DearMe: lost and found in Europe and Africa

  On this day ...  Typical telephone of 1967 18 July 1967 Dear family,  On Paris TV today I heard pessimistic reports about Congo.  At the moment visas are not being given.  No visa, no go. Then I read the NY Times reports about Newark —twenty-one dead, The Times headline includes:  Negro Sniping Widens.  It reports snipers throughout the city.  It calls it a riot. I feel safer in Europe.  And perhaps Congo isn’t really so dangerous.  "Merrily we roll along" as my friends in Vietnam snipe daily. At any rate, I wonder if God is "with" the wealthy or the dirt-poor in all these conflicts. The lone phone call I made to our 6226 number cost the fantastic sum of $28.50 ($28 in 1967 is worth $263.29 today in 2024). All of 12 minutes.  I’m not kidding!  Did you time it? Thanks for taking turns. I was able to have a few words with all seven of you.  Love, Glenn,

  On this day ...  A Remington-Peters bullet, the kind that killed King.   5 April 1968 Dear brother, The crackly short wave radio has just brought us the news of America’s heinous crime.  The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.   I love my country and my heart is sorely touched, man.   How long, oh Lord?   Did the long, hot summer have to begin so soon?   Do we really think that the new muscle put into our police arsenal and the chemical guns we have built can save us?   Is our dollar going to save us?  What is the way for a suppressed minority to gain equality?   Marx’s answer may be all right for an oppressed majority, but I think King’s genius was his answer for the oppressed minority. Should we be willing to lay aside our tools we’re using in constructing the tower of Babel and get working on the task of first uniting us of many tribes and languages?   I think to us the building of the tower is more importa...