Saturday, April 25, 2009

Green Issues

For some reason travelling to the great Easter 2009 HCPT pilgrimage
the lyrics of the old Barry McGuire song kept coming to mind:

The eastern world it tis explodin',
violence flarin', bullets loadin',
you're old enough to kill but not for votin',
you don't believe in war, what's that gun you're totin',
and even the Jordan river has bodies floatin',
but you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Don't you understand, what I'm trying to say?
Can't you see the fear that I'm feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there's no running away,
There'll be noone to save with the world in a grave,
take a look around you, boy, it's bound to scare you, boy,
but you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Yeah, my blood's so mad, feels like coagulatin',
I'm sittin' here, just contemplatin',
I can't twist the truth, it knows no regulation,
handful of Senators don't pass legislation,
and marches alone can't bring integration,
when human respect is disintegratin',
this whole crazy world is just too frustratin',
and you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.

Think of all the hate there is in Red China!
Tehn take a look around to Selma, Alabama!
Ah, you may leave here, for four days in space,
but when your eturn, it's the same old place,
the poundin' of the drums, th pride and disgrace,
you can bury your dead, but don't leave a trace,
hate your next-door-neighbour, but don't forget to say grace,
and you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend,
ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction."

The other pilgrim of Barry Maguire generation in the Group also
found the lyrics/tune sufficiently catchy and strangely
relevant to remark on them.

Perhaps as a consequence I am now dispensing with owning a car personally
and instead joining a car club. Streetcar is Wimbledon based
and has many cars in the vicinity. I'll post some more thoughts
in a few weeks time as to whether the experience is positive.

6 comments:

  1. I just wanted to say how much I enjoy your blog which I have only recently discovered. Although I suppose it's not my place to say so, you come across as a pleasant and decent man - and a fellow member of the vanishing breed of Beaumont Old Boys!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Greetings Barnaby Tx for yr comments.

    I guess from yr blog that yr time at Beaumont
    was a bit b4 mine.

    I kept up with the BU
    mainly through HCPT and Lourdes but now also go to Remembrance Sunday Mass at the Beaumont War Memorial.
    The other BU members in the HCPT London Beaumont Region are older than me as well so
    I am now the youngest BU HCPT Group Leader. Most other Leaders in the Region
    are sons or daughters of BU members and are v. impressive.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Jerry [?]
    Yes, I left Beaummont in 1962-63 and have spent virtually all of my adult life in France, first in Lyon and latterly outside Dijon. I love coming (going) back to England which is where my roots are but have rather lost touch with my Beaumont contemporaries. I do actually dwell on this subject a little in one of my posts: http://capeldunn.blogspot.com/search?q=Annual+dinner
    Best
    Barnaby

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Jerry
    Re "About Me"
    I have "done" six marathons, too, though none recently. Two in Paris, one in Neuf-Brisach (Alsace), one in Montluçon and one I can't remember where (which seems extraordinary when one considers how much one suffers at the time!). Recently accompanied my daughter over the last 12 km of her first successful attempt to complete a marathon in Paris.

    Thanks for the information!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I can't even add up! That should be TWO in Neuf-Brisach....

    ReplyDelete
  6. Greetings Barnaby - I have responded on yr blog about running a marathon with one's daughter.

    ReplyDelete

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