[2 articles] Sarah Jane Olson
http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=932617 Food for thought By Anthony Peyton Porter [March 2009] I met Sarah Jane Olson in 1999. As Kathleen Soliah, Sarah had been involved with the Symbionese Liberation Army in the early 1970s. In 1975 she took part in a bank robbery during which Myrna Opsahl was killed, and another time she helped make two bombs that were attached to two police cars and that never went off. At least that's what she was eventually convicted of. Although I had never met her, I offered to help market Serving Time: America's Most Wanted Recipes, her fundraising cookbook. Just in case you've seen it, I had nothing to do with its production. I hawked books and called bookstores, mostly independent and lefty, around the country to get them to sell some books for us and give us most of the money, and I set up appearances for Sarah on a planned fundraising tour. Once I had dinner at Sarah's with my family. She's as good as they say she is. I never cared whether Sarah did any of it. Anything the FBI is involved in is probably paranoid and underhanded anyway. Ditto the CIA. And I can't support any law as blatantly commie as the one that makes you responsible for anything bad that happens while you were in the act of violating a law, even though somebody else, whom you may not even know well, actually did the bad thing. Johnny threw the spitball, so nobody gets recess. It's not fair. I was sorry when Sarah went to prison because I knew that under the right circumstance when I was 25 or so, I'd've done much more than blow up some cops. I once considered applying to the FBI because of what I thought would be opportunities for large-scale sabotage. Last year I went online to find out the procedure for visiting Sarahunfuckingbelievable, by the wayand I once called her old Saint Paul number. Now she's out and back home with her family in Saint Paul after seven years in the Central California Women's Facility at Chowchilla. I'm glad. I'm also glad she had the guts to resist a system she saw as repressive and violent, albeit by violent, and so ineffective, means. It was sad for the Opsahls that Mrs. Opsahl got killed, but I think Myrna's doing just fine, being eternal and all, not to mention she was depositing money for her church at the time and probably got extra credit. I read that Jon Opsahl, her son, is still angry and wanted Sarah to rot in prison forever. He figures that Sarah was in jail for her part in his mom's murder for one year out of the seven she served. I hope he gets over it. What happened to rehabilitation? People change, all of us. Some of us, like Sarah, evolve. Some of us don't. As I'm sure Jesus would say, "Well, listen, the bombs didn't go off, and you didn't shoot anybody, so go forth and sin no more, Sarah, especially if I can have another one of those mushroom turnovers." -------- Olson needs to walk the walk http://www.austindailyherald.com/news/2009/mar/23/olson-needs-walk-walk/ By Wallace Alcorn | Austin Daily Herald Published Monday, March 23, 2009 Kathleen Soliah is now on parole from almost a decade in a California prison, and Sara Jane Olson has come home to St. Paul. Soliah was a felon, and Olson is no hero or role model. She has earned the right to return to an ordinary life, but the public good is best served by then ignoring her. Kathleen Soliah is her birth name, which she also used as a member of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army during the 1970s. They were terrorists of the worst sort. Her specific crimes were participating in a bank robbery in which a person was killed, holding newspaper heiress Patty Hearst captive, and placing pipe bombs under two police vehicles. Actually, this latter was attempted murder of police officers. After committing these crimes and while others (including her brother and sister) were being apprehended, tried, and serving prison sentences, she became a fugitive. She escaped to Africa, hid for a while elsewhere in this country, and then settled in St. Paul. She assumed the role of an ordinary, law-abiding private citizen. She became an actor, even on the stage as well as in her daily life. She became a DFL activist, as if this were a redeeming virtue. She married a physician and had children. The news media in the Cities seem delighted to refer to this as "hiding in plain sight." This would make sense only if she had spent all 30 years under a bed. She was anything but "in plain sight" with her cleaver cover. I still cannot believe the irresponsible and illogical treatment she received from the media upon her arrest. Not having blown up any local police vehicles, robbed yet another bank, killed anyone else, or kidnapped any more people, she was described as having become innocent of any crime and, indeed, a paragon of social virtue. This portrayal was irresponsible because it strongly suggested to other criminals they can get over crimes, and we will eventually forget them. It was illogical, because this treatment flouts the law and flaunts illegality. The media reported her as having "lived a law-abiding life" all those post-terrorist years. Nonsense. She broke the law every day she hid as a fugitive from justice. She broke the law every time she signed her name as "Sara Jane Olson." She was an inactive criminal, but fully a criminal. Surely, there were among those closest to her some who knew something or could have known. They had both legal and moral obligation to seek justice. She was herself unfair and unkind to those who sought to be fair with and kind to her. Now they are at it again. She was released from prison last week, and California officials routinely granted her request to return to Minnesota to serve her one-year parole. This was in rejection of appeals from police unions in both states and of our governor's specific request. She invalidates the normal provision of parole at home by claiming she had already rehabilitated herself prior to her arrest. Moreover, the law refers to her "last legal residence," but her St. Paul residence was not legal, being a fugitive. But she is here, and we should make the best of it. However, she has already announced the liberal causes she will promote and for which she will work. And on what basis? Just what is her moral suasion? Why are we expected to respect her opinions and be persuaded by her arguments? What moral authority has she? She complains law enforcement and the court system continue to punish her husband and children by the way they treat her. It is she who continues to punish her husband and children. She should have confessed her multiple felonies, served her time, rehabilitated her morality, and then offered herself as wife, mother, neighbor and friend. One Minnesota legislator argues she has served her time, but this parole is part of her time. While he calls for forgiveness, I listen for repentance. What I hear is a consistently radical activist whom I can neither respect nor trust. Sara Jane Olson, welcome back to our state. Now, walk the walk among us. When you have accomplished this, we might begin to listen to you talk the talk. . --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sixties-L" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
