Thursday, December 28, 2006

Political Activism on the Playground

So President Ford passed away. Guess he couldn’t live in a world without James Brown. So if they come in 3’s who is your guess for the third? And shouldn't the saying be, "they GO in 3's?"

President Ford was my first bit of political activism. On the playground during recess I used the swing set as my platform to lead the chant of “Up with Ford! Down with Carter!” Didn’t last long before the recess monitor told us that because of the time difference, being in Italy, the election was already over and Carter won.

I had no reason to pick Ford over Carter other than that my parents, being a military family stationed at San Vito dei Normanni Air Force base in Italy at the time, were voting for Ford. It wasn’t until midway through the Regan administration that I came across political views of my own.

I often check Google Maps to see if they have gotten new versions of the maps of Italy so I can see where I lived. The town of 'San Vito dei Normanni' is in the ‘heel of the boot’ near Brindisi. It should not be confused with just plain 'San Vito' which is another town in northern Italy. In Google Maps its just a blurry white thing. I can just make out what I think is the soccer stadium near where I lived but it’s just a guess.

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