On August 1, 1972,in Madison Square Garden, ex-Beatle, George Harrison, organized "The Concert for Bangladesh," with all proceeds destined for Bangladesh, a suffering area of India.
It was a difficult time in the United States, the war in Vietnam was still raging, and people had grown hardened by the years of blood and violence. Those of us who had grown up watching the daily war horror scenes on the evening news were a touch bunch. After all, our people, most of them only a few years older that we were, were dying every day. The news was right there, photographing and filming the scenes that had became so instiled into our minds that I can still see them, and I still have nightmares about them. Because of this horror, most people were at their very worst, and their very best.
The Concert for Bangladesh was an amazing act of generosity, since all funds were donated to UNICEF's relief efforts to aid war victims in Bangladesh.
English: Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. cl...
Bob Dylan performing at St. Lawrence University in...
English: Bob Dylan performing in Rotterdam, June 2...Our own war-torn country had produced people who cared about the suffering people in Bangladesh. The concert was a remarkable statement about the decency of some of our country's most offensive, who were at that time considered to be "dirty hippie drug users."
This act of caring and kindness toward our fellow humans on this planet made a permanent impression into my value system. It is for this reason that I would place a film copy of the original concert into our county's time capsule.
In spite of the war, the musicians involved in the concert were concerned with the dark plight of a place in India and were powerful enough to actually do something about it. The original charity concert took place long before the famous benefit concerts for Africa or the...