{"id":6288,"date":"2020-08-24T06:37:32","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T13:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/?p=6288"},"modified":"2020-08-24T06:37:34","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T13:37:34","slug":"on-vortex-50-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/meditations\/on-vortex-50-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"On Vortex 50 Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"<!-- wp:themify-builder\/canvas \/-->\n\n\n<p>In 1970, some freak wrote in a San Francisco underground newspaper:\u201cSo that what you have in effect is a Charlie Manson-Jerry Rubin-Angela Davis-Johnathan Jackson-Bernadette Dohrn-Huey Newton-Timothy Leary-Rolling Stone-monster heading directly for downtown Portland where the American Legion is planning this year\u2019s Victory in Vietnam Parade.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>President Nixon was scheduled to speak at the Legion Convention. Anti-war protesters were going to swarm Portland and battle the Legionnaires. The melee would top the 1968 Democratic convention (riot) in Chicago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To keep the peace, Governor Tom McCall and hippies collaborated to stage the only state-sponsored rock festival in American history. One hundred thousand people attended this free event at McIver State Park near Estacada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There was no violence in Portland. There was a helluva party at McIver Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was called Vortex I: A Biodegradable Festival of Life. It is THE most far out story in American history. There will never be another like it. And it only could have happened in Oregon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just some of the evidence:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>McCall, a <em>Republican<\/em>, faced a tough a re-election vote later that fall. When he approved the festival, he said, \u201cI\u2019ve just committed political suicide.\u201d<\/li><li>The Portland Red Cross and law enforcement agencies gave away illegal drugs inside McIver Park.<\/li><li>The state\u2019s most powerful corporate executive of that era, the Cascade Corporation\u2019s Robert Warren, drove a pickup truck full of licorice out to the park.<\/li><li>Someone brought a cougar on a leash. Someone brought and anaconda that escaped its leash.<\/li><li>The Red Cross and local law enforcement officials dumped drugs in the park.<\/li><li>A very tall and naked African American hot dog vendor in the park advertised by wearing a red balloon over his penis.<\/li><li>Vortex I\u2019s cast of characters, in the flesh and the edges of the story, include: Spiro Agnew, the Rainbow Family, Matt Groening, John Kerry, Lothar and the Hand People, Donald Rumsfeld, and perhaps even Al Franken and Hunter S. Thompson.<\/li><li>At the festival\u2019s end, McCall, visited the park and held hands with some long hairs. They chanted \u201coms\u201d for a few minutes and then recited the Lord\u2019s Prayer.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh there is more evidence, a lot evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just think what we could do in Oregon back then. What can we do today during the crisis of our lifetimes? There is still much to be learned from Vortex. I celebrate it not out of nostalgia. I celebrate it for its unique risk-taking strategy to solve a serious civic problem, a strategy that bucked all conventional wisdom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We could use an idea like that now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1970, some freak wrote in a San Francisco underground newspaper:\u201cSo that what you have in effect is a Charlie Manson-Jerry Rubin-Angela Davis-Johnathan Jackson-Bernadette Dohrn-Huey Newton-Timothy Leary-Rolling Stone-monster heading directly for downtown Portland where the American Legion is planning this year\u2019s Victory in Vietnam Parade.\u201d President Nixon was scheduled to speak at the Legion Convention. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","category-oregon-coast_history","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6289,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6288\/revisions\/6289"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}