Jun 3, 2010

PROTEST AND ACTIVISM AT UT KNOXVILLE IN THE 70'S

TENNESSEE - the VOLUNTEER state and Knoxville the capitol of right wing Republicanism in the State may seem like a strange place for recollection of the 40 year passed KENT STATE MASSACRE and it's aftermath. But Knoxville home to the University of Tennessee is where Richard M. Nixon chose to make his first "campus" visit in the wake of the protests and strikes that roiled the nation's campuses in the days that followed the murders of four students. In their memory I give you a bit of that history for your edification.
January 15 and May 28 of 1970 in Knoxville Tennessee, two days that altered the course of a life. One through no fault of my own and the other by my own design as a result of the first.
Listening to audio books while cycling helps me stay well read and passes the time. Imagine my surprise last month as I listened to Rick Perlstein's NIXONLAND and heard my name coming through the headphones. I almost fell off the bike.


Hearing Perlstein reference an event from forty years in my past got me to thinking about events that shaped and changed my life so I began to do some research to see what I could find to share about the experience.

If you have any interest in the trials of a liberal Democrat born into a Republican stronghold follow me below and see what I produced for you as a result of Mr Perlstein's prodding. A lot of work went into this and there is a lot here. I only hope I've done justice to two truly remarkable events in a truly remarkable time. Thank you for reading.

In order to understand the impact of this place you need to know a bit about Knoxville politics and history. Knoxville is the urban center of the Second Congressional District of Tennessee. This District had never seen a Democrat in that office. In 60 years of my 64 year lifespan the office has been held by two families. Howard Baker Sr served from 1950 until his death when his wife Irene served out his term in 1965, John Duncan Sr from 65 to 88 and his son John Duncan Jr from 1988 until the present. Knoxville is the capitol of conservative Republican East Tennessee and home to the University of Tennessee where these events took place.
2 events in early 1970 resulted in a radical change to the course of my life at age 24. - the first was marked by my designation as the KNOXVILLE 22nd and the 2nd was a visit to the UT Campus by Richard Nixon at the invitation of the Reverend Billy Graham.
This week on FACEBOOK a friend posted pictures of the Jan 15, 1970 police riot that took place outside the Administration Building on the famous UT Hill. In the picture below a crowd is gathered on the west side of Ayers Hall observing the action in front of the Austin Peay administration building across the street. The guy with a raised hand below the red line is me.

Evidently observing a demonstration and raising one's hand as seen in the picture above is enough to merit indictment on the FELONY charge of INCITING TO RIOT in Republican East Tennessee.

Prior to these two early 1970 events I had been a mainstream college Democrat participating in campus politics of the kind that elected student body & class Presidents and got fraternity brothers in positions like Homecoming Chairman and CARNICUS advisory committee. As Freshman Class President I even organized a "Support the Troops" rally in front of the Student Center.

HOW I BECAME THE KNOXVILLE 22ND

In early February 1970 I got a visit from my father's law partner at my apartment on the UT Campus. It came as quite a surprise. Jim Jones was a young lawyer in Dad's law firm who said he was sent because my father thought he could 'relate' to me better. His message was that I had been indicted by a grand jury on the Felony charge of INCITING A RIOT for my participation in a demonstration on January 15th. To say I was shocked is considerable understatement and this is why.
I had traveled to Miami with my younger brother's band over the Christmas and New Year's holiday to assist the band as a manager/sound mixer. My brother and I returned to Knoxville in early January and I decided to enroll at UT to finish up a couple of courses required to complete my degree even though I had truly been lucky in the first draw of the new draft lottery in December. For the first time in years I was not required to attend school to avoid the draft. But on Jan 15 I went up to the Hill to register for classes and there encountered a relatively small group of students listening to speeches by guys I later came to know as Peter Kami, Gus Hadorn, and Carroll Bible. They were protesting the decision by the student faculty selection committee to name Dr Edward J. Boling as the next UT President.
I had known Dr Boling quite well for some time because I worked for him as the student in charge of the Alumni Giving program and my family was close friends with the Boling family. I understood that the students and some faculty were upset with the choice because they had been named to the selection committee and they wanted an academic person to be President. Boling was a development person who mainly raised money and helped build the physical part of the university. Over their specific objections Boling was named making their participation on a selection committee a sham.
The speeches were not too exciting until Peter Kami an anemic looking guy with a Brazilian accent and wire rimmed granny glasses perched on his nose challenged Dr. Boling to an arm wrestling match for the office of President. It was funny because Peter's arm was pencil like and his lack of imposing physical attributes was quite apparent. Few would have bet on him prevailing in such a contest.

This detail should show you that the issue involved in this small protest was rather minor and not emotionally charged like the war or civil rights protests. There was no reason it should have resulted in arrests and serious disruption to several lives.
The small group grew smaller and weary as they began to drift away so a long haired fellow (Gus Hadorn I believe) jumped on the stump and suggested that the participants enter the admin building and "gum up the works" by standing in the Drop and Add lines. This suggestion failed miserably in rallying the troops and they continued to drift toward the stairs leading down the Hill.

Then two amazing things conspired to alter personal histories:

First the bells rang marking an end to that period of classes and several hundred students poured from nearby classroom buildings causing a temporary huge increase of people in the area, and 2) there appeared on the Hill a phalanx of UT Campus Police in full riot gear - White storm trooper helmets, clear acrylic shields, and large riot batons. The 30 men marched in a V formation toward the group at the administration building from the south with shield and helmets glistening in the bright Winter sun. What the speeches failed to do - inspire the interest of the students - the storm troopers managed in an instant. Now the students were very interested although only a few had any idea what the fuss was all about.

Over the next 30 minutes about 30 of the students gathered at the door to the admin building demanding to be admitted and a few hundred more stood around waiting to see what would happen next. An announcement over a loudspeaker demanding everyone clear the area was met with derision as students insisted they had the right to free assembly. A couple of the guys nearest the door were pushed an a single diamond shaped leaded pane of glass in a window broke. The troops formed a semicircle around the walkway and front door but people came and went in and out of that line with little resistance. Eventually an ultimatum was issued and a deadline set to clear the area by then "or else" and we got to wait and watch the clock tick down.

When the appointed time was reached the front doors to the administration building opened and out poured some 100 Knoxville Police in full riot gear with gas masks and dogs. We now had over 130 police for around 30 student demonstrators and maybe 300 observers. The cops grabbed 15 or 20 of the closest people and everyone else headed off the hill in a hurry. Tennessee is not Columbia or Berkeley.

While I was on the Hill that Jan afternoon I spoke to several fraternity brothers and a number of other students I knew. I had been President of Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity, An elected representative from the liberal arts college in the student government, a member of the student tribunal, and President of the Freshman Class during the previous 5 years. In 1968 I had been selected as a national student field secretary for my Fraternity and traveled the country for a year in that capacity. I had then gone to the Law School for one year before deciding that law was not for me. I knew many of the students who were in the area while being a truly ambivalent and objective observer who was not a participant.

My year working for the fraternity had taken me to UC Berkeley and Stanford in the west where student activists were prevalent and relatively powerful. I had been to universities in New York, Pennsylvania, and New England in the East and the students were quite active ways seldom seen in the South. One thing I knew beyond all doubt was that there was little hope any similar student activism would thrive at the University of Tennessee.

I really was shocked at the police response. What were 100 city police officers in riot gear doing inside the administration building? I thought for certain they had to be there prior to the start of the gathering. It would have been nearly impossible for them to arrive later because there was no way inside that would not have revealed their entry to some students in the crowd. Why would the administration decide on such a massive police response to such a small gathering of students making speeches about their discontent with the selection of a President? There was never any credible threat to the security of the administration building. The 30 Campus police could easily handle that small part of the 'crowd' that might try to force their way inside.

In the days that followed the event I began to spend some time trying to help raise money for the defense of those students who had been arrested. Among them were two fraternity brothers who also had nothing to do with the demonstration. They like me had watched the events out of curiosity. One of them is now a staunch Republican - a stance I find difficult to believe given his experience. The other passed away some time ago. Both were mild mannered southern guys who definitely did not fit the "radical" mode or mindset. Both were shocked and rather embarrassed by their arrests. All of the then KNOXVILLE 21 were charged with FELONY "INCITING TO RIOT" for an event that bore no earthly resemblance to a riot even after the UT cops made their dramatic entrance or the mass of KPD officers poured out of the administration building. The extent of any 'damage' was the small pane of window glass a perhaps a trampled shrub.

