Words

by apprentice wordsmith David L Lewis

August 28 2023 is 60^th anniversary of what this writer believes to be greatest oration in history of electronic recording, the “Dream” speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The following is my Blog posted to The Brazil Times website August 28 2013.

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Throughout the course of human history there have arisen at crucible moments in time one man, it’s usually a man, who transforms history by the power of the spoken word alone.

It takes a convergence of events and people and orator which may well be that enigma known as ‘destiny’. The people have to be ready, the crises faced no longer avoidable. To this moment comes a speaker possessing skill and God-given talent to put together just the right words and cadence and articulation to move and motivate their generation.

The speech given, the motivation inspired, most often resolves nothing. There will be battles yet to fight, years of work ahead; but nothing will ever be the same once the words are spoken.

The best of these speeches are short; often less than 10 minutes duration. And, inevitably contain one sentence, one phrase which makes the moment immortal.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his first inaugural address gave a glimmer of hope to people who would endure The Great Depression. The struggle would go on 10 years before it ended, but belief in their selves came to “the greatest generation” with: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Upon assuming the office of Prime Minister in 1940, Winston Churchill set forth a message to the British people which assured England would “wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalog of human crime". World history was changed by these words as much as munitions: "… I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat…"

When they tell the tale of American history turning points will be demarcated by the elections of Abraham Lincoln, 1860, and John F. Kennedy, 1960. What JFK would say in his lone inaugural address would inspire a generation and release social and political reform the end of which we have not yet seen: “And, so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

If you were alive on August 28 1963 or born any time thereafter, you have the great privilege of being exposed to what is generally considered one of the greatest orations in American history. In front of the Lincoln Memorial that day ten men came to the podium to speak, along with multiple popular entertainers. Unless you were there or have studied the event, only the words of one man are remembered:

“I have a dream today.

“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted,

  every hill and mountain shall be made low,

  the rough places will be made plain,

  and the crooked places will be made straight,

  and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

It was not the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, and was certainly not the end. It was perhaps its “finest hour.” After that August day the march for Right and Justice could never again be stopped. Because of that speech and movement, my children and grandchildren live in a world of which Dr. King could only dream. As someone recently said, his words changed the world because they motivated white people who did not understand what the dream was about – people like this writer of inadequate words.

Just writing for the generations which benefit from the words of men which rose to the occasion, theDaddy!

 

Me and Emmett Till

and others affecting life of David L Lewis -- and you

Emmett Louis Till was 14 year old boy abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in after being accused of offending a white woman. If you never heard of this him, stop now and look him up. His highly publicized open casket funeral was called the ‘spark’ of a fire that changed world in which you now live.

Emmett Till’s mother said he simply did not understand a world in which someone could be hated because of skin color or ancestry, and naive about being judged by what people are and not by who they are. Though we born with white skin will never completely know what it means to live in black skin, do think I can appreciate the naivete Emmett’s mother described.

My ignorance about such things probably began about age six. I have a very vivid memory of first person encountered with black skin. He was driving a horse-draw wagon down our alley (yes, I’m that old). Asked my mother about his skin color. She explained God had made some people black, some red, some yellow, and some white. God just chose to give him black skin, and he was otherwise no different from me. When you’re six years old you take your mother’s word for stuff, it becomes part of the gravitational pull of childhood and we go on with life.

If my parents held any prejudice based on race, creed, or gender (there were only two sexes back then), I am to this day unaware of what those prejudices may have been. If they had, I would have certainly picked them up and adopted any worldview they advocated. This is why I simply did not appreciate the importance of the Civil Rights Movement which came to the forefront after death of Emmett Till; I had neither experience with hating nor with being hated because of my race.

Looking back these 70+ years do regret I did nothing significant to help make our world the better place it became. Better because of those who were willing to lay down their lives to make it so.

My moment of what British called “doing my bit” came in 1960. I was restaurant's ‘fountain boy’. These were the days when Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum. A Public Accommodations Law had passed which decreed restaurants could not discriminate in either hiring or serving. And our restaurant got it’s one and only sit-in.

