Mike Pence And Lester Maddox
This is a repost from 2015. In the seven years after, Mike Pence has served as Vice President of the United States. In the post was this sentence: “It is highly unlikely that anyone will know who this Pence person is in forty four years.” Political predictions are risky.
Salon posted a festive piece the other day. The headline: “Indiana’s Mike Pence is starting to look like Lester Maddox — without the spine.” What about the Governor’s breast, thigh, and wing?
Mr. Pence is the media punching bag of the moment. In a few days, someone else will screw up, and the nabbering classes can pick on someone else. The riffraff law will be lawyered out in the courts.
The question here is the connection to the former Georgia Governor. It turns out to be a rhetorical gimmick. In the first paragraph, author Joan Walsh essentially repeats the headline. “… even before Pence began to look like a 21st century Lester Maddox — without the spine.” This is the last time Lester is mentioned. He is used as a bald headed Honey Boo Boo.
It is ironic that Lester is this famous forty four years later. There are many bad things you can say about Mr. Maddox. However, Georgia survived both Lester, and smiling Jimmy, as Governor. It is highly unlikely that anyone will know who this Pence person is in forty four years.
The second part of this feature is a previously published piece about Lester Maddox. PG was twelve when Lester was elected, and has many memories of the four years that followed. The post goes into some of the mixed feelings, and tells a couple of stories. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
There has never been a politician like Lester Garfield Maddox. He was elected Governor of Georgia (with help of a quirk in the state constitution) in 1966. PG was 12 at the time, and saw the spectacle of the next four years with amazement.
Before we get started on this, we should remember a couple of things. Lester Maddox became notorious when he shut down his restaurant, The Pickrick, rather than serve a black customer. He was a segregationist, which means he did not want Black people to have the same rights as White people. Looking back from 2022, it seems incredible that civil rights legislation was needed, 58 years ago, so that 30% of Georgia could eat in a restaurant. PG does not condone the actions, and attitudes, of Lester Maddox, or the people who supported him.
There is style, and there is substance. While the substance of Lester may have been horrible, the style was a sight to behold. He could ride a bicycle backwards, and did so whenever a crowd was there to watch. (PG saw this at halftime of the Peach Bowl.) Lester was on The Joe Pyne Show and The Dick Cavett Show, and walked off of both.
This section from a previous post tells one story. The Governor was speaking to a group of reporters. He was announcing the appointment of a Black man to a Selective Service Board.. The reporter said it was the first Black man to serve on a draft board since reconstruction. What did the Governor think about this? The Governor said “Gee”
The screen returned to the Channel Five newsroom. The men at the desks were all laughing. The weatherman looked up at the camera and said “That’s a tough act to follow”
Whatever you might say about Lester Maddox … and there is no shortage of bad things to say … there has never been a public official that entertaining. As for being a tough act to follow, the next Governor was Jimmy Carter. As for the weatherman, PG saw him in a parking lot once. It was raining heavily. The “Gray Ghost” looked at PG with an ironic smile, as if to say “I am sorry”. The weatherman, Guy Sharpe, is on the right in the picture below this post. He is signing a book.
In 1970, the Governor of Georgia could not succeed himself. Lester ran for Lt. Governor, and spent the next four years feuding with Governor Jimmy Carter. Lester ran for a second term in 1974, and was trounced by George Busbee. (The slogan: “Elect a work horse, not a show horse.”) When Jimmy ran for President in 1976, Lester made a point of badmouthing Jimmy. In his own way, Lester Maddox helped Jimmy Carter get elected President.
Lester appeared on the Joe Pyne show. Lester was later on the Dick Cavett show. Another Cavett guest was Truman Capote. After Lester walked off the show, Mr. Capote said, in his own inimitable way, “I ate at his restaurant one time, and all I have to say is, it was not finger licking good”.
Anne LaMott
PG was working on a graphic poem. This is done on the computer, with the temptation of the internet forever lurking nearby. At one point, the urge to connect was too strong, and facebook was drawn in.
A bit of text from Anne LaMott was posted. PG has never read her work, but has heard good things about it. The people saying these good things are people whose opinions PG cares about.
