CHICAGO: Reflections on the 4

Two hundred and thirty three years ago our country was founded by a bunch of rebels. Each signatory to the declaration knew by affixing their names to that document they could be hung, yet they did it.

August of 1969 found another rebel in the news, His name was Jimi Hendrix. He hit the Woodstock Festival stage Monday morning. He was one of the last performers of that fest. He played probably one of the most controversial versions of the Star spangled banner ever, except for maybe Rosanne Barr’s.

Jimi must have known that he would be cheered and booed. A look at history of that date has to be reviewed in order to understand the previous statement.

The City of Chicago was filled with demonstrators just a couple of months before Woodstock. It was the 1968 Democratic Convention. I had just become a teenager and was very aware of what was happening it the streets of Chicago. The word spread like wild fire through the teen grapevine to stay out of the city for a couple of weeks. I did not participate I stayed away.

Just a month prior to Woodstock Neil Armstrong steeped foot on the moon. At that time the Moon landing was the greatest technological achievement of all time. During that landing they used less digital computing power then your desk top calculator.

Five hundred and forty three thousand troops were deployed in Vietnam and 33,000 were killed up to that date. Walter Cronkite gave the daily body count on the evening news. The Vietnam War was the first war that had nightly news reports broadcast on television. I truly believe the war ended because of those reports and they provided fuel for the anti-war movement.

The infamous Hamburger Hill battle added more fuel.

Nixon authorized the bombing of Cambodia. More fuel for the Anti-war movement.

Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered. He was one of the greatest peacekeepers and racial barrier breakers and truly a great man. His murderer was a white man and this fanned the flames of the equal rights movement.

John Lennon married Yoko Ono and staged a bed-in for peace.

Last episode of Star Trek aired.

USSR was detonating atomic bombs.

In a nutshell the atmosphere in the states and for that matter the world was very volati

le.

Jimi Hendrix was a patriot. A little know fact was Jimi was also a veteran who served in the 101^st airborne division.

Dick Cavet interviewed Jimi and asked him about the controversy and he replied what controversy.

Gatorman