If you are motivated to do something, find out what it is that you want to do and do
it. 99% of the world wants peace, I think, and that's great. That our government is us.
There have been times like this when people have gotten together and have won battles.
Hello, this is the Unknown Soldier for the Peace Tapes. Now these tapes won't work unless the
word has spread. In order to do this, you must have a pen and paper ready to copy down the
phone number or the address of the group of your choosing so you can get in touch and support this
faltering planet and make an attempt to save this for ourselves as well as future generations.
You know, you can make a difference. In the 1960s, the world was going through a great change. There
was a youth taking to the streets for the first time since our country was formed. What was in
people's minds? Well, let's see. When I came to Chicago in 1968, my mother said,
what are you going there for? I said, well, to wreck the Democratic Party. She said, well, dress warm. It's a windy city.
The 1968 Democratic Convention brought the world to Chicago and Chicago to its knees. Pitting
Mayor Daley forces against pro-McCarthy demonstrators, everything was confused. Our
people as well as our leaders. Have you got an extra camera in case the lights go out?
From the first time we landed on the shores of America, we had an idea, freedom of speech.
This became our first amendment. We worked hard on the Constitution, its principles intact.
It wasn't really put to the ultimate test until nearly 200 years later.
From the streets of Chicago to the steps of the Capitol, from inner city slums to the very closed
doors of the Pentagon, from shore to shore. Why? Because our forefathers made the law does not mean
that our leaders at that turbulent time, the 60s could follow it. Well, by hard work and hours of
legal representation, we emerged into the 60s as a country torn by both an unfavorable war, which
turned out to be the biggest bureaucratic mess in modern times, the Vietnam War, and civil rights
and justice. These issues were and still are our responsibility. These feelings experienced then
were also very confusing, ranging from guilt to anger. Where were American heads at during that
turbulent time that not only gave us peace rallies, art and music festivals, but the Vietnam era?
We didn't have the luxury of picking and choosing what we wanted to do because our lives were really
molded by the war in Vietnam. And so it's a very hypothetical question when you ask
what would I have done differently.
So
so
Oh, come on, General, let's move fast No big chance, let's see it roll fast
And get out, get those reds Only the comiest one has said
No blackface, then I'll only be one Running long, long game to come
And it's one, two, three What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn Let's stop this feeling now
And it's five, six, seven, eight Oh, but I'm probably eight
Well, there ain't no time to wonder why We're all gonna die
Now come on, my ladies, to the outland Actin' for us up here now
Come on, I'm all alone here today Send your guns off before it's too late
Think the first one on your body That could come on my watch
And it's one, two, three What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn Let's stop this feeling now
And it's five, six, seven, eight Oh, but I'm probably eight
Well, there ain't no time to wonder why We're all gonna die
Now come on, my ladies, to the outland Actin' for us up here now
Applause
We, the people, have to begin to understand
that nothing is gonna change unless we change it, unless we do it.
Now, I find that the easiest way to change something is just to not do it.
It's very simple.
Half of the things that we do on the planet are in lieu of, may be correct,
and the other half may be killing the planet.
What we need to do in the next year or so is really try to
chronicalize all of the things we're doing that are killing the planet.
At least get a book on it.
We need an encyclopedia of that so that we can look at it and we can eventually
have generations come into the world that have this information at hand.
And that's the only way it's gonna change in that sense,
is that we have to begin to chronicalize our own mistakes because they're mistakes.
Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like I'm in love with this guy, a little like me, way from my home.
Singing freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom.
Freedom, freedom, freedom.
Sometimes I feel like I'm almost gone.
Way from my home, singing freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom.
I got a telephone in my version, and I can call from my heart.
When I need my brother, I said brother.
When I need my father, I said father.
When I need my sister, I said sister.
When I need my brother, I'm afraid to say it.
I'm afraid to say it.
Not afraid, not afraid, not afraid.
The Smothers Brothers and what was to be one of their final tapings of the year, they were censored in 1968.
The mood reflected the times.
We're going to sing a contemporary song about a great effort that some of the young men in our country are making.
