Independence Day!

Yesterday I joined many thousands who tuned in to the filmed version of the Broadway play Hamilton on Disney plus TV. I so enjoyed this play and I am quite impressed at the genius of Lin Manuel Miranda who pulled together not only the history of our country’s early days, added the many distinct personalities of the time and set it all to hip-hop and an upbeat rhythm….and was the actor who played Alexander Hamilton. All of the founders were played by black and brown actors; most of the other parts were played by minorities also. As described by Peter Marks in the Washington Post: “Hamilton is at its heart an all-American patriotic pageant, a marriage of hip hop to the Stars and Stripes.”

Since this play is based loosely on the Ron Chernow biography of Hamilton published in 2004, I was driven to the book where Chernow writes in his prologue:

“Hamilton was the supreme double threat among the founding fathers, at once thinker and doer, sparkling theoretician, and masterful executive. More than anyone else the omnipresent Hamilton galvanized, inspired and scandalized the newborn nation, serving as the flash-point for pent-up conflicts of class, geography, race, religion and ideology.”

As the play notes, our founders were imperfect men – and yes, they were all men. But even with these imperfections they managed to form a country through wars and words, with soaring rhetoric and diminished dreams, stubbornness and compromise, they created a nation. Today, some 244 years later, this nation still promises much to many and still needs to improve. President Obama once described this country as a project that never ends. Then, as now it welcomed some immigrants, so that Hamilton, a young man of illegitimate birth, orphaned and penniless could come to these shores and prosper. But now immigrants of color have a more difficult time gaining entrance. I found an interesting aside about this cast on You Tube.  Shortly after Vice President Pence was elected, but before he took office, he attended a performance of this play.  At the end, the diverse cast had a few words to say to the new VP – they welcomed his attendance, but indicated that they were alarmed and anxious at his election and were worried that this new administration would not protect or defend them, their parents or their children and uphold their inalienable rights.  They sincerely hoped that this show had inspired him to work on behalf of all of them (my paraphrase). They spoke what truly was on the minds of many Americans at that time.

Unfortunately, many of the cast’s fears were prophetic as this administration has continued on its original path of divisiveness and racial animus. From his initial campaign announcement, to his inaugural address, to his Fourth of July remarks this week, this President has not sought to heal a nation.  He spoke again recently of thugs and hombres conjuring up fears of women with absent spouses attacked in their homes.  He is again campaigning on instilling fear in middle America.  In some instances, he has done the right things. He did call and speak to the family of George Floyd, which was a rarity; (VP Biden called also). Although he had meetings at the White House and made promises which have not been kept, he did not speak up to heal after Parkland, after Pulse, after Las Vegas; he did not comfort after floods in Houston, fires in California or hurricanes in Puerto Rico and he has not had empathy for the close to 130,000 deaths from COVID-19.  He has had few words against police brutality, unequal justice or subpar education for minorities. Instead he promoted people and policies which try to limit voting opportunities and disenroll voters; his attorney general has promoted a return to using the death penalty and has not aggressively investigated killings of minorities by authorities.  In short – he has no empathy and does not even try to understand those whom he sees as ‘not his people’.

He has called the words Black Lives Matter – symbols of hate and referred to statues of Confederate soldiers as beautiful.  He promised to send Federal troops to defend statues and mandate sentences of ten years in jail to those who toppled them. Empty rhetoric – who knows? He has already sent troops against peaceful marchers in Washington DC.  Posturing again, or playing to his base or both? I am uncertain. But, however it is described, I do not believe that it is Presidential; nor do I believe that he is a President for all of the people in this country.

The latest phrase he is using is “cancel culture”, by which he means destruction of symbols of Southern Heritage, but which is used by many others differently.  In fact according to an article in The Washington Post he is the King of  aggressively attacking anyone who might dare to disagree with him. Is this the government so carefully crafted by the founders?

Tidbits from here and there:

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• It was reported that the White House had no reaction to Intelligence reports that Russians had paid members of the Taliban a bounty for each American military person they could kill. After first denying that the President was briefed, then calling the news a hoax and not credible, there still has been no official response to these reports from the press office or the President.

·       The President decried ‘left wing fascists’ in his Fourth of July speech – uh, Mr. President – according to the Oxford Dictionary – fascism is a right-wing movement:

An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. The term Fascism was first used of the totalitarian right-wing nationalist regime of Mussolini in Italy (1922–43), and the regimes of the Nazis in Germany and Franco in Spain were also Fascist. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one national or ethnic group, a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach.

·       Thirteen states have reported their highest daily totals this week as daily COVID-19 cases hit more than 50,000 each day. Texas and Florida closed beaches and encouraged mask wearing.  A curfew was imposed in Miami.

COVID-19 stats today from the CDC:

Total US cases: 2,841,906 - Total deaths: 129,576 Total new cases in 24 hours: 52,228.

Maryland: total number of cases: 69,632 - Total deaths: 3,243

(parts of Maryland are opening up now and the beaches are open, I do hope that does not bring about a spike in case numbers.)

Well that is about all I have for today – so much is going on that it is sometimes difficult to choose topics.  I hope that you enjoyed a modest Fourth of July – even without parades and fireworks; the sense that we have made it to our 244th year should be encouraging. 

For a sobering thought about this day, I leave you with a link to remarks made by Frederick Douglass (an escaped slave from Maryland who later became a renowned orator, statesman and abolitionist) in 1852 where he asks why he is not included in the celebrations of this great Independence Day and why “The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.” 

Please let me know of any issues which you might like to see discussed here. Any ideas about what the new name for the Washington football team should be?  Years ago, I had suggested Pigskins. Do you remember the Hogs? I have seen that name mentioned a bit this week, so who knows, maybe I was prophetic after all!  Time will tell.

'Til next week – stay safe – peace.