Election

“Hear the steel wheels singing

This train

Bells of freedom ringing.”

    Bruce Springsteen, “Land of Hope and Dreams”

What a relief.  The election is over, and Obama will have four more years to improve health care, immigration laws, opportunities for gays, Latinos, Blacks, women, and other minorities, and multilateral cooperation in the world.  Even though a minority of white men to vote for him, the high turnout among his supporters (what Rev. Jesse Jackson used to describe as a Rainbow Coalition) carried the day.  Pennsylvania looked possibly in jeopardy over the weekend, so into that commonwealth went Bill Clinton and troubadour Bruce Springsteen, singing “No Surrender” and “Promised Land.”

What a bonus that Tea Party fanatics went down to defeat all over the country, and especially for Joe Donnelly to beat Richard “The Dick” Mourdock in Indiana.  Lesbian Tammy Baldwin won out over former governor Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin, and in my mother’s Congressional district encompassing Palm Springs, California, Sonny Bono’s widow lost to Dr. Raul Ruiz.  While Hoosiers will be stuck with reactionary Mike Pence as governor, in their wisdom they dumped anti-union Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett.

Predictably my progressive family and friends (Alissa, Miranda, Dave, Angie, Darcey, Brady, Chuck, Anne, Jonathan, Jonathyne, etc., etc,) posted ecstatic comments.   Alissa passed along an article that included a photo of boyfriend Josh Leffingwell driving voter Samuel Johnson to the polls and was pleased to report passage of the Decriminalize GR referendum to stop making possession of small amounts of marijuana in Grand Rapids a criminal infraction.

                                   photo of Samuel Johnson and Josh Leffingwell by Lindsey Smith (Michigan Radio)

Ray Boomhower’s “The People’s Choice” contains an excellent chapter about Jim Jontz’s successful 1986 campaign to represent Indiana’s Fifth Congressional District after serving more than ten years as a state legislator.  An opportunity arose with the retirement of longtime Republican Elwood “Bud” Hillis.  One potential rival for the Democratic nomination was Valparaiso city council member Jill Long.  At a function she asked him to dance.  When he claimed not to know how, she quipped, “I’ll lead.”  Long ultimately decided to challenge Senate incumbent Dan Quayle.  A longshot underdog in the general election against Christian evangelist favorite Jim Butcher, who tried to make the race about “family values,” Jontz’s “shoe leather” campaign prevailed; one of his signs had “JONTZ FOR CONGRESS” written on a likeness of the bottom of a shoe.  Jontz benefitted from an appearance from actress Bonnie Franklin (star of the sitcom “One Day at a Time”), received advice (not always taken) from future Obama managers David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel, and began a fruitful friendship and political partnership with Tom Sugar, later Senator Evan Bayh’s chief of staff.

Asia Day food at IUN’s Moraine Student Union included spicy samosa, tasty egg rolls, and baklava to cool the palate. Events included henna (temporary tattooing), a fashion show, and Indian dancing.  Diana Chen-lin provided info on opportunities for graduates to teach English in China and Japan.   On hand were retired professor Michael Certa and Health Information Management director Margaret Skurka, back from Beijing, China, where she spoke at a conference.

Archives volunteer Maurice Yancy was wearing a shirt inscribed, “Hell No!” On the sleeve was a logo for “The Color Purple.”  In the 1985 movie a southern mayor’s wife asks Sofia (Oprah Winfrey) if she’d be her maid, and for that indignant reply she got beaten and dragged off to jail.  Elsewhere Sofia says: “I sat in that jail till I near done rot to death.  I know what it’s like to wanna go somewhere and can’t.  I know what it’s like to wanna sing and have it beat out of you.”

Ron Cohen passed on a quote from British folksinger Shirley Collins's autobiography, “America Over the Water,” from when she and folk collector Alan Lomax were traveling to Chicago from New York in June 1959: "Driving at night into Gary, the Indiana steel town, is almost like entering hell. The road curves in wide sweep, then straightens into the inferno—the sky red with fire, flames leaping from the tall chimneys, billowing clouds of thick orange-tinted smoke, while the radio plays lowdown rock-and-roll, the raucous and relentless sound of industrial America."  This was a common site for folks traveling on the Toll Road across northern Indiana.  Just ahead: the pungent aroma of oil refineries in Whiting.

Appearing in November’s Northwest News “Alumni Spotlight” was Erika Rose’s article on “Valor” author Roy Dominguez’s appearance at last month’s Glen Park Conversation.  She talked about my role in “compiling his fascinating life journey into an autobiography” and quoted me as saying that the book “serves as a significant contribution to the social, ethnic, and political history of our region.”  I told Erika she should have a byline or at least get credit for the excellent photo.  She replied: “Actually I don’t mind not having a byline.  The stories all go in my professional portfolio, bylined or not.”  Smart woman.

Also in the Northwest News “Notes of Distinction”: mention of Anne Balay’s discussion of “Steel Closets” at the October meeting of the Indiana Academy of Social Sciences” with a photo taken while she still had orange hair.  Recently she thanked me for introducing her to Mike Olszanski in Labor Studies, who is critiquing her labor history chapter, and added: “Really, thanks for all your help with my book, with my job, and with my life.  I totally feel like you’re my mentor and main supporter.”  I replied: “Having become your friend has enriched my life and mental horizons.”

A large crowd heard Soup ‘n’ Substance speaker Laura Grimes, a Chicago sex therapist, discuss “Transgender Issues Relevant to College Life.”  After distinguishing between gender identity (one’s private sense of being either male or female) and gender attraction (same sex, opposite sex, or both), Laura mentioned problems transgender students face on campus, such as forms requiring identification as male or female and lack of gender neutral bathrooms.  Off campus they have to worry about harassment from co-workers, police, and strangers in public places  plus face discrimination from adoption agencies and health insurance companies.  Women born male with prostate problems or men formerly female with ovarian cancer might be denied coverage.  Laura’s husband Logan had underwent a sex change, and they talked about how they replied to their young daughter when at age three she said she wanted a penis and questioned why in an old photograph daddy was wearing a dress.

Engineers won 5 of 7 points led by Frank Shufran’s 601 series.  One alley over Mark Jennings rolled a perfect game, while to our immediate right Jim Helmecy, once a touring professional, bowled a 277.  Home for Letterman’s Top Ten reasons you are watching bad election coverage, including: When Colorado voters approved Amendment 64, news anchors lit up a joint.