Republicans say they oppose the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act because it is an attempt on the part of Democrats to win elections in the future by “nationalizing” them, taking away the right of states to arrange their laws as they wish. Voting rights legislation is a “partisan power grab,” Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) insists.
My father ran against that Georgia candidate in the primary and won the popular vote but lost due to the County Unit System. He got out of politics, but lived long enough to take his three children to the first integrated meeting in the Marriott Hotel where the SCLC was meeting in 1964, with MLK speaking and Aretha Franklin singing. Thank God for Black Lives Matter since it has exposed the perpetual system of violence to which citizens of color are still subjected.
I did not know what the "County Unit System" was until I just now looked it up. Was like an extreme form of the electoral college inequities, and took many decades to finally dismantle. And I'm figuring other southern states had similar. Now here we are with those same states recreating, in effect, the same rigged system. But, yes, agreed: Thank God that BLM has exposed so much and finally more white people are listening, believing.
(Oh, I see you're a retired library science professor. My mother got her MLS here in CT and was a law librarian for many years.)
Hello, Storrs graduate! The County Unit system gave equal weight to rural and urban counties, and thus nullified the advantages of population density, somewhat in the same way that electoral votes do. I think that is why there have been so many calls to abolish the electoral college since the America it was created to serve has long since passed.
Hi! My mom actually went to Southern CT State University (though I think it was still "College" then in the late 70s when she went back to school). Yes, nullifying the sometimes enormous advantages of population density, with the outcome being as or more undemocratic as the electoral system.
I don't know how, but I was not aware of the Dorsey and Malcom executions, although I was a teen during the 1960s. That period of the 1940s must also be a frightening, very heightened memory for many. What strength your family must have developed to continue to live there! How old were you at the time? What was it like to live in that community? Have you written about it?
I was born the same year, 1946. Atlanta was progressive in the fifties and sixties, although old attitudes survived and would not pass muster today. For example, the Civil War centennial was celebrated in 1962, along with a Gone with The Wind twenty-five year anniversary attended by Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, David Selznick, Ann Rutherford, and Butterfly McQueen. The color line was mostly observed in homes, less so in business and civic affairs. I lived a double life, went to school in Connecticut and learned to mask some of my Georgia traits, but longed to be part of the celebrations. I’m not sure I could do justice to all that was going on simultaneously in the sixties.
I grew up in Philadelphia PA and went to school nearby, seemingly less turbulent territory, and I've also felt I couldn't do justice in writing (or any medium) to all that went on around me.
“One person, one vote.” And too possible if Voter Rights are law and enforced. Thank you for the link. Electoral college and this County Unit System are similar and make sure that the “one person one vote” doesn’t happen. Time for a change. Now.
Thanks for the great stuff on Harry Truman, my favorite president. Truman may have been racist earlier in his life, but he began to change from his experience in World War I, according to my great-grand-uncle, who was his battery 1st sergeant and then worked for him politically for the rest of his career (and introduced me to him when I was 14). The unit Truman was part of was in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, and they were in the part of the American Army that was right next to the French. They got to know the Harlem Hellfighters, who when they got to France were sent to fight with the French, where they established a magnificent record (while introducing the French to American jazz). My Uncle Jim told me they knew of those guys. Truman liked them because he came to like jazz piano, being a piano player himself. And then in the 1920s, when he was a County Judge there in Independence and ended up part of the Pendergast Machine in Kansas City, Tom Pendergast hated the KKK, and Truman went after them and broke them in Independence. At one time, according to my uncle, Truman was carrying a loaded pistol when he was driving in the rural areas outside of the town, because of the Klan.
So when he heard those stories that HCR related here after World War I, he knew what he was talking about when he referenced the "bigotry" after World War I, and that would have predisposed him to believe what he heard.
And then let's remember he was the one who desegregated the armed forces (which didn't really happen till 1951, when the demands of the battlefield in Korea finally overthrew segregated units).
Like I said, my favorite president. He was a self-taught - and pretty darned good - historian in his own right. I know because he gave me a pretty serious quiz on my knowledge of American history when I met him that summer of my 14th birthday, (which I passed).
And this is why I love Substack. What a great story TC. The columns and postings here bring history up close and personal like no other medium can. Thank you HCR. Thank you TC
Oh geez, TC. What a great personal anecdote about former President Harry S. Truman. A good story to hear on MLK Day. Personal experience matters. It shapes one regarding important issues relating to the ways that all people interact with each other. With prejudice or acceptance and appreciation. I am so grateful for my own life experience as a very young adult that changed and shaped my attitudes about civil rights and the way to live and be an example of acceptance and appreciation. Life is so much fuller together. And very much worth the risk of being a beacon of example.
We are all in this together. There is enough to go around.
Cheers, TC! (On passing that history quiz…then and now!)
Total trivia on why sometimes his name is written as Harry S Truman without the period after the S:
"Truman’s parents gave him the middle initial S to honor his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young, although the S didn’t stand for a specific name."
Many days I think we need another Harry Truman. I read the biography by David McCullough and came away impressed by how hard he worked all his life and rose from a dirt poor farmer to president. He was also willing to change opinions and learn. TCinLA thanks for the further anecdote about Truman.
TC, I can't say he was one of my favorite presidents, but at least he wore his corruptions openly. He was a tool of the political machine that Tom Pendergast created--which relied heavily on Black people in KC supporting Tom against the white opposition to the machine. So Truman worked a lot with the political leaders in the Black community of Kansas City, which had a significant presence in the 1920s as a result of Pendergast. The backlash, however, was pretty extreme once the Boss machine system fell apart--and Truman was not unhappy with no longer being tied to it and did little to help the community here. He gave a speech on the steps of the administration building at the founding of the university where I teach and did not acknowledge that it was founded for whites only--in 1934, which means that it was quite behind the times. The University of Kansas City (which was attached to the post WW2 University of Missouri System in the 1960s) soon had to upend its dedication to white nationalism but the damage was done: the Black community in KC for decades after refused to support the only research university in Kansas City because of its stance. And Truman did nothing to ameliorate that.
Though Truman was called the “Pendergast senator” and was broadly shunned when he first went to Congress, he personally was in no way corrupt. He was first elected by the Pendergast machine, which was as crooked as a contortionist.Truman acknowledged that he was obliged to hire some Pendergast ‘stay at homes,’ but never took a nickel himself.
During WW II he established a reputation for saving scads of military contract money.
With no publicity, he drove around the country visiting many military installations. The result was a Congressional hearing where he publicized major scandals and recovered massive misspend funds. His accomplishments merited a Time magazine cover. Without this national exposure, he wouldn’t have been FDR’s Vice President choice (instead of Henry Wallace) in 1944. Wallace instead of Truman as president would have made a profound difference in the post-WW II Cold War.
"Wallace instead of Truman as president would have made a profound difference in the post-WW II Cold War."
Amen. I believe FDR wanted Wallace to run again as VP, but the party wanted otherwise. And FDR was too ill to fight it. If only FDR could have lived to serve the remaining 45 months of his term. If only Wallace had been VP at FDR's death. Thinking back 80 more years, if only Lincoln had lived through the remaining 45 months of his term. It just didn't seem to be the destiny for us in the U.S.
Heydon I believe that you have gotten your history mixed up. At the 1944 Democratic presidential convention Vice President Henry Wallace was the favorite for renomination. The party ‘bosses’ didn’t want him. Their alternatives were Byrnes or Harry Truman. When the VP nomination was first mentioned to Truman, he gave a blunt no. He enjoyed being senator and there was concern that his father in law’s suicide could come out in a campaign. Ultimately FDR called Truman to convince him it was his patriotic duty to take the VP nomination.
Personally I believe that Wallace as president would have been dreadful for post-war America. Wallace had been fine in agriculture, but seemed naive in other areas—including dealing with Stalin and preserving Western Europe. Truman learned on the job and, in key areas, served America extremely well.
Hi Keith. Yes, I knew about the 1944 convention and the wishes of the party bosses. My recollection is that after Wallace won the first round of balloting for a VP, the leaders called for a second ballot casting which Wallace won also. On the third round, the bosses finally got Truman selected. The party leaders wanted Wallace out because they felt he was too progressive and may be too soft on Stalin. They also wanted James Byrnes to be run as VP. That would have been more of a losing situation for the dems. since Byrnes from South Carolina was a strong segregationist and opposed anti-lynching laws. FDR wouldn't accept Byrnes at all. FDR and the bosses finally settled on Harry Truman, but FDR still mouthed support for Wallace, but, as I mentioned originally, FDR was too tired to further fight with the party bosses over this. Most of my knowledge on this is from Oliver Stone's (& American historian Peter Ruznick) "The Untold History of the United States." https://www.amazon.com/Untold-History-United-States/dp/1491512563
I highly recommend the book and the video series. A few notable endorsements include
“Indispensable… There is much here to reflect upon.” —President Mikhail Gorbachev
“As riveting, eye-opening, and thought-provoking as any history book you will ever read. . . . Can’t recommend it highly enough.” —Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian
“Finally, a book with the guts to challenge the accepted narrative of recent American history.” —Bill Maher
Glenn Greenwald's endorsement goes a long way with me.
No, Wallace did not have the in-depth knowledge of the USSR as in the case of the state department's George Kenny. However, Wallace's progressive attitude would have kept the doors of communication open between the U.S. and the USSR. Personally, I believe the U.S. MIC had a role in controlling the dem. party bosses because there was so much money to be made in the endless production of armaments while antagonisms continued between the USSR and the U.S.
Heydon The American Prrsidents series on Truman focuses on the ‘bosses’ and FDR’s phone calls. I depend highly on two biographies of Truman, by David McCullough and Hamby. I don’t think that the issue of U.S./Soviet relations was a matter of keeping ‘the doors of communications’ open. The Soviet military, at horrendous loss of life, had occupied much of Eastern Europe. George Kennan (who I knew late in his life) was an expert on the Soviet Union and Stalin. Stalin sought to continue his occupation of much of Eastern Europe and push in other pressure points. He sought to retain troops in northern Iran until Truman and the U. N. Pushed back. The Berlin Airlift was in response to Stalin’s blockade of Berlin in expectations that the West would be obliged to abandon Berlin.
I just wrote up an excellent talk by Professor James Bannon, Jr on ‘revisionist’ history. He states that all history is ‘revisionist’ since Thucydides took issue with Herodotus. He cautioned that historians look careful at the ‘facts,’ including new sources. He also pointed out that history without argumentation would lack vitality.
As a history professor from age 58 to 80, I had ample opportunity to explore new insights on the Cold War. I give Truman high marks and shudder at what ‘President’ Wallace would have done. The Russian bear then and now I do not find cuddly. I just posted my NYT comment on ‘Putin—Stalin lite?’ If I feel there is sufficient interest, I will post it on LFAA. Otherwise, give me your e-mail and I can send it to you.
Tc if you don’t mind I’d like to add an anecdote of my own. In the early 60s I was going to college in Birmingham Alabama. It was a tumultuous time. There were sit ins, Martin Luther King junior walked across the Pettus bridge in Selma where many people were seriously injured including John Lewis, four beautiful little black girls were killed in the bombing at the 16th St., Baptist Church in Birmingham. I was blackballed from a fraternity I was pledging because I suggested we have black fraternity brothers. I was called into the Dean’s office and asked if I’d be willing to room with one of the black commuter students. The very few black students we had were all commuter students. I agreed. Surprisingly when I walked out of the office everyone on campus seem to be aware of this. In the end my black friend decided not to move onto campus because he was worried about my safety. I was certainly willing to take the risk. Two friends of mine and I drove to Gee’s Bend which is now famous for its quilts. It was an entirely black community and they did not have a phone. We went there to attend church and see the communities’ cucumber farm which was a successful operation. We were invited to spend the night with members of the community and learned about the quilts that have now become so famous. In Alabama there were no front plates on cars at that time and most people had confederate flag on their front plates. I painted my front plate black and wrote the words “promote individual dignity“ in white letters. Surprisingly no issues arose from that and I suppose it was primarily because of the phrasing I used. As a general proposition it was hard to argue with. About two years ago I returned to Birmingham and it was a quite different city. The mayor was black. There was a black history Museum. When we went out to have breakfast one morning, there were black and white patrons, black and white servers and black and white cooks. Strong emotions weld up inside me to see such a wonderful change. As I reflect on my experiences there tears are coming to my eyes because sometimes things you don’t think will change in your lifetime do change.
Martin Luther King junior day is a good day to remember these things. He knew and we know we still have a long way to go.
Awesome experience Robin O. However some wrong folks have seen the same 'progress' that you have witnessed first hand. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Wow, Robin, I would LOVE to hear more of your experiences in my hometown (and Gee’s Bend as well)! While I left for college and did not move back, I still have family there. I’m proud of the strides the city has made. 💙
Truman was the real thing. Two books - McCulloughs "Truman" and "1945, Year of Decision" are terrific reads if anyone wants to explore the amazing Harry.
Truman rose to the occasion of being the President. He was a person of integrity. Fast forward to 2016 and the election of the orange menace, who has denigrated the office of the presidency in ways we did not even realize were possible. Tfg and his ilk are like kudzu, a horribly invasive plant that will grow over anything in its path and choke the life out of it. Removing kudzu is damn near impossible, but we have to try. FYI-kudzu, the plant that ate the south.
