July 2020 - Page 6 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Comic book creator John Byrne is 70

FantaCo Chronicles

Back in my FantaCo days, John Byrne saved my bacon. Twice.

For those of you who are not comic book fans, Byrne is a British-born writer and artist of superhero comics. Notably, he had a stellar run with Chris Claremont that made the X-Men the most popular title in the Marvel Universe starting in the late 1970s. He’s worked on many Marvel titles and a few from DC, as you can see here. In 1981, Byrne took over the writing and drawing of Marvel’s first superhero group, the Fantastic Four.

When I worked at FantaCo, we created a series of magazines about Marvel characters. The first was the X-Men Chronicles in 1981, which I edited, with a cover by former X-Men artist Dave Cockrum, It turned out to be monumentally successful, with a print run of 50,000.

The next two were to cover the Fantastic Four, edited by me, and Daredevil, compiled by Mitch Cohn, in early 1982. I no longer know how we did it, but we were able to get several name artists and writers to participate in our project.

Wait, Tom Skulan, publisher and store owner, remembers that several came directly from other artists who had done work for us “who felt that their friends would appreciate the high rates we were paying.” Mitch, in particular, often pumped creators for other phone numbers.

We DID have an impressive Rolodex. (Hey, kids: a Rolodex is “a rotating file device used to store business contact information. Its name is a portmanteau of the words rolling and index.” I have my red one SOMEWHERE, I think.)

Problem solver

John Byrne agreed not only to do the front cover of the Fantastic Four Chronicles but the centerspread. He also wrote A Personal Reflection re: the FF. We needed to print the front and back covers of the Fantastic Four and Daredevil Chronicles “two-up”, i.e., at the same time.

The problem is that I didn’t have the back cover from prominent artist George Perez. What to do, what to do?

Finally, I called Byrne, who suggested using his front cover as the back cover as well. No charge. Eventually, the Perez cover showed and we used it as the inside back cover. It bumped a piece by local artist Joe Fludd, who was/is a big Perez fan. George, BTW, did the cover for the Avengers Chronicle, edited by Mitch.

I’m working on the Spider-Man Chronicles. Spider-Man was my favorite character. Mitch got Frank Miller, who had done the Daredevil Chronicles cover, to agree to do the same for Spidey. Then, at the last moment, Miller called and pulled out! I have everything else finished.

In desperation, I call John Byrne. Can he whip up SOMETHING? And quickly? I swear that four days later, the cover arrives in the mail. And it’s great! The book schedule is saved.

I haven’t kept up with Byrne since I largely gave up reading comics in the mid-1990s. I know that he and his X-Men collaborator Chris Claremont were entered into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2015. But thanks, John Byrne. And happy natal day.

Real countries fight COVID-19

Masks Are Great Again

It’s been a while since I wrote a COVID-19. If I lived in a country that took on the situation with, you know, science, we’d be on the downside of the curve. Back in mid-March, when Individual 1 said he was a wartime president, combating in combating the novel coronavirus, I thought “fine.” Though a tad hyperbolic, I thought, finally, he’s taking it seriously.

Of course, he then mucked it up bigly, with lies about everything from how long the virus would last to the availability of PPE.

Worse, though, was his astonishing self-contradiction. “Slow the testing down,” he says in Tulsa on June 20, where Herman Cain likely contracted ‘serious’ COVID-19 symptoms. His press secretary said he was kidding; he says he doesn’t kid. He proved it by moving to end federal funding for over a dozen testing sites. And he said he believes anyone who dies from Covid-19 is a ‘loser’.

Some of the states followed his lead into an infection disaster. Dr. Anthony Fauci says that if the US doesn’t take drastic action to arrest the spread of the coronavirus, we could see 100,000 new cases a day. We’re already more than halfway there.

Yahoos such as Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick claimed Fauci was “wrong every time on every issue” related to coronavirus. Patrick is the guy who, earlier this year, had suggested it was acceptable to “exchange” the lives of seniors in order to save the economy.

Ticking me off

It’s clear that “wartime president” response is shrinking. He seems to have waved the white flag. Is COVID-19 spreading too rapidly to be brought under control? “It’s not just discouraging. It’s enraging. The virus may be a natural development… But the reaction to that virus was a series of human choices.”

The United States could have had a coordinated federal testing program but it did not and does not. A 60 Minutes investigation has found that federal officials knew many COVID-19 antibody testing kits had flaws but allowed them to enter the U.S. market. Laredo, Texas is one of the many locales stuck with flawed assessment tools.

