Rural/Small City v. Big Urban (and an interesting Vermont riot v peace demo)

There has been a bit of discussion on Redbadbear about the recent elections in this country.  Things turned out relatively well in New York City but, much as I'd like to, I don't see that as a short term harbinger of a coming Left revival.  I do see that revival in the longer range -- if the ultimately emergent version of the Newest Left  is both genuinely substantive in social action goals and well rooted in the grassroots democratic activist traditions of this country. 

There has also been a little RBB comment that the dichotomy between urban and rural in the United States is not nearly as great as many see it.  Doing so politely, I strongly differ with that.  There are profound differences between the two dimensions although, of course, many general national cultural values are shared.  Relationships between individuals in the rural/small city context tend to be primary -- the whole person -- and often enduring.  Those in Big Urban, much more often than not, are secondary and segmental and transitory.  I, always a country boy at heart, could write a good deal about all of this, and even drag in the ponderous prose of the historic sociologist, Ferdinand Tönnies , but you get my drift. (When no other student in our long ago graduate seminar was willing to take him on for three hours, I volunteered and did.)

With respect to the rural dimension, Vermont was perceived as a genuinely good state.  On that, I quite agree -- but I do see the Green Mountain State as relatively unique.  I've sometimes remarked that, from the standpoint of pervasive social "healthiness," I give Vermont and Iowa high marks.  I know somewhat more about Iowa than I do Vermont -- but I've lived in both.  As an aside, an early Anglo figure in the history of Iowa Territory, and a founder of the University of Iowa, was William Salter, a circuit riding Congregational clergyman, with a strong social justice conscience (he was good on Native rights.)  He was the father of William M. Salter, the man who adopted my Native father.

Keeping our home in North Carolina, we moved temporarily at the end of the summer of 1965 to Plainfield, Vermont, where I spent the academic year 1965-66 teaching at Goddard College.  (I also wrote the basic draft of my book on the then very recent and fresh Jackson Movement. I returned to North Carolina on occasion during this period and, in the spring, we moved back South for a final year of militant anti-poverty organizing.) Goddard, with Unitarian roots, has always been experimental, as has Antioch in Ohio.  Goddard had a close relationship with the civil rights activist Highlander Folk School (now Highlander Center) in eastern Tennessee.

In the late winter of 1966, several of us from Goddard went to the campus of the University of Vermont at Burlington to join a primarily Quaker peace demonstration.  When we got there, the Quaker group -- almost all old people -- were assembling.  Also fast gathering was a crowd of about 150-200 students, mostly male and many obviously from fraternities who, once we were "settled in" began to constantly scream and yell -- often hurling obscenities.  Then many of them produced egg cartons and began throwing the contents at us.  (It had a ring of our Woolworth Sit-In at Jackson.)  The ugly nature and tempo increased rapidly.  I saw no campus police.  Along with others, I gave a speech but could barely hear my own words.

After about a half hour of this, all available Burlington city police arrived and quickly formed a protective barrier.  But much of the disorder continued.  When our demonstration was finished, almost all of our group left.  But I and an activist student, Mike, went to the university's administration building where I demanded to speak to the president.  A very shaky receptionist told us the man was very temporarily out of state.  Mike and I then went to the vice-president.  He struck us as a shifty-eyed, paranoid type -- and quickly turned on his tape recorder. (We learned later that the vice-president had been a strong supporter of Joe McCarthy.)  

My father was usually -- usually -- calm but my mother was known for a very fiery temper.  I turned that particular "inheritance" on full blast, raised pure Hell.  The guy was scared.  Back at Goddard, I wrote a strong, articulate, and detailed protest letter to the university president, with copies to the governor (Hoff, as I recall) and also the American Association of University Professors.

We didn't have to wait long at all for a response.  The governor issued a very strong public statement, condemning the actions of the rabble; and the university president did likewise. Apologizing to us, he promised such would never occur again at the university. The AAUP came through well.

As far as I know, nothing like that ever happened again in Vermont.  But in adjoining New Hampshire around the same time period, a non-violent peace demonstration at the university town of Durham was attacked by a similar mob.  State police responded by breaking up the demonstration and arresting a number of the peace people.

No official condemnation, no apologies.

Hunter Bear


HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq / 
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO

Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org  The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm

SHOOTING LUPUS --  Driving this oft-lethal deadly 
disease of mine back into its genetic cave and into
impotency in an eight year war:
http://hunterbear.org/shooting_lupus.htm

See our very full COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
page -- with a great deal of practical material:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm

See my  new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book," 
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new 10,000 word
introduction by me. This page lists many reviews.
And this book is also an activist's how-to manual: 
 http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm   

The Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm:
(Photos)