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I participated in anti-war protests in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Now I’m a conservative. some of us grow up. Obviously, Dohrn and Ayers, et all have not.

In one such protest - the 1969 “Moritorium” in Washington, DC, RYM II, considered to be less extreme than RYM I, which became known as the Weathermen, staged a protest at the Justice Department. The protest turned violent almost immediately, as the organizers were trying to get a response from the police by throwing rocks through the windows.

They succeeded and the police shot tear gas at us, and started advancing in rank order. Someon got the idea that we should march on the White House, and we headed in that direction. All the way up 14th street, protesters were smashing store windows and setting trash on fire.

Contrast that with the extremely peaceful, and clean, tea party rallies.

I attended an anti-nuke protest in Albuquerque in 1975. The protesters were going to march down the street and force there way into Kirtland AFB. I was the guy inside the fence with an M-16 standing behind the APC that had a 50 cal mounted on it. There were a couple of hundred of us and we were all dressed alike.

The protesters decided it might be more effective to just stand across the street and wave their signs.

In one such protest - the 1969 “Moritorium” in Washington, DC, RYM II, considered to be less extreme than RYM I, which became known as the Weathermen, staged a protest at the Justice Department. The protest turned violent almost immediately, as the organizers were trying to get a response from the police by throwing rocks through the windows.

They succeeded and the police shot tear gas at us, and started advancing in rank order. Someon got the idea that we should march on the White House, and we headed in that direction. All the way up 14th street, protesters were smashing store windows and setting trash on fire.

I lived in a war zone like that at the time -- Berkeley. I saw the city and the schools unraveling before my very eyes and picked up my family and moved to a town dubbed a "white, Republican enclave" by Herb Caen, San Francisco columnist of the day. The day I put my house up for sale in Berkeley, a riot broke out across town. I also registered as a Republican about that time.

It made me sick to see all the plate glass windows in downtown Berkeley boarded and bricked up to guard against the creeps determined to destroy businesses and banks.

Moving to a more conservative community wasn't enough, however. Soon, the very people who had sent Berkeley on its downward slide targeted the schools in my new commmunity. The minute we were given the opportunity, we picked up the family and moved to Texas, much like ol' Davy Crockett! His [Crockett] last words in Tennessee to the people were... "You may all go to hell, I'm goin' to Texas." We lost a lot of money doing that (missed the big run-up in real estate prices) but we've never regretted it. Not for a minute.