[Mb-hair] Kent State (tangent: the flower power of George (Hibiscus) Harris, 10-22-67)

[Barbara Siomos]

Has anyone noticed the look of utter confusion on the face of the one military fellow on the left as he seems to be reaching for the flower that is already in his gun barrel?

peace,
barbara

-----Original Message-----
From: Sibley Smith
Sent: Sat, 11 Jun 2005 06:20:44 -0700
To: Butler, Michael - HAIR List
Subject: Re: [Mb-hair] Kent State (tangent: the flower power of George (Hibiscus) Harris, 10-22-67)

Thanks, Barbara.  That is a sharper image than the reproduced one I found
and posted.  I now have this page, that you turned us on to, bookmarked for
future easy reference.  He will be remembered forever.

Sib
======================
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barbara Siomos" <barbarasiomos38 at msn.com>
Sent: Friday, June 10, 2005 4:29 PM

Here is the picture of Hibiscus aka George Harris...

http://www.rit.edu/~661www/100/100th-part-1/pages/Boston.htm

peace,
barbara
========================
-----Original Message-----
From: Sibley Smith
Sent: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 10:37

FYI, for those who don't know, our dearly departed Hibiscus (aka George
Harris, American performance artist, 1950 - 1982) was the brother of our own
dear Walter Michael Harris, who's sweet voice is heard in the Original
Broadway Cast recording of HAIR in the duet, "What a Piece of Work Is Man"

It's not the clearest reproduction of that famous photograph, but go to
http://home.sandiego.edu/~hbarns/1967.htm.

Excerpts from that page read as follows:

"The October [22] 1967 march on the Pentagon held the 'largest mass draft
card burning in the history of protest against Vietnam... ."

"The initial rally of over seventy thousand demonstrators outside of the
Lincoln Memorial 'was entirely peaceful and conventional'."  [things did
change, however, from peace to violence as the demonstration wore on]

"... At the major point of confrontation, ... young people challenged
soldiers with flowers, ...."

The photo is also found on the cover of "A Nation Divided" (pub. 1984) from
the Boston Publishing Company's "The Vietnam Experience" series.  The
caption from the credits page reads as follows:

"Cover photo: Before a violent clash between peace demonstrators and
National Guardsmen at the Pentagon on October 23, 1967, a protestor plants
pink carnations in the guardsmen's rifle barrels.  By then, the nation was
begining to come apart over the Vietnam War."

For more about Hibiscus, go to http://www.cockettes.com/, or better yet,
rent the movie, "The Cockettes: The Rise and Fall of the Legendary San
Francisco Theatrical Troupe, 1969-1972," a feature length documentary by
David Weissman and Bill Weber.

peace,

Sibley J. Smith, Jr., Director of Education
Vietnam Era Educational Center at the
New Jersey Vietnam Veterans' Memorial
1 Memorial Lane, P.O. Box 648
Holmdel, New Jersey 07733
1-800-648-VETS
www.njvvmf.org

============================
Date: Thu, 05 May 2005 21:27:34 GMT
From: "Barbara Siomos" <barbarasiomos38 at msn.com>

I tried to find that photo on the internet of Hibiscus (George) putting the
flower into the rifle barrel and could not... I tried for over an hour.. Any
suggestions? I am guessing Life magazine has such a hold on that photo no
one has it.

peace,
barbara

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