Heather, i always feel guilty that i don't comment more often to thank you for what you do. so... thank you. sincerely. i don't know what we'd do without you.
no matter how bad the days are (and they've been pretty bad during these times), i always read your post before bed. the clarity, perspective, wisdom and sheer breadth of knowledge make me sleep better at night. you're a national treasure, and i just hope you know how much we all value you...
Fannie Perkins was Secretary of Labor under FDR. She was the first female cabinet member ever. From Wikipedia: "In 1933, Roosevelt summoned Perkins to ask her to join his cabinet. Perkins presented Roosevelt with a long list of labor programs for which she would fight, from Social Security to minimum wage. "Nothing like this has ever been done in the United States before," she told Roosevelt. "You know that, don’t you?" Agreeing to back her, Roosevelt nominated Perkins as Secretary of Labor."
In her 12 years as Secretary of Labor she was largely responsible for the creation of social security, unemployment insurance in the United States, the federal minimum wage, and federal laws regulating child labor.
One of the most important people in US history--and one of the least well-known and least-studied. I had a MA student who wrote his thesis on Perkins and he had one heckuva time trying to find historical assessments of her that went beyond the "first female cabinet member." We need more Frances Perkinses in the world.
Trivia: When I read "Fannie" instead of "Frances," it gave me pause. Here's more from Wikipedia: Frances Perkins (born Fannie Coralie Perkins; April 10, 1880)
After graduating from college and working at Hull House with Jane Addams: "She changed her name from Fannie to Frances when she joined the Episcopal church in 1905."
She is definitely on the Early 1900s Sheroes List along with Ida Tarbell!
Those names from the turn of the 20th Century have gone out of vogue. My grandmother on my mom's side was always called "Flo" for Flossie Novela and on my dad's side was "Minnie-Mae."
My gram was named Wilhelmina at birth which was a fine name at her birth. She was called Wilma as a child and used that her entire life. Even her headstone depicts Wilma.
Also, HCR is a recipient of the 2021 Massachusetts Governor's Awards in the Humanities, which event took place a few days ago, October 24, 2021. Admittedly, I have not watched the whole video, but starting at Time 30:48, Heather responds to the question of what role she sees the humanities playing in the coming years.
Lynell, thank you so much for posting the link to the Massachusetts Humanities Governor's Awards program. The segments of the program displaying Heather Cox Richardson's intellect and work are very rewarding...but so are the segments involving the other three awardees.....and indeed the entire program, including the Indigenous Peoples' opening. Here is the direct link to the video on YouTube https://youtu.be/CGJpsX6YeHk (you will have to rewind to the Indigenous Peoples' segment, if appropriate)
Indeed, Herb! I did watch the beginning segment with Larry Spotted Crow Mann. Now that I have more time, I will be watching the remarks of the other three awardees as well. Thanks for your gentle reminder, and YouTube link.
Thank you Lynell. Her section on the Humanities and continuing education for people out of the K-12 phase of schooling is fascinating. I think it a bridge to getting along and getting better.
My favorite part of President Biden's speech today was saying when the middle class does well so do the wealthy, but it doesn't work the other way around.
One of the late Senator Paul Wellstone’s (D-MN) oft-repeated phrases was; “We all do better when we all do better.” Still true. As you have said many times; “We The People, all of us this time!”
Ah but, Cathy, it all depends on what you call "well". The rich are happiest with their returns in your second case and don't seem to understand the necessity for the first.
That's one reason I think governments should be measured by a Well-Being Index at least as important as GDP if not more. Money doesn't bring happiness. Those obsessed with wealth are never satisfied because they haven't learned that lesson.
Yes, but doable! Several countries are doing it. I'm more worried about the partisan biases getting in the way. Talk about subjective rather than rational!
"When suffering Americans begged for public works programs to provide jobs, Hoover insisted that such programs were a “soak the rich” program that would “enslave” taxpayers, and called instead for private charity."
One of the great *accomplishments* of later plutocrats was to convince a significant number of working class Americans that individualism is synonymous with patriotism, true Americans bootstrap themselves out of adversity, and that government *entitlements* destroy Americans' initiative. The idea was to have the oppressed and exploited identify their best interests with the vested interests of their oppressors and exploiters. For too many reasons to detail here - including weaponizing government itself against the labor movement and unions - it worked.
They are still at it. Just yesterday, at congressional hearings, Democrats grilled Big Oil honchos on what they knew about their *contributions* to global warming, when they knew it, and how they lied to the public about the dangers. On their side, Republicans heaped god's blessings on the American spirit made flesh in America's job creators in general and Big Oil CEOs in specific, which Democratic environmental protections in general and Joe Biden in specific are out to crucify. To prove their point (and mine here) they trotted out a former worker on the Keystone XL pipeline project to curse President Biden's cancelling it on Inauguration Day.
Republican rhetoric has lead a significant number of the economically insecure and undereducated to buy into a god given, dog eat dog, dog in the manger dystopia of unregulated greed, as the natural order of things - in which their job is to bootstrap themselves to wealth or to sit up and beg and be grateful for it.
In a fair and just society, government does not perpetuate the unearned privileges of the few or the undeserved burdens of the many. It does not use the power of government to preserve intergenerational personal fortunes while throwing generations of systemically disadvantaged on the whims and erratic mercies of charity.
Build Back Better translates the Golden Rule into the civic terms of social infrastructure. It recognizes that when government institutes justice as fairness, it ups everybody's opportunity for a good life.
HST knew that as did FDR. Reagan dusted off the same old Schitt and here we go again, this time with Rupert/Roger Ailes propaganda juggernaut. HST “Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 30 years….Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. Oct 10, 1952
I cannot believe I have taken the time to track this down - this to me is not living well - or even living ... another sleepless night in the fight for freedom and equity in the free world. I do it in hopes of clarifying TRUTH ON THE GROUND ...:
Here is a Newt Gingrich interview with Laura Ingraham 10/14/21
... a few soundbites from the mouth of the former Speaker who is "looking forward to a very healthy national debate about WHAT IS VIABILITY?"...:
Gingrich (3:01 - 3:57):
'Ha, when I hear Joe Biden talk about plans, I think of ...:
Withdrawal from Afghanistan - disaster
The border - where Kamala Harris is absent without leave - disaster
16 ships stuck off of Long Beach - disaster
... the Joe Biden Christmas will be a narrow, lean Christmas ...
Price of meat ... gone up dramatically,
Price of Gasoline ... gone up dramatically,
Jobs unfilled ...
Trucking companies can't find truckers ...'
"If this is the Joe Biden plan,
it is a disaster ...
Pragmatically, let's,look at
FACTS ON THE GROUND,
not statements from the White House
that have no connection to reality."
{{ ...?!?!? }}
... about the Left (5:14 - 5:28):
"BIG GOVERNMENT SOCIALISTS ... are a secular religious movement;
They can't deal with reality;
They can't cope with facts;
If it doesn't fit their narrative,
they just shrug it off and refuse to pay attention to it."
{{ ...?!?!?}}
(5:31 - 5:53):
"If you're an illegal immigrant, none of Joe Biden's requirements apply to you. If you're an American citizen, he's willing to use the power of the government to coerce you - to force you into losing your job - to cut off your unemployment - to not allow you to fly in an airplane ...,"
"Why is it that Biden is so pro illegal immigrant and so anti American citizen?"
Ingraham (5:53 - 5:57):
"The goal is to change America, Newt, that's what they're trying to do. But Americans are beginning to fight back."
_____
Really, Laura?
Ok, I always had the impression that America is the beacon of change in a world of oppressive, static traditions ... American citizens have immigrated from every corner of the planet to work together for a better world.
How can we work together when we are so invested in winning we do not listen to - or hear each other, or even ourselves? Are we just pawns in a game to pit one against another, keeping everybody down?
... so, I ask ... what is viability when one man perceives in the other what he himself is doing - twisting truth like taffy - utterly blind to his own culpability ... and how do we make any kind of progress with contrary contingencies doing the same?
___
In preparation for the great national debate:
DEFINITION - VIABILITY:
'ability to work, survive or live successfully.'
'ability to work as intended or to succeed'
'ability to continue to exist or develop as a living being'
WOW, thank you for this. Best example ever of republicans use of Goebbels best propaganda technique, blaming others for what we do. Why the division will get wider as long as Rupert is on the air. There have been plenty of other players but he wins the prize. I didn't realize how long he has been our evil until I ran across this blurb. Don't know when but from Roger Wood,, Post's executive editor at one time. "At a dinner last month in Washington honoring Mr. Murdoch for his work on behalf of Mr. Reagan, Representative Jack Kemp, a New York Republican, said 'Rupert Murdoch used the editorial page, the front page and every other page necessary to elect Ronald Reagan President.'" Boy did it pay off for Rupert...
Ah, thank you Jeri, I was hoping it would be worth the time it took to track it down ... I feel like the only way to counter and defeat their strategy is to call them on their purposeful misinterpretations of the real story ... ("if this is the Joe Biden plan, it's a disaster" ... well, it is not even close to the Joe Biden plan - but yes, it is a disaster, compliments of the adversarial elements that generate sound-bytes to defeat the plan.) To do that, as unpleasant and painful as it is, we have to listen to what they say, hit 'pause' 144,000 times, pinpoint and expose the twisted truths (with irrefutable evidence) next to the real story - then hope to reach the boggled minds of the masses who soak it up without closer examination. "... facts on the ground?" PLEASE!!!
Every time the Repubs trot out one of the folks who lost their jobs when Keystone was cancelled, I just want to scream at these folks to look at their local community college for a training program for wind turbine technicians. After training and a journeyman period, salaries range upwards of $100,000 a year. Not bad without a four year degree (not bad even with one here in the Midwest)
Free community college got cancelled by Manchin and the Repubs. God forbid we should provide good technical education for those whom Republicans wish to keep their thumbs on so they can keep them hateful and violent.
And the the Republicans will cry that China has all the technology. The refusal to provide even the most basic education in k-12 and then only the rich get to go to college keeps this country dependent on people from other countries using visas to come here and work. If we stop the educated entire companies like Apple, Microsoft. Oracle, etc will fail in the U.S. and move to those other countries.
We need to educate Americans, not outsource our jobs. I’ve seen this happen over the past 30 years from the inside of these companies.
I am thankful my grandson gets 2 years of community college free in California under the Promise plan. This is because he attended the high school. He only had to apply and keep his grades up. Now, he can be accepted into one of the University of California colleges under a program called TAG. Again, certain GPA requirements varying from 3.1 to 3.4 for his choice of UCSC and UCI. UCSD doesn’t do TAG and not all majors are included but the pressure to get into these very highly rated schools has been alleviated. He is an orphan since my daughter passed and California helps. People complain about how expensive it is to live here but they need to look at how well they’re taken care of. Of course they’d need to think of someone besides themselves and their wealth. The poverty in the red states is because the people living in poverty never have a chance to get out of it.
Yes, we all do better when everyone does better. The working who are paid a living wage can pay their own way, pay taxes and contribute to the economy. They want to work but Manchin is afraid they’d feel a sense of entitlement if we help them become productive members of society.
On one hand Republicans weep crocodile tears for the unemployed who they use as props and on the other hand Republicans deny unemployment aid and other essential and emergency services.
All this is based on their unique ability to judge others as lazy, entitled, beggars, ignorant, etc. This long time judgement keeps them focused on their grip on governmental monies and used as excuses for voting down any governmental programs to help feed, clothe, and shelter the poor and struggling. They also keep pushing these responsibilities off on charities who struggle to meet the needs of their patrons. When you have elected officials becoming rich and wealthy while serving in office, you have the seeds for corruption, more greed, and the need for more power.
So true. And we have sailed past the time when charitable organizations can pick up the tab to make the difference ... time to call the bluff and lay cards on the table - otherwise, prepare to 'pay the piper' - all the way to the top ....
Mind-boggling, heart wrenching perpetual obstructionism ... interesting that so many of these folks complain about QANON, yet seem to proudly support it ... and these are bible thumping Christians? ... have I got that wrong?
Definition of 'Satan': "adversary; who plots against another" (Oxford) ... "adversary; opponent; arch enemy of good" (Abingdon-Strong)
Hi Ashley, I think "The Devil" is an archetype ... manifest in the warped personalities of disassociated souls - so, really, just another wounded pawn on the chessboard - though doubtless, the pride-full, glory seeking ego aspires to the ultimate status ... sad, really ... but not omnipotent (imo) ....
Free community college and a whole lot of other things got lost in this bill, thanks to Manchin, Sinema and the Republicans. But I don't hear alot about the Republicans not playing...all I hear is about the Democrats "in disarray". Even this morning on an interview, Kate Bedingfield said something about what was "left out" but never even mentioned that zero Republicans had contributed one iota to this bill. ?????????
Biden says US will "own the future" with legacy-defining Build Back Better, but disagreements among Democrats remain, imperiling plan
The slimming down comes courtesy of Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who balked at the original $3.5 trillion budget proposal and demanded cuts to various programs within it.
