Were You There?


fiftiethlogoReading time – 22 seconds  .  .  .

You know the tune, so sing along.

It was fifty years ago today

Dr. King taught all of us to say,

Freedom’s going in and out of style

And oppression is so very vile.

So may I introduce to you

The truth you’ve known for all these years:

You and I still have to stop the Pharaohs.

Okay, Lennon and McCartney had other things in mind when they wrote Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. But the point is that the passage of time and the consistency of message run true and today the message runs through Selma, Alabama. What is significant is that the story of Selma and all that it symbolizes is exactly the same as the story of the biblical Exodus. The struggle for freedom is never over. In every day and in every age new tyrants rise up to oppress the people and today is no different.

I was just 18 and very young in 1965 and did not participate in the march. My childhood pal Frank Levy is the same age as I am but in 1965 he was older and far wiser. He was there and he writes about it in his essay this weekend and has given me permission to share it with you. I encourage you to read it – just click on the PDF link for a download – and decide for yourself if there is something calling you. Then post your comments below for the benefit of others.

[prettyfilelink size=”” src=”//cdn.bluelinermarketing.com/managed/uploads/sites/8/2015/03/Passover-and-Selma.pdf” type=”pdf”]Passover and Selma[/prettyfilelink]

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue. Please help by offering your comments, as well as by passing this along and encouraging others to subscribe and do the same.  Thanks.  JA


Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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2 Responses to Were You There?

  1. Jim Altschuler March 8, 2015 Reply

    Amen! I can only hope that millions will read and head these writings.

  2. Allan Shuman March 8, 2015 Reply

    Wow! Thank you, Jack. Thank you, Frank. Thank you for reminding me of MY obligation to stand in the face of Pharoah. and for me this means finding my voice rather than hiding and hoping that others more energetic and more articulate will magically overcome the forces of single-minded avarice; that somehow those millions who have become co-conspirators against their own interests due to appeals to their basest instincts…..will one day wake up, see their folly, and throw the bums out. I think that many of us have a subliminal disbelief that rational and presumably intelligent human beings (i.e., the aforementioned bums) can actually believe their own words, and somehow believe (but it’s actually a hope, isn’t it?) that the Truth will out before it’s too late to save our society and our planet. The choice for me, then, is to not view my eventual death as relief from witnessing the world that I will have left to my grandchildren.