The United States doesn’t have a national system of case management and contact tracing. Leaving this to the states is grossly irresponsible.

The United States doesn’t have consistent nationwide regulations on how to conduct social distancing. The country relies far too much on local mandates as to when businesses and gatherings should be closed, or when/whether to enforce stay-at-home orders.

Masks are political?

Possibly worse, the United States doesn’t have something as simple as a national mandate to wear masks. They have been proven as one of the most effective measures in slowing the speed of the virus. Instead, you get to see Florida’s anti-maskers “taking a stand” for a false sense of freedom.

The webpage Medpage Today implores:Docs Must Stand Up for Public Health Officials. “We have laws against defecating in the streets. Is that infringing on somebody’s rights?” asks an exasperated Ted Mazer, MD.

Even “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy is on board with masks. “I think that if the president wore one, it would just set a good example. He’d be a good role model. I don’t see any downside to the president wearing a mask in public. MAGA should now stand for ‘Masks Are Great Again.’ Let me give you some marketing advice right there.”

As the recent Randy Rainbow song parody proclaims, COVER YOUR FREAKIN’ FACE!

We are dooming ourselves

The LA Times reported on July 3, “As California faces an alarming surge in coronavirus cases, officials desperate to keep people inside and away from crowds that will spark new infections are facing a challenging reality. Even though COVID-19 is just as dangerous as ever, people are less afraid of it, and that lack of fear during the Fourth of July weekend could bring disaster.” Throughout the country, social distancing protocols are clearly breaking down.

In the “are you kidding” category: Alabama students allegedly invite infected guests to ‘COVID parties’ in hopes of catching the virus. There are a lot of COVIDIOTS out there. Weak and selfish people, IMO.

As the Boston Globe reported recently, “With confirmed coronavirus cases spiking across the Sun Belt states, a range of evidence suggests that a job market recovery may be stalling. In those states and elsewhere, some restaurants, bars and other retailers that had re-opened are being forced to close again.” It’s also causing a strain on the medical infrastructure.

The Census Bureau notes “Adults in Households With Children Report Higher Rate of Late Housing Payments and Food Shortages Amid COVID-19.”

In other words, we could have had that downward trend that we knew how to do. But we didn’t. The Europeans don’t want American travelers. Folks in the Northeast want folks from the Sun Belt to self-quarantine for a couple weeks. The economy – the ostensible reason for opening up – is poised to tank as states are forced to close again.

Your optimistic assessments in the comments, please. I don’t have any, myself.

Independence Day/4th of July music

Let the whole world know that today is a day of reckoning.

Martina McBride It’s the fourth of July. Independence Day in America. I’ve been hearing a lot of fireworks for about a month now. I’ve rather tired of it, actually. Instead of the usual musical fare, I’ve listed some perhaps less obvious songs that can represent the day. Add your choices in the comments.

Martina McBride. This song, written by Gretchen Peters, has been covered by several artists including Carrie Underwood. “In 2014, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song #77 in their list of the 100 greatest country songs.”
“She tried to pretend he wasn’t drinkin’ again
“But daddy’d left the proof on her cheek.”

Independence Day – Bruce Springsteen, from The River album.
“There’s a lot of people leaving town now
“Leaving their friends, their homes”

Independence Day – David Byrne.
“We know what will make us happy
“We know what will ease our pain”
More cheerful. I love this musically.

Independence Day – 5 Seconds of Summer.
“I gotta break away or nothing’s gonna change
“You’ve got to go, it’s the end of the road”

Independence Day – the Shires.
“You’re better off without
“Someone who gets you down”

Instrumental interlude:
ID4 Reprise – Independence Day Resurgence Official Soundtrack

Every day’s…

On the 4th of July – James Taylor
“Unbelievable you, impossible me,
“The fool who fell out of the family tree.”

Fourth of July – Pete Droge
“When you’re sick of the trying
“And you’re tired of the crying”
A depressing song.

Fourth of July – Sufjan Stevens
“It was night when you died, my firefly.”
Ditto.

Fourth of July –Fall Out Boy
“You and I were fire, fire fireworks that went off too soon.”

4th of July –Shooter Jennings
“Couldn’t take no more of that rock ‘n’ roll”
Oddly, there’s a lot of rock riffs in that country guitar, I think.

