Today would have been my father's 115th birthday. He was not a hero, never, as far I as know, faced danger, but went to the elementary school in Brooklyn where he was principal every day and showed the children there that they counted, and that he cared about them. He knew all of their names, he taught them the same beloved poems that he…
Today would have been my father's 115th birthday. He was not a hero, never, as far I as know, faced danger, but went to the elementary school in Brooklyn where he was principal every day and showed the children there that they counted, and that he cared about them. He knew all of their names, he taught them the same beloved poems that he'd taught me and my sister, and he made a difference in their lives. I find inspiration in remembering the small, everyday things that he did. Happy birthday, Daddy.
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
There are many, many helpers; some who make a career of it, and other who help in large and small ways now and then. People who would help just because the see the need. that does not often sell newspapers, but it holds our societies together.
And mine. I once met him on the beach behind his " crooked House on Nantucket Island. Yes, he had on his cardigan sweater. He offered us a very kindly "hello", bent down to my 5-year old son and said," Hello young man what is your name? Would you like to be my neighbor?" My son told him that we were staying across the road from his "crooked house for a couple weeks. To which Mr. Rogers replied,":Well that certainly makes us neighbors and I'm very glad to meet you, Drew Smith. We can still be neighbors even after you go back home." That kind hearted exchange convinced me that Mr. Rogers was a genuine, humble hero. Not a show- boat celeb like so many others.
That's a wonderful tribute to your father. Now I'm remembering the headmaster of my long long ago Quaker elementary school. Another good man, who made the students feel we counted.
Most teachers are and have always been our unsung heroes for generations. That’s why it has been so disheartening to see the guardians of our future under appreciated and now threatened by those who fear the knowledge they would impart to our children. Scary proposition for those who fear what doors knowledge can unlock.
But teachers were not ignored, just underpaid and under appreciated. In the 1930’s in rural America they were part of the community and at least partially paid with food and/or housing. Only as families fell apart and “education” became run from “above,” the three R’s having been dumped in favor of endless multiple choice, have teachers really hit the nadir.
Agree 100%. What a sad statement our country makes in placing so little focus on education. Education is the best way to move our country forward, not banning books and denying our true history.
A fine acknowledgement and with such clear thinking and gratitude. I imagine that you had the added confidence of believing he would do the right thing in any situation. That's a great security asset for a child, a gift he gave you and others.
Love is often equated with liking, but the deep sort of love is about caring. Heroes of any sort care about more than themselves, beyond of even those they happen to like, though it is natural (but not required) to like those one loves or who love us. Love can take so many forms, but caring for is always involved.
J L Graham, yes, caring is foundational to love. I define love as it is a caring, a concern for, an ability to see yourself in the other person, a belief that we are all connected, an ability to see more deeply into a person who harmed or wants to harm you and look past and forgive to some extent, a belief in being equal in human value, and it is always unconditional, never transactional. The feeling may be much less robust when we have been harmed by a person but love doesn't disappear, some caring and concern still exists.
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”
― Dostoevsky
So even for Trump, though society is entitled to protect itself and to set boundaries with measures against predation. I would not be sorry to see Trump in jail; but many of our jails are hellholes (something someone like Trump would likely not experience) which may feed out desires for revenge (and prejudice) but it's a wonder that any who emerge are rehabilitated. We seem to be a more punitive society than many, and I think a more violent one (at least in part) as a result.
In the January 1967 edition of Ramparts Magazine, an article appeared entitled
“The Children of Vietnam.” It was written by a thirty-year-old political
science instructor at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York. On leave of absence
from teaching, he had spent six weeks in the spring of 1966 traveling and
living in the Sancta Maria Orphanage in the Vietnamese Gia Dinh Province as
a freelance correspondent.
When the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. read the article shortly after its publication,
he invited attorney William Pepper to speak to his congregation. For Pepper,
the 1967 meeting would precipitate the deepest of bonds with the Nobel Prize
winner and civil rights leader, as well as the King family. Publicly labeling the
U.S. government the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world,” Martin Luther
King would be assassinated one year after his initial meeting with Pepper.
Attorney William F. Pepper struggled for ten years (1988–98) to get James Earl Ray a full trial. Ray, who entered a guilty plea on March 10, 1969, on advice of his attorney to forego a jury trial where he might have been subject to the death penalty if convicted, recanted his
confession three days later. Ray would die in prison in 1998 of liver failure, but that didn’t stop the undaunted attorney William Pepper. Representing the King family in a final effort to establish the truth about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Pepper filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit (King v. Jowers and Other Unknown Co-Conspirators) in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1999. All of the evidence related to the King assassination was brought forth in a court of law and under oath. The trial lasted thirty days with over seventy witnesses,
all of whom put evidence into the legal record. In less than an hour of deliberation, a jury of six white and six black jurors found former Memphis police officer Loyd Jowers and local, state, and federal government agencies guilty of conspiring to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr.. Contained in the court record was evidence that the FBI, CIA, and the U.S. military had been involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr.
