my sad remembance

I can trace my political life and intellectual activism in the history of the Kennedy family and the music of Peter Paul and Mary. When I was young, John Kennedy's articulate presence made me proud to be young and American. His death left me bereaved and taught me at my impressionable age that even the young, vital and enthusiastic can pass long before age would wither their values. I worked for Robert Kennedy when he became a peace candidate and met my husband, who was a McCarthy supporter, that year. We talked of liberal things and challenged each others beliefs but we shared like minds. Attacking those challenges to our liberal life was embodied in Ted Kennedy's legislative agenda. I believed in his agenda. Peter, Paul and Mary, their music and their activism, inspired me. I was part of a "hootenanny" group when I was very young-remember "Oh Sinner Man"and "House of the Rising Sun"? Probably not. I sang about civil rights, human values, love and decency with gusto and commitment. My naivete continues into old age. From Forest Hills Tennis Club to Bangor Maine, I followed the trio and sang along. When my younger son had his Bar Mitvah a friend created a very vicious looking dragon and that we printed on Dan's shirt...along with the witty (I thought) phrase "The Real Reason Jacky Paper Came No More". And now, Mary Travers has died. Wow...Time was talking but I wasn't listening. Mary, that magic dragon has sadly slipped into her grave. Yeah, the paraphrase is a bit funny...I know. But her death defines the end of a period. A time of turmoil but liberal sensibility, civility, kindness and active movements that believed in something, anger that was about something of value...people with guts that would not accept the status quo and dared to be different..people who could be counted on to stand for what they believed in over time rather than what was current, trendy, convenient and popular. Mary Travers and her kind were such people. To quote King Lear on the death of his daughter Cordelia, ""Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life? And thou no breath at all? Thou'll come no more...Never, never, never, never, never!" When I was young, she and those too numerous to mention shared their voices in a time gone by, and helped me dream. "I'm the kid who had a habit of dreaming. I could no more stop dreaming then I could make them all come true". I dream of better times and wish they were not gone.