he said his name was Kevin Davishe
was Kevinsomething not Davis he took the last name because it was the mans name
who was his favorite of his moms many johns
he didnt have a birth certificate
his mother had no idea where it
wasif she even had it shed say she was workinghad
to keep her eye on the ball not a damn piece of paper Yershere Yersborn Simple
as a teen he was incarcerated at
the Youth Authority outside Paso Robles California for multiple
convictions breaking and entering burglary
he stole stuff he could
turn quick Right off I was hungry Id git inta their fridges cupboards pantries first thangan eat Thats where I got me food
Born in the USA
Born in Compton
Kevin could argue they werent the
same
Dave related Kevins story to him of how
they met at the Y. A.
Y. A. he asked he had no point of reference
Oh Y. A.
Didnt thinksorry The Youth Authority Boys School I worked there thirty years Would have stayed
on but the State shuttered it in 09 there werent enough juvenile offenders
Imagine a tough place to work
Work No I wouldnt call it work I thought of itthink of it now as a callingmy calling I was meant to be there
he met Dave as he walked through the Community
Churchs compound off Rosario a street name he never forgot for the soul reason of Rosario Dawson who caught his eye in the films Sin City Death Proof and definitely
snatched it in Trance he took a short cut into town going through
the church grounds
Dave acted as its groundskeeper I call myself groundskeeper I do what they
need done Or rather I do what they need
to be done that nobody else wants to do
Thats a distinction
Awwell Its got to be done
So youve got yourself another calling
Ha It appears
theyd seen each other earlier as
he passed through
he stopped they talked a
bit
the first couple of times they met Dave usually talked about the
Church he felt he was giving him the pitch but since their many conversations over the next several years
the preamble and yak became more personal
Dave asked Whatcha readin youre always reading
hed say and ask How are youHows
the family Dave revealed he lived on a
farm outside townoff the 41on the way to Morro Bay
that afternoon when Dave asked him what
he was reading he shared that he was reading Tim Wus The Attention Merchants he was in the midst of President Wilsons reversal
on keeping America out of the First World War and unleashing George Creel a true-believer fanatic
allowing him to head the goverments Committee on Public Information Can you imagine the deceit of calling it public
information it was the first time state propaganda was run at the American
people the shrill of war-will sounded a staff which reportedly at the end of its first year employed 150,000 people possibly the fast-growing government bureaucracy in world history
And
get this he said as he opened the book to where he had his finger between its pages Here the
CPI the Committee on Public Awareness published 75 million pamphlets and books it created the 4-Minute Man who were ordinary
citizens who gave pro-war speeches in four minutes at movie theatres while
reels were being changed Reals can you
imagine(he knew the pun was lost on Dave saying it only for his edification because he had to tamp his alarm) And here 75,000 volunteers
delivered 755,190 speeches reaching an estimated 134,454,514 people statistics according to the Complete Report of the
Chairman of the Committee on Public Information
Of course Creel or anyone involved wouldnt call it propaganda After the war while
in prison Hitler wrote a tract calling the campaign marvelous and get this I quote praising its simple presentation of negative and positive notions of love and
hatred, right and wrong, truth and falsehood thereby allowing no
half-measures which might have given rise to some doubts Makes you wonder if any of those 150,000 or more employees of the Committee on Public Information gulped audibly when
Hitler ascended to power in ’33
No Dave
wasnt interested apparently Dave only
noticed readers walking thats when he
brought up Kevin
There was a fire at Fort Hunter-Leggit
and our forestry group was compelled to help fight itwe were the among
the States closest assets cheap too
they only had to pay me and my immediate superior the kids got nothing unless
they were actually fighting a fire and then they were paid a dollar a day Can you imagine
A B-1 or B-2whichever
has two pilots went down The aircraft was still in its experimental stages
hush-hush stuff We were going to be
airlifted to the site but an Air Force Cobra flew directly up on us man those
things are lethal and demanded our pilot desist We were trucked up as close as possible then
humped our gear in We fought the fire
overnight and through the morning before we were relieved We never got near the wreckagedont suppose
they would have allowed that either
Kevin was a monster couldnt exhaust that boy When we hiked back to the base camp they
established I recognised that a full bird colonel was heading up the operation Thats
a big deal I had the kids walk into camp in formation and across from where the
colonel stood watching us I halted the formation had them assume parade rest
ready for inspection Man we were
filthyhadnt eaten since lunch the day before Believe it or not the colonel inspected us The kids were wowed Afterwards the colonel addressed me and asked
who the most significant member of my troop was I introduced him to Kevin The colonel removed his silver eagle insignia
and pinned Kevin with it He really blew
our minds It was simply amazing
Kevin made it out of the Boys
School I didnt hear anything regarding him
The year the school closed I got
a call from him Hed been released from prison
and found himself just north of Ventura He wanted to know if I knew anyone who
might be able to help him out I knew a guy there I played rugby with who ran a construction crew I called him and told himvouched for Kevin I know this
guy wholl work like a dog Turns out he
needed help He hired Kevin He found him a shared place near a church
campus not like this church an
evangelical one And Kevin started
attending that church and decided he wanted to become a missionary preach the Gospel They wanted to send him to South AmericaBrasil or something but he didnt have a passport and because he assumed the
name Davishadnt a birth certificate his Social was for Davis evidently he
explained to me that if he could show he used the name for more than five
years he could assume the nameapply under the name Kevin Davis
There was a little thing I did at
the school when the kids left The kids who I thought were really somethingwho
impressed me I held onto their ID cards
I had Kevins It fit the bill I copied it wrote a declaration of his time
with me I wrote that Kevin was the real deal no matter where he came from He came through it he was due some good breaks I mailed the stuff to him Later he calledjust before leaving the States
to say it worked he was going to be a missionary My goodness his story always makes my heart
feel good I thinkword was he met a girl
married her stayed on in South America preaching The people there got a real McCoy Im happy I had a little hand in his evolutionhis
success
I said Dave that sounds like a
movie You ought to write it down one so
you dont forget two because its such a wonderful story
YeahI ought to but I aint got that kinda time and I really dont
like writing much What I know is I just
like to think of him time and again he
makes me feel good and I share his story Its a remarkable story A real human story
It truly is
Dave only knows him as a
reader he had no idea he was a wrioter he could imagine him say A what A no
not a writera wrioter What the heck is
that
and hed tell him it can be
whatever he wanted
1624, Saturday,
30 9. 17
1219, Thursday, 5 10.
17