To violate the sacredness of; profane.To divest of a sacred character or office; to divert from a sacred purpose; to violate the sanctity of; to profane; to put to an unworthy use; -- the opposite of consecrate.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
Yes, Kudzu (import from Korea that naturalized here in the South) was spooky as you drove along the highway and saw nothing but green foliage. No trees no telefone poles or lines - everything covered in Kudzu. In the '70s there was an underground newspaper in MS called Kudzu, with the note that it would grow over a sleeping pig entangling it. IDK if it was true, but the plant does grow fast.
Kudzu was brought over to control erosion. I have seen the horrendous damage that it can cause to the landscape. Like racism, sexism, etc. rooting it out requires MASSIVE amounts of work. I’m not sure it can grow over a sleeping pig, but it can grow across a two lane country road in a couple of days. Kudzu had unintended consequences.
If we let the evil of hurting others grow, as with racism,
For lighter reading about Truman, the Matthew Algeo book "Harry Truman's Excellent Adventures" is quite interesting regarding a roadtrip Truman and Bess took. No press. No Secret Service. Just them taking a grassroots trip.
Bill I consider David McCullough the American Cio of our times. I have read all of David’s books except the first: THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. David and I have been good friends for decades and regularly correspond. His TRUMAN was a magnificent read and won his first Pulitzer. Personally I thought that Hamby’s Truman was more balanced. I have told David and Rosalie that, were I restricted to a single McCullough book on a desert island, my choice would be BRAVE COMPANIONS, 17 marvelous biographical vignettes that range from Humboldt to ‘the little lady who caused the Civil War.’
Kathy What a shame. I have two copies, including one signed by David, and would have been delighted to mail you the other. I underline all of my books, which drives my wife crazy. Often when I reread, I see a highlighted spot and murmur “I didn’t know that.”
David had embarked on a book focused on the latter-year letters between Adams/Jefferson. The he wrote me that he found Jefferson to be such a hypocrite that he switched to his John and Abigail book—and another Pulitzer. You might also be interested in a delicious book—TRAVELS WITH GEORGE—that I recently reviewed on Amazon. A page turner with fascinating personal insights into George Washington.
Another gem here.....will read "Truman"....... thanks. Just read about the blinding of Sargent Woodard's eyes yesterday in Fear, part of the "1619 Project", and that essay is much of what today's letter talks about..
We share a favorite President! TCInLA, I have liked Truman for many of his statements and behaviors, including the fact that he didn’t feel being President entitled him to write a book or serve on corporate boards to use his influence to profit from the experience. France-Amérique magazine had an article in 2021 about African-American servicemen who stayed in or returned to France after WWII. They were accepted there! Reading HCR today and your response underscore what I believe - and any sensitive American who has returned to this country feels right away - that racism is in the air we breathe. It permeates everyone and everything, everywhere. From pumping gas to buying groceries. Still, many of us love our country and have stayed here and are working to make it the imagined better place that so many have fought and died for. Like MLK. Like Truman. You were so fortunate to meet him of “The Buck Stops Here.” ❤️🤍💙
Please, Mike. I’m a country boy, and your generalization is silly. Obama? FDR? Most Americans live in cities. Republicans love to promote the canard that the people living in rural states are the “real Americans”, and city people are socialist takers. Don’t feed into that.
PS I remember Carter well, he was a well-meaning but ineffective president.
JR, first, my apology for writing (partially) tongue in cheek but not making that clear in the writing. It is not like you could see the smile on my face as I wrote about the superiority of country boys as President.
I forgot Eisenhower who was also a country boy.
Of course it is silly to elevate any one set of humans above another. However, I bet within the last two weeks everyone on earth, in some way, has done that.
Ah, yes, Slick Willy. A true disappointment when it comes to being a country boy. Went to all those fancy private schools and refused to ever even wear cowboy boots.
Louis, all I can say about slick W is that he was a failure in every way. He helped the Republicans continue offshoring. He defined African Americans who were smoking the same dope that white folks in the suburb were smoking as "super predators" and then helped write legislation to keep black men locked up for their entire life for two oz of Marijuana.
Truly a failure in all things.
A question I have always asked myself, given the many reputable reports on how many women Bill Clinton abused or outright raped is:
Why is Hillary still hanging around? Now THAT is a question which appears to have no rational answer.
I am hearing rumbling she will run again.
Aye. I guess losers just never learn they are losers no matter how many times they lose. Hillary, if she can manage to overcome what I and many Democrats will do to stop her from running, will lose.
‘…. A failure in every way…’! Logic dictates one counter example proves false the ‘every or all’ statements. I prefer to ‘paint’ with a narrower brush! I believe Clinton was a moderate Republican perhaps a Rockefeller style! Come to think of it Clinton and Rocky had a lot in common with their female escapades!
Clinton courted big business thus starting the alienation of union related groups toward the Democratic Party! However, his pro public education policies were a positive point in his time in office!
Today, instead, it is now every politician with the palm of their hand out behind their back waiting for their "Citizens United voting-motivation" Eh!?
Amazing. President Truman changed his mind after learning the truth. Would that more politicians could open their eyes, minds, and hearts and act morally.
Exactly, Nancy. The pathetic part is that Republican politicians KNOW the truth; they're not stupid. They just want to get re-elected by their ignorant, gullible electorate. We now live in what I call a 4th world country-- a country which is turning against its own democracy on its way to authoritarianism. The irony is that the U.S. has fought hard--often nefariously--to spread democracy to enslaved countries around the world.
Republican voters are not all ignorant and gullible. Many of the educated and scheming are also resentful and vindictive - in the name of god and country. They may be misinformed - ie about Critical Race theory - but they are on board with standing on Black people's necks to keep their own heads above water - or to keep their own hands on the levers of government for their own agendas.
He is. He didn’t pass the bar exam because there is almost no way to cheat or have someone do it for you. Never believe for a minute that many privileged white kids didn’t buy their way through their education. They paid to get in prestigious universities and then paid their way through. We just saw how that buying you way in worked a few years ago.
Many go on to lead miserable lives. Certainly Jordan is a deeply unhappy man with no concern for other people. Anyone who who take no action against boys being molested has deeper issues.
Now we have Stuart Rhodes from the Oathkeepers. Look how far he has fallen. I think he was Harvard educated and successful at one point. Was the pressure to be molded into his family’s image too much for him?
Jeeze Randy, maybe they aren’t as smart. At IQ 90 which is near high average people can’t comprehend the question of whether what they ate for breakfast yesterday agreed with them, let alone answer more complicated reasoning.
It seems, more and more, our cherished American representative democracy’s pluralism form of elected governmental influence is being diminished by a very small percentage of America’s elite moneyed self-aggrandizing power-grabbers.
The KKKoch sucking elite’s daily increasing domination of “elected representatives” is transforming the electee’s once honorable Constitutional allegiance into their willing enslaved obedience to the moneyed power elite’s design of authoritarianism control of the remaining 95% of Americans.
“What’s in it for me” has supplanted Love of Country more and more.
Vote the easily deceived out of office now and forevermore.
Vote for intelligently researched candidates and incumbents.
Devote more time, energy and money to voting for the Love of Country!
I am sorry to offend. It seems the greater my fear of having our Democratic fairness rule controlled by the elite moneyed the more apt I am to becoming overruled by uncontrollable anger...I am very angry!
No apology needed. I, again sadly, agree with you George. We hopefully can channel our anger into positive action for democracy. Although I still want to call them KKKOCH...
Do not be distracted by the "elite moneyed" who, I am sure, are tickled-pink to have so many poor people voting for their economic best interests. The "best interests" of the Republican-voting poor are not economic but significantly more savage.
Reminds me of this, attributed to LBJ, “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket… Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
I agree. As a society, we are eating ourselves. We are performing exactly as all of the predictive lab results have determined in the mice experiments that duplicate our hierarchy and social structure.
There is truth, Randy, in what you and Lin say. There is also an unsaid truth: Greed. Educated Republicans are knowingly turning a blind eye to Authoritarianism in the blind pursuit of wealth. They would rather accept an Authoritarian government than give up a dollar in taxes or abide by government regulation.
Oddly what does all that money get you? Multiple houses, fancy cars and lavish vacations don’t seem to fix the empty shells they are. Materialism doesn’t make them better people yet there’s a whole class of people that fawn over them because of their wealth. I’ll never forget when Trump saw that these people supporting him weren’t high class business people but instead dregs of society. He hated it. Yet he still continues to pander to them with his hate rallies because he craves attention.
Yes and no. I know people who are generous to others but still look the other way when they can make a buck by providing a forum for propaganda. All because they do not want to support government supporting the less fortunate. Elon Musk is the perfect example - he believes (and to a certain extent it is true) that he can spend his money more appropriately that the federal government. But at that the same time he is a beneficiary of that government (both the democratic process and a $250M payment to support his company). As my father taught me, as much as he didn't want to pay taxes (like everyone else), it was his civic duty to do so.
I am so proud of former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. After his 2019 "blackface" scandal, he immersed himself into some black history. As a result, Virginians were rewarded with sweeping reforms to many of our laws. Praying for their survival during an R governor-ship these next four years.
Good for you, Pat! Whenever I see your photo, it always makes me smile. I am retired from riding, but our four boys do bring us purpose for which I am grateful.
I lived in Haymarket and Leesburg between the ages of three and seven in the early 60's. It was magical. Magical - formed my earliest views of the natural world. We went to a cousin's wedding about 10 years ago, and I finally found the old farm we lived on - under a cloverleaf off Rt. 7. My heart aches for your county, Lynell.
Hey, Grace. Finding your farm under those circumstances must have been heartbreaking for you. Seems the natural world is taking a back seat everywhere we look these days. Argh!
I see the new governor has started things off with some executive orders....no masks and no vacs for state workers. He has just begun to tear VA apart.
We weren't in good shape prior to social media, as evidenced by the letter today. I'm not a big fan of SM, too old, but it is the way young people organize their activism quickly and efficiently these days. Double edged sword.
Agree. And at 64, and scribing this response, I’m wielding that sword with as much vigor as youth. I can’t ride ponies for as long or hard as the kids, none of us oldsters can, but…I have wisdom and experience and I toss that into our collective to meld into this community.
Heather, what a sobering reminder of why we remember and commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr's life, work, and words year after year! Thank you for this hallowed memorial in his honor.
His "Give us the ballot" speech (1957) is another great way to pay homage to his life's work, given what the repugs are doing around our country.
"Give us the ballot and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights ...
"Give us the ballot and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law ...
"Give us the ballot and we will fill our legislative halls with men of good will ...
"Give us the ballot and we will place judges on the benches of the South who will do justly and love mercy ...
"Give us the ballot and we will quietly and nonviolently, without rancor or bitterness, implement the Supreme Court's decision of May 17, 1954.""
Equally significant are the words Bernice King reminded us -- in a tweet two days ago -- that her father had also said:
“I think the tragedy is that we have a Congress with a Senate that has a minority of misguided senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting.”
“The time is always right to do what is right.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
In honor of all those who worked for civil rights, getting terrorized by lynchings, beaten, skull cracked, yet still persisted, including MLK, John Lewis, Fanny Lou Hamer, and a legion of other heroes…ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, here’s what we can do that’s right!
1. Push your Senator to pressure Manchin WV, Sinema AZ, Collins ME, Murkowski AK, Romney UT, and Sasse NE, and the retiring Republicans who have no excuse (Richard Burr NC, Pat Toomey PA, Rob Portman Ohio, Richard Shelby AL, Roy Blunt MO) to vote YES for the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. All it takes is that much in your message for their staff to put it in the Pro column of their tallying. Or use Romney’s words today against him, that we need voting protection exactly to “get back to normal…to stop the crazy.”
Tweet them or Retweet someone else as a way to bypass obstacles to calling.
2. Pay attention to local races in which to date, a Republican is running unopposed. Local officials rise to state, rise to national. Get Out The Vote efforts sure need Democratic candidates on the down-ballot! Support:
“To ignore evil is to become accomplice to it.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” ~ John R. Lewis
After writing emails to the 16 senators who voted to renew the voting rights act in 2006 but not this time (thanks Cathy for the links a few days ago) and signing a petition issued by Senator Kaine today to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, I am turning to the arts for inspiration on MLK day. Any film by Spike Lee, and the Spielberg/Bernstein/Sondheim recreation of West Side Story. The new film retells the story of discrimination and oppression against people of color with grit, humor and humanity. It was my favorite film as a teenager. This version tops my list.
It is a sad fact that more and more people in the public eye face the real threat of harm to themselves and their families, most recently evident by terrorism against school boards. Lawyers and judges, journalists, and public persons like HCR deal with this as part of the job. Nevertheless, most keep their eyes wide open, implement security measures, and persist.
Jim Jordan has something to worry about. All three of Ohio’s legislative maps were tossed out by the OHSC for the extent which they were gerrymandered. Ohio, like it’s neighbor PA, had been gerrymandering their maps for years, and Jim Jordan’s district actually looked like the old salamander in the cartoon. Well, those Ohio Rs thought they could squeeze a couple more seats out of the map, and - BAM! They got caught w their hand in the cookie jar! Best part is that when the state Supreme Court makes a ruling about elections or district maps, it is rarely overturned at the US Supreme Court level. Let’s all say a prayer that JJ’s days are numbered.
The amazing thing about the Ohio Supreme Court decision is that the Court itself is overseeing the redrawing of the maps to make sure they conform to Ohioans' wishes as expressed in a Constitutional amendment we passed in 2015.
