It was just like the old days. People chaining themselves to things. Draping themselves with rolls of film. Okay, I forget the significance of the film, but it was raining buckets, do you hear me, buckets, when these brave souls heard the call of duty. When you chain yourself to something, remember: no lunch, no bathroom breaks. That’s revolutionary commitment! Chairman Mao would be proud. Oh, wait, that whole Mao thing went belly up.

Sorry, deja vue is a powerful thing. One of the last peace marches I remember going on was organized by the Viet Nam Day Committee. Everyone marched, families—I brought my children, and wore an itchy crocheted miniature skirt. The march was powerful in its quiet size; just massive, the street all people as far as you could see. Outside the Copper Penny (insert your own joke,) police from all over California stood in an unending, slowly moving line, rather like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Who knew what these crazy hippies might freak out and do.

Yet we were just people, families—it had gone that far, the whole city was sick to death of a pointless War. Come together like that, I suppose we did out a powerful scare in law enforcement. I mean, so far we had been a thoroughly unpredictable bunch, inventing faster than socia context could keep up. The police, the Suits, the establishment all much like Great-Aunt Winifred when my father handed her the Roman Candle. “Mercy sakes! ” she cried, as she ran about the yard, not knowing which way to point, “Mercy! Mercy!”

Mostly I find it—I don’t know, is it sad or eminently laughable? I guess you had to be there. Once the Black Panthers armed themselves, those were serious, violent times, when both peace and justice seemed at hand.

Kudos to anyone who manages to find a radical act, really, never mind carry it out. The tree-sitters still sit, halting the University of California in its tracks. And the three brave souls who withstood a really tremendous downpour to chain themselves to the door of the Marine Officers Recruiting Station—there are three, look in the corner. Stand for what you believe in. Possibly even more courageous, the kind of courage so easily confused with the misbegotten impulse, stand when you seem a fool.

Tags: berkeley, black panthers, chairman mao, humor, protest, the revolution, the sixties, viet nam day committee

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