People Have the Power

“The power to dream, to rule

To wrestle the earth from fools.”

    “”People Have the Power,” Patti Smith

It was great to hear “People Have the Power” from “Dream of Life,” Patti Smith’s first CD in eight years, on WXRT’s Saturday morning show about 1988, along with other favorites from that year: REM’s “Orange Crush,” Steve Winwood’s “Valerie” and Tracy Chapmen’s “Fast Car.”  It’s hard to believe a quarter century has passed since the Traveling Wilburys formed, the Redskins led by black QB Doug Williams beat Denver in the Superbowl, “Bull Durham” was at the movies, and Lloyd Bentsen told Dan Quayle, “You’re no John Kennedy.”  Too bad Michael Dukakis bombed in his “debate” with Bush when asked if he’d support the death penalty if someone raped and murdered his wife.

I took guests Jackie Okomski and Rob Recchinti to Chesterton’s European Market and bought delicious tacos from the folks who clean our condo twice a month.  Back home, we watched “The Sitter” starring the ubiquitous Jonah Hill, who reluctantly spends an evening of adventure with three hellion kids (a preteen princess, a gay neurotic, and a rebellious adoptee) who end up liking him.  J.B. Smoove, the hilarious Leon Black in “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” had a bit part. Some lines that had Rob and me chuckling, such as when a character says Noah (Jonah Hill) has “some big ass balls,” and he replies, “Can’t buy underwear, balls don’t fit.”

Jackie’s Aunt Lisa and family (Fritz, Grace, and Oliver) arrived from South Bend.  While two carloads of women and children set off for Porter Beach, Dave, Rob, Fritz, and I played three games of Texas Hold ‘em, taking a break for pizza when the beachcombers returned.  The highlight of my lone win came when my son went all in with three Kings; I called him and got a diamond flush on the final card.  Lucky.  Knocked out early in the second game, I got a phone call from Terry Jenkins with news that the Phillies had fired 69 year-old Charlie Manuel, their manager since 2005, including the 2008 World Series Championship year.  GM Ruben Amaro cried during the announcement, Terry informed me.  He thinks Amaro may be the next to go. Manuel’s temporary replacement is none other than Cub Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg.

Time magazine put out an “I Have a Dream” anniversary issue with “Founding Father” Martin Luther King Jr. (“Architect of the 21^st Century”) on the cover.  In an oral history entitled “Memories of the March on Washington” Julian Bond recalls being told, “Thanks, kid” after giving a Coca-Cola to Sammy Davis Jr. When civil rights leaders first met with JFK, according to John Lewis, the President’s body language told them he feared the potential for violence.  At days end though he invited Lewis and others back to the White House and greeted them “like a proud beaming father.”  An essay about “The Dream Today” contained four murals photographed by Camilo Vergara, part of the exhibit we will be installing on August 24 at Gary’s Gardner Center.  What a thrill to discover them in Time’s special issue.

Cassie Carpenter and Alyssa Larkin of the CIPS Gary Vision Project met me at Jonathan’s (I ordered a Spartan omelet, seemingly a contradiction of terms).  I filled them in our plans for Camilo Vergara’s ten prints of Martin Luther King murals.  They want to piggyback on several and suggested a barbershop and a church that might be good sites once the exhibit starts its travels.  On their way to meet with Charter School of the Dunes board members, Cassie and Alyssa took several flyers that Ryan Shelton prepared for me and promised to talk up the idea of students coming to the August 28 program at Gardner Center.  Dave might bring some East Chicago Central students.

The Memorial Opera House production of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” was excellent, thanks to a stellar cast, headed by Scot PJ MacDonald as Algernon Moncrieff.  At first I was disappointed that it was not a musical and that there were two intermissions, but it moved along swiftly.  One of the few audience members without white hair was IUN biology prof Spencer Cortwright, who suggested I attend the Chancellor’s Inaugural State of the Campus Report on Friday. 

Afterwards, the Hagelbergs joined the four of us, including Jackie and Rob, for dinner at Lucretia’s (I had halibut) on a perfect day for outdoor dining.  Rob, who has conservative political tendencies, asked my opinion of George W. Bush.  A frat boy over his head who delegated too much power to Cheney and Rumsfield, I replied, but I did praise his behavior as ex-President.  At Jackie’s request we stopped at Dirty Dog for ice cream cones for dessert and chatted with the Polish-born owner.  While Toni watered plants, Rob, Jackie, and I watched “The Watch,” silly but mildly entertaining thanks to Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Jonah Hill.  I’m a Ben Stiller fan from “Reality Bites,” “There’s Something about Mary,” and “Meet the Parents.”   I found “The Heartbreak Kid” to be hilarious even though virtually every critic panned it, and the episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” where Larry and Ben were co-starring in “The Producers” were classics.

 James Wallace fourth from left with cap

Camilo Vergara’s posters will adorn IU Northwest’s Savannah Center Diversity Wall during the week after Labor Day.  The Indiana Black Caucus is holding an event there, and James Wallace, adviser to the group Brother to Brother and head of the Office of Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs, is taking a special interest in coordinating the two projects.  Jerry Davich is having me on his Friday radio show and will no doubt publicize the project in some way.  I’ll mention that Martin Luther King’s objectives were in transition in 1963, moving from integrating lunch counters and buses to concentrating on equal job opportunities.  In the five years left to him King would move further to the left after breaking with Lyndon B. Johnson over the Vietnam War.

I find myself skimming the chapters about Ambassador to Germany William E. Dodd in Erik Larson’s “In the Garden of Beasts” to get to the ones about flirtatious daughter Martha, who juggled affairs with a Frenchman, a Russian, an American, and Gestapo chief Rudolf Diels with occasional trysts with visiting celebrities such as novelist Thomas Wolfe, who described her bedroom behavior as “like a butterfly hovering around my penis.”  Good old Mattie.

Illustration by Victor Juhasz 

In Rolling Stone Matt Taibbi’s “Ripping Off Young America: The College-Loan Scandal” argues that the so-called bipartisan legislation to keep student loan interest rates low is essentially a scam and that countless young people are being saddled with debts almost impossible to overcome or jettison.  One person on disability had almost all of his benefits garnished.  Taibbi exposes the escalating cost of college tuition and room and board, due mainly to building construction and burgeoning numbers of high-salaried administrators (faculty escape blame).  With state legislatures reducing the amount of aid given public universities, students are left with debts averaging $27,000 and rising fast. The present loan policies reward unscrupulous diploma mills and expensive private institutions at the expense of universities such as IU Northwest.

Gaard Logan turned me on to Will Schwalbe’s “The End of Your Life Book Club.  The author’s mother was critically ill with pancreatic cancer, and the book recounts their conversations about books they’d both read while she was undergoing chemo treatment.  I filled Gaard in on my plans for the Camilo Vergara posters and sent hera YouTube Camilo sent me of an installation in Camden, New Jersey. 

Miranda and Phil at Grand Valley State

Miranda moved into her dorm to start her sophomore year, and school started today for James and Rebecca as well as for Tom Wade, whose wife Darcey found a clever cartoon to note the occasion.