From The Heart Of Atlanta To Tyler Perry
There is an old saying, what goes around comes around. When you sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind. The thing is, it is not always obvious what is payback for what. Moreton Rolleston Jr. filed a lawsuit to have the Civil Rights Act declared unconstitutional. Forty years later, a Black man, built a mansion on the site of Mr. Rolleston’s home. The fact that this Black man earned his money by playing Black women, in movies, is icing on the cake.
When the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, Moreton Rolleston, Jr., owned the Heart of Atlanta Motel. He filed a lawsuit, trying to have the law overturned by the courts. The case went to the Supreme Court, which upheld the law.
The legal justification of the Civil Rights Act was a law giving the U.S. Government the right to regulate interstate commerce. Mr. Rolleston argued that this use of the commerce clause went too far. “‘The argument that this law was passed to relieve a burden on interstate commerce is so much hogwash. It was intended to regulate the acts of individuals.’ If the commerce clause can be stretched that far, declared Rolleston, ‘Congress can regulate every facet of life.'” (PG supports all citizens having the right to housing, education, etc. He also wonders if we are on a slippery slope. The government keeps taking more and more freedom away.) (The link for the quote no longer works.)
In 1969, Tyler Perry was born. From humble beginnings, he has been incredibly successful. His signature character is a woman named Madea.
In 1985, Mr. Rolleston was involved in a real estate deal that went sour. He was sued. In 2003, Mr. Rolleston was evicted from his Buckhead home. (Go here for details). In 2005, the property was sold to Tyler Perry. When the source story was written in 2007, Mr. Rolleston had sued Mr. Perry several times, claiming that it was still his property.
Mr. Rolleston , was disbarred in 2007. The Veteran’s History Project shows his race as “Unspecified.” Moreton Mountford Rolleston, Jr., born December 30, 1917, died August 29, 2013.
HT Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.. Pictures from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
The Ten Non-Commandments
Someone had an idea for a book. The result is Atheist Mind, Humanist Heart: Rewriting the Ten Commandments for the Twenty-first Century. The method was modern. Instead of waiting for a grumpy deity to send down tablets of stone, some academics sent a box of suggestions to a committee. committee. Here are the chosen “non-commandments.”
01– Be open-minded and be willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence.
02– Strive to understand what is most likely to be true, not to believe what you wish to be true.
03– The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world.
04– Every person has the right to control over their body.
05– God is not necessary to be a good person or to live a full and meaningful life.
06– Be mindful of the consequences of all your actions and recognize that you must take responsibility for them.
07– Treat others as you would want them to treat you, and can reasonably expect them to want to be treated. Think about their perspective.
08– We have the responsibility to consider others, including future generations.
09– There is no one right way to live.
10– Leave the world a better place than you found it.
You have to give credit for trying. It might sell a few books. The non-commandments don’t have the benefit of translation by a poetry minded Englishmen. They have a stodgy feel. It is not likely that anyone will file a lawsuit over a stone rendering of these thoughts.
The popular commandments are found in Exodus 20: 3 – 17. They are considered core beliefs of a religion that values belief over practice. In other words, just believe something, and don’t worry about what you do. There is also Exodus 20: 23. Ye shall not make with me G-ds of silver, neither shall ye make unto you G-ds of gold. This would seem to be worthy of inclusion in the big time ten. It might interfere with the capitalist free market economy, but you can always say you believe it.
When your religion is claimed by a majority of your neighbors, you enjoy #ChristianPrivilege. You can even whine about #WhitePrivilege, while enjoying the benefits of #ChristianPrivilege. One day, the pound sign will go back to meaning number, and the #hashtag will be mercifully forgotten, along with the Ten Non-Commandments.
If you get past the religious whoopeedo, the Ten Commandments hold up as good rules for living. The fact that the self anointed religious people routinely violate many of these fine rules should not be taken into consideration. They believe in the commandments, and can, loudly, explain why their actions are not a problem. After a while, PG just wants freedom from religion.