I recently drove through part of his district. It’s bleak. He is not serving his constituents well. I also think it’s a part of Ohio that’s red red red. Unfortunately, I think his seat is likely safe, no matter how it’s redrawn.
It seems to me that the deep blue Ohio cities are seeping into the suburbs, and that they’re often blue too - but cracked into the red rural districts to dilute our votes. Ohio is funny - blue cities, red rural areas, America in a nutshell. And as America, and Ohio, become more urban, I suspect we will become more Democratic as well, if we’re allowed to. We have a wonderful progressive Democratic senator, Sherrod Brown, showing that Ohio isn’t as red as it seems.
Ironically, Oberlin, one of the most liberal cities in Ohio, is in Jordan's gerrymandered district.
Ohio is not solid red and never really has been, but the Republicans have manipulated politics to their advantage over the past 20 years. And of course, the voices of right-wing media are popular in those rural areas. But not only do we have Sherrod Brown, but Ohio voted twice for Obama and came rather close to voting George W Bush out in 2004. (If it hadn't been for an anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot that brought out the Christian conservatives, John Kerry might have won.)
My daughter lives in Columbus, and her congressional district reaches to Zanesville, over 50 miles east, while neighborhoods less than a few miles away are I’m not one but 2 different districts.
She must live just north of me. My district reaches even further both east and west than hers does. I’m in a tiny little peninsula in my district, meant to crack the Democratic Columbus suburbs into the rural red. It works. We had a Democratic congresswoman before these current maps were made.
From what I understand, the maps contested were even worse. I remember her rep giving a speech to the folks of Zanesville that he isn’t going to represent the people of Columbus (people he is supposed to represent), and that he pledged to only work for the people who voted for him.
I hope the voters of Columbus are better represented in 2022 and beyond. Columbus, which is now the most populous city in OH deserves comprehensive and cohesive representation in the state and in Congress. Best of luck.
It has been 60+ years since blatant racism was called out in the South and countless brave individuals lost their lives in doing so. Those who were of an age to personally experience the unrest are almost all passed on into history. Perhaps it's part of the reason that we are now beginning to experience similar trends today. Our history is beginning to be lost from the active/dynamic conduct of our public dialogue, in spite of every available means to recall it through our multiple-media capability. The recent elevation of a bigoted, racist chief executive has given permission to a large cohort of scurrilous would-be successors to come out from under cover, emboldened by a lack of swift and harsh consequences for outrageous speech and actions that skirt the margins of criminality.
We're a nation that reveres the right to free speech, the right to assembly, the right to differ in our opinions. What we're seeing is these rights used and abused by a radical fringe. They need to be drowned out by the exercise of these rights by the too-often silent majority, who also cherish inclusion, peaceful protest, compromise, a multicultural society.
Our federal government set boundaries in the constitution within which states have evolved to become the different places that they are. We're seeing an erosion of the boundaries and the need to re-iterate the rules of conduct which define the meaning of United States. Unfortunately , we're not getting much support from either the far right OR SCOTUS in recent years. What is an acceptable response? Lift our voices, focus our activism towards the ballot box, rebuke the tyranny wherever it raises it's insidious head.
Like losing the Greatest Generation, who learned the hard way in the Depression and World War II that to survive, you needed to be part of a group, and contribute to it.
Bang!! So, it would seem that the education of our young, regarding racism falls to our public education system. Do you suppose they will be acquainted with the brutality and blatant escape from prosecution afforded the dirtbags Heather Cox brought to our attention in her letter today? I graduated in 65....I wasn't, it was too soon. It' not too soon now. I'm afraid our public education system is off-the-tracks right now. Good luck, huh?
"Voting rights legislation is a “partisan power grab,” Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) insists."
Uhm - er ..., how is Republican gerrymandering of districts to put a majority of votes in their favor - and claiming the right to assign their own unelected officials to count the votes - NOT A PARTISAN POWER GRAB?!?!?
Oh, I know ... just had to ask anyway ... and how is it that these folks calling themselves "The American People" even take it seriously and buy into it?
... oh,
... guess I know that too ..., it's a tribal thing - a members only family affair - and Heaven help you if you deviate from the ... dicktatorial norm ...
It is such a sad, appalling reality ... humans are supposed to do better ... are they even human, or just a sad pack of critters being factory farmed to serve the appetites of some alien breed ...?
... check this out (slightly revised) from Odessa Kelly, of Nashville Tennessee - running for U.S. Congress:
{{Bubba JJ and his fellows would get a rise out of this.}}
*******
PANTSING
"Before I get into the pantsing nonsense, hear me out — right now, Middle Tennessee is in the fight of its life against new racist, anti-democratic gerrymandering ..."
"Last week, at his son’s high school basketball game, Tennessee State Rep. Jeremy Faison got so angry at a referee that he tried to fight — and pants — the guy."
'That’s right, pants. I wish I were jokiing."
"Not only is this clown the House GOP Chair, he’s a member of the House Redistricting Committee. That means he was one of the legislators who voted on Wednesday to approve the new Congressional maps to break apart our progressive stronghold here in Tennessee."
"... I'll be honest. Watching lawmakers like this man wield power and purposefully dilute the voices of Black, brown, and working class people in Nashville has me deeply frustrated, saddened, and angry."
"This is no longer a democracy where everyone’s voices are heard."
{[News Flash - it never has been, Odessa - will it ever be?
Only if this contingent is prevented from claiming the power to be "LAW OF THE LAND" ....}} ka
... back to Odessa:
"This is the new Jim Crow, where racist politicians will do anything to erase us and strip power "from us. But I refuse to back down in the face of white supremacy, and if you’re with me, I need your help right now."
"Already, we’ve sent hundreds of letters to our Tennessee state legislators calling on them to pass fair maps. I’d be so grateful if you could share this form with any friends or family you may have in Tennessee so they can write a letter too."
We’re working to mobilize thousands of Tennessee voters to fight back against gerrymandering — but we’re running short on resources. Will you chip in whatever you can today to ensure we can reach as many people as possible?
We need to follow John Lewis' example and fight for our democracy
"The world, and future generations, will be watching," Obama writes as he calls on Senate to "do the right thing" and pass legislation to protect voting rights.
Consider the source. Jim Jordan is a troglodyte. Sadly, he is not the only one of his species currently in the House. How delicious if a new Ohio re-districting plan were to send JJ packing.
They call it voter integrity. Just read a letter to the editor (FtWorth) blathering about Dems objecting to voter integrity. They justify white supremacy seven ways to Sunday.
Similarly, there was a letter to the editor in my right wing rag, the Tampa Bay Times, yesterday ranting about voter fraud and the necessity of voter ID. I responded, not hopeful that my letter would be posted, pointing out that the real voter fraud was the 7 states that illegally submitted forged elector documents. I took many of my words from Charlie Sykes' Bulwark, but feel free to use this in any of your letters/arguments:
When we say there is no widespread voter fraud, this is a true statement. Where does the real fraud come from? In the weeks after the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump's allies sent fake certificates to the National Archives declaring that Trump won seven states that he actually lost.
The fake certificates were created by Trump allies in seven state who sought to replace valid presidential electors from their states with a pro-Trump slate. This is attempted election fraud on a massive scale. If an average voter lied on their registration forms or forged an absentee ballot, they would face criminal charges. This is why we need the Freedom to Vote Act passed into law.
There was massive voter fraud, republicans left no stone unturned to lie, cheat, and pull every dirty trick in the book - and some never dreamed of before. No wonder chump was shocked that he didn’t “win.”
Were ANY of the "Slick Seven" fraud committers charged? Ohh, they're already in jail? hahahahahaa YGTBSM! Sorry my friends.., I don't mean to make light of this. But, even the disgustingly blatant fraud (crimes) committed by the "R's", being front-paged by the media (as fraud) with all good intention, ends up supporting the "R's" claim that indeed FRAUD is rampant. And, the mow-rons suck it right up. The mow-rons could care less who was responsible for the "fraud", just that wide-spread fraud existed and the election was "stolen"....aarrrghhh..excuse me while I puke.
So, Gym, how does the right to vote cause someone to vote a particular way? We have privacy in the voting booth, don’tcha know, unless “poll watchers” intrude.
"He (Truman) recognized that a one-party state is not a democracy, that it enables the worst of us to torture and kill while the rest live in fear . . "
Evidence presented in the program indicates a Jewish man may have been the one to tip off the Nazi's. Of course the speculation of why a fellow Jew would do such a thing and why it wasn't further pursued by Otto Frank (possibly fear of additional violence against Jews) are an interesting psychological assessment, when put into the context of the times, of how people act under the severe stress of fear for their lives. The Nazis were masters of fear.
Nazism was an extreme case of an evil "one-party" but parts of it rears its ugly side throughout our history. That republicans in congress blatantly refuse to vote for the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act in 2022 is more than enough to send a cold chill down everyone's back. It is an unbelievable disgrace and it moves us closer to a one-party government that is so dangerous.
Shocking when I first learned this, no wonder there was such a crowd at the 1939 NAZI rally at Madison Square Gardens. Also shocking that IBM helped with data records. Michael Lewis tells so much
It does seem shocking. Agree. But, maybe if I was living in a run down trailer on my (deceased) Dad's old land and the only job I could get was at McDonald's or driving a truck ..... maybe I would find a way to turn my disappointment in myself outward and project onto others. Then, let that anger fester until I could hurt someone. I would like to think not, but, .....
I just don't know. I was lucky to not experience that.
Let's remember the Jewish KAPOS and other collaborators who ran the ghettos for the Germans in the mistaken belief if everyone there was law abiding and didn't cause trouble they could change the Nazis minds about them. Unfortunately it just made them easier to round up when the Nazis cleared the ghettoes and put the people on the trains to the camps.
Some ostensible collaborators seized a short sighted opportunity, some needed a job without knowing what they were getting into, a few were sadistic power-trippers, and some were terrorized into complicity having been threatened with being reported, jailed, tortured, and/or killed.
I did not know about Sophie Scholl - yes, what courage she and her brother exhibited. And, this from Wikipedia about their Dad: "The situation for the family gradually worsened. On 27 February 1943, five days after the execution of his children Hans and Sophie as members of the White Rose, Scholl was sentenced to 18 months in prison for listening to enemy radio broadcasts." We look in horror at this, yet look at what we have done and continue to do. The path we are on is not good to say the least. Those who need to study and learn history the most will not.
From Milton Mayer, “They Thought They We’re Free, Germany 1933-45. “..
You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father could never have imagined.” Last sentence of paragraph I have posted often. As true today…
Very important for all of us to be reminded of this. It is my quest to see justice for black folks and other people of color and nationalities. I was put on this planet to do so.
There's a very good movie, made in Germany in the early 80s, "The White Rose" that dramatizes very accurately the story of Sophie Scholl. As I recall, it ends with her bound and gagged, being pushed into position in the guillotine. A movie you remember after you see it.
Thanks for the tip. I seemed to have completely missed the early-to-mid 80's due to intensive studying for a professional credential (series of 3 exams each only given once a year), working full time, and adding kids to the fray! Oh hell, I "confess" I missed ALL of the 80's and parts of other decades as well! 😆
I've now read a number of write-ups about the Scholl's and The White Rose. Combined with Heather's letters, probably not the best thing to do prior to getting some sleep!
Saw this and was also reading yesterday Victor Klemperer's "I Will Bear Witness", a diary of the Nazi years, 1933 to 1941. Excellent detailed nearly day by day account of the drip, drip, drip of Nazi control of Germany until nearly all German Jews were gone. It is not just the details, but the honest review of the day by someone who in 1933 claimed to be always a German and then by 1937 was ready to leave his homeland in despair. He was not one of the German who were ok with the pogroms and extermination of the Jews, and he ended up depressed and despairing but he soldiered on, lamenting that the end of the beginning of the end was taking so long.
Another chilling but true story is “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz” by Lucy Adlington. It is the story of the women who sewed to survive. They were conscripted to make clothes for the SS wives. It shows not only the inhumanity of the Nazis but also the perseverance and resilience of those imprisoned.
Interestingly, you and I and everyone else know Victor Klemperer's first cousin,Werner Klemperer, aka "Colonel Wilhelm Klink" from "Hogan's Heroes." I once met him in a restaurant here and he told me he specifically told the writers that Klink had to be written as an idiot, because he was being played by an anti-Nazi who was doing it to put down Nazis. He served in the US Army in WW2 after the family fled Germany in 1938.
On May 9th1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech in Kingstree, SC, about the importance of voting.
‘Let us march on ballot boxes until 'brotherhood' is more than a meaningless word and at the end of a prayer but the first order of business on every Legislature’s slate or agenda. Let us march on ballot boxes’
‘Dr. King always recognized the power of music as an “instrument of change.” Aside from his familial influence, which included gospel music of all types, his other major influences included such renowned artists as Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Swan Silvertones, Nina Simone, ‘Miriam Makeba, and other great vocalists' (Internationalmusician) See link below.
The following are links to Mahalia Jackson singing, 'Trouble of the World' and Nina Simone singing 'I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free'.
'I have no use for cranks who despise music, because it is a gift of God. Music drives away the Devil and makes people joyful; they forget thereby all wrath, unchastity, arrogance, and the like. Next after theology, I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor.'
'Why MLK Believed Jazz Was the Perfect Soundtrack for Civil Rights'
'Jazz, King declared, was the ability to take the “hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.”
