Transported by Herb Lock appeared in the Washington Post on July 18, 1969. This was two days after the moon landing, and Lock’s perspective is slightly negative. He speaks to an entire world enthralled at the sight of man landing on the moon, and chastises them for forgetting more earthly problems.
In the cartoon, the earth is covered in a dark cloud, labeled “war,” “poverty,” and “prejudice.” These dark clouds symbolize the dark troubles our earth was facing in the 1960s, and still grapple with today.
The 1960s were a very turbulent time. The Vietnam War was escalating terribly, as a proxy for the Cold War that was being fought between the USSR and America. Americans went to bed each night fearful of nuclear holocaust. They also were increasingly going to bed hungry, as the divide between rich and poor was increasing. This reality led to the creation of “The war on Poverty”: Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and other social welfare programs, which were only recently legislated. This era was also the time of the civil rights movement. Only five years earlier the Voting Rights Act had been passed. Prejudice was still a huge factor in many people’s lives. These issues are coming up every day in Lock’s paper, the Washington Post. He is commenting on this reality in the form of an editorial cartoon.
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But on the fateful night of July 16, 1969, humanity was not concerned with these problems.
For a short while, all of mankind was transported to the moon. Not literally, of course, but with the help of television, every human felt as though they were sitting next to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on that lunar rover. Lock taps into that feeling by having the man on the moon represent how every human with a television was feeling: hands on knees, sitting forward in excitement, nothing else but the images of the television in their eyes. The emotion is clear: unbridled excitement, a sense of possibility, amazed
wonder. Lock’s choice of diction is powerful. The words are arresting and attention grabbing. The dark cloud stands still, asking to be noticed. The huge words scream out for attention. But does America look down and realize the collective power that put man on the moon could also solve our earthly troubles? No. We are stuck on the moon, infatuated with an amazing moment in time, rather than dealing with the less attractive and more prevalent earthly problems. While negative, Herb Lock’s commentary is valid. Human beings are far too obsessed with “moonshots” and far less obsessed with the issues humanity deals with every day. The moon landing affected many people profoundly, and artists spoke about their experience in the medium that was most effective for their purpose. The Times’ news article speaks about the details of the day and puts the reader in the midst of the action. William Safire’s words give the president the ability to comfort a distraught populace. Ayn Rand sees the domination of mankind over nature in the Apollo 11 rocket launch. Herb Lock asks his readers to envision a humanity that could overcome everyday problems with the same energy that put a man on the moon. These accounts of a fateful day in 1969 portray a world enraptured with the possibility of a bright future; a future as bright as the moon itself.
The terminology and allegorical imagery depicted creates a sense of pathos. The title “Transported” embodies the connotation of overwhelming strong emotion that this political cartoon displays of the 1969 human perception of happiness for the first man walking on the moon. This serves as a distraction of humans being taken away from extremely serious issues by what was “the shining jewels on man’s achievements.” (nickbluhm.weebly.com). The words in the clouds of smoke “War”, “Poverty”, and “Prejudice” appeals to the fear and panic engulfing the earth. The words syntactically accumulate to drag the heavy expression of an apparent ominous problem.
The author is also a political historian, and has written many articles for magazines across the country. He was a history major from the University of Chicago, and later on, Pearlstein went and received his PhD at the University of Michigan for American culture. The book is broken up into four books into one, describing the events that happened in America during the 1960’s and 70’s. Going into detail describing disparity with the war, discrimination and how peoples’ opinions were taken into consideration. First we are introduced to the 1965 riot, which happened nine months after Lyndon Johnsons’ triumph over Barry Goldwater.
Arnold Mendoza Mrs.Leite H English 10-4 April 17, 2016. Dialectical Journal: 1984 by George Orwell. Entry 1: Book 1, Chapter 1; 5-20 Summary. The book is set in Airstrip One (current day London), Oceania, dated 1984. The main protagonist, Winston Smith, is introduced as a middle aged worker in the Records Department at the Ministry of Truth.
The 1960s were turbulent years. The United States was unpopularly involved in the war in Vietnam, and political unrest ran high at colleges and universities across the country.
The short story, “On the Sidewalk Bleeding” by Evan Hunter, is about how a boy was stabbed during an alley, sidewalk. Andy, the one that got stabbed was a part of a gang known as the Angels. Before he got stabbed, he was at a Nightclub, He decided to take a smoke outside, moments later, Andy was jumped and got stabbed by another gang called the Guardians. As Andy hit the ground, he pled for help, however, no one heard. Time goes by, people were afraid or didn’t know he was dying, Andy began to lose hope. At this point, Andy knew he was dead and wouldn’t see Laura again. Hours later, he was found dead by Laura, Laura tried to help but she was too late. All in all, I believe the moral of this short story was to be yourself.