Ms. LaMott is going to have a 61th birthday soon. PG will have a 61th birthday in a few weeks. Ms. LaMott makes a list of the things she has learned in her three score and one. This is the sort of thing her public gets off on. Since she is so well regarded, PG decides to take a look. This illustrates point A. A When you read something on the internet, you are not working on your project.
The Anne Lamott stuff is a mixed bag. She is a Christian, of some sort or another, and inevitably brings G-d and Jesus into the conversation. PG has had problems with G-d and Jesus. Opinions about them can be “triggering.” While Ms. LaMott means well, this is going to be tough to overcome.
Meanwhile, the graphic poem is not producing itself. The text is whipped into shape. The word count for the writing contest is verified. The colors are chosen for the text, then changed, then changed again, and finally the first colors tried are the ones that are going to be used. This is something that you need to do wrong before you do right. This working things out is not going to happen while reading the wisdom of the lady writer. Multi tasking has its limits.
The thoughts of the piece will not leave PG alone, and he decides to go back and finish reading the piece. This brings us to point B. B If you read something interesting on the internet, and have to leave, copy the link. If you depend on memory, you will never see it again.
As was mentioned above, Ms. LaMott and PG are products of 1954. This is probably the tail end of the baby boom. For young men in the USA, you were too young to go to Vietnam. Now you are becoming old fogies. You make lists of things you have learned, and post them on facebook. Pictures for this repost are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
Atlanta Rising
Atlanta Rising: The Invention of an International City 1946-1996 is on the shelf at the Chamblee library. This book is a history of Atlanta in the modern era, written by former fishwrapper scribe Frederick Allen. This is a repost from 2014. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The story begins in 1948. AR is weighted more to the older part of the story. The main text is 248 pages. On page 124, Ivan Allen has just built a controversial roadblock on Peyton Road, which would be in 1962. The further along in the story, the fewer details are included. The first big story is when Georgia had two governors. This is one of the best descriptions of the two Governors controversy around, and does not mention Ben Fortson’s wheelchair cushion.
The mayor at the start of the story is William B. Hartsfield. “Willie B” was a leader in creating the Atlanta Airport, and in building it into the powerhouse it is today. He was mayor until 1961, when Ivan Allen Jr. moved into the office.
AR has many moments of unintentional irony. When you read a book 18 years after it was written, and fifty years after the events in the book, you see things that could not have been imagined before. In 1960, many of the political-business elite thought it was time for Mr. Hartsfield to retire. Among his shortcomings was an indifference to sports. Mr. Hartsfield thought that a new stadium would be too great a drain on the city’s taxpayers. Fifty four years, and three stadiums, later, the power elite is going to build another stadium. Atlanta Stadium cost eighteen million dollars. The Blank bowl will cost over a billion. (In the past year, a plan to move the Braves to Smyrna was announced.)
One of the big stories here is civil rights. Atlanta came out of that struggle looking pretty good. It was a combination of image conscious businessmen, enlightened black leadership, and a huge helping of dumb luck. In 1961, the city was under federal pressure to integrate the schools. The state was firm in opposition, and the city wasn’t crazy about the idea anyway. Then, another federal court ordered the integration of the University of Georgia. Since the people would not stand for messing with their beloved University, the state laws forbidding integration were quietly repealed. The city schools were integrated with a minimum of fuss. (The book tells this story much better than a slack blogger.)
The controversy about the 1956 model state flag was going full steam when AR was written. The book has some legislative records, which for some reason never made it into the fishwrapper. There is no clear cut answer as to why the legislature changed the state flag. It was mentioned that at the national political conventions, you could not have a written sign, but you could wave a state flag. This controversy provided a diversion from gold dome crookedness, and hopefully has been laid to rest.
A man named Lester Maddox sold fried chicken, and ran for public office. AR describes Lester as looking a bit like an angry chicken. Through a series of constitutional convulsions, Lester was elected Governor in 1966. The state survived his tenure. In the seventies, when Jimmy Carter was running for President, Lester said a lot of rude things about Jimmy, helping the smiling peanut farmer get elected. In another turn of fate, Lester Maddox died June 25, 2003. This was two days after the eternal departure of Maynard Jackson, the first black Mayor of Atlanta.
The book ends with the 1996 Olympics looming over the city. Billy Payne led a smart campaign to secure the games for Atlanta. One of his moves was to keep Jimmy Carter and Ted Turner out of the action. After the 1980 boycott, and the Goodwill Games, neither person was popular with the I.O.C. The book was published before 1996. The Olympics were a blast.