BUT here it was a few weeks later and I was being driven downtown and booked as the 22nd person arrested for the events of Jan 15. The question is why?
The answer is simple.
Knoxville Tennessee as a part of the Second Congressional District that never had a Democrat in the seat was solidly Republican until 1948 when my father became County Judge(equivalent of Mayor of the City) to fill out the last two years of his predecessor who resigned to become Mayor of Knoxville. Dad was then elected to two full 8 year terms in 1950 and 1958 serving for 20 years and building a bit of momentum for Democrats. He had made one run for the Congressional seat in 1956 coming closer than any Democrat in history in a race against Howard Baker Sr.
The District Attorney of Knox County was a staunch Republican. The picture you see shows that I was present on the hill that day and that is all they required to get an indictment. Their logic was clear - indict the Judge's son and harm the Democrats politically.

Eventually most of the charges were reduced from felonies to the misdemeanor of Obstructing the Entrance to a Public Doorway on every participant except Peter Kami the frail Brazilian who challenged Ed Boling to an arm wrestling match. Poor Peter was forced to flea the country over this event His life was put in peril over a harmless bit of theater because he dared to register his protest and speak his mind here at the largest University in the South. Since Peter was foreign he fit the description 'outside agitator' and his last name could rhyme with 'COMMIE'. Wrong name, wrong place, and wrong time Peter. We don't treat our foreign guests well here Peter, particularly if they have the gall to think our freedoms apply to them.
I have little to complain about because I'm still here and I didn't even pay the $25 fine imposed for my non-infraction. But the events of Jan 1970 made me a radical in a land where 'freedom of speech and assembly' are empty and hollow terms even on the campus of a University. The fear and paranoia of local Republicans shown in their massing of 100 cops to quell a small protest rally is in a large part responsible for what happened in the 70's all over the country. The high minded idea of FREEDOM wasn't really enjoyed in AMERICA when REPUBLICANS are in control.

As a result of that arrest my Spring quarter at UT involved a lot of fund raising for defense of the KNOXVILLE 22 - in the time of the Catonsville 9 and the Chicago 7 we had our place and number - and a run for President of the Student Body - a race lost when the Radical (me) and the liberal split the vote and elected the standard frat guy John Smith. That turned out to be interesting when the big show rolled into Knoxville in the end of May.

HOW NIXON USED THE MEDIA AND BILLY GRAHAM TO RAP TO THE STUDENTS AT TENNESSEE. - title by GARRY WILLS subtitle JESUS WEPT

Time and events conspired that Spring to force Richard Nixon into a trip to Knoxville. The massacre at Kent State and the bombing of Cambodia had brought the anti-war effort to a crescendo and the campuses across the country to a screeching halt.

Nixon wanted to show that he was welcome on a college campus somewhere - anywhere. And when it was discovered that his good friend the Reverend Billy Graham was holding a crusade in Neyland Stadium on the campus of the largest University in the south during final exam week the prospect was just too good to pass up. It would also serve as a campaign stop to bolster the chances of the opponent of his nemesis Senator Albert Gore Sr who now openly opposed his war.

Never mind that the stadium would be filled with bus loads from outlying churches instead of students. The stadium was on the campus and the students would be cramming for exams or on their way home for the Summer with their exams behind them. Surrounded by good Christian Republicans from East Tennessee the threat of any demonstration was minor and this would be a religious service where he would be at worship. Never mind that the platform would host the entire Republican state Congressional Delegation without a single Democrat in sight and feature prayers for the success of his war policy.

As the recently defeated candidate of the left for Student Body President it fell to me to help organize some kind of protest to the NIXON visit. Luckily there were many who shared my disgust over the sham appearance including several prominent members of the faculty including Dr Richard Marius
who later moved to Harvard, and Dr Charles H Reynolds the head of the Theology Department (who's son you may know as the INSTAPUNDIT )
We put together a plan for a silent demonstration inside the stadium as part of the Crusade audience. I helped print up several hundred small signs that read simply THOU SHALT NOT KILL. Afterall who could object to a commandment at a religious service?
We gathered at the Student Center a few hours before the stadium would open and the speakers including myself urged the demonstrators to be respectful and silent and allow our signs to make our statement. We talked about going down on the field when Reverend Graham made "the Call" and holding up our signs or our hands in the PEACE sign.
One hour prior to the opening of the stadium we moved about 600 strong to the concrete interlocking U and T - a gift to UT from my fraternity when I was it's President seen in the stadium picture above. Everyone remained calm and orderly as they opened the gates.
At that point the problems began. Knoxville and Campus Police did their best to disrupt our orderly entry to the stadium. When they saw our THOU SHALT NOT KILL signs they ripped them out of our hands. Only a small number made it to the stands hidden inside clothing. A student who had our bull horn was handcuffed and dragged the length of the field to the roar of approval by the "Christians". It was like the Biblical Christians and lions in some bizarre reverse.
This youtube vidio shows a fleeting glimpse of the demonstrators who managed to get their signs into the stadium at the 1 minute mark of the 3:22 video


I INTERRUPT MY NARRATIVE HERE TO OFFER THE RECOLLECTIONS OF THE MAN YOU SEE IN THE PICTURE ABOVE WITH THE STRIPED ROBE AND "LET OUR PEOPLE GO" SIGN - Mr William Carroll Bible:
The Billy Graham Crusade, May 28, 1970, Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, TN
Was it a political or religious event?
For me it was religious.

The robe had been brought to the student government office where people were preparing for the demonstration. It was offered for me to wear, with the suggestion that I needed a robe since I 'looked like Jesus'.

Jesus? I balked inside myself, but decided to wear it anyway. That my zen of intersections should come in the form of a Biblical robe is not surprising. I had spent the past decade on a spiritual quest. In 1961 I had answered a call in Montreat, NC, by missionaries from Brazil to live and travel in Brazil to learn about the church's mission work. After high school graduation I and seven others spent a school year on this quest. My plans after Brazil included a church-centered college and a resolve to return to Brazil to serve as a missionary. I had been prepared for this journey with the mind set of duck-and-cover vigilance against the (Communist) enemy. I had been Cadet Colonel in Jr. ROTC. My father worked for the federal government. I understood Law and Order from the inside out.

The assumptions behind my life plans may have been naive. Some of us were rabbits on the tracks and locomotives were rumbling nearby. Trouble for me began in college when I evaluated my experience in Brazil. I could see that our high standard of living was built on the backs of others' suffering, enforced for corporate gain. I understood the same thing was happening as well in Viet Nam. During this transition the intensity of my private spiritual life remained central, even as religion fell from my conversation and I abandoned the mission plans in exchange for a study of History at UT's graduate school. By the time of the crusade my spiritual life, along with the rest of existence, had become totally focused by the war, its evil nature and lies. Accepting the emerging truth about the nature of Power was destroying the childhood framework that held my world together, creating a vacuum of authority.

Today, distrust of government is taken for granted, not something to shatter one's foundations. But my world then was cracking as I tried to reconcile my Christian faith to my country's role in history. It was a deeper concern for me than the rumble gathering on the tracks, and I sacrificed much for it.

A Biblical robe needed its own sign. The preprinted signs read "Thou shall not kill". I wanted a sign that read, "Let our people go", a reference to the Knoxville 22 (arrests) from an earlier protest on campus, and for all the other political prisoners around the country. I changed Moses's quote to 'our' because they were not 'my' people.

Using a quote by Moses was a step away from comparison to Jesus. But Moses didn't fit me any better. He led his people. Communication and interpersonal skills are required of a leader; I was blessed with an abundance of neither. I was better suited to see large patterns in history than to connect effectively with individuals. I know as people grow old they may not remember everything about the past, but I'd be surprised if anyone remembers me as a leader in those protests of 1970. I was the street-theater element -- independent, stamped by my personal quest, not necessarily relevant to the group's plans.

