The Dawn of a New Day: What Do You Want to Do With It?
Wally
Dutcher
The Essence of a New Day
Author Unknown
"This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind...Let it be something good."
When I was in high school I was never interested in or excited by history. It was only later, as an adult and upon my return to college in pursuit of an undergraduate degree, did my attitude change. The change was brought about when I realized that history was not just people, dates and places but the relationships of people and events. In preparation for writing this brief autobiography, I listed some of the events in my life and then looked at some of the issues and events of those times. It was an interesting exercise. With a different perspective for the value of history, I decided to include some events in my story.
So come with me and let's take a little venture in the time machine.
May 12, 1956 was THE DAY.
For the record, here's some interesting trivia:
On this day in 1936, Tom Snyder, newscaster (Tomorrow, NBC Weekend News, The Late, Late Show), was born in Milwaukee, WI, my home town. 1936 is also the same year that I was born.
On this day in 1943 Linda Dano, actress (Felicia Gallant-Another World) was born.
On this day in 1958 Beth Maitland, actress (Traci-Young & Restless), was born.
On this day in 1958 Christian Brando, son of Marlon/killed sisters boyfriend, was born
On this day in 1962 Emilio Estevez, actor (Young Guns), was born.
On this day in 1870 Manitoba becomes a province of Canada and 15 years later on this day in 1885 the Battle of Batoche was fought. French Canadians rebel against Canada. In 1996 we saw Quebec, a province of Canada comprised mainly of French Canadians, engaged in a effort to secede from Canada.
On this day in 1959 Liz Taylor married Eddie Fisher (Her 4th). In 1996 she just got rid off her 8th.
On this day in 1978 the Commerce Dept announces that hurricane names will no longer be exclusively female. Who cares!
It's National Hospital Day and I'm in the hospital. The first one was celebrated in 1921.
It's Mother's Day. Have I got a present for you Mom.
It's also Buddha's Birthday. Actually his name was Siddhartha Guatama. After he died, his followers named him Buddha, which means 'enlightened one'. I would eventually study Buddhism in college and then teach comparative religions as a sort of hobby.
So much for trivia.
This was the day that my active duty naval
career was cut short; a brief three months after it began.
I was stationed at Newport, Rhode Island and I was horsing around
in the pool on the Base and dove into the shallow end. The
resulting collision between my head and the bottom of the pool
left me floundering helplessly on the bottom of the pool, still
conscious, but unable to move. I was running out of air and
starting to panic. Fortunately, the blood from a gash in my head
alerted the other people at the pool and they jumped in and
brought me up to the surface. Nobody had any idea of what
the problem was, other than the fact that I had a nasty head
wound that needed attention. So the first thing they
thought of doing was to get me out of the pool and call the
medics. They came and I was transported to the Base
hospital. One of the first things I remember was the doctor
drilling holes in the sides my head and screwed in something that
looked like salad tongs. The tongs were attached to weights
hanging over the bed. Sounds like a medieval torture rack,
but the purpose of this contraption was to keep the
vertebrae in my neck in line. The diagnosis; my neck was
broken at the 5th through 7th cervical vertebrae. I was a
Quadriplegic. Two weeks later I was transferred by
ambulance to Chelsea Naval Hospital in Boston. My Mom
and Dad had flown from Milwaukee to be with me and they rode with
me in the ambulance. I remember Dad holding onto the
weights to keep them from swinging around. At Chelsea they
changed the salad tongs for another set that looked like ice
tongs and then put me on a Stryker Frame. I don't know how to
describe a Stryker Frame accurately other that to say that there
was a metal frame with canvas -- kind of like a cot and this was
attached at each end in the middle to the main frame. Every
couple of hours they would take another cot-like frame and place
it on top -- like making a sandwich with me in between and screw
each end to the pivot on the main frame. Then they would
wrap safety belts around this sandwich and flip the damn thing
over and remove the cot-frame that was now on top. What a
thrill! After a week or so Dad had to go back home to keep
things together there but Mom stayed on and rented an apartment.
