Woodstock: August 15-18, 1969. A Celebration Of Freedom, Peace, and Love.

In August of 1969, a music festival was scheduled to take place on some open land, rented from a farmer, near the town of Woodstock in upstate New York. Outdoor music festivals were relatively common at the time, but the promoters did plan to draw a large crowd because of the terrific line-up of performers they had scheduled.

As it turns out, the number of young people who decided to go to this music festival grossly exceeded what had been planned. Hundreds of thousands of young people traveled to upstate New York for that three-day festival in brightly-colored vans, some hitchhiking, all planning to celebrate with other young people from around the country and listen to some good music. The rumor has it that the New York State primary freeway was shut down for a time because of the enormous number of vehicles headed to Woodstock. Eventually a half a million people ended up at the Woodstock Festival.

The young people who attended, cheered, celebrated Woodstock soon became known as the Woodstock Generation. They have been vilified, demeaned, ridiculed by the right-wing fascists who took control of this country under Reagan and kept control through two Bushes and one Clinton. But the Woodstock Generation was possibly the smartest generation in this country for decades. Had their ideas and views been followed, we would undoubtedly have a better country and more peaceful and humane world.

Melanie:

Among the performers at the Woodstock Festival were the following:
Richie Havens
Ravi Shankar
Melanie
Arlo Guthrie
Joan Baez
Country Joe McDonald
John Sebastian
Santana
Canned Heat
Grateful Dead
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Janis Joplin
Sly & the Family Stone
The Who
Jefferson Airplane
Joe Cocker
Country Joe and the Fish
Ten Years After
The Band
Blood Sweat & Tears
Johnny Winter
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Sha-Na-Na
Jimi Hendrix

Nice shot of the crowd:

The Woodstock Generation, although consisting of a loose connection of young and not always so young people, embraced certain beliefs and principles about life which at the time were considered revolutionary, and which terrified the ruling powers in this country. Here are just a few of the principles of the Woodstock Generation.

1. Stop Polluting The Environment. Rachel Carson brought the nation's attention to this issue in her book "The Silent Spring," and the Woodstock Generation was the first to demand that changes be made. Stop polluting the air and water. Simple concepts, but at that time the people who ran this country tried to cover up the truth. How much of the cancer in this country, and disease in the world, is the direct result of corporations dumping chemicals and poison in the earth and water?

2. Live Simply. Don't spend your life chasing more or competing with the neighbors. Consume less and contribute more. Help your neighbors. Don't hoard. Don't take more than you need.

3. Local Food Control. Eat simply. Eat locally-grown produce. Don't buy the corporate-produced food which is packaged or sprayed with poison. Take back control of food. And help people in other countries do the same.

4. Population Control. The churches oppose this, and encourage their members to breed as if there was no limit to our resources. But the fact is all people should be limited to 1/2 of a child. After that, get yourself fixed. We should cut the world's population in half immediately, and possibly cut it by another half after that. We are well on the way to destroying every living plant, all food stuff, and every single animal or fish in the world, because of gross and excessive and obscene overpopulation. And in the meantime, the Republicans on TV celebrate the stupid Americans who have 12 kids, or 18 kids, and act like this is all good fun. It's suicide. It's also likely to destroy the entire earth and all living things. If the demands of the Woodstock Generation for population control had been followed, we probably would not be facing the extinction of so many animals on this earth.

5. End All Wars. The Woodstock Generation was against the war in Vietnam. But they were also against all wars, preferring the idea of creating strong international organizations with the authority to send in peacekeeping troops to protect civilians. Possibly mandatory mediation of disputes. War consists of one macho male sending the young men from his country into another country to kill the women and children. That's always what it comes down to. Killing children and babies is wrong. We have the sophistication and wealth to end war for all time, if we wanted to. If this principle had been adopted, think of the millions of lives that might have been saved.
(Burning a draft card, refusing to go to Vietnam).

