Closings

     “The loss of newspapers may be, ironically, the most important under-reported story of our time.” Evan Davis

The Chesterton Tribune is poised to cease publication in 10 days after 136 years. It was owned most of those years by the Canright family and came out five times a week. Toni and I sent our regrets to the publishers:

If the Chesterton Tribune ceases publication, which appears inevitable, it will be an incalculable loss. The paper has truly been a community newspaper, skillfully reporting on doings ranging from the mundane to the unusual, from town board meetings to a Black Lives Matters march. Reporter Kevin Nevers has a particular felicity with words, and whenever his byline appeared, the story was must reading. With a granddaughter who recently graduated from CHS, we looked forward to reading about events she participated in, often accompanied by photos. The Tribune carried more state, national, and international news than any other paper in Northwest Indiana. Its history columns, especially “Echoes of the Past,” were a special delight. Of all the area closings that have taken pace during the pandemic, this will, in all likelihood, have the most long-lasting effect. Journalism has suffered numerous hits over the past 20 years, and our country, as a result, is much the worse for it.

Sorrowfully, James and Toni Lane

Chesterton resident Darcey Wade wrote: 

    The paper printed my first letter to the editor, 1976, our class reunion discriminated against single people by charging them more to attend. I am going to miss so much about it. I even have a copy of an old letter to the editor from Mr. Dave Sanders, a local character who ran Saturday’s child, the hippest place in Porter.

Former Post-Tribune editor Dean Bottorff wrote:

    I am always saddened to hear about the death of yet another newspaper, especially small community newspapers that, without other media, have been the mainstay of (if not the only) reliable source of local information. Who’s going to be left to watch over the likes of town boards, zoning commissions, the sheriffs, courts and school districts? Who’s left to honestly broker the truthful information that a viable community needs to function. Who’s left to record our daily lives, births, graduations, weddings and funerals? Who’s left to record the mundane of clubs, bake sales and bingo? Certainly not the Internet or social media which have evolved into cesspools of gossip, deceit and – too often – divisiveness. Sadly, when a community loses it’s newspaper, it loses part of it’s sole and the citizens there are thrust into bleak darkness.

IUN emeritus professor Don Coffin added:

  When I was a kid, there were four newspapers in Indianapolis--the Indianapolis Star, the Indianapolis News (both owned by the same company), the Indianapolis Times, and the Indianapolis Recorder (weekly; published since the 1890s, clientele mostly in the Black community; I subscribed to it when I worked in the Division of Planning and Zoning-I was a planner--in the 1970s). Only the Star and the Recorder have survived, and the Star has shrunk considerably over the past decade. It's not just small towns.

3 Floyds Brewpub, closed since March due to the pandemic, announced that it had no plans to reopen. Located in a nondescript industrial park in Munster, it became a hot spot after its craft brews, including Dark Lord, became critically acclaimed. I went there only once, with History colleagues Jerry Pierce and Jon Briggs on a mid-afternoon Friday, and by the time we finished our meal, there were dozens of people outside hoping to get in. NWI Times reporter Joseph Pete interviewed veteran Douglas Hathaway, who said he wore a 3 Floyds shirt to a DC craft brew fest and “got fan-boyed into oblivion - You've been there. Wow.”

 

Julius "Groucho" Marx (1890-1977) was a master comedian whose humor encompassed slapstick, satire, clever word play ("Time wounds all heels"), wise cracks, puns, and farce. A vaudevillian who debuted at 15 in Grand Rapids, MI, he played Gary's Palace Theater with his brothers in his 20s and reached Broadway not long afterwards, The Marx Brothers starred in 13 films beloved by generations of comedians. Groucho hosted the unique game show “You Bet Your Life,” first on radio and, beginning in 1953. on network TV. I was an instant fan. He once said, “A man is only as old as the woman he feels" and before he died quipped, "Bury me next to a straight man.”

