Law & Order Episode: Blood Libel

This episode originally aired in January 1996. This long running television series was set (and filmed) in the Manhattan area of New York City.

Episode Main Cast:

Jerry Orbach as Detective Lenny Briscoe

Benjamin Bratt as Detective Rey (Reynaldo) Curtis

S. Epatha Merkerson as Lieutenant Anita Van Buren

Sam Waterston as Executive Asst DA Jack McCoy

Jill Hennessy as Asst DA Claire Kincaid

Steven Hill as DA Adam Schiff

Jack Vinson as Matt Hastings

Chris Cooper as defense attorney Roy Payne

Santiago Douglas as Eddie Camarillo 

Lee Wilkof as school principal Dr. Sabloff 

A female art teacher, Sarah Aronson, is found strangled in her high school art room after hours. Detectives Briscoe and Curtis talk with her husband and associates and check into the possibility of the woman having had a boyfriend on the side, but they find no indication of any affair by Mrs. Aronson; however, Mr. Aronson does mention some phone calls to their home, but that when answered, the person hung up. When they talk with the school's principal, the detectives indicate that there was no evidence of a break-in, so the killer had to have a key and knew how to disable the school's alarm system, as no alarm sounded. The detectives also talk with another female teacher, a close friend of Mrs. Aronson, and she tells them Aronson had had some problems with a male math teacher. This information eventually leads to the detectives discovering that the math teacher, Richard Kovax, had been selling grades to some of the students, and that Mrs. Aronson had found out and she confronted him about it. Kovax promised Mrs. Aronson he would stop selling grades, but when he refused to accept anymore payments from students, he also told the students it was due to Mrs. Aronson. (You can now see that this could make Mrs. Aronson a target for any student desperate for a decent math grade to have a chance to get into a good university, but don't let your imagination run too far off just yet, as the real crux of the story will start shortly.) 

 

Lab tests of the blood found at the murder scene show that the murderer was caucasian and male, but also predisposed to diabetes. The teacher Kovax again denies he killed Mrs. Aronson (the school principal, Dr. Sabloff tells one detective he saw Kovax leave the school about an hour before the estimated time of Aronson's murder), but Kovax does tell the detectives Aronson had told him she was getting anonymous threatening notes left on her desk. The detectives get into Mrs. Aronson's locker at the school, where she kept gym clothes for when she played volleyball at the school. They find an envelope with the written threats to Mrs. Aronson with antisemitic expressions like "Jew bitch," "Hitler was right" and "mud people." One of the threats contains a violent drawing with a swastika, but it's not just any drawing, it's been done by someone with at least some artistic talent. (Is this symbolic of Hitler's art talent; that is, better than the average person, but not good enough to get through art school?) The detectives and an art expert look at drawings made by Mrs. Aronson's art students and they find a drawing of similar art characteristics from a student named Edward Camarillo. When the detectives question Camarillo, he gives them lots of attitude and he denies having made the drawing in the threatening message to Mrs. Aronson or his having had anything to do with her death, adding that he was working in his father's shoe repair store the evening of the murder, which is later verified by customers of the shoe repair shop. The detectives let Camarillo go, but they check the high school yearbook and find he and three other boys, all on the wrestling team, have three unexplained letters under their school pictures. At first they think it might be some kind of wrestling team lingo. Lt. van Buren and the two detectives write out the letters and they finally figure out the letters spell "KILL ALL KIKES" when assembled alphabetically by each boy's last name.* They question the three other boys, all of whom say it was just joking, but one, Matt Hastings, also defends it as "free speech," to which one of the detectives tells him that death threats aren't included in "free speech." The detectives let the principal know about the boys and their "letters." When the principal hears that Hastings is one of the boys, he tells the detectives that he had recently come to the school in the evening and saw Hastings leaving the school, which meant he had a key. He questioned Hastings about it, and he said one of the teachers had given him a key so he could work on a school project. The principal later asked that teacher if the story was true, but she denied it. The principal assumed the teacher was lying to avoid any repercussions for having given a student a key, but the principal let matters go, because Hastings is one of the top students in the school and the class president. 

 

When the detectives talk with Jack McCoy and Claire Kincaid in the DA's office, McCoy suggests getting the school to get a urine test from the members of the wrestling team, then see if the lab determines that Hastings has diabetes. Kincaid explains that schools are permitted to have athletes undergo urine tests for drugs and without a warrant. When the team is tested, the detectives ask for the specimen number for Hasting's sample and then later they go to the doctor in charge and they learn Hasting does indeed have diabetes, but that he and his family probably don't know it. He explains that when a student's urine test shows positive for alcohol, they run a further test to see if the alcohol was from drinking, or if it was produced within the person's body, as can happen with a high sugar level in people with diabetes. Hastings' test showed the latter. The detectives arrest Matt Hastings. With Hastings in custody the police get his fingerprints and they match to fingerprints on one of the notes left on Mrs. Aronson's desk, to which Hastings says he was just trying to frighten her about stopping Mr. Kovax from selling grades. They also match his blood to blood at the crime scene. Hastings' attorney moves to suppress the urine test, saying that while the law allowed for such tests to identify drug users, it wasn't intended to be allowed for murder investigations. The fact that the detectives specifically asked for Hastings' specimen number also showed this was not about drug use, and the judge suppresses the urine test and thus, overturns the whole case, because it was the urine test that prompted Hastings' arrest and this brought about the blood match and the fingerprint match to the threatening note, both of which are thrown out. Hastings is free ... at the moment. 

 

McCoy and Kincaid meet with DA Adam Schiff to determine where to go with the case. Kincaid says the police found white supremacy and racist literature in Hastings' room at his home, along with "white power" music, and she reads some of the nasty, or should I say Nazi, lyrics to the other two. Since the boy's father vouched for his son being home on the night of Aronson's murder, Schiff tells them to check the father's own alibi. Claire Kincaid talks with the boy's mother who was working on the night of the murder, but she says they were both home when she got home from work and that she trusts her husband and her son, "He's not like what they say in the papers. Those people think we're all anitsemites." Kincaid asks, "Those people?" And the mother says, "You know very well what I'm talking about." The mother goes on to say, "Look at that school. How do you think he feels? He's a minority." (Note: While I didn't hear it mentioned earlier in the script, but it might have been, this comment seems to indicate that the high school has a large number of Jewish students. Wow! And in New York City, who would have 'thunk' it? Now ideally none of this should matter, but we're talking about antisemitism, racism and hate here, not "A day at Disneyland." Also interesting, earlier the principal tells the detective that Hastings was elected class president. Hm, I wonder what percentage of the Jewish vote he got?) The mother writes off the yearbook message as her son "just trying to get a rise out of people." When Kincaid mentions the racist lierature found in his room, the mother says, "Matt reads a lot," and she insists her son doesn't have a problem with Jews, and that he dated a Jewish girl. This takes Kincaid to Hastings' former girlfriend who tells how he flattered her with comments about Jews being smart and such, but also that he was using her to build his image, and that he blamed Jewish students for spreading lies about him. She also mentions that she believes Hastings got the basis of his beliefs at home, and that his father once asked her about a family named "Abramson," as if all Jews somehow know each other. She says the father said the Abramsons cheated him out of his printing business and that it was their fault he didn't have enough money to send his son to prep school. Kincaid asks about Eddie Camarillo and the girl says that he and Hastings are good friend and that they would get into the school on weekends to lift weights. When Kincaid asks how they got through the locked door and the alarm system on weekends, she says that Eddie had a key made at his father's store.

 

Now the detectives bring in Eddie Camarillo again and tell him they know about the key and that was how Hastings got out of the school after killing Mrs. Aronson, but Camarillo denies he had a key. McCoy tells him he's an accessory to murder and Rey Curtis, who is part Peruvian and fluent in Spanish, tells him that when Hastings talks about "the mud people," he means both Eddie and himself. This brings Camarillo to say, "My people come from pure Spanish blood, white, Christian blood." (Damn! Now we know blood has religious identifiers. I think he needs to have a blood test.) Eddie tells them that Mrs. Aronson recognized his artwork on the one threatening note and confronted him about it and gave 'them' the chance to turn themselves in. (Interestingly, he says she called 'him' in, but then that she gave 'them' the chance to turn themselves in; so, he obviously told her that Hastings was in on it.) Hastings said he would lose his scholarship and that he wanted to talk with Aronson, so Eddie supplied the key, but, "I never thought he was going to hurt her." McCoy sends the detectives to arrest Hastings. 

 

Hastings' defense attorney comes to the DA's office and introduces them to the attorney who will handle Hastings' defense, Roy Payne, an attorney known as a Klan lawyer; "Klan," as in "Ku Klux Klan." He bluntly says he will present a case that says his client is being framed as part of a conspiracy to protect the "real killer," the teacher, Mr. Kovax, who is Jewish. In court Payne lays out for the judge his theory that a succession of Jewish people were involved in investigating or providing evidence against Hastings. When McCoy objects, the judge says that while the theory is offensive, he'll weigh whether the evidence Payne offers is valid before letting the jury hear it. Afterward Payne tells McCoy and Kincaid that it's a golden age of conspiracy theories, that such theories help people make sense of an irrational world and that if they go out on the street and ask 12 people what they think about Jews, "All I need is one" (for those unaware, the jury must be unanimous to convict). During jury selection, Payne asks one man if he's Jewish, but when McCoy objects, the judge has a private conference with McCoy and Payne and Payne says his client has a right to know if any Jewish jurors can set aside their bias. The judge has another "Susan Collins moment," and says it's all very odious, but bias is relevant, so he'll allow Payne's question. (For those unaware, Susan Collins, a Republican senator from Maine, is noted for saying how troubled she is by Donald Trump's statements or actions, only to then support him. She voted not to convict Trump at his impeachment trial, saying that she was certain he had learned his lesson, a statement which quickly circled the toilet bowl and was flushed along with other doo doo.) Later, Adam Schiff tells McCoy and Kincaid that they aren't trying an antisemite, but rather a murderer who killed Aronson because she was about to stop him from getting a Princeton scholarship, "He would have killed here if her name was McGinty; make sure the jury knows it."

