Woodstock Again?

Two nights ago I watched the PBS documentary Woodstock. If you social distance long enough you can find some gems on Netflix, Prime, or Hulu! What struck me watching Woodstock was the similarity between that three day event and the weeks (months?)long public health crisis we are now in.

For you millenials who happen to read my blog, Woodstock was a three day outdoor concert, with many headline bands and solo performers. The unique characteristic about Woodstock was that the promoters were expecting maybe 50,000 attendees, but 400,000 showed up. 400,000 young people living on a few acres of land, for three days, without enough food, without enough medical supplies, and with no protection from the weather.

Sound familiar? Sure, we aren’t crammed into a few acres, instead we have our entire nation, from sea to shining sea!  But we were not prepared for this, much like Woodstock organizers were not prepared for their crisis. Many of us do not have enough food, because of the hoarding of others. Medical supplies are in very short supply because no one was expecting the breadth and depth of this.

But guess what! Woodstock proved that if we all work together and take care of each other, we can get through a crisis. There was no violence at Woodstock. There were three days of music and fun and mud…and even a few childbirths.  There was a belief, after Woodstock, that my generation was going to be different than all those that came before.  We were going to put greed aside. We were going to put war and violence aside. We were going to change the institutions of this nation to be sure we all had the chance to live happy and productive lives.  I think, personally, this is when and where my political beliefs took root and why today I still feel the Bern! But, my generation blew it! We changed some things for the better, for sure. But life, fairly quickly, got back to the normal way of doing things. Maybe that’s just human nature? I hope not.

Maybe our Coronavirus crisis is another chance for us to do it right. Have you noticed, except maybe for the hoarding, that people seem to be a little nicer to each other (from a safe distance, of course). There seems to be a little more of “we are all in this together” attitude. Much like Woodstock!  There is a huge economic bailout coming from the government. It is heartening to hear that how that bailout works is, at least in the open, being looked at with an eye on fairness instead of greed.  That would be wonderful.

Millenials, this is your chance! Create a nation that celebrates success but doesn’t villify vulnerabilities or differences. Be a generation that looks out for one another rather than looking down on others. Be Woodstock Nation for decades to come not just for a few days in August.

And most importantly….don’t hoard the damn toilet paper!