By Steve Vivona
Noted author and journalist Pete Hamill came to St. John’s April
5 as the inaugural speaker in the St. John’s College Alumni Speaker
Series. Mr. Hamill, former Editor-in-Chief of both The New York
Daily News and The New York Post and a New York columnist for over
40 years, has become synonymous with this city and his most recent
novel, Forever, is taught in several sections of the University’s
Discover New York program.
In his introductory remarks Jeffrey Fagen, Dean of St. John’s
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, explained that Mr. Hamill was
chosen as the first speaker in the series because there is a common
thread woven throughout his writing that intersects with the
University’s own mission statement. “Whether in his writing or his
novels Mr. Hamill frequently touches on the plight of the
disadvantaged, and the struggles of people of all races and
religions to make a better life for their families.” Dean Fagen
added, “He has a special place in his heart for the poor, the
immigrant and those who have suffered at the hands of the
powerful.”
He noted that like thousands of St. John’s University students,
Mr. Hamill, the child of Irish immigrants, is a first-generation
college graduate. “He learned from the example that his
hard-working parents set for him – that America is about freedom
and personal responsibility, and that the differences among people
and cultures are what makes this country great.”
Mr. Hamill grew up in Brooklyn in the shadow of the Manhattan
skyline which he considers “one of the wonders of the city.” He
added that, “It didn’t matter whether you had money or not, there
was something magical about that city on the other side of the
bridge.”
The Statue of Liberty was another great symbol to Mr. Hamill as
a youth. “I didn’t care whether it was great art. I didn’t care
whether it was propaganda. It was an emotional symbol of the kind
of people we became in the New World.” He stressed that those
symbols became a part of his own “personal tableau” etched forever
in his memory. “They have as much power now as they did…and as they
had on September 12, 2001, when a stricken city got off its
feet.”
Mr. Hamill stressed that New Yorkers have a right to be proud of
where they came from and “our story was properly memorialized on
September 12, 2001.” He added that it was late in the day on
September 11 that “we began to see what we were made of.” Throngs
of iron workers began to show up at Ground Zero. “They assembled on
the Chambers Street Bridge and said, ‘We cut steel. You’re going to
need us.’ That was a moment that proved to me that there was
something tough and honorable about our city,” he stressed.
On that day Mr. Hamill stayed downtown taking notes and
observing reactions to that terrible tragedy. “In spite of what
some said there was no panic.” People proceeded carefully and
methodically out of the danger zone, he noted. “They didn’t panic
the next day or the day after or the week after or the month after.
They didn’t pile all their earthly goods into trucks and head for
North Dakota. They stayed. And the way they showed themselves most
clearly was the next day when they started going to work.” The
people of this city came together in those days following the
tragedy, Mr. Hamill said, adding that their behavior and resolve
was forged by the struggles of the generations that preceded
them.
Mr. Hamill is grateful for the presence of over two-and-a half
million immigrants in Manhattan, adding that they are at the heart
of the “New York alloy,” and were steeled not only by the
difficulties they faced in their homelands but their passage to
this country and the difficulties they faced making a life
here.
Of critical importance to Mr. Hamill is that he honors the
sacrifices made by his own parents, something done by thousands of
immigrants every day. “I may not be the most important person that
ever lived, but I can take a shot at the things I know how to do.”
He added, “Remembering and honoring your parents is an injunction
we should obey for they honored you by getting up and going to
work.”