Forty years ago, nearly a half million people gathered on a muddy hillside in New York to listen to music, take drugs, and skinny dip. The event has been remembered as the beginning of a movement where a disparate group of humans could gather together, overcome obstacles, and share physical and emotional stuff.

Less than a year later, the movement was dead. A violent follow up concert in California dampened the mood, and the murders of four anti- war demonstrators in Ohio strengthened the dividing line. We are still feeling the effects today. Mostly, we fondly remember that a once in a lifetime event happened, and we hope it might someday re- occur.

I'm convinced this won't happen in my lifetime; probably not in the lifetimes of my grandchildren. Our perceived differences are too entrenched, and there are too many obstacles that have become ingrained in our way of life.

If that many liberals planned to gather in one place today, Sarah Palin's blog site would explode with concerns about the hidden agenda of the filthy attendees. She would urge Real Americans to fight against the concert to save the country and get into Heaven. One simple diatribe by Rush or Glenn would produce thousands of gun toting, sign carrying anti- concert protesters who would have internet instructions on how to disrupt the event.

Ann Curry would be on site for an exclusive report about some sappy subject and would find something really icky to complain about. This would result in federal officials arriving in droves to enforce whatever upset Curry and her legions of followers.

During the original event, a Hippie commune called the Hog Farm provided food and medical assistance to the masses. The health inspector was a volunteer who only complained about one big hairy guy cooking hamburgers wearing just an apron. Today, the Surgeon General would require the whole site to be boiled.

There were not enough portable toilets and insufficient water. When one considers the self- absorbed- me first attitude of today's typical young person, how long before someone shuts the place down because the local who offered them a free sandwich wasn't displaying a health department inspection sticker?

The massive traffic jam and local traffic wreaked havoc on the performers' schedule. The opening act, long since forgotten, wasn't on hand to play. Ritchie Havens had to open the show before he was ready and make six encores to buy time. Can anyone imagine Miley Cyrus walking out in front of 400,000 people ahead of schedule with an acoustic guitar and no rehearsed plan?

The musical lineup would have also been markedly different. Record companies and agents would have demanded the inclusion of their second tier performers in order to get the headliners signed. Corporate sponsors would require certain singers' addition, and you know there would have been some American Idol performers. There is some kind of federal law that requires that.

Considering the current talent pool, who would have been standing on stage at nine am on Monday morning playing the Star Spangled Banner in front of a rapidly diminishing crowd? Lil Wayne? Jon Mayer? Carrie Underwood? Can you imagine? Me neither.