Who gives a shit about the Weather Underground 40 years later?

[Dr.Phool]

I came of age back then. I was a member of SDS back then.

Things were pretty crazy back during the Vietnam-Nixon era. We really thought that we could stop the war, and eventually we did. In the late '60s SDS split into several factions. Weatherman (before they went underground), The commies (the Progressive Labor Party wing, who kept the SDS name), and the LaRouchies. Myself, I ran off with Abbie Hoffman and the Yippee!s.

The thing to remember is that eventually Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn didn't have to turn themselves in to authorities, but they did. They did their time, and became very productive and law abiding citizens. Which is exactly what you would have expected of them, had they not opposed the Vietnam war. Had they not themselves identified with the people who were being slaughtered every day by a U.S. imperial venture. They thought that the only way to convince the American people what was going on, was to "bring the war home". They were wrong.

They were wrong, and they realize that. They were wrong, and they got pardoned by somebody eventually. I forget who. These old, student activists somehow redeemed themselves. These old "revolutionaries". They now sit on boards of foundations that help poor people. They hold the same ideals that they held back then. Some of the more unfortunate members of the Weather Underground had songs written about them.

Jefferson Airplane wrote about Diana Oughton.

How do you feel to shoot down your brother now
And bury us in cages of cement and steel
What do you see when you look at one another now
Who do you see tell me how do you feel

Sing a song for the children who are gone
Sing a song for Diana
Huntress of the moon and a lady of the Earth
Weather woman Diana

"Diana pt2)

How do you feel as you cut
Down your children now
And leave them dying
On the grass in the sun

What do you see
When you look at one another
Now?
Tell me old man
Tell me where will you run?
Sing a song
For the children going down
Remember - the ones you know
Remember how we danced
And remember what we sang
In America
So many years ago.

[DS1]

1. Hillary Clinton does.

Was grinning all the way through that question.

[roguevalley]

33. Bill pardoned two of them himself. which is worse? knowing someone

who was an asshole when you were eight and being around them 40 years later when they were reformed and doing community work or pardoning them of their CRIMES when you were president. I hope she eats that smirk. The two face.

[nashville_brook]

2. i couldn't live without the Weather Underground!

http://www.wunderground.com/US/FL/Orlando.html


:evilgrin:

[ColbertWatcher]

4. I came here to say this. n/t

[TexasLady]

5. man I bet they got mega hits tonight!

[Dr.Phool]

6. I spend the Whole summer there!

Living in Florida, you gotta.

The only state, where you can walk into a sports bar in June-October, and half the TVs are on the Weather Channel.


But, they took their name from the Bob Dylan tune, "Subterranean Homesick Blues"

"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows".

[Ellen Forradalom]

3. I'm not much enamored of Dohrn and Ayers

A bit too caught up in the fashionable bourgeois revolutionary fervor of the times.

I'll say I'm glad they are productive members of society now and leave it at that.

[El Pinko]

8. Personally, I'd be more suspicious of people who were NOT caught up in the revolutionary fervor...

...there was every reason to rebel against the establishment of the time, and I would be more wary of people who supported it (like a certain Goldwater Girl) than of those who joined the activist movements of the time.


Of course, the establishment today makes makes the 60s establishment look almost benevolent in comparison. There is all the more reason to rebel now.

[Ellen Forradalom]

9. There was all the reason to rebel

but is styling yourself a revolutionary cell the way to go? They were amateurs.

[El Pinko]

13. Youth and excess often go hand in hand...

...I tend to give people credit for their idealism in compensation for their youthful foolishness.


...and an awful lot of people in the New Left movements were not "bourgeois" - they came from all walks of life.

There tactics may have been wrong, but their criticism of US imperialism and economic class tyranny was right on target.

[Ellen Forradalom]

22. People got hurt and died

To no good effect. That's way beyond youthful excess.

[John Kerry VonErich]

26. To be a revolutionary you must die and kill for the cause

Are you willing to do that???

[El Pinko]

27. Did I say *I* was a revolutionary?

I have kids to feed. I'm at most a sympathizer - to a point.

[John Kerry VonErich]

34. Sounded like you were saying it

sorry bout that

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

17. I'm with you, Ellen.

A lot of the "revolutionaries" I knew from back then were more interested in getting laid and spouting rhetoric to do it than anything else. I knew the whole thing was broken when I got to U. of Denver and discovered all the lids of weed that you could find had North Vietnamese flags in them. And for Exhibit B, I give you:

David Horowitz.

