James Earl Carter, Jr (1924-2004)

I was surprised by my real sadness over the passing of James Earl Carter, Jr. Back in October, I wrote a post about him in honor of his 100th birthday, which I felt could serve as his obituary.

Yet, I needed to share this NY Times piece. I suspect there is a compare and contrast element. 45/47, “who often denigrated Mr. Carter and, in recent days, spoke of unraveling one of his signature accomplishments, the transfer of the Panama Canal to Panama, issued a gracious statement.” It was rather perfunctory, I thought. 

But Russell Moore wrote in the Atlantic [paywall], “Jimmy Carter told me to stop worrying about Donald Trump.”

“When Carter invited me to meet with him in his Atlanta office, just a few weeks after the world-shocking 2016 U.S. presidential election, I assumed the topic would be Donald Trump. After all, I was a vocal evangelical-Christian critic of Trump, and now the religious right was gathering steam for revenge. Some Trump-supporting evangelicals wanted me to be fired or the religious organization I was working for at the time to be defunded. I was rattled by what a Trump presidency would mean for American democracy and, more important, for the witness of the Church after white evangelicals proved to be Trump’s most loyal base. Carter was unfazed.

“’These things have happened before,’ he said. ‘Everything has a way of coming back around. What seems unstoppable and inevitable never is.’”

“I thought to myself, Well, he should know. Carter had experienced himself how quickly political realities change.”

Radical faith

“Samantha Power, the administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, evaluates Carter’s signature, even radical emphasis on human rights. She attributes much of his approach to his deeply held evangelical faith and his ’empathy for individuals who had suffered human rights abuse,’ at home and abroad.”

Anna Marks, NYT Opinion Staff Editor: “I encountered a man who chose to pursue the betterment of the human condition over his own aggrandizement, enrichment, or legacy. Americans love to imagine themselves as noble leaders deeply committed to generosity, tolerance, and the greater good… Carter was the rare one of us who actually met that image’s challenge to the benefit of the world.”

Kelly Sedinger: “They say a good man can’t get elected President. I don’t believe that. Do you?”

Borowitz Report: “When Americans elected Carter in 1976, they chose a man who pledged never to lie to them. He was a refreshing response to the cesspool of Republican lying typified by Watergate. By electing Reagan in 1980, Americans returned to the cesspool.

“Forty-four years later, we find ourselves back in that cesspool yet again—and looking for an honest person like Jimmy Carter to lead us someplace better.”

Books by about Jimmy Carter from Barnes and Noble. 

The THR piece.

I imagine I will watch at least part of the memorial service for Jimmy Carter, although I probably won’t watch the inauguration of 47, who is fuming over flags being at half-staff on Jan 20. 

Al Easton, RIP

a tenor

Al Easton was a life actuary in his working days, a demanding designation to receive, as I understand it. As his obituary noted, he was very accomplished in his field. 

One might think, as a result, he’d be a quiet and reserved sort; this was not true. My wife told me that actuaries have among the most significant job satisfaction rates, which this article seems to confirm. Al was almost always a joyful man with a seriously whimsical streak.

He was very competent when he was treasurer at our church for several years, keeping precise details on how well the member pledges were keeping up. Yet, even when he gave those fiscal annual reports, he did so not in a dry and dull manner but with a certain panache and a twinkle in his eyes.

Music

Al was very musical. At various events, he might pull out his guitar and play tunes. He sang tenor in our church choir and other organizations and was highly regular in attendance, as was his late wife, Susan, before she died in 2022. 

Al and I were also part of the Tuesday edition of the Bible Guys. He could be quite insightful. At the same time, he might be pretty funny, often when one wasn’t expecting it. This was a good trait to have as we attempted to slog through some of those Old Testament bloodbaths. It could be a corny joke or an insightful aside.

Al died of prostate cancer, which several famous men, including Jerry Orbach, succumbed to. It also killed my father, which is why I get my PSA checked regularly.  

I like this line in the obituary: “While Al was very successful in business, his joys in life were his family, his faith, fellowship, folk songs, and fireworks-somewhere in that order…

“Funeral services will be held on Saturday, February 17, 2024, at 3:00 p.m., at First Presbyterian Church, 362 State Street, Albany, N.Y. ” Of course, I will be singing in the choir because that’s what choir people do.

Feb. rambling: Manufactured outrage

VOTE for Rebecca Jade!

RESPECT.Lamb's Theater
Pictured: Sydney Joyner, Caitie Grady, Rebecca Jade, Joy Yandell, Janaya Jones & Angela Chatelain Avila.

