113
July 23, 1990
Ambassador P. G. J. Koornhof
Embassy of South Africa
53051 Massachusetts Avenue N.W.
Washington, D. C. 20008
Dear Mr. Ambassador:
Two years ago I wrote you a letter regarding apartheid and
the Black situation in our country. I also mailed a letter
to Public Television Station KQED, who gives South Africa
such bad press.
Our two main political parties, the Republicans and the
Democrats, are fairly evenly divided. Therefore, the Black
voters will mostly vote as a block. This gives them
considerable political power. The Democrats have made enough
concessions so that the Black voters overwhelmingly vote
Democratic. I will now list how the Blacks in this country
and in South Africa, or really all of Africa, affect my
personal life.
1. Integration does not function well. It has become a form
of class warfare.
2. Integration has brought on a sense of loss of community.
This has been particularly harmful to Black people and other
minorities.
3. Forced bussing and big schools have caused too many
deaths on the highways. Executives that are transferred to
San Francisco would like to live there and raise their children there.
However, their children may be bussed to a
place called Hunter's Point. These are buildings built for
the Navy personnel. They were built in a hurry and were
supposed to be torn down as soon as the war was over.
Instead, they filled up with Black people. There were
complaints about the buildings, so the government spent
millions of dollars to rehabilitate the buildings. Next,
people complained about the poor results at the schools. So
busing was resorted to.
Due to commuters, the morning and evening rush hours on the
highways out of San Francisco are a nightmare. This must
cause a lot of extra traffic deaths. How many I don't know--
I would guess a few thousand. The Bayshore Freeway, Highway
101, runs out of San Francisco. On the other side is an area
called East Palo Alto, which was just recently incorporated.
The original developers planned to make it a very pleasant
place to live, and they succeeded until the war. Then it
filled up with Black people. Many of the lots were five
acres in size. A very modern highschool was built, with
extensive grounds. However, the students did very badly. So
it is made into what is called a "magnet" school. This
attracted bright White students, Orientals, etc., however,
the Black students still did badly. So the school was
closed, and all the highschool students in that area were
bused to various schools on the Peninsula. In the schools
they bused to they often brought an atmosphere of violence
with them.
I would now like to talk about my experiences with the
Veterans Administration in Palo Alto and at Menlo Park. It
was a very educational experience because I dealt with such a
variety of men and a variety of conditions. There were also
some women veterans, of course.
I became interested in what I call "intensity levels." When
people ask me what I mean by intensity, I would quote Sammy
Snead, the great golfer. They called him Slamming Sammy
Snead. He was being interviewed by Martin Agronsky. Martin
asked him, "How do you get rid of intensity?" Sammy looked
down on Agronsky and said, "Without intensity you are not a
champion." Many of the veterans were part American Indian,
especially Cherokee and Choctaw Indians. The ones I saw were
really selective in some way. I only saw the ones who had
broken down nervously. The ones I saw had greater than
average intensity. In school they liked mathematics. I was
usually able to sense the intensity level. One day I
examined a young Black man who was a Nurses Aide. He had a
high intensity level. I finally asked him if he was part
American Indian, but he denied this. A week later he ran up
to me in the hallway, quite excited, and said. "I asked my
mother." She said, "Yes, your grandmother was a Cherokee."
This happened over and over again. How am I aware of other
people's intensity levels? My mother was very intuitive and
could practically look through people. My father was a
mathematician. I have occasionally met other people who have
this quality.
One patient impressed me very much. He was a mixture of
Black, American Indian, and White. He was an expert on jet
engines. He could take them apart and put them together
again. He taught jet engine mechanics and was considered a
top authority. Some of the mechanics resented his authority.
They felt he had been given it because he was Black. They
did not realize that they were fortunate to have been taught
by this brilliant man. Due to the stresses of this
situation, he had a nervous breakdown and ended up in the VA
Hospital. He and I talked a lot about the problems of being
a mixture. It is very common and very sad.
There is something special about the Welsh people. I would
sometimes say to a patient that their problem was that their
father was half Welch.
As an example. This veteran was in hospital for a
nervous breakdown. His father was all Welsh. His mother
German. He said, that his mother continually criticized his
father for not using his brains to be more financially
successful. The father paid no attention. He had a small
circle of Welsh friends and lived in his own little world.
The mother died of as heart attack at age 65. The father,
now aged 8O, was retired and living down South. Quite
healthy
