Morality is not determined by the church you attend nor the faith you embrace. It is determined by the quality of your character and the positive impact you have on those you meet along your journey
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
America of 1951 versus the America of 2011. Everything old is new again.
On the one hand, when I am reminded of these dark times in our past, I feel optimistic that we can survive yet another one. But on the other hand, I worry that one of these dark spells will break our democracy. If that is going to happen, I'd rather be already dead so at least I don't have to see it.
I watched a PBS show on President Carter a couple weeks ago and what struck me most was how much things stay the same... economic concerns, high gas prices, unemployment, unrest. In a way it was disheartening, in another, encouraging. The fact that our country endures and has people willing to work to rise above these hardships can provide essential hope.
I remember those dark, cruel days against African Americans. I remember the cross-burnings in my hometown in Pennsylvania! Don't think it was just in the south, there were a lot of stupid people in the north too! African Americans stood tall and strong and won! We need to take a lesson in history and follow in the footsteps of peaceful protesters. I've been so proud of the citizens in Wisconsin!
I applaud the U.S. for giving folks the freedom to spew hatred & bigotry against their fellow citizens. It makes for such welcoming & loving environment in which to live; and being able to carry a loaded weapon while exercising that right, well that's just icing on the cake, don't ya think?
And Peter King is the new McCarthy. The USA is only exceptional in the fact that it refuses to be anything like the modern world. People elsewhere just shake their heads in amazement at the gullibility of the American people.
I am hopeful, that while sometimes it feels like bigotry and hatred never change - that at least today there are fewer then back in 1951.
But voices of sanity and reason need to speak up LOUDER, they are definitely needed to counter the very loud group of uninformed hateful voices.
On a different topic - we need a Palin Iceberg Watch graph some where on the blog -- for example listing iceberg 1; iceburg 2, etc. (I realize they can't be named but would be nice to know how many are floating out there) - with the second column giving a status for example: looming; ice cube, drifting closer, etc.
Just something for us to hang out hopes on that the "icebergs" have not all drifted away and melted down to the size of ice cubes.
It’s never easy to extricate yourself from a fling that got way too serious. But that’s exactly what many conservatives are trying to do after a few heady years of Sarah Palin infatuation. In the wake of Palin’s deeply unserious reality TV show and her embarrassing “blood libel” video, the bloom’s worn off the rose, rather definitively. In fact, those incidents may have provided just the convenient excuses the GOP establishment was looking for.
Now, with the 2012 election looming, Palin’s former backers are fleeing left and right. The following is a closer look at the Republican bigwigs who have fallen out of love with her: Some are former cheerleaders who’ve done a 180-degree turn, some are critics who once held their tongues but are now emboldened to oppose her, and—perhaps worst of all—many are her onetime biggest fans, who have taken to damning her with conspicuously faint praise.
I've thought for awhile now that the conduct of the teabaggers is eerily reminiscent of that of the pro-segregation white mobs of the 50's and early 60's.
Hell, we had shouts of the N-word at Palin rallies during the campaign and the same toward sitting African American members of Congress. The GOP race baiting has whipped the racists into a hyperbolic froth of fear and ignorance.
For Christ's sake, this is the 21st Century and these fucking morons act like it's the 17th Century. These teabagger bigots are simply moronic assholes with shit for brains. If we can't rid ourselves of this chronic plague of ignorance and hate, how can we expect to endure as a nation?
Good photo comparison. Obviously, the nuts didn't fall too far from the trees. And I'm sure the current crop is as Christian as the empty shells of their predecessors.
"Just something for us to hang out hopes on that the "icebergs" have not all drifted away and melted down to the size of ice cubes."
The icebergs hit long ago. Sarah created 2 guard dogs that reside at the sides of the gate to her presidency: one on the day she announced she was pregnant with Trig, the other on the day she resigned as governor. Anything else, Todd's infidelities, her inadequacies, etc. are just additional reinforcements. We do have G to thank for feeding one of those guard dogs. I do hope that good things will come his way as a result. Sarah's tailspin has begun.
Also, after reading that the press has been inaccurately covering some of Sarah's stories lately, I don't think that it is a good idea to keep boycotting Politico, etc. Too bad, I really liked not seeing her name in headlines. I was thinking that G may want to add his "tubal" post to the sidebar as I think it is a key component of babygate and one that should be easily retrievable for newcomers.
