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Backandforthlash!
The Pendulum Will Swing
In Pittsburgh, the corner of Crawford Street and Centre Avenue is known as the Freedom Corner. It is a spot of sacred significance in the local history of fighting oppression. I’ve only recently resettled here; much of this is new to me. The Freedom Corner was a line drawn in the sand to protest the urban renewal that was wiping out the black neighborhoods of the Hill District in the 1960s. Since then, it’s been a starting point for various marches and protests. Much of the history of the black community has been immortalized in the plays of August Wilson, a native son. The protests for different causes but the message stays the same- THIS shall not stand.
I’m not idealistic or young- Those days are in the rearview mirror, and they sometimes feel closer than they are. But they are most decidedly in the past. (A marker if you need one: an early boyfriend was one of the students who took over Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in the spring of 1968.) Even so, I feel the need to bear witness. Revolution is in the air. I can even walk to the protests from my house. Such a righteous multitask, protest tyranny, AND get my steps in.
Some time ago. our current president felt that going to the Kennedy Center to see Les Miserables was a good look. I wonder if his staff hates him. That put me in mind of the rousing anthem, Do You…
