One of my children asked me once if people living through the Great Depression understood just how bad their era would look to historians. I answered that, on the whole, I thought not. People are focused on what’s in front of them: finding work, feeding their kids, trying to keep it together, making it through the day. It’s only when historians look back to gauge an era that they put the full picture together.
Your first paragraph really hit home and is related to some of what I have been commenting on (mostly) family posts that support Trump (I cannot fathom how some of the people I have known all of my life have done a 180 in their beliefs - but I digress....). I annotate oral histories for the National World War II Museum in New Orleans (I work full-time for the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, Univ. Tenn., Knoxville. Before this, I worked at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles). This side job doing annotations has made me realize that I knew a lot about the official history of WW2 and the Holocaust, but very little of the personal and social history of the world involved until now.
A line that is often repeated by all regarding the Depression is, "we did not know any better because everyone else was in the same boat."
Changing tack slightly, an "aside" related on MAGA, is that in not one of the interviews I have worked on over the past three years has any veteran called themselves Great or aligned themselves with the Greatest Generation. Some have pointedly talked about how they do not like the description, nor Brokaw's book. The quote that often comes to mind is, "he did not talk to the drafted grunts in the mud, shit, and blood."
Very few of the Holocaust survivors (or internment camp survivors - both Japanese-American and Americans in Japanese internment camps), say they did anything heroic to survive.
In both cases, this is not survivor's guilt but more of an ongoing spiritual reckoning with what they have done with their lives since then (due to their ages in these rather late in life interviews). In my opinion, to the majority, the world was as it was, they did what they did, and often, solely to survive. Most, did carry out many, many acts to help preserve the lives of others (some heroically so) as well, but shy away from being recognized for that.
Sadly, most are frightened by the world they see now and that goes back as far as 2005, which is the earliest dated interview I have worked on so far (most fall between 2003 - 2013; only one has referenced "our Islam [sic] President" ;) ).
Anyway, I digress. I was four years old when Medgar Evers and John Kennedy were killed; 6 for Malcom X; 9 for Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. At nine, I recall my mother and the mothers from my southern neighborhood in Safety Harbor, Florida all watching a train moving slowly on the television. They were all crying. I was told a good man was killed by a bad man. I believe 1968 was a record of some kind for assassinations worldwide? Anyway, all of this had a great impact on me and was the beginning of my realizing there was a world that I knew nothing about.
I have only recently discovered how much my parents did to further civil rights during that period of time. They did not march or protest, but lived life in a way to overcome prejudice. Only now do I realize what that meant for them personally (my mother's family goes back at least five generations in Florida). Like the people in the oral histories I work with, they do not think they did anything special or heroic. But they raised their children to try hard to overcome their leanings of their environment (our county, Pinellas County only desegregated under order from the Supreme Court - I believe in 1971).
I am a late in life father whose son is 10 and lives in New Orleans. He and his peers give me great hope. His mother and I both work very hard to make him as aware of current and past events as he can handle. Maybe that is what we do while we are focusing on our own survival day by day. My parents tried to shield us from the dirt. I really do wish I had known.
I wish I could have told my neighbor up the street how much I admired him for allowing his white sons to play basketball in their driveway with Black sons despite having a cross burned in their front yard (I was 11). He is dead now. I did get to tell his sons.
I wish I could have told one of my few Black teachers in junior high school I was sorry for the innocently told "joke" about him on parent/teacher night that in hindsight was racist although the intention was just the opposite. He is dead now. I did get to apologize to his children.
Okay, I did not intend to go all the way through here! It reminds me again of what a remarkable job you do putting all of this together for us. If only one good thing comes of all of the chaos caused by nearly half of our country, I was introduced to Heather Cox Richardson and have been able to introduce her to many, many people. Thanks!
Professor Richardson, like so many others who are proud to be a part of “Heather’s Herd of Hope”, I want—no, need—to express my thanks for your heroic contributions to the welfare of our great, imperiled nation. You have, over the last 14 months or so, provided a focused, historically founded perspective on our societal condition, and a glimpse of possible future outcomes given the current moral and political climate.