On June 26th, my Mom's birthday, they took the tongs out and put
me in a regular bed. Happy Birthday Mom !
In August, 1956 I was flown to the Veterans Hospital at Hines, IL. This flight, by the way, took 2 days by way of Ft. Dix, NJ for an overnight and then on to Scott AFB in Belleville, IL for another overnight. The rest of the trip was by ambulance to Hines. It was at Hines that I finally got into a wheelchair for the first time. Nothing fancy, just a standard, chrome Everest & Jennings monster. At first, they had to keep tipping me back so I wouldn't pass out. After all, I'd been in bed for 4 months. In October of the same year, I was transferred to the Woods VA in West Allis, Wisconsin, just to the west of Milwaukee. They had a rehab ward, of sorts. I went through physical therapy. Occupational therapy at that time just meant keeping you occupied. I actually had to fight with the OT to make my writing device the way I wanted it--which, by the way, I still use. I was finally discharged on February 28, 1958. Now, I could get on with my life.
The house my parents were living in at the time, the 4th one in Shorewood, a suburb bordering on the northeast edge of Milwaukee, was too small. It also had no ramp and four steps. the only bedroom on the first floor was my parents so that's where we put my bed. This situation presented a real life opportunity for me. Here's why. Prior to my injury, I attended, for one year, the University of Illinois which, by the way, was one of the first accessible colleges of that time. I remember watching the wheelchair baseball and football teams and using the ramp into the Fine Arts building because it was a shorter route. Ostensibly, I was there to study Architecture--which I really liked. I just didn't want to be in college. I had been in the Naval Reserve for 2 years and I wanted to go on active duty and 'see the world'. Even with this one year of study, plus the 3 years I had in high school, it was adequate to design a new, accessible home. My design tools were limited to the use of pen and ink, a drafting triangle and graph paper. We began construction and moved in in 1959. An interesting side note is that our building contractor was also a quadriplegic. He later went on to become a Professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. We moved into the new house in 1958. It was featured on the cover of Wheelchair Homes, a one time publication put out by the Paralyzed Veterans of America in 1962.
In November, 1958 I became involved in the formation of the Milwaukee Chapter of the National Paraplegia Foundation ("NPF"), which is now called the National Spinal Cord Injury Association. I am very proud of my involvement with this group as it led me to meet some very special people. I am also proud to say that the Milwaukee Chapter is still flourishing and has an office and a paid staff and has, throughout the intervening years, been an active force and voice in the Milwaukee community.
I made an attempt to get back on an education program. I took English and Algebra at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. My English class was 3 flights up and no elevator. I should point out that there were no vans back then so transporting my power chair was by means of a small trailer we had built. However, since there was no elevator, it made no sense to use this heavy wheelchair so the manual wheelchair was the only option. I used to sit at the bottom of the stairs and shanghai guys to carry me up. I told them it was good exercise. I decided this just wasn't going to work out. I had heard about the Milwaukee School of Broadcasting. It seemed like the perfect career. What else would a loud-mouth do when faced with some limitations. Also, the school was on the ground floor.
Now comes the good part. A tall, blond, well-built, Visiting Nurse came into my life in the later part of 1959. She visited the house to give me some physical therapy and perform other nursing duties. Strangely enough she laughed at my weird jokes, but for all my charms, (How charming can you be sitting on a bedpan?) she would not succumb to my requests for a date. A nurse of the old school, you see, does not fraternize with patients. New Year's Eve 1961 was approaching, but the rock wouldn't move. I ended up with a blind date, a nursing student, but since she had to be back by Midnight (weird) I told Chris that if she didn't have anything better to do to come to the party. Guess what, she did. The student nurse was back at the dorm by 12 but Chris stayed on. Somebody mixed her drinks and she ended up a little tipsy. I talked her into coming back to my house to sober up. Unfortunately, it didn't happen during the trip because she backed her new red Falcon into the corner of the garage. Well, the rest of the evening went well and we managed to have a good conversation. It's amazing how booze sometimes loosens the tongue. My conquest was all downhill from there. Despite some trying times with objections from her parents, we made it to the church on June 3, 1961.
