Notes from the Jan6 Aboveground

 A few days ago the January 6 Committee released its report. 

 I have been reading it, and decided to pass some of that information along, for any US citizen who cares about the future of this nation but has not been paying attention to the crimes revealed by our US House of Representatives Special Committee.

If you care to read the report, you can find it here:

https://january6th.house.gov/sites/democrats.january6th.house.gov/files/Report_FinalReport_Jan6SelectCommittee.pdf

The Committee Chairman who lead the investigation is a Congressman from Mississippi, Rep. Bennie Thompson, a man whose father had never voted in any election because of the “Jim Crow” laws of the old south. This was interesting to me because I spent nine years of my childhood in Mississippi during the 1950’s-early ’60’s. Some of the scenario in that time and place are included in the story that unfolds  in my recent novel, King of Soul.

Having watched all of the Jan6 committee hearings, I decided I would accept the challenge of reading their 800+page report.

Just so you’ll know. . . here are some points from my first reading session:

~ The mob that attacked our Capitol was an unexpected, unprecedented historical event. Only those who planned the insurrection knew what would be going down. For that reason, our Capitol Police and DC Police were unprepared for the assault. They were, therefore, not to blame for the disaster that happened. They performed bravely and admirably. Our guys protecting Congress and our Capitol were caught, unexpectedly, between a rock and a hard place.

~ “At the heart of our Republic is the guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power.”

~ President George Washington initiated the practice of peaceful transfer of power in 1793 when he handed control of our army back to Congress. That practice was never, in our history, violated until Donald Trump broke the law by inciting a riotous insurrection on January 6, 2021.

The trumpian fanatics were following a traitor insurrectionist instead of our Rule of Constitutional Law. But our Congressional Committee reported that. . .

~ “At the heart of our Republic is the guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power.”

~ President Ronald Reagan referred to our long history of peaceful transfer of power as “nothing less than a miracle,” . . . which he continued when he was inaugurated in 1981.

What would Reagan have said about the riot of Jan6?

~ The Jan6 Committee members recognized, at the outset of their investigation, that tens of millions of Americans had been persuaded by President Trump that the election was a fraud.

~ The Committee members knew that Trump’s accusation was a fraud, because our legal system had already been functioning as it should to judge the disputes raised by Trump’s attorneys, because. . .

~ "Dozens of state and federal judges had addressed and resolved all manner of allegations about the election. Our legal system functioned as it should, but our president would not accept the outcome."

~ “What most of the public did not know before our investigation is this: Donald Trump’s own campaign officials told him early on that his claims of fraud were false.”

~ Former campaign lawyer Alex Cannon testified:

     “I remember sharing with him that we weren’t finding anything that would be sufficient to change the results in any of the key states.”

~ Former Attorney General Barr testified:

    “I repeatedly told the President in no uncertain terms that I did not see evidence of fraud, you know, that would have affected the outcome of the election. And, frankly, a year and a half later, I haven’t seen anything to change my mind on that.”

 ~  President Trump was informed over and over again, by his senior appointees, campaign experts and those who had served him for years, that his election fraud allegations were nonsense.

~ In addition, multiple law firms previously engaged to work for the Trump Campaign decided that they could not participate in the strategy being instituted by Giuliani. They quit. 

~ Over the weeks that followed, dozens of judges across the country specifically rejected the allegations of fraud and irregularities being advanced by the Trump team and their allies. 

~ When suspending his (Rudolph Giuliani’s) license, a New York court said that Giuliani “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large in his capacity as lawyer for former President Donald J. Trump” 

~ “In many cases, after making extravagant claims of wrongdoing, Trump’s legal representatives showed up in court or state proceedings empty-handed, and then returned to their rallies and media campaigns to repeat the same unsupported claims”

~ “. . . in no instance did a court find that the charges of fraud were real.”

Bottom line: Trump’s accusations that the election was stolen was based solely upon his own wishful thinking, projected by his own loud mouth into the minds and riotous actions of his followers. All the trouble, violence, insurrection and Capitol destruction that happened on January 6, 2021 was no more than a trumpian hissy’fit instigated into the destructive antics of his violent devotees.

 Glass half-Full

Conspiracy to Insurrection

 Oh say can you see, in the 2021 light

What we so proudly maintained 

after a riotous fight.

That broad dome and wide steps

through the perilous fight

O’er the barricades we watched

were so gallantly retained!

As our Congress did dare, with teargas in the air,

giving proof through the fight

that our Congress was still there;

O say does that Capitol Congress  remain

with our Presidency,

o’er the land of the free,  Democracy!

Thank God! 

In God we have trusted.

And so far, that assurance has worked out. In spite of a violent attack on our Capitol and Congress.

Our democratic republic survives for 246 years, still going strong.  

Now our US House of Representatives has gathered, made public, and delivered to our US Attorney General . . . evidence for our Department of Justice to prosecute the Jan6 conspirators for four specific crimes.

The charges are based on our Rule of Law, as set forth in Section 18 of US Code:

~ Obstruction of an official proceeding of our US government

~ Defrauding the United States

~ Making false statements

~ Insurrection against our United States government

Now it is up to Attorney General Garland and the special prosecutor that he appointed, Jack Smith, to prosecute those conspirators who attempted to obstruct defraud, to lie  and to overthrow.

The special Jan6 House Committee, having gathered thousands of documents and hundreds of testimonies, concluded its work yesterday with a report to Congress  and to the US Dep’t of Justice, and also to us, the People.

Their evidence, presently being delivered to Attorney General Garland, is a large collection of testimonies and documents. For sake of brevity here, I will mention only one noteworthy detail, provided to my screen yesterday by Ari Melber. A notable detail in the developing case against the conspirators is: there was, allegedly, at least one insider in the Capitol building, who was aiding and abetting the attackers.

We shall see, in the days ahead, how our Justice Department and Special Prosecutor handle these allegations, whether convictions will be obtained, and the treasonous criminals brought to justice.

If you care to hear my sung rendition of my added third verse to our National Anthem, listen: 

Oh say can you see. . .

Glass half-Full

Tank Angst

 I’m a melancholy man; 

that’s what I am.

I wander only as a cloud

to elude the madding crowd

through the sands of time

with some half-stolen rhyme,

whereupon I write to tell it:

encounter with a military-industrial relic!

They say all’s fair in love and war

but ’t’was not so in Sudetenland and Saar.

Yet hitler's imitators come and go.

Methinks this old tank might have stopped the fascist show.

But now putin's tanks destroy the Ukraine

with new/old weaponry, just the same,

probably updated

but still much hated.

I hope our new tank versions 

destroy putin’s Ukraine excursions.

Smoke

For the Foxes

 You may have heard this before. If so, give it another look.

You have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. 

 The greatest among you will be your servant.  Hey, those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 

Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the republicans and the democrats, you will not enter the destiny that you thought you were aiming at. 

Everyone who is angry with their fellow citizen will be liable for judgement. 