At some point the phone in the office rang. It was a national radio show wanting an interview. Apparently, nobody wanted to talk to them, so I did. I explained the need to oppose Nixon's appearance on campus under the circumstances. The reporter then asked if I didn't fear arrest. I said I didn't see any reason for arrests to be made. I was sincere in that.

I dressed and folded the sign under the robe to secret it past the sentries at the gate.

Once inside the stadium, I fell under a spell of reverence for the enormity of the event. I remember holding the sign up, and wanting to stare a hole through this evil President. It was a contempt spawned by the betrayal of an innocent faith in my country, made worse because the lies were cloaked in patriotism.

The protesters that day exercised free speech during the political parts of the rally, but practiced no violence. The call for violence that I recall came from one of the singers of a spiritual hymn when she expressed a desire to come down and give us a smack. Exactly what effect that was meant to have on an angry crowd of 90,000 hungry Christians who gladly would have fed us to the lions on the spot, only she can say. I was to feel some of its impact soon enough.

A lot of influences led me into Neyland Stadium dressed in a robe. But there was a common prime mover for everyone protesting that day, on both sides. The war was the bullying of all young people by cynical liars. I understood the lies as a student of History. But those who had no choice but to go to war were the greatest victims, regardless of their attitude about their roles. If their parents were sitting in the stadium that day and saw the protesters as a lightening rod to channel their own anger, then I can't hate them for that. They were in the same position as I -- twisted into circumstances they could not control -- we were all small people in the presence of Power.

Everyone present was transfixed by the moment. Everyone was equally human, living from moment to moment in the space they occupied, just as they were called to do. That included Billy Graham. We were on opposite sides of truth that day, but I have nothing but respect for Dr. Graham today.

When Nixon quit talking and the protesters followed suit, I walked from the stands onto the field to listen to Graham. I had come from an intensely religious background and wanted to communicate my faith by clearly, obviously, paying attention to Graham's words. I sat on the ground at midfield and listened intently to the sermon. Likely, no one caught my drift.

When Graham finished speaking I stood up to leave the stadium. As I left the field. I was met by a uniformed officer and arrested. The spell was broken. I began yelling to the nearby spectators, "They're taking political prisoners!" That earned me a club across the knee -- a smack of sorts, set to a hymn no doubt, intended to cause permanent damage I bet. My knee cap, however, hidden by the robe, survived by an inch.

Once in my cell, I asked that Billy Graham pay me a visit. I wanted to hear his rationale for sponsoring Nixon. That doomed request marked my final break with organized religion. As it sank in that he would never come to my cell, the vacuum of authority split apart at the seams. The phantoms of both 'law and order', and the moral authority of the church stood before me in that vacuum, both hollow of soul. After that, I resolved to take my quest for God on the road, to find whatever truth that comes into my life in the future without appeal to church or state.

Less naive after the crusade, I watched as Power's war on its people limped on for more unnecessary, life-crushing years. More souls were torn apart; lives were lost. The unimaginable horror suffered by the Asia people we don't even want to know. Today I am not surprised that in the new century Power has established a permanent war on its people and their civil liberties, with the blessings of the majority.

Looking into my jail cell that night in 1970, any student of the Bible should recognize the Biblical character I really resembled. I hadn't planned it, but I was in the role of an Old Testament prophet -- an outcast, despised for a message that was too harsh to accept, truth that would challenge a certain moral comfort. All of those people in the stands that day hating the protesters were playing their role too, just as it is in the Bible.

Since most of the signs were confiscated and demonstrators were being subjected to some rather vile comments and shouts from the assembled "Christians" the idea of a silent protest soon fell apart when Nixon took the podium. Police photographers took pictures of the protesters and police filled the sidelines in front of the protester section. Nixon's words were not drowned out by the small group of protesters but they were overwhelmed by the 90,000 Christians who successfully shouted the protesters and Nixon down.

HERE is what GARRY WILLS had to say about the events and my participation:

"Knoxville police, looking about for applicable laws, had found one to protect him from "political" dissent. Tennessee statute TCA 39-1204 forbids anyone to disrupt a religious service. That would allow cops to take away political placards, ban any political shouts (even those for Nixon), expel all who indulged in politics during "the service" so much for outside agitators. For inside ones, the police had another inhibitor. After a disturbance on January 15 of this year, police had identified and arrested some of those present, with the help of photographs; now they would ostentatiously shuffle those same photos while taking new ones, pointing (pointedly) at known campus radicals; promising, by that simple act. more arrests of the January 15 sort. Just to make sure that the nonpolitical nature of the meeting was understood, the campaign manager for Republican senatorial candidate Bill Brock, on the night before Nixon's appearance, talked with a Nixon advance man, Dick Andrews, and told Y.A.F. people not to bring their placards to the stadium—instead to line the motorcade route with them.
Would the plan work? Secret Service men, after careful soundings, decided that it would. After all, this was Big Orange Country. The school belonged to the community, which belonged to the First Baptist Church, which was heart and soul (if only he would have them) devoted to Billy, who is servitor and celebrator of any President (of power), but especially of his friend and fellow addict of success-religiosity, Richard Nixon. Town, gown, bank, church, and Crusade were of one mind. Even the Mayor of Knoxville addressed the Crusade, sang in its choir, and acted as counselor to those coming out of the stands, after Billy's sermon, to make their decision for Christ on the rubber turf. He also issued a proclamation to all city employees, telling them to renew their commitment to God. The police chief's daughter told the Crusade why she was an American. A high-school graduating class held its baccalaureate service at the Crusade, in its gowns and mortarboards. If this was not Nixon country, then what is?
But what of the university's own students? Would they join this universal hymn of praise to God and Nixon? The question hardly crossed local people's minds. The U.T. product was well-known—the perfect fraternity man, the perfect sorority girl. Call them Ken and Barbie— they were mainly wardrobe. "The first thing we did to a pledge," one senior remembered for me, "was grab his shirt by the collar and look at his label. London Fog coats, Gant shirts, Canterbury belts, Haggar slacks, a red carnation on one's blazer, three-piece suits— that's what we looked for."
It made a pretty package, whether male or female. Barbie, for instance; Tricia Nixon corn-fed to pleasanter roundnesses—a Tricia with a body, as it were; and with the same fixed smile, the lidless doll-gaze, to proclaim unassuming dutifulness. Barbie is pretty, glib, obedient, glowing—every Big Orange footballer's patriotic wet-dream.
Or Barry—Barry Bozeman. His father, a local politician, was the university's head of student activities as an undergraduate; his mother was editor of the school paper and a Torehbearer (one of the all-round top-seven seniors). Barry had not missed a single home game since he was six years old; he had acted in the university's theatre for children. Easily, with no effort, he became president of his freshman class (in which capacity he led a demonstration in favor of the Vietnam war), president of his fraternity (Phi Sigma Kappa). Pinned for a while to the Phi Sig National Moonlight Girl, he returned to his high-school sweetheart, the storybook ending. Another perfect product, Ken-Barry matching Barbie-Sue, ready to be set up like a trophy in some cushioned Knoxville office. But what happens when Perfection displays a crack or a flaw? Terrible things in Knoxville and that’s what happened with Barry, last fall, while he was working as a booking agent for a rock band, he began to let his hair grow. All his father's friends noticed, and whispered, and his father noticed their whispers. Which led to an ultimatum by Christmas—cut his hair or get out of the house. Barry got out; got arrested with twenty-one others in the January 15 campus disturbance; joined a March Against Repression led by Jerry Rubin, in Nashville; ran—and ran strong— as a radical for Student President this spring. Something bad was happening on campus.
So Barry, once the rah-iest of rah-boys, was there, with two hundred others, on the day before Nixon came, plotting ways to show student disapproval of his coming. It was a small group but influential, containing most of the active politicians on campus. Even the new Student President, a conservative, was there—John Smith. The Student Government Association used to belong to the fraternities, but changes had been taking place across the last four years. John Smith, Barry's Phi Sig brother, barely squeaked in when the school's Left vote split between the "radical" (Barry) and a "liberal" candidate."

