Singing John Lennons' Christmas song in the car while taking my

[Stanchetalarooni]

sixteen year old to the orthodonist. I came to the part where they sing 'war is over, if you want it' and I couldn't get the words out I was so choked up with emotion. Grief. Saddness. Tears.
I was the same age as my son or thereabouts when I had first heard it 35 years ago.
In all his wisdom and comfort he offered that he thought that there would always be wars.
And we thought that we could change the world.
And we did.
And we do.
And still there is war.

[donheld]

1. Do you ever wonder what John Lennon

would be thinking/saying/doing if he were around to react to what's going on now?

[GCP]

5. I think of it every day

I wish he was still around - a totally fearless voice against everything that's wrong in the world.

[buckettgirl]

6. i wonder that often

It is a tragedy that we will never know. What songs would he sing now? I could only wish that there would have been someone to fill the big gaping void that was lost when he was killed. He was such a strong figure and used music to (try) change the world.
:cry:

[Must_B_Free]

7. He would be leading us, which is why he was killed

Same with all of our best leaders.

[villager]

2. listening to it now

a more necessary song than ever. Alas...

[indigobusiness]

3. I know what you mean.

They refused to listen.

[GCP]

4. That's such a beautiful song - and sadly still so relevant

I hope your 16 year old at least got the message that people of our generation aren't all blood-crazed war mongers (speaking as a Boomer).

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

9. I thought it ironic that today, while at work, the freeper who sits in the

office next to me, was playing a Christmas CD (I think he must have made himself) and it had "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)" on it. If John hadn't been cremated, he'd be rolling in his grave.

[Warpy]

8. My mother once said "As long as there are men, there will be war."

The most we can hope for is making damned sure that if we send these men (and a few women) into war, there is a good reason for it and that all other alternatives have been explored fully.

We know, those of us who are the older boomers, just what modern war does to the men in our lives, even if they come back with their bodies intact. Iraq is shaping up to do even worse things to them mentally and physically than Vietnam did to many of the men from our generation. There are scars there that will never heal.

Vietnam was fought based on a pack of lies from a small group of ideologuses in the Pentagon. The Domino Theory looks quaint and silly now, but it was bought just as easily as all Colin Powell's lies about tonnage of chemical weapons and huge weapons factories were bought in late 2002 and early 2003. Once again, a small cadre of rabid ideologues in the Pentagon has damaged our sons, brothers, husbands, fathers in a war of convenience based on a pack of lies.

We can look to neither party to take on the monsters within that building and set up enough oversight that they will not be able to do the same thing in the future. The GOP has gone crazy and thinks only of fattening their contributors. The Democrats are headed by a group of venal men and women who think only of whoring for many of those same corporations.

Change, as always, will have to start with us, and time is running out for us to effect it.

[Minstrel Boy]

10. ....

[Shakespeare]

11. Things like that get to me, too.

I had family in town (San Francisco) for a visit a couple of weeks ago, and we'd stopped at the Rincon building to eat lunch at the dim sum restaurant Yank Sing. After lunch, I took them out to the outer hallways to look at the WPA murals, and when I got to the one about the Four Freedoms, the first of which is Freedom from Fear, I lost it.

I choked up and started crying and almost couldn't stop, because all I could think about was how far we've devolved from FDR's days when all had to fear was fear itself. Our current "leader" operates under a completely contrary worldview, and it breaks my heart.

[SmokingJacket]

12. Makes me cry every time. n/t

[Maine-ah]

13. I cried in the car listening to it too!

And so this is Christmas
And what have we done?
Another year over
And you've just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
Your near and your dear ones
Your old and your young
And so Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one without any fear
And so this is Christmas
The weak and the strong
The rich and the poor ones
Have waited so long
And so Merry Christmas
And a Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one without any fear


So Merry Christmas
And Happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one without any fear


War is over if you want it
War is over if you want it
War is over if you want it
War is over if you want it


:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[Javaman]

14. Imagine