Tom Hayden is one of those instantly magical names in modern American culture. You can, but you don’t have to, introduce him as one of the main glamour boys of the Sixties revolution, a former state legislator or a former husband of a film star.
At his and the world’s peak, Mr. Hayden (http://tomhayden.com/) straddled the globe and yearned for the moon as a fast-traveling social/political activist in his old life.
If he has lost a step, rhetorically speaking, it was not evident last night when he strolled down the street from his latest creation, The Peace and Justice Center, to visit the mesmerized Culver City Democratic Club.
He showed the largest Democratic Club crowd since Santa gave away hundred-dollar bills to all who could guess the correct color of the cash that, as a commentator/orator on the state of the world, he remains peerless.
As archly anti-war as he was in the fleeting Jack Kennedy era, Mr. Hayden, who turns 71 years old on Saturday, streaked across the night sky as if it were 1963 again, experting on Iraq, Afghanistan and his favorite foils in Washington, the Pentagon, especially in a WikiLeaks context.
Without a teleprompter or one syllable of notes within a mile, the arriving Mr. Hayden gave no hint that a luminous performance was to follow.
After Club President Ronnie Jayne’s concise introduction — he writes for The Nation magazine, teaches at three schools and travels widely, inveighing against the wars du jour — he rather shlumped to the podium.
Would he last?
He looked elderly, frail, freshly awakened from a lengthy nap, attired in creatively matched, slantingly draped clothes that appeared to have been recently slept in.
Which mattered less than the Wasilla weather forecast.
For the next 55 minutes, Mr. Hayden was brilliant. Organized, insightful, almost but not quite pedantic, measured, perfectly cadenced, he never hesitated, paused for a breath or a comma in a speech to be heard later this week on KPFK (90.7).
Delivering a flawlessly presented piercing analysis of “regrettable” Washington behavior on the subjects of defense and security, especially in the conduction of Middle Eastern wars, he generously seasoned his talk with incisive observations about WikiLeaks and its drum major.
He couldn’t have been better than this at the epitome of his powers.
So spellbound was the crowd that breathing was muted in the soundless room at the Vets Auditorium, and he was in such control that he could have marched them single-file through a rainstorm and into the South Bay without protest.
And that rumpled look? Curiously, he became stronger as his lecture advanced. His eyes brightened as a disciplined fire and passion fueled him to finish with a contagious flourish.
Gone for a decade from Sacramento, he said has spent the new century speaking out against ending the numerous wars — which sounded like the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties and Nineties.
He divided his talk into three sections, commending Culver City Democrats for their activism, “my chosen concern — ending wars,” and ruminations on WikiLeaks.
(To be concluded tomorrow)
