War protest this Saturday...who's with me?
Oct. 2nd, 2002 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
violachicI have always had a middle-to-major-grade fascination with the '60's and '70's, and hippies and all that stuff. I attribute a lot of that to the way I was raised- my mom was into all-natural foods, bake-your-own-bread and all that, plus her involvement in the civil rights movement as a young adult, and the music we were raised on (when not limitted to classical, it was Miriam Makeba, Simon & Garfukle, etc).
When I was younger, if asked why I was so fascinated, the best I could come up with was "its cool!". I had very little idea of WHY I thought it was so cool. But as I got older, I started thinking about exactly what the lifestyle and the values of that period were. Sure, there was the free love stuff, and the drug culture. I don't think I could ever embrace that way to live, but it doesn't shock me, and I certainly don't judge the people who want that lifestyle. But the social and political values, and even more so, the energy of the generation started to get under my skin. By high school, I started to get obsessed with Classic Rock, and if I wasn't listening to classical music, it was WCKG 105.9. On this station, I started hearing more and more the music of the "Age of Aquarius", so to speak, and the movements involved. The summer before my freshman year, at Interlochen, I went to hear Peter, Paul and Mary in concert. It was the summer of 1990, as the US involvement in the Gulf War was beginning to escalate. So the music was cemented in me. As I grew older, through high school and into my (infinite) college years, I started to put a finger on exactly WHY it was all so important to me. Sure, I began to embrace what the music preached- I'm alllll into this whole peace thing. But somehow even more important than that was the dedication behind the music:
Here was a generation that realized there was something desperatly wrong with the world they lived in, and they had the courage to speak up about it. They knew that if they spoke up it didn't guarantee the change they yearned for; but they also KNEW that if they kept silent, that world would only get worse.
For years I wanted to be part of that generation. If ever asked what time period I'd like to travel back to, I would always quickly answer "the late 1960's". For years I wanted to be part of a generation that believed in something passionatly and STOOD UP for it.
And now I am.
When I was younger, if asked why I was so fascinated, the best I could come up with was "its cool!". I had very little idea of WHY I thought it was so cool. But as I got older, I started thinking about exactly what the lifestyle and the values of that period were. Sure, there was the free love stuff, and the drug culture. I don't think I could ever embrace that way to live, but it doesn't shock me, and I certainly don't judge the people who want that lifestyle. But the social and political values, and even more so, the energy of the generation started to get under my skin. By high school, I started to get obsessed with Classic Rock, and if I wasn't listening to classical music, it was WCKG 105.9. On this station, I started hearing more and more the music of the "Age of Aquarius", so to speak, and the movements involved. The summer before my freshman year, at Interlochen, I went to hear Peter, Paul and Mary in concert. It was the summer of 1990, as the US involvement in the Gulf War was beginning to escalate. So the music was cemented in me. As I grew older, through high school and into my (infinite) college years, I started to put a finger on exactly WHY it was all so important to me. Sure, I began to embrace what the music preached- I'm alllll into this whole peace thing. But somehow even more important than that was the dedication behind the music:
Here was a generation that realized there was something desperatly wrong with the world they lived in, and they had the courage to speak up about it. They knew that if they spoke up it didn't guarantee the change they yearned for; but they also KNEW that if they kept silent, that world would only get worse.
For years I wanted to be part of that generation. If ever asked what time period I'd like to travel back to, I would always quickly answer "the late 1960's". For years I wanted to be part of a generation that believed in something passionatly and STOOD UP for it.
And now I am.