However, the immediate outlook remains grim. The wrecking ball that has been used on our governmental institutions and our social norms over the past four years has, as so many here have observed, been devastating.
The question now is: How do we recover? How can we reconstruct a shattered society?
That is the gauntlet that has been thrown down. That is the stark challenge we face. Do we have the intestinal fortitude needed to create the Reconstruction that our forbears failed to establish following the Civil War?
I think we do; we have no choice. It is our destiny to seize the moment, to link arms and march resolutely into the void and begin to rebuild.
The reality is that we Americans have, over the past 250 years and more, taken up our “tools” and built back whatever has been destroyed...better than before! That is what we are called on to do today. This is the opportunity to create the nation that lives up to its ideals, keeps its word, and is always at the ready to help anyone who needs a hand up.
Yes, it’s going to be a hard slog. Yes, there will be pitfalls and roadblocks at every turn. But we Americans have never been intimidated by seemingly impossible odds or opposition that appeared to be invulnerable. That’s when we’re at our best. That’s when we always show our mettle.
“So for those who cannot see it: we are in one of the most profound crises of American history.”. Unlike some others whose postings I have read thus far today (and, as time allows I really do try to read them all), I find this statement by Heather to be quite concerning. Like yesterday’s post, it is an alarm bell for me. It sounds like the far off toll of a single, very deep sounding, very large bell ringing in the distance. Yes, some of what she says inspires hope and confidence, as it should and truly must, for without these we are surely lost and we have to keep our spirits up. However, Heather has never been anything close to an alarmist. In fact, just the opposite. She uses the perspective of history to remind us that we have been here before (or somewhere very much like it), have survived, and moved on. The comment quoted above and her comments yesterday are different, something I have not seen previously, which is why I find them concerning. I have had to take a giant step back from news and social media for self preservation as my mental health was beginning to be impacted by the toxic negativity and hatred that is so prevalent there. I am good at “big picture” thinking. I don’t mean to boast and am not one to do so - its just that I have been recognized for this both in the scholastic and professional portions of my life so I take it as a truth that others observe about me. I have a years long habit of reading multiple news outlets daily that has served me well, so to be without that “big picture” perspective I have derived from my own reading is not a position I am really comfortable with, but I have come to trust Heather to distill the day’s news because I usually arrive at similar conclusions on my own (minus the historical relevance and insights that she so brilliantly provides). So, all that being said, her comment quoted above has made me really sit up and take notice.
It feels like a good portion of the country who voted for Biden/Harris are singing and dancing to “Happy Days Are Here Again”, another portion are more cautiously optimistic, and very few see the significant dangers that remain ahead. Maybe I’m just naturally a pessimist but I still don’t have a good feeling about the future. Throughout djt’s tenure I have remained ‘friends’ with people on social media that I used to consider close personal friends who, in 2015-2016, revealed that they supported this regime. To say I was shocked by their support of him would be a monumental understatement. These are people I was very close to and thought I knew well. It was a period of personal crisis for me as I questioned how I could have so misunderstood and misjudged these friendships. But, I listened, and I still do. I read their opinions and the things they post and try to have dialogue, mostly unsuccessfully. My point in telling this is to say that if we here think things will change with the inauguration (assuming it happens) we are woefully misguided. There is a deep, ugly wound in America that will not go away with the inauguration, if ever. I hear another deeply tolling bell in the distance whenever I hear or see more from these people I formerly considered close friends. There are many more just like them. We ignore or discount them at our peril. They believe the messages they are receiving from the current regime as deeply as we believe Biden. More deeply, even. They believe that they, too, are fighting for the very soul of America and her survival. And they love her and are willing to fight and die for her. We cannot and should not disrespect, mock, or ignore them. We must somehow build bridges and reconcile. The danger now, as I see it, is that they are beginning to “go underground”. Many have shifted to Parler, which I refuse to join. We cannot deal with nor address a threat we cannot see and/or are not aware of. This is, indeed, a “crisis in American history”, for many reasons. We must act accordingly.
