Saturdays with Seniors: Al’s Eyewitness Account

Al Hippensteel

I am pleased to introduce Al Hippensteel as our Saturdays with Seniors guest blogger today. Raised on the far south side of Chicago, Al has been a White Sox fan since 1957, he’s been married to his wife Donna since 1972, and says he “has never met a donut he didn’t like.”

After years working in the ad departments of Suburban newspapers, he transitioned to a 20-year career in the printing industry. Retired now, he serves as editor of three newsletters, including the popular Dearborn Express that covers news in our Printers Row neighborhood. When his fellow memoir-writing class member Regan Burke suggested “Witness” as a writing prompt, Al came back with a piece so thoughtful (and in the end, so positive) that it reads like a Poem.

by Al Hippensteel

Ihave witnessed the greatest threat to the health of all earthly people in a hundred years in the form of a pandemic.

I have witnessed the most chaos and divisiveness in US politics since the Civil War.

I have witnessed the greatest amount of economic pain weighing down on the average citizen since the Great Depression.

I have witnessed an all-out assault on the veracity of the fourth estate, our traditional news media.

I have witnessed the resulting mental anguish and depression caused by all of the above.

Conversely…

I have witnessed heroic individuals in medical gowns saving people’s lives.

I have witnessed a group of workers providing us with essential services while bravely facing the virus danger.

I have witnessed a resurgence of activism and protests relating to social justice like Black Lives Matter; or a voice for indigenous people, the Chi-Nations Youth Council; or Help increase the Peace sponsored by American Friends Service Project, a Quaker group.

I have witnessed young people protesting together, supporting each other, representing no fewer than a dozen causes.

I have witnessed people reaching deep into their pockets to support financially-strapped businesses.

I have witnessed creativity in art, music and dance to provide us with culture virtually in the desert of closed venues.

As we look forward toward the light at the end of a long tunnel, we will witness change. We have changed. The world has changed. Our habits have changed. We will witness the peeling off of layers of fear, illness, and misinformation.

The world has always been a miasma of good and evil. It will be the youth with their ideals and optimism who will guide us to a better place. We are a better people than we were 100 years ago, 50 years ago, or even 10 years ago. We don’t know it. We just can’t see it yet.

But we will witness it.