The Next Day by Richard Moylan Jr.

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Sober Duck
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The Next Day by Richard Moylan Jr.

Post by Sober Duck » May 28th, 2005, 12:39 pm

It was April fifth, 1968, four-thirty in the morning. I was about to board a bus along with forty-five other fifth graders. We were about to embark on one of the most exciting field trips imaginable. We were going to washington DC. The anticipation on that bus was so intense that the teachers had a hard time controlling the noise. As we left Ocean View Elementary heading for the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel, none of us had any idea just what we were headed for. Unknown to us, over night our destination had become as volatile as Vietnam. An angry race of people had started rioting in protest over the assassination of a great man, Martin Luther King Jr. To this day I think if the teachers had any idea as to what we were headed for they would have had that bus driver turn around and we would have returned to Ocean View.

The first stop of our field trip was Mt. Vernon, George Washington's home. We were still unaware of what was taking place in DC. As we left Mt. Vernon and entered the DC area we started to notice not the sights but sirens. Everywhere we went in DC we could here sirens in the background. Several times during the day emergency vehicles would pass our bus. Luckily, most of us being eleven or twelve years old did not quite realize what was going on. I'm sure by now the teachers and driver had figured out what was going on because our tour schedule started changing. We ended up going to places not included on our tour. At the time we did not understand why the teachers were changing our tour schedule around. We just knew that for some reason we would be missing some of the more interesting sights. We saw The US Mint but missed The Smithsonian. Today I realize that the teachers were desperately trying to avoid the hot spots in DC.

By afternoon the sirens increased, the presence of smoke was noticable. We started seeing military vehicles with machine guns mounted. Even at age twelve I started to realize that something was wrong. The teachers casual conversations were replaced with silence and obvious concern. We started to realize that in the sixties when riots occurred busses were often targeted, turned over and set on fire. So there we were, right smack dab in the middle of the biggest riot to date and in a bus of all places.

We managed to see many sights in DC without mishap however when we arrived at The Capital Building we were hurried into and through the building and out the oppisate side and back onto the bus. We later learned that the rioting was just minute behind us and headded for the Capital Building. We left the capital and headed for Arlington. Arlington was not on our tour but at the time seemed like a safe option. We arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. As interesting as that was we could not help but be distracted by the pillers of smoke bellowing up from several fires down in DC. Arlington Cemetery is on a hill and from tht vantage point DC looked like a war zone.

Ironically enough, the last stop of our tour was the grave of another victim of assassination, John F. Kennedy. Only after returning home and seeing the news that night did I realize what went on and how close we came to harms way.

It's been thirty-seven years since that trip took a bus load of school children and teachers into the Twilight Zone. Only recently have I realized what went on that day in DC. Because of the media I have witnessed several riot situations one of which involved another King, Rodney. The news coverage of those riots caused me to become aware of how close we came to disaster. To this day I am still puzzled as to how we missed all the rioting that took place in DC on that faithful day. My thanks goes out to that resourceful bus driver who managed to avoid the mayhem that took place that day in Washington DC. And also to this day I am confused over the whole idea behind rioting. It hurts innocent people that have nothing to do with the reason for the riot in the first place.
Last edited by Sober Duck on December 9th, 2005, 6:10 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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judih
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Post by judih » May 28th, 2005, 12:52 pm

sober d, i've read this before and it's even more incredible this time.
How close you were - a sneeze away from hell, and how lucky to be in the hands of that bus driver and the fortune of timing.

judih

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Whitebird Sings
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Post by Whitebird Sings » June 4th, 2005, 4:36 pm

Dear SD

I give thanks that on that day that you have recalled for us, that you and those you were with were kept safe...

You write that you don't understand rioting...

...and I thought on this a while...

I don't understand riotous behaviour when it is looting or similar destructive acts that arise from a place of greed or boredom... or for the sake of entertainment... or the like...

However, I DO understand it when generation after generation of peoples are systematically repressed -- enslaved -- abused -- tortured -- mutilated and murdered... and then the man they hold as a symbol of hope is violently taken from them...

It pains my heart to think that people -- many of them normally good and law-abiding people are pushed to such a place of anger and desperation that they lash out in this way in pain --

Look at this... a report this week by a reporter writing for the BBC:

FBI exhumes black lynching victim

HOW OLD DO YOU SUPPOSE THIS LYNCHING VICTIM WAS??


... ... .... --> --> -->













14!! ...THIS LITTLE BOY, JUST A LITTLE OLDER THAN YOU WERE THAT DAY SD -- and HE WAS DRAGGED FROM HIS BED IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT and THEY KILLED HIM... read why...


