Weather Underground

Hello from San Diego.

I can’t believe how fast summer has hit us—the 4th of July flew by. Here are the fireworks we saw from our deck:

The Weather Underground

Do you think you got a real image of what the revolutionaries were like in this country in the Sixties and Seventies from the movie One Battle After Another? Only partially. If you’re my age you might remember the Weather Underground. They were a radical group that was active in the Seventies. The Weather Underground felt society was too rotten to be reformed and had to be torn out by its roots. The group blew up buildings to make their points. They also worked with the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army to fight racism and discrimination.

The most famous founder was Bernardine Dohrn. She grew up in a working class family in Chicago and started to be an activist after working with Bernie Sanders. Her lover, and eventual husband, was Bill Ayers. His father was a CEO, and he grew up in an upper class family in Chicago. They both joined Students for a Democratic Society and became more and more radical. By 1969, Bill became famous by saying, “Bring the revolution home. Kill your parents.”

SDS formed chapters to fight Vietnam and American inequity. At one point it had more than 300 chapters across the U.S. In 1968 they formed part of the group of protestors who rioted in Chicago during the Democratic National Convention. Hundreds were beaten and arrested. Maybe that led Bernardine Dohrn to say, “We must either fight on the side of the oppressed or be on the side of the oppressor.” She and other members of SDS decided more violent protests were needed. In 1969 she traveled to Cuba for inspiration. By 1970 they formed the Weather Underground to “overthrow the racist America power structure.”

Then the bombings began. They firebombed a judge’s house and were planning simultaneous bombs in four cities. But while three of their members were assembling a device in Greenwich Village, it accidentally blew up and killed them. That sent the remaining members underground. They still bombed army bases, court houses, police stations, banks, and the Capital building, always having someone call in a warning so no one was hurt. They also helped fans of Timothy Leary, the LSD guru, escape from prison and flee to Algeria. All this catapulted Bernardine Dohrn to the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

Bernardine and Bill had a child and raised Zayd for three and a half years while on the run. But they got tired of hiding and were afraid they’d be sent to prison and have to abandon their son. They decided to turn themselves in. The FBI had done so many illegal activities that all charges were dropped. Here they were on the courthouse steps with Zayd.

A few months later, their good friends, Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, left their eighteen-month child with a baby sitter to help the Black Liberation Army rob a Brinks truck. Two guards were killed and Kathy and Richard were sentenced to decades in prison. Bernardine and Bill raised their son and he ultimately went to Yale Law School and became the district attorney of San Francisco.

If you want to learn more about this tumultuous time, read Dangerous, Dirty, & Young. The author is Dorhn’s and Ayers’ son, Zayd Ayers Dohrn. He is a very good writer and sets out his parents’ odyssey, as well as what it was like to constantly look over his shoulder for FBI agents. When he was five, he learned to identify them by their haircuts and shoes. I read it and loved this memoir, and highly recommend it.

Person of Interest with Zayd Ayers Dohrn

I learned from our Chicago friend, Susan Goldin-Meadow, that one of her boys had played Little League with Bill and Bernadine’s kids in Hyde Park in Chicago. Small world. I reached out to Zayd and had a fascinating conversation with him for my podcast, Person of Interest. It was doubly rewarding, because I am finishing a book that takes place during the political turmoil in 1969.

If you would like to see the podcast the link is below.

https://bit.ly/4eNLXu6

A Free Primer on How to Tell a Story

Would you like a free training manual on how to tell a story? Picking the right story and telling it well are keys to making a sale or inspiring a donation. The primer in the link below divides elements of storytelling into 28 short sections. As a subscriber you can get it for free to download from this link:

https://carlvonderau.com/thank-you-for-subscribing/

Saving Myles

How about a good read for the summer?

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time,
Carl

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