{"id":2647,"date":"2020-01-15T10:23:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T15:23:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/?p=2647"},"modified":"2023-04-07T14:12:23","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T18:12:23","slug":"news-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.library.american.edu\/pcca\/news-from-home\/","title":{"rendered":"News from Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tEvery volunteer watches as the world at home continues while they are abroad. Some changes are personal, such as the birth of a nephew or the death of a loved one. Other events are huge\u2014where the entire country laments at the news of a disaster.<\/p>\n

Thousands of miles away, Peace Corps Volunteers received news that shook the nation, and even the world. Radios broadcast the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and his brother Senator Robert Kennedy, the destruction of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the deadly attacks on September 11, 2001. While distance can lend space to heal from tragedy, it also cuts PCVs off from important support systems.<\/p>\n

These six volunteers watched American events unfold from the non-military, external broadcasting program Voice of America, newspapers, and letters from their families and friends. They reflected on national elections, assassinations, and devastating disasters\u2014often remarking on their isolation and questioning their faith in humanity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see much in the future.\u201d Assassination of John F. Kennedy- November 22, 1963<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Colombian

Headline in Colombian Newspaper on November 23, 1963. Friends of Colombia Collection, Peace Corps Community Archives.<\/p><\/div>\n

Geer Wilcox learned about the assassination of John F. Kennedy\u2019s while living in the Dominican Republic. As a blind Peace Corps Volunteer, Wilcox relied on hearing the news from neighbors reading newspapers and the radio. He often commented on the state of American politics or the Vietnam War as he listened to the international news broadcast, the Voice of America. When the news of Kennedy\u2019s death broke, Wilcox reported feeling apprehensive of Lyndon Johnson and the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilcox expresses his shock in a recorded letter home to his parents on November 30, 1963:<\/p>\n\n

Rene Cardenas was in Colombia when the news broke. She processes the aftermath of Kennedy’s death in a poem titled “Yesterday November.”<\/p>\n

The address for sorrow
\ntwo inches away
\nthe president has been killed<\/p>\n

the clouds of wet season
\nthe earth’s longest pity
\neverything is split time<\/p>\n

a piece of wood
\npulled apart at the grain
\nin an apartment in Cucuta<\/p>\n

han asesinado a Kennedy<\/em>
\nbells toll for three days
\nsent notes of condolences<\/p>\n

to the wall
\nby my bed
\ntwo inches away
\nfrom my face.<\/p>\n

Additional reactions to President Kennedy’s death are recorded here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a sick society I left.\u201d Assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy- June 6, 1968<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even as he served in Western Samoa, Arthur Aaronson wrote home often about the 1968 Democratic candidates Senator Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy. He heard about the attack on Senator Kennedy from other PCVs and the radio, which gave details about what happened in the hotel kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel. Aaronson wrote to his parents that evening:<\/p>\n

I heard the news about Kennedy Wed. night as I was walking back from a dance with my sister. Two volunteers walked by and they told me the news. I was stunned. Then when I heard it on the radio that night I could only cry as the radio gave the details. The death of Martin Luther King didn\u2019t hit as hard. Probably because Kennedy was on the way to being the next President. All the wealth and power of the U.S., it does not hide the fact of what a sick society I left.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"The

Aaronson’s letter home on June 6, 1968. Peace Corps Community Archives.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0\u201cI can only hope something good comes of all this.\u201d Rodney King Riots- April 29, 1992<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

Photograph submitted by Dark Sevier on January 1, 2008. Flickr Creative Commons<\/span><\/p>\n

In March 1991, a bystander recorded a video of four L.A. police officers beating\u00a0Rodney King<\/span>\u2014a black motorist\u2014for a reported 15 minutes as other LAPD officers looked on. Despite the video evidence, the court found the four officers “not guilty” of excessive use of force on April 29, 1992. Fueled by this acquittal and years of racial and economic inequality, riots broke out around South Los Angeles, raging for 5 days.<\/span>[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Tina Singleton\u00a0watched the riots transpire as she completed her volunteer staging in Ca<\/span>meroon. She <\/span>had lived and worked in San Francisco for 10 years before joining the Peace Corps in 1992. <\/span>Singleton followed the events and devoted several diary entries to her thoughts:<\/span><\/p>\n

