any ex 60's rebels here?

[historian]

I miss those days - bumming around the world, watching things change - having fun while ridding oneself of the suffocation 50's and early 60's. Watching the rise of the Beatles and Rolling Stones with amazement and joy. Sigh so much more.

[ewagner]

1. hehehe

I was part of the solution, not part of the problem Although my parents had a totally different view.

Those were heddy times indeed my friend. Standing on the ccampus square with a bullhorn. Sleeping in a tent on the college president's lawn. Listening to radical professions scream for justice, for blacks, for people in other lands (especially Viet Nam).

Infiltrating a KKK meeting with a professor who damned near got us killed by laughing out loud during their speeches and then having to run for our car (not to mention our life) when he shouted "Long Live NAACP! as we were walking away from the rally.

Good friends, cold beer, Days of Future Passed; Sgt Peppers Lonly Hearts Club Band. hot Florida nights.....god I miss it

[historian]

2. yes indeed

I was living in london then at the height of swinging london time, 1967. Sergeant peppers and people wearing those bright clothes. Never infiltrated a KKK meeting, but did do to demonstrations against the war; threw rocks with the best of them at the American embassy in London and my foot was stepped on by a police horse. Those are my political scars for those days!

[peacebuzzard]

3. I am still the same.....

never reaching the end.....

[Dhalgren]

9. Gotta love the Moodies...

The late 60's and early 70's are a time I never regret nor will ever give up, and I never want to go back. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but it's the way it is.

[Jacobin]

4. Oh yeah

backpacking europe, marching against Nam, sex, drugs and rock and roll

[Cleita]

5. I was almost too old.

But since I wasn't stuck in feeding the old man and diaper hell like most of my old girlfriends, I was able to get together with my younger co-workers and kick some ass. I must say there was so much energy and optimism around those days. There wasn't the depression of today.

[RichM]

6. Yes, yes, on all that stuff.

Hitchhiking across the country & in Europe, sleeping in parks & under bridges. Bob Dylan & Beatles in my Wonderbread years. Antiwar demonstrations in college. 'The Graduate.' Tear-gassed by police on several grand occasions. Smoking marij**na (inhaled). Loathing Nixon & LBJ. Grief when RFK & MLK were shot.

I miss those days too. They were prouder than what we've got now. The movement was spirited, but lacked a clear political analysis. It collapsed with astonishing speed after 1970.

[caledesi]

7. The 60s were the best. I mean the best!

Best music (still heard today...how many bands from 40+ years ago can fill a concert?)

Folk
Folk Rock
Rock
Heavy Metal

Remember how we just used to sit around smoking a joint and philosophizing? It was so much fun!

[littlejoe]

8. Oh yeah, I was there. Probably isn't a day goes by that I don't

think about those days when we truly felt alive, and ready to make a difference.

It was the perfect storm of hope, culture and activism.

[TacticalPeek]

12. Or, trade you dope for hope, rock for culture and sex for activism.

The usual schism among the stoned staff of underground newspapers, IIRC.

:hippie: :smoke:

[SarahB]

10. I'm a kid of ex-60's semi-rebels

Well, I'm 30-something now, but I was brought up with a good politics. :)

[ewagner]

27. Somehow Sarah

I think you would have been right there with us............

[David Zephyr]

11. I Am Still A 60's Rebel. Nostalgic About the Summer of Love, Too.

The posts by RichM and Jacobin could have been mine.

I love this song from the brief reunion of the real Jefferson Airplane.

