Latest Article|September 3, 2020|Free
::Making Grown Men Cry Since 1992
17 min read
It was during a dinner party at his house earlier this year that he asked if I wanted to check out his book. Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen details Mark Rudd’s experiences as a leader of Students for a Democratic Society and the Weathermen, a faction of the anti-Vietnam War movement that wanted to bring down the U.S. government through violence.Mark is sort of my stepdad. He was married to my mom before she met my dad and my parents had me. We see each other about a dozen times a year on holidays or when my half-brother and -sister come to visit. We have a cordial, mutually appreciative relationship. "Do you want to read the parts with your mom?" he asked. He flipped to the section where she appeared. I got a few pages in before I started reading about Mark and my mom having sex while listening to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band . Perhaps realizing what was contained in the section he had directed me to, Mark asked, "How much did you read?" I can’t remember what I said, but in my head I was screaming, "Too much!"I didn’t really have a clear understanding of Mark’s past until I saw a documentary called The Weather Underground in 2003. I knew Mark had a political history, but I didn’t know he was attached to an openly violent group of privileged white kids who were doing things most activists wouldn’t dare attempt. It was exciting and somewhat alarming to know someone close to me was a part of this type of movement.He’s a commanding person; he’ll dominate a dinner conversation and argue sometimes for the sake of arguing. He’s extremely social, and when I was younger, he’d host big parties at his house with local politicians, hippies, activists and weirdoes. He’s articulate and honest—sometimes brutally so. He’s also kind and relentlessly generous.Mark is the person responsible for giving me my only manual labor experience to date: oiling furniture at his house. He was also one of my reluctant driving instructors. I remember Mark repeatedly slamming his foot against the imaginary break on the passenger side of my automatic Mazda 626, yelling, "Stop!"Mark and I met at his South Valley home, where he’s lived for more than 20 years, to talk about his book. He has a great head of hair for a man his age and a big, near cackling laugh. He’s filled out since his college days, but his face has the same commanding aura that made him the charismatic star of the left. We chatted over crackers and hummus about his days in SDS, the Weather Underground—and about the biggest mistakes he made along the way.
This Fall, Mark Rudd is teaching a class through UNM’s American Studies Department called "The Organizing Tradition in American Social Movements." He’s retired from his job at CNM and lives with his wife Marla Painter in the South Valley.