6. De-Criminalize Drugs. Who came up with the stupid idea that we should use the military to fight against addiction? The U.S. has troops all over Central and South America propping up dictators and despots, providing security for U.S. corporations that are stealing resources from those countries. And this military occupation is done under the guise of a "war on drugs." Nonsense. There is no war on drugs. Drug addiction is a medical condition and should be treated as such. If this idea had been adopted, our country could have saved billions of dollars that has been wasted on guns and wars used against poor people in other countries. And our massive prison population includes way too many young non-white people whose only crime is that they liked to get high.

7. End Racism. This went way beyond the minimal rights acquired during the 1950s civil rights movement. The Woodstock Generation promoted the idea that all people were equal, were the same, and should and must live together in peace. This included the idea that black and white or hispanic or Asian people should date, marry, form families without regard to racial or ethnic identities. This was an idea that was considered shocking to much of the country at that time.

(Huey P. Newton, Black Panther Party. The members of the Black Panther Party, standing in defense of their communities, were framed, imprisoned, assassinated, and exterminated by an illegal program of the U.S. government known as Cointelpro.)

8. Equality For Women. Again, this was a radical concept. Through the 1950s and early 1960s, women had to belong to some man, provide unpaid slave labor for life to a man and to however many children her body turned out, in order to have a place in society. Women had few opportunities to work or earn a living, often had no birth control, had no legal rights to prevent their husbands from beating them. Divorced women were considered whores and single women past a relatively young age were considered spinsters, completely banished from the rest of society. No options for women. The Woodstock Generation promoted the idea that all people, regardless of gender or race, are equal, and should have equal opportunities.

(Angela Davis)

9. Create And Nourish Community. It had already become apparent that the single family suburban neighborhood was destroying community. Imagine people living in cubicles, not even knowing their neighbors, working in cubicles and being prohibited from even speaking with their co-workers. I worked on a lawsuit once in which a worker was fired by a big retailer which claimed she was guilty of "theft." Based on that charge of criminal behavior, the worker was even denied unemployment compensation. But it turns out that the only "crime" the employee had committed was that she spoke with a co-worker during working hours, asked how her week-end went. The company's employee handbook said any conversations among co-workers unrelated to work were considered to be "theft" of company time. People have no community, live in isolation, and they therefore have no power. How can people organize to protect their own rights or their community when they don't even know who lives right down the street?

(Grateful Dead)

10. No Nukes. If only this idea had been pursued at the time, think how different the world might be today. Because the right-wing took control of our country, they promoted the widespread distribution of nuclear weapons to our "friends," which now means we live every day within minutes of having the entire world annihilated by some moron, either in a cave or in a government office.

11. Recycle. Stop Consuming. Stop filling the ocean and the earth with crap. Re-use. The U.S. corporations hate the idea of people using their own independent judgment to decide that they will not spend their lives buying the crap sold to them by the corporations.

12. Free Love. It is not the place of the government or the "community" to dictate to other adults when they may have sex, with whom, or in what manner. It is also not the place of the government or the community to dictate to other adults whether they may use birth control (as late as the 1960s, some states still made birth control illegal) or whether, or when to have children.

13. Workers Rights. The Woodstock Generation marched and demonstrated and boycotted along with the United Farm Workers to demand that all workers get a decent paycheck, have safe working conditions, healthcare, decent pensions, vacations and holidays.

14. Freedom And Independence For Other Nations. The Woodstock Generation promoted the view that all people are entitled to be free and independent, to run their own countries without interference from other nations. If only these views had been adopted, how different the world would be today.

(Che Guevara, hero of the Cuban revolution.)

In this 40th anniversary of Woodstock, the right-wing fascists who control the media and the Republican party will undoubtedly take this opportunity to ridicule everyone who was part of the Woodstock Generation, and to reaffirm the concept that "real" Americans love war, guns and violence, and hate their neighbors. The Republicans are trying to create a fascist nation, and the Democrats aren't doing much to stop them. The fact is that the Woodstock Generation consisted of true patriots, people who loved this country and democracy, and who were creative and innovative in trying to find new ways for all of us to live in peace in this world. Make Love Not War. No Nukes. Peace.

