Shucking Corn
I’ve been meaning to apologize for the corny aspects of the poem I dashed off below in a matter of minutes (excuses, excuses) since I am striving to wrench any corniness from the first couple of chapters of the novel on which I’m working right now. I called Peter Staley, one of my most unsentimental friends, and asked him to read the poem and tell me if he thought it were too corny. He called back and said, “Yeah, it’s corny. You knew that. That’s why you called me. But it does tweak your interest as well. So keep it on the blog.” Since I haven’t been “tweaked” myself in a while, I followed his advice. But just wanted to let you know that I rolled my own eyes while writing it so read it with the same spirit.
To change the subject completely, something that I didn’t find corny was an editorial I wrote for my high school newspaper when I was sixteen years old. Sixteen! One of the joys of having written my memoir and continuing to write these posts on my blog is that people from my Mississippi past have contacted me. One of those people was a schoolmate from Forest High School, Robert Bliss, who is still one of the smartest people I’ve ever met in a life of meeting smart people. He had saved one of our old school newspapers and thought I’d like to read it. Here is the editorial I wrote in 1973 regarding amnesty for Vietnam draft dodgers, which was a hotly debated topic during my teenage years, just as amnesty for illegal aliens is such a heated topic this week in Washington. Some things never change. But I thought you’d like to read how uncorny I was as a teenager. I’m trying to get back in touch with that uncorny teenager that could come up with something like this. It’s so unsentimental, so uncorny, I wonder if I could have plagiarized it. But I don’t think my journalism teacher, Judy Lewis - where are you Judy? I’d love to hear from you. You are acknowledged, by the way, at the beginning of Mississippi Sissy - would have published it if it were or she had any questions that I had not written it myself back then. I was always a bit precocious, especially in my liberal leanings in that still paleoconservative state of Mississippi. Anway, here is an excerpt for that long editorial that could perhaps still speak to us today.
The editorial:
The other day I heard two women talking at a local drugstore. The conversation went something like this.
Mrs. X: A few short years ago most of us supported the war.
Mrs. Y: I supported the war.
Mrs. X: While most of us today oppose the war.
Mrs. Y: I oppose the war.
Mrs. X: And according to the polls, think it’s immoral.
Mrs. Y: I think it’s immoral.
Mrs. X: So the question is what to do with those thousands of young men who thought the war was immoral years before we thought the war was immoral and deserted to Canada and Sweden - shouldn’t they be granted amnesty?
Mrs. Y: ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!
Mrs. X: Why not?
Mrs. Y: Premature morality.
That discussion was held a few weeks ago, before the peace announcement. But now that peace, or at least peace for the U.S., is apparent, the amnesty question has become a greater issue than ever. Let’s look at both sides.
First of all the word itself is from the Greek “amnestea,” which means “forgetfulness.” The first recorded amnesty was granted by Athens in 403 B.C. to most of those who had collaborated with Athens’ Spartan conquerers after the Pelopponnesian War. The Romans, on occasion, continued the practice, which they called “restitutio in integrum,” and many other states since then have granted amnesty to achieive reconciliation after a civil war or a period of internal strife.
But the question did not take on major popportions until World War II. Sixteen months after V-J Day, President Truman responded to public pressures and established a three-man amnesty board to determine whether those who had been convicted of refusing to fight should be punished. The board was less than lenient, partially because WWII had wide popular support. Of course, of the more than 15,000 cases considered, only about 1500 men were pardoned, most of them on religious grounds. “Intellectual, political, or sociological convictions” against the war were not accepted as excuses and clemency was not granted to those who, in the board’s words, “set themselves up as wiser and more competent than society to determine their duty to come ot the defense of their nation.”
This amnesty question, however, is a complex one with no clear-cut historical precedents that would apply in blanket form to the present problem.
The deep and violent divisions of the Vietnam War have left the United States with this unprecedented problem of what to do about the estimated 30,000 deserters and between 70,000 and 100,000 draft evaders.
Many bills providing for various forms of amnesty have been introduced in Congress and both candidates for the presidency in 1972 made it a campaign issue of deep and explosive emotional content.
Many ask the question: Would it be fair to those who fought to forgive those who refused? This is the emotional crux of the problem. But maybe that is just the problem - we look at this question of amnesty too emotionally. Maybe if we were more practical about it.
One of the most practical reasons for opposing amnesty has been: How could the U.S. ever field an army of draftees again if it established the precedent that draft evasion will be forgiven? Well, the Nixon Adminstration has gone so far as to do away that reason by doing away with the draft altogether.
Also opponents argue that while amnesty might reconcile one group, it would embitter many Americans. Healing some wounds, it would exacerbate others. Sentator Robert Taft, Jr., a Republican with impeccable credentials who went so far in December of 1971 as to introduce a bill to grant amnesty to draft resisters with the stiff provision that it be coupled with three years in compensatory military or civilian federal service - can attest to the bitterness of those who oppose amnesty. He asked one protester what should be done about draft evaders if his plan was to be rejected. The answer: “Shoot them!”
