What were you doing fifty-five years ago? Studying? Protesting? Serving in 'Nam? Perhaps paying a mortgage and changing diapers? With its election and assassinations, 1968 was a year like no other. After '68 blew it up, '69 set the course of change. Richard Nixon was inaugurated, and Woodstock became a happening. Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, and Easy Rider sought to "shake the cage" of the establishment. John Lennon had us humming "Give Peace a Chance," and the My Lai incident broke in the news. Outlaws became the heroes in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Camelot ended at the bridge to Chappaquiddick Island. That same year, a draftee landed in Vietnam, Tim O'Brien, who later wrote award-winning fiction. We'll explore his novel In the Lake of the Woods (REQUIRED), commonly on college reading lists, delving into the elusive perception of truth in the life of a Vietnam veteran. Additionally, Diamond Facilitator Terry Ortlieb will share with us his remarkable journey obtaining Conscientious Observer status. As Ken Burns states in his documentary The Vietnam War, that period was "central to understanding who we are now." 1969 was a wild ride! Hang on —here we go again!
Required Book: O”Brien, Tim. In The Lake of the Woods. 2006.
