Sam Outlaw had a motto. As I recall some 40 years later it went something like this: "If it rattles, take it out. If it stills runs, everything's okay". Sam's auto was a sight, particularly the interior dashboard. There was no cover on the glove compartment, the outer rim of the speedometer was missing, the horn had no cap...well, you get the picture. Sam's theory seemed to work, as the old car seemed to run pretty good.
Sam's surname seemed to fit too. He was born and raised in a place in Mississippi named Guntown. That all made some sense to me as a 10 or 11 year old in 1953 Gene Autry, Oklahoma. We lived in what then was called a trailer park. That appellation seemed then not to be so denigrating as in its current usage. Our "mobile home" had three wheels for each side, and the tires were attached and in full view. As fitting the place, the name of our "park" was Melody Ranch. This was also the name of the B movie star's radio and television cowboy ranch.
Sergeant Sam Outlaw was in the military, the USAF, as was my father, also a sergeant. All the male residents of our park were military with the highest ranked person being, I think, a warrant officer, which really is no officer at all. All were married, most had children. The Korean "Conflict," which had just ended and which was the cause for most of these displaced Americans being at Ardmore Air Force Base Oklahoma, had killed some 50 thousand plus Americans. Virtually all of the men of Melody Ranch had served and survived a prior conflict we recollect with initials and roman numbers, WWII.
Jack Garrison, who may have been a warrant officer, and my father mostly built Melody Ranch. They did everything but drill the well that supplied our water. I'm pretty sure they installed the pump, all the water lines, the septic tanks and such. They did employ too, but for little recompense, I'm sure, like the man with the forked tree limb that divined the location for the well driller.
Those were good times for 10 and 11 year olds, those younger and older too I'm sure, as well as for their parents. Looking back, no one seemed to have much, but they were working; they were acquiring things, possessions. Their civilian counterparts were buying new, tract homes around urban centers in what would be called suburbia. All were buying furniture, new appliances, TV sets, though not yet sold in color versions...really all manner of things that had seemed unaffordable just before WWII for most of their parents. My parents and most of their parents as well had suffered the Depression era.
Now, really, what they had most was opportunity, and optimism.
The adults, the children of the Depression and of much poverty and deprivation, those sons and daughters, the survivors of a great war, in that trailer park, and their civilian contemporaries, they took their optimism and seized their opportunity. And those children of those parents benefited greatly. And they inherited that optimism and continued the opportunity for posterity.
In other places, things were not so good. For whatever reason, a war had ended with a country, Germany, and a semi-continent, Europe, divided. A divide still characterized as, West and East. Decisions were made at places called Potsdam and Yalta as well as other places and in the minds of men that made this so. Perhaps it was exhaustion from a long, deathly struggle that produced horrors previously thought left in the dusty bin of a long ago darker age, a pre-civilized time. Or perhaps, it was the exclamation point of the detonation, the angry outburst, of two atom bombs that added urgency and desire to put all at end in connection with that hard, seemingly impossibly struggle that humankind had endured.
Whatever the reason, or reasons, it was a wrong thing that happened. It left millions, 100s of millions, enslaved behind a curtain of iron as Winston Churchill soon described that West-East divide, a new paradigm of modern history. The evil of totalitarianism, the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini survived in the State created by Lenin and Stalin. Good men, thinking men, politically both left and right, realized and recognized this. And they joined, generally in what can be called a fractious union, to contain the evil for over 40 years until it was defeated. Well sort of, mostly and maybe, at least in one form. And we speak of only one semi-continent still.
But the tragedy. The wrong. It occurred, still is evident, and the curative period has yet to be determined Sam Outlaw, Jack Garrison, my daddy, their millions of contemporaries on several continents, their optimism, the opportunities they had and used well still produces great opportunities and has left posterity with great benefit...even continued optimism and opportunity. But, millions, 100s of millions were left behind. Back in about 1945.
