The document summarizes events in the 1970s related to the energy crisis, environmental protection efforts, Richard Nixon's presidency and resignation, and the women's rights movement. It discusses the gas lines and rationing during the energy crisis. It shows photos from the EPA's early efforts to document pollution problems. It outlines Nixon's struggles over the White House tapes and eventual resignation. It also describes the push for the Equal Rights Amendment and growing feminist movement in the later 1970s.

1. Chapter 28
The 1970s: Halfway Out Of The 60s,
Halfway Into The 80s
Harvey Milk

2. The Energy Crisis: An Old War Report From the Front Lines, Filed by Your Fearless Leader
Some of you may be old enough to remember this. I’m fifty-three as of this writing (2020), and remember all too well
waiting in line for 2-3 hours each week to buy gas. All summer long. In the heat. With no air conditioning in my Mom’s
little Opal GT with the fake leather seats, and me, a sweaty little monster slipping around on the seat with a stack of
Marvel comics. It was surreal. I’d hang my feet out the window for a breath of breeze. You could only buy gas on odd-
or even-numbered days of the week in relation to the last number or letter on your license plate, so: on an even-
numbered day, like the 4th, you could buy gas if you had an even number or a letter of the alphabet that corresponded
to ‘even,’ like ‘B’ or ‘D.’
It SUCKED. It BLEW. It was a SUPER-DRAG. It was AWFUL beyond your wildest imaginings and everyone had to deal
with it.

4. The Environmental Protection Agency
In the early 1970s the good folks pushing for the passage of the EPA bill had the idea of hiring
photographers to create a photo-record to show the problems of the lack of federal environmental
protection regulations. Following are some of those images.
Long Island, New YorkIMAGE 7

5. Tacoma, WA

6. Glandon, WV

7. Cleveland, OH

8. New York City – the smog at that time was as bad as it is in Beijing, China, today, where the
people have been wearing face masks on a daily basis for many years.

10. If this sounds familiar in the year 2020, or over the last few years, it should, because
the Trump administration, like the Bush and Reagan administrations before it, can’t
slash enough environmental protections in the name of the almighty dollar, because
for them, the only thing that matters is the next election, and they can’t be bothered
to care about the impact of their decisions for more than about two decades down the
road, and after all, why should they? They’ll be dead then, and the fate of the country,
the world, is really not going to be much of an issue for them, now, will it -- ? Note
that this cartoon is from 2014, and things have only gotten WORSE.

11. Terrific political cartoon by Charles Sullivan commenting on the struggle between the President and Congress over whether President
Nixon would be compelled to turn over the tapes of his private conversations/meetings in the Oval Office. Nixon claimed they were his
personal property under “executive privilege,” and Congress begged to differ, as did the Supreme Court, which ordered the President to
comply, setting up the final act for the Nixon presidency…

12. Richard and Pat Nixon prepare to leave the White House by helicopter, thus ending the Nixon presidency, and
closing a chapter on one of the country’s most remarkable and problematic political careers.

13. Nixon…good guy or bad guy, he’s a very tough case to judge. Yes, he broke laws and tried to cover
up what men who worked under him in the Executive Branch did in his name (but without his
knowledge), but…he also did a lot of good. We would (maybe) not have had the EPA, affirmative
action, loopholes used by big oil closed up, an amendment to the Civil Rights Act to include women
in the non-discrimination clause dealing with hiring practices, SALT I and II, PBS…I mean, c’mon – no
SESAME STREET?! Maybe that’s enough to swing Tricky Dick into Heaven, right? ;^)

16. Betty Friedan stands at the front of a line of ERA supporters.

18. A commentary on the general Republican/conservative resistance to the ERA.

19. The status of the ERA by the time the movement ran out of steam in the late 1970s
as the country’s mood was taking a decisive turn towards the conservative.

20. Even Charles Schultz, the creator of ‘Peanuts’, tapped into the feminist mood
of the times…

21. From this point forward the Slideshare is a work in progress, folks.
Proceed at your own risk.
YFL,
Dave ;^)