“God has wrought many things out of oppression,” begins Martin Luther King, Jr.’s essay occasioned by the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival. “He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy.”
'There were names like Miles Davis, Sonny Stitt, and Roland Kirk on the bill. The 1964 festival was the first of the series, and it stood as a celebration of the genre, a recognition of the global impact of jazz. And now a big name was lending his support to the music: civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'
'Jazz music took a decidedly more political tone, and the players a more active role in the struggle for civil rights. The music was not only providing a soundtrack for liberation, the musicians were becoming more visible in the fight, some in ways they’d never planned.'
'In April 1956, Nat “King” Cole took the stage in Birmingham, Alabama. After scoring a number of hits with his jazz trio, Cole had transitioned to his more pop-oriented solo work, which cemented him firmly as a crossover artist—a crooner with mass appeal. These were songs that would go on to become Christmas and wedding staples. They were romantic, upbeat, and emotional. What they certainly weren’t was controversial. But in the segregated South, Cole’s visibility and appeal made him a target for racists. They saw in his act, in his integrated band, and in his popularity “an even more insidious threat than strutting rhythm and blues singers,” as the music scholar Mark Burford explained. About three songs into his performance, Cole was attacked on stage.'
'Maybe, earlier in the decade, more people would have rallied around Cole. But the Black press at the time saw Cole’s playing for a segregated audience as tantamount to an endorsement of the practice. The Amsterdam News wrote that Cole had “agreed to humiliate himself and his race and sell his talents under Jim Crow conditions.” The NAACP’s executive secretary pointed to the incident as a prime example that “organized bigotry makes no distinction between those who do not actively challenge racial discrimination and those who do.” He urged Cole to join them in fighting the conditions that led to the attack.'
'There were no more sidelines. Jazz musicians, like any other American, had the duty to speak to the world around them, and to oppose the brutal conditions for Black Americans. After the Birmingham attack, Cole told reporters: “I can’t come in here on a one-night-stand and overpower the law. […] But I can help to ease the tension by gaining respect of both races all over the country.” And, in the early 60s, Cole announced his fundraising efforts on behalf of several civil rights organizations.'
'Jazz also found itself on the global stage well before King’s Berlin remarks. That image of American cool, of smoky jazz clubs and late night music, was an easily exportable one—and a way to promote the idea of just how much America loved and respected its Black citizens. Something that would change the conversation from Black churches being bombed; or Black children being attacked for trying to attend school; or the fact that all our Cold War adversaries had to do to reveal the U.S.’s limited view of freedom was to show pictures of attacks on Black protestors. (daily.JSTOR) See link below.
I have been hoping for a vaccination song and a voting rights song and even a quit your lying/stop being a hypocrite song from any of today’s big stars. Who is the Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan/Stevie Wonder of this moment?
Alicia Keys’ song, “Good Job,” touched me so during the first covid wave, in the fall of 2020 when teachers were working so hard to offer hybrid education, and were scared of getting the virus. I played it over and over and over. And I knew doctors and nurses and maintenance workers and nutrition service workers and grocery store workers were all scared and exhausted, but kept helping, too.
Maybe Alicia Keys could write a song saying where are the John McCain Republicans who could, with one turn of a thumb, make history? And make so many happy?
Beautiful and powerful song indeed. I have also been deeply moved by songs from Willy Nelson and Roseanne Cash as well. I’ll try to provide links to those…. Thank you for this one.
ScannyDo, you hit on a good point. It is good that we are bringing forth the old resistance songs. But if we stop with that , it is nothing but nostalgia. We need new songs (and poetry) that speak to now. And not necessarily by the "big stars". The songs are out there. Since I am Quaker, I hear them through online Quaker events, and also at NAACP events. What has to happen is we, "all of us", need to seek music out and share it, point to the singers and songwriters who are creating it. Your point about being moved by Alicia Keys song during the 1st Covid wave says a lot about the need for more songs, poems, quotes, not just from the past, but also from now, on ALL the things that we are experiencing. It really is up to us, not to wait for someone to come up with the magic, but to actively seek it out and raise it up.
Fern, the great woman medieval mystic Hildegard of Bingen wrote a morality play the Ordo Virtutem in which all the characters ( the Soul, Virtues, etc) sing their parts in Plainchant except the Devil who is completely without music and can only speak or shout!
Man's inhumanity to man never ceases to horrify me. How thankful we all can be for the Harry S. Trumans of the world, who see something and say something. And thank you, Heather, for the perfect reminder for MLK Day about why we must never surrender or fade in our efforts to fight against a return to such dark days. Stay safe and warm.
Hi Heather, I've recently learned that the ERA had been ratified by all required 38 states. VA having ratified on 1/27/20. But that ratification is set to expire 1/27/22 unless the archivist records it. The archivist was instructed by trump not to do so, thus stopping the ERA from becoming a constitutional amendment. I have more details on this but would love to hear your thoughts on how we can get this over the finish line by 1/27/22! Thanks for all you do!
Wow! Thanks, Carol. I am also here as Carol, so we need initials it seems. Heaven help the male equivalent of pearl-clutching if women will be protected by the ERA.
Oh yay, Lynell! I listen to certain songs on MLK Day. Your post is a good one. I added this song when I heard it performed on Stephen Colbert’s show. Jon Baptiste performing McCartney’s “Blackbird”. My lip always trembles a bit when I hear it. So poignant.
I am always grateful for the leaders of conviction with conscience. Men and women who believe and stand up for equal rights for all. I am also constantly stunned and yes angered by those who refer to themselves as “supreme”. Yet, they are not more than mere criminals, thugs who for reasons of their own believe and act in ways to oppress the rights of others. Leaders in the Republican Party today either are of that ilk or taking advantage for their own greed and power lust ends. I am fighting these antiAmericans with all that I have access to. Thank you to all of you who are also standing up against this current wave of evil.
I suppose I am not surprised that Republicans who claim voting rights legislation is a “federal (read “Democratic”) power grab,” as few of them appear ever to have actually read the Constitution they profess to defend.
…whites were "extremely clannish, not well educated and highly sensitive to 'outside' criticism,” sounds very much like Dr. Richardson is describing the country today. However today, they are not well educated on the constitution (by choice) and they happen to sit in Federal and State governing bodies. MSM (esp. extreme right wing nuts) are spinning citizens into an emotional frenzy and controlling the narrative.
My father ran against that Georgia candidate in the primary and won the popular vote but lost due to the County Unit System. He got out of politics, but lived long enough to take his three children to the first integrated meeting in the Marriott Hotel where the SCLC was meeting in 1964, with MLK speaking and Aretha Franklin singing. Thank God for Black Lives Matter since it has exposed the perpetual system of violence to which citizens of color are still subjected.
Kudos to your father, Jim. As I’m sure you recognize, you were lucky to have him.
Thanks, Jon. Indeed. He provided an exemplar on many levels. My own struggle has been to find my own way, which he mostly encouraged.
What a great memory to have - seeing & hearing both of them. We still have a long way to go - very long.
I did not know what the "County Unit System" was until I just now looked it up. Was like an extreme form of the electoral college inequities, and took many decades to finally dismantle. And I'm figuring other southern states had similar. Now here we are with those same states recreating, in effect, the same rigged system. But, yes, agreed: Thank God that BLM has exposed so much and finally more white people are listening, believing.
(Oh, I see you're a retired library science professor. My mother got her MLS here in CT and was a law librarian for many years.)
Hello, Storrs graduate! The County Unit system gave equal weight to rural and urban counties, and thus nullified the advantages of population density, somewhat in the same way that electoral votes do. I think that is why there have been so many calls to abolish the electoral college since the America it was created to serve has long since passed.
Hi! My mom actually went to Southern CT State University (though I think it was still "College" then in the late 70s when she went back to school). Yes, nullifying the sometimes enormous advantages of population density, with the outcome being as or more undemocratic as the electoral system.
I don't know how, but I was not aware of the Dorsey and Malcom executions, although I was a teen during the 1960s. That period of the 1940s must also be a frightening, very heightened memory for many. What strength your family must have developed to continue to live there! How old were you at the time? What was it like to live in that community? Have you written about it?
I was born the same year, 1946. Atlanta was progressive in the fifties and sixties, although old attitudes survived and would not pass muster today. For example, the Civil War centennial was celebrated in 1962, along with a Gone with The Wind twenty-five year anniversary attended by Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, David Selznick, Ann Rutherford, and Butterfly McQueen. The color line was mostly observed in homes, less so in business and civic affairs. I lived a double life, went to school in Connecticut and learned to mask some of my Georgia traits, but longed to be part of the celebrations. I’m not sure I could do justice to all that was going on simultaneously in the sixties.
I grew up in Philadelphia PA and went to school nearby, seemingly less turbulent territory, and I've also felt I couldn't do justice in writing (or any medium) to all that went on around me.
Those were rich times. Turbulent, but rich!
And now I too know what the County Unit System was - and may well become again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_unit_system?wprov=sfti1
And now I too know what it was - had never heard of it before - thank you, Jim. As with many elections in far too many states (Southern) shameful.
“One person, one vote.” And too possible if Voter Rights are law and enforced. Thank you for the link. Electoral college and this County Unit System are similar and make sure that the “one person one vote” doesn’t happen. Time for a change. Now.
Thank you so much for adding this extra information to the story. And yes, Thank god for the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Thanks for the great stuff on Harry Truman, my favorite president. Truman may have been racist earlier in his life, but he began to change from his experience in World War I, according to my great-grand-uncle, who was his battery 1st sergeant and then worked for him politically for the rest of his career (and introduced me to him when I was 14). The unit Truman was part of was in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, and they were in the part of the American Army that was right next to the French. They got to know the Harlem Hellfighters, who when they got to France were sent to fight with the French, where they established a magnificent record (while introducing the French to American jazz). My Uncle Jim told me they knew of those guys. Truman liked them because he came to like jazz piano, being a piano player himself. And then in the 1920s, when he was a County Judge there in Independence and ended up part of the Pendergast Machine in Kansas City, Tom Pendergast hated the KKK, and Truman went after them and broke them in Independence. At one time, according to my uncle, Truman was carrying a loaded pistol when he was driving in the rural areas outside of the town, because of the Klan.
So when he heard those stories that HCR related here after World War I, he knew what he was talking about when he referenced the "bigotry" after World War I, and that would have predisposed him to believe what he heard.
And then let's remember he was the one who desegregated the armed forces (which didn't really happen till 1951, when the demands of the battlefield in Korea finally overthrew segregated units).
Like I said, my favorite president. He was a self-taught - and pretty darned good - historian in his own right. I know because he gave me a pretty serious quiz on my knowledge of American history when I met him that summer of my 14th birthday, (which I passed).
Harry Truman said, "There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know." We gather here to learn so much, that we do not know.
That is exactly how I feel
Perfect. Thank You, Scott.
Well said, Scott.
And this is why I love Substack. What a great story TC. The columns and postings here bring history up close and personal like no other medium can. Thank you HCR. Thank you TC
Oh geez, TC. What a great personal anecdote about former President Harry S. Truman. A good story to hear on MLK Day. Personal experience matters. It shapes one regarding important issues relating to the ways that all people interact with each other. With prejudice or acceptance and appreciation. I am so grateful for my own life experience as a very young adult that changed and shaped my attitudes about civil rights and the way to live and be an example of acceptance and appreciation. Life is so much fuller together. And very much worth the risk of being a beacon of example.
We are all in this together. There is enough to go around.
Cheers, TC! (On passing that history quiz…then and now!)
Total trivia on why sometimes his name is written as Harry S Truman without the period after the S:
"Truman’s parents gave him the middle initial S to honor his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young, although the S didn’t stand for a specific name."
https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/harry-truman
I learned that story too, Ellie, because Shipp is my maiden name. My father liked the connection.
Many days I think we need another Harry Truman. I read the biography by David McCullough and came away impressed by how hard he worked all his life and rose from a dirt poor farmer to president. He was also willing to change opinions and learn. TCinLA thanks for the further anecdote about Truman.
These days a politican willing to learn and change their opinions is accused of flip-flopping.
A sad truth.
TC, I can't say he was one of my favorite presidents, but at least he wore his corruptions openly. He was a tool of the political machine that Tom Pendergast created--which relied heavily on Black people in KC supporting Tom against the white opposition to the machine. So Truman worked a lot with the political leaders in the Black community of Kansas City, which had a significant presence in the 1920s as a result of Pendergast. The backlash, however, was pretty extreme once the Boss machine system fell apart--and Truman was not unhappy with no longer being tied to it and did little to help the community here. He gave a speech on the steps of the administration building at the founding of the university where I teach and did not acknowledge that it was founded for whites only--in 1934, which means that it was quite behind the times. The University of Kansas City (which was attached to the post WW2 University of Missouri System in the 1960s) soon had to upend its dedication to white nationalism but the damage was done: the Black community in KC for decades after refused to support the only research university in Kansas City because of its stance. And Truman did nothing to ameliorate that.
Brilliant line ‘wore his corruptions openly!’ Federalist society, unlike the old political machines, has no state boundaries! Tragic!
Though Truman was called the “Pendergast senator” and was broadly shunned when he first went to Congress, he personally was in no way corrupt. He was first elected by the Pendergast machine, which was as crooked as a contortionist.Truman acknowledged that he was obliged to hire some Pendergast ‘stay at homes,’ but never took a nickel himself.
