It's Like The 60's Again

For Me At Least

Tuesday daisy

We didn’t trust people over 30.

We protested against the military industrial complex that was drafting cannon fodder from our generation of friends and families to go fight and die to protect commercial interests in Southeast Asia.

A butterfly’s life sucks

I walked, ran, and drove away from the soulless conservative life of entitlement into which I was born. I preferred to expand and develop my art and music by exploring the counterculture of the times.

Lizard in the sun

I chose to live a life that for the most part did not revolve around the security of a steady job or a fixed place of residence. I did have the advantages of artistic and musical talent, so I didn’t have to sit on the sidewalk, rattling a cup of coins at strangers to get money.

Orange flower in a clay pot

My 2 bands at the time, (I guess I have always had a band, or two, since I was 13), provided me with an expressive outlet, an interesting love-life and an adequate income for my experimental minimalist lifestyle.

I designed menus for restaurant owners in exchange for places to eat when I was hungry. I even entertained myself by staking out Hollywood intersections with an oversized pad of paper, sketching pictures for tourists.

Jaybird

I did several forgettable recordings that summer of 1967 in studios big and small. My ‘hippie’ band played at protests and love-ins, and my R&B band played the clubs.

Monsanto was busy poisoning our farmland and industrial toxic waste was making our rivers flammable, but that was nothing compared to the damage our military was doing to the people and countries of Vietnam and Cambodia.

Red rose in the sunlight

Sound familiar? It should because the murderous march of the military industrial complex continues to circle the globe upending civilizations and leaving toxic messes in it’s wake.

We don’t have the time or freedom to protest the chaos elsewhere on the planet, we are too busy trying to protect America from the fracking polluting habitat destroying civil unrest and globalization our corporate leaders are doing to us here in the good ol’ USA..

Treehouse patio colors

Now that I am older and collecting social security, I have a place I call home and I don’t need to sketch pictures for tourists anymore. As usual, I have 2 bands to play in and devote a lot of my time to artistic pursuits.

I show up for protests when possible, and compose letters and email to various elected leaders and organizations expressing my interest in the things they are doing, or plan to do.

The problems are much the same as they were 50 years ago, but the stakes have gotten higher. The future of human civilization depends on reigning in the industries that are profiting from the destruction of our forests, oceans, fresh water and air. Don’t give up hope. Give up fossil fuels.

Today’s Video;

Paradise Is Not Indestructible