 

At the trial the technician from the lab tells how Hastings' blood sample after his arrest matched the blood found at the crime scene stored in the lab. Payne makes sure to repeat the technician's name, "Rosen," and the technician answers Payne's question about who brought in the blood sample as "Detective Briscoe." ("Rosen" is a fairly common Jewish name, although his family might have been from the North Pole for all we know, but the point is made that Payne is emphasizing the technician's background is likely Jewish.) Payne follows with a question as to the blood from the crime scene being "kept under lock and key 24 hours a day," but the technician says "not when someone is in the lab working." This brings Payne to ask if it was, therefore, possible that Detective Briscoe could have swapped Hastings' blood taken after his arrest for the blood at the crime scene. The technician asnswers, "Anything's possible." Now Detective Curtis takes the stand and testifies that he accompanied Detective Briscoe to the lab with Hastings' blood sample and witnessed Briscoe turning the sample over to Mr. Rosen and signing the required form. Payne asks if Curtis was always with Briscoe in the lab, "joined at the hip," he asks? Curtis says he made a one minute call to report in to the precinct, which Payne says, "So there was a minute when you and Detective Briscoe were separated?" Curtis answers, "Yes." Payne then asks if earlier in the investigation that Curtis was completely convinced that Kovax was truly cleared as a suspect and Curtis says, "Not entirely," explaining that Kovax "had a motive and a window of opportunity to commit the crime." Payne askes if the two detectives discussed the case and then proceeded to look for other suspects, to which Curtis answers, "Yes." Payne asks if Curtis was overruled by his senior partner, which prompts McCoy to object and brings a withdrawal of the question by Payne. He then asks Curtis if he knows if Briscoe is Jewish and Curtis says, "I don't know, I never bothered to ask him." 

 

With the school's principal, Dr. Sabloff, on the stand, Payne goes over how Mr. Kovax was not just a teacher, but also a big fundraiser for the school, which Dr. Sabloff admits he likely mentioned when being asked by Detective Briscoe about Kovax in a phone call. Sabloff says he also learned from Briscoe that Kovax was a murder suspect during the call. Payne then spins this into further conspiracy by saying that Sabloff then conspired with Briscoe to cover for Kovax and that it all came down to implicating Hastings in the murder because Hastings' yearbook message "so inflamed" Sabloff as a Jew. Sabloff says, "Jews don't conspire with each other to protect Jewish criminals, it's ridiculous." Payne then cites the case of Jonathan Pollard, an American intelligence analyst who was convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s. While McCoy objects and the judge stops Payne's rant, the information Payne wanted out before the jury can't be un-heard. (As I noted, Pollard was a Jewish-American, born in Texas, convicted of providing secret information to Israel. The case received much publicity in the mid 1980s, but when this episode of "Law & Order" was filmed, the case had been back in the news, as Israel had recently granted Pollard citizenship. Payne is trying to inflame anti-Jewish sentiment in any of the jurors. Remember Payne's earlier statement, "ask 12 people what they think about Jews; I only need one.") McCoy then asks Sabloff if he conspired with anyone about the case, to which he says, "No," and he further notes that Kovax was fired for selling grades. But is this enough? 

 

Briscoe is naturally upset that he's being used by Payne as part of a conspiracy, but McCoy refuses Briscoe's request to be put on the stand. Briscoe then tells McCoy and Kincaid that his father was Jewish, but his mother wasn't and that he was raised Catholic. (By the way, this was actor Jerry Orbach's own history: Jewish father, Catholic mother, raised Catholic.)  

 

Hastings takes the stand and Payne has him explain that he's tried to get along with the Jewish students, and that he even dated a Jewish girl, but the Jewish students told lies about him and the two broke up. And "they" kept him from becoming the captain of the wrestling team, instead choosing a Jewish captain for the team. "You see, I don't have a problem with Jews, they have a problem with me." (Then I think there needs to be a recount on that class president election. Somebody manipulated the ballots. Let's see... the Post Office? No wait, they didn't have mail in voting in schools. Obama did it! Well wait, he wasn't known back in those days. Hey, whichever hand of Detective Briscoe that's not Jewish did it. Yep, gotta be.) Hastings answers McCoy's question about the yearbook message as being a joke that was not his idea, that the other guys thought it up and he just went along. McCoy then asks about the threatening notes to Mrs. Aronson and Hastings says one of the other guys thought that up. McCoy asks him if Aronson's knowledge of him buying grades made him worry about his (Princeton) scholarship, but Hastings says he never thought about it. McCoy tells of a few of the Jewish students preparing to go to Ivy League schools, and wonders if Hastings was fearful of where he'd end up, and saying further, there wouldn't be anyone to blame this time, because Hastings bought grades and had sent death threats. Hastings insists he's being framed, but McCoy asks who is doing the framing. McCoy then suggests that maybe it's the same Jewish family who 'stole' his father's business. McCoy goes on that it was Hastings' own stupidity that put him into this whole situation, not Sarah Aronson, but this prompts Hastings to scream, "It was her fault. That kike was going to ruin my life." McCoy says, "As in the kikes you joked about killing?" 

 

Later the jury foreman tells the judge the jury is hopelessly deadlocked and the judge declares a mistrial. A new trial date will be scheduled. Hastings and parents celebrate, but later McCoy tells Adam Schiff that Hastings' original attorney is now willing to discuss a plea, because Payne got the publicity he sought and he's now hitting the "Klan lecture circuit," he won't be available for another trial. Kincaid informs them that one of the jurors said in an interview that the vote was 11 to 1 to convict. When McCoy asks, "I wonder which one?" Kincaid says, "Whoever it is, they blended right in," bringing Schiff to say, "What else is new? ... Next case."                

       

* The history of the term "kike" is uncertain, but perhaps the most accepted explanation is that Jews who immigrated into the United States from Tsarist Russia in the late 1800s and early 1900s signed immigration forms with an "O," not the traditional "X," which they misinterpreted to be a Christian symbol, as "X" does represent "chi" in the Greek alphabet, and thus is the first letter in the Greek for "Christ." It is most commonly represented in English with "Xmas," instead of the proper English form "Christmas." In Yiddish, the "O" was/is called a "kikel/kaykl," and it was so common, the immigration officials began calling Jewish immigrants by that name, which then was shortened to "kike." It is a derogatory term and I use it here only because it is central to the story.   

 

Photo is of the 2008 Edition of the Universal Home Entertainment "Law & Order Sixth Year" DVD box set

WORD HISTORY:

Libel-This word is distantly related to "leaf," a word from the Germanic roots of English, and to "lodge," a word English borrowed from French, which had it from Germanic Frankish, and it is more closely related to "library," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French. It goes back to Indo European "leubh," which meant, "to peel off, to strip away or to break off a plant covering," which produced the noun "lubhro," meaning, "leaf, (tree) bark, rind." This gave Italic "lufro," with the same meaning. This gave Latin "liber," meaning "parchment, paper;" thus also, "written materials;" thus, "book." Its diminutive form, "libellus," meant "booklet, pamphlet, petition, written accusation." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "libelle," also meaning, "booklet," but also legalistically, "a written claim, a written charge (accusation) against someone." English borrowed the word circa 1300, originally with the meaning, "a brief written summary or declaration," but its legalistic meaning in civil law, "written statement of accusation against someone," provided the basis for the more modern meaning which developed in the early 1600s, "a false defamatory statement about someone," and its legalistic sense of "written false statement likely to do harm to a person's reputation and thus damage their life, earnings and well being." The verb developed from the noun in the 1400s, initially meaning, "to have written accusation(s) made against someone," with the "make false written accusation" meaning coming along in the 1600s with that meaning in the noun. The adjective "libelous" (UK English: "libellous") is also from the 1600s and meaning, "having to do with harming a person's reputation with defamatory accusation(s)."    

2018, Perhaps The Most Important Election EVER

Signs of a developing trend leading to the crucial midterm election on November 6 have been in abundance in early special elections. Americans almost always seem to reprimand the party holding the White House in elections held at the halfway mark of a president's term. (DAMN! It just dawned on me, that must be why they call them the "midterm elections." See, just give me a few decades and I can figure it out.) It doesn't always seem to mean that Americans dislike the president in office at the time, but all presidents step on some toes, and those with smarting toes are highly motivated to limp to the polls to vote, often leading their own party to turn out in large enough numbers to give anything from a nudge to an outright smack upside the head to the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, better known as the White House. There have been numerous special elections since Donald Trump took office in January 2017, and while these elections have produced a number of Democratic wins, including some stunning wins, even the Democratic losses have shown a major narrowing of the margins of Republican victories, compared to recent historical Republican margins in those regions. 

Thoughtful change often wins in the end, but it can take time and the question is, can American institutions and American ideals hold on long enough to win against a man who longs to destroy American democracy so that he can become the undisputed Führer of the United States? Republicans in Congress have knowingly rolled over for this strident, divisive and highly insecure president. Have we forgotten the longstanding question about Hitler and Germans? How could an educated and cultured people follow such a self centered and maniacal man like Hitler, a man with obvious emotional problems? We need not ask that question any longer, for the answer is right before our eyes in the United States of America, where a bigoted, resentful and spiteful old bastard with a bad hairdo has risen to lead this country (hey, Hitler had a bad hairdo too). The GOP has long cultivated the uneasiness of some white Americans about the attempts of black Americans, as well as other American minorities, like Latinos, women (who are actually a majority) and gays, to gain equality and fairness in our society. The thing is, in my lifetime, I have heard many divisive statements by American politicians, including, but not limited to, George Wallace* in the 1960s and 1970s, and David Duke** in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, but I've never heard a president of the United States use so much divisive rhetoric to further his own cause and to satisfy his own ego, as one Donald Trump, the unity of the country be damned!      