During WW II he established a reputation for saving scads of military contract money.
With no publicity, he drove around the country visiting many military installations. The result was a Congressional hearing where he publicized major scandals and recovered massive misspend funds. His accomplishments merited a Time magazine cover. Without this national exposure, he wouldn’t have been FDR’s Vice President choice (instead of Henry Wallace) in 1944. Wallace instead of Truman as president would have made a profound difference in the post-WW II Cold War.
"Wallace instead of Truman as president would have made a profound difference in the post-WW II Cold War."
Amen. I believe FDR wanted Wallace to run again as VP, but the party wanted otherwise. And FDR was too ill to fight it. If only FDR could have lived to serve the remaining 45 months of his term. If only Wallace had been VP at FDR's death. Thinking back 80 more years, if only Lincoln had lived through the remaining 45 months of his term. It just didn't seem to be the destiny for us in the U.S.
Heydon I believe that you have gotten your history mixed up. At the 1944 Democratic presidential convention Vice President Henry Wallace was the favorite for renomination. The party ‘bosses’ didn’t want him. Their alternatives were Byrnes or Harry Truman. When the VP nomination was first mentioned to Truman, he gave a blunt no. He enjoyed being senator and there was concern that his father in law’s suicide could come out in a campaign. Ultimately FDR called Truman to convince him it was his patriotic duty to take the VP nomination.
Personally I believe that Wallace as president would have been dreadful for post-war America. Wallace had been fine in agriculture, but seemed naive in other areas—including dealing with Stalin and preserving Western Europe. Truman learned on the job and, in key areas, served America extremely well.
Hi Keith. Yes, I knew about the 1944 convention and the wishes of the party bosses. My recollection is that after Wallace won the first round of balloting for a VP, the leaders called for a second ballot casting which Wallace won also. On the third round, the bosses finally got Truman selected. The party leaders wanted Wallace out because they felt he was too progressive and may be too soft on Stalin. They also wanted James Byrnes to be run as VP. That would have been more of a losing situation for the dems. since Byrnes from South Carolina was a strong segregationist and opposed anti-lynching laws. FDR wouldn't accept Byrnes at all. FDR and the bosses finally settled on Harry Truman, but FDR still mouthed support for Wallace, but, as I mentioned originally, FDR was too tired to further fight with the party bosses over this. Most of my knowledge on this is from Oliver Stone's (& American historian Peter Ruznick) "The Untold History of the United States." https://www.amazon.com/Untold-History-United-States/dp/1491512563
I highly recommend the book and the video series. A few notable endorsements include
“Indispensable… There is much here to reflect upon.” —President Mikhail Gorbachev
“As riveting, eye-opening, and thought-provoking as any history book you will ever read. . . . Can’t recommend it highly enough.” —Glenn Greenwald, The Guardian
“Finally, a book with the guts to challenge the accepted narrative of recent American history.” —Bill Maher
Glenn Greenwald's endorsement goes a long way with me.
No, Wallace did not have the in-depth knowledge of the USSR as in the case of the state department's George Kenny. However, Wallace's progressive attitude would have kept the doors of communication open between the U.S. and the USSR. Personally, I believe the U.S. MIC had a role in controlling the dem. party bosses because there was so much money to be made in the endless production of armaments while antagonisms continued between the USSR and the U.S.
Heydon The American Prrsidents series on Truman focuses on the ‘bosses’ and FDR’s phone calls. I depend highly on two biographies of Truman, by David McCullough and Hamby. I don’t think that the issue of U.S./Soviet relations was a matter of keeping ‘the doors of communications’ open. The Soviet military, at horrendous loss of life, had occupied much of Eastern Europe. George Kennan (who I knew late in his life) was an expert on the Soviet Union and Stalin. Stalin sought to continue his occupation of much of Eastern Europe and push in other pressure points. He sought to retain troops in northern Iran until Truman and the U. N. Pushed back. The Berlin Airlift was in response to Stalin’s blockade of Berlin in expectations that the West would be obliged to abandon Berlin.
I just wrote up an excellent talk by Professor James Bannon, Jr on ‘revisionist’ history. He states that all history is ‘revisionist’ since Thucydides took issue with Herodotus. He cautioned that historians look careful at the ‘facts,’ including new sources. He also pointed out that history without argumentation would lack vitality.
As a history professor from age 58 to 80, I had ample opportunity to explore new insights on the Cold War. I give Truman high marks and shudder at what ‘President’ Wallace would have done. The Russian bear then and now I do not find cuddly. I just posted my NYT comment on ‘Putin—Stalin lite?’ If I feel there is sufficient interest, I will post it on LFAA. Otherwise, give me your e-mail and I can send it to you.
Splendid story, TC! Thank you!
Interesting history. Thank you.
Tc if you don’t mind I’d like to add an anecdote of my own. In the early 60s I was going to college in Birmingham Alabama. It was a tumultuous time. There were sit ins, Martin Luther King junior walked across the Pettus bridge in Selma where many people were seriously injured including John Lewis, four beautiful little black girls were killed in the bombing at the 16th St., Baptist Church in Birmingham. I was blackballed from a fraternity I was pledging because I suggested we have black fraternity brothers. I was called into the Dean’s office and asked if I’d be willing to room with one of the black commuter students. The very few black students we had were all commuter students. I agreed. Surprisingly when I walked out of the office everyone on campus seem to be aware of this. In the end my black friend decided not to move onto campus because he was worried about my safety. I was certainly willing to take the risk. Two friends of mine and I drove to Gee’s Bend which is now famous for its quilts. It was an entirely black community and they did not have a phone. We went there to attend church and see the communities’ cucumber farm which was a successful operation. We were invited to spend the night with members of the community and learned about the quilts that have now become so famous. In Alabama there were no front plates on cars at that time and most people had confederate flag on their front plates. I painted my front plate black and wrote the words “promote individual dignity“ in white letters. Surprisingly no issues arose from that and I suppose it was primarily because of the phrasing I used. As a general proposition it was hard to argue with. About two years ago I returned to Birmingham and it was a quite different city. The mayor was black. There was a black history Museum. When we went out to have breakfast one morning, there were black and white patrons, black and white servers and black and white cooks. Strong emotions weld up inside me to see such a wonderful change. As I reflect on my experiences there tears are coming to my eyes because sometimes things you don’t think will change in your lifetime do change.
Martin Luther King junior day is a good day to remember these things. He knew and we know we still have a long way to go.
Thanks, Robin. Hearing stories like yours is inspiring.
Awesome experience Robin O. However some wrong folks have seen the same 'progress' that you have witnessed first hand. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Wow, Robin, I would LOVE to hear more of your experiences in my hometown (and Gee’s Bend as well)! While I left for college and did not move back, I still have family there. I’m proud of the strides the city has made. 💙
That's nice to know. Thanks.
Agreed. Thanks for a great post!
Truman was the real thing. Two books - McCulloughs "Truman" and "1945, Year of Decision" are terrific reads if anyone wants to explore the amazing Harry.
Truman rose to the occasion of being the President. He was a person of integrity. Fast forward to 2016 and the election of the orange menace, who has denigrated the office of the presidency in ways we did not even realize were possible. Tfg and his ilk are like kudzu, a horribly invasive plant that will grow over anything in its path and choke the life out of it. Removing kudzu is damn near impossible, but we have to try. FYI-kudzu, the plant that ate the south.
"Denigrate" works pretty well, but I would add the word "defile".
Spot on!
From NC, I know it well. Indeed a pest that looks good until it destroys every good plant. That’s tfg
In the description of what tfg did to the Presidency and the White House, to "denigrated" and "defiled" I would add "desecrated."
Absolutely!
This thread is rapidly heading into scatological territory...
Only if others take it there 🙂
desecrate
dĕs′ĭ-krāt″
transitive verb
To violate the sacredness of; profane.To divest of a sacred character or office; to divert from a sacred purpose; to violate the sanctity of; to profane; to put to an unworthy use; -- the opposite of consecrate.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
Far be it from me!
Only those one with kudzu can fully appreciate that reference.
Yes, Kudzu (import from Korea that naturalized here in the South) was spooky as you drove along the highway and saw nothing but green foliage. No trees no telefone poles or lines - everything covered in Kudzu. In the '70s there was an underground newspaper in MS called Kudzu, with the note that it would grow over a sleeping pig entangling it. IDK if it was true, but the plant does grow fast.
Kudzu was brought over to control erosion. I have seen the horrendous damage that it can cause to the landscape. Like racism, sexism, etc. rooting it out requires MASSIVE amounts of work. I’m not sure it can grow over a sleeping pig, but it can grow across a two lane country road in a couple of days. Kudzu had unintended consequences.
If we let the evil of hurting others grow, as with racism,
we will suffer awful consequences.
A foot a day, so I read
at minimum
Excellent analogy with kudzu. Death star is a cancer on the body politic.
For lighter reading about Truman, the Matthew Algeo book "Harry Truman's Excellent Adventures" is quite interesting regarding a roadtrip Truman and Bess took. No press. No Secret Service. Just them taking a grassroots trip.
Bill I consider David McCullough the American Cio of our times. I have read all of David’s books except the first: THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD. David and I have been good friends for decades and regularly correspond. His TRUMAN was a magnificent read and won his first Pulitzer. Personally I thought that Hamby’s Truman was more balanced. I have told David and Rosalie that, were I restricted to a single McCullough book on a desert island, my choice would be BRAVE COMPANIONS, 17 marvelous biographical vignettes that range from Humboldt to ‘the little lady who caused the Civil War.’
I bought John Adams yesterday. Altho I have read borrowed copies of this book twice, I now have my very own to underline as I please.
Kathy What a shame. I have two copies, including one signed by David, and would have been delighted to mail you the other. I underline all of my books, which drives my wife crazy. Often when I reread, I see a highlighted spot and murmur “I didn’t know that.”
David had embarked on a book focused on the latter-year letters between Adams/Jefferson. The he wrote me that he found Jefferson to be such a hypocrite that he switched to his John and Abigail book—and another Pulitzer. You might also be interested in a delicious book—TRAVELS WITH GEORGE—that I recently reviewed on Amazon. A page turner with fascinating personal insights into George Washington.
Thank you.
Oh, forgot about David McCullough! Love his work! Thank You, Keith. I will check out his "Brave Companions."
Another gem here.....will read "Truman"....... thanks. Just read about the blinding of Sargent Woodard's eyes yesterday in Fear, part of the "1619 Project", and that essay is much of what today's letter talks about..
We share a favorite President! TCInLA, I have liked Truman for many of his statements and behaviors, including the fact that he didn’t feel being President entitled him to write a book or serve on corporate boards to use his influence to profit from the experience. France-Amérique magazine had an article in 2021 about African-American servicemen who stayed in or returned to France after WWII. They were accepted there! Reading HCR today and your response underscore what I believe - and any sensitive American who has returned to this country feels right away - that racism is in the air we breathe. It permeates everyone and everything, everywhere. From pumping gas to buying groceries. Still, many of us love our country and have stayed here and are working to make it the imagined better place that so many have fought and died for. Like MLK. Like Truman. You were so fortunate to meet him of “The Buck Stops Here.” ❤️🤍💙
TC, great post and personal story. Thanks!
Note: Truman was a country boy like Lincoln. Here, here!
Seems to me like we only move forward in the US when we get country boys in leadership.
Remember, Jimmy Carter was our last good, modern President as well.
(OK, I wish I could say country boys and country gals, but, historically, I cannot, .... yet).
Please, Mike. I’m a country boy, and your generalization is silly. Obama? FDR? Most Americans live in cities. Republicans love to promote the canard that the people living in rural states are the “real Americans”, and city people are socialist takers. Don’t feed into that.
PS I remember Carter well, he was a well-meaning but ineffective president.
You'll probably find others of us that you think require your instructions.
Dear Fern💙
🪴
🔥
JR, first, my apology for writing (partially) tongue in cheek but not making that clear in the writing. It is not like you could see the smile on my face as I wrote about the superiority of country boys as President.
I forgot Eisenhower who was also a country boy.
Of course it is silly to elevate any one set of humans above another. However, I bet within the last two weeks everyone on earth, in some way, has done that.
Again, I was tongue in cheek as I wrote, sort of.
:-)
Where does Slick Willy from Arkansas fit in your HOF?
Ah, yes, Slick Willy. A true disappointment when it comes to being a country boy. Went to all those fancy private schools and refused to ever even wear cowboy boots.
Louis, all I can say about slick W is that he was a failure in every way. He helped the Republicans continue offshoring. He defined African Americans who were smoking the same dope that white folks in the suburb were smoking as "super predators" and then helped write legislation to keep black men locked up for their entire life for two oz of Marijuana.
Truly a failure in all things.
A question I have always asked myself, given the many reputable reports on how many women Bill Clinton abused or outright raped is:
Why is Hillary still hanging around? Now THAT is a question which appears to have no rational answer.
I am hearing rumbling she will run again.
Aye. I guess losers just never learn they are losers no matter how many times they lose. Hillary, if she can manage to overcome what I and many Democrats will do to stop her from running, will lose.
‘…. A failure in every way…’! Logic dictates one counter example proves false the ‘every or all’ statements. I prefer to ‘paint’ with a narrower brush! I believe Clinton was a moderate Republican perhaps a Rockefeller style! Come to think of it Clinton and Rocky had a lot in common with their female escapades!
