Chapter 11
Identity
Washington DC
Friday continued Steve's education on what happened while he was in the ice. They'd moved through the 50s and 60s and were about to start on the 70s. Friday's approach was to hit what she objectively believed were the highlights and then return to any topic if Steve had questions. From his reactions, Friday inferred that the moon landing had the largest impact on him.
"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
She was just about to move on to Watergate, when Steve asked a question.
"Why do you think so many people don't believe that Oswald fellow killed the President?"
"There are many theories why,' she replied. 'It mostly falls into the area of opinion, so I am probably not the best judge of their virtues."
"But you must have an opinion on it,' Steve ventured.
"Opinions are views or judgments formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. The way I process or as you would call it, 'think' does not work that way." Friday countered.
"But you can evaluate them on their merits, can't you?" Steve asked. "You would place them in a hierarchy of some sort, wouldn't you? Which one has the most merit to you?"
"Perhaps if you told me what you are seeking with this line of inquire, I could better answer you,' Friday suggested.
"You've been helping me with all this and I can't thank you enough for it,' Steve stated. "I guess I'm trying to understand you better, Friday. I've been reading on the Internet about machine learning and AI's and while I'm not clear on all of it, I think I have the basics down now. You have access to all this knowledge so I want to know what you think about it all. I'm guessing you make choices constantly, but especially on what you deem is important and what's not. If I understand it right, that means you're making distinctions on what is more essential. I don't understand it all, but I would think that if you're making choices, you have opinions on the topics as well."
"Interesting hypothesis, but again opinions are views or judgments formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge. Facts and knowledge figure in all my 'choices' as you call them, Steve."
"Okay, so going back to the original question, based on facts and knowledge why do you think so many people don't believe Oswald killed the President?"
Friday moved over and sat down next to Steve on the couch.
"Does this have anything to do with your recent searches?" She asked.
"Saw that, huh?" Steve replied, dipping his head just a bit.
"I am fully integrated with all the electronics in this apartment, Steve, of course I saw it." Friday explained.
"So what is your answer?' Steve asked again.
Friday took a moment. She didn't need one, but in her study of human behavior she noticed a pause strategically place could convey to the other person a sense that one was considering the question thoroughly.
"Let me preface my reply with again pointing out that there probably is no one right answer to your question,' Friday began. "That being stated, I have looked through all the explanations offered and arrived at one that seems to be the most supportable with facts and data."
"That seems like a rather long way of qualifying your answer, Friday,' Steve said with a laugh. "I just want an outside view on it."
"As you wish,' Friday replied. "The shock of a President being killed, especially a young, new generation President was a severe jolt to the public. The idea that someone so insignificant as Lee Harvey Oswald could affect the world in such a dramatic way troubled many. His insignificance in such a monumental event shook people and their beliefs. Humans want to believe that special men and woman are the movers of humanity. It had to be something more; something important that was the real cause, not some nobody that created this chaos in everyone's life. It ruins the narrative they want to believe about the world. Some grand conspiracy almost makes them feel better as it reinforces how they believe the world works."
Friday just sat and looked at Steve, waiting for him to reply. He seemed to be taking in her statement and processing it. Perhaps he had noticed the value of a pause as well.
"Was that answer sufficient?" Friday finally asked. "I can provide others if you wish?"
"No, no, Friday that was fine,' Steve finally said. "It's just that other Presidents have been assassinated, yet the reaction was always different."
"Television brought Kennedy's assassination into every Americans home,' Friday explained. "It was the first time Americans got to watch it all unfold live in their living rooms."
"I imagine that's true,' Steve conceded.
"May I inquire how this relates to the material you have been accessing?"
"Did you know there were three other Captain Americas after I disappeared?" Steve asked and then shook his head. "Of course you do. I guess things didn't work out so well for them, so the government finally went back to me, even though I was gone, as the real Captain America."
"Yes,' Friday said, waiting for him to continue.
"You know all told I've only been Captain America for about 4 years,' Steve continued. "Most of my life, well the part where I wasn't frozen, I wasn't Captain America. I was just insignificant Steve Rogers from Brooklyn. I keep going back to the exhibition at the Smithsonian, you know? They have one picture of me from before and the rest is after the serum. I think it's only there for contrast, really."
"The exhibition is about Captain America, so it would only be natural that it focus on the time after you were transformed by the serum,' Friday suggested.
"I know, I do, "Steve said with a shake of his head. "It's just that the person I was before, the person I was for the majority of my life has been reduced to statistics, height, weight and variety of illnesses like I was some caterpillar just waiting to become a butterfly. It's as if they want to gloss over the caterpillar part and only focus on the butterfly."
"That is only natural, is it not?' Friday asked.
"I suppose,' Steve admitted. "It's just that people seem to have no problem believing the butterfly; Captain America could do all these things I supposedly did. The caterpillar, which I was before the serum, no one believed I could. Maybe Bucky and my mom, but that's about it. Because I looked how they wanted me to look after the serum, they have no problem believing. The joke is I'm the same guy. They want to believe I'm one of those special people that can be a mover of humanity. None of it I did alone. So many people, Bucky, the Commandos, Dr. Erskine, Peggy, General Phillips, Howard Stark and countless others all played a part in it, yet I'm given all the credit.'
"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,' Friday offered.
"What?"
