Change

I guess that every generation since the dawn of time would look at their parent’s generation and see things that needed to be changed. Sometimes things actually needed changing, but most of the time the youth just don’t understand how the world works. It takes years of rebelling, but eventually the youth learn why things are the way that they are. They gain a glimpse of the bigger picture the longer they live on the planet.

My generation was no different. We saw many things that needed to be changed, particularly the rigidity of our society. Over the years, my generation pushed at the limits of all aspects of society. We rebelled against the system that kept us working in factories and offices while a small portion of the population got richer and richer. Our music echoes our feelings and eventually brought us together in an honest to goodness movement.

 

We found that we had something to say and if we said it loud enough and long enough then the powers that be just had to listen. One of the things we were loudest about is that the youth of the United States were being drafted and sent to fight a war in Vietnam. No one really knew what the war was about and the young men were being injured and killed for no good reason. The war didn’t impact on Canadian young people, other than being thankful that we weren’t at war.

My brother was dating a girl from Rochester at the time and through this link, we met a lot of draft dodgers who chose to leave their country and come to Canada rather than fight a war that wasn’t theirs. I met a lot of these people and my eyes were opened about what the war was really like. I also learned more about the US drug culture as well.

My generation is pretty proud of some of the changes that we helped to make during those years. We took the world of our parents and loosened the restraints that they lived in. Yep, we changed the world alright.

Our parents didn’t understand what we were complaining about because they had changed the world to what they thought was right. Instead of sit ins and peaceful marches, they left their homes and fought a war against some insane dictators that planned to enslave the world. They knew why they were fighting and they fought on land, on the sea and in the air to give us the freedom to tell them what a mess their world was. They lost millions of the bravest young men of their generation, and at the end of the war they were the victors. They fought for freedom and gave their lives.

 

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans Day in the US. Most of the countries in the world honour the fallen heroes either on this day or another. We should never forget the lessons learned and not all change can be accomplished by wearing bell bottom pants, love beads, singing protest songs or growing your hair long.

Thanks…