Paul Krassner honored by Veterans for Peace group

Denise Goolsby, The Desert Sun
Paul Krassner 3
(Photo: Denise Goolsby/The Desert Sun)
 
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.

 Lanny Swerdlow introduces counter-culture icon Paul Krassner at Veterans for Peace event, Feb. 16, 2015 Denise Goolsby/The Desert Sun

“We wouldn’t be in the mess we are today if we kept on smoking marijuana as much as we did in the ’60s — and Paul Krassner and I were two of the people who never stopped smoking pot,” Swerdlow said as the crowd laughed.
 
Full Article:
http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2015/02/16/paul-krassner-desert-hot-springs/23534777/