And I started jumpin' up and down, yellin' "KILL! KILL!" and he started jumpin' up and down with me, and we was both jumpin' up and down, yellin', "KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!" and the sergeant came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said "You're our boy". Didn't feel too good about it. "
Alice's Restaurant was an instant anthem for all of us in the 60s. It exposed the stupidities of local police activity as well as the absurdities of our military. When the movie came out, it only reinforced our understanding that what Arlo was lamenting was indeed the reality we faced in America in the late 1960s. The war in Vietnam was destroying us from within and we were being told that we were either anti-Communist or anti-American. Every where there were bumper stickers proudly proclaiming, "America, love it or leave it." Much like in today's America, we were given a black or white scenario whereby we were supposed to either blindly follow our leadership regardless of the path chosen, or we were to renounce our heritage. Dissent was not an option. Alice's Restaurant, and other great songs by Arlo, showed us the idiocy of such thinking and the absurdity of its manifestations.
Both Woody and Arlo Guthrie have given America much to be thankful for. They have woven into songs and film what many of us feel in our heart. They have given modern America a rare but true picture of itself and they have done so in a way that allows us to acknowledge our errant ways in a peaceful, perhaps even humorous way. From Woody's staunch anti-fascist stance, to Arlo's anti-war stance, they have both become icons in our country and will forever be associated with the ideals and principles first penned by our founding fathers over 200 years ago. They have become two of our greatest beacons of the American Way of Life.
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