Word: rowan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...call Godey's latest book simply a work of fiction would be misleading. Although none of the major characters really exists, there are striking similarities between most of them and actual political figures. For example, Francis Rowan, the priest whose freedom Ken Booth seeks by stealing the Unknown Soldier, seems clearly patterned after religious activists of the '60s such as Daniel Berrigan and James Groppi--and in fact, Berrigan is compared to Rowan by name...
...circumstances under which Rowan is convicted of murder are also reminiscent of what actually happened during the years of protest against the war. Rowan gave shelter to three young activists who bombed a building on a Midwest campus, and when troopers surrounded his Pennsylvania farmhouse, gunfire erupted, leading to the death of one of the youths, as well as an FBI agent. That scenario seems possible--especially because such a bombing did actually occur on a Midwest campus, in 1970. An explosion at the University of Wisconsin that year destroyed part of a building and killed one person...
...that novel, and most of the other people in the book are merely caricatures of stock political figures. The President seems to be mostly concerned with his makeup looking right on television, when, after the Unknown Soldier is taken from Arlington Cemetery, he will announce whether Francis Rowan will be freed or not. His news secretary is a nearly imcompetent former newspaperman who once worked for an advertising agency. The Secretary of the Treasury wears glasses with rims that are "square to match his economic theories...
Should the government release Francis Rowan, in exchange for the remains of the Unknown Soldier? While Booth and the others hide out on Cape Cod with the coffin, and the FBI launches the largest man-hunt in the history of the nation, Griese and the President realize that the American public wants its coffin back at any cost, even that of releasing an anti-war radical. Griese takes a quick helicopter trip to arrange the release with Rowan, and after some negotiation, the deal...
...began airing last Saturday night. Produced by WETA station in Washington, the ten half-hour shows-which will be available for use in schools after their ten-week PBS run-combine the high orchestral quality of Leonard Bernstein's celebrated children's concerts with spoofs inspired by Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Their purpose, says brash Host Murry Sidlin, 37, is to create consciousness raising in music. Sidlin, who conducts the National Symphony Orchestra in the series, believes "young people are visually sophisticated but often musically illiterate. By using TV we can help the eye lead...