CLINTON TENNESSEE - CLOSING NOTES

I realize that somehow I have to bring closure to the episodes of this week. I don’t think as many life changing events have happened in one week to me. It was a busy, energetic, thoughtful, and unusual week. From Big Sur to Nashville, from Salinas, California, to Clinton, Tennessee, from John Steinbeck to THE TRUE FACE OF CLINTON-TIME MAGAZINE 12/17/56 This story tells the original story of what happened in Clinton and to Rev. Paul Turner (please read!), from the Hearst Castle to the Green McAdoo Cultural Center, from the garlic capital of the world (Gilroy, California)) to a fire in our hotel in Clinton, TN., from now to THEN !

SOME THOUGHTS FROM THE WEEK:

Viewing a previously unseen area of the world opens new vistas of understanding.

ALWAYS remember the good from a bad situation.

Most people have no idea of the real influence of their lives on others.

Simple things often have great meaning.

There are always flower blooming somewhere.

The big events that change our lives are often unexpected.


A CONVERSATION

Alfred Williams, one of the original students, sat in front of me at First Baptist Church where Paul Turner was the pastor. Afterwards I asked him a question. "What did Rev. Paul Turner, walking with yall to school mean?"(Remember that Rev. Paul Turner was badly beaten after walking with the students. People were yelling, "kill him, kill him!")

Alfred said with a great deal of pride in his eyes and voice, "Nothing meant more to us than that he stood by us during that time. He was a great man!" (Note: It was evident all weekend that Rev. Paul Turner was a BIG hero to the African-American community. His quotes were engraved in marble on the wall outside the museum.)

When he shared his thoughts something happened to me that was one of the biggest surprises of my life. Rev. Paul Turner, besides living besides me in Clinton, had a tremendous influence on my life. He preached my ordination sermon in Louisville, Kentucky, when I was a student there in 1970.

Many times we talked of the Clinton experience. In none of these conversations did he realize the importance of what he had done. He received thousands of letters, many filled with hatred, others with admiration. One was from Billy Graham, another from Edward R. Murrow. To Rev. Turner, the hatred he received was paramount. It affected the rest of his life. BUT I REALIZED when talking to Alfred that “Paul Turner had done a great deed for people who were disenfranchised, worn down by hatred, beaten by public opinion, and who feared for their lives every moment.” I wished he could have been there this weekend to realize the effect he had really had on people’s lives.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN – A BIG UGH!

I was shocked this weekend to discover that the daughter of John Kasper had been searching for her father. She was born in 1977 and never remembers him. She is searching for her lost father, "a man who ran for President in 1960 and 1964." She wants to write a book about him and even went to Clinton recently to do research. She is bisexual, has 8 tattoos and feels her father needs a book written about him to do him honor.

John Kasper is definitely an interesting man, although very misguided! I guess I have learned more about him this weekend than anytime in history. I did not know that he was a friend of Ezra Pound, whom I admire as the greatest inspiration in poetry for the past generation, but evidently misguided (Pound) in some or all of his anti-semi tie thoughts.

But Kasper did more to stir up trouble in Clinton than anyone could imagine. Read the read story. John Kasper link-a must read !, a real trouble maker. I also discovered that he had had a previous experience in Louisville, Kentucky, that I was unaware of. Sallie Bingham, daughter of the publisher of the Louisville Courier-Journal, tells of his visits to Pound and his damage in Louisville.. link

Oh well, I am so emotional about all of this that I have got to stop. Maybe more later or never.