Lessons from Allard Lowenstein

[Raven]

38 years ago this summer, I sat in a classroom on the University of Maryland campus with a handful of other college students listening to Allard Lowenstein describe a new movement that was being started to "Dump Johnson". We were attending the National Student Congress (I think it was called) and I was there because I was Student Government President of my small, woman's Catholic College in Massachusetts.

We left that meeting with our marching orders. Go back to your respective campuses and begin organizing. Be ready to mobilize and hit the streets. Become politically active. We will be in touch, Lowenstein said.

And he was. And we stayed in touch with eachother and met again in New Hampshire during the primary there. We went door to door. We slept on Church benches. We ran a sitting President out of office.

I have never since felt the power that I felt the day I watched Lyndon Johnson announce that he would not run for another term. It was the power of knowing that an individual can make a difference and that groups of like-minded individuals, banding together, can change the course of history.

Some people have said of this "well you just traded Johnson for Nixon" and that is sadly true, but it is not my point here. My point is that we all have to do more as individuals and in groups to rid this country of the virus in the White House.

I, personally, have not done enough. I've maxed out my contributions to Kerry and I volunteered to work in his campaign, but I feel that there must be more.

I think we have to hit the streets...week in, week out, everywhere. I am so discouraged and ashamed of my country that I can't think of what else to do.