But since the Vietnam War is like not other war in our nation’s history, perhaps no precedent should be sought in history. Many Americans had been against this war, but because they were ineligible through age, sex, or infirmity, were not forced to back up their beliefs with their lives and careers. Why persecute those, who, because they were young and eligible, did put their lives behind their convictions? Those now in exile or in jail include some of the most intelligent, the best eductated, and the most passionately concerned men of their generation. Most of them are a gain for their homes of exile and a great loss to the U.S> Why should this country so willingly, even perversely, suffer such a drain on its talent and spirit?
…..
In short, no other action except amnesty could be as effective in persuading us, the young of our country, that once again we can trust the humanity of our government. In this sense, amnesty would serve its traditional function: healing angry wounds.
But still, after all the arguments are made, both pro and con, two questions remain - one moral, the other practical. Does the individual have the right to decide which laws or which wars he will support? If he does, can any government survive?
“Human law,” wrote St. Thomas Aquinas, “does not bind a man in conscience, and if it conflicts with the higher law, human law should not be obeyed.” But also one might quote Socrates: “In war, and in the court of justice, and everywhere, you must do whatever your state and your country tell you to do, or you must persuade them that their commands are unjust.”
Yet there are some laws, even in a democratic society, that are so unjust that any man of conscience cannot obey them. Segregation laws are the best recent examples. Opponents of the war would say that service in Vietnam is another. But Ghandi and Thoreau and Martin Luther King, as examples, decided that unjust laws must be disobeyed but at the same time had to accept the penalties for disobeying them in a civil society. The country can appreciate the courage of those who have evaded the draft just as it can appreciate the courage of those who did not, but can it excuse the former brave young men from the consequences of their choices just as the latter accept the consequences of theirs. Maybe the draft evaders could perform some kind of service, as Taft suggested, in a poverty program or in the peacetime military.
As I close, I am reminded of a TV commercial that I saw a few days ago. It showed different portraits of different families as you heard a voice say that a certain man went to war and died for his country. That man’s son grew up, went to war, and died for his country. His son grew up, also went to war, and died for his country. Then the voice continued: “God had a Son, but He didn’t go to war. He chose another way to peace. If your son, like God’s Son, chooses another way, will you understand?” It’s funny, maybe the sponsors of that commercial should have been addressing that commercial to America itself - perhaps they were - instead of parents. It take that back - it’s not funny - it’s very sad. Bring all our sons home.
May 24th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
Kevin: I found my copy of that biography of Miss Welty called EUDORA A Writer’s Life by Ann Waldron that I read back when it first came out in 1998. In it you are referred to as “a teenager”. I am sure you must have the book and recall the reference to you in it. Most interesting that you have mentioned the teenage you in your post above. And you are right teenagers are very very unsentimental. As writers they can be cruel when attempting humor. My brother was kicked out of high school for writing a satire of the high school newspaper and he had a feature in it every week AND our mother who was an English teacher was the sponsor and he satirized her as well. However, they relented at the last minute and let him graduate. He went on to work for MAD MAGAZINE in NYC. That had been predicted in the high school yearbook. This was in a real little hick town in East Texas. You never know where genius can come from. Even little Forest,Miss.
May 24th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Kevin,
I’m sitting in my apartment in Paris having just finished your extraordinary book. Thank you for the gusto with which you shared your life — really, it’s an inspiration. You have a gift, and it is an amazing one.
May 24th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
u might know already about j lewis having worked for world hunger ,
now has ‘retired’ & is teaching some classes at mc
fortunate students
May 24th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
damn & wow
May 25th, 2007 at 8:42 am
I am ashamed to say that I did not have the level of awareness at 16.
This is an amazing piece……I can not believe that you knew the word
exacerbate as a teenager…I feel like a silly cheerleading fool…..
May 25th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Is there an email we can use to contact you privately?
May 25th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Interesting… I used the same “premature morality” phrase in an editorial I wrote in 1973 when I was the editor of a small weekly newspaper in southern Indiana. It must have been the catch-phrase of the time.
I was drafted (for the 2nd time–long story) in 1970. I had already decided that my form of protest would be to go to jail. As it turned out, that would have been Michigan City Prison…and I would have lasted about five minutes.
My very liberal brother-in-law–realizing that I was serious about going to jail–flew me to the University of Kansas Medical Center for a series of tests. An X-ray revealed that I had a “birth defect”–spina bifida occulta minor (which my father noticed when I came home from the hospital, but decided that if no one made a big fuss, then it probably would have no detrimental effect on me–turns out he was right).
When I presented the letter stating that I had spina bifida occulta minor, the physician said, “You’re one lucky SOB. We were taking spina bifida occulta minor up until last week. But you bastards kept suing the military for injury–so we stopped. You’re 4-F…you’re out of here.
After having lived with the prospect of going to jail for more than 2 years, instead of being jubilant–I was deeply depressed and resolved to try to convince others that Vietnam was a terrible mistake. Hence, the plea for “amnesty”.
Kevin, I appreciated your very wise and mature high school editorial…and, as always, your Blog.
