The 9/10/2024 Harris/Trump presidential debate made me recall an incident involving my mother that happened in the early '70s.
My newspaper editor assigned me to take photographs of something or other at the high school where my mother was a teacher.
She weighed maybe 110 pounds soaking wet and barely made it to a smidgen under five feet tall- which is, I think, why she wore her hair up all the time.
So I- and everyone in the office- were stunned when the door to the school office flew open and she entered, followed by a six-foot something, 250-pound football player type.
"Followed" isn't the correct word. She was literally dragging her victim by his belt buckle, which required some effort on her part since the buckle was above her hairline.
I should note that the drag-ee had what could be best described as a look of sheer terror on his face.
"Stay," she commanded. She marched into the principal's office and returned seconds later with the administrator in tow.
A near-tearful apology was offered by the kid, which my mother formally and graciously accepted. "But", she ordered, in a tone that would have made R. Lee Ermey proud, "he doesn't come back to my class," she decreed. The principal started to say something, thought better of it, and directed an office staffer to find the student another study hall.
"Thank you," she said to the principal. She pointed her finger at the kid and said, "You create a disturbance near my room again..." she stopped, then gave a smile that sent chills down our collective spines... "Well... that's not going to happen, is it?"
"No ma'am," the kid said earnestly. To be honest, I wondered if he would have the nerve to set foot anywhere in the building again.
Mom was gone in a flash, disappearing down a hall toward her next class, students parting like the Red Sea to hasten her passage. Her intensity of focus was such that she hadn't even noticed that her only child had witnessed her stunning performance.
I vividly recalled that performance as I watched Harris react to the inane ramblings of her opponent. And when she responded, with that suspensful pause before referring to him as "former President" -instead of the Samuel L. Jacksonian epithet that immediately came to mind- I no longer had any reservations.
You better think twice before you doubt the fearlessness and resolve of my mother- or Kamala Harris.
Categories: KGB Wayback Journal, KGB Wayback Journal #2
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