Did anyone here attend the 1968 Democratic Convetion in Chicago?

[Sequoia]

What was it like for you or someone you know who was there?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. A friend did; I was only able to watch on TV.

He didn't get beaten up, just teargassed.

[Hepburn]

18. I watched on TV, too.

Quite the show ~~ which is an understatement.

I really got into Kunstler's defense of the Chicago Seven with Judge Julius Hoffman. That is a classic ~~ totally classic. Kunstler became one of my heroes and he still is.

RIP, Bill Kunstler...:loveya:

[truedelphi]

22. Froines, who was one of the Chicago Seven, was appointed to the Blue

Ribbon Panel to determine the safety of MTBE, the destructive gas additive.

I am sure that Big Oil was unhappy about that. Froines was one of the few that would not be sold out. Anyway, he choose some fine scientists and they concluded that the risk to benefit ratio was such that the risk was massive and the benfits zilch - thus no more MTBE.

The California governor, Governor Davis, who made this appointment got thrown out of office by Big Oil money backing an initiative to get him out. Schwartzennegger replaced him.

[wryter2000]

2. I watched on tv

I met someone who'd been there. Many years later, we were walking down a hotel corridor in San Francisco when Hubert Humphrey came around a corner. My acquaintance had a flashback to 1968.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. I watched it on TV, too.

That was another one of those "defining moments" in my political life. :(

[Sequoia]

11. I don't know why I didn't see it.

I saw the Repub Convention but not this one at all. I'm sure school had started by that time so we would not have gone anywhere. It it was on NBC then I wouldn't have seen it since we didn't get that channel. Anyway, I'm mad that I didn't see it. I'm reading Nixonland right now and it's quite a shocker and the writer is pretty funny too. Great book.

[Raven]

4. My ex was the youngest delegate...the Alabama Challenge Delegation

that unseated the Wallace Delegation.

[elleng]

5. I lived in Chicago, had worked at Cook County Jail,

ended up helping folks arrested downtown get out! Watched some of convention in Warden's office. Was a special time for all of us!

A friend headed toward the Hilton; I said, Watch Out! He said, 'I've got the Constitution in my pocket.' Fortunately, he wasn't assaulted by anyone!

[FarLeftRage]

6. No, but I watched it on tee vee.

Poor ol' Dan Rather got roughed up...

[eyesroll]

7. My dad did.

He was working for a wire service.

He got teargassed in an elevator. Wrong place at the wrong time.

[Mz Pip]

8. I was there

I was 19. I remember there was a music festival in the park during the day, lots of fun. then at 10pm at night the park closed and 50,000 people spilled out into the street. It got pretty wild.

In retrospect I think it's pretty amazing that no one was killed.

[cbayer]

9. I was only 14, but lived in the city and both of my parents were arrested in protests!

My mother blocked Lake Shore Drive with her car.

:rofl:

[Sequoia]

13. Wow, that's very interesting.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

10. TV here

The whole world is watching......... at that time dissent seemed ok. Now it's a bad thing :shrug:

[jaysunb]

12. Got my first color tv that week

:evilgrin:

[Stuart G]

14. I was not in the Convention itself, but I was at the hotel..,It was then

called the Conrad Hilton. The press conferences were open to all, and I walked in at the end of a press conference with Senator Mc Govern, who had taken the place of Robert Kennedy after his assination. I met him there for a moment or two, shook hands with him, had a word, and walked on... Then I walked out into a grassy park across from the hotel and listened to two of the trio from Peter, Paul and Mary singing
....(I think it was Peter and Mary..) anyway I walked around, stood a while. The National Guard was standing around...and I was watching ...maybe early afternoon...someone got scared and released a teargas canister..
..we all kinda just disassmbled for a while ..so the tear gas could dissapate,(no one was hurt or even touched..the gas went off and we sacatered )...I went back and the very quiet protest continued...I went home a while later.......important note:

this was not the protest that was broadcast on National TV later in the week, where the police beat up on protesters..that was far away from where I stood across from the hotel..
..The day I was there was a Tuesday I think, and the day that the violence took place was a Thursday..if I recall All of the protests at the park were I was (they were not allowed at the Convention site..it was the Chicago Ampetheater, if I recall..later torn down)..were very peacfull.

..There were only a couple of them that got out of hand.(at a different park or a diffent part of the park..far from the hotel) ..I am sure that books were written about the protests and the Convention. My brother was beat up at the other protest, but I cannot speak for him. I was glad I went for a few hours. It was quite an event.
..Sadly..If Humphrey had gotten elected, he would have ended the war soon after he got in..He just couldn't speak out cause he was Johnson's VP..

[lunatica]

15. I watched it on tv

It was a bunch of people demonstrating who were attacked by the police and then it was called a riot with the protesters being blamed for the violence. I clearly remember a young man who had blood coming down his forehead from an injury on his scalp claiming he was just marching and demonstating when the cops started hitting everyone with their night sticks.

[wain]

16. Mayor Daly and his cops destroyed HHH's chances for election

n/t

[MineralMan]

17. I was on leave in California from the Air Force.

I watched it all on television, and was shocked. I had recently returned from an overseas assignment, where news wasn't readily available.

[Imagevision]

19. My brother actually got pissed when a hippy girl put a flower down his rifle barrel

but he was an a-hole - still is to this day!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. I watched it on TV, swore a lot, and voted 3rd party in November.

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Just saw it on teevee .......