Can you say Richard Nixon ?

The above photo is titled "Vietnam Mobilization
Washington, D.C., November 1969" ©1999 Ken Light

Ken Light, the photographer, and I were friends when this picture was taken. He has continued to do important work. You can see more at his website www.kenlight.com.



The following is a message I posted to a yahoo group of fellow freaks (hippies) that I have recently connected with. We are coming together to create a "Hippie Museum". You can learn more at www.hippiemuseum.org. I thought I would share it with you.

Can you say Richard Nixon?

It's the same forces that we faced off against during the Viet Nam
war. Wolfowitz(sp?) and Rumsfeld were cronies in the Ford
administration. Yes, the administration appointed by Nixon to pardon
Nixon. They began plotting the invasion of Iraq at that time. Their
strategy of that time was to establish a base for military operations
in the Middle East to protect U.S. interests (oil?). Our main enemy
at the time was the Soviet Union. Iraq, with the cooperation of
Turkey, served the strategic purpose of cutting off the Soviet Union
from Saudi Arabia and most of the Middle East.

What we as a political movement started doing was organizing at a
local level. We started in the college communities that many of us
lived in. We recognized that the same forces, driven by greed and
power, were effecting us locally and this bubbled up to a national
level. When the War ended and the immediate threat was removed, as a
counter-culture, many moved back to a self-centered approach to life.
This was fueled also by the media and a genuine need to find ourselves
spiritually.

To make a long story short, the result has been that once unifieddd
movement based on the ideals of peace, love and understanding; also
liberty, justice and brother/sisterhood has become splintered and self-
centered. The challenge is, how do we unify a movement around our
common interests, around the innate human trait of a desire for mutual
aid, not survival of the fittest.

It's easy for us to talk to each other and agree what beautiful,
amazing beings we are, but how do we unify on a broader scale?
Political agendas create room for disagreement and division around
superficial issues. The "hippies" and the "Christians" unifying
around their support for those in distress from Katrina and the
irresponsibility of the governments gives hope.

I know for me, it's important that I open up and begin once again to
carry my message by sharing myself, my heart and all my
vulnerabilities with the rest of the human community. It's also
continuing to focus on my spiritual development. For me, mind
altering substances got in the way of doing that. I used to think
marijuana was not only harmless but a boost to my spiritual state.
I've discovered, for me, that was a mistake. Being stoned gave me the
illusion of feeling closer to God, when in reality I was creating a cushion for
myself from the pain of life in a human body. I was communing with my
inflated sense of self, thinking it was God. I was viewing the world
as if I were God.

Blah, Blah, Blah. Sorry for getting off on all this, but I have few
in my life that understands what the hell I'm talking about. In many
of you I am finding my tribe that I separated from, years back. One
last thing: I have started reading a book that addresses many of these issues
for me, where I'm at now. It is "Change of Heart....The Bodhisattva
Peace Training" by Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche.

Peace and Joy,

Alan