suppose there always gonna be April 7 it just hid there like
In the 1991 book, Rivethead : tales from the assembly line, by Ben Hamper, (New York, NY : Warner Books 1991), a book about life and work an the GM assembly line Flint, Michigan, the author tells the story of the day he suffered a mental and physical breakdown on the job.
Mr. Hamper wrote: “I suppose there was always gonna be an April 7, 1988. It just hid there like a heartless sniper behind the diesel haze and the minute hand. It knew my name. It knew my brain. It could smell fear a mile away. Its aim was true.”
Crossing the Rubican.
At the crossroads.
Day of Decision.
Days that stand out.
April 7 was that day for Mr. Hamper much like September 11 is that day for this country and maybe, much of the world.
Not much of a stretch to write, I suppose there was always gonna be an September 11, 2001.
It just hid there like a heartless sniper behind the diesel haze and the minute hand.
It knew our name.
It knew our brain.
It could smell fear a mile away.
Its aim was true.
Waiting now for life to return to normal after covid but it is hard to return to normal when normal isn’t there anymore.
Oh, believe it or not, it is still a bit odd for me to stand in this historic space, see this big, beautiful painting staring back at me. Growing up on Euclid Avenue, Mommy, I never could have imagined that any of this would be part of my story.
But even if it’s all still a bit awkward for me, I do recognize why moments like these are important, why all of this is absolutely necessary. Traditions like this matter not just for those of us who hold these positions, but for everyone participating in and watching our democracy.
You see, the people — they make their voices heard with their vote. We hold an inauguration to ensure a peaceful transition of power. Those of us lucky enough to serve work, as Barack said, as hard as we can for as long as we can, as long as the people choose to keep us here. And once our time is up, we move on.
And all that remains in this hallowed place are our good efforts and these portraits — portraits that connect our history to the present day, portraits that hang here as history continues to be made.
So, for me, this day is not just about what has happened. It’s also about what could happen.
Because a girl like me, she was never supposed to be up there next to Jacqueline Kenne- — Kennedy and Dolley Madison. She was never supposed to live in this house, and she definitely wasn’t supposed to serve as First Lady.
But I’ve always wondered: Where does that “supposed to” come from? Who determines it?
And too often in this country, people feel like they have to look a certain way or act a certain way to fit in, that they have to make a lot of money or come from a certain group or class or faith in order to matter.
But what we’re looking at today — a portrait of a biracial kid with an unusual name and the daughter of a water pump operator and a stay-at-home mom — what we are seeing is a reminder that there’s a place for everyone in this country.
Because as Barack said, if the two of us can end up on the walls of the most famous address in the world, then, again, it is so important for every young kid who is doubting themselves to believe that they can, too.
That is what this country is about. It’s not about blood or pedigree or wealth. It’s a place where everyone should have a fair shot, whether you’re a kid taking two buses and a train just to get to school; or a single mother who is working two jobs to put some food on the table; or an immigrant just arriving, getting your first apartment, forging a future for yourself in a place you dreamed of.
That’s why, for me, this day isn’t about me or Barack. It’s not even about these beautiful paintings. It’s about telling that fuller story — a story that includes every single American in every single corner of this country so that our kids and grandkids can see something more for themselves.
And as much as some folks might want us to believe that that story has lost some of its shine, that division and discrimination and everything else might have dimmed its light, I still know deep in my heart that what we share — as my husband continues to say — is so much bigger than what we don’t. Our democracy is so much stronger than our differences.
And this little girl from the South Side is blessed beyond measure to have felt the truth of that fuller story throughout her entire life, never more so than today.
So, thank you to President Biden, to Sharon, and to all of you today for playing a part in this day and all the days that led to it.
She was never supposed to live in this house, and she definitely wasn’t supposed to serve as First Lady.
But I have also always wondered: Where does that “supposed to” come from?
Who determines it?
It is so important for every young kid who is doubting themselves to believe that they can do anything.
That is what made America great.
This is what makes America great.
No shouting.
No bluster.
No threats.
A quiet voice.
A quiet voice that says, That is what this country is about. It’s not about blood or pedigree or wealth. It’s a place where everyone should have a fair shot, whether you’re a kid taking two buses and a train just to get to school; or a single mother who is working two jobs to put some food on the table; or an immigrant just arriving, getting your first apartment, forging a future for yourself in a place you dreamed of.
