BABY BOOMER BABBLE
By THE PEEVER
Right on, brother
The hippie generation É
Another Baby Boomer phenomena. I've often wondered what a hippie was, and I'm
pretty sure I was one. Wikipedia defines a hippie as "a member of a
specific subculture that began in the United States in the 1960's. Hippies,
along with The New Left, and the American Civil Rights Movement, were
considered the three dissenting groups of the American 1960's
counterculture." For me, on a more personal level, it was dissent against
the traditional values coming out of the WWII generation; the opposition to
nuclear weapons; opposition to the Vietnam War; protesting a lying, and
increasingly distant President; embracing all religions, not just
Judeo-Christian beliefs; and championing the cause of love, peace, personal
freedom, and rock & roll, pretty much in that order.
Being a hippie in the
Midwest was considerably different than being a hippie in, say, San Francisco.
The scene was not nearly as widespread, or as exciting. The following is an
attempt to summarize my years as a hippie:
1. My politics became
radical. I was schooled by a Marxist sociologist as an undergraduate. He was my
mentor and advisor. I have always combined socialist ideas with democratic
ones. I don't think a lot about this, it's just the way I think.
2. I actively protested the
Vietnam War. I was in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention in 1968. We
took over the office of the President of SIU the day after the Kent State
killings. I remember sitting at his desk, thinking we had really done something
big. Time seems to have trivialized it. I campaigned for Robert Kennedy in
Illinois and Nebraska. I was involved in numerous protests in Chicago while in
seminary in 1971-72. I did some work for Clergy and Laymen Concerned About the
War. I've never equated my anti-war stance with not being patriotic or loyal to
my country. That makes absolutely no sense to me.
3. Drugs were a minor issue
with me. While I would not want to say that I never inhaled, I was never much
into the drug scene. I was never very good at it.
4. I became a pacifist and
advocate of non-violent social change. This was primarily due to attending a
Church of the Brethren Seminary in Oak Brook, Illinois in 1971-72. One of the
world's leading authorities on pacifism and non-violence was a professor there.
Dr. Brown profoundly influenced my life. For the first time I came to
understand that killing someone or acting in a violent manner towards them is
categorically against Christ's teachings. I proceeded to become a pacifist and
applied for conscientious objector status. After three attempts, the local
draft board granted me CO status. The draft ended before I started my two years
alternate service.
That gives you a short
synopsis of my hippie life. I left out a few details, but it's probably best
that way. Not a lot of frills, but a time I wouldn't trade. We felt like we
were doing something. Like we were making a difference. In hind-sight, some of
the things we did were foolish. Others innocent, youthful idealism. But we did
what we thought was right, and in the end, not a lot of it proved to be too far
off base, particularly about the war, Nixon, and where American corporations
and politics were headed.