OpEdNews - Diary: Where Has all the Music Gone?

Refresh Tag(s): Baez-Joan; Democratic; Dylan-Bobby; Music; Peace; Peace Activism; Protest; Revolution; Riots; Rush-Bobby; (more...) Tom Hayden; Veterans (less...)
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October 17, 2009 at 14:56:19 Permalink
Where Has all the Music Gone?

Diary Entry by Margaret Bassett (about the author)

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One night of TV, recalling the life of Joan Baez and her dedication to non-violent protest. The next night at the White House celebrating the joy of modern Latin tunes. How about the president's footwork!

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I long for the cultural revolution of the Sixties. Not just a "let it all hang out" mode of communication but some good protest songs. I've always wondered whether the Smothers Brothers had inside info on the Lyndon Johnson "I will not run" speech." I heard their song about a big man in deep water just before LBJ came on with his Swan Song.

For those who are old enough--older than our President, let's say--we remember Baez and Dylan, as well as Collins and Denver. Each night I went to bed back then with beautiful, purposeful melodies playing in my head.

And now where are we? Did YouTube allow TV entertainment to slip away, just like the joy of getting on a jet plane. The year of Big Change seemed to happen in 1968. I left my heart in San Francisco that April. One of my Women for Peace friends clued me in on the demonstration that weekend, which was a numbers crusher at the United Nations. As she always said, Veterans against the Viet Nam War were an auxiliary of Women for Peace. I remember how they passed out a single rose to anyone who would take it as they shopped in Chicago's Loop.

Speaking of Chicago, is there anyone of any age who has not relived the riots which occurred during the Democratic National Convention in 1968. It's easy to follow how things turned out for Tom Hayden, Mr. SDS himself. And we know that Bobby Rush made a switch to professional politics.

Aren't we the blessed crowd? We may have lived through the hell raising days of civil rights and anti-war fever, yet we can connect with those too young to remember. I can go to the library and get tapes if I want to reminisce. Actually, I prefer to think about the Watergate hearings, the Church Committee and laws like FISA.

It's hard to imagine how Barry Obama sees what I consider current events. Maybe it would pay to remind him as he ponders how to divorce the AfPak "war on terror."

Margaret Bassett--OEN editor--is an 87-year old, currently living in senior housing, with a lifelong interest in political conumbra. Bachelors from State University of Iowa (1944) and Masters from Roosevelt University (1975) help to unravel (more...)

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