Lititz native Neil Sheneberger had a life to be celebrated, and his early years are worth recalling. He was a teen-age prodigy and a hero of our time. His early political activities exemplify traditional Lancaster County values applied to the turbulent 60's.
He was much influenced by intensive reading in United States political history and rhetoric, his father’s participation in the labor movement, President Kennedy’s exhortation to “ask what you can do for your country,” and close reading of the four gospels. His father had been both a loyal teamster and an independent man of principle: when he felt a strike was called for the wrong reason, he lived his conscience by driving his truck through gunfire. What Neil most took to heart from the gospels was, “Go ye and do likewise.”
He wanted to teach by personal example and to help people in large numbers. And he would persuade friends to join him whenever possible. From age 14 through young adulthood, he was intensely involved in political activity. All this accompanied an excellent school record, and was despite the tragic early deaths of his parents and grandmother, prior to graduation. He was a proud 1965 graduate of Warwick High School.
His first stage of political activism was civil rights. Among other activities, at age 15, he participated personally in the great civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, made famous by the newsreels of Police Chief Bull Connor and his dogs and fire hoses. On one later occasion, when he was helping to show an educational film about Martin Luther King, Jr. at a church in Lancaster’s “7th Ward,” surprised members asked, “You are white. What makes you interested in our problems?”
His second stage was election activity. Prior to the 1964 election, singlehandedly he canvassed door to door on foot a large portion of the Borough of Lititz -- twice. The first time was to identify voters who needed to register; the second time to campaign for Johnson’s peace program and against Senator Goldwater. Goldwater had a lot to say during the campaign about not being “chicken” about using nuclear weapons.
Goldwater’s remarks alarmed many Lancaster-area voters of all parties committed to peace or nonviolence. A not uncommon response from good Republicans was, “I don’t know if that Goldwater is right in the head.”
I remember attending with Neil the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, with tickets in the VIP non-delegates section. There is supposedly a WGAL tape of our standing on chairs, clapping for President Johnson’s statement that “I will not commit our fine American boys to a land war in Asia.”
When Johnson carried Lancaster County as well as the nation, the papers argued the next day whether most recent Democratic victor in the County was Buchanan in 1856, as a native son; or Andrew Jackson in 1828, who was both popular and a kind of populist.
His third stage was opposition to Presidents Johnson’s and Nixon’s war. When American bombing of North Vietnam started officially in February 1965, based on his reading, Neil foresaw the coming terrible waste of life on both sides and destruction of farm land and cities. He attended the first great anti-war teach-in in Washington, D. C. on Palm Sunday 1965, where the principal speakers were Senators Wayne Morse and Ernest Gruening.
Many who lived through those years will testify that American public opinion may have then been more strongly divided than at any time since our Civil War. Both sides stood on principle: the side opposite Neil’s that, in times of crisis, we unite behind duly constituted authority, and don’t give our soldiers in uniform reason to doubt the sense in their risking their lives. With a 21st century perspective, I sincerely hope that those who served valiantly in Southeast Asia, and those who lost family members there, have come to see that the chief motivation of those with Neil’s perspective was to save lives and avoid waste. Within ten years, it seemed that the balance of public opinion came to agree.
But his position was intensely suspect at the time. He was an inveterate writer of letters to the editor, generously published by the Lancaster Newspapers. He saw himself as a kind of Paul Revere, urging readers to “wake up.” The anonymous hate mail and threats in response were unspeakable. The published letters in opposition were pale by comparison.
Those of us who were born around 1947, who had a serious interest in public service, and whose years of transition to adulthood occurred during the heart of that war know how different our experiences were from those raised five to ten years ahead or behind us. The generations were short, and the differences, abrupt. The older ones may have graduated from college in time for the Peace Corps or a public service internship. When the younger ones reached college, the war was winding down. We, however, were in the thick of it, with the end of student deferments and the draft lottery. Some of the best minds of our generation stepped on land mines and never returned.
College education was more difficult than usual in those years. Students were preoccupied with the draft, and with what was the right reaction to it. Political demonstrations, which released anxiety, also disrupted classes. I believe that Neil, as many of us, opted ultimately for serving people at a personal level, rather than having a career with seemingly hostile government institutions. He dropped out for a while, as many students did at that time.
Yet he kept his conscience and did his best to live his convictions, especially at a vulnerable age, through difficult family circumstances, and in perilous times. He exemplified courage at a personal level in a strained era of our national life. His life is worth celebrating, as we remember those times.
Respectfully,
J. William Pezick
Albany, California
© 2002 Janice Knight Hartman
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