Trombonist with Qatar Symphony, playing “Peter Gunn”
I’m not the world’s greatest fan of Henry Mancini, but I’m probably in the top 100. I love his melodies, his rhythms, harmonies and versatility. I love his direction of a good band, which he always put together.
I also love to find good arrangements of his compositions, and was happy to find this brass ensembler arrangement of “Peter Gunn,” from the Qatar Philharmonic Brass, in 2016.
3 Comments | 
Geography - Physical, History, Jazz, Music | Tagged: Henry Mancini, Jazz, Music, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Neil Kinnock gave this speech in Wales. It’s true everywhere Democrats run in the U.S. Wherever Kinnock said “Mrs. Thatcher,” replace it with “the Republican Party,” and it still fits, terribly, awesomely, and eye-openingly.
Once upon a time a Democrat was driven from a presidential race for quoting this speech. We need to quote it now, and mean it.
Here it is, from Mr. Kinnock’s own website.
This is an edited version of Neil Kinnock’s speech to the Welsh Labour Party conference in Llandudno, May 15, 1987, in his first election as leader of the Labour Party.
We are democratic socialists. We care all the time. We don’t think it’s a soft sentiment, we don’t think it’s ‘wet’.
We think that care is the essence of strength.
And we believe that because we know that strength without care is savage and brutal and selfish.
Strength with care is compassion – the practical action that is needed to help people lift themselves to their full stature.
That’s real care – it is not soft or weak. It is tough and strong. But where do we get that strength to provide that care?
Do we wait for some stroke of good fortune, some benign giant, some socially conscious Samson to come along and pick up the wretched of the earth?
Of course we don’t.
We cooperate, we collect together, we coordinate so that everyone can contribute and everyone can benefit, everyone has responsibilities everyone has rights. That is how we put care into action. That is how we make the weak strong, that is how we lift the needy, that is how we make the sick whole, that is how we give talent the chance to flourish, that is how we turn the unemployed claimant into the working contributor.
We do it together. It is called collective strength, collective care. And its whole purpose is individual freedom.
When we speak of collective strength and collective freedom, collectively achieved, we are not fulfilling that nightmare that Mrs Thatcher tries to paint, and all her predecessors have tried to saddle us with.
We’re not talking about uniformity; we’re not talking about regimentation; we’re not talking about conformity -that’s their creed. The uniformity of the dole queue; the regimentation of the unemployed young and their compulsory work schemes. The conformity of people who will work in conditions, and take orders, and accept pay because of mass unemployment that they would laugh at in a free society with full employment.
That kind of freedom for the individual, that kind of liberty can’t be secured by most of the people for most of the time if they’re just left to themselves, isolated, stranded, with their whole life chances dependent upon luck!
Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is my wife, Glenys, the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?
Was it because all our predecessors were ‘thick’? Did they lack talent – those people who could sing, and play, and recite and write poetry; those people who could make wonderful, beautiful things with their hands; those people who could dream dreams, see visions; those people who had such a sense of perception as to know in times so brutal, so oppressive, that they could win their way out of that by coming together?
Were those people not university material? Couldn’t they have knocked off all their A-levels in an afternoon?
But why didn’t they get it?
Was it because they were weak? Those people who could work eight hours underground and then come up and play football?
Weak? Those women who could survive eleven child bearings, were they weak? Those people who could stand with their backs and their legs straight and face the people who had control over their lives, the ones who owned their workplaces and tried to own them, and tell them, ‘No. I won’t take your orders.’ Were they weak?
Does anybody really think that they didn’t get what we had because they didn’t have the talent, or the strength, or the endurance, or the commitment?
Of course not. It was because there was no platform upon which they could stand; no arrangement for their neighbours to subscribe to their welfare; no method by which the communities could translate their desires for those individuals into provision for those individuals.
And now, Mrs Thatcher, by dint of privatisation, and means test, and deprivation, and division, wants to nudge us back into the situation where everybody can either stand on their own feet, or live on their knees.
She parades her visions and values, and we choose to contest them as people with roots in this country, with a future only in this country, with pride in this country. People who know that if we are to have and sustain real individual liberty in this country it requires the collective effort of the whole community.
I think of the youngsters I meet. Three, four, five years out of school. Never had a job. And they say to me “Do you think we’ll ever work?”
