How I Met Joan Baez
By David Duboff
Joan Baez was married to Davis
Harris at the time. David Harris was the founder and leader of the resistance
movement at the time of the Vietnam War.
I myself was involved with the movement (later I actually was inducted)
but because the law at the time changed such that people resisting the draft
were put to the top of the list. But anyway, back to how I met Joan Baez… Friends of mind arrange a tour of Michigan for
the two of them. The only resistance office at the time was located in Ann Arbor. She and her husband visited the office and we
talked about the tour and other matters related to the efforts to end the
war. Resistance had a somewhat different
philosophy from The Students for a Democratic Society which I also was
participating in heavily. But Resistance had a more moral tendency and outlook.
We wanted a community, not just a chapter of 100,000 or more members. But we
worked with them very closely with SDS and were intergraded in their cause.
David liked to use these words during his speeches, “I hope that two words will be abolished from the English language: oppressor and oppressed. The most significant thing to me was when I went to see Joan perform I sat on a seat in the isle. And she went walking down the isle she stopped and gave me a kiss on my cheek …. I will never forget that the in my life.
I really don't like this article; Ive kept it here because some friends and relatives think it's "lovely." But that was never the purpose of the Blogg. The article is not all factual. Joan Baez was, and still is, a major figure in the movement in her own right. David Harris was not te "Leader" of the Resistance Movement. It was spearheaded by leadership of Students for a Democratic Society, which held the entire Left together during the Vietnam War. Kirkpatric Sale, in his book SDS, shows how the movement went through phrases until around around 1968, and the War dragged on, we entered a draft resistance phase. Ann Arbor Resistance was a local group, affiliated with campus group throughout the country.. To say we had a more moral tone than SDS is not quite accurate. I really was attracted to Resistance in part because it was a "community" I could belong to. The Office was not the only office - it was own local office. I don't deny when she "gave me a kiss on the cheek it's something I'll "Treasure, like something I'll always carry in my imagination. . .
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