The FBI has started to exhume the body of a black boy whose lynching became a key event in the civil rights movement.
Emmett Till was 14 when he was dragged from his bed at his uncle's home in a small Mississippi town, beaten and shot in the head.

The Chicago boy who was in the south for the first time had wolf-whistled a white woman two days earlier.

Two men were acquitted, but later owned up to the killing. They are now dead, but the FBI has re-opened its inquiry.

The pair, JW Milam and Roy Bryant, were acquitted by an all-white jury, but soon admitted their guilt in a magazine interview.

The justice department said last year it would revisit the murder, citing new evidence.

Mutilated

Forensic experts are expected to perform an autopsy on Till's remains to see if new evidence can lead them to fresh prosecutions.

A documentary made by New York film-maker Keith Beauchamp asserted that accomplices who helped Milam and Bryant abduct and possibly kill the teenager are still alive.

Because a five-year time limit on federal prosecutions has long since passed, any new case will have to be brought under Mississippi state law.

The exhumation, at a cemetery in the Chicago suburbs, began after a short memorial service for family members.

A small forensic tent was erected around the graveside, where work could take up to two days to complete depending on the conditions of the remains and the ground, the FBI said.

Till was asleep at his uncle's house in the Mississippi Delta town of Money when he was abducted on 28 August 1955.

Two days earlier, he had wolf-whistled a woman, who it later emerged was Bryant's wife.

His mutilated body, attached to a heavy metal fan, was recovered three days later from the Tallahatchie River.

The cause of death was never officially determined.

Civil rights leaders persuaded Emmett Till's mother to insist on an open casket at his funeral - a successful attempt to let the world see what racists had done to her son.


Dear SD, I don't condone violence... like you, I believe that violence begets violence and the innocent are often victims... BUT even though I don't condone it... I understand why it sometimes happens... and sadly sometimes the only way to get the attention of the rest of us is if we feel threatened... I want to change what I said here... more than sad, it is tragic! ...that also doesn't sufficiently convey what I feel... but I'm sure you understand what I mean...

I think that times they are a-changing... but not fast enough -- there is still much to do... and we must all work together for each other's human rights... otherwise... what choice do we give those who continue to be enslaved... abused, dieing, hungry and without hope...


A song is playing on the radio as I write this...
Don't know the band,
They're singing --

Love will save the day
Love will save the day...
Maybe tomorrow



Namaste SD...
Namaste -- I see and I honour the Divine Light that shines forth from you!

Thank you for writing and for sharing this story SD...
Thank you for being a man that would not riot
Thank you for being a man that would find a means other than violence

Thank you SD for all these things!

and

Thank you for making me think...

WB

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Sober Duck
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Post by Sober Duck » August 2nd, 2005, 3:39 pm

Sorry for taking so long to respond to such an extensive reply. I am greatful that my writing moved you so. I grew up in racialy motivated times and have had a hard time coping with the way I was taught and what I experienced. I now believe that no one should go through what went on back then. It is a shame that the injustices that scarred humanity will probably never go away because there are to many that won't forget and let life go on. Maybe are childrens children will be able to forget how it was. Personally I am ashamed of what our fore fathers did hundreds of years ago and it is a shame that we are still paying for that today. As long as the past keeps arising in todays currents we will never heal or grow.

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stilltrucking
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Post by stilltrucking » August 4th, 2005, 12:56 pm

14 th and U st nw, I have not been been to DC in a long time, but back in the late 90's that area still looked like Baghdad. 16 blocks from the presidential palace was a third world country. There are still houses in the poorest parts of town with lead water pipes. Beautiful marble buildings and children are still getting their daily does of lead. You just reminded me of an experience I had as a bus driver. But not here. Children pick up on things, I barely remember WW 2 but I picked up a patina of paranoia from the fear of my Jewish immigrant family, a memory of a big short wave radio, we sitting around in a darkened room by the light of wood stove and the radio tubes casting their light against the wall, a big luminous dial, listening to a voice in a language that sounded a lot like Yiddish. Nobody ever told me what was going on, but I picked up on it from the adults. I knew it was something bad. almost sixty years and I still remember.

If I remember correctly riot is a politicaly incorrect word. It is now called an insurrection. Another got dam insurgency. Working in a transmission shop at 14th and S st nw the cops came round and told me and jitterbug to get out of town. Smell of smoke and tear gas lingered in the shop for days.

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