His 15 minutes are over, but he apparently does not realize it. He’s written an open letter to the parents of the victims of the mass shooting in California. I do not think that he has done himself any favors.
It starts…
I’m not talking here about the three tragic murders Rodger committed by stabbing before his driving and shooting spree; I speak now only to the families of the gunshot victims in Santa Barbara:
It’s a tragedy.
I am sorry you lost your child. I myself have a son and daughter and the one thing I never want to go through, is what you are going through now. But:
As harsh as this sounds – your dead kids don’t trump my Constitutional rights
Joe’s open letter goes on to note that, “[t]he mainstream media have stopped the practice of immediately reporting the psycho maniac is a conservative Tea Party Republican Christian.”
He surmises that the answer is that the media are, “… sick of having to hide being wrong every time when it comes out the whacko votes Democrat.”
And he equates “sad and insane individual[s] with “Obama Voter[s].”
Disgusting.
Hey, Joe, tell ya what…. stick that plunger in your mouth, rubber end first.
300 schoolgirls. 300 schoolgirls. 300 schoolgirls…stolen from their classrooms, kidnapped by men. 300 schoolgirls kidnapped by men who have publicly announced their intention to sell them as slaves. To sell them into slavery. To sell them to men who would rape them and terrorize them into drudgery. No more school.
This morning I kissed my daughters as they went off to school. I didn’t remember the 300 schoolgirls waiting to be sold. I didn’t remember them until I read a headline on a left-wing blog and I think I know why. And it’s the ugliest of reasons. It’s a reason I only impute to others in the most severe situations. It’s the reason that people were stolen from Africa and sold into slavery for centuries. It’s the reason that stands behind slavery, murder, torture, humiliation, lynching. It’s the reason that 6 million members of my own community were exterminated. Racism.
There are only 4our girls in my eldest daughter’s class. She attends a private Jewish elementary school, so the classes are small. And I can’t help thinking that if armed zealots were to somehow seize them and announce their intention to sell them into serial rape and drudgery that people around the country, and in other arts of the world, would be keeping hourly watch for news about negotiations, the media would be debating rescue options, and we would tally the days of their captivity. Everyone would know the number. We would all feel our daily consciousness was is some sense also held hostage. For four schoolgirls. Four American schoolgirls. Four Jewish schoolgirls. Four white schoolgirls. The same would be true if it were four Israeli schoolgirls. The same would be true if it were four Palestinian schoolgirls. The same would be true if it were four British or French or Russian or South American schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist zealots for the auction block.
But I don’t know how many days it has been since these three hundred schoolgirls have slept in their homes. Do you?
The simple truth of the matter is that if America actually cared about its veterans, cared enough to do more than slap a yellow ribbon magnet on the back of their SUVs and feign outrage on command, well, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, would we?
This kind of bureaucratic flimflam when it comes to taking care of veterans? It’s been going on for years, for decades, from one war to the next and all the timeless space in between. And it’s not confined to the Veterans Administration.
It’s been happening in Phoenix and San Diego and New York City and New Orleans and Biloxi and Anchorage and Washington D.C. and from sea to shining sea.
This latest thing? The appalling revelation that the Phoenix VA was cooking the books in order to meet impossible deadlines and levels of throughput? That administrators were hiding unacceptable delays in service and care in order to get themselves monetary bonuses and to pad their resumes? The fact that veterans died waiting for the care they faithfully earned and rightfully deserve? Yeah. That’s not outrage you see on our faces, and it sure isn’t surprise, it’s amused resignation.
We’re used to it.
We’re used to being disposable assets.
We’re used to being left to die by bureaucrats and politicians and the American public.
We’re used to being forgotten when the nation doesn’t need us anymore.
Oh, please, don’t bother. I’m not looking for sympathy or any more feigned outrage, I’ve had plenty.
There’s more …
Now after more than a decade of war, after many decades of endless lines and endless bean-counters and endless delays and endless waits and endless lost records and the endlessly misplaced paperwork and the endless institutionalized incompetence and the endless excuses and the endless unending VA shuffle, now you’re upset?
After five years of an intransigent, deadlocked, do-nothing Congress who’d rather chase hysterical manufactured conspiracies and beat their fleshy chests in faux-patriotic fever, who’ll enthusiastically fork over hundreds of billions for fancy new jets and ships and tanks so long as that hardware is manufactured in their own districts, who drive past homeless needy vets every single day, and gleefully refuse to pass a veterans jobs bill or to fully fund veterans services in their own districts or any other, after five years of this capering self-serving congressional bullshit, now you’re pissed off?
Now you want blood?
Now you want an accounting?
Now?
By all means, go ahead, America, knock yourself out. That’s great, it really is.
Forgive me though if I don’t hold my breath.
