EDITOR:

As a young child during the 1960s, I observed all the effort youth were making at the time to make our country a better place for everyone, civil rights for people of color, expansion of voting rights, equal treatment of our Native Americans, and women’s equality were just a few areas where much of this effort took place. Many changes occurred as a result of these efforts, but the cost was high; assassinations, civil unrest and riots in the streets and the killing of four college students in Ohio by our own National Guard. Let’s not go back.

The “Children of the 60s” made a difference then and we are needed again to protect all the gains made during those tumultuous times.

So, as a child of the 60s, we are being called to action again. Your vote is needed now more than ever to help stop the hate, lies, intimidation and divisiveness currently being encouraged by some in our country. Let’s not go back to all of the upheaval from the 1960s, but rather keep moving forward.

This grass-roots effort begins with us talking to our friends and family about being part of the solution to stop the hate. Other things we can do to get involved in this effort are encouraging friends, family and neighbors to resister to vote and help them get to their polling place so they can vote; attending candidate gatherings and forums to ask questions about how they intend to stop the hate; and most of all, we need to not be silent in the face of the current level of intimidation.

As a “Child of the 60s” we know how to do this because we already did it one and we can do it again. We need to do this for our children, our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren. For them, let’s not go back!

John McMahon, PhD

Bark River