I was delighted to read the message posted by 19-year-old Matt Bleyle, but must take issue with one thing he said:

"He was alive and active during an era of change **that never changed anything** [emphasis mine] and he killed himself when the era had died."

Yeah, the highest ideals and most grandiose dreams of the 60s certainly fell short of coming completely true, but don't kid yourself -- the world began to change much more quickly back then than it ever had before, and the accelerating pace of change hasn't stopped since.

Of course, you weren't alive then -- or beforehand -- so perhaps there's no way you can imagine what it was really like in the bad old days. But please consider this: if the so-called "revolution" of the 1960s hadn't had *some* effect, you would be subject to military conscription today, and huge numbers of young men your age (if not you yourself) would be at risk of their lives in the Middle East, right now. Do you have any doubt that the powers-that-be would show any particular mercy if they still had access to a continuing supply of involuntary cannon fodder?

We all owe a thank-you to artists like Phil Ochs who gave public voice to new ideas and attitudes, subversive if not revolutionary, and (even moreso) to the countless little-known individuals who followed their consciences to jail or to exile in the hard-fought and eventually successful campaign against the draft.