You can read the entire excellent article by GARRY WILLS right here



Once you've seen the video and read the GARRY WILLS article you will see that our protest didn't have much effect. Nixon and the media left the impression that Nixon had indeed gone on a major American Campus and was welcomed. But we tried and for our efforts 57 arrest warrents were issued and served for people who dared to take THOU SHALT NOT KILL signs to a religious service. They were charged with DISRUPTING A RELIGIOUS SERVICE. A religious service for only the Republican Right in the Rightwing Republican city of Knoxville. Their convictions were appealed to higher courts until they were eventually overturned.

For me these events represented a final stage in change from my original ambition to serve my father's wishes that I enter politics and run for Governor. Instead I left for Canada on the eve of Nixon's reelection in 72 despite my lucky lottery number because I refused to live in a country that would elect that him twice.

If you happened to be in Knoxville around that time I am collecting the recollections of participants in these events for a website and a book and I would love to hear from you via my FACEBOOK page

If all of this hasn't satisfied your thirst for East Tennessee politics read the Faculty Report on the events involved HERE The Faculty did acknowledge that the confiscation of our THOU SHALT NOT KILL signs was regrettable.

You may also find a few pages of BILLY GRAHAM: A BIOGRAPHY - ON THE NIXON VISIT - interesting:
THIS IS THE SECTION OF THE BILLY GRAHAM BIOGRAPHY INVOLVING THE NIXON VISIT TO THE KNOXVILLE CRUSADE AND THE PROTESTS.
120
BILLY GRAHAM

To the president, the University of Tennessee seemed a relatively safe place to break out of his relative isolation at the White House. This , after all was not a campus known for its political progressivism or notable for its anger at the war in Vietnam. It is true that following the news of Kent State a large contingent of students, along with a number of professors, had boycotted classes and that some 1,500 protesters had marched to the campus field house that housed the ROTC offices It si also true that student had lowered the flag to half staff in honor of the student slain at Kent State.
Nevertheless there had been no extensive violence. Nixon felt generally comfortable in the South, where his popularity remained relatively stable and where his wartime policies were supported in greater numbers than in any other part of the country
For the 5I-year-old Billy Graham. lean and youthful-looking with side-burns and over-the-collar hair, the Knoxville crusade was another chance to echo the themes he had pursued in other recent meetings — that the youth of America, hungering for identity and sense of family, could rally around a revolution for Christ.
The first days of the crusade in Knoxville featured music legends Johnny Cash, Cart Perkins, and the Carter Family. Although a few pro-testers mingled outside the stadium handing OUT antiwar leaflets, those who attended the crusade were treated to what they had come to hear — a rousing evangelical show, capped by the inimitable Billy Graham Sermon.
On May 27, It all changed. The announcement of President Nixon’s VISIT a day before the event was a last minute surprise, even to Graham. The president decided the crusade would be a perfect way for him to connect to the people at a time of devastating national tension. He would become the first sitting President ever to speak at a Billy Graham Crusade. Excited but apprehensive about the President’s appearance, Graham said to a reporter, There will not be anything political— I hope 0 in this visit. :
The announcement that the President would make the University of Tennessee his coming-out event enraged antiwar protesters on campus. And they reacted quickly. Aided by several university professors, student protesters decided to carry signs printed "Thou Shalt Not Kill" and "Peace Now* Knowing that the national media would hone in on the event, the planners decided not to heckle or chant. Fearing that such a demonstration would alienate many from their cause. After all, the crusade was supposed to be a religious event. They decided to join in the throng when Graham called for converts but they would bow their heads and make the two fingered peace sign gesture. It was to be a silent, nonviolent protest.
Susan Nixon, editor of the student newspaper The Daily Beacon, wrote an editorial that began. “Billy Graham’s one-man circus has everthing except an elephant. And now he has one of those.";
The student newspaper announced the planned demonstration and a printed a telegram sent to President Nlxon by organizers that declared. "We are angered by your announced presence on this campus and we are

MIXING POLITICS WITH EVANGELISM 121
outraged that you would capitalize on a religious function, particularly in the South.
May 18, 1970, was unlike any day ever seen at the University of Tennessee. The contrasts were striking, This was a religious gathering Yet, on the stage at the 20-yard line were President Nixon and his wife Pat, Billy Graham, Senator Howard Baker, Congressman John Duncan and Knoxville Mayor Leonard Rogers Among them, only the Reverend and the First Lady held no elected political office.
In the stands were Presidential advisor HR Haldeman, Presidential friend Bebe Rebozo Presidential secretary Rosemary Woods, Secretary of Commerce Maurice Stands, and the Presidents chief foreign policy advisor Henry Kissinger. In the crowd were dozens of protesters, many wearing garments fit for a depiction of Galilee in the time of Christ. Indeed one of the protesters, with a long beard and hair and wearing a white robe with sandals looked as if he were ready to play the lead part. On the field mixing in with the demonstrators were dozens of Knoxville police and members of the secret service from Washington protecting the chief executive from the motley group. Their signs reading THOU SHALT NOT KILL had been confiscated before they had entered the stadium.
As Graham began his introduction of the President, demonstrators chanted "Politics! Politics!"1 When Nixon rose to speak a number of demonstrators began chanting antiwar slogans, only to be drowned out by a roar of pro Nixon boos. When the President began he said that being in the football stadium reminded him of his four years on the bench at Whittier College. Quickly the address began to sound as if the President were running for office Only a few remarks about spirituality invaded his string of political references., His remarks were not as forthright a witness for Christ as I had wished for, Graham later recalled, “but I rationalized that he was extremely tired from carrying many burdens”
Before the actual religious service began, most of the protesters began to file out singing the John Lennon song GIVE PEACE A CHANCE. Some stayed throughout the service and, adhering to the original plan, stood with bowed heads and flashing Peace signs. Photographers milled around the crowd taking pictures of the demonstrators. Police arrested nine and charged the with the crime of disrupting a religious service. A state law that none of the arrested even knew existed.
The following week police made the rounds of the University of Tennessee campus arresting those students and professors whose faces showed up in the photographs. Eventually most of the charges were dismissed when judges agreed with the defendants that Nixon’s speech was not a religious one.
In reporting the University of Tennessee debacle much of the national press was kind neither to President Nixon nor to Graham, asserting that the event mixed politics and religion in dangerous ways. Journalist and author GARRY WILLS, for example, wrote a piece for ESQUIRE MAGAZINE entitled “HOW NIXON USED THE MEDIA, BILLY GRAHAM, AND THE GOOD LORD TO RAP TO THE STUDENTS AT TENNESSEE U”
This diary was a lot of work and I would be most appreciative of your recommendations and comments.

40 YEAR FLASHBACK CONTINUED - RELIGION AND POLITICS COLLIDE

I want to thank Got a Grip for the rescue of my little effort
aurabass shares the experience of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and how that shaped his future path through a 40 YEAR FLASHBACK - NIXON & GRAHAM at TENNESSEE. (Got a Grip)
as I try to re-rescue my effort in hopes that 64 more might take the time to read something more. When at first you don't succeed then try a little persistence.
It's my observation that diaries that register some complaint about KOSSACK behavior seem to get quite a bit of attention and I'm desperate enough to try every trick.
OK that's enough whining about my inability to inspire recommendations. I guess I'm stuck with my own plodding versions of 'substance over style' and the history that a 64 year old considers experience. Now about that Rand Paul and Palin slippery with gulf oil story...... sorry but not yet.
All of this is a long winded way of saying thank you for the recs and comments on part one of this personal history diary and poking fun at myself for being preoccupied with recs and views. I hope you enjoy part two as well since I'm grateful for a place to share it.


40 YEAR FLASHBACK CONTINUED - RELIGION AND POLITICS COLLIDE ON THE 50 YARD LINE AT NEYLAND STADIUM WITH NIXON AND GRAHAM DESTROYING THE OPPOSITION.


In 1969 there was quite a surprise in the election for SGA (Student Government Association) President at the University of Tennessee.
Jimmie Baxter became the first black president of the student body in the heart of Republican East Tennessee, It seemed that the progressives and radicals indeed had a chance to prosper. If it can happen here it can happen anywhere.
Jimmie Baxter's election poster seen in the picture above was silk screened on an aluminum foil background in bright dayglow colors and over the Spring it seems that they adorned most of the dormitory room windows and every phone pole on campus. They became quite the collector's item.

