June 23, 2008
Don White: In Memoriam We don't always know who knows us, who cares about us, whose lives we have impacted. I am going through my emails today and I see an email, "¡Don White: Presente!" I know what that means, but at first I probably don't want to know, of course he is present, Don is always present, he always has a great presence, so why do an email about that? And then, in the split seconds of our minds' machinations, I realize that of course I know it is the expression used in the movement about someone who died. But how did Don White die? Why did he die? I remember Andy Terranova, a graduate of our National School for Strategic Organizing, and now a public school teacher, giving a eulogy for a fallen member of the Bus Riders Union, Freddy Spears. It was an all Black church and Andy talked about Freddys amazing life in fighting against racism in the South, his work with the Bus Riders Union, and his more political side that many of his friends had never known. And then, in true transformative organizing style, he told the group at the memorial service, "So, in our culture (meaning movement, Latino, and BRU culture) when someone dies we say, ¡Presente!" as a way to honor them. So please join me, "¡Freddy Spears, presente!" And then 300 Black people in the church repeated, with great gusto, "¡presente!" So now it is Don White, presente! and while we will all die, we will not all be presente! either while alive or dead. It takes someone good to get a "¡presente!" and Don was certainly good at what he did. To begin with, he was authentic. A one of a kind, as all the best organizers are. A true friend of the Salvadorean people, a supporter of the Salvadorean FMLN and their revolution, and a revolution in the US as well, a revolution to support revolution in the 3rd world, to support self-determination. Don was humble, a man with a big voice and a great orator. He had an orator's style, occasionally a little hyperbolic but mainly right on message, a sense of urgency, occasionally rhetorical but mainly a great practitioner of rhetoric. He spoke in the Latin American style of oratory, he could make the every day life sound dramatic, he was angry and gave a damn and wanted you to listen, not to him as much as his message. He, and I, and many, love Maria Guardado, a patron saint of anti-imperialist revolutiona woman who risked her life and almost lost it through the torture of the U.S. supported death squads in El Salvador. She is an active leader of CISPES and the Bus Riders Union. Don and I were both quoted in our insights about Maria in Randy Vasquez' wonderful film "Testimony: The Maria Guardado Story." So thanks to the film, Don, Maria, Randy, and so many others are united in the permanent record. Don lived for the revolution and was an omnipresent force in the politics of LA. I did not work with him intimately, so I do not know his specific flaws and idiosyncrasies, those that we all carry with us, nor did I get to know the specifics of his dedication and achievements as much as many others who knew him so much better. But I did know him, as we know public figures who are good, excellent at what they do, and I will miss him, because I will miss his work, the greatest loss. Mao said that some deaths are light and others are heavy. As I remember it, a light death means that the person achieved little on earth, and either did bad or did little, so she or he will not be missed by many people. But if someone does a god job on earth their death will be heavy. Don's death is very heavy, because there are few dedicated people these days. I have also been told that Buddha said that we die twice: once when we leave the earth and once when all the people who know us die. In that sense, movement organizers must in fact believe in an after life, because we try to touch as many lives as possible. I know the people of El Salvador, the people in CISPES, the Salvadorean community, the anti-racist, anti-imperialist community will miss Don a lot and in that sense, his life and his work continues. ¡Don White, Presente! Eric Mann [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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