Happy Christmas/War is Over
is probably my favorite holiday song - ever. John Lennon's hit from 1972, (before I was born) which I loved as a kid and still find it a great song to reflect upon as an adult. Because, that's what it is - a song to think about...

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young ...

So at work last week a colleague and I were talking about the things that define a generation - you'd be able to answer these questions if you were a Baby-boomer, a Gen-Xer, Echo boom, etc. My generation - some of them might have remembered the death of John Lennon (December 8th, 1980) but I didn't. Though I remember Reagan's near assassination, the Pope's etc., but I missed this one. I remember things like when Ryan White died; Jim Henson death; OJ Trail, Sept 11, etc.

My colleague remembered where he was when Lennon was shot. He was gigging that night at a club in California and someone told them shortly after it happened. Huge sorrow and somberness overcame their group, and by the end of the night many of their friends had gathered at the bar to remember him. A friend of mine, a week later sent me this story about it http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1208-33.htm which was similar to my colleagues.

But our conversation didn't turn out being about the songs, or where you were, but all of the good people that have been killed - intentionally - and what kind of place would the world be if we had their lenses, their influences, their visions to help us understand some of the tragedies that have continued to occur in our lives. I'm talking people like MLK, like John Kennedy, Malcolm X, John Lennon, leaders, artists, visionaries, etc. I'm sure we all have a short list of people whose opinions we would like to have heard or whose vision, guidance or concert could have take me, you, a community, a nation, together thru a struggle.

So Happy Christmas.
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun