“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” — George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1905).

Last week, while trying to avoid the news of the day I channel surfed and found CNN’s series 1968: The year that changed America. (You can readily stream the four-part series online.) Nineteen years old at the time, I remembered 1968 as one of turbulence and assassinations, but I remembered little else.

The year started with the Vietnam Tet Offensive, a massive, coordinated surprise attack by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces against more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam. While a win for the United States militarily, it became a decisive turning point that eroded American support for the war. The year ended with the Apollo 8 mission, which marked the first time humans orbited the Moon, and the 1968 U.S. Presidential Election, which saw Richard M. Nixon win the White House.

The Vietnam War, civil rights and law and order, the topics of the day, were intrinsically intertwined. As opposition to the war and demands for equal rights increased, demonstrations spread across the nation. The demonstrations frequently turned violent (often due to the police). Furthermore, race riots erupting throughout the country triggered calls for law and order.

President Lyndon B. Johnson passed over 200 pieces of social legislation under his Great Society and War on Poverty initiatives, most notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the creation of Medicare and Medicaid to provide healthcare for the elderly and poor. Furthermore, he initiated subsidies for education and transformed immigration policy. Despite all his legislative efforts, many of which we take for granted today, he is remembered for little of it and instead, his legacy is the Vietnam War. Unable to cope with his decline in popularity, he decided not to run for reelection in March of 1968.

Also in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Poor People’s Campaign to organize a multiracial coalition against poverty. He was drawn to Memphis in late March to support 1,300 striking Black sanitation workers protesting for better pay and safe conditions, famously delivering his prophetic “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. Tragically, the next day, he was assassinated. King’s death triggered riots throughout the country, which may bear a resemblance to today’s unrest.

In 1968, former governor of Alabama George Wallace ran for president on a platform of segregation and law and order. What was particularly scary was that he polled as high as 23% among three candidates and much higher among union members. He ended up with over 13% of the vote in the 1968 presidential election. It was appalling then, and even more appalling now, that we can have a call for law and order, which is little more than a thinly veiled attempt to institutionalize racism and discrimination. For example, ICE’s frequent deviation from its mission and violence against innocents.

As a college freshman, I was naively insulated from what was going on in the rest of the country. But when I saw the New York City Police beating up Columbia University students, and demonstrators at the Chicago Democratic Convention beaten in what the Walker Report determined was a “police riot,” I came to realize that all the “good guys” maybe weren’t so good after all.

It was quite a change for someone like me who comes from a traditionally conservative family.

In May of 1970, when poorly trained National Guardsmen at Kent State University killed four students and wounded nine, I became radicalized. I felt that the government was turning on its citizens. As a senior in college, I hit the streets believing that the government was violating our First Amendment rights.

Now, as a senior citizen, I think it’s time to peacefully hit the streets once again.