6/9/24

Sunday, June 9, 2024

1954, Joseph Welsh to Joe McCarthy: "Have you no sense of decency, sir?"

1980, Richard Pryor suffered severe burns from freebasing cocaine 

1983, Margaret Thatcher's Tories win parliamentary elections

In bed at 10:30 with the quilt moved aside, awake and cold under only a top sheet at 12:05, put on my warm robe and moved to LZB, and up at 2:00 to move to the TV room with my new walker "Betty."  Betty does not move smoothly.  I ordered tennis ball feet from Amazon. . .   I lit a Kitty candle, thought of her, and thought of the expressions "I'll keep a candle burning for you," and "I'll light a candle for you," with the implications of caring, togetherness, hope, and connection.  How long ago was it that I sent the votive candle and holder to Kitty to keep her company during her long hours awake each night.  I asked her to light it and remember I was with her.  Then I got my own candle and followed my own advice, thinking of her even now when she is gone.

At 4:45, I let Lilly out for the second time and listened to the neighborhood robins and cardinals and, if Merlin is to be believed, a rare Carolina wren.  The other day, it heard a House wren, also rare in these parts.

Prednisone, day 28, 20 mg. day 6.

Retired judge David Tatel issues a stark warning about the Supreme Court: In a memoir, the retired D.C. Circuit judge reflects on his career and the high court, regret about initially hiding his blindness, and his love for his guide dog, Vixen.  This article appeared in yesterday's WaPo.  It called up memories of the years Bob Friebert and I spent representing the Shorewood and other school boards in Milwaukee's metropolitan school desegregation lawsuit in federal court.  David Tatel was a friendly adversary representing the Milwaukee school board.  Shorewood wanted to settle the suit and was already actively participating in Wisconsin's "Chapter 220 Program" facilitating interdistrict transfers of Black and White students. We consulted mainly by telephone and were always impressed by his knowledge, wisdom, and bona fides.  James Hall represented the Milwaukee school board and Bill Lynch represented the NAACP.  There were 23 suburban school districts as defendants represented by different law firms, including ours.  Two of the most recalcitrant suburban groups were represented by Tom Shriner of Foley and Lardner and Mike Spector of Quarles and Brady.  Spector was the brother of the president of our client, the Shorewood School Board, whose name I can no longer recall.  The brother and sister were on opposing sides of efforts to settle the suit.  Tom Shriner represented West Allis-West Milwaukee which was adamantly opposed to settlement or any relief sought by the Milwaukee school board.  He wrote a letter to Judge Thomas Curran accusing me of improper conduct by filing an affidavit with the court including newspaper and other reports of support for a then-pending settlement.  Curran, a friend and fellow parishioner of Shriner, rebuked me and I had to write a non-apology apology to him, citing the 7th Circuit law about the relevance of wide community support in school desegregation settlements.  The case was eventually settled with the number of suburbs participating in the Chapter 220 program increased from 12 to 23.  It is interesting that just within the last few days, in response to a financial scandal threatening the Milwaukee school district, former Governor Tommy Thompson, has suggested splitting the Milwaukee school district up and with each new district joined with neighboring suburbs, a settlement proposal in the 1984 suit that was bitterly resisted by the suburban defendants, including Shorewood. 

David Tatel recently retired from the D.C. Court of Appeals.  He takes on the radical right Supreme Court in his memoir.  As I read the WaPo story about his extraordinary success notwithstanding blindness, I thought of Itzhak Perlman who contracted polio at age 5 depriving him of the normal use of his legs.  He performs while seated.  I watched an interview of him years ago in which he related how fortunate he was, with no self-pity.  What a mensch, both he and David Tatel.

Anniversaries.  First, on June 9, 1954, Joe McCarthy accurately accused a young associate in Joseph Welch's law firm, of having once belonged to a communist front organization.  Welch's remonstrance was classic, elegant, helped to end McCarthy's power, and lives on to this day:  "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. . . Little did I dream you could be so reckless and so cruel as to do an injury to that lad. Indeed, he is still with Hale & Dorr. It is true that he will continue to be with Hale & Dorr. It is, I regret to say, equally true that I fear he shall always bear a scar needlessly inflicted by you. If it were in my power to forgive you for your reckless cruelty, I would do so. I like to think I'm a gentle man, but your forgiveness will have to come from someone other than me. . . I beg your pardon. Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.   You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency? . . ."

I was a couple months shy of my 13th birthday when all this occurred and I saw it on television.  It was powerful then; it remains powerful today.  He was censured by the Senate in December of that year and died, disgraced, in 1957.  Alas, he was once a Marine and was a 1935 graduate of Marquette University Law School.  

Second, Richie Pryor set himself on fire accidentally on this date in 1980.  As far as I am concerned, he was one of America's most brilliant and most painfully honest comedians.  He could bring tears to my eyes while laughing or was it because of the hurtful truths he joked about?  I think of his routine on the 'bicentennial pastor' talking to his congregation of '200 years of the white man kicking ass' and asking 'How long, how long, how long, Lord, must this bullshit go on?' Brilliant, truthful, painful, a genius.

