August 15, 1968
by Janine Stephenson
I asked Baby John if he would like to come to the convention with us. He said he would rather not. He wasn't angry with us for rejoining the campaign and he understood why we wanted to be a part of the convention. But he also hoped that we would understand why he wanted to be outside it, with the people.
That made me think for a while, especially the part about being with the people. A year ago, I was going away to college. I thought all hippies were strange, dirty people who lived out in California. I didn't know that they cared about things. I just thought they were always stoned.
Then Becca and I found out that Dow Chemical wanted to recruit people on campus, and that their chemicals were actually weapons that burned the skin off of innocent people. We found out that they're making a profit on all of this death. Then we took part in that protest that turned very ugly, and Becca punched a policeman. We were so afraid that we'd be arrested. For a week we by wearing hats.
Then we decided to become part of the McCarthy campaign, because it seemed safer. For the most part, it has been. Becca hasn't punched a cop since then, and we haven't been in any riots. Though we cut it close in Indiana.
They keep telling us that we will have to be very, very careful. They don't know what's going to happen. I'm nervous about it, but if it's like everything else, maybe it will all work out.
