"Life Is What Happens To You When You're Busy Making Other Plans" -- Rest In Peace, John

[omega minimo]

“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.”



“The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities
and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer.
It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.”



“My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try
and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel.
Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.”


Letter from Yoko
http://www.johnlennon.com/html/news.aspx



http://www.maebrussell.com/Mae%20Brussell%20Articles/John%20Lennon%20Assassination.html

Mae: Both the date of Lennon's murder, and the careful selection of this particular victim are very important. Six weeks after Lennon's death, Ronald Reagan would become President. Reagan and his soon-to-be appointed cabinet were prepared to build up the Pentagon war machine and increase the potential for war against the USSR. The first strike would fall on small countries like El Salvador and Guatemala. Lennon, alone, was the only man (even without his fellow Beatles) who had the ability to draw out one million anti-war protestors in any given city within 24 hours, if he opposed those war policies.

John Lennon was a spiritual force. He was a giant, like Gandhi, a man who wrote about peace and brotherly love. He taught an entire generation to think for themselves and to challenge authority. Lennon and the Beatles' songs shout out the inequalities life and the messages of change. Change is a threat to the longtime status quo that Reagan's team exemplified.

<snip>

Lennon was coming out once more. His album was cut. He was preparing to be part of the world, a world which was a worse place since the time he had withdrawn with his family. It was a sure bet Lennon would react and become a social activist again. That was the threat. Lennon realized that there was danger coming back into public view. He took that dangerous chance, and we all lost!

The murder of John Lennon is the tragic finale to an entire era, the reminder that once an artist becomes as popular and as political as he was, his enemies will be waiting to make sure his messages never appear again to awaken the slumbering youth.



“Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.”

Rest In Peace, John.


“A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”

“You are all geniuses, and you are all beautiful. You don't need anyone to tell you who you are. You are what you are. Get out there and get peace, think peace, live peace, and breathe peace, and you'll get it as soon as you like.”

[EFerrari]

1. Even after all this time, I can hardly think about this loss.

[omega minimo]

12. It's hard to believe he was only 40

[Captain Hilts]

2. The Steelers playing on television tonight took me back to that night. nt

[ms liberty]

3. K&R - another sad December 8...n/t

[MuseRider]

4. All these years

and he is still having an impact on many of us. I miss him.

I am so happy that Yoko is carrying on the message. It must still be very hard for her. As hard as it is for some of us it must be giant for her.

Bless them both.

[driver8]

5. Crazy story regarding John Lennon's death...

When I was in college, there was a guy who had the pictures of the Beatles up on his wall-- the pictures from the Let It Be album, I think they were. The picture of John Lennon was upside down. I noticed a few other guys in our dorm had the same picture and John Lennon was always upside down.

I finally asked one of them why Lennon was upside down. He told me that a bunch of guys were watching Monday Night Football in a dorm room. The picture of Lennon fell off the wall, and one of the guys put it back up. It fell off the wall a couple of more times and they put it back up. The last time it fell, one of the guys put it on the wall upside down; the picture stayed up.

About five minutes later, it came on the television that John Lennon had been killed.

Every guy I spoke to swore to me that this story is true.

[omega minimo]

7. Yikes!

[omega minimo]

42. What would he say about his own death?

[wisteria]

6. December 8, 1980, one of the worse days of my life. I felt like

I had lost a member of my family. A part of me stopped believing that day, twenty six years ago.

[omega minimo]

8. and yet...

your sig line:

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world" --Anne Frank

:hug:

[Nite Owl]

9. It was one of those times that you

remember exactly where you were. My husband and I were driving to work and heard it on the radio. He almost drove off the road and we pulled over for a while stunned, just stunned and speechless.

[Old and In the Way]

10. We sure could use John Lennon in this world today.

I'm amazed how time as flown by...26 years and it seems like yesterday. Another odd coincidence that the Bush family had ties to the family of Lennon's murderer. Kind of makes you wonder.

[ConsAreLiars]

11. Mike Webb will do a tribute in his next broadcast

http://stream.mikewebb.org:8001/listen.pls

9pm Pacific, Midnight Eastern.

[OneBlueSky]

13. of all the untimely deaths suffered by progressive leaders, I think John's affected me most . . .

more than JFK, more that King, more that RFK, more than Wellstone . . . to this day I'm still not sure why, only that Lennon's death somehow strangled a chord of hope that strummed somewhere deep inside . . . I haven't LOST hope -- but it's sure as hell hanging on by the thinnest of threads . . .