SUMMER OF LOVE (1967)

The Summer Of Love was something special
We were so young and so free
The Summer Of Love that I was a part of
We had so many dreams
And even a few of them came true it seems

I still believe in all the music, and it`s still playing
I still believe in all the words, ya I`m still saying
I still believe in all the people, they were really great
And I get to thinking back to where we all once were

The Summer Of Love had special people
Everybody was together so it seemed
The Summer Of Love had lots of changes going down
Looking back`s like yesterday
And you can say it all was just a dream

I still remember all the good times
And boy let me tell ya we sure had a lotta them
I still remember the world was changing all around us
I feel like we could go it all again

The Summer Of Love was just the beginning
That`s when the lines started breaking throught
The Summer Of Love is just a memory now
Even though those times are gone
The Spirit still goes on in me and you

BY M. Balin

Band Jefferson Airplane
Album Jefferson Airplane
Year 1989

[RichM]

13. Oh, wow, the Jefferson Airplane! In April of '67, on the first night I

ever got stoned, I went to see the Airplane in a cozy dark little coffee house in Boston. When they took the stage, they walked right past my table. My friend Margie was carefully checking out how hot the girlfriends of Marty Balin & Paul Kantner etc were, but most of my attention was on Grace Slick. And then she sang White Rabbit, & it was thrilling and erotic and mind-expanding and unforgettable. Oh, yes, you can believe I remember that!

[David Zephyr]

14. More From the AirPlane, RichM: We Can Be Together!

We Can Be Together.

We can be together
Ah you and me
We should be together
We are all outlaws in the eyes of America
In order to survive we steal cheat lie forge fred hide and deal
We are obscene lawless hideous dangerous dirty violent and young
But we should be together
Come on all you people standing around
Our life's too fine to let it die and
We can be together
All your private property is
Target for your enemy
And your enemy is
We
We are forces of chaos and anarchy
Everything they say we are we are
And we are very
Proud of ourselves
Up against the wall
Up against the wall fred (motherfucker)
Tear down the walls
Tear down the walls
Come on now together
Get it on together
Everybody together
We should be together
We should be together my friends
We can be together
We will be
We must begin here and now
A new continent of earth and fire
Come on now gettin higher and higher
Tear down the walls
Tear down the walls
Tear down the walls
Won't you try

---Jefferson Airplane

[RichM]

19. Hey thanks, David!

In the last 10 minutes, my wife put "Miracles" (a "Starship" era song, as you know) on the stereo, & "Don't you Need Somebody to Love." Then, when I saw your post, she sang some of "We Can Be Together" from memory. :hi:

[nannah]

44. sword in the stone?

it was a dark, cozy, coffee house on charles street. spent a lot of time there. lived over the liquor store on charles street. those were the days.

i remember when the "beacon hill support group", the group that organized the buses that brought Boston folks to the huge Wa DC anti-vietnam war rally, was one bus short so the members of the bhsupport group got left behind as we were going on the last bus.

I took part in Paul Coummings sanctuary at the Paulist Center across the street from the Boston commons. I doorbelled for Father John White in his bid for congress.

I worked for jim Shea on the Shea bill which said "no citizen of the commonwealth of massachusets can be drafted into an undeclared war"

I helped start "Boston War Tax resistance" which organized people to divert their war tax dollars to peaceful causes.

today i am a delagate for dennis kucinich in the state of wa. and i read and post on du.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

15. Yes, indeed...good times.

[BEZARK]

16. SDS SNCC SSOC

. . . the Panthers, Weathermen, Venceramos Brigades.

Life before PC and sensitivity training.

[BEZARK]

18. But compared to the Wobblies and the anarchists of two generations before

. . . most of these were almost Milquetoasts too.

[mitchtv]

17. I was there in Sf 67-78

SF state=peoples park- free huey- oakland troop trains, took over rolling stone mag w/ gay liberation front- Sf examiner riots, the Be-in gg park, the panhandle,the diggers, the mansons, kalifower commune, food conspiracy, tom laery, big brother and the holding co. jefferson airplane ,procol harem et al,The modnoght movies the Cockettes, Angels of Light, the Stud and the Capri,Free huey eldridge Cleaver escaping with Tim Leary and Bernadine Dorn to Algeria,The Chicago seen , Jane Fonda,Joan Baez. I miss them , those days. yes I was there. hitching across South America Salvsdor Allende's Chile. I missed that by 2 months I think. What are today's youth doing?
GRASS,GAS OR ASS NOBODY RIDES FOR FREE