I will step off the soap box now. For those of you who made it this far, thank you for listening. I am grateful to be a member of this community.
Headline story in Politico this morning about conservatives in Georgia consuming each other over who can have the craziest conspiracy theory/boycott the Senate runoff election and somewhat more rational Republicans, (like Newt Gingrich?!) terrified the Frankenstein monster they helped create will cost Republicans the Senate. What pandemic?
Wisely, Georgia Democrats are staying out of it and quietly going about the business of getting out the vote and fund-raising.
Never interfere with your opponent while he's setting his hair on fire. Or something like that.
The problem I see in today’s USA is that we have allowed our organs of society’s greater good, our public schools, our tv networks, our newspapers, our colleges and universities, to fail to communicate that shared reality. That’s why we have liberals who don’t understand why people in red states hate government interference and why Trump supporters can be choking to death and still not believe that the coronavirus is a threat. It’s why so many are susceptible to the latest conspiracy theory: it’s all too easy to accept Quanon or the deep state or the Protocol of the Elders of Zion if you’ve never had a concrete demonstration or a contradictory fact pushed in your face. There are many things we could do: reinstitute the fairness doctrine for tv broadcast on our publicly-owned wavelengths, strengthen or re-institute civics classes which give some insight into the good things good government can do at the local, state, and federal level, and the bad things it can do when run corruptly and/or incompetently. Just a thought, Professor Richardson.
You have spurred so many thoughts in my mind, Heather. I will go back to my parents who were both victims of the Holocaust, another horrendous time in our history. They had to have sponsorship to enter America. They each had a relative already living here when they arrived in the 30’s. Here, they thrived because they were allowed to live and prosper under the freedom they so desired. They moved from NY to a small rural town in NC where they became merchants. They both worked to make ends meet. My sister and I were the only Jews in school and it wasn’t until 1963, that schools were integrated. That was so long ago but we have lived through assassinations (also to Democrats and people of color), placing a man, and now women, on the moon, continuing technology, etc.. The one thing we haven’t successfully tackled is systemic racism. I would like to say we are getting there but that would be a lie and we have had enough of those for these past 4 years.
You call him president. I simply won’t award him that title so I have been saying Fake 45. He is faltering in his last days, trying to pull all of the stops out. Republicans are getting their just rewards as they get skewered for not following their leader. Personally, don’t you think Stephen Miller is behind all of the insanity? Look at Barr Nun. He won’t even do Fake 45’s bidding now! Then Ivanka was deposed re: money spent for the inauguration. Somehow, the chips are falling right into place and we now have a front row seat.
My parents lived through the Great Depression. They would tell stories of how difficult those times were, of making due. We were taught to appreciate what we had. My father would tell about how, when he was a boy, eating sweet potatoes for dinner was as much of a treat as dessert. My mother’s family made “Depression Soup” of a variety of dried beans, peas, and when they could get them, vegetables and a soup bone. These have become part of our family legacy and are comfort foods for my sisters and me ❣️
Considering all of the music, literature, and art that was created during the time of the Great Depression, I believe that folks living during that time knew how bad things were and that it was important to document those experiences for the generations to come.
Heather, thank you for doing the same...with your chats and these Letters From an American ❤️🇺🇸
In Texas, Gov Abbott announced he has I think it was 3 billion that has to be spent before the end of the year or it is returned to federal funds. He’s just trying to decide how to spend it. That’s insane! Why was he ever been holding it?! Our food bank lines are infamous on the national news, and the homeless situation is mounting, people are desperate! And Abbott just can’t decide how to spend billions.
The TEA run by a realtor Mike Morath stated that if schools go virtual, they’ll only receive half day funding for everyday we’re virtual. The district I work in is an affluent area and we already give $53 billion to the state every year for a Robin Hood law. The district can’t pay its bills and we’re the lowest paid teachers in this area of North Texas. Half our funding would be ludicrous! As Covid numbers mount, we don’t dare switch to all virtual! But parents are pulling their children and making the switch to virtual. My school has had very few cases and the majority have been infected from other contacts away from the school. So we’re doing something right with all of our precautions! The best thing we could do, however, is close all buildings and go to all online. We just can’t!
