On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln spoke at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where more than 23,000 men had been killed or wounded the previous July defending the United States of America from those who would destroy it.
"And he urged them “to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain
—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”"
Dr. Richardson. I can hear your message. I can see what you see through your writing and historical understanding of our country.
However, I have a son. Twenty-four. I am from Texas where public education turned me from a poor East Texas dirt farmer to a senior engineer people relied on to get stuff done correctly. I was paid well after about 10 years of not being promoted because: My father is from Mexico and my mother was redhead whose lineage in the USA began in 1620.
So, I had a "Mexican" last name. For 10 years in my early career as an engineer, while folks around me in my corporation were getting raises and promotions, but, working less and doing less, I was getting zero raises.
Finally, I got out of that company (Eastman Kodak) and managed to move into a software imaging role at a company where they did give me a few raises.
When I changed jobs the group leader at my new company told me I was getting paid $25,000 per year less than a guy they hired with my same degree who was five years younger than me.
This group leader worked to give me good raises. By the time I "retired" because our organization was outsourced to India by the "new" manager in a white shirt with, shocker, white skin who decided that was a great idea.
But, I managed to make it to age 60 in America as an engineer with a minority last name and came close to getting paid the same as the another white guy who actually slept during meetings where critical aspects of the project were discussed. I routinely put in 10 hour days just to get to parity by the end of my career.
Now? My son is 24. He is an engineer. His boss just told him that he would not make the promotion milestone at two years like everyone else (all white). He told my son this even though the two year marke is EIGHT MONTHS away.
So, Dr. Richardson, I can tell you: I hear your call to action.
But, my wife is an American of immigrant parents from Greece. She is now a Greek citizen.
We are working mightily to get our children Greek Citizenship.
Then, we will get them over to the EU and out of the USA. Having a "Mexican" last name in America where only white guys get hired and promoted EVEN when "Democracy" is working?
For me, for miy kids, it does not make any sense to go and "fight" for Democracy in a Democracy that only reocognizes the existence of white people where economic success is relevant.
So, I think this time around, Dr. Richardson, you will find that there are far fewer people willing to leave their homes and go die for the concept of "Democracy" when, even when it is ostensibly "working" it is really not working for everyone.
Just white folks.
I was in engeering at three big corporations for 39 years. During that time I saw two black engineers hired (both were accused by the whites of being recipients of affirmative action EVEN though both of them had higher GPA than any of the whites that were also employed).
I saw one other person with a "Mexican" last name in the engineering ranks. Like me, he was paid below all his whte counterparts.
And I saw an ARMY of white guys whose Dad's got them jobs, whose grades from college were atrocious, whose work ethic was sleeping during meetings.
So, Dr. Richardson, I hear your call. But, I don't think Amurca, even when it is a "Democracy", is worth my kids dying at the hands of the nutcases like Rittenhouse.
Let Amurcans have "their" country. I am sure they will grind what little is left into the dirt.
The Chinese already have all of our manufacuturing and technology, outsourced by white guys in in white shirts here who were shafting America workers for big bonuses while Amurca was a "Democracy".
OK. This was too long, I am sure you will not read it.
But, AFTER Lincoln's Gettysberg address America had 100 years of Jim Crow and after the Civil Rights legislation people could vote but guess what?
They could not get good jobs and still cannot. I was lucky because my Mom was white.
Otherwise, I would never have even been hired in America as an engineer. I would never have become middle class.
I would apologize, but, I want my kids in the EU. Not dying in another civil war that won't matter any way. They, my kids, will still be "spics".
But, I will keep learning and reading from you and appreciate your passion for "Democracy".
After I moved to Rochester, after one year, my wife and I bought a small house. In a meeting with a senior Kodak manager, he asked me where I had bought the house.
I told him where and his exact response was: "I remember when people knew their place".
I had not bought a house in the poorest part of the city, which was where I was "supposed" to buy that house, but, not too far from him.
He felt outraged and he felt completely empowered to tell me directly.
There is an old saying that I have never been able to find the original source of, but it still resonates. “When one is accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” Thank you for writing your long and eloquent post, Mike. Your witness is important and we need to hear it. Please keep writing. We cannot afford to lose Americans like you and your family.
Appalling. What I have learned more than anything since 2015 is how prevalent racism is in this country and that it exists literally EVERYWHERE. I was well aware of it from my youth, as my family lived like an island in the middle of a sea of hatred, and as the south goes swirling down the toilet more every day, it would be easy enough to blame it on this or that state. But. It is EVERYWHERE.
Thank you for this eloquent statement of fact, Mike - just one objection: I believe to my soul that she WILL read it, possibly give a direct response, but in any case make the best possible use of it, because that is what she does. You and she have different perspectives, aims, conclusions, but when it comes to passion and values,
Well, I hope she can do all the things she is doing, teaching college, maintaining a reasonable diet (cooking takes time, shopping takes time), writing this column, taking care of her loved ones, doing her podcast, meeting with students, meeting with college leadership without compromising her health.
Because: I know from experience that 16 hour days, done over a lifetime, compromise health.
Dear Mike, Your letter is heartbreakingly powerful and is what our country needs to hear. A friend of mine (a black veteran of three wars) did not want Obama to win the presidency because he said it will unleash the hatred that lies just beneath the surface that white privileged people are clueless about. And it has. And it is so blatantly fascist now. We are now fighting a second civil war with people who feel like a different species from an insane asylum. Your story is not an exception for people with a variety of skin colors and also for women. I am so sorry that true Americans, like your family, should ever have to face what you have faced and feel the need to get your children out of America. And there is a real difference between America and Amurca. It will be another really hard day today and I will be thinking of your family's difficult decision, as our country prepares for the unthinkable.
"did not want Obama to win the presidency because he said it will unleash the hatred that lies just beneath the surface that white privileged people are clueless about."
I remain proud that America elected Obama. I only wish Obama had been less of a cerebral loner and more able to communicate where we might go.
Obama was too introverted to convert his speech giving capablity into a true movement.
I loved Obama (still do) but was so angry that he literally wasted his first two years when he had both the senate and house trying to do the right thing, trying to do everything with bi-partisan approval. Ain't gonna happen! By the time he figured this out, it was too late. I think what Penelope said above is correct but I believe it also helped to bring out things like what happened in Oklahoma and other travesties like what happened and is happening to your family. Some of us "white people" didn't know. Lived our whole lives in white communities. I guess we just didn't want to know or had our heads buried in the sand. Sorry.
I feel the same way about Obama - Seems we all, including him, had to live & learn exactly what impediments there really are (O'Connell being one) and I'm another "white person" that didnt have a clue. Mike's story makes it obvious just how pervasive this kind of attitude is. Easy to ignore it when it doesnt touch you.
I read his book about his first four years. If I recall correctly I think he said that his only mistake was not abolishing the filibuster. I hope Biden read his book.
I'm not so sure I agree with your last sentence, especially since he had GOP opponents in Congress who OPENLY said they would work against him to make him a one-term President. That didn't happen but they certainly poisoned the well for any other BIPOC or female candidates going forward.
Exactly. Mitch made outright his promise to obstruct anything Obama would try to do. This period was revealed the outright, emboldened, fascist movement in this country. The beastly shadow underbelly of "Amurca" was released.
It would have been way worse to elect another privileged white male. The country was already go so far down hill based on the policies of the Bush’s and Reagan. I don’t like living through the shake up but if you put these hidden things in the light people will start to be appalled by it and move away. When they only heard isolated cases it was easy to ignore.
I have homes that some of the real Evangelical Christians, the Mormons and Catholics will see how extreme and against their religious teachings all this hate and promoted violence is. They need to reject the glorification of Trump and actions of people like Rittenhouse, videos from Gosar should never be laughed off.
Most days I wish they would start their violent civil war so they can be swept up and prosecuted. That’s the only way we’ll stop the constant threats and covert violence.
Don’t count on them being prosecuted. Most white police officers (and most white Americans for that matter, though closer to 60% than the 90% found in the ranks of white policemen) are on their side. The Rittenhouse outcome is the standard model, not an anomaly.
It is true that we needed all of this darkness to have light shed upon it so white people could be educated and understand that the Civil War was not won, the racists just went semi-underground and have raised their stinking heads where EVERYONE can see and smell them this time, not just our POC.
Obama being elected to the presidency was an action that was good and bad. Yes, it ignited anger and such from the racist right, but the 45/Clinton election ignited the misogynistic bias in all types of in this country, but especially white males. Un educated women were included in these voters. Unless the candidate for president is a white, older male, voters in our nation will steadfastly refuse to change. When I present anything on my FB page that supports the idea of systemic racism and misogyny in our nation, I always get flack from white people that I'm calling them racist or misogynist. These people are too prickly and refusing to be educated.
So did I and I’m not blown away that this all happened in western NY. I grew up in Buffalo but moved to VA in the late 70’s. I know racism existed up there but until the last few years I didn’t realize how many white supremacists there were in Western NY. ( Including various family members 😞). If I didn’t have a 2 year old grandson, and if New Zealand would have us, that’s where I’d choose to go!
Mike, when my daughter became engaged to our son-in-law, who is 100% Hispanic, I had about a half dozen people ask me "is he legal?" These are good Christian people (and 100% Conservative) who would vehemently deny being "racist". (BTW, he was born here of legal immigrants) I did not choose to get into it with these people--friends and neighbors, but I did wonder aloud to another friend would this question be asked if I announced her engagement to "Shaun O'Sullivan"? "Jean-Paul Deloitte?" "Karl Schmit?"
Are the really "Christian" people? In my own reading of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John it seems that Jesus is going out of his way to offer complete acceptance to all of the people in his world who were hard core outcasts and downtroden.
He openly showed disdain for those in power at the time and openly empowered those who were outcast and powerless.
So, what does "Christian" really mean? That you own an AR-15 and all your friends are white and own the same gun? That you go to your all white church and listen to the white man at the front tell you what to think and who is acceptable?
I think "Christian" in America is very far from the words and teachings of Jesus.
The holier than thou "Christians" pick and choose out of the bible. They only follow what helps their cause. I think that the right wing "Christian" revolution now going on has done more to hurt organized religion that anything else in our history.
Pam, check out a book called "Jesus and John Wayne". It gives the history (which HCR has touched on) of how the religious right (oxymoron - they ain't religious, and they ain't right). This was a strategic, orchestrated stealth attack with the help of people like Billy Graham and his insinuating himself with various presidents.
I should have put that "good Christian people" in quotes. They would all self identify as such.
And I agree with you on that last full sentence--while the catch-phrase of "WWJD?" I think came out of the religious right, it is one guiding principle I take to heart, that truly people of any religion (or lack of) could adhere to. I have irked a lot of people by saying that Jesus was a liberal.
There are exceptions, but I'm a UCC pastor and I'm saying that for nearly 2000 years, in the name of Christ, more murder, violence and misery has visited humanity than from any other single source. When asked, I call my self a friend and student of the brown-skinned Jewish rabbi, Jaschuah ben Josef.
Can you imagine Jesus singing “Onward Christian soldiers, marching off to war, with the cross of Jesus, marching on before?” In the many Crusades, the Crsusaders often tested their swords on a fringe Christian group in southern France before heading towards Jerusalem. One might say that the Crusaders behaved like ‘Moslems’ in their rape and pillage while Saladin behaved like a ‘Christian’ in his benevolence towards these European invaders.
Well, in some groups, being "Christian" means literally showing up in a church on Sundays, Easter & Christmas. What I remember from Sunday School was it takes compassion & empathy & caring for your fellow man. Not a church-goer anymore but the rest remains.
Actually, Christians in America are not. They are Paulists (Puritans) run out of Europe and settling in this New World where they promptly set up theocratic colonies. Like you, I only read the 4 books of the Gospel of Jesus (and Thomas) but that didn't have the divisive messages of Paul who was proselytizing a new religion and had to separate his Greek & Roman followers from those who preferred the heathen traditions.
One of the best bits of ancient history I learned in seminary, is that the Galatians were the Celts that had migrated to what is now Turkey after they got licked by the Greco-Romans. If you have a chance, go to the Pergamon museum in Berlin. There you will see the altar that was built to celebrate the victory over the Celts. The entire altar is a scene of the beautiful Greco-Roman gods tearing into the monstrous Celts. Ancient historians were fascinated by these huge, pale-skinned, blue-eyed humans with wild hair and whose women were just as fierce as the men. It was a time when white was not beautiful - interesting but scary. That's part of what Paul is trying to get at when he wrote to the Galatians, which is what 300 years later they were called. Dr. Brigitte Kahl wrote a book, Re-imagining Galatians, if you're interested.
Based on their behavior, too many American 'Christians' don't know Jesus. But Jesus knows them:
"And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward."
I sometimes worry that we might very easily have an American Taliban growing in determination and self righteousness violence. The bold presence of legislators who would happily support them in exchange for their vote is unnerving.
Having grown up in the South, among 'good Christian people', whenever I hear that "so and so is a GOOD Christian', I grab my wallet. I've seen too many 'good Christians' use their self-appointed status as an excuse to take advantage, and in some cases purely ROB folks. But they hide behind their so-called Christianity,dDoing things Jesus wouldn't be caught dead doing. Words, not deeds. Give me deeds, not words, every time.
My family is from the South. My uncle was deacon of his Southern Baptist church. He was also in the Ku Klux Klan. It is a requirement to be “Christian” in the KKK, preferably Southern Baptist. WWJD?
I once saw the KKK in the 60’s in my small Baptist town in NC. It was in the evening where they gathered at a “roundabout” in the middle of the road. I was with my parents, Holocaust victims. It was chilling!
In my small Southern town, there was a church on every corner. Guess they thought the First Baptist Church needed sisters to preach about the Almighty in multitudes. Never understood that.
Reminds me when years ago, a guy broke into my house and raped me. My sister asked if he was white or black, as though the trauma would be less if the guy was white. I must admit to having a bit of satisfaction to respond to her that he was white.
Our moments in life can be so large, dimpled, scarred, simple, breathtaking and painful. Lynell, You just dropped that trauma in the line. May I embrace you?
I am so sorry for what you went through Lynell. Rape is a sundering of the soul that never leaves us. We can heal and we learn to live with the damage but it is with us always.
Your sister’s question was wrong. Sadly understandable given our society and what we absorb - or are taught. But still wrong. I hope she took that lesson to heart.
Hi Lynell. Thank you for the lovely compliment. I’ve never been called that before. How nice!
I have had a lot of blips, bumps, tragedies & traumas in my life but that doesn’t make anyone else’s any less by comparison. What happened to you was as wrong & awful as what happened to me. Quantity of blips doesn’t change that. All my best to you.
Ahh, thank you for reaching out, Jean-Pierre. I think a goodly percentage of us do have a not-so-pleasant story to tell. And it is so nice to have words of encouragement such as yours.
Not just reading, Mike, but copied onto my "good things from HCR" document to read again later.
My story of my lack of promotion (I worked in a field where all people of the same rank were paid equally, promotion up the chain of command was the way to "achieve") was not based on race (I'm white as is 98% of my department) but on gender (in 35 years with that agency, we've had one lieutenant that was female, in the corrections division where she was an expert in community based (non custodial) corrections; one of my contemporaries who ultimately retired as a sergeant was an AIC (acting in capacity, working out of classification) Lieutenant who had to sell her soul to get that far). I was an AIC Sergeant for 80% of my work days from 10/99 through 12/03, tested #1 on the one promotional exam that I took but was not promoted (the two who were promoted included the soul seller mentioned above). My lack of promotion was based on both gender and being an out lesbian. To my knowledge, my wife has been the only "retiree spouse" acknowledged at a retirement ceremony.
I'm glad you said this. I am sitting here, reading all the comments, thinking "I'm a white single mother who has been pushed down in the white collar workforce. I need the income. All the white guys have stepped on me while they worked their way up to join the boys club." I'm 60 and in debit up to my earlobes. My daughter is attending college totally on loans. (I work really hard to not pay attention to these details. ) Interestingly, the company I work for is based in Sweden. I interviewed and got a position with the Swedish organization. They talked about my skills and what I had to offer. It came with a $10,000 a year raise that I didn't even have to negotiate. I've worked for the US division of this company for over 20 years. This is my first raise beyond the 1 - 2 % I got each year as a merit raise.
Argh. My wife is the only same sex retiree spouse. All the wives, and so far, none of the husbands. We do have one married couple in the department and both are career deputies. I suspect they will go to each other's retirement ceremony.
Interestingly, I had a lovely chat with the "girl deputy" in this scenario one time when she came down to Creswell for lunch while I was working. She and her husband were planning to have another child, and she had been cautioned by the then existing administration (which was an 8 year mistake) that her "lifestyle choices" (i.e. having a second child) might inhibit her promotional opportunities. Her husband was not given that warning.
I said something to the effect of "bet you'd never thought you'd be sitting talking to a heathen lesbian about your career threatening "lifestyle choices" as a straight, Christian woman." She looked at me and said "why do you think I am talking to you? You see the irony. No one else does."
A friend of mine, an officer in the Marines, got pregnant and the Marines actually had maturity uniforms. She was very proud of that. What do you call a woman Marine? A Marine! Love that, too.
My good friend and coworker as an air engineer nurse has 3 children wile on active duty. Her contract required her to ask permission to stay in. it was a massive task because they wanted pregnant women out. I entered a few years behind her and my contract kept me in with a clause that I could request a discharge for pregnancy. This was the mid-70s.
It was a standard joke for many things in the military but I was deliberately called on the carpet in front of my bosses (outranked me but not really superior), told that in a hostile way and then told to request a discharge for being pregnant. Which I did not do. So, you are correct - that line can be used as a joke but it can also be used as a weapon or discriminatory tactic.
Wow, Mike S, how powerful. How personal. How thought-inspiring. I’m blown away this Saturday morning. Thank you, from an aging, white, privileged, LCA-Lutheran-raised, corn-fed-Midwestern, increasingly more woke long-sober woman. Just … thank you. And please reconsider not leaving the U.S — we really need you.
(If, however, you still live in Texas, I strongly suggest relocating to a less hostile state or territory.)
Oh, duh, Mike S, you live in Rochester, NY. Excuse me for my blunder.
(True, there are racists, misogynists, anti-Semites, homophobes, supremacists, etc., everywhere, but Texas is especially hostile. It was in the ‘80s, when I lived there, and it still is.)
Interestingly, when was in high school in East Texas, 1974-1978, my school way out in the sticks, was fully integrated and had been since 1967. Blacks, whites and us meskins all went to the same school.
But, honestly, all us kids got along. No lie. No joke. Nobody seemed to notice white, black, brown. The school WAS majority white, but, the kids were kind to me. Of course, living arragements WERE segregated JUST like they are in the north.
I definitely have all good things to say about the public education system in Texas including Texas A&M which, even today, ignores the SAT and allows in the top 10% of all high school students.
I graduated number 3 in my Chemical Engineering class. Number 14 out of 3500 students in 1982.
My SAT was 990.
And there you have it. The SAT is also a white supremacy tool to keep down minority populations.
Mike, I add my thanks for your comments, which I did read completely. Also, to say I have some good, liberal friends in Texas, even in Midland! I don't know how they stand it.
Texas actually has some wonderful qualities and characteristics -- and pockets of delight -- Mike, but Texans are very parochial and nativist and exclusionary. While I lived there, I was made to feel "so welcome" -- while also getting the subtle but distinct message that "of course, you don't really belong here." I can only guess how much more creepy, maybe threatening, that message is for people of color.
Mike, thank you for this well thought out response to Dr. Richardson’s letter today. I DID take the time to read the whole thing, and it pains my heart to see how minorities and perceived minorities are treated. Like you, I’m afraid I don’t this changing, and fear the direction our country is going. I sincerely hope you find what you are looking for in the EU.
We like the Yucatán Peninsula of México just fine. We'd considered and checked out various other locations around the world to hang our hats and ended up here. At some point in the future we'll apply for permanent residency. I cannot imagine living in the United States ever again.
Not too long, Mike. The words both valuable and heartbreaking. I, an American, who has lived in three other countries, has seen the truth of your words for many years.
An all-white America is an anemic parasite - and will die without the support and substance of the whole human race - maybe the way to defeat it will be to shun it ....
What a great post, Mike. Racism, which at it root it based on fear, is alive and well in America. The fear is so great that whites are doing their best to prevent the true history of our country to be taught in college. Like the Soviet Union, we have been taught revisionist history in K-12. The far right is using Critical Race Theory as a catchword to stoke racist flames in order to get votes; they are using fear as a weapon to retake power.
I often wonder how good, law-abiding Republicans turned into suckers. Growing up, every night after dinner my parents would sit down and read the newspaper from cover to cover and discuss current events. Voters did their best to come to their own conclusions over the issues of the day. Has talk radio, Fox News and social media sterilized individual critical thinking, allowing only for sound bytes to get through?
One last thing. Is Kyle Rittenhouse the OJ Simpson of the 21st century?
I agree with everything you say until you get to OJ Simpson. Simpson may be a murderer but he did not gun down 3 people in plain view of dozens of witnesses AND get the aid and support of law enforcement in the area. Simpson's crime was personal. Rittenhouse's crime was a public statement of hostility. Now Rittenhouse will become the poster boy for the right wing's idea of patriotism. Simpson never held that kind of power.
OJ was a black man in love with a beautiful white woman who was being stolen by a very dumb white guy. Who knows what I would do if someone comes on to my wife? Probably nothing good.
Rittenhouse, on the other hand, shot three people for the sheer entertainment of killing, which, he started out to do for fun and sport.
Rittenhouse is a perfect represenative for the white man of today. Arrogant, ignorant, selfish, self absorbed and dangerous.
And Rittenhouse is just a kid. Hasn’t developed reliable brains yet. Wait till he sucks up all this adulation from *ucker Carlson and Madison Cawthorn and the lot.
I was finding this thread interesting and informative. Right up until this comment. My husband and sons are white men, and would never EVER do anything like this. They are decent, caring men. Being a white man does not make you inherently evil.
I have known and loved old white men and they were a credit to the country. but there are plenty who feel entitled to the privilege that the white race has long enjoyed with no thought whatsoever to those who don't "qualify." So glad I have known decent, caring white men.