~Gary
May 25th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
hi honey,
I´m sitting here in Cuernavaca where Kane and I are staying with friends on a little side trip after our week in LA. Just wanted you to know that Miss Sissy is on the coffee table in this magnificent hacienda; I brought BOTH the hardback AND the audio as hostess gifts! Had to make sure that we spread the word south of the border!!!!!!
Love, Diane
May 27th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Don’t apologize for the versifying. I thought it was clever and charming. And probably an excellent writing exercise for you.
Out of curiosity, what’s on your current reading list?
May 28th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Kevin,
I just finished your book, Mississippi Sissy, and as a girl who was born, raised and educated in the Mississippi Delta, I am so proud of you. I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon with Ms. Welty the summer before I started college in 1991 and that afternoon gave me a peek into a world I didn’t really understand until I got older. I ended up highly envolved in Jackson’s and Mississippi’s Arts Community and am proud to be able to say that I made a contribution or two. Mississippi can be a rough place. The heat, the humidity and the thickness of the area seems to grow freaks as well as it grows corn. I hope one day to be counted among those freaks. When writing grants I always cite the talent that has grown in Mississippi. Thank you for your contemporary addition to Mississippi literature. I’m going to be in NYC in a couple of weeks for my addition to Manhattan’s culture: the Big Apple Barbeque Block Party. (While currently serving on a board of directors for an arts org, my current life is well situated in BBQ culture). My dad is one of the pitmasters. I’d love to give you a taste of home.
Leslie
May 28th, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Hi, Kevin -
Let me say that I just had to find a way to drop a note to you after just putting down your book. I had returned to Mississippi about 3 weeks ago and had a friend in Jackson - Douglas Horton tell me that I HAD to read your book. (As it turns out, I met Robert Bliss in another life time through Doug as well … It IS a small world.)
As I read the pages of your book, I found myself laughing about things I had not thought of in many years, as well as feeling your pain and suffering. Both of my parents are still alive - so I cannot say that I know your pain other than the pain that ANY boy growing up in Mississippi during that era would have. Although I was born in Mississippi, my father, being a navy man, did not bring his family back to Freeny - just outside of Carthage - until I started the second grade in 1966. We were outside of the country when the civil rights workers disappeared as well as when kennedy was shot and only remember both those events as “history” - but DO remember being appalled at both. I can remember when Mississippi Burning came out how people back home thought our state was getting a bum rap …. My only comments to friends from Houston at the time was that Mississippi had not changed one single iota since 1964 - except perhaps that the Klan was a little more careful about who and where they killed people. I had an uncle tell me once that I would never understand the purpose of the Klan …. My only thought at the time was that I hoped I never WANTED to. I can remember doing a book report on Booker T Washington in the 7th grade … I went to Leake Academy (for the education I could get there according to my parents who scrimped and saved so I could have the opportunity) and suffered - rather proudly - the term N… Lover for several years after that … I was always the school sissy and the school queer long before I knew what those words meant and certainly long before I had acted upon any of my desires to deserve them. I had my first sexual encounter at the age of 14 - almost 15 - with the carpenter who was working on my parents house at the time …. Luckily, I guess, I enjoyed that experience, although looking back at it, I know that it was carefully plotted and worked up to for many many weeks - months even - before it was acted upon. And, I guess, to some degree he was my “Bobby” … I can remember going to New Stages theatre with my mother and Doyle Fulton - our school librarian at the time - to I think what was actually a play done by Eudora Welty. I can remember Doyle introducing us all to her after the play as if she was in fact a dear old friend. (She (Doyle) ALWAYS treated everyone that way - and I was never really sure whether they were or not.) I was enthralled at meeting a playwright. I had truly enjoyed the play. I even bought another of Eudora’s books - which I did not enjoy at the time … But perhaps, I should go back and give her her due.
Did not mean to get all into the details of my own life - but primarily wanted to let you know just how much you touched me through your book. I can honestly say that no truthful autobiography has ever touched me in such a fashion, let alone even fiction (with the possible exception of Mark Twain). Your language and sometimes just the choice of a single word brought back so many memories that I had not thought of in years.
Thank you for your book - thanks for the memories. I look forward to reading your next book(s) as well.
Bruce
June 7th, 2007 at 2:22 am
Kevin - I was looking forward to seeing you in Chicago, but you cancelled! Anyway, boo!
November 7th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Kevin,
I’d be interested knowing if you have any stories about Port Gibson. I went to Chamberlain Hunt Academy there (as a day student) in the late 60s and early 70s, and were there ever some hunks there! I heard all sorts of stories about hanky panky in the dorms, and even heard of one instance where a very handsome senior “did it” to a younger boy in one of the rooms. My first year, two boys were expelled for doing it in their room, and looking back on that, I think it was just awful that they were expelled. Boys have to experiment, you know?
Anyway, if you know any gay people in the Port Gibson area, please let me know. I haven’t lived there for 30 years, but I do recall that to have tried to live there with a same sex partner would not have been easy.
Steven