I prefer writers (Kurt Vonnegut, John Updike, Richard Russo) that have a comic rather than tragic outlook on life. In Russo's "The Risk Pool" the author's alter ego lives in upstate New York, where his grandfather divides the year into “Fourth of July, Mohawk Fair, Eat the Bird, and Winter.” A drunk accosts his ne'er do well father Sam Hall and insists he must know a fighter from Syracuse named Hall. “That's the name my wife and I fight under,” Sam said.

Caste

 “The price of privilege is the moral duty to act when one sees another person treated unfairly. And the least that a person in the dominant caste can do is not make the pain any worse.” Isabel Wilkerson, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” (2020) 

In “Caste,” which compares America’s race-based class pyramid to India’s caste system and Nazi Germany’s persecution of “undesirables, Isabel Wilkerson traces the unequal treatment of African Americans back to1619, when a Dutch man-of-war brought two dozen black men captured from a slave ship bound for Spanish New World colonies to Point Comfort in Virginia. Especially horrific are her descriptions of lynchings that became common in the decades following the Civil War, even in places outside the South such as Coatesville, Pennsylvania and Marion, Indiana.  In 1919 in Omaha, Nebraska, for example, a mob numbering in the thousands set fire to the courthouse, seized packinghouse worker Will Brown, accused of molesting a white women, stripped him naked, strung him up, riddled his body the bullets, and dragged the corpse through the streets. Wilkerson compares such atrocities to German villagers living near Death Camps who went about their daily tasks as ashes from Jewish human remains floated down from the sky.

 

A woman told Wilkerson, “I find that white people are fine as long as I stay in my place.  As soon as I get out of the ‘container, it’s a problem.” In a chapter discussing survival skills blacks developed in the face of racism, Wilkerson cites the examples of Charleston church members forgiving the young white supremacist who murdered nine parishioners attending a Bible study class and of a black man in Dallas hugging in court the former cop who mistakenly broke into his brother’s apartment and killed him, writing: “Black forgiveness of dominant-caste sin has become a spiritual form of having to be twice as good in trauma, as in other aspects of life, to be seen as half as worthy.”  As Roxanne Gay put it: “Black people forgive because we have to survive . . . time and time again while racism or white silence in the face of racism continues to thrive.”  Hanif Abdurraqib furnished this explanation: “This expectation [of forgiveness] feels fueled by a perverse need to see harmed people demonstrate nobility because it’s how we believe the myths that political suffering builds character, and that righteousness rather than power will eventually triumph.”

 

Wilkerson attributed Trump’s political ascendency to fear by members of the dominant caste that their exalted status in the hierarchy was being threatened.  The author concluded: “The 2016 election would set the United States on a course toward isolationism, tribalism, the walling in and protecting of one’s own, the worship of wealth and acquisition at the expense of others, even the planet itself.”

 

Emiliano Aguilar posted an article about fearless labor organizer Emma Tenayuca, first arrested in 1933 at age 16 for demonstrating in support of cigar factory workers.  She fought against the repatriation of Mexicans and in San Antonio organized a 1938 strike on behalf of pecan shellers. Time magazine described her as “a slim, vivacious labor organizer with blackeyes and a Red philosophy.”

Majority Rule?

 “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” Franklin D. Roosevelt

The topic of Saturday Evening Club speaker Terry Brendel's talk was "Majority Rule." The main focus was on how gerrymandering has subverted democracy in the U.S. Congress and state legislatures. Brendel noted that during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, George Washington presided from a chair that depicted the sun, causing Ben Franklin to quip, “I have often looked at that without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting.” Franklin chose to believe it was rising, and Brendel hoped that was still the case.

