yet another life well-lived

[lauradi7dw]

I don't think the universe (or God) is killing people off to nag me to get off my butt and make a
difference in the world, but maybe it will ultimately have that effect. I went to a memorial
service (in the loosest sense - no religion was involved) today for Eric Weinberger.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2007/02/10/eric_weinberger_longtime_social_justice_activist_74/

Two interesting brushes with more fame - he knew Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, and only by chance wasn't in the car with them on the fateful night.
A bit later, he drove the truck with sound equipment to Chicago for the protests during the 1968
Democratic convention, and (as evidenced by his FBI file, which I remember him requesting and
receiving in about 1980) while the police thought of him as one of the outside agitators, they
didn't know how to find him to arrest him. So we had the Chicago Eight (later in the trial, Seven) instead of the Chicago Nine...

I knew Eric from work, in the 1970s and 80s, not from any of the nobel or radical activities in which he participated, although his name had turned up Howard Zinn's book about SNCC that I read for a Political Science course at UNC. Among other things, he taught me double entry bookkeeping, another one of the skills I have that
no longer qualifies me for gainful employment. It was useful at the time, though.

I hadn't seen him in a number of years, and in fact started avoiding him after his son committed suicide, because I was too cowardly to approach him in sympathy. I also learned about a year ago that Alzheimer's had set in but didn't do anything to help out. The folks that did most of the caregiving for a few years were in their 20s (one or two older), setting a shining example for those of us older and lazier.
OK, done with the self-flagellation for the time being.

There were a couple of hours of prepared recollections from family and friends, a slide show of photos, and some musical numbers from the Second Line Social Aid Pleasure Society Brass Band, a mix of traditional New Orleans funeral songs and some more political. I guess I need to get
used to the idea of surprising music at memorials. I didn't have my earplugs with me, and in a small space they were LOUD.
http://slsaps.org/gigs.html

Then some yummy food provided by the Food Not Bombs folks, videos of Eric being interviewed on
various topics, footage of instruction in how to go limp while being dragged away by the police,
others. I left after 3 1/2 hours or so and there were still many people there.

He had been collecting political (and occasional other) buttons for the better part of 50 years, and we were invited to take some as mementos.

I had picked up the one from the time people levitated the Pentagon to send to Florence
http://www.jofreeman.com/photos/Pentagon67.html
and the one from 1981 Pride because I was there.
The person who got the Apollo 8 button was discussing it with a friend, and I remembered the event better than either of them, so he gave it to me. What a gift. I haven't decided yet whether to just put in with other oddities in the china cabinet or actually to frame it somehow.