A better way is: let go of your friggin' two-cents worth; be reconciled with that wokey-pokey who is across the aisle from you, then see what you can  do to actually contribute to our general peace and prosperity.

You’ve heard it said, an eye for eye. . . but hey, if your so-called enemy knocks you for a loop, fuhgedabowdit! Forgive and forget.

Love your enemies and pray for those who oppose your little klan.

Pay attention to the signs along the way. They may be trying to tell you something that you missed in the good news that you thought you knew all about. 

Don’t accumulate—don’t get all hot and bothered about worldly wealth—or worldly power, for that matter— but lay up for yourself spiritual  treasure. 

You can’t obsess with both God and money. the real wealth ain’t gonna happen that way.

Power corrupts. Don’t be sucked into serving the god of forces when you should have known—you’ve been taught!—you oughta serve the Lord of Mercy.

A diseased tree cannot bear good fruit.

When you strive to remove the MSNBC out of your opponent’s view, you hypocrite, first take the FOX out your own eye. Then go and be reconciled with your so-called enemy.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in fancy suits with ridiculous words (You know what I’m talkin’ about!)

When your judgement day comes, don’t be surprised to find out that many will be saying to the Lord look at all the good stuff I did.

But hey! Listen up y’all! you may be one of the neglectful ones to whom Messiah says: 

Go away; I never knew you, you workers of lawlessness!

Don’t be one of those to whom the Lord says, get the hell out of here, because, hey, I was hungry and you wouldn’t feed me; I was thirsty and you wouldn’t give me anything to drink, I was a stranger and you wouldn’t take me in. . . an immigrant and you wouldn’t admit me.

Instead of giving me a break you tried to build a wall! I'm not payin' for any dam wall.

Glass half-Full

Red Dragon

 

So . . . two D.C. Metro cops, Nguyen and Trent, are sitting at a bar. One says to the other. . .

    "Did you hear that?"  

    “Hear what?” asked Nguyen.

    Trent lowered his voice. “That guy right there, at the bar. He said something about a red dragon. Listen for a minute.”

    Morris Schroeder and Shapur Kabir were having one of their usual discussions. Morris was saying: “Modern minds don’t comprehend the metaphorical truth that is imparted through the use of archaic symbolism. Ancient writers didn’t have the use of cinema, or photography. And they didn’t have the benefit of scientific inquiry. They would use symbols, based on creatures or elements of the natural world, to represent entities in the spiritual world. Anyway, this serpent, or dragon, spews water out of his mouth. It’s a desperate attempt to drown the woman, or extinguish her influence. But then the earth helps the woman, by swallowing up the flood that comes from his mouth. Maybe that flood is rhetoric, because it comes out of the mouth—you know, like the hate message that Hitler spewed out. But the symbolism could be more inclusive than that. At any rate, this pregnant woman is given wings like an eagle, and is taken to the wilderness. I suppose that could be related to the expanding use of aircraft as the 20th century progressed. Or it may be more specific—the Allied powers used air power to overcome the Nazi war machine and afterwards to transplant the woman--Israel-- to Eretz Israel, the land, which is a wilderness. But of course there were people already living there in Palestine, and many of them were displaced with bloodshed, so another cycle of the old grudges were set into motion. It’s a mess, always has been.”

    “Excuse me, sir,” interjected Trent. “I couldn’t help overhearing your fascinating treatise. May I ask what it is you’re talking about?”
    Morris turned toward Trent. “Oh, I’m glad to be of service. I was talking about the flood of anti-Semitism that is metaphorically prophesied in the book of Revelation.”
    “You were saying something about a red dragon?”

excerpt from chapter 23 of my 2007 novel,    Glass half-Full

The Divisive Issue

 Point of Clarification here.

The issue that is truly dividing Dems and GOPers is not critical race theory. The controversy is not about CRT. 

Everybody has learned about slavery—the defeat of it, and the difficult adjustments that had to be worked out during and after Reconstruction. . . progress made through  Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the setbacks of injustice revealed in the death of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, et al, and our need for reform in inner city law enforcements.

This current American split is not about CRT; It’s about LGB. 

And it is not really about LGB as much as it is about EDU, which is to say it is about Education, specifically the elementary kind, and what is being taught to children about gender fluidity. 

We have had men and women and children in this world for a very long time . . . thousands of years. It is not an issue the opinions of which can be rearranged in one generation, or even two. And to further complicate the problem, public perception and opinion about these issues is all bound up in the Net, or the Web.

You see . . . in this country,

we have seven ways from Sunday for finding fault with the other side. We are consensus-less . . . with the Left blinded in fairy dust  while the Right is all caught up in a Rebumlican shitstorm.

We can’t even get real News anymore. 

Walter Cronkite is dead. Huntley and Brinkley have gone to that great newscast in the sky. Dan Rather must have found some place he would rather be, not being assaulted on the floor of a convention center in Chicago. 

Morley Safer is in an undisclosed location that is no doubt safer than this world. Mike Wallace is still reporting from the other side of the rainbow. Worst of all, JFK disappeared, just when we needed him most, on the other side of that great grassy knoll in the sky. 

“News” has retracted  into a vast musky twit-hole in The Cloud  . . .while political and cultural identity groups have faced off with each other making matters worse with every confrontation. 

Meanwhile, back at the push coming to shove, Public opinion slipstreams inscrutably as billions of zinging devices go zanging through molten-sand fibers of electronified energy. . . all the while, Time is tik-tocking across the universe searching for any sign of the latest thing, the sexiest thing, or the most popular thing.

Meanwhile, the Deity went down to Georgia, looking for some souls to Save. At about that time, a very special preacher stepped onto the Ebenezer pulpit and did what the Lord and his People had called him to do. After establishing a firm base, he moved on up to a seat in the US Senate. 

This man, Raphael, the preaching Senator, has a divine mission: Find a way where there is no way! 

This preacher will find that way between the Religious Right and the Enlightened Left. 

The so-called Christian Right people will listen to him because he is in fact a preacher of the Gospel and he knows the Book from cover to cover.

The Democrats will listen to him because he stopped one of the greatest running backs of all time, and because he has been, like his predecessor, Dr. King, to the mountaintop. And if that aint enough, , , John Lewis (the John Henry of color folk) was one his parishoners.

Rev Warnock will function in Congress as a Peacemaker. As Jesus had indicated; he will be called a son of God. . . which is (relax) just a way of saying: appointed by God, and tasked with a certain duty to perform.

Rev Warnock, has been, like his predecessor, Dr. King, to the Mountaintop  

 Having descended back down to the world of politics, the Rev has a divinely appointed task to perform. Make way for him.

And forget about CRT. Just convince the LGBs not to push their program on our kids in school and . . . with a little civil tolerance, we’ll get through this.

King of Soul

Sacred @ Secular

 I am of the tribe of Christ; but we inhabit a secular world.

The standards of propriety and practice are different in those two realms. 

As Christians, we are challenged by our Lord to inhabit both.

During the Christmas season, this duality is more obvious than at other times. 

