William Sloane Coffin RIP

William Sloane Coffin, who died yesterday, will always be remembered by people my age (old, getting older, almost drafted into Vietnam) as a voice of measured reason yet also passion in defense of civil and political rights, and against the insanity of the Vietnam War. I remember hearing him in 1968 when he was chaplain at Yale – powerful, stirring, inspirational, also thoughtful, careful, dignified. He urged us to resist the draft. He urged us to fight for civil rights. Where is the likes of him today? The last time I saw Bill Coffin was three years ago at Dartmouth, at my class’s 35th reunion. He spoke eloquently about the importance of resisting tyranny and oppression, now and forever. Back in June of 1968 I got my induction notice to report to the Oakland Induction Center. I considered resisting, going to Canada (as did several of my friends and classmates), filing for status as a consciencious objector, and so on, but I thought I was too short to be drafted (you had to be 5 feet tall and I was under by at least an inch) and went to the induction in high hopes. When the examining sergeant saw me his face lit up and he said “Ah! A tunnel rat! What we’ve been waiting for!” My life passed before my eyes. I asked myself what Bill Coffin would do then. A sit-down strike? It turned out I was still too short. Coffin moved a generation and moved the nation. We are forever in his debt.