That's right.
Yes, it's a song about a problem and how with good old American ingenuity, some people attempt to solve it.
The song is called The Draft Dodger Rag.
Count it off, George.
Oh, I prefer not.
Dickie, you count it off.
No, no, you count it off.
You're the one with the natural rhythm.
You're the great musician.
One, two, three, four, five, six.
Now we're just typical American boys from a typical American town.
We believe in God and Senator Dodd and keep an old Castro down.
And when it came our time to serve, we knew better dead than red.
And when we got to the draft board, buddy, this is what we said.
Oh, while I'm only eighteen, I got a rough shit screen and I always carry a purse.
Got eyes like a bat and my feet are flat and my asthma's getting worse.
Oh, and I think of my career and my sweetheart dear and my poor old imbellent aunt.
Besides, there ain't no fool.
I'm going to school and I'm working in a defense plant.
Got a dislocated disc and it cracked up bad.
I'm allergic to flowers and bugs.
And when a bombshell hits, I get psychedelic fits.
I'm addicted to a thousand drugs.
When the weakness blows, I can't touch my toes.
I can hardly touch my knees.
And if the enemy came close to me, friend, why, I'd probably sneeze.
Oh, while I'm only eighteen, I got a rough shit screen and I always carry a purse.
Got eyes like a bat and my feet are flat and my asthma's getting worse.
Oh, and I think of my career and my sweetheart dear and my poor old imbellent aunt.
Besides, there ain't no fool.
I'm going to school and I'm working in a defense plant.
Now, I hope Chief Mencher ain't no friend that's playing for all to see.
And I know someone's got a fight over there, but why does it have to be me?
So I wish you well, Sarge.
Give him heck, I'm bound for Canada, you know.
And if you ever get a war without blood in your oar, boy, I'll be the first to go.
But until then, Mr. McNamara.
Oh, while I'm only eighteen, I got a rough shit screen and I always carry a purse.
Got eyes like a bat and my feet are flat and my asthma's getting worse.
Oh, and I think of my career and my sweetheart dear and my poor old imbellent aunt.
Besides, there ain't no fool.
I'm going to school and I'm working in a defense plant.
Make love not war.
The 1970s were built as the me generation and sure lived up to its name.
Music was changing, but to what?
Certainly music was not the only thing askew.
But we again lost two more of our music hopefuls who seemed to come at the most apathetic time.
Mr. Jim Croce and Mr. Harry Chapin.
Jim died in a plane crash and Harry died in a car crash.
When asked about the peace movement in the 70s, what possible answer was there?
None that kill a peace movement like the war ending.
Jesus, why did I do this?
But yes, the war ended so the peace movement kind of chilled out then.
Do you see a resurgence of it?
Yeah, well there's more wars now.
Thank goodness we got people like Reagan to come in and start some more wars so we can get a good peace movement going.
The world stopped many times in the peace movement.
Some sources argue it dates back to when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
While some contend December 8, 1980, when John Lennon was assassinated by some animal.
They all agree when first John Kennedy, then Martin Luther King.
Well, that was too much.
Needless bloodshed that last speech, the power, the glory.
After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I've received on behalf of that movement
is a profound recognition that non-violence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time.
In the late 1950s, this clip was made to enlighten the world toward the growing threat of the nuclear age.
It took many different countries to develop it, but only one to use it.
Thank God.
When a neutron strikes, the atom is split.
Neutrons split other atoms. The result is atomic energy.
Shall the people of the world use this energy for the destruction or the betterment of mankind?
The United States used this power to destroy Hiroshima.
A flash, a blast, the release of deadly radioactive rays, and in a matter of seconds downtown New York would be a mass of ruins.
Throughout the entire lower end of Manhattan, most people would be dead.
All buildings from Washington Square to the Battery would be destroyed.
In Chicago, from Halsted Street to Lake Michigan and from Chicago Avenue to Roosevelt Road, the city would lie in ruins.
In San Francisco, devastation would be complete from Pacific Avenue to Townsend Street and from Van Ness Avenue to the Ferry Building.
