HOPE FOR TODAY

IT ONLY TAKES A GENERATION FOR CHANGE TO OCCUR. REMEMBER THE ECONOMIC AND MORAL RECOVERY OF COUNTRIES THAT SUFFERED A FALL FROM GRACE - GERMANY, JAPAN, VIET NAM, CAMBODIA AND SOUTH KOREA? REMEMBER TOO, HAIGHT-ASBURY, THE HIPPIE ENCLAVE IN THE UNITED STATES IN THE MID-1960'S. THERE, HIPPIES EXERCISED THEIR FREEDOM TO DROP OUT FROM RESPONSIBILITY, WORK, PATRIOTISM AND FAMILY AND DROP INTO DRINK, DRUGS, PROTESTS AND THEIR REVOLUTIONARY FORM OF LIBERALISM. YET THE LOST CHILDREN OF THE HIPPIES OF THAT GENERATION DEVELOPED, IN MANY CASES, INTO SOLID CITIZENS ROOTED IN TRADITIONAL VALUES. WONDERFUL TRANSFORMATIONS CAN OCCUR IN THE SPACE OF TWENTY YEARS. THEIR PARENTS, HOWEVER, HAVE NEVER CHANGED. I QUOTE ONE DAD, SPORTING A PONYTAIL SILVERY WITH AGE, WHO REGRETS THAT HIS PALIMPSEST CHILD "JUST ISN'T AS FREE AS HE USED TO BE." HE MEANT HIMSELF, WHO WAS FREE, BUT ABSENT AS A PARENT, POOR BY CHOICE AND LOSER- HERO TO HIS PEERS. LIBERALISM BEFORE THE 1960'S DEFINED FREEDOM AS BEING WHATEVER YOU WANTED TO BE; IT FELL FROM GRACE IN THE 1960'S. ITS LIBERATING FORCE IMPLODED INTO THE WRONG IDEA OF FREEDOM. INSTEAD OF PERSON BEING ALL HE COULD BE, A PERSON TRIED TO BE AS MEANINGLESS AS POSSIBLE. EVENTUALLY ANOTHER WRONG IDEA ENTERED THE PSYCHE OF THE HIPPIE - THAT GOVERNMENT COULD SUBSTITUTE FOR INDEPENDENCE AND SELF-SUFFICIENCY. LIBERALS TODAY ARE JUST AGED HIPPIES. LUCKILY, THEIR THEIR CHILDREN AND OFFSPRING OF SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS HAVE POSITIVELY IMPACTED AMERICA’S HISTORY. THERE'S HOPE FOR TODAY AND HOPEFULLY ENOUGH OPTIMISM FOR TOMORROW.