Friday, 3 May 2024

Reading, Non-fiction. Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure.  Rinker Brunk. Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster, 2022. Brunk is a close reader, a non-historian’s historian. He and his always changeable crew research and then build things; built as close to the original as possible. (A previous book details their reconstruction of the Wright Brother’s plane.) This story concerns the era of flat boating down U.S. rivers to New Orleans, when the fastest, least expensive (often only) way to get products from the U.S. interior to the world was by water. Brunk details (sometimes overly for the non-scholar) his research, methods, trials/tribulations/failures/successes as he moves the project from start to finish. The story is not ended until the project is completed and the tale of its accomplishments imparted. 

His flat boat, Patience, is conceived, built, then sailed from Pittsburgh’s Monongahela valley down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. Along the way the reader can sometimes feel how Brunk and his crew are learning by doing! They face and must problems real-time. Sometimes the learning curve is gradual; at others, it is instant and potentially deadly. 

As with his other projects, he and his crew interact with and learn from those they meet along the way. His thoroughness and willingness to listen carefully/learn are integral to the ongoing story.

The history he imparts as he travels are as much a part of the story as the journey itself. In this book Brunk’s retelling of America’s brutal slave trade are both eye opening and immensely troubling. The reader can only imagine how an American Black would react to this straight forward, no nonsense recounting of a deeply disturbing, inglorious part of America’s  past and its continuing consequences. Their capture in and importation from Africa, chaining, movement, and tortured use are all examined.   

Earth’s 11th consecutive month hot streak continued with April 2024 being the hottest April on record. 

USAF and nuclear war. The U.S. newest “what if,” aka “doomsday” plane to be used if nuclear war breaks out will have pieces and parts made here in CO.  https://www.cpr.org/2024/05/02/doomsday-plane-to-be-built-in-colorado/ A recently published book by Annie Jacobson examines the probable chain of events were the school bus-sized  U.S. missile detection satellite ever be activated. Nuclear War. 

World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2024. A.G. Sulzberger, publisher of  the NYT, wrote, “The need for factual and reliable information has never been greater.” And, strangely, harder to discern, it might be added. 

Freedom of the press. This week the Washington Post, Book Club opened with Journalism Is Not A Crime. It began, There have never been halcyon days for journalists. The first multi-page newspaper printed in America — Publick Occurrences — was shut down by the colonial governor after its first issue in 1690. And so it goes.

In his autobiography, Ben Franklin recalls that his elder brother James, publisher of the New England Courant, was imprisoned in 1722 for printing something that “gave offense to the Assembly.”  

The press is the only industry singled out for special protection in the U.S. Constitution. 

“According to a report released by PEN America this week, 339 writers from 33 countries were unjustly imprisoned in 2023, 40 percent more writers than in 2019. China leads the list; Israel and Russia placed in the top 10 for the first time.”

George Will’s column: “The 2024 electorate is more interesting than either candidate.” https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=596afd1dade4e24119ab950c&s=6634c62bdb5e8f619653d27d&linknum=1&linktot=23

He begins, “Like the Gorgons in Greek mythology whose glances could turn people to stone, today’s sour candidates have calcified our presidential politics with their glowering contest. “Rancor,” said José Ortega y Gasset, “is an outpouring of a feeling of inferiority.” Both men have much about which to feel inferior. The electorate, however, is at least interesting.”

If you are a WP subscriber, I would heartily suggest “following” George. Yes, he is sometimes wordy, prone to using words you may have to look up, but he is a reasoned conservative.

Notable past events: 3 May 1802: Washington, D.C., was incorporated. 1947: Japan’s post-war constitution, largely drafted by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, went into effect. 1948: SCOTUS covenants prohibiting sale of homes to Blacks was unconstitutional. 1979: The Conservative Party’s M. Thatcher became Britain’s first female PM. 2016: Outsider DJT all but clinched Rep. nomination. 

4 May 1776: RI “jumped the gun” declaring its independence. 1886: Anti-union Haymarket riot in Chicago. 1904: U.S. took over construction of Panama Canal from France. 1961: First Freedom Riders headed South. 1970: In anti-Vietnam war protest, 4 Kent State students killed by OH National Guard 2006: 9/11 bomber sentenced to life. 

5 May 1921: In TN, J. Scopes charged with teaching evolution. 1942: Sugar rationed in U.S. 1945: A Japanese bomb carried by balloon killed 7 in OR. 1961: A. Shepard Jr. became U.S’s first astronaut. 1981: IRA hunger-striker B. Sands died in N. Ireland prison. 2009: First Covid-19 death confirmed in TX. 2014: SCOTUS ok’d (5-4) Christian prayers of local city council meetings.