OT ~ Welcome to Saturday!

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 6:15am

Sit-a-while
on swinging porch
where tin-dippers and
sweet water
in cool touches
meet lips
from hand dug wells.

"I want to live in America," really?

Good morning good people,

Old dialogue struggles coming back to me this morning as piercing truths of Arthur Miller's great play All My Sons clearly disturb sleep. Surely after seven decades, the script made its way into the minds of Boeing.

“Chris: For me! Where do you live, where have you come from? For me!-- I was dying every day and you were killing my boys and you did it for me? What the hell do you think I was thinking of, the Goddamn business? Is that as far as your mind can see, the business? What is that , the world-- the business? What the hell do you mean, you did it for me? Don't you have a country? Don't you live in the world? What the hell are you? You're not even an animal, no animal kills his own, what are you?” ~ Arthur Miller

This side of the truth,
You may not see, my son,
King of your blue eyes
In the blinding country of youth,
That all is undone,
Under the unminding skies,
Of innocence and guilt
Before you move to make
One gesture of the heart or head,
Is gathered and spilt
Into the winding dark
Like the dust of the dead.

Good and bad, two ways
Of moving about your death
By the grinding sea,
King of your heart in the blind days,
Blow away like breath,
Go crying through you and me
And the souls of all men
Into the innocent
Dark, and the guilty dark, and good
Death, and bad death, and then
In the last element
Fly like the stars' blood

Like the sun's tears,
Like the moon's seed, rubbish
And fire, the flying rant
Of the sky, king of your six years.
And the wicked wish,
Down the beginning of plants
And animals and birds,
Water and Light, the earth and sky,
Is cast before you move,
And all your deeds and words,
Each truth, each lie,
Die in unjudging love.

This side of truth ~ Dylan Thomas

Making a more perfect union? After Miller, Malcolm X came to mind:

When we see that our problem is so complicated and so all-encompassing in its intent and content, then we realize that it is no longer a Negro problem, confined only to the American Negro; that it is no longer an American problem, confined only to America, but it is a problem for humanity.~ Malcolm X

"In the United States, black and Hispanic people bear many more of the deadly effects of air pollution, while creating less pollution themselves. Non-Hispanic white people are exposed to around 17% less air-pollution exposure than they make. African Americans bear a ‘pollution burden’ of 56% excess exposure, and Hispanic Americans face 63%." Wapo via Nature Magazine.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.~ Chief Seattle

Trento oggi è stato questo, probabilmente la più grande manifestazione studentesca di questo secolo. @welikeduel #propagandalive #GlobalStrikeForFuture #fridaysforfuture pic.twitter.com/EPYBlRv5j6

— Mich (@balbium) March 15, 2019

"You are never too small to make a difference."
https://twitter.com/GretaThunberg

When i was down, you picked me up
When i was out, let me in
Take us and begin

The porch is yours ...

Edited to change poem at 8:45am

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Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 6:25am

Today's image is a 'liquid marble' formed from a water droplet

coated in hexagonal plastic particles. ~ F. Geyer

Dark out, waiting for the sun to surprise, bring color to this day; wherever you are, hope it's a good one.

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 11:57am

Good morning, smiley7

It's going to be a good day.

Leonard Cohen is an idol, but screw Manhattan.

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Oops, no, sorry. That was only a Shakespeare flashback. Carrying on.....

First, we take Brooklyn, yeah, even hoity toity Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope, whereupon Brooklyn shall declare war on Albany and fight until quisling Cuomo surrenders his sword.

Never mind. I'm a pacifist, damn it. I'll take a bullet for you, but I won't fire one at anyone.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSSVDGY0dP4]

O.K., I have already confessed to Adult Attention Deficit Disorder--as if you couldn't tell that, anyway, from my longer posts, which read as though a Mexican jumping ban had commandeered my keyboard. So, now I will also confess to a touch of "fact OCD." Which is probably also evident from my posts, long or short.