Part two is a repost. After Exodus 20, there are ten thoughts about the Ten Commandments.
1 And G-d spake all these words, saying, 2 I [am] the LORD thy G-d, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other G-ds before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy G-d [am] a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy G-d in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy G-d: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: 11 For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. 12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy G-d giveth thee. 13 Thou shalt not kill. 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery. 15 Thou shalt not steal. 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s. 18 And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw [it], they removed, and stood afar off. 19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not G-d speak with us, lest we die. 20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for G-d is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. 21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where G-d [was]. 22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23 Ye shall not make with me G-ds of silver, neither shall ye make unto you G-ds of gold. 24 An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. 25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. 26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. A The ten commandos are not meant to be believed. They are meant to be practiced. B If you take away the religious whoopdeedoo, the ten commandos hold up as common sense rules for living. C If you ever meet someone who claims to practice all of the commandos, then you are dealing with a liar. D We are all G-d’s children. She gave you a heart and a mind. When in doubt, trust your heart. E The first commando is powerful and under appreciated. It does not include books about G-d, or the so called son of G-d. F There is an ongoing controversy about the public display of the ten commandos. Some say such displays violate the second commando. PG wonders if having a sign forbidding lying and stealing is going to work in a courthouse. G The third commando is more than G-d’s last name. It is about the proper use of a sacred name. In a perfect world, the word G-d would only be used for worship and respectful discussion. A “pledge of allegiance” to a nationalist symbol is not an appropriate use of a sacred name. H Sunday is too fine of a day to spend inside a church house. I When you are discussing religion, it is normal to be a hypocrite. If you disagree with someone, the easiest argument to scream hypocrisy. J Whenever possible, show kindness to your neighbor. K The text for Exodus 20 is courtesy of King James Bible Online. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Clusterduck
This is a repost, from this time last year. Phil Robertson continues to be on shameless public display. He is generous with his opinions, as with this discussion of an Iraqi fighting force: “In this case you have to convert them, which I think would be next to impossible, I’m not giving up on them, I’m just saying convert them or kill them. One or the other. … I’d much rather have a Bible study with all of them and show them the error of their ways and point them to Jesus Christ,”
PG had heard about yet another celebrity making offensive comments about queers. Since PG had never seen, nor heard of, the tv show the celebrity was in, it was questionable how much concern it deserved. After a few days of facebook firestorm, PG began to wonder just what the man said.
Mr. Google had a list of 299 million places to look. On the first page, there was a link. PG clicked on the link. After a few seconds, an auto start video started to play. It was a commercial for a Dove soap product, designed for the use of men. There was no place to turn the noise off. PG left the site.
On the second page of the google list was a link to What the Duck? This was the article, in GQ magazine, that quacked up America. It seems like a writer went to Louisiana to listen to Phil Robertson. The writer is surprised that Monroe, LA, is pronounced MUN row.
The sensational quote is presented, without any context, early on in the piece. Any casual readers will see it before the attention span runs out. There are other bizarre quotes. Supposedly, black people in Louisiana were happier under Jim Crow. (FWIW, “He and his wife, Korie, adopted a biracial child named Will and are dedicated advocates of the practice.”) “Islamists” are a “society where there is no Jesus.” And on, and on, and on. Spell check suggestion for Islamists: Misogamists, Alarmists.
The article paints the picture of a man, perhaps well meaning, who simply cannot keep his mouth shut. “While Phil proselytizes, I lean over to Willie (Phil’s son), who is playing a video game on his phone. Boy, it’s hard to get a word in with him! Willie nods knowingly, barely looking up. I get the sense he’s heard all this before, many, many times.”
The article keeps coming back to the “faith” of Mr. Robertson. He does seem to believe what he says. So did the people who flew planes into the World Trade Center. At some point a person has to ask what it says, about Jesus, to be represented by Phil Robertson. (Not to mention Pat Robertson, who has no doubt been confusd for Phil.) Maybe we should just leave it at that.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. These are Union Soldiers, from The War Between the States. Their targets fired back.