Not that I want to defend Manchinema, but just maybe their antics have rocked the Rebops back on their heels enough that the legislation will go forward somewhat smoothly. I have a dream that more Dem congresspersons will be elected in '22 and then another bill can be written including the educational provisions at least.
That, and the efforts of the Progressive Democratic Caucus led by Pramila Jayapal ... possible evidence that persistent optimism and undying good will make all the difference in the world.
I wanted to update you on where things stand after this busy week.
Yesterday, I helped lead our charge to hold off mounting pressure on progressives to do something we’ve consistently said we will not do: We will not approve only a smaller physical infrastructure bill without President Biden’s larger Build Back Better Act that makes long-overdue investments in working people, families, and our communities.
I have worked with each and every stakeholder in the Democratic caucus and the White House to advance the popular Build Back Better Act — with historic investments in childcare, affordable housing, pre-K, health care, climate action, and much more. Progressives have been the biggest, most consistent, most enthusiastic champions of this popular Democratic agenda that voters want us to deliver on.
While corporate lobbyists, Big Pharma, and Wall Street have tried to stop us from fighting for the people, we’ve kept the President’s Build Back Better agenda on track and moving forward.
Now, we are organizing inside and outside of Congress to get it over the finish line so we can secure real change that will allow people across America to wake up feeling different about their lives and the opportunities their family has.
I’m optimistic but we are again at a crossroads: Democrats have a chance to deliver for the people who delivered us the House, the Senate, and the White House. The people are relying on us to get it done now, and not leave anyone behind.
Lin, whoever you are, thank you for this brilliant summary of how we arrived at our current abominable state of the nation (and alas, much of the rest of our planet). I wish you would submit it as an Op Ed or a letter to the editor of the NYT and/ or WaPo although I doubt any mainstream media outlet would publish it.
Credit where credit is due to our mainstream media. For decades I've had letters in the NYTimes and Washington Post. And small local independent newspapers, which are on the frontlines providing oversight of local government.
Dr. Cox Richardson, as the best of teachers, brings out the best in her students. Such as we all are and such as is shown by so many commenters.
For my NYC and NYState public school teachers, reading comprehension and writing assignments were at the heart of their mission. *Now, put it in your own words* was their rallying cry. For the rest - more CSpan than is probably good for anyone's sanity. I don't teach, but I rant.
I marvel at thinkers like HCR, Irving Stone, Howard Zinn et al and so many journalists (Thank You Jane Mayer, Jelani Cobb, Evan Osnos, Amy Sorkin Davidson ...) and elected officials (Thank You Jamie Raskin, Caroline Maloney, Sheldon Whitehead, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Angus King ...) who are in the thick of it everyday and know so much and
Thank You so very much for taking the time to let me know. I am so very pleased that you are now exploring these wonderful thinkers.
Another of my favorites is the political cartoonist Herblock. Shockingly many of his observations on American society and politics - especially civil rights - are not out dated at all. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/herblock-gallery/
Your opening paragraph contains the gist of rationale used by mostly all GOP elected officials to deny spending on programs that will help all citizens especially the least fortunate.
When he was first elected governor of NJ ‘Cubbs’ Christy refused to commit NJ funding share to build a new tunnel under the Hudson River into NYC. The Feds and NY gov had already signed onto the project! The ‘rotund one’ refused because the exact cost to NJ citizens could not be known! Subsequently, he signed on to expand the NJ higher Ed system without ‘knowing the exact cost’. This was payback to two Democratic (yes that’ correct) county leaders who refused to campaign for the Democratic incumbent (Corzine) opposing Christie.
In North Carolina, the right wing controlled legislature steadfastly refuses to expand Medicaid which would help the working poor in our state! Reason…..yup!…’We don’t know the cost to NC taxpayers’! Combined with…what if the Federal government stops paying their share! Head in the sand, callous disregard for those less fortunate in NC! But those political creatures keep getting re-elected by the very people they are denying support!
That’s because those creatures have created safe seats for themselves and are able to have a legislative majority. The R’s are not the majority of registered voters. The R’s are working hard in the NC General Assembly to make themselves rich while ignoring the poor. Google Moral Mondays and the Rev. William Barber II.
... and the real costs are beyond calculation ... all I can say is, "what goes around, comes around." These wannabe 'winners' need to wake up and shape up before their game comes back around and bytes them in the A$$!!
They ditched McCrory (and Art Pope) thank God, I lived there during that government crime spree. Still plenty of weaponized ignorance, as in Tx, where I live now. Lordy
Think on this: pulling oneself up by the bootstraps was originally meant to signify that something was IMPOSSIBLE to do. Bootstraps are on the backs of footwear only meant to pull on one’s shoes or boots. You CANNOT come to a standing position by pulling bootstraps.
The Haves are still peddling the same old lies they always have. They mask their cruelty by cultural distractions. The political names have changed over the years but people who have resources, especially abundant ones, are not fond of sharing. My mother taught me that sharing was a grown up thing to do, and selfishness was for small children. People age, but they do not necessarily mature and acquire wisdom.
Thank You! I never thought of the etymology. And yes language evolves. And at any given time, words have several usages. One reason why claims of 'originalism' and 'textualism' are preposterous. You can't divine the Founders' intent through a dictionary. You can't credibly claim an authoritative reading of a text or pretend you are not interpreting it from your own perspective.
And yes, the task of advancing economically in this society is almost impossible. And you never do it on your own. It took 4 generations for my immigrant family to go from the factory floor to IT management - and it would have been impossible without government programs for public education, rent stabilization etc
"The new system undercut fascism at home, too, where its adherents had been growing strong, and reminded Americans that when the government supported ordinary people, they could build a strong new future."
I like how HCR tucks her point so neatly and subtly into the text.
"For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.”
1984 was required reading in H.S., along with Fahrenheit 451, On the Beach, A Clockwork Orange -- and Soylent Green, I think.
Needless to say, living in the Cold War, I graduated in 1968 pretty messed up! Freaked out actually. The very next day I was on a bus to Fort Dix. On my way to the Green Latrine....
Still not sure, even today, if I'm sane or not....and now this! All I know is, we have to win this.
I think this is related to the paradoxical effect of the current demands of not teaching "critical race theory." Some parents don't want their children to experience or learn about the different races they live among. It's goal is to keep whites the superior race. In reality the outcome will be keeping the children ignorant and entitled.
Smack in the middle of the New Deal programs enacted from 1933 to 1939:
"Gallup Poll, 1936: "Do you believe the acts and policies of the Roosevelt Administration may lead to a dictatorship?" 83 percent of Republicans said, yes. 9 percent of Democrats said, yes. . (And they say we're polarized now.)"
Woa. Now that's something to think on....Evolution? Let's see, maybe high- temp tolerant, bigger lungs, higher immune system efficiency with broader food tolerance maybe? Certainly can't get no uglier than me....
Isn’t THAT right, Bo. Heather’s writing is simple and clear, the structure and unfolding of her pieces exquisite. And the message?! Aren’t we lucky to have her.
The relationship of Ford and GM to the Nazi regime goes back to the 1920s and 1930s, when the American car companies competed against each other for access to the lucrative German market. Hitler was an admirer of American mass production techniques and an avid reader of the antisemitic tracts penned by Henry Ford. "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration," Hitler told a Detroit News reporter two years before becoming the German chancellor in 1933, explaining why he kept a life-size portrait of the American automaker next to his desk.
Although Ford later renounced his antisemitic writings, he remained an admirer of Nazi Germany and sought to keep America out of the coming war. In July 1938, four months after the German annexation of Austria, he accepted the highest medal that Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner, the Grand Cross of the German Eagle. The following month, a senior executive for General Motors, James Mooney, received a similar medal for his "distinguished service to the Reich."
Then Hitler and the Nazis applied assembly line and mass production techniques to industrialize the process of mass murder--hence the concentration camps, some for slave labor and some for extermination.
Thanks Cathy. I'm trying to measure the blind spot in my head. It's a big one for a guy with very dear Jewish friends....they don't ever talk about this. But I needed to know.
Unf**king believable. Read some of Michael Lewis’ works re how the Nazi octopus had invaded America. In fact, IBM helped the Nazi’s with their excellent record keeping in the concentration camps. Sorry, no reference here, but saw it on book tv on C-span several years ago.
Yes, indeed "… IBM directly supplied the Nazis with technology which was used to help transport millions of people to their deaths in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Treblinka, …”
Few realize that corporations survive nations. Most believe the opposite is true. The list of extant corporations that served Nazi Germany and survived its termination contains a surprising number of household names.
His email contact address only wants to hear from West Virginians, so maybe if there is a WV here in the group they could copy and send the entire letter!!
There is a protest going on called something like Letters to Joe Manchin, and they have a usable address or addresses. I'd have to go to Instagram to get the info though and I don't have an account. Maybe you do?
Wish I had a short list of possible Dem candidates for senate in 2022. My donations would go to two of the most viable. This would allow us to not give a fig about the two Trojan Horses. Of course, I still donate to vulnerable current Dem senators. However, My retirement money only goes so far. But hope I live long enough to see those two irrelevant. I could die happy…
As I said to someone above, probably a better use of all our time right now is to canvass or make calls to Democrats in Virginia! Swing Blue (for instance) is doing 2-hour phonebank shifts (with training, but it's easy) from 10am to 8pm over the next 4 days. Get on it!
I found it there, but couldn't access the whole message because I don't have an account. Oh well, there are better things to do with our time. Like canvass or phone bank in/for Virginia!!!
The WPA Federal Writers Project produced Guides to both Arizona and West Virginia.
But of course *we* wouldn't want writers to start feeling entitled. Or Americans to feel entitled to government funded projects. Oh No Indeedy Not That.
Mitch McConnell in 2019 brought almost 1 Billion dollars of federal tax money to Kentucky for industries in his state including Bourbon whiskey, thoroughbreds and hemp in one of the 2019 Omnibus spending bills. He’s okay with spending federal $$ if it’s buying him votes. The GOP is against any spending when it has a chance to improve all American’s lives by protecting our environment and improving healthcare and education. Why? Because it involves supporting the wider economy and the greater good AND they just do not understand that concept.
On school days for three years, I made a once or twice-daily 20-mile roundtrip to get our son to a private middle school. The school is in Portland's West Hills at 1,000 feet above downtown. It wasn't a hardship. We enjoyed the time together, and the education benefits were enormous.
Why mention this? The steep part of the route snakes uphill through the city's scenic 5,200-acre Forest Park, including through two short, narrow tunnels. Atop the entrances etched in stone are the years they were built, 1940 and 1941.
I'm chagrined that until reading tonight's letter I didn't make the connection to the New Deal and its Works Progress Administration. There are much bigger and better-known WPA projects in the area, including Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, where people ski even in summer.
I passed through those tunnels hundreds of times, never realizing that the projects must have created hundreds of jobs during the bleakness of the Great Depression. The projects also opened what in the 1940s and is today a critical route for the metro area.
The next time we head up to the West Hills and through the tunnels, I'll picture the workers drilling through basalt rock on a a heavily wooded steep slope to rebuild the country.
Yes! Those jobs put money in pockets. That money bought food for the table, rent, clothing. That economic activity just spread, and spread outward. That tunnel project was the grease to just get the economic gears going. Things get better slowly, and another gear and another. So many till the gears add themselves.
Once that is happening, governments can begin the process of deleveraging to manage inflation risk. What
Germany chose militarization over infrastructure, and to pay for it and their reparations to France the just printed wildly.
We built roads,bridges power plants, schools and education for future advancement, social programs to keep both the peace, lessen the anxiety of the masses, thus strengthening the social fabric, restoring hope, which gave people a sense of dignity, then pride, a sense of patriotism.
FDR had us crawling out of the depression at first, but then we started sprinting on our own. The public projects probably the most under appreciated are the dams in the Northwest, like Grand Coulee dam. First it provided work and paychecks, then the electricity to build those bombers that stopped Hitler, and was n WW2.
Without that investment in the early 1930’s, we never could have produced the bombers, ships, and tanks to even go to war with Germany in the early 40’s. let alone defeat the Nazi’s. Without the New Deal, it would be a far different world today.
My maternal grandfather (b 1896 d 1962) worked in the CCC in California in the mid 1930's. Kept their family alive. My Mom (b 1921 d 2004) showed me some of the projects he had worked on in the forests around northern California, building those stone firepits you still see in some of the National / State forest campgrounds.
That’s Dr. Richardson’s gift to us. Opens our imaginations and gives us some beautiful moments of sheer insight and gratitude, like your tunnels. While she is helping us understand the bad stuff....
Professors help us brain. Should be on a t-shirt. Thanks Michael, for sharing that really good moment with us!
Thank you. New England has beautiful post offices and court houses, among others, that were WPA projects. Can’t help slowing down each time I see one to admire the craftsmanship, and to feel the pride and desire to do right for future generations that went into each one.
