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THE VETERAN

Page 29
Download PDF of this full issue: v54n2.pdf (38.8 MB)

<< 28. RIP Barry Romo30. Oxy, The Smart Bomb (cartoon) >>

Barry, Tricky Dick, & Me

By W. D. Ehrhart

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One of the most infuriating aspects of Gerald "I Am the Only President Ever Elected by Just One Single Congressional District" Ford's pardon of Richard "I Am Not a Crook" Nixon was that I never got to see the Dick behind bars. Not even just long enough for a photo op.

And as if to rub salt in the wound, the United States Postal Service even honored King Richard the Milhous with his very own postage stamp:

Will you look at that face? He's almost smiling, like he's thinking, "Nyah, nyah, I beat the rap, kept my pension and all that good stuff, and now I even have a stamp."

But I finally got at least a small measure of satisfaction when Barry Romo fulfilled my fond wish to see that miserable SOB behind bars. I don't even remember what Barry had written to me about—this had to be nearly thirty years ago—but his letter came in an envelope with Nixon behind bars.

I kept that image tacked to my bulletin board for several decades. I looked at it multiple times a day, and every time I looked at it, I would think of Barry and smile. He must have sensed just how disappointed I'd been when Tricky Dicky from Yorba Linda got a "Get Out of Jail Free" card from the guy who maybe took one-too-many blows to the head while playing football at the University of Michigan.

I have no idea why I held onto that envelope all those years; maybe it was just good karma or good luck or the cosmos granting me one of my fondest wishes. Whatever it was, I was finally able to "go public" with Nixon Behind Bars when McFarland & Company agreed to include the image on the cover of their 2021 reissue of Busted: A Vietnam Veteran in Nixon's America.

So thank you, Barry, for allowing me the last laugh on the SOB who had promised Peace With Honor but only gave us and the Vietnamese more death and destruction and misery. And thank you, Barry, for all you did for Vietnam Veterans Against the War, for the cause of Peace and Justice, and for the life you lived: Barry Romo, 1947-2024.


W. D. Ehrhart is a long-time VVAW member, poet, and author.






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