Conservative IQ Test
PG felt the urge to write. Not having anything to say is not a problem. He decided to take a test, What’s Your Conservative IQ? He was going to copy the questions, for recycling and reuse. This turned out to be a good move. The makers of the test had black letters, on top of a dark background. The only way to read the text is to highlight it. Is 1998 website design conservative or liberal?
The test is ten questions. Each question has three possible answers. These can be described as liberal, moderate, and conservative, usually in that order. An example is number 10.
If you could change one thing about the conservative movement in America, what would it be? That conservatives would go away – far away. ~ That conservatives would reach across the aisle and work alongside liberals. ~ That conservatives would take whatever means necessary to restore liberty and constitutional principles to our great nation, before it is too late.
What would PG change about the conservative movement? Perhaps make it less similar to a bowel movement. Failing that, a bit less cynicism is in order. Employ fewer rhetorical cheap tricks. Don’t use liberal as an all purpose insult. Think things through before spewing out the contradictory bee ess.
There are contradictions galore here. “What do you believe about granting amnesty to some 11 million illegal immigrants while our borders remain insecure?” “How would you rate the importance of conservatives reaching out to African-American and minority communities about how free markets and liberty can empower them?” One of the largest minority communities is Hispanics. Many of them are in this country, illegally, trying to make money. So you want to reach out to people to tell them something, and then label them as criminals when they take your message to heart.
“How important is it that we respect the U.S. Constitution and follow it as written?” The constitution was written when the colonies used slave labor. There was a question about how to distribute the seats in the House of Representatives. As a compromise, the slave was determined to be worth sixty percent as much as a free person.
After answering 10 questions, PG got his score. “17 Middle of the Road. Your conservatism could use an upgrade, and the good news is, we’ll help. Get this FREE download and find out more. … Learn the real truth about government-run health care by downloading this free e-book: Shattered Lives: 100 Victims of Government Health Care.”
The download will wait for later. As a prominent conservative said “”I think those guys are brave and courageous. … They’ve got guts.” Rush Limbaugh. If there is anything that Mr. Limbaugh knows about, it is having a gut. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Leigh Anne Tuohy
A story has been making the rounds. “The Blind Side Lady Shares A Heartwarming Racial Profiling Story” Here is how it started on facebook
We see what we want! It’s the gospel truth! These two were literally huddled over in a corner table nose to nose and the person with me said “I bet they are up to no good” well you know me… I walked over, told them to scoot over. After 10 seconds of dead silence I said so whats happening at this table? I get nothing.. I then explained it was my store and they should spill it… They showed me their phones and they were texting friends trying to scrape up $3.00 each for the high school basketball game! Well they left with smiles, money for popcorn and bus fare. We gave to STOP judging people and assuming and pigeon holing people! Don’t judge a book by its cover or however you’d like to express the sentiment! Accept others and stoping seeing what you want to see!!!#LeighAnnesSundaySermon #BelieveInOthers
PG found this story to be confusing. What kind of store was it? The Leigh Anne Tuohy website does not mention a conventional retail outlet. Dr. Tuohy has an interior design firm, Flair I Interior, and a charity, Making it Happen Foundation. Neither institution sounds like a place where teenagers would hang out. Maybe they were discussing wallpaper samples.
Part of the LAT story is the adoption of a black teenager, who went on to play in the NFL. As might be expected, Michael Oher has a book on the market. ” as he writes in the book, he’d be proud to be “the guy taking your order” at Taco Bell, one of the more than 70 fast-food franchises Sean Tuohy (husband of Leigh Anne Tuohy) owns.”
