Blowin' in the Wind Revisited

Sitting here sipping tequilla listening to Peter, Paul and Mary sing Blowin' in the Wind in the hopes that it will dull the pain.  There really are lots of perks to living so long, but you definitely pay the price. It seems like yesterday that I was a young activist dreaming, hoping, working and fighting for a better world for all people. I have always been proud of what my generation did in the 60s to get this nation moving in the direction of equal rights for all people. Many of us died. The closest I came to getting killed was the machine gun placements in Washington as we marched. Then I realized that they were too busy watching the young girls skinny-dipping in the Reflecting Pools to worry about me. LOL.  Well, I guess I almost forgot about the night that about ten of us (graduate students) turned out to stop some over-zealous college students from getting killed by trying to extinguish the Gettysburg Peace Light. Police and rednecks were waiting for them. It would have been a blood bath. We stood in the middle. Thankfully I was young enough that I didn't realize how close I came to dying.  But the reward, equal rights for all people, was worth the risk. I really thought I'd depart this life in a more peaceful, equitable world. What a fool!  So here I sit sipping tequilla, listening to Peter, Paul & Mary, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and the others who expressed our dreams in music realizing that it's all gone now.  It's gone. Were we so naive to think that humans are capable of compassion and treating others with respect?  The questions raised in this song still go unanswered. There's one question not here; viz. how long can we continue to endure this evil before we totally give up hope?  Is hope dead?  Has evil won?   I'm afraid of the answer.