Lucky
Here I am at an age plateau.
The choice was really not mine.
It’s the DNA that guides the show.
As to the alternative, I’m not too inclined.
80
Yes, here I am. Four score and no years ago I arrived at Christ Hospital in Jersey City, NJ. Either the good sisters there did not know my mother’s heritage, or, being good and godly people, they did not give a darn.
Living through a solid share of significant, historical events, it’s been one heck of a ride! In the 1930’s in Washington D.C., if not poor, close to it without realizing it, I had a happy boyhood. Politically interested even as a very young boy, I witnessed and listened as FDR in the midst of the great Depression attempted to get the country back on track. Few of his programs really worked, but the hope they brought to the hopeless probably kept the country out of political turmoil. Whatever he said, that melodiously calming, avuncular voice of Roosevelt encouraged a desperate populace to keep going. Though with hand me down clothes and Adlai Stevenson-like holes in my soles (see below), it was a great time in a great place for a young kid.
The late 30’s and the war years of the 40’s juxtaposed the fear that came from a terrifying Hitler and his armies and the losses from various battles with the excitement and patriotic pride that young people find in such events. And just after the war, then living in Jersey City, we watched and learned a lesson in practical politics as one of the historic bosses of American politics, Mayor Frank “I am the boss” Hague, went down to defeat by his own nephew (who turned out to be as big a crook as he was). In the years that followed we watched and participated in the metamorphosis of the country to the great superpower it became.
Korea changed me. Under enemy fire at times, I survived with the realization that I had performed honorably; that I possessed the inner strength to do what must be done no matter what the challenge; that I had passed the “test”. I have carried that through to today. In all of the vicissitudes to which all of us have been prone during the ensuing years, I never lost conviction that I would make it through; I never ran scared.
We survived the suspect-your-neighbors-50’s and, during the 60’s, watched with dismay as the war in Vietnam divided the nation. Though I regrettably did not participate directly in any of the various civil rights actions, it was thrilling to see the tide of deep South prejudice turn however slowly to, if not total acceptance, Constitutional inclusion. And it is an exciting, historic and maybe even a redemptive time that we are in with the election of the first black man for the presidency. The murdering of the two Kennedys and Martin Luther King and the Nixon/Watergate and Clinton disgraces disturbed and tarnished somewhat my faith in this country, and while I remain as patriotic as the next guy, I am a little more pragmatic about such fealty; especially after the 8-years of George W. Bush.
Not able to distinguish between byte and bite when I started in 1963, I participated in and may have even slightly contributed to the exciting and awesome growth of the then burgeoning, what John Diebold (I spent 2-years with him) termed the automation or computer business. In those years it was IBM (Think!) with its massive multi-room electronic, behemoth machines and a bunch of also-rans (DEC, Control Data, Sperry and the rest). That new, powerful laptop you are using today probably has as much if not more juice than those old, air-cooled anchors.
The nation appears to me to be moving into another metamorphous. With emerging, competitive nations such as China and India assuming manufacturing and service responsibilities for the world, more demand than supply of oil, attractive jobs being increasingly out-sourced with resultant unemployment and/or lower incomes, and with energy and commodity – metals, grains, etc. – prices rising daily, I don’t know where the nation is heading. Add to all of this the current financial disaster dictated by Wall Street greed and the loosening of federal controls (to both sides of the aisle I say “a plague on both your houses!” – said by FDR to the CIO’s fiery John L. Lewis and a steel company CEO).
The major force driving the change in the world’s (and our) economy is not so much globalization, but technical changes. David Brooks says we are now in the cognitive age. It is skill and intelligence and innovation that are driving manufacturing and business; not so-called globalization. Are we building a sufficiently trained and educated workforce here? I have my doubts. With the loss of a significant manufacturing base and the near collapse of our financial structure, the question arises as to whether we can rebound as quickly as we have in past recessions; particularly with what appears to be the potential demise of a significant portion of the American auto industry (bailout not withstanding).
As over the years those oil prices move ever higher, and with the new administration, again, I’m not so sure. I know we’ll make it through this, but what will the nation be 5-years from now and what kind of a world are we leaving those who follow us? I realize that there are scientific breakthroughs – solar, wind, even nuclear energy developments, gene-splicing, etc. – that long term could relieve if not solve many of these issues, but, again, do we have the leadership base for a national commitment for their development and implementation?
Now, through all of these cycles and events I have been blessed with one of the finest women on the face of the Earth. Thoughtful and loving and empathetic for all, she has been a joy. Never would I have had the fulfilling life I have had without her beside me. Through all of the ups and downs and triumphs and losses of career and family she has been there with me. From her came our offspring who with her nurturing and encouragement have become responsible, achieving adults. From them, of course, I have been further blessed with six of the greatest grandkids one could have, and, I must add, a loving and caring ever widening family and the best friends one could hope for.
It’s been a hell of a ride. But it’s not over yet. I remain an Odysseus; an Aeneas still on my journey. William Faulkner once said that the past is never really over; it’s not even past. So, unfurl those sails, put on the old sneakers and full speed ahead!
Arnie Silverman
Laguna Niguel
