Month: October 2020

In class these past two weeks we’ve discussed “Voices of the Chicago Eight” and “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine”, two works with many similarities. While most of our discussions have revolved around the relatability we might feel as college students with the Chicago Eight or the differences in how the judges held the trials, we only briefly touched on the reliablity of the narratives. Importantly, neither of them is a complete transcript of the court proceedings. “Voices of the Chicago Eight” is a sampling of the most exciting moments in the courtroom (but maintaining the exact words used in the court transcript), while it appears that “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine” takes more liberties to paraphrase the court transcript and inject additional content.

I think it’s worth stressing that neither of these being unedited court transcripts should change the way we are interpreting and discussing them. In class when we have discussed Vinen, it made sense to regard everything in the book as true, and we even were willing to meet it with some degree of skepticism, acknowledging that his personal biases might have detracted from its reliability. As we have read numerous fiction works, we’ve always been heavily aware of the fact that the books are only based on historical fact, being careful to never accept them as the truth. I feel that in our reading of these two plays, we have not met them with the appropriate hesitation. The moments Tom Hayden decided to include in “Voices of the Chicago Eight” (and perhaps even more importantly, those he chose to omit) surely provide us with a different picture of history than reading the entire unedited court transcript would. The same principle can be applied to the Cantonsville Nine, except it should be met with an even greater caution due to the greater liberties taken in adjusting the court transcript

I think we have a tendency to put excessive trust in literature the closer it gets to being an exact recounting of primary source history. However, there is incredible danger in this. Even little editorial changes in the literature of this variety have the potential to sway the opinion of the reader who has let down their guard and meets the text without any skepticism. It’s very possible that Tom Hayden and Philip Berrigan have portrayed history in a very accurate way, but as we discuss this literature it is crucial to discuss it as what it is, literature and not precise history.

In class last week we spent some time discussing whether or not we found Tom Hayden’s version of the events that took place in Chicago believable. I tried to keep that conversation in mind as I read Fr. Berrigan’s writing. I was struck by the conclusion I reached after reading The Trial of the Catonsville Nine: I think I found Voices of the Chicago Eight more believable. Believable might not be the best word, as I don’t feel that Dan Berrigan was lying. It is more accurate, perhaps, to say that I found Voices of the Chicago Eight to be more honest and therefore more persuasive.

I think that there are two primary factors that brought me to this conclusion. First, the way the text itself was written, formatted, etc. Second, the content, i.e. the actual story. I talked in class last week about how struck I was by the level of detail Haydon included in the memoir part of the text. The specificity made the events very personal for me. On the other hand, this attention to detail makes me hesitant to completely trust this story, as memory is so fallible. As far as the play portion of the text, it was meaningful to me that the playwrights detailed the relationship between the court manuscripts and the dialogue. While editing is, of course, important, there is something profound in absorbing the dialogue and knowing that those words were really said in court. The Trial of the Catonsville Nine felt much more put-on to me. The infusion of the quotes and the way the defendants’ testimony was formatted more like poetry than a traditional piece of dramatic literature was almost off-putting.

Our discussion about the nature of the trial itself in Baltimore was further thought-provoking for me. The fact that the defendants declined to participate in jury selection at first felt like some kind of respectful protest by non-participation. Processing the idea that the defendants still elected for a jury trial changed my perspective though. American citizens have a right to trial by jury, but they also have the prerogative to opt out and pursue trial by judge. The Catonsville Nine didn’t go that far, though. It was still about putting on a show, as demonstrated by the appeal to the jury in the closing statement to emphasis character over the law. The Chicago Eight were so openly theatrical; they made no attempt to appear anything but. The theatricality of the Catonsville Nine felt more calculated to me, especially considering that the Chicago Eight were forced together into their trial while the Catonsville Nine planned for it all along. This is why I think I actually find Voices of the Chicago Eight more “believable”.

This week our class focused on the literary work “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine,” which surrounds the trial of nine people with a heavy Catholic affiliation. The men and women were being tried for burning 378 draft files with the goal of protesting the Vietnam War. Although we have had many good discussions throughout class this week, the idea that stuck with me most was the theme of martyrdom throughout the literary works that we have read thus far. The parallels between The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, Stewart Parker’s Pentecost, and John 5 from the Bible are astounding. At first glance, I was having trouble piecing them together while in class. Listening to the thoughts of my classmates and professor, however, the picture was becoming clearer. Personally, I think that martyrdom was the most distinct connection. 