Long ago and on a board far away, some rightist posters called out Miller for writing such an "unpatriotic" play. (When did criticizing crappy, greedy military contractors who can get troops killed become unpatriotic?) So, I went a-googuling, as often is my wont, then shut them up with this:

All My Sons is based upon a true story, which Arthur Miller's then mother-in-law pointed out in an Ohio newspaper.[3] The news story described how in 1941–43 the Wright Aeronautical Corporation based in Ohio had conspired with army inspection officers to approve defective aircraft engines destined for military use.[3][4] The story of defective engines had reached investigators working for Sen. Harry Truman's congressional investigative board after several Wright aircraft assembly workers informed on the company; they would later testify under oath before Congress.[3][4] In 1944, three Army Air Force officers, Lt. Col. Frank C. Greulich, Major Walter A. Ryan, and Major William Bruckmann were relieved of duty and later convicted of neglect of duty.[5][6][7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_My_Sons And I say, "shut them up" because the first rule of posting seems to be, "Never admit to an error, just slink away silently." Anyway....

If two Majors and a Lt. Colonel were relieved of duty, tried and convicted over the Wright mess, you have to wonder where the buck really stopped. With April Glaspie, the buck most likely stopped with Bush the Slicker, but I doubt FDR or Truman were involved in this steaming pile, other than in the sense of a leader being responsible for everything that happens on his or her watch.

BTW, in the "Isn't it a small world?" Department, the guy who taught me to swim and, years, later, married my mom, the guy about whom I posted on your Saturday OT a couple of Saturdays ago, worked for Wright.

However, Miller was wrong about something else. Animals do eat their own. Literally their own. And that, right there, is my "fact OCD" flaring up. Had I been tempted for any reason to leave that bit out of my post, I probably would not have posted at all.

So, smiley7, thank you very much for this OT. Among other things, with all my idiosyncracies, it's good to know that, when I finally lose what remains of my marbles, I can make me some glitzy new ones out of droplets of rain!

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 8:20am

Good, someone understands; reading my

@HenryAWallace
morning rambles may take a special WTF search engine and more as my oxygen level drops so low now-a-days i live in a perpetual fog. On the other hand, i smile from ear-to ear reading your comment, you get it ... lucky you.

A powerful play, All My Sons; did it in London mid-seventies, playing Chris. Haven't written much, if anything about how becoming someone else night after night impacts one; have lived the consequences though; which bring me to a recent study i read about in the Guardian:

Actors show different brain activity when in character, study finds https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/13/actors-show-different-br...
"Now, researchers have said thespians show different patterns of brain activity depending on whether they are in character or not."

Forever altered, i must be.

So, a morning toast to playing with marbles.

Thanks for reading and being here, Henry, and have a great day.

It's going to be a good day. Leonard Cohen is an idol, but screw Manhattan. The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Oops, no, sorry. That was only a Shakespeare flashback. Carrying on..... First, we take Brooklyn, yeah, even hoity toity Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope, whereupon Brooklyn shall declare war on Albany and fight until quisling Cuomo surrenders his sword. Never mind. I'm a pacifist, damn it. I'll take a bullet for you, but I won't fire one at anyone. [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSSVDGY0dP4] O.K., I have already confessed to Adult Attention Deficit Disorder--as if you couldn't tell that, anyway, from my longer posts, which read as though a Mexican jumping ban had commandeered my keyboard. So, now I will also confess to a touch of "fact OCD." Which is probably also evident from my posts, long or short. Long ago and on a board far away, some rightist posters called out Miller for writing such an "unpatriotic" play. (When did criticizing crappy, greedy military contractors who can get troops killed become unpatriotic?) So, I went a-googuling, as often is my wont, then shut them up with this: All My Sons is based upon a true story, which Arthur Miller's then mother-in-law pointed out in an Ohio newspaper.[3] The news story described how in 1941–43 the Wright Aeronautical Corporation based in Ohio had conspired with army inspection officers to approve defective aircraft engines destined for military use.[3][4] The story of defective engines had reached investigators working for Sen. Harry Truman's congressional investigative board after several Wright aircraft assembly workers informed on the company; they would later testify under oath before Congress.[3][4] In 1944, three Army Air Force officers, Lt. Col. Frank C. Greulich, Major Walter A. Ryan, and Major William Bruckmann were relieved of duty and later convicted of neglect of duty.[5][6][7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_My_Sons And I say, "shut them up" because the first rule of posting seems to be, "Never admit to an error, just slink away silently." Anyway.... If two Majors and a Lt. Colonel were relieved of duty, tried and convicted over the Wright mess, you have to wonder where the buck really stopped. With April Glaspie, the buck most likely stopped with Bush the Slicker, but I doubt FDR or Truman were involved in this steaming pile, other than in the sense of a leader being responsible for everything that happens on his or her watch. BTW, in the "Isn't it a small world?" Department, the guy who taught me to swim and, years, later, married my mom, the guy about whom I posted on your Saturday OT a couple of Saturdays ago, worked for Wright. However, Miller was wrong about something else. Animals do eat their own. Literally their own. And that, right there, is my "fact OCD" flaring up. Had I been tempted for any reason to leave that bit out of my post, I probably would not have posted at all. So, smiley7, thank you very much for this OT. Among other things, with all my idiosyncracies, it's good to know that, when I finally lose what remains of my marbles, I can make me some glitzy new ones out of droplets of rain!