 

Most participants slammed Trump's refusal to accept election results as a threat to democracy, our federalist system, and public order. Former IUN colleagues Pat Bankston and Richard Whitman, citing their experiences as poll watchers, ridiculed the notion of a fraudulent election. Referencing Jill Lapore's "These Truths," I mentioned that in 1789 no successful government had existed based on the three cornerstone principles of natural rights, sovereignty of the people, and political equality, Skeptical that pure majority rule was workable in a diverse nation, the Founding Fathers created checks and balances, separation of powers, and a federal system that retained state and local control over elections. I quoted cynic H.L. Mencken's prediction that “on some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright moron.”  I added that Trump is certainly no moron but has historical amnesia and no respect for the Constitution. Bankston cited the erosion of political parties and the rise of social media as factors enabling a conservative populist demagogue to become president. I concluded by a quote attributed to Winston Churchill: “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”

 

“"If we should perish, the ruthlessness of the foe would be only the secondary cause of the disaster, The primary cause would be that the strength of a giant nation was directed by eyes too blind to see all the hazards of the struggle; and the blindness would be induced, not by some accident of nature or history but by hatred and vainglory," Reinhold Niebuhr, quoted in Julie Lapore's "These Truths”

 

In an essay entitled “Trump’s Coup Attempt: Losing Power While Raking in the Loot,” Ray Smock wrote:

    After four years as president, Donald Trump still does not know a thing about how government works or how elections work. He thinks they work by the force of his will. He has squandered his entire presidency with little to show for it except his constant campaigning to keep the Trump brand before the public. The fecklessness of Donald Trump is staggering. His denial of Joe Biden’s victory is a form of mental illness. He lives in another reality, where he remains in power and is loved by the people. His pseudo-coup is so obviously frivolous that a smart ten-year-old could probably come up with a better plan to stay in power. Trump has only one game plan, the same one he has used his entire adult life. He hires lawyers to win for him what he is incapable of winning for himself. 

    At his own admittance on multiple occasions, Trump has claimed that the election might end up in the Supreme Court, where the results would be decided by just nine people, three of whom he appointed, regardless of the results of the elections in 50 states and the District of Columbia that resulted in a clear and decisive victory for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The election was conducted with fairness and accuracy.  Not so, says President Trump. The election was rigged. It was fraudulent. The fix was in. He continues to engage in mask-less rallies since his defeat and gets the crowd to yell: STOP THE STEAL. Before we get to the inauguration next month, we could see violence as Trump continues to whip his hard-core followers into a frenzy. 

    Despite the pathetic squeals of the president, despite the dozens of embarrassingly frivolous lawsuits in battleground states, the president is shrinking before our eyes. Those state officials who conducted the presidential election, whether the states were run by Republicans or Democrats, are a solid phalanx against the president’s Rudy-suits. The Supreme Court refused to even touch a suit brought to overturn the Pennsylvania results. They dismissed it unanimously in one sentence and slammed the door. 

    One of the last pathetic attempts to make this pseudo-coup work is the effort of the Attorney General of Texas to throw the election to Trump by having the Supreme Court determine how the electors in the Electoral College are selected. He has been joined by 17 other states, all with Republican Attorneys General. I have read this filing and the thing that struck me is that it is a complete parroting of the unfounded claims of voter irregularities that Trump has been spouting at every rally. A section of the complaint, called “FACTS” consists of unproven allegations, many of which have already been laughed out of court in other lawsuits. There should be some kind of sanction or serious penalty that stops such blatant partisanship and such a raw power grab to overturn a presidential election.

These elected officials are not upholding the laws or the constitutions of their own states. They are henchmen in Trump’s pseudo-coup. They are engaged in sedition and they should be impeached for it. They are hiding behind a curtain of law in an attempt to overturn the law. 

    Trump has run out of challenges. The process of certifying this election, despite Trump’s efforts, did not derail the process from being on schedule. This train will arrive on time.

