The Summer Of Love

Joe McDonald (borneo@mail.dnai.com)
Mon, 18 Aug 1997 01:04:45 +0100

On October 12th there will be a FREE concert in Golden Gate Park in
honor of the 30th Anniversary of the "Summer Of Love". There will be
music for six hours, from 12 noon to 6 pm in the soccer field by the
Great Highway. At 9 am on October 12 there will be a ceremony to honor
those 2,687 military personnel who died during those three months in
1967: June 1 - August 31, 1967, "The Summer Of Love".
July 29, 1967 was a very good day for Northern Liberation Forces
claiming 185 Americans killed in action.
As part of this ceremony a half-scale model of Maya Lins' Washington DC
Memorial to Vietnam Veterans will sit in the opposite end of the polo
field and will be there for all to see and visit from 9am - 6pm. the
"Wall" will then move to Justin Herman Plaza in downtown San Francisco
from October 13 through the 16th (4 days). There will be a ceremony
there and a reading of the 162 people from San Francisco who lost their
lives fighting for the DOD during the Vietnam War. At both locations we
will read the list of 2,687 names of those who died during the "Summer
Of Love".
Perhaps a Chinese response to a "Summer Of Love" would have been action
by the Peoples Army. It is perhaps lucky for us hippies that US Forces
were "pinned down" in SE Asia at the time. And that "race riots" had
the Reserves busy. And the politicals had the Police Services wishing
they had taken up another profession. Anyhow you look at it those 2,687
individuals died for our "right to party" and i am sure they all wish
that they could have been there, then and now!
There is lots of talk about how it all went down in the Vietnam War Era
but sometimes it seems that we forget about the governments tax payer
supported war. Just because you escaped it and are alive today dont
mean shit except that you lucked out. It is time for the
Vietnam/Woodstock Generation to pay respect to those "names" on the
"wall". If we neglect this "rite of passage" we WILL repeat the
misteakes of our parents.
No one will forgive us or guide us now. It is too late for that. We
must simply "do the right thing". joe mcdonald
-- 
"Life is no finishing school for young ladies."  Jaroslav Hasek, The
Good Soldier Svejk
country joe Hm Paje <http://www.countryjoe.com> 
Berkeley Vietnam Veterans Memorial <http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us>