[union_maid]

20. Stuck in the 60s and happy to be there

That's one of the reasons I'm happy that John Kerry ended up the nominee after all. He seems like bringing it all full circle. The soldiers and the protesters all in one. I don't know..seems almost like a kind of closure to me. Do you know, on of Arlo's most asked for newer songs is "When a Soldier Makes It Home"? It was written during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but informed by the Vietnam years. It's anti-war, pro the humans that are sent to fight the wars. One of the most prescient verses in it is:

"And there won't be any victory parades
For those that's coming back
They'll fly them in at midnight
And unload the body sacks".

And that's exactly what's happening now. This post meanders a bit, but if you were there in the 60s you don't expect linear thought anyway.

[ewagner]

22. Ya know, you're right

I've often felt really guilty that the whole scene jsut disappeared when Nixon got on that airplane. It was like we had won and there wasn't any more left to do.

Boy were we wrong.

Kerry is bringing it back "full circle". I never looked at it that way until you mentioned it.

We've got a second chance to finish what we started. We can make America live up to it's promise.

....maybe we can.

[himself]

21. Yo. And we need a redux.

I was 'there', in the days when social protest filled the air, with smoke, blood, passion, not to mention music. I was teacing in Walpole Prison at the time, where students (inmates) were wearing black Panther T-shirts. They were heavier times, in terms of visibility of the opposition. Soon afterwards, 'rock' was commecialized and lost its soul. I was at Harvard when Mass. Hall was taken over by students, and Harvard Square was invaded by MA State Police intent on clubbling people including me. Then, in those halcon days, there was a march on Washington by several million people that dwarfed more recent
gatherings. It was the perfect storm. A corrupt Republican President (yet another in a long succession). A mad, illegal, immoral 'war' and invasion of a Third World country. The coming of age of a bulge in the population profile (and arrival into the crosshairs of millions of soon to be drafted young 'uns like me). As the planets aligned, great (and previously unimaginable) revolutions occurred. The women's movement. The sexual revolution. The end of the war in Vietnam. The removal of a Richard Nixon. And then ... the pendulum swung. Universities re-rigged their admissions criteria and stopped accepting independent thinkers. 20s-somethings lost their relative dominance. And the Right began its decades long campaign to recapture the country. We need another perfect storm, but these days we seem to be waiting for 'it' to come, instead of creating it. So, arise! We need another multimillion person march on Washington, for starters, instead of the modern equivalent of 'smart mobs' or petitions on the Net to our representatives. And teach-ins. And lots more speakers of the truth. Really, 'the 60s' are not just days gone by, some sentimental memory - they were a forward march by the country, a belated advance, that was side-lined. After 40 years, we should all be rested enough to move on.

[ewagner]

23. Nicely said sir...n/t

[stevedeshazer]

24. I'm just a bit young

I started out campaigning for Sen. Wayne Morse in 1968, and got to meet RFK just a few days before he was killed *sigh*. I was only 13.

My uncle, who I am still very close with, took me to see the Beatles in 1965.

In 1969, my dad started a near-riot by booking the Grateful Dead and a bunch of other bands in our rural area. No kidding, here's an account: http://home.earthlink.net/~deadtraders/images/Bullfrog.html

I still have lots of memories of those times.

[Beam Me Up]

25. Not the Only One...

I remember it well. In fact, just today, I received a copy of "The Last Whole Earth Catalog" (1971) that I got on eBay. Great to flip through the pages again after more than thirty years. Brings back memories of the cultural sort.

"Rebel?" I certainly lacked a CLASS analysis of what was going on (something that has been rectified in the intervening years). However, two things were clear as day to me: Social Reality is a CONSTRUCT; and that means it is not 'set in stone' or a given, but something that can be ALTERED. The question is and was, whose VISION of tomorrow are we following? What kind of world do we REALLY want? I've always believed, and still DO believe (despite every evidence to the contrary) that human beings CAN move beyond 'difference' (us vs. them) to Unity; to a "new world" that is not a "new world order."