What waste! The millions with lost opportunity, little optimism... and their posterity, now only, and only maybe... getting a beginning... with some opportunity... maybe... for them and their children.
The children and grandchildren of those left behind in 1945. Are they optimistic? Is optimism justified?
For me the answer to these questions is yes. That is, for those who are the inheritors of the nations of Eastern and Central Europe, those that had some history as nations before, or even after the division of the great European powers that occurred post WWI. I speak of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, the Baltic nations, and even some for those divided Balkan regions of the post Soviet period. Included of course is the former East Germany, despite some discontent with the equities of reunion. These countries were mostly and essentially brought within the Soviet sphere as a result of the termination of WWII and decisions made towards and after its end.
Ukraine and Belarus are special cases. I do not discuss other former Soviet republics, the generally non-Slavic ones.
Ukraine is in the midst of its Orange Revolution as it has been aptly described because of the colors adapted by one candidate for its presidency.
Both Ukraine and Belarus are nations formed as a result of the 1989 breakup of the USSR and decisions their plebiscites made at the time and continuing into late 1991. Previously they were republics of the former Soviet Union. They essentially were republics prior to 1989-91 as opposed to being a part of Russia proper (Greater Russia) because of an argument between Lenin and Stalin in the early days of the formation of the Soviet Union.
Lenin favored the creation of more republics, though with Russia as the leading republic, as an impetus for the worldwide communist movement he envisioned. Lenin won the political argument and the new republics, composed of largely indigenous, though separate Eastern Slavic peoples, were formed. Lands, Russian lands for centuries, were thus political creations of a movement. Ukraine's lands were further added in 1954 when Crimea, largely a Russian occupied territory since the 18th century, was somewhat gratuitously added to the republic's boundaries.
None of the above should be taken by others as anything other than a note of caution to an optimistic view of Ukraine's current situation. I write on December 15th, some 11 days before an important election for the people of Ukraine. I have always in previous writings described Ukraine, optimistically and enthusiastically I might add, as the New Nation, Ukraine.
But, a realistic interpretation of history and some understanding of Russia's need for expansion and buffers to real or perceived enemies are necessary. And Russia, even today, seemingly somewhat contained and constrained, is a mighty force. Russia's interests in the sea access provided by Crimea as well as Odesa are real. That Russia's current leaders, not to mention Tsars from pre Peter the Great forward, and even the current average Russian citizen, feel not only a "brotherly" interest in the Ukrainian, Byelorussian and other lands of Kyivan Rus, but also a proprietary one. This will not change, no matter the outcome of the December 26, 2004 election.
It seems Ukrainians have throughout history endured more than most peoples. And for a longer period. For centuries wars have been fought on, over and about Ukrainian lands. Particularly, in the 20th century the wars induced both natural famines and subjugation of the individual by others. This has been the lot of the Ukrainian. Millions of Ukrainians, possibly as many as 20 to 25 million died this past century, not of natural causes. The effects have been and still are devastating for and to the Ukrainian people.
I wrote recently about the current Orange Revolution not being primarily about language, Ukrainian versus Russian, Eastern versus Western, industrial versus agrarian. I ended the article with the simple assertion that it was about much more important things.
It's about a people wanting to be free, free to decide for themselves.
I think an exhausted, tired people, filling the streets of Kyiv and other cities are standing up - individually, for themselves, and together they stand, East and West, wanting Ukraine to finally be that new nation.
I think individually, collectively, mutually and jointly, they are saying, "No." "No more."
Sam Outlaw may still be around, I don't know. My daddy's been gone 30 years and Jack Garrison passed away 15 years down the road. I don't know about Sam's old jalopy.
But all their optimism lives. And the opportunities they fought for continue for their progeny.
And the spirit of the Ukrainian people is rattling forth in Independence Square. And all throughout Ukraine.
The people standing up saying "No More!"
If they continue to stand together, then, there is reason for optimism.
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