The U.S. vs. Jonh Lennon - Colin McGuire
This past week’s lecture was by far my favorite as to date. The video and lecture were the most interesting to me so far. In this week’s lecture we discussed how the 1960’s were a time of “movement” and that the ‘60’s were a leftover of World War II ideologies. This week’s video “The U.S. vs. John Lennon” was very educational, as I was not too familiar with this subject. I was blown away with the impact that this previous Beatle had on politics and the American population. John Lennon realized the power he possessed as a high profile figure and embraced its possibilities. During this time period, the Vietnam War was one of the main focuses in the media. Popular majority did not accept the Vietnam War. Most Americans did not agree with the grounds on which the war was being fought. No one was sure who the “true” enemy was and had trouble supporting the war due to the fact that there was no “Pearl Harbor” or “9/11” that started it. The Vietnam War divided the country nearly as severely as the Civil War. As an antagonist of the war John Lennon took a stand and did all he could to end the war and being our troops home. Of all the antiwar propaganda he created, my favorite was his song “Give Peace a Chance.” This song became the national anthem of the antiwar movement. Soon, Nixon and the FBI were concerned with the amount of support and influence Lennon had over the population and the antiwar movement. A quote from the movie, “John Lennon was a born enemy of anyone who governed the United States” explains it all. His phones were tapped and his every move was closely followed. They quickly found a loophole and tried to get Lennon deported, in which they greatly failed. Lennon’s efforts eventually did not cause the war to end or make any changes, but did have an impact on the community with his genius and creative protests including “bed peace” and “the war is over, if you want it.” And to end with another quote that had an impact on me was from Yoko Ono, “I think they tried to kill him, but his message lives on.”