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 8:52am

My pleasure!

@smiley7

A powerful play, All My Sons; did it in London mid-seventies, playing Chris.

I had no idea you acted professionally. And in London, to boot. Quite the cosmopolitan, you, wot?

Haven't written much, if anything about how becoming someone else night after night impacts one; have lived the consequences though; which bring me to a recent study i read about in the Guardian:

During a TV interview, Bob Hoskins, who played Valiant opposite Jessica Rabbit, (a cartoon female, voiced by Kathleen Turner), in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, attributed a mental breakdown to his role the film.

I'm always happy when I can sit beside you and other Caucusers on the porch, smiley7, and you are always too kind.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 11:01am

The pleasure is mine,

@HenryAWallace
yep, walked the boards for a living and am sure i've bored many old EBer's with tales from those years.

Some of those wells were deep and the water from them both magical and dangerous. Only normal, i suppose, flashes pop up in recesses when stirred by current events or conversations.

Submitted by travelerxxx on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 5:01pm

A thing learned today

@smiley7

...walked the boards for a living...

Immediately I knew what you meant, yet never before had I run into this phrase.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 5:27pm

What fun ... the little things,

@travelerxxx

Thanks for reading, travelerxxx.

Have a great evening.

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 9:06am

Oops, I meant to include in my original reply my view on

@HenryAWallace

this comment:

In the United States, black and Hispanic people bear many more of the deadly effects of air pollution, while creating less pollution themselves. Non-Hispanic white people are exposed to around 17% less air-pollution exposure than they make. African Americans bear a ‘pollution burden’ of 56% excess exposure, and Hispanic Americans face 63%. Wapo via Nature Magazine.

I would bet the deed to my humble abode that the language quoted above can be said of poorer people. Or do we assume that poorer white, poorer Asians, etc. occupy some rarefied air neighborhoods, work white collar jobs and take private jets? Then again, so we imagine that Shonda Rimes is breathing in pollutants than the white actors who play the roles she so brilliantly writes?

Consciously or not, I am seeing things we used to think of in terms of being poor or "poorer" versus being "well to do" or filthy rich now being couched in racial terms. And I don't think it's always accidental.

It's going to be a good day. Leonard Cohen is an idol, but screw Manhattan. The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Oops, no, sorry. That was only a Shakespeare flashback. Carrying on..... First, we take Brooklyn, yeah, even hoity toity Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope, whereupon Brooklyn shall declare war on Albany and fight until quisling Cuomo surrenders his sword. Never mind. I'm a pacifist, damn it. I'll take a bullet for you, but I won't fire one at anyone. [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSSVDGY0dP4] O.K., I have already confessed to Adult Attention Deficit Disorder--as if you couldn't tell that, anyway, from my longer posts, which read as though a Mexican jumping ban had commandeered my keyboard. So, now I will also confess to a touch of "fact OCD." Which is probably also evident from my posts, long or short. Long ago and on a board far away, some rightist posters called out Miller for writing such an "unpatriotic" play. (When did criticizing crappy, greedy military contractors who can get troops killed become unpatriotic?) So, I went a-googuling, as often is my wont, then shut them up with this: All My Sons is based upon a true story, which Arthur Miller's then mother-in-law pointed out in an Ohio newspaper.[3] The news story described how in 1941–43 the Wright Aeronautical Corporation based in Ohio had conspired with army inspection officers to approve defective aircraft engines destined for military use.[3][4] The story of defective engines had reached investigators working for Sen. Harry Truman's congressional investigative board after several Wright aircraft assembly workers informed on the company; they would later testify under oath before Congress.[3][4] In 1944, three Army Air Force officers, Lt. Col. Frank C. Greulich, Major Walter A. Ryan, and Major William Bruckmann were relieved of duty and later convicted of neglect of duty.[5][6][7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_My_Sons And I say, "shut them up" because the first rule of posting seems to be, "Never admit to an error, just slink away silently." Anyway.... If two Majors and a Lt. Colonel were relieved of duty, tried and convicted over the Wright mess, you have to wonder where the buck really stopped. With April Glaspie, the buck most likely stopped with Bush the Slicker, but I doubt FDR or Truman were involved in this steaming pile, other than in the sense of a leader being responsible for everything that happens on his or her watch. BTW, in the "Isn't it a small world?" Department, the guy who taught me to swim and, years, later, married my mom, the guy about whom I posted on your Saturday OT a couple of Saturdays ago, worked for Wright. However, Miller was wrong about something else. Animals do eat their own. Literally their own. And that, right there, is my "fact OCD" flaring up. Had I been tempted for any reason to leave that bit out of my post, I probably would not have posted at all. So, smiley7, thank you very much for this OT. Among other things, with all my idiosyncracies, it's good to know that, when I finally lose what remains of my marbles, I can make me some glitzy new ones out of droplets of rain!