"You may call me a dreamer...but I"m not the only one..."

BMU

[Ksec]

26. 50 in May :(

I caught the tail end of the late sixties, I was really a early seventies guy. But it was a crazy time , wasnt it. I miss some of it but when I think hard about those days Im glad theyre over. My favorite memories are the concerts I went to. Saw Yes four times. CSN, Pink Floyd Lots of them.

[ConsAreLiars]

28. We shook the world

All of us, doing what we could, in every dimension. And we won! The counter-revolution is now (again) attempting to undo those victories, but the victories remain to this day. Just one example, denial of full marriage rights to gays is the issue of the day, rather than the severity of the punishment for being gay. We did not succeed in every goal, but we changed the world for the better.

Much remains to be done. "Same struggle, same fight" is still true, but then we fought successfully for the gains that have been made, and now we fight to defend what has been won. From
http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/this-old-world-is-changing-hands.html

This Old World Is Changing Hands
By Phil Ochs

Oh, a thousand marching armies and a million marching men
have won the wide world over and lost it back again,
But now the word has gone to ev'ry fallen land,
that this old world is changing hands.
From the master to the servant, from the owner to the slave
Colonial days are buried in a deep and dirty grave;
It's so easy to see and well to understand
That this old world is changing hands.

Washington and Jefferson and Patrick Henry too,
they knew what they were doing when they started something new
it was in this giant land of ours that it all began
When this old land was changing hands.
From the master to the servant, from the owner to the slave
Colonial days are buried in a deep and dirty grave;
It's so easy to see and well to understand
That this old world is changing hands.

And when World War Two was rollin' by the tide was on its way
Many countries had to listen to the words they had to say
and the word was spread by millions, all of yellow, black, and tan,
that this old world is changing hands.
From the master to the servant, from the owner to the slave
Colonial days are buried in a deep and dirty grave;
It's so easy to see and well to understand
That this old world is changing hands.

Now Africa and Asia and the Carribean shore
No longer can be counted as the spoils of war
They were bought and sold together, now together they will stand,
For this old world is changing hands.
From the master to the servant, from the owner to the slave
Colonial days are buried in a deep and dirty grave;
It's so easy to see and well to understand
That this old world is changing hands.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

29. History: 43 years looking at 7,000,000 years or 1968 is a state of mind.

I've been a progressive secular humanist since I was 11 years old in 1971. My Bible was a 750 page phone book-sized collection of college and underground newspaper articles, essays, photos and cartoons which detailed all the liberation movements in the US, from Rosa Parks in 1956 through Kent State in 1970. (I had to learn about the Pentagon Papers and Watergate crimes from mainstream press sources back when they reported such stuff.)

I learned about Black, Brown, Women's, Gay, Student liberation. I read about ending racism, sexism, religious intolerance, segregation, economic apartheid, militarism, and the dominance of the Military Industrial Complex.
I learned about the Free Speech movement, Environmentalism, Black Panthers, People's Park, stopping the Draft, stopping The War, stopping police brutality, stopping the arms race, ending poverty and the wearing of unnatural fibers.
In my own mind, I lived in UC Berkeley on the Connecticut River before my voice had changed.

I watched the Cold War under Carter and Raygun/Bush. I watched the culture wars revived against 'lazy dishonest' minorities, the rise of the TV evangelical fundamentalist machine decrying the actual performance of sex acts between merely consenting adults, the deification of corporations through voodoo economics, the remilitarization of the culture (as soon as M*A*S*H had its last episode), and renewed acceptance of dire poverty and suffering as 'inevitable and probably deserved.' Dog food and ketchup were added to the AARP sanctioned menu.
During the 80s I watched the IranContra hearings for days to learn about the secret government that operates underneath the public theater of an elected Congress. Unfortunately, all these people are back in the White House today.

I watched the world hold its collective breath while a senile B movie actor joked on TV about nuclear Armageddon.
I watched with horror as Gulf War I destroyed thousands of innocent lives and sold ribbons and a few parades.

