MTG Claims She Can Smell Bullshit--Except Her Own, A Monument to Honor Wrongfully Imprisoned Japanese Americans Finally Gets All the Names Right, Two Book Recommendations, The Chi-Lites Sing "Oh Girl"
One more: Kareem, are you okay with the medical expenses from your fall and surgery? If not, I'm certain many people on the forum would gladly assist you. Just ask. Oh! I also picked up some of the John Wooden stamps today - they're pretty big for stamps. The postal clerk said "you kind of look like him" to me. I thought...oh geez!
Message: Do the right thing...always...all the time...as if someone is watching - not just when it's convenient. I saw something today that bothered me. We're heading backwards as a society.
When I was 13, "Have You Seen Her?" was one of my favorite songs. I had a 45 of it and would listen to it over and over on my scratchy little record player. The spoken part always made me cry.
I have a question that will probably get lost in this long list of comments, but, here goes: a Trumpy friend of mine told me once that he has no respect for athletes who knelt during the national anthem because they all quit when it stopped being cool (his description, not mine.) He said that if they were really committed to their cause they wouldn't have stopped protesting. My answer was to point out what happened to Colin Kaepernick: he was let go by his team and no one would ever hire him again. Athletes still have families to feed. I'm not sure that's a very good answer, but it was the best I could do at the time. It made me wonder, however; what did happen to all the kneeling athletes? In truth, I never watch sports, so for all I know they're still kneeling in protest and it's just that nobody remarks on it. But it seems like the protest just faded away. Why? Did it fall out of fashion? Did the heads of all the sports leagues quietly ban it? I can't imagine it was because players stopped feeling as if Blacks weren't marginalized anymore, and I know that police are still shooting Black people at higher rates than White people. What happened?
“When I ponder how the citizens of Germany could be okay with the rounding up and slaughter of six million Jews, it seems impossible. I feel the same way when I think about these camps.”
The Germans isolated people based on their ethnicity and religion. Well, we did it, too. The only things the internment camps were missing were the slave labor and gas chambers.
“Yet, as an American, if I’m going to feel pride about the accomplishments and glory of our past, I must share in the weight of our ignoble deeds as well.”
It’s not about “making white kids feel bad”, it’s about making them aware this happened, it was *absolutely* wrong, and when they grow up they need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Yet there are so many who feel “Muslim bans”, etc., are OK. So obviously the kids didn’t feel bad enough.
Marjorie Green wouldn’t know bullshit if I hit her in the face with a whole pie of it.
On another note, there’s a difference between a symbol of protest and vandalism. Flag-burning is different from store looting, which is different from a show of “damaging” historical documents like the ones under glass at the Archives. Should the vandals in the Archives be executed? Of course not. But unfortunately for them they need to be made an example of to discourage others from doing similar. We don’t need any more copycats.
Thank you for the article on the internment of Japanese American citizens. Both Canada and Great Britain share the same shame. 12,000 Japanese Canadians were in interred in the 1940s and their homes and businesses were sold to pay for their detention. Simon Parkin has written an amazing story of the British practice of internment told through the eyes of a 16 year old Jewish boy. The book is entitled "The Island of Extraordinary Captives"..A Painter, a Poet, an Heiress and a Spy in a World War II British Internment Camp. A wonderful read.
Thanks Kareem, "Have You Seen Her" is one of my all-time favorites. You should really checkout Felix Hernandez' show on WBGO 88.3 via stream. Every Saturday and Sunday. The station itself is good, once great, but the Rhythm Revue show is still strong. A ton of R&B and Soul.
Also, what's with the assault and battery epidemic in the NBA? Too much drama. It's a damn game - players are taking the fun out of it with the drama. Plus, these guys are '80's wannabees in terms of toughness. Put them in a game back in the '80's and most of them would be crushed.
The Black National Anthem? I did not know that it existed. Bravo! That does not make me racist, it makes me uninformed . . . . but, how good to learn something every day; especially at 77. It should be sung at the opening of every signifigant event . . . . . and more.
Re: Japanese citizens of the US placed in camps in WWII, we moderns see political leaders passing bills to prohibit any educational content that might make a white student feel "uncomfortable," (as in Florida). I have felt distinctly uncomfortable with the darker episodes in our history but as I age I am not so much uncomfortable as I am encouraged by the fact that we have always made mistakes in our history and yet we continue stumbling along to a more perfect union. My reading from the Tao today applied to this: "Seeing your own smallness is called insight." How else but through actually looking at our past mistakes are we to get better at not repeating them? It's not comfortable for any of us to find that we've had reality just plain wrong but isn't that the purpose of all education...to see the world as it is and to see ourselves as we are, both our good AND our bad?
Lift Every Voice is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. My daughter was in the Chicago Children’s Choir. I wept every time they sang it. And had chills. My own body and soul were raised, lifted. Yes, this song creates a physical, as well as emotional, response.
Anyone who does not appreciate this song (and respect its origins) is both tone deaf and soulless.
Again you bring logic to stories that are so puzzling to us! You are a sane voice that we need to hear when we hear MTG and others spout nonsense. Thank you again for another thoughtful newsletter
My only criticism of performing this wonderful old hymn as part of pre-game ceremonies is that everyone nowadays sings it as some sort of funereal dirge; it's a song of JOY, ffs! (Lift every voice and SING, 'til earth and heaven RING!) Pick up the tempo, kids, and move with it. Our old choir director, Mrs. Brannigan, would smack your butts for using it as a vanity piece instead of to motivate and inspire.
