Part of: Pat Cuney oral history (2 objects)
Pat Cuney oral history - Pat Cuney oral history
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- Q: Let’s see. Yeah, if there’s any other big
- thing that you wanted to touch on -- A: I don’t know. Well, (inaudible)
- after I leave, and I’ll say, “Oh, why didn’t I talk about such-and-such?”
- But both (inaudible) -- I’m just looking at this piece with Bob Bauer and his court-martial. That
- was -- he was my lover at the time, and I wound up spending a lot of time in (inaudible) dealing
- with his court-martial. It was appalling. He had served three terms in Vietnam in the infantry.
- He volunteered, and he volunteered when he was underage. And when he got out, they took away
- all of his benefits and court-martialed him. Q: Well, so I just wanted to ask, because it
- seems like you have -- under your belt, you have it all. You have feminism. You’ve (inaudible)
- for racism. You mentioned classism. Let’s see. Just out of all of them that you’ve been
- involved with, because you’ve done marches and theatre for everything, what -- not that one is
- more important than the other, but which do you feel that you have been most passionate about,
- whether it be being feminist or [anti-racism?]? A: Well, I’ll tell you
- I think I have had more passion on the feminism and racism component. But even now,
- one of my projects at home is to edit a pamphlet on classism
- that was written by another one of my friends, a priestess in women’s spirituality,
- because I think classism is really important, and I promised her I would do that. She died,
- and I still haven’t done it, but it’s one of the projects sitting on my desk.
- So I think the biggest things (inaudible) done was not taking on the American [war machine?] when
- we had them -- right when we had our -- we had them in front of us, and we should have
- finished them off, because I’ve lived long enough now, another 50 years, to have watched
- the defense industry and the military industrial complex suck this nation dry. And I don’t see
- current generations or the intervening generations having had the clarity about what was going
- on that we did. We had that down. We really understood the way that the military was being
- used basically not in the interest of the United States but for the interests of the multinationals
- and that it has only gotten worse as time has gone by. So I wish that we had done -- that,
- to me, is like -- if I were to do it over again, I would focus on that, and I would not -- I mean,
- nothing else would have (inaudible) in my way because that is really (inaudible).
- Q: So classism was an issue back then, just -- no one was talking about it.
- A: We didn’t talk about it. Well, we under-- we kind of understood it, but we -- nothing
- was written. Nothing was -- it wasn’t discussed. I mean, it just wasn’t part of the conversation
- except as racism or sexism. But, you know, the years have passed, and we’ve
- gotten more and more into some of that, so for me I say it’s classism. And I,
- you know, spend my time -- I’ve done some work around being a white ally. I think that racism
- is really important, but I really get it -- that it’s class, that it’s classism. That is the root.
- Q: All right. Yeah, and there’s -- A: It makes all
- the rest of it possible. Q: True. Good point.
- And that is about all that I had, so if there’s anything else you want to sum up with or say or
- want just people to know about your life, you -- A: Well, I don’t know. You know, I have two foster
- children, each of which I -- [they’re?] 10 years apart, each of which I collected because
- I saw them in untenable situations and (inaudible) [plan?]. So I reached in and snatched them
- away from their parents and raised them. Q: Oh, my. Well, congrats to you. That is --
- A: I don’t just do this on big scales. I do it [on the small, too?].
- Q: I honestly would say that is a big scale as well, because that’s taking two whole people
- into your life that were not there before, so -- A: Yes, and changing the course of their lives --
- Q: Exactly, and who knows what -- A: -- [in odd ways?].
- Q: -- they will go on to do because they had you raising them instead.
- A: Yes. Q: So, really, if you think about the
- branching effects, that’s a rather large scale. A: Well, it has its impact. These things -- I do
- understand the part about butterflies, you know. Q: The butterfly effect?
- A: The butterfly effect. I do. I understand it, because I am, after all,
- a dialectical spiritualist. If you were to ask me what my religion would be, I would tell you I
- was a di-- (inaudible) philosophy, I would say I was a dialectical spiritualist,
- and I’m an [advocate for the goddess?]. Q: All right.
- A: (inaudible) (laughs) Q: Well, that went well.