Let’s Do The Time Warp Again

The other day I mentioned that many events going on today felt a lot like the events of 1968. It's like deja vu in some respects, one of those moments when you can feel the ghosts of the past run Popsicle fingers down your spine. But I really had no idea just how bad it has gotten. Because now come the protests at recruiting stations led by students who are members of the Students for a Democratic Society. The Weathermen cannot be far behind.

CHAPEL HILL - Police charged five protesters on Friday during the second demonstration in a month outside the new Army recruiting station.

"We thought it was important to not have this recruiting station open quietly," said Emily McFarlane, a UNC-Chapel Hill junior who helped organize the protest at the Army Career Center, 1502 E. Franklin St.

About 30 protesters — members of Students for a Democratic Society, The Raging Grannies and others — held signs, walked in a circle and shouted, "Out of Iraq, out of our schools! Out of town, shut the war down!"

Property manager Analisa Bellamy, flanked by about five police officers, told the protesters to move to the public sidewalk several yards away on East Franklin Street.

After her second request, all but three protesters moved to the sidewalk.

Two of them, Barry Freeman, 80, and Janie Freeman, 71, were charged with second-degree trespass after refusing Bellamy's request that they put their signs down. The couple's 8-by-11-inch signs read "Hands Off My Grandchildren."

Man, the bad, old days are back with a vengeance. It might be instructive for the young folks to take a look at the history of the original organization before being so proud - and vain - as to recycle the name.