For instance, in the Faith world we have specific standards and practice in the realm of marriage and intimacy.

 

Our standard for marriage is represented in this Christmas ornament: Man, Woman and Child. 

The standards are different in secular society. We are challenged by laws of the land to respect the marital and intimate practices of citizens who do not share our definitions . . . even as we celebrate, within our own congregations, the faithful sacrament of marriage between one man and one woman. 

An Apostle of the earliest Christians exhorted us, in his letter to the Romans:

“If possible, so far as it is depends on you, be at peace with all men.”

Peace on earth and good will to everybody!

I consider his exhortation as wisdom that allows me to tolerate the practice of worldly people who do not share my faith and standards  of behavior.

But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Please do not interfere. 

In our  narrow pathway through this world, we preach and teach to encourage Christian families in a covenant that is represented in the historical event that is represented in my pic above. . . man, woman and child. 

But I also understand that not all citizens in my country will agree with me on these points. But hey . . . Live and let live. You go your way and I'll go mine.

Meanwhile back at the tranche . . . having written that, I will exercise our freedom of speech, and freedom of the e-press, by adding this little political note:

In this dual season of yuletide which overlaps a political run-off election in Georgia, I would express this opinion: As a citizen of North Carolina, I cannot vote in Georgia, but I have noticed that the Rev. Raphael Warnock is well-equipped  in managing, appropriately, his Christian ministerial vocation at Ebenezer . . . along with representing, equitably, the people of Georgia in the US Senate. So if you live in Georgia, vote for the Rev on Tuesday. Whatever state you live in, comprehend that all fifty senators serve Us the People with their wisdom, good sense and high standards (we hope) of morality.

In my opinion, a Christian pastor--such as Rev Raphael-- is quite well-equipped, and likely to serve us with honesty and integrity, although he may not blast through a defensive line like the other candidate. God bless you, too, Herschel, but find something else to do. Just now, we have too much offense in our politics.

May we all have happy holidays and--if you're into it-- a Merry Christmas!

King of Soul

Raskin and Schiff

 donald trump scrapes the bottom of the barrel when he resorts to courting anti-semites for support.

So many other former supporters—many in high places—have deserted trump because they were squeezed by  events, and public opinion, and most important of all, common sense. . . into an unavoidable disavowal of the former president.

Good riddance, saith the American people: the removal of donald trump from Oval Office.

But the problem of trump did not just go away. 

It is not hard for a power-seeking demagogue to fall under the sway of antisemitic extremists, after most of the sensible citizens have seen through his lies and self-agrandizing hubris. 

In human history, this is not a new problem.

Several other nations in ancient and modern history have fallen into that fascist trap. adolf hitler had the same power-seeking fixation. See Daniel 11: 38.

Unfortunately, it took an entire global civilization and millions of dead strewn across bomb-pocked battlefields to resist and ultimately correct that third reich mistake. 

nazis like to blame all the bad stuff of this life  on the Jews. 

In this recent case, trump flirts with anti-semites because they are looking for a white-out applicant to do their dirty work for them. And he is looking for a white-out to do his dirty work for him.

In the ranks of Congressional leaders who have consistently and courageously striven to bring the traitorous trump to Justice, there are two men whose efforts have long been consistent, skillful, and vigilant in their crusade to remove trump from our Presidency before he could completely destroy its dignity and legitimacy.

Jamie Raskin and Adam Schiff.

These two bold legislators have persisted longer than any others to bring correction, justice and the American way. . . back to the Oval Office. 

In his most recent move, trump brings Ye and Fuentes, the antisemites, into his lago lair to explore perhaps some ways to get rid of his problem. Gotta find someone to blame and then rough'em up, a la the battle of Charlottesville a few years ago.

The antisemites were brought in because the two most effective public leaders who have striven to expose trump’s criminality are Jewish. Between the most notable truth-seeking journalists and the most watched networks there are plenty enough citizens of  Hebrew lineage to convince the neo-nazis that they need to revert to hitlerian tactics. 

Jews have to be vigilant because history has proven that fascist demagogues always hate them and persecute them. 

We’ve seen this tragedy before, in 1933-45. That is why, in the ancient scriptures, their ancient struggle is documented in  legendary and symbolic language.

“. . . and when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place.”

Glass half-Full 

Anti-Semites

 The last time—the one and only time—that a rabid anti-semite took control of the government of a civilized nation. . . Germany, 1933, adolf hitler dragged the whole continent of Europe into war in which millions of people were killed and hundreds of public buildings were destroyed. 

After ten years of failure, the little odd-mustachioed German corporal worked his legion of thugs into a frenzy of anti-Jew rage. By hatred and violence, the nazis managed to manipulate German discontent and rage into a nazi takeover of the German nation. Hitler arrayed his goons into fancy third-reich uniforms and used them to kidnap a bankrupt Weimar German state away from legitimate leaders.  Then they smelted the Weimar republic into a fascist “reich” and converted manufacturing plants into a national wehrmacht war machine that terrorized the entire European continent for a half-dozen years until Churchill, Roosevelt, the Russian dictator and several million soldiers put an end to the whole holocaustal curse.

That national-socialist anti-semitic nazi death machine had imprisoned, executed and incinerated six million Jews before it was all over with. This is not a tale that Jews made up.

Until a few years ago, an old American veteran lived down the street from us. My wife, the nurse, cared for him in ICU. During that time, he showed us an old book that memorialized—with photos, soldiers’ names and their remembrance— their liberation of Dachau concentration camp in Germany. The Rainbow brigade documented their rescue of Jews who had been imprisoned along with the stinking corpses of their dead compatriots.

It happened, y'all! in this world. Our guys liberated those who survived--those Jewish survivors who had the nazi numbers tattooed on their arms.

Ultimately, by 1945, the bloody last-full-measure-of devotion sacrifice of millions of  our brave soldiers was required to liberate from the anti-semites.

You do not want to allow the anti-semites to terrorized the world again just because the hate a certain ethnic group. 

Don’t let them use trump or any other American honcho to turn our United States into a fascist hate-state!

Never Again!

Watch out for these people and resist them at all costs!

I mean, the Jews wrote the Bible! I read it every morning. Here's one excerpt from the last book of it:

“. . . and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child . . . Then the woman fled into the wilderness . . . and when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the child . . . But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness. . .”

Glass half-Full

Solar Discovery

 Every town or county ought to have one: a Discovery Place, for educating the kids about this wondrous, energy-rich world in which we live.

Acton, Mass. has one—it’s a very special, educational place . . .very special because the entire facility is electrically powered by roof collectors on site. 

The Discovery Museum in Acton, as I discovered today,  goes beyond merely educating kids about science and the physical world in a way that is playful and fun. The community education organization is  providing, all the time, every day,  proof that our sun in the sky up there. . . really does cast energy upon our world every day . . . and that that solar energy can actually be collected on a couple of long parking lot roofs and then stored on site, in batteries. . . and used to run the building that houses the Museum. 

