In no less than 500 words, please respond to the following prompt:
Upon watching the documentary "The Weather Underground" what do you think ultimately provoked this group to attempt a violent overthrow of the U.S. Government? Do you feel that these actions were justified? Why or why not? What flaws do you think our government has within its system that made this group of people want to violently protest its existence? What type of government do you think our society should have in order to prevent additional groups such as "The Weathermen Underground" to exist?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
44 comments:
Here are the questions I copied
1. for what purposes was the weathermen underground group created?
2. What does the movie cite as examples for what this group considered american society?
3. what actions of this group do you feel were justified?
4. What actions of this group do you feel were not justified?
Hanora Bauer
The reason the group ultimatley comited these viloent crimes was because they did not accept the goverments views on other political groups and the damage of the war. They really go into the vietnam war with the stance of "Bring the war home". This really sumed up the meaning of their group. Along with trying to fight the war they also comited crimes to make a point about learders, prisioners, and any other perople who were killed by the goverment. They believed that the goverment was to blame for all the problems in america which was true. So they felt they could get together to form a group that would stand up to the goverment in a violent way at first then changing into a non-violent group, but still bombed building.
I do feel their actions were justified because just protesting in the streets may not get the message across to the goverment. They needed to do things that were big and would be seen and even make people fear what they would do next. I do feel it was not justified at first though when they were going to bomb a dance and kill innocent people just as the war was doing at the same time. They were then just being the same as what they are fighting. Once they went underground though and would plant the bombs and then tell the police to evacuate the buildings,I felt this was ok. I felt this way because they maybe destroying a building but it was for a issue they felt verey strong about. I feel anyone should if they have the right reasons be able to express themselves how ever they want by bombs or even by just writing a letter to the president.
The flaws within the goverment were that they had started this war and were killing inocent people in vietnam. This really hurt the people of the weathermen underground just like any other regular person. Just not everyone expresses their hate for what was happening in the way that they did. Also the fact that once they went underground the goverment tried to find them and they couldnt. This group had risen over the man and now had all the power in their hands. They couldnt be stoped and this really made the goverment fear them.
I think our society need a better goverment that dosnt create fear in people to obey the laws. There should be no war unless absolutley neccesary. Along with a leader who knows what he is doing and is willing to listen to the public. This I feel would make people a little happier but still they will always be people who want change in the system and will do whatever they can to get that change and power.
John Sy
Theta
I think the reason that the underground group was created was because the underground group didn't agree on some on the ideas that the goverment were doing. So they felt the only way that they would reach to the goverment and other people was in violence. By creating this group, it caused more violence which didn't really solve anything and made it worst. In the movie they are trying to get a point across to a lot of people and the way they planned on doing it was using violence. They felt it was very important for them to fight for what they believe in. Some of the things that were justified were the killing of the innocent people. The innocent people didn't have anything to do with it and they were killed. Something that I felt that wasn't justifed was that we need a goverment that can be honest with the people who live in our society. Because if they are honest there would be less fear in our society.
Rolando Casella
Theta
The purpose of "The Weather Underground" was created was because of the group wanting to take away injustice from the government about the damage that is being caused by the war. They protest and turns to be more violent because they wanted to be heard. They always thought, what had to be done to end this war? They see that the government was the trouble behind all of this because of what was happening with the war, which caused more chaos when the group started to create even more of a war back home.
The movie cites the way the group(s) and other individuals were being judged and treated because of the war and government. The group considered the hate the violence and rage that everyone had because of the power being taken and the equality and the cause of war was injustice of the American society. Though I look at if there bombing over there in Vietnam War or others wars and your here and your bombing too and its innocent people as well.
With this group I felt that they were being justified by first going peacefully protesting to be heard because of the war. They hid so that they wouldn't be heard and seen so that they would be peaceful and work together. Some actions that I felt the group was not justified was the bombing of innocent people when the same thing is happening over in other places. Weren't they fighting for peace and not wanting war? Groups were created and fought against each other usually. The group power when they went underground which I believe that's what they wanted and no was found when underground when the government tried to find them. Being not found and not really seen made the government fear the group.
Evan H.
ZETA!!!!!
11.13.07
After watching the documentary “The Weather Underground,” it became apparent why these young Americans were revolutionaries. They attempted to violently over throw the United States government because the government form to them was capitalist, and they wanted to be communist. Through that, they wanted no war in Vietnam and peace on the Earth. The group felt that was the United States was promoting was unjust and not necessary. Some just noticed that America was going through a revolution, as other parts of the world, and just didn’t want to miss it and rather be a part of it.
With these beliefs, they first started off as speakers and promoting their beliefs to others. Eventually it lead to riots and killings of one another (U.S. government vs. revolutionaries). Through the actions they took of bombing buildings and rioting, to the ear it sounds unjust and not right. But when I think about it more deeply, if they jus protested through words to the U.S. government, they would have never been listened to or heard. The group had to take action. Once people started getting killed that were not involved in it at all, I think that’s where it becomes unjustified. When the Weather Underground group performed acts (like bombings and riots) in a way that didn’t kill or hurt any unwanted people, I think, sadly, that is the only way to be heard by the government. So, yes, those actions were justified.
We have learned from our government that we have a limit to what we want and believe. We can only get what we want through votes and the majority of the vote. But when you want to change something that has already been decided by the leaders of the country, we cant really change it. So, through violence, the revolutionaries thought that they could be heard to at one point that the government can’t deal with them anymore. Because the Weather Underground wanted communism, and we actually lived up to communism, I don’t think this would have happened. However, with some other form of government, we are bound to have another problem arise. If we had a form of government that was truly communist and everyone had a true say in everything because everyone is on the same level, I think there would have been none of this. However, I don’t think we are able to be communist. There would always be a group that would want dominance. And then that would create another problem and revolutionaries. The cycle goes on…
Stephan Heuer, Epsilon
The reason why the members of The Weather Underground wanted to overthrow the government of the United States was the war in Vietnam; or at least it was the momentum when it all began. These revolutionaries thought that the government is based on a violent system and the society they live in is the most violent ever created. They saw the crimes and the brutality in Vietnam which were caused by the US government and its soldiers who fought there and killed thousands of people. The members of the Weather Underground and a lot of other people during that time thought the USA had no right to send their troops to that country and cause so much damage there.
I think that these people had a good reason and explanation for the grounding of the organization and for the things they did. THOUGH I do not think that these people had the right to build bombs, place them in public buildings, cause explosions, and call that a revolution. In some countries people have the right for resistance when it is proven that the democracy and justice in general of that country are in danger. But this resistance must be totally different, it must be peaceful or must include reasonable actions. The Weather Underground had not the right for its terrorism as it was obvious that their member’s violence would help changing things in Vietnam or the USA. Another fact which you have to look at is that they protested but it didn’t help. I think that their riots weren’t even close to be a usual protest, although they had normal speeches and demonstrations as well.
I think the flaw the US government has is that people don’t feel enough freedom when they have liberal views, although I cannot be sure about people in this country feel as I am from Europe. Still I think that the laws the government of the USA created are not always for the good will of the people’s wealth. And the USA was like aggressors when it came to international politics and other countries seemed to be obscure. Just like it happened a few years ago when American troops started invading the Iraq. I don’t say that the US government plays ‘world police’ or something like that but I say that people from other countries think that the government should more care about their domestic policy and not the foreign policy.
Thus the government should me more democratic or totally different. A system where people are freer than they are at the moment should be created so they don’t even think about starting a revolution with using terrorism as their tool. But the question is ‘would the majority of the people would accept the new system?’ And I think the answer would be no because I think that the current US government wants to show that they protect the people from evil. The Patriot Act and other laws which cut back the freedom and rights of the citizens aren’t that questioned as I had imagined. I suppose that most of the people want this political system, maybe just a different president.
1. The Weathermen underground formerly the Students for a Democratic Society was started as group to try to change what politics were like in the United States. Origonaly they were mostly peaceful but as time progressed they became a more violent group.
2.The cited various other revolutionary groups. Like the black panthers, and other groups from around the world.
3.I think that them wanting U.S. forces to pull out of Vietnam were justified. I agree with them that Society dose need to change.
4.Though i do agree with some of their points I don't agree that they should have used violence. And that communism was not the way to go. If you look at communism on paper it's a great plan. But in real life it always ends up really one sided. Where a few hold all the power while the vast majority hold none.
