Though the cost was blood, sweat and tears, great advances were made in the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s. The decade also saw man walk on the moon.
However, the '60s usually bring to mind an era of turbulence and violence. America was fully engaged in the Vietnam War. Children were killed in a church bombing. Civil rights leaders were murdered. President John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. Widespread rioting broke out and cities burned. The deplorable condition was put to music in Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction," a song of despair and hopelessness.
The same year that McGuire recorded "Destruction," Jackie DeShannon hit the charts with "What The World Needs Now Is Love." DeShannon focused more on the solutions than the problems. Forty-six years have come and gone since McGuire and DeShannon recorded their big hit records. In many ways America has developed into a better nation. She still has problems, but none that God and love can't resolve.
What the world needs now is love. What America needs now is love. What our communities need now is love. What our families need now is love. And God is love. It begins with Him. He is the source.
How different our world would be if we would determine to love God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. May we decide to try, really try, to treat others the way we want to be treated.
Love - it's still "the only thing that there's just too little of."
• The Rev. Ken Haskins is pastor of First Christian Church in Carson City.
