Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review July 20, 2000 / 17 Tamuz, 5760

Bob Greene

Bob Greene
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
James Glassman
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Arianna Huffington
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Debbie Schlussel
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Roger Simon
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Cathy Young
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports


On Main Street, signs of the times tell two stories


http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- COLUMBUS, Ohio | I tend to idealize the years and place of my growing up, and at the center of these memories is Main Street. When I recall what it was like for my friends and me to ride our bikes along Main Street, the landmarks are as vivid now in memory as they were on the summer days when we would roll past them, pumping away at the bike pedals: Seckel's 5 & 10, the Eskimo Queen ice cream stand, the Ohio National Bank, Rogers' Drugstore. . . .

But there was something else -- something we barely paid attention to.

It was a billboard -- a big one.

And the words on the billboard, in huge letters, with no explanatory text underneath those letters, were:

"IMPEACH EARL WARREN."

We had no idea who Earl Warren was; we were kids. I don't think we even had any idea what "impeach" meant. Probably we thought "impeach" was sort of like "elect." Maybe this Earl Warren guy was running for office, and wanted our parents' vote.

Earl Warren was the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. He was appointed by President Eisenhower in 1953, and served until 1969 (he died in 1974). He became a figure of enormous controversy in the 1950s and 1960s because of what some people on the right considered to be his liberal leanings. He was the justice who wrote the historic Brown vs. Board of Education opinion for a unanimous court, banning segregation in schools; the Warren Court, as it was called, issued the Miranda vs. State of Arizona decision ruling that criminal suspects must be informed of their rights. . . .

All of this infuriated many people on the far political right; the John Birch Society in particular targeted Warren, agitating for him to be removed from office. Bumper stickers advocating his impeachment were distributed across the country -- and in our neighborhood, someone had funded the big "IMPEACH EARL WARREN" billboard on Main Street.

The people who despised Warren thought that his purportedly permissive political leanings would eventually be the downfall of the country; they thought that his court stood for an anything-goes attitude that would bring the nation down. It was such an odd sight on Main Street -- there were all the feel-good artifacts of Leave-it-to-Beaver-land, and then there was the angry billboard urging the removal from office of the chief justice of the United States.

We didn't know; we would ride our bikes right past it. We were children on Main Street.

Last week, I was back on Main Street. Not on a bike this time; I was riding in a car, in a hurry to get someplace.

The "IMPEACH EARL WARREN" billboard is long gone. But not far from where it used to be, I saw another sign. It was on the side of a small building on Main Street.

The sign said: "Recycle Your Old Porn."

It was on the side of a so-called adult book and video store. Apparently it was an invitation to bring in no-longer-wanted pornography, and trade it in for new pornography.

Had we seen that sign from our bikes as we rode down Main Street in the 1950s. . . .

Well, we wouldn't have seen it. Any business owner who had put up such a sign would have ended up in jail.

But had we seen it, we would have had no more idea of what those words meant than we did about the words on the Earl Warren sign.

"Recycle"? What's that mean? Something to do with bicycles?

But the main confusion, of course, would have been about the "porn." If "porn" was short for "pornography," and pornography was forbidden, dark, hidden, something to be stamped out. . . .

Then how could those words be displayed on a sign on Main Street? Right where everyone could see them? "Recycle Your Old Porn"? How could that be -- right out there in full view, as if the words were advertising a bake sale or an ice cream social? Right out there where not only grownups in cars could see the words, but kids on their bikes on a summer afternoon?

In the days of the "IMPEACH EARL WARREN" billboard, far-right conservatives were warning that some day the country would change so much that it would hardly be recognizable -- would change in ways that we might regret.

The billboard has disappeared. On Main Street the other day, I found myself thinking about whether, years from now, boys and girls who are children today will think back to the Main Street of their own growing-up time, and hazily remember another sign. "Recycle Your Old Porn."



JWR contributor Bob Greene is a novelist and columnist. Send your comments to him by clicking here.