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 9:49am

Found a link that's not behind a firewall for the study:

@HenryAWallace
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/13/health/air-pollution-race-study-trnd/inde...

"First, researchers at the University of Minnesota pinpointed what products and services were created with a byproduct of air pollution (e.g. factories or transportation).
They then looked at what demographics were buying or benefiting from these goods and services.
Next, they located areas that experienced the most air pollution and broke those areas down by demographics to determine who was exposed to the most pollution."

However, poor people have no skin color in mind when starving or breathing fine particulate matter they can't even see, do they?

See my quote in OT from Malcolm X; most problems are so interwoven they are problems of humanity.

Damn; guess my powers of presentation are lacking this morning as that's what all today's work is about, the universality of it all, warts and rosebuds; to me anyways. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

However; this great resource, a map posted in a comment this week on c99: https://demographics.coopercenter.org/racial-dot-map/ and other new resources may allow for more precise science in research.

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 7:59am

Good morning, smiley ~~

The horizon is glowing
as the sun-flames are showing
themselves to me.
The horizon is lit
with the beginning bit
of the promise of morning.

Have a beautiful day, everyone!

—

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 8:32am

Sweet, sweet poem, RA.

@Raggedy Ann

Cool beans as my little one used to say with a huge smile. A good day for him to as he texted last evening of a move up in the jiu jitsu studio.

When you've the time, you may enjoy this:

"Musically recreating a sunny day’s mountain climb in the Bavarian Alps, Strauss’s 1915 symphony is a continual episodic flow of music. The sun emerges at the beginning of the piece, presented by a brash brass entrance. By using one of the largest orchestras ever assembled at that time with a particularly strong brass section, the effect is overwhelming. The symphony closes with the sun setting at the base of the mountain, with the piece’s narrative wholly dictated by daylight."

A splendid day back at you.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 8:40am

Good morning smiley. Much the same mood here as you.

Thinking of trying to smile my way out of it. Breakfast is looming at me, as is yet another day of trying to get ahead of the chore and task list before the next vacation/road trip. Then I remember, shit, I don't really have any problems, not when there are so many out there who really have problems. I have a wee bit of first world aggravation for which there are surely many non-prozac solutions; one being getting up and out and getting shit done. Hah, what kind of fool idea is that. Farmers' market today, but little to get and still driving instead of walking. Maybe after the desert run.

Boeing is, of course, an inhuman monster. It is in their bylaws, it is in the law as well. Profit uber alles. It drives them. Perhaps at the time of the invention of that life form there was an assumption or several made that they would, of course, be law abiding and civilized all the same, but that ain't in the bylaws. They live by cost-benefit analysis and externalize the costs, to cure their psychosis we must force them to internalize those costs, to feel them, and to feel the pain and horror, privation and deprivation that they currently externalize. And to do this, our government, which in truth serves and represents only them has chosen the cudgel of market based solutions. Does that even make sense at all?

So WTF, might as well cheer up, can't roller skate in deep mud.