I felt then -- and feel now -- that if they can blow away someone like John Lennon, they can (and will) do away with anyone who gets in their way . . . or who they even perceive as being in their way . . . ("they" being the corporate/government oligarchy that seems to own and run, well, everything) . . . and that's starting to include anyone who disagrees with them, or with the two essential foundations of the U.S. and of international capitalism in the 21st century -- war, and unregulated profit . . .

and unless We, the People, rise up and take back our nation -- and our planet -- the destruction they will reign down on us may very well end most life on earth . . .

and the longer We, the People, ignore the truth that it is corporations and capitalism that are responsible for our impending doom, the less chance that it can be fixed before complete disaster strikes . . .

[omega minimo]

25. Full circle

". . . to this day I'm still not sure why, only that Lennon's death somehow strangled a chord of hope that strummed somewhere deep inside . . . I haven't LOST hope -- but it's sure as hell hanging on by the thinnest of threads . . ."

Well put. The chord has been strumming, strangled, muffled, for 26 years. 26 years that coincided with the Rise and continuing Rule of Reaganism....

John's death came at that turning point, that convergence of major changes that we rail about on DU all the time.

Putting this together last night, the dots connected... the chord unstrangled... Thank you, John.



“The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.”


"The murder of John Lennon is the tragic finale to an entire era, the reminder that once an artist becomes as popular and as political as he was, his enemies will be waiting to make sure his messages never appear again to awaken the slumbering youth."

[Tsiyu]

14. K & R

Thanks, o m

[omega minimo]

19. Hi bhg!

:hug:

[Tsiyu]

28. Hi back!

:hi:

:hug:

[H2O Man]

15. Get out your Beatles/Lennon

albums and CDs, and play the best darned music ever made!

[omega minimo]

22. Once there was a way

Once there was a way to get back homeward
Once there was a way to get back home
Sleep pretty darling do not cry
And I will sing a lullabye

Golden slumbers fill your eyes
Smiles awake you when you rise
Sleep pretty darling do not cry
And I will sing a lullabye

Once there was a way to get back homeward
Once there was a way to get back home
Sleep pretty darling do not cry
And I will sing a lullabye

[malaise]

16. Thanks for this great post

I love Lennon to this day. These days I find myself playing Gime Some Truth with regularity.
Im sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
Ive had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of soap
Money for dope
Money for rope

Im sick to death of seeing things
From tight-lipped, condescending, mamas little chauvinists
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth now

Ive had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of soap
Its money for dope
Money for rope

Ah, Im sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

Ive had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

[omega minimo]

21. goes right to the core of it-- good one to repeat now

:toast:

[dbt]

17. John Lennon was a right bastard, too!

That's the thing I love most about him. He could be mean, nasty, mocking, short-tempered, intolerant, narrow-minded, scathing and thuggish. He could treat women horribly and make a fool of himself in public. But he overcame! He channeled that raw and raging nastiness into the greatest music of my life--probably his, too.

The boy had him some Demons, didn't he? But when you look at the total of his life's work, when you sum him up, you see a being of such Gentleness, Peace and Love.

That's the lesson that John Lennon still has for us all: we can rise above ourselves. We can put down the knives and carry flowers instead--and we'll do better than we ever...um...Imagined!



(Lennon, you Magnificent Bastard, I read your books!)

:hippie:
dbt
Remember New Orleans

[omega minimo]

20. "Genius is pain"

[sendero]

18. In an age...

.. where heros are hard to find, I still see Lennon as a hero. His contribution to our progress as human beings remains significant. May he rest in peace.

[bloom]

23. “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”

Lot's of great quotes there.

[omega minimo]

26. bloom

thanks for sharing your dreams here :pals:

[Richard Steele]

24. My favorite Lennon quote of all time. RIP John. Recommended.

[omega minimo]

27. A lovely truth

I kept hearing it play in my head yesterday, even tho not a lot of news about his anniversary.


:hi:

[mongo]

29. K & R

RIP John.

If only a few of our Dem leaders had the charisma, talent and vision that John had.

[omega minimo]

31. "If only a few of our Dem leaders had the charisma, talent and vision that John had."

indeed

[Number9Dream]

30. Here's a link to a tribute from Philly journalist Larry Kane

http://www.larrykane.com/2006/12/08/a-tribute-to-john-lennon-26-years-after-his-death/

[omega minimo]

32. thanks for that, Number9Dream

:hug:

[omega minimo]

40. "Ultimately, John Lennon was in love with people more than his daunting celebrity persona."

A TRIBUTE TO JOHN LENNON - 26 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH

December 08th 2006 — Posted to News Flash
The following is a tribute to John that I wrote last year on this date, which was the 25th anniversary of his murder. I thought it worth repeating.

The modern celebrity, sometimes a marginal talent, revels as he or she walks the red carpet, an invisible halo of glamour and self indulgence written in their superficial and forced smiles. It is really our fault. We idolize and live vicariously through the famous faces we watch. And today, on the 25th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon, I think about how different he was – how relevant he made himself to a generation of admirers, not by wanting to be adored, but by hoping he would be respected.

