From: Queen of Infinite Space <rainbow@mydland.Eng.Sun.COM>
Subject: Mario Savio
David Rossman is making arrangements fo hold a memorial service
at Sproul Plaza (on the UC Berkeley campus) December 8th.
Rainbow
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[2]
Sender: ARON KAY <pieman@calyx.net>
Subject: Re: Mario Savio (multiple responses)
First Abbie, Jerry Rubin and now Mario Savio have gone to the big protest
rally in the sky. You guys inspired me to become the Yippie! Pie Thrower.
I looked up to you as my mentors for nearly many lifetimes. You live in
our hearts, comrades. Thank you for showing us the good fight. Perhaps I
can get a heavenly visit at http://www.calyx.net/~pieman. It would be a
celestial honor.
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[3]
Sender: rsillima@ix.netcom.com (Ron Silliman)
Subject: Mario Savio
Mario Savio died yesterday without gaining consciousness after
suffering heart failure while moving furniture at his home. Age 53, he
taught at Sonoma State University.
I only knew Savio very slightly. He was working as a longshoreman in SF
in 1967 while I worked directly across from the docks at a postal
facility. Because his wife knew mine (from working together to organize
the first Vietnam Day Teach-In if I remember correctly), we would share
coffee and a donut before heading off to our jobs once or twice a week.
Unlike so many of the leaders who would emerge later in the student
movement, Savio was not driven to the position by the needs of an
enormous ego. He seemed to find the celebrity he had excruciating.
His motives were strictly moral and political.
I had of course first seen and heard him standing atop the police car
in Sproul Plaza while thousands of students prevented the local
constabulary from completing their arrest of Jack Weinberg. Just 21 in
1964, he was the most passionate and articulate public speaker I have
ever heard.
Ron Silliman
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[4]
Sender: jwood@mail.sdsu.edu (James L. Wood)
Subject: Re: Mario Savio (multiple responses)
Like Julia Stein, I also heard Mario Savio's speech that evening at the
30th Anniversary Celebration and Reunion of the Free Speech Movement and
felt he had not missed a step in the 30 years since the FSM. The same
passion, clarity of vision, and hope for a better future was there, much as
it had been when he was speaking on top of the police car by Sproul Hall
steps on October 1, 1964. He completely resonated with the large reunion
crowd of 500 or more, 75% of which (my estimate) indicated that they had
been involved in progressive political action ever since the monumental
events of 1964. For me, Mario Savio's talk, speeches of the other FSM
activists, and the large number of committed activists in the audience
demonstrated a continued political involvement for many affected by the
events of 1964, hardly an escapist withdrawal to some obscure sector of the
mainstream. Mario Savio in 1964, in 1994, and today symbolized the
continuing commitment to a better, more just society that remains every bit
still worth fighting for. Jim Wood, Chair of Sociology, San Diego State
University
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[5]
Sender: roscoe@halcyon.com (Stu Shiffman and Andi Shechter)
Subject: Re: Mario Savio
In a book I'm working on, my character has quotes by MArio Savio all over
her apartment. He was one of hte most articulate and impassioned spokesmen
of our time, and never stopped caring. We've lost a good one, friends.
Anyone with info on how to send condolences, contributions, etc. please
post it here. This is hard, real hard.
Andi