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

Not talking about race as a kid

Slavic neighborhood

Talk-to-Your-Kids-About-Race Since June 1, a week after George Floyd, I have had lengthy conversations about race with three of my oldest friends. And by “oldest,” I mean I met two of them in 1958, and the other much later, in 1960. Yet I don’t remember talking about it when we were growing up. When I noted this with one of them, they said, “You ought to blog about that!” The problem is that I can’t really explain why.

For those unfamiliar, I should explain that I grew up in the First Ward of Binghamton, NY in the 1950s and 1960s. The city consisted of many Irish, Italians, and especially Eastern Europeans, second- and third-generation folks. There were black people in other parts of the city, but north of Clinton Street, which was a demarcation for “the Ward,” most folks were Slavic – Russian, Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, primarily.

At my school for K-9, Daniel S. Dickinson, I was often the only black kid in my class. There was a black young woman named Bernadette in 7th grade, coming from one of the feeder schools to our junior high. But she was gone by 8th grade to who knows where. Robert in 5th grade, who I’ve mentioned, was so academically challenged that he eventually ended up in my sister Leslie’s class, and she was three semesters behind me.

Also, in kindergarten, there was a “mixed-race” girl. She’s one of my current Facebook friends. By her account, I was very nice to her, even as most of the other kids were not. I have no recollection of any of this. Incidentally, I believe we have the same great-grandfather.

So NOW we talk

When I told one of my friends how traumatized when I saw photos of Emmett Till’s dead body in a magazine in 1960, I was asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?” I dunno. Why didn’t they tell me how their father put a stop to some racist taunts directed toward a man I knew at my church?

Another friend was pretty shocked that there were any racial problems in Binghamton at all. I’ve noted that back in 1964, over 200 black people complained in an open letter in the paper problems, jobs, and even “common courtesies.” Yes, I was pretty insulated in that geography triangulated by Dickinson school, my grandmother Williams’ house at 13 Maple Street, and my house on 5 Gaines Street. But I knew there was more to the story in the rest of the city.

I had long talks not only with the third friend but also with the spouse. Much of it has been generated by the contents of my blog over the last two months. “We didn’t know you were going through things like that.”

Theories

Maybe it was that I didn’t want to point myself out as different. Perhaps I didn’t think they’d understand. I talked with my sister Leslie about this. She had a similar situation, except that she did have one black classmate, Bonnie for a few years. They didn’t talk about race either. It was assumed that they were going through the same, or similar things and there was no need to verbalize it.

It’s like when I’ve seen a black person in a sea of white faces. Inevitably, one of us will give a nod to the other. It’s an acknowledgment of assumed common experience.

I suppose I should be grateful that my old friends and I are talking about race now.

August 6, 1945: Hiroshima plus 75

light a candle

I’ve mentioned before how the late Paul Peca, my sixth-grade teacher, was arguably the best one I ever had. As I noted here, he believed the conventional wisdom. The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, was necessary in order to end World War II in the Pacific.

I pushed back against that. But hey, I was only a kid. It wasn’t until years later I discovered this 1963 quote by the first President in my lifetime, Dwight David Eisenhower. He was, of course, a five-star general in World War II, and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.

Ike wrote: “Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary… Secondly, our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives.”

116 Days

FOX news guy Chris Wallace was on CBS This Morning this past June. He was discussing his new book, “Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World.”

The review of the book in the New York Times makes the process of deciding quite riveting.

“In the end, the reader is forced to ask: Should Truman have dropped the bombs? Wallace points out that more than 100,000 people were part of the bomb-making effort, the program was approved by Roosevelt and over $2 billion was spent. ‘It is unrealistic,’ Wallace says, ‘to think Harry Truman would make any other choice.’ Truman himself exulted after the success of Little Boy, ‘This is the greatest thing in history.’

“Was it? Wallace’s superb, masterly book lets the reader decide.”

Peace response

Upper Hudson Peace Action notes: “Recognizing and remembering those who perished in the horror of the dropping of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima and Nagasaki while staying safe during the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge.

“Throughout the day on August 6th,” on the UHPA Facebook page, there will be posts “featuring pieces of John Hersey’s novel Hiroshima, along with speeches related to the bombing, first account testimonials, videos of Hiroshima and photographs.”

