“Put your pencils down, I am going to tell you a story”
That’s always been my approach to life.
Bill Meulemans
My primary focus has been the study of opposing political groups in the United States, Israel, and Northern Ireland. At the beginning of my career, I was appointed to a post at Southern Oregon College (now Southern Oregon University) where I brought revolutionary members of the left and right into my classroom. Working with my students, we developed models that illustrated the sources of political attitudes and methods for resolving community conflicts. My early research was centered in Oregon and California, but later I moved into the southern and eastern areas of the United States where I did a series of interviews with members of the Ku Klux Klan and various racial and ethnic groups in urban areas.
After a long tenure as a professor of political science at Southern Oregon University, I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Israel. I spent my days with the Israelis in Jerusalem and my evenings with Palestinians in Ramallah. One year later, I accepted a teaching post as a professor of politics at The Queen's University of Belfast where I split my teaching duties with the task of developing contacts inside paramilitary units on both sides of the conflict in Ulster. I conducted on-the-ground research on a daily basis in both Catholic and Protestant working-class neighborhoods. After more than a decade in the North of Ireland, I returned to the US as a professor of political science at Portland State University where I offered a course titled "War and Peace in Northern Ireland."
Looking back on my work, I began studying Democrats and Republicans, then I moved on to liberals and conservatives, later I began to focus on radicals and reactionaries, then I went international contacting Israelis and Palestinians, and finally my work today is centered on the Catholics and Protestants of Northern Ireland.
My two most recent books are a product of my evolution toward direct-action politics.
Belfast Flashbacks
This book tells the story of the Northern Ireland conflict during some of the darkest days. I present 28 personal stories written through the eyes of both Irish nationalists and British unionists. There was considerable risk for me in gaining access to the rank and file members of both warring parties. My contacts included paramilitary members, prisoners, government officials, taxi drivers, clergy, community workers, journalists, writers, college students, ordinary people, and the police. My best stories are about situations where unexpected factors came into play. I learned the most when I was immersed in circumstances that were far beyond my control.
I spent nearly all my 14 years in Ireland inside the small embattled Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods of Belfast. I knew all the nooks and crannies of the City better than I knew my hometown back in the United States. I had more friends in Ulster than I did back home.
It was important in my work that I had no ties to either side of the conflict. My neutral approach paid off as I gained the individual confidence of people who seldom trusted anyone outside their neighborhoods. Belfast was my home away from home. In addition to my individual connections, I had contact with hundreds of young people through The Queen’s University where I taught the “Politics in the USA” course for 11 years. It was one of the most rewarding times of my life.
Dynamiting the Siskiyou Pass
I’ve spent a good part of my life covering stories that seemed nearly unbelievable. Four men that I knew planned to blow up a section of Interstate 5 to block hordes of Chinese Communists who they believed were ready to pour over the border from California into Oregon and sweep up into Portland and Seattle.
Other stories in this book include the time I spent with a guru from India who advocated “free love” for his 7,000 followers inside an armed camp. I’ve covered a state governor who set up an illegal rock festival to save a large city from a devastating urban riot. I was threatened by a small-town dictator who alledegedly ordered a contract killing on one of his enemies. And my weekly radio talkshow was shut down when a listener said “the cross-hairs of our rifles are on the back of your neck.”
Getting off the beaten path opened a lot of doors for me and enabled me to bring the “real political world” into my college classroom where I was a professor of political science. Sometimes my exploits upset a few folks. For example, the members of the local John Birch Society tried to get me fired. But I confronted them by inviting myself to their John Birch Christmas party. We had a lively discussion of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment. My career was never dull.