Jimmie Baxter won that 69 election after the first vote was thrown out and there was a second vote when the students knew that Baxter's candidacy had an excellent chance of success.

John R. Long was a fraternity brother and I one of his campaign managers but the following Spring in 1970 I found myself nominated as the Student Power Coalition Candidate to suceed Jimmie Baxter.
Baxter had done a phenomenal job in the wake of the KENT STATE MURDERS helping to organize the student strike while keeping things peaceful and orderly. Jimmie sent me these images from his archives of the time in lieu of writing an addition to these diaries. The NIXON GRAHAM event was after his term expired. Jimmie was in a position to know the degree to which local cops and DA's were willing to go to crush students and make them "examples". These are Jimmie's pictures:












The Republican leadership in Knox County exemplified by Attorney General Ron Webster was itching to use anxious UT and KPD police to bust heads and to make UT protesters into some dangerous communist inspired radical group in the wake of the KENT STATE MURDERS. Baxter helped keep the student strike and protests peaceful and orderly and saved many from clubs and jail cells. Jimmie Baxter is now retired as a US Attorney living in Knoxville. So that's what radical commies end up doing with their lives?
Baxter followed Christopher Whittle as SGA President and you may know that Chris once owned ESQUIRE MAGAZINE and Whittle Communications and was the founder of Channel One News and the EDISON SCHOOLS

You have to read the first 40 YEAR FLASHBACK diary to get the background on the KNOXVILLE 22 and my part in that particular Republican insanity. Three of the KNOXVILLE 22 were nominated to run for president as the SPC candidate and we had the first primary ever held at UT for a nomination. Progressives are so Democratic



We had the only "all indicted for felony" primary field and eventual ticket in SGA election history. Gus Hadorn, Peter Kami, Steve Levine and I were all facing absurd charges for Felony Inciting to Riot for the Knoxville 22 protest of the selection process for the new UT President Ed Boling that were eventually dropped to 'blocking the entrance to a doorway' and a $25 fine except for Peter who had to flea the country. He became the scapegoat 'outside communist agitator'.

There were 7 original candidates that year for SGA president to succeed Jimmie Baxter and that field was eventually reduced to five




Dave Dunaway was the YAF right-wing candidate, Gary Crawford was the Liberal, Bob Migliara was the centrist independent, I was the "RADICAL" and John Smith was my Phi Sig Fraternity brother and eventual winner of the race as the typical mainstream conservative UT fraternity guy. When Gary Crawford and I split the liberal/left vote Smith took the well organized fraternity/sorority vote swelled by mandatory voting from the membership.As a result Smith got to meet with NIXON following the crusade appearance with Billy Graham and he announced that Nixon was "concerned about students and their problems".
Here is what GARRY WILLS had to say about John Smith in his brilliant piece about the NIXON GRAHAM debacle in ESQUIRE Magazine. - JESUS WEPT - BY GARRY WILLS How Nixon Used the Media, Billy Graham, and the Good Lord to Rap with Students at Tennessee U
And to cap it all, along came Smith, the Student President. He rode to Air Force One in the same car with Bebe Rebozo (who muttered, darkly, of the demonstrators. "There's only one way to handle them") and H. R. Haldeman's wife. Mrs. Haldeman asked Smith how the university's three-day strike after Kent State had been kept peaceful—he did not answer, what was the truth, that his black predecessor, Jimmie Baxter, kept the lid on, growling at students that they were outgunned by the cops.
On the plane, Nixon asked Smith what troubles the youth of today. Two things, he was answered—they think the war unconstitutional, and they need a higher goal than the merely material things. Smith had just heard both Nixon and Graham say, on the platform, that youth needs a higher goal than the merely material things. This is how the President discovers what is troubling youth. Smith, off the plane photographed, interviewed, sighed with relief that the President does understand and care for the youth. I talked, the day after, with Smith. Short, with a vacant fraternity face, his eyes bleared, he was suffering a political hangover after his bender of publicity. Did he think yesterday's Crusade a religious service or a political meeting? "Political." Was the aim to convince the nation that students would still welcome Nixon? "Yes." Is that a misconception? “Yes” Didn’t you help create that misconception with your telegram of welcome and your praise for Nixon? "Well, I do believe he understands our problems." What about the telegram? I think most of the students here would welcome a chance to see the President." Even under these phony auspices? "Probably." Do you consider that an informed or an informed preference? "Uninformed I suppose." Yet you cater to it? "Well, I just wanted to size up the President for myself. I don't opinions about people I have not met." You satisfied your curiosity: "Look, didn't I get a chance speak out against the war?" About it’s unconstitutionality? "Yes." Don’t you think kids would still oppose the war as immoral even if it was legal? "Sure, but I could denounce the war the same way radicals do and never get a chance to see President. It is a question of sounding off before 23,000 students or giving my views on the war to millions of television viewers." bleared eyes had lit up, last night fuming once more into his brain, an intoxicant. I left with a strong impression I could not, at first, define -- but eventually it came to me, I had been talking to a twenty-year old Nixon.
Remember that this is Tricky Dick Nixon trying to fool the world into thinking he's welcome on any college campus in the wake of the KENT STATE MURDERS and the strikes that hit every campus in America. I guess that Liberty U., Oral Roberts and Bob Jones Universities were too obvious so a Graham Crusade in Neyland Stadium in Republican East Tennessee was the best option for this sham appearance.

