PEACE AND LOVE

 

PEACE AND LOVE

By Bill Barksdale

 

Peace and Love was the slogan of my teenage youth.

The late 1960’s was a very troubled time in the United States.  I was a teenager and the Hippie movement was born.  Mendocino County became an important part of that movement.  In addition the Viet Nam War was happening, a misadventure of foolish national leadership.  Young people were being drafted and ground up in the war machine, and we were rebelling at the injustice of old men, some women, and a codre of industrialists who had either forgotten or were simply ignoring the horrors of war just a few decades after World War Two! 

The musical Hair was shaking up Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater, and soon moved to Broadway.  It’s songs – “Aquarius”, “I Got Life” and “Good Morning Starshine” – came to defining the spirit of the movement along with P. F. Sloan’s song “Eve of Destruction”. 

Harvard University professor, Richard Alpert, took LSD went to India and became Ram Dass.  He wrote the iconic book, Be Here Now and remained an important spiritual guide up through his death last year in 2019.  S.F. rock group It’s A Beautiful Day produced two albums that also helped define the times.  Their song “The Dolphins” is the one I always think of.  “This old world’s just got to change.  It just can’t stay the way it’s been.”  One of the groups’ vocalists and guitar players, Hal Wagenet, lives right here in Willits. 

The 60’s was a time when many people recognized that the U.S. (and much of the world as a result) was going in the wrong direction, one that would likely lead to greater suffering and destruction.  Bad leadership, kind of like now. There were survival systems revived during that time.  In San Francisco there were “communes”, each one devoted to a different aspect of need.  I remember going once a week to the bulk food commune to pick up grains and other dry-goods.  There was also the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic on Haight St, open to all who couldn’t afford to go to a regular doctor for good medical help.  Finding ways to support each other at low financial cost became important.

It was around this time that Mendocino and Humboldt Counties were becoming the destinations for people who wanted to get out of urban areas and experiment with ways to rethink their lives.  Mostly baby-boomer dropouts, often not welcome by the “old-timers” in these rural counties, these seekers and rebels tried different ways to live.  

The Whole Earth Catalogue became the shopping guide for this generation.  Buckminster Fuller’s research and designs for dome construction became an area of interest since these affordable structures were stable and could be more energy efficient.  Organically grown food became a staple.  Drugs - some perceived as beneficial, others very destructive – became part of the culture for many. 

As it happened, many local businessmen made a lot of money subdividing their logged-over land and fallow ranches, selling them off to urban refuges.  Every town in our area is surrounded by these subdivisions.  The “underground economy” of marijuana became one of our area’s largest sources of revenue despite the fact that it was illegal.  That’s something we’re still trying to come to terms with.

Today the deadly Corona-19 virus is changing the world.   Our nation has become Number One in virus transmission and deaths because of lack of federal leadership.  Additionally, our economy is collapsing - again.  Just 13 years ago in 2007 we suffered a major financial and social melt-down because of federal “deregulation” of financial markets and institutions.  Millions of people lost their homes and savings then, and it’s happening again. 

A couple of years ago substantial tax cuts were implemented perpetually for the super-wealthy, but the rest of us received only short-term benefits that will soon come to an end.  Now, the President is floating the idea of “Payroll Tax Cuts”.  Payroll Taxes primarily fund Social Security and Medicare.  In addition they help fund Unemployment Insurance.  When Payroll Taxes are cut, the very social safety net that most Americans depend on is in jeopardy.  If you’re super-wealthy you’ll be fine.  It’s everyone else that will feel the hurt.

As I go on my morning walk with a mask hanging around my neck, my morning meditation is still “Peace and Love”.  Fortunately, things can and often do improve. If that is your goal, do as Esther Hicks recommended and “Reach for the thought that feels better.” It’s a comforting thing you can learn to do.