The SDS formed because they wanted to do something to change the United States government. From the SDS branched the Weather Underground. They wanted to overthrow the capitalist bourgeois system, which took form in the U.S. government. Early on, with passionate ambition and frustration rooted from the dissatisfaction of how the government was handling the war in Vietnam, the Weathermen and women began taking matters into their own hands. They felt that peaceful protests and marches were not “doing anything”, that the U.S. government was still “murdering and attacking Vietnam”. Supported by many and driven by their radical ideology (their actions were not the defined as violent but, to them, violence was sitting at home and living normal lives without doing anything, picking sides), the Weather Underground made attempts in “making the war visible in the U.S., bringing the war home”.
Although I admire their intention and ambition, their execution was heavily flawed. In the process of helping the United States see what was happening, they did drugs, banished monogamy and attacked innocent civilians. These were not necessary and gave this, supposedly revolutionary, group cult-like characteristics. Their plans and actions shifted as the country shifted but their intentions should have stayed true to what they believed. They set bombs in public areas to prove their point but did not want to hurt anybody (for example, Ferry Building explosion). However, they rigorously trained to fight the police (Days of Rage). They were blinded by the good they thought they were doing and did not see that they were struggling with power and they were using the wrong persuasion methods.
The governmental flaws that the Weather Underground protested against are still in existence today. A democracy is not a healthy one if the ones in governmental power hide information from the people of that society. “The people” are not fairly represented when the representatives have their own agendas. A government needs to be an ideal democracy to prevent groups like the “Weathermen Underground” from forming. All decisions affecting “the people” will be made by “the people” through votes. An understanding and intelligent leader will only be needed in times a tie shows up. For example, the people will decide whether to go to war against another country. Clear and truthful communication will exist in this relationship between government and people. There would be no need to hide any “dirty work” because there would be no dirty work, no hidden agendas, secret bribes or mysterious torture locations only the inquisitive percentage of society knows about. The government would consist of a group of men and women who lead the people but are the people at the same time. More open discussion and question sessions will be held.
The Weathermen Underground Group was created when people were disagreeing with USA politics in the world. They felt like the war in Vietnam was unnecessary and they wanted USA government to bring troops back home. A lot of people were protesting with "Bring the war home" posters while others were bombing buildings (banks, stores etc...)
I do not believe their actions were justified. Yes, the war in Vietnam was useless, violent and really harmful to the country, but what they did never helped the situation and even made it worse. This group did not make the president send the troops back, they didn't achieve any goal and even more, by destroying buildings and all, it makes it even harder for government because now they have to waste even more money to repair all that. Even though they thought they were "helping" the country, they made it even worse; maybe without realizing it.
I don't think there are any flaws. The only 'flaw' i see is that the government doesn't spend enough time and money to organize the country. Simple protests are fine, but when it grows to violence, it is their job to stop it. If the country would simply follow what 'city terrorists' want, the world would be in chaos. Freedom of speech is one thing, but letting it grow to violence is another.
I don't think that our government should suddenly become "better" because some violent group wants it. The only way to deal with these kind of groups is to show that this kind of behavior is not accepted. It might not work with democracy but at least, if govt will make the consequences of that kind of protesting more severe, less and less people would join such organizations. Of course, the only places where such protests wouldn't simply exist are places where dictators rule the country. In USSR, everybody was even afraid to save one bad word about president or government. Of course, it is not a way to go but it is the only way to actually prevent such groups. Like I said before, more severe consequences (perhaps even death sentence) would stop at least half of group members bombing the city/country.
I am not against The Weather Underground organization. They wanted a right thing - war is a bad time for everyone, but I think adding terror in the streets of their city is the dumbest and least mature thing that they can do. Sure, it brings attention of everyone but not in a good way. You cannot respect any organization that uses violence is its main "weapon".
Daniel Kong
Epsilon
The Weather Underground was started as a subset of a non-violence group called SDS, Students for Democratic Society. The Weather Underground grew out the of the group's left and took over the leadership of the SDS. Their professed purpose was to end American injustice against minorities and join with the other revolutionaries around the world at the time. They viewed Capitilism as a corrupt form of government and sought to violently overthrow said government to put in place a more just government.
I don't feel that a lot of their actions were justified. Why would you bomb a dance for army officers? Changing into a violent group dedicated to a hostile overthrow of the established government didn't seem right. The apparent excuse was that they lived in the most violent of times so therefore they had to be violent. Using this argument, the world should be in a violent upheaval because there is violence everyday.
I dont think there was anything that was justified. It was made safer for other people but it was still not right. Just because you warn people to move away from a building rigged with a bomb to explode once the building was reasonably empty, does not give a right and sense of justice to bomb a building.
I think the type of government that should exist to prevent these groups like the weather underground from forming is a Total Dictatorial Police State government. Although unpleasent and unethical to many, that type of government would stomp out any type of protest. However, a more ethical alternative is a Socialist type government as described by Marx in which people all work toward a common goal but reap their rewards as an individual so that no one person gets a more than or less than equal pay.
The Weathermen Underground came about as a result of a select few realizing that peaceful protest, as reasonable as it is, didn't work. For them. Thats putting it bluntly, because it is more involved than that. From their realization, they started to form ideas and beliefs and ways of thinking which spread like wild fire. The main thing that the Weathermen underground focused on was- Overthrowing the capitalist that we as Americans had found ourselves in (as of 1960somthin)and putting in its place a more humane society.
(is every1 goiing by T Kemps ?'s?, cause my #2 is a bit diffferent than his... What does the movie cite as examples for what this group considered injustices of American society?)
There was one thing that they were very apt in fighting.The war in Veit-freakin-nam(not that any1 cares, but every time i say Vietnam, i see that guy in Forest Gump- Abby Hoffman.) So much that they adopted the slogan of "Bring The War Home", and to my understanding, they didn't mean end the war and bring our troops home, they wanted war in the U.S.A. and NOT in Vietnam. From the war they also fought against murder and genocide. I'm not so sure of how big of a hand the W.U. had in that exposition of the Actual genocide in Vietnam, aside from the considered genocide of War itself. And i almost forgot, but they also had very strong feelings against segregation and racism, you know, all that stuff about and with the Black Panthers, up until the Panthers kinda sorta started to distance themselves from the W.U. once they started slipping and getting a little too radical for their taste.
Everything that they did was Justified. Anything can be justified by anyone. Personally I say that most of what they did was alright. Drugs, and the Tossing out the window of Monogamy, thats just whatever, it was the 60/70's. People just did that, and these particular people tacked some meaning to it by some far stretch of thier tripped out imagination. When they decided that they were specifically going to fight Back, when they protest, that was okay. When they wanted to bow shit up, with no intention of hurting people, thats hella okay. I probably would have been in on that if i had the chance.
Everything that they did was Justified. Anything can be justified by anyone. That makes this question kinda hard to answer. It is really opinion based, and I'm not good that opinion based, i change my mind and argue with myself. Anyway like most people, i feel that the murder of an innocent person is waaay wrong, I've yet to find anything that = the value of a human life. Apparently that W.U. kinda let that go the way of monogamy."The Days Of Rage" also waaay wrong. Hurting someone to hurt someone, is almost as bad as killing to kill. And if you say this the way that those oldass news reporters did- "...unleashing indiscriminate violence on the public and undeserving people" that just makes the W.U. seem like the bad guys. Like allot of revolutionaries, and people with big ideas, who tend to stray from what they origionaly set out to do, and get desperate, and go to lengths beyond that of a reasonably thinking person. Thats what seems to have happened to the W.U. and whether or not that is unjust, i can not decide. One more thing that i was thinking about. It seems that Murder, Riots, Chaos, Explosions, Terrorism, etc, seems to be the few ways of being really truly Heard in our country. It gets you taken seriously.
(not counting this, and what follows)
609 WORDS SON!
0H-yeeeah.
that awesome post, the one right above this one,
BY: Logan, ZETA, 11.15.07
Ivy Leung
Zeta
I have no idea when the blog is due and I am assuming it’s due before we have your class and also I’ll write what I know to the best of my ability because I wasn’t here for long to watch the video because I had Read Right.
