Devastating Stench is more accurate...
Our country has gone to hell in a handbasket ever since.
The Establishment must have been mighty flimsy to have been undone by a bad rock concert.
Funny, I thought it was a concert. Woodstock may be emblematic of certain values prevalent among the youth in the 60's, but it does not resonate as a significant historical moment, politically speaking. At its heart (and boy, will the left hate my saying this), Woodstock was the hippie-left's equivalent of a kick ass frat party. They just had more attendees.
Why criticize anyone’s form of “free expression” (especially when you don’t agree with it)? Isn’t that just lowering yourself, to the level of those who now criticize “tea party” attendees (without considering the merits of their arguments)?
Didn’t the repeal of mandatory service in the 70’s, implicitly acknowledge the unfairness of a conscripted draft in the 60’s? Hasn’t the military changed for the better since then (as only those who chose to sign up, are in uniform now).
How just was Vietnam to those who had to fight it (when the Tonkin Gulf resolution was based on LBJ’s lies)?
Have you considered that some of the most vocal protestors on the stage at Woodstock had paid their dues (Fogerty and Country Joe were Army veterans, and Hendrix had done airborne) and therefore had the most right to speak about it?
I went for the music , The Who in particular . Nobody bothered me . Never felt threatened . That huge alfalfa farm field became a huge city of half a million for those 3 days in 1969 and there was hardly any trouble . Drugs were done , sure ( but not be me ) . They were being done in every other city and small town across the heartland as well .
I was piloting a gunboat in Nam when Woodstock happened. Later I had my Navy work jacket with patches of every country I visited stolen by a hippie. Hippies can KMA.
Oh, by the way, Country Joe, all you f***ers signing didn’t stop the war. Nixon did.
I fully understand the key thrust of your posting, but I completely disagree with your first line.
I am a "Baby Boomer", and I am not celebrating Woodstock now, nor did I celebrate it then.
I suspect you didn't intend to generalize this much, but it is a common problem by authors writing about Woodstock, and sends (IMHO) the wrong message to younger readers, i.e., that all Baby Boomers were weirded out hippies and druggies dying (literally) to go to Woodstock.
BTW, I'm very glad to hear that God lead you away from that dark place. May he continue to Bless you.
If you were there right now in Bethel, NY, you would see Ten Years After, still performing their pointless solo “Going Home”.
Many of us were associated with America’s finest....so sad that you missed that calling by being a part of that sewer experience.. Our sewer was a two-holler that we shitte into on top of JP4 (jet fuel...a derivative of diesel). Trust me you would have been better off with us....
Couldn’t make it. Had just gotten by draft notice.
I thought the Woodstick movie was garbage, just as I thought Martini Scorcese’s recent Rolling Stones movie was garbage as well. Just gimme the stupid 50s rock and roll movies with Bill Haley and Fats Domino, dude!