Although I love American history, I've never felt "proud" to be an American. I feel a degree of responsibility to learn history, and to have an ongoing conversation about America, but Trump becoming president felt humiliating, and any pride I may have had before then was burned away. I think a large segment of Americans have little patie…
Although I love American history, I've never felt "proud" to be an American. I feel a degree of responsibility to learn history, and to have an ongoing conversation about America, but Trump becoming president felt humiliating, and any pride I may have had before then was burned away. I think a large segment of Americans have little patience for subtlety and discussion... you either love the country or you don't. McConnell recognizes this. He knows that a large segment of the Republican base is a flag waving, patriotic, love it or leave it kind of voter. If they lose the self-esteem that they gained by electing Trump, then they may stop voting.
What I learned out of my experiences in Vietnam that there is a big difference between loving the country (which I do) and supporting the government (which I mostly haven't). I knew the guy who was Librarian at RAND who let Daniel Ellsberg take the Pentagon Papers out and copy them. His name was Dick Best and he's known in history as the guy who turned the Battle of Midway from an American defeat to a victory by sinking the carrier Akagi almost single-handedly. A true American hero. And he told me he always believed he served his country better by what he did with Ellsberg than what he did over the Japanese fleet. "The American people deserved to know what had been done in their name."
There is indeed a big dif between loving the country and supporting the gov't. And Dick Best had a damn good head on his shoulders. Thanks for these observations.
Though mostly true of almost all politicians, in McConnell's case we can always assume there is a calculation of advantage in everything he does. He no longer operates on any principle whatsoever, if he ever did. Like Gollum with the Ring, power is his only lodestar.
McConnell is a real sh!t, and someone who doesn't give a damn about the country. One interesting factoid about him: his three daughters are all estranged from him.
It was probably a miracle. In any case, while in some cases, including my best friend and his ex-wife, give 'em a little time and they get along well. But Mitch's ex seems to realize she married a piece of slag (slag is much worse than sh!t because the latter is fertilizer and food for the dung beetles, whereas slag is poisonous).
After her divorce from McConnell, Sherrill Redmon left Kentucky for Northampton, Massachusetts. There, she became a feminist scholar and Director of the Sofia Smith Collection of the Women’s History Archives. While at Smith College, she worked on Voices of Feminism Oral History Project with feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem. Its primary goal was to document the persistence and diversity of women's organizing in the United States. In 2012, she retired from Smith College.
They married in '93. Mitch became wealthier from that marriage. From Wikipedia: "In April 2008, Chao's father gave Chao and McConnell between $5 million and $25 million,[97] which "boosted McConnell's personal worth from a minimum of $3 million in 2007 to more than $7 million"[98] and "helped the McConnells after their stock portfolio dipped in the wake of the financial crisis that year".[99]"
Yeah - I did know the wealth came from his wife's family. I still want some investigation into exactly how he was re-elected last time. The vote numbers are a bit screwy.
"Although I love American history, I've never felt 'proud' to be an American." That is me exactly. I've always been so deeply aware of our flaws that I find it impossible to say we are somehow exceptional.
As a 12 year old living in France for a year, '65-'66, I felt proud to be an American. But now? We're the most backward of the western industrialized nations. We have much more poverty than the rest of them. We have a greater percentage of deaths by opioid overdose, many of which are suicides (I've written about this). Our infrastructure has been left to wither in the wake of the Reagan revolution.
But this critical race theory that is invading college campuses and private high schools is BS. We have a class problem as much as a race problem, and CRT is giving the GOP a new handle on attacking us.
There is a lot of problems in the USA right now. It feels overwhelming. The pendulum is swinging wildly and differently around the country. With that said, I also believe that if this country is to become a better place there needs to be space for voices and theories that one would consider to be BS. Again, I am open to at least listening to the conversation. Eventually, I believe the country will land in a different place with a different overall consensus. This excites me.
I do think we have the right leader to lead us to a better place. We really lucked out, between getting rid of Delirium J. Tremens, getting both Houses, and getting the Democrat who is probably most prepared to deal effectively with the country's problems by dint of his experience. But critical race theory is very harmful, and stupid. Far better students should be taught empathy, beginning in elementary school.
I like that and I would add that I would like to see “compassion” as part of more school experiences. For me the word compassion adds the component of action; doing things to contribute to community and the country.
If you had actually studied critical race theory (I had to in order to write something accurate about it) you would find that it is actually very useful in learning how complicit we all can be, and what we need to do to get to where we claim we want to go.
Maybe so, and maybe not, but in practice it often results in harm, as evidenced by the NYT article on Smith College that I posted, and numerous other articles I've read. I think teaching empathy would do everything people want critical race theory to do without the harm.
