50 Years Ago
It is the hippies that have been brainwashed. It is the hippies that are such mini-brain dingalings that they have permitted themselves to be sold a bill of goods and exploited by all the freebooters’ enterprise of “fast buck” boys who have sold them ugly, tasteless “mod” clothes, obscene, vulgar, gutter language, pornographic books and movies, decadent meaningless so-called “art” and mind-destroying noise in the form of “Rock and Roll.” The whole nonsense “psychedelic bit.”
This is the hippie portion of our generation that will soon be called “Dad” by venereal-disease ridden, narcotic-damaged, coffee-colored children. The hippies who were too stupid to realize that in every generation there are sluts and camp followers who have no self-respect and who are capable of being nothing better than whores.
In past generations nature eliminated that trash by disease. Unfortunately, in this generation, thanks to our foolish bleeding-heart, do-gooders in the form of professional social welfare workers in juvenile courts, social welfare agencies, mental health agencies and hospital clinics which comprise our “welfare empire” and which practice “welfare colonialism,” the disease-ridden mongrels are kept alive.
—William Lamar, Fairfax (letter) 10/29/69
40 Years Ago
The futuristic promise of a computer in every home, all linked to extensive data and entertainment networks, now has moved a giant step toward reality as dozens of large and small companies scramble for a piece of the action.
At stake is a consumer market estimated to be as high as $85 billion, to say nothing of the control of a technology that could fast become the dominant mode of communication throughout the nation. Besides adding significantly to the amount of information available to home users, the new computer networks may bring social and political changes that no one yet understands.
—Art Kleiner, 10/26/79
30 Years Ago
The response was overwhelming.
“There can’t be any toilet paper left in Marin,” joked one tired volunteer as yet another truck filled to the brim with paper goods and other groceries pulled up at the Marin Community Food Bank. It was Sunday afternoon and the nearly 100 volunteers who had come to unload, sort, pack, label, weigh and reload items for an emergency run to Santa Cruz–area earthquake victims were getting a little tired. But of course they carried on. A steady stream of cars, vans, even semi-trucks hauled goods to the Food Bank all weekend. Who could turn away this phenomenal outpouring of goodwill?
…[Nurse Barbara Carter] said one of the most touching moments came when a man, obviously homeless, who’d been watching the parade of people shopping and stopping to donate, approached with a can of Coke. He dropped it in the barrel, saying, “Maybe there’s some kid down there who would like this.”
—Liz Harris, 10/27/89
20 Years Ago
On Nov. 2, the Marin Board of Supervisors will vote on a couple of gun ordinances. One ordinance would ban the selling of the cheap handguns commonly known as “junk guns” or “Saturday night specials.” The other would impose local regulations on gun dealers and tighten the regulations imposed on gun laws held on county property.
…there is no doubt that a gun-control sentiment is sweeping through the county, according to supervisor John Kress. “There is a general feeling of outrage out there over guns and violence,” he says. “It seems that every month there is some sort of tragedy like Columbine. This is our modest contribution towards making Marin safer.”
—Bill Meagher and Peter Seidman, 10/27/99
