Ernest Hemingway: I Drink To Make Other People Interesting

Ernest Hemingway, one of the 20th century's most significant American novelists and short story writers, was born on this day in 1899. Most of us likely met Hemingway through his Nobel Prize winning 1952 novel, The Old Man and the Sea. It was required reading for me in high school and I trust that it remains a rite of passage for graduation these days.

Hemingway, his wife, Pauline, and their sons in Bimini in 1953

Over a fourteen year period he published four blockbuster novels: The Sun Also Rises (1926), A Farewell to Arms (1929),  To Have And Have Not (1937), and For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). His body of work includes additional novels, non-fiction, letters, collections of short stories and poems, and one anthology. A private person by nature, his lifestyle and literary themes coupled with fame made him a larger than life and very public personality. In a 2010 paper, Professor Timo Muller (University of Augsburg), writing in the Journal of Modern Literature, noted that Hemingway "has the highest recognition value of all writers world-wide." That value is reflected equally in this quotation taken from the Hemingway entry at Wikipedia:

The extent of Hemingway's influence is seen in the tributes and echoes of his fiction in popular culture. A minor planet, discovered in 1978 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Chernykh, was named for him (3656 Hemingway); Ray Bradbury wrote The Kilimanjaro Device, with Hemingway transported to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro; the 1993 motion picture Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, about the friendship of two retired men, Irish and Cuban, in a seaside town in Florida, starred Robert Duvall, Richard Harris, Shirley MacLaine, Sandra Bullock, and Piper Laurie. The influence is evident with the many restaurants named "Hemingway"; and the proliferation of bars called "Harry's" (a nod to the bar in Across the River and Into the Trees). A line of Hemingway furniture, promoted by Hemingway's son Jack (Bumby), has pieces such as the "Kilimanjaro" bedside table, and a "Catherine" slip-covered sofa. Montblanc offers a Hemingway fountain pen, and a line of Hemingway safari clothes has been created. The International Imitation Hemingway Competition was created in 1977 to publicly acknowledge his influence and the comically misplaced efforts of lesser authors to imitate his style. Entrants are encouraged to submit one "really good page of really bad Hemingway" and winners are flown to Italy to Harry's Bar.

I've read bits and pieces of Hemingway over the years but nothing cover to cove except for The Old Man and the Sea. Essentially he is a victim of my limited interest in non-fiction; however, the legacy has prompted our family to visit the Earnest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Florida. He and his family lived there from 1931 to 1939. There is something for everyone there including a furnished house, colorful gardens,  a fine bookstore, and a clowder of polydactyl - extra-toed - cats descended from a white cat Hemingway received as a gift from a local ship captain. It's a good opportunity to glimpse a private life from another time and a literary legacy that will be with us for a very long time. Enjoy the cats!

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
John F. Kennedy Library

Text:
Title quote, goodreads.com

Quote and content, New York Times, July, 3, 1961
Hemingway entry, wikipedia.com

A Walk On The Moon

On this night fifty-one years ago, the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle landed on the moon. Millions watched at 10:56 PM, EDT, as Neil Armstrong, the commander of the Apollo 11 mission, descended the Eagle's ladder. He made what he called a "giant leap for mankind" with his final step onto the powdery lunar surface. Learn more about the Apollo 11 mission here on Wikipedia where you can find scores of links to more National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) reports and multimedia.

Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the module pilot, spent almost 22 hours on the moon including their 150 minute walk where they erected an American flag, collected soil and rock samples, and deployed experiments. On their return to Earth much of the material they collected was eventually archived and displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Some rocks entered our culture in some fascinating ways, including this one at the Washington National Cathedral, where one was embedded at the center of a red planet in what has become known as the Space Window.

As we look forward to returning to the moon and even launching astronauts to Mars,time is catching up with those first exploring our nearest celestial neighbor. Neil Armstrong passed away in 2012 at the age of 82. Buzz Aldrin turned 90 in January. Regardless of what the future holds, those early years including the mission we commemorate today, were an exciting and almost magical time for science, exploration, and discovery of the frontier "out there." May the Space Force be with you!

