Remember Thoreau saying that for “A Government to be strictly just, it must have the sanction and consent of the governed.” What does a democracy do when Fathers disagree with Mothers, Sisters argue with their Brothers, and the neighbor next door shouts, “Kill all the damn hippies, commies, draft dodgers, and uppity blacks! Nuke Vietnam!
The neighbors across the street just lost one son in The Tet Offensive, and now they secretly plot the escape of their youngest son from the draft by literally driving him across the border to Canada.
Ultra-violence erupted in many cities. Watts, Harlem, Chicago, Detroit and more. These cities were on fire literally! Right here in Detroit in 1967, John Lee Hooker wrote the song “The Motor City Is Burning” and we (the MC5 did a version of it on our first album release.
The press dubbed it a race riot, but many, many people knew the real truth. That we were a nation under siege, and that every citizen became a hostage to both sides. The Conformists versus the Rebellious ruled the era,
The United States National Guard we’re just following orders in doing their duty to try and preserve order. They realistically faced the looming possibilty of total and runaway anarchy brought about by the eruptions of violence in urban black communities, allied with small groups of white freedom fighters, who were burning, shooting, and looting at will.
At Kent State University, four students were shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard, and those Gaurdsmen who pulled the trigger could just as well have been a blood related brother to one of the kids that they shot and killed that day. Boston Massacre all over again.
Chaos and confusion reigned supreme. It was all pretty frightening, surreal, dangerous and strange. We were a nation spinning dangerously precariously out of control. All this was just some forty years ago people.
You know, wars, and rumors of wars will never end as long as there is greed and money involved. They will never end as people continue to fight over territories, power and natural resources.
This will never end as long as ignorance and lack of education and true communication between people are not the rule of the day. They will never end as long as racism, bigotry and chauvinism in all forms are eventually wiped out over time with love, and understanding and changes in each and every individual on this planet.
The end to hatred is an inside job and that is only achieved on an individual personal basis. You can change the world. The change is a revolution in thinking, in the way we live and act as individuals and how we blend together collectively as a society. We have a long, long way to go to be sure.
But where are the protests?
MAN, HOW SOON WE FORGET!
These terrorists remind me of the Viet Cong in Vietnam. You did not know whether they were your enemy or your friend, until one of them smiled at you then shot you in the face. Kids walk up to you and drop a grenade in your foxhole.
Terrorists appear almost invisible until the latest atrocity is reported on CNN and the 5:00 news. Kill and hide. Generate the fear. This fear, growing and spreading, leads to the creation of an atmosphere of distrust, racial profiling, and along with it, the threat of diminishing personal freedoms in the world, as we try to combat this modern day plague.
These terrorists remind me of the Viet Cong in Vietnam. You did not know whether they were your enemy or your friend, until one of them smiled at you then shot you in the face. Kids walk up to you and drop a grenade in your foxhole.
Terrorists appear almost invisible until the latest atrocity is reported on CNN and the 5:00 news. Kill and hide. Generate the fear. This fear, growing and spreading, leads to the creation of an atmosphere of distrust, racial profiling, and along with it, the threat of diminishing personal freedoms in the world, as we try to combat this modern day plague.
Stay tuned...
- I remember Army tanks outside of Henry Ford Hospital. Fellow "Machine Gun" drummer, Mark
- July 3, 2009 at 10:58 PM
- Earl O'Neill said...
- It's a terrible thing when a civilisation loses faith in itself. Not that it happened in '67 - the MC5 and Grateful Dead were oft photographed w the Stars and Stripes, and I love your faith in your country Dennis. But, as someone who pays more attention to the USA than my own backwater of a country, the sheer venomness of political discourse in the last 12 months seems redolent of a nation tearing itself apart. It's a terribly sad thing to witness - and I'm glad I don't have children.
- July 4, 2009 at 9:07 PM
- @ DEAR MARK, SPOOKY WASN'T IT? MGT @ EARL, WE ARE IN THE S**T ZONE. IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT,THIS NATION IS ONLY 200 PLUS YEARS OLD. WE ARE TODDLERS COMPARED TO THE REST OF THE WORLD. WITH A LARGE CHUNK OF POO-POO IN OUR DEPENDS. MGT
- July 14, 2009 at 9:46 AM
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