The cult who owned me caught on very early on that by writing me out of the picture, by changing the name of the author of discoveries, books, paintings, and songs for instance, they were changing history. I’ve been doing so many things under different names that you don’t even know I was ever there. There was a saying about me that went, “It’s amazing how much you can accomplish if you don’t take credit.” I feel I have to start to take credit because I get the impression people think I’m letting them down. I’m doing all I can do and that will have to be enough. I’m only one person, after all, the odds are one against 100,000 or more, and that’s hardly fair. It is what it is and I do what I can, but without help it hardly seems enough. I feel I’m the one being let down.
I have made some progress toward world peace over the years but the 100,000 people fighting against me have made even more progress toward world turmoil. It’s depressing as hell so I have to remind myself that I’ve done some good. I’ve decided to write down some of the things I’ve accomplished.
Just as a point of reference for you I was five in kindergarten, I turned five in August so I am the same age the whole school year. Add five to which ever year in school I was in, in order to figure out my age. So, for example, my freshman year in high school is grade 9, so add 9 to 5 to get my age. Got it? My freshman year in high school I was 14 for the whole school year. I graduated high school when I was 17.
I remember learning some Latin and I know I took Latin in high school, so I believe I was 14 when I found out if you put ‘anti’ in front of a word it means against. I remember asking the Nun, “If I am against the war then I would be antiwar?” She laughed at me and said, “No, it doesn’t work that way, and anyway, everybody is against war.” I said I didn’t think so. She said, “Oh yes dear, nobody wants war.” I responded, “If that were true we wouldn’t have war.” That shut her up and got me to thinking. I started doing my own poll. I started asking people if they were for or against the war. At the time we were sending troops to a little country in Southeast Asia that no one had ever heard of before. I didn’t understand why we were getting involved in a civil war in Vietnam. I was astonished to find out just how wrong the Sister was. A lot of people were pro-war. (If you put pro in front of a word it means for.) They bought this idea the government was selling called the Domino Theory. I made up my own joke about it. Here’s an excerpt from my young-adult novel Confusion turned to Chaos. My character, Madelyn West, is explaining how stupid the Domino Theory is. This is what I actually used to say to people when they tried to defend the war using that theory.
War is good for the economy, Madelyn keeps hearing. Good the economy? Whose economy is what I want to know? It’s okay to kill ten thousand boys for the sake of the economy? There are more and more people speaking up against the war. There are more and more protests. Madelyn has a lot of faith in these Paris Peace Talks. I want us to get the hell out of there! What are we doing in a civil war half a world away? I keep hearing about the Domino Theory. I don’t get it. When anybody tries selling that Domino Theory I ask, “What do they think, the little countries in Southeast Asia will become communist and then fall over and make such a splash in the Pacific, that it will cause a tidal wave across the ocean and come crashing over here and knock us over with communism?” To which most people just look at me like I’m an idiot. The fact that anybody swallows this Domino Theory is exasperating! Plenty of people do, though, so I’m vexed a lot.
When I was a freshman or sophomore in high school I saw a documentary about the end of World War II. People were holding up their fingers in what we now know as the Peace Sign. It was a V they were holding up, V for Victory, but I didn’t know that. In my young mind I thought it must mean Peace. So I started using it and insisting that everyone around me hold up their fingers for peace. I got everyone to do it. I’m bringing it back now. It’s time to bring it back. Join me, won’t you?
I decided that there should be a sign for peace; one that didn’t have words so it could be used world-wide, so I worked for three days and came up with what we now know as the Peace Sign. I came up with what is now the co-exist bumper sticker. That was stolen from me and it took 40 years to show up and it now has a Satanic symbol as the dot to the I. If you own one turn that dot into a fish or something.
A little later on while still in high school I decided there should be a day for the earth. There was Mothers Day and Fathers Day but there was no day for the mother and father of us all – the earth. So just like that I declared Earth Day. That has also caught on and much to my delight has grown stronger every passing year. They celebrate it all around the world.
Now I want to modify the peace sign by adding color. There are 4 lines representing the 4 corners of the earth inside the circle which is earth. Now I notice the peace sign is sometimes a circle and an upside down Y which is Satanic. Keep it 4 lines please.
Here’s what I think. The circle should be yellow like the sun that gives life to us all. The long line that goes North and South should be red for the color of every human’s blood. The short North South line should be brown and tan for the soil of the earth. The line from the center, where the red and brown meet, to the east should be blue for the water we all need; and the line from the center out to the west should be green for the plants and food we all need. It’s a conglomeration of Earth Day and Peace. It’s a Peace on Earth Sign.