One atomic bomb did this to a city and its people.
I don't think there's any winners.
Either side would suffer the human suffering and the loss of many people. And not only at that time, but the suffering continues on long after the war is ended.
So even conventional war, I think is obsolete.
Our country is in profound crisis in many ways, that many people's lives are miserable and that money could be better spent elsewhere.
And I think many in this movement, as young as it is, are beginning to make those connections.
And that's going to be really important in terms of reshaping the political agenda of this country for the 90s.
Well, the media has been a real problem in this.
One of the things that came out at the conference last weekend of the National Network of Campuses Against the War was that in virtually every part of the country, people had experienced a media blackout.
I mean, we all know that we're not getting any reliable information about what's actually going on in the Gulf.
Virtually every group that stood up to talk about what was going on in their city or their town said that their activities either weren't being covered by the established media or they were being systematically under-recorded or they were operating in manipulative ways.
For example, the Chicago demonstration that had perhaps as many as 10,000 people, the picture that accompanied the coverage in many cases was a picture of 20 pro-war demonstrators with big American flags.
I mean, you can tell that, you know, pictures are being used, certain pictures are being used, certain pictures aren't being used, but also that people are being manipulated through the imagery that the mass media can use.
I think we ought to let everybody know the real reason we're out here today.
Even though this nation is at war, we're not out here because we're unpatriotic.
We're out here because we're the true patriots.
War in itself, the type of war that the Vietnam War was, was totally illegal in the first place.
I mean, we have every right, you know, I'm talking about us, the protestors, the people of society who believe in human rights.
I don't believe no country has the right to go general aggressively and erroneously jumping on another country.
People that are ahead a little that want to deal with the issues that are going to deal with justice or peace or more respect for the planet, things like that, progressive issues.
They're too hung up on what issues they should be fighting on and not concerned enough with the mechanics of organizing people.
There's simply this side of the political fence because it draws from universities, which are good at presenting problems, but not solutions.
And it draws from the churches, which, you know, you just have to be on the side of the angels, that's good enough.
They're not people that bring a pragmatic understanding of the science to community organizing in the way that, say, the great Saul Alinsky, the father of modern community organizing, did.
I do. I am a community organizer. I have been since 1962.
The group that I founded in 1962 is still there, bigger than ever.
The group that I founded this year will be there in 50 years because there is a method to the madness even to look in the streets here.
It's one of the bad legacies that the younger generation has about looking at Chicago.
It will seem like it's a video tape, you know, it's a lot of chanting and personalities.
Wow, sex, drugs, rock and roll in the streets. They're very anti-leader, very anti-structure, not a good comprehension of what real grassroots organizing is all about.
But I can tell you, even though it looks like a lot of chaos here, people that put this together or even come up with the idea of do your own thing or that it should be spontaneous, took a lot of organizing experience to get to this point.
I look for the organizers that want to win their issues. Victory or death, that's the name of the game.
And ultimately I tell them in the wee hours of the morning, you deal with your fear of death.
Then things like going broke, being embarrassed, being called a lot of silly names that end with this, being kicked out by your family, locked up in jail or beaten up.
They're all going to be easy because you've gone to the big one right off, you've dealt with your fear of dying.
In the 60s, in the early 60s, because of the civil rights movement, going to Mississippi, things like that, we were given that experience.
Today it's kind of a little harder to dig at that, but basically that's where, you know, that's where it's at.
I don't really trust politicians, but that's not the complete message of the song. It's poetry and it has to speak for itself. I can't explain it to you.
Picture a bright blue ball just coming spinning free. Dizzy with eternity.
Painted with a skin of sky, brushing some cloud and sea. Call it home for you and me.
A peaceful place, that's all it looks these days. A closer look reveals the human race.
Full of hope, full of grace is the human face. But afraid, we merely outwant the place.
There's a fear down here we can't forget. Hasn't forgotten it just yet.
Always awake, always around. Seeing ashes, ashes all fall down. Ashes, ashes all fall down.
Now watch as the ball revolves and the night time falls. And again the hunt begins, and again the blowing calls.
