Up for Debate

In all debates, let truth be thy aim, not victory, nor an unjust interest.” William Penn

 Several of my friends from high school re-post rightwing messages on Facebook that I mostly ignore but sometimes offer a brief rebuttal – as when, for example, they imply that Democrats are anti-police, pro-rioters or unpatriotic.  Frequently they bring up some local incident and ask why it wasn’t widely reported on the mainstream media.  Recently I came across an image of William Harvey Carney, the first African-American Medal of Honor winner, who, though badly wounded, “refused to let the American flag touch the ground.”  Above Carney’s photo were these words: “Maybe the NFL should put this up in every locker room.”  Carney (1840-1908) was born a slave.  After his father escaped with the aid of the Underground Railroad, he purchased his wife and William’s freedom.  Enlisting in the 54^th Massachusetts Colored Regiment, as did two sons of Frederick Douglass, Carney performed the heroic deed in 1863 at the Battle of Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina.  Angry that Carney’s admirable action was being politicized, I commented: “No NFL player is allowing the flag to touch the ground.”  Someone (not my friend) replied: “They just burn it.  Man, you pop up everywhere like a lib-in-a-box.”  Ignoring the fact that the person was not distinguishing between taking a knee during the National Anthem and flag-burning, I suggested, figuratively, that it was better to wash the flag than burn it.

Chesterton High School has a long, storied Debate Club tradition.  Jim Cavallo (above), a Speech and Debate teacher for38 years beginning in 1971, was the third CHS Debate Program Director inducted into the National Speech and Debate Hall of Fame.  His predecessors were Joe Wycoff and Bob Kelly.  Cavallo coached CHS to five consecutive national championships beginning in the late 1980s.  According to a NSDA press release, Cavallo was one of the first coaches to break from the “boys club” mentality and recruit females to do Policy Debate.  It concludes: “To Cavallo, every kid had talent, potential, and the ability to contribute to constructive argumentation.”

With a national debate raging over whether to take down monuments of rebel slaveholders, Anne Koehler passed on this statement by Kerri Smilie:

    I really didn't want to talk about concentration camps tonight. But today I've seen a certain post going around saying something to the effect of "Germany didn't take down their concentration camps, so why should we take down Confederate statues?”

 

   Whew. Deep breaths.

 

    In 2004 I went to Germany (one of a few trips I took there). Part of the trip entailed visiting some historical sites related to WWII. I sat in the courtroom in Nuremberg where Goering and crew were tried and condemned for their actions. I can tell you, there was NOT ONE BIT of honor for them in that room. We watched a graphic video in English, German, and Hebrew detailing the atrocities these men were condemned for. The theme of the lecture was "What they did was horrible. We as a nation stood behind it. We own it. And we will never allow it to happen again." Know what we didn't see? A single freakin' statue of a Nazi.

    But while we're talking statues, let's talk Dachau. The Dachau visit was the day after we went to Nuremberg, and my heart just couldn't take it. So my dad went, took lots of photos, and told us about it. It is completely saturated in remorse and resolve. There is nothing honoring any soldier. There is no glory in the Germany of WWII. There are no "alternate story lines." The statues there glorify those who were tortured and killed by the Nazis. One of the most famous statues at Dachau portrays skeletons strewn across barbed wire because so many of the prisoners ended their lives by throwing themselves into the fences and being shot, rather than suffer another day at the hands of the SS.

    This particular statue though is the one I want to talk about. It is called "The Unknown Prisoner." He stands tall and proud- because the prisoners were required to keep their heads bowed and eyes averted. He has his hands in his pockets- because the prisoners were forbidden to do so. He is not wearing a hat- because the prisoners were required to wear a hat on penalty of death. And his inscription reads "To Honor the Dead, To Remind (or warn) the Living." This statue is brazenly defiant. And I love it.

So if you want to compare the way Germany has kept their history alive with the way the South has, don't look at it in statues and memorials. If we want to follow Germany's lead, every plantation would be a solemn memorial to a dark time in our nation's history. There would be no weddings there- just like there are no weddings in Auschwitz. There would be no nostalgia for days gone by, but only reminders of the horrors of those enslaved.

    If we want to follow Germany's lead, then every statue of a Confederate general should be replaced by a statue of a slave breaking free of their chains, or standing proud in defiance of the slaveholders.  Don't make comparisons if you're not willing to follow them through all the way.

