Youth Institute for Peace in the Middle East 1973 delegation. Israeli occupied Syria, on the Golan Heights.
I hosted the Los Angeles visits of delegations from the British and German Youth Councils. They were shown downtown Los Angeles during the work day when only “suits” were visible, after dark when the homeless appeared, and on a weekend afternoon when spanish speaking immigrants filled the streets.
Their media induced view of Sunset Blvd and Hollywood was reset by a drive on Sunset Blvd that started in Chinatown and ended at Pacific Coast Highway. They saw Echo Park, Silver Lake, Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre within one block of numerous porn theaters, Beverly Hills, UCLA and Santa Monica. The visual enabled meaningful discussions when we met with community and political leaders dealing with the homeless, gangs, drugs, public transit, and equality in education in low income and immigrant communities.
Our delegation to Germany in 1983 I am second from right. Translation: “WELCOMING OF TOP US YOUTH FUNCTIONARIES by KJR-Director Mayr (second from left) and BJR Chairman Sauter (right).”
Our delegation included youth leaders from the NAACP, Young Democrats and College Republicans.
Our visit included East Berlin through the US controlled crossing called Check Point Charlie. The East Germans required visitors to exchange 30 West German marks for theirs, to be used before returning. Except for Russian vodka, there was nothing worth buying there. I returned with a visible purchase of Stoli and an unspent East German note, my defiance hidden until I reached the American controlled side.
Our West German hosts had warned against carrying anything the East German authorities could use to detain us or them as spies, including Western newspapers in the luggage we checked during our train ride through East Germany to West Berlin. This did not deter the Young Republican contingent from hiding hundreds of flyers in their luggage for distribution in East Berlin. The East German border police easily discovered the flyers. For several hours the Americans were isolated, interrogated and strip searched before being denied entry. They were visibly disturbed when allowed to return to the U.S. side as fish too small and silly to be worth keeping as spies.