Good Afternoon & Happy Tuesday on this sun-filled Autumn day!
Happy Birthday to family friend Jim in Hayden, Idaho…husband, father, grandfather & firefighter/fire chief extraordinaire, who turns 65 today. Welcome to Medicare, Jim!…you’ve arrived!. Also, Happy Birthday to my friend Andy, father & CPA extraordinaire, who is 44 today. Here’s to both of you on your special day of celebration! Happy Birthday wishes also go to actress Elizabeth Shue, who turns 57 today; to one of my favorite coaches and all-around outstanding human beings, Tony Dungy (how about Tony Dungy for President?), who is 65 today; and actress and a heartthrob of mine, Britt Ekland, who turns 78 today! Here’s to all of you, too!
I read an outstanding editorial in our local newspaper (The Spokesman-Review) yesterday entitled “Don’t purge history.” It was written by beloved former Lewis & Clark High School history teacher John Hagney. My kids benefited greatly from Mr. Hagney’s devotion to excellence in teaching, as did countless other Lewis & Clark High School students over the years. I thought his editorial was worth sharing with you in its entirety. I hope you are moved by it as I was…
“Don’t purge history
The most contentious historical monuments represent the once state-sanctified idolatry to slavery. They are offensive yet should not be removed. Rather, a contrary artwork should be created, an opposing visual narrative adjacent to the other.
By comparison, pre-Civil War documents condoning slavery need to be preserved, read and contextualized to understand the pernicious racist reasoning that justified this “peculiar institution” and contrasted with documents of the dissenting voices of abolitionists. With the proposed “patriotic” sanitizing of American History, perhaps now more than ever we need these reminders of our dark past lest our children be told fairy tales.
When the Soviet Union dissolved, statues of Stalin were destroyed, yet removing those statues arguably contributed to a low-grade popular amnesia and perhaps rendered a post-Glasnost generation more receptive to Putin’s rehabilitation of Stalin’s cult. Censoring “Mein Kampf,” restricting textbook references to and prohibiting visual symbols of Nazism did not prevent and may have even contributed to its present re-ascendance. Similarly in the U.S., the purging of the past can come from all ideological sides.
Historical memory is predicated on tangible reminders of our past, even if reprehensible. If we permit the destruction of artifacts from the past which offend, we establish a precedent by which other controversial historical movements can be removed. If we sanction with impunity this destruction, then the same license can be used to justify destruction of any artistic representation which offends and thus we are not exceptional.”
—John B. Hagney, retired high school history teacher, Spokane WA
Speaking of race issues and racial justice, I was also moved by a recent article about the legendary Green Bay Packers coach (one of my wife’s favorite sports figures—she’s a “cheesehead”), Vince Lombardi on how he taught about fighting racism. The article was written by Blake & Jeremy Hills in the Salt Lake City “Deseret News” on August 31, 2020. Vince Lombardi’s teachings is another great example of how all of us can learn from history. Here are some excerpts from the article:
“Vince Lombardi was a legendary football coach who is remembered for his refusal to tolerate losing. In fact, what most people remember about Lombardi is his famous quote: “Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” But it is clear from the way he ran his football team that there was something more important to him than winning, and that was treating everyone equally, regardless of race…
…Lombardi began his efforts at fostering equality by making sure that prejudice was not a part of his own way of thinking. When a sportswriter asked him how many Black players were on his team, Lombardi replied: “I can tell you how many players I have on the squad and I can tell you which ones aren’t going to be here next year, but I can’t tell you how many are Black and how many are white.” When the disbelieving reporter said, “Come on!” Lombardi explained, “I’m not saying I don’t know who’s Black and who’s white on the club, I’m just saying that I have no sense of it when I’m dealing with my people…
…Lombardi didn’t just preach equality, he demonstrated that he was committed to racial equality through his actions. When the Packers played an exhibition game in the South, he became incensed when a restaurant owner demanded that all of the Black players enter and leave through the back door. Lombardi then ordered that all players on the team would enter and leave through the back door. When he found that he couldn’t overcome a local segregationist ordinance that forced the Black players to stay at an all-Black college, Lombardi called the players together. With tears in his eyes, he said, “I’ll never, absolutely never, put you guys in this situation again. If it means we play no more games down here, that’s the way it will be…”
Here’s to Vince Lombardi and the lessons of history!
Here are some words to live by from comedian Jerry Seinfeld:
“Balance and color and texture.”
Here’s to a great Tuesday and lots of love & good wishes always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, Mark, etc.)