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:

nasa.gov, Space Window, full photo

Text:
wikipedia.com

Tactics For Our Time

With 100 or so days remaining until the November election, I thought it would be the perfect time to give readers a booster shot of the political tactics we're likely to encounter from our politicians and their organizations.  They won't be new to readers here because they've become the subject of an OTR post in presidential election years.  Many of the tactics have been a feature of American elections for well over a century. It took the mind of Saul Alinsky, long recognized as the founding father of community organizing, to best articulated them in his 1971 book, Rules for Radicals. Alinsky was a Chicago native trained at the University of Chicago and a veteran organizer and political activist in the city's neighborhoods.

My copy 

Democrats, especially those from the party's left wing, were well aware of the value of the tactics described herein and used them effectively during their convention in Chicago in 1968. They used them successfully against a naive Republican Party until late in the last century. By then American politics had become a vicious game of win or lose instead of compromise. Eventually GOP campaign strategists recognized political reality required them to fight fire with fire. That said here are the twelve rules or tactics we'll see at work every day until the election and beyond. My condensation of supporting information from the book is in brackets.

1. Power is not only what you have, it's what the enemy thinks you have. [Power is derived from two main sources - money and people.]

2. Never go outside the expertise of your people. [It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.]

3. Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. [Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.]

4. Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. [You can kill them with this because nobody can possibly obey all of their own rules.]

5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. [There is no defense. It's irrational. It's infuriating.]

6. A good tactic is one your people enjoy.

7. A tactic that drags on too long become a drag. [Don't become old news. Even radical activists get bored.]

8. Keep the pressure on. Never let up. [Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, recover, regroup or re-strategize.]

9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself. [Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.]

10. If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. [Violence from the other side can become a positive because the public sympathizes with the underdog.]

11. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative. [Never let the enemy score points because you're caught without a solution to the problem. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.]

12. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. [Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people, not institutions, people hurt faster than institutions.]

Look carefully at these words. Any way to look at them, there is rough play, play for keeps.  We've read and heard them daily and watched their consequences unfold on our national stage especially since 2016. Time and experience have taught me well and today I see it as an unsettling and potentially dangerous book now that it has become mainstream. I trust readers will benefit from this information as we face what may well be the most significant national election in our time.

In closing, some readers may be curious how I came to own a first edition of Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals [1971].  First, the political events of the 1960's were not good to me. After President Kennedy's murder in 1963 , Barry Goldwater's loss to Lyndon Johnson in the presidential election of 1964, and the physical and mental slaughter in Vietnam, I became a leftist radical by 1971.  That's when I encountered Rules for Radicals.  It's been read many, many times, it's a bit yellow here and there, and the dust jacket has a few small tears and scuffs; otherwise, it's in excellent condition.  As a husband, father, and student of the American experience I've moved right of center in politics and economics but maintain a fiercely liberal position on most social issues. In other words it's hard to define me politically. On the other hand, many of you will be happy to know I never once liked Richard Nixon. Even when I was six years old.

Chasing The Ghost Of The Shimmering Summer Dawn

If you look into the northeastern sky before sunrise tomorrow morning you'll see an object, a comet with a tail suspended like a necklace and gem against a steel blue curtain. This month you can also observe the comet in the west after sunset. A double treat. Named Neowise by the astronomers who discovered it in March, the comet is a two-mile wide piece of rock that last visited Earth over 6000 years ago or about 1500 years before the dawn of recorded history. That means our celestial friend will return again in the 88th century.

On an more optimistic note we don't have to wait more than one day for another beautiful astronomical event. This one happens every year at sunrise in July. Back in the '70's and '80's I watched this event unfold many times from my porch overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Seems only yesterday. First, Bellatrix, a blue giant star rises to be followed soon by the red giant, Betelgeuse, and the blue giants, Mintaka, and Rigel. We see a signature belt of three stars and a faint sword and know that Orion ascends. Not far behind is shimmering Sirius, a binary star also known as the Dog Star. It is the brightest star in the sky but soon it and all the others will dissolve in the blinding light and heat of another summer sunrise.

Sirius, the Dog Star

When Neowise last graced our skies all eyes in the Nile River valley and those of other ancients peoples in the region turned to the summer dawn anticipating the appearance of Orion and Sirius. They signaled the coming of the floods, of water for life and eventually civilization. We have come a long way in time since scribes first recorded Sirius's arrival in the damp mud along the banks of the Nile. But we still experience the star and the season it announces.

