Rennie Davis

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Rennie Davis

Born 1941
United States

Rennie Davis (born Rennard Cordon Davis, 1941) was a prominent American anti-Vietnam War protest leader of the 1960s. He was one of the Chicago Seven.

Davis was the National Director of community organizing programs (the Economic Research and Action Project, or ERAP, in Ann Arbor, Michigan), a project of Students for a Democratic Society. Davis, along with Tom Hayden, organized anti-war demonstrations in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention for the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam ("the Mobe"). He has appeared on Larry King Live, Barbara Walters, CNN, Phil Donahue, VH1, and other network programs, and provided advice in business strategies for Fortune 500 companies.[1]

His father was labor economist John C. Davis, who was President Harry S. Truman's chief of staff of the Council of Economic Advisers[2]. Davis appeared in Chicago for the 1996 Democratic National Convention to appear on a panel with Tom Hayden discussing "a progressive counterbalance to the religious right." [3]

Contents

[edit] Chicago Seven

The Chicago Seven were seven defendants charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to violent protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention.[4]

The original eight protester/defendants, indicted by the grand jury on March 20, 1969, included Davis as well as Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, John Froines, Lee Weiner. Bobby Seale was originally part of the Chicago Eight, before his case was separated from the others. The defense attorneys were William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass of the Center for Constitutional Rights. The judge was Julius Hoffman. The prosecutors were Richard Schultz and Tom Foran. The trial began on September 24, 1969 and on October 9 the United States National Guard was called in for crowd control as demonstrations grew outside the courtroom. [4]

[edit] Divine Light Mission

Later, in the early 1970s, he became a follower of Guru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat) and was one of the spokespersons for and speakers at the widely publicized Millennium '73 event organized by Divine Light Mission in the Houston Astrodome.[5] He described the arrival of Guru Maharaj Ji as, "The greatest event in history...If we knew who he was we would crawl across America on our hands and knees to rest our heads at his feet."[6] Texas Monthly cited Davis as stating: "This city is going to be remembered through all the ages of human civilization."[7] An Op-ed in The San Francisco Sunday Examiner speculated on whether Davis had undergone a lobotomy, and suggested, "If not, maybe he should try one."[8]

[edit] Foundation for a New Humanity

Davis later became a venture capitalist and lecturer on meditation and self-awareness. Davis is the founder of Foundation for a New Humanity, a technology development and venture capital company commercializing breakthrough technologies.

In an article published in the Iowa Source in 2005, Davis said:

If you were to do a survey of what causes misery on earth, it would tend to fall into three broad categories. One, we can call systems: the economy, AIDS, terrorism--things that are 'systems' in nature. The second would be a list of everybody to blame: Bush is the cause of my misery, my ex-wife, my boss. The third would be things that come utterly out of left field: a tornado through town, a tsunami, events that are not in our apparent control. What this huge list would have in common--something everybody would agree with--is that the cause of misery are things outside 'myself'. But the cause of our misery is absolutely, positively not at all what we believe it to be. This is not a new view. Certainly saints and philosophers in every generation have basically argued if you want to change the world, you have to change yourself.[1]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b From Chicago 7 to Venture Capitalist to Grand Canyon Visionary. The Iowa Source (undated).
  2. ^ Episode 13: Make Love not War. CNN.
  3. ^ The trial of the Chicago Seven. University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law (undated).
  4. ^ a b The Trial of The Chicago Seven (or Chicago Eight). Retrieved on 2008-02-14.
  5. ^ Kent, Stephen A. Dr. From slogans to mantras: social protest and religious conversion in the late Vietnam war era Syracuse University press ISBN 0-8156-2923-0 (2001)page 52
  6. ^ Davis, Rennie in the introduction of the book Who Is Guru Maharaj Ji? Edited by Charles Cameron November 1973 published by Bantam Books, Inc. ASIN B000AQEE24
  7. ^ Dreyer, Thorne. "God Goes to the Astrodome", Texas Monthly, Emmis Communications, January 1, 1974. 
  8. ^ Brown, Mick The Spiritual Tourist' Bloomsbury publishing ISBN 1-58234-034-X Chapter Her Master's Voice' page 197
    "His most celebrated devotee was Rennie Davis. [..]Davis described the arrival of Guru Maharaj Ji as, 'The greatest event in history...If we knew who he was, we would crawl across America on our hands and knees to rest our heads at his feet.' The San Francisco Sunday Examiner publicly wondered whether Davis had undergone a lobotomy: 'If not,' an article on the op-ed page declared, 'maybe he should try one.'"

[edit] Further reading

  • Johns, Andrew L. Northern Passage: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada, Journal of Cold War Studies - Volume 5, Number 2, Spring 2003, pp. 86-89
  • Chatfield, Charles, At the Hands of Historians: The Antiwar Movement of the Vietnam Era, 'Peace & Change', Volume 29 Issue 3-4 Page 483 - July 2004 PDF

[edit] External links