Friday, July 26, 2024
1948 Truman issues Executive Order No. 9981 to desegregate the US armed forces
2023 Sinead O'Connor 12/8/55 - 7/27/23
Prednisone, day 75, 15+5, day 11. I took my 15 mg. of prednisone at 5 a.m. I will take the additional 5 mg. at 5 p.m. I keep my iPhone alarm set for that time to remind myself since I so easily forget the evening dose. I took 1,000 mg. of Tylenol at 4:30 a.m. I'm down to my last 3 500 mg. tablets and have to ask Geri to resupply me today after her visit with Dr. Balachandran.
Anniversaries thoughts. First, Sinead O'Connor was also a hero of mine, like Frank Petersen whom I recall below. She was an extraordinary, powerful singer, of course. I still enjoy listening to her first two albums, The Lion and the Cobra and I Do Not Want What I Do Not Have. She was also a rebel. From Wikipedia:
O'Connor drew attention to issues such as child abuse, human rights, racism, and women's rights. During a Saturday Night Live performance in 1992, she tore up a photograph of Pope John Paul II to protest against abuse in the Catholic Church, sparking controversy. Throughout her musical career, she openly discussed her spiritual journey, activism, socio-political viewpoints, and her experiences with trauma and struggles with mental health. After converting to Islam in 2018, she adopted the name Shuhada' Sadaqat while continuing to perform and record under her birth name.
On October 3, 1992, Sinead appeared on Saturday Night Live, sang a version of Bob Marley's War, and tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II, saying "Fight the real enemy." It was only 9 years later that JPII admitted the problem of child abuse within the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, Sinead suffered abundant abuse from those offended by her protest. She died of unspecified natural causes at age 56. During the last decades of her life, she was a mess: psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually. She endured much suffering in her life and it showed in her erratic and confused behavior, but she has long occupied a warm place in my heart and I will make a point of listening to and enjoying her albums again today.
The painting I attached is one I did a great many years ago, on canvasboard, freehand. Sinead was the subject and obviously, I did a very poor job of rendering her extraordinary facial beauty. Nonetheless, I kept it because it turned out interesting though not as intended. The photo below shows the exquisite face that I badly failed to capture in the painting above.
Second, about segregation in the military: I was almost 7 years old when Truman desegregated the Armed Forces, the Armed Forces that another Democratic president, Woodrow Wilson, had made it a point to keep segregated. "During Wilson’s presidency, he allowed his cabinet to segregate the Treasury, the Post Office, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Navy, the Interior, the Marine Hospital, the War Department, and the Government Printing Office. This meant creating separate offices, lunchrooms, bathrooms, and other facilities for white and Black workers. It also meant dismissing Black supervisors, cutting off Black employees’ access to promotions and better-paying jobs and reserving those jobs for white people." The Navy and the Marines were the slowest of the service branches to integrate. The Navy actually used Philapino and Black sailors as servants, or "stewards" as they were called, waiting on Navy officers in their wardrooms. I recall no Black midshipmen or officer candidates in my T&T Regiment at Quantico in 1962 nor at the Basic School in 1963. The only Black Marine officer I encountered in the Marine Corps between 1963 and 1967 when I was discharged became of friend of mine, then Major and later General Frank Peterson, We served together at the Marine Corps Reserve Detachment, NAS, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. He was a fighter pilot. We drove together to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, to enjoy a performance by the great Nancy Wilson. Frank was a remarkable man, a remarkable aviator, a remarkable leader, and a remarkable Marine, He was the first Black Marine aviator and the first Black Marine general. He retired as a 3-star Lieutenant General. And he was the only Black felllow Marine officer I encountered in 4 years of active duty in the mid-1960s. I hadn't thought of it before, but he was not only a friend during my last year of active duty, he was also a hero.
Going downhill, a pity party. There are times when my right knee hurts more than my right hip. The intestinal problems yesterday were significant, making me scurry as fast as I could with my walker or cane to make it to the bathroom. I'm not eating properly because of my inability to stand for more than a minute or two and to prepare food; hence so much cottage cheese & berries. I haven't been out of the house in days. I have to rely on Geri to fill the bird feeders and get the mail. I don't get the mail because of fear on not mounting that one step onto our front stoop. I haven't been to the basement in about 2 weeks because I can't be sure of my ability to climb the stairs back up. I don't see Dr. England for a possible ultrasound-guided hip injection until August 6 and I wonder whether I will end up in the ER again before that, because of intense pain, or a fall, or inability to rise from a chair, stand on my feet, or walk. What I am reasonably sure of is that the chronic and spreading pain will not improve between now and August 6th, 12 days from now, when the pain, disability, and immobility will have persisted for 26 days.
