Life & Death of the Sla

Back in 1976, while working on a term paper for a course at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California, I had just seen the movie about Patty Hearst, aired on ABC. The movie was a propaganda piece that made this white woman look like the victim. The only survivor of a police manhunt, she was tahen allowed to spew forth her specious and spurious claims about being "Kidnaped" and "held against her will" and "raped." My analysis called into question all of these claims, but it was not until I came across a small black book called "The Life and Death of the SLA" that I found out what the group was about and how Patty Hearst had gotten mesmerized by the adventure. I used this book for much of my source material and now, some 25 years later, I am doing a re-examination. She's still guilty as sin, but now I will add some primary resources, since a few of the SLA members are still alive -- rotting in prison, of course.This book is well written. And it goes into detail about how the police showed no mercy toward the SLA. The book makes it clear that the robbery of the Hibernia Bank was the work of masterminds, not sick revolutionaries. These brothers and siters set up a statewide program called PIN -- People in Need, and had major corporations putting together food baskets and distributing themm to people who needed the food. Does THIS sound like the work of people who were not organized? The book goes into much detail about one issue that has gone overlooked: the role that then California governor Ronald Reagan played in fanning the flames of revolution when he said on TV that he hoped that the people who accepted the People in Need program food "got botulism." This must made the SLA even more committed to taking down the system, and they certainly made a dent in it.This book is a spellbinder. What the media doesn't tell you will be unveiled within these pages. AMerica is a sick nation that claims to do no wrong, and when people come forward to say "we've had enough," this nation lowers the boom the way that it did on the SLA. The Black Panthers couldn't quite deal with the SLA because the SLA was serious about confrontation, conflict and the revolution -- the Panthers, for the most part, were media freaks, former pimps, punks and hos.For those of you out there who remember, and still appreciate, the times of the 1960s, read, "The LIfe and Death of the SLA." Then read Patty Hearst's lie-filled book. LIke the Kerner COmmission report, you will come away with the same conclusion as they did: "We live in two societies, one black, one white - separate and unequal."