The latter part of June we took off for Florida to visit with her sister Joan and brother-in-law Roger, whom I had not yet met. They were living on Lake Seminole in Pinellas County at the time. Following the visit, we went to Miami to attend a convention of the NPF. We had a 1957 Chevy, but no air conditioning. By the time I got to Miami, I was a mess. Since I do not perspire, my temperature just goes up. I had my shirt off and an ice collar around my neck and drank ice water like a leaky radiator, but I felt lousy. After a few hours of laying naked on the bed with the AC turned to frigid, I recovered enough to attend a banquet. Don't want to let good money go to waste.
We returned to her sister's house following the convention and rented a little house only four doors away. Despite the heat, it was no more winters for us. A call to my folks sent our belongings on their way. My next move was to try and get a job in radio. Since accessibility was not a part of the vocabulary at the time, this search was not fruitful. We bought some equipment and started a mobile disc jockey business. We also organized a Tampa Bay Chapter of the NPF with a beginning membership of 100.
Health problems intervened and in 1962 I had some major surgery, an ileal conduit. My kidneys were in jeopardy because of numerous infections so the procedure seemed to be the only alternative. There were a couple of problems. The surgeon had never done the operation before, the hospital ward was not air conditioned, it was August, and they had no experience about post-op procedures. The heat affected my temperature so they postponed the surgery 3 times, after I had already been on mush and cleaned out for each go-round, because they thought I had an infection. Finally, I got PO'd and had my wife bring in the 20 inch fan that we had at home and set it at the end of my bed. I cooled off and the surgery happened. When I was fully recovered, we bought a piece of property and I designed and built my second house. This one was in Holiday Park, a development within the city limits of St. Petersburg, Florida. We moved in April, 1964 and I enrolled in St. Petersburg Junior College (SPJC). Now a serious student, the grades were 4.0. I graduated from SPJC in July, 1967 and enrolled at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. I became a commuter, but I-275 was not in place at the time and we had to go by way of Temple Terrace, in Tampa. I had three students from St. Pete to help with the driving and getting me in and out of the car. There still were no vans or lifts so Ithumbed my way around campus; a perfect way to meet folks.
In April, 1968, after 7 years of trying to adopt a child, the adoption agency called us to inform us that they had a baby that they wanted us to see. They put us in a room and brought in a beautiful six week old girl. They said they would give us some time to decide if we would like to take her. For us it was love at first sight and I couldn't stand it. After about two minutes I called the social worker in and told her to sign us out. I told Chris to stop at a drug store on the way home to pick up some cigars. I'll get back to our daughter, Dana, later.
I graduated from USF in November, 1968 and began taking some graduate courses. The problem was that most of the graduate courses were at night so it made scheduling difficult. In March, 1969 I went back to SPJC, the Clearwater campus this time, to take some data processing courses. In April I was offered a job at United Surgical, company which primarily dealt in ostomy supplies and where I finally found the appliance that I use for my illeal conduit. I dropped out of SPJC. Unfortunately, that job only lasted 2 months. As it turned out, the owners only needed me to do some product costing studies before they sold the company. However, it was during this period a neighbor had asked me to become involved in putting a mutual fund together and take it through the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") registration process. Of course I didn't know anything about mutual funds or securities law, so why not? We also organized a registered securities dealer to be the underwriter and distributor for the fund's shares and a registered investment adviser to manage the fund. The SEC registration process took 2 years. To make a long story short, after 8 years we sold the investment adviser and securities dealer companies to another company but I stayed on to run them. In January, 1980 the investment adviser was sold to the company that operated the Templeton Group of mutual funds and I went with the package.
