Words to Live By.

Tradition is a set of solutions for which we have forgotten the problems. Throw away the solution and you get the problem back. 

Sometimes the problem has mutated or disappeared. 

Often it is still there, as strong as it ever was.

--Donald Kingsbury

An unpleasant, necessary read.

Douglas A. Blackmon's Slavery by Another Name chronicles the use of vagrancy and related laws against African-Americans in the Jim Crow South to provide forced labor for every imaginable economic purpose, including industrial work.

I have not finished this book because it is harrowing. But I will, in part because it shows how social systems can warp the law to suit gruesome purposes. And also because history has to be honestly-told, and in full context.

And when I do finish, I'll have an in-depth review.

A brief against a secular canonization.

Colin Kaepernick was blackballed from the NFL in part because of his protests against police brutality--that is true.

But let's remember that he didn't just take a knee during the national anthem.

He is also a committed leftist who has gone far beyond protesting police brutality:

Praising honest-to-God gulag-running communists;

In a proof-texting fail, deriding the entire nation on the 4th of July;*

Prompting the cancellation of Nike sneakers with the American flag (like the NBA, he has nothing to say about Chinese gulags);**

Silently endorsing the accusation that another NFL player is an "Uncle Tom;" and

Comparing himself to a mutilated slave from "Roots."

He is an American who can protest as he likes. And his Nike contract gives him considerable resources, influence and a bright spotlight. Likewise, other Americans are free to notice and remark that his complaint has significantly evolved past police brutality, and is aimed at the legitimacy of the nation itself.

*Note: Frederick Douglass is one of the most impressive men our nation has ever produced. The son of his owner (repeat that until it gets through your head), he taught himself to read. His account of his life as a slave is rub-your-nose-in-it tough, and his words have the ring of Isaiah or Jeremiah thundering against the sins of a hypocritical people who knew better. His harsh indictment of the loudly-Christian slave owners who mistreated their chattel compared to the relative decency of the agnostic who never raised his voice to Douglass provoked a storm, but it was entirely fair.

Yes, the 4th of July speech was and still is lacerating, as is much of his impressive body of work. It stung when I first heard it at the Museum of African-American History in Detroit. Frankly, this is as it should be.

But when one reads Douglass, his unmistakable love of the country despite its gruesome failures is ever-present. And it is impossible to miss that love and his unshakeable belief that America could be better. Only someone ignorant or a shameless proof-texter would use Douglass in any other way.

** Note: I don't buy overpriced sweatshop shoes anyway. But when the Chinese Reich's emblem is ok with Nike and CK, I can only roll my eyes.

Here--have some peonies.

The one constant between the two historical residences of the Metro Detroit Price family is a yearly crop of peonies.

We planted neither set--the previous owners did.

But their trumpet blast arrival every May-June is a natural rite I have come to look forward to. These are a little past peak, but I am still happy to see them.

The white peonies have yet to bloom, but they look good for this week.

Nature cares nothing for the travails or strife of men.

But there is One who does:

If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O men of little faith!

Excerpt from "The Spirit of Liberty" by Judge Learned Hand.

Often described as the greatest American jurist who did not sit on the Supreme Court, federal judge Learned Hand gave this speech in 1944. It was meant to provoke thought, and it does. 

It leaves me quite uneasy:

What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws, and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lives there, it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it. 

And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few - as we have learned to our sorrow. 

What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interest alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten -that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side-by-side with the greatest.

The full speech can be read here.

Whenever the second wave hits, no one will tolerate another lockdown.

Outdoor funeral processions bad, larger outdoor protests good.

Journalist Stephen L. Miller tweeted: “Bill [de Blasio], will you be personally breaking up the large protest gatherings in NYC or is your outrage for such gatherings reserved for Jewish funerals? Just flipping through the rule book here.”

. . .

Bennett told Haaretz that while he “unequivocally condemn[ed] the killing of George Floyd” and supports peaceful protest against racism, he had every right to demand his “constitutional rights to pray and worship – and those rights have been arbitrarily restricted in the guise of public health,” he said.

"If thousands can protest shoulder to shoulder with the encouragement of the mayor, why can’t children sit and learn in yeshiva or pray in shul?” he asked. “Is there a pandemic or isn’t there one?”

And here's the double-standard at its most blatant: Jewish families are evicted from a New York playground while a larger crowd of protesters is left alone.

The devil's advocate would say the families weren't exercising their constitutional rights. The rebuttal is that the Floyd protests are the first time New York's leadership have even acknowledged that such can be exercised in groups larger than 10. And more importantly, the plague doesn't care if you are playing or protesting.

Or so we have been repeatedly told.

Crusade in Europe.

The post title is the name Dwight D. Eisenhower gave to his wartime memoirs.

And tomorrow will be the anniversary of the bold gamble the Western Allies made to begin the liberation of Europe.

The American army of June 6, like the nation that sent it forth, was an imperfect force. It was green, in many respects equipped with inferior materiel and it came as a liberating force from a nation that practiced segregation and ran internment camps.

There are those who see America as nothing other than a racist imperial monstrosity from the moment Europeans set foot in North America. They are influential, and feted with endowed chairs and prestigious literary prizes. If they get their way, the last clause of the fourth sentence in this post will be all that is remembered of the brave men who fought and died under the Stars and Stripes that day. 

That should not be the case. No, the sins of the past can't be glossed over with rah-rah apologetics. To do so is a lie. 

On the other hand, from a perusal of the hate-blasts from the elites a puzzled reader would be confused as to why Nazi Germany warred with America instead of the two being stalwart companions in hatred. 