I think “The Weather Underground” was ultimately provoked to attempt a violent overthrow of the U.S. Government because they were not satisfied with their rights and they were trying to protest for the rights they think they deserved. They wanted to help change the world for the better, but instead, they had not gotten what they wanted and overthrow the government by bombing parts of the city. Instead of peace, they were creating a riot and trouble to themselves. Weather Underground just wanted to create peace for the world and do what they think would benefit our society, but the government would not permit it and they rebelled. Our world cannot have everything we want, if we had everything we want, it wouldn’t be society anymore because we have everything and we don’t need anything else.
I don’t think they needed to bomb different places because they may be heard, but the government won’t allow it. By bombing places, you would not create what you wanted or have what you wanted, instead you would have to go to jail, and probably something no one wants. They were putting trouble upon themselves trying to be noticed. They were noticed for the bombings and not because of what they wanted for the world. We cannot have everything in the world then businesses will be lost and we would not gain money to buy things. It would be a disaster. They might not even be any production made anymore because we have everything we want. There won’t be any upgrades and we will lack the new things that other countries might have.
I think the government had not wanted what the weather underground wanted because they didn’t think it was fair to the world and they would not permit it. They thought the weather underground was not worth it and did not pass it for the people and so the people protested and bomb the place. But maybe they were in favor of it, but they don’t see it benefiting our society for what they wanted, so they had not pass the law for it to be permitted. There are a lot of things we want for the society, but it is not pass because it is not something that the government can permit.
I think the government should hear what groups’ of people say and see how we can benefit from what is being said to our society to prevent future weather underground because we would not want another even happening like this and we would want a compromise not trouble. I think the government should somewhat pass what we said, but it will also benefit us and not only ourselves, but also the government itself because the government has to pass the law before letting the people have what they want.
Lucas Wade
Theta
I think that what ultimately provoked the “Weathermen” to turn to violent acts of rebellion was that they kind of forgot what they were doing. They seemed to have forgotten their purpose for what they were doing. They were so caught into the hype of the whole movement and being a part of something that was getting the whole nation miffed (Thesaurus). They felt special and were blinded by thinking that their ideas were so perfect that no one’s impudence could affect them.
I don’t feel that their actions were justified at all, because no one was telling them that they had to live in the country where they felt so offended by its actions. If they wanted Communism so bad, why didn’t they go to it. There’s no point in fighting when you just have to get out of the way to find what you were going to fight over. They had lost their families and friends because they felt that their movement was more important than all of the people around them. The “Weathermen” eventually became an obsession that all of the members were addicted to by the time they were getting out of control.
It started off very up-front and in your face. Bernadine Dohrn was saying that if you weren’t willing to help them, then you were just holding them back just as much as the government was holding them back. And even in the movie they related their use of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” to Charles Manson’s use of The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter.” They realized how out of hand it was getting, but it was too late for them to do anything about it.
I think that the people who were so outraged by the government to want to organize something like the “Weathermen” were, especially during these times, peeved at the government for our involvement in other countries, specifically Vietnam. It is well known that the majority of the population thought that the United States military had no place in Vietnam, and it’s probably true that if we hadn’t the war would have been very short, if there even had been a war at all. But the fact is that they were there and the public was pissed. And, of course, leave it to the young adults to start acting upon it. They were very naïve in these times and very experimental.
I think that no matter what form of government you have, there will be a group of people within it that hate every aspect of what’s going on around him. But to stop them from acting upon it, I think the ideal form of government for preventing these actions would be a totalitarian power. If you have a totalitarian rule that is feared by all, and a rich army, no one will want to rise up against him due to the fear stricken into them by the all-powerful tyrant and the army that is willing to kill for him (or her).
Navida Banderas
1. The Weathermen Underground was created by a group of middle/upper class white youth who had family drafted to fight the war that was killing millions. They felt that they government was being unfair in doing this. They wanted to stop people from dying. They thought that the government should not be fighting in the war when they had enough problems going on in America. They felt that the colored people were getting treaten unfairly and they wanted to rally up the white people to change how the colored people were being treated.
2. The Underground Wheathermen thought that society would come together to help fight for what they believe in. They thought that once people found out who they were and what they were doing they would want to fight with them. Once they found out that they were few people who supported them they thought that society was cruel and that they were enemies for not wanting to fight with them for what they believed in.
3. I feel that this groups peaceful marches were justicified, I think that it was good that they were fighting for the little guy, but I also feel that they didn't really understand about the racism that was going on in America. They reminded me of Mary from Native Son. They were fighting for something that they didn't know anything about. They were doing a good thing, but I knd of think that maybe they should have just joined the black movement and worked with them rather than trying to make their own white movement for blacks. I feel that if they had done that they most likely would have not lost their way.
4. I feel that they were taking a lot of drugs and lost what they were really about. They started to take actions too far because they were probably under the influence, which in most cases causes people to over react. I think they went to the extreme blowing things up, and all that did was make the FBI kill the people that probably could have made a great difference.
calvin zhang
theta block
When the weather underground first starter to protest, it was peaceful, but they soon saw that their protests weren't working so they tried violence. They noticed that violence got them more noticed so they kept going with it. Then they also made a connection of the violence and what they are doing in vietnam so the weather underground kept doing it to show karma.
They're actions are justified because they were trying to stand up in what they believed in and trying not to hurt others. For example, when they issued a bomb threat, they made sure that the people in the building were evacuated before they pulled the trigger. Another reason why their actions were justified is that they picked certain things and events to make a statement like the police statue that they destroyed because it was the one year anniversary that the police killed an innocent black girl.
I think the flaws the government had to make this group of people protest violently was that they didn't care about the group and that they were made enemies of the state.
The type of government our society needs is one where the basis is peace and to maintain that, the government needs to listen to what a group of people want instead of ignoring them until they start to strike.
Upon watching the documentary "The Weather Underground" what do you think ultimately provoked this group to attempt a violent overthrow of the U.S. Government?
The reason the group moved toward violence, splitting from their original group into this violent faction, was dissatisfaction. Peace methods and diplomacy seemed ineffective. The way to get the government's attention, keep it, and enforce a message is simplest through shocking them, through scaring them, through rattling them with the threat of real danger, real violence. They did it to get things done.
Do you feel that these actions were justified? Why or why not?
“Justified” is relative. For my sense of justice, where the law is not always absolute right, there are illegal things that can be “justified”. In my opinion, fighting a corrupt government in the manner they eventually decided upon (bombing empty buildings and avoiding the deaths of everyone they could manage, I believe successfully killing no one except, accidentally, three of their own people.) If you look at it in the sense of the united states' kind of justice, than it was not justified, because it was not in the slightest bit legal. Especially after they were considered terrorists and had to go underground.
What flaws do you think our government has within its system that made this group of people want to violently protest its existence?
It is too easily given to corruption; laws are not made with the good of the people in mind, but the good of that individual pushing said law, or the lobbyists begging for that law, money trading hand after hand into the pocket of the law's signer. Or a bill, anything politicians decide and do for themselves instead of the general populace, anything the president decides not for the sake of the country but for what can be conceived as selfish means- that is corruption, and dissatisfaction with one's ability to deal with this corruption peacefully in the face of deceit and manipulation led this group to violence.
What type of government do you think our society should have in order to prevent additional groups such as "The Weathermen Underground" to exist?
There is no government save for anarchy where the weathermen underground would not exist, unless we achieved some sort of utopia, some perfection, which I think is as impossible as finding a government system that can't be ruined.
