Patrick Tillman Remembered, Going on 17 years...

Patrick Tillman Remembered, Going on 17 years...

Celebrity means something when you give everything. He did.

Tillman represents my generation, represents my country, and represents my humanity for many reasons. Allow me to explain, because I am deeper than the average person, in my opinion, and I believe posthumous Corporal Tillman was deeper than average, too. Hence, some 'splainin' to do.

 

[This section added 1 September 2020: I have thought over these comments of "deep" or "deeper" for a few weeks, and I wanted to to qualify my language better than that. A lot of people are deep and have profound sentiments and feelings, but what maybe I wanted to say about Tillman and me, if I may, is that we might be considered complex, or conflicted. There are parts of us that push us in different ways, and I think that does a better job than saying that we are "deep" or "deeper" or anything else more or less than any other person. Each person has his or her conflicts, and in the end I believe that I identify with a few of those pushes and pulls.

 

I think that is a good caveat. I hope that makes sense.] 

The attacks of September 11, 2001, rocked our worlds in the United States for a few reasons. Guys like Pat (I met one former Ranger in 2012 who knew him, and that guy opined to me personally that Tillman was a jerk and too cocky and arrogant) and I were shaken and awoken by the acts and consequences. Pat was about 25 back then, I was 30; the Towers fell and the Pentagon burned and the heroes of Shanksville, Pennsylvania crashed to their brave deaths.  It got us all thinking in new and grim, but perhaps stoic and realistic ways. Who did this? Why? What should I do?

He was newly married that warm September, I was too. I had a new born, I was just starting graduate school at a prestigious university; Tillman was making really good money and making a bigger name for himself in the NFL. He lived in Arizona and I in California.

He was a celebrity because he was celebrated by millions. Thus his words, and then deeds, had a larger than life impact on me and a few million others. Some of us probably took it to heart more than others; I believe I did. He finished up his "modest" season contract in early 2002 (he had a counter offer for many more millions the previous summer but chose to stay in Phoenix with the Cardinals), and joined the U.S. Army with his brother, another professional athlete, to be a Ranger, the elite of American Special Forces. You can research his words. The following are mine.

My parents and grandparents and on back did not serve directly in combat like Tillman's apparently did. My dad and step-father were in the military, but did not engage in combat. I guess Tillman's had fought and seen danger. Either way, we both felt like we owed our nation, and we were both grateful to our literal forefathers and heritages with what we had. He acted right away, it tool a little longer for me to come into the Army.

In 2001-2 I thought that I would serve my country back then by getting smarter, more educated, more titled (graduate degree in Latin American Studies), and become a diplomat in the United States Department of State, assisting in bringing nations and enemies to peace in a role as an official power broker, speaking languages like Spanish and Arabic, and even Portuguese. I tried to take the U.S. State Department's (foreign service) entrance exam five years in a row; I never made it past the second round of interviews. I went on to flounder with my Master's as far as those international designs, then I joined the military two and half years after Pat's death.

His passing made an impact on me at the time,  I would argue later and even now, 16 plus years later; it does not matter to me whether his death was friendly fire or hostile. It also does not matter to me if he had a huge attitude about himself, or if some mistakenly think of him as bloodthirsty. He was not, by the way. He was kind to those who were around him, from all reports. He was not bent on killing. Regardless, the moment that I found out that he had died in April of 2004 in some far flung province of Afghanistan, I was changed.

My wife was very pregnant in April 2004; like our first baby who was a daughter, we waited till the actual birth to know what gender our child was. With less than two months before her eventual birth, I decided pretty resolutely that if the baby were a boy he would have the middle name Tillman. It made sense to me, it was decent and more importantly an honorable name. Nothing against girls and their names, but I wanted this person's name to be remembered down the road. Is he worth remembering? Well, for starters, almost all the soldiers and marines are worth remembering.

What about this guy?

Why was he a hero and why was he celebrated? Because he was a millionaire athlete; but, unlike so many others, he was a raw patriot and man of action. He was transparent and real. He was humble despite his superiority. He was who millions of the rest of us rooted for and celebrated. He was all about doing, where many or most of us cannot, or did not. He submitted to the nation's military system because he felt he was paying back those that he owed. He believed that he could help the United States bring people to justice and make a difference.

