Abbie, Absolved

In 1776, revolutionary hero Nathan Hale, before being executed
by the British, said, “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”

On a recent Sunday, as if to honor that statement, hundreds of thousands of motorcyclists from
across the United States converged on Washington for the annual Rollling Thunder memorial ride
to remember America’s veterans. Gathered at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery,
the bikers were wearing vests, black t-shirts and leather jackets with Vietnam pins.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General Richard Myers, joined the parade,
which rumbled toward the national mall for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam War Memorial.
He was wearing a shirt emblazoned with the American flag.

Oh, if only Abbie Hoffman could have witnessed that.

In October 1968, Hoffman was arrested in Washington for wearing a shirt that resembled the design
of an American flag. Authorities at the maximum-security penitentiary did their worst to harass
and humiliate him. They gave him a preventive de-lousing. They took a blood sample against his will,
without affording him the sterile courtesy of a disposable syringe.

Two months later, Abbie was hospitalized in New York City for serum hepatitis. The recuperative
process didn’t prevent him from helping doctors organize against the oppressive management structure
found in the medical profession.

When the flag-shirt case came to court, defense attorney Gerald Lefcourt asked, “Is wearing
a shirt dishonoring the flag? Does Uncle Sam, when he marches in the parade on July 4th, dishonor?”

Hoffman testified: “I was playing with a Yo-Yo, and I had on a shirt that resembled the American
flag. I wore the shirt because I was going before the un-American Activities Committee of the House
of Representatives, and I don’t particularly consider that committee American, and I don’t consider
that House of Representatives particularly representative. I wore the shirt to show that we were
in the tradition of the founding fathers of this country…the police approached me, and proceeded
to rip the shirt. They got the Yo-Yo, see, and it was pulling my finger. It hurt. My wife…tried
to come to my aid a little, and then a whole fracas broke out, in which the police ripped the shirt off
my back.”

On his back, incidentally, was a painted Viet Cong flag. When the judge declared him guilty,
Abbie uttered the immortal words, “I only regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country.”