4th of July – Soundgarden
“Pale in the flare light
“The scared light cracks and disappears”

1865-1965: black codes, Red Summer

pogroms against black people

An End to Police Brutality — USED BY Dr. Samuel Y. Edgerton, Jr., on
August 28, 1963 in Washington, DC

With all the talk about Juneteenth 1865, it’s important to note how awful the NEXT century was for black Americans. I would posit that the century (1865-1965) was arguably worse.

My view is certainly affected by white compatriots in the 1970s and later. They would say, often genuinely, “Why are black people doing so poorly? Slavery ended over a century ago!” As though there was a light switch from enslavement to freedom. As though it were suddenly a level playing field. Here are some of the factors. Of course, they naturally overlap.

The 13th Amendment, ratified in December 1865. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. This provision is why one should watch Thirteenth.

Reparations. The formerly enslaved people generally did not receive the promised 40 acres.

Black codes: their primary purpose was to restrict blacks’ labor and activity, including “strict vagrancy and labor contract laws… Blacks who broke labor contracts were subject to arrest, beating, and forced labor… Passed by a political system in which blacks effectively had no voice, [they] were enforced by all-white police and state militia forces—often made up of Confederate veterans of the Civil War—across the South.” The federal government turned a blind eye.

You can never get out from under

Peonage, also called debt slavery or debt servitude: a system where an employer compels a worker to pay off a debt with work. Those hundreds of White men, were hired by several southern states as police officers.

“Their primary responsibility was to search out and arrest Blacks who were in violation of Black Codes. Once arrested, these men, women, and children would be leased to plantations where they would harvest cotton, tobacco, sugar cane. Or they would be leased to work at coal mines or railroad companies. The owners of these businesses would pay the state for every prisoner who worked for them; prison labor.” In other words, it was…

Slavery by Another Name: Douglas A. Blackmon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, made into a documentary. “Tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, hit with outrageous fines, and charged for the costs of their own arrests. With no means to pay these ostensible ‘debts,’ prisoners were sold as forced laborers…" [Compare this with the current discussion on bail reform.] Thousands of other African Americans were simply seized by southern landowners and compelled into years of involuntary servitude.”

A couple of examples: “In Louisiana, it was illegal for a Black man to preach to Black congregations without special permission in writing from the president of the police. If caught, he could be arrested and fined. If he could not pay the fines, which were unbelievably high, he would be forced to work for an individual or go to jail or prison where he would work until his debt was paid off.

“In South Carolina, if the parent of a Black child was considered vagrant, the judicial system allowed the police and/or other government agencies to ‘apprentice’ the child to an ’employer’. Males could be held until the age of 21, and females could be held until they were 18. Their owner had the legal right to inflict punishment on the child for disobedience and to recapture them if they ran away."

“It is believed that after the passing of the 13th Amendment, more than 800,000 Blacks were part of the system of peonage, or re-enslavement through the prison system. Peonage didn’t end until after World War II.” And unlike a slave, who was considered property, the prisoner, if they died, could just be replaced by another prisoner to work in the factory.

Federal abandonment

The end of Reconstruction: the federal response to Reconstruction, often spotty, ended with the compromise that made Rutherford B. Hayes President.

The Ku Klux Klan: a terrorist organization of vigilantes designed “to intimidate Southern blacks – and any whites who would help them.”

Jim Crow Laws – a collection of state and local statutes that legalized racial segregation. They were meant to marginalize African Americans by denying them the right to vote, hold jobs, get an education, or other opportunities. Those who attempted to defy Jim Crow laws often faced arrest, fines, jail sentences, violence, and death.” It was codified by the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). This was the period when those hated Confederate statues were being built in large numbers.

Elaine, AR, et al.

Pogroms: “There is a long history of white terrorism destroying Black communities.” So it’s “not just Tulsa.” Here are Five Other Race Massacres That Devastated Black America. Some of the worst of it were in the …

Red Summer. Between April and November of 1919,, there were “approximately 25 riots and instances of white mob violence [and] 97 recorded lynchings.”

In the small town of Elaine, Arkansas, racial tensions turned brutally violent after African-American sharecroppers tried to unionize. A staggering 237 people were estimated to be hunted down and killed in what is now known as the Elaine Massacre. The bloodbath made its way all the way up to the United States Supreme Court.

Birth of a Nation: “D. W. Griffith’s disgustingly racist yet titanically original 1915 feature film.” It and the presence of returning black WWI vets inspired both The Red Summer and a resurgence of the KKK.

