Activism Began in High School, Masel Says MILWAUKEE - Ben Masel says his top interests include "good hash" and "getting acquitted" - not exactly what you'd expect from a candidate for U.S. Senate. But the 51-year-old liberal activist from Madison has made a career of doing things his own way. In high school in 1969 he participated in a strike in which he says protesting students demanded and received the principal's resignation. He was arrested for his prominent role in Vietnam War protests, which he says led to his being "indefinitely suspended" from the University of Wisconsin-Madison after his freshman year in 1971. [continues 121 words]