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1971 when I was 12. I wanted the war over and done with before I graduated high school.

My introduction to politics came young. I remember putting stamps on envelopes for JFKs campaign or sitting on the floor playing while my mother made phone calls.

During Bobby's campaign, I watched over little ones, addressed envelopes, sorted them by zip code. By this time, I had become very aware of the atrocities in Vietnam and my budding activism was actively protesting the war.

Vietnam was it for me. I did not have to go there thankfully. But the guilt of not going is an interesting thing. I honor those who did serve in nam.
The civil rights movement has to be the next on the list.

I protested the Vietnam war not because of the atrocities, which go with war because war is hell, but the inanity of it--the lack of reasons for so many dead. A former boyfriend died in Nam and every single man I knew went there, including my ex husband--a gentle and good man who saw things no one should see.

When I saw the wall in Washington in 1989 for the first time, I could not believe how overwhelming 55,000 names look engraved in granite. I could not believe how overwhleming the tears and the flowers and letters and emotion and silence in honor of the dead were.

Obama! Do not make the same stupid mistake. Pull out NOW!!!!

Cuban Missile Crisis (age 13). My dad was posted to a Nike missle site and dissappeared for 2 weeks. That got me looking into it and reading about it. Became a liberal then and have never looked back. All the things our government did then and since in an effort to tweak the world to our liking and turn a profit for the industrial military complex (remember it was Ike who first warned us of the IMC) has trained me to be ever alert to what they may be up to. Can you say PNAC?

I remember the McCarthy hearings , though I was only 9 in 1954 when they happened , I still have the image of this evil , power-mad member of our government who was out for his own fame and fortune and didn't care how many innocent lives he destroyed in the process . My distrust of the motives of all who have government power probably dates from then .

Two things. First thing - it was the Cuban Missile Crisis, this was very scary for me and I remember even to this day how frightened I was about this. I remember becoming interested in Cuba, Russia and watching the entire process on TV. I was about 12 years old.

The second thing, in 1964 I was babysitting for a family who were very politically connected in city/state politics in Iowa. Anyway due to that relationship I became a member of the young Americans for the democratic party (that's right I was a liberal then) and helping to get John Culver elected to the House of Representatives - he is the father of Iowa's current governor Chet Culver.

For me, it was an Alice-in-Wonderland - Other-side-of-the-Mirror confrontation with the Media (both TV and print) in the mid '60's.

To listen to TV news or read the local paper, it was obvious and the opinion near universal. The reason we had crime was because honest people were allowed to have guns and that we were imprisoning too many criminals. The reason that we had problems was because government wasn't controling a big enough chunk of peoples lives. Yet to hear the opinion of the common man all around me, this was the very opposite of what they held to be true. Yet I never heard this opinion in the media at all. The question in Media was, "How much more gun control should we have?" But all around me (almost to the exclusion of any other opinion) was "How long will we allow these unconstitutional gun laws to stand?....How much longer will we tolerate this?" From Media - "How much more government should we create?" but around me, "How can we get the Government we have off our backs?"

It was like this strange Media world existed out in "Media Land" whose purpose was to promote the exact opposite of what the people wanted; promote the absurd. I was hopelessly confused. It was almost like they were devils or cartoon characters or something.

Some years later, I was exposed to an Oregon voters pamphlet, where the political parties and candidates would write their own promo material. My eyes were opened.

I also remember the Army-McCarthy hearings, although I was only 4 at that time. Reason, my Father came home each day to watch them, and that wasn't something he would do. He was furious, and they were my first American history lessons. As he watched and fumed, he also explained the great history of the United States, the meaning and uniqueness of the Declaration of Independence, and the rights and privileges granted by the American Constitution. He thought they were threatened by McCarthy and his tactics.
Guess the Cuban Missile Crisis would have to be next.

The Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam war were important in my youth. I was too young to remember the Army McCarthy hearings but got a taste of McCarthyism in high school when our history teacher played the part of ol' tailgunner Joe and started asking questions as those asked during the hearings. Joe McCarthy was as looney as they come. He needed to be locked up. All those Commies under every rock and behind every tree might have jumped out and grabbed him so he could have been save in the funny farm.