It's remarkable - and sad. The summer of furnace-like heat did a number up there. Our son is on the high school ski team, and they tried to train in early August. A rocky, wet mess. We've lived here almost 22 years, and the top of the mountain had always glistened with snow all summer long.
Didn't know you were a fellow Oregonian. There are some WPA/CCC stone firepits in southern Oregon recreation sites (McKee Bridge along the Applegate, for one).
Safety net for the unemployed and elderly. Build back better bridges and roads. Plus ca change... When ordinary people are given a more level playing field, they always build a better world for all of us. Why should we ever trust the rich to share, create jobs, pay their fair share? They never do. Why can't the Democrats seize this moment?
Democrats? Is that what we call Manchin and Sinema. I agree with your overall sentiment. But if we didn't know before, we do now: a 50-50 Senate with all Republicans refusing to govern + a filibuster + two Democratic senators overly influenced by lobbyists and the allure of big campaign contributions = what we have now. And, as some commentators today have shouted to the heavens, why aren't the Republicans blamed?
And how many of the current repubs in our government are seditionists that should be in jail for treason against our, what should be fair, past election? And why are we allowing them to vote on anything? They should be relieved of their jobs, paychecks and all benefits immediately following Jan 6 and their signing of the amicus brief that stating Biden did not win. This is a travesty of ridiculous proportions that we have allowed to happen. Our system needs checks and balances against republicans. Make sure NONe of them are allowed to serve and break their oaths of office ever again. Remind all Americans those make moves against our democracy daily. WE ALLOW THEM TO CONTINUE TO DESTROY IT. WHAT IS WRONG WITH US...AND OUR MEDIA?
"More than half of the House Republican Caucus in the 116th Congress signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to allow a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — swing states where former Vice President Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump. We’ve listed these members, 126 in all, below."
Absolutemente Penelope Simpson Adams. People are angry. Duh! Partly because our "justice" system - isn't. Especially, if you've got money and or power. Call your Reps and Senators and rustle their bustles!!! Today!!! Tomorrow!!! and....
Couldn’t agree more, so sick of the MSM blathering about how the cult feels and what they think. Don’t we all know that cults are irrational devotees of a sinister entity. Propaganda does that
Why aren't we - the citizenry - on the phone bombarding our Reps and Senators and giving hell to Biden for his pussy footing around instead of using the tremendous power of the presidency to pressure Sinema and Manchin? Why aren't we in the streets today and tomorrow insisting on the original climate funding, Medicare negotiating drug prices, paid family leave care etc? Biden, Schumer and Pelosi: passionate in support of the "human" infrastructure bill? Are you kidding? Why waste breath and energy on the walking yammering idiot dead (Republicans?)? Emotionally they're 2 year olds or entering puberty with oppositional defiant disorder (If, however, your child displays a pattern of anger, defiance, argumentative behavior, or vindictiveness towards you, they may have oppositional defiant disorder or ODD.) Blame Republicans when = if ever - they reach adulthood.
Man, you are my soul sister, Selina! My 90 year old neighbor and I stand on the Green once a week with Support Voting Rights Now! signs. It has been the most gratifying protest we have participated in besides the Women's March. It was supposed to be the National Walkout lunch protest, but in our small town, 5:00 is the the better time to stand out as so many people are coming home from work and after school pickups. People are smiling, thumbs upping and honking. Wish more joined us, but they are obviously busy making life happen.
We hope our Voting Rights, and our elected officials, in the 21st century stand strong with us!
Oppositional-Defiant disorder for sure, and greed. Don’t forget greed.
“I used to rig card games for a living. I’d watch people sit down and lose everything, again and again. But they didn’t lose because they “played by the rules,” and we didn’t. They lost because it wasn’t a game, it just looked like one. Democrats think it’s a game.” Derek Delgaudio on Twitter
Of course he is - more like a triple agent making sure his own personal pocket is lined. If he threatens and does to go Republican, so goes the Democratic majority. Call your senators and representatives and the White House urging them to refuse to sign off on the Reconciliation Bill unless paid family medical leave, Medicare can negotiate drug prices, and utilities be incentivized to use cleaner forms of energy. Further, tell them to superload it with goodies for W. Virginia and Arizona"and force a vote and watch Sinema and Manchin squirm. Isolate and push them against the wall with their opining in full view of the eyes of their voters. "Power concedes nothing without a demand."
Manchin has stated that if he’s an embarrassment to Democrats he will switch to the Independent Party but still caucus with Democrats. If he wants to caucus with Democrats he needs to start backing Democratic policies instead of Republican obstruction.
Thanks for posting this- I knew about his financial ties to Fossil Fuels- did NOT know about the ties to ALEC-Grrr! (I had to read it greyed out-I don't subscribe.)
I read something the other day which described what we have as 48 Democrats (including King and Sanders I suppose) + 2 corporatists + 50 Republicans. At least Manchin and Sinema tend to support social programs. Imagine if their seats were held by Republicans! The Dems have done incredibly well to get stuff passed given their slim and fragile majority.
Drawing lipstick on a pig. Holding Democrats to the structural requirements induced by the essentials of millions of Americans and the more grievous climate catastrophe is our - the citizens - requirement. Please cite what "stuff" have the Democrats passed that will insure the needs of tomorrow are met?
And when ordinary people do well, do the wealthy and hyperwealthy suffer? Why, NO! THEY. DO. WELL. TOO. Which you would think they would learn, but -- nope.
Because, Bobette, a number of Democratic Senators are Republicans, in fact if not on paper. This has been true for a long time and explains why many people my age (pushing 70) have lost faith in Americans' ability to save themselves from disaster.
I agree that Manchin and Sinema are DINO's. But we have to remember that the American Experiment is just that - and it ain't over yet (at least not on our watch, and the Fat Lady Sings.)
A new poll shows Sinema would lose to a Democrat in a primary election by 30 points. Her support has been sinking steadily, yet she has not changed her ways. To me that shows she has sold out to corporate interests, or to put it another way cashed in. Sinema will be able to buy a lot more denim vests after she's left the Senate that she's sullied.
Sinema is such a disappointment on so many levels. You wonder - where are the men and women of true character these days? I respect Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger so much now - more so for how their values are raising are eyes to the high and valuable cost of character.
I posted this link on Robert Reich's column too. Biden is playing to the Progressives because he knows that that his proposals do not stand a snowball's chance in hell of being passed. Manchin is taking the heat because he enjoys it but none of the white elite Dems aka moderates, aka corporate Dems, really want more than Band-Aids anyhow. These are the people that paved the way for Trump.
I tend to agree, Allen, that Manchin and Sinema are not the only DINOs, just a bit more honest about it. I also expect there are other DEM senators who are less than enthusiastic about limiting the filibuster, too. So, no voting rights legislation will pass, the GOP will kick ass in the midterms, and the rest will apparently be what a constitutional majority of Americans want. It seems democracy can have unintended consequences.
Thom Hartmann makes the case that most of the senators do NOT want to lose the filibuster because they would be forced to vote according to whom they actually work for and that would bite them hard.
Eye-popping education on filibuster. I’ve tried so hard to understand the arguments for and against it but Hartman’s explanation (expose’ actually) spelled it out perfectly. This new knowledge actually makes me feel ill. I was blindly trusting of any (D) Senator — well no longer.
Thanks so much for this, Allen. I've been complaining about the filibuster for years without really understanding how utterly sleazy it is. Neither of my senators is on the list committed to eliminating it, so I guess I need to write them a letter. What bastards some of these senators are, likely most of them!
They never do. Dem pols still think it’s politics as usual, so do MSM, and rank and file republicans. Worst of all, so do Democrat rank and file. So tired of media blather, they are Neros, all of them. Not just Fox any more. Why is that???
Democrats cannot seize the moment because the electorate failed to put enough if them in the Senate. Who’s fault is that? Look to the 74 million Trump voters, almost all of white and 75% working class. The white working class may, out of desperation saved America in 1932, but they’ve been a scourge since 1968 and are now poised to replace democracy with white autocracy because they can’t stomach the idea of a government that provides fair treatment to Americans with non-European ancestors.
The irony? Many if not most of the 74 million are so misinformed that they don't realize Democrat are working in their best interests. Republicans have not made their lives easier, especially financially. In fact, it's the opposite. Granted, the GOP has made it easer for them to give voice to their racism.
Yes, racism trumps everything. Always has in American politics, except for a brief interlude in 1964 and 1965 under the forceful leadership of LBJ, who, had he not been afraid to be the first Ameican president to lose a war, could have done the right thing on all fronts and maybe have found himself in the historical company of Lincoln and FDR as a great president.
Me too, yet I cannot forgive LBJ for getting Vietnam wrong. FDR tried to stop US involvement there but got pushback from warmongers and colonialists and didn’t have the time or energy to overrule them, which is understandable given his health and workload at the time.
Democrats can't seize anything because they don't have an overwhelming majority and the Republicans are deciding to stand together as an obstructionist block.
Bravo, a clear message to us all, like a rising tide, good government lifts us all, what is happening now in the right wing of the GOP will cause democracy to wither on the vine
My parents lived thru the Great Depression. My mom was born in August 1929 and my dad had just turned 8 when it hit. Being the archivist of family history (my story started in 1944 at the end of WWII) I have written not only my biografy, but have goaded my mom and dad to tell me of their life before mine.
My mom never talked much about it until my sister & I took her to her old childhood neighborhood in St. Louis, where I took fotos of buildings that she had lived in during her formative years in the 1930s. She said my grandmother “was always moving to get something better or cheaper.” In one house she said, “I lived there when I was 6 years old (1935). We lived in furnished rooms upstairs. Can't remember how many rooms or what floor. I slept in between my sister and my brother Billy. I don't know where my mom and other brother slept. I just see in my mind's eye the bed I slept in. It was one large bedroom with a sink, stove and table in it. The bathroom was somewhere else. I remember having a bath in a wash-tub in the kitchen area and that was after the others had their bath. Mom had to heat the water and dump the water so one tub-full served all four kids.”
“Two friends, Semi & Sonny Simon lived two houses up. My mom and us kids were very, very poor. Mom was a hard working woman, working sometimes two jobs, but we were still very poor and were on relief. They call it Welfare now. I was very skinny and was diagnosed as malnourished one time when I was sick. I was also hungry most of the time. I was skinny, malnourished and hungry because I wouldn't eat what we had to eat, like moldy vegetables, and oleo that tasted like lard and powdered milk. I thought Semi and Sonny were rich because they had the whole upstairs of that little house. They each had a bed of their own and they had a back yard with a swing set. Their house had a living room, dining room, two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. I really thought they were rich. I remember being there while the kids ate their breakfast. My mouth just watered for that bowl of corn flakes with real milk. Those kids wouldn't eat it and I wanted it so bad. If they would of left the room I would of cleared that whole table. I'm sure if Mrs. Simon had known how hungry I was, she would have given me some corn flakes.”
My dad was raised in rural Mississippi and wrote in his bio: “Then came the Depression (1929) then everyone got hungry at one time or the other. I have seen people with a wife and kids work for $3.00 a week and room and board. Then when Roosevelt made president they started the WPA (Works Progress Administration – 1935) and CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps – 1933), so soon as I got to be 16 I went into the CCC down by Ocean Spring Miss. across the bay from Biloxi. That way I got my clothes, eats and $5.00 a month, and they would send $25 back for the family to live on, which at that time made it pretty for them. All the kids went barefoot and grown ups could buy a pair of work shoes for $1.00 to $1.25, a pair of pants and shirt for .75¢ to $1.00 each. So, in those days money went a long way, but you had to work to get any.”
For those of us whose parents shared such horrific stories of the Depression, today's letter describing the mindset of the wealthy during those times is just sickening. I read it as "let them eat cake" mentality, or "let them starve to death and then maybe they'll be willing to work for slave wages" (in non existent jobs.) Were it not for the WPA and CCC, I and my cousins would not be alive today. Were it not for my dad's GI Bill, I would never have had the relatively "normal" childhood I enjoyed, nor an education.
Originally on paper, but now on thumb drives that I sent to grand-nephews & nieces in hopes that they preserve this family history. I (the one with no biological progeny) have been the one to collect this so far and no one yet seems to be into this "First Person" history. Everyone has a story to tell of their time & place. A shame that so few tell it.
I used to love listening to my grandmothers and great grandmothers stories but sadly it never occurred to me to record them or write out what they related. It feels like a significant loss now. I imagine your work will be very treasured by some someday. Generations change so rapidly. Much respect Rob!
