4 Comments
User's avatar
⭠ Return to thread
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.

Expand full comment
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!

Expand full comment
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!

Expand full comment
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.

Expand full comment