Mulling over Dad’s predictions

Mulling over Dad’s predictions

Given the current state of the economy, I would like to share some observations made by my father many years ago. His observations were made during a conversation we had in October of 1968, shortly before the presidential election.

The 1968 presidential contest had three candidates: Richard Nixon (Republican) Hubert Humphrey (Democrat) and George Wallace (Independent). (Note: this would be the first time I voted for president, and I cast my vote for Nixon.)

The conversation took place at our family home in Girard on a late Saturday afternoon. We were discussing current events over a “shot and a beer” as we read sections of The Youngstown Vindicator.

It began with a question on my part as to who the better presidential candidate for Ohio and the Mahoning Valley. At the time, the manufacturing of steel was still the predominant base for our local economy and had been since the turn of the century. He had been employed at the McDonald Works since the mid-1930s. My Dad’s reply was that it didn’t matter if Nixon or Humphrey were elected; neither would be good for the local economy.

When I asked him why, he replied (and these are his exact words), “It doesn’t matter who’s elected because the steel mills will be dead by 1980.”

I asked him to tell me what else he saw in the future.

He immediately replied, “A civil war.”

Because the country was experiencing racial turmoil, I asked if it would be “black versus white.”

He replied, “Yes and no.”

When I asked for clarification, he said, “It will be black and white have-nots against black and white haves.” Wanting further clarification, I asked who he thought would win this war and he responded, “The have-nots because there will be so damn many of them and that is the point at which the country will be integrated.”

Our conversation ended with his comment that this civil war would occur sometime after the mid 1990s.

I have lived to see half of his predictions come true. The steel mills went down in September of 1978, almost 10 years after this conversation. The economic conditions today give me pause to consider that his second point about a “have-nots versus haves” civil war might become a reality.

Peter Chila, Canfield