'69

Barry Miles really knows how to interest me from the very beginning: in this chapter, he opens with a quote, under the heading 'Power to the People', about Janis Joplin by Etta James, when she describes Joplin as "an angel who came and paved a road white chicks hadn't walked before" (304). This, I think think, is very true--Joplin was the first white woman, in the crowd of crooners like Joan Baex and folksy girls like Joni Mitchell, to really delve into soul and rythm&blues. Anyone who listens to her can hear the heartbreak, the intensity of her emotion-- even at Woodstock, when she sounded particularly shrill and, well, obviously doped up on something way more powerful than pot, you can hear how emotionally involved she is in the music and how passionate she is about performing. Using the style performed by many amazing Black singers, Etta James as only one example, Joplin touched soul and showed the world that it takes passion and soul, not skin color, to perform it.

As with the last chapter, Miles couldn't leave my happiness be and had to introduce another horrible act by our government at Berkely. There was unused land on Berkely campus, so a bunch of people got together and made it a park. The head of the college bulldozed it in response, and when the people protested this insane act (apparently Berkely would rather have dirt and destruction over a garden and playground for kids), the State moved in. Like MIles says, "Any reasonable administration would have negotiated with the park builders and permitted them to use the land until funds for student dorms were available" (309). Instead, they threw tear gas and shot at them with buck- and birdshot, wounding many, hospitalizing 100, and killing at least one person. Really, government? Some people build a park and, since it wasn't technically theirs, you're going to just bulldoze it and incite violence? To me, this sounds like the government is afraid of change and People Power (the subheading of this section), two things that made America great in the first place. Oh, that's right, People Power is the little thing that keeps government from having all the power-- and the government needed it all to fight the Commies, right? A great way to support a fascist government-- I have a class on teh Holocaust, and we have been studying how Hitler put himself into power. Know what he did? Basically the same things Communists do-- take power from the people and install it all, completely, in the state. Wonder where we're headed if that doesn't change... soon.

This came to mind while writing this. It's from "Power to the People" by John Lennon.

Say you want a revolution
We better get on right away
Well you get on your feet
And out on the street

Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

I guess what these posts have proven is that I'm only really interested in the political aspects of the '60s. The rest of the chapter talks about Woodstock (yay!), Altamont (boo! Hell's Angels are not dependable security), the Sexual Revolution (yay!), and John Lennon (eh. He masked his Communism with his support of the Hippie movement, which I think is devisive and dishonest...but I like his music, so there's some argument for a yay! rating). These parts are still very interesting, but as a blog writer, I seem to be taking the political route-- and I really enjoy that. It's helping me understand and solidify my political beliefs.