I believe because of your letters, more people realize we are in unprecedentedly bad time of history. Thank you for your expertise! It always helps me put the day in perspective and not feel so alone.
When you say the Congress, I'm assuming that Senate Republicans are also on-board for this Defense Authorization Act. I loved everything you listed that is in it. It feels like sanity is returning. We are very fortunate to have such a fine, strong and ethical military who take very seriously their oath to the Constitution and to protect democracy. It is good to see the Congress acting as a whole in support of them and institution like NATO and our allies like South Korea and Germany.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Yesterday's chat was very illuminating, as I heard how the U.S. government fared during the Civil War. I never knew! In some ways it has mirrored what is and has been going on these past 3+ years. While the squeaky wheel (45 and supporters/the confederacy) claims the narrative, the rest of the country is taking care of business.
I am 100% behind the Biden/Harris team as they continue to make COVID-19 their Number 1 focus for the country, ignoring the many distractions that are tossed in their path.
I would like to think history will be more than kind to the Biden administration...perhaps it will be written that they were the heroes of their time.
In terms of the Great Depression, although much of the hardship was visible to those living through it, they had a sense of community with their neighbors who were all pretty much equally affected. Today, we’ve had TV in most homes for about 50 years and generations have been growing up with serious envy of what appears to be how it should be for them, too. Social media compounds the problem. If no one else in your town has a car, you don’t miss having a car. If the teen next door gets one, you’re jealous. If TV/social media seem to show everyone else has a car, you feel cheated and angry.
Thank you Heather. I brace myself daily for what the next assault against the citizens of this Country will be from this Administration. It's positively exhausting. As much as I want to look away from this train wreck, I know I need to watch, albeit from the corner of my eye . Who would have ever imagined this would be the operative of this Nation? I think about what this Administration, not just Trump, will look like to generations long after us. I hope they won't think we were just rubes who were lead by the nose down this dark path, but that might be a fair observation. I find it almost the likes of Ray Bradbury that the leader of this nation has chosen to turn his back on the people as they die in droves as he plays golf and ignores this pandemic, all in plain sight.. Perhaps we have come to such a baseline that
this is acceptable. I thought we were better than this. Time will tell.
When reading about the "testimony" by "witnesses" in Michigan on "election fraud" I felt I was experiencing an extended SNL skit. Honestly, are people that desperate for their 15 minutes of fame? Obviously they are. Thank you, Dr. Richardson for your insights. You have given me hope that we can save democracy.
Many thanks, Heather. As always, I appreciate your expertise, daily letters, and chats. It always gives me a perspective based in truth. You remind me today, that my grandmother would be asked by coal camp mothers if they could have some "creasy greens" from her property. The answer was always yes, and she always left their farm raised food extras on her porch railing for these families. It was a self-sustaining dairy farm in West Virginia and they managed fairly well in spite of the Depression yet its impact was handed down through my mother to me. I always pause and think about reusing aluminum foil, just like my Mom did. I walk by my great grandmother's Depression quilt, with each piece having come from one of my mother's dresses as well as those of her sisters. Some pieces are from flour sacks and grain sacks. It's my favorite quilt. I keep thinking about my ancestors and I gain hope that if they can do it we can do it. Move forward with grace. (In spite of president what-a-waste.)
We will endure. have faith in our resilience. The early days of the Civil War were perilous. December 7 1941 shattered our complacency about wars across vast oceans. We have to hope that transitioning to sane and humble leadership will rally Americans to do the right things to contain the pandemic. Wearing a mask and staying home for a few months is a lot easier than the immense sacrifices of our ancestors who went to war, and some who perished in the YEARS of fighting. C’mon Americans. We can do this. Hunker down. Wear a mask. Avoid indoor gatherings. And remember we are all in this effort together.