While some people dread them I look forward to the coming of the "dog days." The heat makes me thrive and my arthritis becomes a memory. Atlanta's climate data tells us that on average the warmest days of 2020 will be behind us in a few weeks. The sun is already casting ever longer shadows as it arcs lower across the southern sky. Leaves hang limp on trees catching more and more of that light giving the woods a golden hue even at midday. The aging summer has also brought this year's acorn crop close to maturity. I can tell because the squirrel community in our woods is starting to work overtime on an early and near-ripe harvest. They litter the patio daily with twigs, leaves, and broken nuts, making for a big mess as well as grilling "under fire."

Calm days and high temperatures also lead to popcorn thundershowers that meander across the region waiting to die out as fast as they arise . So far they've brought powerful lightning, the positive strikes that start fires, inches of rainfall, high winds, and pea sized hail. With that said it's time to envision sitting comfortably on the screened porch where a big ceiling fan quietly generates a steady breeze and your sweating, sweet iced tea feels good even to the touch. The forest surrounding me is a still landscape interrupted by an occasional bird or squirrel. If you stay there long you witness the yellowing light of day giving way to the twilights, the lightning bugs, the cicadas, then the katydids and a chorus of north Georgia tree frogs. 

I love all of those twilight sounds but I love the katydids most. They remind me of long summer vacations and drifting to sleep in my bed next to a cottage window that opened wide to both their chatter and a comforting breeze moving down the West Virginia mountainsides of my childhood. It was there I first developed a passion for forests, for flowing water, for a clear sky I felt I could almost touch. Over sixty year later that passion leads me to waken before the sun to witness a pattern of stars rise out of the ocean and bring me summer. Bring it on!

Gustav Klimt: Master Of Succession Expression

Readers who follow this blog know that I have a quiet obsession with something called the Wiener Werkstatte. It was a community of artists in Vienna that grew out of the Vienna Secession, itself a larger expression of the Arts and Crafts movement beginning in the late 19th century. My fascination with this theme began during a semester of cultural history in graduate school focusing on organic form and function in urban planning and design. The interest reemerged twenty years later with my involvement in the planning and design of parks, visitor centers, museum, exhibits, publications, and other facets of resource interpretation in the National Park Service. I'll leave it to you to find the linkages.

One of the most significant members of the Vienna Secession, Gustav Klimt, was born on this day in 1862 He is described as a symbolist painter, one who focuses on mysticism and imagination. His Wikipedia entry describes his early work as academic, a characteristic he gradually left behind following a life-long relationship with fashion designer and entrepreneur, Emilie Louise Floge, that began when he was 28. Many art historians claim this 1907 painting, The Kiss,  is the finest expression of their loving relationship: 

This painting is also from what is called Klimt's "Gold Period" and is probably more familiar:

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer  (1907) has an amazing history involving Nazi looting, museum purchase, decades of litigation, $135,000,000, art world disgust, a book, and five films, including the popular 2015 release, Woman in Gold. 

There is much more to Klimt than the golden paintings. If you look at the body of his work it's easy to see how he continues to exert a broad influence on material culture and imagination a century after his death.

Avenue in Schloss Kammer Park, 1912

Sources

Illustrations:
The Kiss, Osterreichische Galerie Bevedere, Vienna
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202

Avenue in Schloss Kammer Park, Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna

Text:
Gustav Klimt, Wikipedia.com
klimt.com
"Klimt Painted Much More Than 'The Woman In Gold'", Colton Valentine, Huffinton Post, July 14, 2015

Vive La France! Le Fete Nacionale

We call it Bastille Day. To the people of France it is National Day, a commemoration of the storming of the 14th century fort and political prison by a Paris mob. The event was one of many in the early days of the revolution and not particularly significant in that it yielded only a handful of prisoners and a few cannons. Still, it was of great symbolic value in efforts to overthrow the monarchy. Three years later the monarchy was indeed terminated with the execution of Louis XVI and Marie Antionette.

La Prise de la Bastille                                        Jean-Pierre Houel (1735-1813)

What followed the revolution was eight decades of political and social unrest as France and Europe as a whole struggled with the concept of nationalism. Essentially Europe would not experience relative peace and stability until 1870 and the beginning of the Belle Epoch which would last until the advent of the World War I in 1914. For more information about the event, the revolution it spawned, and its significance in national and world politics, visit this brief and well-done post by The Ohio State University. 