The Who:

In addition to having important and creative ideas about how to change society and the world to be cooperative instead of combative, there was also a tremendous flourishing of music, film, and fine arts during this time. The idea was that art became fun, a part of people's lives rather than something to be shut away inside museums and judged by a small panel of upper-class white men as to whether the art did or did not have merit. Young people all over the country decided for themselves whether they liked some art and, if they did, collected the reprints and posters and tacked them up all over their rooms. People's art, as it were, shown throughout this post.
During the entire history of the U.S., under or after slavery, it had always been understood that black and white people should live completely separate lives. In the 1950s, blacks spent years demonstrating and marching for such minimal rights as the right to sit down on a public bus, the right to buy food in a restaurant, the right to vote, the right to not be murdered by white men. Black people were often legally prohibited from buying homes other than in "black" neighborhoods, their children were legally prohibited from attending schools with white children, and they were legally prohibited from marrying a white person. Even in states which did not have those laws, segregation was strictly upheld in all classes of society.

The Woodstock Generation took enormous leaps forward on the issue of race, and demanded that all racism, all segregation be ended. This was a radical position at the time. The Woodstock Generation had a view that all people were equal and should live together in one community, in peace. Not that this was necessarily successfully implemented, but just the fact that these people embraced that idea was horrifying to the white men who ran this country.

For example, Jimi Hendrix performed at Woodstock to wild acclaim. Just a short time later, by the 1980s, under the regime of Ronald Reagan and the white boys who re-took control of our country, a black performer like Michael Jackson had to physically alter his appearance to make himself look white and female, in order to be "acceptable" to be presented to a white audience. Jimi Hendrix didn't appear white or female. He was a hot black man, sexy, publicly celebrating his sexuality, and he was worshipped by many of the young white people who made up the Woodstock Generation.

Jimi:

There's An Old Man Who Lives Behind Me.

There's an old man who lives behind me. Actually, there's an old man, his wife, an old lady, and possibly at least one adult child and an adult grand-son all live behind me. The modern version of the American family: the 80 year olds who worked their whole lives and benefited from a post-war government that was actually democratic and passed programs to help the citizens. Then all the younger generations who got screwed, are unemployed and broke, deeply in debt, and can't even afford to pay for housing. I know quite a few families who have multiple-generations now living together. Not because the younger folks decided to take in and care for the older folks, but the opposite.

What's that saying? Family means that when you go there, they have to take you in?

This old man is a tough old bird, calloused and often nicked and cut on his hands with a thick coating of dry scarred skin on his elbows and forarms, dark brown patches on his face, a working man. A little bit stooped now, but still like a pit bull going about his day, going to the store, doing his business, keeping busy. He probably does the same thing today that he's done since he was little kid: just put one foot in front of the other and keep moving. Don't stay still or the crows will land on you. Don't lie down or it's all over. I know he had a heart bypass surgery in the spring, but he seems just as tough and strong as ever. And a little bit mean, too. His wife's had serious medical problems too. They both got full medical treatment courtesy of a government-run, single-payer system we call Medicare.

That whole theory that when people get old they get sweet -- complete nonsense. Who on earth dreamed up that one? Must have been Disney. The old people I know get just more of what they always were, kind of condensed. Often nasty. The fat melts away and they're down to bone and gristle, nothing extra. Their bodies are wearing out, they know their time is limited, and they're pissed off about the whole thing. In some ways it seems like if somebody makes it to 80 and is still going strong, there should be some kind of a get-out-of-death card, a reward of sorts. What's the point of charging along, getting past all those diseases that felled your contemporaries, if you're just going to get it anyway in the end.

I think this old man steals my newspaper. I see him go out early in the morning, and I think he's looking for my paper. Tomorrow I'm going to watch for him and yell out the door: "Don't steal my newspaper, old man."

