<Begin Segment 24>

BN: The last thing I want to ask -- unless there's anything else you want to talk about that we haven't talked about.

DA: In terms of...

BN: Yeah, that you want to cover. Because if not -- you can think about it -- but what I was going to end with was looking back at Gidra, what would you say to a young person at UCLA, twenty years old, who wants to do something similar today or is doing something similar today?

DA: Just do it, I think. Yeah, it's hard to know now, you know. I don't know what young people are thinking about these days. I think there's so much going on, right? They're being bombarded by so much, I feel sorry for the kids today. But in some ways I think what is happening now with this whole MAGA thing, and the whole Trumpism and people becoming more polarized, is somewhat similar to the Vietnam days in a way where people are so polarized over the issues. And it's kind of the same issues, too, the way people want to try and resolve things is by violence. And that's so sad, and it's just become even worse just because of the kind of weapons these people can have access to now. I don't know how to answer that. They have so much to look forward to in some ways, and in some ways there's a lot happening that they have no control over. This whole climate issue, who's going to take the lead on that? I'm just waiting for, maybe another Martin Luther King will show his or her face someday and be able to put light on subjects that are kind of being taught in the dark areas, and bring it out into the light. This whole thing was happening with our city council, right? That's sad. But I kind of think those kind of private conversations are going on all the time.

BN: Right. The difference is they're being recorded now. Probably a lot worse was being said back in the day, but no one heard them.

DA: I'm sure. I'm sure as I'm sitting here. Talks like that are going on even today, now. And not just here in L.A., but all across the country, and not all of it's good, obviously. So how do you stop that? I don't know, there's no easy answer to that, other than to keep an open mind. They had this whole thing of information, disinformation, that's going to be answered. If you can't believe what it is that you're hearing or seeing, if you can't trust it, but other people can trust it, will trust it, then how can you keep bad information off the air, so to speak? You can't.

BN: Or should you even?

DA: I don't know. How do you do that?

BN: Well, on that cheerful note... [laughs]. Thank you so much. Again, if there's anything else you wanted to talk about or add, feel free. But if not, thank you, that was...

DA: How long was it?

BN: We went a little over, well, actually almost two and a half hours.

DA: Oh, really?

BN: Yeah, that's about... that works for us.

DA: Okay.

BN: So yeah, thank you.

<End Segment 24> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.