One Utah

In the summer of 1973 when I was playing little league baseball for one of the lower ranked teams, one bright spot was the all-star tournament in Roosevelt Utah.

That’s a small town over by what was then a fairly new reservoir, where the owners of a campground/store/laundry gave two twelve year old boys free run of the shoreline and fishing poles, food and beds, rides back to town for the games, and a minimal amount of oversight. At least that’s the way I remember it, a week of almost total freedom, interrupted by the necessity of organized competition. A sweet gig is what I’m trying to say.

Now, as to why this is important to me today, why the couple by the lake were so preoccupied at that particular moment in history? Congressional Hearings on the Watergate break-in were on television every day. So we ate our meals from trays in the living room while watching the proceedings and learning invaluable lessons of civic responsibility and having our questions answered in a very loving and serious manner.

It wasn’t the genesis of my political awareness. I’d already lived though a dozen turbulent and violent years, but this was the first time I felt I was making some contribution just by being present in the home of patriots.

Today I’m following the Liars trial with what I hope is the same devotion my benefactors showed some 33 years ago. And I get an even better seat with the FDL crew giving a play by play from the courthouse, and loving, patient answers to the questions — with all this legal jargon and subterfuge being throw around — so that even this observer is able to follow the mighty hand of justice despite the mighty Wurlitzer.

We never went hungry though the lake’s name was Starvation, and we’re not going hungry today, living in the midst of a new kind of Lake.

This entry was posted Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 11:26 am and is filed under Crimes, Democracy, Impeachment, This Blog. Both comments and pings are currently closed.