Photo by Bill Stokes
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper wondering how to use the “SAFE CONDUCT PASS” that he picked up on the ground 75 years ago while patrolling along Korea’s 38th parallel.
The passes were commonly scattered about by the North Korean and Chinese soldiers and they promised such things as fair treatment, good food and being “home by Christmas.”
Instructions for the bearer of one of the passes was to “Put down your weapon and shout “TOW SHONG,” which translated to “surrender.”
Among the keeper’s old file of memorabilia items picked up on the Korean patrols there is also a small pamphlet that says on its cover: “MAY WE BE HEARD! 100 American Prisoners Speak Their mind.”
Inside is the detailed story of an “unjust military action by imperialists” and the demand that it be immediately stopped. There is also a long list of American soldiers’ names along with their service serial numbers. A quick check by the keeper did not disclose anyone he recognized but caused him to think of how interesting it would be to try to trace some of those identities after all these years.
There was something in the keeper’s review of the old safe conduct passes that led him to thoughts of rude “unsafe conduct” imposed on thousands of innocents by the POTUS’s ICE dunderheads.
The keeper’s mental hopscotch then landed him with the Silver Badgers and their friends who will be out on Gammon and Tree Lane today at 2 pm with their protest signs encouraging everyone to VOTE, and never to shout “TOW SHONG!”
Phyllis will be among them, but when the keeper offered her the use of his old safe conduct pass she told him to keep it, as he is more likely to need it than she is.
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