I was told by the press that this war against a madman (a CIA employee, just like the one we 'captured' in Panama) had cured the country of 'Vietnam Syndrome,' a national malaise which had made people unwilling to accept visible mass slaughter as foreign policy for a few years. I watched the myriad of new cable TV channels and radio talk shows fill up with music videos and angry conservatives bent on rolling back the cultural influence of the 60s liberation movements and slash economic assistance for the poor, elderly, and other bugs on the windshield of Their Vision of America.

Mourning in America.


The slogan of the Bible-wielding Christian soldiers ruled the day: Make War, Not Love.
Sex was out. Violence was back in.
Big Time.
Crack wars and handguns in every city. Prisons filling up and schools running down.
Nuclear bombs invented that only killed people, leaving sacred property intact. People were expendable.
Thousands of veterans with Gulf War Syndrome crowding out the Agent Orange patients from their VA hospital beds.
The Moral Majority working to make 'liberal' an insult. For 12 long years of George H. W. Bush in the White House.

I spent the Clinton years head down working every single day to build an audio career so I let my guard down.
But-
Our president dodged the draft, liked sex, had smoked pot, and played the saxophone. John Coltrane was finally in office!
I thought we were running-no, flying in the right direction!
I reasoned "as long as the Gingrich Republicans are fighting dirty with everything they've got, Clinton is probably taking us in the right direction." Atleast the pendulum was still swinging. As long as it can keep swinging...
But the public was becoming more conservative according to the...conservative-owned media corporations. I spent a week visiting my mother in the SF Bay area and we spent the entire time in front of the TV watching Clinton's impeachment over a consensual sex act which was used to shut down the most powerful government on the planet.

As I watched, I remembered that a gang of Republicans had been pardoned for secretly running a terrorist war in Central America and arming hostile governments in the Middle East. Now some of them had radio shows.

"Uh-oh," I concluded.

When I flew back from a concert in Bulgaria to JKF airport in the summer of 2000, I looked up at the TV monitor at the arrival gate. I saw George W. Bush on CNN giving his acceptance speech to the GOP convention. The sight stopped me in my tracks and I swore so loudly that it startled the sullen people waiting for planes and watching their future in resignation.
I realized that a cultural monster that I thought had died with a stake through its heart was about to walk the face of the earth once more. Our country and the world was in for big trouble straight ahead. The joke headline in the satirical newspaper 'The Onion' said it best. "Our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over."

What we are facing today is far worse than what was fought in the 1968 Chicago streets. It is the painful birth of a species that has spent 7,000,000 years terrorized by 'might makes right' trying to become a civilization where the 'rule of law' allows us all to live.

The Bush*/Cheney neocons and corporations are trying to prevent this evolution.
But it is inevitable.
Resistance is futile.

I propose a bumpersticker campaign that says: EVOLVE ALREADY!

[anarchy1999]

35. Nice summation!

I let my guard down as well during the Clinton years. I am so sorry I did.

I also felt the same way about Bush II. It took me a little longer though, to say "uh-oh" and to start swearing, it was November and the day of the "election/selection", "to close to call" fiasco. When James Baker showed up in Florida within the next couple of days, I knew this country was in deep, deep trouble.

It's been one hell of a rough ride and I don't think we are anywhere near being off this hellish roller coaster of a ride.

Too many people just don't care yet. There will have to be lots more pain before we get to "EVOLVE".

So Sad. How many more years must we fight for right?

[CHIMO]

30. Me and Bobby McGee

Was a nice time and a troubling time.

If anyone wants to re-live the sounds today look for Sara Thomsen. I have really enjoyed re-living the sixties with this sound.

I found it a very hard time to make decisions.

I think that little has changed.

[Solon]

31. Descended from them.

I kinda wish I was born 30 years before I actually was. Then I could have had a good time and change the world. I think its time for a Second Cultural Revolution. The '60s redux if you will. That would be a blast.

