black and white TV because they were going to bring Lee Harvey Oswald out of the Dallas County Jail, and we would be able to see the man who killed our beautiful young Catholic President.

And then, live on TV, we saw Jack Ruby murder Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of the Dallas County Jail.

It wasn't long after that before Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered in Memphis.

And soon, Robert Kennedy was murdered in California.

I learned at a very young age that people are willing to kill other people because of their political beliefs.

My boy scout leader, Charles Whitman, climbed up to the top of the tower at the University of Texas and murdered thirteen people and seriously wounded 33 others. I was twelve.

I am interested in politics because I don't want any more people to die.

And yet, people are still being murdered in the name of politics to this very moment.

Answer 4

My awareness happened in 1986 when Pat Robertson (through tel-evangelical broadcasts and grass roots organization) took control of the Republican Party. The results were : 1. I became an independent 2. the Republican Party became ultra-conservative 3. the 'silent majority' (middle America) became vocal 4. America became involved in the Mid-East
Hmmmm. Interesting question.

Answer 5

When? I'm not sure. Why? Probably because it was the right time. And the result.. HAH! I hate politics. It's a dirty game played by ppl who see money as the meaning of life