30 Avril 1992<\/u><\/p>\n

Just heard about the 4 police officers in the Rodney King Case being acquitted\u2014I was sad and in shock. I just don\u2019t understand how the jury came to that conclusion\u2014it blows me away\u2014I\u2019m so upset. It\u2019s hard to concentrate on anything. I\u2019ve had a few good cries. Also heard about the rioting in L.A.\u2014it\u2019s awful<\/u>\u2014but I understand the reaction. This was such a blatant disregard for justice and Rodney King\u2019s civil rights\u2014what a disgrace\u2014and with all the evidence\u2014a videotape and all the tapes of the officers\u2019 conversations\u2014and they still got off. Rose-Marie and Soyeon and I were\/are very shaken by this. The U.S. is getting worse by the minute. It makes me not want to even go back to the U.S.\u2014I\u2019m happy I\u2019m here for two yrs.<\/p>\n

1 Mai 1992<\/u><\/p>\n

It\u2019s gotten worse\u2014protesters are now in San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas\u2014they\u2019ve blocked the Bay Bridge again. Can\u2019t believe all this is happening\u20141992 and we\u2019re having race riots. I can only hope something good comes of all this\u2014the rioting, the looting\u2014I almost wish I could pick up a phone and call Jean and Peggy. This was my first taste of what it\u2019s going to be like when a serious situation arises in the U.S.\u2014I felt pretty cut off. I see what volunteers mean when they say the shortwave will become your best friend. We listened to is as much as possible. What I wouldn\u2019t do for a newspaper right now. This is the weekend we stay with a Cameroonian family\u2014should be interesting. Though I\u2019ve been upset and crying today about this Rodney King episode. I just can\u2019t believe this has happened\u2014It still blows my mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lundi, 3 Mai 1992<\/u><\/p>\n

Heard on the news this morning about L.A.\u20142,000 people hurt, 40 dead, Bush has declared L.A. a disaster area. I guess he\u2019s going to LA this week to see the damage\u2014don\u2019t have figures on the other sites\u2014saw the news this weekend on TV at my family. L.A. looks pretty bad\u2014fires everywhere. Saw Rodney King\u2014he was so upset. I felt so bad for him. He kept saying \u201cit\u2019s not right, this isn\u2019t right\u2014we only want our day in court.\u201d He was pretty devastated about all the violence as well\u2014he spoke about the people not being able to go home to their families. He looked so devastated\u2014I felt so bad for him. He just looked so bad\u2014so down. Like I said before\u2014I hope something good comes of this.<\/p>\n

5 May 1992<\/u><\/p>\n

Well, last nite was a real shit nite. Sebastian brought newspapers from Dovala\u2014A USA Today<\/em> and some French language papers. I was not ready for what I saw\u2014the pictures really floored me. I knew it was bad in LA, but I didn\u2019t know how bad. The man [Reginald Denny] being dragged from his truck and shot\u2014then robbed. The white man who was on the ground and being kicked by 3 Black men\u2014it\u2019s so sick. I\u2019ve got such a bad headache. I can\u2019t stop thinking about all this madness. This whole thing has me wondering why I\u2019m here and not at home doing something to help the situation there.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so hard to concentrate on my French\u2014we\u2019re here for only 2 more weeks. I am worried about my French\u2014it doesn\u2019t seem so important anymore. I hope I\u2019m not going to feel like this for a long time\u2014I know if I do, I\u2019d leave, and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what I want. I\u2019m just so confused now. People here seem to think things will be better after this, but I don\u2019t think so. I\u2019m feeling pretty pessimistic at this point\u2014I\u2019ve no other reason to feel otherwise. Soyeon and I had a good cry last nite. We\u2019re both in a daze, as is Rose-Marie. Heard on the news this A.M. that 10,000 businesses were lost as well as at least that many jobs\u2014which is something we can\u2019t afford to lose.<\/p>\n

Soyeon and I are calling home tomorrow\u2014I can\u2019t wait. I really need <\/u>to talk to the folks\u2014I might call Jean too. I\u2019m not sure\u2014it will be great to at least talk to Mom and Dad. It\u2019s sounds like Mom\u2019s feeling a little lost with me gone. It\u2019s weird for me not to be able to pick up the phone. I was dying to talk to them last night\u2014tomorrow will come soon enough.<\/p>\n

— T<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a Black woman who lived in California\u2014or rather, anywhere in the United States\u2014Singleton was shocked and devastated by reoccurring injustices in the United States. Cut off from her friends and family and relying only on news from the radio and infrequent newspapers, she found support from two other Black volunteers\u2014Soyeon and Rose-Marie\u2014to process the injustice of the trial and the impact of the riots.<\/p>\n

Despite her initial desire to return home, Singleton spent 3 years in Benin, West Africa as a Health Educator. She became an international development worker for over 20 years and launched a program called Transformation Table<\/a>, devoted to promote sharing a meal and culture between communities, in November 2016 in Charleston, SC.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shortly came to the realization that life had changed.\u201d September 11, 2001<\/strong><\/p>\n