That helps to explain this facebook comment. Alex Remy This is FROM THE GUY IN THE PHOTO: ” Yeah like people don’t know what really happened because I actually had money I have a job and have had one for over a year I was gonna pay for my brother the other guy in the picture but he was insisting on waiting on his uncle but his phone was dying so we were charging it which is the reason we were in KFC in the first place and the game was only a 3 min walk up the street I don’t see why she said bus fare that kinda ticked me off a little but the way she worded it is making us seem less fortunate and that isn’t the case at all & when she came over to us she never mentioned her initial reason was because of her friends comment im just now finding that out.”
What do we make of all this? Is Dr. Tuohy a racist? Should we care? PG is behind on his anti-racism education, so he will leave those judgments to others. Maybe Dr. Tuohy is a publicity junkie, in need of a PR fix. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These pictures were used last year. The text in that post seems to fit todays thoughts.
Leviticus 18:22 has long been used to justify hatred of men who use a tush for receiving, in addition to shipping. In the King Jimmy edition, the text reads “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Recently unearthed documents suggest that this verse may be more about honesty than fornication.
The story, according to the Bible University of Los Lobos (BULL,) is that the word “with” should be translated as “to”. In this revised edition, the verse would read “Thou shalt not lie to mankind, as to womankind: it is abomination.” It is well known that men lie to women whenever they feel the need. If the lips are moving, what comes out is suspect.
Bah Humbug
The door of Scrooge’s counting-house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a very small fire, but the clerk’s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal. But he couldn’t replenish it, for Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room; and so surely as the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the candle; in which effort, not being a man of a strong imagination, he failed.
“A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!” cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge’s nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach.
“Bah!” said Scrooge, “Humbug!”
He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and frost, this nephew of Scrooge’s, that he was all in a glow; his face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled, and his breath smoked again.
“Christmas a humbug, uncle!” said Scrooge’s nephew. “You don’t mean that, I am sure?”
“I do,” said Scrooge. “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”
“Come, then,” returned the nephew gaily. “What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.”
Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said, “Bah!” again; and followed it up with “Humbug.”
“Don’t be cross, uncle!” said the nephew.
“What else can I be,” returned the uncle, “when I live in such a world of fools as this? Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will,” said Scrooge indignantly, “every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!”
“Uncle!” pleaded the nephew.
“Nephew!” returned the uncle sternly, “keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.”
“Keep it!” repeated Scrooge’s nephew. “But you don’t keep it.”
“Let me leave it alone, then, Much good may it do you! Much good it has ever done you!”
“A Christmas Carol” was written by Charles Dickens. Text is supplied by Project Gutenberg. This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
The Rudolph Story
The story below is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. There is an appearance by Gerald Rudolph Ford, and his women. Betty was a merry soul.
Someone posted a bit of revisionism about a holiday classic. As he sees it, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” is about racism.
In a bit of yuletime synchronicity, the urban mythbusters at Snopes posted a piece about Rudolph the same day. It seems as though the Rudolph story was originally written for the Montgomery Ward Stores. The idea was to print a Christmas booklet to give to customers. A staff writer named Robert L. May was picked for the job.
Originally, there were concerns about the red nose, and the connection to heavy drinking. At the time, the original meaning of “merry christmas” had been forgotten. Merry meant intoxicated, and a merry christmas was a drunken one. The booklet was released. It was a big hit with shoppers.
Mr. May had a brother in law named Johnny Marks, who was musically gifted. Mr. Marks wrote the song, and somehow or another Gene Autry came to sing it. A story (which PG heard once, but cannot find a source for) had Mr. Autry doing a recording session. The session went very smoothly, and the sides scheduled to be recorded were finished early. There was a half hour of studio time paid for. Someone produced copies of “Rudolph”, gave them to the musicians, and the recording was knocked out. It became a very big hit.
Gene Autry had a radio show, “Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch”. He created the “cowboy code”. Number five gets our attention today. Under this code, the cowboy must:
1. never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.
2. never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.
3. always tell the truth.
4. be gentle with children, the elderly and animals.
5. not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.
6. help people in distress.
7. be a good worker.
