Get Your Grump On

I'm going to do a little curmudgeonly practice here and suggest that we return the name "President's Day" to the shelf from which the retailers plucked it and call this "Washington's Birthday" again. I don't think we need to be clumping in utter failures like James Buchanan, vicious racists like Woodrow Wilson, office-dishonorers like Richard Nixon and so on with some of the men who have held the office of President and served our nation with honor and distinction.

Those of you who have been inflicting my blog upon yourself for lo these many years may remember that I have said this before. I have indeed, which only buttresses my pretensions to curmudgeonly status.

Loud, Plaid and Called

Today is the Feast Day of St. Andrew, who was deemed the Patron Saint of Scotland in the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath. Your humble Friar has some Scottish heritage -- of which he is proud, aye! -- and so he enjoys noting this day, which is not observed nearly so widely as good old Patrick from the nearby Emerald Isle.

St. Andrew's day has nothing analagous to Paddy's green beer and, frankly, your humble Friar would advise against consuming any beverage which looks like it might be plaid. But following Andrew's footsteps as an apostle is an outstanding idea worthy of consideration.

Fireworks

Seeing as how the 4th of July falls on a Sunday, the local community is wont to hold its Independence Day celebrations on the 3rd. These include an...extensive...fireworks show, as the ranch workers at a local establishment really like to blow stuff up and shoot stuff into the sky, and they especially embrace the combination of the two.

So when you walk back home from viewing said spectacle, and the city streets have enough expended pyrotechnical smoke that it looks like a London fog bank, you know you have well and truly marked that great day when His Majesty the King of England was told where to get off.

Group Identity

This article at Tablet magazine about the Americans who are among Yad Vashem's "The Righteous of the Nations" is good all the way through, but the section about Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds of the United States Army while a prisoner of war during World War II seems good to remember today: 

Roddie Edmonds’ group, the NCOs, were then shipped to Stalag IXA in Ziegenhain. There were 1,275 men in this group and Roddie Edmonds was the highest-ranking NCO among them.

It was German policy to single out Jewish POWs and send them to extermination or slave labor camps. Accordingly, in January 1945, the Germans announced that all Jewish prisoners in Stalag IXA would report the following morning. Twenty-five-year-old Master Sgt. Edmonds, who was responsible for all the POWs in Stalag IXA, ordered all prisoners, Jews and non-Jews, to fall out. When the German officer in charge, Maj. Siegmann, saw all the prisoners lined up in front of the barracks that next morning, he said to Edmonds: “They cannot all be Jews.” Edmonds responded: “We are all Jews here.”

Siegmann then pointed a pistol to Edmonds’ head, but Edmonds, refusing to back down, replied: “According to the Geneva Convention, we only have to give our name, rank, and serial number. If you shoot me, you will have to shoot all of us, and after the war you will be tried for war crimes.” The German major turned and walked away. Edmonds had saved the lives of the roughly 200 Jewish prisoners among the 1,275 American POWs.

In Memoriam

Clarity

As the saying goes, Armed Forces Day honors those people who currently wear our nation's uniform. Veterans' Day honors those why have worn our nation's uniform. Memorial Day honors those who will forever wear our nation's uniform.

May we remember, and emulate.

Double-Barrelled

North Texas Celtic band The Selkie Girls offers a St. Patrick's Day story that combines two of Ireland's major interests: "God and Guinness." Found on the Running with the Morrigan album, for those interested.

Memory

I know people who refuse to read National Review because it is a conservative opinion journal. I know people who refuse to read it because it declared its official editorial opinion against then-candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.

As to the first, since it's clearly identified as a journal of conservative opinion I guess these are people who don't want to read conservative opinions. You'd think that sort of thing wouldn't go on among adults but it's 2020 so I guess so. I'll freely confess there are some liberal arguments I choose not to pay attention to, but that's because they're ones I've heard before. Liberal arguments about and interpretations of recent events, which are new, are a different matter.

As to the second, I think the magazine should clearly be held accountable for not taking that position sooner. But the GOP field was replete with candidates who were more interested in salvaging the Trump voters they thought would be left behind after his inevitable flameout than they were in making the clear case that he was of unfit character for the office. So the magazine made the second mistake rather than the first.

In any event, people who skip the magazine will miss two excellent Memorial Day essays in its online edition. One, by editor Rich Lowry, highlights the contributions African-Americans have made to the nation during its wars, putting their lives on the line for countrymen who would acknowledge little, if any, civil kinship with them before or after the fighting was over. Again and again African-Americans suited up with the idea that their sacrifice and service would prove a wedge to open the consciences of the nation as a whole to the injustice they suffered. Being proven wrong did not stop them from serving, something that needs to be remembered by articles like Lowry's. He didn't write the first, longest or best such memorial, but he keeps the idea lit and that's a good thing.

