09.06.05
Amazing Lifetime
(Note: Originally written 1 June, 2005)
It is the 21st Century, I am almost 46 years old and in those 46 years amazing things have happened of historic proportions. In the past 20 years, there have been a few that I have been able to consciously point to and say, “This. This is historic and will be written about and remembered.”
For instance; the fall of the Berlin Wall, Challenger and Columbia, the first free Democratic vote in Iraq and, just this week, the revelation of Mark Felt as Deep Throat.
In the winter of 1976, I was a senior in high school in a small town in Northern New Mexico. I went to the movies with a boy I had a serious crush on to see All the President’s Men. Our small New Mexican town only had one movie theatre with one screen, so if you wanted to go to the movies you went to see whatever one movie was playing at the time.
I remember parts of the movie, but what I remember most is a girl who was home on Christmas break and with whom we had both gone to high school leaning over the backs of our chairs and talking to us. When we all parted ways and got home that night, Sally called and asked if she had interrupted anything between Steve and I. I think I gave her some vague, “no, not at all” answer because at the time, I didn’t know how to say, “quite possibly.”
In 1976, I wasn’t aware of the historic proportions of the Watergate scandal and what a deep effect it would have on the American political psyche. I just knew it was a movie I went to with the boy I had a crush on.
In 1985(ish), I visited a friend who lived in Washington, DC within walking distance of the Supreme Court and Capitol Hill. During the week I was there, I would take mass transit or walk to the Mall and go to the museums and monuments. One tour I took was a shuttle that allowed you to get off and on as much as you liked. Our guide pointed out the Watergate Hotel as we drove past to stop at the Kennedy Center.
I’d like to be able to say that I felt this overwhelming thud of historic perspective as I recognized the name, but I didn’t. To me, it looked like any other building. Kinda plain and ordinary, nothing special. What did I expect? Until the break in, it was just an ordinary luxury office and apartment building in Washington DC.
Here then, was one of my first lessons about history. Extraordinary things take place in ordinary places, to ordinary people.
In 2005, I find myself driving Car and listening to NPR when the lead story is that Deep Throat has revealed himself. Somewhere between 1976 and now, I had gained some perspective and realized that movie I saw in high school had been about something deeply profound in American politics.
And, I was completely surprised that this wasn’t the main topic of discussion with the people I work with. One guy hadn’t even realized that this had been the leading story for two days now. It was everywhere and he completely missed it! I have so wanted to have this breathless discussion with somebody about this important revelation.
“Wow! Did you think that we would ever know who it was?”, and discussion at some level would follow. But noooooo, I listen to people talk about ordinary things and take orders over the phones and come home to Algebra. Maybe history occurs only to those willing to recognize what’s going on in the world around them.
And no, I didn’t think we’d ever know who Deep Throat was. I figured it would be one of those eternal political mysteries. Or, I figured if we ever did find out who it was, we would be sorely disappointed. I’m glad I was wrong on both counts.
| Mark Felt: Google: Mark Felt + Deep Throat Google Print: Mark Felt + Deep Throat Wikipedia: Mark Felt |
Woodward & Bernstein: Google: Woodward and Bernstein Google Print: Woodward and Bernstein Google Scholar: Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein Google Images: Woodward & Bernstein Wikipedia: Bob Woodward Wikipedia: Carl Bernstein |