This week's notes: Optimist; notable dates in American history; got what you voted for; decency along our southern border; leave or stay; special grandparents' visitations; the world's children; Tienanmen Square; 19th Amendment; the IS children.

Optimist. Link here.

Notable dates in US history.
    29 May 1765: Patrick Henry denounced the Stamp Act. 1790: RI became the last state to ratify the Constitution. 1848: Wisconsin (WI) became the 30th state. 1932: The so-called Bonus Marchers (WW I veterans demanding back pay) began arriving in Washington, D.C. The march would be broken up by USA troops commanded by Army Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur.
    30 May 1868: Decoration Day (now Memorial Day) was first observed. 1912: Wilbur Wright died.
    31 May 1889: Some 2,200 people died in the disastrous Johnstown (PA) flood. 1949: State Department employee, Alger Hiss, went on trial in NY on charges of perjury; the first trial was deadlocked, but he was convicted in a second trial. Hiss would later become a footnote in the history of then soon-to-be Vice President (later President) Nixon. 1977: The Trans-Alaska pipeline was completed. 2005: Former FBI official, W. Mark Felt, revealed that he was, indeed, the infamous "Deep Throat" of the Watergate scandal.
     1 June 1792: Kentucky (KY) became a the 15th state; 1796: Tennessee (TN) became the 16th state; 1813: "The mortally wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, Capt. James Lawrence, gave the order, 'Don’t give up the ship,' during a losing battle with the British frigate HMS Shannon in the War of 1812. 1926: Norma Jean Mortenson (aka Marylin Monroe) was born in Los Angeles.





     2 June 1997: Timothy McVeigh was convicted of the 1995 bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City. He was subsequently sentenced to death and executed in 2001.
     3 June 1965: Astronaut Edward H. White became the first American to “walk” in space during the flight of Gemini 4.
     4 June 1919: Congress approved a joint resolution and sent to the states giving women the right to vote. 1939: The German ocean liner MS St. Louis, carrying more than 900 Jewish refugees from Germany, was turned away from the Florida coast by U.S. officials. This was not the only US action that denied Jews fleeing Nazi persecution entrance into America. The ship's tortured path -- finally, back to Europe -- is often referred to as the "Voyage of the Damned." An estimated 25% of the ship's passengers later died in Nazi death camps.

Voted and received. The Washington Post's editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, lays out the case that the president's known past provided most everything that  Americans needed to know about the man. And, even if he did not win the popular vote, he was elected. From the point of view of some, this was a historically disastrous outcome. For others, not so much. As the old saw goes,"What you see is what you get, and you ain't seen noth'in yet!"

Arivaca, AZ. Brian Calvert, editor-in-chief of the High Country News, writes about civility in an area beset by controversies not of their own making. It is the story of a small border town whose geography has made it a part of the ongoing national, xenophobic debate.

In one town, Arivaca, Arizona, a coalition of residents has come together to resist, refuse and otherwise retaliate against militia activity. Writer Tay Wiles, who follows extremism throughout the West, assembles an intimate portrait of the town and the impacts that militia and violence have had there over the years. In one town, Arivaca, Arizona, a coalition of residents has come together to resist, refuse and otherwise retaliate against militia activity. Writer Tay Wiles, who follows extremism throughout the West, assembles an intimate portrait of the town and the impacts that militia and violence have had there over the years.

 Leave or stay? Ted Gup, is a 68 year-old American writer teaching in residence at Britain's Durham University. He relates having just received a special visa, one that will allow him to apply for permanent settlement Great Britain. The America of 2019 is not the America he remembers and loves. Gup will vote at the ballot box in November 2020, but, if President Trump is re-elected, he may well have to vote again, with his feet.

I [will] take the madness of Brexit...over what feels like a more malevolent and portentous turn here...A year ago, I visited the German concentration camp Dachau. Our English-speaking guide, a retired army colonel, began by reminding us that Adolf Hitler came to power with a single compelling message: to“make Germany great again.” He repeated that comment and paused long enough to allow it to sink in before commencing a tour that chronicled the lunacy of a nation devouring its own.

 Mexican grandparents. It is unannounced, probably unknown to the President, but the State Department is quietly allowing elderly Mexicans to "...visit their undocumented children in the United States, reuniting families separated for years, even decades." No need to climb a wall!

How are the kids doing? As this Foreign Policy article illustrates, it is an uneven picture. By many measures children in the US are doing less well than other kids in supposedly poorer, less-developed countries.

Tienanmen Square massacre. As the date of this sad event neared, the CPU was already taking steps to "warn off" those -- tourists and Chinese alike -- who might want to protest these tragic events of 30 years ago. Indeed, a less than gentle reminder to ALL to simply forget this event. Like more than a few tragic historic moments, it was captured and broadcast to -- remembered by -- the world in one picture: that lone Chinese citizen, clad in his summer attire, flip flops, carrying vegetables in plastic shopping bags, who confronted -- and stymied -- a line of tanks advancing on the Square.
     The Chinese approach, "their way," is what amounts to the American government prohibiting demonstrations and pictures of any number of events, e.g. the tragic events associated with the assassinations of JFK and MLK, Jr.; the protest march in Selma, etc. Perhaps, even of MLK, Jr. speaking on the Mall to the huge crowd at the Peoples' March on Washington.
     I will keep this in mind on my visit to Tienanmen Square later this year. For certain, no MAGA hat or T-shirt, not that I own either. Would a Mao T-shirt, emblazoned with the "The Little Red Book" be OK?

Racism and the 19th Amendment. As noted above, the joint resolution was sent to the states on 4 June 1919, but by then "...women had mostly beaten down the arguments that their voting would imperil female fertility, men’s masculinity or the nation’s vitality. Instead, feminists had to contend with claims that, by granting black women the right to vote, suffrage would ultimately risk restarting the Civil War." Of course, the troublesome problem for southerners was that the proposed amendment would add African American women to the voting rolls.

IS's forgotten children. Yes, the Islamic State may/may not be a thing of the past, but the children whose parent(s) fought/died for the cause are now left to cope with a fractured/uncertain future. This is the crisis few want to address. Astonishingly,

Data on the Islamic State offspring is staggering: 65 percent of the residents of al-Hol are under the age of 12, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on May 29. More than 20,000 residents are under the age of 5, meaning they were born after the Islamic State swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014 to create the caliphate. “Distribution data suggests that there may be as many as 3,000 unaccompanied and separated children in al-Hol, some of them also taking care of siblings...”

Thank you for reading. Here's hoping your June has begun well.  To have a right to do thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.  C.K. Chesterton