Sheryl Soo
I think the weathermen tried to violently overthrow the U.S. Government because their nonviolent actions were proven useless and didn't change anything, so they began to lose it and push further to reach their goal. Obviously when things don't work out the peaceful way, things begin to become violent and people turn to risky or not very thought out plans. The weathermen were these kinds of people who didn't bother to spend more time planning and went directly to violence because they thought it would speed things up for them and effectively make results happen. I certainly don't think their actions were justified at all. This is mostly because all they were doing was adding to the chaos of the world and almost promoting violence in the community even though their reasons in the beginning was to stop violence and unreasonable harmful actions to be initiated by the government. I think what they were doing wasn't changing anything except for the fact that they were getting a bit more attention than before and making things more difficult for everyone. They probably didn't realize it at the time but their efforts didn't help change the government in the way they wished at all. They were not acting effectively and didn't think it through enough. Violence shouldn't be eliminated by more violence. That just doesn't work out, and the group should have known that to want to overthrow their government. The biggest thing that unjustified their actions is the fact that they reserved to violence. They were fighting to stop violence, and yet they were using violence themselves which makes them hypocrites. The government doesn't seem to bother with people who try to make change because they have power and they are not willing to share any of it. The government just sees people who rebel and try to act against them as obstacles in their way, and they either ignore them or try to get rid of them. Of course neither of the two is a good thing, especially getting rid of them because as was in the movie, in order to track down the weathermen for all those years, they have been acting against justice and so the weathermen were not charged with a lot of penalty when they turned themselves in at the end. This is most likely the reason why the weathermen were unable to do anything with their nonviolent attempts at first, and they had to turn to violent options in order to be more effective. When there's violence, there is threat, and then threat causes fear, which then makes the government (or just the society in general) bother to take notice of the group this time around. Almost nothing can win against fear, and so it is a strategy that many people use to get things the way they want it to be. The weathermen were not an exception. Though maybe they weren't intending to inflict fear to the society or even suspicion and wonder about them, they did so by their violent actions that come up every now and then, especially the bombing of places. In order to prevent additional groups such as the weathermen to exist in the future, our government should start to take note of their people's feelings and opinions instead of going on with their own ways while the possession of power blinds them from us.
What caused the Weather Underground to try and violently overthrow the U.S. government was the war in Vietnam, that and the fact that they wanted the U.S. to be communist. The Weather Underground was mad that the U.S. didn’t end the war with Vietnam and they didn’t understand why the war was started or what the point of the war was and so they decided to stand up for what they believed in. After realizing that they had so little support and that not many people cared about what the group was doing the Weather Underground decided that the only way they could stop the war was to overthrow the U.S. government and since they had so little support they felt like their only option was to do so violently. What caused them to think this way was all the revolutions that were occurring around the world, they though that sooner or later the U.S. would also have to have a communist revolution and so they decided that they were going to lead the revolution in the U.S. because they didn’t want to get left behind.
I think that the cause they were fighting for, the end of the Vietnam War, was a good one but their means of getting this done were not justified. By bombing all the places that they did they were not only not getting the government to do what they wanted but they also caused the people of the U.S. to see them as people who just wanted to bomb things for no reason instead of working to gain their support which is what they should have tried to do instead of going on a killing spree. I think they should have tried to show the people of the U.S. why they wanted to end the war, which was because the U.S. government was just killing innocent people instead of fight to protect them and when the Weather Underground decided to take the route they did to express their views they became just like the U.S. government and maybe even worse. Just like the government the Weather Underground were also killing innocent people in vain and the more people they killed, the more people opposed them because what the Weather Underground didn’t realize was that the people they bombed we humans with families and instead of the U.S. people supporting the Weather Underground, they sympathized with the families of those the Weather Underground killed. Ultimately the Weather Underground terrorized the people of the U.S. and because of that many didn’t support their cause which was a good one but their means were unjustifiable.
The flaw that the U.S. government had that caused this group of people to want to violently protest its existence was the fact that they were in another country killing innocent people for no reason and the fact that they told everyone the U.S. was in a war with Vietnam when instead of fighting to protect the people of the U.S. which is what the government should be doing when they are in a war, they were killing innocent people.
The type of government our society needs to prevent groups like the Weather Underground from existing is a government that actually respects what the people in our society want. One that treats everyone equally and allows everyone to have the same rights and who doesn’t let individuals violate the rights of others. We also need a government that doesn’t have their own separate agenda one who is going to bring out the good in our society and make the lives of the U.S. people good. And we especially need a government that doesn’t start trouble with other countries for their selfish desires of having a war. We need a government that is going to lead the U.S. people to have happy lives without violence and oppression.
David Luerssen
Theta Block
The main reason for the Weather Underground to try to overthrow was the war in Vietnam. The members of the weather underground wanted to bring the war in the USA so that the people there can see how the war really is because the Weather Underground thought that lots of people and the government don’t listen to them and that they don’t really know what’s going on in the Vietnam. By bringing the war home the weather underground tried to decrease the support for the war in the American society. The Weather Underground also wanted to build a communistic society in the USA because they found that the system in the USA is unjust and that the Marxism will be better for the people then the Capitalism.
I don’t think that these actions of the member of the Weather Underground were justified because these were terrorist acts. I think there is no justification to destroy the properties of other people or to violate police men or other people. If people are against something then they can demonstrate peaceful and tell the government like this there opinion but this should happen without violence.
I don’t know exactly how the situation was at this time but I think that these fanatic persons thought that the government doesn’t really care what the demonstrators say. The government only wanted to fight the war and didn’t care how many solders and civilians will die in this war. The Weather Underground thought that the only way to make the government listening to them if the demonstrators start violence and if the Weather Underground plant bombs to chock the government and the population of the USA.
All in all I think it is impossible for a government to make all people happy because the interests of the people are so different. The government has to say with laws what is allowed and what not and then the police has to act strong against this aggressive and dangerous people to save the majority of the people if these extremists plant bombs for example or if they damage buildings at the demonstrations. But the government should also listen to what the peaceful demonstrators want to make them feel that it is important what they want and then the government can decide if the politics they did was good or if there is a better alternative like for example what the demonstrators demand. But it will never be possible to make a politic which all people like so that the only possibility is that the police do something to protect other people.
1. The weathermen underground group was created for the purpose of violently overthrowing the oppressive U.S. Government. They wanted to see radical change in the way that the country was run, and they were willing to be violent to get it. It was started during a time of revolution, and public outcry about oppression of both people here at home, and about the war.
2. The group considered American society to be an oppressive, suppressed group of people with that ‘50s image of the nuclear family. They were trying to liberate themselves and others from that kind of oppression, and try to grant people like women and African American rights. The sided with groups like the Black Panthers. They cited examples like the war being carried out even though there was a huge public outcry to stop.
3. I think that this group was right in the fact that there was a certain degree of oppression taking place in American society, they were right to fight for the rights of themselves and others, and they were right to fight for the end of the war, but they tried to stop violence and oppression by using violence and oppression to get their way, which is wrong.
4. I think that their intentions were good, but the way they presented it and the way they did it was completely wrong. Their view was that they were liberating everyone from the oppressive American society/government which forced the suburban, 50’s kind of roles on people. They didn’t realize that by violently opposing these things, all they were doing was force feeding everyone their beliefs which is almost as bad. People should have the right to live whatever kind of life they think is right as long as they aren’t hurting anyone by doing so, if they want to live that kind of 50’s, suburban, nuclear family lifestyle than they should be able to. By bombing people, they weren’t freeing people from oppression, they were making them scared of being blown up, and fear itself IS oppression.
Yuri Bondarenko
Govt/Econ
Theta
11/12
Koh
Weather Underground Response/Blog
Upon watching the documentary "The Weather Underground" what do you think ultimately provoked this group to attempt a violent overthrow of the U.S. Government? Do you feel that these actions were justified? Why or why not? What flaws do you think our government has within its system that made this group of people want to violently protest its existence? What type of government do you think our society should have in order to prevent additional groups such as "The Weathermen Underground" to exist?
I think a number of factors provoked the Weathermen to attempt a violent overthrow of the United States government. I think we have to consider the point in time that all of this happened when looking for an answer as to why and how the organization was formed. The Weathermen was formed in the 60's, a time when the Vietnam War was at its peak. The Vietnam war was a war that generated mixed feelings in the American people; feelings that were generally negative. The Weathermen was formed as a response to the war, something like an organization that spoke as the voice of the country. They knew that the country made its points through violence, and they saw how ineffective peaceful protests were against it, including their own peaceful protests. Thus they decided that they should fight fire with fire. Their actions were justified to some, but many others believed that they were terrorists just as anyone else who damaged the United States to prove a point. They committed acts of terror such as bombing police stations, the Pentagon, MIT, and the California Attorney General and had violent protests in which they fought police officers and destroyed police and public property.
The message the Weathermen were trying to send was opposite of the means they were using to attempt to achieve it. They fought for peace and used violence to attempt to achieve peace. They protested killing by killing. They fought against their cause through their cause. I think this is a big part of why the organization imploded on itself. Their actions were not justified because of the blatant hypocrisy of their existence. The biggest flaw on the government's part in this is that they allowed the war to continue even though the people didn't want one. Regardless of how they let the government know, the people's voice should be considered one of the most important things in a country. The government is made by the people and for the people, and the people's voice needs to be heard otherwise groups like the Weathermen surface from the collaboration of like minded people who disagree with what the government is doing. If we are to prevent more Weathermen Underground type groups to exist we need to have the government listen to the people. After all, without the people there would be no government, and without the obedience of the people there is no government.