They live in a free country, but they do not feel free.
I think of the 55-year-old woman I meet who is waiting to go into hospital, her whole existence clouded by pain.
She lives in a free country, but she does not feel free.
I think of the young couple, two years married, living in Mam and Dad’s front room because they can’t get a home. They ask “Will we ever get a home of our own?”
They live in a free country, but they do not feel free.
And I think of the old couple who spend months of the winter afraid to turn up the heating, who stay at home because they are afraid to go out after dark, whose lives are turned into a crisis by the need to buy a new pair of shoes.
They live in a free country – indeed, they’re of the generation that fought for a free country but they do not feel free.
How can they and millions like them – have their individual freedom if there is not collective provision?
How can they have strength if they do not have care?
Now they cannot have either because they are locked out of being able to discharge responsibilities just as surely as they are locked out of being able to exercise rights.
They want to be able to use both.
They do not want feather-bedding, they want a foothold.
They do not want cotton-woolling, they want a chance to contribute.
That is the freedom they want.
That is the freedom we want them to have.
With a tip of the old scrub brush to Dave Weigel on Bluesky Social.
Leave a Comment » | Democracy, Democratic Party, Forgotten speeches, Great Speeches, History, Politics | Tagged: Democracy, freedom, Great Speeches, Neil Kinnock, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
A conservative group and its former leader are taking the unusual step of publicly acknowledging that claims of ballot mishandling at a Pennsylvania post office in 2020 were wrong.
— Read on apnews.com/article/election-pennsylvania-postmaster-ballots-2020-project-veritas-327d470d18ec40792ffe4ead61feeb92
Leave a Comment » | History | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
At Bluesky, author/historian James Fallows presents the front page of his local newspaper on January 5, 2024.
Oy.
Convince me the gun lobby is not trying to make us all targets for gun violence.
https://bsky.app/profile/jfallows.bsky.social/post/3kiakrii7zg2m
1 Comment | children, Guns, Politics, Violence | Tagged: children, Gun Safety, James Fallows, Legislation, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Consider the facts. What is required to be “insurrection?”
Greg Sargent at Plumline posted a long series on X (Twitter) discussing just what then-President Trump’s actions should be considered, using evidence that heavily points towards Trump’s intent being insurrection.
It’s an important listing, a point-by-point discussion with facts we have, not what has been revealed in courts. The full thread is below, first level. There are links inside the thread you may wish to explore at “X.”
Read this thread. I would like to pose some hypothetical questions to insurrection-deniers: Is there anything Trump could have done that *would* have unambiguously constituted insurrection — anything that you’d acknowledge *does* require disqualifying him? 1/
What if, in the runup to 1/6, Trump had explicitly told his supporters to descend on the Capitol to stop the VP and Congress from certifying the transfer of power *by any means necessary*? Well, here’s what he did do: 2/
What if Trump had explicitly told top DOJ officials to fabricate evidence of widespread election fraud because he needed a pretext to justify his premeditated, illegal scheme to sabotage the transfer of power? Well, here’s what he did do: 3/
What if Trump had repeatedly and explicitly told his VP to ignore the law and abuse his authority to subvert the electoral count in keeping with his premeditated scheme to sabotage the transfer of power? Well, here’s what he did do: 4/
What if Trump, as he harangued the mob on 1/6, had explicitly told them to force Pence to scuttle the transfer of power, broadcasting a message to Pence that if he failed, he’d face the mob’s fury? Well, here’s what he did say: 5/
What if, while the mob attacked the Capitol, Trump had tweeted explicit instructions that the rioters should do whatever it takes to force Pence to sabotage the transfer of power? Well, here’s what Trump did tweet — again, *while* the mob was rampaging: 6/
What if Trump, as people begged him to call off the mob, explicitly said no, because he wanted them to keep going, to intimidate the VP and Congress from certifying the transfer of power? Well, here’s what he did do: 7/
Would you really deny the sum total of those hypotheticals = insurrection? Doubtful. Yet the line between that and what Trump did do is functionally nonexistent. The case that his insurrection was ambiguous rests on a deliberately blinkered reading of uncontested facts. 8/
Here’s how the CO ruling defines the threshold for committing insurrection: “a concerted and public use of force or threat of force…to hinder or prevent the US government from taking the actions necessary to accomplish the peaceful transfer of power.” 9/
Insurrection-deniers should say (1) whether the CO ruling’s description of the threshold Q is a reasonable one; and if so, (2) whether Trump’s conduct meets it. If your answers are no, what *would* be disqualifying? Or is the claim that Disqualification is a dead letter? 10/
Yes, disqual could have severe consequences/enter new territory. But via
@ianbassin, if trying to end lawful constitutional democracy is not deemed disqualifying, it could also cross a Rubicon: 11/ https://protectdemocracy.org/work/trump-bal
One more point: As
notes, the case for disqualification also rests on whether someone who so flagrantly broke their oath of office can be trusted to take the oath again. Read Parloff’s whole thread: 12/
Roger Parloff, @rparloff
“A construction of Section Three that would nevertheless allow a former President who broke his oath, not only to participate in the government again but to run for and hold the highest office in the land, is flatly unfaithful to the Section’s purpose.” /14
Any political discussion of this matter simply must include Trump’s current threats to *again* serially violate his oath of office and even to be a “dictator.” Are there consequences in green lighting all this? You need to weigh one set of consequences against the other. 13/13
This is a discussion for voters much more than a discussion for prosecutors and courts.