This upcoming election is likely to be a fight to the death. Are Democrats, independents and anti Trump Republicans ready? Trump and the complicit and enabling Republicans will do anything and everything to minimize their losses and hold onto their control of Congress. The Koch brothers, the Mercers and all of the other "take me back to a previous century" people will spend unprecedented amounts to further Republican control of government. They will say it is to further the Republican Party, but that party is now the party of Donald Trump, which they will NOT tell you. Will the election prove to be the beginning of Trump's political demise, or will he and Republicans emerge stronger than ever, and likely be able to suppress the rights of Americans to protest and to stop the media from reporting critical news articles about them? Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China are Trump heroes, and they are dictators. We don't need to dig up Einstein to connect the dots for us to understand where Trump stands on democracy. This is all in front us, not hidden somewhere in the shadows of the news. Don't be in denial. Don't stick your head in the sand. We can't take our eyes off of them for one second. The young people of this country have stirred and have been springing into action. They can help to lead us through the potentially destructive nightmare of Trumpian fascism.

For the last couple of centuries, people around the world have looked to the United States as a beacon of hope. Some people have been inspired by the U.S. to pursue freedoms within their own respective countries, while others have left their homelands bound for American shores. We're seeing the light of that beacon flickering like a kerosene lamp running low on fuel. The question is, will WE choose to refill the lamp and keep this beacon of hope shining, or will we let the lamp go dry and extinguish its light, letting the path of hope go dark? We now have a man in office who praises dictators and judges people not as individuals, but by their ethnic, racial or religious backgrounds. That's what Führers do.


* George Wallace was the governor of Alabama in the 1960s, a time when desegregation of schools and public facilities was ongoing. For more on the issue of desegregation and racial politics, here are  two links: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-former-confederacy-modern-american_8.html 

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-former-confederacy-modern-american_15.html 

** David Duke is a long time member, and a former leader, of the "Ku Klux Klan," often known by its initials, "KKK," a racist and overall hate filled group dating to the post Civil War era in the American South. Duke was born in Oklahoma, but he has spent much of his life in Louisiana. As most Southerners of earlier times, Duke was a Democrat, and he sought office as such, but as Louisiana and the South, in general, moved more to the Republican Party, Duke changed to that party in the late 1980s. Duke became known for his anti Black American and anti Jewish views. 

WORD HISTORY:
Beacon-This word for "a light positioned on some high place to serve as a guide or warning, often for ships, but not exclusively so," goes back to Indo European "bhah," which had the notion, "to shine, to be bright, to appear as bright." This provided the later basis for West Germanic "bauknan" (English is West Germanic), meaning, "signal light." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "beacen/becn," meaning, "sign, signal." This then became "beken," before the modern version. The other Germanic languages have: German "Bake" (pronounced as if, "bahkeh") meaning, "traffic sign, railway signal," originally used in reference to "a fire set on a geographically high point or in a tower to provide sea navigation);" Low German Saxon "Baak" (sign or signal for ships), West Frisian "beaken" ("buoy"), Dutch "baken" ("beacon"). "Apparently," long ago, Old Norse, from the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, borrowed the word from Frisian as, "bákn," which meant, "signal, signal fire."^ This was passed down to the modern North Germanic languages as: Icelandic "bákn," which now means, "large stone column;" that is, "a column showing direction."

^ Centuries ago, the Frisian word was "baken/beken," and meant "signal or signal fire." Later, Frisian split into dialects, giving West Frisian the altered spelling and the narrowed meaning to the modern "buoy." Researching North Frisian is very hard, but it "seems" to have "beken," but I can't confirm that from multiple sources. North Frisian is spoken in the German region of North Frisia, which also includes a number of North Sea islands, called the North Frisian Islands (someone stayed awake late to come up with that name). Remember too, while North Frisian is the spoken regional language, standard German is taught to everyone in school.   

It's About Coalitions, Not Purity, Part Forty-Nine

On election day 2008, financially battered Americans, fearful that the nation, and the world, might be entering into a new era of economic depression, sent a very clear message, as Barack Obama won the presidency and Democrats made gains in both the US Senate and the House of Representatives. Barack Obama won about 53% of the popular vote to John McCain's 45 3/4%, but in the Electoral College, Obama won 365 votes to McCain's 173. Various exit polls showed Obama did well among many demographic groups, with Senator McCain, in major categories, only winning voters 65 and over by a single digit margin, and in the broader category of white voters, he won by about 10 points.*   

In the U.S. Senate, a strong Democratic tide prevailed as the Democrats gained eight seats, although one of those seats, in Minnesota, was not a definite gain until several months later, as the race was so close.** In the House of Representatives, twelve Republican members of the House retired prior to the election and all twelve seats were won by Democrats, as Democrats gained 21 seats overall and increased their majority. 

When Barack Obama took office in January 2009, the racist and bigoted segment among white voters, many of whom seemingly shifted over to the Republicans from the Democrats,*** helped to form a floor of support under the GOP and to offer a resistance to Obama, and often to Democrats, in general. Certainly not all opponents of Obama were (or are) racists or bigots, but a certain element "joined" the Tea Party, where they could "hide out," in my opinion, criticize the "black Muslim guy" in the White House, as some viewed Obama, but still claim, "I'm not a racist, I just care about deficits, freedom, the price of tea and can't we go back to 1773?" The Tea Party was not truly a political party, but rather a conservative-libertarian political movement that became an activist wing, and thus, an important part of the Republican Party coalition. The Tea Party members waved teabags and some wore colonial and early American garb, which gives you some idea of the century they likely preferred to modern times. Of course, they also just as likely forgot about the drawbacks of the 1700s, like no Internet... well, that might not be a good example. Now in 2017, you barely hear the name "Tea Party" anymore, as the racist elements have now come out more into the open by marching with the Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups, as we now have a president who sees some "good people" in these groups. For about 4 or 5 years, beginning in 2009, the Tea Party was highly visible and it proved to be troublesome for both Democrats and for the more traditional Republicans. If there was much "organization" to the Tea Party, it was represented by the financial support of the Koch political organization and former member of Congress, Dick Armey. Traditional Republicans need to look at the Kochs and Armey for their support and courting of the disruptive forces to oppose Obama, but which then helped to bring Donald Trump and company to take over the Republican Party, a force which now threatens the very nation; however, this was not done without the inadvertent help of Democrats. Next... Economic stimulus, Wall Street bankers and Obama administers health care to the GOP and helps it back to its feet...  

* The demographic exit polls I looked over were all similar, with minor differences in some categories, but in no case did I see major discrepancies that showed, for example, McCain winning by a few points in a particular category in most polls, but with another poll or two showing Obama as winning that category. One of the close categories was for "men," where "essentially" Obama and McCain split the vote, although some polls showed a slight tilt to one candidate or the other.

** Senator Arlen Spector of Pennsylvania, a Republican, switched to the Democratic Party in the spring of 2009 (the new Senate was first seated in January of 2009). In the late summer of 2009, Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, a Democrat, died. A temporary Democratic replacement was named, until a special election produced a Republican election victory in early 2010.

*** I told a little about one of these "converts" in Part 48 of this series. Here is the link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/11/its-about-coalitions-not-purity-part.html     

WORD HISTORY:
Garb-The ultimate origin of this word is uncertain. It is related to "gear," a word from Germanic. "Garb" goes back to the Old Germanic verb, "garwijanan," which meant, "to prepare, to make ready;" thus also the more specific, "to equip (make ready) for battle." This produced Germanic "garwa," meaning, "ready, finished." The verb also produced Germanic "garwi," a noun for, "clothing, military wear (gear, equipment)." This was borrowed by Italian from one of the Old High German dialects of the Alps region, which had, "garawe," meaning, "mode of dress, adorned attire." The Italian form, "garbo," meaning, "stylishness, elegance," seemingly from the notion of "well adorned (well prepared) form of attire." This was borrowed by French as "garbe" ("graceful appearance/bearing"), and this was borrowed by English in the second half of the 1500s, and the shift in meaning to, "type or mode of dress/attire," came in the 1600s. It is related to German "gerben" (to prepare hides for wear or use by tanning), Low German "garven" (same meaning as German). Other related forms in the Germanic languages came to mean "to make;" thus also, "to do," from the original notion of "to make ready, to prepare." Its relationship to "gear" goes back to the same Old Germanic form and the forms that generally meant "equipment, military arms, clothing," which later broadened a good deal in the English meaning to, "saddles, harnesses for horses and pack animals," then also, "parts for ships," and "mechanical parts for machinery," as well as, "equipment to do various activities, like fishing and physical sports."   

Some More Questions To A Republican

"Hello folks! This is Dan Ratherbe, in Philadelphia. Today I once again have Republican George Owen Pappenstiel here to speak out on the issues confronting the nation and his Republican Party, no holds barred."

DR: "Well Mr. Pappenstiel, it's been a little while since I first interviewed you." *

GOP: "Yeah, that was back when that Bomma guy claimed to be president."

DR: "That's Obama."

GOP: "Yeah right, tryin' to be Irish.... 'O' bomma... haha.... about as Irish as the rest of them people from them places in Africa."

DR: "But he IS part Irish. Don't you remember he visited Ireland?"

GOP: "Visitin' a place don't make ya from that place. I cun visit Massichew... Masseshoe... that place where Boston is, but that don't make me no Democrat, an' that's fer shur."

DR: "So what do you think of Donald Trump's first couple of months in office?"

