{"id":83,"date":"2007-12-19T12:52:32","date_gmt":"2007-12-19T12:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html"},"modified":"2007-12-19T12:52:32","modified_gmt":"2007-12-19T12:52:32","slug":"a-sign-of-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html","title":{"rendered":"A Sign of Hope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\u00a9 Junichi P. Semitsu\" src=\"http:\/\/stb.msn.com\/\/i\/BD\/585903E2E2D40CF52F112C650A7EC.jpg\" width=\"231\" height=\"198\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"https:\/\/msnbcmedia1.msn.com\/j\/msnbc\/Components\/Photos\/060605\/060605_dixieChicks_hmed.h2.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/msnbcmedia1.msn.com\/j\/msnbc\/Components\/Photos\/060605\/060605_dixieChicks_hmed.h2.jpg\" width=\"290\" height=\"197\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For me, one of the most depressing aspects of the past seven years is that it seems so many Americans forgot what they learned in the 60s, and many of those born since did not learn from our experience.  In all too many cases my generation failed miserably in educating our young.  Now they are having to learn the same lesson.  Hopefully they will do a better job of passing on their hard won wisdom.<br \/>\nSome are doing so.<\/p>\n<p>After Natalie Maines observed the Chicks were ashamed George Bush was from Texas, the following trashing of the Dixie Chicks and their music by imbeciles, monsters, Clear Channel&#8217;s corporate goons and the sheep they deceived and led,  proved an early indicator of the totalitarian ethos underlying the evil that masquerades as &#8220;conservatism&#8221; today.  Today any sentient American is ashamed George Bush is from Texas and lives in the US.  But then it took both insight and courage to criticize the criminal sitting in the White House.  I will always remember, for members of my own family accused me of &#8220;treason&#8221; for criticizing him.<\/p>\n<p>So it was with real pleasure when I read  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/storyonly\/2007\/12\/19\/11512\/286\/827\/424289\">today<\/a> in Daily Kos that one of the Chicks&#8217; most visible critics during that dark <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kristallnacht\">Kristallnacht<\/a> event, a young mother shown in the media teaching her toddler son to say &#8220;screw the chicks&#8221; while she helped destroy their CDs, has since grown into an impressive human being, and come to a  very different perspective. And Andrea S. has since shown genuine courage acting on her hard won wisdom.   Perhaps others are learning as well.  Read her story <a href=\"http:\/\/dixiechicks.msn.com\/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5817958\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>She has more balls and courage than any of the &#8220;conservatives&#8221; still defending the war, Bush, and torture.  By far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For me, one of the most depressing aspects of the past seven years is that it seems so many Americans forgot what they learned in the 60s, and many of those born since did not learn from our experience. In all too many cases my generation failed miserably in educating our young. Now they are&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Sign of Hope - A Pagan&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Sign of Hope - A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For me, one of the most depressing aspects of the past seven years is that it seems so many Americans forgot what they learned in the 60s, and many of those born since did not learn from our experience. In all too many cases my generation failed miserably in educating our young. Now they are&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-19T12:52:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/stb.msn.com\/\/i\/BD\/585903E2E2D40CF52F112C650A7EC.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Sign of Hope - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Sign of Hope - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","og_description":"For me, one of the most depressing aspects of the past seven years is that it seems so many Americans forgot what they learned in the 60s, and many of those born since did not learn from our experience. In all too many cases my generation failed miserably in educating our young. Now they are&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html","og_site_name":"A Pagan&#039;s Blog","article_published_time":"2007-12-19T12:52:32+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/stb.msn.com\/\/i\/BD\/585903E2E2D40CF52F112C650A7EC.jpg"}],"author":"Gus diZerega","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html","name":"A Sign of Hope - A Pagan&#039;s Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/stb.msn.com\/\/i\/BD\/585903E2E2D40CF52F112C650A7EC.jpg","datePublished":"2007-12-19T12:52:32+00:00","dateModified":"2007-12-19T12:52:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/stb.msn.com\/\/i\/BD\/585903E2E2D40CF52F112C650A7EC.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/stb.msn.com\/\/i\/BD\/585903E2E2D40CF52F112C650A7EC.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2007\/12\/a-sign-of-hope.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Sign of Hope"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/","name":"A Pagan&#039;s Blog","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Gus diZerega","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2","name":"Gus diZerega","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","caption":"Gus diZerega"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/author\/gdizerega"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}