April Afternoons will be happening here at MJAO every Tuesday, and is basically a post about anything and, you know some random things as well.
This week's April Afternoons is on People's Park and the violence with the hippies
At University of California Berkeley in April of 1969, there was an empty lot. Many people, including the hippies and students, were upset because UCB had taken the home of residents with eminent domain and demolished their homes on the lot and had not done anything with it. The lot became a junk yard, due to debris, rubble, and abandoned cars that people were leaving there. Outraged at this, the people turned the empty lot into a park, named People's Park. At this time, the Reagan (governor at the time) called UCB “a haven for communist sympathizers, protesters and sex deviants." By May, Reagan also ordered the park to be destroyed and had a chain link fence built around it to keep people out. Upset, the people decided to take matters in their own hands and go against the Reagan's orders. Police were called in and over 128 UCB students had serious wounds inflicted by the police. One student was killed and one was injured. Reagan called a state of emergency and called in the National Guard for a 2 week occupation of the campus.
In anger and revolt against the police, students planted flowers at night. The police destroyed them in the morning. Police attacked several people who were found walking near the park.
The People's Park shooting was one of the most tragic things that happened on the UCB campus and to the hippies, who were about peace and nature.
Source/Citation: "The Hippie Counter Culture Movement (1960′s)." Mortal Journey « Footprints past Shall Determine the Scope of the Journey Ahead. Mortal Journey, 2010. Web. 05 Apr. 2011.
Here's how this works: I pick 3 cities anywhere in the world and post the current temperature right now
57 degrees in Naples Italy
37 degrees in Quebec Canada
48 degrees in Odessa Ukraine
Update: my reads this week were Perfect You and Under The Baseball Moon. More on them later in the week.
I hope you enjoyed my first April Afternoons post!