I was listening to a rightwing radio show the other day (while waiting for an interview with a mystery writer I like) and heard them crowing about the Tea Party and how wonderful it is that the government is afraid of the people. And I thought, Yeah, you think it's great that the government is afraid of white middle class activists. But if the government were afraid of poor people with brown or black skin or even union cards, they'd obviously be singing a different song. Hypocrites.
eskimos and indians can remember it too....anyone "different". happily us different ones are going to outnumber those who are so set in their hating ways. we may finally get to that happy place of tolerance for all yet!
Former editor of the editorial page of the Anchorage Daily News Matthew Zencey just signed a book deal for SARAH PALIN: The True Story of Her Time as Alaska's Governor.
What do you know of Zencey? Is this likely to be a true "true story" or another whitewash?
I am one of those people who read your blog multiple times per day. I think you truly have a gift. I am a born again Left wing liberal Christian. I think God gave u a special gift. Keep it going!!! I would love to see a book from you. It doesnt have to be about the grizzly one. I enjoy your posts about your daughter and just life. I would love to hear about your work in education. So keep going!!!
It is very frigtening to see what is going on in the United States today. My girlfriend and I have talked about leaving the U.S. and are trying to determine which country would be the better.
The middle class assuredly needs to rise up as they have in Wisconsin. The fat-white-old Republicans in Congress are jerks and liars...Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck and O'Reilly are all shitheads too!
If you go back to 1951, the McCarthy hearings were going on at the House Un-American Hearings. Anyone could be accused of being a Communist. If an inquisitive kid attended a political meeting in the 1930's, 20 years later, that association could get him fired. Under attack were many people who worked in the entertainment industry. Only recently was it acknowledged that Kirk Douglas (remember him from the Academy Awards?) was responsible for hiring one of those black listed writers who had been working under assumed names. McCarthy's hearings were like a witch hunt, with opposing counsel Welch saying, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
I remember when the first attempts at integration took place in Little Rock, Arkansas, later in the 1950's. People who looked as angry as the Teabaggers shouted at a handful of African American children who had been granted the right to attend the school. We have seen that same hate when Sarah Palin could incite a crowd to scream, "Kill him!" referring to Obama.
People have a short memory when it comes to discrimination. Anyone of Irish ancestry in those hate filled crowds forget that when their ancestors first arrived in the late 1800's because of a potato famine in Ireland, they were met the same hostility, "No Irish Need Apply." Each immigrant group was met with a similar hostility. What about Irish people in the U.S. who supported the IRA (a known terrorist group?)
To single out one religious group as a target for hatred is wrong, and it has been an unfortunate pattern throughout history. The US is not alone in doing this. France is refusing to let girls attend school with their heads covered. The world is troubled enough. Can't we all just get along? Give Peace a Chance.
Wonder how the Teabaggers would react if their SS and Medicare benefits were taken from them. "I want my country back" crowd are fucking idiots and I'm in that age group. Just continue to shake my head at them. Plus, so many are racist and haters of President Obama.
Set in 1964, the series "Mad Men" is full of little social commentaries about the way things used to be. At least two or three times an episode I would say "I can't believe we acted that way!"
Human rights and science will win, because they are rooted in moral and physical truth.
As for swwnbn, she is her own worst enemy. There is no need for "attack"; merely truthful observation, humorously expressed. It is all rather Zen; and Gryphen is doing a great job.
How exciting to hear a new book on the horizon by Matthew Zencey. I hope it is fact-based.
How nice if it has a chapter on Wayne Anthony Ross, the Emmonak crisis, and the official response to the possibility of Mt. Redoubt erupting again.
One of my favorite videos from that time is when SP gets back to Alaska and faces reporters asking about Ross. She is very unhappy, and slithers all over the place, dodging their questions.
Obviously the stupid gene is inheritable. It is passed from generation to generation. In addition to those pictures, one hillbilly family in Alaska is evidence of that truth.
I was born in 1951 - yes, I'm an old white woman! - and I think we're a much more open and developed society than we were back then.
I am almost glad to see these pictures from 2011 as I think it's better to get the meanness and bigotry out in the open, when it can be examined and scorned. It's not a pretty thing to go through, but I think we can do it and come out better on the other side.
(Oh, and for an old white woman, I'm very liberal. So there!!!)
One of my childhood memories is watching a major US city burn in one of the 1960s riots. We saw the smoke in the daytime and the bright reddish orange glow at night. Sometimes the wind blew the smoke to us and we could smell it.
