Beth Lamont, our New Yorker of the Month for February 2012

This interview took place inside Trinity Church, in the museum in the back.

AANY: You have a wealth of knowledge.

Beth: Actually I’ve worn a cork on a string around my neck, so just ‘stick a cork in it’ if I get too wordy because there is so much to say, and you know, I feel such a sense of urgency. I’m going to be 83 this year.

AANY: Who is Beth Lamont?

Beth: I am a routy, raging granny. That’s the way you might characterize me. I’ve been there done that and I have a lot to say. I feel very, very urgent because I’m a 1929 model from way back during the first Depression and here we are again.

AANY: Raging routy granny. But can you dance?

Beth: Can I ever dance! You can keep your revolution if I can’t dance. That’s a famous saying (from Emma Goldman). I’m Beth K. Lamont. I guess my claim to fame is that I am the widow of Corliss Lamont. Originally, I’m from San Francisco. My other claim to fame is I walked across the Golden State Bridge the day it opened. It was a ribbon cutting. My Dad was an engineer. We we’re part of the ceremony. No cars were allowed. We got to walk across and look down onto the ships that were underneath. It was an amazing celebration in 1937 way back in the olden days.

AANY: What brought you to New York?

Beth: I spent a lot of years raising a family* and being a nurse. I was telling somebody recently that if I had a dollar for every bed pan, I’d be rich. But anyway, there came a point when the kids took over the mortgage. I said, “I’ve been my parents child, I’ve been my husband’s wife. I’ve been my children’s mother and now, now I’m going to be me”. So I picked up my video camera. I was already a humanist; I was already a humanist chaplain. I was coming across the country on a Greyhound bus and encouraging humanist groups to speak out on their own behalf. They were being terrribly maligned. Finally, when I got to New York, I made an appointment to video tape and have a statement from the famous Corliss Lamont, the author of The Philosophy of Humanism. This was a momentous occasion. He gave me a wonderful interview and description of Humanism. After wards he reached out and patted my knee and said, “What are you doing for dinner?” I loved that he chose me because I was already an activist and quite in harmony with all his good works. So we were a good team. It was like having a tiger by the tail because just keeping up with him and he was I his 80’s already at that time, making speeches and promoting civil liberties. This is what I’m so proud of. He introduced me to a lot of people that are still in the field working toward protecting our civil liberties.

AANY: What is a humanist?

Beth: From the childhood of humankind I believe we all started out being humanist. We looked up into the heavens and we were awed by what we saw there. You looked up and said,” What, where did it all come from? What are we doing here? What’s it all about? What put this in motion?” It’s such an awesome and emotional and intellectual experience. I think the first people who begin to answer, the oral historians, maybe they said we came from the stars. They did what children do in the absence of information. Children make up things, whatever seems logical to them. So imagining a history for humankind became a business of religion and became etched in stone. “Tell me again Grandpa” Then it became almost orthodox. But everyone didn’t agree - the Muslims, the Jews, and the Christians. All of this could be an honest attempt to understand what the heck we’re doing here. Is there a purpose? These are the kinds of questions that every thinking child begin to ask. If you’re born into a culture you will have orthodox answers to these questions. Hopefully you can go on and explore. I’m plugged into evolution. I hope we are still evolving. I pray. How about that for a humanist? I don’t look for any hereafter. I believe just to be alive is a gift enough.

AANY: Your thoughts on Occupy Wall Street. Is it over?

Beth: It’s just the beginning. There will be a revolution. And it may be a peaceful revolution. These people were dedicated to nonviolence. And violence was perpetrated upon them to come in the middle of the night and destroy their encampment and to discredit it in the media. The complaints are legitimate.

AANY: How will they re-group?

Beth: They are regrouping. This is not an idea you can kill. The capitalist system is ruthless and is not compassionate. Corliss, way back, he was born a child of Wall Street and I’m sure he would of say to his father as he was beginning to be aware as problems would come to their dining room table. And he would say, “Dad that factory is shut down now, what is going to happen to those families? What is going to happen to their kids now that they’re out of work?” The father would say. “Well sorry son, that’s the way it is in the capitalistic system.” Corliss became very aroused politically about the injustices and the infringements on our civil liberties and things contrary to our Bill of Rights.

AANY: Have you ever been arrested?

Beth: Have I ever, oh my goodness! I shared the paddy wagon with a lot of illustrious people who are still working toward civil liberties. I was arrested in front of the United Nations when Bush was there telling lies. We were waving indictments for war crimes for having bombed civilian populations. That is what we were adamant about.
Beth starts reciting from her writings, “We are here on this place called earth, now live these moments worth, don’t ask a promise of more, it’s enough just to be alive. Why don’t we realize, no other life is in store. Oh, celebrate here and now, we’re mortal with one life for living and it’s right here and now, our one chance for loving and giving. We’re here in this special place. Now there is no time to waste. Here is where heaven can be. Oh earthling of every land, reach out a caring hand. Make peace we are one family.”

AANY: Lovely, is there anything else you would like to share?

Beth: I was telling you I was born in 1929, way back in the first Depression. I’ll tell you we survived by making soup. And I’ve been notorious for making soup. My kids tease me about it, so I made up an epitaph: “Here lies a utilitarian who longs for no heavenly home but the way she hates waste it might be in good taste to make a nice soup of her bones.”

AANY: Delicious! Thank you Beth.
*Beth is the mother of 11 Children!

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