I think he’s a walking dead man. He evaded Justice yesterday but he won’t be able to do that for long. Someone somewhere is going to put in a correction and he’ll join the people that he murdered, if he had killed my son he’d never see the end of the year. I read the statement one of his victims parents posted yesterday, the pain they are feeling is unbearable, he was not alone in his actions the police were also complicit and were coordinating their actions with the militias. The fact that they let him calmly walk out of there speaks volumes.
I'm imagining he will get sued for "pain and suffering" by the parents and the one survivor. I do't think he'll ever be "free". And I hate those fake baby tears!
Thank you. Aye, "how good, law-abiding Republicans turned into suckers".
Randy, those folks were never how good, law-abiding Republicans. They were always nasty, judgemental selfish people interested in only their own outcomes.
How else did Ronald Reagan convince everyone that taxes are bad?
Taxes are part of community thought process.
Republicans never had such a thought process and as soon as Reagan gave it voice, they collapsed like the avalanche of selfish people they were.
And Rupert made it smell patriotic… as Kemp said “Rupert Murdoch used the editorial page, the front page, and every other page necessary to elect Ronald Reagan President of the United States.” Boy did that pay off for Rupert, and our world will likely never recover
I have been thinking the same thing. He will be a pariah to the liberals and used by the Carlson, Gaetz folks. I am sad to see this turn of events.
No one won in that courtroom yesterday. The families of the victims must be in agony. I am praying this does not ignite the power keg that is America right now. It is a good thing it is winter. Less protests.
I am praying and hoping this will be swallowed up by the upcoming Holidays and everyone will be distracted by crass good cheer and phony songs of peace on Earth. (Sorry if I sound bitter).
Something has been ignited that I am not sure can be tamped out. And I am always the optimist in the room. We are all wearier and wearier.
I read every word. I am so sorry that you have been forced to endure this in this country. I am appalled at what is happening now. If the Republicans have their way, this is going to be an even more dangerous country.
Sandra, maybe the good thing about today is: Instead of Amurca being hidden from view and invisibly (to you and many others) holding back talented people from economic success, America is now outed and open about white supremacy.
Maybe this open approach to white supremacy is better than hidden white supremacy under the guise of "Democracy".
At Kodak, there were zero black workers when I arrived in 1992. Zero.
When they did start to hire them they gave them the lowest paid, most difficult job in the plant. Something called "chiller" operator. This required 8 hour shifts of lifting 40lb bags onto a cart with no break.
AND: The whites were all screaming about affirmative actions because Kodak finally, after 140 years, started hiring blacks.
I like it that the white supremacy is now open and obvious.
I agree. I think that, as difficult as it is and is going to become, having all this ugliness out in the open is a good thing.
As much despair as the black American flags, Q flags, etc cause me by having to see them every day I am also grateful. Nor I know where they are - which people and which businesses hold such hateful beliefs. That knowledge is good to have. You can’t create change if you don’t know what you’re up against.
Couldn’t agree more, Kasumii and Mike. Oddly, scarily, this exposed ugliness is one of the gifts of the horrible pandemic response and the video-captured murder of George Floyd.
‘Now’ not ‘nor’. I did not do that on purpose to prove a previous point 🙄. Feeling sad & angry at new flags I saw yesterday & my proofreading skills went pffft!
Those "black American flags" are the subdued National Colors with the colored (blue, red, green, gold, white) ones, right? I think that those flags originally come from the subdued patches that the military began wearing during GWOT, and have become part of that culture as part of the "fandom" of all things military.
FWIW, I quit flying my "thin blue line" flag I flew for my friend that was murdered in the line of duty when a dear friend of mine pointed out how it was being subverted by the racists, and that as long as I flew it, I was supporting that perspective. I now fly the flag that originated with the "concerns of police survivors" group that supports the families of fallen officers.
The black American flags are regular flags with no extra colors that are covered in black. You can faintly see the stars & stripes but it’s all black.
They harken back to a military tradition of flying a black flag in battle that meant no prisoners will be taken. In other words - kill everyone. It is a clear threat of violence and death.
Mike, I agree. Now that the systemic racism is out in the open perhaps people with a conscience will stand for equality and equity not simply pay lip service to it. We have never been the land if equal opportunity. It's about people are made to acknowledge the depth of our ugliness. I am grateful you took the time to tell us your story. I hope you and your family thrive in Greece. Best wishes always.
I think it is unlikely that America will change much over the shorter historical arc. How knows about the long term and, here is the thing about the long run.
In the long run we are all dead, so, the long run does not matter.
it is the short run that counts, and, in my lifetime nothing changed nor will it change.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately - about the time it will take to change things for the better and how much worse it could become before better change begins to takes hold. I’m noodling on it to better prepare myself for the fight and for enduring it. I’ve got to get a handle on the despair I feel so it doesn’t swamp me to the point of being useless.
Yep, my strategy is to really feel that despair for a moment, then get up and go forth one more time. Mostly, I live in joy, but there are spaces like today when that balloon is deflated.
Mike, I am eighty years old and have been pretty much complacent about the state of affairs. In the years since Trump was elected President( I was so naive, I never thought it would happen.) I have been making myself more aware.
Mike you should read Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel, Player Piano, based in his experience as an engineer in Rochester, back in the 50s. Bitter, surreal, brilliant. Even as a white man he saw.
I heard the comments about affirmative action, too. Not about me to my face, but about any person who advanced to first-line supervisor who wasn't a white man. I heard it as recently as 3 years ago at my last place of employment (I'm retired now), a well-known aerospace company in CT.
In my job at Kodak I befriended a seemingly nice white guy and we had lunch every Friday.
ONCE, while I was at Kodak they interviewed a black guy for my white friends group. I interviewed him too so had his resume.
This black guy was from Georgia tech and had a 3.92 GPA. He had three internships.
But, my white friend? He had told me at a previous lunch that his grades were so bad when he got out of school that he could not get a job and his Dad, who worked in HR at Kodak, had obtained the Kodak job for him.
When the black guy came for the interview my friend, Brian, went berserk at our Friday lunch about "affirmative" action for blacks. ONE black guy.
So, I remembered Brian's story about his Dad.
I asked him? Brian, this black guy seems more qualified and accomplished than anyone we have interviewed since I came here. Hiring him would be "competitive hiring" not "affirmative action".
I said: Brian, YOU are the real recipient of affirmative action are you not?? Right? YOUR DAD provided that affirmative action and got you a job you would not have been able to get because of your grades and YOU told me that story.
Brian looked stunned, dumped his plate on the table and left.
He did not speak to me for 6 months, then, he came and apologized. The black guy had been hired and he was a hard worker and good engineer, probably better than Brian who had 5 years experience on the new kid.
Brian said: "Mike, you are a real "a..hole" BUT, you were right. If we start lunch again, do me a favor, don't bring it up.
I never did again. But, he will always know that he, Brian, was the real affirmative action candidate. For all his life.
A friend worked for Coca-Cola in Ga.The black employees were required to use “their” restroom unattached to the building. Our friend worked , amid pushback, to desegregate the restrooms.The year:1988
1988? Good Lord! North Carolina was forced into integration in 1964, my freshman year of high school. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. We never had those issues, thank goodness!
Kudos to you for speaking up. I saw a lot of that kind of "affirmative action," too, but I was usually too timid to point it out except for one particularly egregious case.
Beautiful story Mike. Our ancestry is similar: my redheaded mom’s lineage goes back to Britain before the Revolutionary War. My Italian dad (1st generation American)
who fought in WWII and was his only family member to gain a college degree (in engineering!). Looked like Lucy and Desi Arnaz *in color*.
So,
I was able to apply and received my Italian citizenship. I believe (my dad passed on at 98 a month before the pandemic….he missed BOTH pandemics!) he needed to be alive for his children’s success in applying…..Best of luck.♥️ There was also some thing about our family on my dad’s side had children before they did paperwork to become US citizens…I say that because my brother-in-law‘s Italian immigrant parents did their paperwork first and then had children and he did NOT have the means to gain Italian citizenship.
I heard similar comments in the military but not about my race. About my gender. Every promotion or special assignment I was told “you only got that because you’re a ____” (usually ‘bitch’, sometimes’slash’, sometimes ‘cunt’) or “did you fuck the company commander or the battalion commander for that promotion?” Didn’t matter what rank, the comments/accusations came both my peers & bosses.
In my case I didn’t ask. I was 18 and desperate to get away from “home” (white supremacy, religious cult, highly abusive parents). So, I skipped school one day & went to the recruiter’s office, joined with a leave date right after high school graduation. Didn’t tell anyone until a few weeks before my leave date. When I did, my parents (mother, stepfather) said “you’ll never make it through basic let alone jump school and you’ll become a slut”. The church elders said “you’ll become a whore or lesbian”. You can see why I didn’t tell anyone.
And, even with all the MST (military sexual trauma) I went through (several assaults) and endured (daily verbal sexual harassment), the military was a step up from my childhood. Had there been actual support for victims of MST and legal consequences against the perpetrators I would have stayed in for 30 years instead of just 10. There is a lot of good about serving. If only our militaries valued everyone equally and created an atmosphere that backed that up…
They were just confused. It probably seemed very unfair that they'd been giving their commanders sexual favors for weeks but got nothing, you just waltz up and get a promotion just for being great. That's discrimination!
Anthropologically, characteristics that don't really have much bearing on actual survival -- like skin coloration, hair color, semantic intelligence, gender, religiousity, etc. -- are the very characteristics we use for mate selection and intraspecific competition. In other words, the we use those features to discriminate precisely because they don't actually matter in terms of one's ability to survive as an individual in a particular environment.
I think that's why racism, as well as a lot of other "-isms," will always be a part of human society, even among otherwise intelligent people. It's a reflexive way of organizing one's social world and, I suspect, happens on a neurological level. As such, it acts sub-rationally and gets rationalized later -- sort of the same-but-opposite process of lusting after a new car and justifying it to your spouse later.
This is not to mean that it's not worth every erg required to combat this tendency. It's just that lots of people are going to see this tendency as inspiration and a competitive advantage, not as an innate weakness. Hence, we have Trump, Marion Sims, Tucker Carlson, and Rittenhouse.
Sorry for the disquistion, but I just had to nerd-out for a few minutes to sooth my nerves...
This would explain more if there had always been racism. But (I speak as your fellow nerd, a historian of its emergence in Europe) there hasn't. And even in the thought world we now inhabit in the developed West there have been periods when racism had different targets.
Why for instance are descendents of the Irish now allowed to be presidents and mayors and millionaires when they used to be called the N-- word even in Boston, their children thrown from the roofs of orphanages or burned alive in their schools? I wouldn't say it's progress that that's changed for the Irish, because now Mexicans and people from the Middle East, who didn't used to be seen as lesser beings, can be described by slang vituperation and suffer discrimination and random violence..
Just nerding out with you! Soothes my frazzled nerves too.
Thank you for sharing Mike and all the best to you and your family. What a loss for the US, but I get it, I hear you! So much of our society saddens me to no end.
I hear you loud and clear! I grew up in Texas and got a decent education in the 1950s and 60s. I have an Anglo last name, but my ancestry is Greek, and those who cared about such things noticed right away I didn't have the blue eyes an Anglo with the name "Foster" should have. Still, I had a decent career as a software engineer, never being paid as much as the white men because I'm a woman. Greek residency and citizenship requirements are pretty narrow -- I know because I looked into it during the Bush II regime. I hope you succeed in getting EU citizenship for your kids. If they can't get it through birth, they're young enough to get permanent residency in a number of other countries if they have job skills that are in short supply. Good Luck!
My grandmother was born in Cuba in 1870. Sometime later her family moved to the United States. Her brother went to Annapolis and was a career Navy officer. Her two sisters became public school teachers in Philadelphia for their entire careers. My great uncle’s son went to Annapolis and was Exec Officer on a sub sunk shortly after Pearl Harbor and, after three years as a Japanese POW, continued his career in the Navy.
Immigrants have provided the backbone of an evolving America. I am angry when I hear of how many immigrants were/are treated. Historically it was the Italians, the Jews, the Irish and others. Now it can be Hispanics, Asians, Middle Easterners, and others. This reflects the philosophy of the American (called “Know Nothing) Party of the 1840s-1850s, which morphed into the Republican Party. It remains a tenet of Trump’s ‘white Republicanism.’ My hope and belief is that Biden is dedicated to serving all Americans where bigotry has no place.
Pretty much most, if not ALL of our ancesters came from somewhere else - unless you were fortunate enough to have one or more that was native born! According to my aunt who "researched" this - someone in my mom's family married an Indian woman way back when - no princess (which is the usual claim, right?) just a down to earth gal who smoked a pipe!!! Thats all I know about her. But mainly - my family on both sides were immigrants from somewhere else. These "righteous" individuals who complain about "others" need to wake up & smell the roses (grandmother expression) they dont have any more claims on calling themselves citizens than anyone else.
We are a nation of immigrants except for our Native People. Can you imagine what they are thinking about allowing these greedy, white immigrants who lied and decimated them and then shoved the last ones onto "Christian" Indian Schools and reservations? If anyone wants to build a Wall, it would be our indigenous people around all the lying, greedy, white supremacists. The bell now tolls for all of us, and our democracy, no matter where our ancestors are from. Will we rise to this occasion? Will our justice system be transparent enough to help us understand if Justice will prevail? Will our military support our democracy or allow an overthrow of our government by fascist traitors? PEOPLE, The passage of the federal voting rights act is THE MOST important thing in our country right now. If we cannot vaporize the republican gerrymandering and the EC that rig and destroy our democracy, THEN the climate crisis, abortion rights, our post office, trafficking, prescription prices, healthcare, infrastructure, voting rights, etc., will not matter. If they win, they intend to destroy everything we, our ancestors, our sons and daughters and others have fought for and it may feel in vain.
Welcome to my world as a woman in the computer software field. A company hired 6, 4 men 2 women out of the same exact program. The women were paid less, not given the same promotion opportunities and often dealt with remarks considered to be sexual harassment. This was not so many years ago in 1993.
I am glad you have risen above instead of giving up. All we want is to be able to do the best we can in our life and it’s hard when being pushed down.
I was so lucky with where I worked (retired now) It was a construction company office with 1 other woman (in the beginning). The guys were great & we gave as good as we got from them - never felt un appreciated or less than. But like I said I was lucky.
I cannot believe we are still fighting this fight! I think it started when I was in my teens...1/2 a century ago.
Shall we all tell our stories?
I was imminently qualified to take care of the Clydesdales who worked at Walt Disney World. This was 1972. Was told, to my face, "doesn't matter, you are a girl, girls are not allowed in the barn". Oh well, had a good career as a veterinarian, no complaints, except, really, Still no equal rights?
From my own experience (horse-wise) you were even more "imminently qualified" just by being a girl! We (women & girls) are so much better with horses than the male of the species. (I'm thinking there might be some backlash on that statement). Brute strength does not win out over calm, quiet handling. Frankly Lynn, a good veterinarian is worth HER weight in gold. Be it large animal or small. But yeah, still no equal rights!
I often thought it would've been too cool if they ever needed a veterinarian, and I got the call! But life took me to different parts after graduation. Thanks for the kind words re vets.
Mike, thank you for sharing this. We "white people" need to keep hearing these stories. I have lived a long life in America and I have witnessed so much racism and hate and ignorance. There are no adequate words, but I'm so sorry.
Although not surprised by the Rittenhouse verdict with a blatant white supremacist judge who influenced the trial, I am more concerned about our democracy than ever. I see the gerrymandering and the voter suppression laws being passed by the gerrymandered Republican states. We are definitely at a crossroads and I want to help however I can to protect our democracy from the violence promoting fascists that are threatening it. Like many I was already exhausted from 4 years of Trump. Then came Covid exhaustion. We (nurses) are still being threatened by Covid deniers/ anti vaxers. We are exhausted! Sorry I just had to vent. I know I’m safe venting to this community. Thank you Heather and all.
Karen: Because I, too, “want to help however I can to protect our democracy…,” I continually persist, first, in noting that the Freedom to Vote Act is the only federal legislation currently in play whose provisions would supersede state law in conflict with any of its stipulations, and that includes state laws that already have passed. Additionally, because neither abolishing the Senate filibuster nor exempting it to pass bills protective even of our most basic rights presently has support from 50 Senators, I repeatedly have pressed for a Senate rule change, initially crafted by Congressional scholar Norm Ornstein, that, in all likelihood, would pass. The rule change would replace the 60-vote threshold required to end debate with a 41-vote threshold to continue debate, thus shifting the burden from the majority to the minority, 41 of whom would have to be present, speaking nonstop about the issue at hand, to sustain a filibuster. I don’t imagine any Senator (we only need 50 to enact a rule change) could mount a credible opposition in defiance of this reform. Thoughts? Anyone?
Barbara Jo, I will leave the details to the scholars and political experts, but in my mind a powerful voting rights bill is absolutely critical. More important to our democracy than all the ballyhooed spending bills already passed, excellent and praiseworthy as they are. I love Biden’s FDR agenda and installing women and POC everywhere, but without a national voting bill that nullifies the anti-democratic crap legislation passing everywhere, who cares.
I totally agree. As great as they are, the other bills passed won’t matter in a few years if we don’t have the voting rights and a transparent and democratic election. And I believe that is on the chopping block by the wanna be fascist trumpublicans
Is there truly a substantive difference between the members of the NSDAP Party and the current members of the Republican Party? Between Trump and Hitler? Not really.
Roland: Because I couldn’t agree more with your closing remark, watching and waiting to see what the experts will do just makes me more anxious. Thus, I choose to acquire the knowledge (see my latest reply to Karen) that gives me a shot at not merely having to look through the window but, instead, to come through the door.
Is a powerful voting rights bill going to do anything other than make us feel better though? The rabid parts of the country have demonstrated that they will only "obey" laws they like and they will NOT like a law that makes it easier for "them" to vote. We may have passed the point in our society where "law" means anything.
Sorry for the gloom but I think we are really in for a very dark and violent winter
Thank you Barbara. I am in complete support of the Voting Rights Act. My concern is that it doesn’t include the changes made by the Republican state legislatures to shift the state electoral certification from the Secretary of State to the legislature. Giving them the power to decide who is counted
Karen: Though I can’t be sure, I believe you might be conflating the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which is not preemptive and, therefore, cannot overturn state policy that will already have passed, with the Freedom to Vote Act that Manchin helped draft after the more comprehensive H.R.1/S.1 For the People Act was filibustered. Presuming I understand correctly, passage of the Freedom to Vote Act would ensure (1) that all eligible voters easily could register to vote and stay enrolled and (2) that eligible votes would be cast, counted correctly, and certified without interference and without their being diluted through partisan gerrymandering. Here I would note that the enthusiastic endorsements from such notables as Stacey Abrams leads me to believe that my grasp is likely solid.
The freedom to vote act. And am relieved it includes prohibiting state legislatures from taking away the people’s vote. Because if it doesn’t pass the people will not have a vote.
Sarah, I agree, but, because VRAA’s protections would not extend to state laws that already have passed, we must prioritize passage of the Freedom to Vote Act whose provisions, as previously mentioned, would supersede already-passed state laws in conflict with any of its stipulations.
we may be at the point where the Senators and Congress officials return to duels at ten paces. After all, when censured, Paul Gosar compared himself to Alexander Hamilton. then rebroadcast the anime video showing him assassinating a woman, a person of color, a colleague, then attempting to assassinate the President of the United States.
Thank you Barbara, I will reach out to my senators with this suggestion and forward to folks I know who might not be aware of this option to enact effective change - it's a really good idea - a ray of hope!!
I especially like the requirements that the 41 be present and that they must actually address the topic at hand. Apparently McCarthy managed to spend over 8 hours talking about anything but why he objected to the BBB.
Please accept my thanks for being on the front line, and dealing with those Covid deniers and anti vaxers as you labor to save the lives of their loved ones (and their own). Please also take care of yourself. Covid exhaustion is a real thing and is impacting everyone, no one more so than nurses.
I will share my dismay at what my community of law enforcement friends are doing in the wake of this verdict (along with their responses to Mr. Black's initial shooting that prompted these demonstrations in the first place, and every other BLM protest) and express my frustration with what has become of my former profession. I can GUARENTEE that had Mr. Rittenhouse been Black, there would be no trial because the officers on scene would have "observed a male with an assault rifle in the area where the shooting had occurred; he posed an imminent threat and I shot him."
My daughter, a nurse, would agree with your assessment. I, as one who was constantly appalled by the white supremacist judge, feels that there must be some way to protest his blatant bias.
What evidence do you have for saying the judge was a white supremacist? Did you know that when he has run for office it was as a Democrat? On the one side we have right wing nuts embracing Rittenhouse, and on the other we have people saying the judge is a white supremacist because they don't like the outcome. The jury was presented with all of the evidence and this is the conclusion they came to. Biden was right in his initial statement (subsequently undermined by the longer White House statement). As long as everyone continues to jump into their partisan corners on every issue, we'll never get out of our current mess.
I understand what you’re saying Mike. And believe me, that idea has certainly crossed many of our minds while going through this very sad and frustrating experience. That being said we are committed to providing care for the sick. And where would we be able to draw the line. Would we refuse care to an accident victim who was driving drunk? Refuse care to a lung cancer patient because they smoked a pack a day for 40 years? There are many self inflicted and preventable conditions that we treat without a second thought. I think we are all feeling less tolerant of the unvaccinated Covid patients now because so many are politically influenced and continue in denial, and even angry with the healthcare providers trying to help them. That said it’s who we are, and what we do.
"That being said we are committed to providing care for the sick."
I understand your commitment and am heartened folks like you exist.
However, Covid and any future pandemic is different from the small number of drunk drivers, and accident victims.
Covid, with a death rate of only 2% relative to all infected people, pushed Emergency room and ICU staff to the limit in many states and towns with above 90% occupancy rates for the first time in a long time.
Karen, just imagine if the death rate were 20% and 40% of the folks refused to get vaccinated?
Your hospitial parking lot would be full of dead bodies and you would be a walking dead body.
So, hospitals NEED to come up with plans for pandemics that DO NOT include throwing their staff at death day after day until their staff is all dead.
Because, this is not the last pandemic. And, this was pandemic LIGHT.
I’ve pondered the idea of creating a split-hospital system. One side for covid patients and one for non-covid patients. We’re losing too many non-covid patients from there not being any room for them and from people being made to delay all non-covid medical care. That’s not right. Surely there’s a workable solution for this problem.
