Tar Heel Nation: Elizabeth Dole

Elizabeth Hanford Dole (b. 1936) has been a public servant for most of her life. She is a good exemplar of North Carolina, which has for a long time been a fairly moderate state politically (except for today's Tea Party Republicans, and serious fans of Jesse Helms), about half and half. It went Democratic in the presidential elections of 1960, 1964, 1976 and 2008, for instance.  

Born in Salisbury -- about fifty miles down the road from Greensboro, a city of groundbreaking civil rights fame -- Elizabeth Hanford attended and graduated from Duke University in Durham in 1958, just two years before the Greensboro sit-ins. Duke's East Campus was still "the women's college" at the time. Afterwards, she briefly taught high school history in Massachusetts before heading to Harvard for a master's degree in 1960, at which time she also supported the JFK-LBJ ticket as a Democrat.

Hanford next worked in government in Washington, D.C., then went back to Harvard for law school, earning a J.D. in 1965. In her entering class, there were only 24 women in a class of 550. 

Next, on to join the LBJ administration and the Great Society back in Washington.

In 1968, barely three months after the Tet Offensive, in the midst of the highly controversial war in Vietnam, Hanford switched from Democrat to Independent. She stayed on with the outgoing LBJ administration and was then taken up by the Richard M. Nixon Administration, working in consumer affairs until being picked to serve on the Federal Trade Commission. She married Kansas Republican Senator Bob Dole (b. 1923) in 1975, assuming his last name. Just previously, she had switched from Independent to Republican. 

Elizabeth Dole and Bob Dole became, like Bill and Hillary Clinton, a formidable team. In the 1980s, Elizabeth served first as Secretary of Transportation and next as Secretary of Labor. Then she stepped out of government to become President of the American Red Cross in 1991, the first woman to head the organization since Clara Barton.  

Both Doles have had presidential aspirations. Bob first ran as VP candidate in 1976 with Gerald Ford against Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale. He ran against George H. W. Bush in 1988 (losing in the primaries) and then against Bill Clinton in 1996 (losing in the general election). That was it for him. But Elizabeth Dole ran against George W. Bush in 2000, also losing in the primaries. Then, in the wake of North Carolina Republican Senator Jesse Helms' retirement, she ran and won his seat, serving from 2003 until early 2009. After an unfortunate attempt to smear her Democratic opponent (Kay Hagan of Greensboro) using religion as a weapon, she lost her seat in the 2008 election. Hagan remains standing senator. Good fifty year work arc, though, I'd say. 

Today's Rune: Signals.  

Sonia Johnson: From Housewife to Heretic

The recent death of environmental thinker and activist Barry Commoner (1917-2012) at ninety-five reminded me of several things. One, that Commoner ran for president of the USA on the Citizens Party ticket in 1980, the election that Ronald Reagan won (boo!). Two, that the next -- and last -- Citizens Party candidate to run for president was Sonia Johnson (b. 1936). That was in 1984, the same year Garaldine Ferraro (1935-2011) was chosen as Democratic Party vice presidential candidate backing Walter Mondale (Reagan-Bush won again -- double boo). Three, that not too long before Ferraro and Johnson, Shirley Chisolm (1924-2005) had aimed for the presidency as a Democrat in 1972 -- when Richard Nixon was elected to a second term (boo -- but at least that second term didn't last long thanks to the Watergate scandal).

Before she ran for president, Sonia (Harris) Johnson came through Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in the early 1980s, to speak about her then new book, From Housewife to Heretic (Doubleday, 1981), which sometimes is given a subtitle (derived from the 1983 paperback cover, I suppose): One Woman's Struggle for Equal Rights and Her Excommunication from the Mormon Church. She was energetic and fiery, still furious with the status quo of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church) because of what she saw as its backward patriarchal ways, particularly the way gender roles and expectations were seemingly set in stone from on high. I wonder how Johnson, assuming she's still alive and cognizant, feels about Mitt and Ann Romney in 2012?

Today's Rune: Growth.