Helicopters just like we saw on tv in Vietnam were flying over our heads as we watched. The helicopters sometimes woke us up as we tried to sleep at night. When the helicopters flew over in the daytime they flew low. Some were just like the ones used in Vietnam, with the big side door and a soldier with a big gun of some kind. We could see the soldiers and the guns as they flew over if it was daytime. We had to stay in the house after dark. It was martial law. Before the riot we would sometimes see helicopters flying, but they never had guns that you could see.
Some of the families in the nearby blocks had fathers and sons who were policemen and firemen. Others were in the National Guard and were called up to enforce the martial law and curfew that was declared.
The tanks and armored personnel carriers weren't in our neighborhood, but for a few years you could see what the tracks had done to the roads and sidewalks in lots of places. For many years you could see the burned out buildings, and later the empty land after the debris was cleaned up.
Indirectly related: Walker (WI) has pushed his bill through, minus the collective bargaining... it still guts environmental protection issues, power plant sales, local tax decisions and more balderdash/ b&llshi&t... let this be the beginning of the end for this decepticon. National shout-outs for recall efforts for the dick, himself, the recall efforts for the repub senators is water under the bridge now. Time to really let him have it, full- frontal style. *Please, Gryphen, get this back out in the mainstream of your blog*... it is time for a workers' party in this country to lambaste the two party system and make REAL change...
On the one hand, when I am reminded of these dark times in our past, I feel optimistic that we can survive yet another one. But on the other hand, I worry that one of these dark spells will break our democracy. If that is going to happen, I'd rather be already dead so at least I don't have to see it.
ReplyDeleteA picture is worth a thousand words.
ReplyDeleteSo true, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI watched a PBS show on President Carter a couple weeks ago and what struck me most was how much things stay the same... economic concerns, high gas prices, unemployment, unrest. In a way it was disheartening, in another, encouraging. The fact that our country endures and has people willing to work to rise above these hardships can provide essential hope.
ReplyDeleteI remember those dark, cruel days against African Americans. I remember the cross-burnings in my hometown in Pennsylvania! Don't think it was just in the south, there were a lot of stupid people in the north too! African Americans stood tall and strong and won! We need to take a lesson in history and follow in the footsteps of peaceful protesters. I've been so proud of the citizens in Wisconsin!
ReplyDeleteI applaud the U.S. for giving folks the freedom to spew hatred & bigotry against their fellow citizens. It makes for such welcoming & loving environment in which to live; and being able to carry a loaded weapon while exercising that right, well that's just icing on the cake, don't ya think?
ReplyDeleteAnd Peter King is the new McCarthy. The USA is only exceptional in the fact that it refuses to be anything like the modern world. People elsewhere just shake their heads in amazement at the gullibility of the American people.
ReplyDeleteFuckin' A bubba. We are STILL there! Disgusting reminder isn't it?
ReplyDeleteDitto to everyone's post.
ReplyDelete---
The power struggle, always and forever it seems. Mankind's history.
The dumb teabaggers dance to the tune of the Kochs et al propaganda machine, and jeapordize the freedoms of their children's future.
I am hopeful, that while sometimes it feels like bigotry and hatred never change - that at least today there are fewer then back in 1951.
ReplyDeleteBut voices of sanity and reason need to speak up LOUDER, they are definitely needed to counter the very loud group of uninformed hateful voices.
On a different topic - we need a Palin Iceberg Watch graph some where on the blog -- for example listing iceberg 1; iceburg 2, etc. (I realize they can't be named but would be nice to know how many are floating out there) - with the second column giving a status for example: looming; ice cube, drifting closer, etc.
Just something for us to hang out hopes on that the "icebergs" have not all drifted away and melted down to the size of ice cubes.
O/T but rather interesting...
ReplyDeleteWhy Conservatives Turned on Sarah Palin
The inside story.
It’s never easy to extricate yourself from a fling that got way too serious. But that’s exactly what many conservatives are trying to do after a few heady years of Sarah Palin infatuation. In the wake of Palin’s deeply unserious reality TV show and her embarrassing “blood libel” video, the bloom’s worn off the rose, rather definitively. In fact, those incidents may have provided just the convenient excuses the GOP establishment was looking for.
Now, with the 2012 election looming, Palin’s former backers are fleeing left and right. The following is a closer look at the Republican bigwigs who have fallen out of love with her: Some are former cheerleaders who’ve done a 180-degree turn, some are critics who once held their tongues but are now emboldened to oppose her, and—perhaps worst of all—many are her onetime biggest fans, who have taken to damning her with conspicuously faint praise.
