#100 / The PHS

Pictured is the edition of The Port Huron Statement that I still have in my library. According to the cover, it cost me thirty-five cents. The Nation magazine has celebrated the 50th anniversary of this important document by publishing a reflective essay by Tom Hayden. He and Richard Flacks are generally credited with authoring The Port Huron Statement, which Hayden now identifies as "the PHS." The Port Huron Statement was a seminal declaration of the "New Left," and an explanation of the aims and ambitions of Students For A Democratic Society (SDS).

I recommend the Hayden essay in The Nation. Even more, I recommend that we all revisit the idea that we can (I would say "must") create the kind "participatory democracy" called for in the PHS. That brand of democracy is definitely different from what seems to pass for "democracy" today.

"Participatory" means that we need to be engaged ourselves - passionately, personally, and permanently.