Sons and Mothers
Nollson, John
films and television programs will roll on even more tediously than they do nOW. (H) And what of those stalwarts who for centuries, never greedy, have plied their trade happy with modest...
...Bell has also stated, in a rather curious pronouncement, that although the government "should" pay for the defense of those currently being prosecuted for obeying official instructions, it will not in fact do so...
...For the Weathermen and other veterans of the SDS, who directed ,in unparalleled campaign of bombings and assorted violence during the late 1960s and early 1970s, these must be days of surprising satisfaction and unexpected vindication...
...On your motorcycle...
...Lewis voices similar sentiments, but ties them more explicitly to Pottinger's presumed ultimate objective of getting the men at the top...
...Sanjay, yes it is Sanjay...
...Sanjay, you'll never know what it means to me to have a son like you to rely on...
...It takes forever to get to your place these days...
...Remember: everything I did, I did for you...
...But the problem is not that we have "begun to forget the chilling catalog" of half-truths and distortions pasted together by Frank Church and his eager young aides in their crusade against the Bureau and the Central Intelligence Agency...
...Lewis' assert/,-_", that the purpose of wiretaps and surreptitious entries was "to punish, without trial, citizens whom FBI officials disliked" is grossly and laughably inaccurate...
...Oh, c'mon, ma, will ya cut it out...
...not even a post card...
...When your father died...
...Oh, c'mon, ma, will ya cut it out...
...Listen, mom, I didn't call to hear how tough it was for you and Grandpa Jawaharlal...
...I do some work on my motorcycle...
...Grandpa Jawa said I could have my share whenever I wanted, so there...
...I recognize the voice--but not because I've heard it lately...
...you'll do five television interviews for six million rupees plus seven percent of the gross...
...Perhaps from these ephemeral pages we may presume to forward our sympathies to those generations...
...it just gets us depressed...
...this is where I will have to draw the line...
...tinger's efforts...
...Yeah, I mean like there's a bunch of us, and like we like to ride around town, and like we like to go bowling at the new lanes the Russians built for us in downtown Calcutta, Brezhnev Bowlorama, you know the place...
...It serves them right...
...Pottinger's crusade against the Bureau has received support in predictable quarters, from individuals who advance predictable arguments...
...So, now it's too much for a mother to ask for her son to call once in a while, or to send a few lines in a letter...
...Now that I'm not so busy, I can get away every so often, even for a singles weekend in the Himalayas...
...So we roll a few frames, then maybe we go over to the new Pizza Hut and have a halfopepperoni, half-plain...
...I have no doubt that Mr...
...Because I wanted gratitude...
...We must find out, therefore, "what exactly did Kearney's superiors know...
...you need a little recreation...
...I didn't want you to have to go through all of that, Sanjay...
...But what is a poor widow to do, who has to depend on a son who can't even make a go of a free automobile factory...
...But, Lewis wonders, "is it fair to prosecute a middlelevel FBI man and do nothing about higher-ups...
...Tm negotiating with David Frost...
...A host of young men who either deserted or refused to serve their country in wartime have been welcomed back with open arms, absolved of blame for acts which were straightforwardly illegal, and virutally lauded for their moral foresight and fortitude...
...28 The Alternative: An American Spectator June/July 1977...
...Promise me one thing, darling...
...Listen, ma, you can't get all that money for some television interviews and then not expect your reputation to be damaged in some way or other...
...In the meantime, though, we should proceed full-speed against Kearney...
...But before you do, give another thought to our young friend, John Smith Halloran-SchwammMorningside- Lucarelli - Schwamm(no relation)-Bukowski-Krenwinkel-Roget with his genealogy flowing behind him like an unwieldy banner...
...intelligence agencies...
...You know, ma, you should come to the lanes once in a while...
...As Lewis reminds us, "It is just a year since a Senate Committee reported on the crimes and abuses committed by U.S...
...You should be ashamed of yourself, absolutely ashamed...
...It's just a fact of life, mom...
...I even played a little footsie with the Russians for you...
...The gold is an insurance policy in case we have to start a new life in some foreign country...
...I t ' s easy for you to say, isn't it...
...Of course, it's easy for you...
...As soon as you finish your memoirs, the money will start to roll in...
...No, ma...
...I swear on the memory of the Mahatma...
...The number of the bullion account...
...You haven't gotten married, have you ?" "I can't remember, ma...
...I locked up the rightists for you...
...Lewis is correct in saying that memories in this country are short...
...I once told you that the ingots were put away for a rainy day-not to be squandered on motorcycles...
...Moreover, we should remember that the "purpose" of "what was done" was "to punish, without trial, citizens whom FBI officials disliked...
...Meanwhile, ma, I need some money...
...You wouldn't even have your grandfather-Vishnu rest his soul--to look after you...
...You mean there's something to those rumors about you and Hugh Carey...
...Moreover, Wicker goes on to say, "A lot of persons prosecuted politically in recent years thought they were acting in the best interests of their country, too...
...Don't be silly...
...Silly gossip, Sanjay...
...You're a dear boy, Sanjay, to think of your mother, but I'm not so much a stick in the mud...
...But what have I been all these years except a poor widow trying to do the best she can for her son...
...The Kearney prosecution is apparently the brainchild ofJ...
...To date, Attorney General Bell has backed PotPeter J. Rusthoven is an Indianapolis attorney...
...I just wanted you to have the things I didn't have when I was a child...
...I just need one ingot...
...Why do you always bring that up, ma...
