2009/07/23

Turning points

A prompt from Pictures, Poetry and Prose cast my mind back over 40 years.
The summer of 1968 on the West Coast, a defining time in the lives of many of us.


After the "Summer of Love" came the time of engagement, moving from individual to collective.


Two local activist publishers in Vancouver were arrested and charged with criminal libel for suggesting an award be given to a local judge who had convicted poet, Stan Persky, on charges of loitering in a public park. Beat poet, Allen Ginsberg and Phil Ochs, still my favourite folksinger, visited Vancouver to stage a benefit for those charged, as well as The Georgia Straight, well known underground newspaper, which faced obscenity and libel charges.


The concert opened with Phil, fresh from seeing democracy die at the Democratic Convention in Chicago, singing "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore."


Some of us still aren't.

2 comments:

Canadian Pragmatist said...

So, are you writing the first thoughts that come to your mind when you think back to that, or are you pretending to do so?

http://inspiteiwrite.blogspot.com/

DCW said...

CanPrag,

Not first thoughts as in something that has never occurred to me before.

There are thoughts and feelings of a consistent tone that return whenever something takes me back to that period.

FCW

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