I am trying to remember my very first Memorial Day. I believe it was somewheres around 1925-6. Papa would get me dressed in my best “gawn to meeting clothes.” We’d catch the subway at 180th street in the Bronx for a trip down to Fifth Ave. to watch the Memorial Day Parade.
Papa liked parades. We were often on Fifth Avenue or Broadway watching a parade with papa’s running comment. (Wow! do I ever Remember that Lindbergh ticker tape.) On a number of those Memorial Day trips I actually saw the last Civil War Veterans being pushed in wheelchairs at the head of the parade. Papa said that war was between Feudalism with its Slavery and Capitalism with its wage slaves. “That Southern system was far to expensive for the capitalists. Why feed and house workers when you can just lay them off and not worry about them,” “Papa I said, would we be better off if we were slaves?” “Well that depends” he said. “ If we were lucky enough to have a nice owner maybe? But generally speaking no because we wouldn’t be free to take the subway and go to Coney Island or wherever we wanted.”
What I always found most heartbreaking in these parades were the wounded vets. Most without one limb or another. sometimes both. Yes, people watching would always give them a lot of applause. Papa would say, “look carefully that’s the price of war. The people who make them aren’t here. They are sitting in their fancy clubs up the street having a whiskey and a cigar. They just make the wars because it is a very profitable business. They don’t come near the front lines of battle.” Papa never missed an opportunity to educate about the Ruling Class.
So, here we are in 2011. I did see a bit of our local Memorial Day Parade. There were still quiet a few WW2 veterans but like the Civil War Vets back then their ranks are rapidly declining. The Vets I am very sad about are the ones who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. In some ways they are like the Vietnam veterans. With a very heavy heart I remember watching that belated parade for those very sad men who finally got their ticker tape shower up Broadway. Watching that sad,sad march I just knew in my guts it was a terrible waste and even more sadly they knew it too. Is the high rate of suicides amongst returning veterans just a symptom of the malaise that they suffer?
Because of improved armor and medical help in the field we have an increased number of wounded. 42,000 thousand from Iraq and Afghanistan. Many double and triple limb amputees. As the Fire Engines go by on Main Street’s part of our Memorial Day Parade I close me eyes and see these thousands of wounded men and women vets passing. They are asking why are we like this? What were we fighting for? I feel this great sense of shame for I have no answer.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Friday, May 20, 2011
Strauss Kahn Circus Coming Soon
I am conflicted about writing this as Mr. Kahn has not been convicted. But I gather a dirty licentious, Clinton like trial is on its way. Oh the Tabloids will love it, SEX,SEX, SEX. rated 3 XXX with a Frenchmen and Black maid from Africa main characters. Whoopee.
A little Background
In 1975 I wrote a piece for the Harvard Business Review “Three Men Two Women on a Raft” It was an honest revelation of what had occurred on an Outward Bound Trip down the Rogue River in Oregon. Going down the river each person on the raft took turns as the helms-person in charge. In the article I wrote, the men on the raft did everything they could to undermine the women. The result was an overturned raft with all of us in the ice cold water. The women then declined the helms position. The men said “oh that’s okay we’ll take over.” At the time I suggested that was pretty much the way in the corporate world. That Harvard Review piece became a “best seller Reprint.” It was republished 25 years later. Mostly to see how things had changed. I think they have. (Women may find themselves in that same “predator” position as the men. Yupp I experienced that.)
That article gave me a kind of legitimacy among women who at the time were struggling with the issues of fairness and equality in the workplace. And that’s how I became the recipient of stories of sexual harassment at work. At the time I was at the Ford Foundation. Many young women researchers one way or another made their way to my office at the Foundation to relate horror stories of what went on at their workplaces. I have chosen a few examples. However I do have to go much further back into the 1930s for my earliest lesson in sexual exploitation.
It came with Edith my first wife. She was a dancer who appeared in a WPA show called “From Gospel to Swing.” In the reviews she was singled out as a “dancer to watch.” Look, she was really good. She danced with an infectious joy and the audience loved her. Some time later she was auditioning for Broadway, Hollywood shows. God, I remember it so well. She was up early and bright for an interview with an agent in the old Brill building on Broadway in the 50s. Alas, she comes home practically in tears. First she doesn’t want to talk about. Slowly she lets on to what happened. The Agent tells her to take off her clothes. She say’s “for what?” He tells her she has to understand, if she really wants to make her way in the Show-biz world she’s gonna have to “put out.” Yes he says “that’s how it is and if you can’t do it go find some other way to make a living.” She did.
It’s decades later. A young women was doing a survey of ways to create job opportunities for Black youth. She goes to see, (I am not going to mention names.) an important leader in the field. After a few minutes of questioning he asks her, “How she feels about sex? She suggests it’s is none of his business. In a short time he is up and suggesting they go in the closet for “some fun.” She picks herself up and is out the door. Asks me ”what is wrong with these men?
