Black Love Matters. Painful realities. Hitler's principles. Signs of hope. Blacks & Jews. Relief from intensity.
LETTY COTTIN POGREBIN NEWSLETTER # 78 JUNE 12, 2020
Lots of news and videos ahead -- some infuriating, some reassuring. Take a quick glance through and see what grabs you. But don't miss clip of Joe Biden in 1986, the movie about Brian Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative, and the astonishing Nicholas Brothers dancing at the Cotton Club.
BLACK LOVE MATTERS
* Dr. Kerry Anne and Michael Jordan share their first view of each other on their wedding day with BLM demonstrators. Said the bride: "To know that we are in a movement right now, that we are here for a bigger cause, it really touched my heart and my soul."
PAINFUL REALITIES
* George Lloyd's family & friends mourn his loss and remember his life at his funeral.
* Childhood in the new norm
* George Floyd's 6-year-old daughter, Gianna, talks about her Daddy.
* Clint Smith, a black poet and author of the forthcoming book, How the Word Is Passed. reflects on raising his 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter in "Becoming a Parent in The Age of Black Lives Matter."
* The song, "No More," by Bethany Yarrow (above) could be this generation's "We Shall Not Be Moved." Bethany and Yacouba Moumouni sing it with ferocious urgency, (The cry,"No more!" started with the father of Jordan Harris, the 17-year-old African-American killed for playing his music too loud outside a gas station.)
SOUND FAMILIAR?
* During WWII, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services described Hitler's principles of leadership: "[N]ever allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it." -- A Psychological Analysis of Adolph Hitler: His Life and Legend, by Walter C. Langer, available from the US National Archives.
* Trump's law & order rhetoric & tactics are straight from Nixon's playbook. WashPost video reminds us where that ended: Kent State, May 4, 1970 (above) & Jackson State, May 14, 1970 (below).
TWO WRONGS DON'T MAKE HIM RIGHT
1) Turns out the Egomaniac-in-Chief held the wrong bible. By standing in front of the D.C. church brandishing the holy book, he may have meant to send a message to his evangelical base. However, the bible he chose, the Revised Standard Version, is not viewed by evangelicals as authoritative but rather "as a deficient translation of the Bible. A distinctly liberal one,” said Rev. Rob Schenck, an evangelical clergyman and president of The Bonhoeffer Institute, adding that conservatives “might not see it as a version of the Bible at all.”
2) The President was also holding it wrong says a veteran salesman of Christian books. After demonstrating the right way, he says Trump looked as natural holding the bible as a fish would on a bicycle.
SIGNS OF HOPE?
* “You just don’t do that, Mr. President! It isn’t cool!” tweeted Pat Robertson. If a Conservative televangelist slavishly loyal to Trump can publicly blast DJT for his law and order excesses, anything can happen.
* Also groundbreaking: Gen. James Mattis issued a seismic denunciation of the President's militaristic response to the street protests. True to form, Trump instantly crowed he was glad he'd fired Mattis. But former Chief of Staff John Kelly flatly denied that the General was fired or forced to resign.
* Military justice may not be an oxymoron after all. Eugene Fidell writes about the use of U.S. Armed Forces in "The Military Dimension: Constraints on Military Personnel in Handling Civil Unrest. Elliot Cohen issues a challenge to the top brass: America’s Generals Must Stand Up to Trump.
* A young Joe Biden explodes with fury about our inaction on South African apartheid in this awesome 1986 clip. His words to George Shultz, Reagan's Secy of State ( "I'm ashamed of American policy.. ."I'm ashamed of our lack of moral backbone") could be said of US policies supporting systemic racism today.
ALL KINDS OF ACTION
* Kudos to Muriel Bowser, Mayor of D.C. (inset) for standing up to Trump over and over again, and for renaming Lafayette Park "Black Lives Matter Plaza."
* Big salute to Todd Winn, the Marine vet who stood with taped lips for 3 hours in front of the Utah State Capitol in support of the protesters wearing his full dress uniform as temperatures rose to 100 degrees. It was so hot that the heels of his shoes melted off.
* Don't miss the chilling, freshly relevant docudrama "Just Mercy," about rank injustice in the criminal justice system and the efforts of civil rights lawyer Brian Stephenson and his Equal Justice Initiative to defend blacks on death row. Stars Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson. Streams free during June.
* Read Michael Walzer on What the Protesters Need to Win. "[Racism] won't be overcome by the current versions of liberal and left politics. Without coalition building, organization, and participation from all walks of American life, neither Black Lives Matter nor any other protest group will produce the hoped-for change. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s won important victories because the Baptist preachers and the students sitting-in recognized the need for coalitional politics. The religious leaders who marched in Selma represented Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish organizations with large numbers of activist members."
BLACKS & JEWS and BLACK JEWS & THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
* When Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (right, below) returned from Selma after marching with Dr. King, he was asked, "Did you find time to pray when you were there?" The rabbi replied, "I prayed with my feet."
