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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 2018)
6 Wednesday, February 7, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Thedghostdofdradicalsdpastd—danddyetdtodcome? By Jim Cornelius Editor in Chief I see a bad moon rising I see trouble on the way I see earthquakes and lightning I see bad times today — John Fogerty The bad moon Creedence Clearwater Revival song- writer and frontman John Fogerty saw on the rise in the fall of 1969 would become an eerie, unsettling Blood Moon as the tumultuous ’60s skid- ded sideways into the per- vasively violent and deeply weird 1970s. We think we’re living in fraught and polarized times now, but the times were far stranger and more dangerous in the early ’70s. Author and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin urges us to “Think about one fact, one fact alone: 1,000 political bombings a year in ’72, ’73, ’74. Almost inconceivable. That was what the world was like. Skyjackings were epidemic. You had an actual revolutionary movement in this country that, while never likely to succeed, was disrupting the country, espe- cially Northern California, in a way that’s... it’s just hard to believe.” Toobin’s recent book, “American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst,” is a primary resource for a CNN documentary set to air next Sunday night, February 11: “The Radical Story of Patty Hearst.” On February 4, 1974, kid- nappers pushed their way into the Berkeley apartment of the heiress to the newspaper empire founded by her grand- father, William Randolph Hearst, beat up Hearst’s boyfriend and bundled her into the trunk of a car. They hauled her off to Daly City, just south of San Francisco, and held her in a closet for 57 days. When she emerged, she announced to the world that she had joined her captors in a revolutionary struggle, taking the nom de guerre of “Tania” in honor of the ill-fated Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara’s East German com- rade and purported lover. Hearst’s kidnappers called themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). At its strongest, the “army” num- bered no more than 12 men and women. Their leader, an escaped prisoner named Donald DeFreeze, called himself Cinque Mtume, and styled himself “General-Field Marshal.” The SLA was one of the loonier outfits on the extreme left who believed they could, through acts of violence, spark a revolution that would bring “death to the fascist insect that feeds upon the life of the people.” The grandiosity would have been comical — except that the SLA was dealing in real bullets. They had earlier announced their presence on the scene with the murder of Oakland’s first African- American superintendent of schools, Marcus Foster — a bizarre and inexplicable act that perplexed and outraged virtually everyone else on the radical left, including the Weather Underground and the Black Panthers. The Hearst kidnapping propelled the SLA into the national limelight, espe- cially after the 19-year-old heiress joined the cause and was deliberately and vividly caught on camera robbing a bank. Whether Hearst was “brainwashed” and joined her captors in a case of what is known as Stockholm Syndrome (where kidnap vic- tims come to identify with their captors), or she threw in with her revolutionary cohorts of her own free will remains controversial. She commit- ted numerous crimes in 19 months on the run, including bank robbery (in one of which a woman was killed), blow- ing up a police car and opening fire on a sport- ing goods store in L.A. She had numerous opportunities to walk away or to make her presence known to law enforce- PHOTO PUBLIC DOMAIN ment. She never Patricia Hearst was deliberately caught on camera did. during the 1974 armed robbery of the Hibernia Bank Hearst was in San Francisco. finally caught “The Radical Story of in September 1975. She was initially defiant, but soon Patty Hearst” offers a win- renounced the SLA, portray- dow on a tumultuous period ing herself as a victim of rape, of American history — one indoctrination and brutaliza- that perhaps has more reso- tion. A jury didn’t buy it. She nance today than we might was convicted of bank rob- be comfortable acknowledg- bery and took a seven-year ing. Political extremes again jolt in prison. She served two loom large on the landscape, years before President Jimmy in the blatant evocation of fas- Carter commuted her sen- cist ideology among the “alt- tence. President Bill Clinton, right” and an “Antifa” move- in his last day in office, ment that echoes the rhetoric (and the infatuation with Che granted her a full pardon. The radical underground Guevara) of the 1970s leftist of the left burned itself out underground. The nation and its culture by the early 1980s — and domestic terrorism became remains deeply divided along the province of the under- the same fault lines revealed ground radical right. The neo- in the tumult of the Vietnam Nazi clandestine action group War era — but, fortunately, The Order created itself very lacking the kind mobilizing much in the image of the factor the war created. Yet, Weather Underground and the tinder is still there, and as other leftist radical groups — volatile as ever. It remains to with all the pompous grandi- be seen if new radicals will osity of the SLA. And met a drop into the underground and lash out, determined to similar fate. A right-wing domestic provide the spark to ignite a terrorist, Timothy McVeigh, conflagration. would set off a truck bomb in Oklahoma City in 1995 that was more horrifically lethal by far than anything the bombers of the radical left ever conceived of. L e y r s mile! We can help. Come visit us today! Excep о al Health, Preven о & Aesthe cs BULLSEYE! Another Great Haircut! Call C ll J Jeff ff Today! T d ! The Hair Cache Jeff, Theresa, Ann, Jamie, Shiela, Terri, Shanntyl, Brittany 152 E. Main Ave. / 541-549-8771 Ben Crockett, d.d.s. Trevor Frideres d.m.d. p 541-549-9486 f 541-549-9110 410 E. Cascade Ave. • P.O. Box 1027 • Sisters Hours: Mon., 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Tues.-Wed., 8 a.m.-4 p.m.; Thurs., 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Skiersd improved withdeveryd raced By Rongi Yost Correspondent The Alpine Ski Team raced under mixed condi- tions in their slalom race at Mr. Bachelor on Saturday, February 3. Skiers raced in misty rain, sun, and wind, and despite the weather, skiers continued to improve. Holland Hartman and Skylar Wilkins, the only two girls on the team, both improved their combined times. Hartman finished 32nd, and Wilkins was right behind her at 33rd. “These girls are both get- ting closer to making the top 30 at each race,” said Coach Gabe Chladek (see story, page 19). “The top 30 racers score points for the team.” On the boys side, Ethan Morgan missed a gate on his first run and did not score, but finished 29th on his second run, which scored two points for the team. Spencer Kemp, a senior racing for the first time, completed two good runs. The boys combined finish order is as follows: George Chladek — 13th, John Banks – 43rd, Christopher Lundgren — 44th, Evan Palmer – 55th, Spencer Kemp — 56th, Conner Petke — 60th, and Ian Cash — 62nd. The Redmond team coach, Mike Ricketts, said, “I think that was George’s best Slalom run yet!” The Outlaws will race in a giant slalom at Mt. Bachelor on Saturday, February 10. THE GALLERY R E S TA U R A N T A N D B A R T his Valentine’s Day… Share some pie with the apple of your eye! Baked fresh daily! Dutch Apple • Cherry Marionberry • Chocolate Chip Walnut • Key Lime Peanut Butter • Coconut, Banana or Chocolate Cream SOUP OF THE DAY — 1/4 LB — IES BURGER & FR rs hu -T 0 on 5 M $ 11 AM -10 PM 6 Feb. 7th - Feb. 13th Sat..........................Black Bean Wed ..........Fiesta Chicken Rice Sun ..... Cajun Chicken Gumbo Thurs ........ Clubhouse Tomato Mon ..................... Beef Noodle Fri Clam Chowder & Vegetable Tues ..........Split Pea with Ham Breakfast & lunch 6:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Full-service dining in the bar nightly until 10 p.m. (21 & over) 171 W. Cascade Ave., Sisters • 541-549-2631
