THE LAST WORD
Pollock, Richard P.
THE LAST WORD Richard P. Pollock RECKONING One day last summer I received a check in the amount of $3,245.09 from the Government of the United States in settlement of my claim for damages...
...I don't mean to promote false optimism or ignore the rampages of the New Right or the Old...
...Official corruption was pushed into the headlines, corporate crimes were exposed, a President was forced to resign in disgrace...
...The back-door system of secret governmental decision-making was curbed as the sunshine was allowed into the halls of Congress and the inner offices of regulatory agencies...
...The courts agreed we were entitled to compensation for having been deprived of our constitutional rights of free speech and assembly...
...Ours was one of the "May Day" demonstrations that gripped Washington for several days in that time of President Richard M. Nixon and Attorney General John Mitchell...
...Today all this is second nature...
...How effective had our efforts been...
...The changes range far beyond matters of "lifestyle" or leisure...
...Richard Pollock, former director of Ralph Nader's Critical Mass Energy Project, now directs the Health Charities Reform Project for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Washington, D.C...
...Women's rights, abortion, living arrangements—these were "fringe issues" then...
...In 1971, "sexual preference" had to do with whether a man chose blondes over brunettes...
...There is a progressive surge among Americans, expressed especially in their social values, that sits alongside the current right-wing dominance of government and national institutions...
...This nation's foreign policy is different because of what we did ten years ago...
...Was this all we had to show—a court victory, a check from the Government, and a champagne buzz...
...If we were still back in the shoot-'em-up days of Lyndon Johnson, the Marines would have been committed to San Salvador long ago— just as they were dispatched to Santo Domingo...
...Looking back, ten years later, I'm proud of what I helped to build...
...It's just that we ought to acknowledge our successes, too—our tremendous successes in helping to transform society...
...I felt vindicated and proud, and I used some of the money to throw a party for my friends in a downtown Washington restaurant...
...Rock-'n'-roll was "provocative...
...Even in El Salvador, the Reagan Administration has been forced to move with much greater caution and deliberation than it undoubtedly would have preferred...
...But when the party was over and the bar bill had been paid, I settled down for some reflection...
...Despite the flailings of the Moral Majority, no one can pretend that sexual mores have not changed in America—and most would agree they have changed for the better...
...The vileness of three decades of FBI spying came to an end...
...No—there is more...
...The reality, though we tend to lose sight of it, is that in a short span of ten years, this country has taken giant leaps...
...Ten years ago I wasn't alone: More than 1,200 of us were locked up that day for protesting against American military intervention in Southeast Asia...
...When you add it all up, the changes of the past decade are significant—and we helped make the difference...
...Today's public attitudes toward big business, big government, and established power reflect profound cynicism...
...Things that once were whispered between close friends are now played out on television sit-coms...
...THE LAST WORD Richard P. Pollock RECKONING One day last summer I received a check in the amount of $3,245.09 from the Government of the United States in settlement of my claim for damages stemming from my arrest on the steps of the U. S. Capitol on May 5,1971...
...Rock has even been incorporated by Muzak...
...The work ethic has changed, especially among the young, and even political attitudes have undergone a profound transformation...
...We can all be proud...
...Thanks to a class-action suit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, more than 1,000 of us received checks computed on the amount of time we had spent in jail plus ten years' interest at 6 per cent—a total of $2.2 million...
...We have come just as long a way in some aspects of domestic politics...
...We kept Washington policymakers from making mischief in Angola, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Rhodesia, Panama—to name just a few of the opportunities that might have been seized by our Government had it not been for our response to the adventure in Indochina...
...Long hair on men was "controversial...
...Public mistrust of power brokers was, in fact, acknowledged by Reagan when he promised to "get government off our backs," and by Jimmy Carter when he railed against the "Washington establishment...
...Ronald Reagan's election victory last fall should not mask this basic truth...
...What did it all mean ten years later...
...Domestic surveillance by the CIA was revealed and curtailed (so far as we know...
...Much that was considered radical ten years ago is rather tame today...
...We can claim that millions of people live with governments of their choice today because of the stand we took a decade ago...
Vol. 45 • December 1981 • No. 12