Talking back again, the morning sun will rise. The darkness never goes from some man's eyes.
Oh no, it strolls the sidewalks and it rolls the streets. Staking dirt, dividing up meat. Nightmare, spook, piece of heat.
It's you and me, you and me.
Hey, big clash played in ghetto night. Who's looking for a fight?
Rat cat alley rolls and rolls. Need that cash to feed that junk. And the politicians throwing stones.
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down. Ashes, ashes all fall down.
Commissars and pinstripe bosses roll the dice. Needy way they fall, guess who gets to pay the price?
Money green, the progeny gray. Selling guns instead of food to dig.
So the kids they dance and shake their bums. And the politicians throwing stones. Singing ashes, ashes all fall down. Ashes, ashes all fall down.
Chilling powders back and forth. Singing black goes south and white comes north. In a whole world full of petty wars.
Singing I got mine and you got yours. In the current fashion, step to pace.
Lose your step, fall out of grace. In the radical, hieratic rage.
Singing someone got to turn the page. In the rich man in his summer home.
Singing just leave well enough alone. But his pants are down, his cover's blown.
And the politicians throwing stones. So the kids they dance and shake their bums. Cause it's all too clear we're on our own.
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down. Ashes, ashes all fall down. Picture a bright blue bar just standing, standing free.
It's dizzying, the possibilities.
Ashes, ashes all fall down. Ashes, ashes all fall down. Ashes, ashes all fall down. Ashes, ashes all fall down. Ashes, ashes all fall down.
Somebody asked Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, what he thought of Western civilization, and he said,
I think it's a good idea. And you could say that's not just for Western civilization,
that's really for almost all civilizations, because they have all gotten caught in greed and fear
and eternality, and all those create violence.
First thing you do is you get people together, and you get them to find what is common,
what they share in common, which is a desire for peace, and a desire that their children should be safe,
and a desire that there should be enough to eat on every table.
And then you put your cards on the table and see what everybody's got to work with,
and then you see what you can do. But you've got to be of goodwill,
and our country is not of goodwill, and many other countries are not of goodwill.
We are very, very motivated by economic self-interest and by fear of loss of our power.
We tried very hard to stay in this country, which we did,
and we did our own work on peace and love in the way that we could,
and I'm glad that you guys are doing it now.
Is Sean an inspiration to you? I know he must be.
Oh yes, Sean is an incredible energy and an inspiration to me, and an encouragement,
and I hope that we inspire his generation as well. It's an exchange, you know.
I've talked to a few people of 15 to 19 years old, and just about everyone is a definite peace freak.
Does that make you feel happy to see young kids?
That's great, that's great, you know.
Custis, old people are too, you know. Everybody wants peace.
No, but it wasn't like that. It was a minority deficit in those days, you know,
and people sort of ridiculing us and all that.
But now I think 99% of the world wants peace, I think, and that's great.
Our government is us, you see. Nobody knows that.
That's right, and this is something that we have to make clear too.
The government of the United States is us.
The representatives of us are in Washington.
So there is no government in Washington.
There are only representatives of the government in Washington,
and that government is us, the people for, by, and of.
And that's what that means, really. It means that those guys are not supposed to be making any decisions
without asking us at all.
That's the legal and illegalities of being the government, the people,
or the misunderstanding of the government.
That's kind of how it should work, isn't it?
They shouldn't do anything unless they get a mandate from the people to do that.
They should be servants of the people, and they should be responsible to them and responsive to them.
I guess I think that's the way it is, and it's okay if that's the way it is.
If they start doing things on their own, then they've got to be careful.
Because, well, there's that old saying, absolute power corrupt absolutely.
I think that if you start acting autonomously, you're getting into very dangerous territory.
It took thousands of people, almost ten years, and billions of dollars to lift a human being into space.
Russell Schweickart, Lunar Module pilot for the Apollo 9 flight, recalls the experience.
You go around it in an hour and a half, you begin to recognize that your identity is with that whole thing.
And that makes a change.