They will also miss this fantastic exploration of the role of disease in the United States armed forces before World War II by Dan McLaughlin. Prior to 1941, different diseases killed more soldiers during wartime than did enemy fire. Though these men and women did not lay down their lives defending their country and comrades from the enemy, the request to serve her placed them in harm's way and in the conditions where their lives would indeed be lost. They didn't get to come home either.

Holiday!

December 15 was National Bill of Rights Day and celebrates a pretty important part of our national agreement on how we're going to live together and operate our country. Lots of people these days would, it seems, like to replace statements that guarantee freedoms with those that guarantee safety, conveniently overlooking that safety can't be guaranteed.

According to some sources, other days are also celebrated on December 15, among them Cat Herders' Day. George Washington, elected by his fellow delegates to preside at the Constitutional Convention that created the main body of the document and its first 10 amendments, might have appreciated the coincidence.

Day of Honor

I saw an explanatory meme that helps focus our attention on the sort of "two-part" holiday of Sunday and Monday, Memorial Day. Armed Forces Day celebrates those who wear our nation's uniform. Veterans' Day celebrates those who have worn our nation's uniform but have taken it off after honorable service. Memorial Day celebrates those who will forever wear the uniform.

Many thanks, gentlemen and ladies. May we be worthier of your sacrifice than we have been.

Better Than Life Day

Today has been the unofficial "Star Wars Day" across many English-speaking countries, because of the amusing pun that can be made from the date. Say the date, "May the fourth," add "be with you," and behold! You sound like a young Jedi who has just lost his or her front baby tooth.

It's a little more somber than usual because of the recent death of Peter Mayhew, who was the original actor inside the furry suit of Chewbacca the Wookie. Although Mayhew never spoke a recognizable word of dialogue and spent his entire onscreen time hidden behind the dog/bear/simian mask of Chewie, he was one of the movie series' most popular figures. He did many conventions, was rarely if ever anything other than gracious to fans and often expressed his awareness of how lucky he was. He didn't have many other roles, but he didn't really need them.

Here's hoping that wherever he is, the fuzzball is laughing it up indeed.

Lucky Day

Hope everyone had a fun day pretending to be Irish!

By the way, did you ever notice how people are more than happy to down a pint of stout to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, but seem really averse to the idea of a plateful of haggis on St. Andrew's Day?

From Dust You Came...

Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent, in which Christians prepare to properly celebrate and observe what we consider the single most important event in the history of...well, everything. If your choices include the observation of Lenten discipline, may it bring you closer to Christ.

If they don't, or if you are a person who takes a pass on your friendly blogger's traditional Christian theism, give a thought to checking out one of that faith's outlets in about 40 days. And please forgive me if I'm praying you change your mind.

The Right Address

Monday marks "Presidents Day," which we in modern times have adjusted to be the date of many silly sales and honoring all of the men who have held the office whether they merit it or not. Of course, no one who hasn't had to try to do the job really knows what it's like. But if you try to tell me that one-monther William Henry Harrison, acme of incompetence James Buchanan or the vile Woodrow Wilson deserve the same recognition as the effective manager Eisenhower, let alone the greatness of Lincoln or Washington, I will say you've probably taken United States history sometime in the last 20 years.

In any event, since the holiday was originally focused on Washington and later added Lincoln (in most states, anyway), it's a good time to contemplate Lincoln's famous Gettysburg address. This 2014 essay at National Affairs allowed political science professor Diana Schaub to do so, and is worth your attention. Re-reading the actual address itself -- three paragraphs, ten sentences, 272 words -- wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Cooperation

Today our nation honors the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the major forces in the civil rights movement during some of its toughest -- and in many ways most effective -- years.

Something that sometimes gets overlooked in reflecting on the struggle for civil rights was how segregation and racism disrupted so many basic human relationships. Extra drinking fountains so whites and blacks wouldn't mix. Separate areas for seating. Extra bathrooms in buildings. Refusal to serve a large chunk of the population and thus cutting off a significant source of revenue. I'd have never succeeded as a segregationist -- aside from recognizing it as evil, I'm way too lazy to go through all of that mess.

When you read about the civil rights movement, you see a variety of opinions. Some leaders wanted to focus solely on the political arena, and ensure African-Americans could exercise their right to vote and hold office. They thought that things like bus seats and lunch counters could come later. But the thing about doing business with people is that it doesn't take too long before whatever barriers custom and history put up get knocked down by plain ol' commerce.

