Yes, I think that John Lennon was burnt out not only on politics but being in the public eye in general, and needed the time off to just be a regular person to the extent that a former Beatle and counterculture icon could be. I feel like that was one of the greatest tragedies of his death, that it happened at a time when he finally seemed to have overcome a lot of his past traumas and had built a happy and stable life with Yoko and his children.

I think he would have eventually gotten involved in activism again, and I also think that had he not been killed, the Beatles would have gotten back together sometime in the 1980s or 90s. All four of them had unique creative visions that they needed to express outside of the Beatles, but after a decade or more of being on their own I think they would have been inclined to get back together at least for the occasional concert tour, much like Simon and Garfunkel.

I think that John likely dropped out of political life because he was burnt out, and also because of how many troubles it caused him in his personal life (Nixon, immigration). I think that he eventually would have gotten involved again — indeed, seeing as how he never went back to England even once he could, I’d say he might have eventually become a citizen so that he wouldn’t have to worry about it, anymore. Not to mention, Yoko relaunced her own peace campaign after 9/11 — if nothing else, I think that John would have been heavily involved in that.

I just miss him SO much. I know he would have re-entered the political sphere later in his life. (I took a break for awhile too… I am confident he would have ended his political hiatus.) What a great resource he would have been for our side, as Springsteen and others have been. (sigh) As sexist and nasty as he often was, I miss Frank Zappa for the same reason… one can only imagine what he would have said about the birthers, for instance. (It woulda been a whole song!)

We need to treasure the progressive artists in our midst, they are like precious jewels.

And wasn’t John just the brightest jewel?