Your first paragraph really hit home and is related to some of what I have been commenting on (mostly) family posts that support Trump (I cannot fathom how some of the people I have known all of my life have done a 180 in their beliefs - but I digress....). I annotate oral histories for the National World War II Museum in New Orleans (I work full-time for the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture, Univ. Tenn., Knoxville. Before this, I worked at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles). This side job doing annotations has made me realize that I knew a lot about the official history of WW2 and the Holocaust, but very little of the personal and social history of the world involved until now.
A line that is often repeated by all regarding the Depression is, "we did not know any better because everyone else was in the same boat."
Changing tack slightly, an "aside" related on MAGA, is that in not one of the interviews I have worked on over the past three years has any veteran called themselves Great or aligned themselves with the Greatest Generation. Some have pointedly talked about how they do not like the description, nor Brokaw's book. The quote that often comes to mind is, "he did not talk to the drafted grunts in the mud, shit, and blood."
Very few of the Holocaust survivors (or internment camp survivors - both Japanese-American and Americans in Japanese internment camps), say they did anything heroic to survive.
In both cases, this is not survivor's guilt but more of an ongoing spiritual reckoning with what they have done with their lives since then (due to their ages in these rather late in life interviews). In my opinion, to the majority, the world was as it was, they did what they did, and often, solely to survive. Most, did carry out many, many acts to help preserve the lives of others (some heroically so) as well, but shy away from being recognized for that.
Sadly, most are frightened by the world they see now and that goes back as far as 2005, which is the earliest dated interview I have worked on so far (most fall between 2003 - 2013; only one has referenced "our Islam [sic] President" ;) ).
Anyway, I digress. I was four years old when Medgar Evers and John Kennedy were killed; 6 for Malcom X; 9 for Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. At nine, I recall my mother and the mothers from my southern neighborhood in Safety Harbor, Florida all watching a train moving slowly on the television. They were all crying. I was told a good man was killed by a bad man. I believe 1968 was a record of some kind for assassinations worldwide? Anyway, all of this had a great impact on me and was the beginning of my realizing there was a world that I knew nothing about.
I have only recently discovered how much my parents did to further civil rights during that period of time. They did not march or protest, but lived life in a way to overcome prejudice. Only now do I realize what that meant for them personally (my mother's family goes back at least five generations in Florida). Like the people in the oral histories I work with, they do not think they did anything special or heroic. But they raised their children to try hard to overcome their leanings of their environment (our county, Pinellas County only desegregated under order from the Supreme Court - I believe in 1971).
I am a late in life father whose son is 10 and lives in New Orleans. He and his peers give me great hope. His mother and I both work very hard to make him as aware of current and past events as he can handle. Maybe that is what we do while we are focusing on our own survival day by day. My parents tried to shield us from the dirt. I really do wish I had known.
I wish I could have told my neighbor up the street how much I admired him for allowing his white sons to play basketball in their driveway with Black sons despite having a cross burned in their front yard (I was 11). He is dead now. I did get to tell his sons.
I wish I could have told one of my few Black teachers in junior high school I was sorry for the innocently told "joke" about him on parent/teacher night that in hindsight was racist although the intention was just the opposite. He is dead now. I did get to apologize to his children.
Okay, I did not intend to go all the way through here! It reminds me again of what a remarkable job you do putting all of this together for us. If only one good thing comes of all of the chaos caused by nearly half of our country, I was introduced to Heather Cox Richardson and have been able to introduce her to many, many people. Thanks!
Professor Richardson, like so many others who are proud to be a part of “Heather’s Herd of Hope”, I want—no, need—to express my thanks for your heroic contributions to the welfare of our great, imperiled nation. You have, over the last 14 months or so, provided a focused, historically founded perspective on our societal condition, and a glimpse of possible future outcomes given the current moral and political climate.
However, the immediate outlook remains grim. The wrecking ball that has been used on our governmental institutions and our social norms over the past four years has, as so many here have observed, been devastating.
