Here/Now

This is the final edition of a memoir by James Lewis. From law school to retirement in Albuquerque, NM, enjoy the memories of a civil rights lawyer from New York, to Springfield, to Albuquerque. Enjoy the introduction below.

On July 28, 1940, in New York City, in the afternoon, Mom (Desna) delivers me into this world, and I meet my Dad (Stephen) and my older brother (Steve Jr). When World War II begins, we follow Dad while he serves in the Navy, ordering equipment. After the war, Dad returns to a successful business career, and we move to the New York suburbs.

My life is comfortable, with good schools and summer camps. I read a lot, bike a lot and play sports. In my teen years, I browse through my parents' library and read John Hersey's "The Wall" and "Hiroshima," about life and death in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust and in Hiroshima just before and right after the Atomic Bomb, and I begin to question the world outside my well-protected environment-a world where some people destroy others. In high school, I write a paper that compares the love and caring that many extend to others with the opposites of caring: hate and indifference. Then in my senior year, I write a 20-page research paper about conformity, asking the basic question in David Riesman's "The Lonely Crowd:" are we independent and "hardened for voyages" or dependent and "softened for encounters?"