The Hippie

           Lately I have been hearing a lot of people saying things like “oh they are hippies” or “I am a hippy”. I will be the first to admit that I have said these statements out of context also. But more recently I feel I have been hearing it a lot more. It seems to be bothering me. Like no those twenty something’s on the side of the road begging for money are not hippies, nor is the woman who doesn’t shave, nor are you a hippie just because you grow your own garden or only buy local organic food. Being a hippie is deeper. It’s a much more simple but meaningful statement than all of these things.

           If we look at the beginnings of the hippie movement we see men and women who were unhappy and in disagreement with their government. They had parents who lived through a horrible war. From living through this war they learned that in order to get by in life you were to wholeheartedly trust in your government. This generation believed that the government had their best interest in mind and that you could rely on the government for protection and loving support. They tried to raise their kids with these same values. Now I did not live through any of these years, but most of my family have and some well educated people that I am friends with have weighed in on the subject. In gathering information I have come to a few conclusions. First is that perhaps the government changed. Perhaps they started to care more about other thing than caring for their citizens. Perhaps they really were doing what they believed was best for our country. Either way we ended up in another war. Only this time there were people who were not OK with the decisions they were making on the behalf of the citizens.

          Looking at the tactics they were using in my humble opinion there was a lot of misuse of power and “fear mongering” as there is within any war time. Or any power structure really. The older generation still felt the trust in the government. They saw a lot of the same patterns they had gone through and fallowed suite. But what no one counted on was they people who saw what was happening for what it was and said “NO, we are not OK with your choices, especially if you are making them on behalf of me and the entire country.” And thus the “Hippie” was born.

           From the view point of someone who does believe in our government and our country, at least what it could be and the intention of our for fathers, and the valued opinions of the people I have consulted being a hippie is about rebelling against the moments of what they considered tyranny and  complete abuse of power. They believed that the people who had power were using it to gain for themselves not the people they represented. So what did they do, they protested, they wore clothes that were the opposite of that people who fallowed the government wore, they lived in communes,  grew their own food, raised children in and lived their lives in over all ways that almost went against the people who fallowed the government or  how they government said they should be living. They stood up for what they believed in and did everything they could to show where they stood and why they stood for it. They did they best they could to promote love and kindness and stop what they felt to be hatred.

         I can relate to this feeling. This is the reason why I have been known for calling myself a hippie. I believe in love, forgiveness, kindness, and gentleness towards mankind and other spirits in general. I believe that we do not need to be ruled with fear, hatred and war. We need to learn to understand and have compassion for one another. There needs to come a time for support of our fellow man and get back to putting the organic flowers we grown in our gardens back in to the barrels of unnecessary guns. Now do not get me wrong I love, support, appreciate our armed forces. I am so thankful for the protection of o our freedom to stand up and say I disagree with what  you are using these fine young men and women for and I disagree with what you’re gaining from this misuse. I am thankful for all my freedoms and the daily life I live… as a hippie.  I will continue to do my best to spread peace and love. To try to use my actions to show and teach my fellow man that we can be human beings before anything else.