{"id":324,"date":"2012-12-09T01:21:59","date_gmt":"2012-12-09T06:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=324"},"modified":"2017-07-03T12:19:49","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T16:19:49","slug":"30-october-2005-what-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?p=324","title":{"rendered":"2005.10.30 &#8211; what if?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What would our country (the United States) be like if we hadn&#8217;t lost JFK, Martin, Bobby, Malcolm &amp; Lennon? Would we have true equality? Would we see less of a gap between the upper class and everyone else? I feel that our country would be much more well adjusted if we didn&#8217;t have so many senseless losses of great leaders and progressives in the 20th century. Instead we are much like the angsty teenager of the world whose father and mother were lost in a tragic accident. We have lost focus as a nation and seem apathetic to the needs of others around the world. We are needy and self-centered and only care about what we can acquire as a commercialistic democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Our leaders are consumer whores who will sell the soul of our great nation for a little oil and a pat on the back from big daddy. When tragedy strikes our shores those who are supposed to protect us are nowhere to be found and the disenfranchised amoung us are left to fend for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Someday we will come back to the ideals of JFK and Martin Luther King Jr. Eventually we will have to reconcile our wicked ways and come back to the peaceful thoughts of John Lennon. Not that we will go back to being hippies (although some of us wish that we could) &#8211; but we could learn a few lessons from the sixties. We should have seen this coming, but we never see history repeating until we are already in the midst of the repetition.<\/p>\n<p>If King were only alive today or Bobby Kennedy or Malcolm X. Yes, Malcolm was radical in his ways, but he had the right idea. Empowerment of the lower and middle classes in this country is the only way to truly change our course. When the disenfranchised stand up and start speaking out we will finally see a change. When the black, brown, red and poor start to organzie we will see a shift.<\/p>\n<p>Two weekends ago the &#8220;Millions More Movement&#8221; gathering, which celebrated the ten year anniversary of the Million Man March, showed us a glimmer of hope. With the coming together minority citizens, hopefully bonds were formed and plans begun. With these crowds returning to their communities to organize this could be the start of something fantastic. The rise of the weak against the strong. The poor against the rich. Not in a confontational manner but in a way that shows the abilities of people to become more together.<\/p>\n<p>I hope the establishment is shaking in their cowboy boots. Not for fear of danger, but of the rise of the working class. The movement of people toward better lives. The movement of people toward safety. The movement of people toward what is rightly theirs in a democracy such as ours.<\/p>\n<p>A movement of great proportions that will change the future of this nation and help us grow out of this angsty teenage stage and into a mature &#8211; fully functioning &#8211; well adjusted &#8211; globally and locally conscious adult. On that day we will be complete and America will be great again. We can only hope to see it happen in our lifetime.<\/p>\n<p>So what are you going to do to make this happen?<\/p>\n<p>Peace,<br \/>\nHippiegrrl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What would our country (the United States) be like if we hadn&#8217;t lost JFK, Martin, Bobby, Malcolm &amp; Lennon? Would we have true equality? Would we see less of a gap between the upper class and everyone else? I feel that our country would be much more well adjusted if we didn&#8217;t have so many &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?p=324\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;2005.10.30 &#8211; what if?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[176],"tags":[178,87,30],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heia","tag-backwash","tag-equality","tag-social-justice"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2XCO6-5e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":868,"url":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?p=868","url_meta":{"origin":324,"position":0},"title":"With Liberty and Justice For Some","author":"chantale","date":"4 July 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We live within the confines of our environment. Although there are dreamers amoung us, the majority of the human race just goes with the flow. This is why it is so hard to come up from our country's racist past. Why is it so difficult to look at a situation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;equality&quot;","block_context":{"text":"equality","link":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2356,"url":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?p=2356","url_meta":{"origin":324,"position":1},"title":"Choices","author":"chantale","date":"25 September 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"You have two choices. Would you rather live in a Christian nation or a free country? In a free country, you are free to be Christian, but in a Christian nation, only Christians are free. Let me rephrase\u200a\u2014\u200aIn a free country, everyone is free to be Christian or not, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;activism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"activism","link":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?cat=96"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1864,"url":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?p=1864","url_meta":{"origin":324,"position":2},"title":"Call It Out (part two)","author":"chantale","date":"16 August 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The events of the weekend have really shaken me. I realize that as a white person I can freely move through society without much effort or care. I have the privilege of not being pulled over in my car unless I am actually doing something wrong (and then not always).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;equality&quot;","block_context":{"text":"equality","link":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1153,"url":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?p=1153","url_meta":{"origin":324,"position":3},"title":"Equality Now!","author":"chantale","date":"20 June 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Tomorrow will be the eighth anniversary of the writer and I \"tying the knot\".\u00a0\u00a0 Luckily, because we are of the opposite sex, we were able to secure a legal marriage with very little effort. \u00a0 If, in fact, we were of the same sex, we would be celebrating an eight\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;rise up!&quot;","block_context":{"text":"rise up!","link":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?cat=84"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1513,"url":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?p=1513","url_meta":{"origin":324,"position":4},"title":"You Better Vote","author":"chantale","date":"5 November 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\"I was just a girl, in a room full of women, licking stamps and laughing. I remember the feeling of community brewing, of democracy happening.\" - Ani Difranco - Paradigm The election is in 3 days. As I sit here at the coffeehouse and think about all the years of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;rise up!&quot;","block_context":{"text":"rise up!","link":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?cat=84"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2366,"url":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?p=2366","url_meta":{"origin":324,"position":5},"title":"Last Night","author":"chantale","date":"30 September 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Exhaustion. I know that you feel it and I certainly feel it too, but we cannot let it stop us from moving forward. We cannot stop fighting for what is right and fair and equal. After the despicable performance of the man who calls himself President last night, as he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;activism&quot;","block_context":{"text":"activism","link":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/?cat=96"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1804,"href":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions\/1804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hippiegrrlexplainsitall.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}