My Gripe With Hippies

Typically when the summer rolls around, I begin attending quite a few concerts. Each year seems to bring some Dave Matthews Band, along with various other artists that change from year to year. I try to make it my unofficial policy to see at least one new act each summer, and this year I've certainly done so. Earlier this month I was treated to not one but two concerts put on by artists who I had never seen before: Ani DiFranco and the Indigo Girls. Yes, it seems that I've had a bit of a lesbian concert summer, but these artists, who I like and respect very much, have got me thinking.

The audiences at both shows were very similar. While the DiFranco show in Central Park had a smaller crowd than the Indigo Girls show at Wolf Trap in Northern Virginia, essentially the same fans attended both shows. The audiences at both concerts were at least 85 percent female, which didn't bother me one bit. A good portion of these women were also decked out in hippie garb, and as I watched the interactions of these "hippies," I realized how much they bother me.

You see, when most people think of the term "hippie," an image comes to mind of a person or a group of people, each with long hair, peace pendants and tye-dye shirts protesting the continuance of the Vietnam War. A noble cause indeed, as that war was certainly unnecessary, and that is what we picture. But nowadays, with these pseudo, fake hippies, we see nothing of the like. We see people, like those at these concerts, who dress the way the 1960s hippies dressed, but that is the extent to which they are similar to their predecessors. They call themselves hippies, and wrongfully so, for they do nothing more than sit on their asses and smoke maarijuana. They are lazy, and they are giving those from the 60s and the youth of today a bad name. They have taken this amazing concept of young people who care about peace throughout the world and turned it into something terrible.

I think some would be quick to jump to the defense of these new hippies and say today is a different day and a different world. Surely it is, I would be more than willing to concede that, but there are disturbing similarities between thirty years ago and today, not the least of which includes international conflict. These hippies today could be doing so much to advance their peaceful ideals, but they would all just rather steal the fashion sense and mentality of those who came before them and abandon the responsibility they have to the peace movement. They are a disgrace to the name and should not be identifying themselves as hippies. They are slackers, and it's about time we start calling them just that.

The good hippies

DMB Survey

Song of the day: Smooth Rider

Album of the day: Crash

Song that never gets old: #41

Favorite 12-string song: Grey Street

Favorite love song: Lover Lay Down

Song that makes you want to dance: Warehouse

Song you don't understand the popularity of: Where Are You Going

Most underrated song: So Right

Most overrated song: I Did It

Song you like that many others don't: If I Had It All

Biggest pet peeve: people who just stand there at shows

Favorite '06 Song: Can't Stop

Favorite '06 Return: Last Stop

Favorite Cover: Watchtower

We're talking about the version on the album here...

Favorite off R2T: I'll Back You Up
Favorite off UTTAD: Warehouse
Favorite off Crash: #41
Favorite off BTCS: Don't Drink the Water
Favorite off LWS: Sweet Up and Down
Favorite off Busted Stuff: Cptain
Favorite off Everyday: So Right
Favorite off Stand Up: Louisiana Bayou

UTTAD or Crash: Crash

Last Stop or Stone: Last Stop

..34, ..36, ..40, or ..41?: 41

I Did It or Dreamgirl: Hate them both. No, really

Butch Solos, Bartender or Two Step: Bartender

Trey Anastasio or Robert Randolph: Trey! Randall's Island '05

Roi solos or Boyd Solos: Boyd

Water/Wine Jam or Blue Water: Blue Water

Alpine or SPAC: SPAC all the way!

Soprano, Alto, Baritone, Pennywhistle, or Flute: Baritone

Butch or Rashawn: Butch

Member with best style: Carter

Song that pumps you up for a sport/game: Don't Drink the Water

Favorite moment on any concert release or live: "Smile LeRoi!"

One guest you'd want to play with DMB: Neil Young again

Most memorable DMB moment at your own show: Sixth row at Hershey '03

Favorite song off Some Devil: Save Me

One song you'd want DMB to bring back: Sweet Up and Down

Favorite show opener: Seek Up

Favorite regular set closer: Tripping Billies

Favorite show closer: Watchtower

Favorite Dave solo song: Save Me

Top 5:

1 #41
2 Lie In our Graves
3 Don't Drink the Water
4 . Smooth Rider
5. Captain

Bottom 5:

1 Let You Down
2 I Did It
3 Steady as We Go
4 Stolen Away on some street
5 Dreamgirl

..1 reason you love DMB: they are just good

Burn Baby Burn

Last week, the U.S. Senate rejected a constitutional amendment that would ban desecration of the American flag by just a single vote.

While the Senate ultimately made the right decision, why it is that 66 of its members supported such a measure.

The fact that the Senate would even consider such an amendment sends a message to the American people that their elected officials are out of touch with the country.

In a time when nearly 3,000 Americans have lost their lives in an unnecessary war, gas prices are at an all-time high and college graduates are leaving school with an average of $20,000 debt, it is clear that there are more important issues the Senate needs to address.

Throughout this whole debate, Republican lawmakers have stressed that such a constitutional amendment is absolutely necessary because it would serve as a tribute to the men and women who have given their lives for this country. Note that they have given their lives for their country, not merely its flag.

You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest.

This amendment has nothing to do with honoring our soldiers at all. If we want to honor them, we should bring them home, not write into the Constitution that burning a flag is a crime.

Several other members of the Senate have spun the issue in different ways.

From the Senate floor on June 26, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) compared flag desecration to libel and child pornography, forms of expression he said have no "social value."

"Flag burning is a form of expression that is spiteful or vengeful," the five-term senator said. "It is designed to hurt. It is not designed to persuade."
Fortunately Democrats recognize that the issue is one of free speech and expression and not of anything else.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) sided with the 1989 Supreme Court decision, which voted 5-4 in Texas v. Johnson that flag burning was a political statement and that state laws banning it were unconstitutional.

The First Amendment was designed precisely to protect this sort of expression, Leahy said in a June 28 CNN article.

"The First Amendment never needs defending when it comes to popular speech," Leahy said. "It's when it comes to unpopular speech that it needs defending."