Give Peace A Chance

I caught something interesting on VH1 last night: The Drug Years. It was a 4-hour documentary that explored drug use decade by decade.

I had read about about the observations of Timothy Leary and found that part interesting. The 60s review was the most entertaining with it's laid-back pot smokers and love for one another.

Things started going sour with the Vietnam war when heroin was made available to soldiers and so many returned to the US as addicts. This documentary hinted that the government not only knew of the drug use during the war, but assisted in making it readily available. That's disturbing, to say the least.

Another thing that really rattled me was watching the protests and demonstrations. I was taken with the outpouring of genuine concern for the direction of the country and the insistence that "Love and Peace" were the preferred order of the day for so many. Granted they were high or getting high or whatever, but the fact remains they had the gumption, even in their somewhat altered states, to recognize what is fair and just and what is not... and they took a stand. Some even lost their life at the hands of those who just wouldn't hear what they were trying to say. (sigh!)

The world is pretty much the same now. We have a conflict that is suspect. We are still a nation of drug users--and the government still doesn't recognize the plight of the common man.
Nearest I can figure, the message of those who demostrated and marched somehow got lost along the way. History is repeating itself and America is turning a deaf ear.