On 15 April, 1967, I woke up early, put on my Army uniform complete with name tag , got into my fuel injected red Corvette to drive to San Francisco and join my first ever anti-war march.
“Please don’t wear your name tag,” Mom said. “The government will have people there taking pictures.”
“This is America, Mom. The government doesn’t spy on its’ own citizens.” I said confidently.
When I arrived, the parking was well-organized. We were to “march” from lower Market up Fulton, past Haight-Ashbury to Golden Gate Park and Kezar Stadium, about 3.5 miles (5.6 kilos), where music, speakers and food were part of the draw.
The atmosphere was festive. The women wore dresses and carried flowers. The men wore suits and ties … see picture above. The Haight had organized a Clean-In to spiff up the neighborhood for the expected flood of visitors. Crowd size estimates ranged from 10,000 (government) to 100,000 (organizers).
I fell in with an older gentleman (funny how a uniform can make you instant brothers) who could have been over 40, and over the next couple of hours he shared his experiences in WWII. He was Navy pilot and had been one of the first to drop napalm on enemy troops. “War isn’t anything like what you see in the movies, and it doesn’t solve anything.” he said.
Let’s see if he was correct.
Lyndon Johnson knew he couldn’t get a Declaration of War through congress, so he “borrowed” the piles of money being set aside and drawing interest for our retirement years, then squandered it all playing war. People of my age and income level would have easily been millionaires if the system had remained intact. What would that do for today’s economy with 75 million rich baby-boomers running around spending money like there was no tomorrow.
Richard Nixon had the same problem, so he took the dollar off the gold standard. The dollar became just another “fiat currency” backed by thin air, and open to manipulation.
Let the games begin !!
My long haired friends in The Haight, where I spent many weekends, believed strongly in the concept of Karma. The Karmic Universe rewards good behavior, and punished bad behavior.
Well, here we are almost 50 years later. I won’t bore you with pictures of what lower Market, especially the areas under the freeway bridges, looks like today. You’ve all seen them.
On my last visit to The Haight, I sat in a sidewalk cafe and watched a pair of black men systematically shatter the windows of cars parked on the filthy streets and harvest purses, cell phones, and lap tops. Nobody called the cops. Nobody cared, but a few did take videos.
Over 3 million native people were horribly murdered in Laos, Cambodia, and Viet Nam by the American war machine. Are we still paying the price of Karma? And when will it end?
Thanks for listening.
Duane
I was two months into my Texas Mission, missionary experience in the small Louisiana boarder town of Orange, TX, on this chronicled day of your life experience.
You have a vivid memory of your day, I have no memory of that day of my life.
I always enjoy reading your “journal entries” of an interesting life.