Empathy, compassion and respect. Truth, justice and The American Way. Parents, school, religion. Throw them all in a melting pot and build back better.
Telling the truth is never BS. We should look to the example of Germany and how they wrote and taught all school children the truth about the Holocaust 20 years after the war!
I'm a Jew, and Germany did an excellent job. I knew a kid from Germany 20 years after the end of the Holocaust, and I saw first hand how well that had worked.
But the truth about privilege, and lack thereof in the US is much more complex than critical race theory makes it out to be. Money often has more power than race in this day and age. Think about all the working class whites in places like Appalachia and the rust belt, whose jobs have migrated to other countries or have been filled by immigrants, the amount of opioid addiction, and the numbers of deaths by opioid overdose--much of which are suicides (I've written about that). Substantial quantities of money trump skin color.
I remember reading about that incident. And one of the commenters on there mentioned that there was no investigation into what would have happened if the student was white! Good question. But the whole issue was allowed (& almost encouraged by the college) to get way out of line. The student didnt do any favors for the already dicey race relations on that campus. Doubt it changed any "hearts and minds".
Black and White. Good and Evil. The list goes on and on. I suspect that the oversimplification of religious texts, twitter sized histories and differing senses of fairness have something to do with this. Personally I find this a very exciting time for history and how it is written. I have learned a tremendous amount over the last five year alone. The newer narratives lend a richness to American History that I did get as a young man. I can see how flag waving Americans would hate anything that interrupts the illusion and would make them reconsider. Insecurities and mental illness in people’s personal lives spill over to the public sphere. People are all things and so is history and histories are made up of people who encompass all things good and not good. I for one embrace it.
I do understand how simple narratives can be very comforting, too. Wouldn't it be nice if we could clearly identify good people and evil people and love the one and despise the other? Too bad history gives us no such comfort. One of the reasons we on the left are struggling to attract people who don't want to think too hard is that the truth is complex and the Rs are peddling a simple and easily-understood, though entirely false, narrative.
Although I love American history, I've never felt "proud" to be an American. I feel a degree of responsibility to learn history, and to have an ongoing conversation about America, but Trump becoming president felt humiliating, and any pride I may have had before then was burned away. I think a large segment of Americans have little patience for subtlety and discussion... you either love the country or you don't. McConnell recognizes this. He knows that a large segment of the Republican base is a flag waving, patriotic, love it or leave it kind of voter. If they lose the self-esteem that they gained by electing Trump, then they may stop voting.
What I learned out of my experiences in Vietnam that there is a big difference between loving the country (which I do) and supporting the government (which I mostly haven't). I knew the guy who was Librarian at RAND who let Daniel Ellsberg take the Pentagon Papers out and copy them. His name was Dick Best and he's known in history as the guy who turned the Battle of Midway from an American defeat to a victory by sinking the carrier Akagi almost single-handedly. A true American hero. And he told me he always believed he served his country better by what he did with Ellsberg than what he did over the Japanese fleet. "The American people deserved to know what had been done in their name."
There is indeed a big dif between loving the country and supporting the gov't. And Dick Best had a damn good head on his shoulders. Thanks for these observations.
WOW!
Though mostly true of almost all politicians, in McConnell's case we can always assume there is a calculation of advantage in everything he does. He no longer operates on any principle whatsoever, if he ever did. Like Gollum with the Ring, power is his only lodestar.
At least Gollum was a character that one could feel sympathy for...
McConnell is a real sh!t, and someone who doesn't give a damn about the country. One interesting factoid about him: his three daughters are all estranged from him.
One would think that would tell him something....
Never knew he had pro-created!!!!
It was probably a miracle. In any case, while in some cases, including my best friend and his ex-wife, give 'em a little time and they get along well. But Mitch's ex seems to realize she married a piece of slag (slag is much worse than sh!t because the latter is fertilizer and food for the dung beetles, whereas slag is poisonous).
Didnt even realize that the current wife is No. 2!
After her divorce from McConnell, Sherrill Redmon left Kentucky for Northampton, Massachusetts. There, she became a feminist scholar and Director of the Sofia Smith Collection of the Women’s History Archives. While at Smith College, she worked on Voices of Feminism Oral History Project with feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem. Its primary goal was to document the persistence and diversity of women's organizing in the United States. In 2012, she retired from Smith College.
https://www.legit.ng/1409641-sherrill-redmon-biography-mitch-mcconnells-wife.html
WOW!! Talk aboit "antithesis"!!!
Yes! She led a life after Mitch.