More on the apotheosis of Joe Biden. First, from an interview with John Meacham in the current New Yorker online:
Q: The historian Adam Tooze recently wrote, “I honestly don’t get what is heroic here. … Biden and his team around him made a historic mistake with disastrous implications. Why, after the shambles of the last few weeks, are we giving ‘big-boy’ merit badges for this belated admission?” What do you make of that argument?
A: We live in a fallen world. All of us are imperfect. Most of us make the wrong decisions all day long. What's remarkable about human nature and history is that people get to the right decision at all. And so I find that criticism overly glib.
Q: If you look at news reports from the past weeks, and even some of Biden’s own comments, it seems to me that the national interest was not front and center in his mind. And his ultimate decision could work out, and Kamala Harris could win the Presidency, but there wasn’t a real nominating contest. This is all very rushed. She starts at a disadvantage in the polls. And so it does seem that the way Biden and his people have dealt with the past few weeks, and indeed maybe the past year, the unwillingness to step aside , has really potentially put the country at risk.
A: It’s a totally fair argument to make, and we should wrestle with it. It would be intellectually dishonest not to. My position, my view, personal opinion, is that what matters is where you get in the end. And this is why Reinhold Niebuhr is so important. Right?
Q: I was just saying that to myself.
A: Niebuhr said that “the sad duty of politics is to establish justice in a sinful world.” My view is that we are imperfect people. We are fallible people. And I think what’s remarkable about human history and politics is that just enough of us get to the right place at all, much less early and all the time.
Q: I think the difference between George H. W. Bush and Harry Truman is that there was no concern that if they lost, or paved the way to a loss, to Eisenhower or to Clinton, that American democracy would be at risk in some way, which I think that Biden himself, and you, think is at risk with Trump. And so the importance of having the political skill or ability or just motivation to be able to win this election and making sure that that happens does seem like it will be a bigger part of Biden’s legacy, and not just for policy reasons.
A: We just don’t know yet. We’re in the middle of it.
And in the current The Atlantic online, Mark Leibovich's What Biden Didn't Say, excerpts:
Reaction to the (Oval Office) speech was warm, fawning at times, and a bit eulogistic. Biden was praised for his patriotic act. “‘The sacred cause of this country is larger than any of us,’” former President Barack Obama wrote on X. “Joe Biden has stayed true to these words again and again.” The actor and director Rob Reiner gushed over “one of our greatest Presidents,” exactly one week after publicly pleading with Biden to leave: “The handwriting is on the wall in bold capital letters,” he’d said. . .
They all conveniently left out the words “kicking and screaming,” “took him long enough,” and “after stewing and dillydallying for nearly a month.” . . .
All’s well that ends well, you could say. In fact, this all could have ended a lot better. Or, certainly, sooner: three weeks, if not three years, sooner. In the end, Biden’s drawn-out hemming and hawing after his debate disaster on June 27 left Democrats in a hell of a bind. . .
As it stands, Biden left time for only a late scramble. And little room to heal the rifts that have arisen from this awkward affair. If Harris loses to Trump, Biden will come in for a healthy dose of the blame. . .
But the full story of Biden’s legacy and his performance through this chapter will be incomplete until a big cliff-hanger is resolved—in November.
To all of which I say, as did (apocryphally) Barack Obama: Don't underestimate Joe's ability to fuck things up. I am angry at Joe Biden who is and has been for some unknown time at least somewhat addled. I am especially angry (Freudian slip: I first wrote 'addled'?) with Jill Biden and Hunter Biden and any other Biden who must have known of his condition and nonetheless encouraged him to stay in the presidential contest with Trump. I am angry with CofS Zients, Ron Klain, Anita Dunn, Robert Bauer, Steve Ricchetti, Mike Donolon, Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, Cedric Richmond, and any other 'inner circle; Biden advisor who, knowing the stakes in the game and the requirements of the job over the next four years, encouraged Biden to stay in the race. They are all worthy of contempt and should be condemned, not praised, as Jill Biden did her her handwritten note, "for never wavering, never doubting." Shame on all of them.
I am reminded of Lord Acton's statement following his famous "All power tends to corrupt . . .". He said, "Great men are almost always bad men." He also said "“A public man has no right to let his actions be determined by particular interests. He does the same thing as a judge who accepts a bribe. Like a judge he must consider what is right, not what is advantageous to a party or class.” or, as was the case with Biden's second term. I was immediately struck by his claim in his speech that all he had done in his first term had "merited" a second term, in other words, that he had earned it, that he was entitled to it, he was owed it. He, he, he. I say again what I have long thought, that Biden is an egoist, a narcissist, self-centered, self-promoting, and selfish and it's that selfish characteristic that has put the Democrats, the anti-Trumpers, and the nation at increased peril this election.
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