University of Maine - Prism Yearbook (Orono, ME)

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It's a long, hard road, but the only way we can make it is to walk that road together. —Rick Straud

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Vet, out of this mish-mash of baggy-eyed youths who. in a matter of weeks would tensely watch the nation's first draft lottery since World War II, there emerged a sense of jubilation and regeneration of hope. The kind of adolescent and unconquered cheer that almost became a dead letter when John Kennedy was assassinated and which got beaten into the concrete during that hot, bloody summer two years ago. when the Clean for Gene kids found out the hard way that nice guys finish last. The October 15 Moratorium was many things. First of all, it was a word. Moratorium. To be used again and again until defunct. It was also a political forum, a nationwide call to end the war. And it was a field day; a break in classes. Some people took advantage of interested professors and went to watch T.V. in dormitory basements. Some people took advantage of it and got some knowledge. Some pretended to get knowledge and exploded their egos by slinking around the crowd with whispers of man, this is the greatest thing that has happened in two years.” u 0r M VETERANS ASSOC SUPPORTS I HE COALITION MORATORIUM TO END FI IE WAR r 19

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It was a brisk day in the middle of October. Winter was biding its time. Kids had started to dig out their suedes and plaid hunting jackets. Football season was well under way and the Stillwater didn’t look so bad with fall foliage reflecting on it. Twelve hundred people gathered on the steps of Fogler Library. They stood around in groups rubbing their hands briskly, leaning away from the wind. Some carried signs, many carried textbooks, a few carried babies. Too often they couldn't hear the speakers, but the spirit was still there. It was a feeling of, “Brother, we can end this damned war if we try hard enough!” Charlie Jacobs spoke first. His was not a pretty speech, but it was articulate and real. A vivid portrait of American atrocity, delivered by a stern young man who, soon enough, would learn that his number was not a ■safe one. “Vietnam is the most terrible manifestation of a warped foreign policy that kills in the name of freedom. he said and the applause thundered on the autumn air. Then it was Dave Bright who was talking, his curly shock of hair blowing in the wind. He was saying the University should have shut down ... because it is a real bad problem.” And the applause began for him. another stern-faced young man. After Bright it was a history professor, Lawrence McCaffrey, who talked of nationalism and the spirit leveled off. It was a lean, long-haired pacifist named Rick Straud. who had been convicted of refusing induction that very week, who talked of peace and walking together. He looked far too old and defeated for his twenty years. 21