lsanderson | Chicago 10

Went to see the Chicago 10 with

mizzlaurajean last night at the Lagoon. We walked. Shocking, I know.

The Chicago 8 7 trial was a mockery of Daley machine politics in Chicago even then, but it was stunning to see what we once did to combat the war machine that once again moves this nation. The armored tanks, the barbed wire, the tear gas. The marches. The endless marches. We stopped Johnson from running again, and the kids in Chicago stopped a politically out-of-touch Humphrey from winning. Eventually, that war ground down even the war mongering Republicans. (It was started be Eisenhower, raised by Kennedy, and fueled by Johnson and Nixon into a conflagration of American youth and Vietnamese.) Of course, we're doing it all again in Iraq and for just about as sane a reason. Lower totals on the American side, of course. No Draft, no pictures of coffins, and more sanitized. Gee, I guess them hide-bound Republicans learn too! Whodathunkit.

I met Abbie Hoffman, in the fringe jacket (there's a clip in the movie). He spent one night at my house, having sex with a female friend of the time. Little revolution was accomplished that night -- it was more about the old in-and-out. At least, that's my take on the matter. It seemed vital at the time. The trial at Chicago was going on at the time, and the school had invited Abbie to speak. He would win at Chicago, but go on to fall to drugs, drug crimes, and finally 150 Phenobarbital pills.

Yes, I remember the smell of tear gas, but not from the Democratic Convention in Chicago. While I did work a bit for the McCarthy campaign, I didn't go.