Those linked-up roof collectors that shelter the parking lot have a dual purpose; in addition to providing energy to run the building, they minimize snow accumulation or rain discomfort in the parking spots.

So. . . any time, visitors can . . . say, in winter, park on a clear spot, tromp over to the building, walk inside. The kids can have a good time learning in a hyper-educational play environment that is lit up, warmed and made comfortably useful by energy that has been collected, stored and  re-activated on site. 

Now, today— a lovely New England autumn day— we had a grand ole time touring the museum's displays and play-stations while granddaughter skipped from station to educational play station, thoroughly enjoying herself in play while interacting with the other kids and learning a little bit of science--especially the kinetic kind-- all along the way. 

If you're ever in Massachusetts looking for something special to do, head on up to Acton, an hour's drive north of Boston, and check it out.

On the other hand, you could get together in your own town or city and drum up some funds to do a similarly carbon-neutral play station for all the local young'uns. I highly recommend it. . . might be a good idea to keep children educationally and playfully occupied on a December day. . . or  a  hot July day, what'ya say?

Glass half-Full

History by the People

On this day in 1989, November 24, in Prague, the entire top leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia resigned.

The causes and events leading to that resignation are many; but  among them are an extremely large peaceful, popular uprising.

Four days earlier, on November 20, a crowd of of 200,000 protesting Czechs had swelled to 500,000. In that high-energy environment, a bold, freedom-loving playwright, soon-to-become President, Vaclav Havel, addressed the crowd, while standing on this balcony:

I snapped the pic a few years ago when we were visiting Prague. Our tour guide pointed out that (in my opinion) historic balcony.

Please note that that 1989 crowd of a half-million Czechs did not attack their government; nor did they trash the place; nor did they attack the leaders of the ruling party, or threaten any one them with a scaffold. But with the peacefully constructive leadership of Vaclav Havel, Alexander Dubcek and others, they were able to initiate a peaceful revolution, now called the Velvet Revolution, and thereby join the ranks of freedom-loving nations.

These last few days, November 2022, I have been pondering the idea of Liberty. We are visiting Boston, just now. If you walk around this historic city for any length of time, you cannot miss the atmosphere of Liberty that pervades the place. 

From the Old North Church where Robert Newman signaled to Paul Revere, as he was waiting across the Charles River, came Newman’s lantern signal that the British were coming! . . .

 . . . to the Civil War Soldiers monument on Boston Common, or the Wendell Phillips monument: 

. . . Along these lines of Liberty musing, this baby boomer cannot fail to remember. . . nor fail to mention, in this year of ’22, that liberty-loving Massachusetts Senator who, while assuming our Presidency in 1961, offered this counsel to us all:

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”

JFK's message of constructive liberty was not confined only to us Americans. Later in his Presidency, while visiting the fiercely divided city of Berlin Germany, he challenged the citizens of that embattled city: 

“My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what, together, we can do for the freedom of man.”

His counsel of peaceful, constructive doing—rather than destructive rioting— is timely and appropriate for us . . .  We the People of these United States of America in 2022. 

Think about that this Thanksgiving. Do you really want to start another civil war just because one man refuses to play by the rules?

Glass half-Full 

The Bled Badge of Duty

 January 6, 2021. Michael Falone on duty at the US Capitol:

A half-year later, July 27, 2021:

Veteran US Capitol Police Officer/ Metro Washington DC police officer Michael Falone testifies about defending our Capitol and our Congress from the January 6 MAGA insurrectionists. Still recovering from seeveral life-threatening injuries He testified:

  “What makes the struggle harder, and more painful,  is to know so many of my fellow citizens, including so many of the people I put my life at risk to defend. . .  are downplaying, or outright denying what happened. I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room. But too many are now telling me that hell doesn’t exist, or that hell actually wasn’t that bad.”

But  Adam Kinzinger,  US Air Force Pilot and US House Representative, responded tearfully, with encouragement to Michael andto the other two testifying officers who were present: 

 “ But you guys won! You guys held. You know, democracies are not defined by our bad days. We’re defined by how we come back from bad days.”

Furthermore, our nation is not  defined by our bad days.

We are defined by how we recover, and how we move progressively forward, beyond those bad days. . . overcoming those infamous bad days of that treasonous assault of our Congress, our Capitol, our very Nation.

We shall overcome! Deep in my heart, I know, we shall overcome!

. . . with some serious help from our appointed defenders!"

Thank you, Michael. . . and all of our brave officers who defended our Congress, our Capitol on that day!

Sing it! You know the tune:

Oh say can you see, in the 2021 light

What we so proudly maintained 

after a riotous fight.

That broad dome and wide steps

through the perilous fight

O’er the barricades we watched

were so gallantly retained!

As our Congress did dare, with teargas in the air,

giving proof through the fight

that our Congress was still there;

O say does that Capitol Congress  remain

with our Presidency,

o’er the land of the free,  Democracy!

Glass half-Full

Uncle Tom v. Fred Douglass

 Them Georgia crackers have sho’nuf got themselves in a hot spot now, if you catch my meanin’. Them Maga politicians from Wash’ton they be hoppin like mexcan jumpin beans, zippin’ on down to Georgia lookin’ for a mess a voters to steal. Start the steal, y’all: they be sayin again. . . Them  Maga mavens up on de Hill.

Now dey be sendin’ Uncle Tom to blast through that donkey-ass line, wid it bein fourth down now and 5 in overtime on the 6th a December in the Senate Bowl and the score dam-near tied at 50-49.

Yazzah, them GOPpers on the sideline— lindsey and mitchey—dey be playin’ catchup ball . . . an even the big cheese his own dam self . . . likely be poppin’ from maraloogoo hot to trot on up to Atlanta to make special speech for Unc’Tom since now he be runnin  like hell. . . yeah he shonuf gots dat ball, y’all, an he be runnin’ like hell wid it jez like da old days, cuz his teammates up on de Hill be sweatin bullets since ‘lection day. Y’all listen on up now!

Meanwhile, in other Georgia news, US Senator Raphael Warnock is running for re-election. The Reverend Warnock of Ebenezer Baptist Church answered a call to public service two years ago. He was blessed with victory in being elected to the US Senate to represent the great state of Georgia, home of former President Jimmy Carter and God only knows how many other great Americans such as Margaret Mitchell who wrote Gone With the Wind.

And we all know, ya’ll, that good governance in the US Senate will be gone with the wind if the Reverend Warnock is not re-elected and the Maga Republicans be tearing down the goal posts while Uncle Tom takes his seat in the US Senate.

I’m serious y’all!

For more information on this very important electoral choice, listen to Roland Martin’s recent report: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3Ty1s8PPE

 Glass half-Full

Where's the Civics Class?

Where’s the Civics Class?

Now that it has been plainly shown that our nation is being torn apart by political infighting, maybe we should get back to teaching Civics in schools again.

We had civics in high school— or was it junior high?— back in the day. . . 1960’s, that decade when a President challenged us to 

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can your country.”

