Renamed, Renewed, and Recycled

It's way past time for a name change of this effort. Originally, I had created the term "Born-Again Hippies" not for a blog title, but for the radio. I was doing a program called, "The Psychedelicatessen" for the community station, playing protest music from the 60s, and I began to get a lot of response from young people. Once, after playing an anti-war song, I pontificated, "Old men make wars for young men to die in," and the phone rang. It was a man in his 20s, choking back emotion, while saying, "I feel like you're the only person on the radio that cares about us." Calls and email arrived from Vietnam veterans encouraging me to continue speaking out about the Bush wars. I began the radio show for fun and nostalgia, but the deeper the Bush administration dragged us into war, the more relevant the old music became. The station's director asked me to stop all political commentary  under threat of cancellation- and I tried. I thought I could get my point across with the music alone, but then Hurricane Katrina struck. I felt that if I had a platform, regardless of how small, and I failed to use it, then that  would make me a coward. So, partly out of the necessity to express my outrage over the drowning of New Orleans, and partly because I was under the delusion that I was becoming the leader of a new youth movement, I went off on the radio- big time. I announced the formation of "Born-Again Hippies" as a plea for the Woodstock generation to reawaken their social conscience and as a cause around which young people might rally. My show was cancelled and I was fired from my free job. I was urged by friends to continue to express myself, and the "Born-Again Hippie" blog was born.

In my career as a musician, I've taken particular pride in some of the more demented band names I've invented. I've had two working bands called The Hired Hands, and Holy Cow, but have also performed under the monikers: Chest Pains, The Moodbusters, The Disco Nazis, Feedbag, and Jerry's Kids. I imagined that "Born-Again Hippies" was clever, and it may have been for a rock band, but not for journalistic purposes. Perhaps my intent would have been better conveyed by a name like Reawakened Hippies or something similar. But in my desire to come up with something catchy, I neglected to consider the implications of the term "Born again" in an opinion blog. I can imagine that these posts would be a great disappointment to someone who did a Google search on the title, hoping to find an evangelical support group for aging acid freaks, and ended up with me. Also, the "Born-Again" part was discouraging potential readers who instinctively believed that this was an evangelical, religion-based forum. So after much consideration, it's time for a blog makeover; including the name, design, and fonts. We even threw in the undercoating for free. In other words, we can pledge to you that the newly christened "Recycled Hippies," will be the same old shit, only more of it.

Not to worry, your favorite Born-Again Hippies posts will remain on the net in perpetuity- possibly longer. I only wish I had thought of this 280 articles ago. Even with a new name, this blog is now nine years old. If I can keep it up a few more years, lord willing and the creeks don't rise, maybe we'll throw a big Bar Mitzvah bash for this bad boy. The funny thing is, looking back over nearly a decade of opinions, the only time I've been wrong was my belief that Al Gore would be president. Of course, that's on him for not running again and instead focusing on getting rich. I wrote an article about it called "Al Gore Broke My Heart." You could look it up. I did accurately say, when the coronation of Hillary Clinton as Democratic nominee was taking place in early 2008, that it wasn't going to happen. Here's another prediction that you can check up on in a couple of years: Hillary Clinton will never be  president. Maybe this deserves an article of its own, but I believe that the nation has moved on. Of course, I eagerly await the election of a woman to this country's highest office- Elizabeth Warren. Two years is a long time for another Hillary coronation, and enough time for other formidable candidates to emerge. Warren claims she will not run. Lots of people have claimed that.

Lastly, I will remain a staunch defender of this president as long as the irrational, untrue, bombastic, and hate-filled remarks of the hysterical right are launched over the airwaves. Fox News and right-wing talk radio peddle fear and hatred, pure and simple. Has anyone been assigned a government-appointed doctor yet? How about the "death panels?" Anyone refused an operation because they're too old or sick? It was all bullshit from the president's political opponents and the Koch-backed Tea Party, who unwittingly did the bidding of the same people who are raiding the national treasury. The Obama administration made the same semantic mistake that I did. The Affordable Care Act was never about healthcare reform, it was about insurance reform. If they had sold it that way, who could have sided with the heartless, soulless, insurance company death panels?

The misplaced outrage over Obamacare helped usher in a whole slate of Republican governors and state legislatures. And what was the result? Local and state governmental focus, across the country, shifted from jobs and the economy to abortion restrictions, relaxation on gun sales, and hampering minorities and the poor from voting. Of the five Republican governors touted as possible 2014 presidential candidates, three are under investigation (Christie, Walker, and Scott), one has been indicted (Perry), and one has been convicted (Bob McDonnell). The same governing philosophy has infected numerous other states, including Tennessee. CSNBC has compiled a list of the worst states in which to live, and the Volunteer State came in at #1. We're #1! Among the reasons listed were the poor health of the state's citizens, including high rates of diabetes and obesity. And guess who's blocking the available expansion of Medicaid to the poor? You got it, Governor Bill Haslam. This means that the state pays more in taxes to subsidize the program elsewhere, and in real terms, poor people will die because of ignorant, spiteful, governmental obstinance- all directed at Barack Obama. The only way to right the ship is to sweep these ideologues from office, but the right-wing fog machine is clouding the picture and causing static in the message. How do you like me so far?