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PaulnSondraMays's blog: "MayDay"

created on 11/24/2007  |  http://fubar.com/mayday/b158955

A True Story

 
 
 
 
 
 

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Young Days ......

I sit here and see the news reports on the battles America's young men are fighting in far away places and I drift back to a time when I had to face the real world and step away from the easy days of teenage adventure.

In 1970 I became more than a little involved.  While attending Redford High School I became more and more involved in political actions.  Julie Bulger and I planed and executed the 1970 walkout and shut down of our school as a statement of protest against a new No Jeans policy that was tried.  Little did I know that that seemingly minor action would change the direction of the rest of my life. 

Shortly after Redford revoked the rule of No Blue Jeans, following a week long shut down cause by the 68% walkout we organized, I  was introduced to several people from an organization called Open City based on 2nd Street in Detroit.  This group of rag tag underground type had set up a free soup kitchen, free clinic, free store and a phone support hotline. The purpose was to help other street folks that needed a place to crash or food or what ever to keep them healthy.  During my time manning the phones and helping in the clinic, a group of us started a discussion about the 1971 planned march on Washington, DC. 

This was to be called the May Day march to end the war and was to be a nation wide protest of the United  States  actions in Viet Nam .  We made the decision to organize a Michigan delegation to go on this adventure.  Our group spread out across the city of Detroit and into the suburbs passing out fliers on our planed action to gather support and to gather others for the trip.  We attained maps of Washington and started to plan where we would meet up and what actions we would take once we arrived there.  The plan was to be changeable and have at least four contingencies if events occurred that required us to fall back and regroup. 

On April 25 we left Detroit.  I and Rick Regi hit the road together using our thumbs as our way to DC while others drove and some took the bus.  After three days of hitching and sleeping under overpasses we arrived in Washington to find a growing mass of people flowing into Potomac Park.  Around the reflecting pool and nestled among the cherry trees a small city of plastic tarps and ragged tents had began to grow.  When we arrived the city had a population of around 20,000 and people were arriving all day and night.  I and Rick's first priority was to find the rest of our Michigan Delegation that were to be camping near the end of the reflecting pool at the base of the Washington Monument. After about an hour of walking about yelling for anyone from Michigan we saw a small cardboard sign that read " Michigan Contingent" and under that sign was about 6 people sitting around a small fire.  Of the twenty or so people that had planed to meet at this little spot of earth only the eight of us had made it so far but that was about to change.  We sat that first night and talked of our plans, we smoked a little pot, we watched the hundreds of small camp fires burning giving a surreal glow to the uncounted faces that surround them. 

As day broke the smell of coffee brewed in tin cups filled the air.  People started walking about the impromptu city looking for old friends and a bite to eat.   In just two days we all would take to the streets of Washington.  Our goal's were simple, some would say simple minded, plan for each group to hit the streets on the morning of May, 1st and block as much traffic as we could trying to bring Washington to a stand still for this one day. 

The Michigan group had grown to around 25 by that second day and we were into serious planning of our part in this event.  We had picked 4 bridge's as targets while in Detroit and now we were down to the final selection of our target.  After a couple of hours of heated discussion of the pro's and con's of each possible target it was decided that the Key Bridge that lead to Embassy Row was our primary target. We would block this bridge and stop all access to the Embassies.  We had already been told that other groups were targeting the circle turns that would stop traffic from the other end of the row and we had been made aware that Embassy Row was not patrolled by Washington PD but by a group of  Federal police which made our target a bit of the tough side. 

We started by sending out teams to walk the route and time the traffic and patrols. Another team would search for barricade material while another was looking at an exit strategy.  This last team made contact with the Algerian Embassy and got permission to enter the embassy if we had to make a hasty withdraw.  That night, two days before the planned attack, a team moved swiped road barricade's, old tires and wood to the bush's at each corner of the bridge.  This was a secret mission and required the team member to not be detected, it went perfect. Later in the night we gathered by the fire and went over every detail of each team. 