As to why Professor Richardson continues to believe (and write) that King was assassinated by a lone "white supremacist" (she also believes that Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK) – despite the evidence revealed in a court of law – she is no "hero" when it comes to the truth of history – only a coward in terms of taking on what other heroes such as William Pepper did to get to the real truth of how the U.S. Government murdered King.
On this day of remembrance, let us celebrate the real heroes who have risked their lives for the sake of historical truth and accuracy . . .
Peter, I'm not sure why you attached this to my comment about my father. I've never researched King's death or whether James Earl Ray was a lone white supremacist or the circumstances of JFK's death, but from everything that I've read of Heather's, she has read widely before she writes about a topic. Her conclusions may sometimes be wrong, but the depth and breadth of the education that she offers us, the parallels that she draws linking our nation's past to the present, seem invaluable to me. Your observations and opinions are valuable, too, but, as I said at the start, I'm surprised that you felt that they were appropriate to post in this space.
No prob--we all make mistakes. Where did you mean to attach it? It was surprising to me because it was so discordant and so unlike the rest of the comments.
Thanks Peter. I too wonder about Heather...when she can't talk about the other side of the Israel-Gaza conflict, about the occupation of the Palestinian's land since 1948. Sadly, many Israelis only learn about their true history during college...when they start thinking for themselves and do some research.
As Heather repeatedly reminds us, she is a historian trained in American political history. She doesn't feel qualified to comment on Israel or the middle east, and often refers to other historians who are trained in this area. This column is called "Letter From An American" for a reason: it is meant to be a record of the intersection of the current political climate in the USA in the context of American history. Her books are about American history. Other writers (some with training and qualifications in this area, some not) do write about Israel and the MIddle East. It would be reasonable to seek them out: they are readily available at libraries and book stores. Some write for substack or other publications.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. But with the current actions of our president, this might soon be an American issue too...if he takes us into war by by-passing Congress, by shooting at the Houthis in Yemen and delivering bombs to Israel. Violence is never the solution.
And I just want to add a comment about intergenerational trauma. We all are probably affected to some degree: The Israelis here & over there about the holocaust, Americans with Native Blood, me included, and the African Americans. These affects often present themselves sideways in emotional troubles and ill health, many years later. That internal anger & rage continues to come out in many ways. Look at all of the shootings in malls & schools.
I agree with your comments on intergenerational trauma. I am of mixed indigenous heritage. It's a given. What I would add is the trauma that Euro-derived Americans also clearly experience because of the stresses that are inherent in our kind of stratified, pseudo-individualistic society. We talk about current expressions of that trauma as if they were causes, but refuse to be honest with ourselves about the historical trauma that underlies it all.
I'm sure that Heather will cover the ramifications relative to the USA as they occur.
Beverly - Thank you for your comment. Truly, I like Heather, but I am disappointed that she does not act more "heroically" when it comes to the real truth of history, which she will sadly not embrace . . .
Betsy, your dad sounds like a hero to me - especially to those children in Brooklyn. I never heard of a principal who knew all the names of the children in their school - that alone is a special gift. Many birthday blessings to you on this special day. and Happy Birthday to your dad! 🎶 🎂 🎶 🙏🏼 🎶
It's pretty easy to know the names of the kids in your school when they're there from kindergarten through sixth grade. You just have to learn who the new kindergartners are. Sometimes, when there are several children in a family, you meet the little ones at school events, so you've got a head start on those. And if helps if you've got a good memory for names and faces. : )
Your father WAS a hero, Betsy. Being a hero doesn't necessarily mean facing danger. Your father did those "small, everyday things" over and over again, for each child he encountered. Sometimes heroism presents as doing something absolutely essential to society repeatedly, and with honor, as your father did. Thank you for sharing your remembrance of him. We need to recognize his kind of heroism too, and the balloon effect as those children carried his gifts to them with then into their lives.
Today would have been my father's 115th birthday. He was not a hero, never, as far I as know, faced danger, but went to the elementary school in Brooklyn where he was principal every day and showed the children there that they counted, and that he cared about them. He knew all of their names, he taught them the same beloved poems that he'd taught me and my sister, and he made a difference in their lives. I find inspiration in remembering the small, everyday things that he did. Happy birthday, Daddy.
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
― Fred Rogers
There are many, many helpers; some who make a career of it, and other who help in large and small ways now and then. People who would help just because the see the need. that does not often sell newspapers, but it holds our societies together.