Here’s the thing: speaking from personal experience, the truly ironic part here is that the VA of today, the VA under Eric Shinseki and Barack Obama, is orders of magnitude better than it has ever been.
Ever. Under any administration.
Over the last five years, things have steadily improved. They’re a long way from perfect but they’re a long long way from what they were when this war began thirteen years ago. Most of the peeling paint and the mildew and the banal uninterested bureaucracy is gone, not all but most of it.
Congressional “action”?
the House and Senate will puff up like big warty toads, they’ll bloviate and pontificate and croak out self-righteous indignation. Ribbit, ribbit. They’ll wax fat and fecund and shed salty crocodile tears for our poor poor American heroes. They’ll pound their mighty chests and wave the flag and rage on about patriotism – and then they’ll go back to their offices, bad mouth Lieutenant Colonel Tammy Duckworth under their collective breath, and vote yet again to cut funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans’ healthcare and mental health programs, veterans’ jobs programs, and homeless veteran initiatives right along with active duty military pay and benefits. The war is over and they don’t need us anymore.
And once they manage to kick Eric Shinseki out of office, they’ll spend months dragging their feet and blocking the President’s nominee for a new secretary in order to score a few political points with their base. Then they’ll grin at each other and cash the lobbyists’ checks and act like they’ve actually done something to improve things.
This might be the Congress that the American people deserve because of their failure to vote in every single election. But it is NOT the Congress our veterans deserve.
Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.
The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.
For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.
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Good morning Motley Meese! Hope your weekend has been lovely so far.
PLEASE Don’t Recommend the check-in diary!
Fierces on the weather jar comment are still welcome.
The check-in is an open thread and general social hour.
It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:
Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.
The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.
On weekends (and holidays), you may find the check-in thread earlier or later than normal because … it is the weekend! Moosies need their beauty rest:
For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.
The important stuff to get you started:
– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.
– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)
– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce … or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).
– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”
– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”
(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)
A look at a song from a Broadway musical that dealt with racial issues before the civil rights era, after the jump ……
Being away for several days, I had little time to think of a subject for this week.
NPR came to the rescue: with its Race Card project, seeking input from listeners in six words. And it just so happens that a famous song from sixty-five years ago touched on racism: ten years after Strange Fruit – albeit not as explosive – yet which still caused a reaction from the Usual Suspects (perhaps as intended) years before the civil rights movement came into being.
I had heard the song before, but it was this radio essay that made me listen to it again … for the first time.
Besides his classical and opera records: among the albums my father had (yet never listened to after he became a parent, and thus kept in the basement) were ones by Xavier Cugat and other easy listening albums … always with some pretty woman on the cover (who often had nothing to do with the performers). As I grew up listening to rock, jazz and blues (and still do) I, of course, didn’t want anything to do with my father’s records. Whoever created the “Not your father’s _ _ _ _” theme had it right, as far as I was concerned.
But one album he had that I wish I had listened to was the soundtrack album to the Broadway hit South Pacific – and in particular, the song You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught – which were the six words many NPR listeners cited. Others have blogged about this song before, delving more into the racial matters that the song addresses. As is my wont: I’d like to focus on the back-story of the tune … trying to give a flavor of the times.
Its origin is the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by James Michener entitled Tales of the South Pacific – which was optioned for a Broadway musical by the legendary Richard Rodgers – Oscar Hammerstein duo – that opened in 1949. It went on to win several Tony Awards, and was made into a Hollywood film in 1958 (whose cast included future TV star Ray Walston).
Earlier that decade, Rodgers & Hammerstein had huge hits with Oklahoma! (1943) and Carousel (1945) – which covered more conventional topics for musicals. But this production delved into a more delicate topic as James Michener discussed racial differences in his novel – yet did not make it the central theme as the play did (but of which Michener approved).
Nine years after its premiere, Oscar Hammerstein told Mike Wallace in a TV interview:
“South Pacific had two love stories in it. They both concern, in a different way, race prejudice. What we were saying was that … all this prejudice that we have is something that fades away in the face of something that’s really important.”
The two characters involved with interracial relationships are a Navy nurse (named Nellie Forbush) and a young Marine (named Lt. Joe Cable). Nellie Forbush falls in love with a Frenchman but is repulsed when she learns that he was once married to a Polynesian woman and had two mixed-race children. Joe Cable falls in love with a Tonkinese woman on the island (although their differences preclude a happy ending). And it is the character of Joe Cable who sings Carefully Taught … after first saying that racism is not innate (the song will appear at the end of this writing).
The context for the play’s theme are the late 40’s, in the post-war Red Scare. First, one of those who wrote to NPR noted how her family was supposed to ‘hate the Japs’, despite loving the song in question.
Then add the post-war Red Scare: the Alger Hiss trial, the Soviet Union acquiring the atom bomb, the Who Lost China? question being beaten over people’s heads and the work not only of Senator Joe McCarthy but the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) led by Rep. Martin Dies … all of which left liberals reeling somewhat.