Maybe you should try to reconstruct what you do remember. Just today with this discourse I remembered a little story my grandmother in rural Mississippi told me about her and some other kids stealing a car (Model T Ford) and joy riding, rolling over in a ditch and she broke her arm. Just a little anecdote of her life that reinforces teen impetuous rebellion, like me and my friend’s joyride in 1962 in a 56 Olds that almost ended in a wreck. There is a connectedness thru generations.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! I had no idea what today's Letter was going to be about (I should've known, though). After listening to Heather's chat on FB yesterday, I decided what this country needs is more good news. So here's what some good Americans have been up to:
Good morning everyone. Thanks HCR for pinpointing the so very interesting juxtaposition of the "prosperity gospel" boondoggle, the neo-Victorian division of the poor into "deserving" (of charity) and "undeserving" (of assistance), and the Ricardian and social Darwinist presentation of the poor as subhuman species who have to be ground down into submission . . . The New Gilded Age, which started with Reagan, continues despite disastrous stock-market downturns because the kleptocrats and neo-fascists figured out how to counter the impulses of others who see greater equality in a more even distribution of wealth, opportunity, and education.
Some things to remember:
The New Deal was very much focused on white people; BIPOC folks did not benefit in any great numbers and Jim Crow was solidified during the time. The exception was in those places--like Tom Pendergast's Kansas City--where the thoroughly corrupt city boss system used the Black community as a bulwark against the industrialists who wanted to see them ousted. Harry Truman was in Pendergast's pocket when he went to Washington and it took a long time before he could clean the mud from his jacket as a result. This also pitted Black civic leaders against their white counterparts in ways that were invidious to their success after WW2.
The Great Depression ultimately ended because of the US entry into WW2 and the military-industrial complex that built up a few years before because of Lend-Lease. The New Deal was unable to lift everyone up, so it took a huge war effort to do so. The prosperity of the 1950s, like before the war, significantly benefited the white population far more than the BIPOC population. If you notice the trend lines from Reagan, the introduction of wars to pull the stock market out of a swoon was part of his strategy and that of most administrations (ironically most Republican administrations), so it has been well known that defense spending is a good juggernaut for prosperity. Which is what Eisenhower warned everyone about when he was leaving office.
The New Deal entrenched the idea--despite Frances Perkins--of the "nuclear" family as the proper model for western society, even though it is not a useful model for most people in the world. And it limited women's ability to gain education, jobs, and wages that would be equivalent to those of men. Before this time--and before unionization, which was an important component to New Deal economics--factory owners and big industrialists LOVED hiring women (single women, especially) because they could pay them less and they were more willing to work in terrible conditions because they needed to do so. If you recall a March 25 post, in which HCR broke down the issues surrounding the Triangle Shirtwaist fire?? in 1911? The whole reason for the Settlement House movement that peaked in the 1920s was that women and children were totally left behind in the drive to enrich white men. We are now seeing a significant re-awakening of similar rhetoric, aimed of course at non-white people, refugees, and others whose lives depend on doing the horrible work at terrible wages that white Americans consider unappetizing. That's why you will see very few white people in abattoirs--called, euphemistically, animal processing plants these days.
Roosevelt, egged on by the three women in his life--Frances Perkins, his wife, Eleanor, and his mother, Alice--did extraordinary things to start the process of wealth redistribution. But he did not have to combat the Forces of Evil at home to such a degree as Biden does today, because no matter the terrible behavior of the Republican Party and the Dixiecrats in the 1930s, they believed that governing was their duty. That is not the case today--power-mongering is their only ambition, and autocracy the goal. And the stakes, I believe, are just as high right now.
A few examples noting Eleanor Roosevelt's work to combat racism in America. .
'Eleanor Roosevelt and the Wartime Campaign Against Jim Crow'
Eleanor Roosevelt firmly believed civil rights to be the litmus test for American democracy. She declared over and over throughout World War II that the United States could not claim to be a democracy if African Americans did not have democratic rights. Mrs. Roosevelt repeatedly insisted that education, housing, employment, and voting were basic human rights that society was morally and politically obliged to provide its citizens, and that policies must be developed to create a level playing field.
'Before World War II began, Eleanor Roosevelt had already established strong ties to the African American community. Her behind-the-scenes influence on the National Youth Administration, the Federal One Arts programs, the Homestead Subsistence Administration, and numerous Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects ensured that African American interests would at least be given token recognition by the New Deal. Her intercession on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban League, Howard University, Bethune Cookman College, the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, Marian Anderson, the Fair Employment Practices Committee, and the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax helped her forge a strong public image as a civil rights activist.1'
'The rise of Aryanism in Germany dramatically increased Mrs. Roosevelt's disgust with American racism. By 1939, she decided to attack the hypocritical way in which the nation dealt with racial injustice. She wanted Americans to understand how "writing and speaking about democracy and the American way without consideration of the imperfections within our system with regard to its treatment . . . of the Negro" encouraged racism. As she told Ralph Bunche in an interview for Gunnar Myrdal's American Dilemma, Americans wanted to talk "only about the good features of American life and to hide our problems like skeletons in the closet." This denial only fueled violent responses; Americans must therefore recognize "the real intensity of feeling" and "the amount of intimidation and terrorization" promoted by racism, and act against such "ridiculous" behavior.2' (Social Studies)
'In 1941, Eleanor visited the all-Black Tuskegee Airmen training facility in Alabama, to witness their achievements. Because of segregation, there were no Black pilots in the military, and the recently formed program was very controversial.'
'While touring the facility, Eleanor insisted, over the Secret Service’s objections, that she fly with the lead instructor, “Chief” Anderson. He took her up alone, and flew around for half an hour in a small Piper Cub, shattering yet another racial barrier.'
'The 13 years of Eleanor’s leadership and advocacy as first lady impressed Black voters, accelerating a massive shift of allegiance from the Republican Party to the Democrats, and set up a powerful Republican backlash.' (Carroll County Times)
'For nearly three decades, educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune, often called the “First Lady of the Struggle,” forged an unlikely friendship with another first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.'
'Bethune became a trusted advisor to both Roosevelt and her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and played a key role in shaping government policies for Black Americans during the 1930s and '40s.' (Biography Newsletter)
I thought there was a lot of opposition to FDR. His programs were called a conspiracy to gain control over Americans. Out of the opposition came the John Birch Society and then Goldwater and then Nixon and Reagen. And now here we are fighting the forces that are fighting the power of the New Deal. And racism continues.
Yes! Americans have forgotten how Congress used to work - offer a pie-in-the-sky bill, then start haggling. The progressives won't get everything they (we) want in the package, but Jayapal's genuine optimism last night, after all their tough efforts, is power-full!
I recently re-watched the 1997 film, Titanic, and your opening description made me feel like I was nodding to nobles in the dining room of the doomed ocean liner. The Great Depression was a much slower descent, but it was a much larger ship.
And the Republican answer to the drowning souls, even that long ago: swim harder.
“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate,” Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon told President Herbert Hoover. “It will purge the rottenness out of the system.”Only an obsequiousness, wealthy man would conclude this is a healthy solution. Is there such a person as a civil servant anymore? A person willing to generate a PLAN that doesn’t have a “jingle” for a solution? No quick fix… we need a path to follow and use as a national guide to the American Community. You, Professor are a path builder. I am grateful.
Heather, i always feel guilty that i don't comment more often to thank you for what you do. so... thank you. sincerely. i don't know what we'd do without you.
no matter how bad the days are (and they've been pretty bad during these times), i always read your post before bed. the clarity, perspective, wisdom and sheer breadth of knowledge make me sleep better at night. you're a national treasure, and i just hope you know how much we all value you...
My go to
Absolutely we she said🙏🍁
Fannie Perkins was Secretary of Labor under FDR. She was the first female cabinet member ever. From Wikipedia: "In 1933, Roosevelt summoned Perkins to ask her to join his cabinet. Perkins presented Roosevelt with a long list of labor programs for which she would fight, from Social Security to minimum wage. "Nothing like this has ever been done in the United States before," she told Roosevelt. "You know that, don’t you?" Agreeing to back her, Roosevelt nominated Perkins as Secretary of Labor."
In her 12 years as Secretary of Labor she was largely responsible for the creation of social security, unemployment insurance in the United States, the federal minimum wage, and federal laws regulating child labor.
One of the most important people in US history--and one of the least well-known and least-studied. I had a MA student who wrote his thesis on Perkins and he had one heckuva time trying to find historical assessments of her that went beyond the "first female cabinet member." We need more Frances Perkinses in the world.
We need more who will listen and help realize her ideas.
Trivia: When I read "Fannie" instead of "Frances," it gave me pause. Here's more from Wikipedia: Frances Perkins (born Fannie Coralie Perkins; April 10, 1880)
After graduating from college and working at Hull House with Jane Addams: "She changed her name from Fannie to Frances when she joined the Episcopal church in 1905."
She is definitely on the Early 1900s Sheroes List along with Ida Tarbell!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Tarbell
(Thank you, Bill A. and Sheila B.!)
Those names from the turn of the 20th Century have gone out of vogue. My grandmother on my mom's side was always called "Flo" for Flossie Novela and on my dad's side was "Minnie-Mae."
My gram was named Wilhelmina at birth which was a fine name at her birth. She was called Wilma as a child and used that her entire life. Even her headstone depicts Wilma.
Flossie Novela! Wow!
So good to know
Thank you for this clarification Ellie!
https://community.hunter.cuny.edu/roosevelt-house-pages/the-new-deal-then-and-now-what-is-the-role-of-government--in-response-to-great-crises-10-29-21-?fbclid=IwAR3MCVLez4DZgZLevBl_ehG0eynqYjoMYevNclQHhU7QoWHAcfP226ox46c
This is from Frances Perkins center. Zoom conference available today. Regarding New Deal response from FDR and his cabinet.
Also, HCR is a recipient of the 2021 Massachusetts Governor's Awards in the Humanities, which event took place a few days ago, October 24, 2021. Admittedly, I have not watched the whole video, but starting at Time 30:48, Heather responds to the question of what role she sees the humanities playing in the coming years.
Then skip to Time 45:43 for more from HCR:
https://masshumanities.org/events/governors-awards-in-the-humanities-dinner/?fbclid=IwAR1wNYFTfboWZwS-c99RG0NeX_ayr6pAE0brOH8gMKSH-ZSidLcf-oM9wHI_aem_AX_d0D-S51F9F2IsTiuy4xVxsxhyrlS1hua2qzJQ1pTMSHlpGClyeIixHzmcFVgpqtEn-CWo0psaG41UMQ3OLlKfuSAoYYx6guNcMHpCOABsYep4m_WBcbqfMWM_BoBuNt
And congratulations to Dr R. I would like to see such awards for her work daily
Me, too, Cathy!
Lynell, thank you so much for posting the link to the Massachusetts Humanities Governor's Awards program. The segments of the program displaying Heather Cox Richardson's intellect and work are very rewarding...but so are the segments involving the other three awardees.....and indeed the entire program, including the Indigenous Peoples' opening. Here is the direct link to the video on YouTube https://youtu.be/CGJpsX6YeHk (you will have to rewind to the Indigenous Peoples' segment, if appropriate)
Indeed, Herb! I did watch the beginning segment with Larry Spotted Crow Mann. Now that I have more time, I will be watching the remarks of the other three awardees as well. Thanks for your gentle reminder, and YouTube link.
Thank you Lynell. Her section on the Humanities and continuing education for people out of the K-12 phase of schooling is fascinating. I think it a bridge to getting along and getting better.
I think the "people out of the K-12 phase" be us!
Thank you for sharing this, Lynell. Congratulations, Heather! So well deserved!!
Does this happen to be the Cindy Nelson from my Biology class many years ago at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, NH ?
No, sorry. I’m from California.
Thanks for this link.
Thank you for this!
Thank you for this, Lynnell!
Thank you for posting this!
Thanks for posting this link, Lynell.
Frances Perkins Center also gave an award to HCR and did an interview of her on 8/15/21:
https://francesperkinscenter.org/garden-party-2021/
Darn, the link says the event is sold out. When Zoom attendance sells out I am confused
Click directly on the video, and it should load for you.
I love the story of Fannie Perkins. I think of her efforts many times these past two years. Inspirational.
It sure has saved my bacon!!
God bless and thank you Francis Perkins! Clearly the right woman - the right person - at the right time.
A co-inky-dink! I just nominated her for an American Women Quarters candidate.
I feel certain that Heather wrote about Fannie in a previous letter. I’m certain you would like reading it.
Here a a couple of times Heather has written about Perkins:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/september-5-2021
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-14-2021
Here is a link that speaks about Dr. Richardson in regard to Frances Perkins. So well deserved! https://francesperkinscenter.org/honorees/
Thank you for keeping this at the forefront
I love it when you give us hope in the form of a history lesson. Thank you!
Today was a tour de force from HCR. And it read like a novel.
Agreed.
Totally agree!!!
My favorite part of President Biden's speech today was saying when the middle class does well so do the wealthy, but it doesn't work the other way around.
One of the late Senator Paul Wellstone’s (D-MN) oft-repeated phrases was; “We all do better when we all do better.” Still true. As you have said many times; “We The People, all of us this time!”
