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I'm the young man hanging off of the drivers side of the old  Vortex pickup truck in the photograph that is on this website and in Matt's book. At the time, I was an anti-war activist who had just returned back home to Portland from the East Coast, and heard about the planned demonstrations and also the festival. As a veteran of demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic Convention, as well as events in NY, Philly, and DC, I had developed a very strong non-violent bent, and also  perhaps a altruistic belief that aggressive clashes between opposing parties were not going to effect long lasting change. 

I think Vortex was very Oregon. Despite the political machinations that led to the event, the people that attended, taking a cue from the Family from Sunny Valley in So. Oregon who constructed the teepees, the mud hut, and assisted at the festival, really thought it was more than an alternative frat party with wine and pot. Of all of the festivals that I attended during that era, this was the most peaceful, the most loving, the most spiritual, and the most unified of any event I'd experienced. I walked away with the feeling that if we could all interact like that, at least in part, every day, perhaps we really could change the world.

40 years later, I know that it takes a lot more than that to effect change, but I still hang on to the believe that it comes in small steps, and individual, personal effort.... and I think that Oregonians ( and I live in Seattle, btw) culturally, have more of that feeling ingrained in them, as a culture, than people in other regions.

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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