BINGO!
One more: Kareem, are you okay with the medical expenses from your fall and surgery? If not, I'm certain many people on the forum would gladly assist you. Just ask. Oh! I also picked up some of the John Wooden stamps today - they're pretty big for stamps. The postal clerk said "you kind of look like him" to me. I thought...oh geez!
Message: Do the right thing...always...all the time...as if someone is watching - not just when it's convenient. I saw something today that bothered me. We're heading backwards as a society.
When I was 13, "Have You Seen Her?" was one of my favorite songs. I had a 45 of it and would listen to it over and over on my scratchy little record player. The spoken part always made me cry.
I have a question that will probably get lost in this long list of comments, but, here goes: a Trumpy friend of mine told me once that he has no respect for athletes who knelt during the national anthem because they all quit when it stopped being cool (his description, not mine.) He said that if they were really committed to their cause they wouldn't have stopped protesting. My answer was to point out what happened to Colin Kaepernick: he was let go by his team and no one would ever hire him again. Athletes still have families to feed. I'm not sure that's a very good answer, but it was the best I could do at the time. It made me wonder, however; what did happen to all the kneeling athletes? In truth, I never watch sports, so for all I know they're still kneeling in protest and it's just that nobody remarks on it. But it seems like the protest just faded away. Why? Did it fall out of fashion? Did the heads of all the sports leagues quietly ban it? I can't imagine it was because players stopped feeling as if Blacks weren't marginalized anymore, and I know that police are still shooting Black people at higher rates than White people. What happened?
“When I ponder how the citizens of Germany could be okay with the rounding up and slaughter of six million Jews, it seems impossible. I feel the same way when I think about these camps.”
The Germans isolated people based on their ethnicity and religion. Well, we did it, too. The only things the internment camps were missing were the slave labor and gas chambers.
“Yet, as an American, if I’m going to feel pride about the accomplishments and glory of our past, I must share in the weight of our ignoble deeds as well.”
It’s not about “making white kids feel bad”, it’s about making them aware this happened, it was *absolutely* wrong, and when they grow up they need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Yet there are so many who feel “Muslim bans”, etc., are OK. So obviously the kids didn’t feel bad enough.
Marjorie Green wouldn’t know bullshit if I hit her in the face with a whole pie of it.
On another note, there’s a difference between a symbol of protest and vandalism. Flag-burning is different from store looting, which is different from a show of “damaging” historical documents like the ones under glass at the Archives. Should the vandals in the Archives be executed? Of course not. But unfortunately for them they need to be made an example of to discourage others from doing similar. We don’t need any more copycats.
Thank you for the article on the internment of Japanese American citizens. Both Canada and Great Britain share the same shame. 12,000 Japanese Canadians were in interred in the 1940s and their homes and businesses were sold to pay for their detention. Simon Parkin has written an amazing story of the British practice of internment told through the eyes of a 16 year old Jewish boy. The book is entitled "The Island of Extraordinary Captives"..A Painter, a Poet, an Heiress and a Spy in a World War II British Internment Camp. A wonderful read.
Thanks Kareem, "Have You Seen Her" is one of my all-time favorites. You should really checkout Felix Hernandez' show on WBGO 88.3 via stream. Every Saturday and Sunday. The station itself is good, once great, but the Rhythm Revue show is still strong. A ton of R&B and Soul.
Also, what's with the assault and battery epidemic in the NBA? Too much drama. It's a damn game - players are taking the fun out of it with the drama. Plus, these guys are '80's wannabees in terms of toughness. Put them in a game back in the '80's and most of them would be crushed.
The Black National Anthem? I did not know that it existed. Bravo! That does not make me racist, it makes me uninformed . . . . but, how good to learn something every day; especially at 77. It should be sung at the opening of every signifigant event . . . . . and more.
Re: Japanese citizens of the US placed in camps in WWII, we moderns see political leaders passing bills to prohibit any educational content that might make a white student feel "uncomfortable," (as in Florida). I have felt distinctly uncomfortable with the darker episodes in our history but as I age I am not so much uncomfortable as I am encouraged by the fact that we have always made mistakes in our history and yet we continue stumbling along to a more perfect union. My reading from the Tao today applied to this: "Seeing your own smallness is called insight." How else but through actually looking at our past mistakes are we to get better at not repeating them? It's not comfortable for any of us to find that we've had reality just plain wrong but isn't that the purpose of all education...to see the world as it is and to see ourselves as we are, both our good AND our bad?
Lift Every Voice is one of the most beautiful songs ever written. My daughter was in the Chicago Children’s Choir. I wept every time they sang it. And had chills. My own body and soul were raised, lifted. Yes, this song creates a physical, as well as emotional, response.
Anyone who does not appreciate this song (and respect its origins) is both tone deaf and soulless.
Again you bring logic to stories that are so puzzling to us! You are a sane voice that we need to hear when we hear MTG and others spout nonsense. Thank you again for another thoughtful newsletter
My only criticism of performing this wonderful old hymn as part of pre-game ceremonies is that everyone nowadays sings it as some sort of funereal dirge; it's a song of JOY, ffs! (Lift every voice and SING, 'til earth and heaven RING!) Pick up the tempo, kids, and move with it. Our old choir director, Mrs. Brannigan, would smack your butts for using it as a vanity piece instead of to motivate and inspire.
The Joker/Harley graphic novel is amazing. That Chilites video was like a Time Machine.