Sierra Laiafa
Theta
I believe "The Weather Underground" group wanted to overthrow the government because one, they disagree with their system of ruling, two, they felt they were being unfair, and three, they weren't going to sit around and watch this go down, they were going to do something about it. So what they did was formed somewhat of an alliance to rebel against the government because they thought everything that was wrong was because of the government and they were more or less correct. From the violent crimes that were being commited because of the War in Vietnam to the bombs being made in the hotel, every action had a purpose behind it. For instance, when they made that one guys room sort of a museum after he was killed in his own bed while he was sleep, I thought that was kind of crazy but at the same time they were just trying to prove a point.
Yes all actions were justified and necessary because not only did they stand up for what they believe in they opened peoples eyes and made them realize what was going on around them. Coming from little small protest to bombing bulidings, "The Weather Underground" believed in Communism and wanted to overthow the Capitalist system they disagreed with. Countless lives were being taken and more and more people just watched but had no control of what they can do to help.
The main flaw within our government that most people stood back and watched was th death of innocents lives being taken and "The Weather Underground" were the only people who stood up and actually took action on how they feel because I am sure many people were hurt just as "The Weather Underground" but did not showcase their feelings. We need a system of much more equality so their can be more conduct than conflict and people can find the meaning of themselves within one another. I feel we should have a Communism government but more in a sense that everybody will be happy with one another.
I honestly agree with "The Weather Underground" to a certain extent. I say that because causing chaos in your city and streets kind of just caused more crimes because it was kind of feeding the situation they were going against. I feel they could have just took their protest to another level and tried to get more public with it by getting themelves on television since majority of people were watching t.v to find out what was going in the Vietnam War. Or maybe they should have just gathered in much larger groups to get more attention and try to make the news paper. There are numerous ways to go about the situation but the way "The Weather Underground" went about it landed people in jail from about 25-life and only because they stood up for what they believe in.
I think that what provoked the Weatherman Underground to ultimately attack the government of the United States was a feeling of powerlessness that they felt as a result of the Vietnam War. It was felt by them that the government was not reacting fast enough, nor in the correct manner to the will of the people, and that its basic structure prevented it from being fully effective at serving the needs of the people. The solution that they developed for this problem was the overthrow of the government. The problem with revolution against an established government is that they government tends to stick around unless you knock it from its perch forcibly. The problem with an approach like that though is that people who have no business getting hurt get hurt. There’s a lot of collateral damage and in the end, it takes more than a small group of people to pull off a fullscale revolution. The U.S. government has flaws in it that cause revolutions like this in a number of ways. Some of the things that make the system unique and give it strength are also not terribly good from a humanitarian standpoint. Capitalism means that there are always people who fall through the cracks. That’s obviously not a good thing, but it’s a hallmark of capitalism. The problem is that other forms of governance haven’t worked out all that well in the past. Communism has leaders who refuse to give their power back to the people, monarchs do whatever the hell they please, it’s just the way things go and there’s not a perfect system now. I agree with the Weathermen that there are problems with the way the system works, but throwing it on its ear isn’t going to fix them. The scale is just too huge. If it weren’t for the fact that this country has more than 300 million people in it it might be manageable, but without immense resources more people will fall through the cracks than even now. It’s just way too naïve and idealist without enough of a reality check to realize that it wouldn’t work. There is nothing scarier than an idealist with a bomb. In their minds, what they do is right. How can you reason with that?
Jessica Wells
I completed this assignemnt on paper in class. I do not feel like translating it into text on this blog, but the assignment.
thank you
Alma Herrera-Pazmino
The weather underground tried to over throw the governmant because they didn't have anything else to do. They were living in this country as fugitives because of the crimes they commited. They didn't have an identity in society any more and couldn't go on livivng their lives knowing what they wanted to do with their lives because they didn't have an option. Their moral values were not the same with the rest of society. To them it was a form of life to have sex with all and for their to be no set relationships. I think that fact had much to do with why they wanted to over throw their government. A government and its people is a relationship in it's own form It's supposed to be a give and take relationship. They felt as though the U.S. government wasn't giving every one an equal opportunity and giving everyone their rights. The thing is that they tried identifying them their selves as a group similar to the black panthers even though they weren't. Their actions were not justifiable at first. They were not even thinking logically or with any values. At first the student union was to help all. But by targeting all americans and putting them into one catagory they were just terrorizing. It made them just as bad as the U.S. Government and military. Maybe even worse, I think. When you put everyone into one catagory and want to teach them a lesson that is naive imperialism, and ethnic clensing. Their actions were done out of ignorence. Just like war in vietnam. The reason that I don't think that their actions justafiable is because they said that they wanted to over throw the government but they didn't have any plan for after that. That is not a true revolution so to me they were not true revolutionaries. To prevent Weathermen Underground in society there needs to be a government that treats everyone equality for all people in rights, jobs, education and housing.
John Carreon
Block Epsilon
The Weather Underground started off as this student anti war convention. The Vietnam War, they thought that it was in justice to go in to a country and kill off millions of people so they started it to try to stop the war. Which they did by organized non violent protests. They saw that it had very little to no affect on what the government is doing. So one group or section started to step up and deal with it in bigger ways. “The days of rage” was one of them, they broke every window and robbed banks. They did so much other stuff to get the attention of the people that what the government is doing is wrong. Then the police got involved and got even worse. And so six people went underground and disconnected them selves from their family and friends. They tried to figure out what they did wrong and they came to the conclusion that they where involving ordinary people. So they planned bombings as an response to the government doing an injustice, and they tried to make sure they didn’t hurt anyone.
One of the biggest thing the group does is try and stop the Vietnam War. Their slogan was “being the war home” which they said because people would go thought their ordinary lives with out thinking of the war, so they wanted it to be in the minds of the people. They believed that killing millions of people with out any justified answer for killing them should stop. They also found out the FBI was killing off people who where potential threats of the U.S. they had a list of people but I forgot them I do remember Martin Luther King and the black panthers.
I feel like the group had good intentions and that what they were doing was to open the mind of people that this is happening and that you should be affected by it. I feel like they were doing what they believed is right and they wanted the injustices of the government to be justified. I think they were on the right side of things and I would have supported them but with out the bombings. What they did was their responses to what was happening because what they were originally doing didn’t work and they had to do more to get the attention that they wanted.
But I also feel that what they did was really harsh and also what the government did in response to that wasn’t better then what they did as well. They should have found a better way of trying to get the governments attention, instead of bombing things that they found would give a big impact on the people. They shouldn’t have hurt people in the beginning and they should of just got more people to join their cause which might have been a better idea because the more people you have the more impact and the more the government will notice you.
The movie provides us with the background information and shows us that the Weathermen Underground derived out the anti-anti-violence group, the Weathermen. The Weathermen had to go underground because the American government was not only willing to kill thousands of miles away, but they are also willing to kill right at home; its citizens, if it felt its power slipping. But if we skip this, because we all saw the movie, and instead try to understand what inspired these people to take it in their hands and promote a violent revolution and overthrow of the American Government. (It is so crazy about that group that found the files planning to kill revolutionaries and leaders)
During the sixties these American teenagers realized the terror and horror of the Vietnam War and they were strongly against it. Most of them joined peaceful organizations against war because they could not stand that their country were mass murdering millions of people. To one man, member of the Weatherman Underground, the war was the only thing he could think about. He said that even when he was in the mountains hiking, or getting stoned or having sex with his friends he could never rid himself of those thoughts and it made him sick.
President Nixon refused to listen to peaceful protesters and even stated at one point that he would not be affected by them (all though this was when people started to become violent). Ultimately these fed up teenagers decided it was time to take action. They wanted to act because their voices weren’t being heard. They made their motive the violent overthrow of the government because the more peaceful protests the more troops the government would send to the war and the death tolls would skyrocket. It was in a way a type of oppression, and to do nothing in a time of oppression is in it self violence. So why not go violent?
I agree with the Weathermen, I believe if something is unjust and wrong you should go against it even if it was wrong. I like what one of the women said in the movie, that this fir into a time period of revolution around the world (France, Japan, Mexico, Cuba etc) and I wouldn’t want to miss being part of it either.