"Everbody counts or nobody counts," Harry Bosch
Yes! That’s my takeaway from all his books
Yes! Reading Connelly's "Fair Warning" now. Excellent, but miss Harry.
Did you watch theTV series?
Great Idea! Will re-watch!
Ah but, Cathy, it all depends on what you call "well". The rich are happiest with their returns in your second case and don't seem to understand the necessity for the first.
Nor will they ever, “all recessions during the last 100 years happened under Republican administrations, every one.” Twitter@JJohnson2u
That's one reason I think governments should be measured by a Well-Being Index at least as important as GDP if not more. Money doesn't bring happiness. Those obsessed with wealth are never satisfied because they haven't learned that lesson.
Agree Cathy.
Trouble is the measure is even more subjective than what exists.
Not necessarily. Look the U.S. Army's Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program set up by Dr. Martin Seligman as an example of what can be measured. https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/learn/soldiers
Easier in a relatively closed society where decisions are strictly hierarchical.
Yes, but doable! Several countries are doing it. I'm more worried about the partisan biases getting in the way. Talk about subjective rather than rational!
The rich don’t usually have to understand much.
"When suffering Americans begged for public works programs to provide jobs, Hoover insisted that such programs were a “soak the rich” program that would “enslave” taxpayers, and called instead for private charity."
One of the great *accomplishments* of later plutocrats was to convince a significant number of working class Americans that individualism is synonymous with patriotism, true Americans bootstrap themselves out of adversity, and that government *entitlements* destroy Americans' initiative. The idea was to have the oppressed and exploited identify their best interests with the vested interests of their oppressors and exploiters. For too many reasons to detail here - including weaponizing government itself against the labor movement and unions - it worked.
They are still at it. Just yesterday, at congressional hearings, Democrats grilled Big Oil honchos on what they knew about their *contributions* to global warming, when they knew it, and how they lied to the public about the dangers. On their side, Republicans heaped god's blessings on the American spirit made flesh in America's job creators in general and Big Oil CEOs in specific, which Democratic environmental protections in general and Joe Biden in specific are out to crucify. To prove their point (and mine here) they trotted out a former worker on the Keystone XL pipeline project to curse President Biden's cancelling it on Inauguration Day.
Republican rhetoric has lead a significant number of the economically insecure and undereducated to buy into a god given, dog eat dog, dog in the manger dystopia of unregulated greed, as the natural order of things - in which their job is to bootstrap themselves to wealth or to sit up and beg and be grateful for it.
In a fair and just society, government does not perpetuate the unearned privileges of the few or the undeserved burdens of the many. It does not use the power of government to preserve intergenerational personal fortunes while throwing generations of systemically disadvantaged on the whims and erratic mercies of charity.
Build Back Better translates the Golden Rule into the civic terms of social infrastructure. It recognizes that when government institutes justice as fairness, it ups everybody's opportunity for a good life.
HST knew that as did FDR. Reagan dusted off the same old Schitt and here we go again, this time with Rupert/Roger Ailes propaganda juggernaut. HST “Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 30 years….Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. Oct 10, 1952
I cannot believe I have taken the time to track this down - this to me is not living well - or even living ... another sleepless night in the fight for freedom and equity in the free world. I do it in hopes of clarifying TRUTH ON THE GROUND ...:
Here is a Newt Gingrich interview with Laura Ingraham 10/14/21
Headline: BIDEN TAKES WRECKING BALL TO AMERICA
https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=207&v=OD-PTG4A-wk&feature=emb_logo
... a few soundbites from the mouth of the former Speaker who is "looking forward to a very healthy national debate about WHAT IS VIABILITY?"...:
Gingrich (3:01 - 3:57):
'Ha, when I hear Joe Biden talk about plans, I think of ...:
Withdrawal from Afghanistan - disaster
The border - where Kamala Harris is absent without leave - disaster
16 ships stuck off of Long Beach - disaster
... the Joe Biden Christmas will be a narrow, lean Christmas ...
Price of meat ... gone up dramatically,
Price of Gasoline ... gone up dramatically,
Jobs unfilled ...
Trucking companies can't find truckers ...'
"If this is the Joe Biden plan,
it is a disaster ...
Pragmatically, let's,look at
FACTS ON THE GROUND,
not statements from the White House
that have no connection to reality."
{{ ...?!?!? }}
... about the Left (5:14 - 5:28):
"BIG GOVERNMENT SOCIALISTS ... are a secular religious movement;
They can't deal with reality;
They can't cope with facts;
If it doesn't fit their narrative,
they just shrug it off and refuse to pay attention to it."
{{ ...?!?!?}}
(5:31 - 5:53):
"If you're an illegal immigrant, none of Joe Biden's requirements apply to you. If you're an American citizen, he's willing to use the power of the government to coerce you - to force you into losing your job - to cut off your unemployment - to not allow you to fly in an airplane ...,"
"Why is it that Biden is so pro illegal immigrant and so anti American citizen?"
Ingraham (5:53 - 5:57):
"The goal is to change America, Newt, that's what they're trying to do. But Americans are beginning to fight back."
_____
Really, Laura?
Ok, I always had the impression that America is the beacon of change in a world of oppressive, static traditions ... American citizens have immigrated from every corner of the planet to work together for a better world.
How can we work together when we are so invested in winning we do not listen to - or hear each other, or even ourselves? Are we just pawns in a game to pit one against another, keeping everybody down?
... so, I ask ... what is viability when one man perceives in the other what he himself is doing - twisting truth like taffy - utterly blind to his own culpability ... and how do we make any kind of progress with contrary contingencies doing the same?
___
In preparation for the great national debate:
DEFINITION - VIABILITY:
'ability to work, survive or live successfully.'
'ability to work as intended or to succeed'
'ability to continue to exist or develop as a living being'
___
Synonyms & Near Synonyms for viability:
feasibility, feasibleness, possibility, potentiality, reasonability, reasonableness
credibility, plausibility, plausibleness, liability, likelihood, probability
existence, survival, survivance, survivorship, enduringness, permanence,
abidance, ceaselessness, continuance, continuation, continuity, continuousness, durability, duration, endurance, persistence, subsistence
___
Antonyms & Near Antonyms for viability:
improbability, unlikelihood, unlikeliness, doubtfulness, dubiousness,
impracticability, impracticality, implausibility, incredibility, incredibleness
cessation, close, discontinuance, discontinuity, end, ending, expiration, finish, stoppage, surcease, termination
Bing dictionary/Miriam Webster
WOW, thank you for this. Best example ever of republicans use of Goebbels best propaganda technique, blaming others for what we do. Why the division will get wider as long as Rupert is on the air. There have been plenty of other players but he wins the prize. I didn't realize how long he has been our evil until I ran across this blurb. Don't know when but from Roger Wood,, Post's executive editor at one time. "At a dinner last month in Washington honoring Mr. Murdoch for his work on behalf of Mr. Reagan, Representative Jack Kemp, a New York Republican, said 'Rupert Murdoch used the editorial page, the front page and every other page necessary to elect Ronald Reagan President.'" Boy did it pay off for Rupert...
Ah, thank you Jeri, I was hoping it would be worth the time it took to track it down ... I feel like the only way to counter and defeat their strategy is to call them on their purposeful misinterpretations of the real story ... ("if this is the Joe Biden plan, it's a disaster" ... well, it is not even close to the Joe Biden plan - but yes, it is a disaster, compliments of the adversarial elements that generate sound-bytes to defeat the plan.) To do that, as unpleasant and painful as it is, we have to listen to what they say, hit 'pause' 144,000 times, pinpoint and expose the twisted truths (with irrefutable evidence) next to the real story - then hope to reach the boggled minds of the masses who soak it up without closer examination. "... facts on the ground?" PLEASE!!!
Every time the Repubs trot out one of the folks who lost their jobs when Keystone was cancelled, I just want to scream at these folks to look at their local community college for a training program for wind turbine technicians. After training and a journeyman period, salaries range upwards of $100,000 a year. Not bad without a four year degree (not bad even with one here in the Midwest)
Free community college got cancelled by Manchin and the Repubs. God forbid we should provide good technical education for those whom Republicans wish to keep their thumbs on so they can keep them hateful and violent.
And the the Republicans will cry that China has all the technology. The refusal to provide even the most basic education in k-12 and then only the rich get to go to college keeps this country dependent on people from other countries using visas to come here and work. If we stop the educated entire companies like Apple, Microsoft. Oracle, etc will fail in the U.S. and move to those other countries.
We need to educate Americans, not outsource our jobs. I’ve seen this happen over the past 30 years from the inside of these companies.
I am thankful my grandson gets 2 years of community college free in California under the Promise plan. This is because he attended the high school. He only had to apply and keep his grades up. Now, he can be accepted into one of the University of California colleges under a program called TAG. Again, certain GPA requirements varying from 3.1 to 3.4 for his choice of UCSC and UCI. UCSD doesn’t do TAG and not all majors are included but the pressure to get into these very highly rated schools has been alleviated. He is an orphan since my daughter passed and California helps. People complain about how expensive it is to live here but they need to look at how well they’re taken care of. Of course they’d need to think of someone besides themselves and their wealth. The poverty in the red states is because the people living in poverty never have a chance to get out of it.
Yes, we all do better when everyone does better. The working who are paid a living wage can pay their own way, pay taxes and contribute to the economy. They want to work but Manchin is afraid they’d feel a sense of entitlement if we help them become productive members of society.
Manchin is bought. Period
This worker is now employed.
On one hand Republicans weep crocodile tears for the unemployed who they use as props and on the other hand Republicans deny unemployment aid and other essential and emergency services.
All this is based on their unique ability to judge others as lazy, entitled, beggars, ignorant, etc. This long time judgement keeps them focused on their grip on governmental monies and used as excuses for voting down any governmental programs to help feed, clothe, and shelter the poor and struggling. They also keep pushing these responsibilities off on charities who struggle to meet the needs of their patrons. When you have elected officials becoming rich and wealthy while serving in office, you have the seeds for corruption, more greed, and the need for more power.
So true. And we have sailed past the time when charitable organizations can pick up the tab to make the difference ... time to call the bluff and lay cards on the table - otherwise, prepare to 'pay the piper' - all the way to the top ....
Mind-boggling, heart wrenching perpetual obstructionism ... interesting that so many of these folks complain about QANON, yet seem to proudly support it ... and these are bible thumping Christians? ... have I got that wrong?
Definition of 'Satan': "adversary; who plots against another" (Oxford) ... "adversary; opponent; arch enemy of good" (Abingdon-Strong)
Yes, Kathleen! I’ve long thought that Evil agent Orange (iDJT/TFG) is satanic, of the devil, quite possibly The Devil.
Hi Ashley, I think "The Devil" is an archetype ... manifest in the warped personalities of disassociated souls - so, really, just another wounded pawn on the chessboard - though doubtless, the pride-full, glory seeking ego aspires to the ultimate status ... sad, really ... but not omnipotent (imo) ....
Pharisees
Free community college and a whole lot of other things got lost in this bill, thanks to Manchin, Sinema and the Republicans. But I don't hear alot about the Republicans not playing...all I hear is about the Democrats "in disarray". Even this morning on an interview, Kate Bedingfield said something about what was "left out" but never even mentioned that zero Republicans had contributed one iota to this bill. ?????????
The MSM still acts like it’s politics as usual while ignoring the elephant in the room. It is a lethal strategy I fear
Biden says US will "own the future" with legacy-defining Build Back Better, but disagreements among Democrats remain, imperiling plan
The slimming down comes courtesy of Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who balked at the original $3.5 trillion budget proposal and demanded cuts to various programs within it.
https://news.yahoo.com/biden-says-us-will-own-the-future-with-build-back-better-but-disagreements-among-democrats-remain-imperiling-plan-211413745.html
'I see the end': Jayapal sees finish line in tandem infrastructure bill process:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/other/i-see-the-end-jayapal-sees-finish-line-in-tandem-infrastructure-bill-process/vi-AAQ4Uty
Not that I want to defend Manchinema, but just maybe their antics have rocked the Rebops back on their heels enough that the legislation will go forward somewhat smoothly. I have a dream that more Dem congresspersons will be elected in '22 and then another bill can be written including the educational provisions at least.
That, and the efforts of the Progressive Democratic Caucus led by Pramila Jayapal ... possible evidence that persistent optimism and undying good will make all the difference in the world.
10/29/21 - Update from Pramila Jayapal:
I wanted to update you on where things stand after this busy week.
Yesterday, I helped lead our charge to hold off mounting pressure on progressives to do something we’ve consistently said we will not do: We will not approve only a smaller physical infrastructure bill without President Biden’s larger Build Back Better Act that makes long-overdue investments in working people, families, and our communities.
I have worked with each and every stakeholder in the Democratic caucus and the White House to advance the popular Build Back Better Act — with historic investments in childcare, affordable housing, pre-K, health care, climate action, and much more. Progressives have been the biggest, most consistent, most enthusiastic champions of this popular Democratic agenda that voters want us to deliver on.
