What is the story you want to pass on to your children and their children?
Yesterday, on the fifty-fourth anniversary of the Kent State murders, I posted on Facebook and LinkedIn about the comparisons between campus protests then and now. Two weeks to the day after the four murders, on May 18, 1970, I became one of 132 students arrested at the Michigan State University student union during a peaceful discussion on racism.
I was the first one arrested because I was standing closest to the door when the arrests began. I was the only one thrown into solitary confinement because I refused to sign my fingerprints. The event led directly to my dropping out of college and becoming part of the underground press, the independent, noncorporate, antiwar press.
My four-volume Voices from the Underground Series is a collection of insider histories of individual underground papers from all over the country. They capture and preserve the many voices of what was known as the counterculture.
Today, at least ten contributors are no longer living—but their stories are.
What is the story you want to pass on to your children and their children? Only you can preserve your legacy.
On Saturday, May 18, from 1 to 3 p.m., I will be talking about writing to preserve your legacy at Brewed Awakenings in Saline, Michigan, at 7025 East Michigan Avenue #M.
Please join me.
If you were part of the Vietnam era or any other era, you’ve got a story to tell. Let’s talk.
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Ken Wachsberger is a long-time author, editor, educator, and book coach, as well as a recognized historian of the Lansing-area and nationwide underground press from the Vietnam era. His latest book, You’ve Got the Time: How to Write and Publish That Book in You, was just released in its second edition and will be available at Brewed Awakenings.
