My father died a little over two years ago. It is primarily my father to whom I owe my progressive disposition. He in turn had inherited his from his own father, an immigrant from Ireland who greatly admired Eugene Debs and Senator Robert La Follete.
Most folks who've experienced such a loss will confirm that when it comes to dealing with the loved one's personal effects, there are some items you're able to go through almost immediately. Maybe it's the clothes closet, with some things relegated to the trash bin, others donated to charity. But you find that other items can wait. Generally, the more hidden away they are, and the less needed the storage space is, the longer you postpone the task.
This weekend I engaged in some serious housecleaning, going through storage cabinets and drawers that hadn't been opened in ages. And I found something rather remarkable that I wanted to share with this community.
Among the old photos and (I swear) every birthday and Father's Day card he ever received, my dad had squirreled away a page from the Chicago Daily News. Dated January 24, 1973, it contains a column written by Mike Royko following Richard Nixon's announcement of the U.S.'s disengagement from Viet Nam. It reads as though it could be written today, or more accurately, at some point in the future, after our amnesic nation once again disengages from our latest quagmire.
Mike, the newsstand man, was alone at State and Madison, shivering in the cold night.
"Nah, nobody's been around celebrating," he said. "What's to celebrate?"
The end of the war. Mr. Nixon said it on TV, half an hour ago.
He shrugged. "That so? Now maybe we can take care of things in this country, huh?"
It wasn't like 1945, when the end of the war brought a million people downtown to cheer...
And that's as it should be. There is nothing to cheer about this time, except that it is over...
"Peace with honor." He had used the wilted phrase that has been with us most of the war. He said we obtained it.
It is hard to see the honor...
Before it ended, we had put our own men on trial for murdering civilians...
Almost 20 years ago another war ended in a draw and we were told that our boys had died for somebody's freedom. Now the South Koreans live under a dictatorship. And so will the South Vietnamese...
Why kid ourselves? They didn't die for anyone's freedom. They died because we made a mistake. And we can't justify it with slogans and phrases from other times.
It tore us internally. It left many with a lust for revolution, and others with a lust for repression.
And then, Royko, like all cynics a failed romantic, ends with a note of hope (emphasis mine:)
If we insist on looking for something of value in this war, then maybe it is this:
Maybe we finally have the painful knowledge that we can never again believe everything our leaders tell us. For years they told us one thing while they did another. They said we were winning while we were losing. They said we were getting out while we were going in. They said the end was near when it was far.
Maybe the next time somebody says that our young men must fight and die somewhere we will not take their word that it is for a worthy cause. Maybe we will ask them to spell it out for us, nice and slow, nice and clear.
And maybe the people in power will have learned that the people of this country are no longer willing to go marching off without having their questions answered first...
If we haven't, then we are as empty and as cold as the intersection of Madison and State
Oh Mike, you would be ashamed of us.