Right ... the insurance companies do that picking and choosing - to be sure their profit margins are well funded ... heaven forbid we might invite government oversight - So much better to have a trustworthy insurance executive between us and our health care providers than some corrupt government agency ... right ...?
This is a brilliant repartee between Lincoln's words on 19th November, 1863 and the occurrences and words spoken on the same date in 2021, and between Lincoln's vision and current Republicans' diabolical sightlessness. Your play with shadows and light on both occasions is perfectly executed. Thank you for the audiovisual contrasts that highlight the positives as well as the negatives.
"[The Build Back Better Bill] reorients our national investment away from a wealthy few and toward ordinary families, much as Lincoln insisted in 1859 that the country should not invest in elite enslavers, but rather in ordinary men, who would innovate as they worked to provide for their families."
The Rittenhouse verdict is not simply disappointing, it is devastating. The message it gives to our country, our youth, and BIPOC communities is that of bloodshed and a return to John Wayne's Wild West when what we all need sense and sensibility.
I too was taken by HCRs juxtaposition of Lincoln's words during the civil war, the hope for delivering good government to our people via legislation such as BBB, and the failure of society represented in freeing a young punk who kills because he brought a gun to an adult protest and got so scared he killed others. What a visualisation of hope shattered in a courtroom in Kenosha. Gads! Guess the GOP has it's own Daniel Boone in Rittenhouse around whom they can weave tall tales of heroism. Can almost see the silly masks next Halloween.
Hundreds (if not thousands) of Americans will die violent deaths as a direct result of the Rittenhouse verdicts. The OJ Simpson verdict pales in comparison. Another huge win for Republicans in their Civil War against American Democracy. (Personally I will remember the exact moment I read the Rittenhouse verdicts on my phone as precisely as I remember the times and places when I heard about the Kennedy assassination and the fall of the Twin Towers. It is that big a deal ... make no mistake about it.)
This is my fear also. Here in Salem some people were planning on a protest at the local county courthouse. I am sure some of the local usual suspects will be present also. The police here do not have a good track record with this sort of situation.
I remember exactly where I was on the Friday and Saturday when Joe Biden was declared the winner. Boy I’ll never forget that. I was on the road (weird holiday work schedule, I’m in the food business, holidays are insane) in a hotel in Wendover Nevada.
Speaking of hell and Wendover, as a military historian of course you know that’s where Paul Tibbetts and his men planned and trained for the execution of the drop of Fat Man and Little Boy on Japan.
I worked for a guy who was a plane commander and the crew trained there. They bought a car that had "been around" and sold from crew to cfrew. It had been modified to run on 100 octane avgas, and as he said "It was the fastest car I had ever driven." They would run from the airport in to the casinos on liberty. They called it "the sex machine" because girls really liked riding in it.
The half of Wendover that is in Nevada has the casinos and all the tourists from Salt Lake City visiting the casinos, and the half of Wendover that is in Utah is tamer.
Funny, I can remember exactly where I was when that verdict came down....at work in a high school library and I and my co-worker were absolutely appalled.
On November 19th, if I’m working in a school, I like to teach a lesson about The Gettysburg Address. But it’s not a history lesson, it’s a writing lesson.
I’ve never published this lesson but I’m putting it into my 3rd edition because I need to feel like I’m contributing at least some small measure of hope that the United States of America will survive the current unprecedented assault on democracy by people who I won’t call Republicans because I have too much respect for Republicans like Abraham Lincoln—and the few Republicans left today, like Liz Cheney—to lump them in with what I call “The New Right” or “The New Wrong”.
As you read this, remember that it’s not a history lesson, or a lesson in politics, or anything the least bit provocative at all.
It’s just a harmless writing lesson about a simple technique for helping people remember our words when every word matters.
Here it is…
# THE STUBBORN SOUND OF STRUGGLE
What most of us remember about *The Gettysburg Address* is the opening phrase, “Four score and seven years ago,…”. Even if we don’t know what a “score” of years is, why Lincoln began the address this way, or what he was referring to that happened in the past, the sound of the line catches our ear and tells us that something special is about to unfold.
We’re probably hooked after two words: “Four score…”. It’s a rhyme as simple as any from Dr. Seuss. That’s part of what makes it work.
The truth is we don’t have to know that a “score” of years is 20. Or that “Four score and seven years…” is 87. Or even that the speech was given in 1863, and that 87 years earlier it was 1776, and that what Lincoln was doing here in this very first phrase was attempting to broaden the appeal of the Union cause beyond the issue of slavery to the fate of the nation as a whole—by connecting The Battle of Gettysburg with The Declaration of Independence.
We don’t need to know any of this because the sound of Lincoln’s words tells us that the ideas they represent matter because the fate of democracy everywhere on Earth depends upon the success of democracy in the United States.
## A RIGHTEOUS MUSIC
There’s another part of the speech, a part of few of us know, a part that isn’t talked about much, but a part nonetheless where the sound of Lincoln’s words brings a righteous music to their meaning.
> “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”
When Lincoln wrote, “The world will little note nor long remember…” he knew the exact opposite would be true, that the world would indeed take note and always remember The Battle of Gettysburg. Here again, he used the sound of his words to make a phrase more memorable.
In this case, he gave us a beautifully folded pair of alliterations: “…little note, nor long…”. It’s an elegant turn of phrase that turns our attention to another interesting sound in the speech: the sound of the word “here”.
## HERE, HERE!
The speech lasted less than three minutes. It’s only 272 words. Nine of those words are the word “here”. He uses the word “here” five times in just 68 words here:
> “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled HERE, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say HERE, but it can never forget what they did HERE. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated HERE to the unfinished work which they who fought HERE have thus far so nobly advanced.”
This is no accident. It’s not a person out of words to express himself. It’s a deliberate trchnique, and an effective one for two reasons: (1) It heightens our sense of the importance of the place; (2) And it brings back that “R” sound over and over just like “FouR scoRe” and the “woRLd will little note, noR long RemembeR”.
## SAY IT!
Say the “R” sound. Stretch it out. Feel the rattle in the back of your throat, your teeth coming together, maybe even your jaw clenched.
This is the sound of deteRmination, the sound of peRseverance. It is the stubborn sound of struggle, the sound of right here, right now, this changes everything.
And everything did change.
## WHAT LINCOLN KNEW
Gettysburg proved to be a decisive battle. But both sides lost the same number of men: about 50,000 each. What Lincoln knew was that he had more men to bring to battle as long as he could inspire them to the cause.
Lincoln was so conscious of the importance of this moment. That’s why he spoke for just a few moments.
## WHAT LINCOLN NEEDED
*The Gettysburg Address* is short and full of easily memorizable bits of language because Lincoln knew he needed more men to fight beyond those fighting against the injustice of slavery.
He needed more men to fight for the survival of the American experiment, the fate of a “new nation” that he contends began in 1776 with the signing of The Declaration of Independence.
Never mind at all that we didn’t actually have a nation at that point. The United States of America didn’t exist in 1776. There was a war to fight and win and even a few more years after that before The US Constitution would be worked out well enough to know we had a new nation well in hand.
But none of this mattered because Lincoln’s speech was so short and the sound of his words said everything anyone needed to know—even if they didn’t know what the words meant.
And even though it was windy that day and Lincoln’s voice was never a strong one, people could copy his words quickly and send them all over the country so that tens of thousands of people would hear them, too, and be moved to that larger sense of purpose.
## REMEMBER…
Lincoln spoke for only three minutes. The man before him spoke for three hours. It was Edward Everett, former Governor of Massachusetts and America’s first Ph.D. He was one of the great orators of the day. But no one remembers any of the words he said or even that he was there to say them.
Today, we all remember what Lincoln said, even if all we remember are the first few words. Even if we don’t know why he said them or exactly what they meant, we know, even now, more than 150 years later, what it felt like because we can hear in his words the stubborn sound of struggle.
——————————————————-
## TBE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
This is pure gold. Thank you for sharing this, and thank you for teaching this to others. Here, we will go forward as those who remember what we did here, may they hear us through the years as we battle to save the democracy in the here and now.
Ally, Thank you for your kind words and your encouragement. And also for “getting it”! Your comment inspires me. And I think it would inspire many young people, too. Would you mind if I included your as an example fir kids to learn from? The activity I have kids pursue after this lesson is picking a single sound and having kids write something short that uses that sound repetedly. We talk anout how certain sounds have certain qualities and that these qualities convey meaning of their own. And, just as you did here, two or three students, out of maybe 200, use the words “here” and “hear” to good effect! I’d like young people to see that some us not-as-young people like to learn from Lincoln. And that we are inspired by the language and ideas of all kinds of historical documents. Thank you, Steve
Bravo, Steve! What an engaging lesson for us all. It provides an opportunity to put on Lincoln’s tall hat, and stand, feeling what it must have been like to be in his shoes.
Those 272 powerful words are so important to remember today. Your analysis to inspire writers has also inspired me, a reader who needs to be reassured about the strength and endurance of American Democracy. Thank you ❤️
Thank you, Kari. I share your sense of and need for reassurance when I read those words, too. That I get to teach them to young people is a great privilege. It is also a great opportunity to reaffirm my affinity to the thoughts these words express and to the feelings they arouse inside me.
Thank you for asking, Kari. I’m honored and humbled that you would suggest this. I havr considered doing a TED Talk for more than a decade, and it remains a goal of my life. I’ve done a genius talk at Google and similar talks at other big tech companies in Silicon Valley. And I’ve given talks at international conferences as well. TED is elusive because without fame or other recognition, I have to do what everyone does: work my way up, as I should, from local to regional to national to global. And that’s a multi-year effort I literally have never had the tine/money to afford. But it is a great dream of mine. And no single person has inspired me toward this more than Dr. Richardson. But many other people have, people like you whose encouragement means so much to me.
After reading HCR's golden document, which encompassed lines from The Gettysburg Address with the 'proposition' and points noting life in America today to reading many of LFAA's subscribers comments, along with replies, I turned to your writing lesson. I read the Gettysburg Address in full, thanks to you. It has been a day's journey unlike any other for this American. I am grateful to you, Steve, for placing before us this lesson of citizenship in the United States of America.
Wow, I am humbled, truly, your words. When I begin my work with a group of kids, I tell them “Writing changes everything!” And Itruly believe it does. It changes us as we write. And the writing of others changes as we read. And one “the word” is out—and in a fixed form—it has a life all its own and that the life of the writing now-separated from the writer is free to change others. I am just a little changed each time I teach that lesson and that’s one reason why I write it up and teach it a little differently each year. I want to feel Lincoln’s words changing me just a bit. And I want to find the words that amplify that change in me and, I hope, inspire others. This is what I think writing does in the world—it changes everything—and once we invite that change, and commit to it by putting our words i to the world, we “claim that change” for ourselves; we say “This is me!” And that, I believe, is why writing is so powerful. Thank you!
I learned how to create teaching like my Gettysburg Address lesson from Frank Luntz (and a few other modern media masters).
His secret is simple: he’s the best “hearer” in American political history. “Hearer” not listener, because he can hear what people are (really) saying, and he can tell people what they want to hear.
We need to start Frank Luntzing our messages.
It’s why I want to bring what Dr. Richardson is doing here into every school district in America—as writing, not as history.
I’ve raised this idea every time I’ve commented to complement her on her work.
How did the Parkland kids bring down tge NRA? With writing. How did Kennedy (almost) end the nucleae arms race
and the Cold War? With writing. How have Movement Conservatives taken over our country? With writing.
What is the Constituion but writing? Whhat is the Texas vigilante justice so-called “heartbeat abortion bill but writing? What are the laws of the land but writing? What is social media? What is cancel culture?
What is… everythong today that moves the needle in the Culture Wars? Writing.
I’m 58 years old. We’ve been losing our country since Nixon. How? By letting the othe side control the narrative. It’s all done with language. And it’s all codified and disseminated through written laguage because written language lives apart from those who write it.
If we would only decide to teach our children to write—which is, frankly, child’s play—we would control the narrative. We would write the story of America. And the trick would to use Frank Luntz’s (and George Lakoff’s and many other smart people’s) models.
The playbook was created by Movement Conservatives beginning back in 1946. It’s on open playbook. We know all tge plays. I don’t know why don’t call those plays, too.
These plays work for me every time.
When I teach on Red America, they think I’m a Conservative. When I teach in Blue America, they think I’m a democrat.
And I tea h the same things in every classroom.
In the current D v R scheme, I’m a moderate. My philosophy is Communitarianism. I believe that the “unit of sovereignty” is the collective, not the indivual.
If I can teach what I teach (which is no different than what Dr. Richardson teaches us) to any kid of any age in any part of our country, why can’t people on our side who are smarter and more powerful than me do it?
(II have my answer but I’d really like to hear yours first.)
Thanks for this dialog. I enjoy it and I appreciate it, too, because you help me clarify my thinking and put words to my ideals.
Wow, here, here. You are so right. I despise what Frank has done, but I acknowledge his genius as I have gnashed my teeth over his success with republicans. More later…
Great article/lesson. Slight fact check re: casualties. "Union casualties in the battle numbered 23,000, while the Confederates had lost some 28,000 men–more than a third of Lee's army."
Thank you for taking your time to help me better clarify my own thinking about this. I went back and did a quick bit of reading and realized again how hard it is to find clarity on things like casualties (dead, injured, captured, and missing) in a war. But the significance of the loss, as you point out, was not in absolute numbers but in relative degrees. Lee lost a significant percentage, especially his officers. The absolute numbers themselves, especially on the side of the South, are more difficult to guage perhaps because more care was taken in the aftermath by Union representatives to account for Union casualties. Here’s the part I read in Wikipedia: “The two armies suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties, nearly one third of all total troops engaged, 28% of the Army of the Potomac and 37% of the Army of Northern Virginia. Union casualties were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing), while Confederate casualties are more difficult to estimate. Many authors have referred to as many as 28,000 Confederate casualties, and Busey and Martin's more recent 2005 work, Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, documents 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing). Nearly a third of Lee's general officers were killed, wounded, or captured. The casualties for both sides during the entire campaign were 57,225.”
As short as his address was, Steve, you have slowed me down even more to appreciate its meaning. And here is what helped me to not give up: "...to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."
Thank you, Jeri. It comes from my teaching. And I have recently decided that it must be included along with other writing lessons based on fundamental American documents in the third edition of my book on writing for kids: “Be a Better Writer.” I believe we can win this war of words and the great battle of ideas in our nation if we merely teach kids the most important things through writing—where even in Texas we could get away with it. I want so badly to participate fully in this fight and it’s very clear to me that the fate is in the hands of the coming generation of voters. Each year, 4 million kids become eligible to vote, and they vote 4:1 democratic. But turnout is so low in this group that Repubmucans never have to worry about it. If the 18-24 vote reached even 25% no amount of partisan gerrymandering could prevent us from winning every election in every state—forever. I simply haven’t been able to find a single person who is interesred in this approach so I pursue it on my own. Thank you for asking.
I have one grand who will be formidable, but she’s not quite 14. I love your idea, and wish for more support. I thought the shooting in Parkland Fl would start a movement. I know the Narch for our Lives is active but don’t hear much about it. They are our future. Bill Maher’s show a week ago made a challenge to the young. Hope it stirred some action…
My heart breaks. I can only hope that reasonable people experience enough good through the actions of the Biden administration that we can somehow continue to move forward despite the volume and machinations of the far right. But I am discouraged that the hate and lies continue to be broadcast so loudly and prominently.
I have spent time today on a thread for the newly created House district six here in Oregon. One person was complaining about the image of Biden on the page, saying that many Ds do not support him, so his picture should not be on the page. The first response took her to task. She is a Bernie supporter and I suspect that is part of her problem. I tried to tell her that concentrating on items like this does not do Ds any good and that actually Joe was trying to achieve many of the things progressives support. We got into polls, which I ignore, as proof that Biden is not popular. I suggested she look carefully at the things Joe has managed to achieve in the midst of trying circumstances. Finally, someone who works in some political capacity told her that Ds do support Joe by large percentages. Just today a Native American from Oregon was confirmed as head of the National Park Service. I consider that quite an achievement and a first as well.
For anybody who brings up the polls, all you have to do is remind them that Hillary was unanimously predicted to beat Trump in the 2016 election.
I am a Bernie supporter too, from 2016 (and before), although in the 2020 primary, it was an embarrassment of riches with Kamala and Elizabeth Warren and a few others on the ticket. But when I was an early Bernie supporter, he was still an unknown. Now that he has national prominence, I am satisfied. And as you said in reply to your colleagues in that discussion, Biden has taken on so much of Bernie’s agenda that it’s ridiculous. As far as I’m concerned, right now Biden might as well be Bernie when it comes to his legislation. The FDR thing is kuh-RAY-zee.
As long as the voting Bill passes. That’s the big one.
Having Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior, and this new gentleman as head of the National Park Service, is brilliant and inspiring beyond belief. I mean that literally. I’m having a difficult time believing it. I think a lot of us are still in shock that an African-American man was president, and that Kamala Harris is now VP, and that a black man and a man with Jewish heritage beat out 2 white Republican incumbents in Georgia to turn the Senate blue. It’s all freaking amazing is what it is.
Roland, Jon Ossoff is Jewish. Saying he is “of Jewish heritage” makes it seem as though he was not brought up Jewish. He attended a Jewish Day School —which is like, for example, a Catholic school, only Jewish; he took his oath of office on the Hebrew Bible (which is the Torah in book form called a “Tanakh”) that had been the Tanakh of Atlanta’s Rabbi Jacob Rothschild (not related to the much maligned Rothschilds the far right accuses of everything), who had been the rabbi at Atlanta’s famous Reform Jewish synagogue, called The Temple, when it was bombed by members of the klan in 1958 because Rothschild was a close friend of Rev Matin Luther King, Jr., and because Rothschild often lectured about civil rights to his congregation and to the community at large. Sen.Ossoff’s taking his oath on that Tanakh meant a great deal to the Jewish population of Georgia that Ossoff had just been elected to serve. Ossoff is not assimilated, he is not “formerly Jewish,” as the phrase “of Jewish heritage” implies. Jon Ossoff is proudly Jewish. Just saying.
I am not a Bernie fan although I agree with much of what he wants. The discussion on the thread was about a picture of Biden at the top of a facebook group which I hadn't even noticed until the person made it an issue. I was trying to tell her that Biden agenda includes many progressive issues. We need to promote the positive things that are happening and if Biden's name is attached to it, so be it. The group is to elect a D for the new House district here in Oregon. It includes several counties and the person needs to have fairly broad appeal. The person doesn't need to be a Kurt Schrader because we had an excellent rep before him. He is not in the new district thankfully, so it is wide open.
Well, I guess I'm a double moron: I've been a supporter of the DSA since the '70s when Michael Harrington was running for the presidency. I firmly believe that a democracy can't survive without a strong public safety net - Thank you, Gary Dorrien. At any rate, I abide by the old adage: one shouldn't cut off one's nose to spite one's face.
I wasn't a Biden fan - still am not. And I will never forget how he threw Anita Hill under the bus. BUT I support him now because it's the only logical thing to do under the horrifying circumstances in our country.
There's a difference between Bernie supporters and Berners. Bernie supporters aren't idiots, and are as realistic as anyone else. Berners are "true believers" and as idiotic as any other of that ilk.
Thanks for the clarification. Question the need for differentiation. May cause more discord and we have an abundance of discord coming out of self righteousness.
Like you, I wish there wasn't the need for differentiation. Unfortunately, over the past 50 years, I have had the problem of the "true believers" shoved in my face - from the Weathermorons who gave the FBI every reason they needed to come down on people in the antiwar movement who were in fact opponents of that crap, through all the other ones whose ignorant antics make it hard for the serious people to do their work. I think of them as "permanent 13 year olds."
That is harsh and this person is quite active in good causes. I support a lot of what she does. However, I am afraid she is also a true believer. I see her in this aspect as the pc police. I find I cannot even report my own experiences because they might include something that is not possible for everyone. This is not her, but others of the same mind.
An underage kid illegally obtains an automatic rifle and travels to a town where he does not live, knows no one, and has no investment to protect.
He gets into a confrontation with 3 others and shoots them. He not only gets off on all counts, he is now a hero for killing people on cold blood?? He’s being offered a congressional internship? He’s being idolized in a documentary?
I would argue that “documentary” is not a word that should be used to describe it. Coming from Tucker Carlson, we can be confident there will be nothing but untruths and propaganda
Refer Madness! I hadn't thought of that film in decades. They made us watch it when I was in school. Many of us laughed. I wonder, it has taken decades for most to realize that it was purely propaganda. If a Rittenhouse documentary becomes popular, will it take decades for most to realize it too is propaganda?
Severely polarized, yes. But maybe we haven’t “become” that nation, maybe we’ve always been that nation. What’s the difference between Rittenhouse and a white 17-year-old settler from the 1700s or 1800s who kills Native Americans out of ignorance, suspicion, and fear? What’s the difference between Rittenhouse and any son of a slave owner who goes out and kills blacks in the 1800s? Or the 1900s for that matter. Or the 1960s for that matter. Or how about the McMichaels kid in the Arbery case. Is 2021 really so different than it has always been?
Yes it is, Mike ... I have to wonder what people actually are referring to with the cry to 'save our democracy' ... I have not been able to follow this whole conversation, but it is evident that all is not as we believe it to be ... the dream of truth, justice and equity will live on in the hearts of people who strive to make it real ... but how real can it be, if built on the shaky foundation of dysfunctional infrastructures ...?
"Every single Republican voted against the measure."
There needs to be a massive, continuous PR campaign to highlight their opposing votes because you can bet the Republicans are going back to their districts to take credit for bringing the fruits of BBB to their constituents. The Democrats need to work at getting all the credit.
Lincoln's idea that the Declaration of Independence is more a "proposition" than immutable cornerstone is much closer to the mark than the Founder's belief that "all men are created equal", especially since many of the Founders owned slaves.
Slaves and Native Americans were not equal, nor were white women.
The "inalienable" rights belonged to white, Anglo-Saxon men.
Fast foward to the present, and the absence of inclusiveness in the Declaration of Independence (and its attendant horrors for Native Americans, and enslaved Africans (along with other acts of great violence) demonstrates a causal link to the casual violence of a Rittenhouse (other vigilantes), the current GOP and its supporters.
