End of the World As We Know It

“A government for hire and a combat site

Left her, was coming in a hurry

With the Furies breathing down your neck”

    “It’s the End of the World as We Know It,” R.E. M.

 

At Kirsten Bayer-Petras’s request Dave performed “It’s the End of the World as We Know It” by R.E. M. with James joining in, providing harmony for the final chorus, ending with “I feel fine.”  If only that were true. The lyrics are sung at breakneck speed and at times seem nonsensical.  Here's an example: "Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs/ Birthday party, cheesecake, jellybean, boom." 

 

Here are excerpts from Chesterton Tribune reporter Kevin Nevers from the April Chesterton Town Council meeting:

    “I am not going to request, I’m going to plead for citizens to support the businesses offering curbside service,” urged Jim Tom, R-1^st.  “There are a lot of them out there.  They’re listed in the Chamber’s website. We want these businesses to still be there when this is over.”

    Member Jennifer Fisher, I-5^th, expressed her gratitude to staff for its implementation of the Chesterton Covid-19 Resident Assistance Plan: the green thumbs-up and red thumbs-down window placard program.  “Good job,” she said.  “It reflects the great heart we have in this community.”

    Sharon Darnell, D-4^th, encouraged folks to call and text and email family and friends during the lockdown.  “Please keep those people around you in your thoughts,” she said. “Reach out to them.  Personal contact is so important in these times.”

 

In the “Echoes of the Past” column Nevers does with Betty Canright was this reprint of a story from 1945, when WW II was still taking the lives of Chesterton residents:

   Lt. Magdalene Kubeck, U.S. Navy Nurses Corps, died in an auto accident in the South Pacific area.  It had been raining very heavily in the preceding days and the roads were extremely slippery, and the car in which she was riding was sideswiped by an oncoming vehicle.

 

The Abraham Lincoln Newsletter reprinted an interview Richard J. Hinton conducted in December 5, 1860 with President-elect Lincoln in the hope that he would endorse recognition of the government of Haiti, a republic controlled by former slaves.  Lincoln expressed sympathy for recognition but admitted he would proceed cautiously, given the “alarming” state of affairs with Southern states. Lincoln eventually recognized Haiti in July of 1863 as the Civil War raged.  More enlightening than the interview itself was this biographical profile of 30-year old English native Hinton provided by historian Bob Willard:

    Richard J. Hinton came to America in 1851 and took up residence in New York City.  As a reporter, he opposed the Fugitive Slave Law, became an anti-slavery advocate, and assisted in the organization of the Republican Party.  He was an ally of John Brown and an assistant of abolitionist James Redpath, who headed an effort to encourage free blacks to emigrate to Haiti.

    In 1856 Hinton took up residency in Lawrence, Kansas and joined John Brown.  In fact, but for an accident, he would have been with Brown at Harpers Ferry.  A man mistaken for Brown was hanged.  Together with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Hinton also planned the jailbreak of Brown’s accomplices who assisted slaves through the Underground Railroad. 

    Hinton helped recruit volunteers for the first Kansas Colored Infantry regiment early in 1862 and was appointed its adjutant with the rank of first lieutenant.  Hinton mustered out of military service in November 1865, having received the brevet rank of colonel.  He finished the war as acting inspector general of the Freedman’s Bureau as well as being sent South from Washington for a time on secret service work ordered by President Lincoln.

 

Haiti’s history has been marked by foreign interference and political instability.  After Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Hispaniola in December 1492, the native Taino population rapidly succumbed to smallpox epidemics and harsh forced labor policies in Spanish gold mines and plantations. Under French rule that began in the seventeenth century black slaves eventually outnumbered white Europeans 10 to 1. During the French Revolution a slave revolt led by Toussant Louverture eventually led to independence in 1804, by which time Louverture had died in a French prison.  In 1915 American business investments seemed threatened by civil unrest.  President Woodrow Wilson sent marines to restore order to Haiti, an occupation that lasted 20 years and involved using Haitians as virtual slave labor to build bridges, roads, and other infrastructure. Following two decades of unstable presidencies, dictator “Papa Doc” Duvalier and son “Baby Doc” instituted a 30-year reign of terror, ending in 1986.  Haiti’s first democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was twice ousted in coups, including in 2004 aided surreptitiously by the Bush administration.  Aristide returned to Haiti in 2011 after seven years in exile but has not run for office since.

 

Bridge buddy and former student Vickie Voller emailed to report that she’d been reading my 2015 Steel Shavings and was pleased that I had written about IUN professor Bob Lovely and Post-Tribune columnist Carol Vertrees.  Vickie was writing for the Post-Tribune in the mid-70s at the time I was submitting weekly columns on the history of Gary.  I’m always flattered when I learn that someone is reading one of my publications.  Douglas Dixon informed me that his manuscript “Beyond Truman: Robert H. Ferrell and Crafting the Past” has been published. He had asked me to review an early draft, but I begged off, saying I did not hold the late IU diplomatic historian in high esteem, mainly due to his disparagement of New Left historians. Ferrell mentored many historians at IU, including Dixon, and was an expert on Harry S Truman. In “The Question of MacArthur’s reputation” (2008), Ferrell concluded that the future general embellished his role in the WW I Meuse-Argonne offensive, taking undeserved credit for the success of troops in combat.

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.