Mark Knows It All

I have always been political. I remember seeing John Kennedy when he came to Youngstown. I was ten. His motorcade went through Canfield. He was riding in an open convertible shaking the hands of people who went right up to the car. As he drove by me I grabbed his thumb…and wouldn’t let go. My mother started to scream. I could see the headlines now: Ten Year Old Pulls Candidate Out of Car. My conservative ilk started in 1964 when Barry Goldwater was running against Lyndon Johnson. By then I was 14, having political discussions at holiday dinners with my fascist Italian uncle. But he was a businessman who started with nothing, sold take-out spaghetti dinners door to door for his friend Chef Buardi (Boy-yar-dee) in Cleveland, and over the years became a major importer of Italian Romano cheese. At any rate, I read two books: Conscience of a Liberal by Hubert Humphrey and Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater.  I concluded Goldwater was right, no pun intended, and was imm