Federal wealth theft

Redlining: In 1933, “faced with a housing shortage, the federal government began a program explicitly designed to increase — and segregate — America’s housing stock.” Richard Rothstein’s book, “The Color of Law, examines the local, state, and federal housing policies that mandated segregation. He notes that the Federal Housing Administration, which was established in 1934, furthered the segregation efforts by refusing to insure mortgages in and near African-American neighborhoods.”

The G.I. Bill. It “provided financial support in the form of cash stipends for schooling, low-interest mortgages, job skills training, low-interest loans, and unemployment benefits. But many African Americans who served in World War II never saw these benefits.” And not just in the South. This lost potential for creating wealth had generational implications.

This is a very cursory view of 1865-1965. I left off the last 15 years, the “classic” Civil Rights era of Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, et al. In any case, it should be clear that the century after the Civil War, black people were hardly “free.”

The Troubles: Leaving Trinity in 2000

a loyalty oath

Trinity Per my promise to my friend Lori, why I ended up leaving Trinity United Methodist Church in 2000.

The story really started in 1997 or 1998. The UM hierarchy had allowed churches to change its governance to something more compact than the Administrative Board we had. Our congregation had a meeting. Some folks, notably the late Bob Pennock, noted that he couldn’t see the checks and balances in the proposed new structure. But others argued, “Give it a chance.” The motion passed. Notably opposing the action were several members of the choir, including me.

In 1999, the church got a new choir director. His name now escapes me, but I know he was from Brazil. It became clear early on that he just DID NOT want to be there. Albany was too parochial, and as fall turned to winter, too damn cold.

The Brazilian wasn’t stupid, though. He needed a way to get out of his contract. So he claimed that a member of the choir had said an ethnically offensive comment to him. (I wasn’t present, so my information is second-hand.)

As a result of his allegation, the Pastor-Parish Relations Committee (PPRC) – which had no authority to do so – nevertheless suspended the choir in January 2000. The choir was so angry that some of us at least considered populating the choir loft in defiance. But we opted against that.

Then suddenly

Meanwhile, our church had a Spanish-language congregation that met in the chapel, slightly earlier on Sundays than the English-language folks met in the sanctuary. The Anglo church had voted overwhelmingly in November 1999 to continue the relationship.

Yet, later in January 2000, while I was attending the Spanish-language service, the pastor, Mariana, circulated a letter to her flock. It was from the District Superintendent saying that they would be moved to Emmaus UMC in Albany the following week! The group was stunned. But I was furious! I took copies of the letter and started handing them out to the Anglo congregants who were sitting near the back of the church, who would otherwise have had no idea this displacement was going on.

For the next two weeks, I attended the Spanish-language service in the basement of Emmaus. The facility had two distinct disadvantages. It was not accessible, which involved some of us carrying a man in his wheelchair downstairs. And it was cold, damn cold, with my feet getting numb.

Mao would be proud

As I noted, I started singing at First Presbyterian. But my wife was still going to Trinity, so I’d walk over to meet her after services. One time, a Trinity member asked me, “What IS it with the Gang of Six?” I knew that the PPRC had dubbed Bob Pennock and his wife, plus two other couples with this moniker. But the gossip mill must have been at work for HER to have heard the term.

In March, there was a meeting called by the chair of the PPRC. Judy was also the woman who coordinated Carol and my wedding at Trinity only months earlier. The gathering was billed as an opportunity for the choir to have its say. Alas, untrue. Judy did most of the talking, which included the idea that the choir members sign a loyalty oath to the pastor. Ultimately, only one person eventually signed it.

At the end of the meeting, Judy was looking all self-satisfied. She took the tears of some choir members as a sign of their remorse. Instead, they were the tears of the unheard. As we walked out of the church, I said to a smiling Judy, “That was B###S###.” She was both crestfallen and confused.

And the sign said…

I did attend a congregational meeting in May at Trinity. The cabal around the pastor wanted to have a sign that read: “Trinity: A Multicultural Congregation.” Seriously, after chasing away the SECOND of two Spanish-language groups in about four years? After some machinations, we were able to defeat the motion. But did I want to spend all my energy at Trinity trying to STOP things from happening? I did not.

Ultimately, I didn’t leave Trinity because the choir was suspended, or because of the ouster of the Spanish-language group. It was because there was no vehicle for recourse. The old Administrative Board was gone; these issues would certainly have been addressed there.

The pastor’s cabal allowed a meeting on a specific topic only with a petition signed by 10% of the membership. Since there were plenty of older members on the rolls but not attending services, this would have been a daunting task, not just on these issues but any future conflicts.

I had avoided talking about this topic, just referring to them as The Troubles. So now you know.