60's Music

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   Misty eyed, I sat this morning listening to music of my youth, the protest songs of the early 1960's. Performers such as Peter, Paul and Mary singing "Where Have all The Flowers Gone?", Joan Baez "We Shall Overcome"and Barry McGuire "Eve of Destruction", and many others.

 You're old enough to kill but not for
votin'You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you're totin'
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin'
But you tell me over and over and over again my friend

Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction
And I couldn't help thinking to myself that this music is as relevant today, as it was then, and probably ever will be. Our young men and women are beng sent to foreign shores to fight for their country in foreign wars, and in the name of what? Freedom? Democracy? Humanity? Or simply wealth, derived, probably, from oil?
Why is humankind permitting the attrocities that are being committed around the world by other humans? Why are we allowing millions to die through malnutrition and disease while we gird our loins for war?
We are the authors of own demise, and it's time that that concept was disassembled. We need to put down our weapons and find new ways to help those in need, such as in Africa and on other continents before it's too late.
Yes, I know, it's an unrealistic day dream of mine, but it's one that I need to cling to for the rest of my life, we all must never give up hoping for we surely are "On the eve of destruction."

 Universal Soldier
By Donovan
He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
He's been a soldier for a thousand years.
He's a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.
And he's fighting for Canada,
He's fighting for France,
He's fighting for the USA,
And he's fighting for the Russians,
And he's fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.
And he's fighting for Democracy,
He's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.
But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Labau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.
He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put an end to war.

60's Music

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