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Five Activists Look Back: cont...
WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE BANK EVENT?
Langfelder: During the 5-6 hours that the police had been chased
out of town, there was this great feeling of exhilaration; we
had liberated Isla Vista. But things soon changed as the police
came back in force and re-occupied the town for several months.
Frankfort: A police helicopter actually landed on the roof of
my  apartment.
I don't think that I will ever forget the horror of that feeling.
After Kevin Moran was killed, it really began to sink into me
how real, and how depressing all of this was.
de la Rocha: After the re-occupation, it became difficult to meet--any
of our groups--because we were so concerned about being infiltrated
by the F.B.I., etc. Everyone got real paranoid. The tremendous
repression changed all of the optimism we had before.
Wilson: We were all afraid of being rounded up. Instead of a great revolution, we felt like the U.S. was headed toward a fascist state. The tremendous optimism we felt before changed to depression. People started buying guns, a lot of people got lost in drugs. It all changed a lot.
Kronman: In a great sense, they won because they split us up, divided us. When I got out of jail, the last thing I wanted to do was to get back involved.
de la Rocha: But, in the end, we won. We stopped the war, brought Nixon to his knees, and changed a lot of how people live in the U.S.
Flacks: I think that John Mitchell (Nixon's attorney general at
the time) spent more time in jail than any of the protestors.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM THOSE EXPERIENCES?
Langfelder: There were moments of great clarity in the '60s which
we don't have in politics today. I'm sorry, but whether or not
I.V. becomes a city or Gary Hart runs for Congress against Lagomarsino
just doesn't compare with what we thought we had in our grasp.
I'm a lot more middle class now--into a monogamous relationship,
own a home, and car, etc. But I probably would drop a lot of these
commitments if, for example, the U.S. invaded Central America.
I have become convinced that there are times in your life that
you have to take risks to accomplish change, because in the cycle
of life, things that you have to drop for a while will come back.
Kronman: I'm pretty happy with the direction my life has taken
since then. It took me a while, but I'm now into writing, developing
professional relationships--although I'm surprised that I am a
consultant to the County of Santa Barbara! I feel bad that many
of us actually advocated on behalf of the North Vietnamese during
the war, rather than just being antiwar, because I think this
led to the bad treatment the Vietnam vets received when they got
back.
Wilson: We didn't support the North Vietnamese government; we
supported the National Liberation Front. And this, in my opinion,
had nothing to do with why Vietnam vets were treated so shabbily.
Frankly, I find myself today associating mostly with people who
were activists in the '60s because there was a definite bonding
among us that still exists today--probably from the risks we took
together even though we were in separate places in the country.
I don't live the radical life so much anymore; I don't insist
on exposing the structural deficiencies of the capitalist system
in my TV show, for example. But, I am nostalgic for the sense
of community and the exhilaration we experienced back then. If
I were to make one suggestion to today's students it would be
to get off campus--to take your politics into the community.
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