We face very seriousness challenges that require much greater social activism. In many ways, the world is now in worse shape than it was in the sixties when the hippies laid out their vision for a new society. We face many of the same problems we struggled with during the sixties. In many ways our task is even more urgent.
 Where are all you hippies now when we need them? President John F. Kennedy inspired and challenged us as young people when he said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” We need to recapture the vision and determination this great Democratic leader inspired in our country. The establishment wants to keep us scared and separated. They are unable to face any dissent or scrutiny without collapsing under the weight of greed and lies. Thanks to the Republican-created “war on terror,” the pressure to conform is even stronger today than during the early 1960s. Young people have become timid in the face of heavy handed threats from the establishment. Our culture needs another major shake-up for freedom and creativity to flourish. Americans are responsible for addressing the problems that the Republicans have inflicted on the world. We need to turn our country around and set a new peaceful course for the future. There are many opportunities for concerned people to make a difference. These include new careers, volunteer service, or political involvement in local communities. The baby boom generation is now in the driver’s seat. We have an obligation to make things happen. We must "Teach Our Children Well." It is good to see how many innovative ideas hippies promoted have become accepted by the broader society. In that respect, the hippies are still around and ready to emerge.Young people need to learn from their parent’s experience and insights. Parents can learn a lot from their kids. Young people also must insist that we leave the world a better place than we found it. Like the Native Americans, hippies believed that we do not inherit the world from our parents, but have borrowed it from future generations. We need to face the fact that inequality is the cause of many problems. Many people have too little, while a privileged few have too much. The whole world is watching us so we better get it right this time. To further conservative causes, our government has spent billions on propaganda about the evils of soft drugs and the unsavory views on the hippy lifestyles. Our society has become so paranoid and polarized that individuality and dissent have been discouraged for decades. Issues associated with drugs, war, inequality and the environment have become so politicized that people are unwilling to take a stand.
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HipHappy Legacy 