Third, Maggie Thatcher took over in 1983, following Ronald Reagan's ascent to the presidency in 1981.  I think of her and I think of one of my favorite movies, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, screenplay by Hanif Kureishi (My Favorite Laundromat).  The movie shows Thatcher's England, especially London, as a dystopia.  It's a tale of fantasy and reality, London as the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and slums, crime, homeless camps, racism, rigid class structure, cruelty and indifference.  Rosie is White, married to Sammy who is Indian or Pakistani in a loveless open marriage.  Sammy's father comes to visit from India or Pakistan (it's never clear) with pleasant and romantic memories of his days as a student in London long ago when he fell in love with a character played by Claire Bloom.  He was or is an official in a tyrannical government back home, one that tortures and otherwise abuses its citizens.  I had a copy of this film once but not now.  It's not available anywhere - videotape or DVD.😡

One of the reasons Joe Biden is nobody's first pick.

George Trimble from Spoon River Anthology

Do you remember when I stood on the steps

Of the Court House and talked free-silver,

And the single-tax of Henry George?

Then do you remember that, when the Peerless Leader

Lost the first battle, I began to talk prohibition,

And became active in the church?

That was due to my wife,

Who pictured to me my destruction

If I did not prove my morality to the people.

Well, she ruined me:

For the radicals grew suspicious of me,

And the conservatives were never sure of me—

And here I lie, unwept of all.

For decades, Biden stayed just liberal enough and just conservative enough to get elected as Delaware's senators, trying to please as many voters and interests as he could.  He was the same way in the Senate, trying to please not just his Democratic colleagues, but also as many Republicans as possible.  Lindsey Graham has said of Biden  ""If you can't admire Joe Biden as a person then probably you've got a problem, you need to do some self-evaluation . . .  he is as good a man as God ever created" and "the nicest person I think I've ever met in politics."  Striving to please everyone somewhat, Biden pleases very few a lot.  One reason for his dismal poll numbers.  He's like Biff Loman's description of his father Willy in Death of a Salesman: "He's liked, but he's not well liked."

On top of that problem, there is the problem with his invincible habit of lying, of exaggerating his talents and virtues and experiences.l  There is a story in the NY Times this morning ittled "Biden Loves to Tell Tall Tales. We Cut Them Down to Size."  The author lists only some of oft-repeated lies.  She omits his claim to have graduated at the top of his class when actually he was near the bottom of his class.  She omits his mistatements about his trips to war zones and encounters with militaary soldiers.  In one respect he is very much like Trump; he just can't get himself to stop lying, mostly about himself.

A wonderful trip to Glorioso's this afternoon.  Geri's been 'tastied up' for some Glorioso raviolis lately and asked me to pick some up yesterday.  I was not in great shape yesterday and it was rainy so I put it off until today, a good decision.   The temperature is in the mid 70s, with sunny cerulean skies loaded with pretty powder puff white clouds, a great day for a walk or a drive.  It was a long drive because of closed ramps on I43.  I got off at McKinley, drove past the old Milwaukee Sentinel garage where I would pick up my van each in 1962-63, past Fiserv Forum where all the action at the dreaded Republican National Convention will occur next month, up to Brady Street to Glorioso's which was packed.  It was wonderful just being in the store and it reminded me of shopping at Balducci's in Greenwich Village.  The store was packed with customers of all ages but noticably a lot of young couples making me think of Hello, Young Lovers from The King and I:  Hello young lovers, whoever you are / I hope your troubles are few / All my good wishes go with you tonight / I've been in love like you.  Rosemary Clooney, Frank Sinatra, so many great renditions.  I drove up Humbolt to Capitol Drive to get back on the freeway, past so much familiar old Milwaukee architecture, especially the huge duplexes with the big porches, but also bungalows and and homes of all sorts.  I meant to access the freeway on Locust but there was one of Milwaukee's many summer street festivals going on, probably the Riverwest festival.  I got on the freeway near Hattie Clayton's old home on 7th Street, stirring so many memories of experiences with her and her children, and some guilt and some guilt about ending the relationship, but that's another story.  I had Geri's CD of Bob Seger's Greatest Hits playing during the drive and heard all 14 songs, Hollywood Night, I'll Accompany You, Main Street,  Night Moves, Still the Same and the biggie, Old Time Rock and Roll.  Seger sings with a lot of soul and I love his Silver Bullet Band, especially the honky-tonk, Jerry Lee Lewis style piano, the drum work, and the sax.  It was a great outing, though it made me miss living downtown at the Knickerbocker, being near to all the summer activities from the old 3rd Ward commission row neighborhood up to Brady Street, both neighborhoods being heavily Italian for many years.  Milwaukee is an incredibly active, vibrant, exciting city in the summer and not just along the lakefront and the SummerFest grounds, all over.  I've long compared it to bears coming out of hibernation all winter.

Watched Words and Pictures with Juliette Binoche.