Thank goodness for Bernie Sanders’ outspokenness! Yea, some of the wealthiest among us are real patriotic with other people’s money – mainly the middle class!
Monthly Archives: July 2012
Involved
“I want to speak to your son,” the woman told my father when he opened the front door last Sunday, the 1st. It was late in the afternoon, close to 5:00, and I had just spent the day vacuuming and dusting my parents’ home. One of their neighbors, Lisa*, came over with her mother and youngest son in tow. They seemed okay at first, so we didn’t know why Lisa wanted to speak with me.
But, within minutes, I understood she was terrified. She’s either the type not to show such emotion, or manages to control herself well in public. Through her heavy Vietnamese accent, though, she managed to relay what had just happened moments earlier. Her ex-husband, Tran*, had arrived to pick up their 12-eyar-old daughter for a weekend visit. The couple had been divorced for about a year. The Roman Catholic Church had brought them over from Vietnam in the late 1980’s. Here, they established a comfortable life and had 3 kids. They’d lived next door to my parents for about 20 years. I’d met them each once, but didn’t know them as well as my parents do.
Something, however, apparently went awry in that nice suburban existence. You never know what happens behind closed doors. Just like things always look great on paper, things can seem perfect for a family when the front lawn is nicely manicured.
There were a few times, when I first moved back here in 2007, however, that I suspected trouble brewed in that brown-brick house. Standing in my parents’ back yard, watching my dog, I could hear a man’s voice blaring out from a closed window next door. I only heard his voice, never anyone else’s. I didn’t know what was going on and I didn’t want to know. I don’t like to get involved in other people’s business. No one really does, except the editorial boards of People and Vanity Fair magazines.
At some point, Tran moved out of the house. She told my parents one day a couple of years ago that Tran wanted a divorce. But, she refused to grant one, citing her Catholic faith. My parents didn’t ask questions. That was Lisa’s and Tran’s business; my folks didn’t want to get involved.
My dog, Wolfgang, alerted us to Lisa’s presence last Sunday. He’d been lounging by the front door, peering out through the clear glass of the storm door, as he often likes to do. I didn’t recognize Lisa. I hadn’t seen her in a while. I didn’t know the other woman was her mother and I had never seen Lisa’s youngest son.
Lisa’s daughter didn’t want to go with her father, she explained. She retreated into her room and refused to come out. When Lisa tried to close the front door on Tran, he damaged it and then left. Lisa wanted me to come over and sit with her in case Tran returned.
I could just see Tran’s reaction if he did come back to the house he still owned and saw me sitting there with his ex-wife. If he was that enraged and emotional to threaten Lisa and damage the front door, what would he do if was there? Once, Lisa and Tran’s son told my parents that the family had gone out and, upon returning to the house, realized that they’d locked themselves out. One of Tran’s brothers merely retrieved a gun from his vehicle and shot off the door knob.
I didn’t want to get involved. But, I didn’t want to leave Lisa to fend for herself. No, she’s not a child, or an animal, or a disabled person – someone truly defenseless. But, she was obviously scared. “No,” I told her, “you need to call the police.”
But, she was afraid even to do that; in part because of her heavy accent. So, I stepped back into the house and called 911 myself. I hurriedly escorted Wolfgang into my bedroom – since he’s not good with strangers – and brought Lisa, her mother and the boy inside. Lisa’s daughter had left the house with her older brother.
The first of two police officers arrived almost immediately. My father and I explained the situation as best we understood it.
“She was concerned the 911 operator wouldn’t understand her,” I told the fair-skinned policeman, a tall figure with a shaved head and bright blue eyes. “They’re Vietnamese, and she –” I gestured to Lisa – “has a heavy accent. But, their kids were born here,” I added, “here in the U.S.; in Texas.”
I felt the need to emphasize this latter fact, mainly because I don’t trust the police and don’t know how they’ll react to such circumstances. They might think this was just an argument between a bunch of dumb gooks and leave it at that. So, I guess if I pointed out that at least the kids were American-born, then the officer might take it somewhat seriously.
