by Anna Kunkin
Tuesday, Jun. 24, 2008 at 1:08 PM
I have memories of Don....on a bus to a border event. Making sure that everyone had water. Making sure everyone on the bus had his cell number in case something should happen to anyone. Making sure that we were all accounted for on the way back.
I remember Don on the stage at hundreds of fundraisers....always asking for money for others. Always giving his all. Always willing to hold the banner and stand on the curb at events....never needing the spotlight. Always smiling. I never heard a bad word about Don; not in anger or disappointment. And he was one of the few people in this movement of such strong and passionate, sometimes disparate views, who would fearlessly get in the middle and facilitate peace.
Humble is too little of a word to use for this man. Maybe love is a better word. Because yes; what motivated Don White was always love. I wish I could have been a student in his history class. If I had heard about humanity from the heart and soul of Don White I would have fallen in love with every aspect of it long before I did.
We lived in the same neighborhood and I would run into him randomly in the parking lot of the shopping center on the corner of Sunset and Vermont or at a local eatery .....the House of Pies....where he would often sit at the counter eating breakfast and talking politics with the regulars and old timers who met there. They smiled and jokingly called him the commy....in good spirit. I doubt if they really had a clue.
I remember him always with a smile and that silly lovable laugh.....and always so glad to see me whether I ran into him as a neighbor or as a fellow activist at events. He always treated me as if I were someone special to him....and I felt that. Felt that he was an uncle. That I had always known him.
As busy as he was he would think of me and send me job referrals when I was looking for work. When I thought it was important for him to meet someone, he didn't question for one second. He made time; arrangements to meet for a meal. Of course I understood that he was like that for everyone; for all of us. That he made each and every one of us feel that special.
He was a man who lived gracefully....and in grace he is part of our lives and our history. I cry because I will miss him and because I feel blessed that I knew him
Don White Presente.
Anna L. Kunkin
la.indymedia.org