Sammy White and Don Quixote

Sammy and I served on the deck force on a ship in the Korean War. He has been doubled crossed, having been promised to go to printer's school and then be assigned to a printer's job by the recruiter; and then was sent to the ship right out of boot camp. Sammy had worked for the printing firm that printed the "National Geographic" in Washington, D.C. and I felt that he expected better treatment for his desire to be a printer. (I should say that these double crosses happened to white folks too, so Sammy was not unique in this regard). But, the added problem was that our division officer was a white southerner, very self conscious in a job he was not qualitied for (somewhat common in the war, especially for officers who came out of the NROTC).

So when Sammy asked that he be given some justice, the officer probably considered his story to be some kind of poppycock, and made life hard for him. Enter Don Quixote, me. I have carved out a hobby of helping fellow shipmate with problems, especially correspondence, since most of them did not know how to write letters. I knew a man who worked in the personnel office and asked him to check Sammy's record. Bingo, there it was, Sammy was right. So we started a campaign and things got tougher for both of us. Well, the officer's incompetence got him transferred off the ship and his replacement stepped up to the plate for Sammy. He was transferred to a shore station (Norfolk, I think), and hopefully on to printer's school.

I thought of Sammy during the Martin Luther King talks broadcast by Amy Goodman on "Democracy Now," especially for very eloquent one from Memphis (given just before he died). Our time at sea and in the Navy predated these speeches by over ten years, but the things that were playing out in Memphis were a version of what was happening to Sammy, and perhaps what had encouraged him to enlist in the Navy in the first place. It would be fascinating to find out what happened to him after all these years. Recently a shipmate on the same ship found me through the Internet and now we have corresponded and even gotten together since then. Perhaps I'll try it with Sammy. Printing and the printing press has gone through several revolutions since the 50s, Sammy may have had to retire rather than face the latest one.

History Lessons & Martin Luther King

Some time ago an acquaintance responding to a speech by Martin Luther King remarked "that he wasn't going to take the history of some educated nigger as my history." It seems that this man's history of these United States didn't start with Columbus staggering into the West Indies, but in New England, with white people. He considered the Native Americans to be bit players to help the Europeans get started here, pull off the first Thanksgiving holiday, etc. The fact to him that the French and British continued to run things in the South until there was some turn around due to northern influence did not help him understand the more complex undercurrents well known to Dr. King.

But what really irked him about this astute, Dr. & Minister, was his mixing in of biblical stories and insights, for example the Jericho Road story. He wanted history his way, as many of us do, and his was a long way off from the man of the cloth who also knew not only American history well, but world history too, and could add street language and stories to the mix. Whew. & then there might be references to Greek & Roman philosophers, history and civilizations, New & Old Testaments, imagine?

Well, I've long since parted ways from this man, and I wish him well with his possible history lessons since. Mine have been simply unbelievable, and I am hard pressed to know what lessons may still be in store at 79 years old. The Internet/Google/Wikipedia are huge resources to check up on things, to get another "slant" on the so-called realities of the past. And then there are the un-believable array of resources seemingly coming from every direction. History overload.

Dr. King's life and accomplishments have passed into history, of course; and now with a national holiday devoted to him, and everything from essay contests to new research on his life and times the expansion of knowledge seems to invite both admirers and detractors with endless studies just around the life and accomplishments of this powerful man alone. How can one feel competent in a field of any kind today, especially in history?