Memorial Day Week: The Duke and the People's Park

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Marion Morrison, known to most of us, of course, as John Wayne, icon of the cinematic OId West and WW2, thus making him a veteran of the cinema, but not of the military, but someone had to entertain and inspire the masses during those troubling times, right? (Reportedly, it was his studio who requested (or demanded) his deferment and he regretted deeply having never served). He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on his 72nd birthday, just 2 weeks before his death by lung cancer. Anyhow, let's hear from the man in his own words:

“Life is hard; it's harder if you're stupid."

“Women have the right to work wherever they want, as long as they have the dinner ready when you get home”
“If you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow.”

“If everything isn't black and white, I say, "Why the hell not?"”

“I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”

“I stick to simple themes. Love. Hate. No nuances. I stay away from psychoanalyst's couch scenes. Couches are good for one thing.”

“Healthy, lusty sex is wonderful”

And one that would make Chuck Norris jealous (and thus probably inspire a roundhouse kick): “I'm the stuff men are made of”

In 1969, while John Wayne was busy making True Grit, up in the Bay Area the hippies were under assault of another actor, one Ronald Reagan. The students and faculty at UC Berkeley decided to make a park on campus that would be a free speech area in classic hippie sense: free to listen to music, use drugs, plant trees, and exchange philosophy and free love. Reagan deemed it an act of communist sympathizing and an abuse and misuse of publicly-owned property, and when it became clear that the students would not back down on their plan, Reagan announced, "If there has to be a bloodbath, then let's get it over with." He declared a state of emergency, called in the National Guard and there was a 2 week standoff (starting on "Bloody Thursday") between the authorities and the students/protestors, 13 students were hospitalized with shotgun wounds. James Rector died one week before Memorial Day, despite being a spectator, watching from a rooftop, killed by a group of officers who came to be dubbed "The Blue Meanies" (no doubt named after the characters from The Beatles' Yellow Submarine).
Today the park is overrun by drug dealers and the homeless.
Here you can read what amounts to a blog entry about the event from 1969.