Tag Archives: U.S. History

History, Literature

My Grandfather and the Lost Generation

Much is made of the “Greatest Generation”—the people who fought in World War II and kept the home fires burning. We owe them an enormous debt, and it’s right and good to remember and honor their memories, today and every day. But the generation that fought in World War I was the first to experience the terrible technology of modern war. The millions who fought and died in what was long known as The Great War experienced previously unknown horrors. Those who came home were forever damaged by what they saw and were made to do. The psychic and physical damage done to them was so great that writers of the 1920s like Hemingway and Fitzgerald became famous for their stories of the Lost Generation—people so damaged by the war that they could never again regain their footing on this earth.

My grandfather was one of the men who went off to World War I, determined and duty-bound. These were his dog tags, given to him when he joined the U. S. Army in 1917. How his German-born mother must have ached as she watched her eldest child (of 10!) go off to fight against the children of those who were once her compatriots.

Grandpa George fought in France, fell in love, and said adieu to his French sweetheart when it was time to go. He sailed back home with his souvenirs, including a mortar shell and a German officer’s helmet. But, as the WWI-era song goes, how are you gonna keep ’em down on the farm (well, in St. Paul) after they’ve seen Paris?

Grandpa followed his younger brothers into the meatpacking business. He spent a little time as a butcher before wanderlust overtook him and adventure called. He rode the rails West, going weeks without bathing while hopping trains and looking for work. When he got to Montana, where he worked on a ranch for a while, he could finally take off his boots to let his feet relax. But when he did, the dime he’d so carefully stored inside his sock was gone! A dime was enough money for a meal, so he undertook a rigorous search.

After a while he realized that the callus he’d developed on his foot had actually grown around the dime. It had been so long since he’d removed his tight boots that his skin had stopped being irritated by the foreign body and just subsumed it. Good thing he had his Army knife on him to cut it out.

Eventually, my grandfather made it back to the Midwest. After a close call with an angry upside-down hog whose hoof nearly slit Grandpa’s throat before Grandpa could slit his, my grandfather left the slaughterhouse business and moved to Detroit, where he became a welder for General Motors. A staunch union member, he was part of a famous strike against General Motors in which GM attacked its own employees who were striking outside in the snow with high-pressure fire-hoses. The extreme pressure of the water knocked the wind out of strikers like my grandfather, who were forced onto the sidewalk and rapidly covered in ice.

When we think of the miseries of working for The Man nowadays, it’s good to keep in mind those who came before us. People like my grandfather stood up for the trade unions who fought successfully for eight-hour days, five-day work weeks, and safety laws that kept employees from dying on the job, or being hunted down by angry employers who didn’t like uppity employees who spoke out for what was fair and just.

Soon enough, Grandpa made the move to Ford Motor Company in nearby Dearborn. There he became their chief tool and die welder, and came up with many inventive improvements that helped Ford better their automobiles (but for which he received no credit or bonuses, of course). But in his decades at Ford, he could afford to buy a new car every few years, and he earned the pension that kept him and my grandmother going after retirement. What’s more, the company bestowed their much-coveted full scholarships on both of his daughters—the first time that two children from the same family ever won Ford Scholarships. They were the first people in their family to go to college, and both made much of their educations, and passed on their parents’ love of education to their own children.

He may only have had an eighth grade education, but my talented (if eternally cranky) first-generation-American grandfather fought for his country, raised and supported his family (and gave his girls the means to excel at college), and became a valued employee of the Ford Motor Company. He read Goethe in German, and Shakespeare in English for fun. Grandpa had seen abominable things, but felt he had no right to do other than fulfill his duty to his country, his family, and his company.

Much of his generation (my dreadfully poor grandparents included) grew up in deep poverty with little to fall back on but cussed determination to make things work. When fascists came to power in the 1930s in Europe, it was my grandparents’ generation who had prepared those of the “Greatest Generation” (like my Uncle Woody) to have the spine and steely determination to do what needed to be done. When we honor those who came before and fought to safeguard our way of life, let’s not forget them.

History, Politics & Current Affairs

Fighting for Freedom

It is devastating but right and beautiful that the U.S., Canada, the UK, and other nations give brave service people a day every year to remember what they have given for us, and to thank and bless them for their unimaginable bravery and willingness to put others’ lives before their own. My deepest thanks and gratitude to all who have served, been wounded, sacrificed, and died to keep this nation a Constitutional republic. I bless and honor those who have fought and died to help other nations stay and become free countries that upheld the rule of law, extended justice and equality to their citizens, and gave refuge to those who escaped from fascism and other horrible political systems to find a better life. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”—and those whom he (or she, or they) would count as friends.

