Fifty years ago this week I turned 25. I’d graduated law school and would soon be on my way to the Menominee Indian reservation in Wisconsin to join the legal defense committee that was assisting tribal members facing criminal charges in a highly political case. After my sojourn on the rez, I’d move to Northampton. 

At dinner last weekend a friend asked me to reflect on this birthday and almost 50 years in Northampton. Which I’ve done.   

In 1975, Saturday Night Live premiered on NBC. So did Wheel of Fortune. Mohammad Ali defeated Joe Frazier in the Thrilla in Manila. Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft. NASA successfully launched the first probe to Mars, Viking I. A Chorus Line made its Broadway premiere. The movie Jaws was released. Springsteen gave us his album Born to Run. Johnny Carson was the king of late-night television. 

1975 proved that the country had survived Watergate. The year before on Aug. 8, Nixon announced that he was resigning, which was my best birthday present ever. The Senate had fulfilled its obligations. So had the House and the Supreme Court  

That year Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement, Sinai II, a precursor to the Camp David Accords of 1978. The Voting Rights Act was extended for ten years by overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate.  

It was a year of firsts. The first woman was elected governor of a state without succeeding their husband — Ella Grasso in Connecticut. Frank Robinson became the first African-American manager in Major League Baseball (and Dennis Eckersley in his initial appearance threw a brilliant complete-game shutout). Recently retired pro football player David Kopay came out as gay — the first player to do so. 

On April 30,1975, the seemingly endless Vietnam War ended.  That year the world’s population was a little over four billion people. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park was established to protect that magnificent ecosystem. 

Also in April, John Lennon made what would be his last public performance. He sang three songs — two covers — Slippin’ and Slidin’ by Little Richard and Stand by Me by Ben E. King, and Imagine. 

Fifty years later the president is covering up the Epstein files. The House, Senate and Supreme Court are his compliant sycophants. The incompetent Attorney General Pam Bondi,  the crazed ideologue FBI Director Kash Patel and the ghoulish Stephen Miller, the overlord of Trump’s immigration policy, provide rich material for satire and ridicule. Unfortunately,  CBS has fired Stephen Colbert, which puts enormous pressure on South Park. 

In 2025, the Trump administration axed programs that protect children and families against hunger and gutted NASA’s budget and scientific studies. Presidential pardons are for sale. Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel, enabled by the United States, is daily committing horrifying war crimes in Gaza, starving people, bombing civilians. And the federal government is attacking the LGBTQ community.  

The Supreme Court has gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act, held that political gerrymandering is totally fine and instructed politicians on how to get away with racist gerrymandering, too (just claim that your intent is to rig elections, not be racist). 

In the past 50 years, global warming, rising ocean temperatures and pollution have led to coral bleaching, shrinking the Great Barrier Reef by half. The world’s population has doubled to over 8 billion.  

From the authoritarian playbook: Undermine educational systems. Rewrite history. Whitewash any sordid part of the nation’s past. Assume control of universities, science and research. Exercise total command of your political party. Make the legislature hand over its authority to the executive branch. Threaten judges. And prosecutors. Make them toe the line. Defy court orders as you wish. But keep courts functioning — for show.  

Same with elections — the mirage of people having a say is useful. But make the outcome preordained. Put plutocrats in charge. Make the rich richer (especially your oligarchs)  and the poor poorer. Bribe and be bribed as expedient. Demand and receive total fealty from subordinates. Brook no dissent. Fire, imprison or deport anyone who dares to express anything unfavorable. Take over the financial and banking systems. Demonize groups to hate and blame for problems. Foster jingoism. Encourage violence. Destroy independent media. Change facts — objective data be damned — especially economic and climate data. Instill fear. Be a master propagandist. 

Given the state of the country, it’s not easy to celebrate. Still on my birthday I feel joy. My spouse and I have been together for some 47 years, and we have great kids and grandkids and friends and live in Northampton, Massachusetts. And many of us are still listening to the Beatles.  

However, that life and privilege does not change the fact that the country is careening towards fascism at a breakneck speed.  Millions and millions will suffer. 

Here’s my hope — though I’m not overly optimistic about this: our collective resistance will save some foundation of American values, democracy and prosperity so that I can write a column attesting to that victory of perseverance on the birthday when I become an octogenarian.

Bill Newman is a Northampton-based civil rights lawyer and the co-host of Talk the Talk on WHMP.