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Pro-Peace and Anti-War
One of the more striking debates during today's Vortex I show centered on whether or not the participants at the festival were selling out — giving up their political protests in favor of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. We heard it from our caller Jim, and in this comment from Mufti:
I'm with Jim. Vortex I separated the hippies (for peace, as Lee might say) from those who truly protested the War (anti-war). My husband was also a CO, working for the council of churches. To a pacifist, Vietnam was an abomination, state sanctioned murder committed in our name. We felt it a moral duty to resist -- there were very few of us who opted to march. We found a babysitter-for-peace to care for our one-year old and marched up Broadway under the watchful eyes (and guns) of snipers posted on building roofs. Vortex showed me, one more time, how few "peace people" were truly willing to risk their comfort for a slim chance at peace for the Vietnam people.
StevenAmick had an equally passionate alternate view:
My good friend Lee [Meier, one of the founders of the festival] makes an important point that many people miss now, and many missed at the time of Vortex I and the Vietnam war: being anti-war is not the same as being pro-peace.
Fighting is fighting, no matter how righteous the battle, and making love is not making war.
Although there is a difference, there is no need to insist that only one way is correct or even that one is better than the other. Opposing what is wrong and showing what is right are both honorable. To effect profound social/political change, both may be required, but not necessarily of the same person.
Lee knows this. A philospher and artist, he opts not merely to emphasize, but to embody positivism and peace.
I respect his choice and admire his work to make the world a peaceful and more beautiful place. I also see a need to actively oppose wars and, in fact, do so, myself. Note however, that while some of anti-war activists might denigrate Lee for his way, he does not deride us for ours.