We do not need courts to tell us Trump is unqualified to be president. But we need to mark our ballots to reflect that judgment, as voters, to keep America great.
4 Comments | 2020 Elections, Crime, Donald Trump, Elections, History, Law, Politics, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: 2020 Elections, Constitution, Elections, Greg Sargent, History, insurrection, Violence | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I wish it were not so. These words of Dickens’s through Scrooge, remain salient, damning and depressing, since well before election day 2016. Now Trump’s was impeached, but left in place. Trump was defeated by American voters, but he still sits on his throne, messing up America in every way he can think to do it. Trump’s been sued and found liable, indicted on 91 criminal counts, but people still threaten to let him wreak vengeance on Americans.
And so our annual post on the lessons we take from “A Christmas Carol.”
Ebenezer Scrooge, up a dark staircase; “Darkness was cheap, and Scrooge liked it.” Illustration by Roberto Innocenti, via Pinterest.
It’s a Quote of the Moment (an encore post for the season, with a bit of context thrown in later), a bitter but too-popular political platform, and life, edited down to just three words, in green:
Darkness is cheap,
and Scrooge liked it.– Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, Stave 1
Isn’t that the entire GOP platform in three words? “Darkness is cheap.” Substitute “Trump” for “Scrooge,” you’ve got the picture. Three more words than the actual Republican National Platform of 2020, but more accurate.
I think of that line of Dickens’s often when I read of the celebrations of calumny that pass as discourse in Republican politics these days. Although, with the 2008 renewing of Limbaugh’s contract, with the 2020 coming of COVID-19, it may no longer be true that his particular brand of darkness is cheap. With the advent of Donald Trump’s insult politics, offending America’s allies and all American ethnic groups possible, with un-ironic calls to drop nuclear weapons, GOP politics is even darker than ever.
Since then, we’ve discovered scheming to cheat voters in six states from their decisions, plans to create violence and perhaps assassinations to disrupt the Constitutional peaceful transfer of power from one party to another. We’ve learned the plot against Americans and America included elected Members of Congress, and perhaps Justices of the Supreme Court.
Cheap or not, darkness remains dark.
Scrooge meets Ignorance and Want, the products of his stinginess (drawing by John Leech, 1809-1870)
Here is the sentence Dickens put before the quote, to add a little context; Scrooge was climbing a very large, very dark staircase.
Half-a-dozen gas-lamps out of the street wouldn’t have lighted the entry too well, so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with Scrooge’s dip.
Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.
Speaking of darkness, a longer excerpt from a bit later in Dickens’s story, when the Ghost of Christmas Present ushers Scrooge to glimpse what is in the present, but what will be the future if Scrooge does not repent:
‘Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask,’ said Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit’s robe, ‘but I see something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw?’
‘It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it,’ was the Spirit’s sorrowful reply. ‘Look here.’
From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They knelt down at its feet, and clung upon the outside of its garment.
‘Oh, Man! look here. Look, look, down here!’ exclaimed the Ghost.
They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.
Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.