...Sometimes, I go with a friend on the package deal-Weekend for Two in Katmandu...
...Besides, I've been working on a deal for you--for my customary ten percent commission, of course...
...Absolutely not, Sanjay...
...A whole automobile factory isn't enough for you...
...I mean, after DaddyJawa died, I had to claw my way to the top...
...What's the deal...
...In particular, Tom Wicker and Anthony Lewis, the New York Times' sanctimonious knee-jerk twins, have been at their pontificating best on this matter...
...there isn't a thing between us...
...and if the British hadn't done away with suttee...
...For the real truth about our Watergate, the The Alternative: An American Spectator June/July 1977 27 networks should pay plenty...
...They will need it...
...You may scoff at these prognostications, call them casual, even frivolous...
...I'm glad your father didn't have to live to see this...
...Nonsense...
...Besides, the price of gold is bound to rise again, and we ought to hang on to the bullion...
...Is that you...
...I'm really driving a hard bargain for you in these negotiations with Frost...
...H) And what of those stalwarts who for centuries, never greedy, have plied their trade happy with modest profits, secure in the knowledge that they have chosen the quintessential "steady job": what about the headstone cutters...
...If I still had your sainted father to rely on, believe me, it would be seven million rupees and eight percent of the gross...
...So tell me, darling, what are you doing these days to keep busy...
...Whatever you say, ma...
...But I still worry about you, Sanjay...
...In fact, I need the number of the bullion account in Geneva...
...I can get a terrific deal on a big Kawasaki, but the Parsee who owns it wants to be paid in gold...
...I closed down the newspapers for you...
...I declared the emergency for you...
...You'll come this weekend...
...Kearney faces a possible prison sentence for using tactics which had been presumed legal for some 25 years, as part of a battle against well-organized, armed, and dangerous cadres of adolescent terrorists...
...Was that so wrong...
...Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith...
...Sanjay, what is a mother to do these days...
...Kearney is accused of violating the civil rights of members of the Weather Underground Organization, by supervising supposedly illegal wiretaps, break-ins, and mail-openings...
...In a free society," he intones, "the police cannot be above the law...
...Pottinger and Bell--have apparently forgotten the activities against which the now-condemned domestic surveillance program was directed, and the general consensus on the legality of that program that prevailed when it was in effect...
...Nixon, warts and all, was never a real dictator...
...So you need money, that's what it is...
...But Daddy and I always knew that...
...But memories are so short in this country that we have already begun to forget the chilling catalog of what was done...
...John Nollson Sons and Mothers "Hello, morn...
...Don't worry, ma...
...No one will ever love you like your mother...
...not a letter...
...Sometimes I think you're going to run off with a Muslim girl, and that's not the worst of it...
...now that you're out of office, the trains don't run on time...
...Not a call since the election...
...According to Wicker, the decision to prosecute is "vitally necessary," since "no belief among the poor and the disadvantaged and the politically dissident is more powerfully held than that there is a tough and punitive law for them but virtually no law at all for the police agencies, the politically powerful and the economically privileged...
...Stanley Pottinger, head of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department...
...Yeah, well maybe some other time...
...Listen, as far as I'm concerned, what you do is your business...
...You're a sweet boy, and you must come visit me...
...At the very least, our condolences to the descendants of Messrs...
...Anyway, we shouldn't talk like this, Sanjay...
...Where can you beat that...
...That's one of the costs of being in the arena--the Indian people will have to learn how sweet you are...
...promise your mother that you'll stay away from those gay bars in Calcutta...
...Why is that, darling...
...And after all the sacrifices I made for you...
...If that doesn't give cause for reflection, then I can say no more except to suggest that we may be courting, through excessive enthusiasm, the resentment of future generations...
...But then, Sanjay, the truth will have to come out--about what a softie I am, about how I did it out of love for you, how I was forced into it, how I was too kind to say no...
...Those ingots, Sanjay, are the family's nest egg...
...You've squandered your allowance again...
...Meanwhile, Mr...
...The "real issue," say both Wicker and Lewis, is "the rule of law...
...It is only the "terrible Bureau record of lawlessness [which] explains why the Justice Department has been moved to act against someone in its own investigative arm, as it has not done before and was surely hesitant to do now...
...An orphan, that's what you'd be today...
...You won't forget to write ?" [] ~ii~00Q~00gmQO0Io9Q~QQQQ00QI00DIDO~0oai0U0OQ0O~QU04it0~QQ000QQiQ9QQ0QoQiB0QqI~m0Q00OI0a0i~U~0~QQmQ~iQQ0O0QOQQggiiDII~0QOOQ0QQ~eQI00Qi~QiO606~OI0QQg0 THE NATION'S PULSE by Peter J. Rusthoven G-Men in the Dock Even in an era when principles of common sense and simple justice are so often turned on their heads, the Government's decision to prosecute former FBI official John J. Kearney stands out as truly remarkable...
...Your own mother you would charge a ten percent commission for putting together a deal...
...How long before these patient souls succumb to the pressures of a bull market and begin charging "by the letter," perhaps with hyphens etched half-price...
...Rather, we--or at least Messrs...
...Really, ma, there's no reason for you to be so stingy...
...Thus, prosecuting Kearney "will clearly...signal that violations of the law will not be tolerated even when committed in the name of the law...
...Pottinger seems to view the prosecution of Kearney as a means of getting enough information to indict higher-ranking FBI officials...
Vol. 10 • June 1977 • No. 9