Certainly Fred Rogers was one of them.
And Betty White
There's a group on Facebook called Look for the Helpers. Posts to it are heartwarming and inspirational.
Becky...a wonderful reminder of another hero. How so often wise were his simple tenets both for the young child as well as for all of us
And mine. I once met him on the beach behind his " crooked House on Nantucket Island. Yes, he had on his cardigan sweater. He offered us a very kindly "hello", bent down to my 5-year old son and said," Hello young man what is your name? Would you like to be my neighbor?" My son told him that we were staying across the road from his "crooked house for a couple weeks. To which Mr. Rogers replied,":Well that certainly makes us neighbors and I'm very glad to meet you, Drew Smith. We can still be neighbors even after you go back home." That kind hearted exchange convinced me that Mr. Rogers was a genuine, humble hero. Not a show- boat celeb like so many others.
He was a true mensch.
That's a wonderful tribute to your father. Now I'm remembering the headmaster of my long long ago Quaker elementary school. Another good man, who made the students feel we counted.
Most teachers are and have always been our unsung heroes for generations. That’s why it has been so disheartening to see the guardians of our future under appreciated and now threatened by those who fear the knowledge they would impart to our children. Scary proposition for those who fear what doors knowledge can unlock.
There was a poster back in the early 1970s that said something like:
It'll be a great day when teachers have all the money they need, and the Pentagon has to hold a bake sale to pay for B-1 bombers."
Is going from being ignored to being attacked a sign of progress?
But teachers were not ignored, just underpaid and under appreciated. In the 1930’s in rural America they were part of the community and at least partially paid with food and/or housing. Only as families fell apart and “education” became run from “above,” the three R’s having been dumped in favor of endless multiple choice, have teachers really hit the nadir.
Agree 100%. What a sad statement our country makes in placing so little focus on education. Education is the best way to move our country forward, not banning books and denying our true history.
A fine acknowledgement and with such clear thinking and gratitude. I imagine that you had the added confidence of believing he would do the right thing in any situation. That's a great security asset for a child, a gift he gave you and others.
Betsy Smith, happy 115th birthday to your hero. A few days ago, my dad would have turned 100. He was my hero because he loved everyone, no exceptions.
Love is often equated with liking, but the deep sort of love is about caring. Heroes of any sort care about more than themselves, beyond of even those they happen to like, though it is natural (but not required) to like those one loves or who love us. Love can take so many forms, but caring for is always involved.
J L Graham, yes, caring is foundational to love. I define love as it is a caring, a concern for, an ability to see yourself in the other person, a belief that we are all connected, an ability to see more deeply into a person who harmed or wants to harm you and look past and forgive to some extent, a belief in being equal in human value, and it is always unconditional, never transactional. The feeling may be much less robust when we have been harmed by a person but love doesn't disappear, some caring and concern still exists.
“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”
― Dostoevsky
So even for Trump, though society is entitled to protect itself and to set boundaries with measures against predation. I would not be sorry to see Trump in jail; but many of our jails are hellholes (something someone like Trump would likely not experience) which may feed out desires for revenge (and prejudice) but it's a wonder that any who emerge are rehabilitated. We seem to be a more punitive society than many, and I think a more violent one (at least in part) as a result.
Love some I do not currently like. A challenge, but I do care…
This 💝
Beautifully stated💕
Betsy….the “quiet heroes” that sustain us, just doing the right things. I think that there are more amongst us than we know….perhaps even ourselves.
Thank you for telling us about your father! Wow! What a great man he was!
Sweet.
That is a beautiful tribute, Betsy!
In the January 1967 edition of Ramparts Magazine, an article appeared entitled
“The Children of Vietnam.” It was written by a thirty-year-old political
science instructor at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, New York. On leave of absence
from teaching, he had spent six weeks in the spring of 1966 traveling and
living in the Sancta Maria Orphanage in the Vietnamese Gia Dinh Province as
a freelance correspondent.
When the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. read the article shortly after its publication,
he invited attorney William Pepper to speak to his congregation. For Pepper,
the 1967 meeting would precipitate the deepest of bonds with the Nobel Prize
winner and civil rights leader, as well as the King family. Publicly labeling the
U.S. government the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world,” Martin Luther
King would be assassinated one year after his initial meeting with Pepper.