Clinton courted big business thus starting the alienation of union related groups toward the Democratic Party! However, his pro public education policies were a positive point in his time in office!
Excellent story TCinLA. Always inspiring to hear about mankind evolving in a positive manner.
A fascinating piece of personal history. Thank you!
Wonderful share. Thank you.
My favorite quote was "the buck stops here". How many politicians currently "serving" would even know what that meant!
Today, instead, it is now every politician with the palm of their hand out behind their back waiting for their "Citizens United voting-motivation" Eh!?
How true.
TC, I’m always impressed and amazed by the depth and breadth of your experiences and intelligence. Thank you for sharing this with us!
Wow! Thank You, TC!
Amazing. President Truman changed his mind after learning the truth. Would that more politicians could open their eyes, minds, and hearts and act morally.
Exactly, Nancy. The pathetic part is that Republican politicians KNOW the truth; they're not stupid. They just want to get re-elected by their ignorant, gullible electorate. We now live in what I call a 4th world country-- a country which is turning against its own democracy on its way to authoritarianism. The irony is that the U.S. has fought hard--often nefariously--to spread democracy to enslaved countries around the world.
Republican voters are not all ignorant and gullible. Many of the educated and scheming are also resentful and vindictive - in the name of god and country. They may be misinformed - ie about Critical Race theory - but they are on board with standing on Black people's necks to keep their own heads above water - or to keep their own hands on the levers of government for their own agendas.
Jim Jordan has a BS from Univ of Wisc, a MA from Ohio State & a JD from Capital University. I thought he was just a dumb jock.
He is. He didn’t pass the bar exam because there is almost no way to cheat or have someone do it for you. Never believe for a minute that many privileged white kids didn’t buy their way through their education. They paid to get in prestigious universities and then paid their way through. We just saw how that buying you way in worked a few years ago.
Many go on to lead miserable lives. Certainly Jordan is a deeply unhappy man with no concern for other people. Anyone who who take no action against boys being molested has deeper issues.
Now we have Stuart Rhodes from the Oathkeepers. Look how far he has fallen. I think he was Harvard educated and successful at one point. Was the pressure to be molded into his family’s image too much for him?
Yale
Thanks. I read so many of these Ivy League schools these people go to and confuse which one.
Yes, a BullShit degree, a Masterful Ass degree, and a Justified Dick degree. Sounds about Right…
All those degrees fit Jordan to a tee.
Marlene, you're scaring me! Getting a little too close to the truth....
Glad I don't have one. A JD degree, that is.
You've identified the targets very clearly, Marlene. Is there a site where they meet to strategize somewhere outside of DC.?
We mustn’t mistake foolishness for ignorance.
A degree doesn’t mean he’s not an idiot.
Jeeze Randy, maybe they aren’t as smart. At IQ 90 which is near high average people can’t comprehend the question of whether what they ate for breakfast yesterday agreed with them, let alone answer more complicated reasoning.
I can also think of a few times where we “overturned” fair elections we didn’t like overseas.
UGH!
It seems, more and more, our cherished American representative democracy’s pluralism form of elected governmental influence is being diminished by a very small percentage of America’s elite moneyed self-aggrandizing power-grabbers.
The KKKoch sucking elite’s daily increasing domination of “elected representatives” is transforming the electee’s once honorable Constitutional allegiance into their willing enslaved obedience to the moneyed power elite’s design of authoritarianism control of the remaining 95% of Americans.
“What’s in it for me” has supplanted Love of Country more and more.
Vote the easily deceived out of office now and forevermore.
Vote for intelligently researched candidates and incumbents.
Devote more time, energy and money to voting for the Love of Country!
PLEASE!
Was a time when the term "KKKoch sucking elite's" would have offended me. Sadly, it's now the truth.
I am sorry to offend. It seems the greater my fear of having our Democratic fairness rule controlled by the elite moneyed the more apt I am to becoming overruled by uncontrollable anger...I am very angry!
No apology needed. I, again sadly, agree with you George. We hopefully can channel our anger into positive action for democracy. Although I still want to call them KKKOCH...
Do not be distracted by the "elite moneyed" who, I am sure, are tickled-pink to have so many poor people voting for their economic best interests. The "best interests" of the Republican-voting poor are not economic but significantly more savage.
Reminds me of this, attributed to LBJ, “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket… Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
It’s okay, George, I am not the least offended. I am angry too!
And pay more attention to what is going on at your state level. That’s where everything is happening and it will continue with this SCOTUS.
I agree. As a society, we are eating ourselves. We are performing exactly as all of the predictive lab results have determined in the mice experiments that duplicate our hierarchy and social structure.
Ach…
For goodness sakes! I don't even like stake tartar!
There is truth, Randy, in what you and Lin say. There is also an unsaid truth: Greed. Educated Republicans are knowingly turning a blind eye to Authoritarianism in the blind pursuit of wealth. They would rather accept an Authoritarian government than give up a dollar in taxes or abide by government regulation.
Oddly what does all that money get you? Multiple houses, fancy cars and lavish vacations don’t seem to fix the empty shells they are. Materialism doesn’t make them better people yet there’s a whole class of people that fawn over them because of their wealth. I’ll never forget when Trump saw that these people supporting him weren’t high class business people but instead dregs of society. He hated it. Yet he still continues to pander to them with his hate rallies because he craves attention.
I'm coming to view the hamster-wheel pursuit of wealth as a symptom of individualism and narcissism gone rogue, not as ends in themselves.
Yes and no. I know people who are generous to others but still look the other way when they can make a buck by providing a forum for propaganda. All because they do not want to support government supporting the less fortunate. Elon Musk is the perfect example - he believes (and to a certain extent it is true) that he can spend his money more appropriately that the federal government. But at that the same time he is a beneficiary of that government (both the democratic process and a $250M payment to support his company). As my father taught me, as much as he didn't want to pay taxes (like everyone else), it was his civic duty to do so.
Some of them are stupid, thinking of MTG.
Oh Marjorie Three Names isn’t stupid. She’s evil!
She's narcissism personified.
She thinks she's a modern day Annie Oakley!
I am so proud of former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. After his 2019 "blackface" scandal, he immersed himself into some black history. As a result, Virginians were rewarded with sweeping reforms to many of our laws. Praying for their survival during an R governor-ship these next four years.
Youngkin’s already splashing water out of the kiddy pool and we haven’t even broached spring yet…I’m nervous.
Living in Washington State and joining in the pack that the Professor’s Letters is building. This is social media at its best. 🙏
Well, no surprise but still disheartening. It's gonna be a long four years, Pj.
i know.
I know.
Ach.
I also live in Virginia. I am afraid of what the next four years here will bring. I am so tired.
Boy howdy, Pat. I am uneasy, for sure. BTW, love your photo. We have 4 TB's here in Loudoun.
I am jealous! But horses are A LOT of work! Hats off to you!
The pic was taken in Iceland. If Covid cooperates, I'll be back there this summer riding the Icelandic Horses again!
I'm in Fairfax county and ride once a week to keep in form for the trip.
Good for you, Pat! Whenever I see your photo, it always makes me smile. I am retired from riding, but our four boys do bring us purpose for which I am grateful.
I lived in Haymarket and Leesburg between the ages of three and seven in the early 60's. It was magical. Magical - formed my earliest views of the natural world. We went to a cousin's wedding about 10 years ago, and I finally found the old farm we lived on - under a cloverleaf off Rt. 7. My heart aches for your county, Lynell.
Hey, Grace. Finding your farm under those circumstances must have been heartbreaking for you. Seems the natural world is taking a back seat everywhere we look these days. Argh!
I’ll bet they try to rid themselves of the term limits.
I see the new governor has started things off with some executive orders....no masks and no vacs for state workers. He has just begun to tear VA apart.
Yep, though I did hear in Fairfax and Prince William masks will remain mandatory for the time being, at least until his EO takes effect.
Hang on tight, Lynell. It’s gonna be a very humpty bumpy ride! ride.
Hanging,, Marlene...just don't want to get hanged!
I’m with you.
That amazes me as well. More, I often wonder where we’d be without the social media in which landed us in so much crisis.
Or Rupert’s propaganda machine. Predated social media, as did Rush…
We weren't in good shape prior to social media, as evidenced by the letter today. I'm not a big fan of SM, too old, but it is the way young people organize their activism quickly and efficiently these days. Double edged sword.
Agree. And at 64, and scribing this response, I’m wielding that sword with as much vigor as youth. I can’t ride ponies for as long or hard as the kids, none of us oldsters can, but…I have wisdom and experience and I toss that into our collective to meld into this community.
Speed isnt important - riding the "ponies" IS!
Make identification registration/verification a mandatory log on requirement for ALL SM communications...
For that you need integrity and love your grandchildren enough to want them to be proud of you
Heather, what a sobering reminder of why we remember and commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr's life, work, and words year after year! Thank you for this hallowed memorial in his honor.
His "Give us the ballot" speech (1957) is another great way to pay homage to his life's work, given what the repugs are doing around our country.
"Give us the ballot and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights ...
"Give us the ballot and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law ...
"Give us the ballot and we will fill our legislative halls with men of good will ...
"Give us the ballot and we will place judges on the benches of the South who will do justly and love mercy ...
"Give us the ballot and we will quietly and nonviolently, without rancor or bitterness, implement the Supreme Court's decision of May 17, 1954.""
Equally significant are the words Bernice King reminded us -- in a tweet two days ago -- that her father had also said:
“I think the tragedy is that we have a Congress with a Senate that has a minority of misguided senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting.”
Thank you for this on this MLK day, Rowshan.
My pleasure, Pam.
Not misguided, greed and power driven, known as EVIL
That, too, Jeri.
Morning, Rowshan...thank you.
Morning, Lynell. My pleasure.
Thank you Rowshan!!
Of course, Christi!
“The time is always right to do what is right.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
In honor of all those who worked for civil rights, getting terrorized by lynchings, beaten, skull cracked, yet still persisted, including MLK, John Lewis, Fanny Lou Hamer, and a legion of other heroes…ahead of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, here’s what we can do that’s right!
1. Push your Senator to pressure Manchin WV, Sinema AZ, Collins ME, Murkowski AK, Romney UT, and Sasse NE, and the retiring Republicans who have no excuse (Richard Burr NC, Pat Toomey PA, Rob Portman Ohio, Richard Shelby AL, Roy Blunt MO) to vote YES for the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. All it takes is that much in your message for their staff to put it in the Pro column of their tallying. Or use Romney’s words today against him, that we need voting protection exactly to “get back to normal…to stop the crazy.”
https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm?Class=1 for Senators’ contact info
https://5calls.org/ to call
https://resist.bot/ to text your state Senators
Tweet them or Retweet someone else as a way to bypass obstacles to calling.
2. Pay attention to local races in which to date, a Republican is running unopposed. Local officials rise to state, rise to national. Get Out The Vote efforts sure need Democratic candidates on the down-ballot! Support:
Blue Horizons Texas: https://www.bluehorizontexas.org/
Our Revolution: https://ourrevolution.com/
Run For Something: https://runforsomething.net/
3. Commit to voter registration and Get Out The Vote work:
Fair Fight: https://fairfight.com/
Field Team 6: https://www.fieldteam6.org/ to register Democrats
League of Women Voters: https://www.lwv.org/
4. Support voter protection work, such as court challenges:
Democracy Docket: https://www.democracydocket.com/ super-heroic team of Marc Elias
“To ignore evil is to become accomplice to it.” ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.” ~ John R. Lewis
Ms. Kona,
Thank you for your daily push to us all. Well done.
~ John R. Lewis
Thank you for the edit!
Brilliant action plan, Ellie Kona.
Thanks for all this. Been distressed for years that republicans run unopposed most of the time.
#stopthecrazy
After writing emails to the 16 senators who voted to renew the voting rights act in 2006 but not this time (thanks Cathy for the links a few days ago) and signing a petition issued by Senator Kaine today to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, I am turning to the arts for inspiration on MLK day. Any film by Spike Lee, and the Spielberg/Bernstein/Sondheim recreation of West Side Story. The new film retells the story of discrimination and oppression against people of color with grit, humor and humanity. It was my favorite film as a teenager. This version tops my list.
Do you think that these retiring republicans would fear for their lives if they voted for the voting rights bill?
It is a sad fact that more and more people in the public eye face the real threat of harm to themselves and their families, most recently evident by terrorism against school boards. Lawyers and judges, journalists, and public persons like HCR deal with this as part of the job. Nevertheless, most keep their eyes wide open, implement security measures, and persist.
Thank you, Ellie Kona! Excellent “action to-do list” summary. ❤️🤍💙
Thank you Ellei!
Todays update from Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood Carry Water:
https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/p/chop-wood-carry-water-117?r=6pp8t&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
We definitely need a new normal.
Amen 2 that!
Jim Jordan has something to worry about. All three of Ohio’s legislative maps were tossed out by the OHSC for the extent which they were gerrymandered. Ohio, like it’s neighbor PA, had been gerrymandering their maps for years, and Jim Jordan’s district actually looked like the old salamander in the cartoon. Well, those Ohio Rs thought they could squeeze a couple more seats out of the map, and - BAM! They got caught w their hand in the cookie jar! Best part is that when the state Supreme Court makes a ruling about elections or district maps, it is rarely overturned at the US Supreme Court level. Let’s all say a prayer that JJ’s days are numbered.