It required a tremendous act of courage and heroism, no question. His wife and family also gave for it. Foolish? Some might think so or say so. So was Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, and Florence Nightingale and Harriet Tubman. Foolish heroes, all of them. So, too, were the three young men lynched in the deep South trying to bring justice to Emmitt Till. So was John Lewis for getting beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Foolish men and women. Putting themselves in harm's way. Some of them were knocked down by bullets and never got up. Crispus Attacks in a snow ball fight in Boston, well back in 1775 or so.

Foolish American iconic heroes.

Pat Tillman, we named our first born son in 2006 after you. And, I swore in with the Army 6 months later. There is a back story to that, which has to do with me and the wars, and my faith and things... I am still signed up, a decade and a half later. I went to Afghanistan 5 years after I swore allegiance in 2007. Returned safely a year after that.

And the rest, all these years later, I read your book about you, Mr. Tillman, and the conditions of your demise, plus the surroundings of the greater world, according to John Krakauer; not just the selected chapters that I did in the local Target merchandise store back in 2010 or so, but the whole enchilada. I very much enjoyed it, coupled with simultaneous readings of Lawrence Wright (ISIS) and Hopkins and Sugerman (Jim Morrison and the Doors), and many other articles and reports of 2020....

Tillman, I have been to your USO House in Bagram, a place for rest and relaxation, right by the air field in Panjshir Province; I have spent my hours and days there. I have been to some Afghan provinces, not the one you went to and died, after spreading your influence with fellow soldiers and local children and villagers. You shared money and radios, you did more peacekeeping than shooting.

It has been narrowed down to three soldiers that believe that they might have shot you. Krakauer in his 2009 book thinks it was Adler with the .249 SAW; Elliot in 2014 admitted that it was likely him with the larger caliber .240.  We may never know and ultimately it does not matter, because three guys in the same HUMVEE aimed at him, meaning to hit him. One of them did, after shooting and killing the Afghan ally.

It's all water under the bridge, as they say. Closure for the loved ones is harder to come by, I get it.

Closure for those who lost rank or status is also heavy. The mission was botched by officers up top, that is more than certain. The Army mechanic misdiagnosed a broken solenoid in the dead HHMMWW, not a faulty fuel pump as he tried to fix for most of the day.

Two serials were separated, only one with a .50 cal ensconced in the turret. A local Afghan "jinga" truck was used to tow the disabled HUMMER in the truck that was supposed to go to the paved Ring Road, MSR whatever to recover that piece of equipment.

Two missions were stupidly conflated to get done at the wrong time, (daytime), and then despite the complaints of better minded leaders on the ground and at Camp Salerno Base, the mission moved on.

Pat died. Stupid circumstances, the soldiers who shot and shot at him were scared, were in the wrong... But ultimately were trying to do the right thing. Save themselves, save their buddies, neutralize the enemy, serve their country, move onward and upward.

Like Pat Tillman.

God rest your soul, Patrick, even though I never met you and you do not, nor did you not in life believe in the God that I believe will restore all as it should be and bring you back to your loved ones.

I celebrate you, we celebrate you, you are an eternal celebrity and a hero.

You lived and died trying to do the right thing; you left a lot of energy, integrity, bravery, and virtue in your wake.

Thanks John Krakauer and all others who have done their research to bring your stories and inspirations to life.

Tillman symbolized a lot; I have really only touched on a few things as to why that matters.

I hope that we all understand them a bit more now. America? Bastion of freedom or oppressor?

We must all be the judge of those things, and make choices everyday to go forward or retreat.

Some of us will never give up, and some of us will die trying.

(Originally published Tuesday Aug. 4, 2020)

Jim Morrison: Jerk, Devil, Rock Singer; Monster or Sicko?

