The 21^st Century Magazine,
at South Florida's www.miami-dade-online.com.

Before The Road Ended - 4, Randy Burns
"The Exit" in New Haven. The War.

It was during this period in the folk revival that everyone started helping each other out, even when it wasn't necessary. Were you on the road and needed food and a place to stay? No problem, someone was always there to help you out.
The Exit became so popular, that just to get on the staff and work for free you had to put your name on a waiting list. When an opening came, you were called for an interview. By that time my older sister Barbara had been on the Exit staff for a while. She was a part of that truly special time when it was in full swing. All the parties we went to and the friends we made, became just a part of this unusually wonderful experience my sister Barbara and I once shared. We knew then it was a once in a lifetime kind of thing. Worlds like this weren't open to everyone.

Every Friday and Saturday night there would be a staff and performers party. Everyone involved with the Exit could invite their friends. For those outsiders invited, it was considered a very cool thing. Plenty of good music and more than enough to drink, they would go till dawn if you lasted that long. Most people would go to these parties to meet and socialize with more interesting characters than they stood a chance in hell of meeting anywhere else. They became a spinning collage of music, poetry and politics. All opinions were welcomed, arguments allowed.

The atrocity of the war was one thing we all shared. We hated the Vietnam War, but never the people fighting in it. This was the biggest misconception of the anti-war movement ever propagated. They liked thinking we spat on our soldiers when they returned home. Not at all true. It was the government we spat upon and insulted every chance we had, not the soldiers that had to fight that ungodly war. The Soldiers were the ones we were trying to bring home as soon as possible. All of them. Our government still had our parent's generation fooled. Later on though, "Our Country, right or wrong, our Country," was all that they had left to hang onto. I felt bad for them, sure, but they were the ones that kept the damn war going. They even refused to believe Walter Cronkite and he was a virtual God to them.

We were absolutely dedicated to stopping this government from killing its own people. All for the sake of big money and Industry. To prolong the embarrassment of the administration in power when the war was forced to fold. What political party would be holding the bag? It was a long sick game of musical chairs, and our government would not stop the music.

Another assumption that the government once counted on, but faded more with every passing day, was that our hearts were not in this enough to last as long as the struggle may take. They were fools. Did they think we would just go away?

There finally came a time, and it took them long enough, when our parents decided that the war should be over and our boys brought home. I guess even they waited long enough for the government to pull a rabbit out of the hat. They never saw as much as the tips of the rabbit's ears. They decided the show had run too long, had nothing to offer, and there was no end to it in sight. Finally, our parents also decided it was time to stand up and leave the theater. Now the government had lost its own generation as well. For Christ's Sake, man, there was no support left. No support for this war at all! At last, all the people had spoken.

Despite these fatal loses, our government was not deterred from its main obsession. "The survival of this war, Goddamn it!" Not one thought for the young people fighting it, only for the survival of "The Goddamn war itself!" They had to keep it going for a hundred different reasons, many of which we will never learn. One of them had to be, admitting that those stinking commie freaks, all addicted to drugs and screwing anything that moved, had actually beaten them. When this war went down in history, it was possible these freaks would be given credit for being right from the beginning. Just think of that. No short haired, super straight pro-military, what ever we want to do is what will be done- political asshole, would ever be able to handle that. Their pride was the war, and the war their measure of power.

Though it has been quite some time, I wonder what those bastards are up to now? ~

For my sister Barbara. She was there.

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