A friend in Washington tells me of a staff opening in a NYC Congresmen’s office. Oh, yes of course I know a young women, Brandies graduate good research background. She goes for the interview. Gets passed a couple of other staff people is ushered into the Congresmen’s office. He shuts the door. Spends his time looking at her Legs asking questions about her experience and then out of the blue asks,”do you enjoy fucking.” It’s not that she never heard the word before. But she really believed she was going to work at a level beyond that.
In my years in the Lindsay Administration I would hear a constant chatter about women being harassed at the top level of City Agencies. I knew some of the men involved. I began to wonder what was about them that made them think that the position they were in entitled them to take any women who happened to be in proximity for their immediate sexual gratification?
For at least some men there seems to be a confusion with the power inherent in their job position and what that entitles them to. Is it a purely neurotic need to transfer that power to sexual satisfaction to make it complete? I can’t answer that. What I do know is that women should not have to put up with the distorted maniacal view that power entitles men to harass women to satisfy a sexual urge. Unfortunately there are just to many men who need to learn that.
As women come into the positions of power will they have to learn that as well? It is also why I am not surprised by the Strauss Kahn revelations. Been going on forever. Mostly the victims shut-up. This one didn’t. How many women out there could add to these stories? And why don’t they? Anyway here comes the 3XXX Circus. Do you think our suppressed sexual fantasies arrived on the Mayflower?
A little Background
In 1975 I wrote a piece for the Harvard Business Review “Three Men Two Women on a Raft” It was an honest revelation of what had occurred on an Outward Bound Trip down the Rogue River in Oregon. Going down the river each person on the raft took turns as the helms-person in charge. In the article I wrote, the men on the raft did everything they could to undermine the women. The result was an overturned raft with all of us in the ice cold water. The women then declined the helms position. The men said “oh that’s okay we’ll take over.” At the time I suggested that was pretty much the way in the corporate world. That Harvard Review piece became a “best seller Reprint.” It was republished 25 years later. Mostly to see how things had changed. I think they have. (Women may find themselves in that same “predator” position as the men. Yupp I experienced that.)
That article gave me a kind of legitimacy among women who at the time were struggling with the issues of fairness and equality in the workplace. And that’s how I became the recipient of stories of sexual harassment at work. At the time I was at the Ford Foundation. Many young women researchers one way or another made their way to my office at the Foundation to relate horror stories of what went on at their workplaces. I have chosen a few examples. However I do have to go much further back into the 1930s for my earliest lesson in sexual exploitation.
It came with Edith my first wife. She was a dancer who appeared in a WPA show called “From Gospel to Swing.” In the reviews she was singled out as a “dancer to watch.” Look, she was really good. She danced with an infectious joy and the audience loved her. Some time later she was auditioning for Broadway, Hollywood shows. God, I remember it so well. She was up early and bright for an interview with an agent in the old Brill building on Broadway in the 50s. Alas, she comes home practically in tears. First she doesn’t want to talk about. Slowly she lets on to what happened. The Agent tells her to take off her clothes. She say’s “for what?” He tells her she has to understand, if she really wants to make her way in the Show-biz world she’s gonna have to “put out.” Yes he says “that’s how it is and if you can’t do it go find some other way to make a living.” She did.
It’s decades later. A young women was doing a survey of ways to create job opportunities for Black youth. She goes to see, (I am not going to mention names.) an important leader in the field. After a few minutes of questioning he asks her, “How she feels about sex? She suggests it’s is none of his business. In a short time he is up and suggesting they go in the closet for “some fun.” She picks herself up and is out the door. Asks me ”what is wrong with these men?
A friend in Washington tells me of a staff opening in a NYC Congresmen’s office. Oh, yes of course I know a young women, Brandies graduate good research background. She goes for the interview. Gets passed a couple of other staff people is ushered into the Congresmen’s office. He shuts the door. Spends his time looking at her Legs asking questions about her experience and then out of the blue asks,”do you enjoy fucking.” It’s not that she never heard the word before. But she really believed she was going to work at a level beyond that.
In my years in the Lindsay Administration I would hear a constant chatter about women being harassed at the top level of City Agencies. I knew some of the men involved. I began to wonder what was about them that made them think that the position they were in entitled them to take any women who happened to be in proximity for their immediate sexual gratification?
For at least some men there seems to be a confusion with the power inherent in their job position and what that entitles them to. Is it a purely neurotic need to transfer that power to sexual satisfaction to make it complete? I can’t answer that. What I do know is that women should not have to put up with the distorted maniacal view that power entitles men to harass women to satisfy a sexual urge. Unfortunately there are just to many men who need to learn that.
