A Choice Memory

Politics is in the air, like Spring. Politics is always in the air, and sometimes it doesn't quite smell as nice as Spring. But sometimes it does.

My fondest memory of a comment made by a politician comes from Julian Bond, then 3 years of age. It was 1972, the year Richard Nixon was running for re-election. At the Democratic National Convention the delegates were having a heck of a time settling on the candidate they thought could beat Nixon. Someone suggested to Bond that he run, to which he thanked the Convention and said, ":Unfortunately, I am not of age."

He would have been the first Afro-American candidate in our history and possibly the first President. I can see it still, as the President inroduced himself as "Bond. J. Bond."

His slogan, naturally, would be: Our Bond Is Our Word.

But he never got up a head of steam for 1976, which was a wide open chance to unseat the Republicans after Nixon's resignation and Ford's pardon. With the real chance that a mere 36 year old Black man might run, the issue barely or never came up and Mr. Bond was religated to the sidelines. Still, Diane and I both really lijked and admired him, so we created our own write-in ticket for Mr. Bond and Bela Abzug. The thing was, Di put Abzug up for President and Bond for Veep while I voted the other way around. I think it cost them the election.

But what a ticket!