Marshall Bloom

Hippies to Hit Heavy in D.C.

1967

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WASHINGTON, October 3 (Liberation News Service ) — Something’s happening, and you won’t know what it is, General Jones, because you think that only Angry Mothers and bearded students march and that hippies stay in Haight — Ashbury and the East Village. Look out your window on October 21 and freak out at what will be marching towards the Pentagon:

Not only thousands of straight, concerned citizens but a whole, huge separate hippy, flowery march. Quick! Grab a shot of scotch, maybe even a double shot, general, if it helps you, because you won’t know how to deal with what you’re going to see and hear:

Swammis, Indian men, people with water pistols (passed out free), noise makers, hundreds of skulls on poles, flower banners. And groups. The Jefferson Airplane, Mother Earths, Mad Rivers, Fugs, CIA Change and the Rhinoceros. And thirty theatre groups, including the Bread and Puppet Theatre and the Surrealist Minority—all stopping along the way to do guerilla play-fare.

And what are you going to do, General, when they make the magic prayer and use the magic potion to dye the Potomac RED? Or when the huge California contingent comes in—Wagon Wheels East. Called the Rediscovery of America, their trek across the continent will start on October 12 (Columbus Day, of course) with Indian scouts, Hell’s Angels, motorcycles, cars, junk buses, and the whole bit. And there aren’t going to be any “leaders” or “marshals,” like there will be with the rest of the March, general; so there won’t be any individuals you can order. Abbey Hoffman, who is helping to arrange it, says that the hippy parade will be entirely separate. At 11 a.m., everyone who is at the Jefferson Memorial will just start marching across the bridge.

You know how it’s going to end, general. You know that the PENTAGON is a symbol of evil in almost every culture, and that the only thing that can be done to exorcise the five-sided figure is to form a magic, human circle around it. It will take at least 1,200 people, but don’t worry, because there’ll be many more than that. Guzzle another shot, mutter to yourself that hippies aren’t supposed to be political, and feel what it’s like to be exorcised as an evil spirit, General.

Let’s hope it works.

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Fifth Estate #40, October 15–31, 1967