by Monica Vereana Williams

Created on: May 22, 2008   Last Updated: June 26, 2008

The hippies had it right four decades ago and now we've forgotten what it is. In a moment of lucidity I've realized that we are moving farther away from their ideals and doing it faster than ever.

I'm sitting at my computer, my new baby son sleeping in his bassinette beside my bed. I'm surfing through Wikipedia and reading the entry for Buffy Sainte-Marie. About halfway through I come across the bit about her appearances on Sesame Street, which I do remember vividly, being a child of the 70's. "Sainte-Marie appeared on the children's TV series Sesame Street over a five year period from 1976-1981, along with her first son, Dakota Starblanket Wolfchild whom she breastfed in one episode". For a moment I'm a little surprised, as I don't recall this scene. Then I question its validity (it is Wikipedia, after all), so I open up a second window and search for it on YouTube (apparently I trust YouTube more than Wikipedia; don't ask why).

My doubt is extinguished. There she is, sitting cross-legged in front of Big Bird's nest while she breastfeeds her son. After explaining what she's doing and why, Big Bird gets the last line, which brings tears to my eyes: "You know? That's nice". How simple. How real.

Then I wonder would that scene appear on Sesame Street today?' Or any show for that matter? I truly doubt it. And even if live on-camera breastfeeding was written into a scene, is there a singer in her twenties with both the star power and the ovaries of Buffy to pull it off? I don't think so. I really can't picture Christina Aguilera breastfeeding on Sesame Street. And anyone who might, Ani Difranco for example, doesn't have the same mass market fame that Buffy had. Folk music has all but died in the eyes of the masses. We may have Ani Difranco and Ben Harper. We may have Jack Johnston and Regina Spektor. But do most of the general public know who they are? Do they have the same fame and popularity as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez? Or Richie Havens and Joni Mitchell? I don't think so.

Then I think back to Buffy. The image of her is identical to the image of my own mother 35 years ago. She wasn't yet 20, with a new baby at home. Sesame Street had only been on the air for four years and she still had notes of her high school folk band singing in her ears. Ringing in the new decade of the 70's to the tune of Four Strong Winds, I'm sure she believed that the world was about to finally embrace the ideals of the 60's and fight against the atrocities of war and the rape of the earth. And now, today, I sit with my baby son and question the same situations, listening to the same songs, hoping against hope that somehow the world will change. The only difference is that I find it very difficult to be as optimistic.

So, the question becomes, why? Why didn't we believe the hippies? Why have we lost our folk singers? Why do we not hear them? Are we too busy to listen? Probably. Were we too busy to listen in the 60's and 70's? Clearly. Could that be why it takes a major politician and a grand PowerPoint presentation to get people to pay attention to what Dylan was trying to tell us over 40 years ago?

Come gather 'round people, wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Learn more about this author, Monica Vereana Williams.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.