Manufactured outrage: phneh and giving a horse an apple and Super Bowl edition

How Poland, Long Leery of Foreigners, Opened Up to Ukrainians

SCOTUS will consider whether tech giants can be sued for allegedly aiding ISIS terrorism. You need to know about Section 230, the most important law for online speech.

MTG’s dream of a “national divorce” deserves a serious response

Central Bankers “Punt” on Climate Initiatives

Airlines Are Ditching Carbon Offsets. That’s a Mistake.

New Jersey becomes first state to mandate K-12 students learn information literacy

You Really Can’t Trust Fox News Channel, Ever and How Dominion Voting Systems filing proves Fox News was ‘deliberately lying’

Small World by Nikon

Masks Revisited. Despite common misreporting, a recent Cochrane review, limited in scope and problematic methodology, does NOT show that masks do not work. Check out this

Choose your enemies well

Nathan J. Robinson’s Responding to the Right: Brief Replies to 25 Conservative Arguments

Facebook’s New Penalty System Is Less Harsh but More Informative

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Why I Should Not Have Tried to “Walk It Off”: My unexpected journey with Atrial Fibrillation (AFib)

Google’s chatbot panic

Ron DeSantis Shouldn’t Be Covered Like Just Another Republican, Molly Jong-Fast, Vanity Fair

The Tubi commercial that showed a red flag

Kelly is closing a few tabs

Now I Know: The Crows Didn’t Mind Dick Cheney, Though and When Bees Get Too Buzzed and The Worst House Money Can’t Buy and The Secret Writer’s Secret and The TV News Program’s Key Mistake and Why This Reindeer Looks Like It Has a Lightsaber Hat

Culcha

BAFTA Awards. Two days after the awards came out, someone told me several of their friends posted online that the Oscars had taken place. Nah, it was lost in translation; probably, the friends missed that it was the so-called “British Oscars”

The book “Side by Side in Eternity:” by James Robert McNeil and J. Eric Smith is now available. I have my copy. There’s a chapter about Apollo 1, one defining event growing up.

The six-year making of the Wait But Why book What’s Our Problem: a self-help book for societies

Cory Doctorow: Matt Ruff’s “Destroyer of Worlds”  – Return to  Lovecraft Country

“A Poet is Not a Jukebox”

Persi Diaconis, magician-mathematician

“I will seek not the shadowy region”

100 years ago, an animated dinosaur became a sensation

NYC’s The Farmer’s Dog’s emotional Super Bowl commercial is being called the best ad of the game.

Ana de Armas Thinks Social Media Has Ruined the “Concept of a Movie Star.” “For the most part, we’ve done that to ourselves — nobody’s keeping anything from anyone anymore.” This has been self-evident for a long while.

Milestones

60 of 23 and Michael Jordan donates $10M to Make-A-Wish for 60th birthday

Bruce Willis’ Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD)

Tom Sizemore Remains in Coma With “No Further Hope” After Suffering Brain Aneurysm From Stroke

Richard Belzer, stand-up comic and TV detective, dies at 78. The only time I ever watched The X-Files is when Munch showed up.

Raquel Welch, actress and model, dies at 82

Tim McCarver, champion catcher turned famed broadcaster, dies at 81

Stella Stevens, RIP

Barbara Bosson, Emmy-Nominated Actress on ‘Hill Street Blues,’ Dies at 83

In Memorium reel at the 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards

Kareem: Black History Month Edition

United Nations Exhibit Sheds Light on Dutch Colonial Slavery

Two Alexander Macombs: A Slaveholder and a Duplicitious Negotiator

Yale honors the  work of a 9-year-old Black girl whose neighbor reported her to the police

Activist and volunteer Nell Stokes discusses her life of service

MUSIC

Rebecca Jade, the first niece, was nominated for FIVE San Diego Music Awards, which will be taking place on April 25. You can VOTE EVERY DAY. Vote in category 20, Best R&B, Funk, or Soul Song for Show Me; category 21, Best R&B, Funk, or Soul Album, for A Shade of Jade (available for $9); category 25, Artist of the Year; category 26, Song of the Year; and category 27, Album of the Year. You could also vote in category 4, Best Jazz or Blues Album, for Peter Sprague Plays the Beatles – Day Tripper, featuring vocals by Rebecca Jade, which one can download for $10.

Rebecca ALSO appears in a musical called RESPECT about the great music of the female singers of the 1960s at Lamb’s Player Theater in San Diego through April 9.  (Picture above.)

Noah – The Jubalaires. The first rap song?

Concert Overture No. 2 – Florence Price

Of Our New Day Begun by Omar Thomas, performed by the James Madison University Wind Symphony.