‘Spirit! are they yours?’ Scrooge could say no more.
‘They are Man’s,’ said the Spirit, looking down upon them. ‘And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!’ cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. ‘Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!’
‘Have they no refuge or resource?’ cried Scrooge.
‘Are there no prisons?’ said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. ‘Are there no workhouses?’ The bell struck twelve.
Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not. As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the prediction of old Jacob Marley, and lifting up his eyes, beheld a solemn Phantom, draped and hooded, coming, like a mist along the ground, towards him.
Think of 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, and since, children abused in Central America and in the Middle East, fleeing as best they can, only to die, off the shores of Greece, on the southern deserts of the U.S., or be cast into incarceration after having achieved a nation whose very name promised them refuge, the United States. “Two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable,” Dickens described. Whose children? “Man’s.” Yours, and mine.
Christmas is a festival to celebrate light, what many Christians call “the light of the world?” If so, let us work to stamp out the darkness which the unrepentant Scrooge so dearly loved.
Darkness may be cheap, but it is not good. Light a candle, and run into the darkness, spreading light. We need more light.
Hope you have a merry Christmas in the making for 2023. Let us remember, as Tom and the late Ray Magliozzi always reminded us, the cheapskate pays more in the end, and usually along the way. Is Darkness cheap? Let us then eschew it as too costly for a moral nation, too costly for a moral people.
Are we as smart as Ebenezer Scrooge? Are our hearts as good as Scrooge’s heart?
When we die, who will mourn our passing? Which spirit moves us to action?
God bless us, every one. Or gods, or family and friends bless us, as the case may be.
More:
Yes, this is an encore post, mostly. Fighting ignorance is taking a lot longer than anyone thought.
3 Comments | Christmas, Economics, Education, Ethics, History, Literature, Politics, Poverty | Tagged: Charles Dickens, Christmas, Christmas Carol, Darkness, Ebenezer Scrooge, Economics, Famous quotes, ignorance, Quotes, Scrooge, Want | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
This song, one of my favorites, got me thinking about alternatives to the hoary old Christmas carols and songs we grew up with, and may be tired of. I collect some of these songs — not just specialty or humor, but songs that inspire, or put us to reverie.
Washington Post picked up on it: A lot of musicians make great performances of non-standard Christmas tunes.
Joni Mitchell’s “River” has picked up covers by quite a few artists as a Christmas tune.
Does it just mention Christmas, or is it really a song of the season?
For example, Sam Smith:
In a discussion of Joni Mitchell back in April 2017, here on Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub (with Paul Sunstone), I noted how people appreciate Joni Mitchell as a songwriter more as time goes on, including the use of “River” in Christmas collections:
Joni Mitchell’s fans are superappreciative, including such people as Judy Collins, who covers Mitchell on several songs.
But generally, yes, I think she’s not considered a great composer by those who compile lists of great composers, and she’s not considered a great singer by those who compile lists of great singers.
Part of the issue is that Mitchell came out of Canada as folk-rock took off. When I first bought her albums they were in the folk section; later they moved to the “pop” section (go figure). Her later albums stayed in rock or pop, even as her love of Mingus and Jazz pushed her work solidly into jazz. I’ve never seen her work listed as jazz in any recording sales store.
So she’s tough to categorize. Is she as strong or influential in folk as Joan Baez or Bob Dylan? Is she as strong in Rock as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (at least half of whom she had affairs with)? Is she as good at jazz as Ella [Fitzgerald] or Tony Bennett? Is she as good a poet as Leonard Cohen?
I think one can make a solid case that Joni Mitchell’s work is as poetic as Paul Simon’s, deserving as much attention for that reason as his. Simon won the Gershwin Award from the Kennedy Center; in 2017 I wondered, has Mitchell ever been considered? Is she less deserving than Billy Joel?
One of my criteria: I think every party I attended as an undergraduate, someone put on the album “Blue.” In graduate school, in a hotter climate, Maria Muldaur made a run (time to get away when “Midnight at the Oasis” came on); but “Blue” has stayed a turntable hit for decades. When our oldest son was at the University of Dallas, on one visit I was struck that “Blue” played out of three different apartments in his complex, at least 40 years after its release. It’s not Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” but I think it lasts longer on the play list of people who play them both.
