"Imagine all the peopleLiving life in peace...You may say I'm a dreamerBut I'm not the only one..."Imagine, John Lennon
9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980
It was the early 1970s. We lived in an all-white, middle class, cookie-cutter, Catholic neighborhood. The boys had all names like David, Dennis and Thomas, and the girls almost uniformly had been given Marie or Mary as their middle names.
My Father had a Volkswagen Beetle Bug. It was white, sporting faux leather seats,with heat that only came from the front vents.
As my younger brothers and I were growing like weeds, the Bug's backseat became a decreasingly peaceful place. No longer willing to risk driving with sibling rivalry raging in the backseat, my Dad put his beloved Bug up for sale.
It was a Friday night. My parents had company that evening. The phone, you know, the kind attached to the wall by a cord that was always tangled, rang. It was a potential buyer. My Dad invited the caller come over to look over the Bug, even take it for a test drive around the neighborhood.
A while later came the knock at the door. My parents preoccupied, I raced to answer to answer the door. Flinging it open - lo and behold - there stood 'Hippies' – not just one but, a whole bunch of Hippies; long-haired men, women in smocks, all sporting low cut bell bottoms and ropes of love beads freely adorning their arms and neck.
A mere 12 years old, other than images that had flashed across our console television, hippies were an entirely new sight. Mesmerized, I stood staring, long past what anyone would consider polite. Something must have been said as I recall firmly shutting the door, no doubt to insure our safety. I ran through the house screaming, “Hippies are here. Hippies. There are hippies here. They're here to buy your car. You're not going to sell it to them Dad, are you?”
Fast forwarding, over the last decade, through history communicated to me by several elder friends, I learned what the Vietnam Era represented to them; their perspectives ranging from the staid blue-blooded far left, to the liberal far right, including conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War. Their candidness in sharing their stories was a breathtaking gift. They covered how they felt knowing they were subject to being drafted into military service and their views on the War itself. As trust developed, they openly explored there past and then current sentiments about the Civil Rights movement; the 1967 Detroit and 1968 Chicago race riots; and the assignations of President John F. Kennedy and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
One of my teachers among the protesters gathered in Grant Park during the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention. After the Democrats voted down the Peace Plank, he witnessed the young man take down the American flag, an act precipitating a violent governmental response.
Not long after the Federal Intelligence Agency was constitutionally challenged for having wiretapped war protesters without a search warrant. In Detroit, Michigan, the FBI wiretapped members of the White Panthers, a group which in 1970 the FBI labeled as "potentially the largest and most dangerous of revolutionary organizations in the United States." Information obtained by the FBI became the foundation for criminal charges leveled against several members.
In what is commonly referred to as the Keith case, the United States Supreme Court, in United States v. U.S. District Court, 407 U.S. 297 (1972), issued a landmark decision holding the wiretaps violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution protection against improper search and seizure. The Keith case was argued by my dear friend and teacher, Hugh Buck Davis.
The collective stories and differing opinions, afforded me insight into an Era that is highly significant in American History.
Their gift of perspective and insight of that Era altered what could have only been conditioned or taught perceptions. I observed this when recently when re-watching Arlo Guthrie star in the autobiographical movie about his Vietnam-Era song Alice's Restaurant; when taking teenagers to see the musical Hair and seeing again as if for the very first time; listening to the songs of John Ono Lennon, such as Imagine, Working Class Hero, Come Together and Mind Games; and watching PBS documentaries on Mr. Lennon and on the Troubadour, a grassroots Los Angeles nightclub where many modern day musicians made their debut.
Mr. Lennon and Yoko Ono Lennon emerged as vociferous peacekeepers. Their unwavering quest for peace so angered the United States 'government' that for years Mr. Lennon was not only citizenship but subjected to a deportation campaign.
The Lennon's honeymoon was dedicated to promoting peace. It was in a Montreal, Quebec hotel, from March 26-31, 1970, that they stayed in bed as nonviolent protesters. They permitted their honeymoon to be filmed, which including numerous press interviews. In the many interviews given that weekend and thereafter, issues related to war and deeply rooted black/white prejudices were discussed with an academic precision befitting the Era[i] [ii].
In watching the film, entitled Bed Peace, what stood out, was an off-color remark a reporter made to Mrs. Lennon about her Asian ancestry, even though she was born in America and held a Masters Degree in Philosophy from highly-acclaimed Sarah Lawrence College.
While Bed Peace was seen as 'revolutionary' then and maybe even now, if you close your eyes and just listen to the words, really focus on them, the are as true now as they were then.
