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Columbia U. Protests: Gerry Maxey reflects on His Times as a Protestor, Rioter, Revolutionary

 This Blogger has an emotional and familial connection to Columbia University, in New York City.

As Readers of this Blog know; this Blogger is a very late child. When he was born, he had two brothers, a generation older than he. One fought  the Nazis in Italy and Southern France; one fought the Imperial Japanese on Saipan. In fact the inside family joke was that this Blogger was conceived; in case one of his brothers did not come back from the  war. Very Sparta.
The Saipan brother came home, and used his G.I. Bill to obtain his Bachelors and Masters from Columbia University. One of his proudest memorabilia was his diplomas, signed by the then President of the university, General Dwight David Eisenhower.
In was through my brother’s good graces, that this Blogger got to meet Kerensky, the  revolutionary head of the democratic Provisional government of pre-Bolshevik  Russia; who had Lenin in his power and yet did not execute him, dooming millions to horrific fates. Kerensky was very Joe Biden.
This Blogger has had some experience with protesting against the Establishment and their sworn officers of the Law, the so called pigs.
The comrades in arms, this Blogger’s fellow protestors, would show up adorned in football helmets, carrying baseball bats; having as their cri de guerre : “WHEN THE PIGS ADVANCE, WE RETREAT; WHEN THE PIGS RETREAT, WE ADVANCE.”
Police relished beating up protestors, especially white protestors; for they could do that exercise without being called racists.
Therefore, this Blogger has been following the 2024  Columbia protests. There has been one specific moment which caught the attention of this reformed protestor; when a modern protester, a very arch 2024 American ; who had participated in the seizure and occupation of Hamilton Hall on Columbia’s campus, demanded that the University deliver food and water to the devout revolutionaries.
“An incredulous reporter replied, “It seems like you’re sort of saying, ‘We want to be revolutionaries, we want to take over this building, now would you please bring us some food and water.’’
…..Before the exchange with the reporter, she had said the students occupying Hamilton Hall were “asking for a commitment from Columbia for food and water to be brought in” to “ensure the safety of their own students.”
…..But The Post was able to identify her as a doctoral student and instructor at the Ivy League school whose studies focus on applying a “Marxian lens” to romantic literature…NEW YORK POST.”
THIS BLOGGER AS A REVOLUTIONARY IN SAN FRANCISCO-
This Blogger met his revolutionary comrades as he was getting his Masters in Creative Writing, at San Francisco State University. They gravitated around poet/teacher Stan Rice, his wife, Anne Rice ( author of INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE) and their preternatural daughter.
It was a motley group. Primarily from Oregon and Boston. They had set up a commune in the Haight.  Most memorable was Bob from Oregon; he shot himself in the foot to get out of the draft.
The leader of the pack was Sean (his nom de guerre). He planned a takeover of Golden Gate Park; excuse me….a liberation of Golden Gate Park.
He had dropped out of Jim Jones’ house of worship, Peoples Temple….. It was rumored that he had murdered a gay; as training for being a Marxist messiah.
This Blogger wrote a play, THE TEXTURE OF INNOCENCE, about his experiences with Sean the Murderous Messiah; which played to Standing Room Only and was highlighted by the performance of Jimi Petulla as SEAN. Jimi went on to become a highly successful film actor, writer and producer. His new film, TRUST IN LOVE is winning awards all over the festival circuit and will be released this summer. Please watch for it.
Over forty people showed up on the day to Liberate Golden Gate Park; alas, SEAN would not give the order to revolt.  Overnight the largest pimple in the history of mankind had appeared on the tip of his nose; and he did not want to lead the revolution with a pimple on his nose.
So, the Liberation was called off.
The Revolution was done in by a pimple.
THIS BLOGGER AS A REVOLUTIONARY IN SAN FRANCISCO  PART 2
This Blogger was living across the street from San Francisco State; he visited the campus every day. The highlight was Thursdays.
That day, a  gorgeous, tall Amazon, with endless legs, would show up in a very short skirt, no stockings and sit outside the student union; and laughingly allow blind students to feel her up.
You had to be blind to gain the feel.
This Blogger got to know the Security Guards, for they would watch her Thursday's display with him.
San Francisco State was in tumult and turmoil. Students and protestors were rioting, seizing the commons and the buildings, demanding an end to the war in Vietnam.
The riots were an embarrassment to Gov. Ronald Reagan; like Henry II, he sought someone, preferably  from the faculty, to end his troubles with the students.
On the faculty, was an English teacher, a semanticist, who was noted for fighting a losing war against all digital phone numbers, S.I. Hayakawa.
He was from Canada and was the meanest Canadian ever produced by Canada, save for those Canadian soldiers, who committed war crimes in  Somalia.
Hayakawa wore a Scottish tam o shanter as his trademark. In  many ways, he was a ludicrous figure; this short, frail Japanese Canadian  immigrant, in his Scottish bonnet…..he was brave and mean.
Reagan loved him; and named him acting President of the University.
The riots continued.
This Blogger was walking to the campus when he was flagged down by a campus policeman.
He strongly advised this Blogger  to come with him. He was armed and  insistent; so this Blogger followed him.
He took this Blogger to the back of the student union; where a phalanx of California highway patrol men, campus police, San Francisco police, were massed, all in riot gear.
The campus policeman advised: “Get yourself  a  perch but don’t join the protestors; it is Judgment Day.”
This Blogger got himself a perch.
Hayakawa came out in his tam; and stood on a sound truck. Not a police officer in sight, alone against the mob. He ordered the protestors to disperse.
They yelled and mocked him.
He had a code word; and when he said it, the police army emerged, at a gallop from behind the buildings, on all sides of the commons, looking for blood.
It seemed to this Blogger like a scene from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. The scene in which the crowd is trapped by the army on all sides; and runs from spot to spot, looking for an exit. The fictional crowd and the SF State crowd were peeled like an onion by the police.
Hayakawa became the Republican Senator from California.
THIS BLOGGER AS A REVOLUTIONARY IN BERKELEY-
This Blogger was doing reporting for the counter culture newspaper, BERKELEY TRIBE. There was a meeting of revolutionaries, all types of revolutionaries, from Maoists, to Trotskyites to Leninists to Franz Fanon devotees.
And since it was Berkeley, the de rigueur  Black Panthers, from Oakland.
 A shiny, sleek, well groomed, toned young woman, a blond (think John Kennedy Junior’s wife) stood up and asked one Black Panther, what could she do for him?
He replied:” The only thing I want from you damn white people is Ronald Colman’s voice.”

