In With The Good, Out With The Bad

We are here for a purpose. We are here to make a difference in the world. The music in us is put there for a reason not just to create personal wealth or make us feel good about ourselves. But it can take a long time for some of us to find our purpose in life. It's not a thing most people know from birth. It's something we learn in time. One day, we just feel it - like a "calling" - it hits us square in the nose; not like a boxer, more like a scent of perfume. Beautiful music makes a difference. Words of hope change lives. A joyful experience heals the broken hearted. Music can inspire. It can take us on a journey of discovery. We are all spiritual beings. The person inside is hidden by masks. We don't often reveal our true identity. While deep inside, the person we truly are is screaming to get out, nature takes it's course. The circle of life remains unbroken. But, the artist is different. Music is the window to the soul. When a musician plays, he wears his heart on his sleeve. Folk music became a full-blown craze. Coffeehouses sprang up everywhere. The "mainstreaming" of folk music actually led to the discovery of what was truly the real and meaningful. It was a generation of naivety perhaps but nevertheless it was a generation that wanted to make the world better. Before the Berkeley Free Speech Movement began, anti-communist hysteria had pervaded the United States. George Orwell had written about words like "freedom," "democracy," and "justice". Orwell said "(They) have been abused so long that their original meanings have been eviscerated ... Americans have been conditioned to accept the word "democracy" as a synonym for freedom, and to believe that democracy is unquestionably good." Orwell was right about the use of meaningless words in politics. The "American dream" had created a society devoted to the wealth and the exploitation of the fellow creatures. Some people were discovering that democracy is not freedom. Free speech was stifled. French philosopher-novelists, Camus and Sartre, started young people thinking about new ideals of existentialism.Organized by the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), at its peak in 1960, over 400 schools were affiliated with NSA. In the '60s, NSA responded to a despotic atmosphere that produced a radical militant protest mood on campuses across America. The Free Speech Movement was spreading. Berkeley was a training ground for student protest. College kids began listening to Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and electric blues. The NSA supported Students Against The Draft, opposed the war in Vietnam, and participated in civil rights struggles. For many students, a cultural revolution began in 1964, during "Freedom Summer" in Mississippi. The sixties happened because they had to happen. The need for change will never change. Student radicalism may one day rise again. In with the good air, out with the bad ... not a bad notion, not at all unrealistic. Dennis Walsh progressofmusic@hotmail.com