On this and every Veterans Day, I hold my Grandpa George’s World War I dog tags in my hand and remember what he did for this country. I am grateful to the members of my own family who’ve put themselves in harm’s way to serve their country, including my father, my Uncle Woody, my Cousin Mike (currently serving), and both of my grandfathers. My Grandpa George, who was born of a German immigrant mother and a Swiss immigrant father, spoke only German at home, and was still reading his beloved Goethe in blackletter German script on his deathbed. Grandpa and his nine siblings were deeply steeped in German literature, poetry, and music. How horribly painful it must have been for him and his family to see him go to Europe to fight against and kill his mother’s former countrymen when they invaded France during World War I. And how many millions of other U.S. service members have given everything, everything, everything they have to protect us, to keep other nations free, and to fight against invasion, aggression, terrorism, fascism, communism, and religious extremism? Bless them and the many millions more at home who suffered, feared, sacrificed, and grieved for those they loved who went to war and gave up everything for us.

Their sacrifice is beyond imagining. Let’s be worthy of it. Let’s stand up for our nations’ freedoms, laws, values, and constitutions. It’s the very least we can do to properly thank those who served and died on the battlefield to make and keep the U.S. and other nations democratic republics. Let’s continue to fight the good fight in honor of our ancestors—and for those who are still to come.

At top:

My grandfather’s World War I dog tags, given to him when he joined the U. S. Army in 1917.

History, Politics & Current Affairs

When the Supreme Court Grants Immunity to Rampaging Monsters

Millions voted for Trump despite plentiful warnings that he’d fill the Supreme Court with corrupt far-right activists in the pay of conservative billionaires who’d enable anti-democratic power grabs. Millions didn’t believe Trump could be so deeply hateful and vengeful. They refused to believe that he’d gleefully attack the laws, customs, welfare, and the Constitution of the United States that he was hired to protect.

Yet here we are.

Now the Supreme Court’s intentional delays and anti-Constitutional rulings have removed the possibility of a public trial examining Trump’s treasonous incitement of a deadly riot until after November’s presidential election. Six “justices” have impeded justice for a man who believed his own vice president deserved a public lynching on the Capitol grounds because of a refusal to subvert Constitutional requirements at Trump’s command.

Those who voted for Trump in 2016 were too naive and trusting, and too willing to ignore the signs of his incipient fascism. In their fear and misapprehension, they made excuses for his blatant and repeatedly proven financial corruption, racism, and misogyny. They bought his lies and repeated them in his service. They have no excuses now.

Trump has shown us who he is, repeatedly, publicly, and dramatically, thousands of times. We all know what he wants to do.

But building hatred toward those who voted us into this deadly, dangerous, chaotic man’s orbit will not stop him. That kind of vengeful thinking builds monsters like Trump, and leads to terrorism and civil war. We must love what this nation could be enough to fight for it—nonviolently and lawfully. And we must love the elements of human decency that most people, including those who consider voting for him, still hold in their hearts. We must remember their humanity. Let’s reach out in kindness, despite the irrational fears and anger that Trump has so masterfully created in them. The need to save our democracy should be greater to us than the desire to avoid annoyance and frustration, or the impulse to smugly insult Trump supporters’ choices and fears.

Does that mean we need to be polite and quiet when they roll over us? Never. We must be bold and loud and persistent. But we must respect others’ humanity as we amplify truths and persistently correct misapprehensions about Trump. We must point to the current administration’s successes, and remind people of Trump’s egregious actions while in power.

Do not be defeatist or fatalistic. When you’re fighting a monster who’s burning the gates to your city, you don’t give in because it’s tiring and sweaty work. You don’t take a nap when a fire-breathing dragon sets your baby’s crib alight. If we give in, our home will burn to the ground if we don’t do our part to save it.

We’re all tired. We’re all disgusted. So were millions in Hitler’s Germany who used their disgust over and fear of and exhaustion with fascism as excuses to turn their backs on the destruction of their nation from within. If they made it out alive, they had to live with the consequences of their fear and inaction for the rest of their lives. They had to watch their beautiful and beloved homeland’s people (and people from around the world) lose freedoms, be ground in the dirt, suffer, even die because of their leader’s unchecked power.

Don’t set yourself up to feel that kind of sorrow and shame.

Get angry.

Push back.

Speak up.

VOTE.