“Back in the day”. . . ha! Now I’m sounding like our parents’ generation—you know the one—the generation who drove the nazis and fascists back into their holes. 

Ah, but now, those fascist bullies have surfaced on our side of the pond. Now they’re crawling out of their holes, trying to convince us that .gov by strongman bullies is the way to go.

Go back in your holes, ye bully Rebumlicans. We have a free nation to run here. Let’s see some real Republicans come out of the trumpian wreckage.

Nowadays the Dems are calling them authoritarians, meaning leaders who think it more effective to just take charge of things instead of following the Rule of Law. 

Yes, the Dems, the so-called “educated elite,” or the “coast dwellers” who make their living with their brains instead of brawn. And I’m one of them because I have a baccalaurete degree and I have nothing better to do than sit around and write blogs and novels after reading the Post and the Times even though I spent 25 years banging nails as a carpenter and plunging toilets as a maintenance man because I couldn’t break into the teaching profession.

Yes, I know this sounds like a rant, (because it is) but, hey, what else do expect from a 71-year-old baby boomer? A joint? No. I left that behind a long time ago.

But I digress.

The point is: why do our schools not get back to teaching Civics?

So that this next generation—X,Y,Z. . .whatever the hell they are—can be properly taught about our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our history, our damn civil war and the sacrifices that previous generations have made so that the young’uns of today don’t end up driving our Ship of State right into the shoals of destruction.

Glass half-Full 

The Soul of Liberty

 Liberty and Justice for All is not something that just happens.

        As compatriots with liberation and deliverance, liberty and justice emerge triumphant from the very embattlements of human history. Where their zealous advocates manage to grab some foothold in the landscape of human struggle, freedom is fleeting not far behind. Noble aspirations are all summoned up when the careless slayings of men demand value more sacred, more holy, than the mere clashing of weapons and the expiration of breathing bodies.

        In our present American epoch, the bad news is: there is an inevitable outflow—the shedding of blood—which bleeds out when rebellion escalates to ever higher levels of violence and death.

        The good news is: where there’s shedding of blood, Soul is not far beneath. We forgive and persevere, and our Soul will be rejuvenated; our American body politic will recover. We will rally and strengthen those appropriate things that remain.

    Our collective Soul of American Liberty is this:  the principle that we can live, work and thrive together without tearing each other apart, and that our Rule of Law, when put to proper use, will give us the wherewithal to resolve and to work out our differences.

        Here's the deal.  As long as life-blood flows through our inherited arteries of Law,  Democracy and Governance, our collective American Soul can thrive and survive. When, however, those arteries are traumatically severed by acts of aggression, violence and rebellion, we bleed.

    If we bleed out, we die. If we arrest the bleeding, we recover and move forward to live and prosper as a Nation and as individual Citizens.

    Today, election day 2020, let us collectively resolve to recover. . . to revive and replenish our blood as it circulates nutrients of Liberty and Justice through the body politic.

    And so. . . we shall  recover, and we shall overcome. We then repair and resume our 246 years of blood-borne Liberty and Justice for All. 

Selah.

King of Soul. (See chapter 5.)

Deep South stuff

 I was born and raised in the Deep South, and have lived to tell about it.

And tell about it. . . I did, in my 2017 novel, King of Soul.

In 1963, Medgar Evers was shot dead in his own front yard by a white supremecist. 

My novelic story in King of Soul describes events that might have happened the next day.

Here is one scene in which a housemaid, Aleen, is sitting at a dining room table where she is usually the server; but on this particular day, the lady of the house has chosen to serve her: 

        Cora Jean . . . stood up. “Excuse me. I’ll be right back. Please keep your seat, Aleen.”

       Then it was Aleen and Donnie sitting at the dining table. Donnie felt a little funny about it; this had never happened before. In the evenings, the table was usually stocked with supper, most of which Aleen had cooked, before she went home to cook for her own family. Donnie’s sister, Nancy, walked in the room. She’s nine. 

       “Where’s mama?” she said. She was looking at Aleen with curiosity.

       “In the kitchen,” Donnie replied. “Go see her.”

       “No.”

       “Go ask her if we can have some sweet potato pie.”

       “No. It’s too close to dinner for pie,” objected Nancy.

       “No, it’s not. Go ask her.”

       “You go ask her.”

       “Aw, shucks, Nancy, go sit on the couch. Me and Aleen are talkin’.”

       “Talkin’ about what? I can talk too.”

       “Grown-up stuff.”

       “You’re not a grownup,” charged Nancy, sticking her lower lip out.

       Now that was true. Sally was a little smarter than Donnie thought. She had not always been, though.

       Nancy walked halfway around the table, next to Aleen. “Are you gonna cook some dinner for us, Aleen?” she asked, meekly. Her brown eyes were wide open with anticipation. 

       Aleen just smiled at her, and stroked the stray bangs from the girl’s forehead. 

       “Aw, Nancy, mama’s makin’ dinner,” Donnie declared. “ Today’s different. Can’t you see that?”

       “Oh yeah, smarty pants! What’s different about it?” she persisted.

       Now Donnie was stumped. Something was indeed different about today, but he didn’t know what, except he knew that some important colored man had been shot and Aleen’s daughter had been arrested. 

       His sister was involved now, and she liked it that way. She looked at Donnie, challenging him with her eyes. “Aleen’s sittin’ at the table. That’s what’s different!”

       Donnie could not argue with that. It’s a fact.  

Fast forward: Last night, I was watching a 1990 movie, The Long Walk Home, on Amazon.The story there depicts events surrounding the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56. There was a turning point moment in the video that echoed my novel scene above. So I snapped it: 

King of Soul

Portrait of a Lady

 Back in 1977, I wrote a song about Autumn.

The scene described therein is focused upon a woman who, while watching autumn leaves fall, is drawn into an old memory of love.

Soon thereafter, I was able to record the song in my

  Something for Everyone  vinyl LP album.

Perhaps you would enjoy listening to the wistful tune:

 Portrait of a Lady

King of Soul

Charles the Last?

 A tizzy of speculation has been spun up about the state of the British Monarchy, now that Queen Elizabeth, whom everyone loved, is gone and Charles steps into the role of King.

The big buzz is whether Monarchy is even relevant and/or useful in this 21st century. 

Recently, while reading blogs and comments on UnHerd, I saw one comment referring to the new monarch as “Charles the Last.”

’T’was just over a century ago—1914— that the entire continent of Europe was cast into War, as a consequence of the assassination of one Royal, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.

When at last the dust settled in 1918 as war yielded to Armistice and Peace, the question of Royal relevance was a hot issue, and has been on the back burner ever since.

Several years ago, we visited the Schonbrunn palace in Austria, palace of the Hapsburgs. While there, I snapped this picture; it is the room in which Emperor Karl the Last, in 1918, signed away the Hapsburg empire, although he “would not abdicate,” whatever that means.

 Are Kings and Queens even useful for anything any more?

Now the Brits have Charles III and speculation arises about just how relevant his role will be. 