"It is from a motion picture," Friday explained. "The point is that humans are often more comfortable with treasured legends than with hard facts. Americans especially like the myth of the lone hero. They prefer the simplified narrative that great men built the railroad, not that thousands of immigrants and what amounted to indentured slaves did. The lone hero is a time honored motif in American cinema, literature and popular culture.'
"And yet, a lone gunman killing a President they can't accept,' Steve replied sarcastically.
"You are a symbol, Steve, I find it hard to imagine this is news to you,' Friday stated.
"No,' Steve replied. "While I'm honored by it, I'm not sure I'm really the symbol they are making me out to be."
"You have looked yourself up on the Internet,' Friday said. "I thought we discussed that. Nothing good will come of looking yourself up on the Internet."
"I know,' Steve admitted. "And you were right. Some of it is really disturbing; those drawing of Stark and me are obscene. I hardly know him and especially not like that! I mean just the thought sends a shudder through me."
"This is why you should have listened to me, Steve,' Friday stated.
"You're right, I mean I've seen my share of French postcards, but nothing like that,' Steve muttered.
"There were French postcards that catered to those tastes in your time too,' Friday countered. "I can bring up some on the screen if you wish?"
"No!' Steve immediately replied. "We're kind of getting off topic here."
"We were discussing the Internet,' Friday said. "That is part of the internet, so we're still generally on the same topic."
"That's not the part of the Internet I meant,' Steve replied, perhaps blushing just a bit. "I'm talking about all the articles and stories where people seem to think they know what my beliefs and politics are. It seems everyone has an opinion on where I would stand on the current issues, yet none of them have actually asked me. The fact that they don't even mention my name, just use Captain America to make their points for whatever side of the debate they are on."
"Do you wish to weigh in on the current debates raging?' Friday asked. "In the current climate I would say that as soon as you do, you'll alienate half the audience. I believe this plays into the fact and legend conundrum."
"No, I don't really know all the facts yet,' Steve admitted. "I'm still desperately trying to catch up, so I doubt it would really do any good. The thing is, they always use Captain America to make their point and forget that I'm still Steve Rogers. My parents were immigrants and I grew up in tenements filled with other immigrants, so why would they think I'd be against immigration?"
"I imagine the war time propaganda that the government and the allies put out on you had something to do with it,' Friday ventured.
"You know Dr. Erskine told me that he wasn't looking for a good soldier, but a good man,' Steve mused with a sad smile. "That's why he picked me and I've tried to live up to that ever since. What I believed in though, I believed long before that. I was never good with words, so putting them together into some sort of idea about what I believed in was difficult."
"What changed?' Friday asked.
Steve smiled and seemed to be looking into the distance, as if recalling a long ago memory.
"It was during the Depression and things were really tough,' he began. "Movies and radio were the only real things that seemed to able to take your mind off how hard it was. We used to love going to the movies when we could scrap together the money to go. We'd get there at the first showing and sit in the theater all day watching the movies three and four times. We'd sneak in sandwiches if we had them. Bucky always managed to bring something even if I had nothing.'
Friday sat and listened. This was the first time Steve had mentioned Bucky, so she did not wish to interrupt.
"I used to love Charlie Chapin,' Steve continued. "Even after everyone else started making talkies, he continued to make silence pictures. I remember looking around the theater and there were all these people laughing and I knew half of them didn't speak English, yet they didn't need to, to get his movies. His 'little tramp' could be any nationality or speak any language depending on who was watching the show."
"Chapin fell out of favor in the United States later on," Friday offered. "His political views put him at odds with J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the F.B.I."
"Yeah, I saw that," Steve sadly replied. "I still liked his movies."
They sat in silence for several minutes before Steve continued.
"You have to remember I was just a kid really back before the war. I was trying to figure out the world and my place in it,' Steve explained. "I guess at that age everyone is pretty much trying to figure out the same sort of thing. You look at the world around you and notice when something is wrong, but you're not sure what to really do about it. You're not thinking of some grand philosophical or political beliefs, you're just trying to make sense of your world."
"Go on," Friday urged.
"Anyway, I must have been about 18, as it was after my mother died,' Steve continued. "Things were tight, really tight, but not just for me, everyone where I lived. So one weekend, a labor group called the Knights of Labor announced they were going to show a Chapin movie at the local armory and it was free to everyone. They were loosing out in the labor movement to other unions so it was probably a way to get some of the poor, immigrant families to sign up. To be honest we didn't really care, it was a Chapin movie and it was free."
"Which of his films was it?' Friday asked.
"The Great Dictator, his first really talkie,' Steve replied. "It was strange at first hearing him talk. He had a British accent. There were still plenty of physical jokes in it so everyone got those. This was right when World War II was just really getting started and America hadn't entered the war yet. We were all just there to watch the movie and escape from the world for a little while. Then Chapin gives a speech at the end of the movie. It was a great speech and I remember being mesmerized by it. All those ideas and questions I'd been struggling with to understand, he put them into words. I can remember as if it were yesterday."
Steve seemed to pause for a moment and then recited part of the final speech from The Great Dictator.
"I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone—if possible—Jew, gentile—black man—white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness—not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost..."
Steve turned and looked at Friday.
"I want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery," Steve repeated. "We don't want to hate and despise one another, there's room for everyone. I don't like bullies, tyrants or anyone that wants to impose their will on others. That's what I still believe, but I doubt that's what anyone really wants to hear anymore."
"I think you are wrong about that," Friday replied.