8. keep himself clean in thought, speech, action and personal habits.
9. respect women, parents and his nation’s laws.
10. be a patriot.
“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” has become a beloved standard, without the troubling religious implications of many holiday songs. It is the second biggest selling record of all time. The only song to sell more is “White Christmas”. You just can’t get away from race.
Thanksgiving
PG does not want to bore you with talk about gratitude. This is a repost . Pictures are from The Library of Congress. There will be one story.
“I used to work for a company that produced annual reports. One year, I was sent on this huge cross country trip to art direct a series of shots for a food processing mega-company, and one of the stops involved a turkey farm. Okay, so you have to understand that turkeys are extremely skittish birds. The slightest thing will set them off, so the farmer kept them in a large, basically dark barn just to keep them under some semblance of control. So we go in, and the photographer sets up the lights, which he gradually turned on so the birds (and me, for that matter) could get used to it. Everything’s going fine. We have the farmer in front of his (literally) hundreds of free-range turkeys. The photographer clicks off the shot… and in doing so sets off a flash he forgot he had triggered. Immediate chaos: birds running everywhere.At least a dozen fainted and died right on the spot. Farmer was none too happy. Neither was the agency.”
The Silly Remarks Of The President
Wednesday, November 19, was the 151st anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. This is seven score, and eleven years, ago. This is not as poetic as four score and seven. The famous speech was written on White House stationary, not the back of an envelope. The train ride to the battlefield was too bumpy to write on, so it was written elsewhere. No one is sure what happened to the original.
The text was published in newspapers, and became famous. Relatively few people heard the actual speech. Not everyone was impressed. The Harrisburg Patriot & Union said “We pass over the silly remarks of the President. For the credit of the nation we are willing that the veil of oblivion shall be dropped over them and that they shall be no more repeated or thought of.” The descendent of this paper, The Patriot-News, printed a retraction in 2013. Better late than never.
Other contemporaries were critical. Presidents are politicians, with allies and enemies, and are not often beloved in their own time. The New York World accused Lincoln of “gross ignorance or willful misstatement” with his declaration of “four score and seven years ago.” The Democratic Chicago Times called the address “a perversion of history so flagrant that the extended charity cannot regard it as otherwise than willful.”
H.L. Mencken had a few unkind things to say about the affair. “But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of everyday. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination—”that government of the people, by the people, for the people,” should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in that battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves. “
As the rest of the linked essay points out, one motivation for the Confederates desire for self determination is to maintain the ability to own other human beings. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. These are Union Soldiers from the War Between the States. UPDATE There is a Fibonuccian synchronicity to Wednesday’s anniversary of the Gettysburg Address. The original is famous for the phrase four score and seven. If you add four and seven, you get eleven. Wednesday was 151 years after the original address, or seven score and eleven.
World Toilet Day
World Toilet Day is celebrated November 19 this year. A billion people, mostly in third world countries, do not have access to commodes. They are forced to defecate in the open. This does not help people lead healthy lives.
An article about commodes was found in the chamblee54 archive. It is presented today for your enjoyment. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
This is a two part post. The first part is a list of 15. It is fun facts about the commode. These are borrowed from a site called Listserve. LS has lots of lists. The Chamblee 54 addendum is part two.
01 The film “Psycho” was the first movie to show a toilet flushing – the scene caused an inpouring of complaints about indecency.
02 Pomegranates studded with cloves were used as the first attempt at making toilet air-freshner.
03 Hermann Goering refused to use regulation toilet paper – instead he bought soft white handkerchiefs in bulk and used them.
04 Over $100,000 was spent on a study to determine whether most people put their toilet paper on the holder with the flap in front or behind. Three out of four people have the flap in the front.
05 King George II of Great Britain died falling off a toilet on the 25th of October 1760.
06 The average person spends three whole years of their life sitting on the toilet
07 The first toilet cubicle in a row is the least used (and consequently cleanes.t)
08 An estimated 2.6 billion people worldwide do not have access to proper toilet facilities, particularly in rural areas of China and India.