They are “asking people to put a candle in their window or porch (an electric candle in the home might be safer – use your judgment) at sundown, on the nights of August 6th and 7th.” Also please place either a peace crane – here is link with instructions for making one – or the Picasso peace dove,” pictured, “next to your candle along with a sign that says: WE MOURN THE 250,000 DEAD IN THE DROPPING OF THE ATOMIC BOMBS.”

Spider-Man, and other films, non-MCU

ANOTHER iteration?

The_Amazing_Spider-Man_theatrical_poster I started watching the movies in what was eventually labeled the Marvel Cinematic Universe back when it started in in 2008. Now for those of you NOT seeped in these things, not every Marvel character that appeared in a movie this century is an MCU film.

For convoluted aesthetic and licensing reasons, the films with the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Blade, and Deadpool films, among others, are not part of the canon. The Spider-Man films in 2002/2004/2007 and 2012/2014 are not MCU. But the recent ones with Tom Holland, including Captain America: Civil War and the last two Avengers films, ARE MCU. Got that? There will be a test.

Despite having had collected comic books for over a quarter-century, primarily Marvel products – and I still own some Marvel Masterworks books – I hadn’t watched all that many of the films. Before I tackle the MCU, I thought I’d check to see which ones of the other Marvel films I’ve seen.

Howard the Duck (1986) – the movie was previewed in Albany in a movie theater, sponsored by FantaCo, the comic book store where I worked. I related to the “trapped in a world that he never made” description in the comic book, which also transferred to the film. It was roundly panned, and perhaps deservedly so. Yet I had an odd fondness for it.

Fantastic Four (1994 – unreleased) – at some point in the 2010s I saw this, possibly on YouTube. It was not very good. In fact, it was so awful, it was mildly enjoyable.

Friendly, neighborhood…

Spider-Man (2002) and Spider-Man 2 (2004) . These are the ones starring Tobey Maguire. I saw the first one in a cinema, the second at a resort in the Berkshires. Never saw the third one. I liked the first two enough to get them on DVD.

X2 (2003) – I watched in a hotel in Oneonta on New Year’s Eve many years back. Maybe because I didn’t see the first X-Men film, it didn’t make as much sense as I thought it should.

Fantastic Four (2005) – I thought Michael Chiklis was actually quite good in this. That is high praise since he was all but unrecognizable as The Thing. The rest of the story, as I recall, was pretty pedestrian. That’s necessary, I suppose for an introductory piece, but still… Never saw the follow-up.

The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) – for reasons I’ll explain soon, I have been watching a LOT of MCU movies this summer. So in early July 2020, I needed a palate cleanser before starting on Avengers: Infinity War.

Why did we need ANOTHER iteration of the web-slinger? I say that as someone whose favorite Marvel character is Peter Parker, the awkward young man with a secret.

Maybe we didn’t. But I felt Andrew Garfield was a credible Peter. And since the earlier Sam Raimi stories focused on his relationship with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), it seemed natural that the series deal with his first love, Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Her internship with Osgood Corp may have been a bit too coincidental for my taste.

Still, I appreciated their relationship. Her father, the cop (Denis Leary) felt like a real dad, as did Peter’s uncle Ben (Martin Sheen). Aunt May (Sally Field) fretted a lot. If the villain was more tortured soul than actually evil (Rhys Ifans as Curt Connor/the Lizard), that would be in keeping with the comic book narrative.

Ultimately, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the films I had seen a decade and a half earlier. Still, it was time well-spent. I’m still warming up to the new Spider-Man. But that’s a story for another time.

Steve Derrick; beautiful nurses’ eyes

portraits of healthcare workers

eyes.Steve derrick On the Road with Steve Hartman introduced me to Steve Derrick, an artist from Clifton Park. He “has produced more than 100 portraits of healthcare workers as they ended their shifts, many of them nurses at Albany Medical Center.”

The artist paints portraits of medical workers and captures their exhaustion treating Covid-19 patients. The subjects are weary, tired, brave, bruised, and raw. “Steve Derrick’s paintings depict the spirit of healthcare heroes on the front lines.”

“To escape the overwhelm of the pandemic, he engaged in painting. He says, ‘there was so much negativity on the news. This gave me something positive to think about while sitting in quarantine.'”

I found the story so touching, so compelling that after seeing it on the CBS Evening News on a Friday, I watched it again on CBS Sunday Morning. “He presents the finished portrait, a moment in time that omits no detail, to each of his subjects, and refuses payment.” Herrick’s actions have become part of a movement.

