This week marks the 40th anniversary of the incendiary Students for a Democratic Society protests and campus-take over at Columbia University, which resulted in a police raid and 712 arrests. Columbia's protest was a galvanizing force in the anti-Vietnam-war momentum of that year, in which students played a massive role.

So why not celebrate... like a bunch of aged hippies? The New York Times profiles the radical reunion that took place over the weekend to commemorate old battle scars and wax crusty nostalgic about "when the police stormed the campus, pounding them bloody with nightsticks and dragging some to police vans by their hair."

But then it was the '70s, Nixon's impeachment kind of lulled everyone into trusting the government again (ish) and political activism jumped the shark. And then the '80s, the cocaine... But, uh, anyway! Somewhere in there, student politics got, like, way less exciting (and way less bloody).

There's a twist, though, that the Times doesn't bother to mention: some current students recently resurrected the SDS in an (half-assed) attempt at also resurrecting the asleep-in-the-water "student movement." It's still too early to tell if one of these kids will be the next one tased at your school's next political rally -- but if you'd like that kid to be you, check out your local chapter. (And bring your Marx and your bandana.)

If you're just looking to learn more about those radical '60s, read ongoing coverage at the Bwog or the Times' City Room. Or commiserate with the Columbia Spectator's Jon Kamran, who thinks those hippies were a bunch of spoiled white kids who ruined things for the rest of us.

Um, dig it!