And believe me, had Rittenhouse been Black, armed and killed two unarmed people, and wounded a third, he wouldn't be alive to stand trial.
The idea of "inalienable" rights for a few is what the GOP craves.
I hope such a craving is firmly denied by those of us who want a better, healthier, safer country for all.
We are in a civil war now with common sense pitted against the extreme right. I hope some federal charges can be filed against Rittenhouse. Wolf Blitzer implied they still could. We are in a civil war against those who are trying to prevent our votes from counting, and those who think it is reasonable to gun down anyone trying to protest what they are doing. The kind of police brutality that inspired the Wisconsin protests that Rittenhouse brought an AR 15 gun into, and all this madness that has people allowed to carry guns around with them, like the 3rd guy Rittenhouse shot, who said he always carries a gun when he goes out, puts us all in danger. This is total insanity.
Biden had to maintain respect for that particular jury. That has nothing to do with any federal charges being brought. And, it has been made quite clear that the white house is not supposed to meddle with the attorney general's decisions.
I see no reason to respect a jury who capitulated to an incompetent, arrogant, racist judge and to perhaps their own racism. (I say “perhaps” because I haven’t seen their feelings on full display like the judge was happy to do.)
I agree that the DOJ is supposed to be separate from the White House but I would argue that the DOJ is supposed to put equal justice for all as their primary objective and our current DOJ clearly does not.
Many commentators on MSNBC and CNN are saying they weren't surprised at the verdict because of Wisconsin gun laws and the rules the judge set down to the jury. The judge is a jerk, but the jury did not see him screaming at the prosecutor. The judge did not allow the prosecutor to make a lot of points. But, if I had been in the jury, I would have hung it rather than letting him off. But, they also said that usual quizzing of the jury for biases was not allowed by the judge.
I understand your frustration, but in the specific context of Wisconsin existing law which allows anyone to defend themselves if under attack by deadly force, the jury had no choice ASSUMING they were willing to make their decision driven by existing law.
I think all things surrounding this nutcase Rittenhouse are reprehenible including the law in Wisconsin.
but, the jury cannot just ignore the existing law.
This is as close as HCR can get to telling us to stop resting and ACT--we've had a year of rest! To get back on the phones and canvassing, and contributing to organizations paying attention to elections for DAs, judges, state attorneys general, election commissioners, school boards. We have to win the democracy in a million small pieces and that takes WORK. We have less than a year left. Given the darkness of this year and the massive success rate of Republican gerrymandering and voter-suppression legislation and in off-year elections, it looks like 2022, not 2024, will be the decisive election. If it's lost, we'll have no chance in 2024 or, according to many scholars of electoral politics, ever again. Climate change without democracy...think about it.
We DO have a good chance in 2022! But, yes, it will take hard work and we can't waste time. Excellent Heather's Herd meeting today via Zoom with David Pepper re: his superb new book, "Laboratories of Democracy: A Wake-up Call From Behind the Lines." Read It! I call it "Common Sense II" with the same potency as Thomas Paine's original. We Can Save USA Democracy.
Thanks for the tip MaryPat. I've been phonebanking and canvassing this year with Swing Blue Alliance (and Sister District, since MA is so Democratic), and supporting the Movement Voter Project, a brilliant idea for funding local campaigns--I think the real strength needs to be local, in election commissions, school boards, city councils, state legislatures, state attorneys general, judges where they're elected...but it's hard to know about those outside your own town and county and state. https://movement.vote/
"They won’t count D votes in red states or red counties." No excuse Don. If people had let that argument deter them, then Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff would not have won in Georgia.
The acquittal on all five counts by the jury shows the system worked as it was intended
-and that system is unjust.
"Faux news" was allowed to film a documentary, but MSNBC was banned from covering the end of the trial.
The dead were not allowed to be called victims.
He crossed state lines and armed himself with an assault weapon it was illegal for him, at 17, to purchase. His mother reportedly said she fears if he had not had the weapon, he would have been killed. But Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber the only people killed at that protest.
...a protest against a law enforcement officer putting four shots into James Blake's back and another three into his body, paralyzing him. With his three children in the car - boys ages 3, 5 and 8.
Are we witnesses to government of the people, by the people, for the people
Our country's long, darkest shadow is that it has always been white people who have been the greedy and powerful. It was the white people who genocided the indigenous people on this land. It was white people who dragged darker people from another continent into slavery. We have been a country founded by a brutal, white caste system since our founding. We must reconcile our shadows. That requires maturity and vision. We are witnessing, hopefully, the old, dying white patriarchy's last screams. But we will have to fight, I am afraid because "we" have allowed really bad behaviors without consequences. And that is how white power persists.
Swamped in the sadness, the reprehensible sorrow of the Kenosha court, in apologia for this grave miscarriage of justice, I rage against the machininations of the lawless...the illegal defenses of the para-whatevers. Inchoate rage against the idjts and their ilk. Sickened, am I, by the violence, judicial, and otherwise, against our rights. How many among us will protest in free and just actions now that we have been declared fodder for the likes of Rittenhouse?
"The principle that canonizes Rittenhouse as a saint for defending his city from rioters, and the mob that stormed the Capitol as martyrs, is the principle that the slaughter of the right’s enemies is no crime."
I will. We don’t all live in Kenosha or St Louis. Let’s not go down to the swamp of despair. Let’s act in response. Go to the Black Lives Matter or Our Revolution websites to find out what action is being planned in your city!
If Kyle was BIPOC, he likely would have been harmed, and definitely would have faced a different outcome in court.
I once took a self-defense class when I was in college.
The instructor said, “everyone has a right to go anywhere they’re legally permitted access and at whatever time of day or night, barring any rules to the contrary.” (This varies in society’s eyes depending on skin color.)
The instructor also said, “That being said, the best way for anyone to defend themselves is to avoid situations where their safety might threatened.” (The situations to be avoided also vary depending on skin color.)
White male, Kyle Rottenhouse, with the full knowledge, consent, and aid of his own mother, willingly and irresponsibly cast good sense and his own safety aside to put himself in an unsafe situation, with a loaded weapon that was clearly visible, looked intimidating / threatening to others, and easily able to kill a person. Which it did. Twice. And seriously harmed one other person.
Let’s look at this from a another perspective. Had this been a rape case and Kyle a female victim, those same people who think Kyle is a hero would have thought “Kylie” dressed in a manner designed to elicit a certain emotion, shouldn’t have gone to that place, and shouldn’t be surprised that others drew certain conclusions about “her intentions”.
Excellent analysis, thank you. This case demonstrates perfectly the fallacy of the “good guy with a gun” argument. It was the presence of the gun itself which provoked the violence. Rittenhouse was afraid the victims would take his gun, so he shot them. Without the gun, he wouldn’t have needed to defend himself, because nobody would have noticed him, let alone threatened him. So how can this not be the very definition of reckless homicide? And how on earth could the judge have thrown out the illegal possession of a firearm charge? I can understand how the jury reached their verdict given the law in Wisconsin. But that one baffles me.
He kept the gun at a friends house in Kenosha so he didn’t carry it across state lines. There was a lot of fuss about making that clear. But nevertheless he took an AR-15 to provide “medical care” to those injured.
I haven’t not seen how long he was there before he got in the altercation. 5 minutes? 2 hours? Did he head right into the crowd and hint for someone he could kill? Did he provide medical care to anyone prior to the shooting. He let the people he shot die with no effort to stop it. I would have wanted to know all that as a juror.
What we witnessed with the Rittenhouse trial is a horrid victory for the members of the KKK and their offshoots like the Proud Bois, etc. If there are other trials that the verdict(s) are similar, our nation will have a very tough time recovering to any type of normalcy, as we knew it. I truly do not want to be a fatalist but both of my parents were Holocaust victims. They never wanted to say they were survivors because they weren’t in the camps, but their plight to get to America was difficult and arduous. My mother’s parents were killed…gassed at Chelmno in 1942. My father’s relatives were lined up in fields and shot. This is the grim reality of what people do to other people. African Americans have had to fight tooth and nail just to be recognized for what is fair and just. Look at how long that has taken!! It’s still being argued about. Why? Because they are a different shade than you? Jews received the same fate. How many millions must die and why are we killing each other? The Senate is full of neo-Nazis and so is the House. They are in full view. Ask yourselves why would we even tolerate their egregious acts of speeches that incite. They are not going away but neither are we. We must fight arm in arm. We must!
There were a lot of blue-eyed blondes who were killed in the Nazi death camps. The churches (most of them) helped by going back generations through their member registers to cull out anyone with a drop of Jewish blood.
I live in a city that was distinctly "Brown," as in Brown Shirt. There was only one church, the Bergkirche in Wiesbaden, that openly opposed the Nazis. I've worked there since 2013.
Their pastor was arrested off and on but not killed - he was too popular. One of the church council members, a lawyer named Hans Buttersack, who legally fought for the lives of Jewish neighbors, died near the close of the war in Dachau. The theologian Martin Niemöller spent his first night out of prison in the Bergkirche pastor's house. Niemöller wrote this shortly afterward (you probably all know it):
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
Rosalind, thank you and yes, I do know Niemöller’s often quoted phrases. When I was young, my mother would tell my sister and I that no Jews had blue eyes. I was very gullible so I believed her. That was until my father’s long lost nephew came to visit. He had piercing blue eyes! Imagine my astonishment! Yes, many non-Jews suffered terrible fates for aiding their friends. This is my fear.
My father took me to Dachau when our family lived in Frankfurt in the 1970s. Not mom, not my sisters, just me. His childhood home is outside of München. He had a front row seat for the entire rise of Hitler.
The reality is this: Americans of any color and religion who stand up for civil and human rights in public venues can and will be gunned down in their tracks by men and women emboldened by the Rittenhouse verdicts. They will strike out against "the other", encouraged by Republican lawmakers and with the blessing of law enforcement, knowing full well that when they stand before a judge and jury acquittal is a likelihood.
Marlene, It makes my heart hurt that your family suffered so much loss and grief under Nazism. It happened because one nation allowed one man undue power and influence to the point he was able to declare war against not only the Jewish citizens of his own country but all of Europe. In all of this, we need to remember our Nation's role in that purge. We are no shining example – "FDR considered the Nazi persecution of German Jews to be none of America’s concern".
In November 1938, writing about a speech he had prepared, "[Secretary of the Interior Harold] Ickes wrote in his diary that White House aides who reviewed his draft informed him “that the President wanted us to cut out all references to Germany by name as well as references to Hitler, Goebbels, and others by name.” FDR’s own public statement criticizing the pogrom did not contain a single explicit mention of Hitler, Nazism, or even the Jews."
Republican law makers have thrown open the gates of Hell. They have declared war against their own country. They are working tirelessly and relentlessly to shape the United States into a country driven by paranoia and rage. They seem to be suceeding. Today, people in the United States are taking their masks off, baring their teeth and taking up arms against "the other" – BIPOC, Women, LGBTQ, Democrats/Liberals, Non-Christians and more. Our current troubles have been brewing through the course of our history and we've come to a point, once again, where Americans will stand against one another in the most horrific manner possible. All because a 17 year old got away with murder.
The Rittenhouse verdict is a symptom of what’s wrong with America. At the very least that boy should have been charged with a weapons crime. If that kid had been Black, he’d have been one sentence in a news article that mentioned how many people died during the rioting. He would have been shot dead.
Daria, what you write echoes through my soul. Here's the opening of my journal entry last night....."I’m sick of the way this country is heading. No justice, no civility…only violence and acceptance of the hatred in the country."
Daria, thank you for providing that link about how FDR engaged three oil moguls to go to Germany, to meet with Hitler. I did not know this information! Henry Ford was also an admirer of Hitler. Our family never owned a Ford for that very reason. Both parents came to America in the late 30’s. I think of the precious family members they left behind and then tried to help them get out. It makes me shudder to think that we may be headed that way again.
Yes, indeed. "General Motors was far more important to the Nazi war machine than Switzerland," said Bradford Snell, who has spent two decades researching a history of the world's largest automaker. "Switzerland was just a repository of looted funds. GM was an integral part of the German war effort. The Nazis could have invaded Poland and Russia without Switzerland. They could not have done so without GM.”
I have the lovely fate of fighting this battle constantly in my own family. It’s a battle between the educated and the uneducated. The uneducated are dim, they see only physical differences: skin color/ancestry, gender (and who is touching or kissing whom), money and status symbols. So the settlers of the European Invasion of the Americas make themselves superior, and non-whites inferior, if not actually owned as slaves. The Germans back in NSDAP Germany did likewise. Even religion, and the signs of it, are an excuse for prejudice and persecution. In my profession, I have heard the term “raghead“ on more than one occasion. The Germans persecuted Jews, even though an educated person knows that the founder of Christianity was a Jew. But for moral dolts, all that matters is their own superiority and enforcing everyone else’s inferiority. Stone Age Neanderthals.
I’m with you Marlene. We are on the winning team. Right now the rats and cockroaches are being forced out of hiding, and they know their cause is lost, because their figurehead is a one term twice impeached loser. They know they are losing, and they despise it, but their fury will not affect the final conclusion. We are going to a diverse, inclusive, power-sharing society. End of story. Even the dummies know it, and it’s driving them crazy. Too bad.
I share your fate, Roland. Haven't talked to any of my Florida family (mother included, who takes Ivermectin and is still waiting for the Qanon onslaught).
Thanks to the Rittenhouse verdicts, I fear a chilling effect on lawful protests. Wannabe Rittenhouses, hoping to become famous and cash in, will feel emboldened to use their weapons against people peacefully exercising First Amendment rights. And just wait to see how Tucker Carlson, TFG, and the rogue's gallery of authoritarians in Congress build Rittenhouse into a larger-than-life action hero. Mark my words, Rittenhouse will be invited to attend Biden's State of the Union address and bask in the attention from fawning Republicans. Imagine the spectacle.
"And he urged them “to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain
—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”"
Dr. Richardson. I can hear your message. I can see what you see through your writing and historical understanding of our country.
However, I have a son. Twenty-four. I am from Texas where public education turned me from a poor East Texas dirt farmer to a senior engineer people relied on to get stuff done correctly. I was paid well after about 10 years of not being promoted because: My father is from Mexico and my mother was redhead whose lineage in the USA began in 1620.
So, I had a "Mexican" last name. For 10 years in my early career as an engineer, while folks around me in my corporation were getting raises and promotions, but, working less and doing less, I was getting zero raises.
Finally, I got out of that company (Eastman Kodak) and managed to move into a software imaging role at a company where they did give me a few raises.
When I changed jobs the group leader at my new company told me I was getting paid $25,000 per year less than a guy they hired with my same degree who was five years younger than me.
This group leader worked to give me good raises. By the time I "retired" because our organization was outsourced to India by the "new" manager in a white shirt with, shocker, white skin who decided that was a great idea.
But, I managed to make it to age 60 in America as an engineer with a minority last name and came close to getting paid the same as the another white guy who actually slept during meetings where critical aspects of the project were discussed. I routinely put in 10 hour days just to get to parity by the end of my career.
Now? My son is 24. He is an engineer. His boss just told him that he would not make the promotion milestone at two years like everyone else (all white). He told my son this even though the two year marke is EIGHT MONTHS away.
So, Dr. Richardson, I can tell you: I hear your call to action.
But, my wife is an American of immigrant parents from Greece. She is now a Greek citizen.
We are working mightily to get our children Greek Citizenship.
Then, we will get them over to the EU and out of the USA. Having a "Mexican" last name in America where only white guys get hired and promoted EVEN when "Democracy" is working?
For me, for miy kids, it does not make any sense to go and "fight" for Democracy in a Democracy that only reocognizes the existence of white people where economic success is relevant.
So, I think this time around, Dr. Richardson, you will find that there are far fewer people willing to leave their homes and go die for the concept of "Democracy" when, even when it is ostensibly "working" it is really not working for everyone.
Just white folks.
I was in engeering at three big corporations for 39 years. During that time I saw two black engineers hired (both were accused by the whites of being recipients of affirmative action EVEN though both of them had higher GPA than any of the whites that were also employed).
I saw one other person with a "Mexican" last name in the engineering ranks. Like me, he was paid below all his whte counterparts.
And I saw an ARMY of white guys whose Dad's got them jobs, whose grades from college were atrocious, whose work ethic was sleeping during meetings.
So, Dr. Richardson, I hear your call. But, I don't think Amurca, even when it is a "Democracy", is worth my kids dying at the hands of the nutcases like Rittenhouse.
Let Amurcans have "their" country. I am sure they will grind what little is left into the dirt.
The Chinese already have all of our manufacuturing and technology, outsourced by white guys in in white shirts here who were shafting America workers for big bonuses while Amurca was a "Democracy".
OK. This was too long, I am sure you will not read it.
But, AFTER Lincoln's Gettysberg address America had 100 years of Jim Crow and after the Civil Rights legislation people could vote but guess what?
They could not get good jobs and still cannot. I was lucky because my Mom was white.
Otherwise, I would never have even been hired in America as an engineer. I would never have become middle class.
I would apologize, but, I want my kids in the EU. Not dying in another civil war that won't matter any way. They, my kids, will still be "spics".
But, I will keep learning and reading from you and appreciate your passion for "Democracy".
I thought I would add one more Kodak story:
After I moved to Rochester, after one year, my wife and I bought a small house. In a meeting with a senior Kodak manager, he asked me where I had bought the house.
I told him where and his exact response was: "I remember when people knew their place".
I had not bought a house in the poorest part of the city, which was where I was "supposed" to buy that house, but, not too far from him.
He felt outraged and he felt completely empowered to tell me directly.
This was 1993.
Amurca the Bootiful.
There is an old saying that I have never been able to find the original source of, but it still resonates. “When one is accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” Thank you for writing your long and eloquent post, Mike. Your witness is important and we need to hear it. Please keep writing. We cannot afford to lose Americans like you and your family.
I wish I was surprised. When we moved to the Rochester area, we were shocked by the arrogance of racists.
Yes,
Rochester was and is more racist overall than rural East Texas was 40 years ago.
And that is pretty freaking racist.
My school was integrated in 1967. 11 years before Boston integrated and since Rochester, NY has NEVER integrated, .........
Whaaat? That’s insane and isn’t it illegal??
Appalling. What I have learned more than anything since 2015 is how prevalent racism is in this country and that it exists literally EVERYWHERE. I was well aware of it from my youth, as my family lived like an island in the middle of a sea of hatred, and as the south goes swirling down the toilet more every day, it would be easy enough to blame it on this or that state. But. It is EVERYWHERE.
😡😡😡 Disgusting
No.
It is just Amurca as it really is.
I wasn’t raised that way and I’m sorry yiu had to put up with such creepy jerks.
Susan,
They are not creepy jerks. They are the managers and leaders of most American corporations and in government.
They are the America that is economically represented.
Thank you for this eloquent statement of fact, Mike - just one objection: I believe to my soul that she WILL read it, possibly give a direct response, but in any case make the best possible use of it, because that is what she does. You and she have different perspectives, aims, conclusions, but when it comes to passion and values,
you are not enemies.
Well, I hope she can do all the things she is doing, teaching college, maintaining a reasonable diet (cooking takes time, shopping takes time), writing this column, taking care of her loved ones, doing her podcast, meeting with students, meeting with college leadership without compromising her health.
Because: I know from experience that 16 hour days, done over a lifetime, compromise health.
I hope those things, too, but I do think she has a true partner and neither of them is high maintenance.
:’-(
Dear Mike, Your letter is heartbreakingly powerful and is what our country needs to hear. A friend of mine (a black veteran of three wars) did not want Obama to win the presidency because he said it will unleash the hatred that lies just beneath the surface that white privileged people are clueless about. And it has. And it is so blatantly fascist now. We are now fighting a second civil war with people who feel like a different species from an insane asylum. Your story is not an exception for people with a variety of skin colors and also for women. I am so sorry that true Americans, like your family, should ever have to face what you have faced and feel the need to get your children out of America. And there is a real difference between America and Amurca. It will be another really hard day today and I will be thinking of your family's difficult decision, as our country prepares for the unthinkable.
"did not want Obama to win the presidency because he said it will unleash the hatred that lies just beneath the surface that white privileged people are clueless about."
I remain proud that America elected Obama. I only wish Obama had been less of a cerebral loner and more able to communicate where we might go.
Obama was too introverted to convert his speech giving capablity into a true movement.
I loved Obama (still do) but was so angry that he literally wasted his first two years when he had both the senate and house trying to do the right thing, trying to do everything with bi-partisan approval. Ain't gonna happen! By the time he figured this out, it was too late. I think what Penelope said above is correct but I believe it also helped to bring out things like what happened in Oklahoma and other travesties like what happened and is happening to your family. Some of us "white people" didn't know. Lived our whole lives in white communities. I guess we just didn't want to know or had our heads buried in the sand. Sorry.
I feel the same way about Obama - Seems we all, including him, had to live & learn exactly what impediments there really are (O'Connell being one) and I'm another "white person" that didnt have a clue. Mike's story makes it obvious just how pervasive this kind of attitude is. Easy to ignore it when it doesnt touch you.
All I will say to this stream of comment is Bah humbug, Rahm Emmanuel.
Yes, this comment section is definitely not about a white Christmas and happy times around the hearth. You are right.
I read his book about his first four years. If I recall correctly I think he said that his only mistake was not abolishing the filibuster. I hope Biden read his book.
I'm not so sure I agree with your last sentence, especially since he had GOP opponents in Congress who OPENLY said they would work against him to make him a one-term President. That didn't happen but they certainly poisoned the well for any other BIPOC or female candidates going forward.
Exactly. Mitch made outright his promise to obstruct anything Obama would try to do. This period was revealed the outright, emboldened, fascist movement in this country. The beastly shadow underbelly of "Amurca" was released.
It would have been way worse to elect another privileged white male. The country was already go so far down hill based on the policies of the Bush’s and Reagan. I don’t like living through the shake up but if you put these hidden things in the light people will start to be appalled by it and move away. When they only heard isolated cases it was easy to ignore.
I have homes that some of the real Evangelical Christians, the Mormons and Catholics will see how extreme and against their religious teachings all this hate and promoted violence is. They need to reject the glorification of Trump and actions of people like Rittenhouse, videos from Gosar should never be laughed off.
Most days I wish they would start their violent civil war so they can be swept up and prosecuted. That’s the only way we’ll stop the constant threats and covert violence.
