FIFTY YEARS AGO.

The "Milwaukee Fourteen" decided it was time to stop arguing against the draft and gum up the machinery of "Selective Service."

Milwaukee saw several protests against the Vietnam War in 1968, but on Sept. 24 of that year, 14 protesters wanted to make sure their message was easy to see.

That evening, the group soon known as the Milwaukee 14 — which included five Catholic priests and a minister from the Church of Scientology — raided the downtown Selective Service Administration office, seized thousands of draft cards and set them on fire using homemade napalm.

To make sure their message reached a wider audience, the group lured reporters to the site — a patch of green space across from the Brumder Building, 135 W. Wells St. — with the promise of a "headline" story of "national significance," the Milwaukee Sentinel reported Sept. 25.

Makes the #resistance of these days look like pretty thin stuff.

Note, though, the people surveyed by local newspaper reporters tended not to be impressed with the stunt.  A few weeks later, Richard Nixon carried Wisconsin.