Halcyon Days in Our Idaho (sort of) and a memory of Doug Ireland

Halcyon Days In Our Idaho (sort of), Mississippi, And A Memory Of Doug Ireland (November 10 2013)

The summer of 2012 saw us somewhat preoccupied with nearby raging forest and brush fires.  One may recall that 66 homes not far from us burned up in a few minutes flash.  This past summer, 2013, saw fire danger much less close but also saw a significant spike in the activities of external adversaries:  very obvious step-up in the always on-going "official" surveillance of our really very mundane postal mail;  night prowlers in our yard; attacks on my computer -- with a heavy, but unsuccessful one, on our large Hunterbear website; and a night-time effort (possibly conventionally criminal but maybe not) to break into our home.

But things have been quieter this fall -- and the weather crisp but generally clear and with no snow right here as yet. (There has been some in the higher elevations above us.) As I've often noted, this comparatively moderate weather does attest to the wisdom of the old  Mohawk and Abenaki fur hunters of yore whose winter camps were right in this specific area.  Our ancestral John Gray (Ignace Hatchiorauquasha) family  campsite is not far from us right here -- a small but fairly deep valley in the high hills above us that can be reached in much less than an hour's trek.

So this has been a pleasant little epoch, comparatively speaking.  A minor nuisance, harassment phone calls -- silent on the other end and then a quick hang-up -- began but have been nicely handled by our installing Voice Mail.  I'm getting more sleep but I remain, as always, a light sleeper and my revolver remains close.  Many people in the Pocatello area have Neighborhood Watch stickers on their doors -- but I think my NRA Life decals carry our special point much more effectively.  Our first line of defense is prevention.

The recent visit by the scholar from Oxford, Mississippi which has the major university in the state, Ole Miss, and the subsequent 13 hours of interview with me, were certainly a high point of these past few weeks.  As those who did read my posts on the matter, which began a year ago and continued throughout the spring, the atmosphere at Jackson was really poisoned in 2012-2013 regarding myself and my book, Jackson Mississippi -- each of us deemed too candid, too radical and too militant. 

But there is a definite difference between Ole Miss and Oxford -- and Jackson.  Our friend, Jim Silver (History chair and a liberal at Ole Miss) could never have survived career-wise at Jackson, even at ostensibly "moderate" Millsaps College (Methodist).  But he survived pretty well for decades at Ole Miss, courageously teaching and producing valuable stuff on the Magnolia state and the Deep South -- with his book, Mississippi: The Closed Society (1964 -- and an updated version in 1966), a true and enduring classic in every sense.  Still, after that work appeared, he did leave for a brief stint at Notre Dame and then relocated in Florida, always continuing his fine teaching and writing.  And, when he was at Ole Miss, he did occasionally stay up the night in his home with a loaded shot-gun.

If the major bookstore at Jackson won't carry my book, the major one at Oxford faithfully does so. When the first edition of my book appeared, Jim Silver wrote:   "I was so impressed with his book, Jackson, Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Struggle and Schism, that I purchased copies for my three children born in Mississippi . . ."

And we may now have some other things going for us at Oxford.  

The other day, I wrote a little on creatively experimental Goddard College, northern Vermont, where we spent the academic year, 1965-66, before returning to our home in the South.

A day or so after that, I learned on the grapevine that Doug Ireland, an enduring activist for many good causes, a very prolific writer, and an early and courageous figure in the gay rights struggle, had died in New York.  I knew him fairly well when he was a student at Goddard -- a sharp and passionate kid, fascinated by key social issues and political approaches.  He used to regularly distribute "New America", the periodical of the Socialist Party.  I especially recall the sharp and quite intelligent and commendably civil debates on their respective brands of socialism between himself and another solidly activist and very astute student, Mike Bayer, a very open Communist party member.  Fascinating exchanges -- often cordially observed by myself as a young "elder" who was teaching social issues and appropriate politics at the school (and with, as a friend observed years later, a "Wobbly heart",)  A fair number of students often watched these colorful exchanges, sometimes jumping happily into them.

When Doug Ireland once left Goddard for several days, he brought his Cat, Ichobad ("Ikky"), to our home for safe keeping.  Pet-less at that point, we were happy to entertain this amiable Kitty.  When Doug returned, I recall we visited briefly about my very long manuscript on the then fresh Jackson Movement of 1962-63 which I had recently done, in the Spartan but well lighted basement of our trailer/house home on a windy and snowy hill, via my old Underwood typewriter and a great big box of primary documents on our historic struggle.  That in time, of course, became my book, Jackson Mississippi.

Now yet another old student of mine has passed on -- there have been many indeed -- and, despite my firm belief in personal immortality and survival, I am as always very much saddened.  But I am quite certain that many of them, such as Doug Ireland, are quite busy Wherever they are.

Raising Hell -- and shaking up the Respectables of all stripes.

In Solidarity,

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)