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Sara Somers's avatar

What a post, Pamela. What a walk down memory lane. I cannot imagine living in the US at the moment. The view from Paris is terrifying.

Back in the day, being a part of was the feeling I remember not what we were protesting. Now, the fear lives in my bones. Are we on the cusp of WW III?

Keep up the great witnessing.

Your friend in Paris

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Pamela Drake's avatar

Boy, I don't know or don't want to. Our No Kings countrywide demonstrations were amazing though. Good to hear from you. Are you well?

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Sara Somers's avatar

I sent you by email photos of the Paris No Kings. 600-1000 people!!! Maybe I have your email incorrect. Send me yours at: maddie6300@icloud.com I'm well, off to the southwest of France on the Atlantic tomorrow for a month of self-imposed writing residency!!!

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Nora Lapin's avatar

Why did you go to SF State rather than Berkeley? That was actually the center of the student movement. I had spent a year at Smith before I realized I belonged at Berkeley.

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Pamela Drake's avatar

I was a working class girl who lived in PA and got accepted 3 days before the semester. I'm so glad I went to SF State which was in fact the center of the Movement on the West coast and leader of the fight for Ethnic Studies during the longest student strike in history.

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Nora Lapin's avatar

The real action was at UC Berkeley where our leftist organization Slate made national headlines and provided a model for college students around the country. As for money, my father had died and we didn’t have any but UC was cheap in those days. Don’t steal the thunder.

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Pamela Drake's avatar

I looked it up Nora. That was an organization before FSM, kind of an umbrella organization for the Associated Students, it had pretty much disappesred by the time I got there in fall of 66.

Our campus was a commuter campus and most students were older, had been to Vietnam but also the Civil Rights movement so they were more about all the off-campus orgs they started and changing the curriculum.

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Pamela Drake's avatar

Never heard of it. All the energy at that time was at SF State.

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Nora Lapin's avatar

Why did you go there instead of Berkeley which was very cheap at the time and the center of the action?

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