During final exams we still got a nice sized crowd of 700 to put themselves on the line in front of 90,000 "christians", the Secret Service, and Knoxville cops who were more than happy to bust a few dirty hippie heads. Most of these students were raised in local church going families like mine where my lifelong pastor Dr Charles Trentham had played golf with Graham prior to Nixon's visit that evening.
Carroll Bible's beautiful recollection of his personal struggle bears repeating here since it got lost in the previous lengthy episode. If you read this carefully you can feel his internal conflict.
The Billy Graham Crusade, May 28, 1970, Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, TN
Was it a political or religious event?
For me it was religious.
The robe had been brought to the student government office where people were preparing for the demonstration. It was offered for me to wear, with the suggestion that I needed a robe since I 'looked like Jesus'.
Jesus? I balked inside myself, but decided to wear it anyway. That my zen of intersections should come in the form of a Biblical robe is not surprising. I had spent the past decade on a spiritual quest. In 1961 I had answered a call in Montreat, NC, by missionaries from Brazil to live and travel in Brazil to learn about the church's mission work. After high school graduation I and seven others spent a school year on this quest. My plans after Brazil included a church-centered college and a resolve to return to Brazil to serve as a missionary. I had been prepared for this journey with the mind set of duck-and-cover vigilance against the (Communist) enemy. I had been Cadet Colonel in Jr. ROTC. My father worked for the federal government. I understood Law and Order from the inside out.
The assumptions behind my life plans may have been naive. Some of us were rabbits on the tracks and locomotives were rumbling nearby. Trouble for me began in college when I evaluated my experience in Brazil. I could see that our high standard of living was built on the backs of others' suffering, enforced for corporate gain. I understood the same thing was happening as well in Viet Nam. During this transition the intensity of my private spiritual life remained central, even as religion fell from my conversation and I abandoned the mission plans in exchange for a study of History at UT's graduate school. By the time of the crusade my spiritual life, along with the rest of existence, had become totally focused by the war, its evil nature and lies. Accepting the emerging truth about the nature of Power was destroying the childhood framework that held my world together, creating a vacuum of authority.
Today, distrust of government is taken for granted, not something to shatter one's foundations. But my world then was cracking as I tried to reconcile my Christian faith to my country's role in history. It was a deeper concern for me than the rumble gathering on the tracks, and I sacrificed much for it.
A Biblical robe needed its own sign. The preprinted signs read "Thou shall not kill". I wanted a sign that read, "Let our people go", a reference to the Knoxville 22 (arrests) from an earlier protest on campus, and for all the other political prisoners around the country. I changed Moses's quote to 'our' because they were not 'my' people.
Using a quote by Moses was a step away from comparison to Jesus. But Moses didn't fit me any better. He led his people. Communication and interpersonal skills are required of a leader; I was blessed with an abundance of neither. I was better suited to see large patterns in history than to connect effectively with individuals. I know as people grow old they may not remember everything about the past, but I'd be surprised if anyone remembers me as a leader in those protests of 1970. I was the street-theater element -- independent, stamped by my personal quest, not necessarily relevant to the group's plans.
At some point the phone in the office rang. It was a national radio show wanting an interview. Apparently, nobody wanted to talk to them, so I did. I explained the need to oppose Nixon's appearance on campus under the circumstances. The reporter then asked if I didn't fear arrest. I said I didn't see any reason for arrests to be made. I was sincere in that.
I dressed and folded the sign under the robe to secret it past the sentries at the gate.
Once inside the stadium, I fell under a spell of reverence for the enormity of the event. I remember holding the sign up, and wanting to stare a hole through this evil President. It was a contempt spawned by the betrayal of an innocent faith in my country, made worse because the lies were cloaked in patriotism.
The protesters that day exercised free speech during the political parts of the rally, but practiced no violence. The call for violence that I recall came from one of the singers of a spiritual hymn when she expressed a desire to come down and give us a smack. Exactly what effect that was meant to have on an angry crowd of 90,000 hungry Christians who gladly would have fed us to the lions on the spot, only she can say. I was to feel some of its impact soon enough.
A lot of influences led me into Neyland Stadium dressed in a robe. But there was a common prime mover for everyone protesting that day, on both sides. The war was the bullying of all young people by cynical liars. I understood the lies as a student of History. But those who had no choice but to go to war were the greatest victims, regardless of their attitude about their roles. If their parents were sitting in the stadium that day and saw the protesters as a lightening rod to channel their own anger, then I can't hate them for that. They were in the same position as I -- twisted into circumstances they could not control -- we were all small people in the presence of Power.
Everyone present was transfixed by the moment. Everyone was equally human, living from moment to moment in the space they occupied, just as they were called to do. That included Billy Graham. We were on opposite sides of truth that day, but I have nothing but respect for Dr. Graham today.
When Nixon quit talking and the protesters followed suit, I walked from the stands onto the field to listen to Graham. I had come from an intensely religious background and wanted to communicate my faith by clearly, obviously, paying attention to Graham's words. I sat on the ground at midfield and listened intently to the sermon. Likely, no one caught my drift.
When Graham finished speaking I stood up to leave the stadium. As I left the field. I was met by a uniformed officer and arrested. The spell was broken. I began yelling to the nearby spectators, "They're taking political prisoners!" That earned me a club across the knee -- a smack of sorts, set to a hymn no doubt, intended to cause permanent damage I bet. My knee cap, however, hidden by the robe, survived by an inch.
Once in my cell, I asked that Billy Graham pay me a visit. I wanted to hear his rationale for sponsoring Nixon. That doomed request marked my final break with organized religion. As it sank in that he would never come to my cell, the vacuum of authority split apart at the seams. The phantoms of both 'law and order', and the moral authority of the church stood before me in that vacuum, both hollow of soul. After that, I resolved to take my quest for God on the road, to find whatever truth that comes into my life in the future without appeal to church or state.
Less naive after the crusade, I watched as Power's war on its people limped on for more unnecessary, life-crushing years. More souls were torn apart; lives were lost. The unimaginable horror suffered by the Asia people we don't even want to know. Today I am not surprised that in the new century Power has established a permanent war on its people and their civil liberties, with the blessings of the majority.
Looking into my jail cell that night in 1970, any student of the Bible should recognize the Biblical character I really resembled. I hadn't planned it, but I was in the role of an Old Testament prophet -- an outcast, despised for a message that was too harsh to accept, truth that would challenge a certain moral comfort. All of those people in the stands that day hating the protesters were playing their role too, just as it is in the Bible.


Following the NIXON visit upon learning about the arrest warrants I phoned Dr. Trentham to ask his intervention and help in stopping the arrests. He replied that he didn't think there was anything he could do. Later in life he went to DC to become Jimmie Carter's pastor before resigning from the Southern Baptist Convention and starting what he called a Potter's Church in a tiny chapel we called The Church in the Wildwood. The Nixon Graham event had a profound effect on his life he said. I became a Deacon in his small rural church until he died in an auto accident in Colorado.
That trajectory from First Baptist Knoxville to First Baptist DC to the tiny non-southern Baptist church exemplified what I considered to be the true Christian nature of men like him and jimmy Carter who's religious foundation was rooted in something deeper than the cynical use of belief and faith for political advantage so prevalent in Republican politics.

The head of the UT Theology Department Dr Charles Reynolds was among those arrested for Disrupting A Religious Service for holding up a sigh that read THOU SHALT NOT KILL at the NIXON appearance in the Graham Crusade. The paradox is so dramatic and overwhelming. A 'Christian' Crusade where students opposing the killing in an illegal war are jailed for holding up a Commandment while the 'christian' crowd calls for their heads and cheers their arrests saying that the KENT STATE murder victims deserved their fate.

I spent a long time sitting on the 50 yard line at Neyland Stadium after Graham made 'the call'. He glared over the podium and admonished us for blasphemy because we dared to come down to the field with our hands raised in the Peace Sign. I tried to talk with one of his staff about a Christian duty to oppose that war to no avail. Like Carroll Bible I still carry around that confusion about America and Christianity as I understood it and the antithesis represented by Nixon's war and Graham's complicity. The Republican's were only interested in who to blame and what to fear. They were about punishment and retribution. Jimmy Carter was about forgiveness and helping those less fortunate. It seemed so simple to me then and I've never found any reason in the past 40 years to change that point of view.

With only 64 readers for the first installment in this series perhaps I should retire and accept the verdict that this little slice of history has limited appeal. But then I think that the continuing development of the Republican Theocracy has so permeated the current US political world that these earlier obvious uses of religious events by evil men need remembering. Just as the fundamental decency of men like Jimmy Carter and Dr Charles Trentham need to be held up in comparison.

Tom Robbins in my favorite philosophical work SKINNY LEGS AND ALL expounds on the evil generated when politics mixes with religion. So much of what he offers there is pertinent to this example. For instance
"The Divine was expansive, but religion was reductive. Religion attempted to reduce the Divine to a knowable quantity with which mortals might efficiently deal, to pigeonhole it once and for all so that we never had to reevaluate it. With hammers of cant and spikes of dogma, we crucified and crucified again, trying to nail to our stationary altars the migratory light of the world. Thus, since religion bore false witness to the Divine, religion was blasphemy. And once it entered into its unholy alliance with politics, it became the most dangerous and repressive force that the world has ever known." or "Conservatives understand Halloween, liberals only understand Christmas. If you want to control a population, don't give it social services, give it a scary adversary."
"Religion isn't the opium of the masses - it's the cyanide."
and "To emphasize the afterlife is to deny life. To concentrate on Heaven is to create hell. In their desperate longing to transcend the disorderliness, friction, and unpredictability that pesters life; in their desire for a fresh start in a tidy habitat, germ-free and secured by angels, religious multitudes are gambling the only life they may ever have on a dark horse in a race that has no finish line."

Liberal Progressives are too honest and sympathetic to use religion for a cynical political purpose. Republican's don't see the evil in their ways.
Once the Left Behind believers seeking Armageddon were considered marginal whack jobs but now they constitute the solid center of the Republican Party. This NIXON GRAHAM event was simply a preview of a far more dangerous future of W saying that GOD told him to smite Saddam or the Rapture and Creationism fans who prefer to lay waste to the environment in the name of a Genesis inspired "dominion theory" reinforced by their desire to hasten the Apocalypse and bring on the end of days.
In the face of that threat isn't it better to muse over a Tom Robbins quote than to face the outrage of Sarah and Rand in a bay of oil?

There will be additions to this series as soon as Bruce McCoy, shown here being arrested during the KNOXVILLE 22 protest after serving as a negotiator between the administration and the student protesters.

Chris Caron, a leader of the student protest people and the person most responsible for the campaign posters that helped elect Jimmie Baxter SGA president.

and a couple of other participants get it together to add their reflections and recall to this accurate history of a moment in time some forty years ago. We examine our past to understand our present and hopefully avoid a painful future.

