Connections: Jenna: Recent protests seemed to resurrect ideas and values that the Weatherman were fighting for. Emphasis in Ferguson and Baltimore has been focused on police brutality which was a huge fear and issue in the Sixties as well. There were many response tactics that the police used then that are still in use now, such as tear gassing huge crowds, having the National Guard present for crowd control, and making many arrests during demonstrations. These tactics remind me of Joseph McCarthy and his use of blacklists and fear that was in response to tension with Russia. Weathermen were hunted down more aggressively that communists with millions of dollars invested into their arrest of member. The police's aggressive response to violence reminded me of slave masters and how they would beat, murder, and punish the people who were out of line to reinforce their power with the other slaves. The police during the riots can be connected to any power hungry authority figure we have covered in class.
Logan: In relation to the Harlem Race riots and the Baltimore and Ferguson Riots of recent times, the pits of disparity bred a seemingly dedicated 'cult' of communist, left-winged revolutionaries known as the Weatherman Underground. Unlike the Second World War, the United States garnered almost-minimal support for the conflict in Vietnam, and radical groups such as the Weatherman siphoned away the minuscule amount that the US Government could garner to keep the conflict going. Add that to the civil conflicts of activists fighting for equal rights and liberties and you have a stew of chaos.
Austin: The weathermen group is not your average 1960's demonstration group. The normal riot groups were "peaceful" and just wanted to shout their point across. The weathermen group used violence and terror to get their point across.
Questions: Jenna: The Weatherman group was extremely patriotic, why were communists accepted and allowed into the organization?
Logan: How has the Weatherman group influenced politics today?
Austin: Why did they think violence was the answer? Didn't it just create more problems? Discoveries: Jenna: The courage of the revolutionaries during protests defending the discriminated is inspirational but their use of violence is intimidating. A lot of members, like Bernadine Dohrn, were arrested and later released from prison. I find it shocking that such intense acts of terrorism and insubordination against our government was responded to so lightly and with such forgiveness.
Logan: Realizing that Obama was closely connected with several of the members of the Underground force me to start wondering what policies were influenced by Dohrn's and Ayer's political manifesto.
Austin: Dohrn is connected to Obama. They are close family friends and she is one of the weathermen who's charges were dropped if she would work for the United States in return.