August 16, 2019
Yesterday was the fiftieth anniversary of the phenomenon known as Woodstock. For three days in the Catskills community of Bethel, New York, almost 500,000 people came together to enjoy music, peace, drugs, love, and togetherness. America and probably the world had never seen this type of experience before. No one was killed, several were hurt due to dehydration and drug overdoses, and many went hungry. However, the community came together to police, feed, take care of, and protect each other. What an opportunity to show what can happen when people try to get along, are respectful of each other, and care enough not to hurt others.
Contrast that with how we live today. Just fifty years later, our nation is polarized, angry, fearful, distrustful, and disrespectful. The Woodstock generation is now into their seventies or eighties but those who were there remember what it was like to have Peace and Love. What happened to change the world and why did we all let this happen? Perhaps the question is not really how this happened but how can we get back to caring and respecting each other. It is up to us.
Woodstock by Joni Mitchell
Well, I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, Tell me, where are you going
This he told me
Said, I’m going down to Yasgur’s Farm
Gonna join in a rock and roll band
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion-year-old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
Well, then can I roam beside you?
I have come to lose the smog,
And I feel myself a cog in somethin’ turning
And maybe it’s the time of year
Yes and maybe it’s the time of man
And I don’t know who I am
But life is for learning
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion-year-old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are billion-year-old carbon
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky,
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust, we are golden,
We are caught in the devil’s bargain
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
