Like so many of us boomers, the Woodstock anniversary brought back memories of a different time and in so many ways a different Country. I spent the summer of ‘69 in Ithaca taking a couple of courses and bartending. Every where you went people were hitchhiking, dropping in on each other for an instant party, listening to music and always talking about how we were going to change the world. 

 
There was a genuine belief that we could create a new society, built on love, peace, music and a commitment to a set of values that featured sharing, justice for all and above all, “don’t trust anyone over thirty”. There were a variety of views on just how we were going to change the world. Some of my friends believed that a revolution was necessary and had embraced organizations like the Panthers or SDS. Others believed that the key to change was through organizing and protesting. Another group believed that the answer lie in creating an alternative society and were living together in communes attempting to be self sufficient. Others thought that you changed the system by going inside and were studying social work or were planning to join VISTA or the Peace Corps. Yet another group, the largest group, believed that the way to change society was to continuously party and just hang out and discuss the war, women’s rights, racial justice and where the next party was going to happen.
 
It was a beautiful summer in Ithaca in ‘69. The music was great, the sexual revolution was in full bloom, the sun seemed to always be shining and there were thousands of us with long hair, jeans and tie dye tee shirts. When we saw what was going on at Woodstock there was no stopping the movement. Peace, love and justice were going to be triumphant and the proof was right there on Max Yasgur's farm.
 
It’s funny how things have a way of changing. There really wasn’t such a thing as homelessness in ‘69. Nor was there institutional poverty that spanned three or four generations. There were lots of drugs, but no real drug epidemics that we see today. Everybody seemed to have access to health care and if you wanted to work, all you really needed was a strong back. Business owners clearly made more money then workers, but multi million dollar compensation was not even contemplated.
 
Somewhere after ‘69 things started to go awry. We somehow lost sight of how important community is and as a society we became obsessed with “me” and seemed to forget about “us”. We were all committed back then to “doing your own thing” but some bigger force was holding us together. There was room for individualism but somehow it worked as, demonstrated with Woodstock.  It seems clear to me that my generation has not successfully held the message of Woodstock. And for that we must take collective responsibility. It has become all too obvious that individualism has got to be contained in a way that we are able to promote the common good.
 
I have been reading posts on the Brazen Careerist, brazencareerist.com, for the last year, and I believe the millennial generation is going to lead us all into a new paradigm where individual success can coexist with a commitment to the common good. They will show us how to be connected to each other in new ways that will transform greed and self indulgence. They will show us how to LIVE UNITED. I imagine their Woodstock will occur in cyber space, and maybe it is already happening. They can change the world and as far as this Boomer is concerned, their time is now.