Don’t count on them being prosecuted. Most white police officers (and most white Americans for that matter, though closer to 60% than the 90% found in the ranks of white policemen) are on their side. The Rittenhouse outcome is the standard model, not an anomaly.
I am going to insert here that we need to think more positively right now. Give a little hope...
It is true that we needed all of this darkness to have light shed upon it so white people could be educated and understand that the Civil War was not won, the racists just went semi-underground and have raised their stinking heads where EVERYONE can see and smell them this time, not just our POC.
Obama being elected to the presidency was an action that was good and bad. Yes, it ignited anger and such from the racist right, but the 45/Clinton election ignited the misogynistic bias in all types of in this country, but especially white males. Un educated women were included in these voters. Unless the candidate for president is a white, older male, voters in our nation will steadfastly refuse to change. When I present anything on my FB page that supports the idea of systemic racism and misogyny in our nation, I always get flack from white people that I'm calling them racist or misogynist. These people are too prickly and refusing to be educated.
Not too long at all, Mike. I read every word.
... likewise, Mike ... read and heard every word ....
I heard every word, Mike.
Word.
So did I and I’m not blown away that this all happened in western NY. I grew up in Buffalo but moved to VA in the late 70’s. I know racism existed up there but until the last few years I didn’t realize how many white supremacists there were in Western NY. ( Including various family members 😞). If I didn’t have a 2 year old grandson, and if New Zealand would have us, that’s where I’d choose to go!
Buffalo is more like Kansas than like NYC.
Mike, when my daughter became engaged to our son-in-law, who is 100% Hispanic, I had about a half dozen people ask me "is he legal?" These are good Christian people (and 100% Conservative) who would vehemently deny being "racist". (BTW, he was born here of legal immigrants) I did not choose to get into it with these people--friends and neighbors, but I did wonder aloud to another friend would this question be asked if I announced her engagement to "Shaun O'Sullivan"? "Jean-Paul Deloitte?" "Karl Schmit?"
Are the really "Christian" people? In my own reading of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John it seems that Jesus is going out of his way to offer complete acceptance to all of the people in his world who were hard core outcasts and downtroden.
He openly showed disdain for those in power at the time and openly empowered those who were outcast and powerless.
So, what does "Christian" really mean? That you own an AR-15 and all your friends are white and own the same gun? That you go to your all white church and listen to the white man at the front tell you what to think and who is acceptable?
I think "Christian" in America is very far from the words and teachings of Jesus.
Very far.
The holier than thou "Christians" pick and choose out of the bible. They only follow what helps their cause. I think that the right wing "Christian" revolution now going on has done more to hurt organized religion that anything else in our history.
Pam, check out a book called "Jesus and John Wayne". It gives the history (which HCR has touched on) of how the religious right (oxymoron - they ain't religious, and they ain't right). This was a strategic, orchestrated stealth attack with the help of people like Billy Graham and his insinuating himself with various presidents.
Also read brilliant Jeff Sharlott’s The Family (on the same subject)
Ditto. A real eye-opener, wasn't it?
I bought it and it arrived today!
I should have put that "good Christian people" in quotes. They would all self identify as such.
And I agree with you on that last full sentence--while the catch-phrase of "WWJD?" I think came out of the religious right, it is one guiding principle I take to heart, that truly people of any religion (or lack of) could adhere to. I have irked a lot of people by saying that Jesus was a liberal.
And brown-skinnend.
And a Jew.
There are exceptions, but I'm a UCC pastor and I'm saying that for nearly 2000 years, in the name of Christ, more murder, violence and misery has visited humanity than from any other single source. When asked, I call my self a friend and student of the brown-skinned Jewish rabbi, Jaschuah ben Josef.
Can you imagine Jesus singing “Onward Christian soldiers, marching off to war, with the cross of Jesus, marching on before?” In the many Crusades, the Crsusaders often tested their swords on a fringe Christian group in southern France before heading towards Jerusalem. One might say that the Crusaders behaved like ‘Moslems’ in their rape and pillage while Saladin behaved like a ‘Christian’ in his benevolence towards these European invaders.
Exactly! We tell ourselves so many lies
Well, in some groups, being "Christian" means literally showing up in a church on Sundays, Easter & Christmas. What I remember from Sunday School was it takes compassion & empathy & caring for your fellow man. Not a church-goer anymore but the rest remains.
Actually, Christians in America are not. They are Paulists (Puritans) run out of Europe and settling in this New World where they promptly set up theocratic colonies. Like you, I only read the 4 books of the Gospel of Jesus (and Thomas) but that didn't have the divisive messages of Paul who was proselytizing a new religion and had to separate his Greek & Roman followers from those who preferred the heathen traditions.
One of the best bits of ancient history I learned in seminary, is that the Galatians were the Celts that had migrated to what is now Turkey after they got licked by the Greco-Romans. If you have a chance, go to the Pergamon museum in Berlin. There you will see the altar that was built to celebrate the victory over the Celts. The entire altar is a scene of the beautiful Greco-Roman gods tearing into the monstrous Celts. Ancient historians were fascinated by these huge, pale-skinned, blue-eyed humans with wild hair and whose women were just as fierce as the men. It was a time when white was not beautiful - interesting but scary. That's part of what Paul is trying to get at when he wrote to the Galatians, which is what 300 years later they were called. Dr. Brigitte Kahl wrote a book, Re-imagining Galatians, if you're interested.
The battle was ca. 250 BCE
Thank you, Rosalind. I appreciate the history lesson and will read Kahl's book.
I am in complete agreement with you on this point.
Based on their behavior, too many American 'Christians' don't know Jesus. But Jesus knows them:
"And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward."
Amen!
I sometimes worry that we might very easily have an American Taliban growing in determination and self righteousness violence. The bold presence of legislators who would happily support them in exchange for their vote is unnerving.
Always the case? No - but all too often nonetheless.
Having grown up in the South, among 'good Christian people', whenever I hear that "so and so is a GOOD Christian', I grab my wallet. I've seen too many 'good Christians' use their self-appointed status as an excuse to take advantage, and in some cases purely ROB folks. But they hide behind their so-called Christianity,dDoing things Jesus wouldn't be caught dead doing. Words, not deeds. Give me deeds, not words, every time.
My family is from the South. My uncle was deacon of his Southern Baptist church. He was also in the Ku Klux Klan. It is a requirement to be “Christian” in the KKK, preferably Southern Baptist. WWJD?
I once saw the KKK in the 60’s in my small Baptist town in NC. It was in the evening where they gathered at a “roundabout” in the middle of the road. I was with my parents, Holocaust victims. It was chilling!
:’-(
Definitely deeds. "You will know them by their fruits."
One of my late mother-in-law's favorite sayings was "You shouldn't have to tell me you're a Christian, I should already know."
In my small Southern town, there was a church on every corner. Guess they thought the First Baptist Church needed sisters to preach about the Almighty in multitudes. Never understood that.
Reminds me when years ago, a guy broke into my house and raped me. My sister asked if he was white or black, as though the trauma would be less if the guy was white. I must admit to having a bit of satisfaction to respond to her that he was white.
Substack should have a caring emoji or a sad one.
Hey, Mim. I agree. Thanks for caring!
Our moments in life can be so large, dimpled, scarred, simple, breathtaking and painful. Lynell, You just dropped that trauma in the line. May I embrace you?
Ahh, trauma no more, Fern, but I'll embrace your embrace with gratitude.
Thank you, Lynell. It is good to feel your presence.
Yes, Fern!
Life’s joys and sorrows…here’s to being “100,000 years” past that, Lynell❣️
Oh Lynell!!!! My heart is shattered! Much love to you and I hope your rapist was caught and hung by his scrotum.
Much love back, Marlene! Never caught, as far as I know. But thanks for the visual!
I am so sorry for what you went through Lynell. Rape is a sundering of the soul that never leaves us. We can heal and we learn to live with the damage but it is with us always.
Your sister’s question was wrong. Sadly understandable given our society and what we absorb - or are taught. But still wrong. I hope she took that lesson to heart.
Thank you, Kasumii. Mine was but a "blip" in my life compared to you, who is a shero in my eyes, for sure.
Hi Lynell. Thank you for the lovely compliment. I’ve never been called that before. How nice!
I have had a lot of blips, bumps, tragedies & traumas in my life but that doesn’t make anyone else’s any less by comparison. What happened to you was as wrong & awful as what happened to me. Quantity of blips doesn’t change that. All my best to you.
Thank you, Kasumii. Hurray for us!
I'm so sorry, sister Lynell. Ditto Marlene's statement.
Thanks, Kim. It was 100,000 years ago, but the memory sparked when Misele talked about getting questioned about her new son-in-law, "Is he legal?"
Awful, Lynell, just awful. And her question was bad.
Appreciate it, Ally. I was never physically hurt, so the trauma was short-lived; and so, too, at least for me, the mental anguish.
Trauma is trauma. I'm glad your experience could be short-lived.
😢
Oh Lord, Lynell. I am so sorry.
Thank you, Daria. Not to worry, though; it's all OK now. Really.
What fern said!
Hey, Lynn!
How horrible for you. To both things. I hope all is well with you now.
It was horrible at the time, Sandra. But all is well now, thanks!
I’m saddened and sickened that you were wronged and injured. :’-(
Ahh, thank you for reaching out, Jean-Pierre. I think a goodly percentage of us do have a not-so-pleasant story to tell. And it is so nice to have words of encouragement such as yours.
Sending hugs. 🫂🫂
🙂
You all need to check out the news on the San Antonio Texas megachurch Cornerstone. Really gotta love those "good Christian people."
Talk about WWJD? I think there will be a lot of 'splaining on Judgement day.
They have always been wack-doodle-doos!
Dang it! Wacka-doodle-doos!
Not just reading, Mike, but copied onto my "good things from HCR" document to read again later.
My story of my lack of promotion (I worked in a field where all people of the same rank were paid equally, promotion up the chain of command was the way to "achieve") was not based on race (I'm white as is 98% of my department) but on gender (in 35 years with that agency, we've had one lieutenant that was female, in the corrections division where she was an expert in community based (non custodial) corrections; one of my contemporaries who ultimately retired as a sergeant was an AIC (acting in capacity, working out of classification) Lieutenant who had to sell her soul to get that far). I was an AIC Sergeant for 80% of my work days from 10/99 through 12/03, tested #1 on the one promotional exam that I took but was not promoted (the two who were promoted included the soul seller mentioned above). My lack of promotion was based on both gender and being an out lesbian. To my knowledge, my wife has been the only "retiree spouse" acknowledged at a retirement ceremony.
I'm glad you said this. I am sitting here, reading all the comments, thinking "I'm a white single mother who has been pushed down in the white collar workforce. I need the income. All the white guys have stepped on me while they worked their way up to join the boys club." I'm 60 and in debit up to my earlobes. My daughter is attending college totally on loans. (I work really hard to not pay attention to these details. ) Interestingly, the company I work for is based in Sweden. I interviewed and got a position with the Swedish organization. They talked about my skills and what I had to offer. It came with a $10,000 a year raise that I didn't even have to negotiate. I've worked for the US division of this company for over 20 years. This is my first raise beyond the 1 - 2 % I got each year as a merit raise.
I get it. I am glad you have an OK job now and hope it works out.
Argh. My wife is the only same sex retiree spouse. All the wives, and so far, none of the husbands. We do have one married couple in the department and both are career deputies. I suspect they will go to each other's retirement ceremony.
Interestingly, I had a lovely chat with the "girl deputy" in this scenario one time when she came down to Creswell for lunch while I was working. She and her husband were planning to have another child, and she had been cautioned by the then existing administration (which was an 8 year mistake) that her "lifestyle choices" (i.e. having a second child) might inhibit her promotional opportunities. Her husband was not given that warning.
I said something to the effect of "bet you'd never thought you'd be sitting talking to a heathen lesbian about your career threatening "lifestyle choices" as a straight, Christian woman." She looked at me and said "why do you think I am talking to you? You see the irony. No one else does."
When I had a child while in the military my superiors told me “if the Army wanted you to have a child it would have issued you one”
A friend of mine, an officer in the Marines, got pregnant and the Marines actually had maturity uniforms. She was very proud of that. What do you call a woman Marine? A Marine! Love that, too.
Lucky! I had no such option in 1981…
My good friend and coworker as an air engineer nurse has 3 children wile on active duty. Her contract required her to ask permission to stay in. it was a massive task because they wanted pregnant women out. I entered a few years behind her and my contract kept me in with a clause that I could request a discharge for pregnancy. This was the mid-70s.
🤬 So, so wrong. And not surprising.
Funny how they don't say that to the guys...
Well, they might now that guys are having kids too.
Bastards!
Yeah, that’s what I thought too because they clearly were not joking.
Kasumii, yep, as if you did something wrong by being normal.
That’s a standard joke for all army personnel—overworked, sent places for undetermined time…that was not a slight. We all heard that.
It was a standard joke for many things in the military but I was deliberately called on the carpet in front of my bosses (outranked me but not really superior), told that in a hostile way and then told to request a discharge for being pregnant. Which I did not do. So, you are correct - that line can be used as a joke but it can also be used as a weapon or discriminatory tactic.
Assholery runs rampant in the military.
"Which I did not do." Well done soldier.
Right on, Kasumii!
🤬🤬
I wish I could say I'm surprised, Ally. I'm sorry.
I’m sorry that happened to you. Not at all surprised but definitely sorry.
Ally,
Yes, being different (from a white man) is not the way to riches and promotions.
Intrestingly, if you are a white guy who hardly works, says yes to everyone, sleeps at meetings? Promotions are rapid.
Yes, being different in any way from the accepted norm is not a good thing.
:’-(
Wow, Mike S, how powerful. How personal. How thought-inspiring. I’m blown away this Saturday morning. Thank you, from an aging, white, privileged, LCA-Lutheran-raised, corn-fed-Midwestern, increasingly more woke long-sober woman. Just … thank you. And please reconsider not leaving the U.S — we really need you.
(If, however, you still live in Texas, I strongly suggest relocating to a less hostile state or territory.)
“increasingly more woke”
SL- I just had to inject some humor:) from Rep Jamie Raskin:
“I must admit Kevin McCarthy has accomplished one thing. America is no longer woke.”
Oh, duh, Mike S, you live in Rochester, NY. Excuse me for my blunder.
(True, there are racists, misogynists, anti-Semites, homophobes, supremacists, etc., everywhere, but Texas is especially hostile. It was in the ‘80s, when I lived there, and it still is.)
SL,
Interestingly, when was in high school in East Texas, 1974-1978, my school way out in the sticks, was fully integrated and had been since 1967. Blacks, whites and us meskins all went to the same school.
But, honestly, all us kids got along. No lie. No joke. Nobody seemed to notice white, black, brown. The school WAS majority white, but, the kids were kind to me. Of course, living arragements WERE segregated JUST like they are in the north.
I definitely have all good things to say about the public education system in Texas including Texas A&M which, even today, ignores the SAT and allows in the top 10% of all high school students.
I graduated number 3 in my Chemical Engineering class. Number 14 out of 3500 students in 1982.
My SAT was 990.
And there you have it. The SAT is also a white supremacy tool to keep down minority populations.
While my SAT was 990, I DID know how to work 16 hour days, seven days a week, which, works out well when studying engineer.
I just read the UC schools here in California are going to quit using the tests scores in their admission requirements.
SL,
All of what I wrote about took place at Eastman Kodak company in Rochester, NY.
btw: Rochester, NY is the number one most segregated public shool system in America so, maybe Texas ain't so bad??
Mike, I add my thanks for your comments, which I did read completely. Also, to say I have some good, liberal friends in Texas, even in Midland! I don't know how they stand it.
Well, yes, there are a few good people everywhere, but the image of white Texans as loudmouth, gun-toting, barbarians is a cliché for a reason.
Texas actually has some wonderful qualities and characteristics -- and pockets of delight -- Mike, but Texans are very parochial and nativist and exclusionary. While I lived there, I was made to feel "so welcome" -- while also getting the subtle but distinct message that "of course, you don't really belong here." I can only guess how much more creepy, maybe threatening, that message is for people of color.
Well, thanks for ignoring all the misspelled words and still reading.
I have to be more careful when I am writing emotional thoughts.
You “done” just fine Mike!
:-)
Some day's I just ain't got the writin down.
Mike, thank you for this well thought out response to Dr. Richardson’s letter today. I DID take the time to read the whole thing, and it pains my heart to see how minorities and perceived minorities are treated. Like you, I’m afraid I don’t this changing, and fear the direction our country is going. I sincerely hope you find what you are looking for in the EU.
Well, the EU is not perfect by a long stretch either.
Maybe Panama?
:-)
We like the Yucatán Peninsula of México just fine. We'd considered and checked out various other locations around the world to hang our hats and ended up here. At some point in the future we'll apply for permanent residency. I cannot imagine living in the United States ever again.
Daria, thanks for this information. Maybe I will take a look. I am not fully fluent in Spanish, but, can get by and learn.
Not too long, Mike. The words both valuable and heartbreaking. I, an American, who has lived in three other countries, has seen the truth of your words for many years.
An all-white America is an anemic parasite - and will die without the support and substance of the whole human race - maybe the way to defeat it will be to shun it ....
What a great post, Mike. Racism, which at it root it based on fear, is alive and well in America. The fear is so great that whites are doing their best to prevent the true history of our country to be taught in college. Like the Soviet Union, we have been taught revisionist history in K-12. The far right is using Critical Race Theory as a catchword to stoke racist flames in order to get votes; they are using fear as a weapon to retake power.
I often wonder how good, law-abiding Republicans turned into suckers. Growing up, every night after dinner my parents would sit down and read the newspaper from cover to cover and discuss current events. Voters did their best to come to their own conclusions over the issues of the day. Has talk radio, Fox News and social media sterilized individual critical thinking, allowing only for sound bytes to get through?
One last thing. Is Kyle Rittenhouse the OJ Simpson of the 21st century?
I agree with everything you say until you get to OJ Simpson. Simpson may be a murderer but he did not gun down 3 people in plain view of dozens of witnesses AND get the aid and support of law enforcement in the area. Simpson's crime was personal. Rittenhouse's crime was a public statement of hostility. Now Rittenhouse will become the poster boy for the right wing's idea of patriotism. Simpson never held that kind of power.
Daria, OJ and Rittenhouse are very different.
OJ was a black man in love with a beautiful white woman who was being stolen by a very dumb white guy. Who knows what I would do if someone comes on to my wife? Probably nothing good.
Rittenhouse, on the other hand, shot three people for the sheer entertainment of killing, which, he started out to do for fun and sport.
Rittenhouse is a perfect represenative for the white man of today. Arrogant, ignorant, selfish, self absorbed and dangerous.
And Rittenhouse is just a kid. Hasn’t developed reliable brains yet. Wait till he sucks up all this adulation from *ucker Carlson and Madison Cawthorn and the lot.
his mama has done a good job of creating a monster
So glad I have known and loved a couple of old white men. Men who are the best the country has to offer. Keeps me sane...
I knew some out in rural East Texas too.
Some exceptional white men had some exceptional influences on me.
I was finding this thread interesting and informative. Right up until this comment. My husband and sons are white men, and would never EVER do anything like this. They are decent, caring men. Being a white man does not make you inherently evil.
I have known and loved old white men and they were a credit to the country. but there are plenty who feel entitled to the privilege that the white race has long enjoyed with no thought whatsoever to those who don't "qualify." So glad I have known decent, caring white men.
"Being a white man does not make you inherently evil."
I think you are right and appreciate your post. Mine was not fair, I agree.
I think it might be more accurate to say that the highly visible white men of today, in various media, appear to be quite racist.
I think he’s a walking dead man. He evaded Justice yesterday but he won’t be able to do that for long. Someone somewhere is going to put in a correction and he’ll join the people that he murdered, if he had killed my son he’d never see the end of the year. I read the statement one of his victims parents posted yesterday, the pain they are feeling is unbearable, he was not alone in his actions the police were also complicit and were coordinating their actions with the militias. The fact that they let him calmly walk out of there speaks volumes.
I'm imagining he will get sued for "pain and suffering" by the parents and the one survivor. I do't think he'll ever be "free". And I hate those fake baby tears!
The fake tears convinced me that he is a bully play acting as human. His mama taught him well. Woe to them who call evil good and good evil…
...and I don't think he'll see the truth about what he did-wouldn't want to.
"if he had killed my son he’d never see the end of the year"
yep, same here. much less than a year. much.
Thank you. Aye, "how good, law-abiding Republicans turned into suckers".
Randy, those folks were never how good, law-abiding Republicans. They were always nasty, judgemental selfish people interested in only their own outcomes.
How else did Ronald Reagan convince everyone that taxes are bad?
Taxes are part of community thought process.
Republicans never had such a thought process and as soon as Reagan gave it voice, they collapsed like the avalanche of selfish people they were.
And Rupert made it smell patriotic… as Kemp said “Rupert Murdoch used the editorial page, the front page, and every other page necessary to elect Ronald Reagan President of the United States.” Boy did that pay off for Rupert, and our world will likely never recover
I have been thinking the same thing. He will be a pariah to the liberals and used by the Carlson, Gaetz folks. I am sad to see this turn of events.
No one won in that courtroom yesterday. The families of the victims must be in agony. I am praying this does not ignite the power keg that is America right now. It is a good thing it is winter. Less protests.
Amurca won and America lost.
I am praying and hoping this will be swallowed up by the upcoming Holidays and everyone will be distracted by crass good cheer and phony songs of peace on Earth. (Sorry if I sound bitter).
Something has been ignited that I am not sure can be tamped out. And I am always the optimist in the room. We are all wearier and wearier.
my sentiments exactly, the holidays ring hollow for me, and have since so many "Christians" became Pharisees.
Perfectly put. I think I need a tee shirt.
“I often wonder…”. That is my 24/7 question. Then I remember Rupert. He must be laughing his arse off as we grapple with why we are where we are…
I am probably a 109% whitie, and am embarrassed. “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. MLK
No need to be embarrassed about an evolutionary outcome that you had nothing to do with specifically.
Be proud to be human and be able to think, do, and bring people together.
I read every word. I am so sorry that you have been forced to endure this in this country. I am appalled at what is happening now. If the Republicans have their way, this is going to be an even more dangerous country.