My curiosity about the issue was kindled ten years ago when I acquired an original edition of the Times of London Coronation Issue, commemorating the Coronation of Charles’ grandfather, George VI, on May 12, 1937.

Looking back into European history, there are Charleses all over the place.

The original monarch was Charles the Great, which is an anglicized way of pronouncing the French nomen, Charlemagne. His notable accomplishment was an 8th-century AD manifestation of reviving the Roman empire, after its long, 400+ years of slumber after the Huns had plundered ancient Rome during earlier centuries.

 Prior to acceding to that expansive title, Charlemagne had reigned over the Carolingian dynasty, an 8th-century royal development that arose among the Franks, or early French people.

During the next thousand years there were several European Charleses.

Most notably, in the 1500’s, along came Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, which royal role included multiple honors such as Archduke of Austria, King of Spain, Lord of the Netherlands, Duke of Burgundy and first head of the House of Hapsburg, in Austria.

Much later, in 1918, came Karl (German for Charles), the last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, last emperor of the Hapsburg dynasty, which reigned over Austria, Hungary and several other nations of the Hapsburg dynasty. More about Karl, later.

As for England, Henry VIII’s disputes in 1500’s with continental Europe and the Catholics had forced a permanent separation. By the 1600’s, the independently-minded Brits had their own homegrown royals and priests. But their contentious habits precipitated a Civil War (1642-51), during which King Charles I was beheaded, in 1649, by the Parliament and the rebellious Protestants therein. 

But, not to worry, the monarchy of the Brits was restored when his son, Charles II was crowned in 1660, after the Brits had figured out a way to get along with each other. 

All was well until the Americans stirred up a hornets nest of rebellion in 1776.

But we Yanks made up for our rebellious ways when we helped the Brits and Allies during World Wars I and II. But I digress.

So now, in 2022, along comes Charles III, son of the longest-reigning monarch of all time, Elizabeth II. 

And the big question in British minds is just how relevant and/or useful can a King be in this 21st century.

Time will tell . . . what Charles III will able to contribute to the welfare and strength of the British people, and how his choices will set the course for his progeny. 

Meanwhile, while watching a movie

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRxsLwqx4VM&t=2737s

 about Karl, last Emperor of the Hapsburgs, I saw this:  

The face in this frame is an actor’s. Here’s a pic of the real Karl the Last of Austria-Hungary.

As for Charles III of Britain and his acceptance by the British people, Will he be Charles the Last (monarch)? Time will tell.

All we can say is: God save the King!

Smoke

A Statesman Stumps Against trumpism

 A  former President went down to Georgia and he was looking for some voters to heal.

He talked common sense and faith to them folks down in the deep south, ( where I grew up . . . three states over, in Louisiana)

Watch and listen:  Statesman Obama

Here are few of the words he spoke to them:

“My favorite President was a guy named Abe Lincoln. He helped found the Republican party.

It used to be that there were GOP members who championed progress and civil rights and rule of law, even when some Democrats, especially down here in the South, did not.

That’s part of our history.

So it has not always been one party or another. But these days, right now, just about every Republican politician seems obsessed with two things: owning the libs, and getting Donald Trump’s approval.

. . . But that’s their agenda. It’s not long; it’s not complicated, and, at least, to me, its not very inspiring.

They’re not interested in actually solving problems. They’re interested in making you angry and finding somebody to blame, because that way, you may not notice that they’ve got no answers of their own.

I can tell you what Stacey Abrams is obsessed with. As a small business owner, and the daughter of two ministers, she’s focused on making sure every Georgian has an opportunity to get ahead. That’s why she wants to invest Georgia’s surplus in the fundamentals: good schools, a higher standard of living, more affordable health care and housing. That’s her agenda.

I can tell you whatRaphaelWarnock cares about. As your senator, he hasn’t been off chasing wacky conspiracy theories. He hasn’t been drumming up fear and division. He’s been working to lower prescription drug costs, and boost manufacturing jobs and expand health care for veterans, who got sick fighting for the United States of America. That’s who Rev. Warnock is; that’s his agenda.

. . . They are both hard-working, God-fearing, community-serving people, who tell the truth and stick to their word. . . treat everybody with decency and respect.

Hearing Barack Obama reminds me of the good old days when leaders actually worked to get things done in the halls of government, before our politics went all to trumpian hell.

On January 6, 2021, those hallowed halls,  where governance takes place, were, under the influence of the trumpian tyranny, trashed and thrashed. 

But now it is time to, as Christ instructed John the Revelator in Rev. 3:2, "strengthen the things that remain." If you're not familiar with that biblical reference, go find the Senator from Georgia,  Rev. Raphael Warnock, and ask him about it.

Glass half-Full

A Day in the Strife

 I have been struggling with this new song. Borrowing the Lennon tune from Sgt. Pepper's Day in the Life, I composed a message to our nation, to our people and to the world, describing and lamenting what happened to our Capitol, our Representatives and Senators, and to our very Nation on January 6, 2021. 

Here's the written message: 

I heard the news about Old Glory

Fifty stars dragged down into the mire

A crowd of rebels in our Capitol

They cast our Congress to oblivion

I saw the video.

 

They blew their mind out in a riot

They wouldn’t notice that the nation changed.

A crowd of people watched online.

They’d seen that dread spirit long before, in 1864.

Nobody was really sure of what was happening.

 

Our nation’s  soul was up for grabs.

The joker brandishing his tyranny

Casting spells of spoken alchemy

Tossing tales of woken enmity.

 

He’d spouted words stand back stand by

They stormed the Dome with rebel cry.

They trashed and dashed our hallowed hall

They wouldn’t read the writing on the wall

 

He blew their minds out with a lie

They raised the zombie rebel cry

A freaked-out nation sat and stared

They’d seen that face before, back in 1864.

Nobody was really sure what the hell was happening.

His curse was marching on.

You can listen to my current version here: 

A Day in the Strife

Glass half-Full

Window Gazing

Raising your vision

to survey the ascent of man,

the blocked-up struct

of human accomplishment,

would you look to the Left ?

Notice that bird of paradise

perching, gazing expectantly

into some ancient 

Tree of Knowledge?

. . . Searching for the answer,

maybe some 

Edenic narrative

to inspire and instruct mankind . . .

or conversely, 

some Hegelian dialect

to direct us toward 

proletariat  paradise?

 

Or would you shift your attention

to the other side, the Right side

of that shuttered-up bay . . .

we notice human endeavor,

 catching sight of that

catty predator who lurks

to pounce upon us

to take control of us

by catnip pharmakia, or

aphrodesiac spell, or

if push comes to shove,

brutal raw violent power?!

. . . 

Either way you look at it 

will you descend into the darkness of 

merely human wishful thinking?

toward indeterminable destiny,

the luck of the draw or,

To recall an old song:

Clowns to the left of me,

Jokers to the right, here  I am

stuck in the middle with you.

But but but. . .  is that all there is?!

in the nether regions of the deep

in the dark boarded-up thanatos of

human endeavor we

find, ‘zounds!, the worst fate of all:

to be shuttered,

boarded up, abandoned

in the lower regions of the world

never again to be noticed

by the citizens of this world,

passersby. Damn!

Wait a minute. I remember someth . .

might be a time to

look up!

Selah!

Behold! 

I show you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep,

but we shall all be changed, 

in a moment, in the twinkling

of an eye. . . 

It could happen: a better world

up there somewhere.

Believe or Not!

Glass half-Full 

History in the Making!

 Who you gonna call?

Treason Busters! United States House of Representatives special committee to uncover the truth about  what happened in our Capitol during the Jan6 insurrection! 

They discovered:

Bannon boy spurted the game plan, before the main event. Before the election, he let the batshit crazy cat burglar out of the bag:

“If Biden is winning, there’s gonna be some crazy sh*t.”

'T'was Pre-planned treason against the American people and against our duly-elected Congress. . . is what it was, truth be told.

And Bannon’s pre-planned sh*t did indeed hit the fan! serious bullcrap, even a dead American Capitol-defender or two, as a consequence of trump's treasonous fun and games . . . and boldly deposited defecation on the floors of the US House and US Senate!. . .

just as bannon boy had said: there’s gonna be some crazy sh*t!

Stop the Steal!: Famous Lost Words shouted by world-class losers.

The Winners? The American people, thanks to our Congress,  . . . who withstood the attack, and then appointed House members to get to the bottom of what happened. . .

Raskin, Schiff, Thompson, Cheney, Kinzinger, Luria, Lofgren, Aguilar, Murphy. God bless America! and a few brave legislators.

Raskin and Schiff, God bless ‘em . . . smelled the rat long before it crawled into the Rotunda on Jan6 ’21. Your persistence has borne fruit. Never give up, advocating for truth and accountability.

Meanwhile back at the ranch. . .

Liz took the ballot-box beating in Wyoming so that she could do the right thing to deliver our Republic safely, back into the Rule of Law . . .

battling in our House to prevent  our Executive branch falling under a renewed occupancy  by Rebumlican gangleader trump, whose harpy minions, called now to accountability. . . quickly proclaim: Fifth!

“Fifth.” Roger Stone, John Eastman and a throng of lawless shroud boys and oath-leapers, leaping over the Rule of Law to defecate in the legislative chambers, fulfilling bannon boy’s prophetic gutterance: . . . “some crazy shit!”

This just in: US Supreme Court declines to rule on trump’s Special Master bellyaching.

Meanwhile the urgent call goes out: Is there a Statesman in the house? Not for long . . .

Adam Kinzinger will be bowing out of Congress after a stellar job of defending the Government of the People of the United States of America.. Maybe he's fed up with politics. Job well done, Adam. Your mission is accomplished in Congress. But hey!

Who’s gonna clean up the Rebumlican party after this mess?

Who we gonna call?!

Treason busters! Cheney, Kinzinger . . . Collins?  any volunteers?

Glass half-Full

Magnolia Dignity (Replay)

 Here's a re-run of the ode-to-Georgia poem I wrote and published in 2021:

Hark!  

I think I saw a flash in the pan!

I think I can; I think I can

Yes, I can see a flash in Atlan-

-ta!

Georgia!

Yep! Georgia’s on my mind

Cuz now in Georgia we do find

A glint of hope!

Maybe now our USA can cope.

Cuz trump’s senator Perdue got thrashed

By Governor Kemp in a Republican flash

And yeah, I say unto thee

There’s triumph in honesty.

Cuz Raffenberger’s quest for truth

has borne some precious Georgian fruit.

Yay! I say unto thee

There’s honor in integrity!

Cuz Brad, on trump’s sneaky phone call declined

When donald begged him for some votes to “find”!

I think I see a flash in the pan!

I think I can; I think I can

Yes, I can see a flash in Atlan-

-ta!

Georgia!

Yeah!Georgia’s on my mind

Yeah! now in Georgia we do find

A glint of hope!

There’s hope again for America

shining up from Atlanta.

Selah.

Yee-ha!

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

o’er our land of honesty, the home of the brave!

Cuz the devil went down to Georgia

lookin’ for some votes to steal.

But he got way-laid by an honest politician,

a Republican with a truthful rendition.

The South shall not lie again.

Yep, I have seen a flash in the pan

It’s shining up from At-lan

ta!

Georgia.

This bodes well for magnolia dignity

not maga-iniquity.

Glass half-Full

Indigenous Peoples in America

 Recalling the long, historical struggle of native Americans to find their place in American life, I commemorate their struggle in a song I composed and sang, many years ago, about the battle at Little Big Horn, Montana : 

As the stars began to fall,  the sun began to rise, bringing light to a newer day, and bringing light to their eyes. Hovering like a spectre, the Little Big Horn sat, and little did Custer know . . .

      Sitting Bull's Eyes

 

Glass half-Full 

Tree Agreement

Did you ever see a tree

with which you agree?

Today I did see a tree

with which I agree.

You may think me to be

a little daffy

because I did see this tree

and to think I could agree

with a tree is a little wacky

But I’m not the only one.

You may say that I’m a dreamer

but I’m not only one.

Leo Tolstoy once saw a tree

with which he did agree.

Actually it wasn’t Leo who did see

the agreeable tree.

It was Prince Andrei Bolkonsky.

And yes, with Prince Andrei I do agree

that a tree can agree with me. 

He saw a tree that was old and gnarly

and with it he did agree

But the next day it was green and bloomy.

So he convinced himself to agree

that an old tree,  that was, like life itself, gnarly

could indeed be bloomy, not just all the time gloomy.

Prince Bolkonsky and the tree and me do agree!

Do you see now how I could agree 

with a speechless tree?

After all, poems were made by fools like me

but only God can make a tree

and who wants to disagree

with the Deity?

Not me.

The tree with which I agree

is growing on a rock!

Imagine that!

Although you don’t have to imagine it.

Here is another tree for you to see:

I didn’t make it up. 

So maybe you can agree with me and Prince Bolkonsky,

and of course, Emily. . .

Poems were made by fools like me, but only God can make

a tree grow on a rock!

Selah.

(Glass half-Full) 

A Day in the Strife

Listen to the song: A Day in the Strife

     Read the message here:

I heard the news about Old Glory

Fifty stars dragged down into the mire

A crowd of rebels in our Capitol

They cast our Congress to oblivion

They blew their mind out in a riot

They wouldn’t notice that the nation changed.

A crowd of people watched online.

They’d seen that dread spirit long before, in 1864.

Our nation’s splitting soul was up for grabs,

The joker brandishing his tyranny

Casting spells of spoken alchemy

Tossing tales of woken enmity.

He’d spouted words stand back stand by

They stormed the Dome with rebel cry.

They trashed and gashed the hallowed hall

They wouldn’t read the writing on the wall 

He blew their minds out with a lie

They raised the zombie rebel cry

A freaked-out nation sat and stared

They’d seen that face before, back in 1864.

The’d heard that rant before.

Nobody was really sure what the hell was happening.

His spell was marching on.

Glass Chimera 

Deja Vu, Literary Version

 Just as history does not repeat itself, but does “rhyme,” so are a few other elements of life in this world; for instance, literature.

This morning I had the strange experience of historical deja vu, the literary version.

I write novels; I have published four of them since 2009.

How I got into this activity can be simply stated: it was something meaningful to do in response to my own, personal mid-life crisis. 

I was reflecting on these events after encountering a book review in the New York Times this morning. 

     https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/books/review/lion-feuchtwanger-oppermanns.html?

As I was reading there about a 1930’s German author, Lion Feuchtwanger, I had a feeling of deja vu.

If you don’t know what deja vu is, you can get a notion of it by viewing the cover of the vinyl LP record album, Deja Vu, recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, in 1972. That album jacket features a photo of the quartet as they had re-imagined their group would have existed in the American West, a century earlier. 

    https://vinyl-records.nl/folk-rock/crosby-stills-nash-and-young-deja-vu-germany-release-vinyl-lp-album.html

But I digress. I was about to tell you about the German writer, Lion Feuchtwanger, whose historical fiction work preceded, by 73 years, my own novel, Smoke. Both books tell a story  about events  in Nazi Germany, 1930’s.

Lion wrote his novel, in “real time”, which is to say, his story was built arounds events that were actually happening in real time, while he was living, where he was living, in Germany, in the early 1930’s. 

In contrast, I wrote my novel, Smoke, as part of a wider European odyssey set in 1937, based on historical research.

Admittedly, Lion was far more qualified to write about Nazi Germany than I am. He was living there, and saw first-hand, the terrible events that were being inflicted on Germans—especially Jews—at that time.

In my case, however, because I had discovered some terrible truth about Europe, specifically Germany, by research, I decided that there was an historical fiction tale that needed to be told. . . hence, Smoke, which I published in 2011.

In Joshua Cohen’s NYTimes review yesterday, Oct 3, he writes this basic description of Lion’s novel about a persecuted family in 1933: 

“The Oppermanns” is a novel about the decline and fall of a bourgeois German Jewish furniture dynasty whose members are unable to countenance the rising threat of National Socialism.”

This brief description got my attention, because the historical fiction story that I composed in Smoke includes events in which a Jewish family, the Eschens (altough they are not the main characters) make the very difficult, but necessary, decision to leave their native Munich home. The Nazi Nuremberg Laws of 1934 were making life so difficult and dangerous for them. These people had a thriving cattle/meat/deli business that the third reich basically stole from them. This persecution was happening all over Germany during the third reich, 1930's.

 That theft also included the Nazis' imprisonment of the Eschens' son, Heinrich, in a prison called Dachau in 1937. I chose their fictional family name to be “Eschen” because my research revealed that the first prisoner who was killed at Dachau had that name. In my story, however, Heinrich manages to get out of that first concentration camp.  

So this morning while reading Joshua Cohen’s review of Lion Feuchtwanger’s “The Oppermanns” I had the deja vumoment. 

These two fictionalized families had similar backgrounds. One had a furniture dynasty; the a other a prosperous deli. But both families suffered the oppression of anti-semitic Third Reich Nazi persecution, and ultimately. . . Holocaust.

All that to say: May it never happen again! Let history be a lesson, a warning, for us here and now.

 I was not able to comment in the NYT on Joshua Cohen’s review of Lion Feuchtwanger’s “The Oppermanns.” So I wrote this blog instead. I had to do something to get the deja vu out of my system!

Smoke

Why Being a Centrist is So Hard

If you’ve spent a significant part of your life trying to be a moderately conservative republican, then you are probably in the same leaky boat that I am in.

In 2016, when trump was kidnapping the Republican party, any faith that I had in the GOP started to evaporate. I remember vividly, the night we were visiting relatives in Raleigh, my wife went to a family gathering—a mourning event—and I chose to stay in a motel and watch the prospective GOP nominees debate.

It was a terrible night. Not only was their death in the atmosphere, but that was the night that trump bullied his way into the party nomination by so rudely and crudely ignoring all the rules of standard debate. Then later, as it all unfolded in 2020, he crudely broke all the long-standing principles of good governance and statesmanship, even instigating treasonous insurrection. 

For this centrist republican, these last four and a half years have been all downhill, with the very bottom of Republican integrity being dragged into the mud to be slung upon our Republic (if we can keep it, as Ole Ben had said.) 

Now, a few brave Republicans, most notably Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, with help from the bench regularly provided by Susan Collins, Mitt Romney and (what-the-heck-happened to Paul Ryan?) a few other brave souls. . . remind me that there may be some salvation yet to be found for the party of Abe Lincoln. 

Anyway, now here it is . . . autumn of midterm election year, and the bully trump crowd may be being slowly driven back into their holes.

But hey, life if funny, y’know? 

Suddenly, up pops the anomaly (to use one of JordanP’s favorite words) and I am reminded why I forsook the democrat party back in the early days of my maturing phase.

The unexpected development was a proposed bill in Congress that I discovered while reading email, on this gloomy post-storm Saturday morning. This proposed legislation is House bill 1209.

Here is the paragraph that I found in the inbox, which—upon reading it— renewed my political identity crisis:

H.Res. 1209 is designed to elevate the LGBTQ agenda above freedom of religion and will make abortion a federal right. In addition, it will use our federal government to punish anyone who will not promote the LGBTQ agenda or abortion. I’ll explain more below and share how this resolution is intended to harm both parents and children. —Mat

This is a perfect example of why being a centrist nowadays is such a conundrum. 

I am okay with assuring Constitutional provisions that allow other citizens to define their own identities, sexuality and personal lifestyle, even their friggin’ marriage. I get it.

But when these disruptive doctrines about sexuality are dragged into our public schools to be used as propaganda fodder, lesson plans, for grade-schoolers . . . I just don’t get it. 

And so once again I find myself agonizing over my trump-instigated exit from the Republican party. 

Because sometimes Republicans do make better sense.

But other times, Democrats are much better attuned to protect the rights of minorities.

But sometimes their zeal for defending alternative lifestyles crosses a boundary called religion, which is a Right that is protected by our First Amendment.

So I am not suggesting that everybody needs to be religious. I am only saying that parents are allowed to teach their children religion-based morality, if they so choose.

And they should not be required by politically-obsessed schoolmasters to have their children’s faith undermined by progressive doctrines of sexual identity.

Sorry Dems; read ‘em and weep. This House Resolution 1209 is not a good idea.

And maybe you can discern, through this complaint, the conundrum I have—along with many other centrists—who find ourselves caught between a rock and a hard place. 

My only hope for returning to the GOP would be found in their nomination of a true statesman to be our next President. Apart from that development, Joe is okay with me. I voted for him last time. We’ll see what the elephants in the gloom come up with in ’24.

God forbid a replay of the trumpian disaster.

Glass half-Full