Attorney William F. Pepper struggled for ten years (1988–98) to get James Earl Ray a full trial. Ray, who entered a guilty plea on March 10, 1969, on advice of his attorney to forego a jury trial where he might have been subject to the death penalty if convicted, recanted his
confession three days later. Ray would die in prison in 1998 of liver failure, but that didn’t stop the undaunted attorney William Pepper. Representing the King family in a final effort to establish the truth about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Pepper filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit (King v. Jowers and Other Unknown Co-Conspirators) in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1999. All of the evidence related to the King assassination was brought forth in a court of law and under oath. The trial lasted thirty days with over seventy witnesses,
all of whom put evidence into the legal record. In less than an hour of deliberation, a jury of six white and six black jurors found former Memphis police officer Loyd Jowers and local, state, and federal government agencies guilty of conspiring to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr.. Contained in the court record was evidence that the FBI, CIA, and the U.S. military had been involved in the conspiracy to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr.
As to why Professor Richardson continues to believe (and write) that King was assassinated by a lone "white supremacist" (she also believes that Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK) – despite the evidence revealed in a court of law – she is no "hero" when it comes to the truth of history – only a coward in terms of taking on what other heroes such as William Pepper did to get to the real truth of how the U.S. Government murdered King.
On this day of remembrance, let us celebrate the real heroes who have risked their lives for the sake of historical truth and accuracy . . .
Peter, I'm not sure why you attached this to my comment about my father. I've never researched King's death or whether James Earl Ray was a lone white supremacist or the circumstances of JFK's death, but from everything that I've read of Heather's, she has read widely before she writes about a topic. Her conclusions may sometimes be wrong, but the depth and breadth of the education that she offers us, the parallels that she draws linking our nation's past to the present, seem invaluable to me. Your observations and opinions are valuable, too, but, as I said at the start, I'm surprised that you felt that they were appropriate to post in this space.
I was not aware that I attached your comment above to your comment about your father. I think this was kind of "tech mistake"
No prob--we all make mistakes. Where did you mean to attach it? It was surprising to me because it was so discordant and so unlike the rest of the comments.
"why Professor HCR continues to believe..."
Thanks Peter. I too wonder about Heather...when she can't talk about the other side of the Israel-Gaza conflict, about the occupation of the Palestinian's land since 1948. Sadly, many Israelis only learn about their true history during college...when they start thinking for themselves and do some research.
As Heather repeatedly reminds us, she is a historian trained in American political history. She doesn't feel qualified to comment on Israel or the middle east, and often refers to other historians who are trained in this area. This column is called "Letter From An American" for a reason: it is meant to be a record of the intersection of the current political climate in the USA in the context of American history. Her books are about American history. Other writers (some with training and qualifications in this area, some not) do write about Israel and the MIddle East. It would be reasonable to seek them out: they are readily available at libraries and book stores. Some write for substack or other publications.
Thank you for your thoughtful comments. But with the current actions of our president, this might soon be an American issue too...if he takes us into war by by-passing Congress, by shooting at the Houthis in Yemen and delivering bombs to Israel. Violence is never the solution.
And I just want to add a comment about intergenerational trauma. We all are probably affected to some degree: The Israelis here & over there about the holocaust, Americans with Native Blood, me included, and the African Americans. These affects often present themselves sideways in emotional troubles and ill health, many years later. That internal anger & rage continues to come out in many ways. Look at all of the shootings in malls & schools.
I agree with your comments on intergenerational trauma. I am of mixed indigenous heritage. It's a given. What I would add is the trauma that Euro-derived Americans also clearly experience because of the stresses that are inherent in our kind of stratified, pseudo-individualistic society. We talk about current expressions of that trauma as if they were causes, but refuse to be honest with ourselves about the historical trauma that underlies it all.
I'm sure that Heather will cover the ramifications relative to the USA as they occur.
Beverly - Thank you for your comment. Truly, I like Heather, but I am disappointed that she does not act more "heroically" when it comes to the real truth of history, which she will sadly not embrace . . .
Betsy, your dad sounds like a hero to me - especially to those children in Brooklyn. I never heard of a principal who knew all the names of the children in their school - that alone is a special gift. Many birthday blessings to you on this special day. and Happy Birthday to your dad! 🎶 🎂 🎶 🙏🏼 🎶
It's pretty easy to know the names of the kids in your school when they're there from kindergarten through sixth grade. You just have to learn who the new kindergartners are. Sometimes, when there are several children in a family, you meet the little ones at school events, so you've got a head start on those. And if helps if you've got a good memory for names and faces. : )
Betsy, I believe your father was a hero.
Betsy Smith, your father definitely was a hero.💙
Your father WAS a hero, Betsy. Being a hero doesn't necessarily mean facing danger. Your father did those "small, everyday things" over and over again, for each child he encountered. Sometimes heroism presents as doing something absolutely essential to society repeatedly, and with honor, as your father did. Thank you for sharing your remembrance of him. We need to recognize his kind of heroism too, and the balloon effect as those children carried his gifts to them with then into their lives.