And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that yesterday (as I write this) was May Day. The name comes from the 1917 Russian revolution by workers against an oppressive government. And as has become the usual thing, there were “worker” riots in many nations, including the United States, again this year.

That bothers me, because the current presidential election seems based on a conflict between the “haves” and the “have nots.” I fear that if the “have nots” are successful, the same fate could await that movement as happened in Russia, because by November of that year, the Communist party was able to stage a coup and take over the government, and that has lasted to this day.

So, when I think of May Day, I really think more of “mayday,” which is roughly the translation into English of the French term m’aider, which means “help me!” It’s what naval aviators are taught to broadcast in the event of a dire in-flight emergency.

A cry for help somehow seems appropriate for this election season.

Since I find nothing of interest on nighttime television most nights, I have the habit of turning on radio instead. So the other night as I was listening to “Jimbo’s” call-in show, he was interviewing Dana Perino about her new book. She’s the Fox news personality who was also press secretary for a couple years during a Bush presidency. She noted that she had grown up attending a small high school in a far eastern Wyoming town. Jimbo asked what class from that high school proved most valuable to her, and she said discussion and debate.

A quick mental inventory resulted in my thinking that I probably could say the same thing!

One of the nuns at St. Patrick’s was known statewide for her ability to develop championship debate teams. That string was probably a decade old by the time my class arrived at high school. We turned out pretty well, too, if I do say so myself. We competed in tournaments at the state teachers’ college (then) in Cedar Falls, Coe in Cedar Rapids, Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, MN, and even South St. Paul high school. She collected boys who were shy (like myself) and needed self esteem, boys who were well adjusted and intelligent, and “bad” boys with too much of the bully in them, and taught us to work with each other studying controversial issues, such as the Electoral College and universal conscription.

She did not like or want girls, but along about my junior year, was forced to take some
Nuns had to stay in convents in those days. We high school boys stayed in hotels. We were good debaters and won our share of awards, but we were not angels. The girls noticed, and one of them told her mother, who told the pastor. The nun could neither confirm nor deny the report because she was at the convent. The pastor, to placate the mother, pulled the plug on the debate team.

Lessons learned besides the ability to speak in public!