Shortest Way Home
Page 33
They are, of course, too many to name, stretching back through my career and formal education all the way to the cradle, where my mother, Jennifer Anne Montgomery, and my father, Joseph Buttigieg, first gave me the gift of language as well as that of their love.
As this concept went through its first iterations, my agent, Chris Parris-Lamb, gave me the insight and guidance needed to venture into the literary world.
My publisher, Robert Weil, made an author of me, patiently reading draft after draft and forcing me to find an authentic storytelling voice on the page. His faith in this project and in me as a writer propelled me, and this book is the result of his expert, energetic management of both text and author. Bob’s colleagues at Liveright and Norton, especially Marie Pantojan, provided me with vital support, and the copyediting by Dave Cole was uncannily precise and perceptive.
Jennifer Huang is a superb research assistant, catching inconsistencies and running down references to corroborate or correct my recollection at every turn. A brilliant interviewer, she also gathered many of the stories that make this book worth reading, and her insights helped throughout. Of course, any factual errors that did survive into the published edition are my sole responsibility.
From the earliest conception of this project, my friend Ganesh Sitaraman provided expert guidance, unvarnished advice, and steady encouragement. Trusted friends and colleagues read drafts, and I am thankful to Mike Schmuhl, Kathryn Roos, Nathaniel Myers, James Mueller, and Lis Smith for their time and insights.
South Bend’s story is far from mine alone to tell, and I am indebted to South Bend residents and others who shared their own stories in interviews for this project, including Pete Mullen, Gladys Muhammad, Chuck Hurley, Bob Urbanski, Mayor Greg Goodnight, and Governor Joe Kernan. In a broader sense, the book belongs to the people of South Bend, since they have shaped and authored the city’s story and, in so many ways, my own.
Writing a book places monstrous claims on a politician’s most precious and contested resource: time. Members of my staff including Laura O’Sullivan, Yesenia Garcilazo, Andre Adeyemi, Suzanna Fritzberg, Matt Cruz, Cherri Peate, Mark Bode, and others went to great lengths to help me carve out enough time to undertake this work amid all the demands on our office. And I would not have a very good story to begin with if it weren’t for the brilliance of current and former office and campaign staff members, phenomenal department heads, and more than a thousand dedicated employees doing great work for our city. Among them, Aaron Perri, Stephanie Steele, Santiago Garces, and Eric Horvath also helped me to verify factual and technical information about their excellent work.
While writing this book, I gained a new family in the Glezmans, whose love has enriched my life and buoyed me, and whose story I have been honored to share.
No one has sacrificed more for this book than Chasten, my love, who has put up with countless hours of lost time together, even as I worked to express on the page what our time together means to me. His loving scrutiny of my text and of my heart has made me a better writer, a better mayor, and a better man.
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
Frontispiece: Photo by Matt Shore
Page 1: Photo by Joseph Buttigieg and Jennifer Ann Montgomery
Page 33: Photo by Peter G. Schwartzstein
Page 199: Getty Images News / Aaron P. Bernstein
Page 231: Photo by Peter Ringenberg
Page 303: Photo by Jacob Titus
INDEX
“Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.”
“PB” indicates Pete Buttigieg.