GOP: "It's a breath o' fresh air! Finally gettin' some truth out, 'cause Ole Donald tells it like it is. That's what's gonna make America great agin, truth tellin.' Just like with that Bomma listnin' in on Ole Donald talkin' on his own private phone in his own private buildin'."

DR: "But there's been absolutely no proof that any such thing ever happened."

GOP: "That's what you librals in the media want folks ta believe. There is proof.... Ole Donald said it, didn't he? That's proof! He the president of the UUUNited States, ain't he?"

DR: "Well I assume you support the wall the president wants to build on the border with Mexico?"

GOP: "Oh now, truer words was never spoke. All them folks south of the Rio Grande is jus' what Ole Donald said 'bout them. They er murderers and rapists. Then they come up here and want US to speak Mexican."

DR: "You mean Spanish."

GOP: "No, I mean Mexican. They ain't from Spain."

DR: "So what do you think of the Republican failure to repeal Obamacare?"

GOP: "That's jus' plain terrible! Don't know what's becomin' o' this country. Wantin' ta give health care to ever'body. An' this law from Bomma helpin' to give care to millions. An' that Bernie Sanders guy... he the worst, even worse than Bomma hisself. He ain't no Christian, that fer shur."

DR: "Ah, Bernie Sanders is from a Jewish family."

GOP: "See, told ya he ain't no Christian. They jus' like those Mooselims... all from over yonder there in the Middle East. All them folks need to jus' stay over there. Ole Donald messed up there, he needs to ban people from all them countries, not jus' a few. All we do is give money to them people over there, includin' Izrel. Never knew any good people from that part of the world, not a one."

DR: "Ah... Jesus Christ."

GOP: "An' don't be takin' the Lord's name in vain, ya hear?"

DR: "Well, our time is up, Mr. Pappenstiel."

GOP: "Ya got that right, if we don't do what Ole Donald wants an' you keep takin' the Lord's name in vain. Jus' ask Pat Robertson!"


* The first "interview" was in May 2013 and this is the link:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/05/asking-republican-few-questions.html

WORD HISTORY:
Ode-This word "seems" to go back to Indo European "aweid/e-weid," which had the notion, "to make (voice) sound, to speak, to vocalize." This gave Ancient Greek the transliterated "aeido," which meant, "to sing, to give praise in song." This gave Ancient Greek "aoide/oide," a noun, "song, poetic song." Latin borrowed the word from Greek as "oda," then "ode," the form taken by Latin-based French. English borrowed the word from French, likely with reinforcement by Latin, in the late 1500s.

"The Cardinal," Otto Preminger Directed

I first saw this movie many years ago on television. I believe it was in the late 1960s, although the film was only released in 1963. The film was directed by Otto Preminger, often considered one of the greatest directors of all time, although his personality was highly volatile, and he was known for being "difficult." Preminger did often get results, as several of the stars he directed received Academy Award nominations for their performances in the films he directed, including this film, "The Cardinal, as John Huston, better known for his own movie directing, than for acting, received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Otto Preminger will certainly be known to you, if you've seen the movie, "Stalag 17, as he played the role of the German prison camp commandant. Never fear, Preminger was no Nazi, as he was Jewish, and he came to the United States in the 1930s, after Hitler had taken power in Germany. Earlier he lived primarily in Vienna. Preminger took on controversial subjects in some of his films, and he battled the television industry to keep his films intact, and not be cut to pieces to fit into time slots and for commercials.

The movie, based on the book of the same title by Henry Morton Robinson, which itself was loosely based on the life of Francis Cardinal Spellman, is about the rise of a young Catholic priest from Boston, Stephen Fermoyle, played by Tom Tryon, beginning in the era around World War One, and his eventual rise to the position of cardinal a couple of decades later. The movie begins with the preliminary ceremony for his appointment as cardinal, and as the necessary documents are read in Latin, Fermoyle stands and looks back on his life, and it is in this way that the film is presented. Remember he understood Latin and yet he drifted off to other matters. How about the people in attendance, likely many, who didn't understand Latin? Where do you think their minds were? *

Stephen's life reflects the stresses and strains in Catholicism, the religious doctrine, and the way every day Catholics really live their lives. Stephen's sister, Mona, played by Carol Lynley, wants to marry, but her boyfriend, Benny Rampell, played by John Saxon, is Jewish and Stephen wants the young man to convert, or at least to agree that any children will be brought up as Catholics. At first the young man agrees to being able to be persuaded, but when he and his parents are made to feel uneasy about not being Catholic and Irish, he decides not to convert. Mona goes to her brother for advice, which turns out to be the Catholic religious answer, to give up the boyfriend. Mona leaves home and, months later, she is found, in labor, and taken to a hospital, where the doctor tells Stephen that the baby will have to die to save his sister, but Stephen cannot give his consent and go against Catholic doctrine, so his sister dies, but the baby lives. This is a staggering blow to the young priest, as this is now religious belief actually having to be put into practice.

Cardinal Glennon, played by John Huston, sees Stephen as ambitious and in need of some humility, so he sends him to a very poor parish to assist and learn from Father Ned, played by Burgess Meredith. Father Ned lives a very simple life, and he is beloved by his parishioners, but the priest is seriously ill, something Stephen finally takes to Glennon, who goes off to visit his long time friend Father Ned. When the dying priest asks that he appoint Stephen as his successor, Cardinal Glennon thanks him for the suggestion, giving Father Ned the impression that's what will happen, but outside of the room, the cardinal tells Stephen he has other plans for him to become his secretary, not become the parish priest.

The pope dies (1922) and Stephen travels with Cardinal Glennon to Rome, where Glennon convinces the new pope to give Stephen a position in the Vatican, but Stephen, badly troubled by his priesthood so far, does not want the position, causing Glennon to give Stephen a leave of absence of two years for the priest to see what he wants to do. Stephen goes to Vienna (he speaks German) to teach English. He meets a young woman, Annemarie, played by Romy Schneider, and the two fall for each other, but he tells her he is a priest, and eventually, Stephen decides to stay with the priesthood.

Stephen returns to Rome, where he takes a position in the Vatican. In 1934 a black American priest from Georgia, Father Gillis, played by Ossie Davis, comes to Rome to seek help, as the only Catholic school in his area will not admit black Catholic students, and further, his church in Georgia has been burned down by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Stephen takes the priest to see Cardinal Giacobbi, a highly conservative close associate of the pope, but instead of helping him, Giacobbi essentially scolds Father Gillis when the priest tells him members of his congregation protested the discrimination of the school by holding a protest with signs, an act said by Giacobbi to be a method that is "inflammatory." This brings a statement from another cardinal present, played by Raf Vallone, "I'm not sure we can afford to use methods that tend to be glacial," but Giacobbi is generally unsympathetic, although Stephen tries to get the cardinal to understand the racism in the United States. The priest leaves with no help for the Catholic school racial discrimination. Stephen goes to Georgia to see what he can do and to gather information he can take back to the Vatican. He is met with hostility and both he and Father Gillis are severely beaten (even with a whip) by a group of the KKK. Standing on principle about racial justice in the American South can be very dangerous.** (Note: When this film was released in 1963, racial tensions in the U.S. were climbing.)

Finally, Hitler's influence is expanding in Europe, and heavily Catholic Austria has become a part of Germany. Stephen is sent to close the papal nuncio in Vienna (Austria is no longer a separate country), and to take a message to the head of the Catholic Church in Austria, Cardinal Innitzer, played by Josef Meinrad, to tone down his public support of Hitler and the Nazis. The cardinal seems detached from the reality of the situation, believing himself to have been non political in statements supporting Austria joining Germany. He curries favor with leading Nazis, but reality strikes when Hitler goes back on earlier promises about Catholicism in his native land. Then Nazi thugs vandalize Catholic properties. Stephen has to flee. Just as in Georgia, the same is true in Vienna, when you oppose hate and evil, be prepared for great difficulties, even possible death.

The film ends with Stephen addressing the people assembled, including his mother and other family members who traveled to Rome for the ceremonies of Stephen's becoming a cardinal.

* Originally the language of Christianity was Aramaic, a Semitic language of the Middle East akin to Hebrew (the language of the Old Testament) and Arabic. Then Christianity began to spread in the eastern Mediterranean area, a region where Greek was heavily used, making Greek a common part of early Christianity. As the religion became more popular further west in the Mediterranean and in the Roman Empire, Latin, the language of the Romans, began to be used more and more, until it became the acknowledged language by many in Christianity, with writings and masses often being in Latin. This didn't just happen one day, but rather it took place over a period from about 300, 400 and 500 AD. The interesting thing is, and it shows how religion can get out of step with, and fear, change, Latin itself was changing dramatically during these times and beyond, as it, or more specifically its dialects, were morphing into separate languages: Italian (right in what had become the center of Christianity and Latin... Rome), Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Romansh, French and others too, but it took time for these languages to fully emerge as distinct entities. Meanwhile, Latin was the language of Christianity, with writings and religious services conducted in Latin up until the 1960s, even though most parishioners did not understand much, if not most, of what was said. Of course, there were those little things called "the Great Schism" and "the Reformation," that caused a major split in Christianity, and in the use of other languages as part of segments of Christianity, and since the 1960s, although better late than never, Roman Catholicism has permitted the use of national and local languages, although a small percentage of Latin masses have continued. Perhaps there will be a movement to, "make Latin great again."

