Headlines and History
The first bulletin board, which I created for my high school history students, was covered in dark red paper, and outlined with a black and white check boarder. Dispersed throughout the board, I tacked up various front pages, from newspapers which I had been collecting for years. My desire, besides attempting to be clever, was to help my students understand that history is happening right now. I wanted them to appreciate the importance of the moment and the world around them, to know that they were bearing witness to what someday the world would call history. I told them they should be involved in their world.
As time progressed, and meaningful events occurred, I replaced my old newspapers with new front pages, many brought in by the students who began to understand that election results, tragic accidents, wars, and even film impact our society, creating change and making history.
This week, I whittled down my stack of old newspapers, which in fact had grown little since the advent of the Internet. I literally had stacks of newspapers, and file folders filled with stories that I had clipped from the newspaper, for one reason or the other. Those files had survived for years unscathed, because of the value I had placed on their contents.
There was more than one file with articles about Cuba. I was in Europe, on Thursday September 12, 1991, when the International Herald Tribune ran: “Moscow to Withdraw Troops from Cuba, Gorbachev Tells U.S.”. One of countless stories which raised the expectation that change was finally going to come to Cuba – still waiting on that one; but I suppose hope does spring eternal, because despite my being fully aware that none of those clips had it right, I have saved them all.
The majority of the stories were from the 1980’s and 1990’s, and the Los Angels Times. I had a file on Panama, where I had traveled to in 1980. Along with dozens of other stories about the American siege in Panama, I had kept the Times, Monday, December 25, 1989 issue whose headlines read: “Noriega Seeks Papal Refuge. Surrenders to Envoy, Asks Asylum in Cuba or Spain”. My interest in Panama has waned, and Manuel Noriega certainly turned out to be less interesting than he once appeared, but the same front page has a picture of a Romanian man, with a raised clinch fist, taking cover, on the ground, with a group of fellow Romanian resistance fighters. We know how that remarkable story ends, so what do I do with the paper? This anonymous man took a stand for freedom and democracy, and I have held on to him for over twenty years, what do I now do with him?
Again, on Wednesday, January 3, 1990, the story saved was: “Noriega talks May Be Near Solution”. I can let go of this story, but on the back is a photograph with the caption: “Czechoslovakia’s new President Vaclav Havel, center, visits the east side of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate”. The headlines “Havel visits 2 Germanys, OK’s Unity.” How do I part with that? We now have one Germany and one Czech Republic and a Slovakia.
The Contras and the Sandinistas will not be saved. Nor will “San Marcos Province, Guatemala’s Killing Ground.” I suppose, in part, because those stories have made it into books, in my library. At the time, they spurred me to march in protest, watch foreign films, and shed quite a few tears over the senseless killings. I had such hope for Violeta Chamorro. How did Fujimori win over Vargas Llosa?
I am keeping: “Joyous Mandela Claims Victory: ‘Free at Last!’” Los Angles Times, Tuesday May 3, 1994. The headlines speak of Nelson Mandela becoming South Africa’s first black president, defeating Frederik W. De Klerk. I had learned of Mandela in London, when someone approached me on the street, and enlightened me to his plight. I bought a Free Mandela button, which I still have; and later became aware that I disagreed with his politics. However, his tenacity and dedication deserve a place in my filing cabinet.
For now, I shall also hold on to: Los Angeles Times, Wednesday, November 5, 1980 “Reagan Wins in a Landslide”, “Clinton Impeached” Maine Sunday Telegram, December 20, 1998, “It’s War” Press-Telegram, Thursday, January 17, 1991, “Rabin Is Assassinated at Rally Jewish Student Seized at Scene; Israel Stunned”, the Los Angeles Times Sunday, November 5, 1995, Sunday, February 2, 2003, South Florida, Sun-Sentinel “Columbia Tragedy” Day of Loss Astronauts Perish in Re-Entry Fireball”.
I also have the Herald Examiner, for Thursday August 6, 1974 “Nixon to Resign”, though I was not a big Herald Examiner reader, I did keep a copy of her last issue, for prosperity’s sake, published on Thursday, November 2, 1989. “So Long, L.A.!” the banner headline read, with a picture of the staff on the front cover.
The Whittier Daily News, Friday, May 20, 1994 “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, 1929-1994, Cancer Takes Life of Former First Lady,” read the headlines on the memorial edition. I am not a big Kennedy fan, yet here she is; and I have pristine copies of Newsweek, Time, and People, discussing her son’s death – why? I have magazine with Princess Diana’s pictures, covering her death. I do not want those magazines any longer. I am sorry they are dead, but I will not be the keeper of their story.
Los Angeles Times, Saturday May 23, 1993, “Johnny Carson quits: The Sun Sets on Johnny’s Last ‘Tonight’” For a while, at least, I will hold on to Johnny, but I am letting go of the front page story on the end of the show about nothing, Seinfeld, and therapy coming to television, with Thirty-Something.
On Wednesday November 4, 1992, the Times: “Clinton Rolls to Decisive Victory, Feinstein wins Senate Seat, Boxer Is Leading”. Diane Feinstein became California’s first Woman Senator – quite a wait. I still like Feinstein, and truly detest Boxer. But I remember that day well. I remember being proud to have voted in that election, and live in a state with two female Senators, and later have the opportunity to vote for two women again, in Maine. So Clinton is neither here nor there, but I think I will keep Feinstein.
“Nixon Dies; Ex-President Was Major Figure on World Stage,” The Los Angeles Times on Saturday, April 23, 1994. On Thursday, April 28, 1994 the Los Angeles Times ran “Nixon Gets Hero’s Farewell, Is Buried at boyhood Home.” On the front cover is a picture of President Clinton, Mrs. Clinton, President George Bush, Mrs. Barbara Bush, President Reagan, Mrs. Reagan, President Carter and Mrs. Carter, and President Ford and Mrs. Ford – I guess enough said, how can this paper line anyone’s trash can?
The advent of the Internet has made stacks of clippings impractical and unnecessary, with a search engine at my disposal I can find most facts in seconds; but there is something missing from the computer screen, with all of its clarity. Holding a newspaper is holding history. The yellowing pages declare the passage of time, and the fact that someone along the way, thought those pages important enough to save. It mattered to Tessie, Kate’s grandmother, that John Glenn orbited the earth and that John Kennedy was assassinated, thus I shall keep her old newspapers.
I hope we realize that we are all keepers of the past. That is all for now.
