Yesterday I attended the Walk to End Alzheimer's kick-off lunch event at the
Wild Horse Saloon. The Walk to End Alzheimer's is an annual event that takes
place in over 600 communities across America and will take place locally in
Centennial Park in early October. It is
the major fund raiser for the Alzheimer's Association, which provides funding
for research and advocates for a cure.
Alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in American and as the baby
boomer generation ages, more and more people can expect to be afflicted with
it. My wife Louella sufferers from Alzheimer's and has been diagnosed for about
seven years but probably has actually had the disease for close to ten years. While
it is too late to help Louella, I have a passion for the fight to find a cure
for this disease.
Yesterday's event was a real downer.
Not because the disease itself is a downer, which it is of course, but
because the theme of the event was hippydom. This is only the second year I have attended
the kick-off event and last year the theme was cowboys. I assume every year they have
different theme. I am sure the organizers of this event did not mean to offend,
but they did. If I had known the kick-off was a hippy theme, I would have
skipped it.
One of the sponsors for the event was radio station called Hippy Radio and a
Hippy Radio DJ was the MC. Many of the
organizers of the event were dressed in tie-dye and they wore hippy era clothes
and love beads and flowers in their hair and some of the guys had on wigs. The speeches were all peppered with use of
words like "groovy" and "right-on." Quite a few of the organizers of the event
wore sunglasses that had a grill over the lens in the shape of a peace sign and
a lot of the women had earrings which were large peace signs. Posters featuring peace signs and other 60's era themes were posted on the walls.
I never was a hippy. I know a lot of
people born after the era was over think that everyone who was a teen or young
adult in the sixties or seventies was a hippy. That is simply not so. A lot of people of that generation were
married and traditional and were raising families and working and lot of them
were honorable serving their country in Vietnam. I am of that era, and quite
frankly I hated hippies. More than anything,
I hated the peace sign.
I know that many think of the peace as just a "cool" emblem. To
many it is just generally associated with the fun of getting stoned and
creative music and 'going to San Francisco and wearing a flower in your hair.'
Flower Power! Groovy! Peace! Far out! Cool!
Many people have no concept of the context of the Peace sign, and they see it is as nothing more than a fashion statement. To some, it has no more meaning than the 60's era smiley
face. To some it is just a nostalgic relic of the past.
To me however, it is a symbol of those who won the Vietnam war on behalf
of the Viet
Cong. It represents those who gave aid and comfort and encouragement to our
enemy. It is the banner that prolonged the war and caused more death and
destruction. When I see the Peace sign I think of those who marched and chanted
"Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh"
and burned American flags and spit on returning vets. It is the symbol of those
who hated America and allied with our enemies. It represents the very worst of
my generation.
The Vietnam war was not won by the Communist in the jungles of Vietnam
but was won by the "Peace" activist on the college campuses and the
streets of America and the peace sign was the banner under which they marched.
Those who marched under that banner can take credit for millions of deaths at
the hands of the Communist, for many millions more who were enslaved and for
prolonging the cold war for an extra thirty years. The Peace sign represents to
me those in the Communist fifth column who stabbed us in the back.
If you want to offend me, the Nazi swastika, the Communist hammer and
sickle, "KKK", and the Peace sign are all symbols that will do the
trick. While we live in an era that is ruled by political correctness which
means, among other things, never offending anyone, it seems the only people it
is safe to offend are Christians, patriots, and conservatives. The peace sign was a divisive symbol at the
time, and I am not over it.
I was deeply offended at the theme of the kick-off event and the use of the peace
sign emblem to kick off the Alzheimer's event. I am sending this essay to the Alzheimer's
Association. I am still going to
participate in the fund raiser, because I care more about the battle to find a
cure for this horrible disease more than I do the offense I felt at the cute
glorification of hippydom and the peace sign.
I will not buy a product that uses the peace sign in its promotion, not will
I shop at a store that uses it in its advertising. When I can do so without causing a scene, I
will let those displaying the emblem, know that I am deeply offended.
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