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• Thursday, May 6, 2010 - I think Henry was surprised I didnt go down or...
| I think Henry was surprised I didnt go down or run off, because he laughed, slapped me on the back, and said I was okayWe were always friendly after thatI had learned again that I could take a hit and that theres more than one way to stand against aggression
By the time I started ninth grade, in September 1960, the presidential campaign was in full swingMy homeroom and English teacher, Ruth Atkins, was also from Hope and, like me, a stomp-down DemocratShe had us read and discuss Dickenss Great Expectations, but left lots of time for political debateHot Springs had more Republicans than most of the rest of Arkansas back then, but their roots were far less conservative than the current cropSome of the older families had been there since the Civil War and became Republicans because they were against secession and slaverySome families had Republican roots in Teddy Roosevelts progressivismOthers supported Eisenhowers moderate conservatism
The Arkansas Democrats were an even more diverse groupThose in the Civil War tradition were Democrats because their forebears had supported gucci fabric secession and slaveryA larger group swelled the ranks of the party in the Depression, when so many unemployed workers and poor farmers saw FDR as a savior and later loved our neighbor from Missouri, Harry TrumanA smaller group were immigrant Democrats, mostly from EuropeMost blacks were Democrats because of Roosevelt, and Trumans stand for civil rights, and their sense that Kennedy would be more aggressive than Nixon on the issueA small group of whites felt that way too
In Miss Atkinss class most of the kids were for NixonI remember David Leopoulos defending him on the grounds that he had far more experience than Kennedy, especially in foreign affairs, and that his civil rights record was pretty good, which was trueI didnt really have anything against Nixon at this pointI didnt know then about his Red-baiting campaigns for the House and Senate in California against Jerry Voorhis and Helen Gahagan Douglas, respectivelyI liked the way he stood up to Nikita KhrushchevIn 1956, I had admired both Eisenhower and Stevenson, but by 1960, I was a partisanI had been for LBJ in the chanel fashion primaries because of his Senate leadership, especially in passing a civil rights bill in 1957, and his poor southern rootsI also liked Hubert Humphrey, because he was the most passionate advocate for civil rights, and Kennedy, because of his youth, strength, and commitment to getting the country moving againWith Kennedy the nominee, I made the best case I could to my classmates
I badly wanted him to win, especially after he called Coretta King to express his concern when her husband was jailed, and after he spoke to the Southern Baptists in Houston, defending his faith and the right of Catholic Americans to run for PresidentMost of my classmates, and their parents, disagreedI was getting used to itA few months earlier, I had lost the student council presidents race to Mike Thomas, a good guy, who would be one of four classmates to be killed in VietnamNixon carried our county, but Kennedy squeaked by in Arkansas with 50 percent of the vote, despite the best efforts of Protestant fundamentalists to convince Baptist Democrats that he would be taking orders from the pope
Of louis vuitton fabric course, the fact that he was a Catholic was one of the reasons I wanted Kennedy to be PresidentFrom my own experiences at StJohns School and my encounters with the nuns who worked with Mother at StJosephs Hospital, I liked and admired Catholicstheir values, devotion, and social conscienceI was also proud that the only Arkansan ever to run for national office, Senator Joe TRobinson, was the running mate of the first Catholic candidate for President, Governor Al Smith of New York, in 1928Like Kennedy, Smith carried Arkansas, thanks to Robinson
Given my affinity for Catholics, its ironic that, besides music, my major extracurricular interest from ninth grade on was the Order of DeMolay, a boys organization sponsored by the MasonsI always thought the Masons and DeMolays were anti-Catholic, though I didnt understand whyDeMolay was, after all, a pre-Reformation martyr who died a believer at the hands of the Spanish InquisitionIt was not until I was doing research for this book that I learned that the Catholic Church had condemned Masons going back to the early eighteenth century as miu miu knock off a dangerous authority-threatening institution, while the Masons dont ban people of any faith and, in fact, have had a few Catholic members
The purpose of DeMolay was to foster personal and civic virtues and friendship among its membersI enjoyed the camaraderie, memorizing all the parts of the rituals, moving up the offices to be master counselor of my local chapter, and going to the state conventions, with their vigorous politics and parties with the Rainbow Girls, DeMolays sister organizationI learned more about politics by participating in the state DeMolay election, though I never ran myselfThe cleverest man I supported for state master counselor was Bill Ebbert of JonesboroEbbert would have made a great mayor or congressional committee chairman in the old days when seniority ruledHe was funny, smart, tough, and as good at deal making as LBJOnce he was barreling down an Arkansas highway at ninety-five miles per hour when a state police car, with siren screaming, gave chaseEbbert had a shortwave radio, so he called the police to report a serious car wreck three miles louis vuitton galliera pm bag behi |
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