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 9:17am

Good morning. el; that damn mud seems to get deeper

by the generation lately; Reagan and Thatcher don't get enough credit for today's quagmire.

Frankly, i grow tired of the same battles over and over again ... plowing fields already turned over by giants before; but, alas, left with that same old refrain: When will they/we ever learn?

This living isn't a popularity contest or shouldn't be; blood, sweat, tears, lives of centuries lost in bringing the best of today's values; but damn if it ain't hard to see evidence in today's news.

Cheers for the music; especially the morning coffee Mozart; bookmarked

Enjoy the market and may the day smile upon you.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 9:26am

sorry about the mozart, is sprinkled with raucous ads for

@smiley7 @smiley7 @smiley7
god knows what consisting of today's pop music. Try to find a different copy. I have the CD. We used to take if on all of oour camping trips, before the CD player in the trailer died. Now I have it on my tablet which I play via so-so bluetooth speakers. It is really good, out there, with coffee and whatever, watching all of the out there and listening to that, whether it be forest, shore or desert. With no news, you can really forget where and when you are.

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 2:13pm

'sp' edit An old haunt from the sixties, still serving up

@enhydra lutris @enhydra lutris
beautiful Mozart and others in the mornings; great memories.
Recall a leisurely cross-country camping trip back to NYC and carrying a cassette of Vivaldi's Four Seasons that had just released; playing on secluded lakes and streams.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/521b6de9e4b03aa034dec5dc/t/5aa729...

Thanks, el.

Submitted by randtntx on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 9:30am

Mindfog notwithstanding

you give us the gift of a rich OT and I am grateful. It is so heartening to be able to share a bit of your experience and ideas across the distances. Your thoughts, ideas, insights, as well as all of the other smart people here, help to inform my own. You all help to dispel my own mind fog.

More from the gracious, estimable Leonard Cohen

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 10:26am

Cohen, a model in so many ways; thanks randtntx.

@randtntx @randtntx
Yes to beautiful talent, hearts and people here and it's in the thread where the genius comes and at times overwhelming the insights and love threads bring. Thank you for being here; lost without you says much, doesn't it, about this whole experience, life.

Old favorite

Have a wonderful Texas Spring Day.

Submitted by enhydra lutris on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 11:14am

My current favorite version, on a bass no less -

@smiley7

—

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 9:59am

Good morning...

Trade day is growing with the better weather. Nice to get a break from the rain. Looks like a rain free week...we are already like a foot above normal rainfall since Jan. How quickly that could turn to drought...so I'll not complain of rain.

I like this version of Cohen's song "everybody knows"
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybuCmgyQE6o]

Enjoy your day!

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 10:42am

Good morning, Lookout; like this version a lot

@Lookout
thanks for sharing. Clear today, no rain forecast until Thursday, but clouds and still rather cold for most of next week, mid-twenties at night.

Many folks heading off the mountain to warmer climes. Going down to Chapel Hill next week as well, for the day; should see blossoms there.

Have a good one.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 10:27am

Chuck Todd and Markos says Bernie Bros 'cheated' poll

Submitted by Lookout on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 10:42am

So he's going to make the poll harder to game...

@gjohnsit

Does that mean Tulsi will be added to the choices? Or a vote for Bernie = a Beto vote? How can anyone believe that liar?

Amazin' how those dumb berniebros got so organized.

—

“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 10:46am

Those two we call kissing cousins. No offense to those who

@gjohnsit
kiss or cousins meant.

Thanks for sharing.

Submitted by eyo on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 11:23am

Online support: "I don't think it's determinative." say what?

@gjohnsit so what's the point of his blog site if "online support" is not "determinative" in electoral politics nowadays? ~shrug~

determinative
1. A determining factor.

Boy was I wrong when I said Chuck lost his number, which show was that?
--- Juvenile Snot Politics This Morning
poop grins are us

Question: "Did Bernie Bros sabotage your poll?"
Grow up Chuck! upchuck
Answer: ~Wink wink~ They just cheated a little. Now everyone should cheat, a lot.
--- D-Unity

The next straw poll is up this weekend isn't it? Maybe he is still "fixing" it, I don't know.

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 11:53am

Bernie won most online polls that came to my attention

@eyo

in 2016, but "lost" the primary, anyway. So, it's correct that online polls are not determinative. Isn't there some saying about the one who counts the votes being "the decider?"

