Old Hippie

"People try to put us d-d-d-down. Just because we g-g-g-get around." Many thanks to The Who for giving us this song in 1966. What a wonderful musical time that was. The baby boomers, including myself, were coming of age and we were out to not merely make an impression on the world but to outright change it. "Things they do look awfully c-c-c-cold. Hope I die before I get old." We were dreamers and were ready to make those dreams into reality and do it all before we turned 30. Because once you hit 30, life was all downhill from there.

Boy were we naive! But electric music really came into its own during the Satellite Sixties and many of "My Generation" dove headfirst into the political arena of the time, which mostly consisted of protesting the Vietnam War. "And it's one, two, three, what're we fightin for? Don't ask me, I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam." Country Joe and the Fish made some money on that little tongue-in-cheek anti-war protest diddy. I saw both The Who and Country Joe in concerts back then. I even had a chance to see Jimi Hendrix live before he checked out of this reality. His version of The National Anthem played at dawn at Woodstock is one of the most riveting guitar solos and moving interpretations of that song I have ever heard. (I missed Woodstock myself, I was on the way there from Illinois and got sidetracked in Detroit at my nephew's house. Big party, lots of craziness, and nervousness, but in the end life goes on. "Oh Blah Di Oh Blah Dah, La la, how the life goes on", Beatles.)

"Incense and Peppermints, color of time." Strawberry Alarm Clock's only hit record which painted my generation as colorful, peace-loving, kind-hearted folks just trying to get along, "For What it's Worth." Buffalo Springfield, one of my early favorite bands. First record album I ever bought was their first album. A peaceful protest march on Sunset Strip that got out of control. We had grand ideas about loving everyone, "All You Need is Love", Beatles, and through love we could change the world. "I'd Love to Change the World", Ten Years After sang, "But I don't know what to do." That was our problem. We didn't know what to do. So we did what we thought was best and sank all our hopes on ending the war in Vietnam.

Imagine our surprise when Nixon actually did end the war! We managed to get the voting age lowered to 18, but we didn't know much about any issue except the war. Once the war was over, we were virtually lost. And we found out that 18 year olds really aren't going to concern themselves with any issues that don't directly affect them, and therefore, not exercise their voting rights like we expected everyone to do. As is the case with most organizations or groups that tackle an issue and win, the group tends to find other issues to be concerned about rather than just disbanding and moving on. And if the new issues are less than tantalizing to its members, no matter, they will find new members.

My Generation latched onto environmental issues. I applauded those early activists for bringing awareness to our environment and forcing science to reveal and fix problems that were extremely harmful to our planet. Awareness was needed on this front. When victories started piling up for the environmentalists and sufficient attention was being given to these issues, they basically won that war also. But they didn't stop there. They never stop there. Environmental organizations hardened their stances and turned to eco-terrorism to battle the evil corporations who they felt weren't doing enough to protect nature. The good-hearted environmentalists became infiltrated with anti-American folks who use the popularity of environmental issues to push their own agendas to weaken our country. The enviro crowd turned into watermelons, green (environmentalists) on the outside, but red (communists) on the inside.

Most of my generation turned into pretty normal members of society not much different than other generations after all. Some became extremists advocating change almost for the sake of change itself. I feel sorry for these people sometimes. Protest for the sake of protest is sad. My generation, which started out so full of promise, not content with ending the political war in Asia, decided to start sticking their noses into everybody's business. Words became object of our affection. "Words of Love, so soft and tender..." from the Mamas and Papas became daggers in the hearts of otherwise sane citizens.

Sanitation Engineers! That's the first form of, dare I say NewSpeak, to borrow from George Orwell's 1984, that I remember which began the hideous and ever-pervasive idiocy of Political Correctness. Not janitors, but what the hell does that mean? The English language is amazing! So resilient and so prone to the creation of new words! My generation couldn't resist toying with words and today it has grown to infinitely ludicrous proportions. Just like the government in 1984, we have created a whole new set of words which mean practically the opposite of what the original words meant but have become accepted as the proper way to talk. Way to go guys.

I'm basically ashamed of my generation these days. That is precisely why I am writing about this in the first place. We had so much potential, so much energy, so many great ideas and we squandered our opportunities and strength to fight for Political Correctness. Now we seem to be fighting for the right to keep Social Security. Why? Haven't we gotten smarter as we've grown older? I guess not. I see intelligence sometimes but mostly I see people trying to hold onto something they've never even had. Security. The war on terror (you do believe there is such a war going on today, don't you?) has brought the issue of security into our faces. And how do we want our security? From the government. We want government security and we don't want to be involved in it either. Maintain Political Correctness in the face of terrorism and don't profile, that's just not right. BS.

Oh, and when is our damn government going to bring down the price of gas in this country? Forget about the fact that environmentalists have stopped the oil and gas industry from keeping up with the demand for ever more product, just make them lower the damn prices! Geez! What do we have government for anyway? Makes me sick.

Once upon a time My Generation was destined for greatness. Once upon a time the generation before mine, The Greatest Generation, was also destined for greatness. Their victory over the Nazis and Imperial Japan was incredible. They turned out less than great, as has My Generation. As also, I suppose, will Generation X, Y and Z and whatever other generations come around. Perhaps that's the way it will always turn out. Great hope gains a great victory and then quits. Perhaps it's simply human nature. I don't purport to know these things. I am merely an observer.

But one thing I do know is "The World Keeps on Turning", Stevie Wonder, and people are born and people die every day. "There'll be One Child Born in this world to carry on, to carry on", Blood, Sweat and Tears. "Life is just a cherr-a-bowlies" as the Blues Magoos sang in 1967. I've been on one helluva "Magical Mystery Tour", the Beatles(I once toured the bus, in Baltimore, they used to make that movie, which was only shown in Europe and never released in the US) and I still frequently feel like a real "Nowhere Man, sitting in my nowhere land." "No one knows what it's like to be the bad man, to be the sad man, Behind Blue Eyes." The Who knew. Who knew?

I'm rambling now, "Ramble On, sing my song", Led Zeppelin, and thinking in song is making this article less than what it started out to be. Time for me to quit. "Time Has Come Today", Chambers Brothers. "Talkin bout my generation, talkin bout my generation, my generation!"

OH