The question now is: How do we recover? How can we reconstruct a shattered society?
That is the gauntlet that has been thrown down. That is the stark challenge we face. Do we have the intestinal fortitude needed to create the Reconstruction that our forbears failed to establish following the Civil War?
I think we do; we have no choice. It is our destiny to seize the moment, to link arms and march resolutely into the void and begin to rebuild.
The reality is that we Americans have, over the past 250 years and more, taken up our “tools” and built back whatever has been destroyed...better than before! That is what we are called on to do today. This is the opportunity to create the nation that lives up to its ideals, keeps its word, and is always at the ready to help anyone who needs a hand up.
Yes, it’s going to be a hard slog. Yes, there will be pitfalls and roadblocks at every turn. But we Americans have never been intimidated by seemingly impossible odds or opposition that appeared to be invulnerable. That’s when we’re at our best. That’s when we always show our mettle.
I expect nothing less now that our day has come.
“So for those who cannot see it: we are in one of the most profound crises of American history.”. Unlike some others whose postings I have read thus far today (and, as time allows I really do try to read them all), I find this statement by Heather to be quite concerning. Like yesterday’s post, it is an alarm bell for me. It sounds like the far off toll of a single, very deep sounding, very large bell ringing in the distance. Yes, some of what she says inspires hope and confidence, as it should and truly must, for without these we are surely lost and we have to keep our spirits up. However, Heather has never been anything close to an alarmist. In fact, just the opposite. She uses the perspective of history to remind us that we have been here before (or somewhere very much like it), have survived, and moved on. The comment quoted above and her comments yesterday are different, something I have not seen previously, which is why I find them concerning. I have had to take a giant step back from news and social media for self preservation as my mental health was beginning to be impacted by the toxic negativity and hatred that is so prevalent there. I am good at “big picture” thinking. I don’t mean to boast and am not one to do so - its just that I have been recognized for this both in the scholastic and professional portions of my life so I take it as a truth that others observe about me. I have a years long habit of reading multiple news outlets daily that has served me well, so to be without that “big picture” perspective I have derived from my own reading is not a position I am really comfortable with, but I have come to trust Heather to distill the day’s news because I usually arrive at similar conclusions on my own (minus the historical relevance and insights that she so brilliantly provides). So, all that being said, her comment quoted above has made me really sit up and take notice.
It feels like a good portion of the country who voted for Biden/Harris are singing and dancing to “Happy Days Are Here Again”, another portion are more cautiously optimistic, and very few see the significant dangers that remain ahead. Maybe I’m just naturally a pessimist but I still don’t have a good feeling about the future. Throughout djt’s tenure I have remained ‘friends’ with people on social media that I used to consider close personal friends who, in 2015-2016, revealed that they supported this regime. To say I was shocked by their support of him would be a monumental understatement. These are people I was very close to and thought I knew well. It was a period of personal crisis for me as I questioned how I could have so misunderstood and misjudged these friendships. But, I listened, and I still do. I read their opinions and the things they post and try to have dialogue, mostly unsuccessfully. My point in telling this is to say that if we here think things will change with the inauguration (assuming it happens) we are woefully misguided. There is a deep, ugly wound in America that will not go away with the inauguration, if ever. I hear another deeply tolling bell in the distance whenever I hear or see more from these people I formerly considered close friends. There are many more just like them. We ignore or discount them at our peril. They believe the messages they are receiving from the current regime as deeply as we believe Biden. More deeply, even. They believe that they, too, are fighting for the very soul of America and her survival. And they love her and are willing to fight and die for her. We cannot and should not disrespect, mock, or ignore them. We must somehow build bridges and reconcile. The danger now, as I see it, is that they are beginning to “go underground”. Many have shifted to Parler, which I refuse to join. We cannot deal with nor address a threat we cannot see and/or are not aware of. This is, indeed, a “crisis in American history”, for many reasons. We must act accordingly.
I will step off the soap box now. For those of you who made it this far, thank you for listening. I am grateful to be a member of this community.
