All You Need is Love

I was a sophomore at Kent State University in 1968. My generation believed that if only we gave peace a chance, the world would be a better place. We rebelled in our youthful counterculture with music, dress, and politics. It was our parents, the Greatest Generation, who had happily settled into suburbia, complete with cookie cutter homes and high speed concrete highways. They were a bore and we were the ones living in the Age of Aquarius. We knew better. At that time we thought that technology, instant communication, satellites, space travel and nuclear energy would deliver us to a life of ease without consequence. Cancer would be conquered, lifespans would increase, and a better life and world were at hand. In 1968, we saw the height and depths of our humanity. From the tragic deaths of Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the stellar photos of NASA’s lunar flyby...all while our young men were drafted to fight in the tragic Vietnam War. That year brought us the Chicago Democratic Convention Riots, an extension of the Vietnam War protests. Throughout it all, we still had hope. I’ve grown old now. It is the latter part of 2016 and it seems that technology didn’t solve our problems. We are more connected than ever, yet more isolated and lonely. The great promises of cheap and free energy vanished after the events that occurred at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Our health has declined with adult morbid obesity and rates of staggering childhood obesity with its traveling companion of diabetes. HIV is not cured but controlled. Our political system seems to have produced flawed candidates with an ever increasing polarized electorate.

It gets better.

The new sad normal seems to be shootings at a gay bar, deaths of black men at the hands of police, deaths of police and endless memorials and vigils with sad goodbyes. High powered assault rifles in the hands of youth used to kill untold numbers in schools and movie houses across this nation. Our answer to this... LOVE WINS! These intervening years have shown me that it is easier to change the world through technology than with the human desire to destroy ourselves and the beauty of this world. Communication tools have, by and large, only allowed us to shout louder and longer at others who don’t share our views and those who we have never met. Love is love. The problems are the same and the challenges seem even greater. The world seems more complex and spins ever faster. Because I move a bit slower now, I drift back to the iconic song recorded by the Youngbloods: "If you hear the song I sing

You will understand, listen

You hold the key to love and fear

All in your trembling hand

Just one key unlocks them both

It's there at your command

Come on, people now

Smile on your brother

Everybody get together

Try to love one another right now.”