Peace

Go back nearly 40 years. To December, 1969. To a time where people, like the weather, were cold. Cold about race. Cold about religion. Cold about war.\nBut then, unannounced, there came warmth. There came a message. In eight cities around the world, sprawled big and bold across giant white billboards, were three words that everyone had long-been desperate to read.\n"WAR IS OVER!"\nBut to the authors of these advertisements, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, that was too simple. Not to mention misleading. So they added four more words, much smaller than the others and tucked just beneath them.\n"If you want it."\nAnd just like that, the citizens of New York, Amsterdam, Rome, Tokyo, London and other cities were called into action. Not to neccesarily do anything, but rather just to think and to live just one word.\nPeace.\n"The message is 'We can do it,' and it's still valid," Ono wrote to her fans in 1998 after displaying more of the same ads. "If one billion people in the world would think peace -- we're gonna get it ... Visualize the domino effect and just start thinking positive, that we are all together in this. Thoughts are infectious."\nBut where are we now? Lennon has long since passed, silenced by the blast of gun fire. Wars are still waged, hate is still expressed and there are still many places where peace is not given a chance. Places like Darfur, Sudan where somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000 lives have been lost.\nIt should serve as little surprise that Lennon's face is back on music store shelves. Amnesty International just released "Instant Karma," a two-disc compilation entirely of Lennon music with proceeds going directly to Amnesty's efforts in Darfur. But the question still remains: Why now? Why Lennon?\n"I'd say that John essentially invented the role of rock & roll 'humanitarian'," said Jacobs School of Music Professor Glenn Gass, who teaches an entire course on The Beatles. "Lennon was the first and biggest pop star to go beyond the music itself and put his name and reputation on the line for the cause of peace."\nLennon certainly wasn't the first artist who people looked to for answers and inspiration, but what set Lennon apart was his transformation from a pop star to an "artist" as opposed to simply an "entertainer," as Gass put it. Many artists before Lennon were labeled as revolutionaries or "protest singers," but very few embraced the daunting task of speaking directly to, not to mention on behalf of, an entire generation or categorization of people. A fine example is Bob Dylan's incessant denial of singing "protest songs" throughout his earlier folk-song days. \nLennon attacked his and Yoko's peace initiative with the same ferociousness he took to music. The tail end of the '60s saw bed-ins for peace, the invention of bagism (a form of non-visual, or "total," communication) and, of course, the famous "war is over" messages. By 1972 Lennon presented such a threat to then-president Richard Nixon that the jowly commander in chief tried to have the former Beatle deported.\nBut as soon as Lennon had achieved high status among the world's foremost peace practitioners, he backed off. By 1975 Lennon was out of the music game and refering to himself as a house-husband.\n"He was overwhelmed in the position he was in," said associate history professor Eric Sandweiss, who specializes in popular music, among other topics. "he could have had some real political power, but as far as I can see, he was deathly afraid of it. He even warned people not to listen to him or others as prophets."\nFor Lennon, the time had come to finally realize what many before him had not even dared to approach. It truly takes a lot to change the world, and perhaps no one individual is ever going to be able to do it.\n"(Many rock musicians of the time) were aware of that potential political power but had the sense and perspective to be a little skeptical of that power and back off of it," Sandweiss added.\nIt all gets back to the natural tendency of popular culture -- or perhaps culture in general. In an effort to raise awareness and increase emphasis, people, things and efforts are naturally grouped together in nice little packages to present to the mainstream. That's why every Oliver Stone movie has the same soundtrack and commercials about retirement blare top-40 hits from the Summer of Love. \nSanweiss talked about how music can serve as an electrical socket and "as soon as you have that connection to the past through one channel, it opens reality and a sense of being there for all other aspects of society and culture." He called music one of the many ways to get back to another place and time. But much of what we see today is a hot-wiring attempt by this corporation or that foundation, trying to short-circuit their way to some sense of "real connection."\nSo, as the CDs spin and spout fresher versions of Lennon's work into the air and as the money pours in to an effort well- worthy of the support, let us not forget the most important part of John and Yoko's message in that December of 1969:\n"If you want it."\nBecause Lennon would probably be the first to tell you: Peace isn't purchased for $19.99.