[speaker001:] so uh tell me about changes from say twenty years ago since you were an adult twenty years ago
[speaker002:] well let's see well we assume I was an adult twenty years ago um
[speaker001:] well you're you're able to you're able to uh vote and go to war and things like that so
[speaker002:] uh yeah definitely able to go to war twenty years ago but not vote not vote that was one of the changes that came about in the last twenty years um yeah twenty years ago was nineteen seventy uh nineteen seventy I had been married two years
[speaker001:] oh that's right that's one of the changes uh-huh
[speaker002:] um we had all the great civil rights legislation of nineteen sixty eight
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh around here on the uh east coast uh we were heavy into affirmative action
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] and uh that was a uh a great shock for a lot of people
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh a great disappointment for some people like myself
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] um I was gainfully employed by Safeway Stores Incorporated
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh trying desperately to uh get ahead with the company
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] uh the problem was that my hair was too long
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh that you weren't allowed to have a uh mustache or a beard and uh you know jeans just flat out weren't allowed unless you worked on night stock and
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] if you wanted to get ahead with the company well if you were a uh black female you were destined to be store manager in six to nine months if you were white male you're talking six years
[speaker001:] huh
[speaker002:] and that's basically where I ended up I uh I just flat out couldn't get a hold you know get ahead with the company because they were dead in affirmative action um
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] on other fronts um
[speaker001:] and is the company now uh well represented uh demographically at the higher echelons did it work
[speaker002:] um I think so I I I I stopped working for them in uh seventy eight seventy nine
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh it's I think they're they're like all companies well represented and uh you know everything seems to be fine I I've kind of lost touch with the company we had a falling out but uh
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] as far as uh as their management goes um I'm not sure they're any any better off than they were were before management wise
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] but uh other changes um just people seem to be more outspoken now individually rather than collectively um back in the seventies we had uh a lot of uh protests against the war and uh bring our troops home and things were more organized
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] and uh I've noticed that now more and more individual people are speaking out for their own rights rather than massing together
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] so there's less you think now there's less of a a social movement and more individual movements lots of individual movements in a sense
[speaker002:] yeah I'm not sure if that was because you know eighties was like the uh the me decade and uh everybody was into me and then we are getting back into us but um it it
[speaker001:] the me decade uh-huh
[speaker002:] it's I've seen uh uh a great deal of change as far as um corporate responsibility and things um
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] and people's response to that you know at first not trusting and now expecting more
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] and what about what about the last ten years that you've been aware
[speaker001:] well that I've been aware of I've at least in my own circles I've been aware of an increasing from my generation I don't know if I can quite call myself a distinct generation from you but half generation off I guess um I've noticed uh a certain increase um pessimism with America no longer being sort of on top I had the impression  well I mean there was the quote unquote losing of the Vietnam war which was a blow and it was right around that time when I started becoming socially you know a socially conscious adult and I realize that people of my age have no um no major success in the sense that uh you saw the passage of the Civil Rights Act and um major social change in that sense and I and all the changes that have happened in the last uh even during my adulthood have been more incremental they've been continual perhaps and good gains have been made but there hasn't been the same sort of fiery speeches of Martin Luther King or whatever that has really uh galvanized the population and there's just instead there's been sort of an increasing oh I don't know Japan bashing and things like that
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and uh a lot of I see among some of my friends and even more among some of my students who are you know maybe twenty a real sense of you know America's losing it
[speaker002:] yes
[speaker001:] and losing it in the competitive market and a real knowledge uh a lack of understanding how that could be and in the sense that how could America have gone from being number one to possibly being number two to you know our former enemies and things like that and um so I see I see a lot of uh a lot of pessimism growing um and at the same time I think there's there's there's a growing environmentalist movement and sense of corporate responsible increased corporate responsible towards uh you know environmental safety and things like that and that might potentially be sort of the civil right the equivalent of the Civil Rights Act in in the near future in terms of you know some real landmark bills passing and things like that such that you know people cause thing about civil rights is people take it for granted now I mean my generation doesn't can't rest on the the glow of having achieved civil rights because we were born into an assumption that you know yes there's still some racism but you know basically things are the assumption things are basically kind of taken care of and there's a notion of fairness that um while still far from perfect is much more established I think
[speaker002:] yes but even uh I think uh along the line of the uh goals of civil rights um
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] there always seems to be some prejudice to someone by anyone I mean you know
[speaker001:] oh of course it's human nature
[speaker002:] you know don't like the way you look don't like the way you dress don't like your hair don't like you know it's just something that always sets people off you know you either like someone or you don't like someone or you're just completely indifferent
[speaker001:] yeah yeah
[speaker002:] and the problem is that ideally you they you know the world would like you to be completely indifferent so um but I I I understand what you say about the environmental movement um it's it's been a long time coming um being a uh a very old hippie
[speaker001:] uh-huh yes
[speaker002:] I mean you know if you had long hair in high school in the sixties you got labeled a hippie and you keep that image your whole life no matter what you do and I I just
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah yeah
[speaker002:] I've seen a lot of changes I mean from the original earth day
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and um I'm heavily involved in you know my own personal recycling we recycle paper and cans here at work and you know I do the newspaper and cardboard and paper and
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know all that stuff at home and I'm starting to see more and more recycling centers cropping up all over the place here on the east coast
[speaker001:] uh-huh r ight and that's a real change except it sort of brings back to the nineteen forties more than anything else I mean all this recycling used to be in tact or not all of it but much of it did I mean recycling was a was a wartime thing
[speaker002:] yeah like yeah and then they turned around and called them junkyards and started making profits off them after the war
[speaker001:] yes yes
[speaker002:] and now we got to the point where the junkyards you've got to pay them to take something there so things have really changed a lot I think the uh the other part about uh America's decline I think has to do with
[speaker001:] uh-huh a perceived decline anyway yeah
[speaker002:] yeah the perceived decline has to do with uh um the attitudes and the educational system uh I have children in in school I have three children in school right now and I'm not impressed with the teachers that are teaching them uh I had when I was down in Dallas for two years I had uh my children come home from school with papers that were corrected by the teacher that had words spelled correctly marked wrong
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and words spelled wrong not marked as such
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and this person's teaching my children
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] you know I had a real problem with that
[speaker001:] yeah well I'd I'd say actually I mean as someone who's involved in education I'd say that maybe one of the changes is that the role of the teacher has incrementally gotten lower and lower value and society I mean relative pay which is a major way we value people has been poorer and poorer over the years uh you know that there's been cost of living increases but not quite in proportion to cost of living and you know it's just more and more uh a real low income sort of job and very low prestige I mean there's that that old saying those who can do it and those who can't teach this is the way of let's make fun of the teachers those are the people who can't do anything and if you have that kind of social attitude it's
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] hard to get sufficient numbers of people who are going to overlook all of that work for lower pay work for low social prestige just because they care about good education
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and you get more and more people who would just end up there because it's uh it's the safety net of those of you know average intelligence or something they can always teach
[speaker002:] um I'm not sure if your familiar with the movement they have here in Maryland but they're trying to get a uh a uh a merit system here in Maryland rather than a uh tenure system
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] for all the you know elementary middle school and high schools
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] so that the teach