Down the Trump Rabbit Hole - 19 September 2020

[Sent 19 September 2020 to my wife and our three daughters]

Good afternoon. I trust you are all well. Those who prioritize equality and justice as unparalleled/incomparable values and who sacrificially strain to achieve the most expansive/inclusive answer to the question “Who is my neighbor?” lost a senior leader last night with the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, To the end, she boldly embodied her admonition -- 

She became most widely recognized as a Supreme Court Justice for the past 27 years – witty, insightful, steady, penetrating, clear, . . . – in short, worthy of the utmost respect (in the etymological sense of looking back/again expecting more). As the daughter of Russian and Polish immigrants, she gave voice to/for the marginalized, the exploited, the disadvantaged, the diminished et al with remarkable consistency in every phase of her 87 years among us. She tirelessly championed women – their rights, their equality, their maturity, their contributions, their potential. I fully share her understanding of feminism. She traced her focus and her manner to her mother’s guidance, often attributing to her two centering messages -- 

A grateful admirer placed a candle last night near a hand-written copy of Ginsburg’s own words about how she hoped to be remembered.  As she said – “I would like to . . .

With dispositions ranging from reluctantly and with genuine appreciation for a fallen comrade to impatiently and with no more than a perfunctory glance toward/comment about the deceased public servant – DC politicians are predictably (and I suppose to a degree necessarily) already into the arguing/posturing about filling the empty SCOTUS seat. And the attention of the voting public with a pivotal election just weeks ahead will no doubt quickly shift toward their fight.

I intend to pause long enough to truly remember Justice Ginsburg. I encourage you to do so too. Why do we remember? How should we remember? What if we do not remember? -- these are critical questions for us to consider. Remembering well can refresh/enlarge/enrich our sense of self as we see our lives anew in the light of her life. Let us remember her with thanksgiving and contrition, with vulnerability and courage.

Doug/Dad

Down the Trump Rabbit Hole - 6 September 2020

 [Sent 6 September 2020 to my wife and our daughters]

Hi.  I thought you would be interested in an e-mail exchange I have had with Trina Paulus, the now 89-year-old author of the parable for young and old – Hope for the Flowers – that has been so pivotal in our family.  A few days ago, I forwarded to her with gratitude a variation of the e-mail message I sent you the day after the Democratic National Convention in which I first drew attention to young Brayden Harrington’s courageous two-minute speech and then retold the Hope for the Flowers story of the two caterpillars Yellow and Stripe.  Late last night, I received the very encouraging and refreshing e-mail response from Ms. Paulus inserted below (along with my response).  Doug/Dad

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 Dear Douglas Brown, this is one of the nicest retellings I have seen.  So good to hear how the story has meant so much to your family and you.  One little piece of the story you might meditate on further.  Even in the midst of her desolation and search for purpose, Yellow was able to stop her search in order to notice a caterpillar that seemed to be in trouble and ask the great question that the knights seeking the holy grail did not stop to ask the Fisher King – “What ails thee”.  Yellow was rewarded by finding her grail, her purpose, and given the secret because she asked an old Caterpillar who seemed in trouble -- "Can I help?”  A world of sharing is what we need, not a vaccine.  Always Hope.  Trina

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 [sent 6 September 2020 to Trina Paulus – author of Hope for the Flowers]

Ms. Paulus, good morning.  Receiving your very generous and encouraging e-mail message was such a refreshing way to close my day yesterday!  I very much appreciate your finding the time to read my e-mail message and to send such a thoughtful reply.  Thank you for the important reminder re Yellow’s noticing (the essence of ‘respect’) the troubled old caterpillar.  My wife Barbara and I met in the 1980s in a variation on the way Yellow and Stripe discovered each other.  She had withdrawn (climbed down?) at 32 years old from an ascending career with a global commercial real estate services firm, realizing that she did not want to reach the end of her career and see that she had only “made money for Cushman & Wakefield”.  I was still recovering from being with my first wife Jerrice through her 14-year unremitting battle with multiple sclerosis, the last three years before she died being especially devastating.  Barbara and I were both revisioning our futures on the other side of deep disillusionment (in the etymological sense of being freed from or relieved of illusions).  I introduced Barbara to Hope for the Flowers then.  Yellow and Stripe became regular guests in our home as we raised our three daughters.  Yes, “Always hope”.  Doug

Down the Trump Rabbit Hole - 29 August 2020

 [Sent 29 August 2020 to my wife and our three daughters]

Good evening.  Given that yesterday’s March on Washington 2020 aligned with the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom 28 August 1963, I chose to watch a moving documentary last night about the historic protest gathering of 250,000+ in DC from across the country fifty-seven years ago.  Today I have worked through various internet resources searching for a more granular understanding of that epic event, which (as the image below indicates) surrounded John Lewis’ and Martin Luther King’s gripping messages with a very carefully organized and choreographed program.

The day’s ‘march’ began mid-morning with the crowd drawn together by notable celebrities and various musicians at the Washington Monument.  The crowd then marched down the national mall to/ward the Lincoln Memorial.  I now realize that King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech was positioned to be the penultimate point for those present.  Before the Civil Rights Movement’s key leaders departed the stage to walk to the White House to meet with President Kennedy, the two principal organizers of the March on Washington – Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph (honored on the cover of the 6 September 1963 issue of Life – see below) – called the crowd to the ultimate point.

 [6 September 1963 issue of Life]

Rustin very deliberately announced the eight demands the leaders would shortly present to the president.  The crowd shouted enthusiastic approval after each demand.

 [Rustin] We demand –

1. That we have effective civil rights legislation.
2. The withholding of federal funds from all programs in which discrimination exists.
3. That segregation be ended in every school district in the year 1963.
4. The enforcement of the 14^th Amendment, the reducing of congressional representation of states where citizens are disenfranchised.
5. An executive order banning all segregation in housing supported by federal funds.
6. That every person in this nation – black or white – be given training and work with dignity to defeat unemployment and automation.
7. That there be an increase in national minimum wage so that men may live in dignity.
8. Ultimately that all of the rights that are given to any citizen be given to black men and men of every minority group.

 Randolph then majestically read the march’s pledge to the energized crowd.

 [Randolph] “Will you stand?  The Pledge -- Standing before the Lincoln Memorial on the 28^th of August in the centennial year of Emancipation, I affirm my complete personal commitment to the struggle for jobs and freedom for Americans.  To fulfill that commitment, I pledge that I will not relax until victory is won.  I pledge that I will join and support all actions undertaken in good faith and in accord with the time-honored democratic tradition of non-violent protest, of peaceful assembly and petition and of redress through the courts and the legislative process.  I pledge to carry the message of the march to my friends and my neighbors back home and arouse them to an equal commitment and an equal effort.  I will march and I will write letters.  I will demonstrate and I will vote.  I will work to make sure that my voice and those of my brothers ring clear and determined from every corner of our land.  I pledge my heart and my mind and my body unequivocally and without regard to personal sacrifice to the achievement of social peace through social justice.  How do you pledge?”

 [Crowd Response] “I so pledge.”

 Here is a link to a recording of the statements first of Rustin and then of Randolph.  I encourage you to listen to these 12:57 minutes and imagine standing with that packed and exhausted crowd. 

 http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/A_27BB06E300874F279030125D1216C8B5#at_13.451_s 

 Would we that day have responded – “I so pledge”?  What would “I so pledge” have meant then?  What does “I so pledge” mean today?

 Doug/Dad