Is forgetting the means to forgive

The NYT has an article that brings back memories.

The ads are filled with images like Volkswagen buses festooned with groovy graffiti, daisies and other power flowers, peace signs, psychedelic drawings in DayGlo colors and hair, long beautiful hair, shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen (to quote a lyric from the era).

Music, too, is being used to invoke the 1960s. Commercials on television, radio and the Internet play tunes like “Daydream” by the Lovin’ Spoonful (1966), “Gimme Some Lovin’ ” by the Spencer Davis Group (1967) and “On the Road Again” by Canned Heat (1968).

The trend may have started in summer 2006 when Ameriprise Financial introduced a campaign with Dennis Hopper, a symbol of the counterculture for his roles in films like “Easy Rider.” It has since expanded to brands like Geico insurance, Lucky jeans, Total cereal and U. S. Trust.

I am a firm believer in remembering and forgiving, but not so much forgetting, which unfortunately means forgiving for a lot of people, as in the phrase “forgive and forget.”

I bought a VW bus from the special education school where I worked in 1973 (thoroughly pre-owned), fixed it up, and went on a trip to Prince Edward Island with GF. Along the way there were was second furniture in barns to be bought along Rt. 1.
I remember fondly many moments, very good music, and having come from the mid-west being considered a troll for political ideas in 1965 high school.

Tom Brokaw also had a special on 1968 the other day…not a good year. Is it impossible in the general psyche to remember both at the same time? (not in a commercial, of course) And why should we?