09 The Roman army didn’t have toilet paper. They used a water soaked sponge on the end of a stick.
10 The toilet is flushed more times during the super bowl halftime than at any time during the year.
11 90% of pharmaceuticals taken by people are excreted through urination. Therefore our sewer systems contain heavy doses of drugs. A recent study by the EPA has found fish containing trace amounts of estrogen, cholesterol-lowering drugs, pain relievers, antibiotics, caffeine and even anti-depressants. Modern urine is expensive.
12 Lack of suitable sanitation kills approximately 1.8 million people a year, many of them children.
13 The toilet handle in a public restroom can have up to 40,000 germs per square inch.
14 While he didn’t invent the toilet, Thomas Crapper perfected the siphon flush system we use today. He was born in the village of Thorne – which is an anagram of throne.
15 In a 1992 survey, British public toilets were voted the worst in the world. Following quickly behind were Thailand, Greece, and France.
Add.1 An amusing feature of the water closet is the tendency of people to die there. Elvis comes to mind immediately. Some say he was stricken on the throne, fell off, and perished on the floor. Judy Garland is also known to have met her maker while doing number two.
Add.2 It seems that this is a real problem with older people that have constipation issues. When you are in delivery mode, and you push too hard, you can cause something called Valsalva’s maneuver. To make a long story short, all that squeezing can pinch the arteries going into the heart. This is not good for you. According to a commenter here, it is .06% of all deaths.
The Powers Of Government
“The only way in which our people can increase their power over the big corporation that does wrong, the only way in which they can protect the working man in his conditions of work and life, the only way in which the people can prevent children working in industry or secure women an eight-hour day in industry, or secure compensation for men killed or crippled in industry, is by extending, instead of limiting, the powers of government.” Theodore Roosevelt San Francisco (14 Sep 1912)
This quote comes from WIST on Thursday the thirteenth. It is interesting on a number of levels. The most obvious is the call for expansion of government by a one time Republican.
At the time of this speech, Mr. Roosevelt was running as a third party candidate. His entry into the race split the Republican vote, and allowed Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win. In less than a year, the Federal Reserve Bank was created.
The race for President almost cost Mr. Roosevelt his life. On October 14, 1912, in Milwaukee WI, the candidate was shot. Mr. Roosevelt gave his speech, rather than go to the hospital. An x-ray showed the bullet to be lodged in a non-threatening place. It was not removed.
In 1917, five years after the call for government expansion, the United States entered World War I. Sending a million troops to Europe is, by definition, big government. Mr.Roosevelt was an enthusiastic supporter of American participation in the conflict. On July 23, 1918, Quinton Roosevelt, youngest son of the former President, was killed in France.
The quoted speech was given in San Francisco. Eleven years later, after taking ill on a trip to Alaska, President Warren Harding died in San Francisco. Mr. Roosevelt took office after the demise of President William McKinley. This is probably not what Mr. Roosevelt meant by expanding the role of government. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
The Burning Of Atlanta
Around this time 150 years ago, Atlanta was on fire. General Sherman was preparing for his March to the sea, and wanted to destroy anything of value in the city. The fire is reported as being on 11-15 of November, depending on what source you use.
The November fire was the second great fire in Atlanta that year. On September 2, the city was conquered by the Union Army. The fleeing Confederates blew up a munitions depot, and set a large part of the city on fire. This is the fire Scarlet O’Hara flees in “Gone With The Wind”.
After a series of bloody battles, the city was shelled by Yankee forces for forty days. There were many civilian casualties. General Sherman was tired of the war, angry at Atlanta, and ready for action. This is despite the fact that many in Atlanta were opposed to secession.
Click here to hear a lecture by Marc Wortman at the Atlanta History Center. Mr Wortman is the author of “The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta”. The hour of talk is fascinating. The pictures are from The Library of Congress This is a repost.
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