Another officer arrived soon afterwards, and thankfully, they took the case very seriously. Tran had kicked the front inner door hard enough to impair the lock and – worst – had shoved Lisa. When my father mentioned the gun incident to the first police officer, his expression proved he wasn’t just going to let this go.
The police remained at that house for a while. Afterwards, Lisa returned to our house to thank us for calling the police. “You come over here anytime you’re in trouble,” my mother told her. “We’ll figure something out.”
As my attack schnauzer went into convulsive barking fits, I stepped outside and told Lisa, “You don’t have to put up with that. You’re a human being and you deserve respect. That may be Tran’s house, too, but he doesn’t have the right to terrorize you and the kids.” I shook her tiny hand. I didn’t want to try to embrace her. In my culture, Hispanics consider hugs under such circumstances as a sign of respect and humanity.
I wasn’t afraid of Tran. I just didn’t want to become mired in his family’s personal affairs. But, the look of fear I saw deep within Lisa’s eyes told me I couldn’t just stand outside and let it go. There seems to be a fine line between being nosy and watching out for your community. Getting involved is sometimes necessary.
*Names have been changed.
Filed under Essays
July 4 Notable Birthdays
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Former advice columnist Pauline Phillips (“Dear Abby”) is 94.
Actress Eva Marie Saint (On the Waterfront, North by Northwest, Exodus, Raintree County) is 88.
Actress Gina Lollobrigida (Trapeze, Belles de Nuit, Solomon and Sheba, Strange Bedfellows, Come September) is 85.
Playwright Neil Simon (The Odd Couple, Lost in Yonkers; The Sunshine Boys, Barefoot in the Park, The Goodbye Girl, California Suite, Plaza Suite, Seems like Old Times, Prisoner of Second Avenue) is 85.
Singer – songwriter Bill Withers (Ain’t No Sunshine, Lean on Me, Use Me) is 74.
Journalist – TV talk show host Geraldo Rivera (Geraldo) is 69.
Guitarist Jeremy Spencer (Fleetwood Mac) is 64.
Singer – songwriter John Waite (Missing You, Tears) is 57.
Guitarist – saxophone player Kirk Pengilly (INXS) is 54.
Actress Signy Coleman (The Young and the Restless) is 52.
First daughter Malia Obama is 14.
On July 4…
1776 – In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, which declared the young nation’s complete independence from Great Britain.
1826 – Former Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died within 5 hours of each other.
Jefferson
Adams
1855 – The first edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass was published in Brooklyn, NY.
1872 – Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States, was born in Plymouth Notch, VT.
1881 – The Tuskegee Institute opened in Tuskegee, AL, the site for Booker T. Washington’s institution for academic and vocational training.
1888 – The first rodeo in America was held in Prescott, AZ.
1895 – America the Beautiful, the famous song often touted as the true U.S. national anthem was published as a poem written by Katharine Lee Bates, a Wellesley College professor, in the Congregationalist, a church newspaper.
1939 – Lou Gehrig announced his retirement from baseball in a ceremony at Yankee Stadium in New York City.
1970 – Casey Kasem hosted radio’s American Top 40 for the first time.
1997 – The Mars Pathfinder spacecraft, launched by NASA in December 1996, entered the Martian atmosphere.
Filed under History
Nine Myths Debunked About the 4th of July
From left, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson draft the Declaration of Independence. Illustration courtesy Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, Library of Congress.
1. The Declaration of Independence Was Signed on July 4
Independence Day is celebrated two days too late. The Second Continental Congress voted for a Declaration of Independence on July 2, prompting John Adams to write his wife, “I am apt to believe that [July 2, 1776], will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”
Adams correctly foresaw shows, games, sports, buns, bells, and bonfires – but he got the date wrong. The written document wasn’t edited and approved until the Fourth of July, and that was the date printers affixed to “broadside” announcements sent out across the land. July 2 was soon forgotten.
