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Another Deja Vu Flash

By Willie Hager

Winter Soldiers, then and now; speaking Truth to power. Hopefully, this time, the "Change" will actually take. Unlike the last time. And when the champion wins the day, that they honor their words with actions that benefit us all, not just a few voter demographics, like they did after we threw Nixon out and gave the government back to The People.

I was in Miami in 1972, with the California contingent of the Last Patrol, and was on the Silent March. We were faced off with the Florida Highway Patrol, and elements of the 82nd Airborne and Florida National Guard. There was fear in their eyes as we shuffled silently by, on our way to the Fontainebleau, where Nixon was holed up. Our silence unnerved them, just as it was intended to do. I am sure that many of them thought that we were going to keep marching right up to the Fontainebleau penthouse (Nixon Bunker) and drag him out into the streets, for all to see and publically revile. They were visibly relieved when we pulled up and rallied around the front of the hotel and began making speeches supporting our Demands, and accusing Nixon and his cronies of being war criminals. You coulda' cut the tension in the air with a knife. What a rush!

I was in front of the tube, down here in Cracker Swamp, as the New Winter Soldiers of IVAW made their March to the doors of the Pepsi - I'm a Coke man, myself - Center, with their Demands. I pretty much watched full coverage of all the days; never a blip...media blackout, much as with the Winter Soldier IandA in Silver Springs, Maryland, this past March. I didn't know that The March had happened until I received an e-mail from Jan Ruhman, a back to back VVAW Brother, from The Day. He is also a major So Cal IVAW Supporter, and the Southern California Organizing Contact, for VVAW, with the LA Times IVAW DNC piece attached.

When I opened it, and saw the picture of the IVAW marchers, striding silently, with such purpose; I really did have a déjà vu flashback! What a rush! I knew then that Hope was alive. That the imagery of those few proud Americans facing off with the powers that be, and having their demands met in such a public way and in face of such overwhelming odds, would once again, demonstrate to the American People, as it did in our day; that the power of True Change lies in the principles and in the hands of those willing to sacrifice to bring it about; it is then the Constitutional Duty of the American People to see that it is placed and retained in the hands of those who share the same principles and sense of Truth; and who won't sell us out, again, for personal, political, or capital gain.

Miami 1972

Crowd at St Paul capitol building during the Republican National Convention protests