"To all my fellow Americans beyond this hall, I say, one thing we owe those who have sacrificed is the duty to purge ourselves of the dark forces which gave rise to this evil. They are forces that threaten our common peace, our freedom, our way of life...Let us let our own children know that we will stand against the forces of fear. When there is talk of hatred, let us stand up and talk against it. When there is talk of violence, let us stand up and talk against it. In the face of death, let us honor life." -Bill Clinton, April 23rd, 1995, Oklahoma City
An Assumption
I assume we're all aware of the gathering yesterday of people carrying guns in a federal park in Virginia, protesting the "socialist" and "totalitarian" government of Barack Obama. (That their right to assemble with weapons on federal parkland was defended by Obama's Justice Dept. did not diminish their anger did not surprise me. It's a good thing I appreciate irony.)
I'm glad and grateful the day passed relatively peacefully, and that the anniversary of the tragedies and lives lost on this date gave me the opportunity to reflect on the Clinton quote above, and the story I'm about to tell below.
Disclaimer
I've been in and out (of consciousness, it seems!) the past week, dealing with a lingering fever, cough, and congestion I acquired as gifts from a very challenging spring allergy season. If any of this is less coherent than usual, that's my infection, and medicine, talking. I hope.
Walking With The Wind
This is the title of John Lewis' autobiography. In it he describes his experience of being involved in the Civil Rights Movement from the first-person perspective of one of its on-the-ground student leaders. It is a gripping, disturbing, and illuminating read. Real American history on every page, as lived by those who made the decisions, took the risks, and lived with the consequences. So much of American history is taught as a linear piece of logic, as if each event was preordained and not the result of individuals struggling with options, consciences, and conflicting values. Lewis' book peels that onion, as he shares with us his internal debates, and often heated debates with other leaders of the Movement.
John Lewis
Yes, we are talking about that John Lewis who was among the group who were the targets of protesters' epithets and spit as they exited the Capitol Building after hearing President Obama make a last minute appeal to lawmakers to vote for the Health Care bill.
I first met him years ago, though, at a teachers' conference in downtown Atlanta. He had made arrangements to speak to our group and sign copies of his book in advance. The day before he had been invited to appear on the White House lawn with President Bush as part of an announcement of some piece of legislation (it may have been NCLB, even, but that detail is honestly a little fuzzy) he had worked on in bipartisan support of something, but he told us he passed on that opportunity to honor the commitment he had made to the teachers of his state and district. We cheered. Later in the day, I remember, I saw the picture he would have been a part of had he returned to Washington.
A Teachable Moment
One of the stories in the book is of a time when the Movement was accelerating in Nashville, TN. I adapted this story into a lesson plan, and of the few times I've taught American History, this lesson has always been one of my favorites to teach, because it is visceral, accessible, and emotional.
Lewis and other student leaders had already been planning and executing lunch counter sit-ins. Their success had attracted national leaders and a large rally was planned. Part of their success had been the detailed and effective training in non-violent methods the local protesters had arranged for and adopted. This particular rally, however, attracted hundreds of new faces, people who had not been trained in the Nashville approach to protesting. And this is where it gets really good...
Risks We Choose To Take
...John Lewis was a janitor at the college he attended as a student. Anticipating trouble, the night before the rally he used his keys to 'liberate' a ream of paper from a supply closet, and with the help of a friendly secretary, printed and copied instructions for the protesters to keep in their pockets the next day.
At this point, as a lesson-plan, I had students pull out a sheet of paper, tear it in half and share with someone else (they did this in Nashville, actually, to double the number of people that ream would reach), and write the following instructions on one side of their half-sheet of paper:
DO NOT:
- Strike back nor curse if abused.
- Laugh out.
- Hold conversations with floor walker.
- Leave your seat until your leader has given you permission to do so.
- Block entrances to stores outside nor the aisles inside.
And then, on the other side, the following.
DO:
- Show yourself friendly and courteous at all times.
- Sit straight: always face the counter.
- Report all serious incidents to your leader.
- Refer information seekers to your leader in a polite manner.
- Remember the teachings of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Ghandi, and Martin Luther King. Love and nonviolence is the way.
MAY GOD BLESS EACH OF YOU
I then had students fold up these pages and put them in their pockets, or purses if they had no pocket. Just as John Lewis did the morning of the planned protest. They sent protesters out in waves to 5 different segregated lunch counters in Nashville. As one group was arrested and trucked to jail, another group approached and took their place.
No Room In The Jail
The local authorities quickly ran out of space in their holding cells and started sending protesters to nearby municipalities. After there was no more room in neighboring local jails, they dropped the bond from the mandated $100 for release to $5. The student group had fundraised $50,000 for this effort beforehand, from a starting balance of $87.50, so this was covered by the organizers. On the 3rd day of the protest, the mayor released all those being held.
