you've asked if i was ever involved in
an historic event
i've lived a long life
i'm 85 now so my life qualifies as a
kind of history but i can't say that i
recall actually being on scene
or in the room at an historic event
still
three historic moments come to mind
which affected me personally
the earliest such event
was pearl harbor
it was a sunday when i was five years
old
i was lying on the floor watching embers
glow and flames dance in the fireplace
while my dad listened to a concert and
read the paper in a chair next to me
the concert was interrupted
and i still remember the look on my
dad's face
at what he heard
john daly's voice
that afternoon has also stayed with me
ever since
though as is characteristic
of a five-year-old the memory is no more
than a vignette
a still picture in my mind
it was the day of infinity
we were at war
with japan
my next sharp memory was when i was
eight years old
general eisenhower was to have a parade
in new york
right up the street outside my dad's
office
although it was a school day
i rode into the city on the train with
my dad
i felt very grown up
a woman who worked in the office was
charged to get me to the parade
dad's idea was that i would go to the
roof of his office
at 45 east 17th street
from where we would have a vantage point
to watch the parade
that's not how it turned out
instead
we went to ground level along the parade
route
the excitement of the crowd is what i
remember
but i couldn't see anything through the
thronged grown-ups
suddenly
an excited man bent down and swooped me
up onto his shoulders
just then the open convertible with the
familiar face of the general drove by
that too
is an image i will never forget
i know now
that it was june 19
1945
a day for jubilation and as general
eisenhower put it that day
today is not because one individual
one american came back from war
it is rejoicing that a nasty job
is done
a nation united was able to shout its
joy
and to steal itself
for the nasty job still ahead
as the parade neared
dad went to the roof expecting i'd be
there
hence my other memory
is how dad reacted thinking i had missed
the whole thing
although it was disturbing at the time i
still draw comfort today
from his caring so long ago
humans are more given to compassion and
mutuality
than they are to conflict and war
as the destruction of warfare gave way
to joy and peace the hard work to
rebuild the lives and nations that war
had destroyed
began
we are the beneficiaries of that
reconstruction
may 9th
1970
was another day that stands out in my
memory
i was 33 years old
the unity of world war ii was long gone
the country was in chaos over our
involvement in vietnam
then
explosively at the beginning of may
the war which we thought was winding
down
was extended into cambodia
soon after national guard troops fired
on students at kent state
that was a shock
we feared the war might escalate into
world war three
coming home from work one night that
week
i emerged from the subway at 110th and
broadway
to find someone selling tickets for a
round-trip bus ride
to washington dc the following saturday
for a rally
the tickets were obviously subsidized
since they cost only five dollars
round-trip
so i bought four for my wife and me and
our two children eight and ten i thought
it might be a good learning experience
for the children
come saturday
we were up before dawn for the long ride
to washington
sure enough there were the buses lined
up on 110th street just east of broadway
oddly the buses had driven down through
the night from montreal
to take us on south the trip began
routinely enough
but about halfway we got our first idea
of where the subsidies had come from
as we passed philadelphia
someone took the bus microphone
to begin to tell us about how trotsky
was a true communist
this was not what folks had signed up
for
so there was much grumbling
the trotsky connection was then
and still is
beyond my knowledge or understanding
someone murmured that the bus had been
financed by chinese communists i never
did get the full story
i began to feel uncomfortable and
questioned whether it had been a good
idea
to have grabbed that bargain
though we were in good company
surrounded by our neighbors
the whole thing reached a crescendo
when the guy with the mic said that they
weren't going to the events on the
ellipse by the white house
instead
they were going to demonstrate on the
steps of the state department and they
had brought sheep's blood with them to
cover everyone
that wasn't part of our plan
and we weren't going to do that
the bus parked at the tidal basin
the cherry blossoms were beautiful
we went to the mall
where speeches of one sort or another
droned on
despite the potential for drama
the day was rather dull
until later in the afternoon
when protesters began to take off their
clothes
and walk around nude in the lincoln
memorial reflecting pool
i'm sure that was educational for our
kids
a rumor circulated that early in the
morning a sleepless president nixon
had walked to the lincoln memorial from
the white house to talk with
demonstrators in camp there
that gave hope
and the mood of the crowd turned
positive
the festive spirit changed dramatically
though
as the hour approached for us to return
to our bus
suddenly the streets were filled with
army trucks
converging on the crowd
we feared that things might turn violent
we thought of kent state just one week
earlier
we had our children with us
so we started leaving the area
standing at a crosswalk waiting for the
light to change
army truck after army truck passed in
front of us we saw troops with weapons
in the backs of those trucks
but they weren't brandishing them
instead
the troops were giving the demonstrators
the peace sign the army was comprised
of citizen draftees
they were with us
we were safe
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