What would John Lennon think?

John Lennon was killed 30 years ago on December 8 and the world has been the worse for it ever since. 

I remember hearing about it while watching Monday Night Football.  Howard Cosell announced that "this news hit me like a ton of bricks" and told the audience that John Lennon had just died of the gunshot wounds inflicted earlier in the evening. 

I remember going to a memorial to celebrate his life and music on the campus of Louisiana State University.  Somewhere in the archives of a Baton Rouge TV station there is some news footage showing our two (at the time) young sons in matching shirts wandering through the crowd.

I remember all the great music and the peaceful and loving presence that he was.

Besides being one of the most popular rock song writers ever, John Lennon was an icon to the love & peace generation. Through his music he influenced us all.

How much does an artist reflect his times and how much does he inform it? In John’s case, it was heavily weighted towards the latter. The Beatles burst on the pop scene in 1962 and in time they “came to be perceived as the embodiment of progressive ideals, seeing their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960‘s.” [Wikipedia article]

Indeed.   In the late 1960‘s, John’s songs became more overtly political. “Give Peace A Chance” released in 1969 became an anthem of the anti-war movement.   His 1971 song Imagine not only envisions a world at peace but also with no countries, no possessions, nothing to kill or die for, no need for greed or hunger...”a brotherhood of man”.

Of course that kind of idealism will get you some unwanted attention.  In the run-up to the 1972 elections,  the FBI assembled around 300 pages of files on John Lennon, part of President Nixon's effort to deport Lennon to silence him as a critic of the war in Vietnam.    In a 2006 NYTimes op-ed piece on a recently released documentary and the ongoing domestic spying abuses, Adam Cohen wrote “ 'The U.S. vs. John Lennon' would be a sobering film at any time, but it is particularly so right now. It is the story not only of one man being harassed, but of a democracy being undermined.”

 So 30 years after his murder, what do you think John Lennon would make of the current American scene?

The growing and seemingly unending sinkhole of the Afghanistan war...

Denying unemployment benefits and blocking a nuclear arms treaty until the richest Americans can have a continuation of their tax breaks...

The State of Arizona cutting Medicaid funds for organ transplants for the neediest...

The hounding of Wikileaks for airing the dirty laundry of US diplomacy...

The dividers and haters and liars...

Strange world and strangely worse than the '60's because back then we could still hope for change.  And there were still people who could make you feel that hope.  Rest gently, John, but we sure could use you now.