Remembering My Dad on Father's Day

I stood there in stunned disbelief as my father’s car shot back out of my driveway and across the street into the neighbor’s driveway. Dad slammed on the brakes and the old Chevy station wagon screeched to a halt only feet from the neighbor’s garage door. I watched as dad struggled to shift out of reverse, then stood rooted to the ground as dad’s car shot forward back across the street towards me. I could see dad’s look of terror clearly through the windshield. He turned the steering wheel hard right and managed to steer the car away from me, across the lawn and then, miraculously, around two large pine trees and back onto the street. But that ‘83 Chevy had too much inertia going forward to turn onto the straightaway and it hurtled through a flimsy chain link fence and dived nose-first into an irrigation canal, hitting the bank with a loud ‘crunch!’ The hood snapped up and the old car turned over like a wounded whale and fell into the canal.

The investigating officer at the scene later told me that the floor mat had slipped up under the accelerator pedal and caused the pedal to jam when dad depressed it. Well, he didn’t just depress it. That ’83 Chevy was a little like dad, it took a bit to rev up its engine after sitting for a while. Dad always gave it a little extra gas to get it going. With the accelerator jammed to the floor, gas splurged into the four-barrel carburetor, jump-started the big station wagon, and caused it to take off like a rodeo bull raging out of the bucking chute. I’ll never forget the look on dad’s face as he fought to get the car under control.

Only minutes before he stepped on that accelerator dad was laying down a perfect meld and once again beating me at his favorite card game, Gin Rummy. That morning he’d been to visit a friend’s mother in the rehabilitation center, and the day before he’d been out to the cherry orchard to check on the crop. He was looking forward to gleaning fruit again this year, something he’d been doing each of the 12 years he and mom had lived here in Washington.

I remember sitting by dad’s bed in the Intensive Care Unit of Kennewick General Hospital. He’d been sedated when the ER doctor intubated him in order to provide respiratory support. The ventilation unit hummed away and dad’s chest rose and fell as the machine breathed for him. As I watched the unit monitoring dad’s vital signs I thought about the last six months of his life.

Dad’s wife, my mom, Nella died in November of the previous year and dad initially had a tough time dealing with her loss. He worked through the pain and loneliness and tried to concentrate on living life each day. I admired his determination to maintain his regular routine, keep in touch with friends and neighbors, and stay busy. Still, I remember him telling me on many occasions how much he missed Nella and what a wonderful woman she was.

I held dad’s hand there in the hospital and reminisced. 

Steve was born in Brooklyn, New York, on January 1, 1906, the second of five children. His father and mother, Vincent and Marion Badalamente, emigrated from Sicily in 1898. Steve was a great storyteller and often talked of his early years growing up in New York during the depression and the many jobs he held to earn money to help support the family, ranging from standing inside steel tanks holding an anvil-like object against the inside seam as the tank was riveted from the outside (dad called the job, ‘bucker-up boy’) to unloading boxcars of 100-lb sacks of potatoes. He was 12 or 14.

The family moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1921, where Steve met and, after a two-year courtship, married Nella Nelli, who was to remain his wife until her death of congestive heart failure in November 2005. During the last years of her life, Steve was Nella’s primary caregiver, demonstrating in addition to his deep and abiding love for her, strength and endurance that were truly remarkable.

Steve was an avid fisherman and when he could get time off during the season he’d take off for the High Sierra’s and fish the many pristine lakes and streams in the high mountains. Eventually, the whole family got involved and even after the kids were on their own, Steve and Nella continued to enjoy fishing together, often traveling and living in Steve’s Clark Cortez Motor Home. Steve was an excellent driver and drove his “rig” all over the place, including Manhattan, with Nella sitting nervously by his side expecting the huge vehicle to scrape the sides off the buildings they passed.

After 70 some years in California, Steve and Nella moved to Washington in 1994 to be close to Richard and his family. Steve was very taken with Eastern Washington’s orchards and vineyards and became passionate about gleaning fruit. After growing up in a home where, as he put it, “an orange was a treat split five ways,” he couldn’t stand to see fruit go to waste. Steve’s silver 1983 Chevy Station Wagon with Steve behind the wheel and Nella in the passenger seat was a familiar site in the cherry, peach, and apple orchards during the summer and fall. The neighbors in the Canyon Lakes Village where Steve and Nella lived seldom wanted for fresh fruit.

Dad died June 10, 2006, at Kennewick General Hospital as a result of the injuries he sustained in the auto accident. He was 100 years old, a man full of vitality, who inspired others with his generosity and love of life. To say that the life of a man 100 years old was cut short sounds absurd, but certainly in the case of dad, it is true.

Of course I think of dad and mom every day, but on Father’s Day I am especially mindful of how lucky I was to have such a great dad. And I miss him even now.

Love you, Dad.