A Future Pulitzer
A local, young, newspaper reporter, David Halberstam, visited the jails that week. He asked several protesters how they were able to sit calmly, peacefully, and take the hate, shouting, and even blows directed at them without lifting a finger to defend themselves. He wanted to know how this effort had been put together, who had taught them how to do this, how was it organized? He discovered that many of them had slips of paper in their pockets and purses, with the same sets of instructions typed on both sides of the page. He went on to become a Pulitzer Prize winner for his on-the-ground reporting of the Vietnam conflict, but 4 years before that assignment/achievement, he wrote of these protesters:
"These people, by sitting down, are standing up for the greatest tradition in American society."
A Summative Assessment
At the end of the class period, I instructed my students to leave that paper there for the rest of the day. Their assignment, to show their understanding of the lesson, was to write a paragraph of how these events changed their daily lives. A simple assignment. Some of them wrote at length about the debt they owed to those who were jailed. Some wrote about how the paper felt like a weight in their pocket, connecting them to the events of 40+ years ago. Some wrote wondering if they would have been among the abusers, the hitters, the police, and how hard it would have been to defy the "normal" and expected behavior of their social group. Others wrote a perfunctory 5-sentence standard paragraph, or didn't turn anything in at all. It was high school, after all.
And I wonder about the speakers and attendees at yesterday's gun rally in Virginia. The speaker who earlier this year encouraged bricks be thrown at congressional offices who said, "This is what the other side doesn't understand! We are done backing up! Done! Not one more inch!"
2 years ago they weren't allowed to carry those guns into that park. Yet, there they were, protesting their perception of an oppressive federal government, one they felt was infringing upon their rights even as they stood there exercising more of them than they could have a short time ago.
And I wonder about designated Confederate History Months.
And I wonder about calls for secession from Governors in the year 2010.
And I hope every other April 19th will be as peacefully passed as this one was.
TWLTW
- The first noticeable symptom of scurvy is loosened teeth due to the inability of the body to produce collagen (which holds teeth in place, among other functions), requiring vitamin C.
- Fire hydrants don't shoot water (unless in the movies) when run over by a careening vehicle because the actual valve that controls water flow is usually underground, or below the hydrant itself. Fire trucks provide most of the water pressure themselves in the act of pulling the water out of the hydrant, increasing the flow from around 75psi to 200psi or even 300psi depending on the size and strength of the equipment on the truck.
- Who is she?
- 20,000 people attended her funeral
- She was 13 when first married. She was married several times after that, never having divorced or annulled any of the others, making all but the first one illegal.
- She had 12 children (she called them her "Rainbow Tribe").
- She was the only woman to speak at Dr. King's "March on Washington" rally in 1963.
- Her pets included a cheetah, chimpanzee, and a goat.
- Hemingway said she was the "most sensational woman anybody ever saw, or ever will."
- Calder made mobiles in her likeness.
- Langston Hughes, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Picasso, and Christian Dior all claimed her as a personal muse.
- She had plans for opening a school called the "College for Universal Brotherhood."
- Walter Winchell led the FBI to open a 17 year investigation into her "communist" and "anti-semitic" activities.
- She married a Jewish man during WWII.
Answer in the comments...
- The modern zipperwas invented in 1913, but lived only in "tobacco pouches" and B.F. Goodrich rubber boots until 1937, when French designers marketed it as the newest way to control "disarray" in menswear. "YKK" = the initials of a Japanese zipper manufacturer.
- Almost 2 months ago, 71 year-old Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, GA purchased the 10 billionth song bought on Apples' iTunes service. He was loading the iPod nano he received from his children for his birthday. Apple awarded him a $10,000 iTunes gift card for his trouble. The song? Johnny Cash, "Guess Things Happen That Way." (The total count of sold songs has doubled from 5 billion in just a little more than 18 months.)
- Not only did the last time Eyjafjallajokullerupt (1821-1823), and the time before that (1612) it kept on erupting for over a year, it triggered eruptions in a neighboring volcano, Katla, that coughed up more particulate matter than Eyjafjallajokull itself. But the really bad news is that with climate change, we should expect more and larger eruptions as ice shelf melting changes mantle dynamics, which led to 30X more frequent eruptions at the end of the last ice age. Similar ice shelf melting has been taking place throughout the 20th century.
- After a viral popular vote, "Computer Engineer Barbie" outpaced "Anchorwoman Barbie" to be the Mattel line's next Barbie doll release. I wonder, though, which computer engineers inspired her outfit?
- Toyota agreed to pay a $16.4 million fine for keeping flaws in its brake pedals secret, before recalling affected vehicles. The fine is the largest ever paid by an automaker, and the largest allowed by law.
What Did You Learn This Week?