Think About the Good Things in Life: The Pentagon Papers

Rod Holcomb's The Pentagon Papers (2003), a made-for-TV movie, comes off like a modest version of the Bible in that there's a little something in it for everyone: a season for war, a season for peace, a little justice, a little injustice; a little cruelty, a little mercy; a little romance, a little sex; a little intrigue, some cerebral activity; a little violence, a little hippiness -- and so on. I liked it. It provides a good, entertaining overview of how Daniel Ellsberg (played by James Spader) transformed from a Saul-like adherent of the powers-that-be into a Paul-like apostle for spreading the Word by leaking The Pentagon Papers (in 1971) during the U.S.-Vietnam War. United States–Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, not meant for public consumption, showed how cynically such relations had been conducted over more than two decades, through four presidencies. A fifth presidency, Nixon M. Nixon's, reacted harshly, trying to squelch the report's release to the press, but Watergate and an equally pitiful attempt to smear Ellsberg by stealing his psychiatric file and using it against him backfired. The papers were released and attempts to prosecute Ellsburg ended in a mistrial; instead, like a bad pharaoh, Nixon went down.  

Though The Pentagon Papers movie came on the eve of the George W. Bush administration's ill-conceived invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the resulting war proceded apace, and many of the same kinds of mistakes -- and hidden policy approaches -- made regarding Vietnam happened again in Iraq (and Afghanistan). 

Other players in this thoughtful, low-key film include: Claire Forlani as Patricia Marx; Paul Giamatti (apparently having a good time) as Anthony Russo; and Alan Arkin as Harry Rowen, President of Rand Corporation.

Today's Rune: Gateway.  

Nixon's Downfall: I Remember

I was in middle school when Tricky Dick Nixon went down. In April, 1974, went on a class trip by bus from Durham, North Carolina, to Washington, D.C. (about five hours door to door), and one of the images that sticks to mind is walking with classmates and teachers on Capitol Hill, threading through phalanxes of protesters and across a de facto no man's land, right through a perimeter of riot police Myrmidons ringing the federal buildings. An exciting spectacle, and I'm still friends with other witnesses to the event, which I believe was part of the April 27, 1974 mass anti-Nixon protest.

UPI captured some of went on in photos, accessible here:

http://www.upi.com/News_Photos/Archives/1974/1651/1/

Fast forward to August 9, 1974. My father had taken me with him on a business trip to Norfolk, Virginia, and on that morning, I was left at a business associate's house in Virginia Beach. As I watched Nixon resign and flee the White House by helicopter oon TV, outside the heavens opened up and Virginia Beach flooded. Flooded so fast that the only way through the neighborhood for hours was by canoe. Then Gerald Ford was sworn in, the waters receded somewhat, and my father returned

These are the kinds of things you don't forget.

Today's Rune: Joy.

In Orbit -- Right Now

Taikonauts, astronauts, cosmonauts: people are going back to the Moon, and on to Mars. Just today, the OV-105 Endeavor linked up with the International Space Station, which now has a baker's dozen on board.

I can't even imagine volunteering for a Mars flight that could take five years round trip, if everything goes according to plan. Can you?

Meanwhile, the USA needs to get back into the NASA program in a big way. We need another Julian W. Scheer in the PR department, man! The USA only has three space shuttles in service, with retirement right over the horizon: besides Endeavor, there are still also Atlantis and Discovery. We don't do it, we'll get passed right on by like the horseman, by Brazil, India, Japan, Russia, China, and private corporations (Dr. No anyone?).

Competition is supposed to get the blood flowing, not ebbing. Get to it, Americans, or become the Final Frontier's once-rocked, now barely nods off into dreamyland country.



Skylab -- 1970s! Soyuz. What détente can do, comrades. And if you're ever in Grand Rapids, Michigan, check out the Gerald R. Ford Museum -- it's very cool. Check out the 70s room in particular, after the Watergate display. It's really worth a visit. Last of the mod Republican presidents, after Ike Eisenhower.

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.

Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed

Shola Lynch's Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed (2004, 2005) uses a mix of split-screen techniques, music straight out of Shaft (1971), Cleopatra Jones (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974), and intermittent scroll worthy of an exciting election night to tell the tale of Shirley Chisholm's run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. The viewer is thrown into the fray with Chisholm herself (at the time and near the end of her life) punctuating the story throughout. "If you understand power," she says in a 1972 clip, "then you know what I'm trying to put together."

