It was a Saturday and the Viet Nam War was still raging.

I was with Peter, Paul, and Mary and Country Joe McDonald in Washington DC. PPM sang Bob Dylan’s Blowing In The Wind and Country Joe sang the Fish Cheer.

I sang along with them along with 300,000 of my closest friends.

There were no problems. No confrontations. No Violence. Everything was straight up.

There were many people then and many people now who did not agree with our protest. Some stupin people demonstrating were against the soldiers who fought in the war. I never was and prayed for their safe return. I was anti Military because they, along with our politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, brought us into a needless war.

In 1971 our right to peacefully protest was in our DNA as a nation.

It still is!

Accusing those who voice their opinions about snatching people off the streets or out of their beds does not mean you hate America.

People who say peaceful protestors hate America hate Americans.

I didn’t hate America in 1971 when I protested on the Capital Mall anymore than those protesting in the No King marches today.

There is an underlying nastiness to the hate mongers today.

Wanting the ultra rich to pay taxes, never mind their fair share, or a government that provides health care and takes care of the needs of the poor and the veterans they purport to love is not based on hate. Far from it. We are proud to be Americans and we wish to make it an even greater country for all.

Most of us are either first generation children of immigrants and probably no more than second or third. We should live up to the inscription on the Statue of Liberty and to the tenets of our faith.

It’s sad that we are so divided that we can not see the danger that faces us.

America was formed because we wanted to cast off the shackles of living under the rule of a king.

That country still exists…for now.