Jim Morrison: Jerk, Devil, Rock Singer [Monster and/or sicko]

I am reading the Hopkins and other writer,  Sugerman, [both co-wrote this popular biography], which I saw a lot of when I was younger, in the 1980s. I think I saw it because of the influence of a local high school teacher, and it went more viral from there. That's a guess. But I think this was accurate for Bloomington, Indiana, as much as the rest of the world after its publication in 1980. "Nobody Gets Out of Here Alive. " A line from one of Morrison's songs, which might be derived from an earlier poet.

I am now about 150 pages in, out of around 350 or so; a few more than I was when I started this title a day or two ago.

At this point of the book I want Jim Morrison to die sooner than later. He is what I added in the first part of the title of this post, and then I added "monster", and "sicko": sycophant probably applies.   Too much alcohol, too much drugs, too much him, and too much violence and sexual depravity.

I might not be the first or the thousandth person to claim this, but Jim Morrison is a pretty despicable and sick person. Great artist, in many ways, but an awful, and dark and gross individual. Sick, to a major degree, evidenced in his teenage years but worse with time and drug abuse.

Having not finished the book, again, not quite half way through, I hope that his early death is/was better for him and all of us than if he had kept on living. Why did he hate his parents so much? For being nice, conformist, well achieving Americans? For having traditional values and codified morals?

Keep in mind, going back to the 1970s and 1980s as a youth, I listened to and enjoyed all the hits of the Doors that I knew of. I watched Apocalypse Now, and was artistically intrigued by "The End", admittedly more a director's choice for the film than the direct contribution of the band in question, but this song has its qualities, dark and foreboding for sure. I believe that I heard it a few time in my church mission in Chile, and some locals asked me to translate it. I thought it was pretty and melodic, and has a menacing yet luridly appealing message, as Martin Scorsese used it for the culminating scene of his iconic film. Into the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s, I have enjoyed all main hits of the Doors. I did not seek out the minor ones, nor did I try reading this book "Nadie Sale de Aqui Vivo", by the aforementioned Hopkins and Sugerman, until now, around the corner (the last climate season) from turning 50 years of age. Old enough, right? Old enough to be stuck in my ways, or perhaps being firmly aligned with the values that people had issues against Jim Morrison and the oft times obscene and profane art of the Doors.

I have finally read the book, one that I was acutely aware of as a younger man, in the earlier 1980s and now close to four decades (a Biblical time period) later, in my month of July and retrospect, even in the summer of the epic pandemic. What would Mister Mojo Risin' think of such times? What does the drug-induced and philosophical wizard, the life-crazed and sex-obsession poetic savant have to say about such globally catastrophic evil machinations of his distant future? Did Jim, in fact, fake his own death in Paris, France, to become the free and anonymous bard that he had wished to be by the end of his alleged drug abused and alcohol-overwhelmed life, at the rock star age of 27, following 60s legends Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin?

It has now been a few days seen I finished it; with time of a slight passage to mull over its meanings.

Is he still alive?!! Is James Douglas Morrison still creating his poetry throughout the universe? Well, in  many senses, because of and through his art of song and verses, he certainly is still alive, he is still with us. Jim Morrison is immortal.

The feelings that I had in the first 100 to 150 pages of the book for this would-be larger-than-life character, those sentiment urges of antipathy and disgust and a desire to see this man die sooner, the one who disowned his own parents, who had little regard for the forces of order and decency, or plain affection or respect for parents, transformed a bit more towards pity and some compassion, or at least some feeling of this guy was screwed in wrong and had to be the devil and artist that he had to be, much like Van Gogh or hundreds and perhaps thousands of other artists and poets across the vast generations.

Jim Morrison. There were not a lot of witnesses of your death, your body, your remains.

Whichever way your soul has gone, dead in 1972 or alive somewhere in some head case horror show or opium den Shangri La, now as old as my parents and some great grandparents poking around the globe in 2020, I am glad I finally read the book; I have a chance to entertain, scrutinize, and exorcise some of those universal or peculiar particular demons, at minimum and a small portion of yours and a few more of my own. Without all the drugs and booze.

Jim Morrison: not an easy person, not an easy read, not an easy life or death.

And so be it.

August 2, 2020 Addition. His biographers are now dead, too. Rest in peace, I will see you all on the other side. Break on through.