** While the details in the movie are vague, some white men have been arrested and charged in the church arson in Georgia. Father Gillis is scheduled to testify, but many of the white residents of the town are in an uproar, prompting the priest's superior, Monsignor Whittle, played by Chill Wills, to order Gillis not to testify and to drop the complaint. Stephen challenges the monsignor, who disparagingly uses the term "Yankee," in reference to Stephen, but then finds out that Stephen is from the Vatican. When Stephen returns to Rome and Cardinal Giacobbi, who feels Stephen has gotten the Church into controversy (heaven forbid! ... hey, what a pun!), Stephen explains there was a conviction in the case, and while not for arson, but for disorderly conduct, it was the first time in Georgia that white men had been convicted for anything based upon the testimony of a black witness (the film uses the term, "Negro," long seen by American white society, and even by many people of black society, as the proper term for black people, especially in those times, mid 1930s in the film, but also still in the early 1960s, when the film was made and released). While it's firmly implied in the movie that Giacobbi is against Stephen being named a bishop, and that he will use the incident in Georgia to try to influence the pope in that direction, the pope makes Stephen a bishop; so a bit of hope for some change comes from the ordeal, both legally and religiously.             

Photo is from the 2005 Warner Home Video DVD.

WORD HISTORY:
Cardinal-The ultimate origin of this word are unknown, but it goes back to Latin "cardo," which meant, "hinge of a door," and from this developed the notion of, "important, prime," from the idea of "a matter or a person upon which others are dependent, upon which things turn or hinge," and this gave Latin the adjective "cardinalis." The Christian church initially applied the noun form to a clergyman of a church; thus, "the prime person, or person of importance for that church." Later, Christians elevated the meaning to a bishop who became, "a prince of the Church," as an elector of the pope. English borrowed the noun from Latin circa 1100, and it borrowed the adjective from French, a Latin-based language, in the 1200s. The use as the name for a particular red and reddish brown bird began in the second half of the 1600s, from the comparison of the red attire for the religious cardinals.

Trump Is Just Like Their Führer

Just like the original fanatical, furious Führer, Donald Trump is half nuts and half manipulator. He fears all sorts of things, mainly other human beings, which distorts his ... ah, judgment, but he knows what he's doing. Giving voice to concerns about trade, border security, crime and some other issues, doesn't bother me in the least. We need such discussions, but wanting to build walls to keep people out, using bigoted and racist descriptions of Mexicans, women and others, as well as disparaging veterans captured in the service of this country, and mocking a disabled man, is stoking the fears, bigotry and racism of people to his own perceived advantage. It isn't unifying, it is divisive. The same with using the grieving mother of one of those killed in Benghazi. A true leader would try to console this woman, not exploit her grief and stoke her anger. That's manipulation. I've never been much of a John McCain fan, but in 2008, he at least had the decency to set the record straight when a woman at one of his rallies said Barack Obama was "an Arab." That took guts. And some in the crowd did not like McCain for his comments, nor his asking them to tone down the rhetoric against then presidential candidate, Obama. You know Trump's bad, when his running mate, Mike Pence, himself a fanatical fascist, hiding his nastiness behind fundamentalist Christianity, looks more reasonable than Trump. 

Hitler too, knew what he was doing.* As he sought to gain power, Adolf Hitler was known for his fiery and provocative speeches given to cheering crowds, while he was protected by brown-shirted stormtroopers, who beat up and carted off any protesters. The thing is, "I'm not sure" that even Hitler yelled to his bullies to, "get him outta here," about protesters, or ever told his audiences, that a protester "would be carried out on a stretcher." No matter what Hitler brought about, even death and destruction to to his homeland, his faithful remained loyal to him.** Sound familiar? How about this Trump quote: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, and I wouldn't lose any voters. OK? It's like incredible."

* This is NOT meant as a comparison to Trump, so I'm putting it in this separate note, as even I don't think Trump has gone this far, although he seems to be trying hard to work toward similar hate. More troubling is that Trump knows his rhetoric has prompted avowed racists and bigots to endorse him and has "inspired" supporters at his rallies to confront and bully protesters:
 
While in some of his public speeches Hitler ranted against Jews, and some of his lines were dripping with venom, he watched his language, so as not to give away his real long term goal of mass murder. But such speeches by Hitler and other Nazi leaders stoked hatred, dehumanized minorities and began to prepare Germans for the ultimate hatred ... murder. Even later, while his killing machine murdered millions of innocent people, Hitler kept these events as quiet as possible (although rumors and stories circulated). Traudl Junge, one of his secretaries for the last couple years of his life, said the subject of Jews was never discussed in his private times, and she and the other secretaries saw him every day, even having lunch, dinner or tea with him. He knew what he was doing. After the war, much was made by Hitler apologists that he never knew about the death camps and executions, because there were no written orders from him to carry out these atrocities. It was all a bunch of nonsense. One case shows he knew exactly what was going on.  See next note

** Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, cited one telling incident, which took place in 1943 at Hitler's villa, "the Berghof," above the town of Berchtesgaden. She admits that she only heard about it from others who were present in the dining room, including her husband, who was one of Hitler's personal aides. The Schirachs had been invited to the Berghof, at Henriette von Schirach's request, to see and dine with Hitler. The husband, Baldur, had been head of the Hitler Youth in the 1930s and then the Nazi Party leader of Vienna, and if you've seen any of the documentaries on the Nazi Hitler Youth, you've undoubtedly seen Baldur von Schirach in the films or still photos from that time. By the way, Schirach was under lots of American influence from both sides of his family, as his mother was an American and his paternal grandfather served in the Union army during the American Civil War, and Baldur grew up speaking both English and German. At the time of the dinner with Hitler, Henriette von Schirach had recently been in Amsterdam, where she had witnessed the brutal round up of Dutch Jewish women, who were then packed into railway cars and sent to the "east," which was another Nazi euphemism for "sending Jews to their death," as the extermination camps, designed to kill Jews and others as quickly as possible, were located primarily in Poland. "Auschwitz," the most infamous of all, was located there, as were others. Mrs. Schirach told Hitler the terrible things she had witnessed in Amsterdam, adding that people in Amsterdam felt these Jews would never be heard from again. She was under the impression that Hitler was unaware of such things, but upon mentioning the information to Hitler, the conversation at the dinner table stopped, Hitler momentarily went silent, then he told Mrs. Schirach not to get involved in matters that she didn't understand, adding that she was "too sentimental." Hitler abruptly arose from the table, left the room and did not return, nor did the Schirachs ever return to Hitler's company, as he never invited them back. Even here though, Mrs. Schirach apparently thought Hitler could not possibly know of what was happening, and she sought to inform him, only to be told to mind her own business by the fanatical, furious Führer. He knew what he was doing. 

WORD HISTORY:
Manipulation-This word, made up of three parts: "mani," "pul" and "ation," and meaning, "skilled use of the hands to work something, skilled direction of situations, the managing of other's emotions and mental state or faculty for a purpose either good or bad." The first part, related to "manual" and "manager," goes back to Indo European "man," which meant "hand." This gave Latin "manus," also meaning "hand." This then was combined with the second part to give Latin "manipulus," which literally meant "handful," and its derived form in Old French, a Latin-based language, "manipuler" which was used for, "take as many medicinal herbs are you can hold in your hand; take a handful of herbs (medication)." This was combined in French with the third part to form "manipulation," which was then borrowed into English in the first half of the 1700s, with the general meaning of using the hands, including "to mine for ore or minerals," in those times, of course," done "by hand." The second part of the word, distantly related to both "fill" and "full," ^ goes back to Indo European "pleh," which meant "to fill, to complete," and this gave Latin "pleo," also meaning, "to fill, to complete," the root of which, rendered as "pul," in Latin, then joined with the first part, as noted above. Finally, the Indo European suffix "te/tis," gave Latin "(a)tio," which became the third part of "manipulation." 

^ The connection goes back to Indo European, as both "fill" and "full" are from Germanic, which had its own form derived from Indo European

Donald Trump, Captain of the Titanic

Donald Trump is the captain of the new "GOP Titanic." The ship took years of hate and division to build. Years of hate and fear mongers like Morton Downey, Jr., Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter preaching against government, minorities, women, gays, labor unions and just about any change, and using various conspiracy theories to scare Americans, usually white Americans, into supporting an ever more reactionary agenda and the reactionary politicians who pushed it. If you think such propaganda doesn't work, Joseph Goebbels would not have had such a prominent position in the Nazi regime. Rush Limbaugh, "seemingly" somewhat diminished in the number of listeners in the last year or two, was so powerful a force within the Republican Party, that any Republican officeholders who dared criticize him, spent the next day groveling at his feet to regain favor. Of course, another monumental moment in the march of reactionaries into the lives of many Americans came when long time conservative Republican operative, Roger Ailes, was given his own personal fiefdom with the creation of "Fox News" on cable television. It became a "conservative media paradise," where Republicans and leaders of conservative causes ran for cover, as it was anything but, "fair and balanced." (NBC then chose to make cable station "MSNBC" the anti-Fox News outlet; thus liberal/progressive.)  

While the ship was built, the escalating harshness and stridency of the hate preachers continued with barely a peep from the Reagans, the Bushes, or the Mitt Romneys and Bill Welds of the world. Some of these same folks got into a panic when Donald Trump began moving like a juggernaut toward the Republican nomination for president. Some panicked so much, they tried to derail Trump with Ted Cruz, a true fire-breathing fascist, who lacks only the armband and a raised right arm salute. Trump prevailed by a large margin. The so called "Republican establishment," those who previously tolerated this crap for so long, and who did not speak out, not even to save their own honor, have further removed the mantle of "the party of Lincoln" from the Republican Party, a party now based upon racism, bigotry, extreme nationalism, militia groups and conspiracy theories. When basically good people fail to speak out, this is how fascists take hold. I've written here before, that once you let fascists in, you can only get them back out with great difficulty and pain. The GOP regulars are passengers on board the Titanic, and they bought their tickets long ago, on an installment plan, just paying the final balance about the first of the year. There is an immense iceberg unseen in the distance and there are not enough lifeboats for all the GOP passengers.
       