    What Trump has done since the election in terms of using the occasion to continue to campaign and raise money is another unbelievable degradation of the electoral process. People keep sending him money. His aggressive money machine never stopped when the election was over. He has collected more than $250 million dollars from his loyalists since November. He has, in effect, created a Super-Pac that will put money in his own pocket for his own purposes. “Help Keep Donald Rich!” This should be the slogan. Trump’s money grab is the greatest swindle in the history of political chicanery. Trump’s pseudo-coup has worked for him; not to keep him in office beyond his term, but to make him vastly richer on the way out the door. 

 

I replied: “ In These Truths historian Jill Lapore concluded: “Between the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the election of Donald Trump 15 years later, the U.S. lost its way in a cloud of smoke. The party system crashed, the press crumbled, and government imploded.” Let's hope Georgia sends 2 Democratic Senators to Washington and that the Biden/Harris team is up to a momentous task ahead.”  Ray responded, “Amen brother.”

 

 

The so-called runoff debates were very telling. Republican incumbent David Perdue was a no-show, claiming he'd already debated challenger Jon Ossoff twice. Addressing an empty stool, Ossoff said, "Your Senator feels entitled to your vote He is so arrogant that he is not here today to answer questions." Perdue and Republican colleague Kelly Loeffler had unloaded stock worth tens of millions of dollars after a closed-door briefing about the nascent coronavirus. Loeffler did square off against Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the 11th of 12 children raised in public housing and an advocate for programs on behalf of the poor. Taking excerpts from Warnock's sermons out of context, all Loeffler could offer were wild accusations that Warnock was a Marxist "radical liberal" who was anti-military, anti-police, and had an arrest record stemming, it turned out, from a sit-in at the State Capitol on behalf of expanding Medicaid. Although he provided examples of why he believed in the free enterprise system, I was disappointed that Warnock didn't give as good as he got; but as Ray Smock has told me, a better strategy is for a candidate to speak directly to voters and basically ignore specious charges.

 

Even though the Supreme Court unanimously refused to overturn Biden’s victory, by a 6-3 vote they denied a petition to stop the rash of executions the federal government is rushing through during Trump’s final days, including that of Brandon Bernard, just 18 when he and four others robbed and then killed youth ministers Stacie and Todd Bagley.  The former prosecutor in the case and five jurors went on record opposing his death, and Trump turned a deaf ear to pleas from Kim Kardashian, who released this statement: “While Brandon did participate in this crime, his role was minor compared to that of the other teens involved, two of whom are home from prison now.”  Bernard last words were, “I wish I could take it all back, but I can’t.”  The family of Stacie and Todd Bagley issued this statement: “We pray that Brandon has accepted Christ as his Savior, because if he has, Todd and Stacie will welcome him into heaven with love and forgiveness.” 

 

On December 13, 1895, the Chesterton Tribune declared: “Everyone in Crocker hustles, which is why it is such an enterprising town, situated in a good farming locality.”  Located in Liberty Township, the unincorporated community was founded in 1892 upon the arrival of a rail line. A post office began operations the following year but closed down in 1905 when the predicted growth proved illusory.  The local paper also carried, tongue in cheek, this bit of town gossip: “Houses are so scarce and rents so high that Mr. Rice, our blacksmith, and Mr. Sphade, our electrician, have concluded to couple up.  One furnishes the provisions and  the other prepares the meals, and they live as happy as cats and dogs.”

These Truths

“The past is inheritance, a gift and a burden.  It can’t be shirked.  You carry it everywhere.  There’s nothing for it but to get to know it.”  Julie Lapore

