Tom Hayden on the Fifty Years of The Long Sixties at Friends of Glendale Library Event 1

A big crowd gathered at the Glendale Library Wednesday night to hear Tom Hayden, life-long political activist, offer a fascinating discourse on past and current political trends. “I’m not on a book tour,” Hayden stressed, although he did discuss his new book The Long Sixties.

The FREE evening lecture was part of the Library’s full schedule of author programs (to support these programs, join the Friends of the Glendale Public Library!).

Former Glendale mayor and current council member Frank Quintero presented Hayden with a city commendation. Quintero mentioned that he and Hayden have had a long acquaintance as their sons attended school together. City council member Laura Friedman and city clerk Ardashes Kassakhian were also in the audience.

Highlights/quotes from Hayden’s talk:

“Most of my life has been about domestic reform.” – The cost of international crises and wars are causing the U.S. to miss opportunities for domestic reform.

The wars we are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are unfunded, “long wars…This is the most expensive project ever undertaken by the U.S.military with the possible exception of World War II…It is unsustainable.”

Skewed media attention, smaller casualty numbers (than Vietnam or WWII), the fact that the war isn’t budgeted, and the absence of a draft are all reasons why youth are largely uninvolved in debate and protest over the war(s).

“Lack of leadership from institutions is what gives rise to social movements.” When those movements become mainstream, politicians look to co-opt them in order to get re-elected.

Political battles are “fought out in memory – I don’t have to tell my Armenian friends the importance of memory.” Hayden stressed that some pivotal events of the 60s have been almost erased from historical consciousness. (In response to a question from Ardashes Kassakhian about Wounded Knee, Hayden deplored the fact that the incident isn’t mentioned in most books on the 1960s – For most Americans, “Native American struggles exist as a reservation in our mind.”

“Its all about location – do you see what other people see, or do you see through it?”