Malcom X

Malcom X's speech the Ballot or the Bullet serves an as a call to arms to the African-American community. I thought that it was very similar to the letter Martin Luther King wrote in the Memphis jail. Malcom X is discussing many of the issues that were prevelent during that time. Blacks were treated disgustingly by many whites, and most if not all of their complaints fell on deaf ears. I think that leaders like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King are the people who really created the sixties as an era for counterculture. The blacks were fighting for rights they should have always had andi think that it woke other people up to look at some of the absurd things that were going on in the country. They realize how little control they had over decisions and decided it was time to get that control.

The Psychedelic Poster

Sally Tomlinson's article was an interesting chronicle of the psychedelic rock poster. She did a great job of chronicling the history of rock music at the time, showing how it evolved over the years especially with the growing popularity of the music festival. It is interesting to see how the poster evolved into an art form, which largely goes unappreciated. Today many music poster are simply way to let people know when and where a show will be. In the 60's it was a way to get people to start experiencing the psychedelic nature of the show they were going to see.

Wanted Hip Cops

The wanted poster of Hip Cops is very interesting. For a group of people who had many disagreements with police it is interesting to see that they have discovered the best way to accomplish change is not necessarily through unrest, but to join the group and change it from the inside. The poster also has a picture of a long haired bearded police officer, something that was most likely against regulations at the time. This suggests that those people who look like hippies should apply, even stating that the ACLU will back the person if they think they were not hired because of prejudice. It is interesting that the poster does not comment on the age requirements and the height requirements or that two years of college are needed. None of which are requirements to join the police force today. You would they would fight for the right of the short person, or the fat person, even the old person. It seems that they have missed out on other physical aspects that can create predjudice, focusing solely on race and hair length

Country Joe McDonld

Country Joe McDonald's "I Feel Like I'm Fixen'-To-Die Rag" is a satirical criticism of the Vietnam War. He points out the ridiculousness of the Vietnam war. His matter-of-factness points out in a humorous way, the sad and despicable results of the war. He expresses the same feeling that many people felt, wondering why we were in Vietnam. He then answers that question with what the government told us, that it was all the fault of the communists. I thought it was funny the way McDonald talked about the money made during the war and alluding to the use of nuclear weapons, hoping that of a bomb was dropped it would be droppped by the United States. He also brings up another good point, about how mnay people were gung-ho to send their sons to war, but not as enthused to have them come home in a coffin.

Richard Kampf

Richard Kampf's "Hey Mr. Newsman" is a typical example of the angst felt by many students at Berkley. He focuses on the hypocrisy of people ignoring the protests. It also brings another point of view, was the way the young people of the time protested actually effective at all? It's interesting to think that if the protesters e onh the short hair and clean shaven faces, if they would have been taken more seriously. ON the other hand Kampf's lyrics do show one frustration that the students felt. No one was willing to accept that things had changed, that they were no longer in the fifties. People would have to change the way they see the world, because if they didn't it would fall apart.

Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson’s essay provides an interesting look at the environmental apocalypse that could one day, or at this point has already spread across the Earth. It’s an interesting contrast from the article written by Valerie Solonas. I always find it interesting to see how much environmentalism has been ignored. Carson’s essay could have been written yesterday. It goes to show how there have been only small steps in the environmental movement when there needs to be gigantic steps taken to solve the problems we currently face. His essay makes one point, which tends to get lost in the discussion of the environment. It seems that the idea of green house gases and the like over take the idea that as human beings, we are the direct cause to the current issue with the environment, and we’re the only ones who can stop it.

Valerie Solanas

Valerie Solanas’ article is something of an extremist viewpoint from the perspective a feminist. If it were to be viewed as a satirical work, it might have been taken more seriously than it originally was. It doesn’t read as a criticism of the male dominated world, but as a full on expression of hatred toward the male gender. Some of her arguments do seem valid but they’re masked in the ramblings of a lunatic. She is right that the world is dominated by men and unjustly so. Men do not have anything that makes them superior in anyway to a woman. It is a shame that so many causes are lost in the lunacy of the person leading the way. It becomes so easy for “the other side” to discredit their opponents when their arguments are expressed in the way Solanas’ arguments are.

Tim O'Brien

Tim O’Brien’s passage is a vivid look at the psychological distress a soldier went through during the war in the Vietnam. His description of the dead Viet-Cong soldier provides a terrifying example of the violence that took place. Movies rarely portray the accuracy of the violence and its effect on soldiers. His repetition of the details of the mutilated corpse only serves to burn the image into our minds. We can almost see O’Brien standing there staring at the corpse, trying to imagine who the man is and what he would have become. It shows that war isn’t killing people from far away, never seeing their bodies. The Vietnam War was fought up close, they saw the people they killed. This was something that made it even harder on the soldiers. They discovered their enemy was just like them. They were normal people caught up in a war that neither of them wanted to be in.

Timothy Leary

Timothy Leary's article was an interesting look into the life of the man who brought LSD to the masses. It reads more like carefully plotted prose than a stream of consciousness retelling of what happened. I really found his inclusion of the quote from The Lord of the Rings interesting. That his discovering of LSD was a burden that he must carry, that he and the rest of his crew are the "ring bearers." I really felt that including the lines of Ginsberg's poems enhanced the feeling of tripping on acid. It also added to the article by showing the result of that day from the perspective of someone else. It was very interesting to see his interaction with his daughter. One minute he's feeding mushrooms to his guests, the next minute he's scolding his daughter for not reading under brighter lights. The whole thing was comical.

Martin Luther King Jr.

I think that Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From a Birmingham Jail is a truly unique document. It provides insight into the mind of one our nation's greatest leaders at one the most important moments in his cause. His letter reads more like a stream of conscious effort than one carefully planned and prepared. His thoughts are poured out on the page, thoughts that define the cause he spent his entire life fighting. Throughout his letter he lays out his support. "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." While his convictions are firm, he refused to accept violence as any part of the solution. His nonviolent action was the key to the long lasting success of his cause. The nonviolence according to King did not "create tension" but instead "[brought] it to the surface." His condemnation of violence both for and against his cause is what made it difficult for his opponents to attack him without receiving some criticism themselves. Most importantly though, King expressed his anger towards the ignorance of so many of those who said they were helping the civil rights movement only to be the ones causing it the most harm.

Reaction to John Holmes

I find the journal entries of John Holmes to be very interesting. So many times you hear of what happened to a celebrity through newspaper accounts or an historians hour by hour account of what led to their death. Holmes’ entries do a great job of not only telling us what happened to Kerouac but also showing us. His detailed descriptions showing how he gained weight, how his mannerisms and speech changed give us a much better idea of what it was like to actually be there with Kerouac as his life spiraled out of control. His entries also give us something else that is very important, how Kerouac’s alcoholism affected his friends. His entries show a deep bond between them. Through heated arguments and disagreements they came out as friends, if not better friends than before. His reaction to Jack’s death demonstrates his devotion to his friend. He had to hear the news for himself before he could truly believe it.