This thread reminds me of the following "creative destruction" back in 1984.
The Vietnam vet Brian Willson (not the wigged out, acid casualty, friend of Charlie Manson, Beach Boy genius. See the documentary by Don Was on Brian, "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times, "btw. And another btw, Manson under another name has a song on a Beach Boys album. A few years ago I saw a young child, I'd guess around 6-7 years old wearing a T-shirt with Manson's picture on it on Haight Street. What kind of parent would buy that endorsement of Charlie for their kid? Maybe one like Bernadine Dohrn, who in a Weathermen meeting exclaimed, "Dig, they stuck a fork in them!, " in admiration of the Manson Family murders. And just one more btw before I get back to the real content of this e-mail. My step-Dad, a few years before the Tate-La Bianca slayings needed a babysitter. When one of Manson's groupies showed up, he and his first wife, were too pressed for time to get another babysitter. Needless to say, that babysitter didn't come back! I'll ask him again which one it was. Squeaky Fromme?
Anyway back to my (other) story.
Brian Willson and a few other 'Nam vets were laying down on the railroad tracks in front of a approaching train at the Concord Naval Weapons Station in California. This facility was shipping weapons destined for the military in El Salvador and I would presume the contras as well. When the train conductor did not slow down or brake and, unfortunately, Brian didn't get up in time, both his legs were severed.
The next weekend, thousands of us Bay Area lefties showed up to demonstrate. Through the grapevine, I'd heard of plans to use sledgehammers to destroy the train tracks. Right, F****N' (is that a taboo word?) On, I and many others said. After the speechifying (including Jesse Jackson, way late from his announced time, one of his campaign aides called it "Jesse time!) hundreds of us, including the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgance (or maybe it was those "activist nuns" from the Maryknoll Order, Jeanne Kirkpatrick railed about!) gleefully set to hammering away. We were able to disrupt for a few days weapons shipments to the fascist thugs. Wish it could have been longer natch. But with all the more ahem legal protest and letter writing and lobbying of Congress I'd like to think it sent a message. Last citation. I have a copy of a short lived radical magazine called Scanlans from the early 70's. The issue is devoted to a very interesting , very comprehensive breakdown of all the property destruction of ROTC offices, university facilities complicit with the war, etc. Can't find it, damn in my messy room, under all the copies of New Left Review, Dissent, The Nation, In These Times, The Post-Modern High-Fallutin' Review of Cult Studs who like to watch "Cops". What did Neil Young sing, "A Man Needs A Maid...-and yes, Neil, Richard Nixon does have soul, after Elvis visited you in the Oval Office, didn't Aretha Franklin visit too! Sorry, that was the Queen of Soul visiting Clinton. Clinton smoking a joint in the Oval Office, channelling the ghost of Nixon: " I Did Not Have Sex With G. Gordon Liddy, now Martha Mitchell, that would've been hot! Where's Frank Sturgis now that we need him. He could solve this Elian case for me. Wish I hadn't promised to , 'Put The Hammer Down On Castro, ' to the CANF back in '92. Oh well Janet was the DA down there in gusano land. Let her deal with those nuts.NPR this morning had a story that told of a sign by one saying Elian was Moses! Yup, A Child Shall Lead Them... Betty, call Trent and that ladies man Strom, think I'll needle them about the Stars and Bars. Trent, oughta have his phone of the hook from those Council of Conservative Citizens and League of the South folks...and order another pizza, OK!"
Michael Pugliese
http://www.fas.org/irp/contract/front.htm