Headline story in Politico this morning about conservatives in Georgia consuming each other over who can have the craziest conspiracy theory/boycott the Senate runoff election and somewhat more rational Republicans, (like Newt Gingrich?!) terrified the Frankenstein monster they helped create will cost Republicans the Senate. What pandemic?
Wisely, Georgia Democrats are staying out of it and quietly going about the business of getting out the vote and fund-raising.
Never interfere with your opponent while he's setting his hair on fire. Or something like that.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/03/maga-georgia-civil-war-trump-senate-republicans-442776
The problem I see in today’s USA is that we have allowed our organs of society’s greater good, our public schools, our tv networks, our newspapers, our colleges and universities, to fail to communicate that shared reality. That’s why we have liberals who don’t understand why people in red states hate government interference and why Trump supporters can be choking to death and still not believe that the coronavirus is a threat. It’s why so many are susceptible to the latest conspiracy theory: it’s all too easy to accept Quanon or the deep state or the Protocol of the Elders of Zion if you’ve never had a concrete demonstration or a contradictory fact pushed in your face. There are many things we could do: reinstitute the fairness doctrine for tv broadcast on our publicly-owned wavelengths, strengthen or re-institute civics classes which give some insight into the good things good government can do at the local, state, and federal level, and the bad things it can do when run corruptly and/or incompetently. Just a thought, Professor Richardson.
You have spurred so many thoughts in my mind, Heather. I will go back to my parents who were both victims of the Holocaust, another horrendous time in our history. They had to have sponsorship to enter America. They each had a relative already living here when they arrived in the 30’s. Here, they thrived because they were allowed to live and prosper under the freedom they so desired. They moved from NY to a small rural town in NC where they became merchants. They both worked to make ends meet. My sister and I were the only Jews in school and it wasn’t until 1963, that schools were integrated. That was so long ago but we have lived through assassinations (also to Democrats and people of color), placing a man, and now women, on the moon, continuing technology, etc.. The one thing we haven’t successfully tackled is systemic racism. I would like to say we are getting there but that would be a lie and we have had enough of those for these past 4 years.
You call him president. I simply won’t award him that title so I have been saying Fake 45. He is faltering in his last days, trying to pull all of the stops out. Republicans are getting their just rewards as they get skewered for not following their leader. Personally, don’t you think Stephen Miller is behind all of the insanity? Look at Barr Nun. He won’t even do Fake 45’s bidding now! Then Ivanka was deposed re: money spent for the inauguration. Somehow, the chips are falling right into place and we now have a front row seat.
My parents lived through the Great Depression. They would tell stories of how difficult those times were, of making due. We were taught to appreciate what we had. My father would tell about how, when he was a boy, eating sweet potatoes for dinner was as much of a treat as dessert. My mother’s family made “Depression Soup” of a variety of dried beans, peas, and when they could get them, vegetables and a soup bone. These have become part of our family legacy and are comfort foods for my sisters and me ❣️
Considering all of the music, literature, and art that was created during the time of the Great Depression, I believe that folks living during that time knew how bad things were and that it was important to document those experiences for the generations to come.
Heather, thank you for doing the same...with your chats and these Letters From an American ❤️🇺🇸
In Texas, Gov Abbott announced he has I think it was 3 billion that has to be spent before the end of the year or it is returned to federal funds. He’s just trying to decide how to spend it. That’s insane! Why was he ever been holding it?! Our food bank lines are infamous on the national news, and the homeless situation is mounting, people are desperate! And Abbott just can’t decide how to spend billions.
The TEA run by a realtor Mike Morath stated that if schools go virtual, they’ll only receive half day funding for everyday we’re virtual. The district I work in is an affluent area and we already give $53 billion to the state every year for a Robin Hood law. The district can’t pay its bills and we’re the lowest paid teachers in this area of North Texas. Half our funding would be ludicrous! As Covid numbers mount, we don’t dare switch to all virtual! But parents are pulling their children and making the switch to virtual. My school has had very few cases and the majority have been infected from other contacts away from the school. So we’re doing something right with all of our precautions! The best thing we could do, however, is close all buildings and go to all online. We just can’t!
