Kearney and Malley

Tom Kearney was a cop.  He reflects on the memories of being a cop.  He talks a lot about blacks.  He mentions that some were trying to integrate with whites.  He also goes on to talk about many who feared to associate themselves with whites.  Tom Kearney said, “I wondered why there were so few colored in the crowd greeting the astronauts yesterday.”  He goes on to say that most people believed that it was that they didn’t care about the space race.  Kearney said, “I don’t think that’s true”  Kearney believed that it was not that blacks didn’t care about the great United States achievement, but that they were not at the parade due to their fear in whites.  The government, heavily white at the time, was in charge of the space program.  Many whites were following the space program and were at the parade.  With racial discrimination being a factor, it makes sense that blacks wouldn’t go to the parade.  This was in 1969.  It is amazing to think about how far we have come in about 40 years.  I believe that today blacks would attend the parade.  We have a black president today.  Today, blacks are just as involved as whites in the United States achievements.

George Malley was a blue collard worker.  He reflects on how society has changed.  He said, “Traditions of the past, there are some that I miss.  Chicago was a big city before and yet it was pretty much like a small town. Neighborhood after neighborhood, you know, were like small towns themselves.”  The end of the 1960’s was a lot like it is today.  Today, everyone lives really busy lives.  There is less family time and less community time.  People are constantly running around performing a million tasks at once.  I can’t remember the last time I went three days in a row having the whole family together eating a meal.  As George Malley pointed out, times changed.  When we think about the roaring 20’s, and why it was so “roaring”, it is because people weren’t living busy lives.  People spent more time outside with their family and friends.  While as George Malley points out, traditions will change, we can still remember the ways of the past.  I think as a society, we need to spend more time with our family and friends.