I can vividly remember a vacation that I took to San Francisco in the back seat of a car in 1968. I sat in the back with my childhood friend Cherry Carpio whom I had a love/hate relationship with. We first met when we were 2 years old, and I was wearing a dress with strawberries on it. For no reason Cherry pushed me into the rose bushes. I was dumbfounded by her actions. I concluded, if your going to push someone at least have a good reason for it; otherwise it doesn’t make any sense at all.
So, there we were sitting in the back of the car when one of the adults in the front seat said, ” Let’s drive through Haight Ashbury and look at the hippies, and the homosexuals!” The adult suggested it with such enthusiasm that I thought, “We must be driving through some sort of cool themed animal zoo. So I asked, “What are the hippies and the homosexuals?”
I looked up the word Hippie. It is defined as: Nonconformist, bohemian beatnik, drop-out, flower child, free spirit, free thinker. Oh, and I love this one…freak. Related internet searches are: hippie clothing, hippie slang, hippie graphics. hippie art, hippie sayings, hippie symbols, hippie bus, hippie music. hippie goddess, hippie names, and Dirty Hippie.
Recently I read a news article online about Occupy LA’s arrest and evacuation from City Hall. In the article there was a photo of police cleaning the park wearing the kind bio-hazard gear you see actors wear in those epidemic disease movies. There was a line that read something like, ” We’re really happy to get rid of those dirty hippies, and we really hope they got a flu shot.” Well, I just want to point out to the paper whom published the article that some of the occupiers weren’t just hippies. They were also communists. Call them what you want. In my opinion, not only have the “hippies” changed the world, but they are now commercially mainstream. Haven’t you noticed the tie-died peace sign clothing sold in the children’s department of Nordstrom? Do you think there will be occupy clothing twenty years from now? Will there be jacket’s, scarves. and ski masks with the 99% sprayed on them in Walmart stores across America?
How did the Bourgeois Hippies change the world?
How did the Bourgeois Hippie’s change the world? Once upon a time, a group of nonconformist, bohemian, beatnik, free spirited, free thinking, freaky, bourgeois communists… smoked some pot, took some acid, ate some mushrooms, tripped, tuned -in, dropped out, and became conscious of their lack of desire to push anybody for no reason. Why, you may ask? It no longer made any sense to them at all.
“If people can’t face up to the fact of other people being naked or smoking pot, than we are never going to get anywhere.” John Lennon Penthouse, 1969.
It is undeniably evident that the Beatles created a symphony of sounds that human ears had never heard before once Bob Dylan gave John Lennon a joint. Lennon himself has commented that Marijuana was the inspiration to the backward sound effects in the song rain:
“That one was the gift of God ? of Jah, actually, the god of marijuana. Jah gave me that one. The first backwards tape on my record anywhere. Before Hendrix, before The Who, before any fucker.”
It was the first record with backwards music on it.
It is interesting to note that his creation of backwards music has been suspected of masking satanic messages. The Demon Weed Strikes Again!
John was not only a harbinger of peace, but he was also an ardent Cannabis Activist.
Abby Hoffman shares a bubbler with John. 1971
We had an answer to Britain’s problem. It was to legalize pot and let homosexuals marry and Britain would be the richest nation on earth. It’s as simple as that.”
John Lennon, speaking to the Canadian Royal (LeDain) Commission, December 22nd 1969(39)
On July 24th 1967, the Beatles took out a full-page ad in the Sunday Times with “THE LAW AGAINST MARIJUANA IS IMMORAL IN PRINCIPLE AND UNWORK ABLE IN PRACTICE” in bold, large-font letters at the top of the page. “All laws which can be violated without doing anyone any injury are laughed at. Nay, so far are they from doing anything to control the desires and passions of many that, on the contrary, they direct and incite men’s thoughts towards those very objects; for we always strive toward what is forbidden and desire the things we are not allowed to have. And men of leisure are never deficient in the ingenuity needed to enable them to outwit laws framed to regulate things which cannot be entirely forbidden… He who tries to determine everything by law will foment crime rather than lessen it.”
The ad also contained a petition, which read: “The signatories to this petition suggest to the Home Secretary that he implement a five-point program of cannabis law reform: 1) The government should permit and encourage research into all aspects of cannabis use, including its medical applications; 2) Allowing the smoking of cannabis on private premises should no longer constitute an offense; 3) Cannabis should be taken off the dangerous drugs list and controlled, rather than prohibited, by a new ad hoc instrument; 4) Possession of cannabis should either be legally permitted or at most be considered a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than 10 pounds for a first offense and not more than 25 pounds for any subsequent offense; and 5) All persons now imprisoned for possession of cannabis or for allowing cannabis to be smoked on private premises should have their sentences commuted.”
The petition was signed by the Beatles as well as sixty-one of the leading names in British society, including Nobel laureate Francis Crick (co-discoverer of the DNA molecule), novelist Graham Greene, scientist Francis Huxley, and various Members of Parliament.
On Friday Dec. 10, 1971 John and Yoko hosted the “Free John Sinclair” concert in Ann Arbor Michigan. John Sinclair was a White Panther and Cannabis Activist who was facing ten years in prison for two joints. The following Monday morning John Sinclair was released from prison.
In 1972 John Lennon and Yoko were served deportation papers for his 1968 misdemeanor Cannabis charge in London which resulted in a $100 fine. It was later revealed that the marijuana was planted on him by a cop who admitted that he had framed several celebrities to control those that the government considered to be dissident. Many people believe that John Lennon was covertly assassinated by the CIA’s “Operation Chaos” for Cannabis Activism.
“These pacifist revolutionaries are historically killed by the government… Anybody who thinks that Mark Chapman was just some crazy guy who killed my dad for his personal interests is insane, I think, or very naive”
This is the first real post on Hollywood Hemptress. I bring this up because originally I was going to go in a different direction, but this week’s broadcast of Hollywood Hemptress Hour changed my mind. One of our guests comedian Steven Allen Greene brought his guitar to the show. He improvised a few Beatles songs, and because if this I mentioned John Lennon’s deportation charge over Cannabis. The next day I googled it, and stumbled across an article titled: Was John Lennon killed for his Pot Activism? Upon reading the article, I learned more about The Beatles and specifically John Lennon’s Cannabis Activism. May we blaze today in their honor.
There is a line in the movie Pulp fiction that I have never forgotten.
There are only two kinds of people in the world, Beatles people and Elvis people. Now Beatles people can like Elvis and Elvis people can like the Beatles, but nobody likes them both equally. Somewhere you have to make a choice. And that choice, tells you who you are.”
America's War On Drugs!
Still not sure which one you are? I suggest you smoke a joint with your fried peanut butter and banana sandwich.
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