For just over 5 years I served as the Compliance Office for the Templeton group of mutual funds. This job got really boring and I was getting itchy to try something new. It just so happened that the CFO of the Templeton operating companies had financed a small displays and fixtures company and was looking for someone to run the company because it was going into casework (cabinet) manufacturing. It seems that the company had hired a salesman who managed to secure 2 contracts totaling $500,000 to provide and install cabinets in 2 schools in Collier County. The company had signed a lease for a 13,500 square foot facility but did not have any plans for equipment, financing or anything else. Sounded like fun to me. I came on board on March 13, 1985 and we went to work. Some basic equipment was ordered and in place by April 15th. We ordered materials and hired some people and by April 25th we had 2 semi-trailers full of cabinets out the door and on their way to the job. You need to know that these jobs had to be finished for school opening in August.
This first year was quite a struggle because I was learning the business. Personally, it was a difficult year because my Dad died on July 6th.
The company continued to grow and in March, 1987 we added another 13,500 square feet. By June 29, 1987 we had 165 people on the payroll. Now comes the reason as to why I am no longer involved in that business. June 29th was also the date that we had an arson fire. The arsonist had turned off the sprinkler system so everything in the plant was destroyed. The fire didn't get into the office and because the sprinkler system had been turned off and this spared the records from water damage.
We did a quick assessment and decided that maybe we could make it. When you have a $25,000 a week payroll and contracts, you don't have the luxury of time. We set up mini-shops where we could and sub-contracted some work to continue the jobs. The problem that faced us was trying to figure out where we were on the jobs. With 16,000 parts burned up we had to work backwards. We also were now forced to produce parts on a small-scale basis which is more costly than the mass-produced basis on which we had bid the jobs. The killer strokes came when we discovered that instead of having our insurance cover the total replacement of the machinery and parts, we were now faced with an 80/20 situation and secondly, the general contractors, upon hearing of the fire, held onto a $1 million of our payments. The problem which brought up the co-payment issue was due to the fact that our woodworking machinery is foreign made and the dollar had lost a good bit of value after our last insurance evaluation. We also discovered that we only had $1,000 of incidental expense coverage. The plant had to be torn down and was going to take 6 weeks to replace. This was time that we could not afford because we needed to get back into a mass production mode. We did manage to find another facility that was set up for woodworking and we directed our energies to finding replacement machinery. We had a budget so all new machinery was out of the question. Getting new machinery was difficult during the summer anyway because European manufacturers traditionally take a month off and no amount of money would change that. We were fortunate in one respect in that a sister to our $250,000 computerized saw was on a ship that was destined for a company in Los Angeles. What made this circumstance fortunate was that the company in Los Angeles had not put up the required $50,000 down payment and the ship had not yet entered the Panama Canal. We climbed all over the insurance company and got a $50,000 payment wired. As it turned out, we beat the other company by one hour and the ship was directed to proceed to Miami. We moved into the new facility and cut the first board on August 12th. All this work and much more that followed went for naught because we ultimately had to declare bankruptcy in February, 1988. I stayed on to wind down the affairs and finish the contracts. I closed up the place on October 31, 1988.
Not wishing to break up the continuity of the preceding saga, I now want to reminisce on some childhood memories beyond those which I have already described. I'm only doing this because of the possibility that some of you may have had similar experiences and may bring back some memories.
I remember the World War II period as being interesting. During the War certain commodities in short supply were "rationed" and the government distributed ration stamps. People had Victory gardens to have vegetables. I recall helping Mom can fruits and vegetables. There were two chores I enjoyed; taking the cream off the milk and making butter and breaking the little colorant pill in the bag of margarine and kneading it until the color permeated the contents. The reason why margarine couldn't be sold with the color already incorporated was because Wisconsin was the "Dairy State" and the powers that be thought that colored margarine looked liked butter and they didn't want to besmirch the image of good Wisconsin creamery butter.
