DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | University of Iowa anti-war protests, 1965-1967

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University of Iowa anti-war protests, 1965-1967

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DI
Nov. 14, 1967

As they say, it's been a real fun day 
By JIM FARRELL
For The Daily Iowan

Marvelous.Now that we've had our demonstration we can take our place alongside the University of California and other big kids' colleges. 
Our demonstration had everything. Well, everything except rationality and the participation of a significant percentage of the University's community. But we won't let that bother us. Demonstrations are by definition irrational, and the unwashed peacies and crew-cut rotarians probably prefer to remain a minority. Anyway, as we were saying, our demonstration had almost everything. It had the noble savages: these were, I think, the ones standing on the steps holding hands, but it was often difficult to tell. And it had the golden boys: these were the ones standing at the bottom of the steps chanting. Mostly they chanted football yells, but sometimes, for comic relief, they chanted "Drop the bomb." 
It was beautiful. Especially when the counter-demonstrator extended his middle finger in an articulate gesture of self-expression. The gesture was made in the face of State Sen. Tom Riley. Well, if it had to be done it might as well have been Riley. No one exactly knew what he was doing on the scene. He made a remark about being in Iowa City on other business and just wanting to help out. It seemed to be the consensus of both sides that he could best help out by going to attend to that other business. Some wag pointed out that Riley was engaging in a little early campaigning for Harold Hughes' job. Nonsense. Would a politician attempt to turn a situation of such magnitude into crass political advantage? Riley said, by the way, that he sympathized with the counter-protesters but that they should be nicer. They weren't. 
Maybe the neatest part of the whole demonstration was the dragging of the protestors to the bus. The bus, which was , by the way, much nicer than the Iowa City transit Company Buses, was for taking the protestors to jail. That was kind of funny too. They all wanted to go to jail, anyway, they said they did, but some guy kept telling them to call a certain telephone number for bail information. Maybe they knew that the city jail cells weren't any nicer than the city buses. None of the protestors stayed overnight in jail, at any rate, so their sincerity might be open to some question. 
The actual dragging was something of an anti-climax. Most of the dirties just chose to walk to the assigned detention area. Enough went limp to keep the side- line Babbits happy, but mostly they just walked. The few who actually were dragged were dragged fairly courteously, all things considered. This seemed to bother many of the by-standers. It was all over for the day after the dragging. The potential second-lieutenets went to talk to the recruiters and most everyone else went home. some counter-protestors were heard mumbling about what they would do to those s.o.b.'s "next time." A few people with beards hummed civil rights tunes as they ambled toward Li'l Bills. The authorities looked relieved. All in all, as they say on Mad Avenue, it had been a "real fun day."

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[handwritten] DI Nov. 14, 1967 As they say, it's been a real fun day By JIM FARRELL For The Daily Iowan Marvelous.Now that we've had our demonstration we can take our place alongside the University of California and other big kids' colleges. Our demonstration had everything. Well, everything except rationality and the participation of a significant percentage of the University's community. But we won't let that bother us. Demonstrations are by definition irrational, and the unwashed peacies and crew-cut rotarians probably prefer to remain a minority. Anyway, as we were saying, our demonstration had almost everything. It had the noble savages: these were, I think, the ones standing on the steps holding hands, but it was often difficult to tell. And it had the golden boys: these were the ones standing at the bottom of the steps chanting. Mostly they chanted football yells, but sometimes, for comic relief, they chanted "Drop the bomb." It was beautiful. Especially when the counter-demonstrator extended his middle finger in an articulate gesture of self-expression. The gesture was made in the face of State Sen. Tom Riley. Well, if it had to be done it might as well have been Riley. No one exactly knew what he was doing on the scene. He made a remark about being in Iowa City on other business and just wanting to help out. It seemed to be the consensus of both sides that he could best help out by going to attend to that other business. Some wag pointed out that Riley was engaging in a little early campaigning for Harold Hughes' job. Nonsense. Would a politician attempt to turn a situation of such magnitude into crass political advantage? Riley said, by the way, that he sympathized with the counter-protesters but that they should be nicer. They weren't. Maybe the neatest part of the whole demonstration was the dragging of the protestors to the bus. The bus, which was , by the way, much nicer than the Iowa City transit Company Buses, was for taking the protestors to jail. That was kind of funny too. They all wanted to go to jail, anyway, they said they did, but some guy kept telling them to call a certain telephone number for bail information. Maybe they knew that the city jail cells weren't any nicer than the city buses. None of the protestors stayed overnight in jail, at any rate, so their sincerity might be open to some question. The actual dragging was something of an anti-climax. Most of the dirties just chose to walk to the assigned detention area. Enough went limp to keep the side- line Babbits happy, but mostly they just walked. The few who actually were dragged were dragged fairly courteously, all things considered. This seemed to bother many of the by-standers. It was all over for the day after the dragging. The potential second-lieutenets went to talk to the recruiters and most everyone else went home. some counter-protestors were heard mumbling about what they would do to those s.o.b.'s "next time." A few people with beards hummed civil rights tunes as they ambled toward Li'l Bills. The authorities looked relieved. All in all, as they say on Mad Avenue, it had been a "real fun day."