And he walked out.
THIS BLOGGER AS A REVOLUTIONARY IN NEW YORK CITY-
Students had seized control of key streets in Manhattan.
All that was needed was someone in the crowd to yell out : "ON TO THE WINTER PALACE.”
President Nixon was a renegade Quaker; which means he found the ways of peace, lacking.
The confident students rallied on Wall Street to defeat the war mongers.
There were roughly 1,000 of them.
Word spread that Nixon, like Henry II, wanted someone to rid the city of these nuisances.
From all over the city construction workers, joined by office workers, veterans mostly,  descended on Wall Street and proceeded to beat the hell out of the student protestors.
The New York Police Department did nothing.
It was called the Hard Hat Riot; President Nixon invited the Hard Hat Rioters to the White House, and honored them.
THIS BLOGGER IN PARIS DURING THE DANNY THE RED RIOTS
This Blogger happened to be in Paris at the height of the student riots led by DANNY THE RED.  This Blogger was having coffee at a café, at an entrance to the French university, the Sorbonne.
Students poured out of the university gates onto the square. Everyone sitting at the outdoor café, sat still and continued having their leisurely coffee.  The students were armed with pedals from bicycles.
They were met by the police of Paris.

The police had capes, which they took off and attacked the students with their swinging , capes against bicycle pedals.
The capes crushed them.
This Blogger asked the girl he was with: “What was that all about, the capes?
She answered; “ The capes are "pèlerines"; the capes are weighted at the bottom with lead. The student did not have a chance.”
FINAL REFLECTION-
Memo to that  female Marxist studying, how to apply the Marxism lens to romantic literature. Marxist art is all about social realism; the only romance in Marxist social realism is between a revolutionary and his gun or a Bolshevik and his quota. There is no romance in social realism.



Columbia Protests 2024






S.I. Hayakawa right before he crushed the San Francisco State Riots






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