WORD HISTORY:
Sink-This word goes back to Indo European "sengw," which had the notion of "to go beneath water." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "sinkwanan," with the same meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "sincan," which meant, "to sink, something to go below water." It also gave Old English, "besencan," which meant, "to sink something, to cause something to sink." The latter then became "sinken," before the modern form. The other form died out, or evolved, in part, into "sench," which kept the meaing, "to sink something, in the sense, cause it to sink." It has since died out, with both meanings now used only in "sink." The noun for a basin; as in, "the kitchen sink," originally developed from the verb in the 1400s, and it came from the idea of a hollow area of ground where water collected; the term then transferred to the man made objects "sunk" into a cabinet. Common throughout the other Germanic languages (verb forms): German has "sinken" (to sink) and "versenken" (to sink something, to scuttle), Low German Saxon "sinken," West Frisian "sinke" (to sink), Dutch "zinken" (to sink), Danish and Norwegian "synke" (to sink), Icelandic "sökka" (to sink, but it lost the "n" over time) and Swedish "sjunka" (to sink) and "sänka" (to lower, to cause to sink or lower).

Trump & All in the Family

Note: This was written during the Republican primaries in March 2016


The 1970s saw the airing of a television series unlike any other seen up to that time. The series was "All in the Family," and it showed us ourselves complete with bigotry, fears, prejudices, racism, and all, but usually in a lighthearted, comedic way. Unlike the later "political correctness police," who wagged fingers in faces, or yelled and screamed in an apparent attempt to humiliate those deemed to have violated their codes (thus often so angering people, as to lose them forever), "All in the Family" usually got in your face in a funny way. We saw how silly some of our fears and prejudices were, but without anyone ever leaping through the television screen with index finger pointed at us.

So .... what does all of this have to do with Donald Trump? Well, when Trump began his campaign for president, I thought he was blatantly showing us how bigoted, fearful, prejudiced, and racist many of us still are. Some of his statements were things we might well have heard uttered by one Archie Bunker, the main character in "All in the Family" all of those years ago.* At times Trump seemed to smirk when making his pronouncements, making me wonder if indeed he was thinking, "What a bunch of dingbats we have voting in this country."** The thing is, I no longer think he was doing an Archie Bunker imitation to show us our flaws, but rather he was deliberately stoking the fires of bigotry and racism in a bunch of Archie Bunkers in the country for his own self interest. Trump has been compared to Hitler, but my use of Hitler here is not "necessarily" intended as such, for if I were going to refer to Hitler in some comparative way, I'd be writing about Ted Cruz. Anyway, what Trump really thinks is unknown to me, for as I said, he seems to use derogatory and inflammatory language for his own ends. Once seemingly many Germans thought the same about Hitler; that he used bigotry and racism to further his political career, but that he didn't mean it. Germans and the rest of the world found out something though, HE MEANT IT! While I've sort of given Trump the benefit of the doubt so far about using bigotry and racism, I'd rather NOT find out if he means it.   

* Archie Bunker was played to the hilt by actor Carroll O'Connor.  

** For those unaware, "dingbat" was what Archie called his often slow on the uptake wife, Edith.

WORD HISTORY:
Bee-For such a common word throughout the Germanic languages, with relatives in other Indo European languages too, the history is a bit sketchy. It "seems" to go back to an Indo European form "bhi," with a notion of "shaking, quivering," or perhaps, "humming, buzzing." This gave Old Germanic a form of something like, "bion," which was applied as the name for the "buzzing" ("humming," "quivering") insect. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "beo," which then became "bee," where it has remained for centuries. The other Germanic languages have: German "Biene," Low German Saxon "Bee," Dutch and West Frisian "bij," Danish and Swedish "bi," Norwegian "bie," and Icelandic "býfluga" (literally "bee fly").

"The Searchers," One Of The Best Films Ever

If you are a person to scoff at movies of the "Western" genre, please do not do so with this movie. This is a typical Western with cowboys and Indians, but it isn't a typical Western with just cowboys and Indians. The story is much deeper and it was directed by prominent American director John Ford, the son of Irish immigrants to the United States. Ford directed many movies, and two other great ones were "Stagecoach" and "The Grapes of Wrath," which was adapted to the screen from John Steinbeck's famous novel. John Ford also had much to do with putting actor John Wayne into the public mind, and keeping him there. For those unaware, Wayne was a super box office draw for decades, even in the last few years of his life. From various interviews and stories I've read about John Wayne and John Ford, it seems it was Ford who got Wayne to walk with that swagger he became known for. Wayne also eventually became the main spokesperson and symbol for the Republican political side of the acting profession, which also included James Stewart, Fred MacMurray, Maureen O'Hara and a number of others, although being a Republican in those days was not the same as being a Republican today, since there were actually liberal Republicans back then, and conservative, even downright reactionary, Democrats too. John Ford had been a big supporter of Franklin Roosevelt, although he also later supported Richard Nixon, but Nixon was no Ted Cruz, either. I'm uncertain about Ford's political affiliation, but he could have been a Democrat or a liberal to moderate Republican.

"The Searchers" was released in 1956 and I don't believe I saw it at the theaters back then, although my father, or sometimes my older brother, took me to see movies in those days, especially Westerns, which were very common and popular. I remember first seeing the movie on television back in the 1960s, but I'm uncertain of the year, and thus I also don't recall if I saw it in color, as black and white televisions were very common in the 1960s, and indeed, most regular television shows were still filmed in black and white until 1965 and 1966.

The movie is set a couple of years after the end of the Civil War and it involves Ethan Edwards, a bitter and unrepentant returning Confederate soldier, played by John Wayne. Shortly after his return to his brother's home, Indians attack the home when Ethan and Martin Pawley, played by Jeffrey Hunter, are away with other ranchers who have gone looking for some cattle thought to have been taken by Comanches. Pawley had been raised by Ethan's brother and his wife after the boy's parents had been killed in an Indian attack several years before. The two Edwards' girls, one essentially in her mid teens and one younger, are missing from the smoking ruins of the Edwards' farm, and Ethan and Martin set out to find them; thus they become, "The Searchers."

The picture deals with racism as the Americans view the Comanches as about as low a life form as one can go. Even the "good" characters are tainted by it, as Laurie, played by Vera Miles, says the girls should be killed, if they are found, because of their having lived with the Comanches. The main "hater" is Ethan, and the sad thing is, the ideas represented in a film from the mid 1950s could still be put into a film today, with some prominent Republicans in the real life Ethan role, and with the target being black or Latino Americans, instead of Comanches. When the head of the local rangers asks Ethan to swear an oath of loyalty so he can deputize him, Ethan refuses, saying he already took an oath to the Confederate States of America. Of course, a little fact like there was no entity called the Confederate States of America after the Civil War didn't trouble old Ethan any, he was going to stay the course. Do you see some parallels to some Republicans today? And Democrats should cringe too, because when "The Searchers" was released, people like Ethan were largely in the DEMOCRATIC PARTY, but at least Democrats changed, ceding many of their racists and haters to another political party, the  .... well you know.

Ethan and his type are trying to stop change, including change that involves accepting people who are different from themselves. Ethan has contempt for his "adoptive" nephew, Martin, because he is part Cherokee. Ethan's bitterness and anger are so intense, he is bound and determined to kill his niece if he finds her, because, "she's been sleeping with a buck," a "Comanch," as he angrily and contemptibly calls the Comanches. Of course, the Comanches too were trying to halt change, to keep change from sweeping them and their way of life away, so they share a sort of common thread with the Ethans of the world, but the exact goals are competing, not common to the two sides.           

The picture is absolutely stunning in its breathtaking scenery. In my opinion, John Wayne should have gotten an Academy Award nomination for his performance as Ethan, while although the film certainly has some of his Wayne persona, the character of Ethan is much deeper than Wayne's usual tough guy mannerisms and his no holds barred flag waving. If you haven't seen this film, I hope you'll watch it. It is on many lists as not only one of the greatest Westerns ever made, but also as one of the greatest films ever made.

Picture is from Warner Home Video, 50th Anniversary Edition

WORD HISTORY: 
Search-This word, closely related to both "circle" and "circus," goes back to Indo European "sker," which had the notion of "curve, bend." This gave Ancient Greek "kirkos," which meant "circle," and it was borrowed by Latin as "circus," which meant "circle." This produced the verb "circare," which literally meant, "to go around in a circle," but the actual meaning of which was "go about, travel about." This gave Old French, a Latin-based language, "cerchier," which meant "travel about looking for something." The word was taken to England by the Normans where it became "sercher," and it was borrowed into English in the early 1300s as "serchen," before it assumed its modern form. The noun "searcher" was derived from the verb seemingly a bit later in the 1300s. 

The Struggles For Change Are Timeless

This was first published in April 2014.


I suppose way, way back in time, one group of early humans yelled over to another group of early humans in the next tree and said something like, "You know, if we go live in that opening over there in the side of that big clump of soil and rock, we could have protection from the weather, we won't have to worry as much about lightening and forest fires (after all, there was no "Smoky the Bear, as yet), we'd be safer from predators and we could go out to get our food right from there. Being on the ground, maybe could actually put some of the seeds in the soil and grow some of our own food." The other group likely gasped and replied, "Oh my, we've been swinging through the trees for years, if we were meant to live in such a place, we'd be there. We've survived all this time, we don't need to go changing anything. Don't go rocking the tree" (I guess they said that, because boats hadn't been invented yet), and besides, there are bats in that place. And you want us to go live in there? Why they'd come flying in, scaring the Neanderthal right out of us. No wonder our neighbor three trees down* told us you are dangerous with all your newfangled ideas. Yep, Rushes Limbbough warned us about you. He said no one's going to get him off his ass in a tree to climb down and go putting seeds in the soil. He only charged us a handful of nuts and a handful of berries to tell us that, too."