While corporate lobbyists, Big Pharma, and Wall Street have tried to stop us from fighting for the people, we’ve kept the President’s Build Back Better agenda on track and moving forward.
Now, we are organizing inside and outside of Congress to get it over the finish line so we can secure real change that will allow people across America to wake up feeling different about their lives and the opportunities their family has.
I’m optimistic but we are again at a crossroads: Democrats have a chance to deliver for the people who delivered us the House, the Senate, and the White House. The people are relying on us to get it done now, and not leave anyone behind.
Lin, whoever you are, thank you for this brilliant summary of how we arrived at our current abominable state of the nation (and alas, much of the rest of our planet). I wish you would submit it as an Op Ed or a letter to the editor of the NYT and/ or WaPo although I doubt any mainstream media outlet would publish it.
Credit where credit is due to our mainstream media. For decades I've had letters in the NYTimes and Washington Post. And small local independent newspapers, which are on the frontlines providing oversight of local government.
That’s encouraging! So please do submit it for publication.
Lin, you sound very much like Dr. Richardson. Meant as a high compliment. Do you teach?
Thank You, Gus Koch.
Dr. Cox Richardson, as the best of teachers, brings out the best in her students. Such as we all are and such as is shown by so many commenters.
For my NYC and NYState public school teachers, reading comprehension and writing assignments were at the heart of their mission. *Now, put it in your own words* was their rallying cry. For the rest - more CSpan than is probably good for anyone's sanity. I don't teach, but I rant.
I marvel at thinkers like HCR, Irving Stone, Howard Zinn et al and so many journalists (Thank You Jane Mayer, Jelani Cobb, Evan Osnos, Amy Sorkin Davidson ...) and elected officials (Thank You Jamie Raskin, Caroline Maloney, Sheldon Whitehead, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Angus King ...) who are in the thick of it everyday and know so much and
don't lose their minds.
HEAR - HERE !!!
I want to let you know that you sent me on a quest to find out about I.F. Stone and Howard Zinn. I still have many tabs marking things I want to read about these two, but tonight my husband and I are watching a 2004 documentary about him, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train" (the same title as his memoir of 2002), and I'm enthralled. Thank you. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08N5XN22W/ref=pv_ag_gcf/ref=dv_web_auth_no_re_sig?ie=UTF8&cmp=rt_where_to_watch&tag=rottetomao-20&returnFromLogin=1&
Thank You so very much for taking the time to let me know. I am so very pleased that you are now exploring these wonderful thinkers.
Another of my favorites is the political cartoonist Herblock. Shockingly many of his observations on American society and politics - especially civil rights - are not out dated at all. https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/herblock-gallery/
Will explore this link. Thank you!
OMGosh, apologies to all I meant I.F. Stone and not Irving Stone. Oops.
Woah! Well said, lin -thank you!!
Your opening paragraph contains the gist of rationale used by mostly all GOP elected officials to deny spending on programs that will help all citizens especially the least fortunate.
When he was first elected governor of NJ ‘Cubbs’ Christy refused to commit NJ funding share to build a new tunnel under the Hudson River into NYC. The Feds and NY gov had already signed onto the project! The ‘rotund one’ refused because the exact cost to NJ citizens could not be known! Subsequently, he signed on to expand the NJ higher Ed system without ‘knowing the exact cost’. This was payback to two Democratic (yes that’ correct) county leaders who refused to campaign for the Democratic incumbent (Corzine) opposing Christie.
In North Carolina, the right wing controlled legislature steadfastly refuses to expand Medicaid which would help the working poor in our state! Reason…..yup!…’We don’t know the cost to NC taxpayers’! Combined with…what if the Federal government stops paying their share! Head in the sand, callous disregard for those less fortunate in NC! But those political creatures keep getting re-elected by the very people they are denying support!
That’s because those creatures have created safe seats for themselves and are able to have a legislative majority. The R’s are not the majority of registered voters. The R’s are working hard in the NC General Assembly to make themselves rich while ignoring the poor. Google Moral Mondays and the Rev. William Barber II.
Didn’t that start with McCrory and Art Pope, or was it before them. They certainly tried their best to take NC back to the old South.
... and the real costs are beyond calculation ... all I can say is, "what goes around, comes around." These wannabe 'winners' need to wake up and shape up before their game comes back around and bytes them in the A$$!!
They ditched McCrory (and Art Pope) thank God, I lived there during that government crime spree. Still plenty of weaponized ignorance, as in Tx, where I live now. Lordy
Very well said!
Think on this: pulling oneself up by the bootstraps was originally meant to signify that something was IMPOSSIBLE to do. Bootstraps are on the backs of footwear only meant to pull on one’s shoes or boots. You CANNOT come to a standing position by pulling bootstraps.
The Haves are still peddling the same old lies they always have. They mask their cruelty by cultural distractions. The political names have changed over the years but people who have resources, especially abundant ones, are not fond of sharing. My mother taught me that sharing was a grown up thing to do, and selfishness was for small children. People age, but they do not necessarily mature and acquire wisdom.
Thank You! I never thought of the etymology. And yes language evolves. And at any given time, words have several usages. One reason why claims of 'originalism' and 'textualism' are preposterous. You can't divine the Founders' intent through a dictionary. You can't credibly claim an authoritative reading of a text or pretend you are not interpreting it from your own perspective.
And yes, the task of advancing economically in this society is almost impossible. And you never do it on your own. It took 4 generations for my immigrant family to go from the factory floor to IT management - and it would have been impossible without government programs for public education, rent stabilization etc
"The new system undercut fascism at home, too, where its adherents had been growing strong, and reminded Americans that when the government supported ordinary people, they could build a strong new future."
I like how HCR tucks her point so neatly and subtly into the text.
George Orwell predicted today.
"For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.”
George Orwell, 1984
H.A., Now THAT comment is a keeper! Thank you!
1984 was required reading in H.S., along with Fahrenheit 451, On the Beach, A Clockwork Orange -- and Soylent Green, I think.
Needless to say, living in the Cold War, I graduated in 1968 pretty messed up! Freaked out actually. The very next day I was on a bus to Fort Dix. On my way to the Green Latrine....
Still not sure, even today, if I'm sane or not....and now this! All I know is, we have to win this.
I think this is related to the paradoxical effect of the current demands of not teaching "critical race theory." Some parents don't want their children to experience or learn about the different races they live among. It's goal is to keep whites the superior race. In reality the outcome will be keeping the children ignorant and entitled.
Smack in the middle of the New Deal programs enacted from 1933 to 1939:
"Gallup Poll, 1936: "Do you believe the acts and policies of the Roosevelt Administration may lead to a dictatorship?" 83 percent of Republicans said, yes. 9 percent of Democrats said, yes. . (And they say we're polarized now.)"
https://twitter.com/jackshafer/status/1452702091416424450?s=20
Oh Ellie…everything old is new again. What I take from this is that we will survive.
But maybe not in the same form.
Woa. Now that's something to think on....Evolution? Let's see, maybe high- temp tolerant, bigger lungs, higher immune system efficiency with broader food tolerance maybe? Certainly can't get no uglier than me....
🤣🤣
SMH. Some things never change.
Not to mention the Coup of 1933, Google General Smedley BUTLER
WOW
Isn’t THAT right, Bo. Heather’s writing is simple and clear, the structure and unfolding of her pieces exquisite. And the message?! Aren’t we lucky to have her.
Hitler had a photo of antisemitic Henry Ford on his desk.
True, and he looked to Jim Crow laws to fashion some of his worst abuses
The Nazis also modeled their concentration (death) camp system after the US's system of reservations for Native Americans.
They came here to study it.
Seems we fought our history in WW2, still are I guess. But so many died in the effort….
Cathy, no kidding? I didn’t know that!
From the Washington Post archives;
The relationship of Ford and GM to the Nazi regime goes back to the 1920s and 1930s, when the American car companies competed against each other for access to the lucrative German market. Hitler was an admirer of American mass production techniques and an avid reader of the antisemitic tracts penned by Henry Ford. "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration," Hitler told a Detroit News reporter two years before becoming the German chancellor in 1933, explaining why he kept a life-size portrait of the American automaker next to his desk.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/nov98/nazicars30.htm
Although Ford later renounced his antisemitic writings, he remained an admirer of Nazi Germany and sought to keep America out of the coming war. In July 1938, four months after the German annexation of Austria, he accepted the highest medal that Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner, the Grand Cross of the German Eagle. The following month, a senior executive for General Motors, James Mooney, received a similar medal for his "distinguished service to the Reich."
Then Hitler and the Nazis applied assembly line and mass production techniques to industrialize the process of mass murder--hence the concentration camps, some for slave labor and some for extermination.
Thanks Cathy. I'm trying to measure the blind spot in my head. It's a big one for a guy with very dear Jewish friends....they don't ever talk about this. But I needed to know.
Thanks for this link Cathy. Fascism's easy global reach. Hauntingly similar to the Republican politicians cosying up to Orban and Putin.
Unf**king believable. Read some of Michael Lewis’ works re how the Nazi octopus had invaded America. In fact, IBM helped the Nazi’s with their excellent record keeping in the concentration camps. Sorry, no reference here, but saw it on book tv on C-span several years ago.
Yes, indeed "… IBM directly supplied the Nazis with technology which was used to help transport millions of people to their deaths in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Treblinka, …”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/mar/29/humanities.highereducation
Thank you so much for this reference, we dodged a bullet in the 30’s, hope we can again
Few realize that corporations survive nations. Most believe the opposite is true. The list of extant corporations that served Nazi Germany and survived its termination contains a surprising number of household names.
Gut wrenching! Totally ignorant of the connection between Ford and the nazi monster!
Me too. I think we were too busy ducking and covering.
I am appalled at this…probably more appalled that I didn’t know it
Isabel Wilkerson talks about it in her excellent book “Caste.”
Can someone please send this to Joe Manchin?
I sent it to his Twitter feed. Not sure he will see it but maybe a staffer.
His email contact address only wants to hear from West Virginians, so maybe if there is a WV here in the group they could copy and send the entire letter!!
There is a protest going on called something like Letters to Joe Manchin, and they have a usable address or addresses. I'd have to go to Instagram to get the info though and I don't have an account. Maybe you do?
Wish I had a short list of possible Dem candidates for senate in 2022. My donations would go to two of the most viable. This would allow us to not give a fig about the two Trojan Horses. Of course, I still donate to vulnerable current Dem senators. However, My retirement money only goes so far. But hope I live long enough to see those two irrelevant. I could die happy…
Val Demings is running against Marco Rubio in Florida.
Oh glory, another one on my radar to support in 2022
Check out Leonard Lubinsky’s Political Notes - he is tracking current candidates and their progress in their races.
Jeff Jackson for Senate in NC.
Thank you, good choice.
Can you tell us anything about him? The campaign website is rather bland.
I searched Letters to Joe Manchin in Instagram and found nothing
As I said to someone above, probably a better use of all our time right now is to canvass or make calls to Democrats in Virginia! Swing Blue (for instance) is doing 2-hour phonebank shifts (with training, but it's easy) from 10am to 8pm over the next 4 days. Get on it!
No, not on Instagram either.
I found it there, but couldn't access the whole message because I don't have an account. Oh well, there are better things to do with our time. Like canvass or phone bank in/for Virginia!!!
Call him. 202-224-3954
Former West Virginian count?
They ask for a zip code.
Forgot that, and my zip.
The WPA Federal Writers Project produced Guides to both Arizona and West Virginia.
But of course *we* wouldn't want writers to start feeling entitled. Or Americans to feel entitled to government funded projects. Oh No Indeedy Not That.
Mitch McConnell in 2019 brought almost 1 Billion dollars of federal tax money to Kentucky for industries in his state including Bourbon whiskey, thoroughbreds and hemp in one of the 2019 Omnibus spending bills. He’s okay with spending federal $$ if it’s buying him votes. The GOP is against any spending when it has a chance to improve all American’s lives by protecting our environment and improving healthcare and education. Why? Because it involves supporting the wider economy and the greater good AND they just do not understand that concept.
THE Margaret Fisher?
I always think so; but it depends on who you are thinking of?😉
Brilliant dancer, performance artist, yoga teacher, PhD musicologist, scholar of Ezra Pound’s music? Tall and lovely?
She is another Margaret Fisher. Sounds pretty awesomely accomplished!
Heaven forbid!
On school days for three years, I made a once or twice-daily 20-mile roundtrip to get our son to a private middle school. The school is in Portland's West Hills at 1,000 feet above downtown. It wasn't a hardship. We enjoyed the time together, and the education benefits were enormous.
Why mention this? The steep part of the route snakes uphill through the city's scenic 5,200-acre Forest Park, including through two short, narrow tunnels. Atop the entrances etched in stone are the years they were built, 1940 and 1941.
