Author: hwalsh2

As the semester comes to a close I have been reflecting on this course as a whole and wondering what to talk about in my final blog post. I finally settled on the concept of similarities between 1968 and 2020 and how these two years have been incredibly similar to one another. We have seen this year more than any other in the 21st century I believe a return to the movements that characterized the 1960s and 70s.

I believe that when we look at 1968 and the Civil Rights Movement and 2020 and the Black Lives Matter movement we can see that the two are not so different from one another. This summer we could see that the BLM Movement really took off and it was characterized by images that we also saw in 1968, protestors facing off against heavily armed and organized police officers. I think further to this we can also see that the use of technology has similarities between the two years and while undoubtedly we are better connected than ever the fact that we like people in the 1960s are watching these events play out live has an aura of specialness around it as I feel that we are as they were, living through history.

I think that also the issues of the presidential election and Brexit give cause for us to evaluate the political situations in both of these years as we can see these polarizations have caused rifts in communities in both the United Kingdom/Ireland as well as the United States.

Over the past few weeks, we have studied two plays that have spoken quite extensively about how people expressed their displeasure at issues that affected them. For this blog post though I want to focus on my favorite of the two plays to read, that being ‘The Trial of the Catonsville Nine’. This play was written by Father Daniel Berrigan who based it on a partial transcript of the trial. Fr. Berrigan was an avid anti-war protester associated with and supported the Catholic protestors who had burned draft documents resulting in the trial. For me, the most interesting aspect of this play and the events which created it is the fact that it is based so heavily on religion and especially Catholicism. As we are at a Catholic university, I find at least for myself that we are in a unique position to discuss this play as well as the anti-war protests by Catholics.

As we discussed this play, I noticed that the general Catholic theme of unity without division and ‘toeing the line’ simply wasn’t present in this situation. Those members of the nine had clear and defined convictions, they felt that the sending of young American men around the world in order to fight and potentially die in war was abhorrent and should be stopped. It is so interesting to me that in such a time of division and disruption in the United States these men and especially Fr. Phillip Berrigan were so determined and bolstered by their beliefs that they were willing to risk their freedom in order to potentially save lives. Of course, it is impossible to tell whether their actions did in fact save lives, and yet I have a sense of admiration for what they did (both the Baltimore four and the Catonsville nine).

These men addressed a problem that they saw both in their Church and their state, they did not dither, rather they acted and it seems that this later becomes very very common. People are bolstered by these actions and what they perceive to be other issues within their society.

This week was incredibly formative for me personally. Having done my presentation with Denis and Ryan this week on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., his life and writings, I was almost overwhelmed by the way in which the class rallied around the topic at hand. One question from a member of the class that particularly excited me was the question of how history will remember people and why they will be remembered in that way. This question specifically mentioned George Wallace who was the former Governor of Alabama who stood in the door of the University of Alabama to prevent the enrollment of two black students.

This for me raised the important question of how figures of our past, present, and future are remembered and what they are remembered for. In the case of George Wallace, his staunch stand in favor of segregation is what he is remembered for. Since his stand in the doorway of the University of Alabama in 1963, he has since become a born again Christian and has renounced his previous views. Yet despite his reversal of beliefs he is still most commonly remembered for his disgusting acts of racism throughout his political career and especially for that famous photo of him in a doorway. I wondered at this point how we as a society remember individuals and whether we find it much easier to remember the terrible things that people have done over their contributions to society or their changes. Certainly, in the case of George Wallace, this is true; I was born in England and when we were taught about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States this photo comes immediately to the front of my mind alongside the March on Washington. I never knew before this week what had become of him (George Wallace) or even what he had done besides that moment of staunch racism. I believe that it is a combination of factors that lead us to remember what we do as a society, it is education, understanding, and also a smattering of our own beliefs on an issue or individual that determine what we remember or what we choose to remember.

I believe it is very difficult for an individual to change, especially when they have taken hardline views on an issue and have even campaigned on those views and for me I believe that alongside not really being educated on George Wallace has placed this mental block in my own mind of what he as an individual is. I certainly want to explore this more and this only serves to ignite the passion of learning more of history in order to best educate myself on every aspect of people, movements and ideas throughout history

This class has already been so eye-opening to me. As a History Major, I have been so enthralled with the concept of history itself and how it encapsulates everything that we do as societies,. History molds us and our way of living. I have been so engrossed in military history throughout my life and time and time again I see the same themes shine through. For example that life and history repeat themselves, the same mistakes are made time and time again., this is seen in so many areas of military history like the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 in which they (the Soviets) were soundly beaten by the Mujahideen, this was subsequently followed by the United States in 2001; and while the reasons for the two invasions were completely dissimilar the tactics and mistakes made in 2001 and beyond echoed those of the Soviets from 1979 to 1989. One thing that I wish to come away with from this class is a better understanding of why this happens, I have already been utterly intrigued by the readings that this class has offered me in these two short weeks, I have been amazed to uncover the ways in which 2020 has begun to echo 1968 and the social conflicts that characterized that year. While 2020 has not and I expect will not be characterized by enormous amounts of violence, the revolution that has occurred is the revolution of the 21st century and that is social change through mobile media platforms. I would love for this class to allow me to open my mind to new understandings, new history that I never understood before and how I can learn from 1968 to better understand this year and the years that are to come.