“find the cost to freedom
buried in the ground
mother earth will swallow you
lay your body down” (‘Find the Cost of Freedom-
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young)
At the time, 1971, we could sit in one of the group rooms at Hillman Library at the University of Pittsburgh, pretend to study, or just find some social time with friends and discuss the politics of the day. It was the era of the war in Viet Nam, and phrases like “Domino Theory," and the end of democracy as we knew it were common cause for concern. My generation had lived through “Duck and Cover," if ever the A Bomb was dropped, and we were in school all we had to do when the howling Retention Bell screamed was to duck under our desks and cover our heads. My generation had lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the assignation of a president, we thought would live forever, JFK. Young kids were being drafted, to fight in a war most of us had never even known existed. We were told that freedom was at stake and the United States had a commitment to keep the world safe. Some very brave young men enlisted, deciding it was their obligation as an American to permit freedom flowing. Others protested, asking why this war, and why the urgency. The government, lied, facts if inconvenient, were altered, and no one was quite sure who was right and who’s wrong. So, my generation turned to one another and to musical artists such as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, to help us put words and rhythm to our emotions. Often times in the group study rooms at Hillman Library, someone would bring the albums of protest, and sometimes some of us began to understand democracy is not easy, but at least it was worth the fight.
My two children are young adults, I have no idea what kind of anxiety level I would feel watching my kids heading off to school in the year 2018. It was bad enough at the time my kids were in elementary school when busing became the norm and i had to wave goodbye at the bus stop, hoping that the bus driver was good enough to get my kids safety to school. Now we are discussing metal detectors, shelter in place, teachers with weapons, SWAT Teams greeting the kids. But somehow we NEVER seem to discuss, the real enemy, those PARANOID, so called Patriots of the 2nd Amendment insisting that ASSAULT WEAPONS, are as American as apple pie. How is this normal? Or better yet why has this become normal? What is the cost of freedom worth in 2018? Why is there, even a debate, by angry men and women pissed that the South lost the Civl War, or that Segregation is against the law, or that somehow the freedom of gun ownership trumps the freedom of life! I am proud of the students, faculty and parents involved with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and wish that FINALLY we begin to understand the democracy is not won by weapons of war. The cost of freedom should be celebrated with each breath we take and not buried in the ground!
