Tuesday, November 15, 2022
In bed at 8:50, up at 3:50, a good 7 hours sleep. Snow flurries
War, Race, Sin, Guilt, Shame, Reinhold Niebuhr
After zapping the one cup of coffee left in the pot from yesterday, I opened my laptop to the long Atlantic essay by Clint Smith "Monuments to the Unthinkable." He wrote How the Word is Passed about how here in America the Confederacy, slavery, and the Civil War are memorialized and remembered in places where they are memorialized and remembered. The Atlantic essay addresses how the Holocaust is memorialized and remembered in German. The essay is thoughtful, provocative, and piercing, as his book is. I read half of the essay yesterday, and the other half this morning after waking up. Toward the end of it, in addressing the unwillingness of many Germans to memorialize the crimes of their nation, he reports the differing attitudes among older and younger Germans. "Rosh said that young people were the most supportive of her efforts [to build a Holocaust memorial.] I asked her why that was. Then Olaf raised his eyebrows and said, “The old ones were soldiers in the war.” “People did not want to show we were guilty,” Rosh said. “But the Holocaust memorial shows …” Olaf completed her thought: “Yes, we were guilty.” I think of course of Vietnam. of Jim Crow. of block-busting in Chicago, White flight, and Msgr. Malloy's "undesirables." of Indian wars, broken treaties, Indian boarding schools run by priests and nuns, Sand Creek and Wounded Knee. How much of that American history was, as Peter Coyote mellifluously intoned in Ken Burns' film "begun in good faith by decent people, out of fateful misunderstandings, American overconfidence, and . . . miscalculation." We were, I was, soldiers in the wars, bearing some guilt.
Eighth Air Force
Randall Jarrell - 1914-1965
If, in an odd angle of the hutment,
A puppy laps the water from a can
Of flowers, and the drunk sergeant shaving
Whistles O Paradiso!--shall I say that man
Is not as men have said: a wolf to man?
The other murderers troop in yawning;
Three of them play Pitch, one sleeps, and one
Lies counting missions, lies there sweating
Till even his heart beats: One; One; One.
O murderers! . . . Still, this is how it's done:
This is a war . . . But since these play, before they die,
Like puppies with their puppy; since, a man,
I did as these have done, but did not die--
I will content the people as I can
And give up these to them: Behold the man!
I have suffered, in a dream, because of him,
Many things; for this last saviour, man,
I have lied as I lie now. But what is lying?
Men wash their hands, in blood, as best they can:
I find no fault in this just man.
I think of Solzhenitsyn's'line between good and evil' and Niebuhr's Moral Man and Immoral Society and am flattened.
LTMWATW
The snow flurries don't keep the goldfinches from long dallies on the long niger feeder. On the other hand, the tall shepherd's crook without a baffle permits the squirrels to climb to the top, leap over to the top of the baffled feeders and do their best to extract seeds. Greatest success: the suet. Snow becoming more than flurries. It's sticking on the back fur and tail of the squirrel perched atop the feeders. Incredibly agile, acrobatic, and resourceful. Very much like high wire and trapeze artists at a circus. At 8:50, 9 wild turkey hens show up, briefly looking under the feeders but briskly moving on to greener pastures. . . . The turkeys returned at 3:15, 11 of them this time.
I had forgotten
how much I enjoy oatmeal for breakfast. Made a big bowl with butter and brown sugar this morning instead of my normal daily CBH w/ basted eggs, cheese, adobo and sriracha.
Israel prepares to swear in the most right-wing government in its history
Bibi's back, allied with the Kahane mob. How much will US tolerate? How far with Netanyahu push us.
Investigators see ego, not money, as Trump’s motive on classified papers
A review by agents and prosecutors found no discernible business interest in the Mar-a-Lago documents, people familiar with the matter said. Is this a prelude to a decision not to prosecute???
Old Latin Mass Finds New American Audience, Despite Pope’s Disapproval
The traditional Latin Mass, an ancient form of Catholic worship that Pope Francis has tried to discourage, is instead experiencing a revival in the United States. It appeals to an overlapping mix of aesthetic traditionalists, young families, new converts and critics of Francis. And its resurgence, boosted by the pandemic years, is part of a rising right-wing strain within American Christianity as a whole.
This one I pray in. That one I wouldn't set foot in!😂
A Visit to the VA
Two appointments at Zablocki this morning, a blood draw and a visit with lymphedema specialist Deena. I usually return from Zablocki feeling uplifted and I did today. It is hardly Nirvana. You see, as are one of, a bunch of pretty broken-down old veterans there, mostly male, guys in wheelchairs, guys with walkers and rollators and canes and some crutches. White guys, Black guys, Hispanic and Native guys. Former officers, former enlisted men, all sorts of backgrounds, religions, politics. It's not a 'hale fellow well met' kind of place, with a lot of visible fellowship or camaraderie, but it's rare that I don't see some act of kindness or consideration, some demonstration of respect or concern, some helpfulness of some sort while I'm there. It sounds a bit corny, but it's really a bit heartwarming. All the vets are there because of some medical or other need of some sort, some condition that requires the help of a doctor or nurse or therapist or staff member. I suppose it's that shared neediness coupled with the shared history of military or naval service that creates a quiet bond of some sort.
Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975 by Max Hastings
Started listening to this Audible book on my way to and from Zablocki and ordered a hard copy from the library. Same challenge as with all recorded books, especially when listening while engaged in some other activity requiring some level of attentiveness: missing or failing to focus on some matters as the narration goes on whether you would like to stop and think or not, but I think I'm going to find the book helpful.
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne
Irish-Catholic life in Ireland for a spinster. "The drink." "If there's no other life, then I've wasted mine. "Dark night of the soul." Despair. Depression. Maggie Smith is magnificent. Bob Hoskins, Wendy Hiller. Hopeful ending seemed a bit contrived.
I've Long Wondered What's With Guys in Cowboy Hats?
Why do guys who wear cowboy hats think it's OK to wear them everywhere? I've seen a group of male Trump supporters in the Oval Office, nobody wearing a hat except a couple of dudes wearing cowboy hats. At Trump rallies with people sitting on bleacher seats, guys with cowboy hats leave them on their heads blocking the view of the people behind them. Political candidates delivering stump speeches indoors wear their cowboy hats while speaking. Why? We don't see other candidates wearing their fedoras indoors, or their berets, or knit hats, or Greek fishermen hat or beanie. Why are cowboy hats privileged? I have little doubt that its a sex-thing, toxic masculinity, machismo. Pathetic.
Watching Trump's Big Announcement
We have Erin Burnett on the TV because neither of us tolerates Joy Reid well. The screen shows the crowd gathering at Mar-a-Lago waiting for Trump to announce his third campaign for the White House. Who are these people? Why are they (presumably) supporters of Trump? Fascists? Cultists? They look very White, rich, and privileged. I see only a few red MAGA baseball caps; these folks don't look like baseball cap types, very unlike the people we would see at Trump political rallies. Is it just the tremendous bonding effect of common great wealth and intent to preserve and maximize it? The alliance of the advantaged? the fraternity of the flush? the guild of the gilt? Are they Christian nationalists?
Trump's speech - no surprise except for his listlessness.
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