Steve Russell: Be proud of your mistakes as you make memories

The Rag started in 1966 in reaction to the election of John Economidy to edit The Daily Texan, the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin. He went on to right wing establishment politics and he certainly foreshadowed that as Texan editor, where I’m sure he created fond memories.

Later in life, Economidy switched sides and became a criminal defense lawyer of some repute. Confronted with documents showing that during his time as editor of The Daily Texan, he was an informant for police agencies seeking to suppress peaceful dissent, he commented: “No doubt about it. As a journalist, it definitely was not appropriate.”

Perhaps Economidy’s memories of doing his best to sabotage the counterculture by conducting surveillance of Janis Joplin, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Kinky Friedman, among many others, became less than fond after he grew up. The campus surveillance for which he informed went on to track intimate details of people who are now professors, editors, and serving at every level of government. I am part of that rogue’s gallery, and not the only judge to have that distinction.

I did not come along until 1969, although I first read The Rag the previous year and I was very aware of the national phenomenon called the Underground Press Syndicate. I had just come from working on Gene McCarthy's campaign up in Wisconsin and seeing that come to nothing in the Chicago Democratic Convention.