Book: Fugitive Days

Bill Ayers' autobiography was published September 10, 2001. As with most things in his life, his timing was awful.

This book is next up on my reading shelf.

I do not condone the Weather Underground's campaign of domestic terrorism to "bring the war in Viet Nam home" but I enjoyed Mark Rudd's book last year.

Been slowly making my way through "Fugitive Days" between other books and projects. Bill's depiction of the angst of 1966-70 is palpable and stark.... but his descriptions of violent reactions to violent counter-reactions loses my sympathy. By taking to weapons and bombings the Weathermen proved they were no better than the "system" they sought to overthrow.

The times seemed to call for action. Bill's account of some of the daily Viet Nam atrocities brought back some unwelcome memories.

But taking on a superior foe on their own battleground is just foolish.

My appreciation for the light-hearted revolutionaries of the Sixties -- Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Wavy Gravy, Ram Dass, Timothy Leary -- has grown as I've gotten older. I never advocated violence, but I used to think the "clown princes" of the movement denigrated it.

Now I see if differently.

They acknowledged, at some level, that The System couldn't be overthrown by force. Their revolutionary actions weren't aimed at initiating immediate change, like Rudd or Ayers or Dohrn or Kunen.  They were aimed at changing minds -- slowly, generationally, systematically -- knowing that the next generation could be better than the last, and the next after that even better.  

It's a wise man who sees beyond his own lifespan.

Ironically, during the years spent living underground under assumed identities, the Weathermen were obliged to live lives of moderation and care, breaking no laws, raising no alarms, blending into Middle America.

It was a revelation to most of them.