I ended up in Canada with Chris and Bruce in November of 1972 despite a high lottery number and no fear of the draft. Chris was Canadian and Bruce was draft exempt but staying in the US under Nixon didn't seem to be the right thing to do. When Nixon was run out of Washington I felt vindicated.

If nothing else the first installment of this history put me back in touch with a few people who were there and that was with only 64 who viewed the diary. My hope is that this second chapter will yield more participants who can reach me via the comments and our 1970 Protest and Activism at UT Facebook Group
I suppose that this type of situation at Tennessee was repeated across the country at institutions of higher learning from Maine to California and it's the common elements of our collective experience in that incredible time that we share. 40 years have passed and the participants are ending their careers that were just beginning in 1970. This was a part of our beginning and it shaped our lives in many deep and fundamental ways.

Thank you for reading, rec-ing, and your comments as I beg your pardon for my opening remarks concerning rec lists and Kossack behavior. I'm grateful for a place to share my story and point of view.

EXILE IN CANADA - Can't Stay in a country that would re-elect Nixon

The specter of Richard Nixon on stage with Billy Graham within the hallowed confines of Neyland Stadium in the wake of the Kent State Murders and the vast student strikes all over America still haunts me today. The awesome power of religious fervor giving Nixon the aura of righteousness when we know from the Watergate tapes his base and vulgar nature is a chilling reminder of how easily people can be fooled.
This is Part 3 of 40 YEAR FLASHBACK - NIXON & GRAHAM at UT Part I and NIXON & GRAHAM Part II

After Martin Luther King Jr was murdered in Memphis TN in April of 68 and RFK was gunned down in LA in June of 69 we saw LBJ undermine HHH and watched the 68 election go to Richard Milhouse Nixon

With 22 arrested and convicted in the wake of the KNOXVILLE 22 incident in Jan, the massacre of 4 students at Kent State on May 4th, the student strikes of May across the country, and Nixon's 'successful' appearance in Neyland Stadium billed as his welcome on a major college campus followed by the arrests of some 66 students and faculty for daring to bring THOU SHALT NOT KILL signs to a Graham Crusade (the crime of disrupting a religious service); the war had come home to Tennessee in a personal and dramatic way.
We students were on Nixon's enemies list and the casualties among Nixon enemies were growing.

Bobby had become the light of our hope for a better future for everyone

Martin was our common dream and conscience

Both lay dead in the ashes of our hopes and dreams while dangerous men like
NIXON and REAGAN

and George W Bush prevailed and the corporate oil and weapons interests prospered


Somehow the obvious isn't enough to encourage decent hard working American's to simply vote in their own best interest. The supposed "Christian" nation seems to prefer the self-serving greed of the super rich represented by Nixon and Bush to the hopes and dreams for a better future for average Americans represented by The REVEREND Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Francis Kennedy.

Al Gore's interest in preserving the environment for our children and grand-children is ridiculed by many who seem to perfer the vested interests of the self-serving profiteers who claim record profits while dealing in the oil and weapons that cost them the lives of their children in Iraq and Afghanistan and threaten the future of their offspring. How much Halliburton, ENRON, BP, Worldcom, Carlisle Group, Goldman Sachs, Citibank and AIG will American's suffer before turning against the excesses of corporate greed and the elected officials who kowtow to their interest?

The good men who made a difference for the average Americans lay dead or robbed of rightful office by fate.
According to a USA Today analysis that came out earlier this month, Americans paid their lowest share in taxes in nearly sixty years in 2009. At the same time, as this year’s annual Economic Report of the President pointed out, “in recent years nearly half of all income — including both wages and salaries and nonlabor income — has gone to 10 percent of families.” “The top 1 percent of families now receive nearly 25 percent of income, up from less than 10 percent in the 1970s,” the report said.
American's in general and particularly Republican East Tennesseans buy the ridiculous idea that liberals want to redistribute the wealth while viewing the proof that the wealth redistribution since the election of Ronald Reagan has been the greatest transfer of wealth from the middle class to the ultra-wealthy in the history of the world.

How can they sell the absurd idea that Republicanism is in the best interest of average Americans? How does an aged Aussie media magnate like Rupert Murdock, an overweight cigar chomping Oxycotin addict like Rush Limbaugh, a loud mouthed snake oil salesman like Glenn Beck, silent majority religious fanatics like Falwell, Dobson, Haggard, Hagee, Bakker, Copeland, Swaggert, & Robertson and a vapid ditsy Alaskan Hockey mom like Sarah Palin, join a cheerleading C student AWOL business failure and capture political power in the United States of America?
They have nothing to offer the average American except fear and blame. There is nothing in the Republican political ideology or their legislative program that offers anything but a bleak future of war and poverty for the vast majority and fabulous personal wealth for a tiny minority.
Health Insurance Companies record 5.7 Billion in profits
HEALTH INSURANCE RECORD PROFITS
US Oil companies record their highest profits in histoy
OIL COMPANY 600 BILLION PROFITS
Super banks and their obscene investment practices cost us trillions
BAILED OUT BANKS WITH RECORD PROFITS
Halliburton - theft on a grand scale and they've been at it for years
It seems the ENRON scandal didn't teach Americans anything

Our generation went to Woodstock and took to the streets to stop the war. We drove LBJ from office and forced tricky dick into showing his true nature by instilling a fear that resulted in the plumbers and Watergate. We joined the Peace Corps and burned our draft cards while popularizing a sentiment for anti-establishment political action rejecting the imperialism that propped up vicious killer dictators in third world outbacks where American financial interests exploited the resources for their own gain. All to no avail it seems since corporate greed is impervious to reason and relentless.

The Nixon appearance with Billy Graham was a glimpse into a grim future. It wasn't the first time religion and politics mixed in America to the detriment of all. I am currently reading AMERICAN THEOCRACY by Kevin Phillips - a former Republican strategist for Nixon.

Too Many Preachers
In this section, Phillips refers to the large presence in the conservative coalition of religious Evangelicals and Pentecostals. He cites a statistic that 40% of the republican coalition is made up of such voters. He cites quotes by U.S. President George W. Bush suggesting that he is speaking for God (Phillips points to past leaders, such as Roman Dictator Julius Caesar who made similar statements.). He points to hostility by the social conservatives towards science in general, and Darwinian evolution in particular. But he particularly focuses on the end-times prophecies of what he refers to as Christian Reconstructionists.
Phillips starts this section by tracing the history of American religion. He argues that the pilgrims who emigrated to the New World before the American Revolution were religious outsiders, who were non-conformist and more radical than the establishment would allow (which was why they left Europe in the first place). He points to a history of highly emotional religious practices in the 17th and 18th centuries. He then argues that after "fundamentalist religion" (particularly Evangelical and the newly-formed Pentecostal branches) were set back after the Scopes Monkey Trial, they appeared to have been dealt a permanent blow. Phillips cites statistical studies that suggest that after this point, fundamentalist religion grew at a rapid rate, while mainstream denominations actually declined )
The Scopes Monkey Trial - yet another event in Tennessee - was a very public defeat for the fundamentalist Creationism world view, but here in 2010 we have a stronger than ever anti-evolutionist bent in this country exemplified in Texas by new standards "stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light." If Texas wants to teach fundamental stupidity in place of science would it not be beneficial to the country as a whole to encourage their secession along with Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Oklahoma? The rest of America would be substantially more pleasant without their participation in our politics.

On election eve in November of 72 I loaded up my Chevy Blazer and headed north to the border to permanently join friends who preceded me to Canada. Refusal to live in a country that would elect Nixon twice seemed to be the only option. I had spent the previous Summer working for George McGovern only to watch his miserable defeat.

