by Andy Dawkins
Introduction:
I’ve written elsewhere about the Summer of 1979 and hanging with the St. Paul Riff Raff co-rec softball team. One of our favorite things was dancing to reggae music at the Longhorn Bar. Pressure Drop often played and was one of our favorite bands because we knew the band members, including the trumpeter, Fred (Doc) Peterson.
It was at the Longhorn that Fred, also a medical student, met Sara Olson, soon his wife. When Fred and Sara went off to Zimbabwe for Fred’s internship, they asked me to handle their legal affairs here in town, so I knew them quite well.
Years went by, and by 1997 I was a state legislator and Fred and Sara were living in Saint Paul raising three daughters. It was a huge shock, of course, when Sara was arrested for being part of the SLA, the Symbionese Liberation Army, 25 years earlier, and involved in the Sacramento bank robbery that left one person dead, an innocent bystander.
Kathleen Soliah in People’s Park after the 1974 L.A. shoot-out
There was national media coverage when I testified at Sara’s bail hearing in Los Angeles that I believed she was not a dangerous person or a flight risk. More than several political cronies publicly advised me to back away as fast as I could, disavow my friendship, even condemn Sara – no matter the presumption of innocence. But for me it was not a political calculation.
A few weeks after testifying I was marching in the Rondo Days Parade as a candidate for reelection, and person after person came up to me and said, “We’re with you Andy, putting friendship before politics.” – A huge affirmation of my belief in people and our common humanity. For me, friendship indeed should be thicker than politics and can be maintained without sacrificing justice.
The following play, written by me, sans dialogue, consisting of Four Acts, is almost entirely fictitious, all made up by me wrestling with the sometimes thin line between being a peace activist and a revolutionary. The only semblance of truth attributable to any individual living or dead should strictly be limited to me, myself and I.
Tomorrow: Act One