Change is tough, the bigger the change, the tougher it becomes. The struggle of women to even begin to fully integrate into American jobs didn't happen because a bunch of old, white businessmen suddenly woke up one day and said, "Gee, we've had a revelation, and we're going to hire more women, and we're even going to give some a chance at leadership positions." It took work and, yes, some confrontation, although World War Two provided women with the opportunity to enter jobs long seen as the preserve of men. While much of the prewar mentality returned when the war ended, things have never been the same, and women have made a long, slow climb into many jobs, including top corporate jobs, although they still lag behind men in many areas, as well as in pay in many jobs. In 2008 Democrats had an epic presidential nomination battle, pitting former First Lady Hillary Clinton against then Senator Barack Obama, a man of mixed black and white race. With Republicans in deep trouble at that time, the Democratic nominee was likely to be the next president, bringing either our first woman or first person of (known) black heritage to the presidency. While this thought was tantalizingly positive to some, it scared the absolute Neanderthal, ah, I mean, hell out of others. A guy I knew back then, a life long Democrat, was terribly upset over the choice in the Democratic primary, saying, "Some choice, a b----, or a n-----." His racism trumped his disdain for women, and he voted for Hillary in the primary, only to switch to McCain in the general election. I'm pretty certain he officially became a Republican after the election. Obama's election mobilized the racists and bigots who became determined to bring him down, even if it brought the country down in the process. Had Hillary Clinton been elected, it would have mobilized the Clinton haters, and those terrified of women in high places, to seek her demise.** We already had a prelude to a Hillary presidency, as Republicans relentlessly pursued both of the Clintons in the 1990s. Change scares some people because of its uncertainty, but it scares others, because they're afraid it will succeed.

* Compare that to the modern music group, "Three Doors Down."

** Not all opponents of Obama are racists or bigots, nor are all opponents of Hillary Clinton anti-women, but it speaks volumes that many of those who are such have gravitated to one political party.

WORD HISTORY:
Limb-This word is of uncertain heritage, although an Indo European root form, "elei/lei," with the notion ''bend, flexible," is a possibility. The Germanic forms seem, however, to be exclusive to Germanic, as there appear to be no known relatives in other languages, including those of Indo European derivation. Old Germanic had "lithuh," with the meaning of "extremity, appendage, body part." This gave Old English "lith," which meant "appendage, tree branch, joint, body part." A variant of the Old Germanic word, "limuh," emerged, but why the change to "m" from "th" is unknown, but it too meant "body part, extremity, tree branch." This gave Old English "lim," a form which lasted for hundreds of years, before the ending "b" began to be used circa 1600, but with no apparent reason, although the same happened to "thumb" prior to "limb." Could it have been, in both cases, a dialect where the ending came out with a "b" sound pronounced? Or, in the case of "limb," it could have been a spelling influenced by Latin "limbus," and the derived "limbo," neither of which is related to English "limb." In most cases, the other Germanic languages have words resembling Old English "lith," a word no longer used in English, as "lim(b)" became the prevailing word, but Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all have "lem," for "limb,' and Icelandic has the compound "útlimum," for "limb."

Asking A Republican A Few Questions

This was first published in May 2013

"Hello folks! This is Dan Ratherbe, in Philadelphia. Today I have a Republican here who promises to speak out on the issues confronting the nation and his Republican Party, no holds barred. His name is George Owen Pappenstiel* and he's a strong supporter of the Tea Party. Welcome Mr. Pappenstiel.

GOP-Thank you Mr. Couldbe, or is it Mr. Shouldbe?

DR-It's Ratherbe, but my name isn't important here, you are. So here's the first question, and remember, no holds barred. Is The Republican Party still the "party of Lincoln?"

GOP-Oh no, that was just temporary insanity on the part o' people who weren't no real Republicans. Ol' John Wilkes Booth was just too late gettin' at that guy. See, that's why Americuns need guns, to stop this stuff. 'Sides, I'm not sure Lincoln could ever convince Donald Trump that he wuz a 'gitimate president with a valid birth certificate to prove it. Just like that Bomma guy, a Mooslim if ever there was one. From over there in one of them Africa places nobody knows the name of.

DR- Kenya?

GOP- Cun I what?

DR- The President's name is Obama, not Bomma.

GOP- See, can't even say his name right, 'cuz it ain't no Americun name.

DR-Who is your favorite president?

GOP-Jeff Davis!

DR- Sir, Jefferson Davis was not president of the United States.

GOP- Shows jist how dumb you liberals are. Ya never had a proper edjeecation. Jeff Davis is my answer and that's final. I'll bet Donald Trump wouldn't have no trouble with ol' Jeff. He wuz a real Americun like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin. They don't go 'round hatin America like that Bomma guy. They don't see no bad things 'bout this great ol' country and they only tell people the plain and simple facts and the communists and socialists don't like the truth or facts, so theyz agin them.  Michele and Sarah, they just plain and simple, that's what they are.

DR- Okay, who besides Jefferson Davis?

GOP- You sure ere trying to make this tough. Let's see ... ah ... Strom Thurmond? Oh wait, he only ran and he didn't win; got cheated I believe. George Wallace almost made it, but they cheated him too. Well, I guess Ronald Reagan.

DR-Do you believe Ebenezer Scrooge gets a bum rap?

GOP-You better believe it. The liberal media has done made him a scapegoat and felt sorry for that lazy moocher who worked for him. I can't remember his name, but he had that good for nothing son who sang like a woman and had the long hair to go with it. Played a banjo or some such thing too. Maybe a ukelele.  What was his name? Hm ... Tiny Tim or some such crap. Used a crutch to make people feel sorry for him. Not me, I don't fall for that stuff; I don't feel sorry for nobody, exceptin' maybe ol' Ebenezer. He was just a honest business guy tryin' to make a livin'. He was a job creator too. That moochin' worker of his wouldn't o' had a job if'n it weren't for ol' Ebenezer.

DR-Do you think some Republicans secretly celebrate Hitler's and Mussolini's birthdays?

GOP-Oh that Muss-ah-lini was such a wimp, nobody'd be celebratin' his birthday. I dunno 'bout Hitler tho.

DR-You mean you don't know of anyone in your party who celebrates Hitler's birthday on April 12th?

GOP-No, no, not April 12th, 'cause his birthday is April 20th. A cuzin o' mine has an old armband, give to him by his pa from the war time in Germany. He likes to wear it 'round the house sometimes, but I'm not sure it's just on Hitler's birthday. 'Sides, he got a nice white sheet he like to wear too sometimes. Keeps it good 'n clean and has a good Christian cross with it.     

DR-What do you think of the growing Hispanic population in the U.S.

GOP- I think we should use the Army to secure the border and shoot first an' ask questions later, like that there guy done there in Florida. What's his name, Zimmerman? We gotta stop this stuff or soon we'll all be eatin' tacos and refried beans fer breakfast, lunch and dinner. They can't even speak good English like you an' me duz. An' those Pertoo Ricans, why you'd think they wuz real Americuns, the ways they act.

DR- Puerto Ricans are American citizens, sir.

GOP- Now quit joshin' me. Ain't no real Americuns if'n they don't look like you an' me. An' don't fergit my cuzin neither. Then too, real Americuns don't got names like Peedro or Jose. That Jose name only any good fer the national anthem, you know, 'Jose ... can you see, by the dawn's early light?' Jist thought I'd be throwin' in a little humor, but you ain't laughin'. Guess you don't git it.
 
DR- Do you think the Tea Party is at least partially in response to political correctness? If so, do you think they're really racist, or that they just think segregation wasn't a bad thing at all, and that in fact, slavery helped take care of slaves?

 GOP- Now ya got that last part right, an' no truer words was ever spoke. Let me tell ya, a little slavery never hurt nobody, at least not no white person, or Egyptian. Just think, no slavery, no pyramids. No slavery, no cotton industry. No child slavery, no Walmart. Hey, this ain't tough to figur out.

DR-  Why do you think many Americans believe the GOP, especially the Tea Party, is bigoted, if not outright racist?

GOP- I got no idea. I never met a Tea Party patriot who didn't believe colored people, or I guess I should say, Negroes, haven't performed a valuable service to this country; as I said, no slavery, no cotton. If people like John Brown and that bunch hadn't been messin' in, we'd still have a thrivin' cotton business and big plantations all over the South. An' see, I said Negroes. You probly thought I didn't know no better.

DR- What do you think of unions?

GOP- Oh that bunch of Commies. They just wanna keep stoppin' American business from growin'; after all, what's good fer business, is good fer America.

DR- So if unions were destroyed, the country AND workers would be better off? How would workers benefit?

GOP- The country's businesses would be better off, no question 'bout it, and they are the nation's job creators. They need more money to 'spand and invest so they can provide more jobs to Americans. We don't need no unions stickin' their Commie noses in to where they ain't wanted ner needed. Let one company outbid the others over workers with pay and any benefits.

DR- What do you think of Medicare?

GOP- Oh that sozialyzed med'cine started by Lyndon Johnson. Called hizself a Texan too. Baloney! He weren't no real Texan like George W. Bush and Rick Perry. Now thems Texans.

DR- Has your family always been Republican?

GOP- Oh no, no. My pappy and my grand pappy and his pappy were all Democrats, but that was 'fore the Democrats started stirrin' up the colored people tellin' 'em they was equal to us white folks. Can you imagine that? Then it all got worse, 'cause they done tole women they was equal too. Now they's sayin' men cun marry men and women cun marry women and that we should let more feruners become citizens. I'm tellin ya, Lady Liberty is ashamed o' this stuff and pretty soon we white, educated, sane people gonna be a minority in our own country.    

DR- Thanks for your time, sir. You've really answered the questions, no holds barred, just like you said you would. Only thing is, I'm feeling a bit sick to my stomach now.

