Edison S. Fisk, A Citizen of the Century

CITIZENS OF THE CENTURY

(A Community Celebration Honoring Kitsap Elders)

Bremerton, Washington

April 8, 2000

EDISON S. FISK

Born May 30, 1915, in Seattle, WA
Kitsap resident since 1970
Career: Electrician

The following excerpts are quoted from The Bremerton Sun, July 15, 1955; articles in full are on file at the Museum and on microfiche at Kitsap Library:

To some, he is Kitsap County’s original anti-war activist.

To others, he is the renegade anti-establishment Buffalo Party candidate who went after the late Henry M. Jackson’s U.S. Senate seat in 1970.

To still others, he is the maker of the most famous protest sign in Bremerton’s history.

…(D)uring the Vietnam War, Fisk’s name often appeared in the pages of The Sun.

It all began in 1965, when the outspoken Fisk began writing letters to the editor—more than 100 in all—blasting the Vietnam War effort. As a result, his name became well known in Kitsap County, if not well loved.

By 1968, Fisk’s name began to appear regularly in the news columns. That was after he began taking part in anti-war protests in downtown Bremerton and at Olympic College.

“We had good, fundamentalist ministers throwing eggs at us.” …

His notoriety skyrocketed when he paraded in front of Bremerton’s Army recruiting office displaying a sign saying: “The Grateful Society: Bombs, Bullets, Battleships and Bullshit.”

Although such a sign would hardly raise an eyebrow today, it was bad enough in those days to get Fisk arrested for disorderly conduct.

And, because the word “bullshit” was banned in the pages of The Sun then, news stories about the sign replaced the word with dots and an explanation describing it as an “eight-letter alliterative vulgarity.”

Fisk eventually was found guilty of the disorderly conduct charge and sentenced to 30 days in jail and a $300 fine… The sentence was dropped five years later after Bremerton city officials delayed in complying with a court order stemming from an appeal of the case…in 1972 (Fisk) burned all of his protest signs in a symbolic renunciation of public protest as a means of social change.

… (H)e feels anti-nuclear protesters (as of 1955) are well-intentioned but “naïve.”

“They’ve got to get beyond that “war is hell” thing,” he said. “A good portion of (jobs in the United States) are war-oriented. What are all those people going to do for a living if we disarm—unless we change our economic policies?”

… “I’ll talk to anybody who will listen,” he said.

Another article on file at the Museum or on microfiche at Kitsap Library is from The Sun, January 18, 1993, headlined Pinky Fisk recalls King’s old idea.

[Excerpt: "Notes from the guests of honor," Kitsap County Historical Society, April 8, 2000, pp. 25-26]

* * * * *

HISTORICAL SOCIETY: Contributions of a lifetime
By Terri Gleich, For The Sun
Published Sunday, April 9, 2000

Kitsap 'Citizens of the Century' get together to remember

http://m.kitsapsun.com/news/2000/Apr/09/historical-society-contributions-of-a-lifetime/

Business as Usual

Oh Lord of the market basket,
Keep the bomb flowing,
Keep the war going,
Keep the G.N.P. growing,
In the name of economics
We ask it.

Oh God of the status quo, Don't rock the boat,
Keep our hatreds afloat,
Make the Chinese the goat.
We may manage to survive
Even so.

Edison "Pinky" Fisk

© Edison S. Fisk, 2009. All rights reserved.

Search and Destroy

We are chewing them up
and mowing them down.
We are bombing the North
and bombing the South
                           and Business is good.

We are mopping them up
and wiping them out
                           oh God we're brave.

Heliborn flying horsemen
with cigarette sensing
mechanical noses
will wipe out any group
that it smells for miles.
                           No Smoking.

© Edison S. Fisk, 2009. All rights reserved.

The Holy City

War makes prosperity
      War makes us great
War is good for business
      War fulfills our fate.
                  Hooray for War !

                                  Chorus:   Huzzanga

War creates heroes
      War makes us proud.
War is exciting
      And stimulates the crowd.
                  Hooray for War !

                                  Chorus:   Huzzanga

War is traditional
      It will reduce the population
If a little war won't do it
      Then try escalation.
                  Hooray for War !

                                  Chorus:   Huzzanga

Ol' Elby will take care of us
      He has built that reputation
He can always find a way
      To continue escalation.
                  Hooray for L.B.J. !

                                  Chorus:   Huzzanga

Before our military build up
      R.I.F. was staring at us
But now with escalation
      Full employment is our status.
                  Hooray for Escalation !

                                  Chorus:   Huzzanga

The U.S.A. is the most powerful nation on earth
      It's terribly right and strong.
In fact, this is true to such a degree
That for every small nation who wants to be free
      We must undo their every internal political wrong.
                  Hooray for Manifest Destiny !

                                  Chorus:   Huzzanga

                   Solo:   Huzzanga in the Highest,
                                Huzzanga for Evermore.



© Edison S. Fisk, 2009. All rights reserved.

Details

I know some of the little chickenshit things
      That you and I must do
            To keep things going...
I have done them and
      I still do -- what I must
            Reluctantly

Right now I am more concerned
      With the Grand Fuck-up
            In which you and I participate
With the little chickenshit things
      That we must do
            I, at least, RELUCTANTLY.


© Edison S. Fisk, 2009. All rights reserved.

Obscene Thoughts and Poetry

This blog will feature works from An Anthology of Obscene Thoughts and Poetry by Edison "Pinky" Fisk. Pinky wrote most of these words during the turbulent war protest days of the 60s and 70s.

Those heady days were recalled by columnist Adele Ferguson:

   "Edison 'Pinky' Fisk was Bremerton's most famous anti-war activist in the 1960s and 1970s, once getting himself arrested for carrying a sign downtown that read 'The Grateful Society, Bombs, Bullets, Battleships and B--- ----."
(Adele Ferguson, "Pinky Fisk recalls King's old idea," Kitsap Sun, 1/18/1993)

A decade later, the home town paper recalled:

    "For sheer eccentricity, small protests outside the U.S. armed forces recruiting offices in downtown Bremerton during the 1960s and 1970s are fondly remembered now by those who took part.
   "The protests, started during the Vietnam War by a local character in his 50s named Edison 'Pinky' Fisk, usually only attracted four or five people at most.
   "But they were Kitsap County's first war protests, and Fisk was arrested three or four times -- once for disturbing the peace when he paraded around with a protest sign proclaiming, 'The Grateful Society: Bombs, Bullets, Battleships and Bull----.'
   "The sign was returned five years later when charges against him were dropped."
("Kitsap County no stranger to big rallies," Kitsap Sun, 3/2/2003)

(Apparently by 2003 it was considered safe to print "Bull----.")

What you have to understand is that Bremerton, home of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, has always been a Navy town. To stand outside the Shipyard in those days with an anti-war sign took the kind of courage most of us will never muster.

Interestingly, Pinky says that he had better conversations about the war with many of the Shipyard workers than he did with his "liberal" friends.

This blog is going live today as a tribute to Pinky's 94th birthday, which we celebrated Saturday. He called Thursday to announce, "In two days I'll be an old man." Old in years, perhaps, but ageless at heart. His eyes and legs may not work so well these days, but his wit isn't in bad shape.

- K (the "k" in PinKy)