Since December 1st I have been organizing my research collection, going through my past, discovering a treasure that was hidden in my closets.
On December 17, I found a plastic bag containing four books. The first, “Nazareno,” by Sholem Asch, I couldn’t even open for fear the pages would fall apart in my hands.
In the second, “Kennedy Without Tears: The Man Beneath the Myth,” by Tom Wicker, from 1964, I found an italic with a blue pen made by my father.
“Don’t ask what our country can do for you. Ask what you can do for our country.”
In the third, John F. Kennedy’s “Politics and Courage,” from 1964, I found many strong moments with my father’s blue pen.
“If a free society cannot help the poor many, it cannot save the rich few… Courage is the most admirable universal virtue… One man does what he must, despite obstacles, dangers and pressures… One courageous man constitutes a majority.”
“President Kennedy liked to quote Dante when he said that ‘the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, remain neutral.'”
“There are no inevitable wars. If war breaks out, it will be due to the failure of human wisdom.”
“People don’t give a damn about what the common senator or representative says. The reason they don’t care is because people know that what they hear in Congress is 99 percent nonsense, ignorance and demagoguery that cannot be trusted.”
“With exceptions so rare that they are considered miracles of nature, the most successful Democratic politicians are insecure and intimidated men. They advance politically only when they conciliate, placate, bribe, seduce, mislead, or manage to manipulate the demanding and threatening elements of their electorate. The decisive consideration is not whether the proposal is good, but whether it is popular – not whether it will work well and will prove itself, but if the voters who speak out the most will immediately appreciate it.
“If the American people better understood the terrible pressures that discourage acts of political courage, that cause a senator to give up or override his or her conscience, there might be less criticism of those who take the easy shortcut — and greater appreciation for those who still prove capable of following the path of courage.”
The last book was the biggest surprise: “Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” by Nietzsche, 1961 edition. My father read and underlined Zarathustra when I was a skinny, sad little girl of four. Next to almost every sentence in the book, my father put stars, the letter A and the note 10. On pages 22 and 29 of the book, slightly modifying Nietzsche’s ideas, he wrote:
“I prefer a little company, good or bad; but it must come and return at the right time (good for sleeping).”
“He who circles the flame of envy (in the book it’s “jealousy”) ends up like a scorpion, turning the poisoned sting against himself.”
My father died at 68. He would have been 98 years old on December 25. I cry with desire, emotion and sadness, because I discovered that, inside this violent man who beat and insulted me, there was a father who taught me to love books and to write with blue pens the most important lessons of my life.
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