bessie stayed in the line. that changed my understanding of what the meaning of a vote is.'s easy to be cynicism, to be cynical today about votes. all the money that's pouring in and all that kind of stuff. but, my god, those teachers -- black folks, poor folks -- taught me what it's like when you have to struggle for freedom, when you have to struggle for dignity. and that changed me. i went down south to help them, i came back from the south because i was there in 1964 in mississippi, i was there at selma in '65. i came back from the south with a different way of being john raines. and that's what i brought to the war in vietnam. that and i knew damn well what j. edgar hoover was was we found out what -- because we found out what j. edgar hoover was down in the south. he hated martin luther king, he hated the civil rights movement. he wanted things to return to quiet, to to his kind of life. he was not a good man. he would, he has been the largest subversive in american history fighting, as he said, subversion and subverting the freedoms of this country. and he very nearl