The 1960s mantra of “Challenge Authority” was the basis of my political activism. What exactly does “challenge authority” mean? Certainly more than disobeying your parents as a kid. Or calling the police “pigs.” Those are juvenile acts of rebellion. Challenging authority is not an attention getting ploy to display your courage or smarts or just for the sake of a good fight. A key component is resisting the temptation to act impulsively. In short, it's okay to break certain rules. But know why the rule exists, and have a good reason for breaking it. In a serious political context, challenging authority does not have to be negative, especially when done with a clear purpose. Challenging authority is a form of nonviolent direct action. You must know what you want to accomplish—hence the need for focus, confidence, and hard facts. A legal/moral/ethical foundation is a prerequisite for such disciplined non-conformity. The title Challenge Authority: Memoir of a Baby Boomer tells it all. Each of the five chapters contains at least a couple of challenge authority stories. In most cases I still believe my challenge, or at least questioning authority, was justified and the correct path. Politics and humor play a prominent role these stories. Some of the 44 stories include: • I spent 2 ½ years in the early 1970s fighting the Selective Service System (The Draft). • I challenged my first in-laws by marrying their daughter, many said it wouldn’t last—they were right. • I questioned undergraduate professors in their swivel leather “chairs of power” (giving them a leg up in situational power) while the student languished in a rickety hard back chair. (Luckily they were all good people and quickly switched chairs when I asked; them in the student chair and me in in the “power chair.”) • In the late 1970s I convinced the UC Santa Barbara Graduate Students Association (GSA) to adopt an explicit policy endorsing/backing political campaigns and did obtain their endorsement for several political efforts while I was an elected officer in GSA. • I was arrested in September 1981 with 1,959 other people (over a ten-day period) for blockading and unlawful assembly at Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. For months I had trained, and trained others, for this act of civil disobedience through the statewide Abalone Alliance and my Isla Vista affinity group, “Infinity.” I spent three days in “jail” in the gym at Cuesta College, near San Luis Obispo, California. • I challenged the capitalist powers in Santa Barbara by twice (1985 and 1987) running for Santa Barbara City Council as an open socialist. I was the only candidate (out of 16), including several liberals, in both campaigns who openly advocated non-discrimination ordinances to protect the rights of gays and lesbians. • I challenged my own fear of heights by bungee jumping out of hot air balloon on my 40th birthday in 1992. • I was always challenging leftist orthodoxy—even while a committed socialist—until I became a libertarian in the mid-1990s. • I challenged my own sometimes good sense by quitting a well-paying government job in 2009 and moving with Deb to St. George, Utah—best move in our life. Of course, many of the stories are non-political: canal water skiing as a teenager; my attempt to master Zen meditation; becoming a desert rat; and two cat stories among others.