Ryan Askew

I enjoy reading personal items I find in obituaries, such as that Arthur Catenazzo, 88, a Korean War veteran and former U.S. Steel shift manager, walked six laps around South Lake Mall six days a week and was known as Mayor of the Mall. Former East Chicago firefighter and hospital security guard Edward Kowalski, 96, loved Hostess Twinkies and Ho Ho’s and during holiday celebrations “took the carving knife to baked hams like no one else.”  The obit for Ryan Askew, 59, a 1978 West Side grad, former Lake County police officer, and security guard at Community Hospital in Munster, gave no hint that he was shot and killed by another officer while attempting to restrain a patient who had him in a chokehold. In addition to mentioning Ryan’s wife Fonetta, daughter Da’Ja’Nay and other relatives, the notice mentioned eight “special friends,” including Gary residents Perry Gordon, Willie Stewart, Aaron Stuckey, Armon Stuckey, and Ernest Goodwin. When he first learned of Askew’s tragic death, former Sheriff Roy Dominguez, who promoted him to Commander, told The Times: “He was a nice guy, very professional, and extremely well-liked by the troops.”

Valentina

I’ve been playing the board game Space Base, both with Dave, Phil, and James at the condo and online ever since Angie ordered it for me on Amazon. Each player assumes the role of a commodore in charge of a fleet of ships purchased on one’s turn and named after astronauts such as Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins or Russian cosmonauts like Valentina Tereshkova and Pavel Popovich.  Tereshkova was the first woman in space, orbiting the Earth 48 times in 1963 on a solo flight aboard Vostok 6.  I won a couple games prior to everyone knowing the fine points of the game, but on Zoom last evening winner Tom Wade and runner-up Dave Lane left me far behind.

 

As reported by the Chesterton Tribune’s Kevin Nevers, the Chesterton Town Council discussed the Juneteenth march.  Police Chief David Cincoski announced that it was peaceful and went very well, with participants wearing masks and practicing social distancing.  He thanked the Fire and Street departments for their assistance and officers from the neighboring towns of Porter, Burns Harbor, and Ogden Dunes. Council member Jim Ton added:

    I believe the major goal of the march was to protest institutional racism and the unjust treatment of black citizens in America.  I also believe that the goal of law enforcement was to provide for the free exercise of the right to do so in a safe and secure environment.  Both of these goals were met last Friday afternoon.  Chesterton should be proud of that.

In the Tribune’s “Voice of the People” Reverend Aaron Ban of St. Jon’s United Church wrote: “Chesterton is a town where people of all races are proclaiming, ‘Black Lives Matter!.’  The Juneteenth Celebration and demonstration lifted my spirits and made me proud to live and work here.”

 

Casey King wrote:

    We are in the midst of a revolution...rise with the change or fall...and fade. I’ll be selling prints to raise money for Gary, Indiana art programs. I am a proud recent fine arts graduate of Indiana University Northwest in Gary, Indiana. Gary was once known as the “magic” city and the very foundation of the American school system, The Wirt System, began here. I would like to make a difference through my art and this is one means of doing so.  Art is universal and healing, a language that not all have to speak but one that all can understand if one tries to. To underprivileged youth, art can serve as a powerful tool to push through trying times and life’s struggles. There is comfort in creating and liberation in being able to express oneself. Keep your eyes open for when I list these on my shop. Your support is greatly appreciated.

 
I  thought of the Seventies community group The Concerned Latins Organization when reading this email post by John Fraire:

 I recently gave the keynote address for the Latino Leadership Initiative (LLI) in Washington. I told the students that the Chicano student movement was an under-appreciated part of the civil rights movement and that programs like the LLI owe their thanks to the Chicano Student movement. Many parents were in the audience. Like many other times, many of them remained expressionless during my talk. After my talk, one of the fathers, a man in his 50's, approached me, shook my hand and said "Gracias, Soy Chicano."

Martha Bohn  posted  storm clouds reaching Miller Beach, and octogenarian Barbara Mort shared a phot  taken at her recent wedding to Ascher Yates

Los Campos

“Mexicans by the carload, by hundreds, by thousands, are being brought to the Chicago-Calumet district to work in the steel mills and other industrial plants.”  Gary Post-Tribune, 1923

 Isaac Villapondo in Inland Steel's 76-inch finishing mill, Sept.27, 1946, from Calumet Regional Archives (CRA)

Rafael Rodriguez and Heriberto Villareal at Inland's No. 2 open hearth, December 1953, CRA collection

The current issue of Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History contains an article by educator Douglas Dixon entitled, “Los Campos: Los Latinos y La Via de Indiana” that cites Ed Escobar and my “Forging a Community: The Latino Experience in Northwest Indiana, 1919-1975” as a source and makes use of photos from the Calumet Regional Archives.  Explaining the title, Dixon explained: “Los Campos may signify farm fields or family names. Los Latinos y La Via de Indiana may be a path from Indiana or the Indiana way.”  Mexican immigrants came to Indiana both as unskilled industrial workers, primarily in Lake County, and as agricultural laborers harvesting apples, strawberries, tomatoes, and other seasonal crops. During the past two decades, the Hoosier Latino population had increased by 82 percent as a result of migratory patterns and high birth rates. Dixon wrote:

  La familia de Los Campos brought a set of values that have meshed well with those all Hoosiers hold dear – a work ethic, respect for farm labor and produce, the importance of family, business savvy, volunteerism, and piety.  Latino/a values such as personalism (heightened sense of each person’s value), simpatico (avoiding confrontation), respeto (high regard for older or high-status persons), and familism may be less familiar to various groups in Indiana, but endearing nevertheless.  Other central values – collectivism (a greater sense of interdependence), power distance (unquestioning deference based on status), gendered aspects of familism, religious fatalism, or a relaxed view of time – may generate the potential for conflict.

Dixon focused on the Campos family, whose patriarch Felipe brought his family to Indiana in 1950 as agriculture laborers. Because they traveled from farm to farm in several states, son Noe Campos received little schooling; after he obtained work in a machine shop, the family settled permanently in Ligonier, a small town in northeast Indiana. Noe Jr. graduated from high school, obtained a white-collar job in a bank, and became an American citizen at age 24. Noe Sr. preached at Templo Betel, an evangelical congregation, and his son frequently plays the accordion and sings at religious services and ethnic functions.

Traces editor Ray Boomhower eulogized the late Wilma Gibbs Moore (above), a gifted storyteller who for over 30 years served as Indiana Historical Society program archivist for African American history until retiring in 2017.  She helped guide to publication my scholarly articles on Carleton Hatcher and Reverend L.K. Jackson. I enjoyed chatting with her at Indiana Association of Historians conferences.  A 1969 graduate of Indianapolis Crispus Attucks H.S., she recalled: “I went to school with the colored kids taught by the colored teachers.”  She once described her life’s work as “toiling in the Indiana history vineyard helping others find materials for their storybooks.”  R.I.P., good lady.  Thanks for your service on behalf of Clio, the muse of history.

 Arnautoff self-portrait in "City Life" mural in San Francisco

The current Journal of American History (JAH) contains a review by IU Northwest Labor Studies professor William Mello of Robert W. Cherny’s “Victor Arnautoff and the Politics of Art.”  Born in Russia, the son of an Orthodox priest, Arnautoff (1896-1979) became part of San Francisco’s leftist arts scene during the late 1920s. Moving to Mexico, he became an assistant to muralist Diego Rivera. Back in California, he produced controversial murals in fresco for the Pala Alto Medical Clinic (showing a doctor examining a bare-breasted patient) and San Francisco’s Coit Tower (including a self-portrait near a newspaper rack of leftist publications).  Mello wrote: “Inspired by his growing commitment to socialism, Arnautoff infused his portraits of everyday working-class life with political commentary.”  He taught art at Stanford, whose faculty resisted rightwing efforts during the Red Scare to have him terminated. In retirement Arnautoff returned to the Soviet Union, where he created tile mosaics for public buildings. 

The JAH also contains a review of Robert Justin Goldstein’s “Discrediting the Red Scare: The Cold War Trials of James Kutcher, ‘The Legless Veteran.’”  The son of Russian immigrants, Kutcher joined the Socialist Workers Party in 1938 at age 26 and, inducted into the U.S. Army, lost both legs to German mortar fire in Italy during the 1943 Battle of San Pietro. In 1949 the Veterans Administration loyalty board suspended him without pay from his position as a file clerk due to his political belief and past associations. It took seven years of legal fights, during which time he lost his disability benefits, before a U.S. Appeals Court restored his job.

 Terry Kegebein

Thanks to good series by Terry Kegebein and Mel Nelson, the Electrical Engineers took all 3 games from Fab 4.  Nearby I noticed Delia’s Uncle Phil Vera bowling right-handed again, after two years as a southpaw following a stroke.  He still hasn’t recovered full strength and uses a light 12-pound ball. Former student Jin Daubenhower, a retired History teacher, came by Hobart Lanes to say hello and will be coaching boys eighth-grade basketball at Kankakee Valley.  He told me, “You’re the reason I became a teacher.”  Nice.

Interviewed after George Goeway and Todd Fisher (above) scored a 72.69 percent in Lynwood, Goeway told bridge Newsletter editor Barbara Walczak: “Todd is fun to travel with – he is a Napoleonic scholar, writer, Civil War reenactor, foodie, and enjoys a good microbrew.”  Todd described their high performance: “We doubled close contracts to good effect, when our opponents got “over their skis.”  It led to one lady “walking the dog” on us and making 5 on 4 Clubs doubled, but this was the exception.”Joe Chin introduced the pair 13 years ago prior to a regional in Toronto.

