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Kath Saberhagen's avatar

Glad to hear you're getting involved. I was a rabble rouser in the 70s...against Vietnam and for abortion rights...when Roe v Wade was passed I was graduating college...and emerged into a world that had no need for a new college grad... I lost interest in attending grad school on my summer drive from. Illinois to the west coast... I ended up in Oregon and mispent the rest of the 70s and early 80s trying to find myself... I never seemed to get excited about politics until now...it's just so screwed up that it's impossible to "ostrich". So maybe I'll see you at a protest...hope they don't come at us with Billy clubs. I know I won't be able to endure that this time. I'm pist enuf to not care tho. I've been taunting ICE to come "dissappear me", but so far...they're ignoring my requests.

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Pamela Koch's avatar

Stay safe.. don't engage..sit down. Sit ins were very successful in the 70s! If they attack someone who is peacefully sitting, that reflects horribly on them!

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Pat Robinson's avatar

Excellent advice, and these days we can make sure someone is videoing everything so there are very clear accounts of what happens.

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Barbara Mullen's avatar

It is bad bad bad advice. This is escalating. We do not escalate to civil disobedience. March, sing, carry signs. Do not provoke violence from them

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Barbara Mullen's avatar

Do not sit down! This is escalating up to civil disobedience. You will be dragged off. Sit ins were bloody in the 70's.

This is the absolute wrong advice. They are just itching for a reason to start shooting. They are just waiting to declare the Insurrection Act.

Do. Not. sit. Down.

March, Sing, Carry signs.

Be smart.

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Pamela Koch's avatar

I said this because it has been warned that disrupters are going to infiltrate peaceful protests & cause damage & possible injury & the only way to separate the good from the bad, for the cops to see who to arrest.

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Barbara Mullen's avatar

We must, must be careful in what we say. I will always check a source. There are also provocateurs writing things. Please check with the organizers, such Indivisible, on protest rules.

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Anastasia Pantsios's avatar

Never too late. I'm a tad older, come from a very activist family. My mom was marching to ban the bomb in the 1950s. 1968 destroyed politics for me. While my sister was hanging with the SDS and talking revolution, I looked at the Eugene McCarthy campaign and the sexist white Gene Bros and opted out. (People forget that he was the Bernie Sanders of 1968 and Robert F. Kennedy was their reviled Hillary, the "corporate" "establishment" candidate.) What brought me back — three decades later — was Florida 2000. The first demonstration I ever went to was a "count all the votes in Florida" protest.

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Beth Witrogen's avatar

we had SDS at UW Madison in the late 60s, almost shut down the campus & graduation. Thank you for staying engaged. We must!

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Anastasia Pantsios's avatar

OMG. Maybe you passed by my sister. She dropped out of college (Barnard) for a semester in the late 60 (1968? 69?) to travel with her SDS Weatherman boyfriend to Madison to set up Revolutionary Headquarters for the Midwest. The goal was to travel to colleges in places like Iowa and Nebraska to set up revolutionary cells there. My sister came home for Christmas and told our parents she thought she wanted to go back to school the next semester. My parents asked what happened with the revolution. She said she didn't understand what was wrong with those kids in the midwest — it was all a bunch of agriculture majors and sorority girls who scratched their heads when you talked about the revolution. Probably a vulture shock — two upper-middle class Jewish kids from the big city talking to some kids fresh off the farm in Boone, Iowa!

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Beth Witrogen's avatar

OMG yes this was exactly the time I was there. We were passionate but also politically naive. I remember the weather underground and SDS activities, and later in 1970 the bombing of Sterling Hall. I probably did pass her by. We were teargassed, I remember the strong police presence.

And here we go again.

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gayle carper's avatar

Keep up the rabble rousing!

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Beth Witrogen's avatar

Likewise here -- VN, Kent State, Cambodia, MLK ... I was in Madison. Strength in numbers! Wish Mighty Meidas could form groups to attend in.

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