"Peace & Love? More like open warfare on city streets and parks! There were full time hippies/yippies and then,there were the "weekend hippies"...kids from wealthy families,who dressed as though they were going to a bad Halloween party and hassled people for money,while they had Nikon cameras slung around their necks,expensive watches on their wrists,and carrying around expensive guitars.
In Manhattan,there were TRAINING SCHOOLS a la the ones run by OBL,but run by Abbey Hoffman and Jerry Rubin on the Sheep Meadow,in Central Park,to teach " the troops" how to harass the cops in Chicago,practicing yelling profanity and throwing plastic bags full of human waste.
These "peace and love" freaks were out on the sidewalks of lower Manhattan,in and around the NYSE,acting like the anti-globalist freaks of A.N.S.W.E.R.,spitting on returning military and just "regular" people.
Nobody,who wasn't then in the belly of the beast,during those times,knows how DREADFUL those times were.
Kent State? These kids were throwing bricks at the National Guard and desereved being shot.That famous picture of the girl? She was a 14 year old and didn't belong on campus at all.A lot of kids were there who did NOT go to school there.
Then there were all the damned RED DIAPER BABIES,such as Mark Rudd,who ran the SDS troops on college campuses,who took over offices and held not only the colleges/universities HOSTAGE,but also the neighborhoods and towns those schools were in.
I LIVED IN A WAR ZONES AND IT WAS RIGHT HERE IN AMERICA!
Peace and love? Utopia? IT WAS HELL !
All I have to do is watch my father's eyes when names like "Jane and John" are mentioned to know how deep these 'peaceniks' left their mark.
I see the remnants of them at current protests. I observe them in the media and Hollywood. I see their influence on the world community as a whole.
The terrorists must be defeated but no more so than these soulless creatures. Their objective is the same. The destruction of our country.
The history you relate just furthers the lie they have told to millions of people my age through the haze of entertainment. They attempt to make the era seem appealing when it the truth is far different.