Abraham Lincoln, USS, 253
ACLU, 316
Adams, Henry, 36, 37
Adams High School, 225
Afghanistan, 63, 242, 252, 253n, 258, 263, 314
Al-Qaeda in, 48, 49
Camp Leatherneck in, 253
Kabul, 237, 246–48, 251, 255, 257, 329
Kandahar, 253–54
PB’s deployment to, 220, 236, 237, 246–49, 250–51, 253, 255–56, 329
PB’s trips as a consultant to, 107, 236
war in, 70, 235, 245–51, 253–57
African-American Elks #235 Lodge, 123
ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council), 311
Alexander of Macedonia, 196
Alger, Horatio, 36
Allen, George, 54
Allen, Woody, 166
Along Martin Luther King: Travels on Black America’s Main Street (Tilove), 153
Al-Qaeda, 48, 49
Alumni Hall, 172
American City County Exchange, 311
“American in Paris, An” (Gershwin), 165
American Jeremiad, The (Bercovitch), 43
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), 311
“America’s Dying Cities” (Newsweek), 104, 156
AM General, 139, 220
Amnesty International, 27, 28
Angie’s List, 211
Annan, Kofi, 53
Anti-Violence Commission, 150
AOL Instant Messenger, 42, 48
Applebee’s, 81
Appomattox, Va., 155
Arizona, 26, 70
Athletic Club, 73
Atlanta, Ga., 314, 318, 320
Au Bon Pain, 36
AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes from Military Service—and How It Hurts Our Country (Roth-Douquet and Schaeffer), 71
Bagram Air Field, 245
Bai, Matt, 40
Ballard, Greg, 211
Baltimore, Md., 184, 186, 258, 260, 314
Bauer, Pat, 202
Beatles, 302
“Benchmarking South Bend” (King), 105
Bennett, Gus, 139
Bercovitch, Sacvan, 43–44
Beristain, Dimitri, 227, 229
Beristain, Helen, 226–27, 228–29
Beristain, Roberto, 226–28, 229
Berlin, Germany, 300
Bernstein, Leonard, 158
Berrien Springs, Mich., 159
Berry, Barrett, 123
Best and the Brightest, The (Halberstam), 187
Bible, 26
Bilandic, Michael, 4
Birdsell Manufacturing Company, 14
BlackBerry, 41
Blackthorn Golf Club, 214
Blimpie, 164
Bloomberg, Mike, 4
Bloomington, Ind., 211
Bly, Father, 26
BMV (Bureau of Motor Vehicles), 202–3
Boehner, John, 208
Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra, 159
Bon Jovi, 302
Boston, Mass., 10, 29, 31, 35, 39, 149, 160
Bowman Creek Educational Ecosystem, 179
Brandenburg Gate, 300
Brazil, 252
Brewer, Jerry, 97–98
Brooks, Christina, 223
Brooks, Hannah, 62
Brookville, Ind., 96
Bruggner, Frank J., 326
Bruni, Frank, 215
Buchanan, Pat, 31
Bucharest, Romania, 300
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 137
Buffalo, N.Y., 122
Building Trades Union Hall (South Bend), 92–93
Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV), 202–3
Burns, Ken, 187
Bush, George H. W., 72
Bush, George W., 40, 70, 85, 203
in days after September 11, 2001, 47
first pitch at World Series, 219–20
funding of auto bailout, 82, 86
Iraq and, 253
Buttigieg, Joseph (father), 45, 114, 159–60, 219
on Bercovitch, 43
emigration from Malta, 8–9
home of, 21
at Notre Dame, 12, 22–25, 44, 172, 173
PB coming out to, 266
at PB’s return from Afghanistan, 261, 262
visit to Glezmans, 294–95
Buttigieg, Maria Concetta Portelli (grandmother), 9
; Buttigieg, Myriam (aunt), 9
Buttigieg, Pete
“A Letter from Flyover Country,” 308
birth of, 9
as candidate for state treasurer of Indiana, 88–102, 103
campaigning, 90–91, 92–98, 99–100
decision to seek office, 79, 84, 88, 89, 91–92
defeat, 55, 101–2, 103, 106
Chasten and
domestic life of, 297–99
marriage proposal, 300–301
meeting through dating app, 42, 284–85, 287–88
visiting parents, 291–96
wedding of, 301–2
