I've believed for quite awhile that the decade we're trying to survive bears strong similarities to the 1920s. There are abysmal gaps between the respective wealth of the obscenely rich and the desperately poor coupled with the belief that the plight of the latter is their own damn fault. There is a huge fear and distrust of immigrants and much effort put into shutting them out by any means necessary. Racism has not only flourished, but gone mainstream. I could say more, but I think you get the idea.
I had no idea how horrific the years right before that time were until, skimming the new nonfiction titles in the Orono Public Library, I found Adam Hochschild's American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis. It vividly evokes a very grim chapter in American history.
America was actually engaged in two wars. The official one over there and the more covert one against everyone the government was pissed off with. Draft dodgers were hunted down in all kinds of public venues. Conscientious objectors were subjected to inhumane torture. Union organizers were captured by all means: legal and otherwise. And nativists were doing their best to deport and keep everyone else out with the zeal of today's build a wall crowd.
Lynching was still all too common in those not so good old days. The war gave the racists a new fear. Black soldiers were fighting valiantly over there and being treated with respect and dignity by people like the French. Attempts to keep them "in their place" when they returned to America were one of the reasons behind the brutal massacres in places like Chicago and Tulsa.
Censorship was alive and well, carried out by the postmaster general who had the power to decide what magazines and other materials could be unmailable based solely on his prejudices. In those pre internet days that was fatal for many publications.
Hochschild reminds readers that the evils of that time are still present in some form today and that keeping these dark forces from again overwhelming our nation will require a lot of us.
"Brave men and women both inside and outside of the government, like those who spoke the truth and stuck to their principles more than a hundred years ago. A more equitable distribution of wealth, so that there will not be tens of millions of people economically losing ground and looking for scapegoats to blame. A mass media far less craven toward those in power than it was in 1917-21. And above all, a vigilant respect for civil rights and constitutional safeguards, to save ourselves from ever slipping into the darkness again."
AMEN!!!
On a purrrsonal note, today the higher education had a wonderful send off celebration for the graduates. There was a video where each of us had a glowing speech by someone we'd worked for. Mine was by my best friend, Lisa Morin. We got booklets with our pictures and stories and superlatives (mine is most likely to be director for student involvement) and bags of gifts. We had refreshments and time to socialize. And at the end we put on our regalia and went outside to take lots of pictures. I enlisted Catherine to be my paparazzi. You'll see pictures from this week later when my life slows down.
A great big shout out goes out to our wonderful professors--Elizabeth, Leah, and Kathleen--and everyone who helped them put on this truly memorable event and, of course, my precious classmates.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
No comments:
Post a Comment