For an expression of the patriotism July 14 represents to the people of France there is but one song and image, the French national anthem, La Marseillaise:

Tremblez, tyrans et vous, perfides, l'opprobre de tous les partis!

Andrew Wyeth: Craft As The Handmaiden Of Beauty, Power, And Emotion

On this day we note the birth of the American painter, Andrew Wyeth. He was born in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania in 1917 and died there in 2009 after a lifetime of painting individuals and landscapes near his home and at his summer residence in Maine. He represented the second of three generations of famous painters in the Wyeth family. His father, N. C. Wyeth, was a renowned illustrator and painter. His son, Jamie, who turned 74 last week, continues painting  in his father's footsteps in Pennsylvania and Maine.

I can best characterize his work as compelling, thought-provoking dreams on canvas, not quite real, not quite abstract. Here are three painting by Andrew Wyeth offering a comfortable contrast to the season of his birth. Readers can see the full range of his subjects at his authorized website.

Ice Pond                                                                                                      1969

My aim is to escape from the medium with which I work; to leave no residue of technical mannerisms to stand between my expression and the observer. To seek freedom through significant form and design rather than through the diversion of so-called free and accidental brush handling.

Branch in the Snow                                                                                     1980

My aim is not to exhibit craft, but rather to submerge it, and make it rightfully the handmaiden of beauty, power and emotional content.

Shredded Wheat                                                                                          1982

What you have to do is break all the rules.

Thanks to the BBC and Michael Palin we have a fine documentary of Andrew Wyeth, his craft and emotion, and especially his sense of place. Hope you take the time to enjoy it.

Sources

Text:

quotations, art-quotes.com

Sixty Years Of Scout, Jem, Dill, Boo, Tom, And Atticus

We can only imagine how many millions of American high school students have read Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird since its publication on this day in 1960. I graduated from high school in 1964 and don't recall if the book was required reading; however, it did make the list in college. In fact, I still have my paperback edition, scuffed, tattered, dog-eared, and browned by age after several readings by me and my children.

The author, Harper Lee, died in 2016. I doubt her hometown, Monroeville, Alabama, hasn't been the same without her. She spent her entire life there living a rather reclusive existence with the help of locals who spent a half century sending curious fans everywhere but to Miss Nelle's place. On the other hand , she did venture out and those who were  at the right place at the right time were welcomed by her smile and polite conversation. Southern living magazine published an extensive article about the relationship between Lee and her town on the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of her world famous novel. You can read a short version of the article here.

There hasn't been much said about To Kill A Mockingbird since the hoopla surrounding its fiftieth anniversary and death of Lee the following year. I did find this article from the German news site, DW, exploring the books more more contemporary interpretation. For more details and references on the book and the author, go here and here.

A Week Full Of Music History

In the decade of the '60's this week was a landmark in music history. Three events occurred that shaped the industry within months. Their impact echoes in the music we hear today. 

JULY 9, 1962: Bob Dylan

Dylan and Joan Baez, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 8, 1963

Bob Dylan was only 21 on July 9, 1962 when he walked into the Columbia Recording Studios in New York to record a song to be included on his second album. The song, Blowin' in the Wind, brought him fame and recognition as one of the nation's leading folk poets in the twentieth century. The lyrics and Dylan's comments on the song were published in June 1962 in the folk journal, Sing Out. He said this:

Too many of these hip people are telling me where the answer is but oh I won’t believe that. I still say it’s in the wind and just like a restless piece of paper it’s got to come down some ...But the only trouble is that no one picks up the answer when it comes down so not too many people get to see and know . . . and then it flies away.

The music critic, Andy Gill, said this about the song in his book, Classic Bob Dylan, 1962-1969: My Back Pages:

Blowin' in the Wind marked a huge jump in Dylan's songwriting. Prior to this, efforts like The Ballad of Donald White and The Death of Emmett Till had been fairly simplistic bouts of reportage songwriting. Blowin' in the Wind was different: for the first time, Dylan discovered the effectiveness of moving from the particular to the general. Whereas The Ballad of Donald White would become completely redundant as soon as the eponymous criminal was executed, a song as vague as Blowin' in the Wind could be applied to just about any freedom issue. It remains the song with which Dylan's name is most inextricably linked, and safeguarded his reputation as a civil libertarian through any number of changes in style and attitude.