The eyes have it

Beyond this story, I’ve discovered that I have spent a whole lot more time looking at the eyes of people wearing masks. I find almost all of them are beautiful. Without seeing the whole face, it’s been necessary to discern how another is feeling. I’m required to actually look at people in a new, and arguably, better way.

Googling “eyes,” I came across a poet and short story writer named Avijeet Das. He wrote: “Eyes speak. Eyes say the unsaid words. Eyes express feelings. Eyes convey emotions. Eyes are eloquent. Eyes are tender. Eyes are sensitive. Eyes are captivating. I can’t help looking into eyes. I am always fascinated by eyes. If I were a painter then I would love to paint the eyes of the people I meet and come across.”

CBS’s Steve Hartman asked painter Steve Derrick if he were painting the nurses at their worst. Derrick totally disagreed. It is his belief that he has captured them at their best. I believe he is correct.

An actual enumeration of all persons

1/3 of the country has still not responded to the Census

The guy in the White House wants to make an “unconstitutional move seeking to block undocumented immigrants from being counted in the census.”

An article in the Los Angeles Times notes this. “The Constitution mandates an ‘actual Enumeration’ every 10 years of ‘all persons’ in the country, but the president has repeatedly tried to limit who is counted.”

As you know, the census count helps in determining where taxpayer money is spent on building public facilities such as schools, hospitals, and fire departments. And, of course, it’s used in calculating states’ apportionment in the U.S. House of Representatives. But it determines other legislative districts as well.

I don’t know how he does this. And by that, I don’t just mean he’s being reprehensible. I’m saying I don’t know where he would get the data. Back in 2018, the regime attempted to include a question about citizenship on the census form. It was “a move that was ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court in 2019.”

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that “Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross had failed to honestly explain why he sought to change the census forms. Roberts called the stated reason — a need to have information to enforce the Voting Rights Act — ‘contrived.'”

How does one determine how many undocumented people there are, and in specific geographies? The directive would “adopt a practice never before used in U.S. history, faces several major hurdles — legal, logistical and political.

“If successfully carried out, it could have far-reaching effects by reducing the political clout of states with significant numbers of immigrants, including California and Texas. It could also shift power toward whiter, more rural areas of states at the expense of more diverse cities.”

Counted but then subtracted?

According to the IMPOTUS memo: “Census workers would continue counting immigrants who are in the country illegally, but they would not be factored into decisions about the congressional representation. The Census Bureau would have five months to come up with a way to accurately estimate the number of residents illegally in each state in order to subtract them from the overall count.

Michael McDonald, a political science professor at the University of Florida, has his doubts. It’s unlikely the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, could meet the timeline. It’s difficult to quickly develop a methodology for estimating the number of immigrants without legal status in various areas of the country. “There are just so many moving parts here.”

Totally true, based on what I know about Census processes. Plus Title 13 of the US Code says that the data can only be used for statistical purposes. I can’t imagine how the Bureau is supposed to discern who’s “legal” and who is not at such a granular level.

Advocacy groups remain concerned that the publicity around Trump’s push for a citizenship question already has made millions of immigrants or mixed-status families reluctant to respond to the census.

Kelsey Herbert, National Campaigns Director for Faith in Public Life sounded the alarm. “The intention of this executive order is merely to suppress census participation, especially in hard-to-count communities.”

It’s not too late to answer by computer, mail, or phone

The U.S. Census Bureau sent reminder postcards last week to an estimated 34.3 million households. That was “the final mailing before census takers begin visiting nonresponding households across the nation in mid-August. Responding now minimizes the need for census takers to visit homes to collect responses in person.”

And you don’t want them to do that.

The Census Bureau uses an online map that tracks the nation’s participation in the census. More than 92 million households (or 62.3 percent of households) have already responded online, by phone, or by mail.” That number for New York State is 57.9%

“The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the nationwide start of census taker visits from mid-May to mid-August. Sending a postcard is one reminder in a series of reminders that the Census Bureau has mailed nonresponding households since mid-March urging them to respond.

“The Census Bureau strongly encourages the public to respond online at 2020census.gov. Households can respond online or by phone in English or 12 other languages. Or households can also respond by mail using the paper questionnaire that was mailed in April to most nonresponding addresses. Households can continue to respond on their own until these visits conclude on October 31.”