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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.
Colorful and impressive multi-genre exhibit at the Ackland Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill -- "The Sahmat Collective: Art and Activism in India since 1989."
". . . discover the influential, Delhi-based artist collective called Sahmat, whose members create -- through a mix of high art and street culture -- powerful and vibrant works of art in defense of freedom of expression and in celebration of secular, egalitarian values."
Free admission. True story!
[Benjamin] Franklin Street from a cross-walk, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, September 2013. About a block from the Ackland, just last Sunday.
The Sahmat Collective: closeup. Groovily, flashless photos permitted.
The Sahmat Collective: banner outside the Ackland. I did some eyes-on art history here as an undergraduate student, among the most enduring strands of my formal education. I strongly recommend ongoing cycles of art history to everyone of all ages via the internet, in person, by the book or in class -- whatever works. It's usually affordable to all or even free so it's up to you.
Today's Rune: Fertility.
No'om, wife of Haira. "Alas." She walked the Earth 1850 years ago, residing in Syria. Specifically, in the great trade and cultural center of Palmyra / Tadmur, smack dab in the middle of Syria.
During the terrible fighting of now, the extensive archaeological site at Tadmur is exposed to looting and other damages by the warring factions and outside opportunists.
Luckily for the memory of No'om, her Roman sandstone relief is ensconced on a wall in the Ackland Art Museum of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Score!
The details are pretty amazing. Is she (was she) left handed?
Additional deets here.
Today's Rune: Journey.
José Quintero's The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, a 1961 movie adaptation of Tennessee Williams' 1951 novella, stars Vivien Leigh a half dozen years before her death, Warren Beatty on the upswing, Jill St. John, Coral Browne and Lotte Lenya, among others. This provides a field day for fans of Tennessee Williams, the ambience of Rome or any of the actors.
Vivien Leigh's Karen Stone stands in for herself and also for Tennessee Williams. Not only is she (and they) trying to overcome loneliness and a sense of mortality through "a geographic;" so, too, there's an eerie, haunted-looking stalker always just out of reach, a specter, a momento mori or reminder of limited years in which to live. Many reading this will have at least some inkling of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).
Other actors featured in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone have greater contexts, as well. Two of them feature prominently in James Bond films, one apiece -- think From Russia, With Love (1963) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971) to dig the connections.
This was José Quintero's only outing as a movie director -- he normally stuck with stage productions.
Finally, there was a remake in 2003, but that's for another time and another place.
Today's Rune: Harvest.
Much to see at three thoughtful, absorbing exhibits at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. "Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space" is one of them. ". . . [C]o-curated by Iftikahr Dadi and Hammad Nasar, brings together art across many genres . . . that have their common theme a preoccupation [pun intended?] with borders, boundaries and lines that divide and demarcate. . . " The British Empire, for one, "brought in its wake the geographic and cartographic division of much of the inhabited world . . ." Obviously, we're still living in the fallout zones from "the Middle East" to Africa and everywhere else in the world as we know it -- or really know it not.
"Defining Lines: Cartography in the Age of Empire" takes a similar look at dividing lines, focusing on maps as cultural artifacts that carve up the world in ways that favor certain groups over others. "No matter . . . their claims to 'objectivity,' 'accuracy' and 'authority,' maps never simply show the world as it is; they are . . . 'a construction of reality, images laden with intentions and consequences.'" In the end, it's mostly about culture, power and economics.
A third exhibit revolves around Doris Duke's spectacular "Shangri La" project in Hawaii, replete with beautiful Islamic-themed signs and wonders.
Very impressive all.
Today's Rune: Journey.
Glass is groovy. Ceramics, too. Plastic fills the oceans blue.
These bottles are all from the 1800s, the nineteenth century, or thereabouts. One thing we all know is this: they're certainly not from the 21st century, not in the USA, anyway.
It's been eye-popping to see the wide variety of drinking vessels in cultural repositories lately, from hearth and home to the Nasher and Ackland Art Museums at Duke and the University of North Carolina, respectively. What art -- what culture! Things to keep and reuse many a time, not swill like some sugary glop down the gullet and then toss in the trash pile in minutes flat. Slow food, not fast food! Community, sharing and hospitality! Listen to some modern-day Homer or Sappho -- there are tales to sing and tell!
In the case of the above vessel, I don't know what it's for exactly. It could be a funeral urn for all I know. Is that Eros or a Harpy, the Lady or a Flying Tiger? Take your pick and pass the wine, please.
Today's Rune: Joy.
Ever noticed how places that are "power points" are intensifiers for both good and bad? Hillsborough, North Carolina, for instance, has a lot of wonderful things going for it. But there is and always has been crazy stuff going on there, too. It seems the same with all power points that I've ever visited. Hot Springs, Arkansas, percolates with such things, for instance. Greensboro, North Carolina. Detroit. New Orleans. Philadelphia. Findhorn, Scotland. And so on.
The Colonial Inn, Hillsborough, on King Street: I used to go here with family and friends to share special celebratory meals, the kind where a wide variety of dishes are put on the table and you graze at will. It was a wonderful place.
The Colonial Inn sign, faded now but you can still make it out, boasts "Since 1759." Maybe there was an inn or tavern here then and during the American Revolution. The core of this Colonial Inn, however, was actually built in 1838. It has been called Spencer's Tavern, the Occaneechie (aka Occoneechie) Hotel and the Corbinton Inn. The interior eatery that I became familiar with began operations after World War Two, and ended before the turn of the latest century.
What happened? Apparently, a bad citizen, a demented miscreant of some kind, purchased the property more than a decade ago and has since let it rot in place. He won't fix it and he won't sell it, either. What a disgrace! Here's an instance where local authorities ought to seize the property and turn it over to someone who will restore its integrity, help it come alive again, and put the reprobated citizen in stocks on the courthouse square for a day so people can throw eggs at him (kidding -- maybe). Something must be done or the Colonial Inn will be lost forever. Use it or lose it!
Today's Rune: Signals.