[raysr]

32. Yep

went to the first Woodstock concert.

[G_j]

40. me too,

we went early before the bulk of the crowds arrived and stayed a day after. This, based on our experience at the Newport Jazz Festival earlier that summer. The jazz festival had rock groups for the first time and was also overwhelmed with people. I enjoyed that festival even more than Woodstock. It felt a bit more intimate.
One highlight was seeing Miles Davis and The Mothers of Invention back to back. A torrential rain storm during Sly and the Family Stone didn't seem to phase anyone as we danced in pure abandon. I've also been a Sun Ra fan every since seeing his Arkestra there.

After Woodstock, I dreamed of crowds of people every night for weeks.
It was an experience that could never be forgotten. The Hog Farm rocked and helped make it a better experience for everyone.

[raysr]

33. Yep

went to the first Woodstock concert.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

50. Re: Descended from them.

I feel exactly as you do, Solon. I was born the year the Beatles split (1970), which might explain why I've been such a rabid fan of the Fab Four.

My parents were in their 20s in the 60s, but weren't radicals by any means; my dad has worked for NASA since the mid-60s, which is kinda cool, as he was involved in the Appollo missions. In 1966, he married my mom and in Dec. 1967, they had my older sister. Mom was a stay-at-home wife.

Regarding music, I do recall great music being played in the house while growing up as a kid: Arlo Guthrie, lots and lots of Bob Dylan, John Denver, etc.

I read a lot about the sixties and watch a lot of news specials, etc. with wonder at how motivated the youth of America was at the time to protest something they did not believe was right.

Iraq War Protests -- I see the protests in Spain and think: perhaps the time has arrived and is ripe for the Second Cultural Revolution. I wonder, though: are enough Americans motivated enough to get out in the streets? I recall watching on C-Span, for instance, the protests before the Iraq war, but now I see they've all but diminished.

Any thoughts on this?

[otohara]

34. My First Rolling Stones Concert Tix -$.7.60

missed The Beatles at Red Rocks however. the show did not sell out if you can believe that.

[democrank]

36. Those were the days....

I never let go and I never sold out.The first global demonstration against Bush`s invasion of Iraq was a day of immense pride for me.Finally! A stirring of the masses, a plea for renewed activism,a reminder that there is strength in numbers.Even the Barbie/Ken corporate newsreaders had to respond when they realized that millions out here care more about peace and justice than Golden Globe necklaces. The 60`s activists can help lead the way out of this mess and give voice to those too long ignored.

[anarchy1999]

37. I agree 100%!

It is up to the 60's, early 70's activists to stand up, leave their comfortable, sold out lives behind and lead this country out of this catastrophe.

We have a nation to lead, there is no time to lose.

[ewagner]

38. Yes

and we must train and inspire the next generation because the cultural war will never be truly over.

I don't know which founding father said it but "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" is as true today as it was then.

[Bandit]

39. I also was a part of it all

Burnt my draft card on Haight street, slept in Golden gate Park. I received five draft notices and my mother freaked so I consented to allow myself to be drafted for her sake. She was having a conniption fit. I came to San Francisco (The City) because of the song "If you're going to San Francisco Wear Flowers in your Hair" and loved every second of it. Read Berkeley Barb and Furry Freak Brothers and was considered a rebel. Had long hair, wore sandals, even wore beads. It was a time that shook the world and I'm damn glad I was a part of it.:thumbsup: for the Hippies.

[historian]

41. Furry Freak Brothers!!

Had completely forgotten about them! Thanks for reminding!

[TacticalPeek]

43. Good for reading.

http://www.beatmuseum.org/store/oracle/oracle.html


Good for tripping, too.

:)

[Yupster]

42. Nah, the last 60's Rebel died when I was a little kid

I remember he was a drummer boy. The last Rebel wife only died a decade or two ago if I remeber right. She was about 16 when she married the 80+ year old dying veteran to get his pension for the rest of her life.

Oops - wrong 60's.

