Strong Women

 “Tomorrow is my turn
No more doubts no more fears
Tomorrow is my turn
When my luck is returning
All these years I've been learning to save fingers from burning
Tomorrow is my turn”

    Nina Simone, “Tomorrow Is My Turn

Joe Biden fulfilled a pledge to select a strong woman as his running mate by choosing California Senator Kamala Harris, and former district attorney, attorney-general, and rival for the Presidential nomination. In typical dismissive style, POTUS called Harris nasty and inconsistently branded her a radical leftist who will disappoint Bernie Sanders supporters.  He even resurrected the racist “Birther” argument maliciously deployed against Obama even though Harris was born in Oakland, California.  Eric Trump retweeted a misogynist calling the choice “a whorendous pick” and a Trump spokesperson sniped that Harris sounded like Marge Simpson.  Initially I had hoped for Amy Klobuchar but am rapidly warming to the choice.  She’s been thoroughly vetted and Biden is comfortable working closely with her.  Her biography is inspiring, the daughter of an Indian and Bahamian immigrant scholars who met at Berkeley through their involvement in civil rights issues. Valparaiso councilman Rob Cotton wrote: “A vital characteristic of authentic leadership is evident in what Joe Biden said. Something to this effect, ‘I asked Kamala to promise me that she'd always be the last person in the room. To ask me the tough questions, to challenge my perspective, and freely offer your own without fear of disagreeing with me.’”  Ray Smock believes Kamala Harris is the most significant VP pick since a critically ill FDR selected Harry S Truman in 1944. 

 

Recent TV watching includes the Clint Eastwood film “Richard Jewell,” about a security guard wrongly accused by the FBI and press of planting the bomb during the 1996 Olympics at Atlanta’s Centennial Park. The title character was grossly overweight, lived with his mother (played fetchingly by Kathy Bates), was overly zealous, and naïve about the forces arrayed against him. The only sour note was an exaggerated, sexist depiction of reporter Kathy Scruggs as one who would do anything to break a story, including sleeping with sources.  In real life both the victim and Scruggs died young but in Jewell’s case not before learning of the 2003 confession of terrorist Eric Rudolph, an anti-abortion militant who also bombed two health clinics and a gay bar.  Similarly, the biopic “Judy” shows how child actor Judy Garland was a victim of Hollywood moguls forcing pills on her (uppers and downers) and holding her to a ruinous diet while she played Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” – leading to a lifetime of addiction and sleep disorders.

 

I enjoyed the HBO “Perry Mason” mini-series starring Matthew Rhys, who shined on the long-running series “The Americans.”  The original CBS “Perry Mason,” debuting in 1957 and starring Raymond Burr, played a role in my wanting to become a lawyer.  It was based on crime fiction stories by prolific Erle Stanley Gardner, who published hundreds of books, including 70 about Perry Mason, beginning in the mid-30s.  The 60-minute shows climaxed with Mason out-dueling prosecutor Hamilton Berger, often with a confession from the stand. In the mini-series Mason starts out as a private investigator, secretary Della Street saves the day, and African-American Chris Chalk plays investigator Paul Drake while William Hopper (son of gossip columnist Hedda Hopper) assumed the role in the original.

 

IUN student Iris Contreras with Helen Boothe

Feisty bridge buddy Helen Boothe sent this letter to the Chesterton Tribune:

    Since the flat earthers are still refusing to wear masks, perhaps we can persuade them to wear their “Trump” arm bands, so we will know from whom we must keep social distancing

 

Ray Boomhower cited turn-of-the-century novelist Edith Wharton (1862-1937), author of “The House of Mirth” (1905), “Ethan Frome” (1911), and “The Age of Innocence” (1920): “The true felicity of a lover of books is the luxurious turning of page by page, the surrender, not meanly abject, but deliberate and cautious, with your wits about you, as you deliver yourself into the keeping of the book. This I call reading.”  A bisexual whose childhood nickname was Pussy and who engaged in lesbian affairs with Janet Flanner and Theodore Roosevelt’s sister Corrine, Wharton was the first woman Pulitzer Prize recipient.

 

Anne Koehler (right, in younger days) wrote of being unfamiliar with pop, folk or other culture when she and her husband came to America from Germany six decades ago. She recalled:

    I picked up a booklet "Folk Music USA" in Chicago and gradually came to know the people featured in it through their music. On WMFT Studs Terkel interviewed people from all walks of life. On Saturday night we did not miss the "Midnight Special,” a program of folk music and satire. On New Year's Eve they would pull out all the stops. Linda Anderson would bring many good programs and entertainers on campus at IU Northwest and it was through one of these that I got to hear Peggy Seeger In the 1990s IUN professor Ronald Cohen organized a folk music conference at Indiana University in Bloomington, which my family attended. We slept in dorm rooms.

 

After Toni and I played bridge online with Charlie Halberstadt and Naomi Goodman, it being a beautiful evening, the four of us decided to dine outside at Wagner’s Rib Restaurant in Porter, only we discovered upon arrival that it was closed. A staff member, it turned out, had tested positive for the coronavirus. Charlie suggested the Village Tavern, where I had attended several annual reunions of our Seventies Porter Acres softball team.  Inside, I recalled, was so heavy with cigarette smoke that I stripped and showered as soon as I got home. We arrived wearing masks and found an outdoor table; the only others donning masks were the waitresses.  When a guy who arrived on a motorcycle wearing a holstered sidearm asked one why she had it on, she replied that it beat being out of work. My hamburger and fries were delicious and the 20-ounce Yuengling refreshingly cold.  It was the first time Toni and I dined out since March.