What is gobsmackingly dishonest about both Chuck and Markos in this particular is that no one mentions that KOS is a site of Democratic party unconditional loyalists/shills, those who supported Bernie last time around having been banned or chased off.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 8:38pm

Such a senseless loss of life

Between the shooting in New Zealand and the plane crash in Ethiopia there is so much pain, for so many, in the world today. Needlessly. Which is the hardest part to bear in all of this. Hatred and indifference. Yet we are all a human family.

Thank you for your poetry. Words can be powerful.

They amputated
Your thighs off my hips.
As far as I'm concerned
They are all surgeons. All of them.

They dismantled us
Each from the other.
As far as I'm concerned
They are all engineers. All of them.

A pity. We were such a good
And loving invention.
An aeroplane made from a man and wife.
Wings and everything.
We hovered a little above the earth.

We even flew a little.
~~Yehuda Amichai

The Gates of Istanbul, a song by Loreena McKennitt:

[video:https://youtu.be/SDl5G-mxqF0]

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 9:44pm

Beautiful, healing light in music and words;

@Anja Geitz
thank you, zoebear. A tribute to those we lost.

Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 10:14pm

A More Perfect Union?

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFHlK8ZXgvE]

opens with a reading from Lincoln's famous 1938 address to the Young Men's Lyceum in Springfield IL.

From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some transatlantic giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe and Asia could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio River or set a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. If destruction be our lot, we ourselves must be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we will live forever, or die by suicide.

—

The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.

Submitted by smiley7 on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 10:45pm

Thank you, UntimelyRippd; more from his address ...

@UntimelyRippd
"Is it unreasonable, then, to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with ambition sufficient to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among us? And when such an one does, it will require the people to be united with each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, to successfully frustrate his designs. Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, that opportunity being past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly to the task of pulling down.

"To prevent this, Lincoln concluded that there was a need to cultivate a "political religion" that emphasizes "reverence for the laws" and puts reliance on "reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason."

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Sat, 03/16/2019 - 11:53pm

Where in the heck did you stumble across that?

@UntimelyRippd

How marvelously clever of you. Amazing to listen to his speech now, thinking that in hindsight Lincoln's words were so eerily prescient.

Another great speech was Lincoln's Cooper Union address. In terms of arguing against expansion of slavery in the Western territories, he electrified New Yorkers and launched his embryonic campaign into the National spotlight. Although the speech itself was not as flowery and literary as his other ones, he was as deft as a surgeon in carefully crafting his argument.

Focusing on the 39 signers of the Constitution, "Lincoln noted that at least 21 of them -- a majority -- believed Congress should control slavery in the territories, rather than allow it to expand." While his audience at Cooper Union were New Yorkers, his message was actually for the benefit of Southerners:

Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning against sectional parties given by Washington in his Farewell Address. Less than eight years before Washington gave that warning, he had, as President of the United States, approved and signed an act of Congress, enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern Territory, which act embodied the policy of the Government upon that subject up to and at the very moment he penned that warning; and about one year after he penned it, he wrote LaFayette that he considered that prohibition a wise measure, expressing in the same connection his hope that we should at some time have a confederacy of free States.

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by UntimelyRippd on Sun, 03/17/2019 - 12:15am

well, you have to know these things when you're a king.

@Anja Geitz
funny that it popped up, given our recent conversation about studying the civil war.

the album is called The Monitor, and a civil war theme runs through it. truth is, it mostly doesn't do that much for me, but i love this song, which is pretty damned close to the Pogues -- which was another reason i decided to post it, with St. P's in the offing.

i also love the william lloyd garrison quote at the end -- which stands in sharp contrast to lincoln's own very careful and tailored equivocation. unlike lincoln, WLG could afford the luxury of speaking with absolute moral clarity, since he never needed to bring along any constituency other than the one that fully agreed with him. Greta Thunberg reminds me of this:

I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; — but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

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Submitted by Anja Geitz on Sun, 03/17/2019 - 12:30am

This is why I love words

@UntimelyRippd

The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.

What an image.

Another thing I love about old speeches are the words that were commonplace for their time but sound quaintly anachronistic now. For example the use of the word "ravisher". Sounds like something you put in salads. Ha!

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There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier