demnan's quest

Our Hidden Jewish Heritage

It was discomforting to see George Allen's recent reaction to the suggestion that his grandfather was Jewish.  It brought back to me a time when I used to have political arguments with my conservative father, and one time, when he was making an anti-Semitic statement I told him he was probably Jewish and he looked Jewish.  Little did I know I had unearthed perhaps a very guarded family secret.  For it stopped him in his tracks.  He knew his original surname was very common among German-Jewish people, even though, at the time I didn't. 

Then my mother told me that his father's family were Germans who had settled in Indianapolis and his father, a photographer for the Chicago Tribune, was considered the black sheep of the family.  My grandparents were divorced, and that cut us off from knowing anything about the family.  My grandmother had remarried and my father had taken her husband's name providing us with an English last name.

I've never been able to find out much about my father's family, even though I have searched them on the Internet.  My best friend is Jewish and the first time I showed her a picture of my grandfather, she said, Nancy, you never told me you were Jewish but I've always suspected you were."  She felt that my intellect and my face bore a link to a Jewish heritage.

Howard Stern used to have a contest called "Who's the Jew" on his radio program.  He would point out many people, celebrities, who had Jewish heritage that was perhaps surprising, due to the names, present religious affiliations, etc.   This also comes up in every election.  Remember when Kerry was accused of claiming an Irish heritage when he had German (and perhaps Jewish) roots?  Kerry was gracious and acknowledged his family proudly.

My favorite story of discovery is Madeline Albright.  Her discovery of her Jewish heritage seems typical of the upper class German-Jewish variety.  Everyone around you seems to know you're Jewish before you do!  But her parents tried to protect her from a heritage they sadly felt was very dangerous.  But when she went to Israel she was openly welcomed as a sister.  I just think that's really neat.  She learned something late in life about herself.

So this night on Rosh Hashanah, I'd just like to acknowledge that there are probably many thousands of people in America, especially in the Midwest, who are unaware of their Jewish roots.  George, you should have embraced this idea, because from wherever we come as Americans, it will always be a cool and free thing to discover.  You should never be ashamed of who you are and where you come from.

Jim Webb's "Woman Problem"

I know the bloggers at Raising Kane do not want to address this but Jim Webb does have a serious woman problem.  How do I know?  I use Jim's own way to scope out how people feel, I ask my family - and my 85-year-old mother has serious reservations about Jim Webb.  This was after I told her about "Born Fighting" - the book he wrote about her own heritage, the Scots-Irish.  Even after I told her that he had Hodges in his family (one of my Mom's family names) she didn't come around.  My mother doesn't like the stuff Webb wrote about women in the military.  His statements today during the debate were not quite enough to sway her. 

To give some background, my mother's family was from the mountains of Southern New York State and her parents came down to the DC area after WWI to make a living.  My Mom's family was poor people very similar to the Southern Appalachian people, and they lived in the Catskill town of Liberty, NY.  The women worked as seamstresses and the men with whatever trades they could get.  Later the Jewish community came to this area to establish tuberculosis sanatoriums, which was before the comedy clubs so popular there today. 

My grandfather's family was from Binghamton, NY.  He left home at 13 to join the circus, because from a family of 11 and being the eldest, he had to go out and fend for himself.  Eventually he went to plumbing school in NYC.  My grandfather was the first plumbing inspector for Alexandria, VA.  He also put in the plumbing for Fort Belvoir and was a Mason who had a hand in building the famous Masonic Temple in Alexandria that sits near where the King Street metro goes today.

When my father went off to war as an Army officer and spent 2 years on Guadalcanal as an Army Captain of a trucking company, my mother got a job in the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA - the same as its called today, but it was actually a Torpedo Factory - my teenage mother helped make torpedoes there during WWII.  The women worked so hard in that factory that the men (those who didn't go off to war) complained that the women had increased production too much.  That good old Scots-Irish spirit to fight the war had invaded them too.  They were fighting along side their men as best they could.

So this is the background from which my Mother perceives - and so with all the things I've told her about how similar Jim Webb is to our own family's life in working our way up, she still has trepidations.    She needs Jim Webb to understand that when their men go off to war the women continue fighting, in what ever form they need to.  And I hope someone will send him this blog and he will read about my family as I have read about his and understand where we come from.

At the rally at Robinson Middle School I was happy to greet again the first woman to be elected to the US. Congress from Virginia, Leslie Byrne.  And I had worked on her campaign with a dozen Woodbridge housewives and schoolteachers in 1992 and we were rewarded not only with our Congresswoman but also with a wonderful articulate President who turned things around economically and actually helped me get a new career in IT and independence from my family.

So this is where I come from, Mr. Webb.  I esteem you but you have a problem with women, so you need to address this. Ask your good friend Leslie Byrne.  She'll guide you along the way.

Ominous Tides

Recently the tides rose in Alexandria, VA.  First there were the remnants of a tropical storm.  You could see how the Potomac River had risen above its banks all along the park were I take my daily lunchtime walk at work.  I don't even remember the rain being so bad this time but was shocked the weekday after I returned to work.  All along the park above the banks was a high water mark strewn with garbage, as if the river had suddenly risen up and revolted against the garbage that was thrown in it and had massively thrown up along the shore.  "Here's your garbage back, you sons ' of bitches," the river seemed to say.  I even asked a local walking her dog what had happened.  She said, "Saturday night this was all flooded, they usually take care of it quickly, I don't know what happened this time."  Typical rich, it's always the poor's fault.  The workmen employed by the city weren't working fast enough to hide the truth for her.

I did think about global warming then, as I've done when visiting the Tidal Basin in Washington D.C., and seen the tidal waters breech their banks on a normal day during a drought.  But I put it aside as a product of this tropical storm that went through.  We've seen floods in our lower lying areas all my life in the D.C. area.  And coastal flooding along Alexandria is not unusual.

Then the following week the National Weather Service issued a warning that an "onshore flow plus the effects of the full moon will cause costal flooding, particularly in Annapolis and Alexandria."  Again I went for my 1:30 pm walk and again the trash was thrown up over the banks, not as bad as the last time, but just enough to make you think.  How many times is this going to be a regular feature of my daily stroll.  Not to mention the fact that some of the mounds of trash were still there from the last time, being just too much for the city's crew to keep up with.

So armed with this and four hours of watching "When the Levees Broke" makes me wonder if we do have the national will to maintain our coastal areas against the inevitable damage that will occur because of global warming.  And what would become of the million + dollar homes being built within yards of this coastline?

Because Alexandria, unlike New Orleans has its most valuable homes in the lower lying regions near the water.  Sure you go to the inland neighborhoods like Rosemont, where I grew up, and the river would never breach those fine, large Victorian homes that my grandfather built along Russell Road, but in the Old Town area, the vast numbers of homes that range in the million dollar value are in the danger zone of the good old Potomac.  And someday, she's going to really exact her revenge.

Death Wish

I was reading Cheers and Jeers by Bill from Portland Maine at DailyKos the other day.  Bill humorously links to the Rapture Watch, a website that tracks signs that the apocalpse may soon occur.  Amazingly, sites like this have cropped up on the web, along with Fundamentalist Christian sites that state the apocalpse is near.  The idiot President thinks it's near also.  Our society must be fraught with mass depression for so many to be so obsessed with the end.  They are all looking forward to massive death.  In the Gospels Jesus states, "No one knows the time of my coming."  And yet so many believe they do, and they want it.

I'm not a Christian, I'm a Humanist and I believe Deist best expresses my lack of religious beliefs.  I believe as Emerson and the Founding Fathers did, that we must determine a good place here on earth.  I'm not waiting to be sucked up into the sky.  And I don't believe I deserve anything better than what I have here on earth.  Therefore I'm not anxious to enter into war with people where lives might be lost.  A war for a concept, such as Democracy, or Capitalism, or Christianity - take your pick, loses all it's value when you look at a poor little kid with all his limbs blown off and his dead mother by his side.  You can't tell me that Democracy will make life better for that kid.  Sure if you're fighting people who are coming after you, I say kick their asses, and do it well and do it till they stop, but don't give me a war for concepts.  War is killing people.  That's all it is, and you have a war you better be willing and morally just and able to kill your enemy or keep your peace.  A philosphy like that would keep us out of a hell of a lot of trouble.

I was all for going into Afganistan after 9/11.  I was hoping they would kill Osama Bin Laden.  Suddenly, as a person who opposed the death penalty, I felt the death penalty was all right for that guy.  I hoped they would do it quickly with minimal loss of civilian life.  The Taliban is a ruthless government that enabled Bin Laden to thrive.  I was all for kicking their butts too.  They way they smashed those giant Budda statues down, and enslaved their women showed they had no respect for any form of human kind or way of thinking other than their own rigid doctrines, but I wouldn't have wanted to kill them for that.  They harbored Bin Laden as they do today, and for that they deserve a goodole' Toby Keith style ass whuppin'.

But we weren't able to do that and both are thriving again in Afghanistan.  I can't tell you how much contempt I have for the government for allowing that.  But I have even more contempt for them for starting an unnecessary war in Iraq.  That little kid's picture with his limbs blown off haunts my mind.  My tax dollars at work.  Goddamn Bush for using my money to hurt that little kid. 

The way Bush is talking he wants to start a war with Iran, and probably Syria too.  Now is the time we must act.  The only way to stop this madman is by turning over the Congress this fall.  By checks and balances we can stop this madness before it goes too far.  I fear if we don't get one branch of Congress for the Democrats this fall it may be too late.   I wish for life.

Blazing Help

From Bartcop at http://www.bartcop.com:

Jennifer Pryor needs your help

Right now there are over 200 dogs and cats that are scared and depressed
because they were rescued and then suddenly taken away from their rescuer
and placed back into an animal control center. It isn't their fault, but the fault
of local officials and police that caused the confusing situation for these poor animals.

Jennifer Lee Pryor and Pryor's Planet have provided these babies with a lawyer
to help them but the fees are mounting and making it difficult for Pryor's Planet
to be able to help other animals in need.

We are asking everyone to think about the animals and how they must feel right now.
Day after day waiting for someone to take them out of their "jail" and give them
the love that they so deserve. Most of these animals are older or special needs
and were in the middle of treatment and recovery when this raid happened.
Now they are stuck and not getting the loving care they need.

I wanted to take a break tonight and saw this on Bartcop I wanted to post.  Richard Pryor was a genius, he had a comedic gift and in spite of many personal obstacles, he never gave up on humankind. Blazing Saddles was the most brilliant movie of its age, it will be remembered not just for its course laugh your ass off humor, but for the engaging humanity it displayed.   This humor was a combination of a brilliant team - Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor.  Pryor also had great standup acts but I think that Blazing Saddles was the best for both of them.  It was one of the first movies also that really had fun with gay characters, while scoping the entire racial attitude of Middle America.  This movie was a delight to everyone of my age group, most of us in our late 40's - 50's now.   On Bartcop chat references are made to this movie that we all understand.

Pryor had so much courage and spoke so strongly.  He needed a break from humankind sometimes.  As a complex man, his heart reached out to animals and his legacy is to help animals in need.   If you look at my blog you will see my cat Pad Thai on my shoulders.  He is so devoted you can see that in his beautiful blue crossed eyes.  So I had to stop tonight and tell you how much I love him and my other cats and how much it means to help animals in need.  I'm going to make a donation tonight as I did the day of Pryor's death in honor of his legacy, a place for special needs animals.

www.pryorsplanet.com

Lies

I couldn't write about anything else tonight but the blatant lies that pass as journalism in this country.  I avoided much of the 9/11 coverage today, but the small sliver I got driving home listening to NPR tonight was enough to make me want to vomit.

Didn't 9/11 happen on this Monkey's watch?  Didn't his administration manipulate the situation to the point of causing mass fear in this country?  And yet he is forever propped up by the very extreme first failure he ever had as President.

I'm disgusted and ashamed to be an American tonight.  I'm ashamed for how we've treated the deaths of all those fine people who died five years ago. Did we go after the killers and their helpers.  No we did not.  Only in a half assed way - squandering precious lives along the way.  Were we there for those families in distress?  No.  They gave them some money but the ability to bring litigation was denied.  It was a bribe.  How many widows and widowers had to take the money just to make their mortgage payments so they could at least keep their kids in the same schools and give their children some semblance that their lives would go on.

And where is that bastard, Osama bin Laden?  How inept are we in figuring that one out.  According to the Washington Post, the trail has gone cold.  A President with any heart would have pursued that trail and given all the energy and resources over to find the evil bastard and destroy him.  Going into the Afghanistan, I believe the country was almost unanimously united in that effort.  Wonderful young people signed up for the various Armed Forces and National Guard all over this country in a sincere desire to defend us against further harm.  Seasoned military were dedicated and wanted to pursue this effort.  But the inept, weak, evil administration which is a pox upon us all prevented our collective good will and indomitable spirit from prevailing.

I mourn our many losses tonight.

A Postscript. 

If you didn't hear or read Keith Olberman last night.  Please do so.  No one said it better.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

September 11th

This is a transcript from Bartcop Entertainment.  I sent this to Marty 5 years ago for her September 15th post.

I lived it all.  Reading it now it seems a bit corny but I felt every bit of it as I wrote it.  And stood within walking distance of my home, in a neighborhood I loved and saw the distruction.

I have since learned that more people died in the Pentagon from Prince William County, where I live now and grew up, about 30 miles south, than actually lived in Arlington County.  I don't think that is widely known. 

Here from Ground Zero - Site Two - Arlington, VA

I have heard the right wing fanatic pundits in their repulsive spew, I have seen the heroic fire, police and military people in their humane effort to protect, save, and comfort.

I live a mile from the Pentagon. The effort that has been made has been systematic, stoic and resolute. There is an American people who are tolerant, sympathetic, and pan-ethnic and pan-religious and tolerant of non-religious. This is the society we live with here in Arlington - we are a tolerant multi-ethnic urban society of military installations, ethnic restaurants and immigrants of all colors working hard along side American whites and blacks. We have Muslims dressed in tradition garb here a mile from the Pentagon.

That's what makes our country great. We get along pretty well here along Columbia Pike.

http://www.suprmchaos.com/bcEnt-Sat-91501.index.html

Apologies

A campaign that I am actively working on, for a man I deeply respect, had a misstep today.  And my fear is that they won't correct it.

The Jim Webb campaign published an ad using Ronald Reagan talking about Jim Webb's many accomplishments.  Politics, being the big ugly thing that it is, especially for a capable man who switched parties, upchucked.

Some people in the Republican Party must have contacted the frail, elderly Nancy Reagan and I believe she was persuaded to ask that the ad be pulled.  So there really is no choice but to pull the ad.  You can't disrespect a First Lady and most importantly, you won't win any votes doing so.  Not in Virginia, where going against an elderly widow's wishes won't win you any votes.  So you need to apologize your ass off and do it graciously.   I'm a master at this, as I've done stupid things at work I needed to apologize for.   

Even if you think you are right, you should apologize.  Why?  Not because it's your truth but because it's societies' truth and this is a entirely different thing.   A very hard lesson for me to learn personally, but having learned it, I can only pass it on.

You know what, if you're sincere, they'll probably forgive you.  And you can graciously turn this kind of negative stuff around.  Everyone screws up, but to apologize gracefully is a God-given gift.  One that will be remembered come election day.

A Postscript:

Here's the way I look at it. What if Joe Lieberman were to put out an ad for his Independent Senate race with footage of Gore praising him or even the nominating speeches at the Democratic Convention of 2000. If Gore's voice was used to praise Lieberman wouldn't he be in the political hot seat to renounce these comments now that the candidate has left the political party? Would you let that stand, if you were Gore?

Msinformation

George Orwell's 1984 was required reading when I was in high school in the 1970's, I guess the teachers anticipated an era when our country would not allow free speech and this was a nightmare for a teacher of good intentions.

So now ABC news will redefine Truthspeak with their new "drama" about 911.  Reality is redefined and the President of the opposing party must be trashed to prop up a weak and ineffective leader.   Bill Clinton was a competent President.  He was on the job and if something happened in this country even the Republicans know in their hearts he would have addressed it better than Bush.  He bombed targets in Somalia and the Republican GOP accused him of "wag the dog".  Terror threats were stopped on the Year 2000, which was ushered in gracefully, because we had a capable government to protect us. 

They can't take up his record and they have to lie.  Forget policy issues.  We have competency issues in spades with the Bush administration.  We have people in New Orleans a year later still living in trailers without any federal assistance to help them rebuild their homes.  This administration has blocked help for the Gulf Coast and has blocked money for security measures in New York and Washington, DC where terror threats would be imminent.  The only thing this administration cares about is its callous self-interest.  This administration is an insult to honest Republicans!  We must reach out to them and tell them this.

I'm doing door-to-door canvassing tomorrow.  Webb's Reagan ad is coming out soon and Andy Hurst rocks so I'm not resigned to a horrible fate for this country.

Braveheart

I'm reading Jim Webb's book, "Born Fighting".  The book details the history of Scottish people and their influence on the United States.  I'm early on in the book so I happen to be reading about William Wallace, the medieval Scottish hero who rose out of the common ranks of the people to lead a revolution against the English monarch.  He died in the struggle, but his heroism prodded the reluctant  nobleman Robert the Bruce to take up the struggle and is the reason why Scotland remained an independent country and was not swallowed up as a far province of Northern England.  This was one of Mel Gibson's better movies, before Gibson became overly obsessed with the blood of Christ.

The lesson taught by history and emphasized by Webb is that Wallace was the first leader who came totally out of the ranks of the regular people.  Scottish society was loosely founded on clan relationships, very unlike the Norman feudalistic society of England at that time.  The rigid class structure of England, which still to some extent exists today, was not a part of Scottish, or later American society.  Webb constantly alludes to Andrew Jackson, the first Democrat, when discussing this trend.  This culture was very deeply rooted in the people who settled the Appalachian mountains.

I spent my first year of college down at Clinch Valley College in Wise, Virginia.  I'm glad we finally have a candidate from the "Dog Leg" of the state, and I'm not surprised he's a scholar, as I met many down there, a lot of artists too.  The area abounds in story tellers, historians, musicians and actors.  The area has a lot of problems, with the terrible strip-mining and poverty, but I rarely ran into anyone who wasn't schooled in a sense of who they were, and where they wanted to go. 

Wallace was told he didn't have a chance, but he captured the hearts of the people, and when you do that it happens so fast the pollsters and pundits don't see it.  I feel like I'm riding on a train that will continue to pick up passengers along the way.  Webb picks his heroes well.  His study into the deeper meaning of things sets him apart.  He knows where he's going and where he comes from.  He has a deep self confidence that is evident in his manner.  The people are catching on too.  I sense it in the phone canvassing I'm doing.  There's a popular response to Webb in Virginia.  People say things like, "he's got my vote,"  and "you all picked a winner this time."  It is this deep knowledge of where he's come from, a sense of his roots, that will help him win this election.