It's a wild ride that includes Chisholm (including three assassination attempts), George Wallace (shot in Maryland during the primary campaign), Ed Muskie (effectively knocked out of the race for personal reasons), Hubert H. Humphrey and George McGovern vs. the Nixon-Agnew juggernaut, with the Vietnam War as backdrop. "You do your thing and you let me do mine," Chisholm quips to those breaking for other candidates. It's as complex and fierce a struggle as angling to become Shogun.

Shirley Chisholm -- change agent, way paver, contender. And a whole lot more, from NOW leader to progressive prophet, some thirty-seven years ahead of her time.

The website: http://www.chisholm72.net/home.html



We're talking Greek Tragedy, American-style. Chisholm makes it all the way to the July convention in Miami before conceding (along with Muskie and Hubert Humphrey); McGovern becomes Democratic candidate, only to be crushed in the general election by Nixon and Agnew, who in turn are forced out of office thanks to high crimes and misdemeanors.

Dear readers, Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed is a hip, worthy and timeless documentary. I dig.



Today's Rune: Fertility.

The Bicentennial Year, USA: 1976

1976 -- seems like yesterday, yet as far from many recent college students as WWII was to me. Let's just say, the shadows of WWII always seemed huge to me and my peers, but the actual event seemed like ancient history. Such is the limitation of human perspective, lessened over the years until it hardly matters anymore. History becomes easier to understand, more pertinent, over the typical human lifetime, but to what end?

1976. Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" (1974) was everywhere; the band supported Democrat Jimmy Carter for president against the last Republican moderate, Gerald Ford. Led Zeppelin was everywhere, too, though I doubt that band gave a rat's ass about any election.

Most of my teachers in North Carolina hated Richard Nixon in 1976 and were still pissed off about the Vietnam War and Ford's presidential pardon in the wake of Watergate. They were energized and excited about the election and inspired a lot of student interest in current affairs, the world. I was lucky to have teachers who were graduate students at Duke and UNC, engaged and cool, very worldly. Dr. Bishop (aka Ruth Cunningham) had lived in India, even though she was born in South Carolina! Anything seemed possible . . . and just about anything still seems possible, and man am I glad to be alive. You betcha.

Even though we're in tough econonomic times, life is even more incredibly interesting and exciting than we ever could have imagined it would be in 1976 . . .

Today's Rune: Signals.

Frost/Nixon: Threads to Infinity, Part II

James Reston, Jr., the most meticulous and strident member of David Frost's pit crew during the Nixon interviews, is a prolific writer with a wide array of interests. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and also taught creative writing there in the 1970s.

His play, Sherman, the Peacemaker (1979) is really good. I saw it performed in Chapel Hill and thoroughly enjoyed its wit and insight, and for its interesting treatment of Confederate General Joe Johnston, Sherman's key opponent in 1864 and 1865. Would love to see his play Jonestown Express (1984), which probably dovetails nicely with his Our Father Who Art in Hell, The Life and Death of Jim Jones (1981).

Other works by James Reston, Jr. include:

Sherman's March and Vietnam (1985).
Galileo: A Life (1994).
The Last Apocalypse: Europe in the Year 1000 A.D. (1998).
Warriors of God: Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade (2001).
Dogs of God: Columbus, the Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors (2005).
The Conviction of Richard Nixon: The Untold Story of the Frost/Nixon Interviews (2007).

For more, here's a link to his website:

http://restonbooks.com/index.htm















Today's Rune: Movement.

Frost/Nixon: Threads to Infinity, Part I

Well, you've got Rebecca Hall playing Caroline Cushing, the open-minded, willing woman Frost picks up in transit by asking her if she wants to meet Nixon. Ms. Hall is none other than "Vicky" (as an American -- she is British) in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008).

Then you have Toby Jones, who took a riveting turn as Truman Capote in Infamous (2005) but seems overwrought as Nixon's literary agent, Swifty Lazar.

