Edward Abbey documents his story on being a park ranger at a nature preserve in Utah. The one thing that caught my eye in this reading was how he describes the park and the two "dancing" snakes. He says that the April mornings are bright, clear and calm, which contradicts the meaning behind the animals he describes in the story. I just get this vision of a whimsical, peaceful, dusty, early morning land filled with animals just doing and living as they please. He then goes into how hes watching the snakes wind and unwind from each other not knowing what their intentions really were.
I'm not to sure what this has to do with the nature of our course but in a sense the animals are representing the people (the hippies) of that time and they are just living life as if no one else is watching. The imagery that Abbey portrays signifies what we see in pictures from the '60's. Bright blue skies, a bright sun, calming winds all of which are peaceful and in term of counter culture, signify peace itself.

Voices

In From the Feminine Mystique: The Problem That Has No Name women's rights are brought to the service. It gives a different perspective to the reader, as to what its really like to be a women and how certain women may feel in society. The publication brought to the surface of political, social, educational, and personal issues. Why can't a woman have an education? Why can't a woman run for a position in office? Why can't a woman do more than shove the kids off to school and cook dinner. Although, all of this seems to be a bigger issue then, then it is now, we still face certain factors with each of these issues. For example, Hillary Cliton is a well-respected and well-known politician. The press stressed that one of the reasons she was not elected as president, was based off the fact that she was a woman and that The United States was not "ready" for a woman president. Another example, would be how woman are portrayed on TV. Talk shows like the Tara Banks show, portray women's rights as the most powerful we have to own as a woman. But shows like Wife Swap do almost the opposite. They portray women as the "typical housewife". SOME of the women do all the cooking, the cleaning, and wait hand and foot on the men. Yet the show balances it out with having a different mother come in and show the families that it is okay to take on some of these responsibilities themselves, to create fair and equal-ness within the home. But the negative part of the show it disturbing. The fact that kids do not appreciate what their mothers do for them, or how their husbands only confine them to their certain "jobs" or rooms is a sign of disrespect to women. If there is one thing i would want society to know is that women are just as good as men and we are equally as mentally strong and able just like men, AND...we can look good doing it!

Beating the Draft

David Lance Goines. I consider him a coward, but clever coward at that. I personally could never imagine what it would be like to be drafted into war. But as a teenage college student I feel that it is anyone's civic duty and honor to be drafted and be willing to fight for our country, not matter the circumstances. Goines was just a smart college student that seemed to get into trouble once and awhile, being that he was trying to win the "all-time most civil rights arrests" award. He was eventually drafted and was not happy about this decision. At this point, being drafted and going through the military might be a good thing for him at this point being that he was getting arrested being out on the streets. It was obvious he did not want to be fighting in the war, yet he passed his physical and intelligence tests with flying colors. My question is, is if he did not want to get picked for the draft then why wouldn't he of just failed the tests on purpose so then maybe the military would just skip over him? Instead, he thought it would be a good idea to write letters back and forth to the offices in hopes of them losing his file which ultimately, they did. I actually had to laugh at this. There is NO WAY that that could even happen today. I mean anything is possible, but really? Goines even says himself, "I guess now with everything on computers, this truck wont work anymore. But it might!" That just gives hope to selfish American teenagers to try and beat the system just so they don't have to go and serve for their country.

I have an uncle that served for our country in Iraq two years ago. It was the scariest thing to think about. My dad would talk to my brother and I about the draft and how it just was never something to look forward to, but it could just happen to anyone. Putting myself in Goines' situation, would I have been just as scared? Yes. Would I have bitched and complained? Yes. Would I have thought of ways to get around the system of going to fight for our country. Probably. But the way I was raised is, that you do what you have to do because you have to. Knowing that I could have made a difference in this country would have been enough for me. One person can change anything. It takes one person to build something up and it takes one person to build something down. Because of Goines' story everything is probably on lock down and it would be impossible to get around the system. But if this was to ever happen to you I would hope that you would be PROUD and HONORED to put on that uniform and fight for our country and not take the easy way out.

I think that this whole time and era just blows my mind. The fact that they could have these Acid Tests and no law enforcement did anything about the drugs is just unreal. I understand at the time that it is legal, but why? Kesey ended the last Acid Test because he said there were "bad vibes". My question to him would be bad vibes? They were basically allowed to do whatever they wanted without getting arrested. The only thing the cops came for was because of noise violations and stuff like that.
I also found interesting how a scholar like Dr. Timothy Leary could participate in the whole 'drug scene'. A psychologist from Harvard is using it for study purposes but at the same time was taking it himself to see the 'enjoyment' that the others see. He would just hand out doses of mushrooms like it was nothing not really knowing how someone could react to it. After the mushrooms it furthered his curiosity into LSD. Today if this was done by any unregistered doctor he would probably be in jail for a long, long time. Eventually Leary was stopped by the "Campus Drug Cult", of Harvard University. I also think its funny looking at bands like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. No one probably knew what they were doing behind the scenes until now. People look up to them but are they really worth being looked up to now? Drugs today is seen as such a negative thing, but back then it was all apart of their normal routines. You were cool if you did mushrooms or LSD.