Editing 79-08-A4 (section)

= People's Park I =

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=== Transcript ===
A few weeks ago the press reported that about 150 people gathered on the
campus of the University of California at Berkeley to observe what was called the
10th anniversary of the "People's Park". Nothing was reported as to the make-up or
what was said at the occasion.

At least one of California's largest newspapers, however, printed a piece by
the former owner of a Berkeley book store, Fred Cody. Mr. Cody's article was a
nostalgic memorial to that day, May 15th, 1969, when the several years of campus
rioting in Berkeley achieved a new peak of violence resulting in death for one
person and blindness for another .

Cody mentions that. But from there on his memory seems to have been pretty
vague because his account of that tragic day is not supported by historical fact.

Describing the property owned by the University as a "kind of no man's land
a muddy, junk strewn parking lot", he said hundreds of students and others tried
to beautify it by planting flowers, trees, and so forth. In quoting a professor
as saying this was, "a beautiful example of spontaneous community effort to
improve its ecology", he may have been accurate. There were faculty members at the
time who looked kindly on any effort to disrupt campus and community life.

But then Mr. Cody tells of the University fencing off the property, the
encuing struggle that resulted in the tragedies I've mentioned, the arrest of
thousands and injury to additional hundreds. I don't dispute those figures but
there is a subtle switch of good guys and bad guys in the way the events are
described. Quote: "Police discharged shotguns loaded with buckshot into the
crowd of protestors. Demonstrators on the campus were sprayed with tear gas from
a low flying helicopter." And then he adds that, "the precedent had been sent for
the fatal shootings soon to come at Ohio's Kent State and at Jackson State in
Mississippi."

I come in for some personal attention in Mr. Cody's article. Quote: "To many,
including an angry Governor, Ronald Reagan, People's Park seemed an act of
revolutionary insurrection aimed at subverting property rights. As such it was to
be put down savagely, lest the youthful rebels capture Berkeley and make it a
'liberated zone', a citadel of national youth revolution." He goes on to say the
national guard occupied Berkeley for several weeks. (They weren't there that long).

There is no question but that the riot over the so-called "People's Park" was
an event of national interest. But when Cody refers to it as an almost "romantic
memory" and says it "remains--quietly and stubbornly -- still a symbol of the
city's legacy of unorthodoxy and dissent", he is asking for a rebuttal. And since
I'm out of time today -- the rebuttal will be given on the next commentary. 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.

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=== Details ===
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<TR><TD WIDTH="150">Batch Number</TD><TD WIDTH="150">{{PAGENAME}}</TD></TR>
<TD>Production Date</TD><TD>05/29/[[Radio1979|1979]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Book/Page</TD><TD>[[Radio_Commentary_Books#Reagan.27s_Path_to_Victory|RPtV-448]]</TD></TR>
<TD>Audio</TD><TD></TD></TR>
<TD>Youtube?</TD><TD>No</TD></TR>
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===Added Notes===

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