Brain Damage
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jooj/zhugh ~ dog music ~ richie west ~ my mother the car ~ sacramento
allison young ~ synonym ~ foolish man blues ~ willie slap ~ bix
viv ~ d-list ~ dorothy ashby ~ Daniel Franzese ~ will smith
tarantino/maher ~ liza minnelli ~ disphoria ~ stacey ~ tenderloin
day 1 of 30 ~ Some did not. ~ norman duenas ~ harvesting ~ shelly
clint eastwood ~ norman duenas ~ zhugh ~ any spine ~ tech
t e lawrence ~ regime change ~ jim carrey ~ viv ~ bruce willis
anoa changa ~ compact ~ jamie wallis ~ rogan/rock ~ brandon
zippergate ~ fecundate ~ pennyweight ~ statement of interest ~ trial jurors
repost ~ kayne ~ tajmire flood ~ pulchritude ~ covid
highlighting COVID-19 racial disparities can reduce support for safety precautions among White U.S. residents ~ Most people who lived in Atlanta thirty years ago remember Lewis Grizzard. Some more fondly than others. ~ Daily wisdom texts Daily text messages from a selection of global wisdom phone showing quotes from epicurus and lao tzu Free 30-day trial No credit card required After 30 days, we’ll send you a link to continue with a $5 per month paid subscription ~ Will Smith’s former assault ‘victim’ slams actor’s ‘violent temper’ 10 years after star SLAPPED him on red carpet ~ (According to facebook, SugaBusshh Smith passed away in July, 2020. Rest in peace.) ~ There is an update to this story. One of the people who attacked me in this incident apparently passed away a year later. I do not know their story. This is nothing to be celebrate. We are all God’s children. ~ Part two is now available. This is a story about being attacked on facebook. It turns out the attacker was in a lot of pain. Hurt people hurt people. ~ Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. selah
Social Justice Dogpile Part Two
“Hey RISK!; we all know what Luther is about now. The man is an unapologetic racist. … I don’t believe hate speech like what Luther propagates needs any more of a platform then the presidency. … his agenda is more than obvious. He is not a casual listener of the show wishing to take part in meaningful discussion. He wishes to spill vile and venom and spread his racist ideology …”
This comment was in a facebook thread about the RISK! podcast. There was a story about a White man, dating a Black woman. Things went well, until a third party told the Black woman that the White man used the N-word. I suggested that there might be things about this story that we do not know, and that it is not fair to trash the young man because of this incident. Since this was a boy-girl story, it has two sides. There is usually more to the story.
There is one thing certain. I did not say anything derogatory about people of color. Racism has an elastic definition. Being called racist is not the same thing as being racist. Many people are trying to fight racism with name-calling and character assassination. There is a lot of collateral damage in social justice warfare. Two wrongs do not make a right.
I recently reposted the story of this conversation. While reviewing the notes, I saw the comment above. Who would make a comment like that, based on a few comments in a thread? I looked for his facebook page, to see what I could see. The young man’s name will not be used today. In another chamblee54 post, the young man was known as Man03; this is the name we will use today.
Within a few posts, the facebook page lets you know that Man03 passed away in July 2020. If you read between the lines, you see that Man03 had some troubles, which may have led to his demise. If you scroll back in his timeline, you see that his wife died in 2018. Man03 seemed to be into Rave/Burner communities, and his wife had been a major animal lover.
On May 25, 2018, I attended a live RISK! show in Underground Atlanta. The last storyteller was a young man, talking about the tragic death of his wife. I saw that Man03, who told that story, was the same person who called me an “unapologetic racist.” The story starts at 51:55 of this episode.
When a stranger attacks you online, there is often trouble in that person’s life. There is no way to know what was happening with Man03 when he attacked me. I have always been more puzzled than angry, at the wrath of strangers. Now I feel sadness, that another human being was feeling so much pain. Maybe Man03 is in a better place now. Pictures from The Library of Congress.
UPDATE: The risk fans discussion group posted a comment by the Black woman. She had been in touch with the White man, who apologized for his bad behavior. I made a comment, along with a link to this feature. The comment was deleted, and I was blocked by the group.
Chamblee54 
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