And from there, it's barely a generation before community ties erode even the memory of the divided place of business: The diner founder refuses to serve black people. His son starts that way but new laws require him to serve everyone. And his son, if he thinks about segregation at all, shakes his head at how much money gramps let slip away by limiting himself to only part of the population.

P.J. O'Rourke, in an essay about the meaning of trade in American Consequences, references a 1958 pamphlet by an economist named Leonard Read, called I, Pencil - My Family Tree. It highlights how one of the simplest and most ubiquitous items on the planet is beyond the grasp of any one person to make from its most basic ingredients. Only through trade -- a formalized kind of cooperation involving money -- can pencils arrive in the hands of those who want them. Leaders like King saw that the more ties were forged across the barrier of skin tone, the more each race would understand it gained as a result. And commerce offered an abundance of opportunities for such cooperation.

Today voices on both sides of the melanin line talk more about separation and disunity than they do about a shared destiny and common ground. King's kind of voice is heard amid a lot of others, many much less irenic and unifying. It's cause for concern that we might lose some of the ground we gained as a nation through the efforts of civil rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s. And we should keep an eye out for that kind of slippage.

In the end we might find ourselves saved by commerce and good ol' Adam Smith's invisible hand of self-interest. Because if bigotry resurfaces and someone somewhere decides they don't want to sell to someone of a particular race, they'll have a competitor who will be more than happy to do so -- whether from altruism or ugly naked greed. But sell they will. And they'll be the ones left in business.

Tidings of Comfort and Joy

May the day be so to you. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Yuletide Tunes

Recently in a conversation about music, I was unable to stop my eye-roll when the conversation turned to Christmas music. "What's the matter?" I was asked. "Don't you like Christmas music?"

Well, that depends on what we mean when we say Christmas music. If the list is "Angels We Have Heard on High," "Sweet Little Jesus Boy," "What Child Is This?" and the like, then yes, I very much like Christmas music. But if we're talking about "Winter Wonderland," "Let It Snow," "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts)," "All I Want for Christmas Is You?" and such, well, then I suppose I have to start an argument because those are not Christmas songs. They are seasonal songs, to be sure, and a lot of them reference the Christmas season in particular, but they are not about Christmas.

As you may gather from my profession and my frequent references to being mired in orthodox Christian theism, I believe Christmas to be about the birth of Jesus Christ. Songs which focus on that event and its meaning are "Christmas songs." We'll stretch the definition here a little bit to include Advent songs that concern the time leading up to Christmas itself, but the key is the presence of Jesus, either by name or implication.

So there's no way "Winter Wonderland" is a Christmas song. In fact, Richard Smith's lyrics never mention Christmas at all. Yes, it gets played all of the time at Christmas. Its Wikipedia article suggests it's been covered more than 200 times -- which is one of the reasons I can't stand hearing it anymore. Modern recording artists whose ranges and styles don't match it try to sing it more or less as written and fail, and others try to re-arrange it to suit their style and wind up with messes that make you want to stay away from any version of the song at all because you're so sick of it.

"The Christmas Song," which is also sometimes labeled as "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" after its first line, is probably even more ubiquitous and is an example of songs that are about the Christmas season instead of Christmas. The focus is on a few Rockwellian Christmas images and some Santa Claus-ery but nothing that roots Christmas in its originating event. Not even the great Nat King Cole could make this slice of Mel Tormé's schmaltziest syrup sound good and it is a reason to leap for the radio station button at the first hint of its first notes, no matter who's smothering to death under its lyrics.

Those two, plus multiple offenders "White Christmas" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas" might have been marginally acceptable on initial release but the fact that no one covers any other Christmas songs means that no matter where you go, you'll hear three or four nearly identical versions of them within 30 minutes. The same goes for the shudderingly awful "Jingle Bell Rock," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" or Mariah Carey's more recent, "All I Want for Christmas Is You." The latter is a fine little pop song but has been covered to death.

If I'm going to listen to some Christmas season music, why not check out some stuff that's way more fun, like the Kinks' story of a charity Santa getting mugged in "Father Christmas?" Or the Waitresses' spunky "Christmas Wrapping," which I cannot believe has not become a Hallmark Christmas movie. Or for that matter, AC/DC's "Mistress for Christmas," which I cannot believe has not become a premium cable Christmas movie.

Modern artists have done some interesting covers of real Christmas songs, such as the Rondelles cover of "Angels We Have Heard on High." Billy Idol has an entire album of Christmas and seasonal music, with "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" being the standout. Patty Smyth commits the sin of covering "The Christmas Song" but redeems herself with a lovely "Do You Hear What I Hear?" cover. Most people know Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," but fellow heartland rock giant Bob Seger makes the "Little Drummer Boy" a mighty percussionist indeed.

Those stand out because usually the modern performers stick to the seasonal music, like X covering "Jingle Bells."

The real problem with today's rotations of "Christmas music" are the painfully limited playlists and cookie-cutter covers of the lightest-weight tunes in the holiday catalog. So I suppose I'm going to be lumped in with the Christmas music Grinches who would rather listen to just about anything than what gets pumped out of store stereos and adult contemporary radio stations between Nov. 15 and Dec. 31. That's OK -- we can agree to disagree.

Unless you bring up anything involving Alvin or a chipmunk. Then you're facing a huge load of ye olde bitumen in your stocking, and I will rat you out to Santa myself.

No Snake-Handling Required

Today is St. Andrew's Day, celebrating the feast day of the patron saint of Scotland. It is not nearly so well-known as the feast day for the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick.

The imbalance is likely to continue until scientists develop a method for dying a beer (and the Chicago River) plaid.

Original Meaning

Today we remember Nov. 11 as Veterans's Day, set aside to honor men and women who have worn our nation's uniform in peacetime and war, and what they sacrificed on behalf of their fellows and their country.

Originally, of course, Nov. 11 was Armistice Day. A century ago as I write this, thousands of soldiers were just a few hours away from learning they might very well live to see Christmas and return home to their families. Today they are all gone, mostly seen in grainy photos or perhaps remembered as grandfathers by those who are grandfathers today.

But still they were here, and they offered much, even all, for a cause they were told was right and for each other. So when we say thanks to the service men and women still among us now, we might offer one as well for those of another era. A century may have thinned the memory and immediacy of their offering, but it mattered much to them at their time. And perhaps if we do so we can guide those in November of 2118 as they look back to our day.

Measure of Freedom

Today is the holiday "Juneteenth," marking the 1865 notification of African-Americans in Galveston, Texas, that they had been freed by the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

Abraham Lincoln had signed the Proclamation in 1862, setting it to go into effect on January 1, 1863. It initially covered slaves held only in areas that openly rebelled against the United States, and of course it was tough to enforce in any area that Union forces had not retaken. News of Robert E. Lee's April surrender didn't reach Galveston until May, and the Confederate Army of the Trans-Mississippi operating west of the Mississippi River did not lay down its arms until June 2. Union General Gordon Granger and 2,000 troops occupied the port city on June 18, and the next day Granger publicly read a declaration of emancipation.

Of course, we know that the former Confederate states, beginning in the 1890s, began pushing back the rights of African-Americans until in some cases their worlds were even more restricted than before. Northern cities did not always offer much better; African-Americans walking through the Chicago suburb of Cicero, IL, were at no less risk of their lives than those who lived in the South might be walking in a "white" area of one of its cities. It would take the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s to enable African-Americans to regain any significant portion of what they had lost after the Reconstruction era and problems undeniably persist today in spite of that progress.

Only four states -- Hawaii, Montana and both Dakotas -- do not have some kind of official state observance of the Juneteenth holiday. Although resolutions to create a federal recognition have been introduced in Congress from time to time they have not established it yet. On the other hand, it is on the Apple iOS system's official calendar, so government recognition may be a moot point.

Obviously the population for whom Juneteenth means the most are modern African-Americans whose ancestors were owned by other people. But it has a national dimension as well. The Declaration of Independence suggested that the leaders of the American colonies held that God had created all of humanity as equals who possessed rights simply by virtue of being a human being. Since some of those signing the document owned slaves, it's sometimes said that the Declaration was hypocritical, or at least those signers were. It seems more likely that they were simply limited in their thinking, and as time moved on we came to understand that they fell short not in their ideals, but in the execution of them.

Step by step across the decades, brave and visionary men and women have reminded America that it promises its citizens some things and have sought to elevate it so that it will live up to make those promises real for all of those citizens. Martin Luther King referred to the Declaration as a promissory note that civil rights activists wanted "cashed," so to speak, for America's black citizens as well as its white ones. The suffragettes whose victory was sealed by the 19th Amendment wanted the same for America's female citizens as well as its male ones.

The nation unfortunately took almost as many steps back after Juneteenth as it took forward to get there. But the holiday and the Proclamation it represented showed that such steps were possible, and made many Americans realize that if their fellow citizens could be arbitrarily denied equal rights, some day they might be also. Those seeds may still have a way to go before fully flowering, but without that first bloom celebrated on June 19, 1865, none of the rest might have ever followed at all.

Real Men Wear Plaid

Today was National Tartan Day, commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Arbroath on this date back in 1320.

There's an International Day as well, with the U.S. holiday beginning 20 years ago with a Senate resolution.

I'll observe it by quoting a singer I saw once at a Scottish festival: "England forever! And Scotland for a wee bit longer!"