In The Trial of the Catonsville Nine, the nine men and women have an overarching goal to act upon their Christian values and save lives. They are aware that the 378 files burned may be replaced with other draft files, meaning that different men will go to war. However, they wanted to bring attention to the injustice that was the Vietnam War. They did not think that the toll on American lives was worth it. In order for their message to be heard, they complete the task in broad daylight with witnesses present. They go to trial and give their testimonies. They willingly accept their sentences. All of this is done so that their actions are given attention and the morality of the war is given deeper thought by the American public and government. Serving time in jail was a necessary personal sacrifice that must be made so that others (those directly serving in the Vietnam War) could be saved. Similarly, there is an aspect of martyrdom with Stewart Parker. We read in class about his experiences at Harvard with African American students. There were multiple controversial protests, one of which Parker was involved in. His experience in this protest is reflected in Pentecost. Peter, a character in the play, seems to be based on Parker and his experiences in the US during the civil rights movement. Last, John 5 in the Bible discusses both testimony and Jesus’s willingness to be a martyr. The Bible also displays the general theme of martyrdom with Jesus, who sacrificed himself for our sins. 

Although we only focused on two literary works from class in comparison to the Bible, the other works we have read parallel the idea of martyrdom as well. For example, in The Informer, Gypo is seen as a martyr figure. Gypo is shown spreading his arms out in a Christ-like fashion in the movie, hinting at a strong parallel to Jesus. Those involved in the Chicago Eight trials were also martyrs. They, similar to the Catonsville Nine, were put on trial for their protests against the governmental system. The Chicago Eight were not as heavily affiliated with Christianity as the Catonsville Nine were, but there was most definitely an aspect of sacrificing oneself for the good of others. We have also read multiple speeches written by Martin Luther King Jr. Due to his Christian roots, he emphasizes the need for love over violence. Eventually, MLK is killed, becoming a martyr for many across the United States. 

Overall, I think that there are more parallels between the literary works than just martyrdom, and I am looking forward to exploring these themes in the upcoming classes.

The experiences we have in our lives make us who we are. We saw with Father Berrigan that his early experiences, how he was raised and taught to believe as a child, greatly affected who he became as an adult and he believed and stood for later on. How would things have been different had some factors in his life been changed? If his mother was not been an immigrant, had he had 6 sisters instead of brothers, had his family not been poor, but middle-class or wealthy, would he have changed? I think the obvious answer is yes, but how drastically would it have changed him? When do we stop thinking as children and following our parents every belief, and begin thinking for ourselves? Do we ever really lose all of our beginning beliefs? Should we want those beliefs to change? How we are raised and what we go through in our early lives will shape how we grow and learn and interact with others when we are older. Isolated experiences as well can change our whole being in the blink of an eye. We saw with Stewart Parker that what he experienced here in America is what based the character of Peter in “Pentecost”. How would the play have changed had Parker not gone through what he did in America? He seemed to draw connections between the struggles in America and Ireland at the time, so it is evident that his experiences in America were important to his writing. The experiences one has can also veer them off onto a completely different path with no warning. Maybe a college student studying business gets into or witnesses a terrible car crash. Suddenly, they realize they don’t want to study business anymore, but instead want to be involved in the medical field. Experiences can change us that quickly, and this changes our whole lives in the process.

The idea of being directly connected to something can also affect how experiences change us as people. We can be part of a group, organization, job, whatever it is, and not be directly connected if we don’t get involved. Once we become involved though, and go through the experiences that these groups are going through, our minds, values, beliefs may change. When we see things happening in first-person, right in front of us, our perspective changes and we are seeing the issues from a different angle. It is more personal to us because we are right there. Take the college student from before. Instead of being there when the crash occurred, if they had instead read about it or seen it on the news, would it have affected them so strongly that they decided to change their major? The answer is probably not, but potentially. Everybody experiences things differently and are affected differently, so we can never know how someone will react or change when they experience something. They may even experience the same things as us, and have completely different reactions and thoughts about what happened. We need to remember this when having discussions and debates with people who have different beliefs than us. They may have had completely opposite experiences from our own, which made them who they are, and we need to respect that. Our experiences make us who are, and can change who we become. The question we must ask ourselves is how are these experiences going to change us? For better, or for worse?