They married in '93. Mitch became wealthier from that marriage. From Wikipedia: "In April 2008, Chao's father gave Chao and McConnell between $5 million and $25 million,[97] which "boosted McConnell's personal worth from a minimum of $3 million in 2007 to more than $7 million"[98] and "helped the McConnells after their stock portfolio dipped in the wake of the financial crisis that year".[99]"
Yeah - I did know the wealth came from his wife's family. I still want some investigation into exactly how he was re-elected last time. The vote numbers are a bit screwy.
I'd certainly like to know the details on that, too!
Ghosts on the roles...
Rolls
The first Ms McTurtle didn't bring in as much bacon.
"Although I love American history, I've never felt 'proud' to be an American." That is me exactly. I've always been so deeply aware of our flaws that I find it impossible to say we are somehow exceptional.
As a 12 year old living in France for a year, '65-'66, I felt proud to be an American. But now? We're the most backward of the western industrialized nations. We have much more poverty than the rest of them. We have a greater percentage of deaths by opioid overdose, many of which are suicides (I've written about this). Our infrastructure has been left to wither in the wake of the Reagan revolution.
But this critical race theory that is invading college campuses and private high schools is BS. We have a class problem as much as a race problem, and CRT is giving the GOP a new handle on attacking us.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/us/smith-college-race.html
There is a lot of problems in the USA right now. It feels overwhelming. The pendulum is swinging wildly and differently around the country. With that said, I also believe that if this country is to become a better place there needs to be space for voices and theories that one would consider to be BS. Again, I am open to at least listening to the conversation. Eventually, I believe the country will land in a different place with a different overall consensus. This excites me.
I do think we have the right leader to lead us to a better place. We really lucked out, between getting rid of Delirium J. Tremens, getting both Houses, and getting the Democrat who is probably most prepared to deal effectively with the country's problems by dint of his experience. But critical race theory is very harmful, and stupid. Far better students should be taught empathy, beginning in elementary school.
I like that and I would add that I would like to see “compassion” as part of more school experiences. For me the word compassion adds the component of action; doing things to contribute to community and the country.
Sounds good to me!
If you had actually studied critical race theory (I had to in order to write something accurate about it) you would find that it is actually very useful in learning how complicit we all can be, and what we need to do to get to where we claim we want to go.
Maybe so, and maybe not, but in practice it often results in harm, as evidenced by the NYT article on Smith College that I posted, and numerous other articles I've read. I think teaching empathy would do everything people want critical race theory to do without the harm.
Empathy, compassion and respect. Truth, justice and The American Way. Parents, school, religion. Throw them all in a melting pot and build back better.
Telling the truth is never BS. We should look to the example of Germany and how they wrote and taught all school children the truth about the Holocaust 20 years after the war!
I'm a Jew, and Germany did an excellent job. I knew a kid from Germany 20 years after the end of the Holocaust, and I saw first hand how well that had worked.
But the truth about privilege, and lack thereof in the US is much more complex than critical race theory makes it out to be. Money often has more power than race in this day and age. Think about all the working class whites in places like Appalachia and the rust belt, whose jobs have migrated to other countries or have been filled by immigrants, the amount of opioid addiction, and the numbers of deaths by opioid overdose--much of which are suicides (I've written about that). Substantial quantities of money trump skin color.
And I highly recommend this article to show you how badly critical race theory is often implemented. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/us/smith-college-race.html
I remember reading about that incident. And one of the commenters on there mentioned that there was no investigation into what would have happened if the student was white! Good question. But the whole issue was allowed (& almost encouraged by the college) to get way out of line. The student didnt do any favors for the already dicey race relations on that campus. Doubt it changed any "hearts and minds".
Black and White. Good and Evil. The list goes on and on. I suspect that the oversimplification of religious texts, twitter sized histories and differing senses of fairness have something to do with this. Personally I find this a very exciting time for history and how it is written. I have learned a tremendous amount over the last five year alone. The newer narratives lend a richness to American History that I did get as a young man. I can see how flag waving Americans would hate anything that interrupts the illusion and would make them reconsider. Insecurities and mental illness in people’s personal lives spill over to the public sphere. People are all things and so is history and histories are made up of people who encompass all things good and not good. I for one embrace it.
I do understand how simple narratives can be very comforting, too. Wouldn't it be nice if we could clearly identify good people and evil people and love the one and despise the other? Too bad history gives us no such comfort. One of the reasons we on the left are struggling to attract people who don't want to think too hard is that the truth is complex and the Rs are peddling a simple and easily-understood, though entirely false, narrative.
That's why we have movies and why (with a couple of rare exceptions) one should never think they have "learned" history from watching one.
Makes sense, except Gallup said pride polling dropped 9% amongst Republicans when Trump became president.