With Terry Brendel due to speak on “Democracy” at our upcoming Saturday Evening Club zoom meeting, I have been reading Harvard historian Julie Lapore’s new book “The Truths,” suggested to me by Gaard Logan, who is perusing it for her book club.  The title harkens back to “self-evident” truths emanating from the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution: natural rights, political equality, and the sovereignty of the people. Taking a cue from Gaard, after looking over the introduction, I skipped to the recent chapters, entitled “The Brutality of Modernity” and “The Machine, 1946-2016.”  More than most such works, Lapore emphasizes the revolutionary importance of the internet, especially in a political context. Great strides in the development of supercomputers were made during World War II in hopes of breaking the Japanese code and estimating the altitude of missiles.  During the 1940s computer scientist Grace Murray Hopper, a Yale graduate, invented a linker that converted English terms into an A-O machine code system understood by computers.  Hopper was part of the team that developed the UNIVAC 1 giant computer. I recall NBC bringing Univac into its TV studio supposedly to predict 1952 election results as votes were being tabulated (I was a political junkie even then). In 1977 the microcomputer was first marketed, and within a decade home and office computers were increasingly common.

 

Lapore traced how Franklin D. Roosevelt’s welfare state goals eventually gave way to “the national security state,” as Cold War defense spending took priority over social programs.  While the GI Bill of Rights ushered in postwar affluence, African Americans and women were denied equal access housing and educational benefits.  Conservatives used propaganda provided by consulting firms, such as Campaigns Inc, founded by Clem Whitaker and Leone Baxter, to defeat liberal proposals for national health insurance, first in California and then at the national level.  The scourge of McCarthyism, Lapore concludes, was not an aberration but a harbinger of guilt-by-association tactics used by Republican politicians to this day. Reviewing “These Truths” for The Guardian, John S Gardner wrote:

    Lapore offers an unabashedly liberal perspective but seeks to be scrupulously fair to the modern conservative movement, devoting numerous pages to its intellectual origins as well as to its nativist and conspiratorial elements. Ideas do have consequences, as wrote [University of Chicago intellectual historian] Richard Weaver, a conservative intellectual for whom Lepore has sympathy.

 

I recall being cool toward computers initially until fully understanding their merits and limitations.  I loved it when a computer competing on Jeopardy against two champions inexplicably missed what seemed like a very easy Final Jeopardy – what city has two airports with names that refer to World War II (answer: Chicago, with O’Hare and Midway). Ironically, given my rudimentary knowledge of computers, after writing an article for the Journal of American History on industrial heritage museums, I was asked to be a paid consultant for a proposed museum in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, that came to house some of the country’s fastest supercomputers developed by Cray Research, a company founded by Seymour R. Cray, called “the Thomas Edison of the supercomputer industry.”  During the 1950s Cray had worked on the UNIVAC division of Remington Rand (later Sperry Rand) before forming his own company.  My main suggestion was that the Chippewa Falls museum include an oral history component.

 

Julie Lapore’s previous best-seller, “The Secret History of Wonder Woman,” revealed that the cartoon’s creator, William Moulton Marston, was an avid feminist who was married to suffragette Sadie Holloway, engaged in sex parties during the mid-10920, and included among his lovers Olive Byrne, the niece of birth control advocate Margaret Sanger.  He had four children, two with Sadie and two with Olive, who were good friends. Lapore notes that after Marston’s death in 1947 at age 54, All Star Comics hired new writers who had the Amazon princess conform more closely to women’s traditional roles, a development that infuriated the women the creator left behind.

 

In the Post-Tribune a “Quickly” commenter wrote that it was incorrect to say that Trump was one of the few presidents not to have a pet in the White House because he had lap dog Mike Pence, only it was the Vice President whose job it was to clean up his master’s messes, not vice versa. Columnist Leonard Pitts reported that after Mrs. Iddy Kennedy in North Little Rock, Arkansas, put up a Black Santa in her yard, a racist told her to get rid of the “Negro elf.” It made the woman initially question whether she wanted to raise her daughter in that neighborhood; but when neighbors heard what happened suddenly Black Santa appeared on lawns up and down the block.  Pitts concluded: “ People also sent money, over $1,000, which the family has redirected to the Arkansas branch of Ronald McDonald House Charities. Speaking to The Washington Post, the charity's executive director, Janell Mason called it ‘humanity doing good things.’ And so it is.”