Revelution and Renaissance (ePub)

Why Write This Book?

The Author's Words About his Fascinating Book About A Fascinating Time

I was fortunate to go through grade school, middle school, and high school in Boulder, Colorado in the 1960's. My friends and I personally experienced or observed some fascinating moments that have always provided amusing stories in social conversations over the years. Like most people, we assumed our childhood was somewhat "routine".

But something dramatic happened to me just a few years ago. Within a span of less than 30 days and in two separate conversations, I heard two friends share moments from their youth that made me shudder. These two events came from within our same community but were so polarized in their respective nature that it was difficult for me to grasp at first. These two extremes demonstrated the breadth of turmoil that was tearing at the very soul of our nation during the '60's and '70's.

At one end of that philosophical spectrum was a friend's older brother, who chose to co-found the most radical group in our nation's history. The "Weather Underground" was so obsessed with the need for extreme change in America that they chose to set off multiple bombs somewhere in the U.S. every day for several years. Their vision was to destroy capitalism and start with an entirely new system. It truly was an undeclared war on our own soil, pitting radical young people against the Establishment.

At the opposite end of this spectrum was a personal friend to the former Marshall in our County. My acquaintance recounted to me that this officer of the law was so opposed to the cultural changes sweeping through the Boulder area during that time-frame that he personally killed a few hippies that were a botheration to him. At the time nobody else knew what happened. But that was his extremist response to the onslaught of "change".