Reflections of a Firebrand (William Sloan Coffin)

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As chaplain at Yale in the early 1960s, Coffin organized busloads of protesters known as Freedom Riders to challenge segregation laws in the South. He promptly landed in jail — the first of many times — but the conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court. In 1967, Coffin was arrested along with his friend Dr. Benjamin Spock, the pediatrician and baby book author, on charges of conspiracy to aid draft resisters. These charges also were reversed.

Coffin used his pulpits as a platform for like-minded crusaders, hosting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, among others. Fellow Yale graduate Garry Trudeau has immortalized Coffin as "the Rev. Sloan" in the Doonesbury comic strip.
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Struggling to enunciate, Coffin said he applauded the decision by small towns in a small state to send a bold message to Washington. Yet he wondered if President Bush and others were prepared to hear views in conflict with their own.
"People are forever attributing informed wisdom to power," he said, "while willful ignorance might be closer to the truth."
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"I used to, all my life, think: Well, finally we can count on American wisdom coming through," he said. "That is a bit harder to believe now. I would not say I am optimistic. I am hoping — hope being a matter of the soul, not of the circumstances surrounding your life."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-coffin18mar18,0,4669516.story?coll=la-home-nation