Imagine-Across the Universe, Reagan, Gorbachev, Rock and Roll and the fall of the Soviet Empire

Today is the anniversary of former Beatle, John Lennon’s death, ironically, a week after the anniversary of George’s death. In remembrance, I thought to add the trailer to the new movie, “Across the Universe”. I am not quite sure what’s the haps with this new movie: looks like a musical with Beatles tunes, and its’ probably one of those flicks you either love or hate, with no in between. That being said, I plan on checking it out this holiday season.

The Legacy
I was chatting with a red-rider friend of mine the other day and he made the remark, “Reagan won the Cold War between the US and the USSR”. To which, I must admit Reagan did play a part (as did the other presidents between Truman and Ronald Reagan) in stopping the spread of Communism. But there are other key players who led to the end of the Soviet Empire: Pope John Paul, Mikhail Gorbachev (probably the most influential leader with his granting of perestroika and glasnost) and of course, Rock and Roll. Indeed, the latter doesn’t seem to get the recognition as being a catalyst to help bring down the Iron Curtain, but when young kids in the Soviet bloc could tune their radios to the BBC and hear the latest Beatles, Credence, Stones, etc. a changing movement was happening, just as it was in the “free-world”. Which is something the “squares” just don’t get, change is bigger than one person, change takes sacrifice and an open-mind to change.

I was giving points to my sister Dani as I proofread her paper on interestingly enough, World Peace and one of the things I thought she needed to address was the universal characteristics of man-kind. As an example, I reminded her of the movie, The Long Way Around with Ewan McGregor, in which McGregor and his comrade “Charlie” ride their BMW motorbikes from England across Europe, through Asia, grab a plane to Alaska from Russia and then ride through Canada, and across the US arriving in NYC. And if there is anything that you should learn from this movie (other than the roads in Russia are rubbish and that America has the most dangerous roads in the world) is that the people across the globe are pretty much the same. We talked about the recent accord at the Annapolis Peace Talks (despite the past failures) to bring peace to the Middle-East between the Palestinians and the Israelis. And then she asked me the million-dollar question: what would it take to a lasting peace? My answer: for someone to give it a chance.