I remember the polio quarantines during the Summertime and learning how to swim when I fell off a dock. I remember our annual trips to North Carolina to visit my fraternal Grandfather and my Step-Grandmother. They ran a general store, the kind where you could buy cheese cut from a wheel that was on the counter and all sorts of staples. My Step-Grandmother was the Postmistress and the Post Office was located in the same building. My Uncle on my Father's side lived nearby and he had a farm and we had a grand time with the mules, Jack and Cora. I remember that I did not enjoy raw milk.
On one trip we got caught in a flood and our '41 Ford was under water. We were removed from the hotel in which we were staying by rowboat. The breakfast that morning was my first encounter with Rice Krispies. Besides the tragedy of our car, I also lost my stuffed panda. (Boo Hoo) As I recall, the worst things about the trips to North Carolina were the arguments with my sister Dorothy. Obviously, the challenge for my parents was to keep us occupied. How many of you have played the license plate game. The Burma Shave signs were also occasional distractions.
Enough of this nostalgia. Let me proceed to establish my interest in comparative religions. I was raised in the Episcopal Church but was not what you would consider a faithful adherent. My interest began in High School. A friend of mine was a Christian Scientist so I attended a CS church for a while. I ultimately found this not to my liking and so I simply opted out of religion. When we moved to Florida we attended St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church for a while and later, on April 18, 1968, even though we no longer attended the Church, we did have Father Salmon baptize our daughter.
In 1977 we saw an article in the Crossroads, the religious supplement to the St. Petersburg Times, which featured the St. Petersburg Unitarian-Universalist Church. The article struck a responsive chord with me and I suggested that we check it out. We were also prompted by the fact that we lived next door to a family who were Baptists with the evangelical zeal of fundamentalists and they had indirectly influenced Dana to pose a rather unique question for a 9 year old. She asked: "If God made Man, then who made God?" We figured that it was about time for some religious education. Our first visit to the St. Pete UU Church was memorable and we all found it to our liking. We met Caroline Fenderson, the Director of Religious Education, and I made the mistake of mentioning my interest in comparative religion, which at this time had been further fueled when I took a Humanities course. This led to my involvement in the Religious Education (RE) program. We left the St. Pete UU Church, for reasons which are not important to this dialogue, to join the Clearwater UU Church and I became involved in the RE program, the RE Committee, the Chorale, the Bylaws Committee and the Board. In 1985 it became apparent that another change was in order and I began to discuss the formation of a Fellowship with several other members of the Clearwater Church who I felt were of a similar mind. At one New Year's party at the home of some friends this group began the journey which resulted in the formation of the UU Fellowship of the Larger Circle in May, 1985.
The year of 1977 also saw the formation of St. Petersburg Aquatics ("SPA") was created to move from the simple position of being a booster club for the City's competitive swim program, which wasn't much, into a full blown program. While the City of St. Petersburg had six pools, it only offered competitive swimming during the Summer. Dana began her competitive swimming in the Summer of 1975 and it was apparent that she had some promise. After the completion of her first Summer program she decided that she would like to go to a higher level. There was a program at the City's main pool, but it was geared more for kids in high school. After the Summer of 1976, I planted the idea of a private swim club with the Booster Club. The City was amenable to the idea of a cooperative effort and so I drafted the Articles of Incorporation, the Bylaws and prepared the application for tax exemption. I drafted the contract and the feasibility study to present to the City and the Council agreed to the deal. We hired a coach and the program blossomed to the point where at one time SPA had an annual operating Budget of $100,000. I was an incorporator, a member of the Board and served one term as President. I did Meet management and announcing, for both SPA and the St. Pete Masters, a part of an international swimming program for ages 19 and up, a task that I enjoyed and continued to do until 1995.
In 1978 I got the itch to build another house. That itch was scratched and satisfied when we moved to our present house in Harbor Isles in November, 1978. This time, I simply modified an existing plan that happened to be perfectly suited for the lot we had bought and for the wheelchair.