In fact, no one actually signed the Declaration of Independence at any time during July 1776. Signing began on August 2, with John Hancock’s famously bold scribble, and wasn’t completed until late November.
Patriot Paul Revere really did hit the road on the night of April 18, 1775, to alert the countryside that British troops were on the move. But the image of an inspired, lone rider isn’t accurate. Revere was part of a low-tech – but highly effective – early-warning system.
The system did include lanterns at Boston’s Old North Church, from whose steeple the church sexton, Robert Newman, held two lanterns as a signal that the British were coming. However Revere wasn’t watching for them that night.
Revere and fellow rider William Dawes, who was sent by a different route, successfully reached Lexington, Massachusetts, to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that they’d likely be arrested. But Revere and Dawes were captured by the British with third rider Samuel Prescott soon afterward.
The liberties later taken with the Revere legend weren’t mistakes but deliberate mythmaking by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who intended his famous 19th century poem to stoke patriotism on the eve of the Civil War. The ride’s real story is told at Paul Revere House, the Boston museum where Revere once lived and from which he left on that fateful night.
3. July 4, 1776, Party Cracked the Liberty Bell
U.S. independence surely prompted a party, but joyful patriots didn’t ring the Liberty Bell until it cracked on July 4, 1776. In fact the State House Bell likely didn’t ring at all that day. It probably did ring, along with the city’s other bells, to herald the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence on July 8, according to a history of the bell published by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.
As for that crack, well, the bell had been poorly cast and cracked soon after its arrival in 1752. The bell was subsequently recast, and re-cracked, several times but was intact during the Revolutionary War.
Today’s iconic crack actually appeared sometime during the 19th century, though the exact date is in dispute. It was also during this period that the bell became popularly known as the Liberty Bell, a term coined by abolitionists.
4. Patriots Flocked to Fight for Freedom
This enduring image is accurate, when describing the beginning of the Revolutionary War. But, as it became clear that the struggle for independence would be long and difficult, the enthusiasm of many American men for fighting began to wane, while their concerns for the well-being of their farms and other livelihoods grew.
After initial enlistment rushes, many colonies resorted to cash incentives as early as 1776 and states were drafting men by the end of 1778, according to historian John Ferling in a 2004 Smithsonian magazine article.
5. The Declaration of Independence Holds Secret Messages
Some revolutionary myths are of modern origin. There’s no invisible message or map on the back of the Declaration of Independence, as depicted in the film National Treasure. But the National Archives admits there is something written on the back of the priceless document.
A line on the bottom of the parchment reads “Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776.” Why? The large document would have been rolled for travel and storage during the 18th century, so the reverse-side writing likely acted as a label to identify the document while it was rolled up.
6. John Adams Died Thinking of Thomas Jefferson
Incredibly both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson did die on the Fourth of July, but there’s no real evidence to suggest that Adams’s final thoughts were with Jefferson or that he uttered “Jefferson survives” on his deathbed.
Even if he had, he’d have been wrong, as Jefferson beat him in death by several hours. The day does seem inauspicious for presidents, however. The less celebrated James Monroe also died on July 4, in 1831.
7. America United Against the British
The Revolutionary War also pitted Americans against Americans in large numbers. Perhaps 15 to 20 percent of all Americans were loyalists who supported the crown, according to the U.K. National Army Museum. Many others tried to stay out of the fight altogether.
Records from the period are sketchy at best, but an estimated 50,000 Americans served as British soldiers or militia at one time or another during the conflict, a significant force pitted against a Continental Army that may have included a hundred thousand regular soldiers over the course of the war.
8. Betsy Ross Made the First American Flag
There is no proof that Betsy Ross played any part in designing or sewing the American flag that made its debut in 1777. In fact, the story of the famous seamstress didn’t circulate until it was raised by her grandson nearly a century after the fact, and the only evidence is testimony to this family tradition.
