An Open Letter to Hippy Culture...

    Dear Hippies, Yippies, and other outgrowth groups and subcultures of the Beat Movement,


    I'm here on behalf of the shreds of Middle Class America, to apologize.


    You were into Free Love: 40 years later, we still haven't legalized gay marriage, and we're still fighting Don't Ask Don't Tell...you don't even want to KNOW how screwed up that is.


    You were against Useless War: I guess Viet Nam wasn't enough for us. Countless American and International soldiers, civilians, and by-standers are so much dust for no discernible reason. We're now carrying on 2 wars, with intercessions into countries that couldn't want us less.  Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and by next week I'm sure: Nomore-istan, Notagain-istan, Pleasestop-istan.


    You were "Back To the Land":  We've only begun to scratch the surface of what has happened to our food here.  Big Agra, hormones, antibiotics, miserable conditions and "manu-farming"... Monsanto-modified foods, soy that isn't quite soy, chemicals no Liberal Arts Major would be able to pronounce, and that's just the "low fat" stuff.  The good news: Organic is growing.  The bad news: just what makes it "Organic" is now yet another marketing ploy.  We're being poisoned by our own food supply.


    You were against "The Man": I'm going to define that as corporate interests.  We've now witnessed the greatest "transfer of wealth" (read: rip-off of the century) ever known to man.  We are, politely put, screwed out of every vestige of the "American Dream" we ever tried to believe in.  The top 1% of earners now makes what the ENTIRE bottom 20% makes in a year. Our current unemployment rate rivals that of the Great Depression; far too many 50- and 60-somethings are just waking up to the idea of NEVER being able to get a job again.  As in, in life.  Young people and people of color lead the unemployment statistics, with rates as high as 27%.  The jobs are all in China, Mexico, India.  


    You didn't trust Government: We did.  And they got right into bed with the Corporations, and gave birth to Tim Geithner.  And then, they screwed us some more.  There is no government; there is, at this late date, only Goldman Sachs.


    You were into Mind Altering Drugs: Unfortunately, now, so is Big Pharma.  It is their sole desire to have each and every one of us medicated for something, real or imagined.  It's the ultimate market saturation technique, and honestly, with the state of the food supply, we'll need a lot of what they're pushing.  This ain't Timothy Leary and a little blotter full of fun.


    You were right to be outraged; you did your best to change the world, and while it didn't happen the way you wanted it to, you made an indelible mark on our culture.  In the end, though, you got pressured, you got tired, you got pregnant and married, and you were forced to "buy in".  


    I'm sorry.  For all of us.  Americans owe our Hippies an apology, for turning a blind eye, for scorning and demeaning the only ones who saw the writing on the wall.  You were right.  Stoned, but right; that should count for something, anyway.


    Brutal Truth