I told you that I would get back to our daughter Dana. She's the reason for our involvement in swimming. At age 6 she decided that she wanted to learn how to swim. What I am about to relate is particularly interesting from one standpoint. When we adopted Dana we were told, among other things, that her birth mother was an accomplished swimmer. Her mother's mother was also a swimmer and a swim coach. It is also interesting to note that Dana did not pass the Intermediate Swimmer course because she could not accomplish the sidestroke. We thought that maybe she would enjoy the competitive swim program the City ran during the Summer, so we enrolled her at the Northwest Pool. Why not, competitive swimming doesn't include sidestroke and we were looking for things to keep her occupied. For those of you that know Dana, the rest is history, but for those of you that don't, I'll try to be brief. She became an accomplished swimmer. She qualified for Senior Nationals at age 14 and was named as a member of the U.S. Junior National Team. As such she went to Kiev, Russia to compete. This was the first of several international experiences. Canada, Australia and Italy were others. She participated in two Olympic Qualifying Trials and was a Finalist in 1988. She has been named as an NCAA All American 14 times. She still holds high school records and a college record in the Metro/National Independent Conference. She was a member of two NCAA, Division 1 Championship Teams while at the University of Texas.
When Dana started college at the University of South Carolina (on a swimming scholarship) she met a young man who was, at the time, an Assistant Swim Coach. His name is Richard May ("Ricky"). They hit it off, but the relationship was awkward because of the coach-swimmer situation. They trained together during the Summer of 1987 in preparation for the 1988 Olympic Qualifying Trials. They didn't make the Olympic Team, but the relationship solidified. Ricky went back to the University of Texas at Austin to finish his degree. It wasn't long after that Dana followed. I am proud to say that Ricky became our son-in-law on August 21, 1993. Taylor Claudia May, their first child and our first grandchild, was born on January 4, 1996. Our second granddaughter, Camryn Dutcher May, was born on November 10, 1998.
There is one other matter which requires a little backtracking. Leaving the Clearwater Unitarian-Universalist Church left one void; I really missed singing in the Chorale. In February, 1985 we attended a performance of the Alumni Singers at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Pete. The performance was a part of the Black History Month activities. I had become acquainted with one of the members because he was a DART (paratransit) bus driver. I used this service to go to work until 1981 when I got my first van and started driving myself. The performance was stunning and I was compelled to ask the Director if I could simply practice with the group. The reason for this limitation was due the fact that the members of the group were African-American and the emphasis was on Spirituals. I did not wish to disturb the public persona of the group. When it came time for the next concert, I reiterated my limitation to the Director and shared my reasons. He would having nothing to do with my reluctance and insisted that I perform with the group. I am proud of my affiliation with this group and pleased to say that for Chris and I it has been, and continues to be, a wonderful experience.
In 1991 I was invited to become a part of a group that wanted to form a center for independent living ("CIL"). I did not know anything about a CIL but I did realize that none of the 15 people sitting around the table and taking up four hours trying to decide on a logo knew anything about organizing a business. As usual, I jumped in with both feet and put it together and on July 1, 1992 Caring & Sharing Center for Independent Living, Inc. ("CASCIL" pronounced "castle") opened up for business in 600 square feet with one employee, an Executive Director. As of the date of this writing CASCIL is now housed in 2400 square feet and has seven employees.
That brings everything up to date except to give credit where credit is due. Without the help of people, I am nothing more than an active individual in an inactive form. The economic and caregiver burdens during the first five years following my accident fell upon my Mom and Dad. After our wedding in 1961, Chris assumed that role and has somehow managed to keep me going so that I can be involved and pursue my ambitions. She not only had the responsibility of being the caregiver, homemaker and mother, she also was our chauffeur. This included taking me to work, until the DART paratransit service became available, carting Dana to swim practice and all of us to swim meets all over the State of Florida. Swim practice was twice a day. The morning workout began at 5:30 AM and the afternoon workout was at 4:00 PM. The only reprieve from this routine was during Dana's freshman and part of her sophomore years in high school. During this period Dana went to live and train in Gainesville. Chris also did the driving for four trips home to Wisconsin. She is the rock on which Dana and I were able to launch and pursue our numerous adventures.