I'm chagrined that until reading tonight's letter I didn't make the connection to the New Deal and its Works Progress Administration. There are much bigger and better-known WPA projects in the area, including Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, where people ski even in summer.
I passed through those tunnels hundreds of times, never realizing that the projects must have created hundreds of jobs during the bleakness of the Great Depression. The projects also opened what in the 1940s and is today a critical route for the metro area.
The next time we head up to the West Hills and through the tunnels, I'll picture the workers drilling through basalt rock on a a heavily wooded steep slope to rebuild the country.
Yes! Those jobs put money in pockets. That money bought food for the table, rent, clothing. That economic activity just spread, and spread outward. That tunnel project was the grease to just get the economic gears going. Things get better slowly, and another gear and another. So many till the gears add themselves.
Once that is happening, governments can begin the process of deleveraging to manage inflation risk. What
Germany chose militarization over infrastructure, and to pay for it and their reparations to France the just printed wildly.
We built roads,bridges power plants, schools and education for future advancement, social programs to keep both the peace, lessen the anxiety of the masses, thus strengthening the social fabric, restoring hope, which gave people a sense of dignity, then pride, a sense of patriotism.
FDR had us crawling out of the depression at first, but then we started sprinting on our own. The public projects probably the most under appreciated are the dams in the Northwest, like Grand Coulee dam. First it provided work and paychecks, then the electricity to build those bombers that stopped Hitler, and was n WW2.
Without that investment in the early 1930’s, we never could have produced the bombers, ships, and tanks to even go to war with Germany in the early 40’s. let alone defeat the Nazi’s. Without the New Deal, it would be a far different world today.
Cadillac Desert, Reisner 1986
My maternal grandfather (b 1896 d 1962) worked in the CCC in California in the mid 1930's. Kept their family alive. My Mom (b 1921 d 2004) showed me some of the projects he had worked on in the forests around northern California, building those stone firepits you still see in some of the National / State forest campgrounds.
So did mine. I have a photos of him and his comrades, maybe including your father!
Make that Grandfather....
That would be so cool. I have so few photos of him.
That’s Dr. Richardson’s gift to us. Opens our imaginations and gives us some beautiful moments of sheer insight and gratitude, like your tunnels. While she is helping us understand the bad stuff....
Professors help us brain. Should be on a t-shirt. Thanks Michael, for sharing that really good moment with us!
Forgot a link: https://livingnewdeal.org/projects/nw-cornell-road-tunnel-1-portland-or/
Thank you. New England has beautiful post offices and court houses, among others, that were WPA projects. Can’t help slowing down each time I see one to admire the craftsmanship, and to feel the pride and desire to do right for future generations that went into each one.
Shift in focus: I visited Mt. Hood last month with a cousin who lives nearby. It's the first time EVER I've seen the mountain with no snow.
It's remarkable - and sad. The summer of furnace-like heat did a number up there. Our son is on the high school ski team, and they tried to train in early August. A rocky, wet mess. We've lived here almost 22 years, and the top of the mountain had always glistened with snow all summer long.
The lovely Lodges in the National Parks include one at Mt. Hood. Built by CCC.
Didn't know you were a fellow Oregonian. There are some WPA/CCC stone firepits in southern Oregon recreation sites (McKee Bridge along the Applegate, for one).
Safety net for the unemployed and elderly. Build back better bridges and roads. Plus ca change... When ordinary people are given a more level playing field, they always build a better world for all of us. Why should we ever trust the rich to share, create jobs, pay their fair share? They never do. Why can't the Democrats seize this moment?
Democrats? Is that what we call Manchin and Sinema. I agree with your overall sentiment. But if we didn't know before, we do now: a 50-50 Senate with all Republicans refusing to govern + a filibuster + two Democratic senators overly influenced by lobbyists and the allure of big campaign contributions = what we have now. And, as some commentators today have shouted to the heavens, why aren't the Republicans blamed?
And how many of the current repubs in our government are seditionists that should be in jail for treason against our, what should be fair, past election? And why are we allowing them to vote on anything? They should be relieved of their jobs, paychecks and all benefits immediately following Jan 6 and their signing of the amicus brief that stating Biden did not win. This is a travesty of ridiculous proportions that we have allowed to happen. Our system needs checks and balances against republicans. Make sure NONe of them are allowed to serve and break their oaths of office ever again. Remind all Americans those make moves against our democracy daily. WE ALLOW THEM TO CONTINUE TO DESTROY IT. WHAT IS WRONG WITH US...AND OUR MEDIA?
"More than half of the House Republican Caucus in the 116th Congress signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to allow a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — swing states where former Vice President Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump. We’ve listed these members, 126 in all, below."
https://projects.propublica.org/represent/members/trump-texas-amicus-house-members
Absolutemente Penelope Simpson Adams. People are angry. Duh! Partly because our "justice" system - isn't. Especially, if you've got money and or power. Call your Reps and Senators and rustle their bustles!!! Today!!! Tomorrow!!! and....
Couldn’t agree more, so sick of the MSM blathering about how the cult feels and what they think. Don’t we all know that cults are irrational devotees of a sinister entity. Propaganda does that
Penelope Simpson Adams for President!
Why aren't we - the citizenry - on the phone bombarding our Reps and Senators and giving hell to Biden for his pussy footing around instead of using the tremendous power of the presidency to pressure Sinema and Manchin? Why aren't we in the streets today and tomorrow insisting on the original climate funding, Medicare negotiating drug prices, paid family leave care etc? Biden, Schumer and Pelosi: passionate in support of the "human" infrastructure bill? Are you kidding? Why waste breath and energy on the walking yammering idiot dead (Republicans?)? Emotionally they're 2 year olds or entering puberty with oppositional defiant disorder (If, however, your child displays a pattern of anger, defiance, argumentative behavior, or vindictiveness towards you, they may have oppositional defiant disorder or ODD.) Blame Republicans when = if ever - they reach adulthood.
Man, you are my soul sister, Selina! My 90 year old neighbor and I stand on the Green once a week with Support Voting Rights Now! signs. It has been the most gratifying protest we have participated in besides the Women's March. It was supposed to be the National Walkout lunch protest, but in our small town, 5:00 is the the better time to stand out as so many people are coming home from work and after school pickups. People are smiling, thumbs upping and honking. Wish more joined us, but they are obviously busy making life happen.
We hope our Voting Rights, and our elected officials, in the 21st century stand strong with us!
You go Girls!!!! You might think about sticking on one sign - Demand your Rep and Senators do it - w/ a generic phone number in DC.
Oppositional-Defiant disorder for sure, and greed. Don’t forget greed.
“I used to rig card games for a living. I’d watch people sit down and lose everything, again and again. But they didn’t lose because they “played by the rules,” and we didn’t. They lost because it wasn’t a game, it just looked like one. Democrats think it’s a game.” Derek Delgaudio on Twitter
My Q every hour of every day. Democrats still haven’t identified the enemy. The two Trojan Horses have been bought. Period
Manchin is a double agent:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/joe-manchins-deep-corporate-ties?utm_source=onsite-share&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker
Of course he is - more like a triple agent making sure his own personal pocket is lined. If he threatens and does to go Republican, so goes the Democratic majority. Call your senators and representatives and the White House urging them to refuse to sign off on the Reconciliation Bill unless paid family medical leave, Medicare can negotiate drug prices, and utilities be incentivized to use cleaner forms of energy. Further, tell them to superload it with goodies for W. Virginia and Arizona"and force a vote and watch Sinema and Manchin squirm. Isolate and push them against the wall with their opining in full view of the eyes of their voters. "Power concedes nothing without a demand."
Manchin has stated that if he’s an embarrassment to Democrats he will switch to the Independent Party but still caucus with Democrats. If he wants to caucus with Democrats he needs to start backing Democratic policies instead of Republican obstruction.
Thanks for posting this- I knew about his financial ties to Fossil Fuels- did NOT know about the ties to ALEC-Grrr! (I had to read it greyed out-I don't subscribe.)
ALEC is long time evil. Thought it was a republican thing. Again Grrr
100$
Yes! ❤️🤍💙
I read something the other day which described what we have as 48 Democrats (including King and Sanders I suppose) + 2 corporatists + 50 Republicans. At least Manchin and Sinema tend to support social programs. Imagine if their seats were held by Republicans! The Dems have done incredibly well to get stuff passed given their slim and fragile majority.
Drawing lipstick on a pig. Holding Democrats to the structural requirements induced by the essentials of millions of Americans and the more grievous climate catastrophe is our - the citizens - requirement. Please cite what "stuff" have the Democrats passed that will insure the needs of tomorrow are met?
Tell it Michael! And we must realize it’s a vveerryy lloonngg moment to seize....
And when ordinary people do well, do the wealthy and hyperwealthy suffer? Why, NO! THEY. DO. WELL. TOO. Which you would think they would learn, but -- nope.
The super rich have actually gained in wealth by a trillion dollars during the pandemic!
It’s not just about money for them. It’s about having power over other people and then chastising them about how little they have.
Because, Bobette, a number of Democratic Senators are Republicans, in fact if not on paper. This has been true for a long time and explains why many people my age (pushing 70) have lost faith in Americans' ability to save themselves from disaster.
I agree that Manchin and Sinema are DINO's. But we have to remember that the American Experiment is just that - and it ain't over yet (at least not on our watch, and the Fat Lady Sings.)
A new poll shows Sinema would lose to a Democrat in a primary election by 30 points. Her support has been sinking steadily, yet she has not changed her ways. To me that shows she has sold out to corporate interests, or to put it another way cashed in. Sinema will be able to buy a lot more denim vests after she's left the Senate that she's sullied.
Sinema is such a disappointment on so many levels. You wonder - where are the men and women of true character these days? I respect Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger so much now - more so for how their values are raising are eyes to the high and valuable cost of character.
Take the money and run
No, it ain't over yet. By, the way, you have a truly wonderful name, beautiful and unforgettable.
Thanks!
I posted this link on Robert Reich's column too. Biden is playing to the Progressives because he knows that that his proposals do not stand a snowball's chance in hell of being passed. Manchin is taking the heat because he enjoys it but none of the white elite Dems aka moderates, aka corporate Dems, really want more than Band-Aids anyhow. These are the people that paved the way for Trump.
https://rabble.ca/columnists/the-perfidy-of-the-democrats-party-elites-are-the-real-problem-not-joe-manchin/
I tend to agree, Allen, that Manchin and Sinema are not the only DINOs, just a bit more honest about it. I also expect there are other DEM senators who are less than enthusiastic about limiting the filibuster, too. So, no voting rights legislation will pass, the GOP will kick ass in the midterms, and the rest will apparently be what a constitutional majority of Americans want. It seems democracy can have unintended consequences.
Thom Hartmann makes the case that most of the senators do NOT want to lose the filibuster because they would be forced to vote according to whom they actually work for and that would bite them hard.
https://hartmannreport.com/p/filibuster-fingerprints-are-all-over
Eye-popping education on filibuster. I’ve tried so hard to understand the arguments for and against it but Hartman’s explanation (expose’ actually) spelled it out perfectly. This new knowledge actually makes me feel ill. I was blindly trusting of any (D) Senator — well no longer.
Me too, Jan. It's horrifying.
Thanks so much for this, Allen. I've been complaining about the filibuster for years without really understanding how utterly sleazy it is. Neither of my senators is on the list committed to eliminating it, so I guess I need to write them a letter. What bastards some of these senators are, likely most of them!
Your senate is going to cost you your democracy. I am not convinced that the Corporate Dems really care all that much anyhow.
Interesting...
I just read your link. Yes, ever since Bill Clinton figured out he could win by co-opting GOP stuff, Democrats have been disappointing.
Safety net for EVERYBODY!
They never do. Dem pols still think it’s politics as usual, so do MSM, and rank and file republicans. Worst of all, so do Democrat rank and file. So tired of media blather, they are Neros, all of them. Not just Fox any more. Why is that???
Democrats cannot seize the moment because the electorate failed to put enough if them in the Senate. Who’s fault is that? Look to the 74 million Trump voters, almost all of white and 75% working class. The white working class may, out of desperation saved America in 1932, but they’ve been a scourge since 1968 and are now poised to replace democracy with white autocracy because they can’t stomach the idea of a government that provides fair treatment to Americans with non-European ancestors.
The irony? Many if not most of the 74 million are so misinformed that they don't realize Democrat are working in their best interests. Republicans have not made their lives easier, especially financially. In fact, it's the opposite. Granted, the GOP has made it easer for them to give voice to their racism.
Yes, racism trumps everything. Always has in American politics, except for a brief interlude in 1964 and 1965 under the forceful leadership of LBJ, who, had he not been afraid to be the first Ameican president to lose a war, could have done the right thing on all fronts and maybe have found himself in the historical company of Lincoln and FDR as a great president.
he is to me
Me too, yet I cannot forgive LBJ for getting Vietnam wrong. FDR tried to stop US involvement there but got pushback from warmongers and colonialists and didn’t have the time or energy to overrule them, which is understandable given his health and workload at the time.