Iraq, Iraq, Iraq: A Retrospective

Iraq, Iraq, Iraq: A Retrospective

Here we are in the summer of pandemic (2020), adjusting and re-adjusting to the quarantines and lock downs, the social distancing and the virtual connections and the wearing of the masks. Also, with the tragedy of George Floyd, we (and I mean black, white, brown, pro-law enforcement and anti-police brutality, Democrats, Republicans, people of all faiths and socio-economic groups) are thinking and re-thinking our relationships to society, to each other, to ourselves, our politics, ideologies and philosophies, and yes, our privilige[s] and racism[s].

Thinking about my topic of Iraq, I realize that my topic is bigger than just this country; it has a lot to do with U.S. foreign policy and the threats that it perceives over time. The U.S. sees threats and does what it can to thwart or prevent them.

U.S. Worldwide Posture and Necessity

The Two World Wars, 1914-1918, and 1931-1945, first from belligerent Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empires, then later Germany, Italy, and the power hungry Japan, showed the world that the United States was a necessary part of global defenses against tyranny and genocide. If it were not for the United States ending both global conflicts, aiding Great Britain in a bereft Europe, and liberating China and the Pacific from the Rising Sun, it is likely that most of the world would be speaking either German and/or Japanese even now in the 21st century. Perhaps spoken Russian would be kept in their homeland, and English, Spanish, and Portuguese in the Western Hemisphere would have remained, but that in itself is a sobering thought. All under German and Japanese control, as some have theorized.

The United Nations was subsequently formed to prevent such existential threats in the future, but the Soviet Union under Stalin and quickly China under Mao posed further authoritarian threats to the world, more or less embedded within the foundations of the U.N., hence the U.S. involvement in the Cold War and proxy bloody insurrections ever since.The wars that were resultant of the anti-communists were plentiful, bloody, and awful throughout the world, to include devastating coup d' etats, plus actions on smaller yet closely felt levels,  espionage and maneuvers related to arrests, torture, and murder in the duel between the bipolar giants of the later 20th century.

All's fair in love and the Cold War. Millions and millions suffered and died because of this power struggle.

And yet, there were other virulent (yes, I am a Western idealist, informed by my point of view) ideologies that were in force throughout the 20th century that would wind up lasting beyond over surpassing Marxism and its attempts for power and control, which had their own ideas of economics and geo-political control, which would be: 1. militant Islam and 2. dogmatic martial nationalism. These two movements are most auspiciously identified in the 21st century in the forms of Al-Qaeda, the Iranian Islamic Republic, and the sovereign nations of North Korea, China, and Russia. One could throw in some hostile or anti-American regimes like those found in Cuba and Venezuela as of 2020, which have Marxist claims, but the two biggest strains or anti-U.S. and anti-Western movements and groups are extremist Muslim militants, to include the government of Iran, and the nations that are nationalistic to an extreme, totalitarian as opposed to democratic, in North Korea, China, and Russia. All are using capitalism for their survival and existence, but ideologically some of them vehemently oppose or more subtly subvert the ways of democratic capitalistic liberalism to accomplish their aims.

Their aims are not "our" goals or objectives, so we fight and bleed and sweat and toil in order to prevent them from gaining more power and influence, but it is a tricky and greasy and often times corrupt slope, because there is oil and energy and regular commerce that benefits all, the sellers and the consumers on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, the largest earthly body connecting the world super powers, to include always formidable Russia along the same ocean paths...

U.S. and Coalition Intervention and 2003 War in Iraq

So back to Iraq.

Saddam Hussein proved an untiring irritant for both of the above reasons: he was both a brutal nationalist and fascist dictator who, like Hitler or Stalin or Mao or Pol Pot, or take your pick of sycophant mass killers over the centuries, combined the worst of authoritarian terror while simultaneously harboring those of Al-Qaeda and the deadly religious extreme of militant Islam. He even had the bald audacity to claim to be a good Sunni Muslim, thus justifying the long terrible war with his Shia neighbors the Iranis, and systematically exterminating and leveling the predominant Shia south of his own troubled land, not to mention sending them as fodder in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. But, how could we or he justify the gassing of the Sunni Kurds to the north? Certainly not for religious loyalties or reasons, right? He was simply a mass killer, plain and simple.