At Top:

The Statue of Liberty during a solar eclipse, June 2021 | Anthony Quintano, Wikimedia Commons (CC-by-2.0)

History, Politics & Current Affairs

Fascism in America

Video

Vice News has created a powerful documentary on the murderous fascist violence that took over Charlottesville last weekend. It is hard to watch, but important to see. We must all bear witness to what is happening and not turn away from it but fight it together.

Fascism has been an undercurrent in American politics for many decades and has never been wiped out. But it now has thousands of newly emboldened, well-armed adherents who feel safe leaving their shadows, rifles in hand. They see themselves as part of a holy war. Aided and abetted by Trump and Bannon, American Nazis have gained the confidence to come out, threaten, attack, even murder. They act out more forcefully now because they fear no reprisals—they believe God and Trump are on their side. This makes them a much more powerful force for evil than they were only months ago.

Unless we stomp this fascist uprising down hard and fast with the rule of law, show immediate intervention between sides at rallies where fascists appear, and disallow armed proponents of violence from threatening others and brandishing weapons in the streets and elsewhere—unless we legislate against the legal arming of members of hate groups who actively support the murder of innocents and the overthrow of our government—we may enter an age of increasing white fascist terrorism.
 
The president has spit in the face of all who fought the Nazis during World War II. He has made a dirty joke of the sacrifices of all who were tortured and slaughtered by Hitler and his followers. Trump has all but welcomed the Klan into the White House. He daily proves himself to be an utterly unfit and illegitimate head of state, a leader opposed to his own people and his own nation, a traitor in support of a malign foreign power and a man with a malignant and severe personality disorder that keeps him from thinking rationally or caring about any interests other than his own.
 
If Trump should eventually be impeached and ousted by those in power who recognize his instability and moral bankruptcy, we may hear and see threats made against those who oppose him. Extremists who feel their fascist president was toppled by a communist coup d’etat will go after both liberals and conservatives who finally feel too soiled and disgusted to carry water for an unhinged tyrant who seems to be in league with Putin against the United States.
Whether Trump stays in power or not, he has unleashed heavily armed monsters without morals or mercy. So far, they have been given the benefit of the doubt by police and government agencies when they should have been held back. Legislators in the pocket of the NRA have allowed people with documented mental illness and histories of domestic violence to own and use deadly firearms and even purchase semi-automatic weapons of mass destruction. Our nation has been willing to coddle supporters of violence and support them in their efforts to arm themselves like professional soldiers and build up huge personal armories.
 
Fascists do not stop at threats. They do not stop at murder. There is a good chance that, emboldened by irrational hatred and violent tendencies, some will believe that it is their holy duty to engage in what they see as righteous war against members of the U.S. government. No, they cannot topple our government, but they have already infiltrated it. They are massively armed and exist in larger numbers than we have seen in decades. They are likely to continue to do great damage, and to distract us all from helping those who are in need and watching how international affairs affect us. We must speak against tyrants, demagogues and terrorists. We must change our gun laws. We must be ready to bring fascists down.
Articles, History, Politics & Current Affairs

Coretta Scott King’s Condemnation of Jeff Sessions

Coretta

Above is the beginning of the letter that civil rights leader (and widow of Martin Luther King Jr.) Coretta Scott King wrote to segregationist Senator Strom Thurmond about Jeff Sessions in 1986 when she was protesting his nomination for a position as a federal judge. On the cover page of her nine-page letter, Mrs. King wrote, ‘“Anyone who has used the power of his office as United States Attorney to intimidate and chill the free exercise of the ballot by citizens should not be elevated to our courts. Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters. For this reprehensible conduct, he should not be rewarded with a federal judgeship.”

Thurmond was supposed to make the letter a part of the Senate record, but he failed to do his duty in an attempt to the hide the filthy history of a fellow believer in white supremacy. Thurmond’s action hid the fact of the letter from the public for 30 years. It was recently rediscovered and shared by the Washington Post.

Tonight Senator Elizabeth Warren was reading it aloud on the floor of the U.S. Senate when Republican Senator Mitch McConnell shut her down, saying she was breaking Senate rules against impugning the name of a fellow member of the Senate by sharing historical facts about his long history of racism, facts necessary to properly assess his worthiness for one of the most powerful posts in the nation.

Jeff Sessions has spoken on behalf of segregationists and white supremacists. He has gone out of his way to stand by bigots and against racial equality in his public as well as his private life. Now Donald Trump wants him to be our Attorney General.

Stand up to them, America.