Déjà vu all over again

The Patriot Act was an Act of the U.S. Congress that was signed into law
by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001

I wrote a letter to the editor 10 years ago (wow, time flies!) upon learning of concerns expressed by the American Library Association over the threat of the FBI and other government agents obtaining access to the library records of its patrons without their knowledge. The issue didn't receive the attention it deserved then, but now that anyone who emails, tweets, 'chats', posts, pins, phones, or farts is having their 'meta data' collected by the NSA, people are starting to perk up.

To the Editor, Tri-City Herald, September 2003

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances (First Amendment, U.S. Constitution)

In an unusual preface to a speech to the American Restaurant Association conference Monday, September 15th, 2003, Attorney General John Ashcroft suggested that librarians had been deluded by “baseless hysteria” because of the concern they’ve voiced over Section 215 of the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism“ Act, otherwise known as the “Patriot Act.”

Earlier (September 11, 2003), the Tri-City Herald published an Op Ed piece by James McDevitt, the U.S. attorney for Eastern Washington, in which Mr. McDevitt argues that “Section 215 of the Act has received much misplaced criticism.” He goes on to say, “library records are not the focus of Section 215” and “the word ‘library’ is not found in Section 215.” He repeatedly urges us to look at the facts, and states, “even the media should be mindful of this requirement.” Mr. McDevitt’s claim is that “critics have tried to create a false choice between civil liberties and national security.”

I take issue with Mr. McDevitt on three counts. First, to say that library records are not the focus, or that the word “library” is not found in Section 215 is disingenuous. You won’t find the word “bank,” or “bookstore,” or “college” in Section 215, but they are all, nevertheless, subject to the Act, just as are libraries and a whole host of other institutions. Under Section 215, government agents involved in an authorized investigation may obtain court orders "requiring the production of any tangible things (including books, records, papers, documents, and other items) for an investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities." Under the Act, a United States Person can be investigated in part on the basis of activities protected under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Furthermore, the law states, "No person shall disclose to any other person (other than those persons necessary to produce the tangible things under this section) that the FBI has sought or obtained tangible things under this section." In other words, those served with an order to produce “tangible things,” for example, a list of the books John Doe checked out of a library, are gagged, and John is kept in the dark about the invasion of his privacy.

Second, critics of the Act are quite knowledgeable of the facts concerning the Patriot Act. One need only type “patriot act” into their Google search engine to find a plethora of learned analyses of the Act and its implications. The American Library Association provides a detailed explanation of their concerns on their web page (http://www.ala.org/). Because of their mission, and because they are cognizant of the facts, libraries are especially concerned about the freedom of their patrons to read books, to view videos, to access internet web pages, or to gain information and insights from any of the many resources they make available to us, and to do this in privacy.

Third, to claim, as Mr. Ashcroft did recently, that librarians are hysterical about the Act doesn’t just demonstrate a lack of diplomacy, it demonstrates a troubling willingness to pass over history. This same lack of historical perspective colors Mr. McDivett’s argument that critics have tried to create a false choice between civil liberties and national security.

Some 50 years ago Senator Joseph McCarthy made a mockery of civil liberties. In addition to the many excesses for which [I hope] he is well known, 30,000 books in the Overseas Library Program were identified by what his researchers labeled as "communists, pro-communists, former communists and anti anti-communists." After the publication of this list, these books were removed from library shelves.

In the 1960s, the FBI instituted the “Library Awareness Program” to recruit librarians to report on the research behavior of “suspicious people” -- at that time patrons from Soviet Block countries. This program was carried on in secret for over twenty years before a New York Times article exposed it 16 years ago last Thursday (New York Times, Sept 18, 1987).

Just over 25 years ago, the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities concluded in its final report (April 1976): “Domestic intelligence activity has threatened and undermined the Constitutional rights of Americans to free speech, association and privacy. It has done so primarily because the Constitutional system for checking abuse of power has not been applied.”

The Committee’s report points out something that every American should be very aware of, “A tension between order and liberty is inevitable in any society.”

There will always be choices to make between ensuring our security and protecting our rights. Anyone that has endured the long lines, luggage searches, and body scans at our nation’s airports certainly has come to appreciate this. The trick is to find the right balance between preservation of our civil liberties and protection of our national security. This is never an easy task. It is made more difficult today when we feel viscerally the menace from those who would do us harm. Thus it is all the more important that we remain vigilant; that we be willing to pay that price for the liberty we cherish.

I support our nation’s fight against terrorism both philosophically and in deed. I respect and admire the efforts of our military, our law enforcement community, and our intelligence community in carrying on this fight – it will be a long, hard fight. I also respect the right of every citizen of this great nation to question the laws and actions of its government and to retain a healthy skepticism when told that freedoms must be sacrificed on the altar of national security.