[Ellen Forradalom]

19. Oh jeez. David Horowitz

Isn't he a pissed-off ex-lefty who wasn't given the mad props by the New Left that he felt were his due? He's always been a hack, unable to do any useful work for a living.

[El Pinko]

32. "Those people" are now pointing at this thread saying "DUers support Domestic Terrorists"

...And my post above was one of the ones they pointed out as an example of that.

I will point out that I said I think more highly of the people who were caught up in revolutionary fervor - people who rebelled.

In no way did I ever endorse domestic terrorism or the more violent tactics. Sympathizing with a cause and endorsing misguided tactics are two very different things.

But that's how the scumbags are - taking anything we say and twisting it into something completely different.

[Dr.Phool]

10. They were very fashionably bourgeois back then.

And that doesn't excuse them. But it was 40 frickin' years ago.

I know people now, that were SDS (PLPers) 40 years ago, who are now Fortune 500 CEO's.

40 years changes a lot.

[Breeze54]

7. As a 'virgin bride'... they predicted ...

... how many inches I would get and how long it would last! :P

http://www.wunderground.com/US/Region/US/SnowDepth.html">US Snow Depth


Want to know the 'Dew Point' too? :P

[Dr.Phool]

12. And you realized that you had a 9 inch thunmb?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Breeze54]

18. My BS Detector is on RED ALERT, Agent Mike !!!

The "Weather Underground' is now ... :shrug:

To bad you also lost your sense of humor and became vindictive instead.

Who's side are you on anyway? Are you a FRAUD? You sure ACT like one!!

I think you are a fake.

[thereismore]

11. I like The Velvet Underground. Who the hell are Weather Underground? nt

[Dr.Phool]

15. I'm not sure, but Lou Reed without "Heroine"?

Be the best of me.

[struggle4progress]

24. I once put "Janitor of Lunacy" as the name plate on my dorm door ...

Late one night, somebody knocked and asked if I was hiring assistants

[Warpy]

14. Yes, all my old SDS buddies from back then are also

living full and decent lives, active in community programs, generous to a fault. Nobody turned yuppie and sold out for a fat paycheck in a corporate office. A couple turned into drug and alcohol burnouts during the Reagan years, but who could blame them?

Clinton pardoned a couple of the old Weather Underground people who had served their time and who had been only on the periphery, anyway, and you'd think he was letting all the child molesters in the country teach kindergarten. People in their 50s are a far cry from radicalized students in their 20s and the pardons were overdue.

For those too young to have lived through any of it, the Weather Underground were direct action people who built bombs but usually succeeded in detonating them in their own faces. Their crimes were mostly against property and not people. I thought they were nuts back then but I understood the anger and the role direct action plays when peaceful protests have turned ugly due to overreaction by power.

Age might have mellowed the lifestyle and stopped the violence, but their politics haven't mellowed at all. They are living treasures.

[ColbertWatcher]

16. You know what? Back in the 1960's...

...it was considered normal for a college-age person to belong to a "radical" group or have "radical" ideas.

I would be suspect of a college student during the 1960's who wasn't able to experiment with "radical" ideas.

[uppityperson]

20. That reminds me, I haven't talked to old Weathermen I know for a couple yrs

Should check in and see if they're still kicking around.

[TriggerGal]

21. My cousin Mark ...

didn't have to turn himself in either (was living just fine "underground") - but did as well.

Think he may have had a better lawyer - he served no time.

He's also a productive member of society - and still putting up a good fight.


http://www.markrudd.com

http://www.movementforademocraticsociety.com

[struggle4progress]

23. The phone's tapped anyway

Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the DA
Look out kid
Don't matter what you did
...
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows

[Hardrada]

25. I was not WU or PLP but was part of the anarchist group in SDS.

My recollections are to be found in the new book, The Graphic History of the Students for a Democratic Society. Lots of good information from about 20 or so veterab SDSers.

[noel711]

28. I was SDS too, was at the convention when the...

Weathermen walked out on the SDS for being too
complacent.

This whole focus on the past in an incredible smear
job.. has nothing to do with Obama....


Remember 8 years ago, all the crap about
Bush's 'youthful indiscretions' and the attitude was
'boys will be boys..'

Yet, Obama has a friendly affiliation with a man who is
a neighbor in his community, and he is 'stained.'

I'm stunned with the bigotry. That's what it is..
bigotry...

[Perry Logan]

29. The Right are phobic about the 60's. They're scared the liberals are going to start killing them.

[smiley_glad_hands]

30. I don't even know what the hell it is.

Forum for disgruntle weather men and women?

[L. Coyote]

31. Some of the Sixties radicals have held politico jobs for decades.

Some have been in Congress since then!