I believe because of your letters, more people realize we are in unprecedentedly bad time of history. Thank you for your expertise! It always helps me put the day in perspective and not feel so alone.
When you say the Congress, I'm assuming that Senate Republicans are also on-board for this Defense Authorization Act. I loved everything you listed that is in it. It feels like sanity is returning. We are very fortunate to have such a fine, strong and ethical military who take very seriously their oath to the Constitution and to protect democracy. It is good to see the Congress acting as a whole in support of them and institution like NATO and our allies like South Korea and Germany.
This one will help me sleep.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Yesterday's chat was very illuminating, as I heard how the U.S. government fared during the Civil War. I never knew! In some ways it has mirrored what is and has been going on these past 3+ years. While the squeaky wheel (45 and supporters/the confederacy) claims the narrative, the rest of the country is taking care of business.
I am 100% behind the Biden/Harris team as they continue to make COVID-19 their Number 1 focus for the country, ignoring the many distractions that are tossed in their path.
I would like to think history will be more than kind to the Biden administration...perhaps it will be written that they were the heroes of their time.
In terms of the Great Depression, although much of the hardship was visible to those living through it, they had a sense of community with their neighbors who were all pretty much equally affected. Today, we’ve had TV in most homes for about 50 years and generations have been growing up with serious envy of what appears to be how it should be for them, too. Social media compounds the problem. If no one else in your town has a car, you don’t miss having a car. If the teen next door gets one, you’re jealous. If TV/social media seem to show everyone else has a car, you feel cheated and angry.
Thank you Heather. I brace myself daily for what the next assault against the citizens of this Country will be from this Administration. It's positively exhausting. As much as I want to look away from this train wreck, I know I need to watch, albeit from the corner of my eye . Who would have ever imagined this would be the operative of this Nation? I think about what this Administration, not just Trump, will look like to generations long after us. I hope they won't think we were just rubes who were lead by the nose down this dark path, but that might be a fair observation. I find it almost the likes of Ray Bradbury that the leader of this nation has chosen to turn his back on the people as they die in droves as he plays golf and ignores this pandemic, all in plain sight.. Perhaps we have come to such a baseline that
this is acceptable. I thought we were better than this. Time will tell.
Be safe. Be well.
When reading about the "testimony" by "witnesses" in Michigan on "election fraud" I felt I was experiencing an extended SNL skit. Honestly, are people that desperate for their 15 minutes of fame? Obviously they are. Thank you, Dr. Richardson for your insights. You have given me hope that we can save democracy.
Many thanks, Heather. As always, I appreciate your expertise, daily letters, and chats. It always gives me a perspective based in truth. You remind me today, that my grandmother would be asked by coal camp mothers if they could have some "creasy greens" from her property. The answer was always yes, and she always left their farm raised food extras on her porch railing for these families. It was a self-sustaining dairy farm in West Virginia and they managed fairly well in spite of the Depression yet its impact was handed down through my mother to me. I always pause and think about reusing aluminum foil, just like my Mom did. I walk by my great grandmother's Depression quilt, with each piece having come from one of my mother's dresses as well as those of her sisters. Some pieces are from flour sacks and grain sacks. It's my favorite quilt. I keep thinking about my ancestors and I gain hope that if they can do it we can do it. Move forward with grace. (In spite of president what-a-waste.)
We will endure. have faith in our resilience. The early days of the Civil War were perilous. December 7 1941 shattered our complacency about wars across vast oceans. We have to hope that transitioning to sane and humble leadership will rally Americans to do the right things to contain the pandemic. Wearing a mask and staying home for a few months is a lot easier than the immense sacrifices of our ancestors who went to war, and some who perished in the YEARS of fighting. C’mon Americans. We can do this. Hunker down. Wear a mask. Avoid indoor gatherings. And remember we are all in this effort together.