* These times demand solidarity among all minority groups. But since I've long been focused on blacks & Jews in particular, I look to white leaders of the mainstream Jewish community (every organization with the word Jew or Jewish in its name) to offer strong support for Black Lives Matter rather than nit-pick the movement's flaws. The fabled Black/Jewish alliance of the 60s wasn't perfect in terms of power-sharing but it did make clear that the change agenda must be controlled by people of color (including Jews of color), and what's needed from white Jews is the walk to match our talk.
* Black leaders urge white Jews to take action. A virtual meeting was convened last Sunday by the Jewish Community Relations Council not for whites to “talk and ask questions, but actively listen,” said Rabbi Michael Miller, JCRC's executive VP president and CEO. Tamara Fish (above) an activist and former president of the Jewish Multiracial Network, countered. “Listening is easy and easy is not what the situation calls for.” She asked for legal action against inequality in NYC schools which are among the most segregated in America “in clear defiance of [the justice values] we uphold as Jews."
* Another powerful piece about Jews of color, including Rabbi Sandra Lawson (above), challenges us to make "ally" a verb not a noun.
* As of June 12, nearly 1000 people have signed this Open Letter to Jewish Federations, foundations, organizations, and Initiatives demanding their "commitment to fulfill at least 4 out of the 7 obligations within one year and all 7 obligations within 3 years. (Click link for specifics)
* Dozens of US Jewish groups, outraged by Mr. Floyd's murder have pledged to fight systemic racism. Organized by the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the pledge declares "solidarity" with the black community and calls for "sweeping reforms" to the criminal justice system.
* Intersectionality: More than a hundred Israeli, American, and other spiritual leaders issued a compelling declaration of "Moral Emergency" (above) in three languages in memory of both George Floyd, killed by police in Minneapolis, and Iyad al-Halaq, an unarmed autistic Palestinian killed by Israeli police when he failed to stop at a checkpoint while heading to his special needs school.
* Gratifying as it was to see AIPAC's statement of horror at the killing of Mr. Floyd, it's unconscionable that, though aware of everything happening in Israel, AIPAC has never been moved to express similar outrage when Israeli police or IDF soldiers show callous disregard for the lives of Palestinians under their jurisdiction.
* More than 800 rabbis and cantors signed a statement supporting peaceful protest against racism. When I last checked the list of signatories, Orthodox organizations were the only missing Jewish constituency. Someone please tell me I'm wrong about this.
* I'm troubled by the"complicated feelings" of many Orthodox Jews about the protests. Any attack on any Jew is unforgivable, but I question the authentic chesed (lovingkindness/piety/mercy) of Orthodox members of our tribe whose self-interest dictates their response to injustices against groups other than their own.
FINALLY: RELIEF FROM THE INTENSITY OF IT ALL
* No one does it better. Cab Calloway and the fabulous dancing Nicholas Brothers mix it up at the Cotton Club in this amazing 1943 clip. You won't believe how effortlessly these guys leapfrog down the stairs doing splits! Fred Astaire called this the best dance number he'd ever seen. Dancers enter at 1:30 minutes.
* The Constitution is at risk but there are still laws you can count on: (author unknown)
Law of Centrifugal Malfeasance. The likelihood that a wrench will slip and mar the surface is directly proportional to the newness of the surface.
Law of Mechanical Repair. As soon as your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch and you'll have to pee.
Law of Post Gravity Location. Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible place in the universe
Law of Observational Probability. The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.
Law of Wrong Numbers. If you dial a wrong number, someone always answers. When you dial correctly, you get a busy signal.
Law of Traffic. Change lanes & the one you left will always move faster than the one you're in now.
Law of the Bath. As soon as the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone will ring.
Law of Close Encounters. The probability of meeting someone you know increases dramatically when you are dressed inappropriately or with someone you don't want to be seen with.
Law of the Result. When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.
Law of the Theater & Stadium. People whose seats are farthest from the aisle always arrive last.
Law of Lockers. If there are only 2 people in a locker room, they'll have adjacent lockers.
Law of Physical Surfaces. The chances of an open-faced jam sandwich landing face down on a floor are directly correlated to the newness of the carpet.Law of Physical Appearance. If the clothes fit, they're ugly.
Law of Commerce. If you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it.
Law of Medical Inevitability- If you're sick and make a doctor's appointment, you'll feel better. If you don't make an appointment, you'll stay sick.
Law of Logical Argument. Anything's possible if you don't know what you're talking about.
NOW THAT IT'S OKAY TO LEAVE THE HOUSE
* Go out and enjoy nature. (But check out these photos first.)
COUNT ON CHILDREN TO CHEER US UP* Seven minutes of pure delight :Watch charming toddler Liang Liang guest star on "Ellen" TV show. Read more about the 4-year-old dancer known as China's "King of Rhythm."
* Love how this muscular tattooed Daddy patiently awaits meal service a tiny chair in his 18-month-old daughter's toy kitchen. Even better is his witty review of her restaurant. (Just gotta say: I hope she has a toy tool box as well-equipped as her kitchen.)
STAY SAFE. STAY STRONG. AND IF YOU'RE HEALTHY, JOIN A DEMONSTRATION
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