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1969 Summer SessionG Sakamoto During the recent Ministers’ Summer Seminar, a few, slightly graying friends got together for a reunion of sorts. In 1969 the Institute of Buddhist Studies held its first Summer Session in Berkeley. It was there, 40 years ago, that we met for the first time. Looking back, whether we understood or not, the significance of the tremendous changes that were taking place, we were all, like the rest of the world, carried along by the swift and powerful currents of change. When we came to Berkeley for that retreat, it was only five years since the U.S. destroyer, the USS Maddox, had been attacked off the coast of Vietnam in the Tonkin Gulf. On August 4, what was reported to be a second attack but later concluded not to have occurred, resulted in the passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution which gave President Lyndon Johnson broad authority to commit military forces to Southeast Asia. By early 1965 America was committed to using large scale military force in Vietnam. As America’s involvement in the war deepened, anti-war protests spread across the country. During the 1968 Democratic National Convention 10,000 protesters were met by 23,000 police and National Guardsmen. As the violence continued over several days, Democratic party leaders met to decide their nominee for the next President of the United States of America. Senator Abraham Ribicoff in his speech nominating George McGovern said, “with George McGovern we wouldn’t have Gestapo tactics on the streets of Chicago.” Eight people eventually went on trial indicted for conspiracy and inciting riot. Bobby Seale was tried separately and the remaining seven defendants became known as the Chicago Seven. Earlier that year Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated; King on April 4 and Kennedy was shot on June 5 and died on June 6. Although, the Chicago Seven were convicted in 1970 the decision was later reversed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. As violent clashes over the war continued, an equally powerful cultural current was building. The Monterey Pop Festival drew 60,000 people in June of 1967. The summer of 1967 was called the Summer of Love as 100,000 people converged on the San Francisco Bay Area. It was counterculture, anti-establishment, a self-discovery journey of love and peace. Among the lasting changes of that summer is the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics which continues to provide health care in San Francisco. The Monterey Pop Festival would influence Michael Lang’s production of the Miami Pop Festival and in August 1969 the Woodstock Music and Art Fair which was later known simply as, Woodstock. In Berkeley, Flower Children, Hippies, Free Speech activists, citizens, Blue Meanies, National Guardsmen, Governor Ronald Reagan converged and collided over People’s Park. On May 30, 1969 following days of protests and the death of student James Rector, 30,000 people marched to People’s Park, two blocks from the IBS’s Haste street location where our Summer Session was to convene. I’m sure there were some interesting conversations about whether to proceed with the Summer Session. The tectonic changes in America did not end that summer. The following year four students were killed by the National Guard at Kent State. Soldiers returning from Vietnam were spat upon and blamed for the atrocities of the war. Bearing visible and unseen wounds they returned in darkness. Only recently have we been able to acknowledge the great debt we owe these men and women. Completing the Vietnamization of the war by 1972, US military forces were withdrawn from Vietnam. And finally in 1975 the image of a rooftop helicopter evacuation of US Embassy personnel, as Saigon fell, marked the end of a way of seeing ourselves. Today, I occasionally officiate weddings for the children of refugees who escaped Vietnam. I hear stories from people who fled by boat and by land. Some displaced for years before finding safety and security. People whose value of life I can only begin to fathom. In the midst of these great changes we met as Dharma students. Forty years later, our commitment to learn from and share the Dharma continues to shape our lives. We are scattered across the continent, from Chicago to San Francisco to Olympia and across the Pacific to Tokyo. It was nice to spend an evening together, reminiscing in Berkeley. Here’s some of what was playing on the transistor radio in early 1969: Hair - The Cowsills - 04-69  |