Despite my sore right hip, which I have named Arthur Itis, I made it from Tower City to the northwest corner of East 9th Street and Carnegie Avenue for the Guardians home opener to promote peace for a couple of hours to baseball fans heading to the game between my favorite MLB team and the Chicago White Sox. As in past years, most people ignored my presence, but a couple of gentlemen said, “Nice to see you again,” as I have launched peace initiatives at that location for many years. One man gave me a high five and one woman shook my hand. A few people said “I like your flag” and I said, “I wish everyone did.”
A couple of young men were handing out freebies to fans. One gentleman in his late teens or early 20s was distributing small pouches of Cleveland Kitchen pickles. He did not know what my flag represented, so I said, “It’s a peace flag. I was in Vietnam for a year. I like peace better than war, which benefits undertakers and war profiteers–commonly known as defense contractors.” He smiled. Another young man was handing out small bags of popcorn. He gave me two which I stuffed into the pockets of my 1966 U.S. Army field jacket. The Fox 8 TV channel logo dominated the graphic on the bags’ label, so I thought it was a promotional item from the station. When I looked closely at the label after I got home I learned that the message read “Fox 8 is unfair to Cleveland’s Own”, paid for by NABET Local 42 (National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians). The popcorn tasted good, but it was chewy rather than crispy, indicating it may have been popped when Carl Stokes was the mayor of Cleveland.
I was pleasantly surprised to meet longtime friends from my days of playing volleyball years ago–Marc Bellini and Neil Kellner. I’ve met Marc on his way to Guardians games in previous years so I said, “We have to stop meeting like this. People are going to talk.” He smiled. One man, noticing the red number one on the embroidered patch of my black baseball cap said, “Big Red One”, nickname for the First Infantry Division. I said, “War comes down to fear-mongering politicians and war profiteers.” He said, “I learned about that firsthand in Iraq.”
The following day I was in the waiting area in the office of my dentist, Dr. Megan Shiga, just outside Chagrin Falls in Russell Township when a patient about to leave noticed my cap hanging on a hook with my coat. He said the word “Vietnam” which he had noticed on the cap, and I said, “It wasn’t my idea. I got drafted, but ya gotta do what ya gotta do.” He mentioned a friend of his was a Vietnam veteran. I said “Vietnam now is our ally against China. All those lives were wasted.” He said, “I don’t know what to say about that,” and left the office.
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