And there's Frank Langella (brilliant as Nixon), whose first screen test came as George Prager ("the writer!") in Frank Perry's 1970 adaptation of Sue Kaufman's Diary of A Mad Housewife. Man, talk about growing into a role! Here's a snippet from Diary:



Yet more to come on Frost/Nixon.

Today's Rune: Journey.

Like Napoleon in Exile: Frost/Nixon

Frost/Nixon is another strong 2008 movie that's really worth seeing. It's sure to be interesting to my parents, for instance, to former students and to anyone in between -- doesn't matter whether you were alive during the Nixon presidency or not. It's a fascinating film well done by Ron Howard, with compelling performances by Frank Langella (Nixon) and Michael Sheen (Frost). It's got elements of tragedy, sure, but it's also warm and witty and pretty funny at times. Based on Peter Morgan's 2006 play and, of course, the 1977 Frost/Nixon interviews.

More on other nifty connections in the next post.

Today's Rune: The Mystery Rune.

The Lesson of Watergate: "Don't Get Caught"

PBS Documentary Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History (2003), directed by Foster Wiley, narrated by Will Lyman (probably the strongest narrator of our time, he also narrated Little Children). Produced by Sherry Jones (who also wrote the narration) and Marijo Dowd.

"What did the President know and when did he know it?" The Silent Majority, the Pentagon Papers, stonewalling, smoking gun, hush money, enemies list, wiretapping, dirty tricks, Saturday Night Massacre, Constitutional crisis. It's all here in two hours. Watergate Plus 30 does a standup job in setting the context for Watergate, showing how it grew out of the Nixon White House's climate of secrecy during the US-Vietnam War from paranoia and a sense of entitlement. (The clearest proponent of this type of government still in office is US VP Dick Cheney, although on a smaller scale, Kwame Kilpatrick, mayor of Detroit, is not far behind).

How can this not be riveting? Every American should see it, should study at least the broad contours of Nixon and Watergate. (Spiro Agnew doesn't make an appearance, unfortunately -- however, a documentary on Nixon's VP would be fascinating, too -- or perhaps one on all the vice presidents from Truman to Cheney?).

Here's the chapter outline:

America's Greatest Political Scandal
Meet the Players
Nixon's Enemy List Grows
Small Incremental Lies
The Cover-Up Unravels
The Senate Investigation
John Dean
Haldeman and Ehrlichman
The Tapes Are Discovered
The Smoking Gun Leads to Resignation
The Price Paid
Legacy


A picture worth a thousand words: White Man's Burden? Good ole boys' club? McCain City? Haha, joke's on everyone outside the club!

John Dean's conclusion: "I think the lesson of Watergate is: don't get caught. And that's really about it." Which has been Cheney's "Executive Privilege" playbook ever since Watergate, certainly. John McCain signed on board long ago, saying he supports unlimited wiretapping because "who but the ACLU and trial lawyers would object?" Judging from the paltry street protests up until now, maybe he's right. . .

Today's Rune: Disruption.

Watergate/Groundhog Day

Yesterday, I finally got to see the excellent PBS documentary, Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History (2003) and, now that we're at Watergate Plus 35, I'll post more about it tomorrow. What was true then (1973) and then (2003) is still true today, and one can draw a jagged line of "Executive Privilege" straight from Watergate through Iran-Contra to the Bush-Cheney present moment.

I truly wonder how things might have been different had Jimmy Carter been reelected in 1980. The USA took a wrong turn at the crossroads, 28 years ago. Imagine -- Ronald Reagan would have been too old to run for a first term in 1984, and that election cycle would have been up in the air. We might be living in the land of milk and honey or the days of wine and roses, honeysuckle and wisteria. On the other hand, we might be just about the same place we are now, or worse. Who knows? Regardless, I can't wait to vote for Barack Obama in 2008!

Today's Rune: Breakthrough.

Get Out While You Can

Back in Detroit just in time to see reruns of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's "Not Guilty" pleas. Between his and any number of other socio-political happenings lately, it's no wonder American public confidence -- outside the 28% True Knights of the Fox Nation -- is at its lowest point since 1973. It took Watergate, Spiro Agnew's bribery and tax evasion scandal, the OPEC oil embargo and the wake of the Vietnam War to get Americans to this point before. Today we have Kwame refusing to resign, Dick Cheney saying "so" to public opposition to the Iraq Debacle, all economic indicators (including, again, high oil prices) going haywire, and G.W. Bush in La-La Land to get us to the same point. WEO!