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/84934/sarah-palin-conservatives-turned-against-kristol-pawlenty
I've thought for awhile now that the conduct of the teabaggers is eerily reminiscent of that of the pro-segregation white mobs of the 50's and early 60's.
ReplyDeleteHell, we had shouts of the N-word at Palin rallies during the campaign and the same toward sitting African American members of Congress. The GOP race baiting has whipped the racists into a hyperbolic froth of fear and ignorance.
For Christ's sake, this is the 21st Century and these fucking morons act like it's the 17th Century. These teabagger bigots are simply moronic assholes with shit for brains. If we can't rid ourselves of this chronic plague of ignorance and hate, how can we expect to endure as a nation?
Sometimes I'm not too proud of my country.
Good photo comparison. Obviously, the nuts didn't fall too far from the trees. And I'm sure the current crop is as Christian as the empty shells of their predecessors.
ReplyDelete"Just something for us to hang out hopes on that the "icebergs" have not all drifted away and melted down to the size of ice cubes."
ReplyDeleteThe icebergs hit long ago. Sarah created 2 guard dogs that reside at the sides of the gate to her presidency: one on the day she announced she was pregnant with Trig, the other on the day she resigned as governor. Anything else, Todd's infidelities, her inadequacies, etc. are just additional reinforcements. We do have G to thank for feeding one of those guard dogs. I do hope that good things will come his way as a result. Sarah's tailspin has begun.
Also, after reading that the press has been inaccurately covering some of Sarah's stories lately, I don't think that it is a good idea to keep boycotting Politico, etc. Too bad, I really liked not seeing her name in headlines. I was thinking that G may want to add his "tubal" post to the sidebar as I think it is a key component of babygate and one that should be easily retrievable for newcomers.
Why are there 9-11 comments on the signs from 1951? Is this photoshopped?
ReplyDeleteI was listening to a rightwing radio show the other day (while waiting for an interview with a mystery writer I like) and heard them crowing about the Tea Party and how wonderful it is that the government is afraid of the people. And I thought, Yeah, you think it's great that the government is afraid of white middle class activists. But if the government were afraid of poor people with brown or black skin or even union cards, they'd obviously be singing a different song. Hypocrites.
ReplyDeleteeskimos and indians can remember it too....anyone "different". happily us different ones are going to outnumber those who are so set in their hating ways. we may finally get to that happy place of tolerance for all yet!
ReplyDeleteSeen this, Gryphen?
ReplyDeleteFormer editor of the editorial page of the Anchorage Daily News Matthew Zencey just signed a book deal for SARAH PALIN: The True Story of Her Time as Alaska's Governor.
What do you know of Zencey? Is this likely to be a true "true story" or another whitewash?
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteWhy are there 9-11 comments on the signs from 1951? Is this photoshopped?
8:50 AM"
---
NOT PhotoShopped: top and bottom images are each than one photo side by side -- enlarge the images to see this more clearly.
There are actually four pictures in two panels (side by side). It's easier to see the line in the second.
ReplyDeletewould someone please poll the teabaggers and ask..
ReplyDeleteDo you think Muslims in the US should be held in internment camps?
Bet more than 50% would say yes.
Here's an article Zencey wrote at HP. He's been working on his book for awhile now.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-zencey/mysteries-of-the-universe_b_805916.html
Hey Gryphen,
ReplyDeleteI am one of those people who read your blog multiple times per day. I think you truly have a gift. I am a born again Left wing liberal Christian. I think God gave u a special gift. Keep it going!!! I would love to see a book from you. It doesnt have to be about the grizzly one. I enjoy your posts about your daughter and just life. I would love to hear about your work in education. So keep going!!!
It is very frigtening to see what is going on in the United States today. My girlfriend and I have talked about leaving the U.S. and are trying to determine which country would be the better.
ReplyDeleteThe middle class assuredly needs to rise up as they have in Wisconsin. The fat-white-old Republicans in Congress are jerks and liars...Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck and O'Reilly are all shitheads too!
If you go back to 1951, the McCarthy hearings were going on at the House Un-American Hearings. Anyone could be accused of being a Communist. If an inquisitive kid attended a political meeting in the 1930's, 20 years later, that association could get him fired. Under attack were many people who worked in the entertainment industry. Only recently was it acknowledged that Kirk Douglas (remember him from the Academy Awards?) was responsible for hiring one of those black listed writers who had been working under assumed names. McCarthy's hearings were like a witch hunt, with opposing counsel Welch saying, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
ReplyDeleteI remember when the first attempts at integration took place in Little Rock, Arkansas, later in the 1950's. People who looked as angry as the Teabaggers shouted at a handful of African American children who had been granted the right to attend the school. We have seen that same hate when Sarah Palin could incite a crowd to scream, "Kill him!" referring to Obama.