Did he need to be removed? Of course! Did Adolph Hitler need to be removed? Yes, same answer! But what year would be most appropriate for the latter of the Third Reich? 1935? 1938? 1941? A little late by then, as the "Final Answer" genocide of the Jews and others came into full effect, forever altering the balance of Europe and the Middle East in the newfound refuge Israel, pushing out millions of land owning or other peasant Arabs of the Holy Land...

This current day miasma, a complicated web we have weaved surrounding Jerusalem.

So people in 2020 glibly and openly declare that the Iraqi War was a mistake? Hardly.

There were many mistakes committed, very clearly, but the underpinning reason to remove Saddam Hussein in 2002-3?

It was completely and utterly justified (it was beyond the charges of Weapons of Mass Destruction, which Saddam had in the chemicals he used, besides). The U.S. and British and others, particularly the Iraqi lives lost and sacrificed to end his tyrannical reign? Like in World War II, it was done for the greater good. No question. Job well done. Mission accomplished, as the chided president prematurely declared in May of 2003. But history has and will prove him right. George W. Bush did the correct thing in toppling Hussein, intervening in Iraq. 17 years later it is more a democracy than most other Arab states.

Hussein was the one to stop, and we did. Good riddance, and blessed be the martyrs who sacrificed all for that cause of his removal. The French and other cowards who opposed it in the early 2000s? We saw what happened to you in World War Two, and you needed us to save you from a similarly despotic Germany. You're welcome.

Us Americans are not that dumb or bloodthirsty. There were huge costs at stake, and many people have suffered, assuredly. But, we, the United States, know a big, bad bully when we see one, we have learned from history, and we are not afraid to tangle with him. Hussein, the modern day genocidalist. We are used to saving millions and millions of innocent and brutalized people. And we will do it again. God bless America.

More later.

Blogged it.

Hey, White Americans! Stop Assisting the Deaths of People of Color!

Hey, White Americans! Stop Assisting in the Deaths and Victimization of People of Color! Updated 2020, Pandemic Time

In the proud and tragic history of the United States (we count it since around 1775), white people here in the continent and abroad have accounted for directly killing or indirectly assisting in the death of many peoples of color. It has not been a one way street, certainly, but "white people" have had most of the power and control for 245 years, admittedly. That control too often has led to awful and sad numbers of deaths and victimization of blacks, browns, Native Americans, Asians, and others. And generally, more people of color have died at the hands of white men, mostly. We also acknowledge that black on black violence is too much, since at least 1960. Maybe before? Whites killing non-whites has to end as much as we can influence those trends. I would like to identify that there is a new way that certain whites are achieving this act of death for the non-white in the summer of 2020. I do not think that they (these accused white people) mean to achieve this, but this is what is happening night after night, week after week this summer of '20. Allow me to explain.

Street protests and attacks on federal facilities are killing and abetting the deaths of non-whites. How, you ask? The street protests have brought the contagion of COVID-19 to more homes of people of color. This activity could be blamed on the outrage of police brutality, I understand, but people of color are disproportionately affected by the virus, and hence the gatherings of people close together is undoubtedly spreading more sickness and death among everyone, but it is worse among blacks and browns than white populations. Is this reasonable to argue? Police killing an innocent arrestee resistor is unconscionable, but when it leads to more deaths of innocents and the weak due to those who are protesting over those acts and trends... Justified? Meanwhile, criminals of all races are killing people of all races every day.

Which leads to the protests and attacks on federal facilities, or local police structures causing increased deaths and strife for peoples of color. How is this harming them? Believe it or not, our law enforcement brothers and sisters have limited time, money, and resources to "police", which is much more than following traffic violators and domestic disturbances. Police are called upon to search down leads that have been developed over time, including thousands of detectives that are searching down long term criminals, killers, rapists, robbers, burglars, to include the "white collar" crimes. 

