Saturday, July 5, 2014

Stephen Gaskin (1935-2014)

Stephen Gaskin and the Farm in 2:11.



Stephen Gaskin, Hippie Who Founded An Enduring Commune, Dies at 79.  (The New York Times, 7/2/2014)

Not mentioned in the TV snippet.  But where it departed from most of its counterparts was in embracing an entrepreneurial spirit: It created a book-publishing business, marketed pickles and sorghum syrup under the Old Beatnik label, and even dealt in hand-held Geiger counters to measure radiation leaks at nuclear power plants. 

It also spurned insularity for outreach. Answering Mr. Gaskin’s call to “change the world,” Farmies, as they called themselves, built 1,200 houses for the victims of a 1976 earthquake in Guatemala, set up volunteer ambulance services in the South Bronx and on an Indian reservation in upstate New York, and started a school lunch program in Belize and an agricultural training program in Liberia. They were among the earliest volunteers to arrive in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

The Farm.  No relation.  Well, actually, maybe there is.

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