In Howard Bryant’s interview with Democracy Now on Friday, commemorating the 50th anniversary of Paul Robeson’s death, he described how “It really does feel like the past is prologue.” It’s early Monday morning, and the news from Friday seems so dated 73 hours later. Not irrelevant, but eclipsed by a different weather front between civil disobedience and federal overreach.
This morning, NBC News is quoting William Jefferson Clinton as saying:
Over the course of a lifetime, we face only a few moments where the decisions we make and the actions we take will shape our history for years to come. This is one of them.
I prefer Kenzaburo Oe’s more succinct version in the 1995 edition of Hiroshima Notes:
As a child I did not believe the old saying that one’s whole life can be decided by the events of a few days.
Certain days are more poignant than others. And, our friends—along with neighbors, acquaintances, and strangers nearby—who constitute beloved community assert Esmeralda Santiago’s proverb:
Tell me who you walk with, and I’ll tell you who you are.
[Update, 8:44 am HT]: Past is prologue indeed, reading Jennifer Sinco Kelleher’s AP article about these UH Manoa students who became soldiers during World War 2 while their families were imprisoned and taunted who were then killed either in Italy or France fighting against naziism. Only took the dominant institutions 80-plus years to rectify the lies and acknowledge the wrongs of the 1940s. Go ahead and say their names and then commit their names to memory:
Daniel Betsui, Jenhatsu Chinen, Robert Murata, Grover Nagaji, Akio Nishikawa, Hiroichi Tomita and Howard Urabe
Legacy. Imprint. Impact. That is all.
washing dishes: a father’s glimpses 