Lindy Lenk (aka Pythia) challenged me to find some true contemporary heroes and certainly, I'll think about it. It may be that we just need ordinary people to stand and deliver in these rocky times. More thoughts on the idea of public heroes soon, I hope. Until then, good night and good luck. And that's the way it is . . . . . (to quote Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite).


Today's Rune: Strength. Top image courtesy of the White House.

The Good Old Days . . .

Spiro Agnew, Nixon, "vultures sitting in trees," Vietnam, the Silent Majority, the Yom Kippur War, Watergate, the OPEC oil embargo, price freezes, gas lines in the USA . . .

Loving the Alien

Today is, of course, The King's birthday, may he RIP in Graceland, USA, eternal flame burning bright.

Back in 1970, Elvis had a sudden hunk'o'burning love for Tricky Dick Nixon -- he sent him this note (no joke: original in the US National Archives) that inspired a pistol-bearing White House liaison:

[Undated, December 1970]

Dear Mr. President:

First, I would like to introduce myself. I am Elvis Presley and admire you and have great respect for your office. I talked to Vice President Agnew in Palm Springs three weeks ago and expressed my concern for our country. The drug culture, the hippie elements, the SDS, Black Panthers, etc. do not consider me as their enemy or as they call it the establishment. I call it American and I love it. Sir, I can and will be of any service that I can to help the country out. I have no concerns or motives other than helping the country out. So I wish not to be given a title or an appointed position. I can and will do more good if I were made a Federal Agent at Large and I will help out by doing it my way through my communications with people of all ages. First and foremost, I am an entertainer, but all I need is the Federal credentials. I am on this plane with Senator George Murphy and we have been discussing the problems that our country is faced with.


Sir, I am staying at the Washington Hotel, Room: 505-506-507. I have two men who work with me by the name of Jerry Schilling and Sonny West. I am registered under the name of Jon Burrows. I will be here for as long as it takes to get the credentials of a Federal Agent. I have done an in-depth study of drug abuse and Communist brainwashing techniques and I am right in the middle of the whole thing where I can and will do the most good.

I am glad to help just so long as it is kept very private. You can have your staff or whomever call me anytime today, tonight, or tomorrow. I was nominated this coming year one of America’s Ten Most Outstanding Young Men. That will be in January 18 in my home town of Memphis, Tennessee. I am sending you the short autobiography about myself so you can better understand this approach. I would love to meet you just to say hello if you’re not too busy.

Respectfully,

Elvis Presley

P.S. I believe that you, Sir, were one of the Top Ten Outstanding Men of America Also.

I have a personal gift for you which I would like to present to you and you can accept it or I will keep it for you until you can take it.

[The meeting took place on December 21, 1970; also in attendance, taking notes -- and in the photos with President and King -- was Watergate co-conspirator and subsequent convict, Bud Krogh]


Happy birthday also to David Bowie! Must be hard to live in the shadow of The King, but he does have the distinct advantage of still being alive. He turned 61 today.

Rune: The Self.

The Dream Life

J. Hoberman, The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and the Mythology of the Sixties (2003). A fun-filled book that looks at "the Sixties" -- covering from Sputnik 1957 to Watergate 1973, with a B movie coda, "Freedomland 1981: Ronald Reagan and the Last Sixties Movie."

All in all a biting analysis of the conflicted American psyche as reflected through mostly American movies. Some of the films covered to varying degree:

Spartacus
The Alamo
The Manhurian Candidate
Seven Days in May
Easy Rider
The Green Berets
Zabriskie Point
Coogan's Bluff
Bonnie and Clyde
The Wild Bunch!
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Little Big Man
Myra Breckinridge
Patton
Night of the Living Dead
Hey Joe
Dirty Harry
Shampoo
The Candidate
Blowup/Blowout

Hoberman sees the inner American struggle for direction mirrored by movies that are set within a framework of cultural politics and the Cold War.


