1966 - The 7 o'clock News/ Silent Night

It was 40 years ago in 1966, that Simon and Garfunkel released the song "7 o'clock News/Silent Night."   The musical duo gently sang the Christmas song "Silent Night" while the evening news broadcast in the background.

The 7 o'clock news in the song is kind of like a time capsule of what was happening in 1966.   Those days of civil rights marches, and campus protests, patchouli and birkenstocks, crash pads and hitchhiking.  And of course, the Vietnam War. It’s hard to believe that was 40 years ago (damn, I’m getting old).   Of course, things have changed a lot since then.   Since we are now approaching Christmas, I though I would update the newscast in the song using news of recent times.

Silent night, Holy night

1966 news: The recent fight in the House of Representatives was over the open housing section of the Civil Rights Bill.  President Johnson originally proposed an outright ban covering discrimination by everyone for every type of housing, but it had no chance from the start. A compromise was painfully worked out.

• updated news: Owners of apartment complexes in Texas, Florida and Alabama have been accused of discriminating against black Hurricane Katrina victims. "Blacks were less frequently told about available apartments, didn't have phone messages returned as promptly and generally had a more difficult time getting information from agents,"  the Associated Press reported.

All is calm, all is bright

1966 news: In Los Angeles today, comedian Lenny Bruce died of what was believed to be an overdose of narcotics. Bruce was 42 years old.

• updated news:  Writer Hunter S Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at residence in Woody Creek, Colorado.  Thompson was 67 Years old.

Round yon virgin mother and child

1966 news: In Chicago, Richard Speck, accused murderer of nine student nurses, was brought before a grand jury today for indictment. The nurses were found stabbed and strangled in their Chicago apartment.

• updated news:  In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 32-year-old Charles Carl Roberts IV, barricaded himself in a one-room Amish schoolhouse Monday, killing five girls execution-style before killing himself, police said.  Six other girls were bound and critically wounded in the attack, which police said appeared to be a revenge killing for an unspecified incident that occurred when the gunman was a boy.  The attack was the nation's third deadly school shooting in a week.

Holy infant so tender and mild

1966 news: In Washington the atmosphere was tense today as a special subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American activities continued its probe into anti-Vietnam war protests. Demonstrators were forcibly evicted from the hearings when they began chanting anti-war slogans.

• updated news:  The American Civil Liberties Union today released new Pentagon documents showing that counterterrorism resources were used to monitor American groups opposed to the war in Iraq and military recruitment. The ACLU is calling on Congress to investigate the widespread surveillance of political and religious groups by the Defense Department, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Sleep in heavenly peace

1966 news: Former Vice-President Richard Nixon says that unless there is a substantial increase in the present war effort in Vietnam, the U.S. should look forward to five more years of war.  In a speech before the Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New York, Nixon also said opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the U.S..

• updated news:  The White House is considering an expansion of the U.S. Army and Marines for "the long struggle against radicals and extremists," President Bush said during a Wednesday news conference.  Bush would not elaborate on where that struggle would take place, only that he wanted to ensure that the U.S. military "stays in the fight for a long period of time."  As the war in Iraq continues into its third year, President Bush reiterated the need to stay in Iraq.  "I also don't believe most Americans want us just to get out now," he said. "A lot of Americans understand the consequences of retreat. Retreat would embolden radicals. It would hurt the credibility of the United States."  Bush said in the Post interview that he plans to expand the overall size of the U.S. military and is considering a short-term surge in troops in Iraq.

Sleep in heavenly peace

That's the 7 o'clock edition of the news. Goodnight.