Hippies

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Hippies

When people hear the word hippie, they usually think of flower power, peace, love, and drugs. The 60's may have been a far out decade, but what most people don't know is the impact these idealists had on our world during that time.

This generation of people can make almost anyone interested because of the things they believed in, why they expanded their minds and their contributions to today's world.

Hippies were very down to earth people, they believed in peace and love, and hated the Vietnam War with a passion. With these beliefs came Flower Power. Flower Power was a peace movement designed to help stop the Vietnam War. Hippies, mostly young women, would hand out flowers at random to people walking down the streets of New York. They said it showed the love and respect they had for the world, and other people. The purpose of flower power was to show everyone that peace and unity is more important than aggression and dominance. During the spring of 1967, there was a ?love-in? at New York?s Central park. This was a gathering of over 10,000 people wearing exotic costumes, and body paint. They all gathered for a day of music, dancing, drugs, and celebration in hopes to get their word across the world about the war. One person who played at this even was Jimi Hendrix. Soon after there was an even bigger gathering held by these people, it was on a farm around 50 miles away from Woodstock. This was a 3 day gathering where they shared food, blankets, and drugs. Although there was skinny dipping, pot, and acid, there was not a single act of violence, thievery, or fighting. According to Galenet, the stage was built by 300 hippies in exchange for 2 meals a day, for the 3 day period, and all the pot they could smoke. They also hired the Hells Angles as security for this event, which was one of the muddiest and biggest sit-ins ever. With all these large gatherings, their main goal was to get their word out to the world about peace and love among everyone in hopes that the world will follow.

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