The Collective Obligation

    Some of my best friends and I have lived this, marched in this, wrote songs about this, protested in city halls and universities about this 50 years ago.    I am so very disappointed that nothing, absolutely nothing we attempted to create within our Counter Culture movement succeeded in creating a lasting enlightenment of consciousness for the people in this country.    In my world, I was proud to stand on the shoulders of my creative and enlightened mentors such as Dylan, Lennon, Baez and scores of other musicians who took a stand and lifted up the moral compass and took their hits from the bigots and haters while alienating themselves from half of their fans who refused to learn, grow and rise up into the same enlightenment.    With this being said,  I am calling out my musician friends, my film maker friends my fellow poets and social activist friends to rise up and pull your heads out of the sand!    Stop worrying about whether your downloads might suffer your concert at

Peace Is Not Found In Violence  In 1968, anarchists infiltrated the Peaceful Counter Culture movement, as did The Weathermen, SLA, militant Black Power chapters, Red Brigade (and others) which created a devastating implosion within an inspired progressive humanitarian movement: an off shoot from the Freedom Riders and  Civil Rights movements.   A transcendental peace movement that had achieved so much, fell victim to the radical militant left and a liberated drug culture that numbed the senses of an emboldened generation, which suffered a slow and dishonorable death in the 1970s.    What ever the 'Love and Peace' movements might have ignited in the hearts of the masses of idealistic progressive souls in America__ soon became a distant memory, a novelty, a forgotten hope.     Pranking the system gets a little too real in 1960s New York City These photos of the radical Left riot in Grand Central show Yippies and cops squaring off   The picture above is a famous press release