Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 56
CHAPTER 2
NO SUBSTITUTE FOR FREEDOM
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SEEDING GROUNDS.
One of the many attributes of youth is idealism. No doubt we all experience it. Reading
specific utopian ideas from Thomas Moore, Tomasso Campanella, Francis Bacon or
Karl Marx at age 20 will produce different reactions than reading them at 40. Many of us
have lived through the truism of “Show me a liberal at 20 and I’ll show you a
conservative at 40.” While young, one can become so embroiled in idealistic
movements as to lose sense of reality. This is a phenomenon well exploited by older
leaders who know how to wrap their plans in idealistic paper. Some do so for their own
twisted and often cruel but always self-serving purposes, others to advance what the
majority honestly sees as more liberty and opportunity for all. With the system of checks
and balances in our political system, our national experience has demonstrated that it
would be most difficult for a Hitler or a Stalin to rise in America. However, the door is
wide open for a vigorous, eloquent idealist with adequate financial backing. Such was
the case of John F. Kennedy.
A few years after he had begun to capture the nation with his message and persona, I
was doing my graduate work at Texas A&M University. Along with my studies in
engineering, I had a part time job and was involved in the varsity gymnastics team.
However, I still managed to find time for other preoccupations. Perhaps a bit in the
shadow of Cervantes’ Don Quixote, I yearned to help right some of the wrongs I saw. I
neither had the hubris nor the abundance of causes of the famous Spanish Knight
Errant, but I shared his love for the underdog and for doing what I perceived was right.
One of the societal issues that grated me ever since I arrived in the South was the
institutionalized discrimination against Blacks and Hispanics I saw. In my mind, I always
offset this weakness by the openness and friendliness of the people I came to know
personally. The few times I encountered prejudice and dismissal as a “Mexican," though
making me mad, actually gave me a sense of superiority above the unfortunate fellows
who, only because of their skin color, felt themselves better than me. They did,
however, put me on notice on how destructive this attitude can be when applied
relentlessly over a lifetime.
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