The couple who came in were well-dressed, articulate and polite. As the sign said to do, they seated themselves. None of the waitresses were willing to be the first to waitress them. I picked up a menu, and treated them the way a good waiter does who hopes to get a good tip from customers who are well-dressed, articulate and polite. Neither they nor I were disappointed by the outcome.

Nothing traumatic happened. No one got arrested. Civil people were treated in a civil manner. The manager shook the man’s hand, thanked them for coming and hoped they would soon return. Only one thing changed -- waiting on customers because of race was never again an issue at that restaurant. The picketers went up the street.

Suppose I could be content with having done my bit. But, I only did what civil people do. To those who did so very much more, I apologize.

People sometimes say we have not gone far enough. Those folks are right, wherever we are going we’re not there yet. Do think, though, we of the post World War II generation – of all colors -- can be proud of what we left this generation on which to build. Certainly we handed them a better balanced world than when a black man drove a horse-drawn wagon down an alley.

Just saying in hopes some future generation won’t know what I was talking about,

theDaddy!

from ‘South Pacific’ by Rogers & Hammerstein

You've got to be taught to hate and fear,

You've got to be taught from year to year,

It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear

You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid

Of people whose eyes are oddly made,

And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,

You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,

Before you are six or seven or eight,

To hate all the people your relatives hate,

You've got to be carefully taught!

 

GRAVITATIONAL PULL

One of the few original thoughts of David L Lewis

There are very few times when this writer takes credit for having an original thought. Do feel justified to do so here largely because I have so few such thoughts:

No one ever completely escapes

gravitational pull of their own childhood

There is a current series of TV commercials based on principle that sooner or later we all become our parents. Not exactly a new idea; nature vs. nurture has been a conundrum since birth of psychiatry. As with most such ideas, there is good and bad in the message...

.....On the one hand, it is no secret the greatest influences on my life were my father and mother. There probably has not been a week go by in past 60+ years when I have not remembered something one of them said. Standing at their grave I told our children that all that may be good in me – and therefore all that is good in my children – is because of my parents.

.....On the other hand, as previously chronicled, the perceptions of a child are the perceptions of a child. Sometimes the gravitational pull of what we learned is not at all what our parents, or we as parents, meant to teach.

Recognizing the world we see is the world we see, these are some of the gravitational pulls of my childhood as I now see them.

The Beneficial

Fluency

When anyone says I ‘write good’ I know where it comes from. I was exposed to an expansive vocabulary and love of the English language. From daddy came Shakespeare, from mother King James Bible. Incorporated into me daily as a way of life was choosing and using words correctly so as to be understood. Really learned to write in 5th grade when my father was upset about something I wrote. I realized wrong punctuation changed meaning from what I wanted to say! If I have nothing to say, at least my parents left me saying it proper-like.

Gentlemanly

“A gentleman avoids even the very appearance of evil.”
“A gentleman never knowingly causes harm to another”.
“A gentleman judges no man until he walks in their shoes.”
“A gentleman never says ‘you said’, gentlemen say, ‘I heard.’”
“A gentleman treats women with kindness, dignity, and respect.”
How am I doing, daddy?

Hospitality

An attribute of Christian living our parents certainly showed many times was entertaining strangers. Throughout childhood my bed was loaned to visiting missionaries and/or traveling evangelists. My sister gave her ‘she’s a girl’ room first to a homeless domestic violence victim and then to three of our grandparents in turn. Kay and I have not had as many opportunities to ‘entertain angels’. But, we did our bit more often than space here allows because that’s what Christians do.

Agape Love

Agape is Greek word for God’s love for His children, and of the love we are to have one for another. It is the love which our parents showed for each other and for their children. Our parents demonstrated Agape is honest in all interactions, assumes virtue until evil shows it’s head, gives unsought encouragement, speaks positively where speaking is constructive, keeps silent when truth can only cause hurt, shows affection Agape brings forth. For more complete definition of Agape see NOTE below.

