By Denise Goolsby
The Desert Sun
February 17th, 2015
Paul
Krassner, co-founder of the political activist group the Yippies and
founder of America’s first adult satirical publication, The Realist,
was awarded a lifetime achievement award by Veterans for Peace Jon
Castro Chapter 19 at the group’s President’s Day awards luncheon Monday
at Cimarron Golf Resort in Cathedral City.
Veterans for Peace of the Inland Empire — which celebrated its 10th anniversary Monday — is part of a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to abolishing war.
Krassner, 82, of Desert Hot Springs — who began publishing The Realist in 1958 — founded the Yippies (Youth International Party) with fellow political and social activists Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. He became a key figure in the counterculture of the 1960s was an outspoken antiwar advocate who was on the FBI list of radicals during the Vietnam War.
Krassner is the author of numerous works, including the books,”Pot Stories for the Soul: An Updated Edition for Stoned Adventures” and “Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counter-Culture.”
Lanny Swerdlow, a local medical marijuana advocate, introduced Krassner by way of a witty three-minute riff lamenting the decline of pot use since the ’60s — blaming today’s troubles on yesterday’s activists — seeking respectable careers — who decided to forgo weed.
