Over at Erotic Ramblings, I posted a piece recalling that era, the one many refer to as the Decade of Peace and Love.. and I am wondering still, what ever happened to those of that era? I mean the kids then, the 18 and 19 year olds, today would be in their early 60’s and so in the prime of their power. It is when they near retirement and have achieved much of their successes, so I wonder, where are they now?

I mean in the 60’s we had the Bay of Pigs and the whole Cuban debacle. Castro is still firmly in power and still stands 90 miles or so from the USA defiant as ever even though its patron, Communist Russia has long since passed out of the limelight into history’s twilight era. Instead though we have North Korea and Iran.
Then there was the Cuban Missile Crisis and the end of the world was openly discussed in news and papers all over. Fear ran rampant and drills were held daily in schools across the hemisphere as the West prepared for the cold winter of a nucleur fallout. Yet it never happened, Russia backed off and the world once more returned to its normal routine. Pot was making the rounds along with LSD and kids were tuning out and turning on in droves as the world breathed easier. WWII was barely over, the Korean conflict had ended in a stalemate and US Foreign Policy had begun its intrusion into the Middle East. Yet despite all that, people had hope for a shinier tomorrow filled with promise of peace, understanding and compassion.

Haite Ashbury was making the news too as the Viet Nam conflict took hold and before it could ruin the thought of Camelot, an assasins bullet laid the hope and dreams to rest. I can remember coming home from school to see the news about Kennedy’s death and feeling the tears inside. I remember it all as if it was yesterday and the image of John Jr standing at attention in his suit with short pants, saluting as his father’s horse drawn casket rolled past, the riderless horse alongside. I can see the horses head twisting a bit, uncomfortable in its roll and I can still feel the wet drops of tears on my cheeks as the era of hope seemed a distant thought or passing fancy.

I was too young to know it then, but now I know it. Yet despite all that, life went on and with a purpose that seems gone today. The war was becoming more violent and suddenly Canada was faced with a crisis of conscience as evaders of the draft began crossing our borders. Strange, I can remember some of the headlines, the dire warnings about how these draft dodgers would be taking jobs away from our own people, and yet I remember the government explaining that it was necessary, that it was essential we not judge them, but grant them sanctuary, out of compassion for their plight. It didn’t stop our firms from selling munitions, though some took the moral road and refused, while others made profits. Yet it was those young students crossing into the country I remember, them and those who stayed behind and fought for the right to have a say.

Back then voting age wasn’t 18. Yet it is strange because today 18 year olds can vote, the draft is currently non existent, but the number of young voters is less today than ever. Back then they fought in the streets with police and national guard demanding that right, that privelege that only comes to democracies, and now, now it seems all so pointless, so hollow.

I remember the police with batons, the line of National Guard troops on campuses across the USA and the chant, of peace, of get out of Viet Nam and the cry of Make Love Not War echoes still in my head, yet today the words aren’t of love, but of hatred, of despair and of anger. No battles on the streets of Chicago or the plush green lawns of Stanford. Just illegal wire taps of everyone’s phones but no pickets, no marching people huddled in raincoats or plastic sheets as they walked and shouted across the White House lawns in cold drizzling rain. Day or night, they were there, protesting Johnson polcies and on every street corner they talked and debated.

Yet even then, with war tearing them apart they still banded together to reach for the Moon just as their fallen idol had promised. In less than a decade Man walked on the moon while war raged in Southeast Asia. The images of young soldier pulling a colt 45 out and shooting a kneeling Viet Namese still haunts me at times. It was across the world and yet you could feel it. The outrage it drew was unbelievable even then and even for an impressionable kid in Canada, it made its impact. Planes landing with flag draped coffins were daily reminders of that horror and the price that was being paid by young men of the time. Today they don’t even rate a by line in most news stories, or newspapers. Why is that? Have we lost our compassion?

