pilgrims, pioneers humble immigrants ethic of hard work, courage
Adapted from the passage:
… gold had been found.
That insignificant little flake the size of a woman’s fingernail had provoked this uncontrollable invasion, changing the face of California and the soul of the North American nation, as Jacob Todd, transformed into a journalist, would write a few years later.
“The United States was founded by pilgrims, pioneers, and humble immigrants with an ethic of hard work and courage in the face of adversity. Gold has brought out the worst of the American character: greed and violence.“
From the book Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (London, Flamingo and imprint of HarperCollins, 1999).
so much disturbing our lives, clouding our future our unhappy land
Adapted from the essay Letter from the East (Allen Cove, February 8, 1975) written by EB White as published in The Essays of EB White by EB White (Harper and Row, New York, 1977).
Mr. White writes:
With so much that is disturbing our lives and clouding our future, beginning right here in my own little principality, with its private pools of energy (the woodpile, the black stove, the germ in the seed, the chick in the egg), and extending outward to our unhappy land and our plundered planet, it is hard to foretell what is going to happen.
I know one thing that has happened: the willow by the brook has slipped into her yellow dress, lending, along with the faded pink of the snow fences, a spot of color to the vast gray-and-white world. I know, too, that on some not too distant night, somewhere in pond or ditch or low place, a frog will awake, raise his voice in praise, and be joined by others. I will feel a whole lot better when I hear the frogs.
My take was the air of foreboding and doom for our unhappy land back in 1975.
I guess every generation has to handle this feeling and figure it out.
I was 15 in 1975 and the future did not seem to did not seem so bad
So here is the 15 year olds of today and a hope for their future.
We walk often late in the evening to beat the heat here in the low country and our sidewalks line deep dark forests with swampy marshland.
We walk along as dusk settles and 1,000s upon 1,000s of frogs wake up and raise their voices in praise.
As we walk along the treeland swamps, we think, what is that sound?
Tonight, maybe, when we hear it, I will feel a whole lot better.
And the radio is playing Jean Sibelius: Organ Symphony … how can someone be unhappy?
suddenly precious in the age of violence – tough gent on our side
Adapted from the passage in the book, Six Men by Alistair Cooke (New York, Penguin, 1985), where Mr. Cooke writes about Humphrey Bogart:
There was nothing now to offend the most respectable suburban patriot in a hero who used the gangster’s means to achieve our ends.
And this character was suddenly very precious in the age of violence, for it satisfied a quiet, desperate need of the engulfed ordinary citizen.
When Hitler was acting out scripts more brutal and obscene than anything dreamed of by Chicago’s North Side or the Warner Brothers, Bogart was the only possible antagonist likely to outwit him and survive.
What was needed was no knight of the boudoir, no Ronald Colman or Leslie Howard (whose movie careers compensatingly slumped) but a conniver as subtle as Goebbels. Bogart was the very tough gent required, a murderously bland neutral who we knew, if the Germans didn’t, would in the end be on our side.
I am waiting.
Waiting for that person.
Waiting for that person, that kid, that someone, anyone, to say “But he has no clothes!”
Someone on our side.
What was needed was no knight of the boudoir, no Ronald Colman or Leslie Howard (whose movie careers compensatingly slumped) but a conniver as subtle as Goebbels.
The very tough gent required, a murderously bland neutral who we knew, if the Germans didn’t, would in the end be on our side.
This character is suddenly very precious in our age of violence.
Very precious and very rare.
Where is that person today?
Let me ask you a question.
In the movie, Casablanca, which side do you line up with?
In the movie, Casablanca, who do you identify with?
Now ask yourself this.
If the current president was in that movie, who would he be?
I can’t see the current president playing chess, stopping the arrogant German from entering his casino, helping out the couple from Bulgaria or allowing the band to play the La Marseillaise.
But I sure can see him marching across the room, leading his entourage of cabinet secretaries to the piano and singing German marching songs.
I feel he would love and embrace the role of Major Strasser.
So again I ask, who can watch Casablanca and want to choose that side.
The OTHER side.
Who?
Who wants to stand and be counted with that side?
I don’t know.
Not me.
Me?
I am waiting.
Waiting for the very tough gent,, a murderously bland neutral who we know, in the end, will be on our side.
And this time, I know, our side will win.
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio? Our nation turns it lonely eyes to you.
honour anew those whose service and sacrifice saw liberty prevail
“On this day of profound remembrance, I speak to you in that same spirit of commemoration and celebration as we honour anew all those whose service and sacrifice saw the forces of liberty prevail.”
King Charles III on 80th Anniversary of the end of World War 2.
The back of this photo has the legend, “Capt Olson Capt Hoffman Capt Dareakauf”
That Captain in the center is my dad, age 25, somewhere near Regensburg, Germany in the fall of 1945.
Three guys waiting to be sent home.
I like this picture.
I like this picture a lot.
I like to think of the forces of liberty that prevailed.
America in a better light.
America in a better way.
America in the way it used to be and hopefully will be again.
Also something about these guys reminds of the exchange in the movie The Great Escape between the Commandant and the American pilot Hilts (played by Steve McQueen).
The Commandant says, “I have had the pleasure of knowing quite a number of British officers in this war. And I flatter myself that we understand one another. You are the first American officer I have met. Are all American officers so ill-mannered?”
No Haiku For You 