In the past six years I’ve been impressed at the appearance of her song “River” on Christmas song compilations. “I wish I had a river I could skate away on,” she and her covering artists sing. She captured a feeling of Christmas much as Irving Berlin did, with a more beautiful melody, if not quite as hummable. Has anyone ever compared her to Irving Berlin?
Long post required. I’m not musicologist enough to do it justice, I think.
See these:
“River” has become a movement!
This one is odd; I wonder if someone did a mashup of Charlie Brown and Joni Mitchell, or if the Schulz cartoon organization really did use Mitchell’s tune.
“River” is not ready for use in churches, I think. Yet, in 2022 I saw it listed on the Christmas programs of a couple of Dallas churches, and not during the Blue Christmas services. It’s a good song for the time of year, if not the actual religious celebration.
Any other good versions of “River” you like? Any on Christmas albums? Tell about them.
Any other songs you like that aren’t the old chesnuts? Tell us about them, please.
More: Discussion of the song at Jeff Meshel’s World
Leave a Comment » | Christmas, Music | Tagged: Christmas, Joni Mitchell, Music, River, Sam Smith, Writing | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Cover for a version of The Pogues, “Fairytale of New York. Wikipedia image
If you think Joni Mitchell’s “River” represents a turn to blue for Christmas songs, what does “Fairytale of New York” show?
Shane McGowan passed on November 30. He was the chief composer and singer for the song.
At the church during his funeral, an all Irish-star cast of musicians sang the song, and mourners danced. Then people in Dublin turned out to honor him as his casket wended to the cemetery. The crowd burst into tune, singing “Fairytale of New York.”
At the church:
Along the procession route:
I must admit, this is one I was not familiar with — I’d heard it before, but not paid much attention. Surprised to learn it was written and rewritten 1985 to 1987, with a first recording by the Pogues in 1987. Judging by its popularity in the UK, it’s a song we all should be familiar with.
“Fairytale of New York” is a song written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan and first released as a single on 23 November 1987[1] by their band The Pogues, featuring singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl on vocals. The song was written as a duet, with the Pogues’ singer MacGowan taking the role of the male character and MacColl the female character. It is an Irish folk-style ballad, and featured on The Pogues’ 1988 album If I Should Fall from Grace with God.
Originally begun in 1985, the song had a troubled two year development history, undergoing rewrites and aborted attempts at recording, and losing its original female vocalist along the way, before finally being completed in summer 1987. Although the single never reached the coveted UK Christmas number one, being kept at number two on its original release in 1987 by the Pet Shop Boys‘ cover version of “Always on My Mind“, it has proved enduringly popular with both music critics and the public: to date the song has reached the UK Top 20 on fourteen separate occasions since its original release in 1987, including every year since 2005, and was certified platinum in the UK in 2013.[2] The song has sold 1.18 million copies in the UK as of November 2015.[3] In the UK it is the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century.[4] “Fairytale of New York” has been cited as the best Christmas song of all time in various television, radio and magazine related polls in the UK and Ireland.[5]
Is it a downer of a song? Voices in the lyric do not appear happy, but rather angry with each other for imagined slights that put each of them where they did not wish to be, when they met years ago.
But still the bells ring out on Christmas Day. (Remember that, if I get around to posting the Chieftans’ recording I have in mind for this series.)
I found the song in 2017 on Twitter, improbably, in something called the World Cup of Christmas Songs, sponsored by UK radio guy Richard Osman (@RichardOsman). It’s not a serious competition, and it excluded most Christmas music we all know, which tips the scales a bit, it seems to me. But here it is, and the vox populi rings out.
More:
Yes, this is an encore post. Defeating ignorance takes patience and perseverance.
1 Comment | Christmas, Music | Tagged: Christmas, Fairytale of New York, holiday, Music, The Pogues | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Fascinated with the drive by tech companies to sell the advantages of artificial intelligence (AI) machines to us.
Microsoft and Bing offer to answer any questions with their AI bot.
Why not give it a try?
I’ve been sorely disappointed at the festering swelling of people on social media in the past year who claim counter to history, science and common sense that DDT causes polio. As you might imagine, I’ve posted dozens of responses to these mislead goats.
The claim that DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane), a pesticide, causes polio is a hoax. I asked Bing Chat with GPT-4, “How would I disprove the hoax claim that DDT causes polio?” Here is the response, which is really very good:
- Polio is caused by the poliovirus, not DDT: Polio is an infectious disease caused by the poliovirus1. It can be spread person to person through contaminated water and sometimes through respiratory droplets2.
- Polio predates DDT: Polio has existed since prehistoric times, while DDT was first synthesized in 18743.
- DDT was used to combat polio, but failed: Some communities used DDT to try to combat polio in the 1940s, but these efforts failed3.
- Polio was eradicated by vaccines, not the discontinuation of DDT: The polio vaccine, introduced in 1955, is credited with eliminating the disease in the United States23. The number of U.S. cases dropped to fewer than 10 in the 1970s, and polio was declared eliminated in the U.S. in 19792.
- DDT is not linked to polio or paralysis: According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fact sheet, DDT is not linked to polio, let alone paralysis4.
These points, backed by scientific evidence and expert opinion, clearly disprove the claim that DDT causes polio. The eradication of polio is attributed to the widespread administration of the polio vaccine23.
Of course, I’ve tried all of those responses, and the true-brown “DDT causes polio crowd” won’t accept those arguments no matter who gives them.
Will more rational people accept it?
12 Comments | Artificial Intelligence, DDT, Health care, History, Hoaxes, Junk science, Polio, Science, Voodoo history | Tagged: Artificial Intelligence (AI) | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Biden’s economic program is working, and it’s making America much greater than before.
15 minute segment of Chris Hayes’s show. Biden’s done his work. Biden’s administration is working hard. And the economy is doing better than anyone else.
Watch and learn why to vote for Joe Biden.
Leave a Comment » | Economics, History, Politics, President Joe Biden | Tagged: Chris Hayes, Economics, Politics, President Biden | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
A “living flag” composed of 10,000 sailors, or “Blue Jackets at Salute,” by the Mayhart Studios, December 1917; image probably at the Great Lakes training facility of the Navy. Gawker media image
November offers several flag flying days, especially in years when there is an election.
But December may be the month with the most flag-flying dates, when we include statehood days.
December 7 is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. It’s not in the Flag Code, but public law (P.L. 103-308) urges that the president should issue a proclamation asking Americans to fly flags.
December 25 is Christmas Day, a federal holiday, and one of the score of dates designated in the Flag Code. If you watch your neighborhood closely, you’ll note even some of the most ardent flag wavers miss posting the colors on this day, as they do on Thanksgiving and New Years and Easter.
Other dates?
Nine states attained statehood in December! People in those states should fly their flags (and you may join them). Included in this group is Delaware, traditionally the “First State,” called that because it was the first former England colony to ratify the U.S. Constitution:
December 15 is Bill of Rights Day, marking the day in 1791 when the Bill of Rights was declared ratified; but though this event generally gets a presidential proclamation, there is no law or executive action that requires flags to fly on that date, for that occasion.
Eleven flag-flying dates in December. Does any other month have as many flag flying opportunities?
Have I missed any December flag-flying dates? 11 events on 10 different days between December 3 and December 29 (Delaware’s statehood falls on the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack).
Here’s a list of the 10 days to fly the flag in December 2023, under national law, in chronological order:
Fly your flag with respect, for the flag, for the republic it represents, and for all those who sacrificed that it may wave on your residence.
Appropriate to a snowy December. “The Barn on Grayson-New Hope Road [Lawrenceville, Georgia]. This barn with its old truck and ever-present American flag, is often the subject of photographs and paintings by the locals.” Photo and copyright by Melinda Anderson
1 Comment | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Patriotism, U.S. Flag | Tagged: December, Flag Code, Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Patriotism, U.S. Flag | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
From Dayton Daily News: Jeff Duford, curator for the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, with a flag that flew on the U.S.S. St. Louis in Hawaii during the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The same flag flew aboard the U.S.S. Iowa in Tokyo Bay on September 16, 1944, as Japan signed instruments of surrender aboard the U.S.S. Missouri. Photo by Ty Greenlees, Dayton Daily News [This flag was displayed for one day at the museum, on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 2016.]
By public law, December 7 is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, and Americans fly the U.S. flag in memory of those who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. U.S. flags should be flown at half-staff.
