The '60s are presented to kids today as a commodity.

I felt grand juries were illegal and coercive.

You can't win for losing. Either you fulfill their stereotype of being a radical 60's person or you've sold out. In fact, of course, millions of people who were active in the 60's are doing work on issues that try to reflect their values.

Even in my most inflamed moment I never supported a racist mass murderer.

Today enormous effort goes into convincing the American public that we're just consumers of media manipulation and sound-bites and spin doctors. That we care only about ourselves, money, and stuff. That acting out of passion and conviction doesn't make a difference. But all history shows that it does.

I wish I could take back some of the things I said and some of the things I did. But in the bigger picture, I don't feel that it was violent and terrible. I feel like it was primarily--obviously not completely--moral, based on a vision that the government should be better, and that people could be better, and that democracy should be real.

I don't come from a privileged background.