As for justifying their actions, I agree more so with the action of the later group the Weathermen Underground because the clearly stated their goals and made sure their message was heard. They focused more instead of just fighting, burning cars and robbing people. They actually targeted specific places for specific reasons. They exploded a police building in response to a cop shooting a black kid and such. And they made sure that no one was hurt in their explosions, if they hadn’t done this I would not say that their actions were justified.
“Those who make peaceful protest impossible only make violent ones inevitable”
-Martin Luther King Jr.
Leah trevor, epsilon
The purpose of creating the weathermen underground was to fight violence with violence. The world and American during the 60’s was an intensely violent place. The Vietnam War brought out violent protests in the American public, and killed thousands of American and Vietnamese soldiers, and innocent citizens of Vietnam were murdered. The Weathermen Underground was a group that decided that the hippy philosophy of nonviolence wasn’t helping to end the war so; they became violent in an attempt to overthrow the United States government. Their goal was to create a nonviolent, peaceful society in the end.
The group considered the treatment of blacks in America to be unjustified. They fought for the freedom of all people in America. Police brutality and FBI illegal investigation on their group were also injustices that the group was fighting to abolish. They were outraged when Fred Hampton was murdered during an FBI raid. They felt it was a corruption in the American government when news casters were announcing that Fred was killed when guns were fired from both parties. They were outraged with the on goings around the world. Everything to them was injustices.
I feel that the action of speaking up is totally justified. I think that when they protested and faught back it was very respectable. I think they had a good idea when they figured they would fight violence with a violence of their own. I just feel that they went about it in the wrong way. When they were making bombs, and setting them off in public places was many innocent people could die, I think that is not justified. I also, do not think that creating a scene and catching public attention would do anything put draw the governments attention away from the War. Most of the American people did not approve of the Vietnam War but, did not create more unnecessary conflict in their lives and society. I approve of their hatred for war and their passion and drive to abolish inequalities in the world. I felt that there was just something not right about the way they did it.
Isabel A. Pedraja
Zeta
1.What do you think ultimately provoked this group to attempt a violent overthrow of the U.S. Government? It's clear that the actions the US government were taking in Vietnam was the main cause in provoking the Weathermen Underground. The Vietnam War was the first war that I think was truly brought home through TV's for they had first come about a little over a decade before. So, this was the first war that one could hear about and see some of the disturbing things going on in your home televison screen. Being able to see and hear of whats goin on over-seas when you never could before can be really intense and in your face. Maybe this made the young revolutionaries 'feel' for the war even more.
2.Do you feel that these actions were justified? Why or why not?
The actions that the Weather Underground took were completely unjustified and absolutely ludicrous. It is completely hypocritical to protest violence with violence!! They clearly did not think their plans all the way through. How could bombing public buildings be in any way good or helpful. They didn't accomplish anything but making themselves look like crazy young violent drug addicted cult.
3.What flaws do you think our government has within its system that made this group of people want to violently protest its existence? Im guessing that the main flaw in this case would be that the US tends to enter in an unnecessary state of war, killing innocent civilians, and thousands of our own as well for an unjust cause, or rather no real good purpose at all.
4.What type of government do you think our society should have in order to prevent additional groups such as "The Weathermen Underground" to exist? A government that listens to the requests and demands of the people and not brings the nation into war for unnecessary reasons.
I think that the Weathermen Underground were ultimately provoked by the fact that they were sick of being oppressed and kept down by the United States Government. According to the weathermen the United States uses a violent police force, and a violent military to keep the general population in submission, and it woud take violence to overturn this oppressive rule. I do believe the actions were somewhat justified, this was during a time of heavy racism and violence. I think that answering the problems with violence is generally a bad idea, but since they did their actions once buildings were evacuated and made sure as few innocent people were killed as possible.
I think the flaw in our system is that it is very easy for the president or the government to ignore the pleas of the people. The SDS was all for peaceful protest to try and spread their message, but it was not effective. So violence was used to grab attention, which it did a very good job of. I think they were just sick of their voices being ignored in a country where the voice of people is supposed to be valued.
I think that the government our society should have to avoid violent protest groups like the weathermen undergound is one where the people have a very strong voice in what happens in government. One that is held together without violence and hatred.
Ayinde Bell Stampp
The Weather Underground was created to react towards the government and their views on the Vietnam. They didn't believe in the war as well as the actions towards whites and blacks being seperated. They felt that all people were of one human and they showed this all through a violent over throw. There was a war in Vietnam where innocent people were being killed. Since this was happening they feltlike they needed to create a way at home. So they had a saying called "Bring the war home" They were very justified when it came to the protest and meetings. They knew they had to hit media in a bigger way and if it meant blowing up buildings to catch attention, then so be it. These people showed that lows could be broken and when you work as a big community, your point will obviously get across. Also due to being justified, if are government was so, and told the truth about things we wouldn't have to be in a phase of fear everyday not knowing what's going to happen next. Our Government never tells the truth.
I think it was seeing the atrocities that our government was committing and pushing the thought that that mindset was not limited to our government but the people as well. They originally labeled pretty much all middle class white Americans as supporters of the war with the philosophy that not acting in a time of violence was violence in itself. But in reality it was a lot of these peoples children who were actually doing the fighting, so it’d be hard to see your child off to fight and damn them for being put in the situation. The draft made it virtually impossible to not go into the war. The only way you could avoid being drafted is if you were in a 4 year college. If you had graduated, moved onto a higher degree, or just didn’t go to college you were subject to be drafted. Around the time the Weather Underground started, there was a number system implemented which would basically tell you when your time was coming. The only real way to dodge the draft was to leave the country, this making it next to impossible to come back, or to actually join a part of our military voluntarily. This would give you a much better chance at not being sent to the front lines, unlike all of the kids who sat in their small towns with no big dreams being sent to the battlefront like sheep to the slaughter.
The SDS was a student run organization and as the documentary noted most ceremonies was chaotic and got very little done. The Weather Underground was formed from a lot of students/non students who were young and willing to create change in any way possible. Like with most chaotic situations, the people who stand up and take charge during a time of chaos usually get to organize how all of this pent up ideas/anger goes about being used. Originally it was directed towards the white middle class, and they were separating themselves from these people even though they came from it by saying they were elite because they were more aware to the events going on in the country and out in the world. As one weatherman said “I cherished my hate as a badge of moral superiority”. This basically sums up their actions in one sentence. They used the hate they had to gather together the SDS and go on a rampage through the streets to make their message known. But in reality, the media probably wanted to tell the story of the people and why they acted so violently when so many protestors act in peace. It was their radical thinking that was too innovative for the mass population. Even though peace was the spirit of the time, they saw violence as something radical to create change. But as one Weatherman said, violence is viewed by our society as either criminal or mentally ill, and it was both for the Underground. In general, even though they moved their philosophy from a mindset that was to destroy the very society that had created them by seeing themselves as separate terrorists to the middle American way of life, they moved their violent statements to big explosions that were to not only do damage to important places in society, but to send a message that this was just a small part of a larger world in which we were causing much more than small explosions in important places. I think in order for Organizations like the Underground to not exist in a society like ours, it would have to be that every politician listens to large groups of protestors or else they would have to fear that the peaceful conduct would turn violent due to the anger that there was very little change. Even though it so happens that change doesn’t come as easily as blowing something up or a large group of people sitting in order to show that they stand for something, our society needs to develop a set of morals which everyone can relate to in a way that is not ignorant of any one persons needs (sometimes wants, mostly needs).
Zeta block rules
Capitalisim Plus Dope Equal Genocide
The Black Panthers were kinda right
The Weather Underground was a bunch of crazy white people
But that doesn't mean the Panthers are all saints under god
Jasmine Kamariotis
Epsilon
The Weathermen Underground was started in someways to fight the government and the war in Vietnam, but also to bring to light such actions that were going on, and the violence that the people in Vietnam were experiencing. I understood how they never really meant to hurt people in the process, but to “bring the war home”. To show the American people what the troops were doing. There is that common situation where people won't take a stance or won't fight for something until I has directly affected you. I think that the point of the Weathermen Underground was to essentially make the war a part of the lives of Americans who are not fighting the war, much like how the citizens of Vietnam are experiencing. Events don't really effect people until it has hurt them, emotionally or physically. They wanted to provoke that pain in these people, in order that they would make the choice and choose a side, rather than being indifferent.