The amazing thing about the Ohio Supreme Court decision is that the Court itself is overseeing the redrawing of the maps to make sure they conform to Ohioans' wishes as expressed in a Constitutional amendment we passed in 2015.
Encouraging news! Thanks!
Yes!
I recently drove through part of his district. It’s bleak. He is not serving his constituents well. I also think it’s a part of Ohio that’s red red red. Unfortunately, I think his seat is likely safe, no matter how it’s redrawn.
It seems to me that the deep blue Ohio cities are seeping into the suburbs, and that they’re often blue too - but cracked into the red rural districts to dilute our votes. Ohio is funny - blue cities, red rural areas, America in a nutshell. And as America, and Ohio, become more urban, I suspect we will become more Democratic as well, if we’re allowed to. We have a wonderful progressive Democratic senator, Sherrod Brown, showing that Ohio isn’t as red as it seems.
Ironically, Oberlin, one of the most liberal cities in Ohio, is in Jordan's gerrymandered district.
Ohio is not solid red and never really has been, but the Republicans have manipulated politics to their advantage over the past 20 years. And of course, the voices of right-wing media are popular in those rural areas. But not only do we have Sherrod Brown, but Ohio voted twice for Obama and came rather close to voting George W Bush out in 2004. (If it hadn't been for an anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot that brought out the Christian conservatives, John Kerry might have won.)
My daughter lives in Columbus, and her congressional district reaches to Zanesville, over 50 miles east, while neighborhoods less than a few miles away are I’m not one but 2 different districts.
Yeah, I live in that manipulated district as well.
She must live just north of me. My district reaches even further both east and west than hers does. I’m in a tiny little peninsula in my district, meant to crack the Democratic Columbus suburbs into the rural red. It works. We had a Democratic congresswoman before these current maps were made.
From what I understand, the maps contested were even worse. I remember her rep giving a speech to the folks of Zanesville that he isn’t going to represent the people of Columbus (people he is supposed to represent), and that he pledged to only work for the people who voted for him.
I hope the voters of Columbus are better represented in 2022 and beyond. Columbus, which is now the most populous city in OH deserves comprehensive and cohesive representation in the state and in Congress. Best of luck.
I think that the new Republican only listens and caters to the ones who voted for him. At least what we have observed in the last decade.
The Ohio Supreme Courthouse’s decision cannot go to the Supreme Court, because it was based on the state constitution.
Praying. OK, not praying but visualizing him Out!
👍🏻❤️🤍💙
I am kinda gleeful about that!
Great to hear this, Jane. Thanks for sharing.
Amen.
It has been 60+ years since blatant racism was called out in the South and countless brave individuals lost their lives in doing so. Those who were of an age to personally experience the unrest are almost all passed on into history. Perhaps it's part of the reason that we are now beginning to experience similar trends today. Our history is beginning to be lost from the active/dynamic conduct of our public dialogue, in spite of every available means to recall it through our multiple-media capability. The recent elevation of a bigoted, racist chief executive has given permission to a large cohort of scurrilous would-be successors to come out from under cover, emboldened by a lack of swift and harsh consequences for outrageous speech and actions that skirt the margins of criminality.
We're a nation that reveres the right to free speech, the right to assembly, the right to differ in our opinions. What we're seeing is these rights used and abused by a radical fringe. They need to be drowned out by the exercise of these rights by the too-often silent majority, who also cherish inclusion, peaceful protest, compromise, a multicultural society.
Our federal government set boundaries in the constitution within which states have evolved to become the different places that they are. We're seeing an erosion of the boundaries and the need to re-iterate the rules of conduct which define the meaning of United States. Unfortunately , we're not getting much support from either the far right OR SCOTUS in recent years. What is an acceptable response? Lift our voices, focus our activism towards the ballot box, rebuke the tyranny wherever it raises it's insidious head.
Like losing the Greatest Generation, who learned the hard way in the Depression and World War II that to survive, you needed to be part of a group, and contribute to it.
And it is often their children and grands who think chump is making America great again. Propaganda works, as it did then
Well said TC.
May we see a blue tsunami in 22, not just a wave.
🤞🏼👍🏼🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏾🤞🏿
Bang!! So, it would seem that the education of our young, regarding racism falls to our public education system. Do you suppose they will be acquainted with the brutality and blatant escape from prosecution afforded the dirtbags Heather Cox brought to our attention in her letter today? I graduated in 65....I wasn't, it was too soon. It' not too soon now. I'm afraid our public education system is off-the-tracks right now. Good luck, huh?
"Voting rights legislation is a “partisan power grab,” Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) insists."
Uhm - er ..., how is Republican gerrymandering of districts to put a majority of votes in their favor - and claiming the right to assign their own unelected officials to count the votes - NOT A PARTISAN POWER GRAB?!?!?
An old Donald Trump ploy , call the enemy out for your own actions and confuse the Idiots. Don’t mean to be rude but sometimes truth is direct.
You are absolutely right. DJT has projected his unethical and unconstitutional plans onto his opponents since the very beginning!
Goebbels did it first
Oh, I know ... just had to ask anyway ... and how is it that these folks calling themselves "The American People" even take it seriously and buy into it?
... oh,
... guess I know that too ..., it's a tribal thing - a members only family affair - and Heaven help you if you deviate from the ... dicktatorial norm ...
It is such a sad, appalling reality ... humans are supposed to do better ... are they even human, or just a sad pack of critters being factory farmed to serve the appetites of some alien breed ...?
... check this out (slightly revised) from Odessa Kelly, of Nashville Tennessee - running for U.S. Congress:
{{Bubba JJ and his fellows would get a rise out of this.}}
*******
PANTSING
"Before I get into the pantsing nonsense, hear me out — right now, Middle Tennessee is in the fight of its life against new racist, anti-democratic gerrymandering ..."
"Last week, at his son’s high school basketball game, Tennessee State Rep. Jeremy Faison got so angry at a referee that he tried to fight — and pants — the guy."
'That’s right, pants. I wish I were jokiing."
"Not only is this clown the House GOP Chair, he’s a member of the House Redistricting Committee. That means he was one of the legislators who voted on Wednesday to approve the new Congressional maps to break apart our progressive stronghold here in Tennessee."
"... I'll be honest. Watching lawmakers like this man wield power and purposefully dilute the voices of Black, brown, and working class people in Nashville has me deeply frustrated, saddened, and angry."
"This is no longer a democracy where everyone’s voices are heard."
{[News Flash - it never has been, Odessa - will it ever be?
Only if this contingent is prevented from claiming the power to be "LAW OF THE LAND" ....}} ka
... back to Odessa:
"This is the new Jim Crow, where racist politicians will do anything to erase us and strip power "from us. But I refuse to back down in the face of white supremacy, and if you’re with me, I need your help right now."
"Already, we’ve sent hundreds of letters to our Tennessee state legislators calling on them to pass fair maps. I’d be so grateful if you could share this form with any friends or family you may have in Tennessee so they can write a letter too."
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/pass-fair-maps
FIGHT BACK
Thanks for your support,
Odessa Kelly
P.S.
We’re working to mobilize thousands of Tennessee voters to fight back against gerrymandering — but we’re running short on resources. Will you chip in whatever you can today to ensure we can reach as many people as possible?
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ok-email-20220115-an
To give by check:
Odessa for Congress
2817 West End Ave, Ste 126-401
Nashville, TN 37203
Many thanks for this scoop, Kathleen! I’ve just written the letter and donated. 💙
Thank you too Ashley - I trust it is well appreciated!!
Rude? Nope, you spoke the dang truth!
The truth itself is worse than rude . Speaking it is courageous and bold.
Former President Barack Obama:
We need to follow John Lewis' example and fight for our democracy
"The world, and future generations, will be watching," Obama writes as he calls on Senate to "do the right thing" and pass legislation to protect voting rights.
Barack Obama Special to USA TODAY
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2022/01/12/obama-senate-democrats-must-protect-democracy-majority-vote/9185565002/
Consider the source. Jim Jordan is a troglodyte. Sadly, he is not the only one of his species currently in the House. How delicious if a new Ohio re-districting plan were to send JJ packing.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/01/14/redistricting-ohio-supreme-court-decision-congressional-map-gerrymandering/9119566002/
“Jim Jordan is a troglodyte.” Love it, though Jordan could neither pronounce nor spell it.
Had to look up troglodyte. Yep, he definitely sprung up from under some rocks. Let’s send him packing!
Yes indeed, Robert ....
They call it voter integrity. Just read a letter to the editor (FtWorth) blathering about Dems objecting to voter integrity. They justify white supremacy seven ways to Sunday.
Similarly, there was a letter to the editor in my right wing rag, the Tampa Bay Times, yesterday ranting about voter fraud and the necessity of voter ID. I responded, not hopeful that my letter would be posted, pointing out that the real voter fraud was the 7 states that illegally submitted forged elector documents. I took many of my words from Charlie Sykes' Bulwark, but feel free to use this in any of your letters/arguments:
When we say there is no widespread voter fraud, this is a true statement. Where does the real fraud come from? In the weeks after the 2020 election, then-President Donald Trump's allies sent fake certificates to the National Archives declaring that Trump won seven states that he actually lost.
The fake certificates were created by Trump allies in seven state who sought to replace valid presidential electors from their states with a pro-Trump slate. This is attempted election fraud on a massive scale. If an average voter lied on their registration forms or forged an absentee ballot, they would face criminal charges. This is why we need the Freedom to Vote Act passed into law.
There was massive voter fraud, republicans left no stone unturned to lie, cheat, and pull every dirty trick in the book - and some never dreamed of before. No wonder chump was shocked that he didn’t “win.”
Were ANY of the "Slick Seven" fraud committers charged? Ohh, they're already in jail? hahahahahaa YGTBSM! Sorry my friends.., I don't mean to make light of this. But, even the disgustingly blatant fraud (crimes) committed by the "R's", being front-paged by the media (as fraud) with all good intention, ends up supporting the "R's" claim that indeed FRAUD is rampant. And, the mow-rons suck it right up. The mow-rons could care less who was responsible for the "fraud", just that wide-spread fraud existed and the election was "stolen"....aarrrghhh..excuse me while I puke.
Not sure Jim understands the utterances out of his oral cavity!
So, Gym, how does the right to vote cause someone to vote a particular way? We have privacy in the voting booth, don’tcha know, unless “poll watchers” intrude.
"He (Truman) recognized that a one-party state is not a democracy, that it enables the worst of us to torture and kill while the rest live in fear . . "
60 Minutes had a segment Sunday night (The Betrayal) which took up the long researched but never solved question of who betrayed Anne Frank's family's hiding place in Amsterdam. https://www.cbsnews.com/video/anne-frank-betrayal-investigation-60-minutes-video-2022-01-16/
Evidence presented in the program indicates a Jewish man may have been the one to tip off the Nazi's. Of course the speculation of why a fellow Jew would do such a thing and why it wasn't further pursued by Otto Frank (possibly fear of additional violence against Jews) are an interesting psychological assessment, when put into the context of the times, of how people act under the severe stress of fear for their lives. The Nazis were masters of fear.
Nazism was an extreme case of an evil "one-party" but parts of it rears its ugly side throughout our history. That republicans in congress blatantly refuse to vote for the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act in 2022 is more than enough to send a cold chill down everyone's back. It is an unbelievable disgrace and it moves us closer to a one-party government that is so dangerous.
Remember,
The Nazi's studied the Jim Crow laws to put their own laws in place.
In fact, , when they defined what it mean to be "Jewish" Nazi law was less harsh than Jim Crow.
To be a Jew one needed only one grandparent to be a Jew.
To be Black in the Jim Crow south one only needed ONE DROP OF BLOOD.
So, the Nazi's learned A LOT (to cop a common tRUMP word) from Amurca.
Shocking when I first learned this, no wonder there was such a crowd at the 1939 NAZI rally at Madison Square Gardens. Also shocking that IBM helped with data records. Michael Lewis tells so much
It does seem shocking. Agree. But, maybe if I was living in a run down trailer on my (deceased) Dad's old land and the only job I could get was at McDonald's or driving a truck ..... maybe I would find a way to turn my disappointment in myself outward and project onto others. Then, let that anger fester until I could hurt someone. I would like to think not, but, .....
I just don't know. I was lucky to not experience that.
lucky here too, but I saw it. Ran the other way.
Lucky here also.
Yes and my parents of the Holocaust never ever spoke of this rally. My dad came from Poland in 1937 and my mom came from Germany, 1939.
Must have made their blood run cold. PBS showed a short video of it a while back. 20,000 attendees. Smithsonian Mag had an article 10-13-2017
Let's remember the Jewish KAPOS and other collaborators who ran the ghettos for the Germans in the mistaken belief if everyone there was law abiding and didn't cause trouble they could change the Nazis minds about them. Unfortunately it just made them easier to round up when the Nazis cleared the ghettoes and put the people on the trains to the camps.
Yes, collaborators often reap what they sow.
Last seat in the last car of the last train to Auschwitz.
Churchill said another zinger, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
chump cult nuts would do well to remember this
I doubt the lower level ones even know who Churchill was, let alone what he said.
Appeasers never think it is going to happen to them!
The bell, it tolls for thee...
Some ostensible collaborators seized a short sighted opportunity, some needed a job without knowing what they were getting into, a few were sadistic power-trippers, and some were terrorized into complicity having been threatened with being reported, jailed, tortured, and/or killed.