Someone steeped in real history would see why that is ludicrous. Someone indoctrinated will take it as a matter of course.

The American soldier of 1941-1945 was a man from a flawed society. But that society was one that always held the promise for reform and renewal, even if said promise has guttered close to extinction at times.

But segregated America learned from the War, and within a generation set itself firmly on the path to recognize all men as created equal. An irredeemable society would have done no such thing.

God Himself only knows how many undiagnosed cases there are in Detroit.

For those who don't know, Highland Park is a poor enclave surrounded by Detroit. In its glory days, it was the headquarters of Chrysler and a wealthy place, indeed.

Those glory days are generations past, and Highland Park is struggling to pay for basic services now.

Mayor Duggan said that 27 percent of Detroiters who qualified for testing in early May tested positive.

Testing is still by no means available by demand, so there are likely thousands of people who had/have the disease in the City.

But several weeks after warning about the dangers of protests as spreader events, the Governor just marched in a location that is ill-equipped to handle an outbreak.

So much for that whole social distancing thing, I guess.

Yes, there are masks. But everybody? And with crowds? And the giving of speeches, and cheering responses...?

We will see how much sunlight and heat tamp down on the spread. But there is some unnerving data coming out of the Minnesota National Guard relating to the protests there.

I have a friend who lost both of his inlaws to coronavirus thanks to Cuomo's nursing home orders in New York.

So I suppose I should consider myself fortunate that my mother-in-law is still with us in Michigan.

But the outsized praise for Governor Whitmer needs to be doused with ice cold water.

That frigid blast? Her executive order turning nursing homes into overflow centers for Covid patients:

The [Michigan] Senate COVID-19 oversight committee had many questions for the Health and Human Services Department about Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Emergency Order.

The order creates what they’re calling “regional hubs” and expires on Wednesday. Many members of the senate oversight committee are calling for the governor to change the policy -- calling it an extraordinarily bad policy.

The Department of Health and Human Services gave Local 4 more insight into its regional hub system. There are now 21 of them. The state is paying these homes $5,000 per COVID-19 positive case they take.

We also learned that there are some nursing homes taking these patients that do not have the same strict separation policies that regional hubs are required to have. Only about half of the state’s nursing homes have been inspected since the policy went into effect last month.

HHS Director Robert Gordon originally intended to use the TCF Center instead of the regional hubs -- but then opted out. Detroit State Rep. Leslie Love is stunned that didn’t happen.

“They said the population that would be most affected was our seniors so to not outfit those facilities to handle the very population they said would need it seems ridiculous to me,” she said."

So we send patients to the most vulnerable possible population clusters and don't even bother to check to see if the homes are equipped to take them in.

Involuntary manslaughter is the nicest thing you can call it.

My mother in law's home has been closed to visitors since the second week of March. But coronavirus patients are still rolling in. We'd like to see her before dementia takes away her last memories of us. The longer her home keeps taking in patients, the less good our odds are.

You probably already knew this, but...

...social media is the Dumpster Fire of the Gods.

I am coming to the conclusion that the cacophony at Facebook and Twitter are bad for the heart and soul. At best, you'll get information overload. And we really aren't built, intellectually or spiritually, to sort and assimilate reams of information in digital format.

I bowed out a couple days before my somethingth birthday, and I have to say I don't miss it much. I like being in contact with friends and family. 

Being in contact with dozens of newly-minted pundits, epidemiologists and legal experts....not so much.

The last time I last touched base with this blog, long before this dumpster fire of a year, 
 

I had a good family life and career. And those have remained the same, natural potholes along the way notwithstanding. Hobbies have remained the same, with two exceptions.

First, the pandemic has put the kibosh on theatre. Particularly heartbreaking for my children, who miss seeing their friends in person. But also a disappointment for me, as my evolution as a community theatre performer saw me play Polonius in "Hamlet" (for realz, as the yutes say) last fall and get a nice role as a Russian mobster in "Matilda The Musical" (based on Roald Dahl's classic book) this spring. The latter is on indefinite hold. Maybe this year? Large indoor gatherings are not happy places for this scourge, as we have learned.

Secondly, I have taken to a cheap new hobby involving the collection, assembly and painting of Tiny Plastic Spacemen. It's part of a game called "Warhammer 40,000", and it is easily thought of as a toy soldier warfare game for nerds set in a dystopian future. Some nerds are more equal than others, but I'm no Superman.  And when I say it's a "cheap new hobby," I'm lying out my arse, as the English creators and suppliers of the game might say.

Holy smokes, it's not. But it has been a fun outlet for myself and my youngest three--yes, even 10 year old Elizabeth is proud of her Ultramarines Primaris Reivers. If you aren't interested in the outlay for the game, the company has a publishing arm called "Black Library" where you can immerse yourself in the "lore" of the game. Some authors are better than others, but I am happy to give you tips if you are interested.

And there are worse ways to spend a pandemic/riot summer and increasingly-discordant and feverish election year.

Hope you and yours have been and remain well and safe during these historic times.

Say, if you're looking for a traffic timekiller...

Professor Garrett Fagan's History of Ancient Rome is an excellent drive-time companion.

Now, understand I got mine for free from a friend--but The Teaching Company frequently has sales, so keep an eye out.

And listen closely to the Roman era from the Gracchi Brothers to the Age of Augustus. Some uncomfortable resonances for Yanks, sorry to say.

Tragically, Professor Fagan passed away from pancreatic cancer in 2017. But his knowledge and evident gifts as a teacher live on in these lectures.

Any recommendations on the Roman era are welcome in the comments.