I remember the black and white images as throngs of people of all colors stood on the grounds of the Washington Monument and a man spoke of his dreams and aspirations. I felt the pain he felt, but I also felt his hope, his courage and faith that soon that pain would pass, that the promise of Equality would happen. It did too, as Men marched right into the Lion’s den so to speak. The men of all colors, led by those who should lead, Priests, Pastors, Preachers, Rabbis, and others, all marched, hand in hand to bring about Equality for all peoples of Color, of religion. These men preached about God and of his Love for all of his children, denying no one his devotion, and yet today they spew venom and hatred about another minority. I wonder why? What changed God so that his spokesmen no longer preach love and tolerance, but now lay claim to racism and intolerance?

How can his own Pope now condemn those who reach back to that time and do what is right now, yet instead of support, instead of compassion these men are held up to ridicule? How can that be? They stood shoulder to shoulder as they walked the cold hateful streets leading to Selma, but together they stood. Unafraid or at least not showing it, and a man’s dream came to be. Schools were opened so all could attend them, and words of hatred, of bigotry and racism were looked on in disdain and fought against. Today those in power refuse to even discuss punishing those who spew hatred at others and I wonder, why is that? What has changed?

Young men bled to death in the rice paddies of Viet Nam and Cambodia and for what? To have others held in secret prisons without legal council? To hold people without legal representation because someone believes they are a threat to the nation? Is that what those young men died for over there? Or was it to see the Berlin Wall come crashing down? Was it to see a man in a white suit bound across the barren landscape of the moon? What did they die for? Or was it even for anything?

Tuning out and turning on was big back then, but it was Pot and LSD that were the drugs of choice. No one forced it on others, yet today date rape drugs are smuggled in routinely and used more often than not for some kid to get laid. Sex was free then and part of the culture, yet the values of the people was to debate the issues, to discuss the differences. You knew then what a Politician stood for and when it came to voting for it, they did or didn’t, depending on there public position. There was no compromise in their ideals then, or at least not in wholesale lots as it is today. Tough issues faced them then, war in Asia and an uncertain electorate, and still they held to their beliefs. What ever happened to that standard of conduct? When did it disappear from the political map?

Hopes were raised and dashed. Bobby Kennedy went the way of his brother and Nixon left in a cloud, Johnson as a broken spirit, still man was on the moon. Civil rights was an issue but it wasn’t left to individual states to decide, the moral compass of a nation wouldn’t let it and yet today, the buck is passed willingly to those same states. Hatred of a minority is once more in fashion and I wonder, why is that?

What ever happened to those of mixed colors, of differing religions that called each other brother and today call those they disagree with as unpatriotic, or point fingers at them and label them as Fags or Unclean? Why is it that in the 60’s men of God raled against those who hated, yet today lead the parade of those who would hate out of fear, out of ignorance? Why is that?

I sit and wonder as leaders of nations cluck and no one stands up anymore to say: ‘NO, That Isn’t Right.’ Instead they all bow down and kiss ass or take a page from other’s hate campaigns to wage their own. No more is it about the isses that people differ on, but on issues people oppose. It isn’t about choosing the right person, but the least objectinable. How can that be today when those who were there, who marched in Chicago or Selma are now the very leaders that cheat, lie, and cry out with hatred in their voices? How can they have changed so much?

There was a time in the 60’s where leaders led, where they stood up and said this is what I have done, I believe in it and ask for your support. When they screwed up, they took the heat willingly, running to the forefront to take the responsibility for their own actions or those under their authority. Today no one is responsible but some nameless group or someone else. No one stands up and says, hey I goofed and its my fault. Instead they go on television and say they did more than anyone else to prevent the problem. Instead of accepting the onus, they point at Gays and say its all a plot by them and their backers to win an election.

Maybe it was all a dream? The fanciful thoughts of a child.

Looking back I wonder, did I dream it all? Yet as I write, as I read the news, watch it, I know it wasn’t a dream. It did happen so I wonder… will it ever come back and happen again? Will we ever recapture that spirit of Making Love not War that was the sixties?