Bridge buddy and former bank manager Barbara Mort visited the Archives to donate biographical materials and was accompanied by Asher Yates, a retired Hollywood film editor who moved to Northwest Indiana 20 years ago and won an EMMY in 1983 as a sound editor for the TV movie “The Executioner’s Song” starring Tommy Lee Jones as murderer Gary Gilmore.  The previous year, he was nominated for the TV series “Marco Polo.” Yates volunteers at the National Lakeshore’s Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education.

Sweet Shine

 “Alice is a chain store, down past First and Vine

You can shop there anytime, it’s all very fine”

“Sweet Shine,” Sonic Youth

I don’t pretend to understand what most Sonic Youth songs mean but enjoy their unique style of Noise Rock.  I just discovered I owned Sonic Youth’s 1994 “Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star,” which includes the classic “Bull on the Heather.”  “Sweet Shine,” contains the line, “you’re always heavy in rotation.”  The CD is now in rotation with albums by Jackson Browne, Nicki French, The Weakerthans, and The War on Drugs.

Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring"

In HBO’s film vault was the delightful Scarlett Johansson historical drama “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (2003). It’s about seventeenth-century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer’s infatuation with servant girl Griet (Johansson), the model for one of his masterpieces. Vermeer’s patron lusts after her, but she fights him off, in love with a butcher’s son. Johansson, 17 at the time of filming, has few lines but, as an Entertainment Weekly review noted, “the interplay on her face of fear, ignorance, curiosity, and sex is intensely dramatic.”  It was based on a novel by Tracy Chevalier, who wrote this passage about this titillating scene:

   “Lick your lips, Griet.”
    I licked my lips.
    “Leave your mouth open.”
    I was so surprised by this request that my mouth remained open of its own will. I blinked back tears. Virtuous women did not open their mouths in paintings.

When Vermeer’s wife Catharina saw the finished product, she branded it obscene and demanded that Griet’s employment be terminated. When Griet viewed it, she told Vermeer, “You looked inside me.”  She appreciated that his intentions seemed pure rather than carnal.  I recommended “Girl with a Pearl Earring” to Alissa.

 Barbara Mort, Dee Van Bebber, Kris Prohl, Jimbo; photo by Jackie Roberts

Dee Van Bebber and I finished third at Chesterton Y despite a low board when I doubled Kris Prohl’s 5-Diamond bid, holding the Ace, King of trump and two other kings.  When her partner had no Diamonds, Kris turned to me and said, “I know why you doubled.”  Then she proceeded to take every trick but my two high Diamonds.  Jackie Roberts, who’d interviewed Terry Bauer for Steve McShane’s class, observed a couple rounds.  Terry and partner Dottie Hart were amazed that both Jackie and her husband were attending college despite having 6 kids. They must be getting help from grandparents.  When I told Jackie that Terry Bauer’s partner Dottie Hart was one of my favorite people.  She replied: “She is awesome and hilarious, definitely a breath of fresh air.”

Post-Trib reporter Craig Lyons interviewed me for a feature on former mayor Richard Hatcher.  I concentrated on the 1967 election and his 20 years in office but added information about his formative years in Michigan City. When Lyons stated that Hatcher had a reputation for being rigid, I replied that he would not compromise certain core principles but that he was adept at adjusting to changing political climates.  He worked well in tandem, for instance, with Indianapolis mayor William Hudnut.  Richard Gordon Hatcher remained his own man, true to his ideals, unbought and unbossed.

Phil Arnold noted that the day I posted comments about playing Fats Domino’s “Blue Monday” during my Munster talk, the New Orleans legend passed away. Elvis and Fats got together when they were both playing in Las Vegas in 1969. Arnold’s Elvis Blog contains these thoughts:

Let me just say he was one of the greatest early rock and rollers, and I grew up with his music. I bought his 45s and danced to his songs at parties and sock hops at school. I have 53 Fats Domino songs on my playlist and will listen to them while I write this blog post. I’m going to hear every one of those songs today and appreciate again just how great he was.

          The company I worked for held a huge convention in one of the big New Orleans hotels in the late 80s. The last night of the convention, there was a big party in the ballroom, and to everybody’s delight, our entertainment for the night was Fats Domino and his band.

          It was an awesome night, and there are some things that still live in my memory all these years later. The band had four, yes four, sax players. Their contribution to the music was much greater in concert than on the records. They really wailed. The drummer was either on drugs or drunk, or both, because he fell off his stool right in the middle of a song. He was out cold, so a bald white guy sat in for the rest of the show. I think he was Fats’ road manager or something, and he did a passable job. The unannounced opening act was another New Orleans resident and performer, Clarence “Frogman” Henry. If you are old enough you will remember his hits “Ain’t Got No Home,” and “Troubles, Troubles.”

Playing the Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints players and coaches wore a patch reading “FATS.”