Posted on 02/24/2007 9:52:29 PM PST by An American in Turkiye
Warning! A roving band of Hippie Icons may soon be coming to a city near you!
It all started on a sunkist Saturday at Wild Adventure theme park, here in Valdosta, Georgia. Concerts are a regular here, and I've seen some great bands: Foreigner, Styx, REO Speedwagon.
Before I begin, let me just say that I am 35 years old. Never really saw the hippie movement. Read about it, saw the footage of Woodstock, etc. But I never really experienced it. And for that, I think God.
It was an outdoor event, with families lining lawn chairs up, loading the kids up with popcorn and burgers, and settling in for a good show. Although not my generation, I have always loved classic rock. And by classic rock, I mean Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc.
I expected to see decent, hard working people in the crowd, like I had seen at the other concerts. This was not to be the case.
As if the pictures and videos I've seen of Woodstock came alive, it was now. But there was no beauty. Fat, bloated hippies, hurrying their hippie wives, streamed onto the field. Most men had hair down to the small of their backs, their wives the same. Grey was the common, and lots of it. When I looked at their faces, long, cavernous wrinkles bore into their flesh. So deep you could shove an envelope into it and it would stay. A pungent and distinct aroma wafted around, like a camper that has not showered in a few days. And the looks on their faces. The look of pure intolerance, of pure selfishness, of pure hatred.
I should have left with my fiancé right then and there.
Country Joe McDonald walked out first. I have heard some of his music, and honestly, not that big of a fan. He attempted some humor, and then broke out into "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag". If you are not in the know, it's an anti-Vietnam song. The crowd went wild. I looked at my fiancé and said "Do they not realize that this was 30 years ago?" It was like they were reliving their past protests all over again.
What happened next was unbelievable. He has a new song, ripe with criticism about Bush, Cheney, Rice, etc. The vulgarities flew with every venomous breath he took. Mind you, there were little kids all over the place, but their (grandparents) laughed and lauded every vile insult thrown at the President.
The concert went on, with performances by Melanie, Iron Butterfly, and the Animals. All night long, slogans like " we can all live in peace", "we're all brothers", and "make love, not war" was shouted at the crowd. But interestingly, I saw otherwise.
All night long, security for the bands made their way through the crowd, screaming at people to stop videotaping the show. I mean, getting in their face, finger pointing, yelling. All the while, the bands kept spouting about how evil capitalism is, how imperialistic we are, etc. But after each performance, we were told to "go to the white tent to purchase tonight’s video, and buy a few tee shirts to support the cause." Hypocrisy at its best.
The people in the crowd were amazing. Hippies know that smoking pot leads to the munchies, but apparently the never cared. Most people had tie-dye shirts on their bloated, beer gut bellies. After reading "make love" one too many times on these walking pregnant lava lamps, I almost threw up thinking about what it actually might look like.
Sorry for the long rave, but my point is this: the hippie generation caused a lot of damage to this nation. It is evident that deep down, they hate this country. They loathe capitalism, unless it keeps them from making a buck. They think it's OK to spew profanities in front of kids, as long as it bashes Republicans. And the amount of trash that was left on the ground from them was disgusting.
But hey! Someone else will clean it up for them. They are too busy lecturing us on Global Warming!
Americans have been dying for years. See the first World Trade Center bombing, the Cole, etc. You wanted us to "understand" their rage. Saddam killed thousands. You weren't real worried about that either. Palestinians can kill all the Israelis they want. You demand that they simply take it.
You only get concerned about people dying when we decide to fight back.
Terrorists are determined to kill as many Americans as they can. They've said it over and over. They've shown us what they will do. People WILL die. We simply prefer the deaths be theirs instead of ours.
yes, i know this type all too well. im your age and had two hippie parents with pathetic hippie friends. they are without a doubt the worst generation in american history.
We are the same age and I agree. We grew up with so many friends that had children for parents. So many in our generation only had their grandparents to look up to. It is amazing we survived.
War is not a pretty thing, in fact it is quite brutal.
Many people in America as well as many FReepers don't have the stomach for war. They end up asking themselves questions (like you are) as if they are somehow trying to rationalize what all is happening. Osama Bin Laden spoke often about America not having the stomach for war and how to defeat America by capitalizing on this.
Personally I don't comprehend the incessant self-debasement and handwringing over the deaths of Iraqi civilians though?
Sad to say, but I don't see any "victims" on the battlefield in Iraq. I see a battlefield infested with suppliers, supporters, spies, sympathizers and opportunists who mascarade as the "innocent Iraqi victims"
When they are not lopping off heads, where do you think all these insurgents and so-called foreign fighters eat their meals, shop and sleep for the night.
They are provided safehouses and sanctuary by these so-called "Iraqi victims" who have learned to play the innocent victim card in front of the American forces there.
I don't think we have been brutal enough. I think that America's political correctness has turned much of the battlefield into nothing more than a macabre courthouse.
That is so groovy
"we don't want people to die. Ever."
If so, then you can't support any pro-'choice' platform.
Dianna,
Sorry. I meant this to go to the hippie in SF.
Boots
Lassie-faire? I guess that's the 'free love' part. Or something about a dog.
One of the Hussein boys had 36 people beheaded in front of him in 1 day. I don't know what his average was per day though, and I don't remember where I found this info.
I do remember starting up a personal spreadsheet on beheadings occurring in the world and why.
I quit keeping stats after it started to make me sick.
While it may be possible to understand that mindset, I don't want to. It is a good object lesson to remember, though when hit with some pacifistic rhetoric coming from a coworker trying to make an argument. If a person won't even consider the possibility of such behavior, their denial is their demise.
If you were on some blotter, things would have been more mellow. Peace.
They have spent wasted lives drinking beer and smokin stuff. A lot of them have not changed, nor will they. I suspect many are on welfare today, their minds gone. They still infuriate me.
The actual percentage of people who looked like the hippies you described in your post was under five percent in my part of the country. Probably most of the midwest outside of the college towns. The weird kid who dressed like a stereotyped hippie was often pointed out and laughed at. Even when I went to college in those years most young people didn't resemble those types of hippies. I guess a lot of people in those days smoked maryjane or at least sampled it. I never even sampled it. And I've talked to many others of my age who never even sampled it. In the midwest, beer is still king.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you've thought out your positions. But most of what you postulated what not backed up with facts. Civilians die in Iraq, and millions of civilians died in WWII because we went to war. Do you realize that many more millions of civlilians would have died if we hadn't gone to war? For example several hundred thousand Filipinos died while we retook the Philippines from the Japanese. Do you think Filipinos would have been happy under Japanese rule? Would you have been happy with Saddam Hussein as your leader? You'll have to think deeper than what you've been telling us so far.
Incredible, horrendous, irreparable damage. Damage which will ultimately cause the demise of this great nation.
The only good thing to come out of the Sixties was the Civil Rights Movement which eliminated segregation and Jim Crow laws. Other than that, it was an unmitigated disaster for America.
There were many actual real live Communists among the hippies in SF in the spring and summer of 65. They had quite a bit to do with the March against the war there. Some wore red armbands and handed out classic old time commie lit and lots of more up-to-date stuff, too. They did not mind advertising their faith. I was there then. I watched the "summer if love" turn into a hell of black gangs and Black Panthers.
From what I've read supposedly Townsend hit Hoffman with his guitar. Hoffman committed suicide in the early nineties after his dream of a commie U.S. vanished. I've read some of his "literature", and it appeared to me that communism was just a tool for his own self-promotion. He was an obnoxious, egotistical, Marxist punk.
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