From the outside, the 1950’s was a great time for America. Society revolved around the idea of America being a middle-class nation. Americans worshipped conformity, and materialism satisfied the need to conform. However, the prosperity of materialistic America hid the growing, numerous problems. Dissent in any way was not tolerated; all injustice was stifled by a fear of difference. In “Fifties Society,” Alan Brinkley discusses the truth of the era; that the fear of nonconformity was hidden by the seemingly prosperous middle-class nation. Brinkley argues the Beat movement and “feminine mystique” show that the people who did not fit in reveal the true colors of 1950’s society.
...War and the Civil Rights Movements in order to illustrate how the 1960s was a time of “tumult and change.” To Anderson, it is these events, which sparked the demand for recognition of social and economic fairness. He makes prominent the idea that the 1960s served as the origin of activism and the birth of the civil rights movement, forever changing ideals that embody America. The book overall is comprehensive and a definite attention grabber. It shows how the decade had the effect of drastically transforming life in America and challenging the unequal status quo that has characterized most of the nation's history. Despite the violence and conflict that was provoked by these changes, the activism and the liberation movements that took place have left a permanent imprint upon the country.
The 1960’s was a happening decade. It was a time when many people came together for a common good and stood against injustice. The 60’s is often recalled as the era of the peace sign, one ridden with hippies, marijuana and pacifism. While true of much of the era, some of the movements calling for immense social change began as non-violent harbingers of change and later became radicals. The reason for this turn to radicalism, as seen in the case of the Students for a Democratic Society, and as suggested by the change between this organizations earlier Port Huron statement and the later Weatherman Manifesto, is due to the gradual escalation of the Vietnam war.
Freedom Rides, Vietnam, and Social activism among the youths of America have left the 60’s with a very profound effect on our society. Without question, the decade of the 1960’s was one of the most controversial in American History. Throughout this period of social unrest, anti-war attitudes were gaining prevalence in a peace-loving subculture, and individuals began to question certain aspects of governmental policy and authority. This was the decade of peace and war, optimism and despair, cultural turbulence and frustration.
Chalmers, David. And the Crooked Places Made Straight: The Struggle for Social Change in the 1960s. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.
On September 12, 1962 John Franklin Kennedy charged the nation to achieve what no other civilization had done before; he charged the United States to place a man on the moon. Kennedy delivered his man on the moon speech in a time of great peril for the United States. It appeared that the Soviet Union was rising faster than the United States was posed to take our place as the world’s super power. His moving speech in Rice Stadium inspired the nation and other nations, to take the challenge and travel to the moon. Kennnedy use of allusions, repetition, and rhetorical questions motivate and embolden his audience, and make a difference that would last forever.
The 1960s was the era of rebellion. It was a time when views of many people started to change dramatically as unexpected things were happening from the Cold War to the assassinations of nation’s leaders. So within this disturbed era, many citizens started to rebel and question the authorities saying that they were ruining the country. The younger generation, especially, stood firmly in front to lead the action to change the ideas of the older generation. One of the main methods they used to speak their opinions was through music and we can see the power it had on the people through one of the main protest anthems called “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival in 1969. The song speaks out to the elite controlled America and becomes one of many instances of the younger generation questioning and rebelling against the authority in the late 1960s. They send people a message that the citizens of United States do not live in a fair world and the authorities are not doing their jobs. By creating images through the comparative and descriptive lyrics such as who “waves the flag” , and “some folks are born with silver spoons in hand”, its repetition of the chorus “it ain’t me” and the instrumentation of the song which sounds like the cry of the working class to signify that the Vietnam War is a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight, this song by the Creedence Clearwater Revival shouts to the world that the elite-controlled America is unfair as it can get; and becomes a big part of the counterculture movement. However, contrary to the message of the song, challenges to authority and privilege did not come exclusively from the working class. Rather, members of the upper class were also involved in opposition movements, for instance vi...
The 1960’s and early 1970’s were a time that eternally changed the culture and humanity of America. It was a time widely known for peace and love when in reality; many minorities were struggling to gain a modicum of equality and freedom. It was a time, in which a younger generation rebelled against the conventional norms, questioning power and government, and insisting on more freedoms for minorities. In addition, an enormous movement began rising in opposition to the Vietnam War. It was a time of brutal altercations, with the civil rights movement and the youth culture demanding equality and the war in Vietnam put public loyalty to the test. Countless African-Americans, Native-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, women, and college students became frustrated, angry, and disillusioned by the turmoil around them.
Although the sixties were a decade in which the United States became a more open, more tolerant, and a freer country, in some ways it became less of these things. During the sixties, America intervened in other nations and efforts were made to stop the progress of the civil rights movement. Because of America’s foreign policy and Americans fight against the civil rights movement, it is clear that the sixties in America were not purely a decade of openness, tolerance, and freedom in the United States.
We choose to go to the moon. By John Kennedy. Rice University, Houston. 12 September 1962.