Mr. Ono Lennon’s words in a follow-up interview bespeak of wisdom almost 45 years later:
“We’re thinking in terms of peace now. We can get peace now if we want it…The power to the people. Anybody knows that the people have the power. All we have to do is awaken the power in the people.The people are unaware. It’s like they not educated to realize that they have power. They put the politicians in power…They vote…The system is so geared to believe that the father will fix everything. The Father being the government. The government will fix everything. It is all government’s fault…
The meaning of Bed Peace is reflected in a September 13, 2013 letter by Mrs. Lennon explaining their rationale for filming Bed Peace:
Dear Friends,In 1969, John and I were so naïve to think that doing the Bed-In would help change the world. Well, it might have. But at the time, we didn't know It was good that we filmed it, though.The film is powerful now. What we said then could have been said now.In fact, there are things that we said then in the film, which may give some encouragement and inspiration to the activists of today.It's up to us, and nobody else.John would have wanted to say that.Love, yokoYoko Ono LennonNew York, USA
Even the video concert held in Johannesburg, South Africa by Paul Simon in February 1985 for the five songs recorded there for his 1986 Graceland album reflected open hostility and prejudice, with the audience segregated and surrounded by armed police[iv].
Graceland was so controversial that Mr. Simon was “…publicly censured by the African National Congress and other antiapartheid organizations in the United States and Europe for violating the United Nations cultural boycott of South Africa.”[v].
The quest of those who not strongly believed in a peaceful world but who were empowered to disseminate that message, as reflected in their court challenges, songs, protests, poems, including the underlying reasons, historical prejudices, a department of defense that was and is more akin to a department of offense, the marginalization and disenfranchisement of targeted populations, sadly represents the very same issues now confronting our humanity.
The one thing I never understood is why the United States was in Vietnam in the first place. The only explanation I can come up with is that we fear what we don't understand. Back then it was long-haired hippies, African-Americans, and Communism. Today, that group has expanded to include anyone who is of Arabic descent regardless of whether they are Muslim.
“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” Santayana.
[i] “John Lennon & Yoko Ono: WAR IS OVER! (If You Want It)”, Imagine Peace, as found on the www at http://imaginepeace.com/warisover/
[ii] “BED PEACE starring John Lennon & Yoko Ono”, Bag ProductionsCopyright © 1969 as found on the www at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbKsgaXQy2k.
[iv] “Paul Simon - Paul Simon: The Story of Graceland”, March 29, 2012, Sony Music Entertainment, as found on the www at http://youtu.be/7G_HXlcbGpY,
[v] Portions of Graceland were recorded with the cream of South Africa's black singers and players in Johannesburg, South Africa in February 1985.
"To go over and play Sun City would be like going over to do a concert in Nazi Germany at the height of the Holocaust…But what I did was to go over essentially and play to the Jews. That distinction was never made," stated Mr. Simon in an interview just before launching the Graceland tour at Ahoy Sports Arena in Rotterdam.
At that time there existed great “…furor over Simon's controversial journey to South Africa — a trip many antiapartheid activists claim was in violation of the United Nations cultural boycott against that country.
Special guest star Hugh Masekela, the exiled South African trumpeter, called for the release of imprisoned African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela in his jazz-funk anthem "Bring Him Back Home," while singer Miriam Makeba, a fellow exile, lamented the suffering and repression in her homeland with a soulful torching of Masekela's "Soweto Blues." And the extraordinary ten-man a cappella choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo awed the crowd with its sonorous bass harmonies and lively Afro-Temptations hoofing. Simon and his troupe, in fact, were fueled with so much opening-night nervous energy that they ripped through the Rotterdam show, originally timed to run two and a half hours, in only two hours and five minutes”
Fricke, David, “Paul Simon's Amazing Graceland Tour”, July 2, 1987, Rolling Stone, as found on the www at
[vi] “The WAR IS OVER! campaign was originally launched by John and Yoko on 15th December, 1969. Billboards with the inscription “WAR IS OVER! (IF YOU WANT IT) Happy Christmas from John and Yoko” were placed in 11 cities worldwide: New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Rome, Athens, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Along with these billboards leaflets were distributed, posters plastered up, newspaper advertisements placed and radio announcements made.
When John was asked how much the billboards cost, he replied “I don’t know – but it is cheaper than someone’s life.” http://imaginepeace.com/warisover/watch-this-film
[vii] For more information visit: http://imaginepeace.com/
@ 2014 Deveroux Cleary (Revised 1.30.15)
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