People have a short memory when it comes to discrimination. Anyone of Irish ancestry in those hate filled crowds forget that when their ancestors first arrived in the late 1800's because of a potato famine in Ireland, they were met the same hostility, "No Irish Need Apply." Each immigrant group was met with a similar hostility. What about Irish people in the U.S. who supported the IRA (a known terrorist group?)
To single out one religious group as a target for hatred is wrong, and it has been an unfortunate pattern throughout history. The US is not alone in doing this. France is refusing to let girls attend school with their heads covered. The world is troubled enough. Can't we all just get along? Give Peace a Chance.
Bingo.
ReplyDeleteWonder how the Teabaggers would react if their SS and Medicare benefits were taken from them. "I want my country back" crowd are fucking idiots and I'm in that age group. Just continue to shake my head at them. Plus, so many are racist and haters of President Obama.
ReplyDeleteTo 8:50 - look more closely. There are two photographs on the top tier.
ReplyDeletedoes anyone know what is happening with the Bailey book?
ReplyDeleteThe National Enquirer has a cover story about marriages in trouble. The sub photo of someone that looks like Todd has something about nude photos.
ReplyDeleteWell, we got past 1951 and we will get past 2011.
ReplyDeleteSet in 1964, the series "Mad Men" is full of little social commentaries about the way things used to be. At least two or three times an episode I would say "I can't believe we acted that way!"
Human rights and science will win, because they are rooted in moral and physical truth.
As for swwnbn, she is her own worst enemy. There is no need for "attack"; merely truthful observation, humorously expressed. It is all rather Zen; and Gryphen is doing a great job.
How exciting to hear a new book on the horizon by Matthew Zencey. I hope it is fact-based.
How nice if it has a chapter on Wayne Anthony Ross, the Emmonak crisis, and the official response to the possibility of Mt. Redoubt erupting again.
One of my favorite videos from that time is when SP gets back to Alaska and faces reporters asking about Ross. She is very unhappy, and slithers all over the place, dodging their questions.
Obviously the stupid gene is inheritable. It is passed from generation to generation. In addition to those pictures, one hillbilly family in Alaska is evidence of that truth.
ReplyDeleteScientists have yet to find a cure for stupidity.
I was born in 1951 - yes, I'm an old white woman! - and I think we're a much more open and developed society than we were back then.
ReplyDeleteI am almost glad to see these pictures from 2011 as I think it's better to get the meanness and bigotry out in the open, when it can be examined and scorned. It's not a pretty thing to go through, but I think we can do it and come out better on the other side.
(Oh, and for an old white woman, I'm very liberal. So there!!!)
One of my childhood memories is watching a major US city burn in one of the 1960s riots. We saw the smoke in the daytime and the bright reddish orange glow at night. Sometimes the wind blew the smoke to us and we could smell it.
ReplyDeleteHelicopters just like we saw on tv in Vietnam were flying over our heads as we watched. The helicopters sometimes woke us up as we tried to sleep at night. When the helicopters flew over in the daytime they flew low. Some were just like the ones used in Vietnam, with the big side door and a soldier with a big gun of some kind. We could see the soldiers and the guns as they flew over if it was daytime. We had to stay in the house after dark. It was martial law. Before the riot we would sometimes see helicopters flying, but they never had guns that you could see.
Some of the families in the nearby blocks had fathers and sons who were policemen and firemen. Others were in the National Guard and were called up to enforce the martial law and curfew that was declared.
The tanks and armored personnel carriers weren't in our neighborhood, but for a few years you could see what the tracks had done to the roads and sidewalks in lots of places. For many years you could see the burned out buildings, and later the empty land after the debris was cleaned up.
Indirectly related: Walker (WI) has pushed his bill through, minus the collective bargaining... it still guts environmental protection issues, power plant sales, local tax decisions and more balderdash/ b&llshi&t... let this be the beginning of the end for this decepticon. National shout-outs for recall efforts for the dick, himself, the recall efforts for the repub senators is water under the bridge now. Time to really let him have it, full- frontal style. *Please, Gryphen, get this back out in the mainstream of your blog*... it is time for a workers' party in this country to lambaste the two party system and make REAL change...
ReplyDeleteMeg W