Flowers in Your Hair...........

“Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair…….”

Publishing a local weekly newspaper offers me the opportunity to write and Opinion/Editorial each week.

Most focus on very current events and we all know 2015 and 2016 have provided tons of editorial and opinion fodder, but in the June 22, 2016 issue of The Geneva Shore Report my thoughts traveled into the past and and focused with the present……

A popular song from the sixties resonated through my memory banks and seem so relevant to current conditions regarding the substance of mankind.

Enjoy a few excerpts and then read the entire Opinion/Editorial. Really appreciate your sharing thoughts here or on the newspaper site.

Insanity comes in many different versions, manifestations and appearances. Scientists, doctors and social experts are all conflicted about what exactly it is, although there is a huge book that’s put out every few years called the DSM, laying out symptoms, potential causes and treatments for the condition. Some insanity is temporary, but most is not. Insanity is much easier to label once certain manifestations are observed or experienced, than figuring out how to define and understand what sanity is. The most unfortunate part of insanity is that most humans suffering from it either don’t know that they are insane or refuse to admit it…..

Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair is a phrase lifted from a song. The lyrics were written in the sixties to describe visiting San Francisco, a city designated to be the exemplar of a place of peace and love. The tragedy played out at the Pulse nightclub in Florida is partially about the recognized, but ignored, insanity of one member of one culture. Its significance runs much deeper, however. Today mass media’s willingness to broadcast the most bizarre of religious extremism, the government’s refusal to spend money on treating and caring for the truly unwell and insane, the unwillingness of conservative elected officials to reign in ownership of combat assault weaponry, and the public’s tacit approval of gross selfishness and evil, are all complicit in that tragedy……….

The writings of founding fathers and mothers must be brought back to the forefront of the human condition. The music, art, architecture and philosophy of life must be thrust out in front of selfish motivations to combat the blind sociopathic behavior of so many. Go on out there today, embracing such thoughts, and be sure to ‘wear some flowers in your hair’………