Not easy. Made harder when a bunch of protestors-gone-rioters, many resorting to looting and outright violence, especially in the late hours of the night, when most regular crimes are committed, are directly and indirectly attacking government buildings and facilities. Be it graffiti and "light" vandalism, or assaults with projectiles or fire bombs, these street groups are using up our police resources in personnel, hours billed, injuries on duty, and taking away from the cases and crimes that are being committed in other parts of the precincts. People of color in the immediate moment and on long term criminal cases are being ignored, and the innocents go on being violated and not getting justice.

Have you ever seen a fighter distract his opponent with one hand while he pummels him with the other? Does this make sense? This is a simple analogy, but I believe it is understandable, clear, and applies to some of the protests occurring in Portland, Seattle, and perhaps other large cities in the country where Homeland Security officers and security are paid, ordered to protect those assets, to include human lives. Police officers and their buildings should not be under attack. They are protecting us and saving our lives, short and long term! If you do not like them or their practices, vote accordingly and peacefully protest during waking hours, do what your conscious dictates to change the situation and the systems in place. More power to you, act and vote your mind.

I know we all want justice; we can debate through words, social media and the press, and the democratic process how things can be fixed and modified, and how to fund law enforcement, and who should handle mental patients and what other social vehicles can handle the poor and suffering in our society, but it makes me mad and frustrated when white people, of all that do this, are distracting and threatening our law enforcement (police and security who are of all races and creeds), while the kids and the innocents in the most impoverished neighborhoods are wrapped up in body bags, every weekend, every month, every year. Why do we not know the names of the little ones killed? Why do we not demand justice for them? I think that we of all colors do not really care enough about them...

Is there an end in sight? White people? Get your priorities straight and do not threaten and attack the very professional people doing their best, under high stress and at risk to their own lives, to protect the neediest and most at risk among us.

White people? You are really prone to killing and letting people of color die. You have found a new way to do so this summer of 2020, or perhaps multiple new ways due to a deadly virus pandemic.

Let's stop at least this aspect of it this summer and into the future.

Black lives most certainly do matter. Every single one of them, not just the ones who resisted arrest and when things went the wrong way. The latter is bad, horrible, obviously, but there is a bigger picture. 

Do not attack and accost the police, threatening them and their tools and facilities, distracting them from protecting the rest of us, bring justice to the most guilty. Do the right thing and stop criminality in every place where it takes place. Save the innocents of endless crimes, detrimental to people of all colors, but disproportionately to blacks and browns. Help the police end the killings. White people, you can greatly help. Do not abuse and misuse your racial privilege to further hurt the others less privileged than you.

This summer (2020) has taken too many lives tragically, for reasons of violence and incautious recklessness beyond the normal reasons of death. Let us not perpetuate and instigate these errors now and into the future. White people and people of all races in the United States, we can make a difference for the better. Let us all save lives instead of taking them. Let us seek and find justice for all.

Did I not mention Ken Snow? I will now...

Did I not mention Ken Snow? I will now...

Outside of my home town of Bloomington, Indiana, and even within Bloomington, a lot of people may not realize how great the Indiana University men's soccer program has been for decades. They consistently are one of the best Division I teams in the nation, which admittedly is second tier compared to American football, basketball, and even baseball in the United States, but it is still a big deal to be among the nation's elite in a such a competitive sport.

Jerry Yeagley brought greatness to the men's team since I was young in the 1970s. Since then IU has won 8 national championships and been to many more College Cups, which is the Final Four, which is rarefied air in the world at this level. Yeagley was succeeded by an older assistant coach, who won a national crown in his short tenure, and not long after that his son, Todd, has taken the helm and maintained a very high standard of play at Indiana. Todd won a national title in 2012.

Recently, arguably the best IU scorer of all time unexpectedly passed away. His name was Ken or Kenny Snow, and by most accounts was the best and most prolific scorer in Indiana men's soccer history.

It was on June 21 that he died of complications, as we know now probably linked to COVID-19.

Ken was described by the coaches, opponents, and fans that observed him as the best in IU history. He played all four years in Bloomington, which helped, because nowadays he would have gone professional sooner, most believe. His brother Steve was also on the team.

He affected me my senior year, which is an honor in most ways, because the day, or even hour, his team won the national championship on our home campus I was performing in a high school musical a few miles northwest of there. Less people attended our show because of that momentous event, I believe.