[Gloria]

45. Ah, guns in the Straight....during the spring of 69 at Cornell.....

anti-war marches around the Arts Quad.....
"Workingman's Dead".....my boyfriend's roomate, perpetually stoned.

Incredibly dumpy Collegetown apartments....Working at Discount Records, selling zillions of "Tea for the Tillerman" albums.....


Tequila Sunrises....many of them.....


But, before college....staying home that Feb. day to hear the live coverage of the Beatles' arrival at JFK....Murray the K.....

The absolute sudden shift....one day, the 4 Seasons, the next, it seemed, everything British....
1st of many Stones' concerts on a Sunday afternoon in Newark, NJ, as part of a "Caravan" show...the brown "fishnet" stockings I wore and RIPPED that day from jumping up and down on the seat hung from my bulletin board for years......NY deejay with the "Wooly Burger"....Brian Jones in those corduroy pants and all I can see from my pictures are these bright orange dots...his shoes.....

[Yupster]

46. I just bought

Tea for the Tillerman a couple of years ago. It sure brought back the memories. Kind of odd because remembering happy childhood sort of made me sad. It surprised me. I think it's because I've never had friends like the ones I had growing up.

[nannah]

47. still rebelling, going for training today as a kucinich delegate

we don't change much as we get older, just get more like ourselves.

kick

[G_j]

48. "The Days Between" (this song tugs at those places for me)

The Days Between
by Robert Hunter & Jerry Garcia

There were days
There were days
there were days between
summer flies and August dies and the world grows dark and mean
Comes the lightning of the moon on bright infested trees
sing man is at his song the holy on their knees
the reckless are unreckoned, the timid dig their pleas
and no one knows much more than this
than anyone can see, one can see

There were days, there were days, and there were days beside
when phantom ships with phantom sails set the sea on phantom tides
comes the shimmer of the sun on bright unfocused eyes
the blue of yet another day of springtime wet with sighs
a broken candle-lantern? in the land of lullabies
where headless horsemen vanish with wild and lonely cries, lonely cries

There were days, there were days, there were days i know
when all we ever wanted was to learn and love and grow
when we grew into our shoes, we told them where to go
walked halfway around the world on promise of the glow
stood upon a mountain top, walked barefoot through the snow
gave all we had to give, how much we'll never know, never know

There were days, there were days, there were days between.
Polished like a golden bone, the finest ever seen
nights of summer held in trust still tender, young, and green
left on shelves collecting dust not knowing what they mean
Valentines of flesh and blood as soft as velveteen
hoping love will not forsake the days that lie between, lie between

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

49. I was born in 1970

and raised in the burbs of Dallas. Teenager in the 80's. Reagan, comformity, blahblahblah.

I like to think the spirit of the 60's somehow got transferred to the babies being born at the very end. I will be 34 this year and while my bush fatigue is growing every day when I think it can grow no more, while my disenchantment with corporate America bitters all the time, while my eyes get peeled more and more with each passing day, with each book read, with each look back, I believe too that I have never felt more alive.

I was disgusted with the apathy I saw around me in the 80's. And too busy falling in love/graduating from college/getting married/starting career/having baby/following GI hubby all over the counry in the 90s to pay much attention.

But I'm here now. With my fellow 70's born babies. And we're ready to open some eyes and kick some ass in that order.

I attended my local Democrats meeting this morning. People ranging from 19 years old to 84 drinking coffee and eating greasy eggs and talking shop about precincts, primaries, peace, and protests. The biggest conversation this morning centered around voter's rights. How far have we come in 40 years? Have far have we really come?

We're ready. We'll tip our hats to you, the warriors who came before us, and ask you to give whatever you have left to join us in the fights to come. We can never stop making this country a better country or the world a better place.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

51. Moonbeam, I'm ready to join with you!!

Right on!! I'm ready to join the fight!! You articulated my feelings so well!

Let the revolution begin!!!!!!!!!!!!

[northofdenali]

52. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, yesssssssssssssssssss

Big time!!