Sandra, maybe the good thing about today is: Instead of Amurca being hidden from view and invisibly (to you and many others) holding back talented people from economic success, America is now outed and open about white supremacy.
Maybe this open approach to white supremacy is better than hidden white supremacy under the guise of "Democracy".
At Kodak, there were zero black workers when I arrived in 1992. Zero.
When they did start to hire them they gave them the lowest paid, most difficult job in the plant. Something called "chiller" operator. This required 8 hour shifts of lifting 40lb bags onto a cart with no break.
AND: The whites were all screaming about affirmative actions because Kodak finally, after 140 years, started hiring blacks.
I like it that the white supremacy is now open and obvious.
Because, it was always there and powerful.
I agree. I think that, as difficult as it is and is going to become, having all this ugliness out in the open is a good thing.
As much despair as the black American flags, Q flags, etc cause me by having to see them every day I am also grateful. Nor I know where they are - which people and which businesses hold such hateful beliefs. That knowledge is good to have. You can’t create change if you don’t know what you’re up against.
Couldn’t agree more, Kasumii and Mike. Oddly, scarily, this exposed ugliness is one of the gifts of the horrible pandemic response and the video-captured murder of George Floyd.
‘Now’ not ‘nor’. I did not do that on purpose to prove a previous point 🙄. Feeling sad & angry at new flags I saw yesterday & my proofreading skills went pffft!
Those "black American flags" are the subdued National Colors with the colored (blue, red, green, gold, white) ones, right? I think that those flags originally come from the subdued patches that the military began wearing during GWOT, and have become part of that culture as part of the "fandom" of all things military.
FWIW, I quit flying my "thin blue line" flag I flew for my friend that was murdered in the line of duty when a dear friend of mine pointed out how it was being subverted by the racists, and that as long as I flew it, I was supporting that perspective. I now fly the flag that originated with the "concerns of police survivors" group that supports the families of fallen officers.
The black American flags are regular flags with no extra colors that are covered in black. You can faintly see the stars & stripes but it’s all black.
They harken back to a military tradition of flying a black flag in battle that meant no prisoners will be taken. In other words - kill everyone. It is a clear threat of violence and death.
Yes it’s better to see our enemies in plain view than having them lurking in the shadows. They’re everywhere they’re everywhere!
Very, very well written. I could not agree with you more. Thank you.
Mike, I agree. Now that the systemic racism is out in the open perhaps people with a conscience will stand for equality and equity not simply pay lip service to it. We have never been the land if equal opportunity. It's about people are made to acknowledge the depth of our ugliness. I am grateful you took the time to tell us your story. I hope you and your family thrive in Greece. Best wishes always.
Daria,
I think it is unlikely that America will change much over the shorter historical arc. How knows about the long term and, here is the thing about the long run.
In the long run we are all dead, so, the long run does not matter.
it is the short run that counts, and, in my lifetime nothing changed nor will it change.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately - about the time it will take to change things for the better and how much worse it could become before better change begins to takes hold. I’m noodling on it to better prepare myself for the fight and for enduring it. I’ve got to get a handle on the despair I feel so it doesn’t swamp me to the point of being useless.
Yep, my strategy is to really feel that despair for a moment, then get up and go forth one more time. Mostly, I live in joy, but there are spaces like today when that balloon is deflated.
Kasumii, based on some of your other posts, it is clear that you are not ever going to approach being "useless".
It is just not in you.
You are naturally useful.
:-)
Mike, I am eighty years old and have been pretty much complacent about the state of affairs. In the years since Trump was elected President( I was so naive, I never thought it would happen.) I have been making myself more aware.
Sandra,
I highly recommend you enjoy being 80 and spend your time in peaceful, happy pursuit of whatever you love.
I don't recommend getting all bent out of shape about stuff you have not control over and cannot change.
Stay healthy.
I realize all this has little effect on me perfectly. However, I have seven grandchildren I worry about—especially, as five of them are Jewish.
Mike you should read Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel, Player Piano, based in his experience as an engineer in Rochester, back in the 50s. Bitter, surreal, brilliant. Even as a white man he saw.
I will do. I have taken note. I am closing down farm stuff mostly for winter and will have time to read some if it ever snows again.
I heard the comments about affirmative action, too. Not about me to my face, but about any person who advanced to first-line supervisor who wasn't a white man. I heard it as recently as 3 years ago at my last place of employment (I'm retired now), a well-known aerospace company in CT.
Yes,
here is s short, true story.
In my job at Kodak I befriended a seemingly nice white guy and we had lunch every Friday.
ONCE, while I was at Kodak they interviewed a black guy for my white friends group. I interviewed him too so had his resume.
This black guy was from Georgia tech and had a 3.92 GPA. He had three internships.
But, my white friend? He had told me at a previous lunch that his grades were so bad when he got out of school that he could not get a job and his Dad, who worked in HR at Kodak, had obtained the Kodak job for him.
When the black guy came for the interview my friend, Brian, went berserk at our Friday lunch about "affirmative" action for blacks. ONE black guy.
So, I remembered Brian's story about his Dad.
I asked him? Brian, this black guy seems more qualified and accomplished than anyone we have interviewed since I came here. Hiring him would be "competitive hiring" not "affirmative action".
I said: Brian, YOU are the real recipient of affirmative action are you not?? Right? YOUR DAD provided that affirmative action and got you a job you would not have been able to get because of your grades and YOU told me that story.
Brian looked stunned, dumped his plate on the table and left.
He did not speak to me for 6 months, then, he came and apologized. The black guy had been hired and he was a hard worker and good engineer, probably better than Brian who had 5 years experience on the new kid.
Brian said: "Mike, you are a real "a..hole" BUT, you were right. If we start lunch again, do me a favor, don't bring it up.
I never did again. But, he will always know that he, Brian, was the real affirmative action candidate. For all his life.
I feel great about that story.
Thanks for making a difference, Mike.
A friend worked for Coca-Cola in Ga.The black employees were required to use “their” restroom unattached to the building. Our friend worked , amid pushback, to desegregate the restrooms.The year:1988
1988? Good Lord! North Carolina was forced into integration in 1964, my freshman year of high school. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. We never had those issues, thank goodness!
Yep. The amazing thing is that the economic disenfranshisement is like the cold. If you are inside the house, you don't notice it.
But, if you are outside the house, it never warms up.
That is how we do it. One guy at a time. Well done, sir.
Kudos to you for speaking up. I saw a lot of that kind of "affirmative action," too, but I was usually too timid to point it out except for one particularly egregious case.
Affirmative action is so common for white people that it has a specific word: Nepotism.
Beautiful story Mike. Our ancestry is similar: my redheaded mom’s lineage goes back to Britain before the Revolutionary War. My Italian dad (1st generation American)
who fought in WWII and was his only family member to gain a college degree (in engineering!). Looked like Lucy and Desi Arnaz *in color*.
So,
I was able to apply and received my Italian citizenship. I believe (my dad passed on at 98 a month before the pandemic….he missed BOTH pandemics!) he needed to be alive for his children’s success in applying…..Best of luck.♥️ There was also some thing about our family on my dad’s side had children before they did paperwork to become US citizens…I say that because my brother-in-law‘s Italian immigrant parents did their paperwork first and then had children and he did NOT have the means to gain Italian citizenship.
Carol. Thanks. The Greek Consulate is dragging their feet because so many people are trying to immigrate to the EU now.
I heard similar comments in the military but not about my race. About my gender. Every promotion or special assignment I was told “you only got that because you’re a ____” (usually ‘bitch’, sometimes’slash’, sometimes ‘cunt’) or “did you fuck the company commander or the battalion commander for that promotion?” Didn’t matter what rank, the comments/accusations came both my peers & bosses.
Ugh. Such abuse, Kasumii. Life is hard enough …
Yeah. It is.
This is why my parents flatly refused permission for me to join the armed services back in the late '60s.
I understand their worries.
In my case I didn’t ask. I was 18 and desperate to get away from “home” (white supremacy, religious cult, highly abusive parents). So, I skipped school one day & went to the recruiter’s office, joined with a leave date right after high school graduation. Didn’t tell anyone until a few weeks before my leave date. When I did, my parents (mother, stepfather) said “you’ll never make it through basic let alone jump school and you’ll become a slut”. The church elders said “you’ll become a whore or lesbian”. You can see why I didn’t tell anyone.
And, even with all the MST (military sexual trauma) I went through (several assaults) and endured (daily verbal sexual harassment), the military was a step up from my childhood. Had there been actual support for victims of MST and legal consequences against the perpetrators I would have stayed in for 30 years instead of just 10. There is a lot of good about serving. If only our militaries valued everyone equally and created an atmosphere that backed that up…
Wow, does that sound familiar...
They were just confused. It probably seemed very unfair that they'd been giving their commanders sexual favors for weeks but got nothing, you just waltz up and get a promotion just for being great. That's discrimination!
Anthropologically, characteristics that don't really have much bearing on actual survival -- like skin coloration, hair color, semantic intelligence, gender, religiousity, etc. -- are the very characteristics we use for mate selection and intraspecific competition. In other words, the we use those features to discriminate precisely because they don't actually matter in terms of one's ability to survive as an individual in a particular environment.
I think that's why racism, as well as a lot of other "-isms," will always be a part of human society, even among otherwise intelligent people. It's a reflexive way of organizing one's social world and, I suspect, happens on a neurological level. As such, it acts sub-rationally and gets rationalized later -- sort of the same-but-opposite process of lusting after a new car and justifying it to your spouse later.
This is not to mean that it's not worth every erg required to combat this tendency. It's just that lots of people are going to see this tendency as inspiration and a competitive advantage, not as an innate weakness. Hence, we have Trump, Marion Sims, Tucker Carlson, and Rittenhouse.
Sorry for the disquistion, but I just had to nerd-out for a few minutes to sooth my nerves...
This would explain more if there had always been racism. But (I speak as your fellow nerd, a historian of its emergence in Europe) there hasn't. And even in the thought world we now inhabit in the developed West there have been periods when racism had different targets.
Why for instance are descendents of the Irish now allowed to be presidents and mayors and millionaires when they used to be called the N-- word even in Boston, their children thrown from the roofs of orphanages or burned alive in their schools? I wouldn't say it's progress that that's changed for the Irish, because now Mexicans and people from the Middle East, who didn't used to be seen as lesser beings, can be described by slang vituperation and suffer discrimination and random violence..
Just nerding out with you! Soothes my frazzled nerves too.
this won't be news to either of you, but Isabel Wilkerson's latest book "Caste" is absolutely seminal on the subject of racism
I mean to read that book! I've heard disagreement on it from some Black friends, but am interested.
"either" being Agriesti and Campbell (comments coming thick & fast! thanks all)
Thank you for sharing Mike and all the best to you and your family. What a loss for the US, but I get it, I hear you! So much of our society saddens me to no end.
I hear you loud and clear! I grew up in Texas and got a decent education in the 1950s and 60s. I have an Anglo last name, but my ancestry is Greek, and those who cared about such things noticed right away I didn't have the blue eyes an Anglo with the name "Foster" should have. Still, I had a decent career as a software engineer, never being paid as much as the white men because I'm a woman. Greek residency and citizenship requirements are pretty narrow -- I know because I looked into it during the Bush II regime. I hope you succeed in getting EU citizenship for your kids. If they can't get it through birth, they're young enough to get permanent residency in a number of other countries if they have job skills that are in short supply. Good Luck!
Welcome to Amurca! At least Amurca is now outed and open about what it is.
My grandmother was born in Cuba in 1870. Sometime later her family moved to the United States. Her brother went to Annapolis and was a career Navy officer. Her two sisters became public school teachers in Philadelphia for their entire careers. My great uncle’s son went to Annapolis and was Exec Officer on a sub sunk shortly after Pearl Harbor and, after three years as a Japanese POW, continued his career in the Navy.
Immigrants have provided the backbone of an evolving America. I am angry when I hear of how many immigrants were/are treated. Historically it was the Italians, the Jews, the Irish and others. Now it can be Hispanics, Asians, Middle Easterners, and others. This reflects the philosophy of the American (called “Know Nothing) Party of the 1840s-1850s, which morphed into the Republican Party. It remains a tenet of Trump’s ‘white Republicanism.’ My hope and belief is that Biden is dedicated to serving all Americans where bigotry has no place.
Pretty much most, if not ALL of our ancesters came from somewhere else - unless you were fortunate enough to have one or more that was native born! According to my aunt who "researched" this - someone in my mom's family married an Indian woman way back when - no princess (which is the usual claim, right?) just a down to earth gal who smoked a pipe!!! Thats all I know about her. But mainly - my family on both sides were immigrants from somewhere else. These "righteous" individuals who complain about "others" need to wake up & smell the roses (grandmother expression) they dont have any more claims on calling themselves citizens than anyone else.
We are a nation of immigrants except for our Native People. Can you imagine what they are thinking about allowing these greedy, white immigrants who lied and decimated them and then shoved the last ones onto "Christian" Indian Schools and reservations? If anyone wants to build a Wall, it would be our indigenous people around all the lying, greedy, white supremacists. The bell now tolls for all of us, and our democracy, no matter where our ancestors are from. Will we rise to this occasion? Will our justice system be transparent enough to help us understand if Justice will prevail? Will our military support our democracy or allow an overthrow of our government by fascist traitors? PEOPLE, The passage of the federal voting rights act is THE MOST important thing in our country right now. If we cannot vaporize the republican gerrymandering and the EC that rig and destroy our democracy, THEN the climate crisis, abortion rights, our post office, trafficking, prescription prices, healthcare, infrastructure, voting rights, etc., will not matter. If they win, they intend to destroy everything we, our ancestors, our sons and daughters and others have fought for and it may feel in vain.
Welcome to my world as a woman in the computer software field. A company hired 6, 4 men 2 women out of the same exact program. The women were paid less, not given the same promotion opportunities and often dealt with remarks considered to be sexual harassment. This was not so many years ago in 1993.
I am glad you have risen above instead of giving up. All we want is to be able to do the best we can in our life and it’s hard when being pushed down.
I was so lucky with where I worked (retired now) It was a construction company office with 1 other woman (in the beginning). The guys were great & we gave as good as we got from them - never felt un appreciated or less than. But like I said I was lucky.
Well, at age 60 I did "give up". When our team was outsourced (keeping a few white guys one staff only), I tried to get a job for 6 months.
Here in Rochester, NY, Harris has hired pretty much every dead body white guy that ever worked at Kodak or Xerox.
Harris has many, many open engineering jobs.
I applied for 15 and all 15 of them were closed out without comment or contact with me.
So, now, I was fortunate to have bought a small farm about an hour south of here. I am active in reforestation and sustainable farming.
Back to the work of my youth, which, honestly, outdoor physical work is just the best work there is.
Sounds like you are in the right place (farm) right now. Being able to be outside and near nature is the best.
Like rbg said, we want simply for men to remove their boot from our necks.
Absolutely - and once again - ERA anyone? Care to guess who puts the kibosh to that every time it comes up?
I cannot believe we are still fighting this fight! I think it started when I was in my teens...1/2 a century ago.
Shall we all tell our stories?
I was imminently qualified to take care of the Clydesdales who worked at Walt Disney World. This was 1972. Was told, to my face, "doesn't matter, you are a girl, girls are not allowed in the barn". Oh well, had a good career as a veterinarian, no complaints, except, really, Still no equal rights?
From my own experience (horse-wise) you were even more "imminently qualified" just by being a girl! We (women & girls) are so much better with horses than the male of the species. (I'm thinking there might be some backlash on that statement). Brute strength does not win out over calm, quiet handling. Frankly Lynn, a good veterinarian is worth HER weight in gold. Be it large animal or small. But yeah, still no equal rights!
I often thought it would've been too cool if they ever needed a veterinarian, and I got the call! But life took me to different parts after graduation. Thanks for the kind words re vets.
Mike, thank you for sharing this. We "white people" need to keep hearing these stories. I have lived a long life in America and I have witnessed so much racism and hate and ignorance. There are no adequate words, but I'm so sorry.
Your letter is not too long. Thank you for writing it. I am very sorry for how you and your family have been treated.
Although not surprised by the Rittenhouse verdict with a blatant white supremacist judge who influenced the trial, I am more concerned about our democracy than ever. I see the gerrymandering and the voter suppression laws being passed by the gerrymandered Republican states. We are definitely at a crossroads and I want to help however I can to protect our democracy from the violence promoting fascists that are threatening it. Like many I was already exhausted from 4 years of Trump. Then came Covid exhaustion. We (nurses) are still being threatened by Covid deniers/ anti vaxers. We are exhausted! Sorry I just had to vent. I know I’m safe venting to this community. Thank you Heather and all.
Karen: Because I, too, “want to help however I can to protect our democracy…,” I continually persist, first, in noting that the Freedom to Vote Act is the only federal legislation currently in play whose provisions would supersede state law in conflict with any of its stipulations, and that includes state laws that already have passed. Additionally, because neither abolishing the Senate filibuster nor exempting it to pass bills protective even of our most basic rights presently has support from 50 Senators, I repeatedly have pressed for a Senate rule change, initially crafted by Congressional scholar Norm Ornstein, that, in all likelihood, would pass. The rule change would replace the 60-vote threshold required to end debate with a 41-vote threshold to continue debate, thus shifting the burden from the majority to the minority, 41 of whom would have to be present, speaking nonstop about the issue at hand, to sustain a filibuster. I don’t imagine any Senator (we only need 50 to enact a rule change) could mount a credible opposition in defiance of this reform. Thoughts? Anyone?
Barbara Jo, I will leave the details to the scholars and political experts, but in my mind a powerful voting rights bill is absolutely critical. More important to our democracy than all the ballyhooed spending bills already passed, excellent and praiseworthy as they are. I love Biden’s FDR agenda and installing women and POC everywhere, but without a national voting bill that nullifies the anti-democratic crap legislation passing everywhere, who cares.
I totally agree. As great as they are, the other bills passed won’t matter in a few years if we don’t have the voting rights and a transparent and democratic election. And I believe that is on the chopping block by the wanna be fascist trumpublicans
Is there truly a substantive difference between the members of the NSDAP Party and the current members of the Republican Party? Between Trump and Hitler? Not really.
Not really - that's what makes us over here in Germany fearful of what's going on in the US.
As is on my mind 24/7. The parallels are stunning.
NO. The republicans followed Nazis as the Nazis followed Jim Crow.
Roland: Because I couldn’t agree more with your closing remark, watching and waiting to see what the experts will do just makes me more anxious. Thus, I choose to acquire the knowledge (see my latest reply to Karen) that gives me a shot at not merely having to look through the window but, instead, to come through the door.
I agree, Roland. Without protection for voting, we're toast.
Is a powerful voting rights bill going to do anything other than make us feel better though? The rabid parts of the country have demonstrated that they will only "obey" laws they like and they will NOT like a law that makes it easier for "them" to vote. We may have passed the point in our society where "law" means anything.
Sorry for the gloom but I think we are really in for a very dark and violent winter
Afraid I agree with you, Molly.
Yes, I think the states realize, from the unpunished actions of Donald Trump, that ignoring the law is not just possible, but, the way to go.
The rule of law in the United States was broken by a half wit con man named Donald Trump. Of all people.
EXACTLY, Roland (and others on this forum who call for this regularly). Without voting protections there IS nothing else.
Thank you Barbara. I am in complete support of the Voting Rights Act. My concern is that it doesn’t include the changes made by the Republican state legislatures to shift the state electoral certification from the Secretary of State to the legislature. Giving them the power to decide who is counted
Karen: Though I can’t be sure, I believe you might be conflating the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which is not preemptive and, therefore, cannot overturn state policy that will already have passed, with the Freedom to Vote Act that Manchin helped draft after the more comprehensive H.R.1/S.1 For the People Act was filibustered. Presuming I understand correctly, passage of the Freedom to Vote Act would ensure (1) that all eligible voters easily could register to vote and stay enrolled and (2) that eligible votes would be cast, counted correctly, and certified without interference and without their being diluted through partisan gerrymandering. Here I would note that the enthusiastic endorsements from such notables as Stacey Abrams leads me to believe that my grasp is likely solid.
Thank You for clarifying Barbara. My hope is to pass th
The freedom to vote act. And am relieved it includes prohibiting state legislatures from taking away the people’s vote. Because if it doesn’t pass the people will not have a vote.
Don't you hate the "no edit" aspect of Substack? I shall now copy you here when I hit "enter" instead of whatever key I intended to hit.
This is my understanding as well, Barbara. But you said it better than I can!
One of my concerns as well. We must pass this and the John Lewis Act as soon as possible.
Sarah, I agree, but, because VRAA’s protections would not extend to state laws that already have passed, we must prioritize passage of the Freedom to Vote Act whose provisions, as previously mentioned, would supersede already-passed state laws in conflict with any of its stipulations.
Then it won’t matter, as Stalin said. What matters is who counts the votes
yes, that will be the lasting legacy of that half wit con man Donald Trump.
The breaking point of the rule of law in the US.
Who knew a mentally ill, half wit con man could make so much difference?
we may be at the point where the Senators and Congress officials return to duels at ten paces. After all, when censured, Paul Gosar compared himself to Alexander Hamilton. then rebroadcast the anime video showing him assassinating a woman, a person of color, a colleague, then attempting to assassinate the President of the United States.
Well, those guys probably cannot shoot straight enough to kill each other, but, they probably can accidently shoot an innocent gawker.
Yet, his colleagues remained silent. Mostly.
Thank you Barbara, I will reach out to my senators with this suggestion and forward to folks I know who might not be aware of this option to enact effective change - it's a really good idea - a ray of hope!!
Time to write my senators again.
I especially like the requirements that the 41 be present and that they must actually address the topic at hand. Apparently McCarthy managed to spend over 8 hours talking about anything but why he objected to the BBB.
Time to put a little sanity back in government. This is a start
Oh please, is there a faint hope? Do it Dems.
You are doing heroic work. Do take care of yourself! You are not alone carrying the load. ❤️
Thank You Ellie. Your support means so much.
Please accept my thanks for being on the front line, and dealing with those Covid deniers and anti vaxers as you labor to save the lives of their loved ones (and their own). Please also take care of yourself. Covid exhaustion is a real thing and is impacting everyone, no one more so than nurses.