As women come into the positions of power will they have to learn that as well? It is also why I am not surprised by the Strauss Kahn revelations. Been going on forever. Mostly the victims shut-up. This one didn’t. How many women out there could add to these stories? And why don’t they? Anyway here comes the 3XXX Circus. Do you think our suppressed sexual fantasies arrived on the Mayflower?
Friday, May 13, 2011
Anniversary! Where's the Waltz?
It turns out that our Wedding Anniversary, Kate and I that is, falls on Mothers Day. That’s handy as we are both AARP in the key forgetting syndrome. Not a good choice but we ended up watching Derrick Jacoby play King Lear in downtown Brooklyn at the Harvey Theatre. Lear is hardly a celebrates play to see on a wedding anniversary. Jacoby is a wonderful Lear. The whole cast did their work well.
The play ended with a audience that just jumped out of their seats and this writer screaming Bravo, bravo bravo. I just love theater people who can make me do that. As we walked a few blocks to the restaurant for dinner a severe pain was developing in my right foot, I do suffer from Neuropathy but somehow this was different. It was becoming increasingly severe.
I began to think, this pain is a result of this play. Lear is a strange story of a group of people all living without love. Lear, the needy father, is distributing his land wealth to his daughters. Reagan, Goneril and Cordelia. But he does it based and how they are able to describe their love of him. Regan and Goneril get their share of land holdings. Cordelia who wanted her fathers love gets nothing. As Lear says, “nothing comes from nothing.” She gets nothing while her evil sisters get it all.
With the landholdings comes power. Regan and Goneril have men besides them who also have one interest, power. Once Lear has given up his throne his two daughters turn him to dust. Without his Kingly powers he goes mad. His friend Gloucester has his eyes torn out by a betraying son. There simply are no redeeming characters in this play. This was in 1605. Do we have similar contemporaries?
As we walked and my pain kept increasing I suddenly;y became aware that my oncoming pain was not neuropathy but Gout. The kings disease. Now that was a perfect fit for this Shakespeare play. I would add, there simply are no heroes in this drama. All the players except Cordelia seem to be devoid of love especially Lear. Yes he wants his daughters to love him but he doesn’t seem to know enough of himself to love anyone. We meet him in his almost childlike old age when his life is fading. It is at his end that he longs for some love from his daughters and loyalty from friends. He gets neither and sinks into an abyss of loss and death.
Upon Cordelia’s murder Lear leaves out a spine tingling scream. I first heard that from Laurence Olivier who described it as hearing trapped animals screaming in a near bye woods. For me that outcry has always touched me as our weeping for the the human condition. The VietNam child screaming with agent orange covering her body. The Kent State students eyes on the Soldiers gun. Slavery, the Holocaust, the Gulag, on and on..
When Lear says, ”When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools.” Doesn’t that say it all? How did Shakespeare come to know so much about the human condition?
“Kate, how the hell did I ever pick this play for an Anniversary Waltz? No love, no caring, no loyalty, no reassurance. That's not our life. Yes we live on this stage of great fools. We try real hard to carve out our little space of love and caring. It’s not easy. Like so many others, we just keep trying.
PS. Unlike Shakespeare’s Kings, thanks to modern medicine my gout is under control. Next year we will seek out a place to waltz around or go see Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”
The play ended with a audience that just jumped out of their seats and this writer screaming Bravo, bravo bravo. I just love theater people who can make me do that. As we walked a few blocks to the restaurant for dinner a severe pain was developing in my right foot, I do suffer from Neuropathy but somehow this was different. It was becoming increasingly severe.
I began to think, this pain is a result of this play. Lear is a strange story of a group of people all living without love. Lear, the needy father, is distributing his land wealth to his daughters. Reagan, Goneril and Cordelia. But he does it based and how they are able to describe their love of him. Regan and Goneril get their share of land holdings. Cordelia who wanted her fathers love gets nothing. As Lear says, “nothing comes from nothing.” She gets nothing while her evil sisters get it all.
With the landholdings comes power. Regan and Goneril have men besides them who also have one interest, power. Once Lear has given up his throne his two daughters turn him to dust. Without his Kingly powers he goes mad. His friend Gloucester has his eyes torn out by a betraying son. There simply are no redeeming characters in this play. This was in 1605. Do we have similar contemporaries?
As we walked and my pain kept increasing I suddenly;y became aware that my oncoming pain was not neuropathy but Gout. The kings disease. Now that was a perfect fit for this Shakespeare play. I would add, there simply are no heroes in this drama. All the players except Cordelia seem to be devoid of love especially Lear. Yes he wants his daughters to love him but he doesn’t seem to know enough of himself to love anyone. We meet him in his almost childlike old age when his life is fading. It is at his end that he longs for some love from his daughters and loyalty from friends. He gets neither and sinks into an abyss of loss and death.