I'm on crutches and in a bad mood. The shock from my accident has worn off, I no longer have any excuse to keep taking all the brain-numbing drugs they gave me so I'm now on Advil, coffee, and crutches, and I'm really angry about the whole thing. You try staying home for 3 weeks. With a sentence of another 3-5. At least I'm back at my computer, I can hobble that far. I would not be a good long-term patient. If I ever get some illness that's likely to leave me bed-ridden for over a month, I'm leaving written instructions that somebody should just shoot me and get it over with.

My EOBs have started coming in. EOB stands for Explanation of Benefits. I only know that because I represented some parties in a lawsuit relating to medical billing, so I had to learn the terminology and procedures. Here's an overview of the medical billing procedures: the providers (doctors, hospitals) bill exorbitant and outrageous amounts for their services, obscene and unconscionable under any standards; the insurance companies refuse to pay most of it, and send the patient an EOB telling them to pay. That's where I come in, opening the EOBs, trying to figure out what the heck is going on. The part that really worries me is every time I see "Patient should pay" followed by some dollar amount.

I've been basically avoiding the news for weeks now. I finally turned my clock-alarm back on so I hear some NPR news in the morning, and now I'm back at my computer so I'm really getting up to speed. It makes me so crazy watching how the Democrats are allowing the Republicans and Medical Industry a full month to stage these circuses, empty the lunatic asylums and bring out their paid insurance company employees to scream about euthanasia.

My theory is this: of course Republicans would be terrified of the idea of a government program to euthanize the feeble-minded. That would wipe out most of the Republican party.

And exactly where are "my" representatives, the Democrats? They're at fundraisers hauling in huge bags of money from the health insurance industry, doctors lobbies, hospital and clinic industries, in exchange for them agreeing they will do absolutely nothing to help the people of this country by providing decent and affordable health care.

So here I sit the perfect example of why we need help. And John Kerry is out collecting $9.0 million from the medical industry in exchange for selling me out. Why does he need this money? Isn't his wife one of the richest people in the country?

If the Democrats do not pass health care reform which, essentially, will allow me to join something like Medicare, a meaningful protection and cost savings for me, I will change my party affiliation to independent. It may not seem like much. But if 10 million Americans did it, and peeled the Obama stickers off their cars and mailed them into the White House, then maybe the Democrats would stop spitting in our face and would start doing the things they promised they would do. Such as: end the wars; prosecute the war criminals, torturers and murderers from the Bush administration; create real jobs programs for Americans; prosecute the Wall Street criminals, seize their assets and throw them into Attica for the rest of their lives; pass real credit card reform and force those Gucci-loafered loan sharks to obey the laws of usury; and pass universal health care for the citizens of this country.

Manhattan Henge

In Manhattan, the avenues generally run north-south, and the numbered streets generally run east-west. So 5th Avenue runs north-south, for example, and 53rd Street runs East-West.

There are two days every year when the sun sets exactly on the line of the east-west numbered streets. Those days are called either the Manhattan Solstice, or the Manhattan henge.




During the last 15 minutes on those two days, the cross-town streets are fully illuminated, from the East River to the Hudson River, as the sun appears to set exactly in the middle, at the end of each of those streets. The two days are May 28 and July 12. It's quite spectacular. Much like the city in which it occurs.

More Corruption From The Democrats On Health Care. The Democrats are Liars and Cheats and Thieves.

I just got a ridiculous e-mail from Obama about his latest twist on the health care "reform" that he promised us. Now the word "reform" no longer appears. Instead, we're going to get some kind of "consumer protection" which I can tell you right now will do absolutely nothing to help most people in this country.

Remember it started out as single-payer which, when explained, it turns out some huge percentage of the public wants that. Everybody gets healthcare just like they get fire department and police department protection, and their kids get to go to public schools. Taxes pay for those expenses. But the top Democrats who were busy hustling bribes from the biggest criminals in the medical industry -- doctors' lobbies, hospital businesses, drug dealers -- quickly came out and announced, without debate, that single payer was off the table. They refused to even consider it. Despite the fact that the public wanted it. And in return, Democrats have received millions of dollars in bribes and kick-backs from the Medical Industry.