(from right standing Jeff 'Stick' Davis and David 'Butch' McDade - Amazing Rhythm Aces, Nelda McDade, Steve Deady, Linda and Gordie Langsner, Susan Bozeman; In front from right - Jesse Winchester with son, Chris Caron with Linda Petrick.)
Our group of ex-patriots included Tennessee native singer-songwriter jesse Winchester and future members of the Amazing Rhythm Aces then playing with Jesse as Jesse and the Rhythm Aces.

from left Jesse Winchester, Butch McDade, and Jeff Stick Davis

Jesse Winchester was the music world's most prominent Vietnam War draft evader, though his renown came from a body of wry, closely observed songs. After growing up in Memphis, Winchester received his draft notice in 1967 and moved to Montreal, Canada, rather than serve in the military. In 1969, he met Robbie Robertson of the Band, who helped launch his recording career. In the same way that James Taylor's history of mental instability and drug abuse served as a subtext for his early music, Winchester's exile lent real-life poignancy to songs like "Yankee Lady," which appeared on his debut album, Jesse Winchester (1970). He became a Canadian citizen in 1973.

Despite critical acclaim, his inability to tour in the U.S. prevented him from taking his place among the major singer/songwriters of the early '70s, but he made a series of impressive albums -- Third Down, 110 to Go (August 1972), Learn to Love It (August 1974), Let the Rough Side Drag (June 1976), and Nothing But a Breeze (March 1977) -- before President Jimmy Carter instituted an amnesty that finally allowed him to play in his homeland
Our group of some 40 ex-patriots moved from the Frazier House to the Chatelet Hotel in Morin Heights Quebec. We opened the Belladonna Ballroom and offered country music and Harvey Wallbangers to our new Canadian friends

Smokescreen Sound was formed to book bands and musicians into the clubs in Montreal and to do production of cross Canadian tours. Bands from Knoxville like Rich Mountain Tower came to Montreal to perform and record.

In the Spring of 1970 following the Kent State Murders my brother Charlie joined with Russell Smith, Danny Kennedy, Sparky Rucker, and Toby Lees to form THE STRIKE BAND which played at events supporting the student strikes.
When Charlie left for medical school the STRIKE BAND became Smith and Kennedy with Jeff Stick Davis and Butch McDade. They continued to play at the political rallies and events in support of the strike. Davis and McDade eventually joined Jesse Winchester in Montreal.

THE GREAT AMERICAN STRIKE BAND - formed in the wake of the Kent State Murders and the general strike by students across America.
from left - Danny Kennedy, Jeff 'Stick' Davis, Russell Smith, and Butch McDade

The Original Strike Band members
Danny Kennedy, Russell Smith, Toby Lees, and Charlie Bozeman

By 1974 Jesse Winchester recorded Learn to Love It in Montreal including Russell Smith's Third Rate Romance and The End is Not in Sight. The album featured Jeff Stick Davis and Butch McDade on bass and drums. Russell Smith and I helped with background vocals. Jesse supported album sales with a cross Canada tour from Halifax to Vancouver and I managed the tour support and did the sound with Mike Caron.
Jesse then produced Knoxville's Rich Mountain Tower - Playin to the Radio album at Studio Six. The flow of people and music from Knoxville to Montreal was constant.

Stuart Wright who had been playing with Jesse became part of RMT and wrote songs for the Amazing Rhythm Aces.

Sandy Garrett, Stuart Wright, Doug Moisson, David Carr, Bobby Tuccillo, Shady Grove.

By 1976 Mountain Sound Inc formed in Knoxville with Rich Mountain Tower members and we picked up Charlie Daniels and The Marshall Tucker Bands for tour sound and lighting production clients. MTB and the CDB became prominent fundraisers for Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign and Mountain Sound was a part of that effort offering our services without compensation to get Carter elected.
When Carter won the election in November he announced that he would pardon all draft resistors who did not desert or become a citizen of another country. That decision would not have helped Jesse Winchester who had become a Canadian by 1973. After conferring with Albert Grossman I went to Washington and met with Jody Powell and Hamilton Jordan's people making the case that becoming a Canadian citizen was the honorable thing to do and that Jesse should be treated like any other Canadian citizen. That January I waited in the receiving line at the National Guard Armory where we were doing the sound and light production for Marshall Tucker and Charlie Daniels at the Inaugural Ball with one of Jesse's albums under my arm. Carter saw the album and told me not to worry. The next day he pardoned all draft resistors except those who had deserted.

Toy Caldwell, Jimmy Carter, George McCorkle

All of this ties together from the Kent State Murders to the the strikes, the strike band, Nixon at the Graham Crusade, the Vietnam war, the draft resistors, Jesse Winchester and the Rhythm Aces, The Amazing Rhythm Aces, Mountain Sound and the CDB and MTB to Carter's election and the pardons.
The MTB were all ex-marines from South Carolina and unlikely Democrats. Charlie Daniels is now an outspoken right wing fanatic. Mountain Sound went on to do all of the sound production at the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville for Jake Butcher who ran for Governor of Tennessee and then imploded with the United American Bank failure and his arrest and conviction for banking fraud. He moved from his mansion on Melton Hill with a dozen bathrooms to the Atlanta Federal Pen to make mailbags. If he had not tried a run for Governor as a Democrat he might have gotten through the difficulty in time.

In 1961 I had the opportunity to serve as a Senate Page for Albert Gore Sr. I was 14 years old and living on my on in the nation's capitol in a rooming house owned by Mrs. Alexandra Columbus just behind the Supreme Court. As a short term summer page I was assigned to the Republican side of the aisle where I watched Barry Goldwater mark the bills for John Tower and listened to Everett Dirksen, Norris Cotton, Margaret Chase Smith and Jacob Javits. LBJ would enter on my side of the podium and I would hold the door. He actually took the time to remember my name. Strom Thurmond was there along with Richard Russell, Carl Hayden, George Aiken, Hubert Humphrey, Ted Kennedy, and Estes Kefauver. I helped set up the desks in the morning and ran notes and packages from the floor to offices and fetched water from the cloakroom and got paid 182 dollars in $2 bills each week. It was an interesting experience at 14. I was a yellow dog Democrat. In 64 Gore gave me my desired appointment to the Air Force Academy and I was first alternate so he appointed me to West Point. I did not want West Point and I'm probably alive today because I made that decision.
Here I was 10 years later in Canada because of Nixon. When Watergate hit I was sure we had turned the corner and Democrats would prevail for decades to come. Instead we went from Carter to Reagan and the long dark days with a brief respite for Clinton followed by the disaster in Florida that gave us the agony of Bush.
Things only seem to be getting worse with the media, the military, oil, banks, and religion all arrayed against the best interests of working people and the working people don't seem to have the intelligence to recognize their own best interests.
Nixon at the Graham Crusade was a graphic display of the problem. Good 'christian' people were being told by their ideal good Christian man Billy Graham that Nixon was on the side of all that was good and true. Their children with the long hair and the THOU SHALT NOT KILL signs were misguided. They were being brainwashed by outside communist elements. The devil's music was leading them astray along with the evil in Hollywood. God was on the side of Nixon and the war in Vietnam was all that was between us and commie tanks in California.
After spending the first 22 years of life as a church going Eagle scout, Senate Page, Air Force Academy appointee, class president, and campus leader I was an ex-patriot outlaw hanging out with long haired rock n rollers in Canada.
The Republican's own Tennessee despite their obvious failures. They had a grip on it prior to the Nixon appearance with Graham but that day it was 90,000 christian Graham Nixon supporters and maybe 700 protesters in opposition. Then we had Al Gore Sr. and Howard Baker but by November it was Baker and Brock. Now it's Alexander and Corker and it couldn't get much worse. Al Gore Jr. the well informed native son and advocate for the environment couldn't win in Tennessee. These Nixon loving crusaders preferred the failed oilman who butchered English to the man who helped Bill Clinton lower deficits and studied the effect of emissions on the environment.

As NIXON stood on the 50 yard line surrounded by thousands of admirers with the entire Republican party hierarchy of the state it was clear that I was I stranger in my own land. I was born not a mile from that stadium and had spent the first two years of life in Aconda Court - now known as Alumni Hall at the main intersection on campus.
With my father in the Aconda Courtyard.
The future seemed so bright and hopeful then.

Now I was the square peg in the round hole. The outcast prodigal non-believer. What we believe chooses us. I fear for the future for my grandchild and his country. The aftermath of Nixon at the Graham Crusade haunts me still.

Thanks for reading and your comments and recommendations to this diary. What a long strange trip it has been.