as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, 55, 59, 60–64, 69, 77, 80, 92, 147, 202, 236
CrossFit phase of, 133
in DNC chair election of 2017, 306–11, 313–15, 316–18, 319, 320–21
early life of, 9–10, 11–13, 19–21, 22–32, 42, 158, 159–60, 219
education of, 330
after Harvard, informal, 54
early, 9, 19, 25–29
at Harvard, 42–43, 45–46, 52–53, 54
at Oxford, 54–55
piano lessons, 159–60
political, 27, 38–40, 50–51, 54.55
on “End of History,” 10–11, 46–47
family background of, 8, 11, 19, 22–23, 24–25, 44, 72–74, 173
father of, see Buttigieg, Joseph
at Harvard, 10–11, 29, 35–41, 42–48, 52–53, 74
in high school, 27–32
home in South Bend, 21, 130–31
JFK Presidential Library’s Profile in Courage Award for essay, 30–32
in mayoral election of 2011
campaigning, 116–21, 123
campaign team, 115, 119–20, 124–25
deciding whether to seek office, 106–9, 110, 113–15
Election Day, 124–26
reason for running, 107, 114
in mayoral election of 2015, 273–83
as mayor of South Bend, 141, 143
bipartisan cooperation, 201, 203–6, 207–9, 212
celebration of city’s 150th anniversary, 155–57, 237, 282, 288
controversy aroused by renaming of street, 152–54
in controversy over police department “tapes case,” 274–78
creation of 311 center, 115, 186, 326, 329
data-oriented city administration, 184–86, 187–95, 278–80
first day as, 4
during gun violence, 146–51
Mayor’s Night Out, 152, 153–54, 328–29
performing with South Bend Symphony Orchestra, 158, 162–66
politics of immigration, 224–29
during presidential election of 2016, 221–24
regional collaboration grant awarded, 206–7, 291
response to Pence’s RFRA, 214
return from deployment, 262
ride with Obama to Elkhart, 218–20
role of intuition, 195–96
symbolic role, 145–49, 151–52, 155, 259
thousand vacant houses in a thousand days initiative, 167–70, 237, 263, 281
wastewater management, 175–78
military service of, 48, 64, 72
as an ensign, 106, 235–36
in Bagram, 245–46
combat training, 239–44
deployment to Kabul, 236–37, 238–39, 246–51, 255–56, 329
disclosure of sexual orientation, 268–69
in Kandahar, 253–54
monthly drill weekends, 92, 107, 233–34, 235
qualifying for, 75–78
return home from deployment, 258, 259–63
yearly active duty training, 268–69
on mingling with intoxicated voters, 205
mother of, see Montgomery, Jennifer Anne
move back to South Bend, 80, 92, 160
music and, 158, 159–66
online dating and, 42, 285–87
at Oxford, 54–55, 56–59, 60, 74
religion and, 25–26
Rhodes Scholarship awarded to, 54–55
running routine on Mondays, 129–30, 131–35, 134n, 136, 137–41
sexual orientation of, coming out about, 132, 264–67, 269–72
study of Arabic, 45–46, 54
on technology, 10, 40–42
on terrorism, 10–11, 46–50
as a volunteer on political campaigns, 64
Gore’s presidential campaign, 39–40
Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, 67–71
Thompson’s congressional campaign, 50–51
work for Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign of 2004, 54
Cambridge, Mass., 35, 36, 174
Cambridge History of American Literature, The (Bercovitch, ed.), 44
Cambridge Savings Bank, 36
Camp, Sandra, 159, 160
Camp Leatherneck, 253
Camp McCrady, 239–40, 241, 248, 254
Canada, 43, 77, 135
Canoefest Fryers Club, 97
Canoe Festival, 96–97
Carell, Steve, 240
Carnegie-Mellon University, 179
Carnegie Tech, 73
Carson, Franklin R., 326
Carter, Ashton B., 268
Cassidy, Mr., 31
Catch 22 (bar), 258
Central High School, 138
Century Center, 133, 154, 155, 221, 263, 329
Chapin, Horatio, 153
Charlotte, N.C., 164
Chase Tower (Chicago), 60