And you look down there, and you can't imagine how many borders and boundaries you cross again and again and again.
And you don't even see them from where you see it.
The thing is a hole, and it's so beautiful.
And you recall standing out there, the spectacle that went before your eyes.
Because now you're no longer inside something with a window, looking out at a picture.
But now you're out there, and there are no limits to it.
There are no frames. There are no boundaries.
As the air gasps for somewhere to breathe, and the water she cries for somewhere to flow,
they hold tight and vow they will never let go the way we do.
And while the soil moans absorbing all the pain, when the clouds break down in acidity tears,
the feeling betrayed after so many years can be so cruel.
So many times they have given what we need.
And now we see light to the way that we have hurt them, are we just gonna let them bleed?
The earth needs help. The earth needs help.
She's too good to us for so long, and look at what we've dealt.
The earth needs help. The earth needs help.
With just a little bit of kindness she could heal us all.
Change comes from awareness.
Ecology is a word which means more every time you use it.
Now if we cannot have a decent planet to ensure our water and oxygen supply,
we shall all perish from our own negligence.
Many people on our planet are concerned with rain deforestation.
Though in 60 years some of us will still be here, so will our children and grandchildren.
Oxygen probably won't be sufficient enough to meet our demands because of trees
and underdeveloped countries will have fallen in the big companies' acts.
Directly or indirectly we are responsible.
In addition to the rainforest producing oxygen, cutting them down increases the global warming trend.
This clip contains what we should all know.
Cut the rainforest down and we shall all die in 60 years. We need oxygen.
And when the rainforest go, as go they, well, we have to ask, is this progress worth it?
For the 70s kind of me generation?
It might have been, but the facts are that the rainforests are being destroyed
at a staggering rate of 100 acres per minute, or as much as 50 million acres per year.
The clearing, first cutting, then burning of the rainforest land for beef cattle pasture
is one of the largest destroyers of rainforest.
Rainforests are the lungs of the world. They play a critical role in the atmosphere.
After five to ten years of cattle ranching, the rainforest can no longer even grow grass.
And if this continues, we shall all perish from our own negligence.
Recycling, a process that is gaining widespread popularity as a major solution to the nation's garbage crisis.
Plastic is probably the least amount of recycled material that we're receiving at this time.
Newspaper is most, glass is second, aluminum cans being third, tin cans fourth, and then plastic milk jugs.
Landfills are becoming more and more scarce, and the cost of actually operating a landfill and developing a landfill.
From what I've seen in the different areas that I've been in, everybody is concerned about recycling,
and it's something that is spreading across the United States.
Recycling may not be the total answer.
But it is the beginning to solving our waste disposal problem.
The supreme peace is for the two superpowers to unite for ecological unity.
Certain groups and people feel strongly about this.
The key to the future of our Earth is the two superpowers joining together in bringing about positive changes in our world.
After World War II, we entered an era of confrontation.
We are now ending that post-war era, and in that end is a new beginning.
The future of our world. We have turned a corner, and we have the tools necessary to make our world survive.