To be fair, there’s also no conclusive evidence that Ross didn’t sew the flag, and there are several reasons why she just might have done so. The Betsy Ross House on Philadelphia’s Arch Street (where Ross may or may not have actually lived) tells the whole tale and leaves visitors to draw their own conclusions.
9. Native Americans Sided With the British
“(He) has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions.”
The Declaration of Independence made this claim against King George III, and many Native Americans did eventually fight with the British. But many others sided with people in the colonies or simply tried to stay out of the European conflict altogether, according to Dartmouth College historian Colin Galloway, author of The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities.
Most New England Indians supported the Continentals, and the powerful Iroquois Confederacy was split by the conflict. Native “redcoats” fought not for love of King George but in hopes of saving their own homelands, which they thought would to be the spoils of the War for Independence.
Those who allied themselves with the British saw their lands lost in the Peace of Paris treaty, but Native Americans who supported Americans fared little better in the long run.
On this latter note, I want to add that – for better or worst – this is the country we have and it’s still a work in progress. Things definitely are much better now than they were 200-plus years ago. And, they’ll only get better because people like us who care about the place where they live make certain of it!
Article courtesy National Geographic.
Snooki Prepares for Motherhood
The child therapy bills are already piling up. Source.
Filed under Curiosities
July 3 Notable Birthdays
If today is your birthday, “Happy Birthday!”
Playwright Tom Stoppard (The Real Thing, On the Razzle, Travesties, Empire of the Sun) is 75.
Singer Fontella Bass (Rescue Me) is 72.
Actor Kurtwood Smith (To Die For, The Crush, Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country, Dead Poets Society) is 69.
Actor Michael Cole (Mod Squad, Chuka, Nickel Mountain) is 67.
Singer Johnny Lee (Lookin’ for Love, One in a Million, Bet Your Heart on Me) is 66.
Actress – singer Betty Buckley (Cats, Eight is Enough, Carrie, Wyatt Earp) is 65.
Actress Jan Smithers (WKRP in Cincinnati, Mr. Nice Guy, Where the Lilies Bloom) is 63.
Former TV talk show host Montel Williams (The Montel Williams Show) is 56.
Singer – songwriter – keyboardist Vince Clarke (DePeche Mode, Yaz, The Assembly) is 52.
Actor Tom Cruise (Thomas Cruise Mapother IV; Mission: Impossible series, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Days of Thunder, Born on the Fourth of July, Cocktail, Top Gun, Rain Man, The Color of Money, Taps, Interview with a Vampire, Jerry Maguire, Eyes Wide Shut) is 50.
Actor Thomas Gibson (Far and Away, The Age of Innocence, Barcelona, Dharma & Greg, Eyes Wide Shut) is 50.
Actress Hunter Tylo (All My Children, Final Cut, Days of Our Lives, Longshot) is 50.
Actress Shawnee Smith (Becker, Iron Eagle, Who’s Harry Crumb?, Desperate Hours, Leaving Las Vegas, Arsenio, Armageddon) is 42.
Filed under Birthdays
On July 3…
1871 – The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Company introduced the first narrow-gauge locomotive, the Montezuma.
1878 – Actor – singer – composer George M. Cohan (Over There, The Yankee Doodle Boy, Give My Regards to Broadway, Mary’s a Grand Old Name, You’re a Grand Old Flag, Harrigan) was born in Providence, Rhode Island.
1890 – Idaho became the 43rd of the United States.
1976 – An Israeli commando unit rescued 103 hostages in a raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda. Four terrorists had hijacked an Air France airliner on its way to Paris from Tel Aviv on June 27. They released the French crew and non-Jewish passengers, while retaining 105 Jewish and Israeli hostages. Seven pro-Palestinian guerrilla hijackers, 20 Ugandan soldiers and 3 hostages were killed in the raid.
1986 – Ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov became a U.S. citizen in ceremonies at Ellis Island, New York Harbor.
Filed under History
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