Angela Davis, From a Top Ten Fugitive to a Top National Leader
I suppose every old person has a little difficulty realizing how much change has occurred in his/her lifetime. I know it is hard to believe for myself.
Way back in the 60's and early 70's we heard the announcement in our Presbyterian Church the national Church had given $10,000 to the defense of Angela Davis. Davis had listed as one of the top ten dangerous people at large in the nation. After she was captured President Nixon praised the FBI for capturing Angela Davis.
I remember my wife and I, young professors at the time, saying to each other how great it was our Presbyterian Church had done this. It was so obvious to us Davis was simply a very liberal private citizen who was outspoken but became useful to conservatives as a villain. She needed someone to help her get out from under political prosecution. Davis was in prison for a year because guns registered to her were used by others in an attack where some people were killed. Her picture had been in Post Offices around the country as one of the "Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. After a year she was acquitted of all charges.
As the saying goes, "No good deed goes unpunished." There was widespread anger at the national Presbyterian office for donating the $10,000. I suppose those Presbyterians who were bitter about that later became the group called "Prolife Presbyterians" and later were angry about gay marriage and eventually spun off into a different Presbyterian denomination.
Davis went on to be a professor and department chair. She published ten books and is still, in her mid 70's, popular on the speaking tour. Davis is the consummate combination of intellectual and activist. For a long time she was a member of the communist party in the U.S. as well as what we call the feminists. She has since found both not to her liking and moved away.
To have lived long enough to see both the dishonest right-wing attacks on Angela Davis and also see her rise to become an admired national figure has been one of life's fine pleasures.
old Jon really knows how to pick his heroes. in true leftist style he glosses over the record of an avowed Marxist, now "reformed" into something of a cultural Marxist. thanks his Presbyterian church for taking up the cause of a woman who, at the time, should be called a terrorist. and then goes on to wonder why other Presbyterians would be upset by Jon's church for giving money to one who hates religion (remember the opiate of the masses business?). and one whose weapons shot up a courtroom killing four presumably innocent people. wonder how those thugs got AD's guns in the first place? and then those crazed Presbyterians who took up the pro-life cause. maybe they recalled John Calvin's views on abortion. way to go Jon. you would have done well in Stalin's court.
ReplyDeleteUnknown "you would have done well in Stalin's court."
DeleteGood rant--except you omitted facts that were included in my blog. Check it again you will see Angela Davis was cleared on all charges. She was put into prison for her political views.
I'm sure you are an intelligent person in many ways, but you seem not to be able to discern religious and right wing political propaganda from truthful information. Another example were your comments a few weeks ago about how Black Lives Matter was destroying cities, burning them into ashes. I pointed out the local mayors were not particularly worried about the protests and they have mostly gone away. A couple of days ago crime statistics from across the country were released. They show the cities with big protests showed no statistical increase in crime. "'But protestors were burning those cities to the ground" you will probably say.
Nah, just right wing propaganda. Ramp up your skepticism of religion and conservative politics. It will serve you well.
I know that she got off: she didn't fire the gun. all I did was raise a question re how they got her guns in the first place. nor did I say that Marxists should be locked up. if they were our jails would be overflowing. what I did say is that I understand why Presbyterians might think that supporting avowed Marxists was not a good thing to do. nor do I. For me, Marxism in its many iterations (cultural or otherwise) is a very, very bad thing, a totalitarian thing, not to be alibied, not to be glossed over by useful idiots. ditto with crimes stats. how about Mpls and St Paul? sorry old chap but you remind me very much of the idiots who, for whatever reason, tried to put a good face on the Bolshevik regime in the 1930s-1960s. I noticed also that you ignored my remark about John Calvin. as to your condescending remark about right wing agitprop: I find it offensive. over the top as they say.
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