Yes, I do feel that their actions were justified. In a time when war had torn up the country, and people no longer knew if they could trust the government, I feel that desperate times call for desperate measures. First off, thy were not really out to hurt anybody. When they blew up places, they made sure to contact the proper authorities to that the location may be evacuated. In a way they were just out to cause havoc, to be seen, to be heard, and to have their message of enlightenment spoken to the world.
I think the fact that our government ignored the protests of the time, is what provoked the Weathermen Underground to do such actions. There is a point when you just have to sit down and ask yourself, 'If what we are doing now is not working, what is the next step?' For these people the next step was violence. I don't really feel that there is anyway for a government to prevent this kind of actions. If every time a person or a group of people got butt sore about something, the government would automatically do something, I don't think that we would get anything done. I think that the only way to make people have the same feeling would be to kick out the people who did not agree, but that is never going to happen. I feel like I have talked a lot about how it is impossible to please everybody, so if you please the majority, then you are gravy. I feel that if the government did more to recognize the people, I think they would be happier. I'm sure even if they just said 'No' I think the people would be happy. It's like how a child will keep pestering a parent for something until they get it. For the most part they just want the attention, and once they get ti, they are happy. All that the protesters want is to be recognized and not ignored by the government.
DeCorrah Allen
Epsilon
The late sixties were a great time for change to happen since many new things had occurred. The Weather Underground organization fought for freedom and equality and they felt their needs were not met in many ways. One example and possibly the most influential was the war on Vietnam. Many of its members disagreed with the cruelty and purpose of the war. The violence they forced on innocent civilians was unnecessary and inhuman so instead they responded with increasing violence toward the government. This was proven by many bombings of political offices and several protests and riots. The Weather Underground even had a slogan of how they would respond to the unjustified war inviting the government to “bring the war back home”. They wanted to do everything in their power to make life in America so unlivable that they would have to surrender in Vietnam and come back to tame American civilians. The analysis of the war was a portal for most naive Americans that thought America was a fair place, flashes of cruel soldiers flashed through TV screen with increasing death rates and people couldn’t help but to get more depressed and angry for change
Another issue the Weather Underground fought to change was equality between races, mainly black and white and equality between civilian and government rights. They felt their right were not followed and needed to protests and fight to gain and keep their rights
In my opinion many of they actions in which they participated were hypercritical and just as violent as the cause they were trying to defeat. The ideas were rights the goals were also right but the violent criminal acts were not rights. This organization had no coherent plan for their goals and let their rage lead them to a more anger fueled quick fix that ultimately made their organization as the administration they were trying to defeat.
Julian
ZETA
With watching the Weather Underground, and seeing what happened to the organization both when they were peaceful and when they were violent, I would have to say that the main event, or events that changed them from peaceful protesters was when the news and images of what was really going on in Vietnam leaked out to the public and the fact that they came upon the realization that their peaceful organization did nothing to help persuade and show the people of America to what they should be doing to stop this. With those realizations in place, they put aside their peaceful nature and went into explosive anarchy.
The actions in which they took with the bombing of major/ important buildings in the U.S. Was not justifiable. Granted they did warn people as far as an hour to half an hour before the bombs would go off, but even then as they saw with a few of their own friends taken in a blast because of their mistakes, their actions were never justifiable. Now if you were look at what they were doing before they thought violence would solve anything, they did very justifiable things to get peoples attention. They did peaceful protests and did protests and marches all the way to handing out fliers and talking to random people on the street. They would even try to group together with other groups, such as the Black Panthers, and get out messages together so that it might have a better effect than trying to do it alone. Though as the film showed, the Black Panthers didn't want to work with them and even got into a few fights with them in the process.
To quickly clarify why their violent actions were unjustifiable; they hurt many people and businesses that didn't deserve to get hit just because they were right next to those companies directly involved in the troubles with the war and Government. They did the exact opposite of what they wanted to do by trying to end violence with violence, which for them did more than just back fire, it killed several of them and others not directly involved in the process. The Government itself isn't so great either though. Sure, not all of the Government is what some might call a bad guy, but it's more of how they protect us that makes us fear and resent them at the same time. They went into a war that wasn't theirs and tried to do things their way, like today. And by doing so, they alone have caused much grief, sadness, and injustice by doing so. And it isn't just happening over seas, it has been happening here for years. When the government sees something not going their way, they do what ever steps are necessary to deal with the problem. As we saw with many protesters from radical groups such as the Black Panthers, they made up stories about how they were going to challenge the government with force, and in turn we find out that the Government(or parts of it) just went in and slaughtered innocent people that wanted to do nothing more than peacefully change the way things worked. The final problem is trying to think up of another type of government that would work in the U.S. But upon thinking it over, there are none. If Communism was out government, we would see more groups such as the Weather Man showing us what the government is either doing or where they are about to go like every other communist government before them.
Christine Tsang
Epsilon
I think what provoked “The Weather Underground” to attempt a violent overthrow was that they didn’t agree with the way the US government ruled. The US government ruled according to capitalism and the SDS fought for democracy. This revolutionary group was made up of students that were against the US government’s decision in the Vietnam War because the US was murdering millions of people. The Weather Underground wanted to overthrow the US government by rebelling. They rebelled in violent manners by bombing government buildings because peaceful protests weren’t effective, since the killings still went on.
I don’t think that their actions were justified because bombing buildings didn’t help the revolutionary group. The Weathermen Underground thought that “the more destructive, the better against government”, but it only led to more chaos and violence in the world. Their goal was to stop violence, but they were creating violence on top of the war. It also became another problem because the Black Panther Party ended the alliance with the Weather Underground. The Black Panther Party fought for civil rights and had nothing to do with the bombings or trashing of buildings. It was probably a good idea to start a revolutionary group against the government to stop the Vietnam War, but the way they approached the problem wasn’t justified. They should’ve thought about their plans before they even started bombing. Some members of the group made bombs, which led to an accidental explosion in New York.
I think the flaws that our government has within society today is power taken for granted. The government can easily deceive people and things can be done behind our backs. There can be harsh laws that were created but are left unknown to the public. Or there can be actions that are planned by the president, for example, the president taking advantage over his powers and starting a war in another country for irrational reasons. Things like these can upset the people and lead to protests.
The type of government that I think our society should have in order to prevent groups like “The Weathermen Underground” is a democratic government. A democratic government because everyone would be socially equal and can have the opportunity to contribute as a part of society. Those who want to become fully involved in the shaping of society can vote and the votes can help determine the representative and idea that a majority of the people favors. People would be able to cast their opinion to agree or disagree. I think society should avoid totalitarianism because one man having all power would probably lead to conflicts. When one person has all power it is hard for the public to make decisions because that person has absolute control.
The Weathermen was created as an organization whose purpose was not only to ultimately "overthrow the US government," but to inform the people of the crimes against the world that the US has committed. Because the Weathermen were aware of the US's part in the Viet Nam war, as well as the injustices committed against people of color in the sixties and seventies, they wanted the masses to be aware of the same thing. They felt that if the wider public knew these atrocities for what they were, that sooner or later, if the numbers were large enough, a revolution would be in short order. But the only way the Weathermen felt they could get the public's attention was through public speeches, mass gatherings, and the bombing of buildings that were affiliated with who they were against.
The Weathermen began because of the violent happenings in Viet Nam, especially when the US entered the war. Thousands upon thousands were killed everyday, including civilians murdered by American troops. The number of casualties rose every day. And even during the war, the likelihood of US victory seemed very slim. But still, more and more troops, both Vietnamese and American, as well as innocents, continued to lose their lives. Recognizing this catastrophe for what it was, The Weathermen could see no other way to get the government's and the people's attention than to make themselves known as radicals and revolutionaries. So they made themselves in the best way that could label them as such.
Another problem The Weathermen were opposed to was the blatant racial discrimination of the time. Black people all over the country were being violently oppressed with little help on their side. The Weathermen, who also tried to combine forces with the Black Panthers, also spoke out against that in many public gatherings. Upon the murder of Fred Hampton, a well known public speaker and black Civil Rights leader, by the US government, The Weathermen conclusively bombed a building in honor of him. Throughout the struggle for racial equality in the US, The Weathermen - and subsequently, The Weather Underground - bombed buildings all across the country to "make their point." Although at first they were not opposed to violence as a means of effective revolution, when the Weather Underground was formed, they made certain to spill any blood.
