Bobby and Anti-War Protests (A theory only!)

Update:  Someone very knowledgeable posted in my comments pointing out alot of things I either didn't know or had forgotten regarding the NYC jail, Allen Ginsberg, and some other stuff in the following letter that explains it a little better!  For instance, on the envelope (which I don't currently have an image of), the postmark is 2/27/68 which indicates an arrest for reasons other than what I had theorized.  Bobby may still have been a peaceful protester of Vietnam on his own time, but I no longer believe that had any connection to the February arrest.  

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This week I decided to really try to dig into Bobby's February 1968 arrest.  The one that caused him to write the letter to Allen Ginsberg asking for money to get out of jail?  Here's an image of it that I was able to still find, by the way:

(Please note, I do not own this!  Found it in an image search about Allen Ginsberg and Bobby Driscoll)

I've already elaborated on this letter before and said how I wondered if Bobby was having some hallucinations from illness or was high when he wrote it, due to some of the people he mentions -- his dad, Billy Sunday, Arch Obler, the latter two names belonging to famous people who I doubt he was with at the time (if he meant the Billy Sunday I'm thinking of, he was already dead).  It is always possible this was written in code to Ginsberg, and if that was the case, we'll probably never know what it means.

But!  Then I got to looking at the poem Bobby wrote once, called "For America."  In it, he says the following:

Hold your hailing voices high

steady the trembling lamb

our sacrifice must seem sublime

do not reveal your sweat yet

bite your lips for the time

soon the light will be off of us

and the pallor of this will be shown

do not curse in the microphone

or spit toward the camera

or lay open the fly of our love

(Published in The Great Society by A Heddaoua Publication in 1967; Bobby went by Robert O'Driscoll here)

This is my favorite of his, because honestly, it's the only one that makes sense to me.  You can maybe get a smidge of reason out of certain lines of "Sunday Bonnet Smile", but his other poems - "The Crystal Poem" and "Red Star" -- completely escape me.

... And even though I'm not sure about this at all, I think it has to do with protests.  The two hot social issues that were going on around Bobby's poetry era were Civil Rights and the Vietnam War.  Something's always told me this was a poem about the Vietnam War, cautioning Americans not to become violent in their protests, lest they not be taken seriously... and I believe that now more than ever, because I did find out that Allen Ginsberg was an advocate of Vietnam non-violent protest from researching a little about his life.  Given the fact that, as this letter indicates, Ginsberg and Bobby were friends, it casts an entirely new light on the poem.  Had Bobby adopted Ginsberg's stance of peaceful protest?

Bobby was said to be a gentle soul.  If ever he chose to protest something, I can imagine he would be peaceful.

So that lead me to want to find out more about this arrest.  We know times were tough for Bobby during those last few months of his life, and it's debatable whether or not he was clean or had switched to different substances that last little while.  His needlemarks had healed, but some sources say his autopsy reported methadrine in his system.  If he was clean, he was probably doing what we in the recovery field call "white-knuckling," trying to go off of it on his own without treatment, maybe because he knew he was dying and wanted his last few months to matter.  Did that, to him, mean taking an active role in government?  Of course all this is conjecture.

BUT... I was able to find one headline regarding arrests in the Bronx in February of 1968, and that was in the New York Times.  It read "200 Protest Bronx Arrests."  Could protesting have been what Bobby was doing in the Bronx that month?  Might he have felt he'd have an extra pull with Allen Ginsberg to send him money because he was doing what he felt was a good thing?

What's more, could Arch Obler and Billy Sunday have been nicknames for people they both knew who were also actively involved in the cause?  That still doesn't explain the "in jail with my father" part, but maybe it casts some understanding on the relationship Bobby and Allen might have had back then.

Now, if I was a really good blogger, I'd have read that article and actually found out if the protest was even about the Vietnam War and what its nature was -- peaceful or violent.  That still wouldn't have told us whether or not Bobby was actually there, but it does offer a theory.  However... I don't have a subscription to the NY Times, and as much as I love Bobby and discussing his life with you all, I'm not paying for one just to read that one article.

So that's where my readers come in!  Anyone have access to the NY Times website and can provide us with a picture of what this protest was about?  It might be interesting to discuss whether or not we think this was something Bobby was a part of.  It would be most helpful if we could establish what date in February this letter was sent, and compare it to the date of the protest (which was February 9, 1968).  In the end, we might still only have theories, but theories are still great material for discussion and understanding.