I remember reading an old Soviet joke in Hedrick Smith's book The Russians (I think), that summed up the malaise of the 1970's in Soviet Russia. By then it was clear that the promise of communism that sustained the east bloc was dead. Moribund clearly, even the leadership was aware that soon it would be as Ronald Reagan would pronounce on the campaign trail, "On the ash heap of history."
Here's the joke: Lenin, Stalin and Brezhnev are on a train traveling through snowy Siberia. The train grinds to a halt. The three leaders are enjoying Cuban cigars and drinking a fine imported port wine. By the time they finish their smokes the train has not moved, and Lenin begins to grumble, “I think we need a new economic policy to motivate the proletariat to produce enough fuel to get us out of here."
Stalin dismisses the suggestion asserting, "Nyet! We just need a purge. Let's grab a couple of the conductors and blow their brains out. That will get this train moving!"
Brezhnev sighs, lights another cigar, pours another glass of port, and intones, “All we need to do is pull down the window shades and assume that we are moving."
When I got off the plane and walked onto the D concourse in Atlanta's airport, I deplaned at gate fourteen, I did not know the layout. I started walking to the gates in descending order expecting gate one to be the nexus of the common area, allowing me to leave Concourse D. Not the case. Gate one was a dead end. The exit is at gate twenty-two. So, I had to turn around and march back down the hall and retrace my steps, plus some.
I used the escalator to go down a level where I could board a train to Concourse A. I got on the train, and it did not move. They announced that it was "experiencing technical difficulties” and that we should considering walking to our destination(s). Don't have to tell me twice. I was surprised how many people stayed on the train, apparently betting it would get fixed rapidly. I never saw the train go by me as I walked from Concourse D to Concourse A.
Between Concourse D and Concourse C is a display of large format photographs and graphics detailing the timeline of Atlanta's past, starting with the First Peoples. Most of the images of Atlanta laying in ruins from the civil war are particularly startling. Most images I have seen before in various reference books, but seeing a five-foot-wide view of the aftermath really brings the devastation home.
The-same is true about the photographs from the civil rights movement. Looking into the eyes of a group of black women and men as they cue to enter a building is haunting. Some have turned their heads back over their shoulders to look suspiciously into the camera. I imagine it was a white man holding the camera. Their stares communicated a noncommittal disdain for having been recorded entering a building that had a sign over its doorway announcing: "Colored only." Because of the large image format, they look you right into the eye. The sheer inhumanity of the scene is staggering.
Glad that train was broken. I sometimes wonder if all we have done in this nation is pull down the window shades and "assume that we are moving."
