My story
Perhaps I should begin with my family of origin. My father, a 1st generation immigrant, was a labor organizer in the 40s and 50s. It was a time of labor violence. Several times our home was vandalized and we were threatened. He was an avowed socialist though perhaps a more accurate description as an anarchist. Sacco and Vanzetti were heroes in my home. My mom, also 1st generation immigrant, was a migrant worker in Upstate NY, picking green beans and corn for a dollar a day or less. I had one sister and she was stricken with rheumatic fever as a child and remained severely mentally handicapped for the rest of her life. She just died a few weeks ago.
Through all of this I wondered and was amazed at how different “regular” American life was. Father Knows Best and My Three Sons, the shows about the American family growing up in suburbia. I never related to that world. It always seemed so cold and sterile to me.
I had a dream to design racing cars so I took up aerospace engineering. It was also the time of the space program. I thought that might be an exciting life. Little did I know and even less did I understand the value system behind “rocket” science. So I went off to college to be a rocket scientist and soon discovered that was a very different world than the world of strikes and scabs and back breaking manual work and children who could neither talk nor walk. I wondered why engineering didn’t seem to even mention such things? Didn’t they know of the suffering of workers? Of children? That’s when it started.
In the 60s, I was captivated by the ideas of Robert Kennedy. He asked a question that I still ask often. Why not? It is that question that has stuck with me throughout my entire professional career and my life. Why not? Why don’t we care about the poor, the handicapped, the native peoples, those whose voices are perhaps not shrill enough to be heard above the roar of capitalism, greed and selfishness? And even more why don’t we hear the cries of the animals that are endlessly sacrificed either at the altar of science, the lavish Thanksgiving spreads or comfort/ luxury goods? I hear them. I hear them all. And I have dedicated my life to have others in the engineering world hear.
I was driving through Kansas on one sunny day involved in an engineering design competition. The Sunrayce 95. How wonderful for engineering to be concerned with solar energy and all the rest! Yet I pulled into that station and saw one calf in the back of a cattle truck clearly on his way to slaughter. Our society doesn’t call it slaughter…we call it veal. He was absolutely terrified. I tried to talk with the driver even offering to buy this little guy’s freedom. He blew me off entirely. I watched that little calf drive away. My heart shattered and remains shattered but I remain dedicated to helping those who have soft voices or those that speak different languages or pray to different gods. I will continue to fight for those who for whatever reason have not been given the “stage” I have been given. It is what keeps me going these day.
I have been a teacher, a soldier and worn many other faces..some of which were comfortable, most not. Now I just want to save that one starfish that was washed up on the beach, that one calf that has been separated from his mother, that one dog who needs a prosthetic limb or even just a kind pat, that one Lakota child who have never had a bed, that one handicapped child who though suffering from ALS, just wants to jump and spin. If I can do that for the rest of my life, I will finally be at peace.
Dr. George D. Catalano
State University of New York Distinguished Service Professor
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science
Binghamton University