GOP- I done tole you, you liberals don't like hearin' the truth.  

* Pappenstiel is used in the German expression "etwas für einen Pappenstiel kriegen;" that is, "get something cheaply/get something for chicken feed." It is pretty much pronounced like "poppin-steel."

WORD HISTORY:
Thwart-This word goes back to Indo European "twork/terkw," which had the notion of "turn, twist." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "t(h)werkhaz," which seems to have meant "crosswise, crooked," from the original notion of "twist, turn." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "thweorh," which likewise meant "crooked, bent," and from those ideas, also the figurative meaning "perverse" (the basic idea of such is still around today, as we say things like "the criminal had a twisted mind"), and also "angry." Along came Old Norse speakers to England, usually referred to as "Danes" back then, although not all came from what is now Denmark. Old Norse was the North Germanic offshoot of Old Germanic; thus making it a close relative of English. English is classified as West Germanic, along with its closest relatives: Frisian, Low German, Dutch, and standard German," but English has a number of influences from North Germanic, because of these "Danish" settlements in England, which were mainly in the northern and eastern parts of the England. Old Norse brought the word "thwert" to England, which had much the same basic meaning as the its Old English relative "thweorh;" that is, "across, crosswise." This form gradually worked its way into English by the 13th Century, seemingly blending with the original English word. Apparently from the notion of "crosswise sticks or logs" used to block an entrance/exit, came the idea in the mid 1200s of a verb form meaning "block, obstruct, hinder," which is still with us today. Originally both the English and Old Norse forms were adverbs/adjectives. Other forms in the Germanic languages: German has "quer" (originally spelled with a "tw" and a "dw," instead of a "q"), which means "across, crosswise; diagonally," Low German and Dutch "dwars," West Frisian "dwers," Swedish "tvär," Danish "tvaer," Norwegian "tvers," and Icelandic "thwert."

Bob Dole Hits A Homer!

Former Republican presidential candidate and long time member of Congress, Senator Bob Dole, told it bluntly in a television interview that today's GOP is negative and that it needs to develop a positive agenda. Where I might have to add more is, when Senator Dole says Ronald Reagan could not be in today's GOP, that's because the people who took over your party were invited in by REAGAN, the cheerleader in chief of the anti government and the 'hate government' theme that has been preached like religion by the right wing fanatics who have captured your party, Senator Dole. I like you and respect you and you had many friends across the Senate aisle like Senator Byrd, Senator Kennedy and your recently deceased fellow World War Two veteran, Senator Inouye. I remember the day you resigned from the Senate to campaign for president in 1996 and all Senate Democrats were there; that's how much respect they had for you. Good that you're speaking out, it's a start, but the root problem is there, preached by Limbaugh, Beck, Bachmann and other haters. I've got to believe if you look closely at Lincoln in his memorial, there are some tears to be seen, as he realizes that "the party of Lincoln," has become dominated by a bunch of intolerant, bigoted, and even racist, fanatics. You know, like the ones Lincoln so opposed.  

WORD HISTORY:
Agenda-The word traces back to Indo European "aeg," which had the idea of "move, drive forth." This gave its Latin offspring the verb "agere," which meant "to do." This then produced the Latin noun "agendus," which meant "something to be done," and its plural "agenda." English borrowed the word from Latin in the mid 1600s, seemingly from religious writings, with many English speaking people first using the Anglicized form "agend" for the singular and "agends" for the plural, but the more modern Latin forms, "agendum" and the plural "agenda," prevailed in high speaking society. Most people, however, use only the plural form "agenda," even when meaning the singular. 

A Witness To Changes For The Better On Race, But With Caveats

First published in April 2013, but with an ending note added, July 27, 2017 and a small addition on June 1, 2018, with another addition May 13, 2021.

I've seen a good many changes in my life. Change isn't always easy to accept for some, probably even most of us, at least early on in the process. I was lucky, my parents were not racists and that helped me to look at racial issues in what I think were balanced ways. In the 1960s racial issues exploded across much of the United States, including in my high school, where something less than 10% of the students were black. Race was a red hot issue, but even back then there was cause for hope, as I found most people, regardless of race or background, wanted to get along. I sat next to a black girl in my biology class. When Martin Luther King was assassinated, she came into that classroom, looked at me and said, "I'm supposed to be mad at you." I just played dumb, something I do VERY well, since it comes naturally, and I asked her why. She mentioned the assassination, but then followed with, "but I can't be mad at you." This incident, be it seemingly ever so small, has stayed with me all of these years. I was elected to the school interracial council, a small group developed to diffuse racial problems before they became explosive.

My paternal grandparents were divorced and my father and one uncle lived with my grandfather in Baltimore during a good part of the 1930s. The black population of Baltimore back then was around 18%, a considerable percentage for a non-southern city at that time, but I never heard my dad say anything negative about black people when he talked about his Baltimore days when I was growing up. He always used the term "Negro," the "proper" term in white society back then. He talked about how Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby broke the "color barrier" in major league baseball, and he even recalled how badly black athletes in general had been treated.

I grew up in an all white neighborhood and when I was about five or six, I was standing with a couple of the other kids on the sidewalk when a black guy came down the street on a bicycle. One of the other kids said, "That's a n-----." Later, when I went in the house, I asked my mother, "Mom, what's a n-----?" She grabbed me and said, "Don't you EVER use that word again, or I'll wash your mouth out with soap," a common saying back in those days. I don't recall what she did or didn't explain, but the thoughts of bubbles flowing from my mouth is still with me to this day, although I'm sure my mother did the best she could to explain things to her little son, who unknowingly had uttered a derogatory word.

I don't want to place the crown of sainthood on the heads of my parents, but they were generally ahead of their time on the issue of race, although their views were never tested by having a black family move next door, but then again, they came to my house later on, and I lived next door to a couple from a racially mixed marriage. I certainly wasn't troubled by this fact, nor were my parents, who had seen discrimination toward blacks, segregation, the attitudes of white superiority, and the beginnings of the reversal of these ideas during their lifetimes. Further, a cousin of mine on my mother's side married a black man and I don't recall my mother declaring this would end civilization. No, my parents may have asked little questions about race between themselves* and my dad continued using "Negro" long after he should have dropped the term, but on balance I'd say they knew that things like bombs going off at the Boston Marathon, hijacked planes being flown into buildings, or bankers exploiting the mortgage business were far more important than people allowing race to divide them.

So I've seen lots of changes for the better in my life, although it's been a pretty slow process, which still continues. With the inclusive attitudes of today's young folks, there will be many more positive changes, changes I won't be around to witness, but the country might just truly become the UNITED States, with liberty and justice for all. 

NOTE: 7-27-17: We still have a long way to go on racial issues. The presidency of Barack Obama showed how many Americans were able to move past race and elect a man of mixed racial heritage to lead the nation for 8 years. The early belief and giddiness of some, that we were in a "post racial" era, was far too naïve, as some Americans still felt fearful of voting for Obama, and still others, seemingly a smaller, but more outspoken segment, chose hate, racism and bigotry in reaction to his presidency. To not have voted for Barack Obama does not make a person a racist, just as having voted for Donald Trump in 2016 doesn't make a person a racist, although there are racists in both groups. Addition 5-13-21: Americans still continue to struggle with race, but when I saw protests in the 1960s about civil rights, most protesters, by far, were black Americans. In more recent times, protests about racial inequality almost always have large numbers of Americans of many races and backgrounds included, but as these Americans seek to bring change to racist and bigoted attitudes of a persistent hardcore of Americans, the ugly head and voice of Donald Trump, "the racist in chief," incited acts against Asian Americans, just as his rhetoric had told extremist groups holding torchlight parades in Charlottesville, Virginia and shouting "Jews will not replace us," that they were morally equivalent to people there protesting racism and hate. There has been a tragic rise in anti-semitic incidents, including killings, over the last few years. Fighting such evil is a full time job and we cannot afford to take a vacation from this struggle. 

* Change requires understanding and understanding requires questions to help us understand, and understanding race means we need to answer questions about those who are different in some physical ways from ourselves. Asking questions and wanting to learn about others is not racism. In one of the great scenes in a truly outstanding movie, "Nowhere in Africa," a film that won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002 (it is in German, with English subtitles), when the young main German Jewish character arrives in Africa, the Kenyan cook for the family picks up the girl and she feels his hair as he holds her close. His hair is different from her hair. This is followed not long after by a young Kenyan boy sneaking up behind the girl's mother, just to feel her hair, much to the delight of his young Kenyan friends. Her hair is different from his own. My article about this wonderful film is here: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2013/06/nowhere-in-africa.html 

WORD HISTORY:
Learn-This goes back to Indo European "lais/leis," which meant "trail, track." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "liznojan," which meant "to learn, to obtain knowledge;" the notion seemingly being "to acquire knowledge through the track of life." A variant apparently developed which then produced Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "leornian," which meant "to acquire knowledge, to study to obtain knowledge." This then became "lernen," before the modern version. English also once had "laeran" (and derived forms) which meant "to teach," and its close German cousin still has "lehren" which means "to teach," and a "Lehrer," is a male teacher, while a "Lehrerin" is a female teacher. English "teach" comes from a Germanic word the basic meaning of which is "to show," and this eventually prevailed over forms of "laeran." The use of "learn" to also mean "to study" generally began to die out in English when "study" was borrowed from French. Learn is closely related to "lore."^  Forms of "learn" in the other Germanic languages are: German "lernen," Low German Saxon "lehren" (which means both "learn" and "teach"), West Frisian "leare," Dutch "leren," Danish and Norwegian  "laere," Icelandic "laera," and Swedish "lära."

^ For the "Word History" for "lore," see my article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/12/german-question-part-sixty-one.html