I was happy we won that fall of 1988, on a rather crisp but as I recall sunny December day. Back then that was Coach Yeagley's fourth championship or so.

Todd was a player for my high school team with many of my friends. I did not know Todd personally, who ended up playing two seasons with Snow, and no national championships for them then as the University of Virginia was on a tear, but they were really good teams.

I had a crush on Todd's older sister Yvette, in middle school, back around 1983, who was two grades older than me and the same age as my sister Jeannette.

Ken Snow was born June 23, 1969, thus missing out on his 51st birthday by two days.

COVID-19 got you too young, and it seems like you were raising more soccer talent for future greatness, few of whom may ever reach your stature, but you should have lived well past this summer.

Rest in peace, brother. Thanks for bringing your talents and more glory to Old IU.

Thanks for living a really good life. We need more like you.

John Lewis, 80, Rest in Peace: and Thank You

John Lewis, 80, Rest in Peace: and Thank You

This man is a hero for many reasons. He just died last night (July 17). Most men and women who live to eighty years old are heroes for that reason alone, to survive this long on earth and contribute to their fellow humans and the surrounding habitats, hopefully aiding and adding more to the world than subtracting.

Safe to say that John Lewis did this. He worked and sacrificed for his ethnic minority when he was young, along with many other noble and bold, and humble people, to include the august Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior, martyr and amazing American and human member of our history.

He was not just sacrificing and protesting for blacks, or negros, or Afro-Americans, or African-Americans alone. No, Lewis was doing that for all of us, because all of us count. He was the first to be struck on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, by police, protesting for equal rights and treatment and justice, and he was the last surviving speaker of those who made their historic march and speeches in Washington, D.C., at the Lincoln Memorial. (Mention of great 95 year-old C.T. Vivien, too, who died beside his friend John...)

Black lives matter, as much in 1619 as they do now in 2020. All lives matter, and whites or others should not be favored because because of their ethnic heritage or color of skin.

John Lewis fought for his people, represented them, but his people was us, all of us: white, brown, black, and those of all languages and backgrounds.

Others know him better, others will eulogize him better than me, others identify with him more than me. I am not of his party and nor am I partial to the totality of his causes, but I empathize and share much of his concerns and hopes as a government servant and person of the people. I too am pro-immigration, for example, the last of his 45 arrests protesting for the sake of the foreigners who have arrived in our country, not to be expelled as quickly as some would like. He did that at age 73 in 2013.

I salute you, Mr. Lewis, and I thank you for all your contributions.

You did everything you could, from my estimation, to be the best person that you could be, and help and lift the most you could. Well done.

And you lived a superb 80 years.

--Blogged it

We Watched "Alexander Hamilton" Last Night

We Watched "Alexander Hamilton", the musical,  Last Night

     I had been hearing some of the music and lyrics of this ground breaking musical since it came out around 2016. I believe that I watched and heard interviews with its creator, the writer/actor Miranda in the intervening years. The kids and some friends watched it last week; I walked by and saw some of the cast and scenes.

I am very impressed by the structure and content of the play as written and performed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Great talent and performances were replete. Huge energy, powerful ideas and themes. The stories and research necessary to portray those people and times is tremendous and impressive.

This casts U.S. history in different lights, and I believe the inter-textuality of slavery and human rights is incredibly prescient and well crafted, even more so in 2020 than the time it debuted around 2016, still before President Trump and the current anti-law enforcement sentiments, but after some of the police brutality tragedies and subsequent riots of those times in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore...

Powerful, energetic, creative and genius in parts, this is a "tour de force", as they say.

Miranda does an amazing job of combining the songs and messages, playing on universal and topical messages and themes.

Color me impressed. It inspires me to read more about Hamilton and by him, and others of those times...

--Blogged it

TWO MORE THINGS:

I am committed and I have to remind myself: I will attend at least five black churches, especially when the pandemic conditions are calmed, either near and far.

The next time that I bear my testimony, at church or whatever, "preaching the Word", I might utter, "I am not throwin' away, my: shot!"

Carpe diem.