Two 1968 Memories

 In a column today ( May 10 )  , Jonah Raskin, the author of

    the " Life and Times of Abbie Hoffman " ( RIP Abbie! ) flashes back

    to the most outstanding year in my  personal memory - 1968, the Apocalypse

    Now year . His column is poignantly titled : " If you were there, 1968

    is you ". Being in my core mostly just an " observer of life "- even way

    back then - I managed to stay out of all kinds of potential trouble. The

    anti-war demonstrations I attended were big hearted and peaceful. But I

    felt in the depths of my soul the " violence " of the year  -a most

    powerful " energy field of HISTORY ". Yes indeed " something is happening

    here ". We were all going to heaven; we were all going to hell.

         I remember while stretched out on a lawn cot the day after the

    horrifying Democratic National Convention , deciding that I would not

    vote for anybody  on election day running for President of the United

    States " Nixon, Humphrey, Wallace - don't make me puke ! "

        I have changed a little. I now always vote in elections - even if

    just for the lesser evil. There is too much " devil " in me not to

    compromise with the DEVIL.

         A very personal memory is being evicted from my college English

    composition class. I had written an essay titled : " The Meaning of

    the Hippies " . The professor waved in the air. Not even knowing me

    he declared that I had plagiarized it. " We don't want people like

    YOU in our class ! "

         He was really a decent man and an excellent teacher. " You could

    not SPELL half the words you used in this paper ! " he challenged me.

       I went to the blackboard an spelled correctly all ten words he yelled

    at me. Then I left the classroom, not humiliated but defiant.

         Exiting I heard him say : " He was clever enough to to memorize

    the words before he came to class this morning."

        The matter was straightened out .  I proved from my notes that

    every sentence in the " radical " essay was my own. It is to write

    half well when you FEEL DEEPLY about an issue. ( easy to write well )

          That essay is still ME but it has disappeared . But somehow I

    still feel that THEY do not want people LIKE ME in THEIR class !