ASU - War & Resistance

I started marching and protesting against the Vietnam War before I started at ASU, but once I was on campus I became even more involved. The War Resistance group I belonged to counseled people, who had already received their draft notices, on their options: Flee to Canada (if you could buy land they would welcome you with open arms); apply for Conscientious Objector (C.O.) status; or go to prison. 

My own status was up in the air until the results of the 1971 lottery were announced. I wasn’t eligible for C.O. status because I wasn’t opposed to war in general but just to this particular war. I didn’t have funds to buy Canadian real estate, so my options were either a good lottery number or prison. In the end, I lucked out and got a good lottery number but by that time I, along with several other guys in my group, had already returned our draft cards and received maybe five minutes of (local) TV fame.

The most memorable event our group sponsored was a speech by Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden in one of the University’s big lecture halls. I was with the “security” team that walked them into a sort of “green” room prior to their speech. I’d been a fan of Jane Fonda since her early (silly) movies like Sunday In New York and Barefoot In the Park, so I was looking forward to this. As it turned out, she was quite dull, but Tom was very interesting. We chatted for quite some time.

I was reminded of these days during the recent “Occupy” to-do. My group was interested in protesting the war but we believed in peaceful civil disobedience and always worked with the police to avoid any problems around our marches and protests. (This didn't prevent the FBI from bugging our phones and sending poorly disguised agents to surveil our events.) Our biggest problem at the time, wasn’t “The Man” but the anarchist groups like the SDS and Spartacist League who were always trying to provoke violence and disorder. If I had taken any classes on Hinduism from Dr R___ I might have had a better understanding of this phenomenon.