Then we get some vague, un-defined phrase from Obama about a "public option," except nobody will tell us what it means. I've gotten many e-mails from Obama people wanting me to go knock on my neighbor's doors to rally them to support Obama's "public option." And every time that I ask them what the public option means, they tell me they don't know. They have no idea. It just sounds good. But it doesn't sound good to me. It sounds like meaningless propaganda to me.

Then today we get the "consumer protections" propaganda announcement from Obama. No single payer. No public option. Instead, we get "consumer protections." Just like the protections they passed recently for credit cards. They did nothing to restrict the interest rate charged, or the absurd fees, and instead only said that before the credit card company can send Guido and Carmine out to break your knees, they have to send you a two-week written notice. Big whoop-dee-doo. It is meaningless and does nothing. Here's Obama's ridiculous list of "consumer protections."

1. "No discrimination for pre-existing conditions." What does that mean? "discrimination?" It is a meaningless term in this context. Every time a state moves to outlaw the exclusion of pre-existing conditions, the insurance companies drop it voluntarily. And instead, they say okay, we'll include the pre-existing condition -- but it will cost you thousands of dollars per month extra. It's just a meaningless nonsensical term "no discrimination."

2. "No exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays." Who decides what is exorbitant? How about a cap on premiums? No mention of that? They plan to limit co-pays to $40, but raise premiums by $200/month? Meaningless.

3. "No cost-sharing for preventive care." Meaningless. Everybody can go to their local healthcare district and get a free blood pressure, blood panel, weight/fat check every year for little to no cost. "Preventive" care means what in this context? I'll bet it doesn't include mammograms, for example.

4. "No dropping of coverage if you become seriously ill." They don't drop coverage anymore. They try to rescind the policy on the grounds that it was fraudulently obtained. Or, they just increase the premiums to the point that they are unaffordable.

5. "No gender discrimination." Nonsense. What exactly does this mean? They'll pay for birth control? It's a throw-away issue. It's supposed to fool women into thinking something good is happening, but it's really meaningless.

6. "No annual or lifetime caps on coverage." A "lifetime" cap is not part of most people's policies for healthcare. They do have yearly caps, and will continue to do so. And besides, most people cannot afford healthcare because the monthly premiums are too much, and they go bankrupt because their share for the medical treatment is too high. This whole issue of a lifetime cap affects a small minority of people. For most of us, this plan by Obama gives us nothing. No relief, no help.

7. "Extended coverage for young adults." So what? Someone 18 can be carried by their parents paying premiums for a few extra years? Meaningless. Of little if any value. People can buy insurance for their kids now by paying for it.

8. "Guaranteed insurance renewal so long as premiums are paid." Again, this is nonsense. I know someone who was 59 and diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. His premiums went from $300/month to $1200/month, which he could not afford, so he no longer has insurance. Saying that you can have insurance as long as you pay the premiums does nothing to help people. Of course you can. The problem is that people cannot afford it

Obama and the Democrats have completely abandoned all fair and honest efforts to help the people of this country. Billions for wall street, millions for the politicians, nothing for the people. Where did I just read that Sen. Kerry has collected $9 million this year from the health care industry, in bribes, to get him to oppose any real reform. Sen Feinstein collected $2.0 million. Money well-spent because neither of them will do anything to help the American people.

And then for Obama to have the nerve to send me this lying deceitful e-mail saying that he's doing something to help me -- consumer protections. I know what I want for help: single-payer. Let us buy into medicare, to start, paying premiums at some set amount, based on income. Start by letting everyone over 50 buy into the system. Instead, while this same administration is seeing millions of Americans thrown out of work, barely able to afford shelter, there is no assistance for people to get healthcare. The same people who are least likely to be re-hired because of age, the same people whose premiums are more likely to be high because of age, get nothing from Obama's latest ridiculous "reform" proposals.

