Heavy Artillery The War Begins

    In the 1960’s, a most favored slogan was ” Make Love, Not War. ” Their were lots of babies conceived in hippie vans as the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane fanned anti war sentiment, wore flowers in their hair and had meetings with Indian gurus. Flower children blew bubbles in parks and gave roses to hardened cops wearing helmets and sunglasses. It wasn’t hard to be against a war that sent home young men in caskets.Communism wasn’t likely to swim across the ocean and take over our cities but Washington D.C. wasn’t taking any chances. North Vietnam, backed by still Communist China, was trying to consume South Vietnam and our American military machine was going to plug the hole in their border. 50,000 American dead later, the war ended with a whimper. The 1960’s have returned without tie die T shirts, beards and hippie glasses. At the Punkin Chunkin Festival we have cowboy boots, pickups with tow hitches,levi’s and Copenhagen snuff secured in back pockets. Shooting pumpkins is about as peaceful as it gets. ” Make love, not babies, ” is our newest generational slogan. I guess some have finally found a war they think they can win. Not loving babies is a hard pill to swallow.