As for Delaware, under the U.S. Flag Code, residents of the relevant state should fly their U.S. flag on the date the state joined the union.
In 1787 Delaware quickly and promptly elected delegates to the former colony’s convention to ratify the Constitution proposed at the Philadelphia convention just over three months earlier. The ratification of the Constitution won opposition from strong factions in almost every state. Pols anticipated tough fights in New York, Virginia, and other states with large populations. They also expected other states would wait to see what the bigger states did.
Delaware didn’t wait. On December 7 Delaware became the first of the former British colonies to ratify the Constitution. Perhaps by doing so, it guaranteed other states would act more favorably on ratification.
Because Delaware was first, it is traditionally granted first position in certain ceremonies, such as the parades honoring newly-inaugurated presidents. Delaware’s nickname is “The First State.”
In Delaware and the rest of the nation, fly your flags on December 7, 2023. If you can, fly your flag at half-staff to honor the dead at Pearl Harbor; if you have a flag on a pole that cannot be adjusted, just fly the flag normally.
The most famous portrayal of a U.S. flag flying in Delaware is in the painting by Emanuel Leutze (American, 1816–1868). “Washington Crossing the Delaware,” 1851. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of John Stewart Kennedy, 1897 (97.34) Among other problems with this portrayal: The flag depicted had not been designated on the date of the crossing, Christmas 1776.
Yes, this is mostly an encore post. Fighting ignorance requires patience.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
U.S. Flag Code urges citizens of states to fly the U.S. flag on the anniversary of statehood.
We let part of the day slip away without reminding you: President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Oklahoma statehood proclamation on November 16, 1907. Oklahoma became the 46th state, with New Mexico and Arizona to come later to fill out the contiguous 48 states.
Mike Wimmer’s 2003 painting of President Theodore Roosevelt’s signing of the proclamation that made Oklahoma a member of the union. Oklahoma Arts Council image.
Oklahoma’s pre-history is long, complex and fascinating; the road to statehood is similarly complex and winding, lined with broken promises to Native Americans, tragedy and other drama. Does the state require Oklahoma history be taught in public schools?
And so we hope, you flew your flags today, Sooners!
Did anyone actually fly their flag? Does anyone other than Oklahoma newspapers even care any more?
More:
46-star flag used after Oklahoma became the 46th state in 1907. This flag remained in use for four years. RareFlags.com image.
Yes, this is an encore post. Defeating ignorance takes patience and perseverance.
Leave a Comment » | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, Statehood | Tagged: Fly your flag today, History, Oklahoma Statehood | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Nine events spread over seven different days come with urgings to fly the U.S. flag in November: six states celebrate statehood, Veterans Day falls always on November 11, and Thanksgiving Day on November 23.
Cub Scouts carry the U.S. flag in the Houston, Texas, Thanksgiving parade. Unknown year; image from Greater Houston Moms
Did I say eight? 2023 is an election year in many states, like Texas; we fly flags at polling places on election day, so that makes nine events. You may fly your flag at home on election day, too.
Two states, North Dakota and South Dakota, celebrate their statehood on the same date. Washington’s statehood day falls on Veterans Day, November 11 — so there are only seven days covering nine events.
In calendar order for 2023, these are the seven days (yes, I’m running late on this — about half the dates are past):
Most Americans will concern themselves only with Veterans Day and Thanksgiving Day. Is flying the U.S. flag for statehood day a dying tradition?
Color guard carries U.S. flag, closely followed Bullwinkle the Moose, in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, unknown year. HistoryDaily.org image
More:
Yes, this is an encore post. Fighting ignorance takes longer than we hoped.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
Remember to put your flag up today, to honor all U.S. veterans.
Earlier, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation to fly flags and honor veterans. His text:
This Veterans Day, we honor the generations of women and men who have served and sacrificed — not for a person, a place, or a President — but for an idea unlike any other: the idea of the United States of America. For nearly 250 years, our veterans have defended the values that make us strong so that our Nation could stand as a citadel of liberty, a beacon of freedom, and a wellspring of possibilities.