I will share my dismay at what my community of law enforcement friends are doing in the wake of this verdict (along with their responses to Mr. Black's initial shooting that prompted these demonstrations in the first place, and every other BLM protest) and express my frustration with what has become of my former profession. I can GUARENTEE that had Mr. Rittenhouse been Black, there would be no trial because the officers on scene would have "observed a male with an assault rifle in the area where the shooting had occurred; he posed an imminent threat and I shot him."
Ally, glad to hear you are not giving up, willing to be a pest to your law enforcement friends!
Vent away‼️ We love you ❤️❤️
My daughter, a nurse, would agree with your assessment. I, as one who was constantly appalled by the white supremacist judge, feels that there must be some way to protest his blatant bias.
Jeri,
His blatant bias is what the majority of Americans feel.
Hence, I don't recommend protest.
Mike S, I sincere believe it is NOT the majority of Americans. (If only they’d all speak up.)
What evidence do you have for saying the judge was a white supremacist? Did you know that when he has run for office it was as a Democrat? On the one side we have right wing nuts embracing Rittenhouse, and on the other we have people saying the judge is a white supremacist because they don't like the outcome. The jury was presented with all of the evidence and this is the conclusion they came to. Biden was right in his initial statement (subsequently undermined by the longer White House statement). As long as everyone continues to jump into their partisan corners on every issue, we'll never get out of our current mess.
I watched enough to see that he was partisan, in fact, I think that was why the result was as it was. Pissy Democrat, like two more that come to mind.
Karen,
I remain puzzled why hospitals are still accepting non-vaccinated folks into the ER?
Seems like that is just dumb.
Hospitals are private property for the most part, so, they can put out a sign saying:
NO UNVACCINATED PEOPLE WILL BE ADMITTED. IF YOU STEP INSIDE YOU WILL BE ARRESTED.
Medicine does not work that way. That's why nurses, as a group, remain the most trusted professionals in America.
I understand what you’re saying Mike. And believe me, that idea has certainly crossed many of our minds while going through this very sad and frustrating experience. That being said we are committed to providing care for the sick. And where would we be able to draw the line. Would we refuse care to an accident victim who was driving drunk? Refuse care to a lung cancer patient because they smoked a pack a day for 40 years? There are many self inflicted and preventable conditions that we treat without a second thought. I think we are all feeling less tolerant of the unvaccinated Covid patients now because so many are politically influenced and continue in denial, and even angry with the healthcare providers trying to help them. That said it’s who we are, and what we do.
"That being said we are committed to providing care for the sick."
I understand your commitment and am heartened folks like you exist.
However, Covid and any future pandemic is different from the small number of drunk drivers, and accident victims.
Covid, with a death rate of only 2% relative to all infected people, pushed Emergency room and ICU staff to the limit in many states and towns with above 90% occupancy rates for the first time in a long time.
Karen, just imagine if the death rate were 20% and 40% of the folks refused to get vaccinated?
Your hospitial parking lot would be full of dead bodies and you would be a walking dead body.
So, hospitals NEED to come up with plans for pandemics that DO NOT include throwing their staff at death day after day until their staff is all dead.
Because, this is not the last pandemic. And, this was pandemic LIGHT.
2% is nothing.
I’ve pondered the idea of creating a split-hospital system. One side for covid patients and one for non-covid patients. We’re losing too many non-covid patients from there not being any room for them and from people being made to delay all non-covid medical care. That’s not right. Surely there’s a workable solution for this problem.
Mandated vaccination was a good start. The disaster of TFG is going to be a long time healing from. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/11/the-mass-exodus-of-americas-health-care-workers/620713/
They receive a huge chuck of their revenue from publicly funded Medicare and Medicaid and are not allowed to pick and choose the patients they accept.
This can and should change.
Right ... the insurance companies do that picking and choosing - to be sure their profit margins are well funded ... heaven forbid we might invite government oversight - So much better to have a trustworthy insurance executive between us and our health care providers than some corrupt government agency ... right ...?
Dear Heather,
This is a brilliant repartee between Lincoln's words on 19th November, 1863 and the occurrences and words spoken on the same date in 2021, and between Lincoln's vision and current Republicans' diabolical sightlessness. Your play with shadows and light on both occasions is perfectly executed. Thank you for the audiovisual contrasts that highlight the positives as well as the negatives.
"[The Build Back Better Bill] reorients our national investment away from a wealthy few and toward ordinary families, much as Lincoln insisted in 1859 that the country should not invest in elite enslavers, but rather in ordinary men, who would innovate as they worked to provide for their families."
The Rittenhouse verdict is not simply disappointing, it is devastating. The message it gives to our country, our youth, and BIPOC communities is that of bloodshed and a return to John Wayne's Wild West when what we all need sense and sensibility.
Thank you for your teachings and your wisdom!
Rowshan,
One in four cowboys was black. Easy to check this on the web.
Hence, John Wayne's all white wild west never existed. We cannot return there.
Yes, I know, which is why I mentioned "John Wayne." The white Republican's history is always distorted and based on skewed myths.
Understood.
I too was taken by HCRs juxtaposition of Lincoln's words during the civil war, the hope for delivering good government to our people via legislation such as BBB, and the failure of society represented in freeing a young punk who kills because he brought a gun to an adult protest and got so scared he killed others. What a visualisation of hope shattered in a courtroom in Kenosha. Gads! Guess the GOP has it's own Daniel Boone in Rittenhouse around whom they can weave tall tales of heroism. Can almost see the silly masks next Halloween.
Hundreds (if not thousands) of Americans will die violent deaths as a direct result of the Rittenhouse verdicts. The OJ Simpson verdict pales in comparison. Another huge win for Republicans in their Civil War against American Democracy. (Personally I will remember the exact moment I read the Rittenhouse verdicts on my phone as precisely as I remember the times and places when I heard about the Kennedy assassination and the fall of the Twin Towers. It is that big a deal ... make no mistake about it.)
This is my fear also. Here in Salem some people were planning on a protest at the local county courthouse. I am sure some of the local usual suspects will be present also. The police here do not have a good track record with this sort of situation.
I remember exactly where I was on the Friday and Saturday when Joe Biden was declared the winner. Boy I’ll never forget that. I was on the road (weird holiday work schedule, I’m in the food business, holidays are insane) in a hotel in Wendover Nevada.
Has anyone ever figured out the difference between Hell and Wendover, Nevada? :-)
Speaking of hell and Wendover, as a military historian of course you know that’s where Paul Tibbetts and his men planned and trained for the execution of the drop of Fat Man and Little Boy on Japan.
Lots of other bombers trained there also.
I worked for a guy who was a plane commander and the crew trained there. They bought a car that had "been around" and sold from crew to cfrew. It had been modified to run on 100 octane avgas, and as he said "It was the fastest car I had ever driven." They would run from the airport in to the casinos on liberty. They called it "the sex machine" because girls really liked riding in it.
Difference? What difference?
Has anyone ever figured out the difference between TC and Roland?
Wendover, Nevada is real. Hell is a piece of religious fiction.
Isn't Wendover in Utah?
The half of Wendover that is in Nevada has the casinos and all the tourists from Salt Lake City visiting the casinos, and the half of Wendover that is in Utah is tamer.
But those Mormons are all over on the wild side checking it out.
It's in both. Right on the border.
Yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Wendover,_Nevada
I too, was thinking about the OJ trial.
Funny, I can remember exactly where I was when that verdict came down....at work in a high school library and I and my co-worker were absolutely appalled.
I'm afraid I agree with you, Stephen. And if the Arbury case falls in favor of the accused, you can be sure there will be blood in the streets.
Oh goodness. That’s huge.
# SEVEN SCORE AND FOURTEEN YEARS AGO TODAY
On November 19th, if I’m working in a school, I like to teach a lesson about The Gettysburg Address. But it’s not a history lesson, it’s a writing lesson.
I’ve never published this lesson but I’m putting it into my 3rd edition because I need to feel like I’m contributing at least some small measure of hope that the United States of America will survive the current unprecedented assault on democracy by people who I won’t call Republicans because I have too much respect for Republicans like Abraham Lincoln—and the few Republicans left today, like Liz Cheney—to lump them in with what I call “The New Right” or “The New Wrong”.
As you read this, remember that it’s not a history lesson, or a lesson in politics, or anything the least bit provocative at all.
It’s just a harmless writing lesson about a simple technique for helping people remember our words when every word matters.
Here it is…
# THE STUBBORN SOUND OF STRUGGLE
What most of us remember about *The Gettysburg Address* is the opening phrase, “Four score and seven years ago,…”. Even if we don’t know what a “score” of years is, why Lincoln began the address this way, or what he was referring to that happened in the past, the sound of the line catches our ear and tells us that something special is about to unfold.
We’re probably hooked after two words: “Four score…”. It’s a rhyme as simple as any from Dr. Seuss. That’s part of what makes it work.
The truth is we don’t have to know that a “score” of years is 20. Or that “Four score and seven years…” is 87. Or even that the speech was given in 1863, and that 87 years earlier it was 1776, and that what Lincoln was doing here in this very first phrase was attempting to broaden the appeal of the Union cause beyond the issue of slavery to the fate of the nation as a whole—by connecting The Battle of Gettysburg with The Declaration of Independence.
We don’t need to know any of this because the sound of Lincoln’s words tells us that the ideas they represent matter because the fate of democracy everywhere on Earth depends upon the success of democracy in the United States.
## A RIGHTEOUS MUSIC
There’s another part of the speech, a part of few of us know, a part that isn’t talked about much, but a part nonetheless where the sound of Lincoln’s words brings a righteous music to their meaning.
> “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”
When Lincoln wrote, “The world will little note nor long remember…” he knew the exact opposite would be true, that the world would indeed take note and always remember The Battle of Gettysburg. Here again, he used the sound of his words to make a phrase more memorable.
In this case, he gave us a beautifully folded pair of alliterations: “…little note, nor long…”. It’s an elegant turn of phrase that turns our attention to another interesting sound in the speech: the sound of the word “here”.
## HERE, HERE!
The speech lasted less than three minutes. It’s only 272 words. Nine of those words are the word “here”. He uses the word “here” five times in just 68 words here:
> “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled HERE, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say HERE, but it can never forget what they did HERE. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated HERE to the unfinished work which they who fought HERE have thus far so nobly advanced.”
This is no accident. It’s not a person out of words to express himself. It’s a deliberate trchnique, and an effective one for two reasons: (1) It heightens our sense of the importance of the place; (2) And it brings back that “R” sound over and over just like “FouR scoRe” and the “woRLd will little note, noR long RemembeR”.
## SAY IT!
Say the “R” sound. Stretch it out. Feel the rattle in the back of your throat, your teeth coming together, maybe even your jaw clenched.
This is the sound of deteRmination, the sound of peRseverance. It is the stubborn sound of struggle, the sound of right here, right now, this changes everything.
And everything did change.
## WHAT LINCOLN KNEW
Gettysburg proved to be a decisive battle. But both sides lost the same number of men: about 50,000 each. What Lincoln knew was that he had more men to bring to battle as long as he could inspire them to the cause.
Lincoln was so conscious of the importance of this moment. That’s why he spoke for just a few moments.
## WHAT LINCOLN NEEDED
*The Gettysburg Address* is short and full of easily memorizable bits of language because Lincoln knew he needed more men to fight beyond those fighting against the injustice of slavery.
He needed more men to fight for the survival of the American experiment, the fate of a “new nation” that he contends began in 1776 with the signing of The Declaration of Independence.
Never mind at all that we didn’t actually have a nation at that point. The United States of America didn’t exist in 1776. There was a war to fight and win and even a few more years after that before The US Constitution would be worked out well enough to know we had a new nation well in hand.
But none of this mattered because Lincoln’s speech was so short and the sound of his words said everything anyone needed to know—even if they didn’t know what the words meant.
And even though it was windy that day and Lincoln’s voice was never a strong one, people could copy his words quickly and send them all over the country so that tens of thousands of people would hear them, too, and be moved to that larger sense of purpose.
## REMEMBER…
Lincoln spoke for only three minutes. The man before him spoke for three hours. It was Edward Everett, former Governor of Massachusetts and America’s first Ph.D. He was one of the great orators of the day. But no one remembers any of the words he said or even that he was there to say them.
Today, we all remember what Lincoln said, even if all we remember are the first few words. Even if we don’t know why he said them or exactly what they meant, we know, even now, more than 150 years later, what it felt like because we can hear in his words the stubborn sound of struggle.
——————————————————-
## TBE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
This is pure gold. Thank you for sharing this, and thank you for teaching this to others. Here, we will go forward as those who remember what we did here, may they hear us through the years as we battle to save the democracy in the here and now.
Ally, Thank you for your kind words and your encouragement. And also for “getting it”! Your comment inspires me. And I think it would inspire many young people, too. Would you mind if I included your as an example fir kids to learn from? The activity I have kids pursue after this lesson is picking a single sound and having kids write something short that uses that sound repetedly. We talk anout how certain sounds have certain qualities and that these qualities convey meaning of their own. And, just as you did here, two or three students, out of maybe 200, use the words “here” and “hear” to good effect! I’d like young people to see that some us not-as-young people like to learn from Lincoln. And that we are inspired by the language and ideas of all kinds of historical documents. Thank you, Steve
Absolutely!
couldn't agree more
Thank you, Jeri. It’s always so great here to be in the presence of so many thoughtful and inspiring and people.
Bravo, Steve! What an engaging lesson for us all. It provides an opportunity to put on Lincoln’s tall hat, and stand, feeling what it must have been like to be in his shoes.
Those 272 powerful words are so important to remember today. Your analysis to inspire writers has also inspired me, a reader who needs to be reassured about the strength and endurance of American Democracy. Thank you ❤️
Thank you, Kari. I share your sense of and need for reassurance when I read those words, too. That I get to teach them to young people is a great privilege. It is also a great opportunity to reaffirm my affinity to the thoughts these words express and to the feelings they arouse inside me.
Just wondering…have you consider a Ted Talk?
Thank you for asking, Kari. I’m honored and humbled that you would suggest this. I havr considered doing a TED Talk for more than a decade, and it remains a goal of my life. I’ve done a genius talk at Google and similar talks at other big tech companies in Silicon Valley. And I’ve given talks at international conferences as well. TED is elusive because without fame or other recognition, I have to do what everyone does: work my way up, as I should, from local to regional to national to global. And that’s a multi-year effort I literally have never had the tine/money to afford. But it is a great dream of mine. And no single person has inspired me toward this more than Dr. Richardson. But many other people have, people like you whose encouragement means so much to me.
After reading HCR's golden document, which encompassed lines from The Gettysburg Address with the 'proposition' and points noting life in America today to reading many of LFAA's subscribers comments, along with replies, I turned to your writing lesson. I read the Gettysburg Address in full, thanks to you. It has been a day's journey unlike any other for this American. I am grateful to you, Steve, for placing before us this lesson of citizenship in the United States of America.
Wow, I am humbled, truly, your words. When I begin my work with a group of kids, I tell them “Writing changes everything!” And Itruly believe it does. It changes us as we write. And the writing of others changes as we read. And one “the word” is out—and in a fixed form—it has a life all its own and that the life of the writing now-separated from the writer is free to change others. I am just a little changed each time I teach that lesson and that’s one reason why I write it up and teach it a little differently each year. I want to feel Lincoln’s words changing me just a bit. And I want to find the words that amplify that change in me and, I hope, inspire others. This is what I think writing does in the world—it changes everything—and once we invite that change, and commit to it by putting our words i to the world, we “claim that change” for ourselves; we say “This is me!” And that, I believe, is why writing is so powerful. Thank you!
You are so right. Just curious, what do you think of the various missives of Frank Luntz? Talk of how words impact all of us…
Frank Luntz is a genius.
I learned how to create teaching like my Gettysburg Address lesson from Frank Luntz (and a few other modern media masters).
His secret is simple: he’s the best “hearer” in American political history. “Hearer” not listener, because he can hear what people are (really) saying, and he can tell people what they want to hear.
We need to start Frank Luntzing our messages.
It’s why I want to bring what Dr. Richardson is doing here into every school district in America—as writing, not as history.
I’ve raised this idea every time I’ve commented to complement her on her work.
How did the Parkland kids bring down tge NRA? With writing. How did Kennedy (almost) end the nucleae arms race
and the Cold War? With writing. How have Movement Conservatives taken over our country? With writing.
What is the Constituion but writing? Whhat is the Texas vigilante justice so-called “heartbeat abortion bill but writing? What are the laws of the land but writing? What is social media? What is cancel culture?
What is… everythong today that moves the needle in the Culture Wars? Writing.
I’m 58 years old. We’ve been losing our country since Nixon. How? By letting the othe side control the narrative. It’s all done with language. And it’s all codified and disseminated through written laguage because written language lives apart from those who write it.
If we would only decide to teach our children to write—which is, frankly, child’s play—we would control the narrative. We would write the story of America. And the trick would to use Frank Luntz’s (and George Lakoff’s and many other smart people’s) models.
The playbook was created by Movement Conservatives beginning back in 1946. It’s on open playbook. We know all tge plays. I don’t know why don’t call those plays, too.
These plays work for me every time.
When I teach on Red America, they think I’m a Conservative. When I teach in Blue America, they think I’m a democrat.
And I tea h the same things in every classroom.
In the current D v R scheme, I’m a moderate. My philosophy is Communitarianism. I believe that the “unit of sovereignty” is the collective, not the indivual.
If I can teach what I teach (which is no different than what Dr. Richardson teaches us) to any kid of any age in any part of our country, why can’t people on our side who are smarter and more powerful than me do it?
(II have my answer but I’d really like to hear yours first.)
Thanks for this dialog. I enjoy it and I appreciate it, too, because you help me clarify my thinking and put words to my ideals.
Wow, here, here. You are so right. I despise what Frank has done, but I acknowledge his genius as I have gnashed my teeth over his success with republicans. More later…
priceless
Again, thak you for your kind words and your excouragement.
Great article/lesson. Slight fact check re: casualties. "Union casualties in the battle numbered 23,000, while the Confederates had lost some 28,000 men–more than a third of Lee's army."
Thank you for taking your time to help me better clarify my own thinking about this. I went back and did a quick bit of reading and realized again how hard it is to find clarity on things like casualties (dead, injured, captured, and missing) in a war. But the significance of the loss, as you point out, was not in absolute numbers but in relative degrees. Lee lost a significant percentage, especially his officers. The absolute numbers themselves, especially on the side of the South, are more difficult to guage perhaps because more care was taken in the aftermath by Union representatives to account for Union casualties. Here’s the part I read in Wikipedia: “The two armies suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties, nearly one third of all total troops engaged, 28% of the Army of the Potomac and 37% of the Army of Northern Virginia. Union casualties were 23,055 (3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, 5,369 captured or missing), while Confederate casualties are more difficult to estimate. Many authors have referred to as many as 28,000 Confederate casualties, and Busey and Martin's more recent 2005 work, Regimental Strengths and Losses at Gettysburg, documents 23,231 (4,708 killed, 12,693 wounded, 5,830 captured or missing). Nearly a third of Lee's general officers were killed, wounded, or captured. The casualties for both sides during the entire campaign were 57,225.”
It would be an excellent, inspiring lesson.....if they would now listen.
As short as his address was, Steve, you have slowed me down even more to appreciate its meaning. And here is what helped me to not give up: "...to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced."
Thank you, Lynell for not giving up—for all your effort in continuing Lincoln’s and your own stubborn struggle to making our nation better.
Thank you, Steve!!
Share, share, share
Thabk you for validating the idea that my work has value to others. This means so much to me.
It was beyond awesome, did it come from some of your writing? Would love to buy a book if it did.
Thank you, Jeri. It comes from my teaching. And I have recently decided that it must be included along with other writing lessons based on fundamental American documents in the third edition of my book on writing for kids: “Be a Better Writer.” I believe we can win this war of words and the great battle of ideas in our nation if we merely teach kids the most important things through writing—where even in Texas we could get away with it. I want so badly to participate fully in this fight and it’s very clear to me that the fate is in the hands of the coming generation of voters. Each year, 4 million kids become eligible to vote, and they vote 4:1 democratic. But turnout is so low in this group that Repubmucans never have to worry about it. If the 18-24 vote reached even 25% no amount of partisan gerrymandering could prevent us from winning every election in every state—forever. I simply haven’t been able to find a single person who is interesred in this approach so I pursue it on my own. Thank you for asking.
I have one grand who will be formidable, but she’s not quite 14. I love your idea, and wish for more support. I thought the shooting in Parkland Fl would start a movement. I know the Narch for our Lives is active but don’t hear much about it. They are our future. Bill Maher’s show a week ago made a challenge to the young. Hope it stirred some action…
I hope so, too!
Thank you for your time in posting this. Amazing post.
My heart breaks. I can only hope that reasonable people experience enough good through the actions of the Biden administration that we can somehow continue to move forward despite the volume and machinations of the far right. But I am discouraged that the hate and lies continue to be broadcast so loudly and prominently.
I have spent time today on a thread for the newly created House district six here in Oregon. One person was complaining about the image of Biden on the page, saying that many Ds do not support him, so his picture should not be on the page. The first response took her to task. She is a Bernie supporter and I suspect that is part of her problem. I tried to tell her that concentrating on items like this does not do Ds any good and that actually Joe was trying to achieve many of the things progressives support. We got into polls, which I ignore, as proof that Biden is not popular. I suggested she look carefully at the things Joe has managed to achieve in the midst of trying circumstances. Finally, someone who works in some political capacity told her that Ds do support Joe by large percentages. Just today a Native American from Oregon was confirmed as head of the National Park Service. I consider that quite an achievement and a first as well.
For anybody who brings up the polls, all you have to do is remind them that Hillary was unanimously predicted to beat Trump in the 2016 election.
I am a Bernie supporter too, from 2016 (and before), although in the 2020 primary, it was an embarrassment of riches with Kamala and Elizabeth Warren and a few others on the ticket. But when I was an early Bernie supporter, he was still an unknown. Now that he has national prominence, I am satisfied. And as you said in reply to your colleagues in that discussion, Biden has taken on so much of Bernie’s agenda that it’s ridiculous. As far as I’m concerned, right now Biden might as well be Bernie when it comes to his legislation. The FDR thing is kuh-RAY-zee.
As long as the voting Bill passes. That’s the big one.
