Any of you monkeys want a banana?

Age of Aquarius...remember that line? A time of "sympathy and understanding" as I recall the song goes. We were all just going to get along, and live happily ever after. That was the 1960s, when anything seemed possible. Woodstock was the culmination of that dream, at least the myth of Woodstock reads that way. I didn't get to go (a little too young) but I really identified with the idea of "3 days of fun and music" that became a symbol to the youth of America. Of course, Vietnam was also going on, and the same people that espoused the peace and love of Aquarius also spit on the soldiers returning from overseas. Babykillers and murderers were a couple of the labels given to young men sent to a place they didn't want to be, fighting a fight they wanted no part of, and doing things that I'm sure still haunt them to this day. I entered the military in 1971, just out of school, since I had no plans to attend college and figured that it's what I should do, since I would prolly get drafted anyway. I was fortunate, since I spent my time mostly in Michigan.

During my time in the Air Force, I got to participate a couple times in what were called "incentive flights". The base commander had authorized a KC-135 to be filled with anyone who wanted to go, and flown to March AFB in California in the dead of the winter. A free weekend in sunny southern California was a great relief to a Kentucky boy fed up with all the snow. The first trip out, I had a friend at Beale AFB, that came to pick me up, and gave me a place to stay for the weekend. It was great. We went to Disneyland, drove all over the area, saw the sites, etc. The second trip was much different, a bit darker, but still worth it. On this trip I was with several friends, and we had to take buses, stay in a motel, buy all our food (since we weren't on a base), etc. At one point we went to one of the local UC campuses to see a Frank Zappa movie called "200 Motels". I still remember the looks we received from the students, like we were diseased or something. You see, it was obvious we were military (the hair, you know). The weekend was pretty good but I was happy to get back, cause it wasn't nearly as much fun as the first trip.

So even then, the "sympathy and understanding" promised didn't show itself very clearly, but at least we didn't have Westboro Baptist "Church". This group, in the name of God, harasses, insults, and judges everyone around them. They have the legal right to picket wherever they want, and so they choose funerals of soldiers that have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, among other places. It's enough to make you sick, and angry, and wonder how long it will be before someone gets fed up with them and takes them out. Any volunteers?