C.B. Murphy  .:. Writer

Letter to the Editor, published in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL 07-18-07

As a recovering hippie who reads The Wall Street Journal (apparently there are a few of us out here), I felt one perspective was missing from the Ted Nugent discussion (Letters, July 14).

The fact that Mr. Nugent remains controversial (as the stream of letters indicates) cuts to the core of the “hippie paradox”: How did our peace and love (and freedom, ostensibly) generation end up spawning the legacy of political correctness? The truth is that our generation, especially the hippies, were intolerant of controversy and distrustful of diverse opinion from the beginning. When it came from “straight people” (judged primarily by style and shopping venues) it was easy to identify and ridicule. When it came from one who looked like us, especially a rock musician, the backlash was impassioned and unrelenting.

C.B. Murphy
Marine on Saint Croix, Minn.