JULY 5, 1965: Jefferson Airplane

Jefferson Airplane, first album released August 1966

On July 5, 1965, singer-songwriter, Marty Balin, watched a frustrated hootenanny try-out walk off the stage of The Drinking Gourd in disgust over his performance. Balin liked what little he heard and was impressed by the man's ambition. He went backstage and asked him, Paul Kantner, if he would join a band he was forming for his new Haight-Ashbury club called The Matrix. Kantner agreed. He didn't know it at the time, but he and Balin had just formed a band that would become Jefferson Airplane.

In a matter of days, another Drinking Gourd singer, Signe Toly Anderson, would join. Kantner recruited his downstairs neighbor, Jorma Kaukonen, as another guitarist. A local drummer and bass guitarist filled out the group. Kaukonen would convince Jack Casady to become their new bass later in the year.

Six weeks after Balin and Kantner had their backstage chat, Jefferson Airplane debuted as the house band at The Matrix on August 13, 1965. The band was an instant success and went on to release their first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, a year later. Signe Toly Anderson (vocals) and Skip Spence (drummer) soon left and were replaced by Grace Slick and Spencer Dryden. The group's next album, Surrealistic Pillow, launched them to international success.

JULY 3, 1968: Crosby, Stills & Nash

CSN's first album, released May 1969

The Byrds had already fired David Crosby, Buffalo Springfield broke up leaving Stephen Stills without work, and Graham Nash felt far too restrained working with the Hollies. They knew each other through the music scene in Los Angeles and networks that develop naturally among like-minded folks. Crosby and Stills had already been jamming in Florida and elsewhere. Both knew Crosby through his American tours.

The catalyst in this story is the singer-songwriter, Joni Mitchell. She shared Laurel Canyon, a neighborhood just north of Hollywood, with many other music industry notables and up-and-comers. Mitchell's home was described (Mark Volman) as "a little different...not so much maternal but about holding court in terms of songwriters who could find themselves there on any given night...and present their music to a kind of inner circle of people." On July 3,1968, circumstances brought Crosby, Stills, & Nash together at the house. "Nash asked Stills and Crosby to repeat their performance of a new song by Stills, You Don't Have To Cry, with Nash improvising a third part harmony." In a Daily Mail interview, Nash recalled, "That night, while Joni listened, the three of us sang together for the first time. I heard the future in the power of those voices. And I knew my life would never be the same."

Crosby, Stills, Nash, and later, Neil Young, would go on to phenomenal success. And so it was for Dylan and the members of Jefferson Airplane. Change would be about them and through all of it they would make music history for decades as their sounds and musical influences live on for appreciative audiences around the world.

Sources

Photos and Illustrations:
Roman Scherman Collection, National Archives and Records Administration

Text:
wikipedia.org
history.com
classicbands.com, Rock and Roll History
youtube.com, Signe Toly Anderson interview, KGON Portland, 2011
youtube.com. Mart Balin: Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, Joe Vertino, producer, martybalin.net, 2009
vanityfair.com, "An Oral History of Laurel Canyon, the 60s and 70s Music Mecca"," March 2115

Quotations, Crosby, Stills & Nash segment:

"You Don't Have To Cry" quote is from wikipedia.org
Nash quote, dailymail.co.uk
Volman quote: Hotel California: The True Adventures of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Barney Hoskins. Wiley, 2007

The Chevy Vega: GM's Unforgettable Disaster Reaches 50

No, I'm not talking about the Vega's top speed. To be honest I must say that it was damn close to fifty on a slight uphill grade with the air conditioning on. Even when it ran well. What this post is all about is an anniversary, in fact, the fiftieth anniversary of the Chevrolet Vega. 

I had quite an affair with the Chevy brand into young adulthood, including a '57 Chevy Bel Air and a '68 Camaro. Both vehicles were symbols of outstanding design and engineering in their time. Today they are iconic examples of the American automobile industry that any man would love to park in his garage. 