So here we are today (June, 2002); Chris and I have celebrated our 41st anniversary, Dana is 34, my Mom is 88, my sister Dorothy, 2 ½ years younger than I, has two kids and, after two marriages, is now single and is the director of a crisis line in Jackson, Mississippi. My sister Margie, 10 years younger than I, has a BA with a major in music is a Registered Nurse and a Legal Nurse Consultant. She also has two kids, both beginning their life ventures, and is sharing a duplex with Dorothy.
COMMENTARY
1936 saw the world in turmoil. I dare say that on this regard nothing much has changed in 60 years. The U. S. was just coming out of the depression. Sound familiar, even today. Germany was restless and growing in power. Interesting, history is repeating itself vis-a-vis the rise in economic strength from a now unified Germany. Russia was involved in the Great Purge. Where have we heard this before. Since the breakup of the USSR we now see a similar situation in Bosnia. China was involved in the Kuomintang-Communist Civil War. Some similarities here with the internal struggles going on since the uprising in Tiananmen Square and now the impending takeover of Hong Kong. Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals at the Olympic Games in Berlin, much to the consternation of old Adolf and on September 30, 1936 at 6.27 AM a 7 lb. 9¼ oz. boy, the first child of Walton and Lydia Dutcher, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Obviously, this event had nothing to do with world events, but it certainly changed the lives of this couple and a few other people.
Before moving on to personal matters, let's examine some major events in the course of world history from 1936 until now. I found the exercise interesting.
The Mossadegh government in Iran nationalized the British oil industry in May, 1951. I had just finished my freshman year in high school. Two years later in August, 1953, the government in Iran was overthrown by a U. S. aided coup.
In 1952 and 1958 Arab revolutions in Egypt and Iraq, respectively, placed leftist, militant nationalist regimes in power. But attempts at Arab unity failed.
On May 17, 1954 (my Senior year in HS) the Supreme Court declared that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Busing became the byword and evidently remains so today. It did not seem to be a satisfactory solution, no matter what the color of your skin because the solution also created problems; like not being able to participate in extra-curricular activities because there was no way to get home. On June 17, 1963 (I'm a student at St. Pete JC) the Supreme Court declares that any requirement to recite the Lord's Prayer is unconstitutional. The school prayer issue is still being debated today.
On August 11, 1964, Congress approved the War on Poverty Bill. Poverty still exists but there is no evidence of a War, unless you wish to consider the Republican majority holding the county hostage while they fight over the Budget.
On September 21, 1965 (9 days before my 29th birthday) Congress passed the Water Quality Act. Thirty-two years later and we still have water pollution problems.
October 2, 1967 sees Thurgood Marshall sworn in to the Supreme Court. Twenty-four years later Justice Marshall retired.
January 22, 1973, the date of the famous Roe v. Wade decision. Our adopted daughter is approaching her 5th birthday. This decision is in the process of being challenged.
March 29, 1973 sees the last of the troops pulled out of Vietnam. The MIA issue goes on unresolved.
As the New Millennium approaches the Arab nations are still not united and the old, but now realigned, Eastern Block nations are still in crisis; China is still under communist control; Germany has been reunited; Japan is still invading (economically this time) the U.S.; the U.S. economy is strong but uncertain; AIDS has replaced tuberculosis and polio as the major communicable disease and famine, pollution and poverty are still major problems. U.S. troops are still in place in countries around the world and Israel and the Palestinians are still going at it. The Irish Republican Army is still fighting the British and on September 11, 2001, terrorism became a reality on U.S. soil.
So many changes and so little change. Is it possible to make changes? Tomorrow is the dawn of a new day. What do you want to do with it?