I've not seen Hey Joe. I wonder how much Shampoo holds up? I never really saw the appeal of Warren Beatty; Faye Dunaway, on the other hand, sizzles in Bonnie and Clyde.

Today's Rune: Strength.

Birthdays: Alistair MacLean, Harper Lee, Saddam Hussein, Ann-Margret (Olsson), Penélope Cruz, Jessica Alba .

Adieu!

Daniel Ellsberg and The Pentagon Papers

Daniel Ellsberg is an interesting guy, best known for releasing parts of an internal US-government sponsored study of the Vietnam War dubbed "The Pentagon Papers" once they broke into the public domain.

Born in Chicago (4/7/1931), Ellsberg moved with his family to Detroit and attended Barber Elementary School in Highland Park. He was awarded a scholarship to Cranbrook, a prestigious independent school in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and then earned another scholarship -- to Harvard, where he went on to complete a Ph.D. in Economics. In addition, he was a good basketball player and also served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Once he worked for Rand Corporation and in the Pentagon and deployed to Vietnam, he began to shift from pro-war to anti-. Working on the internal Vietnam reports, he felt the public was being wildly misled by its government (through several presidents), and set out to do something about it.

H.R. Haldeman, President Richard M. Nixon's Chief of Staff, assessed the potential damage from inside the White House in 1971: the initial release of the The Pentagon Papers revealed "a very clear thing: you can't trust the government; you can't believe what they say; and you can't rely on their judgment. And . . . it shows that people do things the President wants to do even though it's wrong, and the President can be wrong." True enough: some of Nixon's goon squad subsequently broke into the office and home of Ellsberg's psychiatrist, trying to find dirt on the man and discredit him -- acts that became known as part of the Watergate Scandal that brought down Nixon even as the Vietnam War unraveled.

What looks to be worth seeing is The Pentagon Papers (2003), available on DVD, starring David Spader as Ellsberg, with Alan Arkin; it was first released just days before President G.W. Bush launched the Iraq War. Its cautionary message seems to have been swept away at the time by new events.

Today's Rune: Partnership.

Birthdays: Washington Irving, Marlon Brando, Doris Day, Wayne Newton, Jane Goodall, Alec Baldwin.

Hasta La Vista!

1973 Nervous Breakdown

Andreas Killen's 1973 Nervous Breakdown: Watergate, Warhol, and the Birth of Post-Sixties America (N.Y.: Bloomsbury, 2006) delves into the watershed year 1973 and looks at the 70s, perched between the end of American involvement in Vietnam and the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. To Killen (and others), "the Sixties" as we think of them stretched from the assassination of JFK in 1963 through Watergate. He gives the reader a lot to absorb and think about.

I particularly like his exploration of how Andy Warhol's reality became a sort of national reality. He intertwines politics, events, books (Fear of Flying and Jonathan Livingston Seagull), movies (Last Tango in Paris, Deep Throat, The Godfather, The Exorcist), and musicians (Lou Reed, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, The New York Dolls), and "reinventing the Fifties," a nostalgiac Vietnam-blind vision that Reagan exploited and the plurality of voting Americans embraced.

Among other things happening in 1973, consider Roe v. Wade; the suspension of the military Draft; Wounded Knee and the American Indian Movement; the death of Pablo Picasso; the World Trade Center dedicated; the CIA-backed Augusto Pinochet coup in Chile and assassination of Salvador Allende; the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East; gas lines; Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs; the forced resignation of U.S. VP Spiro Agnew; Patty Hearst, the Symbionese Liberation Army and the Stockholm Syndrome (which Killen suggests affected whole swaths of Americans in various bad ways) -- and one catches some idea of the bewildering swirl that caused the vast collective socio-political "nervous breakdown."

There are other books about watershed years, too --1968 is a good one for that and I suppose 2000 and 2001 are, as well.

By comparison, I wonder how are things going to go for the rest of the current president's term in office through early 2009? So far, it's been a nice White House visit for all of us! I wonder what else they have cooked up and ready to serve?

Today's Rune: Breakthrough. Philip Roth won the PEN/Faulkner award for Everyman.