Having Deb Haaland as Secretary of the Interior, and this new gentleman as head of the National Park Service, is brilliant and inspiring beyond belief. I mean that literally. I’m having a difficult time believing it. I think a lot of us are still in shock that an African-American man was president, and that Kamala Harris is now VP, and that a black man and a man with Jewish heritage beat out 2 white Republican incumbents in Georgia to turn the Senate blue. It’s all freaking amazing is what it is.
Roland, Jon Ossoff is Jewish. Saying he is “of Jewish heritage” makes it seem as though he was not brought up Jewish. He attended a Jewish Day School —which is like, for example, a Catholic school, only Jewish; he took his oath of office on the Hebrew Bible (which is the Torah in book form called a “Tanakh”) that had been the Tanakh of Atlanta’s Rabbi Jacob Rothschild (not related to the much maligned Rothschilds the far right accuses of everything), who had been the rabbi at Atlanta’s famous Reform Jewish synagogue, called The Temple, when it was bombed by members of the klan in 1958 because Rothschild was a close friend of Rev Matin Luther King, Jr., and because Rothschild often lectured about civil rights to his congregation and to the community at large. Sen.Ossoff’s taking his oath on that Tanakh meant a great deal to the Jewish population of Georgia that Ossoff had just been elected to serve. Ossoff is not assimilated, he is not “formerly Jewish,” as the phrase “of Jewish heritage” implies. Jon Ossoff is proudly Jewish. Just saying.
I am not a Bernie fan although I agree with much of what he wants. The discussion on the thread was about a picture of Biden at the top of a facebook group which I hadn't even noticed until the person made it an issue. I was trying to tell her that Biden agenda includes many progressive issues. We need to promote the positive things that are happening and if Biden's name is attached to it, so be it. The group is to elect a D for the new House district here in Oregon. It includes several counties and the person needs to have fairly broad appeal. The person doesn't need to be a Kurt Schrader because we had an excellent rep before him. He is not in the new district thankfully, so it is wide open.
Bernie would have beat Trump into the dirt. Hillary never had a chance.
Yes, that confirmation is historic.
Thanks for your work, Michele.
Get rid of the Berners if you want to get anything accomplished. Morons are generally useless.
Well, I guess I'm a double moron: I've been a supporter of the DSA since the '70s when Michael Harrington was running for the presidency. I firmly believe that a democracy can't survive without a strong public safety net - Thank you, Gary Dorrien. At any rate, I abide by the old adage: one shouldn't cut off one's nose to spite one's face.
I wasn't a Biden fan - still am not. And I will never forget how he threw Anita Hill under the bus. BUT I support him now because it's the only logical thing to do under the horrifying circumstances in our country.
There's a difference between Bernie supporters and Berners. Bernie supporters aren't idiots, and are as realistic as anyone else. Berners are "true believers" and as idiotic as any other of that ilk.
Thanks for the clarification. Question the need for differentiation. May cause more discord and we have an abundance of discord coming out of self righteousness.
Like you, I wish there wasn't the need for differentiation. Unfortunately, over the past 50 years, I have had the problem of the "true believers" shoved in my face - from the Weathermorons who gave the FBI every reason they needed to come down on people in the antiwar movement who were in fact opponents of that crap, through all the other ones whose ignorant antics make it hard for the serious people to do their work. I think of them as "permanent 13 year olds."
Yes, this is the one thing I hold against Biden. But now he is doing a lot of positive things and we need to tout those things.
Agree woth you Rosalind, and Gary Dorrien!
That is harsh and this person is quite active in good causes. I support a lot of what she does. However, I am afraid she is also a true believer. I see her in this aspect as the pc police. I find I cannot even report my own experiences because they might include something that is not possible for everyone. This is not her, but others of the same mind.
Rupert has only gotten more brazen, as have the clones
An underage kid illegally obtains an automatic rifle and travels to a town where he does not live, knows no one, and has no investment to protect.
He gets into a confrontation with 3 others and shoots them. He not only gets off on all counts, he is now a hero for killing people on cold blood?? He’s being offered a congressional internship? He’s being idolized in a documentary?
WTF have we come to?
I would argue that “documentary” is not a word that should be used to describe it. Coming from Tucker Carlson, we can be confident there will be nothing but untruths and propaganda
Indeed, Christy. Thanks for making that distinction. I’m envisioning a propaganda film along the lines of Refer Madness.
Refer Madness! I hadn't thought of that film in decades. They made us watch it when I was in school. Many of us laughed. I wonder, it has taken decades for most to realize that it was purely propaganda. If a Rittenhouse documentary becomes popular, will it take decades for most to realize it too is propaganda?
What have we come to?
We have become a nation polarized beyond all hope. 😩
Severely polarized, yes. But maybe we haven’t “become” that nation, maybe we’ve always been that nation. What’s the difference between Rittenhouse and a white 17-year-old settler from the 1700s or 1800s who kills Native Americans out of ignorance, suspicion, and fear? What’s the difference between Rittenhouse and any son of a slave owner who goes out and kills blacks in the 1800s? Or the 1900s for that matter. Or the 1960s for that matter. Or how about the McMichaels kid in the Arbery case. Is 2021 really so different than it has always been?
The inmates have taken over the asylum
Aye, same old same old. Nothing knew for Amurca here.
I used knew as juxtaposition but maybe it just looks misspelled.
We have come to and are: The United States of America.
Yep. That is what we are. Embarrasing is it not?
Yes it is, Mike ... I have to wonder what people actually are referring to with the cry to 'save our democracy' ... I have not been able to follow this whole conversation, but it is evident that all is not as we believe it to be ... the dream of truth, justice and equity will live on in the hearts of people who strive to make it real ... but how real can it be, if built on the shaky foundation of dysfunctional infrastructures ...?
"Every single Republican voted against the measure."
There needs to be a massive, continuous PR campaign to highlight their opposing votes because you can bet the Republicans are going back to their districts to take credit for bringing the fruits of BBB to their constituents. The Democrats need to work at getting all the credit.
Lincoln's idea that the Declaration of Independence is more a "proposition" than immutable cornerstone is much closer to the mark than the Founder's belief that "all men are created equal", especially since many of the Founders owned slaves.
Slaves and Native Americans were not equal, nor were white women.
The "inalienable" rights belonged to white, Anglo-Saxon men.
Fast foward to the present, and the absence of inclusiveness in the Declaration of Independence (and its attendant horrors for Native Americans, and enslaved Africans (along with other acts of great violence) demonstrates a causal link to the casual violence of a Rittenhouse (other vigilantes), the current GOP and its supporters.
And believe me, had Rittenhouse been Black, armed and killed two unarmed people, and wounded a third, he wouldn't be alive to stand trial.
The idea of "inalienable" rights for a few is what the GOP craves.
I hope such a craving is firmly denied by those of us who want a better, healthier, safer country for all.
I am not hopeful.
We are in a civil war now with common sense pitted against the extreme right. I hope some federal charges can be filed against Rittenhouse. Wolf Blitzer implied they still could. We are in a civil war against those who are trying to prevent our votes from counting, and those who think it is reasonable to gun down anyone trying to protest what they are doing. The kind of police brutality that inspired the Wisconsin protests that Rittenhouse brought an AR 15 gun into, and all this madness that has people allowed to carry guns around with them, like the 3rd guy Rittenhouse shot, who said he always carries a gun when he goes out, puts us all in danger. This is total insanity.
But will federal charges be brought after Biden publicly supported the jury’s decision?
Biden had to maintain respect for that particular jury. That has nothing to do with any federal charges being brought. And, it has been made quite clear that the white house is not supposed to meddle with the attorney general's decisions.
I see no reason to respect a jury who capitulated to an incompetent, arrogant, racist judge and to perhaps their own racism. (I say “perhaps” because I haven’t seen their feelings on full display like the judge was happy to do.)
I agree that the DOJ is supposed to be separate from the White House but I would argue that the DOJ is supposed to put equal justice for all as their primary objective and our current DOJ clearly does not.
Many commentators on MSNBC and CNN are saying they weren't surprised at the verdict because of Wisconsin gun laws and the rules the judge set down to the jury. The judge is a jerk, but the jury did not see him screaming at the prosecutor. The judge did not allow the prosecutor to make a lot of points. But, if I had been in the jury, I would have hung it rather than letting him off. But, they also said that usual quizzing of the jury for biases was not allowed by the judge.
Kasumii,
I understand your frustration, but in the specific context of Wisconsin existing law which allows anyone to defend themselves if under attack by deadly force, the jury had no choice ASSUMING they were willing to make their decision driven by existing law.
I think all things surrounding this nutcase Rittenhouse are reprehenible including the law in Wisconsin.
but, the jury cannot just ignore the existing law.
the problem is the law.
the rule of "law" in Wisconsin is one sided.
This is as close as HCR can get to telling us to stop resting and ACT--we've had a year of rest! To get back on the phones and canvassing, and contributing to organizations paying attention to elections for DAs, judges, state attorneys general, election commissioners, school boards. We have to win the democracy in a million small pieces and that takes WORK. We have less than a year left. Given the darkness of this year and the massive success rate of Republican gerrymandering and voter-suppression legislation and in off-year elections, it looks like 2022, not 2024, will be the decisive election. If it's lost, we'll have no chance in 2024 or, according to many scholars of electoral politics, ever again. Climate change without democracy...think about it.
We DO have a good chance in 2022! But, yes, it will take hard work and we can't waste time. Excellent Heather's Herd meeting today via Zoom with David Pepper re: his superb new book, "Laboratories of Democracy: A Wake-up Call From Behind the Lines." Read It! I call it "Common Sense II" with the same potency as Thomas Paine's original. We Can Save USA Democracy.
Thanks for the tip MaryPat. I've been phonebanking and canvassing this year with Swing Blue Alliance (and Sister District, since MA is so Democratic), and supporting the Movement Voter Project, a brilliant idea for funding local campaigns--I think the real strength needs to be local, in election commissions, school boards, city councils, state legislatures, state attorneys general, judges where they're elected...but it's hard to know about those outside your own town and county and state. https://movement.vote/
YES!!
yes.
"They won’t count D votes in red states or red counties." No excuse Don. If people had let that argument deter them, then Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff would not have won in Georgia.
Tears.
The acquittal on all five counts by the jury shows the system worked as it was intended
-and that system is unjust.
"Faux news" was allowed to film a documentary, but MSNBC was banned from covering the end of the trial.
The dead were not allowed to be called victims.
He crossed state lines and armed himself with an assault weapon it was illegal for him, at 17, to purchase. His mother reportedly said she fears if he had not had the weapon, he would have been killed. But Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber the only people killed at that protest.
...a protest against a law enforcement officer putting four shots into James Blake's back and another three into his body, paralyzing him. With his three children in the car - boys ages 3, 5 and 8.
Are we witnesses to government of the people, by the people, for the people
perishing from the earth?
Actually, we are witnessing government by the people, for the people and of the people in the United States of America.
so, maybe it has only ever worked for white people.
This case is unusual because the dead folks are white. But, they were siding with blacks in protest so.....it was OK to shoot them.
That....is Amurcan Democracy fellow citizens.
Our country's long, darkest shadow is that it has always been white people who have been the greedy and powerful. It was the white people who genocided the indigenous people on this land. It was white people who dragged darker people from another continent into slavery. We have been a country founded by a brutal, white caste system since our founding. We must reconcile our shadows. That requires maturity and vision. We are witnessing, hopefully, the old, dying white patriarchy's last screams. But we will have to fight, I am afraid because "we" have allowed really bad behaviors without consequences. And that is how white power persists.
The judge treated the murderer as just. As bad as it can get.
Swamped in the sadness, the reprehensible sorrow of the Kenosha court, in apologia for this grave miscarriage of justice, I rage against the machininations of the lawless...the illegal defenses of the para-whatevers. Inchoate rage against the idjts and their ilk. Sickened, am I, by the violence, judicial, and otherwise, against our rights. How many among us will protest in free and just actions now that we have been declared fodder for the likes of Rittenhouse?
I hope a civil suit is brought against Rittenhouse.
And against Fox and comrades.
Adam Serwer:
"The principle that canonizes Rittenhouse as a saint for defending his city from rioters, and the mob that stormed the Capitol as martyrs, is the principle that the slaughter of the right’s enemies is no crime."
I will. We don’t all live in Kenosha or St Louis. Let’s not go down to the swamp of despair. Let’s act in response. Go to the Black Lives Matter or Our Revolution websites to find out what action is being planned in your city!
If Kyle was BIPOC, he likely would have been harmed, and definitely would have faced a different outcome in court.
I once took a self-defense class when I was in college.
The instructor said, “everyone has a right to go anywhere they’re legally permitted access and at whatever time of day or night, barring any rules to the contrary.” (This varies in society’s eyes depending on skin color.)
The instructor also said, “That being said, the best way for anyone to defend themselves is to avoid situations where their safety might threatened.” (The situations to be avoided also vary depending on skin color.)
White male, Kyle Rottenhouse, with the full knowledge, consent, and aid of his own mother, willingly and irresponsibly cast good sense and his own safety aside to put himself in an unsafe situation, with a loaded weapon that was clearly visible, looked intimidating / threatening to others, and easily able to kill a person. Which it did. Twice. And seriously harmed one other person.
Let’s look at this from a another perspective. Had this been a rape case and Kyle a female victim, those same people who think Kyle is a hero would have thought “Kylie” dressed in a manner designed to elicit a certain emotion, shouldn’t have gone to that place, and shouldn’t be surprised that others drew certain conclusions about “her intentions”.
Excellent analysis, thank you. This case demonstrates perfectly the fallacy of the “good guy with a gun” argument. It was the presence of the gun itself which provoked the violence. Rittenhouse was afraid the victims would take his gun, so he shot them. Without the gun, he wouldn’t have needed to defend himself, because nobody would have noticed him, let alone threatened him. So how can this not be the very definition of reckless homicide? And how on earth could the judge have thrown out the illegal possession of a firearm charge? I can understand how the jury reached their verdict given the law in Wisconsin. But that one baffles me.
Sorry but the judge was biased.
"f Kyle was BIPOC, he likely would have been harmed, and definitely would have faced a different outcome in court."
Yes, Kenosha had armored vehicles out ready to kill anyone black who got out of line.
If Kyle was BIPOC he would have been gunned down by police armored vehicles.
Yup.
Didn’t his AK-47 loving mom take him to Wis
Yes, his mother drove him there with his AR-15 gun (which is somehow not considered a rifle or an Assault Weapon).
He kept the gun at a friends house in Kenosha so he didn’t carry it across state lines. There was a lot of fuss about making that clear. But nevertheless he took an AR-15 to provide “medical care” to those injured.
I haven’t not seen how long he was there before he got in the altercation. 5 minutes? 2 hours? Did he head right into the crowd and hint for someone he could kill? Did he provide medical care to anyone prior to the shooting. He let the people he shot die with no effort to stop it. I would have wanted to know all that as a juror.
I didn’t watch the trial.
They both are blathering, whining bullies. So was the judge
"Rottenhouse"! Perfect.
What we witnessed with the Rittenhouse trial is a horrid victory for the members of the KKK and their offshoots like the Proud Bois, etc. If there are other trials that the verdict(s) are similar, our nation will have a very tough time recovering to any type of normalcy, as we knew it. I truly do not want to be a fatalist but both of my parents were Holocaust victims. They never wanted to say they were survivors because they weren’t in the camps, but their plight to get to America was difficult and arduous. My mother’s parents were killed…gassed at Chelmno in 1942. My father’s relatives were lined up in fields and shot. This is the grim reality of what people do to other people. African Americans have had to fight tooth and nail just to be recognized for what is fair and just. Look at how long that has taken!! It’s still being argued about. Why? Because they are a different shade than you? Jews received the same fate. How many millions must die and why are we killing each other? The Senate is full of neo-Nazis and so is the House. They are in full view. Ask yourselves why would we even tolerate their egregious acts of speeches that incite. They are not going away but neither are we. We must fight arm in arm. We must!
There were a lot of blue-eyed blondes who were killed in the Nazi death camps. The churches (most of them) helped by going back generations through their member registers to cull out anyone with a drop of Jewish blood.
I live in a city that was distinctly "Brown," as in Brown Shirt. There was only one church, the Bergkirche in Wiesbaden, that openly opposed the Nazis. I've worked there since 2013.
Their pastor was arrested off and on but not killed - he was too popular. One of the church council members, a lawyer named Hans Buttersack, who legally fought for the lives of Jewish neighbors, died near the close of the war in Dachau. The theologian Martin Niemöller spent his first night out of prison in the Bergkirche pastor's house. Niemöller wrote this shortly afterward (you probably all know it):
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
We need to remember Niemöller's words.
Thank you, Rosalind.
Rosalind, thank you and yes, I do know Niemöller’s often quoted phrases. When I was young, my mother would tell my sister and I that no Jews had blue eyes. I was very gullible so I believed her. That was until my father’s long lost nephew came to visit. He had piercing blue eyes! Imagine my astonishment! Yes, many non-Jews suffered terrible fates for aiding their friends. This is my fear.
Thank you.
My father took me to Dachau when our family lived in Frankfurt in the 1970s. Not mom, not my sisters, just me. His childhood home is outside of München. He had a front row seat for the entire rise of Hitler.
UGH!
The reality is this: Americans of any color and religion who stand up for civil and human rights in public venues can and will be gunned down in their tracks by men and women emboldened by the Rittenhouse verdicts. They will strike out against "the other", encouraged by Republican lawmakers and with the blessing of law enforcement, knowing full well that when they stand before a judge and jury acquittal is a likelihood.
Marlene, It makes my heart hurt that your family suffered so much loss and grief under Nazism. It happened because one nation allowed one man undue power and influence to the point he was able to declare war against not only the Jewish citizens of his own country but all of Europe. In all of this, we need to remember our Nation's role in that purge. We are no shining example – "FDR considered the Nazi persecution of German Jews to be none of America’s concern".
In November 1938, writing about a speech he had prepared, "[Secretary of the Interior Harold] Ickes wrote in his diary that White House aides who reviewed his draft informed him “that the President wanted us to cut out all references to Germany by name as well as references to Hitler, Goebbels, and others by name.” FDR’s own public statement criticizing the pogrom did not contain a single explicit mention of Hitler, Nazism, or even the Jews."
Republican law makers have thrown open the gates of Hell. They have declared war against their own country. They are working tirelessly and relentlessly to shape the United States into a country driven by paranoia and rage. They seem to be suceeding. Today, people in the United States are taking their masks off, baring their teeth and taking up arms against "the other" – BIPOC, Women, LGBTQ, Democrats/Liberals, Non-Christians and more. Our current troubles have been brewing through the course of our history and we've come to a point, once again, where Americans will stand against one another in the most horrific manner possible. All because a 17 year old got away with murder.
https://www.jns.org/opinion/fdrs-secret-plea-to-hitler/
The Rittenhouse verdict is a symptom of what’s wrong with America. At the very least that boy should have been charged with a weapons crime. If that kid had been Black, he’d have been one sentence in a news article that mentioned how many people died during the rioting. He would have been shot dead.
He was not arrested by the police at the scene of the murder!
Daria, what you write echoes through my soul. Here's the opening of my journal entry last night....."I’m sick of the way this country is heading. No justice, no civility…only violence and acceptance of the hatred in the country."
Pam, I wish we had a different story to tell.
So do I.
Daria, thank you for providing that link about how FDR engaged three oil moguls to go to Germany, to meet with Hitler. I did not know this information! Henry Ford was also an admirer of Hitler. Our family never owned a Ford for that very reason. Both parents came to America in the late 30’s. I think of the precious family members they left behind and then tried to help them get out. It makes me shudder to think that we may be headed that way again.
Yes, indeed. "General Motors was far more important to the Nazi war machine than Switzerland," said Bradford Snell, who has spent two decades researching a history of the world's largest automaker. "Switzerland was just a repository of looted funds. GM was an integral part of the German war effort. The Nazis could have invaded Poland and Russia without Switzerland. They could not have done so without GM.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm
Thank you for this link! Collusion at its finest! 🤬
I have the lovely fate of fighting this battle constantly in my own family. It’s a battle between the educated and the uneducated. The uneducated are dim, they see only physical differences: skin color/ancestry, gender (and who is touching or kissing whom), money and status symbols. So the settlers of the European Invasion of the Americas make themselves superior, and non-whites inferior, if not actually owned as slaves. The Germans back in NSDAP Germany did likewise. Even religion, and the signs of it, are an excuse for prejudice and persecution. In my profession, I have heard the term “raghead“ on more than one occasion. The Germans persecuted Jews, even though an educated person knows that the founder of Christianity was a Jew. But for moral dolts, all that matters is their own superiority and enforcing everyone else’s inferiority. Stone Age Neanderthals.
I’m with you Marlene. We are on the winning team. Right now the rats and cockroaches are being forced out of hiding, and they know their cause is lost, because their figurehead is a one term twice impeached loser. They know they are losing, and they despise it, but their fury will not affect the final conclusion. We are going to a diverse, inclusive, power-sharing society. End of story. Even the dummies know it, and it’s driving them crazy. Too bad.
Roland, I hope you're right, but I think there is going to be a firestorm before the tide is turned.
I share your fate, Roland. Haven't talked to any of my Florida family (mother included, who takes Ivermectin and is still waiting for the Qanon onslaught).
I have a similar family divide…definitely challenging
That does indeed pose challenges.
I am so sorry your mom is in that place.
Roland, thanks for your hopefulness. I’m worried that unless we are able to secure our voting rights, the racist cockroaches will rule.
I hope we are on the winning team, my friend. I can’t help to be less optimistic, however, so please forgive me.
Goodness you don’t have to match me. This is a fight. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.
Thanks to the Rittenhouse verdicts, I fear a chilling effect on lawful protests. Wannabe Rittenhouses, hoping to become famous and cash in, will feel emboldened to use their weapons against people peacefully exercising First Amendment rights. And just wait to see how Tucker Carlson, TFG, and the rogue's gallery of authoritarians in Congress build Rittenhouse into a larger-than-life action hero. Mark my words, Rittenhouse will be invited to attend Biden's State of the Union address and bask in the attention from fawning Republicans. Imagine the spectacle.
I am sick and furious.
Me too.
Ugh…I can see that happening, unfortunately.
Paul Gosar posted a tweet suggesting that Rittenhouse should be awarded the Medal Of Freedom for "protecting" the town of Kenosha. Sure....
I wondered how long it would take for that suggestion to pop up…
What?