Radio Free Mike

a berlin blog

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Politics, Shmolitics

Sometimes it surprises me how much I have to say about politics, since I'm not, in general, a political man. My novel deals (a little) with contras and the Reagan-era drug war, but my next book — a collection of stories, just about finished — has next to nothing to say about politics. Characters talk about presidents and war, but only as a function of ordinary life.

Still, the last couple of years have been a weird season; I hate to watch my country lurching towards empire. Which means this blog will keep up with Iraq and the presidential campaign at least through 2004.

So. Here's an old picture of one of the guys who subverted American democracy in the 1980s and helped make Washington such a hermetically powerful, imperial town. Ladies and gentlemen, Oliver North, asked by our editor to sign a copy of the U.S. Constitution:

The protest was Marc's idea. North was touring for his memoirs in 1992. When he came to Boston, Marc said, brilliantly: "You know what this means, don't you? It means we have to make photocopies of the Constitution and ask him to sign it." There were three of us, maybe four: We waited in a long line with our Constitutions, among all those North fans with their copies of his book. Ollie was surprised by us and had no choice but to sign. He did it with a grim notch in his mouth. By the time I reached the podium his henchmen were wise to our stunt. (The one with his hand out, in the foreground, is about to lead me away.) When North handed back the paper, I said, "Just testing," and left on my own.

North said nothing. But we were the only protesters who weren't shoved off the premises. Noisier people with signs got hustled out of the Copley Place mall.

Great God was that fun, Marc. I know we live in different cities now, but we should do things like that more often.

posted by Michael Scott Moore | 6:14 PM

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