Anti- War
Songs – Michael Row the Boat Ashore, He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands, Imagine, Give Peace a Chance, Do They know It’s ChristmasTime At All, The Little Drummer Boy, Happy Christmas (War is Over) and many others are songs about peace that were written or cowritten by me. I think most – if not all – of the songs about peace in the last 60 years were either written or cowritten by me.
I was very, very young when I began writing songs. Sometimes I cowrote songs and sometimes, as with, Michael Row the Boat Ashore and He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands, I wrote them because I was bored while waiting for a speaker at summer camp. When I cowrote songs I had to stay within the confines of the other person, but when the other person was open to it, as Bob Dylan and John Lennon were, I always wrote about peace.
Advisor – I had been called in at the 11th hour to advise Pres. John Kennedy regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis. What I told them to do may still be classified, but I can tell you this, it was done to avoid war. I remember the General in the room was really POed because he wanted war. General’s will always arrange situations so that war is inevitable. The fact that I could find a way around it made him livid. John Kennedy kept me around as an advisor after that. I was able to help in a few other world negotiations. I’m not sure whether he knew how old I was, but it didn’t matter to him, what mattered was that I made sense. I remember Jack yelling at the General that night saying that I was the only one in the room who was making any sense. That night, I’m quite certain I helped avoid World War III. I spent time with the Kennedys while Jack was alive.
And then, a few years later, while advising Bobby Kennedy I got the world talking about the reality of World Peace. The night Bobby Kennedy was shot was the night he won the California Primary, at that moment in time Bobby had an approval rating of 95% world-wide. I knew while we were campaigning that World Peace was something the entire human race yearned for. I still believe, a half a century later, that that’s true.
Bobby was shot because the people who owned me predicted I would be successful in bringing about World Peace. I was the woman in the polkadotted dress who was seen running from the pantry the night Bobby Kennedy was shot. I was dragged out of there by the man who programmed Sirhan-Sirhan to shoot Bobby. The only way to get me to leave Bobby’s side was to tell me he was dead and that I was going to be next. Sirhan was programmed to shoot me as well, but I was saved at the last minute and so the dream of World Peace didn’t die.
There are just a handful of people who don’t want peace. They fight under the name of the Satanic God Isis. They own the media that shows their vision of the world. A relentless telling and retelling of things horrible and senseless. They say war is inevitable.
Years ago, I wrote with John Lennon, “War is over if you want it. War is over, now.” I can tell you it is that simple. Just before the cult broke up the Beatles John and I were talking about doing the talk show circuit and telling people of our vision to bring about World Peace through song. We’d already compiled quite a nice little cache of Peace Songs that we could tour with and talk about. And it had begun to work so before we could do any talk shows except for Dick Cavett and before we could go on tour the people who are pro-war, the people who owned me, broke the Beatles up, but not before we’d made a significant dent in the idea that, “War is inevitable.”
There are idiots who say I have no dream of World Peace and that I only want people to think I’m special. I don’t think I’m special – that’s the whole point of this. I think anyone who wants World Peace just needs to say so. I’m not special to want World Peace, 99% of the world wants World Peace. You say that out loud anymore and the Nazis in the Tea Party will call you un-American.
George Lucas has credited me with Yoda’s words. Turned out he was taking notes the whole time I was talking while we worked on American Graffiti, and he turned that into the words of Yoda. Many people feel that Yoda felt strongly about peace and harmony. I know I do. I hope we hear more from Yoda in the newest Star Wars movie The Force. And if anyone hurts Mr. Lucas in any way be aware that there will be no place to hide, because the world will seek vengeance. Vengeance is not something I approve of or condone, it is a byproduct of the way we conduct ourselves as of this moment. In the very near future it will not be necessary.
There you have it – those are a few of the things I have done. My brother helped keep Earth Day alive in the early years. And my friends helped get both Peace Signs going (The finger one and the circle one) Thank you.
You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day you’ll join us and the world will live as one.
Add that 40 years ago I negotiated a lasting peace in Northern Ireland. (I’m a Nobel Peace Prize winner in absentia.)
I thwarted a second attack on NYC that was potentially more deadly and crippling the first. (W talked about it in one of his State of the Union addresses. I’m a Medal of Honor recipient in absentia.)
There’s more, I think, because I have to remind myself when I get depressed, that at least I’ve gotten some things done.
I got the Hands Across America thing started. It was my Idea and I figured out how it could be done. Kudos and many thanks to those who participated.