Upon Cordelia’s murder Lear leaves out a spine tingling scream. I first heard that from Laurence Olivier who described it as hearing trapped animals screaming in a near bye woods. For me that outcry has always touched me as our weeping for the the human condition. The VietNam child screaming with agent orange covering her body. The Kent State students eyes on the Soldiers gun. Slavery, the Holocaust, the Gulag, on and on..
When Lear says, ”When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools.” Doesn’t that say it all? How did Shakespeare come to know so much about the human condition?
“Kate, how the hell did I ever pick this play for an Anniversary Waltz? No love, no caring, no loyalty, no reassurance. That's not our life. Yes we live on this stage of great fools. We try real hard to carve out our little space of love and caring. It’s not easy. Like so many others, we just keep trying.
PS. Unlike Shakespeare’s Kings, thanks to modern medicine my gout is under control. Next year we will seek out a place to waltz around or go see Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Tornadoes as Portent of Things to Come!
Yes, I am aware of the fact that we have had other periods of severe Tornados. I remember 1974 as I had occasion to travel to Xenia Ohio and saw first hand the devastation. It was an incredible sight almost like a flood I witnessed in upstate NY back in the 1940s.
Since the the impact of Global Warming, now called Climate change, we have been trying to convince the world that we need to take action now to at least slow down the dumping of millions of pounds of fossil fuel gas into the atmosphere.
I certainly don’t want to get into an argument of whether or not this has happened before. In that case we are just experiencing another period of extreme weather that has happened repeatedly over time. No I don’t want to go there because that’s a dead end. If I learned anything in science 101 is if you end up in dead ends the question has not been framed properly. Science abhors dead ends.
What I would suggest is we look at these phenomena and ask the question. If it turns out that this is a result of Climate Change is this the kind of catastrophes that will become regular occurrences? Here is where I simply don’t understand the deniers. Okay I'll grant you it’s an iffy question. Problem is if we continue to simply deny it and in fact it is part of climate Change it will be far to late to do anything about it. That’s the tragedy i see unfolding right before my tired old 94 year eyes.
I remember so well my blue water sailing days. (Oh how I miss em.) On occasions I was caught in unexpected thunderstorms. It brought me very close to losing the boat. As well endangering the lives of sailing friends. As a result I became very cautious before setting out to make sure I wasn’t just “daring the elements.” Yes, I had sailing friends who called me “chicken.” That was all right as I said “I’d rather be clucking than in the soup.”
IF, the predictions regarding the impact of Climate Change, made by the worlds best scientific minds just happens to turnout to be right then what? Then the tornadoes, floods, drought, fires across Texas, rising sea levels and severe food shortages will create a hell on earth. This is why I care a lot less about the National Debt than I do about the Climate Change catastrophe. The former can be fixed. In the case of the latter it will be a phenomena of to little and far to late. The consequences absolutely unimaginable. That is the kind of future I do not want to leave to my grandchildren.
How do we wake up folks to realize we are on a very deadly path?
Since the the impact of Global Warming, now called Climate change, we have been trying to convince the world that we need to take action now to at least slow down the dumping of millions of pounds of fossil fuel gas into the atmosphere.
I certainly don’t want to get into an argument of whether or not this has happened before. In that case we are just experiencing another period of extreme weather that has happened repeatedly over time. No I don’t want to go there because that’s a dead end. If I learned anything in science 101 is if you end up in dead ends the question has not been framed properly. Science abhors dead ends.
What I would suggest is we look at these phenomena and ask the question. If it turns out that this is a result of Climate Change is this the kind of catastrophes that will become regular occurrences? Here is where I simply don’t understand the deniers. Okay I'll grant you it’s an iffy question. Problem is if we continue to simply deny it and in fact it is part of climate Change it will be far to late to do anything about it. That’s the tragedy i see unfolding right before my tired old 94 year eyes.
I remember so well my blue water sailing days. (Oh how I miss em.) On occasions I was caught in unexpected thunderstorms. It brought me very close to losing the boat. As well endangering the lives of sailing friends. As a result I became very cautious before setting out to make sure I wasn’t just “daring the elements.” Yes, I had sailing friends who called me “chicken.” That was all right as I said “I’d rather be clucking than in the soup.”
IF, the predictions regarding the impact of Climate Change, made by the worlds best scientific minds just happens to turnout to be right then what? Then the tornadoes, floods, drought, fires across Texas, rising sea levels and severe food shortages will create a hell on earth. This is why I care a lot less about the National Debt than I do about the Climate Change catastrophe. The former can be fixed. In the case of the latter it will be a phenomena of to little and far to late. The consequences absolutely unimaginable. That is the kind of future I do not want to leave to my grandchildren.
How do we wake up folks to realize we are on a very deadly path?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
