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Published on Friday, March 18, 2005 by the Los Angeles Times As Chronic Heart Failure Saps His Health, Activist Minister William Sloane = Coffin Offers Advice to a 'Young Doubter' by Elizabeth Mehren =A0 STRAFFORD, VT -- From a corner of his parlor here, the fiery Presbyterian m= inister gazed through lace curtains at a spindly tree made bare by winter. A sparrow that= defied the elements to take up residence peered back. Beyond lay the snow-covered vill= age Common, the hub of the 18th century town where William Sloane Coffin has lived on a= nd off for a quarter-century. At 80, Coffin has come home to spend his final days. Doctors gave him six m= onths to live when they diagnosed chronic heart failure after a series of strokes. That w= as 2=BD years ago. No less defiant than when he was arrested as a Freedom Rider during the civ= il rights movement or when he protested the Vietnam War as chaplain of Yale, Coffin h= eeded medical opinion by writing another book. When "Credo" came out late in 2003, Coffin put pen to paper again and produ= ced "Letters to a Young Doubter," to be published in July. Still, reclined in the leather lounge chair that his wife, Randy, gave him = for Christmas, he admitted, "My energy is so low now." This disclosure came awkwardly from a man known for relentless energy in pu= rsuit of social justice. Coffin was an Army officer in World War II, acting as liais= on to the French and Russian armies. He also worked for the CIA, training anti-Soviet Russia= ns to work in their country. After the war, he graduated from Yale University and the Yal= e Divinity School. As chaplain at Yale in the early 1960s, Coffin organized busloads of protes= ters known as Freedom Riders to challenge segregation laws in the South. He promptly land= ed in jail =97 the first of many times =97 but the conviction was overturned by the Supreme = Court. In 1967, Coffin was arrested along with his friend Dr. Benjamin Spock, the ped= iatrician and baby book author, on charges of conspiracy to aid draft resisters. These ch= arges also were reversed. Coffin used his pulpits as a platform for like-minded crusaders, hosting th= e Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, = among others. Fellow Yale graduate Garry Trudeau has immortalized Coffin as "the = Rev. Sloan" in the Doonesbury comic strip. But ill health finally slowed him down. His infirmity kept him from joining= in this town's recent vote to bring U.S. troops back from Iraq. Strafford was one of 50 Ve= rmont towns that approved a referendum protesting U.S. policy in Iraq. "I think of this as a consciousness-raising act for the people here," he sa= id. "A reminder that we live in history, not only in Strafford." Struggling to enunciate, Coffin said he applauded the decision by small tow= ns in a small state to send a bold message to Washington. Yet he wondered if President Bu= sh and others were prepared to hear views in conflict with their own. "People are forever attributing informed wisdom to power," he said, "while = willful ignorance might be closer to the truth." In Strafford, a town of a little more than 1,000, such pronouncements are f= amiliar. The village has become a bedroom community of sorts for faculty from nearby Dar= tmouth College, as well as a weekend and summer destination for many New Yorkers. With rows of Cape Colonial houses lining the Common =97 including the gray-an= d-white home of the Coffins =97 Strafford is a prototypical quaint New England villag= e. "We all cross paths at Coburn's, the general store," said Coffin's older br= other Ned, who moved to Strafford with his wife, Vi, in the early 1970s. His brother follo= wed, choosing Strafford as a quiet spot to write a book. Coffin fell in love not only wit= h the town, but with Randy. After they married, and Coffin took over as senior minister at New York Cit= y's Riverside Church in 1977, they kept their house in Strafford and spent as much time t= here as possible. "Bill is known by everybody," said Michael Manheim, who lives two doors fro= m the Coffins. "He is very much revered, except by some very conservative people, of whom = there are not many." In years when his health was better, Coffin often gave talks in the area, M= anheim said. He presided at funerals and weddings at the United Church of Strafford, just a= few houses away on the Common. Coffin officiated when Manheim's son was married, and a= lso solemnized the vows of actor Daniel Day Lewis and filmmaker Rebecca Miller,= daughter of playwright Arthur Miller, Coffin's close friend. Coffin, an accomplished pianist, also gave concerts at the church. Manheim = recalled that at one of his last performances as a tuba player, he asked Coffin to accompany= him. "He was wonderful to work with, and something of a taskmaster," Manheim sai= d. "He reminded me that I could have practiced more." But Coffin is just as likely to lace his commentary with kindness, said Tow= n Clerk Shelby Coburn. "Bill used to come in here and make copies of his sermons and things he had= written," she said. "If you asked how he was, he always deflected the question and asked = about you. That's Bill. He thinks of others." He took the inspiration for his newest book from Rainer Maria Rilke's "Lett= ers to a Young Poet." Coffin imagines a series of missives with a fictional college studen= t named Tom, who is struggling with undergraduate angst over a range of issues. When Tom writes, for example, that he wants to take a summer job as a lifeg= uard, Coffin challenges him, urging the boy to travel and advising: "There are two ways,= my friend, that you can be rich in life. One is to make a lot of money and the other is to = have few needs." Nicole Smith Murphy,who worked on the book at Westminster John Knox Press i= n Louisville, Ky., said her calls with Coffin have grown shorter, as it becom= es harder for him to speak. But she said he always leaves her with a joke, often something fr= om a little girl in his neighborhood =97 such as, "What do you call a cow with two legs?" (Answer= : Lean beef.) "You ask him how he is doing, and he says, 'Randy and I are great. It is sn= owing. How can you not be doing great?' " Murphy said. Here in his parlor, Coffin broke the stare of the sparrow and reached for a= book beside him, "War and Peace." Coffin finds the leather lounge chair in the sunny co= rner a fine spot for rumination. "I used to, all my life, think: Well, finally we can count on American wisd= om coming through," he said. "That is a bit harder to believe now. I would not say I = am optimistic. I am hoping =97 hope being a matter of the soul, not of the circumstances surround= ing your life." Copyright 2005 Los Angeles Times ### To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