I'm not surprised, but I am disgusted.

Lisa Ono (From Jacob)

Beautiful.

Blogger Down! Help! I've Fallen And I Can't Get Up!

Is this a right-wing conspiracy? Only you can decide. Sonia, Hillary, Me. Coincidence? I think not.

Here's the basic really bad idea: (1) cheap plastic flip-flop shoes with a slick bottom; (2) wet lawn; (3) steep slope towards the back; (4) me climbing up the slope to feed the birds and squirrels; (5) shoe bottom hits the wet patch, I go into free-fall, do my downhill racer impersonation, ankle snaps with a loud cracking sound, several bones broken, I am down.

So is the sad tale of this blogger, felled by a good deed.
I thought about saying I was skateboarding in a friend's swimming pool and came down hard, or dove off a cliff into a lake and hit something on the way down, or broke it in my kick-boxing competition, or cracked up my car on the racetrack, or fell off my horse in an equestrian event, or landed wrong when I was skydiving, or took a header out of the hot-air balloon when it sprung a leak. But the pathetic truth is I was just filling the bird feeder. Not yet an olympic event, but maybe one of these days. I hope my loud whining doesn't disturb everyone.
Thankfully my obnoxious (is there any other kind?) orthopedic with a crappy bedside manner will operate, put in duct tape, chewing gum and bailing wire, all held together with a few screws, and I will once again be functional although hampered by crutches for the rest of the summer.

Regular blogging operations should resume by Monday the 27th.

Walter Cronkite (1916 - 2009): The Most Trusted Man In America.

Walter Cronkite has died. He was the anchor of the CBS Evening News for many decades, and earned the reputation as "the most trusted man in America." People trusted him when they no longer trusted the presidents or the politicians of their time. People trusted him to tell the truth. He usually closed his broadcasts with the saying: "And that's the way it is." He talked America through times of elation as well as extreme chaos and sorrow, including the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the first landing on the moon, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident and, notably, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.




Many people believe that when Walter Cronkite came out against the continuation of the U.S. War Against Vietnam (transcript below), that led to much of the nation also turning against that war.

WALTER CRONKITE'S "WE ARE MIRED IN STALEMATE" BROADCAST, FEBRUARY 27, 1968

"Tonight, back in more familiar surroundings in New York, we'd like to sum up our findings in Vietnam, an analysis that must be speculative, personal, subjective. Who won and who lost in the great Tet offensive against the cities? I'm not sure. The Vietcong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw.

Another standoff may be coming in the big battles expected south of the Demilitarized Zone. Khesanh could well fall, with a terrible loss in American lives, prestige and morale, and this is a tragedy of our stubbornness there; but the bastion no longer is a key to the rest of the northern regions, and it is doubtful that the American forces can be defeated across the breadth of the DMZ with any substantial loss of ground. Another standoff. On the political front, past performance gives no confidence that the Vietnamese government can cope with its problems, now compounded by the attack on the cities. It may not fall, it may hold on, but it probably won't show the dynamic qualities demanded of this young nation. Another standoff."

"We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. They may be right, that Hanoi's winter-spring offensive has been forced by the Communist realization that they could not win the longer war of attrition, and that the Communists hope that any success in the offensive will improve their position for eventual negotiations. It would improve their position, and it would also require our realization, that we should have had all along, that any negotiations must be that -- negotiations, not the dictation of peace terms. For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. This summer's almost certain standoff will either end in real give-and-take negotiations or terrible escalation; and for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us, and that applies to invasion of the North, the use of nuclear weapons, or the mere commitment of one hundred, or two hundred, or three hundred thousand more American troops to the battle. And with each escalation, the world comes closer to the brink of cosmic disaster."

"To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past. To suggest we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy's intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations. But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could."

"This is Walter Cronkite. Good night."