Today's Birthdays: Longfellow, John Steinbeck, Irwin Shaw, Dexter Gordon, Ralph Nader, Nancy Spungen.

Another year for me and you
Another year with nothin' to do

Stonewall Three America

Like many other writers, I love the magical power of words and their various meanings. Here's one example. Three strands of American history weave together through Stonewall, a word that means different things to different people, but also means all three things at once.

After all, how many other words unite the Gay Rights Movement, Richard "Tricky Dick" Nixon, and the American Civil War? And the wonderful truth is we can pinpoint the exact moments when the word Stonewall began its arc toward prominence in all three cases -- variously as noun, verb and adjective.

Stonewall: a police raid in Manhattan's Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969, triggered the Stonewall Riots that propelled the Gay Rights Movement into a worldwide arc that continues right through 2007. In fact, this month the Stonewall Inn at 53 Christopher Street where the riot began is being reopened; the building is now a nationally registered historic site. The struggle for civil rights, for human rights regardless of sexual orientation, necessarily must continue, thanks to myopic resistance from homophobes and certain religious dogmatics and lunatics.


Stonewall: Watergate coverup. Richard Milhaus Nixon to his inner circle: "I want you all to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth Amendment, cover up, or anything else." (March 22, 1973). To the greater American public via TV broadcast: "I condemn any attempts to cover up in this case, no matter who is involved." (April 17, 1973). Stonewalling became widely disseminated as meaning blocking the truth, or repeatedly passing off lies as the truth (a la the current Bush administration).


Stonewall: Thomas Jonathan Jackson (1824-1863). On July 21, 1861, at the (First) Battle of Manassas / Bull Run during the American Civil War, Jackson's brigade lined up to face a Union attack; Confederate units on the far left flank were falling back in disarray toward his position. C.S. Brigadier General Barnard Bee yelled at his retreating remnants something to the effect of, "There stands Jackson like a stone wall. Rally behind the Virginians! " The exact wording is not really known. A flowery apocryphal version has Bee stopping in the middle of a firefight to orate: "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall. Let us determine to die here, and we will conquer. Follow me." Bee was cut down and died before he could recount what he actually yelled. He may have been irritated when Jackson didn't advance to help his boys out. This version: "Look at Jackson standing there like a damned stone wall!" Yet another version: "Lookee yonder! There stands [that bastard] Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians! " All rather Biblical, with multiple gospel versions and all. In any case, Stonewall Jackson is a hero to many, aided by the fact that he was mortally wounded (by his own men) and died in 1863, well before the war's end. Pro-Confederates -- who are probably also homophobic Nixonians at heart -- still mutter: "If only he'd have lived!"

Three Stonewalls, three Americas-in-one.

Today's Rune: Harvest.

Birthdays: Kay Boyle (1902/1903-1992), Carson McCullers (1917-1967), Jeff Daniels (b.1955) .

Stay strong, dogs!

The Last of the Moderates

Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. (7/14/1913-12/26/2006; birth name, Leslie Lynch King, Jr.) RIP. He was the last of the moderate Republican presidents (although George Bush, Sr. is starting to look moderate these days), more Ike Eisenhower than G.W. Bush. Pardoning Richard Nixon cost him the 1976 election against Jimmy Carter.

About six years ago during a conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan and while staying at the interesting Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, I spent a few hours touring the excellent and refreshingly even-handed Gerald R. Ford Museum. The multimedia exhibits take you to the early and mid-1970s and provide a dazzling glimpse into "Gerald Ford's America." The Watergate room is really well done, providing context, facts, and no sugar coating. I recommend a visit there to anyone roaming about near Grand Rapids, certainly.

Lest we forget the immediacy of the Iraq War, three more Michiganders were KIA there (on December 23, 2006):

Spc. Chad J. Vollmer, 24, of Grand Rapids.
Pfc. Wilson A. Algrim, 21, of Howell.
Pvt. Bobby Mejia II, Saginaw.

And another KIA on December 25, 2006:

Pfc. Andrew H. Nelson, 19, Saint Johns, Mich.

Source: US Department of Defense.

Today's Rune: Movement.