Blog #9 Diane Romano / Larry Heineman

            For my last blog I decided to go with Diane Romano’s story from the Studs Terkel Book. I chose this as my first story that I read because as I was looking at the different stories I could read I saw that under race there was a story called a white mother of six children. I thought that it was strange because when I thought of race, I thought of blacks and their stories and how race affected their lives. I had to read the story, and after reading the story, the whole idea of having sympathy for the blacks, but then working in a place where it makes it so much more difficult to not judge another color to me seemed so complex and Diane seemed to be lost and didn’t know what to do. In the story Diane talked about how she had sympathy for the blacks. She’ll, “…go march with them if it’s something big. [She doesn’t] use the term “nigger” in the house, and [she] never allow[ed] it” (Terkel 459). That just seemed so big of her because most white people at the time were so against the blacks and disrespected them. However, Diane did start working to find crooks and criminals. It made it difficult to keep her beliefs of blacks being treated equally and them not being any different, difficult. Diane stated, “It’s a shame to say it, but quite a few of these are black people. They seem like they’re all involved with the negative part of living: cheating, lying, stealing, dope, that type of thing” (Terkel 461). That contradicts what she was saying at the very beginning when she said that she would support them. Diane is being influenced by the work that is being done around her. What she fails to realize is that, those crooks and criminals are just a small fraction of the entire African-American race and she is letting it get to her head. Her job must be extremely stressful and take a toll on her morals and her beliefs as she works. When Diane said, “I think it’s going to take another hundred years, maybe two hundred, before the feeling of white superiority goes-this feeling against blacks, against Mexicans, against Orientals. Because they’re different than us” (Terkel 466). I think that she is on to something. Whites have it in their mind set that they are superior and better than everyone else around them. Even in today’s society the whites are wanting to be superior and there are stereotypes of Mexicans and people of different races other than whites. I don’t think this idea of being on top of everyone else is ever going to go away, but I think that it won’t be as big as time goes on. Back when we were learning about Black History we saw that the Whites wanted to have the upper hand and that they felt what ever they did they could.  People are afraid of change, and they are afraid of those who might come out on top of them, so they do what ever they can to make them fall to the ground. It’s natural instinct. That feeling is never going to go away because we’re all humans. How people respond to other peoples actions though are going to be different.

            The second story that I chose was Larry Heinemann’s. I chose this story because as I was looking at the list again I thought that I should read a story about Vietnam War Veteran. I would get to hear about his War stories and what it was like for him to fight in Vietnam. I was not exactly told war stories, but more I was told how the war affected him at home after. In the summer of 1968 Larry got a job as a CTA bus driver. He had returned from Vietnam and he thought that it was the worst decision he had ever made because he was so used to driving around with a .45 and a shot gun. The roads were to themselves. Now, as a bus driver he would have to interact with different people, people who irritate him, and other people on the street. “The only thing they teach about bus driving is that you’re a public servant, okay? Any asshole with a fare can give you shit and you have to sit there and take it” (Terkel 417-18). That was not how Larry was used to doing things. If anyone gave him a hard time he would throw them off the bus. The affects of war and what they do to a person. I think that Larry’s perspective of the real world and how people act are being affected by his memories that happened at Vietnam and what is happening as he is a bus driver is he is putting his guard up, because that’s what he had to do when he was in Vietnam. Like when he was near Lincoln park there were cop cars and kids and he stopped the bus until the smell of carbon died down and the passengers were hollering at him to go on, but he kept saying no “You don’t want to get a snort of that tear gas, it’ll make you sick…I fully expected people were gonna get killed” (Terkel 418). That kind of fear in the world shows how going to war has a toll on people when they return. Those passengers did not even think twice before asking Larry to go back driving. But Larry was hesitant. When Larry talks about the Vietnam Veterans’ Parade and how it is supposed to be remembered as a positive experience he said, “They wanted so hard for it to be all right. It’s not. It’s going to be an evil thing in our lives and nothing’s gonna change it” (Terkel 420). That is something I did not expect him to say. When we were taught about Vietnam and about the memorial that was set up for them, it is supposed to be a good thing, and something to honor the soldiers, but in Larry’s mind it’s not. That just surprised me because I was thinking that he would be grateful for it. If you are in the war though, I think there is a different point of view on weather or not what the government and people do to show respect towards a war is sufficient enough or not though, and in Larry’s mind, it wasn’t.