Alas, my love affair with the brand came to an abrupt end when I bought a '71 Chevy Vega Hatchback. Under that modest, crisp design and spiffy concept rested an engineering and performance nightmare wrapped in paper-thin sheet metal. I drove the Vega 120 miles to my home in College Park and for several weeks then drove - only a few miles - to and from work in Silver Spring. No problem. As summer came on I began spending every other weekend or so at a summer cottage in eastern West Virginia. Much of the four hour drive was on interstate highways crossing several Appalachian ridges. Before summer turned to fall the Vega began to run hot and lose power. I also noticed a light blue cloud following me even on those drives to Silver Spring. In short, the high operating temperatures combined with an aluminum block engine and steel components rendered my Car of the Year into an oil burner with a warped engine. It wasn't long before a quart of oil accompanied every fill up.

The dealership was embarrassed and spent thousands to make things right while the corporate suits at General Motors wrote nice letters and chose to do nothing more. As months turned into a year and two, there was no end to breakdowns, recalls, and repairs. I wasn't alone. There were hundreds of thousands of Vega owners stiffed by General Motors.  Management killed the model, arguably one of the worst pieces of junk ever produced by the American auto industry, in 1977. 

Lucky for me, my dad retired in late 1973, freeing up one of the reliable family cars at the home place. I swapped the Vega, already showing paint damage as well as rust from road salt, for a '68 Camaro. Dad was pleased to use a small car for a few miles around town where 35 miles per hour and under was the rule. As for me, I drove the Camaro hard and fast for over four carefree years.  When it came time for another car, General Motors lost out to a Volkswagen Scirocco. 

Move ahead forty years to 2010 and we see General Motors transformed into Government Motors through billions in loans better defined as grants as the company was placed in the hands of its union and preferred stockholders were stiff-armed by a federal government on a collectivist binge.  Granted, Government Motors has improved quality after hitting a speed bump with the Chevy Cruze but we've been a family of Toyota owners for over three decades and most of us will likely remain so. One thing is a certainty. I will never own another General/Government Motors product. Ever. I doubt my children will as well. 

Happy 50th Chevy Vega. RIP. Rest in pieces. 

Sure wish I still had that Camaro!

Independence Day 2020

Whilst the last members were signing [the Constitution], Doctor Franklin, looking towards the Presidents chair, at the back of which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a few members near him, that painters had found it difficult to distinguish in their art, a rising, from a setting, sun. I have, said he, often and often, in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that behind the President, without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length, I have the happiness to know, that it is a rising, and not a setting sun.

The Rising Sun chair used by George Washington during the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia

That was James Madison quoting Benjamin Franklin during the debates in the Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 17, 1787. Eleven years earlier many of those at the Constitutional Convention were also present for the signing of the exceptional American document whose ideals were set in a legal framework in the Constitution. we are, of course, talking about the Declaration of Independence signed on this day 244 years ago. To fully appreciate its meaning I think  American should take a few minutes to read and reflect on this extraordinary document on every Independence Day. If you want to understand American exceptionalism, start here:

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

In the spirit of the freedom of the American experiment established on July 4, 1776, our cultural experience continues to reinvent itself every day. We can thank the Founding Fathers for that freedom, but with that comes the awesome responsibility to preserve the system that created and sustains it. In the coming days, I hope you take some time between the burgers, the parades, the fireworks and whatever to think about that responsibility and resolve to keep our federal republic and representative democracy strong for ourselves and our future generations.


Here is some music for the day:

A diverse take on America ... 

...a traditional approach from the film biography of Irving Berlin in 1943...

...and what you compose when you can't stand hearing Kate Smith sing God Bless America anymore.

Have a safe and happy Independence Day my friends.!

Sources

Photos and illustrations:
chair photos, Independence National Historical Park

Text:

James Madison quote, Journal of the Federal Convention, ed. E. H. Scott, Chicago, 1893

Savannah: Revisited Again and Again

Here I am once more gazing into my woods across the road and thinking of Savannah, the Forest City. The city continues to reel from the effects of Covid-19, an alien invader that reduced tourism to a mere trickle compared with that in a normal summer. Imagining the empty streets brings to mind my introduction to a place that I would come to love. In time that place would return the love by bringing me my best friend who would soon become my wife for almost forty years. Twelve years ago I wrote this about the forest city that changed my life.

