Top Events Of 1968 Essay Research Paper — страница 3

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remembers being stuck in traffic while trying to get to work. She remembers that is was ?all the big news,? and that she told me that everyone was concerned for Jackie Kennedy, for she had already endured so much. My father was extremely depressed by the news, because he was lucky enough to have met Robert Kennedy before he was shot. My father proudly told me of how he even walked next to him for almost twenty minutes. He said that meeting him was one of the highlights of being in the service. I found myself saddened as well as I browsed through articles, because it seemed that Robert Kennedy was generally popular among the people, and it was such a terrible tragedy for the family that had already suffered the cruel loss of a family member a short time before. An exciting part of

1968 was the preparation for Apollo?s anticipated voyage to the moon. During this year, NASA was repeatedly sending test flights in order to be ready for the predicted launch in 1969. The United States was in fierce competition with the USSR, and the mission to the moon was a real goal. Both Linda and my father remembered how exciting the whole thing was. My father, in general, found the entire space program a ?neat? one. I gathered that the mission in the space program was a bright, optimistic spot in a year of turmoil. In Columbia University, students were voicing their opinions in a momentous way during this year. Students picketed and eventually took over the campus in an effort to increase their ?say? in issues involving the campus. Classes were canceled for many days, and

the Situation received a great deal of coverage and attention. Linda was the only one to remember it, and she claimed that situations like that were transpiring all over college campuses- even her own. She thought that Columbia was a likely candidate for such demonstration, because it was known as a ?liberal? college. Linda said that most of the time, progress was made by these protests. This proves that college campuses genuinely were the place to make changes, and to be heard. Again, the last episode that I found to be extremely influential in 1968, the teachers? strikes, was only recalled by Linda. Perhaps this is because She was studying to be a teacher, and this news interested her. She claimed that these strikes led to the start of unions in the education system. Newspapers

showed, and Linda agreed that these strikes were initiated to bring teachers increased wages, and more job security. It seemed to me that teachers were treated somewhat unfairly during this time, and that these strikes led to better conditions for educators. After interviewing my father and Linda Pacelli, I realized that oral history is a very effective method in research. Although reading through newspapers gave me a great deal of factual information, I truly learned how events affected society through these interviews. I found that using the differing backgrounds of my subjects allowed me to understand the diversity of public reactions and opinions of that time period. After using oral history, I could put myself in the shoes of those who experienced the memorable year of 1968.

I feel that without the use of oral history in a project of this sort, one will never obtain the necessary quantitative information needed to internalize events studied. Although I was not a part of the year 1968, I am lucky enough to now comprehend the impact the year had on society as I know it today.