💔
Exactly, but I remember Sophie Scholl. What courage, always wondered if I had it. I’m old now, so a no brainer…
I did not know about Sophie Scholl - yes, what courage she and her brother exhibited. And, this from Wikipedia about their Dad: "The situation for the family gradually worsened. On 27 February 1943, five days after the execution of his children Hans and Sophie as members of the White Rose, Scholl was sentenced to 18 months in prison for listening to enemy radio broadcasts." We look in horror at this, yet look at what we have done and continue to do. The path we are on is not good to say the least. Those who need to study and learn history the most will not.
From Milton Mayer, “They Thought They We’re Free, Germany 1933-45. “..
You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things your father could never have imagined.” Last sentence of paragraph I have posted often. As true today…
Very important for all of us to be reminded of this. It is my quest to see justice for black folks and other people of color and nationalities. I was put on this planet to do so.
There's a very good movie, made in Germany in the early 80s, "The White Rose" that dramatizes very accurately the story of Sophie Scholl. As I recall, it ends with her bound and gagged, being pushed into position in the guillotine. A movie you remember after you see it.
Thanks for the tip. I seemed to have completely missed the early-to-mid 80's due to intensive studying for a professional credential (series of 3 exams each only given once a year), working full time, and adding kids to the fray! Oh hell, I "confess" I missed ALL of the 80's and parts of other decades as well! 😆
I've now read a number of write-ups about the Scholl's and The White Rose. Combined with Heather's letters, probably not the best thing to do prior to getting some sleep!
thank you, didn't know that
Saw this and was also reading yesterday Victor Klemperer's "I Will Bear Witness", a diary of the Nazi years, 1933 to 1941. Excellent detailed nearly day by day account of the drip, drip, drip of Nazi control of Germany until nearly all German Jews were gone. It is not just the details, but the honest review of the day by someone who in 1933 claimed to be always a German and then by 1937 was ready to leave his homeland in despair. He was not one of the German who were ok with the pogroms and extermination of the Jews, and he ended up depressed and despairing but he soldiered on, lamenting that the end of the beginning of the end was taking so long.
Another chilling but true story is “The Dressmakers of Auschwitz” by Lucy Adlington. It is the story of the women who sewed to survive. They were conscripted to make clothes for the SS wives. It shows not only the inhumanity of the Nazis but also the perseverance and resilience of those imprisoned.
Interestingly, you and I and everyone else know Victor Klemperer's first cousin,Werner Klemperer, aka "Colonel Wilhelm Klink" from "Hogan's Heroes." I once met him in a restaurant here and he told me he specifically told the writers that Klink had to be written as an idiot, because he was being played by an anti-Nazi who was doing it to put down Nazis. He served in the US Army in WW2 after the family fled Germany in 1938.
Didn't know that. Thank you.
On May 9th1966, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech in Kingstree, SC, about the importance of voting.
‘Let us march on ballot boxes until 'brotherhood' is more than a meaningless word and at the end of a prayer but the first order of business on every Legislature’s slate or agenda. Let us march on ballot boxes’
‘Dr. King always recognized the power of music as an “instrument of change.” Aside from his familial influence, which included gospel music of all types, his other major influences included such renowned artists as Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Swan Silvertones, Nina Simone, ‘Miriam Makeba, and other great vocalists' (Internationalmusician) See link below.
The following are links to Mahalia Jackson singing, 'Trouble of the World' and Nina Simone singing 'I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHOgs5jxG-w&list=RDIHOgs5jxG-w&start_radio=1&rv=IHOgs5jxG-w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inNBpizpZkE
'I have no use for cranks who despise music, because it is a gift of God. Music drives away the Devil and makes people joyful; they forget thereby all wrath, unchastity, arrogance, and the like. Next after theology, I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor.'
- Martin Luther
Also Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit," written by Jewish "lefty" Milt Raskin.
Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant South
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather
For the wind to suck
For the sun to rot
For the tree to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DGY9HvChXk
'Why MLK Believed Jazz Was the Perfect Soundtrack for Civil Rights'
'Jazz, King declared, was the ability to take the “hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.”
“God has wrought many things out of oppression,” begins Martin Luther King, Jr.’s essay occasioned by the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival. “He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy.”
'There were names like Miles Davis, Sonny Stitt, and Roland Kirk on the bill. The 1964 festival was the first of the series, and it stood as a celebration of the genre, a recognition of the global impact of jazz. And now a big name was lending his support to the music: civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'
'Jazz music took a decidedly more political tone, and the players a more active role in the struggle for civil rights. The music was not only providing a soundtrack for liberation, the musicians were becoming more visible in the fight, some in ways they’d never planned.'
'In April 1956, Nat “King” Cole took the stage in Birmingham, Alabama. After scoring a number of hits with his jazz trio, Cole had transitioned to his more pop-oriented solo work, which cemented him firmly as a crossover artist—a crooner with mass appeal. These were songs that would go on to become Christmas and wedding staples. They were romantic, upbeat, and emotional. What they certainly weren’t was controversial. But in the segregated South, Cole’s visibility and appeal made him a target for racists. They saw in his act, in his integrated band, and in his popularity “an even more insidious threat than strutting rhythm and blues singers,” as the music scholar Mark Burford explained. About three songs into his performance, Cole was attacked on stage.'
'Maybe, earlier in the decade, more people would have rallied around Cole. But the Black press at the time saw Cole’s playing for a segregated audience as tantamount to an endorsement of the practice. The Amsterdam News wrote that Cole had “agreed to humiliate himself and his race and sell his talents under Jim Crow conditions.” The NAACP’s executive secretary pointed to the incident as a prime example that “organized bigotry makes no distinction between those who do not actively challenge racial discrimination and those who do.” He urged Cole to join them in fighting the conditions that led to the attack.'
'There were no more sidelines. Jazz musicians, like any other American, had the duty to speak to the world around them, and to oppose the brutal conditions for Black Americans. After the Birmingham attack, Cole told reporters: “I can’t come in here on a one-night-stand and overpower the law. […] But I can help to ease the tension by gaining respect of both races all over the country.” And, in the early 60s, Cole announced his fundraising efforts on behalf of several civil rights organizations.'
'Jazz also found itself on the global stage well before King’s Berlin remarks. That image of American cool, of smoky jazz clubs and late night music, was an easily exportable one—and a way to promote the idea of just how much America loved and respected its Black citizens. Something that would change the conversation from Black churches being bombed; or Black children being attacked for trying to attend school; or the fact that all our Cold War adversaries had to do to reveal the U.S.’s limited view of freedom was to show pictures of attacks on Black protestors. (daily.JSTOR) See link below.
https://daily.jstor.org/why-mlk-believed-jazz-was-the-perfect-soundtrack-for-civil-rights/
Great music tie in to Civil Rights Fern. Thanks!
Oh, Fern. What you have researched and written is so important, and so moving.. May I copy and share today and credit you?
Of course, MaryPat. Please don't credit me; I'm a Facebook/META adversary.
Okay. Thanks.
Miles Davis, 'Kind of Blue'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylXk1LBvIqU&list=OLAK5uy_nkfBmwK2t62J1xAsfhcwj9PVQG7N5UunA
Which will never ever depart the "cutting edge."
I have been hoping for a vaccination song and a voting rights song and even a quit your lying/stop being a hypocrite song from any of today’s big stars. Who is the Woody Guthrie/Bob Dylan/Stevie Wonder of this moment?
Alicia Keys’ song, “Good Job,” touched me so during the first covid wave, in the fall of 2020 when teachers were working so hard to offer hybrid education, and were scared of getting the virus. I played it over and over and over. And I knew doctors and nurses and maintenance workers and nutrition service workers and grocery store workers were all scared and exhausted, but kept helping, too.
Maybe Alicia Keys could write a song saying where are the John McCain Republicans who could, with one turn of a thumb, make history? And make so many happy?
Good Job: https://youtu.be/EiNDxN2O5rc
Beautiful and powerful song indeed. I have also been deeply moved by songs from Willy Nelson and Roseanne Cash as well. I’ll try to provide links to those…. Thank you for this one.
A song for you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95veB7RlU0s
On the road again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBN86y30Ufc
ScannyDo, you hit on a good point. It is good that we are bringing forth the old resistance songs. But if we stop with that , it is nothing but nostalgia. We need new songs (and poetry) that speak to now. And not necessarily by the "big stars". The songs are out there. Since I am Quaker, I hear them through online Quaker events, and also at NAACP events. What has to happen is we, "all of us", need to seek music out and share it, point to the singers and songwriters who are creating it. Your point about being moved by Alicia Keys song during the 1st Covid wave says a lot about the need for more songs, poems, quotes, not just from the past, but also from now, on ALL the things that we are experiencing. It really is up to us, not to wait for someone to come up with the magic, but to actively seek it out and raise it up.
Thanks, ScannyDo. What an inspiration to start the day with!
https://youtu.be/Web007rzSOI
The link MaryPat provided is to Billie Holiday singing 'Strange Fruit'. A singular experience. Thank you, MaryPat.
Dear Fern - Brilliant Martin Luther quote for ML King, Jr. day. Outstanding!
Fern, the great woman medieval mystic Hildegard of Bingen wrote a morality play the Ordo Virtutem in which all the characters ( the Soul, Virtues, etc) sing their parts in Plainchant except the Devil who is completely without music and can only speak or shout!
Carol, How perfect. I have heard of Hildegard of Bingen, and that is the extent of my knowledge. Thank you, Carol.
I will take: "Makes people joyful". Yes it does.
Man's inhumanity to man never ceases to horrify me. How thankful we all can be for the Harry S. Trumans of the world, who see something and say something. And thank you, Heather, for the perfect reminder for MLK Day about why we must never surrender or fade in our efforts to fight against a return to such dark days. Stay safe and warm.
Hi Heather, I've recently learned that the ERA had been ratified by all required 38 states. VA having ratified on 1/27/20. But that ratification is set to expire 1/27/22 unless the archivist records it. The archivist was instructed by trump not to do so, thus stopping the ERA from becoming a constitutional amendment. I have more details on this but would love to hear your thoughts on how we can get this over the finish line by 1/27/22! Thanks for all you do!
Wow! Thanks, Carol. I am also here as Carol, so we need initials it seems. Heaven help the male equivalent of pearl-clutching if women will be protected by the ERA.
Here is more info on ERA status. A federal judge decided it was 40 years to late to enact.
https://qz.com/1986807/was-the-era-ratified/
Great article! Thanks!
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! Happy Birthday To Ya, MLK, JR.!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vClQMdFhh5U
Morning Lynell. I always come back to Dylan and "The times they are a-changing"
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
And you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
Beautiful, Stuart...Morning!
https://youtu.be/9L7LyzuNc1c
Wow, so powerful, Rosalind. Walking it with you wherever it leads.
Wishin' we could all walk together in person on this road! Such a poweful movement we have right here though. Thank You All!
Beautiful!!! Thaank You Rosalind!
Thank you so so much! ❤️❤️❤️
The power of music/song. ☮️ 💞Can’t we just drown out all the ugly by just all singing together 🤝
Perfect,Stuart! Can hear his voice in my head.
Thanks for letting us see the lyrics, plain as day.
👍🏻❤️🤍💙
Oh yay, Lynell! I listen to certain songs on MLK Day. Your post is a good one. I added this song when I heard it performed on Stephen Colbert’s show. Jon Baptiste performing McCartney’s “Blackbird”. My lip always trembles a bit when I hear it. So poignant.
https://youtu.be/H46yXW4qR_M
I hope more people post songs today. What cause is greater than civil rights? Even that it remains a cause instead of a given…which it is.
Salud, friend!
Well sung, Jon. Morning, Christine!
What a beautiful rendition. Thank you.
Thanks, Lynell. I shared the youtube on my facebook page.
Morning, Rosalind. Until now, I never really knew the origin of that song, nor heard the lyrics. Thanks for posting!
Awesome YouTube tribute!
I thought so, too, Betty!
Evening, Lynell!! Thank You!! Feels so good to repost a song celebrsting how far we've come and the man who led us here!!
Indeed, Marlene...Morning!
Morning, Lynell! Thanks for the link!
Morning, Ally! Thanks for the thanks!
I am always grateful for the leaders of conviction with conscience. Men and women who believe and stand up for equal rights for all. I am also constantly stunned and yes angered by those who refer to themselves as “supreme”. Yet, they are not more than mere criminals, thugs who for reasons of their own believe and act in ways to oppress the rights of others. Leaders in the Republican Party today either are of that ilk or taking advantage for their own greed and power lust ends. I am fighting these antiAmericans with all that I have access to. Thank you to all of you who are also standing up against this current wave of evil.
Thank you too Georgia Girl ... you and folks who care as you do give me hope ....
I suppose I am not surprised that Republicans who claim voting rights legislation is a “federal (read “Democratic”) power grab,” as few of them appear ever to have actually read the Constitution they profess to defend.
…whites were "extremely clannish, not well educated and highly sensitive to 'outside' criticism,” sounds very much like Dr. Richardson is describing the country today. However today, they are not well educated on the constitution (by choice) and they happen to sit in Federal and State governing bodies. MSM (esp. extreme right wing nuts) are spinning citizens into an emotional frenzy and controlling the narrative.
In order to read the Constitution one has to have learned to read first.
As tRUMP has oft displayed, his reading skills are slim to none.
Along with many private school products of the Republican Party.
I did not know the Truman stories. Thank you.