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Show THE ZEPHYR/FEBRUARY-MARCH 2003 wanted to run back to the canyons. American aerial surveillance revealed that the Soviet Union had secretly deployed 100 nuclear warheads in Cuba raising the specter of a nuclear war. Kennedy threw a naval blockade around Cuba. After a week of tense confrontation, the Soviets capitulated and ordered their dismantling. Kennedy lifted the blockade. Those were perilous days. As a news junkie, I became quite fearful for the future, especially of nuclear weapons. France had just exploded her first atomic bomb over the Sahara and joined the exclusive "atomic club” of nations. So began a series of atmospheric nuclear tests that would continue for many years. Our President persuaded the Soviets to sign a limited test ban treaty and the U.S. ended nuclear testing in the atmosphere. We were heartened. c supplied arms to the Vietcong. In a short time large areas had fallen under Viet Cong control. After North Vietnam allegedly attacked U.S. naval destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, Congress passed a Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that authorized President Johnson to “take all necessary measures’ to repel other such attacks. The Marines landed and a full-scale offensive began in June 1965. In the election of 1964, President Johnson was elected president of the United States in a landslide victory in his own right. Goldwater won only six states. Though I found myself increasingly supporting a more progressive agenda, I retained my past political roots and voted the Republican line. Johnson pushed through extensive liberal legislation to build the "Great Society,” including the Medicare program and the Voting Rights Act. He pushed his "War on Poverty.’ I read a lot during those days while boating down the rivers. Henry David Thoreau was a great read. His essay Civil Disobedience describes how he went to jail rather than pay taxes to support the Mexican War and the slave system. His essay also influenced Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil right jeaders with its defense of non-violent civil disobedience against an unjust state despite persecution and imprisonment. Mahatma Gandhi convinced me of the occasional need for non-violent civil disobedience to rectify wrongs when needed. How else to counteract the appetites of greed and power when all else fails? And Ed Abbey continued the course. His Desert Solitaire, published in 1968 is a classic. After writing him a fan letter telling him how much I enjoyed his book, he wrote back inviting me to ruminate over a beer---and we did at Lee’s Ferry, an ideal locale for the beginning of yet another classic---his beginning thoughts of The Monkey Wrench Gang. In 1963, the gates at Glen Canyon dam closed. The water quickly rose behind the dam and began its horrendous act of destruction. Anguish upon anguish! This was the most terrifying and destructive event in all of Utah’s environmental history. To And in 1964, Congress finally passed the Wilderness Act. The long years of labor paid off. President Johnson signed the legislation on Sept 3. The definition of a wilderness was defined as: "A wilderness is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of lt € are untrammeled by SIDE CANYONS going under as the Powell Reservoir rises ~ in 1964 destroy such beautiful canyons was unconscionable. Each day the reservoir rose higher. Beautiful side canyons and grottos, thousands of ancient Indian ruins and writings, Music Temple, Hidden Passage, Cathedral-in-theDesert, and Gregory Natural Bridge all became buried. It was a horrid nightmare---the way they took Glen Canyon from us. As the reservoir waters rose 1 pledged myself never to stop fighting to take down the dam and to allow the river to flow free again. When not exploring, I spent time advocating for civil right causes and opposing the war in Vietnam. ; In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous, "I have a dream’ speech at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. More than 200,000 Americans marched to demonstrate civil rights support. I wish that I could have been there too. His work helped persuade Congress to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination in employment and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited discrimination in housing and real estate. Folk singers Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger had an enormous influence on modern folk music and many of us.. Their "protest songs” are among my favorites: "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" "We Shall Overcome,” and "Blowin’ in The Wind.” Bob Dylan’s songs became symbolic of the civil rights movement and hippie culture. | Native Americans had civil rights problems too: The National Congress of American Indians met in Chicago and declared the nation’s "termination policy” the greatest threat to Indian survival since the 1800s military actions. Utah’s Senator Arthur Watkins had been a leader of that 1953 legislation. In Sh New Mexico, the Indian people finally gained the right to vote in state elections. These man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” rights had yet to be given to Utah’s Indians. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in April 1968 in Memphis motel room. Race riots in scores of cities followed. In the 1968 elections, Nixon beat Vice-president Hubert Humphrey by the narrowest margin after pledging withdrawal from Vietnam if elected. Senator Robert F. Kennedy who served as the U.S. attorney general under his brother’s presidency also ran for president. He became a popular leader of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party. [had a great admiration and respect for him. He was assassinated in June 1968, on the evening of his victory in the California primary. _ At the time, I was taking a boating trip in the Grand Canyon, and after a hard day’s work. My guests were tucked away for the night and all was quiet, I had a desire to check the news. And through the radio earplug, I heard the horrid news that Many of us got caught up in supporting civil right causes because it was the right thing to do. The spirit of the movement took the cause of racial justice and equality to heart, and often to the streets. “Keep-on-walkin” and "keep-on-talkin™ became the mantras of the day. Civil rights demonstrations increased despite many arrests, and Martin Luther King, Jr. led marches in Selma, Alabama and Chicago. He well deserved his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his work for racial equality. Under his leadership civil disobedience and non-violent tactics, like the Washington March in 1963, brought about the Civil Rights Acts of the Sixties. : The women’s liberation movement began in earnest. Mama surely was “leaving home" now. Congress had already voted to guarantee women equal pay for equal work. And feminist Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, which argued that women suffered from discrimination and the illusion of self-fulfillment through their husbands. This led to the formation of the National Organization for Women (NOW), led by Betty herself. Fateful news spread across America marking the horrific assassination of our President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in a motorcade through Dallas, Texas. As the years proceeded, the military step-up in Vietnam grew as Red China 7th Annual CHOCOLATE LOVER'S FLING In celebration of our favorite confection, to raise funds for Youth Garden Project. 7pm to 9pm February 8 Kennedy had just been killed. I could not sleep that night. At decade’s end, did America evolve as a better nation? Were the Sixties the best of times or the worst of times? The questions still rage. For better or worse, this dynamic, controversial, and exciting time has indeed become a part of our history. It was one crammed with expressions of peace and ‘war and love and despair. The Sixties clearly succeeded in changing the face of American society. A Cultural Revolution had indeed taken place. DAVE WAGSTAFF CONSTRUCTION New Construction Re-models "High Quality at a Fair Price " CALL (435) 259-5077 after'5 PM at the MARC Admission $5 or a chocolate-inspired dessert 435.259.2326 530 South 400 East Moab, UT 84532 You say yer husband is a loafa... 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