The Nebulous

Empathy

I learned two things from our parents about being emphatic.

First, to never say “I understand what you’re going through” if I have never gone trough what someone is going through. But, if a person is hurting, identify with pain and care they are in pain.

• The second attitude produced in me is that if I see a problem I want to solve it, and not simply complain about there being a problem. Offer help when needed, gracefully appreciate unsought help received whether needed or not.

In retrospect, though, often pain must await the healing of time, and my caring only adds to my pain. And, sometimes, really quite often, the problem is not mine to solve and I should leave it lay.

Conflict

If my parents ever disagreed on anything I am to this day unaware of what it might have been. Surely they did. It was just not an attitude they wanted to reproduce in their children. Looking back at my life, though, it not so clear this was all that helpful in navigating the world in which we actually live.

Worldview

It is hard to find the right words to describe world to which my parents opened my young mind to appreciate even when no one else saw the world thus. The worldview I incorporated comes down to, but not limited to...

• Curiosity about all the good and bad of life,

• appreciation of beauty for the sake of beauty,

• love of music for what music brings to soul of man,

• never ending search for knowledge for sake of knowing,

• openness to the Romantic, Abstract, Nostalgic, Humorous.

The drawback of such worldview, if that it be, is seeing a world for what it could be, and not always as it is.

Just writing for every generation limited, or liberated, by the gravitational pull of their own childhood.

theDaddy!

NOTE on Agape: Perhaps in hopes of reflecting their love of Jesus and each other our parents had us memorize I Corinthians 13…

If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,

but have not love,

I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have the gift of prophecy,

and know all mysteries and all knowledge;

and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains,

but have not love, I am nothing.

And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,

and if I give my body to be burned,

but have not love, it profit me nothing.

Love suffers long, and is kind;

love envies not; love vaunted not itself,

is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly,

seeks not its own, is not provoked,

takes not account of evil;

rejoices not in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;

bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails:

but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away;

whether there be tongues, they shall cease;

whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; 

but when that which is perfect is come,

that which is in part shall be done away.

When I was a child, I spake as a child,

I felt as a child, I thought as a child:

now that I am become a man,

I have put away childish things.

For now we see in a mirror, darkly;

but then face to face:

now I know in part;

but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.

But now abides faith, hope, love, these three;

and the greatest of these is love.

 

Memo to Universe(s)

An update on the baby sister of David L Lewis

DATE:    August 16 2023

TO:        Known Universe, or Universes as case may be

RE:        Diane Kathleen Wheeler (nee Lewis) alias Aunt Diane

               aka: My snotty-spoiled-rotten-daddy-loved-her-the-best-baby-sister
               Born on above date in year of this Universe Nineteen-hundred-[CENSORED]

Dear Known Universe,

As result of our parents providing me with just one, she is my only little sister role-model. I do think a good one, but who would I compare her to? Our daddy called her “Pie” – no idea why. I’d call her “Di” – because she didn’t like it. With all that, I have no memory of a universe which did not include Diane Kathleen.

If I may be so bold, Known Universe, based on my observation of [CENSORED] years, here are five things you need in a little sister:

#1) Lefty! Yes, lefties do have well-earned reputation of being kooks. Probably too often, though, when I see a woman is left handed (and I always notice) I inform her left-handed girls make the best sisters. I know this because my sister told me so, and good sisters never lie to big brothers.

#2) Lucky in Love! Married 50 years to Bob Wheeler, who is both a very smart and very intelligent man, and a devout Christian. She may have gotten better part of the deal. She got a husband who loves her and cares for her, and puts up with her. All Bob got was a left-handed kook. For the record, all that I have, any good coming to my family these past 30-some years is owed to Bob and his love for a left-handed kook.