<snip>

The irony of his life is that the more successful he was as an artist, the more traps he fell into as a person. Pill popping turned to alcohol and drug abuse, which plagued him until the mid seventies. But unlike the stars who lived in a bubble, Lennon was not afraid to share his private side in public. Almost every song he wrote was about how he was feeling at that time in his life. “I’m loser, he wrote at the age of 25. “I’m not what I appear to be.” When he was 30 (thirty) and totally in love with Yoko Ono, he penned the beautiful “Imagine.” Imagine, if you will, that the song of a utopian world, did not become one of the best selling recorded hits of all time until John was dead because he dared to say, “Imagine no war…. And no religion too.”

<snip>

John was unselfish in his pursuits, giving his music away to other artists, to the detriment of his own career. He was also, delightfully and dangerously, one of the few people I’ve ever known who said in public what he thought in private, a man who spent most of his adult life thinking about other people, whether it was victims of bigotry in his native Britain, migrant laborers in California, the people who had little, and the citizens of abundance who gave little. Personally, he is what I call the poster boy for imperfection. In life and in his amazing after life, we see him as a person whose personal decisions we would want to avoid, but whose personal convictions and search for the truth is something to admire.

<snip>

Ultimately, John Lennon was in love with people more than his daunting celebrity persona. Today we remember him mostly as a man who made beautiful music. Then, at his death, and now, with his haunting music and lyrics, he challenges us to think less about ourselves, and more about the world and the people around us

[hfojvt]

33. I'm certainly not beautiful

I look too much like John Lennon (or so I have been told)

and I'm not a genius either. Sadly, I voted for Reagan that first time, and against Senator George McGovern. Two votes I regret, although flipping them would not have changed the outcome. Plus, although I knew about McCartney, Harrison and Ringo, I had never heard of Lennon until Howard Cosell came on Monday Night Football to announce that he'd been shot, and I was not even watching the game, just happened look at it for a couple minutes while checking on the mail in my dorm. Plus, I really hated "Double Fantasy", at least the songs from it that were played and played and played on the radio.

This is a great post and some interesting quotes. It is too bad if the peace movement relies so much on one man, but it's even worse that we could not get more people stirred up against this war before 2004. :hippie:

[omega minimo]

34. yes you are

:toast:


Maybe not right for the dorm scene........ Double Fantasy was a love letter, a meditation on family love and love between partners. The OP title from one of the songs.

From a male artist, a house husband coming out of retirement, the statement was radical.

It was dreamy, it was radical, it was Lennon.....

[David Zephyr]

35. I love you, John. And "A Working Class Hero IS Something to Be"

I love and miss John Lennon.

I am thankful to have lived during his lifetime.

Wishing peace and love to Cynthia, Yoko, Julian and Sean.

[omega minimo]

37. Well put

:hi:

[NYCGirl]

36. 26 Things I Miss About John Lennon from the Huff Post

Fine tribute.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/turn-me-on-dead-man-26_b_35894.html

Here are my favorite things I miss about John (and there are 22 more in the article):

— Not being afraid to appear ridiculous in pursuit of a good cause

— Always being willing to care too much, rather than too little

— Having the greatest voice in rock and roll

— Embracing each new passion without hesitation, even if it contradicted the one that preceded it. "the way to know God," said Van Gogh, "is to love many things." (sorry, John!)

[omega minimo]

38. beautiful beautiful beautiful

thank you



"He sat alone in the corner of Max's Kansas City, three tables away, when I and my young bandmates went there to hear Bo Diddley one night. We, and the rest of the crowd, left him alone. He was happy to be there. We were happy to have him. For a while.

"And that was enough."


:loveya: :cry:

[omega minimo]

41. "Could somebody like Lennon be a star today? "

3. How cool he looked chewing gum on stage

8. Embodying the very opposite of "ironic detachment," which has been the definition of what it means to be "hip" for far too long (see #7 above)


14. Writing a song about karma - and then having Phil Spector produce it


21. His dedication to honesty


23. Being prepared to go to Memphis and march with the laundry and restaurant workers who were out on strike (as he was reportedly about to do at the time of his death)














Being prepared to go to Memphis and march with the laundry and restaurant workers who were out on strike (as he was reportedly about to do at the time of his death)

[guruoo]

39. Let his voice haunt them...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g90jCmzbSbc

Edit: added lyrics.

So sgt. pepper took you by surprise
You better see right through that mothers eyes
Those freaks was right when they said you was dead
The one mistake you made was in your head
Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?
You live with straights who tell you you was king
Jump when your momma tell you anything
The only thing you done was yesterday
And since youre gone youre just another day
Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?

Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?

A pretty face may last a year or two
But pretty soon theyll see what you can do
The sound you make is muzak to my ears
You must have learned something in all those years
Ah, how do you sleep?
Ah, how do you sleep at night?