Today, I am thinking of all our Nation’s veterans, who put their lives on the line to protect our democracy, values, and freedom around the world. We honor our wounded warriors, so many of whom the First Lady and I have met over the years, who are bound by a common sense of duty, courage, and optimism, and we remember those who are still missing in action or prisoners of war and renew my pledge to bring them home. Our military families, caregivers, and survivors also answer the call to serve. I remember so clearly the pride I felt in our son Beau during his service in Iraq as well as those mornings I saw the First Lady saying a prayer for his safe return. Our veterans and their families give so much to our Nation, and we owe them a debt we can never fully repay.
As a Nation, we have many obligations, but we only have one truly sacred obligation: to prepare and equip the brave women and men we send into harm’s way and to care for them and their loved ones when they return home. Since the beginning of my Administration, we have worked to make good on that promise, passing nearly 30 bipartisan laws to support our veterans and service members and their families, caregivers, and survivors. That includes the PACT Act — the most significant effort in our Nation’s history to help millions of veterans exposed to toxic substances during their military service. Since I signed the PACT Act into law last year, more than 478,000 veterans and survivors are already receiving benefits — ensuring that veterans exposed to burn pits and other harmful substances and their loved ones get access to the care and support they need.
My Administration is also committed to ending veteran suicide and homelessness and ensuring that our veterans have the resources they need to live full lives and thrive in their communities. We released a national strategy to reduce military and veteran suicide by improving lethal means safety and enhancing crisis care as well as by addressing the economic, legal, and mental health issues that impact veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs is also funding community-led suicide prevention programs, which help connect veterans and their families to needed services. Every veteran deserves a roof over their head, which is why we have taken bold actions to end veteran homelessness, permanently housing more than 40,000 veterans last year and investing $1 billion to provide supportive services to help homeless and at-risk veterans and their families. My Budget also proposes tripling the number of rental-assistance vouchers for extremely low-income veterans to prevent homelessness. Further, we have taken steps to improve the economic security of veterans and their families by expanding job training programs for transitioning veterans and their spouses and issuing rules to protect them from predatory educational institutions. We are also working to ensure every veteran has access to the benefits and services they have earned.
Earlier this year, I signed an Executive Order directing more than 50 actions to improve access to child care and long-term care for Americans, including military and veteran families, and to support family caregivers, especially those who care for our veterans. Recognizing the talents and contributions of veteran and military spouses, caregivers, and survivors to our workforce, I signed an Executive Order establishing the most comprehensive set of administrative actions in our Nation’s history to support their economic security — increasing training and employment opportunities for military spouses in the workforce throughout the transition to veteran spouses status and encouraging all Federal agencies to do more to retain military and veteran spouses through flexible policies. The First Lady’s Joining Forces initiative is further supporting military and veteran families, caregivers, and survivors by improving economic opportunities and expanding resources to promote health and well-being for this community.
As we mark the 50th anniversary of an all-volunteer force and the 75th anniversary of the full integration of women in the Armed Forces and the desegregation of the troops, my Administration reaffirms our commitment to supporting everyone who serves in our Armed Forces. We have taken steps to ensure that the more than 918,000 women veterans enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs health care have equitable access to benefits and health services, in part by expanding access to reproductive health care. We have worked to proactively review the military records of veterans discharged under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and to modernize the process of upgrading discharges to help all veterans access their earned benefits. We will continue to support our LGBTQI+ veterans and veterans of color who have made innumerable contributions to our Nation and have truly made our military stronger, tougher, and more capable.
This Veterans Day, may we honor the incredible faith that our veterans hold, not just in our country but in all of us. They are the solid-steel backbone of our Nation, and we must endeavor to continue being worthy of their sacrifices by working toward a more perfect Union and protecting the freedoms that they have fought to defend.
In respect and recognition of the contributions our veterans and their families, caregivers, and survivors have made to the cause of peace and freedom around the world, the Congress has provided (5 U.S.C. 6103(a)) that November 11 of each year shall be set aside as a legal public holiday to honor our Nation’s veterans.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim November 11, 2023, as Veterans Day. I encourage all Americans to recognize the valor, courage, and sacrifice of these patriots through appropriate ceremonies and private prayers and by observing two minutes of silence for our Nation’s veterans. I also call upon Federal, State, and local officials to display the flag of the United States of America and to participate in patriotic activities in their communities.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-eighth.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
Leave a Comment » | Flag etiquette, Fly your flag today, History, veterans day | Tagged: Fly your flag, President Joe Biden, Veterans Day | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 