Charlie and Naomi on right

Nina Simone

Charlie Halberstadt gave me a dozen CDs that he hadn’t played in years and intended to get rid of one way or another.  He had shown me a list of almost 200, mostly jazz, and I opted for Ramsey Lewis performing “The In Crowd” and several Nina Simone albums.  Born into a poor North Carolina family in 1933, probably the worst year of the Great Depression, Simone was a prodigy on the piano and won a scholarship to the Julliard School of Music in New York City.  Her vocal career took off with the George Gershwin song “I Loves You, Porgy.”  In 1963, at the height of her fame, she recorded “Mississippi Goddam” in reaction to the assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Evers. In retaliation, Simone claimed, the IRS and FBI hounded her for a decade.  A fixture at civil rights events, in 1969 she recorded “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black.” She titled her 1992 autobiography, “I Put a Spell on You,” after her trademark ballad.


While on a bicycle ride along Route 12, Photographer Martha Bohn detoured to take some great shots of Beverly Shores vistas.

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

Bound for Glory

This train is bound for glory

Don’t carry nothing but the righteous and the holy

This train is bound for glory, this train.”

    Woody Guthrie

Ron Cohen’s Woody Guthrie book is out, subtitled “Writing America’s Songs.”  Good timing since the “Bound for Glory” troubadour was born exactly one hundred years ago.  During his visit to the Archives I gave Ron a copy of “Valor” that the Sheriff and I both signed.  On the back cover is Ron’s endorsement of “a rags-to-riches story of a Mexican-American who overcame many hardships to become sheriff of Lake County, after a stellar career as a state trooper, attorney, and local political figure.”

Woody Allen’s “To Rome with Love” was mildly amusing, but Penelope Cruz as a wise-cracking prostitute was alone worth the price of admission.  Plus it’s always fun watching Alec Baldwin squeeze the most out of a role.  Woody, as usual, played a neurotic caricature of himself.  I may have been the youngest person in the audience.

In a play in Grand Rapids Tori shined, but I couldn’t hear most of the dialogue.  The musical numbers were good though.  We spent the night at Alissa and Josh’s apartment after a pizza meal at Phil and Delia’s.  Josh was reading Nelson Algren’s “Never Come Morning,” so I perused the first few chapters.  Set in a Chicago Polish neighborhood circa 1940, it makes references to a Region amusement park and Gary middleweight champ Tony Zale.  After forcing himself on his girlfriend, Casey rationalizes it by saying to himself, “I guess I’ll take her to Riverview.”  A washed up fighter recalls his moment of glory when in Gary he threw a punch that stunned a future champ.

Saturday was Miranda’s high school graduation party.  While some of her friends were in-crowd types, others looked like good old down-to-earth hippies.  One guy had hair dyed a half-dozen different colors; another wore a t-shirt proclaiming, “My Mother Loves Me.”  Beth (Alissa’s mom) drove in from Washington, DC, and Delia’s mother brought rice and other Puerto Rican specialties.  Dave and I prevailed in two of three of beanbag toss contests against Phil and Miranda’s boyfriend Derrick, who were somewhat distracted by being targets of water balloons. I enjoyed Miranda’s friend Ashley Grzeszak, who will attend Michigan State in the fall.   Miranda is going to Grand Valley State, where Alissa recently got offered a full-time job (hooray, hooray!!!), beating out 122 other candidates.

above, Jimbo with Toni, Becca, Miranda, and Ashley; below, Paula Cooper, Times photo by Sarah Tompkins

Sunday we took the Hagelbergs to Sage for dinner and then played bridge at the condo.  I showed them “Valor” and the excellent Times front page story entitled “Paula Cooper: A Second Chance.” In 1985 15 year-old Paula and three other girls stabbed 78 year-old Glen Park Bible teacher Ruth Pelke to death.  Paula was initially sentenced to death, but after worldwide protest and Pelke’s own grandson taking up her cause, it was reduced to sixty years.  With time off for good behavior, she will be released a year from now.  In prison, Paula earned a GED, a bachelor’s degree and various culinary certificates.  Contrite about her crime, she credits God and Bill Pelke, who writes her weekly and has visited her frequently, for having faith in her. Pelke has said, “Paula has changed.  She’s not the same person that committed that terrible crime.”

Of the dozens of on-line respondents to the Paula Cooper story, opinion was divided on her going free.  Hopefully the belief of Bill Pelke, that “we are supposed to hate the sin but love the sinner,” will carry the day and a future employer will give Paula a job.  She told Times reporter Sarah Tompkins, “I don’t care if I have to sweep floors, wash dishes or flip hamburgers, I’m going to take what I can get, you know, just to get on my feet and show people that I deserve a chance.”

Anne Balay and I were going to get together to discuss the final chapter of her book on GLBT steelworkers, but instead we did it by phone.  I recommend that she interview USWA district director Jim Robinson and perhaps start chapters with quotes from some of the 40 interviewees.  I recently learned that some people use the initials GLBTIQ for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, intersex and questioning.

Karen DePirro’s work was on display at IUN’s Savannah Center Gallery.  Ann Fritz put out a nice spread, as always.  The pieces in the show, entitled “Alternate Reality,” combined realistic landscape or water background scenes with surrealistic still life figures in the foreground.  A former teacher from St. John, IN, she was friendly and I really enjoyed viewing her work.

Karren Lee sent me the 12-minute documentary Marty Bohn made of the June Pop Up Art event.  In it I discuss Dale Fleming’s artwork for several minutes, including many illustrations that appeared in my “Lake Michigan Tales” issue.  Marty’s audio wasn’t working earlier in the evening, so she made due as best she could with background music.