Too Young to be a Hippie

The Would-be Hippie

“Nuclear Sign,” by George Hodan.

My eldest sister and brother went to the Democratic Convention, but I was too young. By the time I reached 16 (the age designated by our folks to be “old enough” to have an opinion and fight for it) in the mid 70′s, the issue was anti-nukes. The old legislation was coming up, and our Congress was planning on spending lots of money on more nuclear weapons development.

 

Hippie Activism Goes Viral; Stone-Age Style

I signed up of course. Spent weeks on the phone, getting petitions signed, and talking about the planned marches. About a week before the march, I heard that Europe had gotten the word about the U.S. anti-nuke march and was planning marches also! It was very exciting and gratifying after all the time and effort my colleagues and I had put into it!

 

The Day of the March

I was there early. It was quite a crowd! More than we ever expected showed up at our local march! As an organizer, I was busy meeting and greeting and helping folks, making sure the petition was signed, all day! Didn’t even get to spend time with any of my friends who came, although several pitched in and helped us as aides!

 

The Aftermath

I got home around midnight, exhausted. To my surprise, mom and dad were waiting up. Dad was all excited, “This may work!” he exclaimed. “It was on the news tonight, they even had hundreds of thousands marching in Russia! Everywhere in the world, people were telling their governments that nuclear weapons are just too destructive for consideration and wasteful spending!” Now, since this was still in the middle of the “cold war”, and there was no internet to spread the word…this was pretty amazing. Congress had to take the nuclear weapon development proposals off the table. Not that they didn’t sneak them in elsewhere, in much smaller amounts; and the world leaders started talking to each other and made agreements on nuclear weapons removal.

 

The Lesson, Here

Because the people got together, and stood up for something they knew was just wrong, they were able to compel their governments give up their quests for world power, and consider their people instead. I felt, at that moment, that the humanity of the world was one big family, trying to look out for each other, caring about each other and the earth, despite what corrupt officials have mapped out for them. And what keeps me going now, is that I know, perhaps buried deep down somewhere, the ties between us all, still exist.

Too Young to be a Hippie