All We Are Saying Is

all we are saying is give peace a chance,
all we are saying is give peace a chance,

At the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal

Are you old enough to remember the bed-ins staged by John Lennon and Yoko Ono to promote peace.  Their first non violent opposition to the Vietnam war was by way of a bed-in in Amsterdam.  This was followed by a second in Montreal where they invited the press into their room from 9am to 9pm every day for seven days.  This of course made headlines around the world and the media flocked to film and interview them.  See the YouTube video here.

We lived in Montreal in 1969 I clearly remember seeing the News coverage of the body bags and the maimed and hurt young men coming back from this war.  And what has changed in 42 years?

Obviously, the peaceful opposition to the war as staged by these two didn’t make any difference.    Many others staged more violent protests and we know that a whole heap of young men removed themselves to Canada to evade conscription.  What a very evil and bad time that was for our friends in the United States.  And that war as we all know dragged on for a further 6 years until the fall of Saigon in 1975.  This war raged in excess of 19 years and cost tens of thousands of  lives and ruined the lives of hundreds of thousand wounded in the war.  See Vietnam War Casualties via Wikipedia.

So what have we learned in the 42 years since the bed-ins or the 36 years since the ending of that war.  I think the answer must be very little or maybe even nothing.  We still wage war in many corners of the world.  Humans still seem to think that all conflict can be settled by brute force, but those of us who have no part in the decision making that ends in war, know this is not true.

On this eve of 9/11 let us once again ‘Give Peace a Chance”.  Or do you think I am being simplistic to imagine this could ever happen?

“Imagine there’s no heaven, it’s easy if you try
No people below us, above it’s only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do
No need to kill or die for and no religions too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger a brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing for the world
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
Take my hand and join us
And the world will live, will live as one”

© LENONO MUSIC;

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