We talk a lot about what the ‘Founding Fathers’ meant when they set up this Country.
What they meant with words like ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
What they meant with words like ‘We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union.’
I want to say that if those guys, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin et al, were in the room and they listened to Michelle Obama, they would have looked at each and nodded and said, THAT’S IT!
habit of weighing past against social moral trends of the present
The End of History was supposed to have happened back in 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell and Francis Fukuyama announced the conclusive triumph of liberal democracy. We know how that thesis worked out. But what happens when the other kind of History — academic, not Hegelian — starts to collapse?
That’s a question that James H. Sweet, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the president of the American Historical Association, tried to raise earlier this month in a column titled “Is History History?” for the organization’s newsmagazine. It didn’t go well.
Sweet’s core concern in the piece, which was subtitled “Identity Politics and Teleologies of the Present,” was about the “trend toward presentism” — the habit of weighing the past against the social concerns and moral categories of the present.
“This new history,” he wrote, “often ignores the values and mores of people in their own times, as well as change over time, neutralizing the expertise that separates historians from those in other disciplines.”
hopelessness is the enemy of justice – is a constant struggle
I was born on July 17, 1960.
One month later, unknown to me and unrelated to this event, 11 kids went wading in the Atlantic Ocean at the public beach on Tybee Island on the east coast near Savannah, Georgia.
All 11 kids were arrested.
They were officially charged with Public Disrobing.
The real reason is that the public beaches in Georgia in 1960 were segregated.
And these 11 kids were not ‘allowed’ to use the public beach because they were not white.
1960.
Stars of the show, from left, Edna Jackson, Evalena Hoskins, and Mary Gray, who participated as high-school students in the historic 1960’s wade-ins. Ben Goggins / For Savannah Morning News
Three of these students, Edna Jackson, Evalena Hoskins, and Mary Gray, were there that day in 1960 and were back on the same beach, the same beach I have been with my children and grand children.
At the dedication ceremony, Tybee Island Historical Association Vice-President Allen Lewis said, “These students were ordinary people who did extraordinary things.”
These students were ordinary people.
Ordinary people who did extraordinary things.
They went for a swim on an August day at the beach.
Extraordinary things.
Mr. Lewis also said, “They put their beliefs to the test on Savannah Beach. That God has the divine power, and that the U.S. Constitution was on their side as they fought injustice and evil.”
“Faced with racial terror, the students responded to hate with love. To violence, with forgiveness. We remember these students for their hope. Hopelessness is the enemy of justice. Their courage. Because peace requires bravery. Their persistence. Because justice is a constant struggle. And their faith.”
They went for a swim on an August day at the beach.
Arlo Guthrie once said something along the lines that in a world where everything is going great, you would have to do an awful lot of good to standout, but in a world that sucks, you don’t have to do much to accomplish something good.
They went for a swim on an August day at the beach.
life in low country alligator attacks rare but not surprising
The body of an 88-year-old woman who was killed by an alligator was discovered on Monday in a pond in a gated community near Hilton Head Island, S.C., officials said. It was at least the fourth deadly alligator attack in the United States so far this year.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call at 11:15 a.m. on Monday from a Sun City Hilton Head resident who reported that a large alligator was guarding a human body. “When we got there that’s exactly what we found,” said Maj. Angela Viens, a public information officer with the Beaufort County sheriff’s office.
“Alligator attacks are rare but not surprising,” Major Viens said of the area.
Two more alligator deaths have been recorded this year in Florida. One a 47-year old man apparently searching for a frisbee on May 31 and another an elderly woman, 80, who fell into a pond near a golf course on July 15.
47-year-old Sean Thomas McGuinness’ body was found missing three limbs at the lake at the John S Taylor Park in Largo, Florida.
Investigators now believe he had gone into the 53-acre freshwater lake looking for UFOs when he was attacked.
I am not sure if the alligator attack and the search for UFO’s are connected.
Advice for living near alligators is to:
Never swim at night –
Never feed them –
Keep pets and children away from the water’s edge –
Stay alert when you are in territory where they may live –
I took this photo in a local park last year.
Like the Great White Shark, all they do is sleep, eat and make little alligators.
You get used to it.
Earlier this summer, my wife was up in Michigan visiting.
Seeing the new home of one her sisters and that the property had a large pond, my wife cautioned, “make sure you watch out for alligators!”
It comes with the territory.
As Mr. Tolkien wrote: ‘It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.’
