I was only dimly aware of this event, an early Be-In, at Central Park in Easter. The timing is right for it to have precipitated The General Collapse. And, not coincidentally, it’s right at this time that Central Park becomes a by-word for crime and neglect and decay and anti-social behavior, including the legendary dangers to young white joggers by the innocent Central Park Five, which precipitated the political career of America’s vilest fascist, the author of our now unstoppable final collapse.

It may have been this — by modern standards — astonishingly sedate and innocuous Sunday gathering, patronized by dancing gents in ties, kids in dress-up costumes, the Usual Faggots, and pretty young girls in jeans, dancing with their weird hairdos — that was the last nail in the coffin. Here Blacks and whites are seen mixing, New York-style, casually, shoulder-to-shoulder! Maybe this was the straw that broke America’s back, and inaugurated five generations of flight to suburbia, sprawl, anomie, fossil fuels, debt, Neo-liberalism, and Trumpism.

Remember: on the East Side of the Park, John Lindsay’s 5th Avenue retro-Rotogravure Easter Parade must have been in full swing. These annual events by the Mayor, featured the UNHEARD-OF, UNREMEMBERED progressive act of closing off the Avenue to auto traffic for pedestrian accomodation. Alright, they were mostly the remnants of the 400 and a few suburban wannabes. But I wonder if this East Side Parade was contrasted with the Be-In on the news, on TV? I’ll hunt for any more footage.