"I WANT TO REPRESENT MYSELF"

Today they listened to an audio recording from the transcripts of the United States vs. Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale (known as the Chicago 8). The recording is an account of Bobby Seale, Black Panther leader, who wanted to represent himself. This is what they wrote...

"The court session that we just listened to is kind of similar to “us” at school. Sometimes when students raise their hand to speak they don’t get the privilege to speak. So in the same way we are like Bobby Seale because they won’t let him speak. But in is also the same with dress code. We got shot down every time we brought up the subject of dress code. We I felt bad for Bobby because he couldn’t speak. He asked more than once can be defend himself and he was denied. He was not allowed his constitutional rights that were also unfair. He didn’t have a lawyer so he should have been able to represent himself."

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"How do I relate? I think that the tape that I listened to was very inspirational because I learned that I can stick up for myself no matter what a judge or lawyers say or do. The tape was about a former Black Panther who stood up for his rights. His name was Bobby G. Seale. He was very outspoken person who said the first thing that came to his mind. Bobby Seale was a political prisoner in CT. He was sentenced for 4 years for content in the court trial. He was speaking up for his life. They were made that they couldn’t keep him quiet."

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"Bobby Seale’s court case was very inspirational. If I believed in something strongly, I would want to have as much courage as Seale did to stand up for my cause. The case can be paralleled with our Underground Media situation. We are not letting the powers lock us up. We wont let them handcuff our minds. We are going to strive for our newspaper regardless of the rejection we may receive, just like Seale spoke his mind regardless of the punishments he could’ve received."