Say Anything Blog

***Background info by the Whistler***

In the following article Rob wonders about the overly generous coverage given to the SDS by the Herald.  What Rob probably isn’t aware of is that during the ‘60’s GF Herald Editor and Publisher Mike Jacobs was the head of that organization at UND.  I would imagine that’s how these stories got the prominent coverage.

Last week the Grand Forks Herald ran two articles about the reformation of a chapter of the radical left-wing anti-war group Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, on the University of North Dakota campus.  The SDS, as you might remember, was genesis group for the infamous Weather Underground group that made its political points by setting off bombs and attacking police stations.

The “new” SDS recently had a protest on the UND campus to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the war in Iraq, but what caught my eye was this passage from one of the articles:

The year-old chapter at UND claims a core of 10 to 15 activists and about 100 sympathizers on an Internet listserv. It is a recognized student organization with a faculty adviser: Richard Kahn, an assistant professor of education and a speaker at today’s anti-war symposium.

UND’s enrollment is about 12,000 students.  This group consists of about a dozen activists, with about 100 other people on their email list.

That’s not exactly “resurgent” to my mind.

What’s also funny is that while this group is claiming to have eschewed the violence associated with 1970’s-era SDS groups…

New SDS members have engaged in hunger strikes, occupations of military recruiting centers and other actions, all nonviolent. “We know the drive for revolutionary change is correct,” Korte said, “but blowing up buildings is not going to get us anywhere.”

...they certainly don’t shy away from associating themselves with violent radicals from that era like William Ayers:

The UND SDS has another event scheduled April 3, a talk by Bill Ayers, a former member of the radical Weather Underground, now distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The group also plans an April 1 screening of a documentary film on the Weather Underground.

In 2001 Ayers was asked if he regretted using bombs and violence to promote this political point of view in the 1970’s, and Ayers responded by saying: “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.” This is the man the “non-violent” SDS members and UND are listening to.

Also, I doubt the folks who work at the recruiting offices which were “occupied” by SDS morons thought the protests were non-violent.  After all, there’s nothing non-violent about forcing your way into a place you don’t belong in order to prevent others from entering.

If the SDS were “occupying” abortion clinics the ACLU would be filing lawsuits.  But since they’re only “occupying” military recruiting offices I guess it’s “free speech.”