Remembering Ra

i first met Ra around 1985 when he was Rasta James. Dreads flowing, roller skating around the quad with his boombox on his shoulder blaring out reggae tunes.

he supported us in the anti-apartheid movement and was a fixture at the shanty-towns we had in 1986. he would also be holding court at murphy's in the later hours when we left the quad for a few hours, especially in the outside "courtyard" area.

ra had always told me a story of how he had been a bodyguard for jane fonda at the 1972 republican convention protests in florida. i was never sure if it was true or not, but it made a good story. then one day when one of my friends from Vietnam Veterans Against the War who organized some of those 1972 demos was in town, we ran into ra. he went to his car and pulled out his fbi file. goddam, it was true.

as ra would always yell whenever he saw me from about 1985 on, REVOLUTION!

we will miss you brother

jeff