Bonaventure Cemetery

Now that I have some reference brought on by 62 years of experience in this world, I am sometimes amazed at what great changes can be brought on by rather unexpected, ordinary circumstances. Great masses of people and the courses of their lives can be changed overnight or in an matter of months not only by a natural disaster, war or human event, but also by a subtle cultural shift. That comes to mind when I think of Savannah, Georgia, one of the nation's most beautiful cities, and a city I have admired and enjoyed for over thirty years.

Yes, really, it was a rainy night in Georgia. It was also cold, foggy, and 3 a.m. The year was 1967, and four of us were screaming south to the Florida Keys for winter break. After navigating the Route 17 /I-95 construction puzzle in South Carolina, Savannah was a welcome glow in the fog. At the end of the Talmadge Bridge, in the very heart of town and beyond, we were stunned to find every store and gas station closed. The stench from the nearby paper mill left us gagging. After regaining our bearings, we sped south thinking Savannah was little more than a dump.

I have two recollections of Savannah that night. First, there was a boulevard lined with stunning live oaks draped in Spanish moss and glistening from the glow of street lights high above the trees. And second, beyond the oaks was the shadowed facade of one weathered and neglected building after another, literally block after block. Past glory stared at me from every direction. It was surreal. The image has never left me.

OTR's Jones Street project

In 1977, and quite unexpectedly, I found myself seduced by Savannah's charms and restoring a nine room townhouse in the historic district. I lived there fourteen months and completed most of project  It was a beautiful transformation but after a year, events in my personal and professional life changed and led me to conclude that I was not a happy man.  The townhouse sold quickly and profitably and I moved east to the islands and enjoyed life there for another decade while continuing to work with historic preservation and community preservation in the city.  A few years after moving there I gave a tour of Savannah to a coworker friend from Florida who wanted to see the city.  She loved the place and in a few months our friendship turned to love.

In Old Savannah the architecture remained. The divisive social issues of race and class remained. The weight of an enormous heritage of the American South and all the baggage that accompanied it remained. Two events would soon come to change Savannah. First, there was SCAD, the Savannah College of Art and Design. Founded about the time I moved to town, SCAD's student body grew quickly into the thousands, almost all of them housed in the historic district. The school contributed to the preservation of many historic buildings and, in several ways, revived commerce and excitement in the downtown community. The second event was the arrival of "the book." I had been living in Savannah only a few months before realizing it was a most unusual place, full of interesting - more at bizarre - characters, and perhaps as surreal as my memories of Oglethorpe Avenue on that rainy winter night. Writing a book never entered my mind until years later. But that task appeared almost immediately to New York journalist, John Berendt, who also fell under Savannah charms. He captured both the city and its character to perfection in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, published in 1994.

Bonaventure Cemetery

"Midnight" was a sensation, a best seller, and tourism exploded.The Savannah experience changed within months. There were more restaurants to enjoy. The night life flourished. Tour options abounded, from ghost, to pirate, to transsexual. The pace changed: faster, broader, deeper, never ending, and more expensive. The historic district became a fishbowl and much of its intimacy compromised. Soon, the pioneers paid $6,000, $8,000, then $10,000 or more in city/county taxes to live in the homes they had lovingly restored. Many of them left out of financial necessity. Had I stayed, I too would have been displaced. My wife and I could no longer have afforded to live in the home I restored. That saddens me, along with the realization that the divisive issues of race and class and social baggage remain unchanged.

Today, the people go about their daily lives shadowed by those magnificent moss draped live oaks. The wonderfully restored facades look down on them daily. The ships and their accompanying tugs glide in on the incoming tides. Their music fills the historic district. And Bonaventure Cemetery's ancient gate welcomes the living and the dead into what I believe is the nation's most beautiful cemetery. So much has changed in Savannah, but in the very quiet hours, in the intimate gardens, and in the music of the squares as well as that of a piano a few door away, you can find the city I knew thirty years ago. You may even find love. 

History tells us that Savannah will not, perhaps cannot, be everything to everyone, but it remains a most seductive place. I invite you to enjoy this historic city - do read "the book" first - where you too may be changed as much as I was those many years ago.