Democrats can't seize anything because they don't have an overwhelming majority and the Republicans are deciding to stand together as an obstructionist block.
Bravo, a clear message to us all, like a rising tide, good government lifts us all, what is happening now in the right wing of the GOP will cause democracy to wither on the vine
My parents lived thru the Great Depression. My mom was born in August 1929 and my dad had just turned 8 when it hit. Being the archivist of family history (my story started in 1944 at the end of WWII) I have written not only my biografy, but have goaded my mom and dad to tell me of their life before mine.
My mom never talked much about it until my sister & I took her to her old childhood neighborhood in St. Louis, where I took fotos of buildings that she had lived in during her formative years in the 1930s. She said my grandmother “was always moving to get something better or cheaper.” In one house she said, “I lived there when I was 6 years old (1935). We lived in furnished rooms upstairs. Can't remember how many rooms or what floor. I slept in between my sister and my brother Billy. I don't know where my mom and other brother slept. I just see in my mind's eye the bed I slept in. It was one large bedroom with a sink, stove and table in it. The bathroom was somewhere else. I remember having a bath in a wash-tub in the kitchen area and that was after the others had their bath. Mom had to heat the water and dump the water so one tub-full served all four kids.”
“Two friends, Semi & Sonny Simon lived two houses up. My mom and us kids were very, very poor. Mom was a hard working woman, working sometimes two jobs, but we were still very poor and were on relief. They call it Welfare now. I was very skinny and was diagnosed as malnourished one time when I was sick. I was also hungry most of the time. I was skinny, malnourished and hungry because I wouldn't eat what we had to eat, like moldy vegetables, and oleo that tasted like lard and powdered milk. I thought Semi and Sonny were rich because they had the whole upstairs of that little house. They each had a bed of their own and they had a back yard with a swing set. Their house had a living room, dining room, two bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom. I really thought they were rich. I remember being there while the kids ate their breakfast. My mouth just watered for that bowl of corn flakes with real milk. Those kids wouldn't eat it and I wanted it so bad. If they would of left the room I would of cleared that whole table. I'm sure if Mrs. Simon had known how hungry I was, she would have given me some corn flakes.”
My dad was raised in rural Mississippi and wrote in his bio: “Then came the Depression (1929) then everyone got hungry at one time or the other. I have seen people with a wife and kids work for $3.00 a week and room and board. Then when Roosevelt made president they started the WPA (Works Progress Administration – 1935) and CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps – 1933), so soon as I got to be 16 I went into the CCC down by Ocean Spring Miss. across the bay from Biloxi. That way I got my clothes, eats and $5.00 a month, and they would send $25 back for the family to live on, which at that time made it pretty for them. All the kids went barefoot and grown ups could buy a pair of work shoes for $1.00 to $1.25, a pair of pants and shirt for .75¢ to $1.00 each. So, in those days money went a long way, but you had to work to get any.”
For those of us whose parents shared such horrific stories of the Depression, today's letter describing the mindset of the wealthy during those times is just sickening. I read it as "let them eat cake" mentality, or "let them starve to death and then maybe they'll be willing to work for slave wages" (in non existent jobs.) Were it not for the WPA and CCC, I and my cousins would not be alive today. Were it not for my dad's GI Bill, I would never have had the relatively "normal" childhood I enjoyed, nor an education.
It’s awesome that your getting all this history of your family on paper Rob! Kudos!
Originally on paper, but now on thumb drives that I sent to grand-nephews & nieces in hopes that they preserve this family history. I (the one with no biological progeny) have been the one to collect this so far and no one yet seems to be into this "First Person" history. Everyone has a story to tell of their time & place. A shame that so few tell it.
I used to love listening to my grandmothers and great grandmothers stories but sadly it never occurred to me to record them or write out what they related. It feels like a significant loss now. I imagine your work will be very treasured by some someday. Generations change so rapidly. Much respect Rob!
Maybe you should try to reconstruct what you do remember. Just today with this discourse I remembered a little story my grandmother in rural Mississippi told me about her and some other kids stealing a car (Model T Ford) and joy riding, rolling over in a ditch and she broke her arm. Just a little anecdote of her life that reinforces teen impetuous rebellion, like me and my friend’s joyride in 1962 in a 56 Olds that almost ended in a wreck. There is a connectedness thru generations.
Morning, all!! Morning, Dr. R!! I had no idea what today's Letter was going to be about (I should've known, though). After listening to Heather's chat on FB yesterday, I decided what this country needs is more good news. So here's what some good Americans have been up to:
California's Last Bookstore: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/the-last-bookstore-wins-global-fame-thanks-to-social-media/#x
Michigan's Seeds of Change: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/michigan-farm-helps-formerly-incarcerated-americans-grow-vegetables-and-opportunity/#x
Virginia's Military Mom Creating a Home and Hope: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/how-one-military-mom-mobilized-thousands-of-volunteers-to-bring-sense-of-hope-to-afghan-refugees/?fbclid=IwAR3lHnqv-3HtJaUuWfZpDTAP-otjmNi2JL-eL1y3hq0DXlKDKerW3Z_5mKc#x
Mississippi Shedding Its Racist Roots: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/shedding-its-racist-roots-a-mississippi-high-school-football-team-dominates-the-state/?fbclid=IwAR3lHnqv-3HtJaUuWfZpDTAP-otjmNi2JL-eL1y3hq0DXlKDKerW3Z_5mKc#x
What a great message, Lynell.
Thanks, Cathy. Heather thinks we need to spread what's good in America. I think it's a great idea to do that!
Morning Lynell, and thanks for the links — I say as I trundle off to sleep....
Good morning everyone. Thanks HCR for pinpointing the so very interesting juxtaposition of the "prosperity gospel" boondoggle, the neo-Victorian division of the poor into "deserving" (of charity) and "undeserving" (of assistance), and the Ricardian and social Darwinist presentation of the poor as subhuman species who have to be ground down into submission . . . The New Gilded Age, which started with Reagan, continues despite disastrous stock-market downturns because the kleptocrats and neo-fascists figured out how to counter the impulses of others who see greater equality in a more even distribution of wealth, opportunity, and education.
Some things to remember:
The New Deal was very much focused on white people; BIPOC folks did not benefit in any great numbers and Jim Crow was solidified during the time. The exception was in those places--like Tom Pendergast's Kansas City--where the thoroughly corrupt city boss system used the Black community as a bulwark against the industrialists who wanted to see them ousted. Harry Truman was in Pendergast's pocket when he went to Washington and it took a long time before he could clean the mud from his jacket as a result. This also pitted Black civic leaders against their white counterparts in ways that were invidious to their success after WW2.
The Great Depression ultimately ended because of the US entry into WW2 and the military-industrial complex that built up a few years before because of Lend-Lease. The New Deal was unable to lift everyone up, so it took a huge war effort to do so. The prosperity of the 1950s, like before the war, significantly benefited the white population far more than the BIPOC population. If you notice the trend lines from Reagan, the introduction of wars to pull the stock market out of a swoon was part of his strategy and that of most administrations (ironically most Republican administrations), so it has been well known that defense spending is a good juggernaut for prosperity. Which is what Eisenhower warned everyone about when he was leaving office.
The New Deal entrenched the idea--despite Frances Perkins--of the "nuclear" family as the proper model for western society, even though it is not a useful model for most people in the world. And it limited women's ability to gain education, jobs, and wages that would be equivalent to those of men. Before this time--and before unionization, which was an important component to New Deal economics--factory owners and big industrialists LOVED hiring women (single women, especially) because they could pay them less and they were more willing to work in terrible conditions because they needed to do so. If you recall a March 25 post, in which HCR broke down the issues surrounding the Triangle Shirtwaist fire?? in 1911? The whole reason for the Settlement House movement that peaked in the 1920s was that women and children were totally left behind in the drive to enrich white men. We are now seeing a significant re-awakening of similar rhetoric, aimed of course at non-white people, refugees, and others whose lives depend on doing the horrible work at terrible wages that white Americans consider unappetizing. That's why you will see very few white people in abattoirs--called, euphemistically, animal processing plants these days.
Roosevelt, egged on by the three women in his life--Frances Perkins, his wife, Eleanor, and his mother, Alice--did extraordinary things to start the process of wealth redistribution. But he did not have to combat the Forces of Evil at home to such a degree as Biden does today, because no matter the terrible behavior of the Republican Party and the Dixiecrats in the 1930s, they believed that governing was their duty. That is not the case today--power-mongering is their only ambition, and autocracy the goal. And the stakes, I believe, are just as high right now.
Thank you. History bites.
A few examples noting Eleanor Roosevelt's work to combat racism in America. .
'Eleanor Roosevelt and the Wartime Campaign Against Jim Crow'
Eleanor Roosevelt firmly believed civil rights to be the litmus test for American democracy. She declared over and over throughout World War II that the United States could not claim to be a democracy if African Americans did not have democratic rights. Mrs. Roosevelt repeatedly insisted that education, housing, employment, and voting were basic human rights that society was morally and politically obliged to provide its citizens, and that policies must be developed to create a level playing field.
'Before World War II began, Eleanor Roosevelt had already established strong ties to the African American community. Her behind-the-scenes influence on the National Youth Administration, the Federal One Arts programs, the Homestead Subsistence Administration, and numerous Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects ensured that African American interests would at least be given token recognition by the New Deal. Her intercession on behalf of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban League, Howard University, Bethune Cookman College, the Southern Conference for Human Welfare, Marian Anderson, the Fair Employment Practices Committee, and the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax helped her forge a strong public image as a civil rights activist.1'
'The rise of Aryanism in Germany dramatically increased Mrs. Roosevelt's disgust with American racism. By 1939, she decided to attack the hypocritical way in which the nation dealt with racial injustice. She wanted Americans to understand how "writing and speaking about democracy and the American way without consideration of the imperfections within our system with regard to its treatment . . . of the Negro" encouraged racism. As she told Ralph Bunche in an interview for Gunnar Myrdal's American Dilemma, Americans wanted to talk "only about the good features of American life and to hide our problems like skeletons in the closet." This denial only fueled violent responses; Americans must therefore recognize "the real intensity of feeling" and "the amount of intimidation and terrorization" promoted by racism, and act against such "ridiculous" behavior.2' (Social Studies)
http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/6005/600508.html
'In 1941, Eleanor visited the all-Black Tuskegee Airmen training facility in Alabama, to witness their achievements. Because of segregation, there were no Black pilots in the military, and the recently formed program was very controversial.'
'While touring the facility, Eleanor insisted, over the Secret Service’s objections, that she fly with the lead instructor, “Chief” Anderson. He took her up alone, and flew around for half an hour in a small Piper Cub, shattering yet another racial barrier.'
'The 13 years of Eleanor’s leadership and advocacy as first lady impressed Black voters, accelerating a massive shift of allegiance from the Republican Party to the Democrats, and set up a powerful Republican backlash.' (Carroll County Times)
'For nearly three decades, educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune, often called the “First Lady of the Struggle,” forged an unlikely friendship with another first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.'
'Bethune became a trusted advisor to both Roosevelt and her husband, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and played a key role in shaping government policies for Black Americans during the 1930s and '40s.' (Biography Newsletter)
https://www.biography.com/news/eleanor-roosevelt-mary-mcleod-bethune-friendship
I thought there was a lot of opposition to FDR. His programs were called a conspiracy to gain control over Americans. Out of the opposition came the John Birch Society and then Goldwater and then Nixon and Reagen. And now here we are fighting the forces that are fighting the power of the New Deal. And racism continues.
Great post. Good things to remember. And yes, the stakes are just as high right now.
Thanks Dr. Heather. Hopefully, the news Pramilla Jayapal gave Rachel tonight will lead to a new renewal starting this weekend.
Agree TC. Here is link to that segment on Maddow’s show Thurs evening.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/other/i-see-the-end-jayapal-sees-finish-line-in-tandem-infrastructure-bill-process/vi-AAQ4Uty
Yes! Americans have forgotten how Congress used to work - offer a pie-in-the-sky bill, then start haggling. The progressives won't get everything they (we) want in the package, but Jayapal's genuine optimism last night, after all their tough efforts, is power-full!
She was almost giddy with optimism. Hope it's well-founded.
Lovely post!
I recently re-watched the 1997 film, Titanic, and your opening description made me feel like I was nodding to nobles in the dining room of the doomed ocean liner. The Great Depression was a much slower descent, but it was a much larger ship.
And the Republican answer to the drowning souls, even that long ago: swim harder.
“Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate,” Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon told President Herbert Hoover. “It will purge the rottenness out of the system.”Only an obsequiousness, wealthy man would conclude this is a healthy solution. Is there such a person as a civil servant anymore? A person willing to generate a PLAN that doesn’t have a “jingle” for a solution? No quick fix… we need a path to follow and use as a national guide to the American Community. You, Professor are a path builder. I am grateful.