Sunshine and Light

Weather Underground

We watched the documentary about the Weather Underground Organization, a terrorist group of the 70s. They're goal was first to bring about the end of the Vietnam war, and secondly to act in support of the oppressed peoples of the world and to overthrow the US Government to install communism.

And after watching the movie, I sorta felt like....so what. They did a pretty thorough job of covering WHY these people bombed, but not so much of the results of their activities. They talked about "Days of Rage" when they rioted in the streets, but apparently by the WUO's standards, the Days of Rage were a terrible flop. They were expecting thousands of kids to show up in Chicago to riot. Instead they got a couple hundred. But were they successful in sowing dissent and fear? Or did the average person on the street see this stuff happening someplace else, and carry on with their activities?

Ultimately, as a teaching tool, I think it was a bit of a flop. If you already knew about WUO and their activities, maybe it provided insights. If, like me, you'd only sort of heard of them, this probably won't fill in many blanks.

I did find it amusing, though, that none of them served more than a few years because of their work in the WUO. And now most of them are working as....teachers at colleges and universities. Think about THAT when you sign your kid up for school!

Labels: Movies

posted by MyHusbandRules @ 6:46 AM