I personally respect the views of the Weathermen, as well as agree with many of them, but early on they were a little too reckless for my tastes. The violence they initially used was only adding to the disarray within the States, and was not really making themselves look much better than the "oppressors." Also, as the Weathermen and its followers gradually crumbled into more disorganization, the reckless acts of the followers did not do much to make the Weathermen look like a viable cause. On the contrary, it only made them look like a bunch of hoodlums without morals or respect to the "good people." But when the Weather Underground was formed, and adopted a more focused direction, their bombing of buildings seemed more reasonable, especially so because they went out of their to make sure nobody got hurt. In conclusion, I think the Weathermen were a necessary group to exist in such a chaotic time in US history, and if it wasn't for them, many people would still be blindly following the government to whatever corrupt ends it sought.
Argent Ilejay
What I believe to be the sole reason that the group known as “The Weather Underground” was provoked to attempt and commit violence towards the U.S. government is that government was being ignorant of the “Weathermen’s” opinions. The weathermen felt that they were being unheard and the result became a childish act of violence towards the semi-unattended targets of the American people. The horrid crimes of breaking store windows, bombing buildings, and just the unjustified destruction of people and government property is something that I just cannot agree with due to the idea that the people who are victims to their bombings and raids may not have agreed with the government and were just civilian casualties in the chaos that ensued. The destruction of other people’s property costs people their jobs and it is quite possible that those people did not agree with the government. Furthermore, how can a group promoting peace to end war commit violence? This made feel that the Weathermen were a walking contradiction to themselves and were very Machiavellian. So I firmly believe that their actions of bombing and destruction were not justified at all. But I believe their rallies and protests were justified because they were promoting peace peacefully. But the Weathermen are not all to blame. The flaws in the government are the cause of the problems, the Weathermen just went about trying to solve problems so horridly incorrect that it escalated things to a bad place. If the government had been more people affected then I am sure that the Weathermen and their chaos would not have ensued. The government was flawed in such a way that it did not listen to its people, (much like the war now). Since the government basically ignored the Weathermen and escalated the conflicts of the war the Weathermen became angry and violent and childish and threw a tantrum to get attention and ensue its violent protests. I believe a type of government that would be effective is something like there is a figurehead who is dictated by a number of votes by the people. So it is like if the ruler wants to go to war, a vote would go out amongst the people to decide whether or not to go to war. This way people cannot say the government is bad because the government is dictated on their votes and if a bad decision is carried out it is the peoples fault. Also the whole point of a government is to be there for the people, not to start wars over someone trying to kill their father. This type of government allows the voice of the people to be heard and the majority gets its way, which means that there should not be much protests because there was a legal process that is fair since people voted for what action to take.
Patrice Bryant -Theta
What I think ultimately provoked this group of people to attempt a violent overthrow of the U.S. Government was because they did not like the idea of the Vietnam War and the effect it had on the country. They were advocates for peace on Earth and they felt that the war in Vietnam stood for everything that they were against. The members of "The Weather Underground" were young and the excitement of the revolutionary war going on around them made them feel like they should be apart of the excitement as well.
I do not feel like the violent actions of "The Weather Underground" were justified because they claimed to be advocates of peace on Earth but they committed violent crimes that not only effected the government, which was their primary target, but also the people who lived in and around the cities that the crimes were committed in. It seemed to me like they never really thought about the effect their acts of violence had on their surrounding communities until members of "The Weather Underground" died in an accident that occurred in which a bomb unrepentantly went off and set the house that they were in on fire. Only after this accident did they realize that their initial purpose was to ensure that they received justice while ensuring the safety of other people.
The flaws I see within our government that may have made this group of people want to violently protest is that they were killing innocent people and helpless women and children in Vietnam. It hurt them to see other human beings have their lives taken from them because of something that the government did. Another reason they may have started the violent protests is that they felt like they didn't have enough freedom, and freedom is what they wanted.
I think our society should have a government that actually listens to the viewpoint of the people and based the disicions they make what they feel is really best for our country. I feel that everyone’s voice should be heard even if the government does not agree. Giving society a chance to be heard is very important to our society so if everyone gets the chance to be heard, it will be less protests and rebellion.
I think that The Weather Underground wanted to over throw the US government because they didn’t like what they saw and thought that they should do something about it. They saw that the Government wasn’t listening to anything that the people were saying so they decided to take the matter in to their own hands to try and change it for what they thought was better. I think that they were just but I think that they took it a little to far with the bombs and everything that they did because they were killing innocent people that had nothing to do with what ever the government was doing so why kill them. I think that the fact the us Government never took in anything that the people wanted and they just did what ever they wanted got them mad so they decided to just take matters in to their own hands. Also the fact that they were keeping things from the people might of gotten them mad because they weren’t telling them important things that they needed to know. I don’t think that we can have government with out having people going against it. No matter what people aren’t going to all agree on one government they will always fight about it and will disagree with one another. People want everything to be perfect but perfection isn’t something you can reach easily personally I think that perfection is unreachable there will always be a flaw in what ever you do so it doesn’t matter what kind of government we have because there will be a flaw and that may be big or small but the people will notice and do something about it. Whether it be dangerous or not matters on the person leading this revolt but there will always be people that will disagree with what ever people want to do so there is no way to stop groups like The Weather Underground.
1.The reason of why the weatherman underground group was created so that they will be able to help any kind of race that was being mistreated by their government, and to stop the wars that the USA had started with other countries around them. Because the people that were in the group, felt that America were treating their own people unfair and people out in different countries as well. The people in weatherman underground felt that there shouldn’t be any war going on. The group also believed that people inside of their own country should be treated the same way as the “white” race as well.
2. The movie made it seam like the weatherman were a group of people who all they wanted was peace in the world. But at the same time the movie also made it seam like the weatherman was a group of people who enjoy to do sex and drugs. There were two different points of views on what the weatherman was view as. Towards the ending years of the weatherman, the movie made it seam like they were a group of people bombing America. But at the same time the movie also made it seam like the Weatherman underground group wanted to do something to help out the people. They felt because they were white they had more power and they want to use their power to help out different people who doesn’t have power. But at the same time they also made it seam like the weatherman underground would want to do whatever they can to help save anyone and make everyone equal.
3. The actions as in helping that guy break from prison, voicing out their minds. Different things like that I felt that their actions were justified. Almost everything they did I felt like there was nothing wrong with it. But at the same time I wouldn’t really know what to say on this subject because I understood what they did. But at the same time I don’t really know what to say what is justified or not. I don’t really see it not being justified but at the same time I don’t really see it being unjustified. Only because I know the reasons of why they did it and a lot of people back during that time were trying to do the same thing to help out their country or themselves. So it just really makes me think, does it matter if it is justified or not if they are trying to save themselves or other people? I don’t really think so. Therefore I shouldn’t really be answering this question but I would think most of their actions will be justified under of other people’s view.
4. As for actions that felt unjustified were the bombing. Even though they didn’t kill anyone, I felt that there was no need for the bombing but at the same time I understand that was the only way that they could get the government to listen to them. So I am not fully sure if I would think this was justified or not, but I feel more like in the midpoint on this action. Like I have said in question 3, I am not sure if I should be the one answering this question because I feel like most of their action might be justified or not. But I would think that the group bombing other buildings weren’t be justified, but at the same time I also know they were trying to get their point known because that was the only way. At the same time the group also was trying to make sure no one in the bombing will get hurt. So it really makes me wonder if this is justified or not.
JAMES GUTTMAN SAYS
The Weather Underground was formed by a group of people who were dissatisfied with the way the American Government was functioning as a whole, and more specifically, the Vietnam war and the inhumane way that the U.S. government was handling it. I think these actions were somewhat justified but for the most part they were not. I think that protesting in the street does absolutely nothing, so I understand that they wanted to do more, but I do not think that randomly blowing up government buildings and property does anything either. Violence simply discredited the entire group and their opinions and labeled them as a crazed pack of trouble making youths.
The problem with our government that the Weather Underground saw was that they were mercilessly killing thousands of innocent people without even batting an eyelash. They attempted to justify their actions through patriotic propaganda, but the people of the Underground saw through it and it angered them that nothing was being done about the injustice in Vietnam. They reacted violently because their original nonviolent protests weren't working.
Our society should have a government that genuinely cares about the best interests and happiness of its society at heart.
Post a Comment