13-09-2011, 06:48 PM
Carl passed on peacefully early this morning. I got the call as I was leaving for court. Bob Katz- one of the members of the- (long disbanded)- Assassination Information Bureau is preparing an obit for the NY Times, Boston Globe and other media. Below is what he has emailed:
Carl Oglesby, one of the most influential figures of the 1960's counter-culture died on Tuesday at home Montclair, N.J after a short illness.
An acclaimed political theorist, orator, playwright, musician, and writer, Oglesby served as president of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) from 1965-1966 and played a leading role in the opposition to the Vietnam war. A self-defined "radical centrist" and defense industry technical writer living in suburban Michigan with his wife and children when the war began, he soon became one of its most eloquent foes.
On November 27, 1965, Oglesby gave a speech before tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators in Washington, which became one of the most important documents to come out of the anti-war movement. According to historian Kirkpatrick Sale: "It was a devastating performance: skilled, moderate, learned, and compassionate, but uncompromising, angry, radical, and above all persuasive. It drew the only standing ovation of the afternoon."
Following the demise of SDS, Oglesby taught politics at Antioch, Dartmouth College and M.I.T, and wrote a column for the Boston Phoenix that merged geopolitical theory with his keen interest in the hidden dimensions of the Watergate scandal, the John F. Kennedy assassination, and the C.I.A.
He was the author of several books, including Containment and Change, The Yankee and Cowboy War: Conspiracies from Dallas to Watergate, and most recently the memoir, Ravens in the Storm: A Personal History of the 1960's Antiwar Movement.
He is survived by his children Aron DiBacco, Shay Ogelsby-Smith, and Caleb, and Carl's partner, Barbara Webster.
Also, this excerpt from the end of his most famous DC speech:
"Let me then speak directly to humanist liberals. If my facts are wrong, I will soon be corrected. But if they are right, then you may face a crisis of conscience. Corporatism or humanism: which? For it has come to that. Will you let your dreams be used? Will you be a grudging apologist for the corporate state? Or will you help try to change it - not in the name of this or that blueprint or ism, but in the name of simple human decency and democracy and the vision that wise and brave men saw in the time of our own Revolution?
And if your commitment to human values is unconditional, then disabuse yourselves of the notion that statements will bring change, if only the right statements can be written, or that interviews with the mighty will bring change if only the mighty can be reached, or that marches will bring change if only we can make them massive enough, or that policy proposals will bring change if only we can make them responsible enough.
We are dealing now with a colossus that does not want to be changed. It will not change itself. It will not cooperate with those who want to change it. Those allies of ours in the Government - are they really our allies? If they are, then they don't need advice, they need constituencies; they don't need study groups, they need a movement. And it they are not, then all the more reason for building that movement with the most relentless conviction.
There are people in this country today who are trying to build that movement, who aim at nothing less than a humanist reformation. And the humanist liberals must understand that it is this movement with which their own best hopes are most in tune. We radicals know the same history that you liberals know, and we can understand your occasional cynicism, exasperation, and even distrust. But we ask you to put these aside and help us risk a leap. Help us find enough time for the enormous work that needs doing here. Help us build. Help us shape the future in the name of plain human hope."
Carl Oglesby, one of the most influential figures of the 1960's counter-culture died on Tuesday at home Montclair, N.J after a short illness.
An acclaimed political theorist, orator, playwright, musician, and writer, Oglesby served as president of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) from 1965-1966 and played a leading role in the opposition to the Vietnam war. A self-defined "radical centrist" and defense industry technical writer living in suburban Michigan with his wife and children when the war began, he soon became one of its most eloquent foes.
On November 27, 1965, Oglesby gave a speech before tens of thousands of anti-war demonstrators in Washington, which became one of the most important documents to come out of the anti-war movement. According to historian Kirkpatrick Sale: "It was a devastating performance: skilled, moderate, learned, and compassionate, but uncompromising, angry, radical, and above all persuasive. It drew the only standing ovation of the afternoon."
Following the demise of SDS, Oglesby taught politics at Antioch, Dartmouth College and M.I.T, and wrote a column for the Boston Phoenix that merged geopolitical theory with his keen interest in the hidden dimensions of the Watergate scandal, the John F. Kennedy assassination, and the C.I.A.
He was the author of several books, including Containment and Change, The Yankee and Cowboy War: Conspiracies from Dallas to Watergate, and most recently the memoir, Ravens in the Storm: A Personal History of the 1960's Antiwar Movement.
He is survived by his children Aron DiBacco, Shay Ogelsby-Smith, and Caleb, and Carl's partner, Barbara Webster.
Also, this excerpt from the end of his most famous DC speech:
"Let me then speak directly to humanist liberals. If my facts are wrong, I will soon be corrected. But if they are right, then you may face a crisis of conscience. Corporatism or humanism: which? For it has come to that. Will you let your dreams be used? Will you be a grudging apologist for the corporate state? Or will you help try to change it - not in the name of this or that blueprint or ism, but in the name of simple human decency and democracy and the vision that wise and brave men saw in the time of our own Revolution?
And if your commitment to human values is unconditional, then disabuse yourselves of the notion that statements will bring change, if only the right statements can be written, or that interviews with the mighty will bring change if only the mighty can be reached, or that marches will bring change if only we can make them massive enough, or that policy proposals will bring change if only we can make them responsible enough.
We are dealing now with a colossus that does not want to be changed. It will not change itself. It will not cooperate with those who want to change it. Those allies of ours in the Government - are they really our allies? If they are, then they don't need advice, they need constituencies; they don't need study groups, they need a movement. And it they are not, then all the more reason for building that movement with the most relentless conviction.
There are people in this country today who are trying to build that movement, who aim at nothing less than a humanist reformation. And the humanist liberals must understand that it is this movement with which their own best hopes are most in tune. We radicals know the same history that you liberals know, and we can understand your occasional cynicism, exasperation, and even distrust. But we ask you to put these aside and help us risk a leap. Help us find enough time for the enormous work that needs doing here. Help us build. Help us shape the future in the name of plain human hope."