We would leave the camp in small groups, each with a place to be and a time to be there.  At 8 am we would all leap from cover and move all the barricades into place and stand in the middle of the bridge with the signs we had be painting since we arrived.  Then we lay our heads down with thoughts of what tomorrow might bring.  The plans were complete. The teams were ready and tomorrow was the day we would get our chance to be heard.

May, 1 1971....

At 5 am the sounds of yelling and bullhorns woke us from our dreams of victory.  As I stuck my head out of the tent fashioned from plastic tarps I looked out to see a line of helmeted Police in full riot gear standing shoulder to shoulder stretching in both directions as far as I could see.   A bull horn started a loud rant for every one to vacate the area.  We were given 5 minutes to move out at which point the line would move across our tent city.  Anyone still there as the line moved through would be arrested.  So much for our well laid plans.  We asked for volunteers to stay and delay the line while the bulk of the group moved out to regroup at George Washington University.  At this point we had close to 100,000  in this tent city and as we left we set fire to our makeshift tents to slow the onslaught of the Police line. 

Plans change but stay the same....

When we regrouped at the university the decision was made to go ahead with the plans we had made and we broke up into small teams and headed out for our bridge.  Of the 8 teams only 3 made it to the bridge. The rest were stopped and arrested as they entered other areas that had been targeted by other groups.  Those three teams moved like clock work placing the pre situated barricades into place and grabbing signs.  The bridge was ours and we had succeeded in stopping all traffic.  Then is when the riot clad Police arrived in force.  We all scattered, most made a clean escape, a few fell victim to the night sticks and tear gas.  I headed out cross country only to be ambushed by a roaming group of police patrolling a few blocks away. 

We were rounded up one by one and in groups, Moved into police busses and driven around the city for several hours picking up more of our army as we went along.  This bus, and the hundreds like it through out the city, were stopping to pick up new riders so often that they actually stopped and snarled traffic as much as we had earlier.  By the end of the day around 45,000 people had been arrested. The jails were packed, we had 8 people in a 4 by 8 foot cell and the baseball stadium was turned into a jail for over 5000 of us.  Within a few hours the fines were levied, Ten dollars per person to be released.  We had planed for all 100,000 to be arrested and had taken collections a few days earlier to have a war chest of money to pay the fines we knew were going to be handed out.  A few hours later we were back on the streets.

Near dark I attended a gathering near the White House fence.  I just happened to be heading that way out of town and was stopped by a group of wheel chaired men in army uniforms.  One after another of these war damaged men spoke of the war in Viet Nam. They spoke of scorched earth. They spoke of killing and being killed. They spoke of lost friends and a war which was bleeding the life blood from American youth. 

This brings me to the beginning of this story.   In high school I had gotten involved in the politics of the times. The shutting down of Redford High over No Blue jeans had lead me into a under culture of that time.  I saw the news reports and read the underground papers. I heard that we were doing the right thing in Viet Nam in the news and read how our friends were being sent to die in some remote rice paddy for no good reason in the underground papers.  While standing at the White House fence and watching as one by one these one armed, one legged and paralyzed solders threw there medals over the fence it struck me hard.  I had been protesting, marching and talking about something I had no idea of.  At that moment I realized that none of us knew the truth about what was happening in the small country over there somewhere.  I made the decision at that moment to find out for my self.  I headed back for Michigan.

The day I arrived in Detroit I never even made it home.  I went straight to the first army recruiting station I could find and inlisted in the United States Army and volunteered for Viet Nam.  I had made the commitment to know the truth before I ever uttered another word about this little dirty war that had eaten several of my friends. 

I learned many lesions after that point. Some were good , some were bad, but who I am today was shaped by that moment.  I can say now that the 56,000 men who gave there lives did so for the wrong reasons but they did so because they knew the meaning of duty and honor.  And I will always view The Wall with a tear in my eye for the fallen.  And I will hope that someday no more will be sent to a small war that sends us our young men home in pieces so a president can draw attention off his mistakes..


 
 

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