I've been waiting for something to happen for a week or a month or a year
With the blood in the ink of the headlines and the sound of the crowd in my ear
You might ask what it takes to remember when you think that you've heard it before
Why your government lies to its people and the nations are driven to war
There are shadows on the faces of the men who've been the flames
To those wars in foreign places we can't even remember their names
On the radio, the talk show and TV you'll hear one thing again and again
How the USA stands for freedom and how we come to the aid of a friend
But who are these ones we call our friends? These governments killing their own
Or is it the ones who can't take anymore so they pick up a brick or a gun or a stone
There are lives in the balance, there are people under fire
There are children at the cannons, and there is blood on the wire
There is blood on the wire, there is blood on the wire
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Shadows on the faces of the men who send the guns
To those wars in foreign places where their business interests runs
I want to know who these men in the shadows are, I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never around to fight or to die
There are lives in the balance, people under fire
There are children at the cannons, and there is blood on the wire
There is blood on the wire, there is blood on the wire
Shadows on the faces of the men who send the guns
To those wars in foreign places where their business interests runs
I want to know who these men in the shadows are, I want to hear somebody asking them why
They can be counted on to tell us who our enemies are
But they're never around to fight or to die
There are lives in the balance, people under fire
There are children at the cannons, and there is blood on the wire
There is blood on the wire, there is blood on the wire
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
I've been working with a group of teenagers, Bobby Weir and I from the dead have been working with a group of teenagers in California
And they just took over a town hall for a day on Sunday and had music and food
And they had 20 letter writing tables around the room for peace and ecology and all these issues
And people came and wrote letters, and that was a beautiful thing to do
In today's world, you have to keep an open mind
You must be able to express your feelings in your own area
You do this by writing your congressman
State your purpose, underline what should be done
You know a polite letter with your return address should bring a speedy reply with probably good results
If not, you may want to vote or vote differently in the next election
Tell your friends and your neighbors the outcome
Use your telephone book to obtain an address and make sure that you write or print legibly his or her address, zip code, and so on
And then mail it
The power companies think they've got the energy solution
They take all our money and they give us the pollution
Yankee Doodle is no fool, we know what the truth is
We don't have to go to school to figure out the whole
The NRC would like to try to fool us in thinking
We don't have to worry about a China syndrome happening
Yankee Doodle wants to say, hey, that's all well and dandy
And if they think that it's so safe, then let them keep it handy
The White House now has got the nut, trying to keep the nation
Madana economics lumping into radiation
Yankee Doodle won't mutate, keep a fruitcake heavy
Citizens won't hesitate to stop this nuclear madness
Some citizens would like to try and examine all the issues
While they sit around and talk, radiation fries our tissues
Yankee Doodle is no fool, we know what the truth is
We don't have to go to school to figure out the whole
I think I start by examining how peaceful I am
Because if I am not peaceful, forget it
Everything I think I'm doing for everybody else is kind of off the wall
Because I watch so many peace activists filled with anger in their hearts
And all they're doing is perpetuating out of the culture anger
My feeling is that people are becoming a little more aware
And a little more ready to climb back in again
I notice that there is an increase now in student involvement
If I could suggest something, we have to take one week in the world
And stop doing every single thing that we do
And see if the world is still here after a week
And if it is, we'll know that everything that we've done is totally unnecessary to survive
My feeling is that we have to trust each other
And we're at a point of history where we can afford to be skeptical of each other
We just have to, we've got to trust ourselves too
We've got to trust all of us because we're a family
Sun Sun Sun, here we come
Here it comes, here it comes, here it comes
Hit, darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Hit, darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, I say
It's alright
Here comes the sun
It's alright
Hit, darling, it's been a long, long, lonely winter
Hit, darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, I say
It's alright
Hit, darling, the smiles are returning to the faces
Hit, darling, it seems like years since they've been there
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, I say
It's alright
Hit, darling, I see the ice is slowly melting
Hit, darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, I say
It's alright
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, I say
It's alright
No, no, no, no, no
Hit, darling, it seems like years since they've been there
Here comes the sun
Hit, darling, it seems like years since they've been there
A peaceful place, a soul that looks peaceful
A closer look reveals the human race
Full of hope, full of grace is the human face
But afraid, we merely are not displaced
There's a fear down here we can't forget
It hasn't gotten any just yet
Always awake, always around
Seeing ashes, ashes all fall down
Ashes, ashes all fall down
Now watch as the ball revolves and the night time falls
And again the hunt begins, again the blowing calls
Hot and bright again, the morning sun will rise
The darkness never goes from some man's eyes
But I know, it strolls the sidewalks and it rolls the streets
Staking turn, dividing up meat
Nightmare, spook, piece of heat
It's you and me, you and me
Hey, big clash played in ghetto night
Rooties looking for a fight
Rat cat out of road and boats
Need that cash to feed that joints
And the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down
Ashes, ashes all fall down
From a size of pinstripe bosses roll the dice
Needy way they fall, guess who gets to pay the price
Money green, a proatry grave
Selling girls instead of food and data
Thanks for watching!