#3) Big brother Lifesaver! Way back in 2008 (yes, she’s had a lot of birthdays) I wrote what is still true: ‘There have been times, too many times, when I needed my keister rescued from one or another idiocy of my own making. My baby sister was always there for me. For most of my childhood she was my best friend and closet confidant. I would not have survived adolescence without her.’ Adding to all that, she has in recent years become my first and best editorial resource when I am not sure what it is I’m saying in these blogs!

#4) Gives more than received! Loves pets to which she is allergic; takes in exchange students she then adopts for life; bares her heart with her art; rushes in to care for the hurting, to fill what is lacking; and, shares her faith with agape love even when she knows it will be rejected.

#5) Child of the King! In her own thoughts about her view of God...

     Deity means God.
     Contemplation of Him is useless.
     Our wisdom is foolishness to God.
     Humans cannot comprehend the universe.
     He is as big as the individual mind can image.
     Our universe is only one of an unknown number.
     The concept of God is limited by the human mind.
     Divinity means the characteristic of being like a god.
     Your Deity is personal, and isn’t necessarily a god, gods, or religion.
     You can only use the ability to understand Him as you have been given by Him.
     Never has it entered the mind of man what God has in store for those who love Him.
     Your Deity is that which gives you truth, purpose, balance, peace, security, defense, recourse.
     Time does not exist, and God is not contained within it. It is man made and has never existed.

On this description, Known Universe, I defy you to improve.

Just writing for any Universe which would be improved by having my snotty-spoiled-rotten-daddy-loved-her-the-best-baby-sister!

 

Half Has Not Been Told!

Pondering the Passing Parade of Politics by David L Lewis

“History is Written by the Victors”

(attributed to Winston Churchill)

OBSERVATION: Seems well within scope of possibilities that it may be some time before we know rest of the story about current and past political events and crimes. And, it is entirely possible the whole story will never all be told in our lifetime. There is always more to the story.

BACKGROUND: Some who benefited from family name or political connections of whom half has not been told include, but definitely not limited to:

   President son Robert Lincoln
   President son ‘Buck’ Grant
   President daughter Jenna Bush
   Vice-President son Hunter Biden
   President daughter Ivanka Trump
   President son-in-law Jared Kushner
   President son Don Trump

ON-GOING: Stories begun in my lifetime of which half has not been told:

June 30 2023 the government released thousands of documents related to assassination of President Kennedy. Reportedly 4,684 documents remain withheld.

Final Presidential papers of President Lyndon Johnson, including a number of previously secret recordings, were not released until 50 years after his death.

In February 2022, 50^th anniversary of Watergate scandal, a new book on President Nixon was published. Although overall story of Watergate has been often told, author Garrett Graff said his book primarely included information never before published.

As of this date a Republican controlled congressional committee is attempting to look into certain as yet unsubstantiated allegations concerning President Biden. Many of these allegations have been thoroughly investigated for 5+ years by various official and private entities and deemed unfounded, and dismissed by former Attorney General Bill Barr with no charges filed. In January 2023 Robert Hur, former U.S. Attorney appointed by Trump, was named DOJ's Special Counsel in President Biden classified documents probe.

As of this date, based on findings of three separate Grand Juries, Donald Trump has been indicted, arrested, and arraigned on multiple criminal charges. He is also subject of related state investigations involving alleged election corruption and other crimes. Publicly available court filings, and his own public statements, reveal credible incriminating evidence in these cases. Also pending are approximately two-dozen civil lawsuits alleging fraud, defamation, and offenses against women. Trump has pleaded Not Guilty at all three arraignments, and has refuted complaints filed in civil cases. No definitive defense has yet been publicly articulated to date, nor has exculpatory testimony and/or evidence been submitted under oath by his attorneys.

FORESHADOW: Of all the words to dread and to fear, most naive are these, “It can’t happen here”.

On January 20, 2021 the United States of America mustered 25,000 armed troops ‘to insure the peaceful transition of power’. In written history of man it has most often not ended well when the army determines who will run a country.

Just pointing out the ‘half not told’ before Victors do their re-write. If you think I got anything wrong, get back to me in 50 years, we’ll talk.

aHistoryObserver!