Chase Tower (South Bend), 131, 281
Cheney, Lynne, 25
Cher, 315
Cherry Republic, 290
Chesterton, G. K., 236
Chicago, Ill., 7, 133, 154, 237, 314, 321, 324
Chase Tower, 60
Chasten in, 285, 287, 288, 290
grant for accelerating the electric train to, 207
Obama and, 69–70, 219
out-migration from South Bend to, 19, 105
PB at McKinsey in, 55, 60–61, 80
piano by PB acquired from, 160–61
Chichijima, Japan, 72
Chicory Café, 140–41, 285
Chihuahua State, Mexico, 8
China, 324
Chismar, Mrs., 119–20, 124, 261
Christmas Story, A, 17
Chrysler, 82, 83, 84, 85–87, 100, 114
Citizens United for Better Government, 277
Civil Rights Heritage Center, 154–55
CJ’s, 290
Clark, Commander, 240
Cleveland, Ohio, 122
Clinton, Bill, 39, 53, 99
Clinton, Hillary, 50, 227, 307, 324
marriage equality and, 215
presidential campaign of 2008, 69, 220–21, 222, 223
Club 23, 101–2, 105
CNN, 86, 214, 229, 314
Cohen, Gerald, 58
Cohen, William, 54
Coldwater, Mich., 78
Colfax Avenue Bridge, 288
College Football Hall of Fame, 281
Colorado River, 26
Colwell, Jack, 15–16, 173
Commerce Center, 138
Cone Palace, 81
Conference of Mayors, 279
Connecticut, 212
Connie (English Department secretary), 172
Cordell (volunteer coordinator), 124
Cosmo’s Factory (Creedence Clearwater Revival), 160
County-City Building, 99, 141–43, 223, 320
Crawford County, Ind., 97
Creedence Clearwater Revival, 160
Cressy, Don, 19
Creston, Iowa, 72
Crooked Ewe (restaurant), 136
Crumstown Conservation Club, 123
Cruz, Ted, 222
Cummins, 211
Curtis (security at County-City Building), 142
Curtis, Marvin, 162, 163
Dairy Queen, 103
Danforth, Samuel, 44
Daniels, Mitch, 109, 164, 201–4, 207–8
Daschle, Tom, 312
Daughton, F
armer, 67–69, 67n
Davis, Henry, Jr., 105–6
Davis, Rick, 38
Dayton, Ohio, 73, 74
Dean, Howard, 40, 308–9, 315, 318
Debs, Eugene, 312
Decatur, Iowa, 69
DeCleene, Rob, 213
Defense Intelligence Agency Headquarters, 268, 269
Delphi, 81, 100
Democratic National Committee (DNC), 32, 306, 314, 316, 318, 319, 320
Democratic Party, 51, 89, 105, 114, 305–8, 311
Democratic Socialists of America, 28
DePaul University, 285, 290
Des Plaines, Ill., 75
Detroit, Mich., 83, 260, 314
Ding, May Lin, 159
Djibouti, Africa, 236
Djindjic, Zoran, 41
DNC (Democratic National Committee), 32, 306, 314, 316, 318, 319, 320
Donahue, Mike, 255–56
Donnelly, Joe, 101, 102, 110, 123, 218, 219, 312
Don’t Shoot (Kennedy), 150
Dotson, Phil, 113
Dubai, UAE, 60, 80
Dubois, Mr., 27–28
Dunkin’ Donuts, 36, 52
Dvorak, Mike, 111
Dvorak, Ryan, 110–11, 118, 119, 120–21, 123, 125
East Bank Trail, 139, 140
Eastern Europe, 122
East Race, 138, 139, 140
Eau Claire, Wis., 289
Ecuador, 38
Eddie Bauer, 290
Eddie’s Steak Shed, 226, 228
Edwards, John, 54, 69
Egypt, 144
Eli Lilly and Company, 109
Elkhart, Ind., 206, 218, 220
Ellen Show, The, 290
Ellison, Keith, 307, 315, 318
El Paso, Tex., 8, 9, 20, 73
El Salvador, 27
EmNet, 178
Emporium Restaurant, 191
English, Ind., 97
EPA, 177, 178, 179
Ericsson, 41
Evansville, Ind., 95–96, 116
Facebook, 42, 104, 135, 259, 287, 316
Faubus, Orval, 39
FBI, 78, 275, 276
Federal Rail Administration, 137
Ferguson, Mo., 278
Fiat, 83
Fiddler’s Hearth, 285, 288
Fire Fighters Local 362, 117–18
First Stage, 290
Flynn, Michael, 269
Folding Paper Box Company, 13–14
Ford, 83, 187
Ford, Scott, 236
Fort Bliss, 8, 73
Fort Jackson, 239
Fox News, 50
Franklin County, Ind., 96
Freid, Jody, 124
French Lick Resort, 90, 91
Friendster, 41
Frost, Robert, 42
Fulton County, Ind., 51, 72