Free Republic

My scholarly friend Herb Meyer contends the American Revolutionary War was the greatest intellectual event in western civilization, not simply because the British were beaten, but rather it determined God's power flowed to the people and not to the kings. With that, insists Meyer, the rule of law and the concept of individual rights were born.

Thirty years ago today, August 15, 1969, the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, some 500,000 young people made their way to Yasgur’s Farm in upstate New York to participate in “three days of peace, love and music.” The gathering was advertised as the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, although Yasgur’s Farm was actually located in the nearby hamlet of Bethel. Bethel means “house of God” in Hebrew, but those half-million souls were not seeking God’s house that late-summer weekend. This I know, for I was one of them. Yes, I confess it here and now: I went to...