Up

07/18/00: Have the choices changed, or have we?
07/14/00: Gable, Hepburn, Zanuck--you wouldn't find them at HOJO's
07/13/00: The Great Lie about political conventions
07/06/00: If this is victory, what would defeat feel like?
06/29/00: A bright moon and a missing person on Orange Ave.
06/26/00: They're not singing our song
06/22/00: The name game
06/07/00: It's like knocking on a revolving door
06/06/00: Steven who? A close encounter of mistaken identity
06/02/00: Of summer days, summer nights and pebbles in a jar
05/31/00: The best laughter, the truest voices, will never fade
05/25/00: Of distant visions, close views, and Bobby Knight
05/24/00: 'The luckiest thing that ever happened to me'
05/23/00: 'It's funny how you remember the little things'
05/22/00: 'The whisper of a generation saying goodbye to its children'
05/19/00: The place to find life is not a keyboard
05/18/00: A problem of suds but no duds
05/17/00: Are those lazy, hazy dot-com days fading?
05/16/00: The truest things in life require not a single word
05/15/00: 'Evidently he didn't like the way she dusted the house'
05/12/00: Why news executives are hoping this 'woman' is a hit
05/11/00: Ted Koppel, Hitler, Mellencamp . . . and words of love
05/10/00: Maybe it's time for the right people to hear our cheers
05/09/00: The lesson that they always learn late
05/05/00: 'Excuse me, but there seems to be something in my water'
05/05/00: When your first dream turns out to be your best dream
05/04/00: Even baseball couldn't make light of this superstition
05/03/00: The ringmaster who looks back from your mirror
05/02/00: There they go, just a-yappin' down the street . . .
05/01/00: You must remember this (Unless you don't)
04/24/00: Now that casino ads are allowed to tell the truth . . .
04/13/00: The man in the seat across the airplane aisle
04/11/00: A star is born, but do you know where it's @?
04/06/00: Through the eyes of Norman Rockwell
03/21/00: 10 good reasons to avoid making this list
03/21/00: 'I tell myself that they've gone on vacation'
03/21/00: Monday Night Football memories
03/02/00: This report card deserves an 'A' in every subject
02/29/00: What really happened on New Year's eve
02/23/00: Of paste pots, Denver sandwiches and finding Dr. Sam
02/17/00: What would you like to stay exactly the same?
02/04/00: Politics: When did the stagehands step onto the stage?
02/01/00: An awesome idea to make you sound better
01/26/00: Y3K already? We haven't yet recovered from Y2K
01/21/00: Watching the pot that always boils
01/19/00:The story behind the men on the museum steps
01/13/00: Here's to the students who never hear a cheer
01/11/00: The oh-so-sweet sound of modems in the morning
01/04/00: The person in your mirror just got wiser
12/31/99: A lesson -- and a memory -- to last a millennium
12/29/99: Racing the clock, even when it's running backwards
12/13/99: The right to bear coffee
12/08/99: From teen idol to ink-stained wretch: Can you Dig it?
12/02/99: Human 'search engines'
11/30/99: Here's looking at you -- now hand over the cash
11/23/99: Who'll say 'I'm sorry' to the other Decatur students?
11/18/99: "From bad things, good can come"
11/16/99: The man who didn't know the meaning of 'whatever'
11/12/99: Is this progress? We have made the weekend obsolete
11/09/99: Today he would probably be called Kyle Kramden
11/04/99: And you thought the IRS was heartless
11/02/99: When it's free, what will the real price be?
10/29/99: The tissue-thin decisions that define who we are
10/26/99: One way to cut road rage down to size
10/22/99: Asking all the right questions takes a special pitch
10/18/99: The signs are talking to you; Are you listening?
10/12/99: Even Capone would be disgusted
10/08/99: Don't ever look your neighborhood bear in the eye
10/06/99: Land of the free and marketplace of the brave
10/04/99: German warplanes in American skies
09/30/99: While you fret, something is sneaking up on you
09/28/99: In these busy times, why not bring back a certain buzz?
09/24/99: The storms whose paths no one can track
09/21/99: Who's minding the store? Oh . . . never mind
09/17/99:Here's another place where you can't smoke
09/14/99: As certainly as `lovely Rita' follows `when I'm 64' . . .
09/09/99: Why is patience no longer a virtue?
09/07/99: Once upon a time, in an airport close to you . . .
09/03/99: The answers? They are right in front of us
09/01/99: Up the creek with a paddle--and cussing up a storm
08/30/99: $1 Million Question: How'd we get to be so stup-d?
08/27/99: Fun and games at Camp Umbilical Cord
08/25/99: How life has been changed by the woodpecker effect
08/23/99: If you don't like this story, blame the robot who wrote it
08/20/99: A four-letter word that has helped both Bob and Rhonda
08/18/99: They have picked the wrong country
08/16/99: From paperboy to stalker--how the news has changed
08/12/99: Why wasn't anyone watching his brothers?
08/10/99: Come to think of it, stars seldom are the retiring type
08/05/99: The national gaper's block is always jammed
07/29/99: 'Can you imagine the gift you gave me?'
07/27/99: A view to a kill -- but is this really necessary?
07/23/99: Some cream and sugar with your turbulence?
07/21/99: When your name is JFK jr., how do you choose to use it?
07/19/99: The real world is declared not real enough
07/15/99: The real victims of cruel and unusual punishment
07/13/99: A 21st Century idea for schools: log off and learn
07/09/99: Are life's sweetest mysteries still around the bend?
07/07/99: Of great minds, cream cheese and Freddy Cannon
07/02/99: The perfect spokesman for the American way
06/30/99: 'He's 9 years old . . . he trusts people'
06/28/99: A $581 million jackpot in the courthouse casino
06/25/99: A nighttime walk to a House that feels like a cage
06/23/99: At least give men credit for being more morose
06/18/99: On Father's Day, a few words about mothers
06/16/99: If work is a dance, how's your partner doing?
06/14/99: Should a dictionary ever tell you to keep quiet?
06/10/99: A story of Sex, the SuperBowl and your wife
06/07/99: Take a guess where "California Sun" is from
06/03/99: Of summer days, summer nights and pebbles in a jar
06/01/99: Putting your money where their mouths are
05/27/99: Pressed between wooden covers, the summer of her life
05/25/99:The lingering song of a certain summer
05/24/99:We could all use a return to the Buddy system
05/20/99: Now, this is enough to make James Bond double-0 depressed 05/17/99: It's midnight -- do you know where your parents are?
05/13/99: And now even saying "thank you" creates a problem
05/11/99: The answer was standing at the front door

©1999, Tribune Media Services