One essayist noted that a way for liberals to declare themselves anti-Communist (yet not abandon their principles) was to assert that Communism could not take hold in a country with both economic prosperity and racial equality – meaning both were worth fighting for. And this especially true of American Jews, who often dabbled in left-wing politics and were singled-out by Rep. Dies (photo left, below) and his successor, Rep. John Rankin (photo right, below).
This is where lyricist Oscar Hammerstein was coming from. One historian noted that Hammerstein had ‘tucked liberal messages’ into his previous works.
As noted, the development of South Pacific into a play had a quality production crew, and enough quality musical material to ensure at least a successful run on Broadway (if not foreseeing the major hit it would become). But in tryouts, Rodgers & Hammerstein were advised constantly to drop Carefully Taught, lest it ruin a play that could stand on its own – and cause problems if the show ever wanted to leave Manhattan to go out into Middle America on tour.
But they stuck to their principles, with the money quote coming from James Michener himself:
“The authors replied stubbornly that this number represented why they had wanted to do this play and that even if it meant the failure of the production: it was going to stay in.”
And while South Pacific dealt with issues of Anglo-Asian racial matters, it did not fail to escape the notice of US racial bigots. When it went on tour in Georgia, for example, legislators introduced a bill outlawing any entertainment they claimed was ‘inspired by Moscow’. One legislator said that songs justifying interracial marriage was a threat to the American way of life and another – Rep. David C. Jones – wrote in a letter, “We in the South are a proud and progressive people. Half-breeds cannot be proud.”
I am surprised by the idea that anything kind and humane … must necessarily originate in Moscow.
Today, South Pacific is popular wherever musical theater is performed – a recent London production (photo left) and a 2001 made-for-TV version (photo right) can attest to its longevity.
Let’s close with a more modern recording of the song … and at less-than-a-minute this clip won’t take long to listen to. If all you know of the actor Mandy Patinkin is The Princess Bride, then you are in for a treat below.
In this week’s address, President Obama commemorated Memorial Day by honoring the brave men and women in uniform who have given their lives in service to our country. As we stand with our veterans and military families this weekend, the President underscored our commitment to uphold our nation’s sacred trust with our veterans and ensure they get the benefits and opportunities they deserve and have earned.
Hi, everybody. It’s Memorial Day weekend – a chance for Americans to get together with family and friends, break out the grill, and kick off the unofficial start of summer. More importantly, it’s a time to remember the heroes whose sacrifices made these moments possible – our men and women in uniform who gave their lives to keep our nation safe and free.
From those shots fired at Lexington and Concord more than two centuries ago to our newest generation of veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our history shines with patriots who answered the call to serve. They put their lives on the line to defend the country they loved. And in the end, many gave that “last full measure of devotion” so that our nation would endure.
Every single one of us owes our fallen heroes a profound debt of gratitude. Because every time we cast our votes or speak our minds without fear, it’s because they fought for our right to do that. Every chance we get to make a better life for ourselves and our families is possible because generations of patriots fought to keep America a land of opportunity, where anyone – of any race, any religion, from any background – can make it if they try. Our country was born out of a desire to be free, and every day since, it’s been protected by our men and women in uniform – people who believed so deeply in America, they were willing to give their lives for it.
We owe them so much. So this Memorial Day, we’ll gather together, as Americans, to honor the fallen, with both public ceremonies and private remembrances. And I hope all Americans will take a moment this weekend to think of those who have died in service to our nation. Say a prayer in their memories and for their families. Lay a flower where they’ve come to rest. Reach out to service members, military families or veterans in your community, or families who have lost loved ones, and let them know that their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten.
Most of all, let’s keep working to make sure that our country upholds our sacred trust to all who’ve served. In recent weeks, we’ve seen again how much more our nation has to do to make sure all our veterans get the care they deserve. As Commander in Chief, I believe that taking care of our veterans and their families is a sacred obligation. It’s been one of the causes of my presidency. And now that we’ve ended the war in Iraq, and as our war in Afghanistan ends as well, we have to work even harder as a nation to make sure all our veterans get the benefits and opportunities they’ve earned. They’ve done their duty, and they ask nothing more than that this country does ours – now and for decades to come.
Happy Memorial Day, everybody. May God watch over our fallen heroes. And may He continue to bless the United States of America.
Fierces on the Weather Critter Comment are obligatory welcome.
The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.
On weekends (and holidays), you may find the check-in thread earlier or later than normal because … it is the weekend! Moosies need their beauty rest:
For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.
The important stuff to get you started:
– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.
– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)
– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).
– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”
– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”
(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)
Recs on the weather jar comment are still welcome.
Friday Coffee Hour and check-in is an open thread and general social hour.
It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:
