tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post3090803839167358559..comments2024-01-08T04:16:25.601-08:00Comments on Ché (What You Call Your) Pasa: On Effective Resistance -- and Abbie HoffmanChé Pasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926630891287949373noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post-42882481294457699632010-07-09T11:59:40.160-07:002010-07-09T11:59:40.160-07:00Steve,
Thanks for your kind comment.
I hope yo...Steve, <br /><br />Thanks for your kind comment. <br /><br />I hope you'll be willing to open up about that part of your life when the time is right. It has been really hard for so many of "our generation" to look back at what really happened, and I've known too many Vietnam Vets who still can't deal with it. <br /><br />As I said, I've never written about these things in quite this way before, certainly never making these kinds of linkages. It's an ongoing process of discovery.<br /><br />What happened with the draft board is of course more complex than I detailed here. It's still gobsmacking that they seemed to listen. I don't know that that would have happened if it hadn't been for all the protest and revolt that was going on at the time. I know that some draft boards became even more rigid. So it was a crapshoot anyway.<br /><br />I keep hoping we've learned something. I know we can never forget.Ché Pasahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01926630891287949373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post-90847504022074737562010-07-08T16:53:06.305-07:002010-07-08T16:53:06.305-07:00Ché,
Very nicely written.
I can identify with ...Ché,<br /><br />Very nicely written. <br /><br />I can identify with many of your experiences. I too went through the Oakland Induction Center for my physical. This was in ’65, before the war protests began. I was classified 1A shortly after that and received my draft notice that fall. I wrote several letters to attempt to change my status due to my opposition to the war, but nothing happened. I went into the Army in January of ‘66. <br /><br />My Army tour was one of those million dollar experiences that I wouldn’t go through again for all the money in the world. The friendships I had in the service were the closest I’ve had in my entire life. Like you, my visits to the Vietnam Memorial in DC tend to tear the heart out of my chest. It all seemed so pointless.<br /><br />When I got out of the Army in ’68 I became active in many war protests at college campuses in the Bay Area. I found myself caught up in the movement, and remember that time-frame as providing me with some of my most personally rewarding experiences.<br /><br />This is probably the first time I’ve ever written about that period of my life. I guess I was inspired by your excellent essay.<br /><br />Thanks for sharing this with us.<br /><br />Steven RockfordSteven Rockfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11882342447593818060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post-20682631277064672842010-07-06T18:58:49.664-07:002010-07-06T18:58:49.664-07:00Thanks for your comments, both of you.
I've w...Thanks for your comments, both of you.<br /><br />I've written about some of these things before, but never in quite this way, and as I wanted to post on the 5th of July -- my father's birthday -- I kind of rushed the Hoffman part of it, used less of my memories and more of research, so it seems a little odd and off kilter to me when I look at it now because I didn't include the "October Surprise" matter and Abbie's involvement in revealing it and his subsequent "accident." Thanks for jogging my memory of that whole thing. <br /><br />Abbie Hoffman always struck me as a very <i>conscious</i> individual who always wanted to raise the consciousness of others, freely and generously, and his is a spirit we could really benefit from today. Which, of course, is a prime reason to get rid of him. If that's what happened.<br /><br />And Gwen, there was so much that was liberating and good, and there was so much fear and anxiety during the 1960's and early '70's. I look back on what was accomplished and what failed through my own contrarian prism, but by and large, despite the hazards and the fears, the upheavals -- on the whole -- were worth it. But what a long, strange trip it's been!<br /><br />Dr. Bramhall (in exile), I've just started looking at your site and I plan to spend a good deal of time there. I certainly empathize with the urge -- or the need -- to become an exile. And I know people on the internet who make light of experiences like yours, as if they are so rare as not to matter at all, or they're entirely figmentary. <i>For in other countries, it's much worse, you see. </i><br /><br />No, what you've been through is more common than most people can know; much worse goes on all too often in this country.<br /><br />I hope you are safe and reasonably happy in NZ. Thanks for posting.Ché Pasahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01926630891287949373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post-38485001523783600192010-07-06T17:52:05.995-07:002010-07-06T17:52:05.995-07:00Great post. Hoffman also deserves credit for bring...Great post. Hoffman also deserves credit for bringing the "October Surprise" (a secret deal the Republican Party made with Iran to delay the release of the Iranian hostages - in the belief it would result in an automatic win for Jimmy Carter) to public attention in 1988 through his Playboy expose. Hoffman's brakes were tampered with as he delivered the article, resulting in a serious car accident that nearly killed him. Which always made me very skeptical of his so-called suicide. I write about my own close encounter with car tampering and suspicious suicides in my recent memoir THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY ACT: MEMOIR OF AN AMERICAN REFUGEE (I currently live in exile in New Zealand).Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhallhttp://stuartbramhall.aegauthorblogs.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2304235862479840318.post-75225239348730771242010-07-06T09:17:41.544-07:002010-07-06T09:17:41.544-07:00Dear Che,
Thank you for sharing this.
I'm n...Dear Che, <br /><br />Thank you for sharing this.<br /><br />I'm not quite old enough (49) to have been fully aware of everything going on but the events of the 60s (and at least until the mid-70s) seemed to saturate everything. As a child I listened in to every adult conversation, of course noticed my dad's derision of young men with long hair, watched nightly news with my dad (Huntley Brinkley) and remember the weekly (was it weekly?) reporting of the dead Americans in Viet Nam, remember being wide-eyed as we drove through Canada (was it Ontario?) and seeing a bunch of <i>hippies</i> riding on a large flat bed trailer being pulled through the city with loud rock and roll being played in an anti-war protest. Quite a sight for a young one from the midwest (Ohio) who's parents only listened to country music. :)<br /><br />Apologies for the ramble, but the 60s and 70s cast a spell over me that I still carry and always make me cry, especially when reading someone's personal experience (yours today).<br /><br />Thanks for sharing.Gwenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07570858482015634053noreply@blogger.com