By Dino F. Ciliberti
Oct 08, 2010
Honesdale, Pa.
Imagine if John Lennon were still alive today.
Lennon would have turned 70 Saturday if he hadn't been gunned down in
New York City on Dec. 8, 1980.
But those bullets didn't erase the man's impact and influence that
still inspires millions almost 30 years later.
Sometimes, people become much greater in the afterlife. Their image
transcends time and space; their words sink in as the decades pass;
their reputation gains in our eyes.
John Lennon was more than a member of the world's all-time greatest
music band. He was a symbol of peace and hope. He was a champion of
people's rights and freedoms.
Maybe you could say that Lennon was a modern day Benjamin Franklin.
"Power to the People."
Lennon used his stature to host a honeymoon Bed-In for Peace at the
Amsterdam Hilton in March 1969. The event attracted worldwide media
coverage and another Bed-In later spawned the anti-war anthem, "Give
Peace a Chance," which was sung by anti-Vietnam-War demonstrators in
Washington, D.C.
He was there to befriend two of the Chicago Seven, Yippie anti-war
activists Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman. He tried to help free
anti-war activist John Sinclair, poet and co-founder of the White
Panther Party, with a concert and a song.
Lennon got involved in the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1972, saying he
would side with the IRA over the army.
President Richard Nixon allegedly had the FBI on Lennon and tried to
get him deported because he felt the musician represented a threat to
the United States.
Lennon, if he were alive, would be out there in song and spirit,
fighting the enemy and seeking the truth.
His voice would not be silenced.
To this day, his voice isn't.
It's a shame that Lennon took off time from his career in the latter
stages of his life. While he helped raise his son Sean, his voice was missing.
Once he came back with 1980's "Double Fantasy" to the joy of
millions, the happiness didn't last thanks to killer Mark David Chapman.
But Lennon lives on.
Think of the songs "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance" both
post-Beatles tunes that helped move generations in thinking that
good can always overcome evil.
Both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr spread Lennon's message whenever
they perform. Lennon's stature has grown beyond the body and mind.
It's like he's a shining star beaming his light down upon us all.
Throughout the world, Lennon's 70th birthday is being celebrated. His
widow, Yoko Ono, has picked up the torch of Lennon's peace movement
and taken it all over the globe, even to Iceland where there's a
Tower of Peace.
One hundred years from now, people will still celebrate John Lennon
and his legacy.
Imagine that.
.a
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