Coverville 1432: The Burt Bacharach Tribute

THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT – Promo “Eye in the Sky,” 4 Tracks by R&UT

Ground Round – Corey Klemow (parody of Petula Clark’s Downtown by MAD magazine’s Frank Jacobs)

Hey! Need some love music?

K-Chuck Radio: The name’s the same … sorta

Darby Penney (1952-2021)

Lost Cases, Recovered Lives:

Darby PenneyDarby Penney was someone I’ve known for over 30 years. I have no idea where or when I met her. Inevitably, it involved some social justice activity. And if Darby was expending energy on it, it was almost certainly worth pursuing. The action would involve “empowerment, inclusion, rights, and other topics,” as this 2007 bio describes.

She was mentioned, only in passing, once in this blog. It involved the abandoned suitcases of the people who had resided at the Willard Asylum in Ovid, NY in Seneca County. 

I wrote, “I remember a large article in Metroland about the New York State Museum’s 2004 exhibit ‘Lost Cases, Recovered Lives: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic’, curated by Darby Penney and Peter Stastny.” She was extremely excited about that project.

Importantly, Darby was a librarian, and she used her many skills in the most amazing manner. She was SO impressive.

Sometimes, I get behind in reading the daily newspaper. So it wasn’t until October 30 when I read the lengthy obituary in the October 21 newspaper, referring to her October 11 death. I was gobsmacked.

You should read the obit, as it is amazing as she was. Primarily, she was “a long-time activist in the movement to protect the human rights of people with psychiatric disabilities.”

Three score and eight

I was in shock because I figured that Darby would be one of those insistent people in her 70s and 80s and maybe 90s causing what the late John Lewis called “good trouble.” But she was 68, my age.

The last time I talked with her was in the first months of the pandemic, in the spring or summer of 2020. I called Darby on the telephone to check how she was doing. She was still grieving the death of her husband of 30 years, Kenneth Denberg.

That said, she still had a gritty optimism about making a difference. But she was no Pollyanna. She indeed had a “fiery outspoken nature.” Yet, she could be very funny, occasionally poking gently at my expense. You can do that with your friends.

So I didn’t even know she was sick. I’m sorry for my sake more than hers. For I’m sure she had a coterie of folks caring for her. And I’m unsurprised that she was cremated because she wouldn’t have wanted a frilly casket. I hope to attend the memorial service when it takes place.

Planning the funeral of Dick Powell

The late Dick Powell, me, the late Les Green

His family held the funeral for my father-in-law, Dick Powell on May 22, 2021. It was precisely 13 months after he died. Ah,  death in the time of COVID, even non-COVID-related death.

The planning meetings, of course, were on ZOOM among my MIL, one of her sons and his family, my wife, my MIL’s pastor, and me. Dick had jotted down notes in his own hand from months before he got sick. His specific plans involved his four grandkids singing a specific song together, but that was requested pre-pandemic. The choir recorded the song, remotely, and other hymns as well.

Who’s going to read the Scriptures? I volunteered for Ecclesiates 3:1-8. Blame Pete Seeger, or maybe Roger McGuinn. Others selected Psalm  23 and 1 Corinthians 13.

Who’ll speak? Someone from his church, a few people from the extended family, and a few from the immediate family. My wife would certainly cite her favorite scripture, Micah 6:8, which is a motto of Dick’s church, “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

At the end of the service, there was a committal to the columbarium, a word I’m certain I’ve never written before in my life.

The immediate family mentioned, plus my daughter was at the church in person with the pastor, the organist at a distance, and one techie, likewise remote, and all fully vaccinated. Everyone else – the church members, the rest of the friends and family – was invited to participate via ZOOM.

The obit

Meanwhile, one family member had worked on the obituary for Dick Powell. If you think writing it a year after someone’s death would be easier, you might be thinking incorrectly. Noting all of his activities and accomplishments had the effect of dredging up some of the feelings of loss, but also of pride.

There are many schools of thought about what’s appropriate content in an obit. Having read thousands – I love a good one – I’m rather non-prescriptive about them. Except that I do like the listing of the familial connections, which will be useful for future generations of genealogists.

In general, waiting to hold the funeral and write the obit a year later than normal created a case of  dolore interrumpitur, grief interrupted. And that was undoubtedly enhanced by a certain family estrangement; I shan’t dwell upon that here.

Arthur wrote regarding the death of his husband a year and a half ago. It is pretty much what I realized some months after my father’s death over 20 years ago. “The thing about profound grief is that it’s not linear, and it has no timeline. How many times have I said that now?” Not linear; I’ve said that a LOT.

Dick Powell would have been 85 today.

Ramblin' with Roger
Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial