#Republic day quotes by famous leaders

[qsycomplainsalot]

The Quartering of Ravaillac

  Before the guillotine made French people equal, and before the abolition of capital punishment altogether made them equal and also not dead, tradition dictated that commoners be hanged and nobles beheaded. Two crimes however warranted a special kind of execution, being heresy with the condemned burnt at the stake and in this case regicide, which specifically demanded quartering for some reason.   François Ravaillac was the product of the French Wars of Religion, a series of conflicts during the Protestant Reformation that tore France appart, only ending when the leader of the Calvinist Huguenots Henri III de Bourbon, king of Navarre and issued from a cadet branch of the royal dynasty of France, succeeded to Henri III de Valois, king of France. The condition to his coronation was for him to convert to Catholicism, which he did, being quoted as saying “Paris is well worth a mass”.   Ravaillac was born in a staunchly catholic family, being raised by his two uncles, both canons in the local cathedral, to bear a fervent hatred of Huguenots. His instable mind led him to quit a well-off situation working as a clerk to try and join a monastic order, of which he was kicked out after only a few weeks. Now penniless and aimless, he started experiencing visions and confessed multiple times over the years of having committed “homicide through intent”, growing more and more resentful of the king whom he saw as the Antichrist ready to wage war on his people and move the Holy See from Rome to Paris.   After stealing a knife from an inn, he eventually graduated to “homicide through actual homicide” after stalking the royal carriage all the way to one of the traffic jams Paris is famous for, giving him the opportunity to stab the king twice in the chest when it stopped.

  Execution warrant for François Ravaillac from the Parisian parliament, headed with the name of king Louis XIII and bearing the later archival stamps of both the French Empire and French Republic. It describes the murder as a parricide, the murder of a relative, as the king was seen as a literal father figure to all his subjects.

  After being held in protective custody in a private hotel, then transferred to the Conciergerie prison and tortured/tried for ten days, Ravaillac was sentenced to death on the 27th of May 1610. His regicide was ruled to be the act of a lone religious fanatic without any accomplice. The same day, he was taken to the place de Grêve in front of Paris’ town hall, where public executions had traditionally been held for at least 300 years. All according to his execution warrant, Ravaillac’s chest, arms, thighs and calves were pulled apart with tongs; his right hand which had held the knife was cut off and thrown onto burning sulfur; his wounds were covered in molten lead, boiling oil, pitch, wax and sulfur; finally his limbs were attached to four horses, pulling them from their sockets - allegedly with some help from an axe - completing the quartering proper.

  Unfortunately for him and in a quite striking karmic twist, some insult was added to Ravaillac’s supplice, as his legacy was to cement Henri IV’s own as the Good King Henry. The king’s martyr at the hand of a madman garnered sympathy and dispelled his previous image of a Bourbon usurper with Catholics and of a relapse with Protestants, working wonders to unify the two under the new monarchy. Henri’s progeny would not only rule France for another 182 years without interruption, but Spain, Luxembourg and other holdings in Italy.

[maryrichard251023]

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India celebrates Republic Day on January 26th every year to remember the day the Indian Constitution became effect in 1950. Flag-raising events and parade by militarised soldiers and students are staged throughout the country in celebration of this major milestone. The biggest and best of these parades is conducted on Kartavya Path in New Delhi. On this day in history, Indians get together will be held to remember the sacrifices that were made by those who fought for freedom and renew their commitment to a unified growing, multicultural India.

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Happy Republic Day to all Indians. Proud to be Indian...Jai Hind!

[wishbox12]

The Glory of Indian Republic Day and the Power of "Republic Day Quotes"

Indian Republic Day, celebrated on January 26th annually, signifies the enforcement of the Constitution of India in 1950. This historical event marked the transition of India into an independent republic, assuring the citizens of justice, freedom, and equality. Over the years, the celebration has been imbued with vibrant rituals and "Republic Day quotes" that remind the citizens of their nation's rich history and the democratic values that it upholds.

The Historical Significance of Indian Republic Day

The journey to become a sovereign democratic republic was arduous and filled with sacrifices. The drafting of the Constitution of India by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and his team culminated in finally providing the country with its own comprehensive governance law.

India's Republic Day, therefore, serves to remind the citizens of the tribulations the country had to endure in the course of its struggle for freedom. This day, a national holiday, is treated with profound respect, evoking a sense of deep patriotism across the nation.

The Grand Celebrations of Indian Republic Day

The celebration of Republic Day is an elaborate event in India, carefully planned and executed by different states, government, and non-government institutions. The central highlight is the Republic Day Parade that takes place on Rajpath in New Delhi. The parade demonstrates a balance of showcasing military prowess and highlighting India's diverse cultural heritage.

Schools and colleges across the nation observe this day with flag hoisting ceremonies, cultural programs, and patriotic song renditions. In various towns and cities, there are community gatherings with cultural representations bringing people together in a joyous celebration of unity.

The Impact of "Republic Day Quotes"

Another significant aspect of the Republic Day celebration includes the use of inspiring "Republic Day quotes". These quotes are often from India's freedom fighters and leaders who were pivotal figures in the country's struggle for independence.

For instance, a famous quote by Rabindranath Tagore, the author of the Indian National Anthem, goes, "Freedom is the first condition of growth. What we do not make free, will never grow.” These quotes remind us of the importance of freedom and the responsibility that comes with it, invoking patriotic sentiments among the population.

In Conclusion

Indian Republic Day is more than just an annual event. It is a tribute to the sacrifices of countless individuals and a continuous commitment to uphold the values enshrined in the Constitution. It is a day where unity in diversity is at full display, and the power of inspirational "Republic Day quotes" remind everyone of our prosperous and proud heritage. As we celebrate this day, let's take a moment to remember the sanctity of our constitution and pledge to contribute towards the growth and progress of our beloved nation.

[fatehbaz]

Don Quixote in fascist cyberspace. Following Francoist propaganda in the 20th century, fascist politicians of the 21st century continue to co-opt Cervantes and Don Quixote in service of nationalism. The contemporary Vox party calls for a “new Reconquista” of Spain, a “crusade” against feminism and African immigrants, to defeat the “giants” of “climate fundamentalism” and “gender ideology”.

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It’s said that Don Quixote and his faithful squire Sancho Panza were riding their horses in the dark night when they heard the sound of dogs barking. Trying to console the frightened Sancho, Don Quixote uttered what may be the most quoted line attributed to him: “Let the dogs bark, Sancho, it’s a sign that we are on track.” Today, the phrase is used to express the notion that if someone criticises (barks at) you, it’s a sign you are on the rise. Dogs bark at the moon, don’t they? Unfortunately, the quote doesn’t appear anywhere in Miguel de Cervantes’ famous 17th century novel Don Quixote. But that hasn’t stopped it appearing all over the Internet. [...] Anyone who reads the novel will know Cervantes’ hero is first and foremost a parody of a knight. [...] The dreadful and never-imagined (at least, certainly not by Cervantes) portrait of Don Quixote as a crusader is the kind of mistake that sets scholars’ teeth on edge. [...] But that image, sloppily posted on the web, actually comes from somewhere other than mere literary ignorance. From the early 20th century onward, Don Quixote has suffered a paradoxical fate, wrapped in a crusader’s cloak by nationalist propaganda. And this misrepresentation seems to be growing in the 21st century [...].

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The closing of the 19th century saw the gloomy twilight of the Spanish empire. The loss of its last colonial possessions dealt a severe blow to the national spirit. Around this time, the novelist, poet and philosopher Miguel Unamuno wrote an influential essay where he imagined a holy crusade to rescue Don Quixote’s grave.

For Unamuno, Cervantes’ hero was a nostalgic reminder of Spain’s heyday in the 15th to 16th centuries – the days of the “Reconquista”, or Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors, and the beginning of Spanish imperial history in America. Tellingly, Unamuno placed Don Quixote alongside Columbus and Magellan – heroes, in his opinion, led by “a generous and big dream: the dream of glory”. Don Quixote thus underwent an odd metamorphosis, from a fallible antihero to an epic ideological hero, from a comic literary character to a national myth. [...]

During the Spanish civil war, the image of crusaders against the “communist and atheist rule” was invoked with ardour by the nationalist cause. After the fall of the republic in 1939, the newly enthroned dictator Francisco Franco flooded the squares with statues of the author of Don Quixote.

With Spain still strewn with war victims, Francoist propaganda recalled the author’s left hand being mutilated from fighting against the Muslims. What better model of Spaniard than the great writer who was crippled in the service of his nation! Thus, Cervantes himself was turned into a crusader knight and a national hero.

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More recently, leaders of the far-right Spanish party Vox have compared its political agenda with Don Quixote’s quest. During a visit to a field of windmills, former party general secretary Javier Ortega Smith declared: “Those are the giants we have to fight against in politics: climate fundamentalism, gender ideology, historical lies, Agenda 2030, absurd animalism […]”

The true Don Quixote was an infamous dreamer, consistently misreading reality and seeing imaginary enemies. That’s probably the only trait he shares with his current nationalist eulogists. But Vox’s identification with Don Quixote is an irony we can’t afford to take too lightly. While reality always defeats Cervantes’ hero, it doesn’t seem to prevent people from tilting at windmills with nationalist rhetoric.

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In its rise to popularity, Vox has encouraged crusades against various “enemies of the nation”, such as the pro-independence campaign in Catalonia and contemporary feminist movements. African immigrants and Muslims are also regular targets.

Santiago Abascal, president of the party, has explicitly called for “a new Reconquista” of Spain to stop the so-called invaders from the south. When asked about it, Abascal said “there was no danger of Islamophobia in Spain: the real danger was Islamophilia.”

Islamophobic and xenophobic views, as well as the use of crusader tropes, are unfortunately familiar among today’s Western nationalisms. Misleading content on the web revolves around the image of medieval Europe as a land populated by white crusaders and nobles. Promoted by white supremacists around the world, this notion of a mythical “West” is even more indefensible in Spanish culture. From the 8th century to the late 15th century, Muslims, Christians and Jews dwelt side by side in Al-Andalus, the Arabic term for medieval Iberia. [...]

There are many wrongs in nationalist appropriations of Don Quixote. To right them is not for the sake of literature alone. [...] Meanwhile, the flamboyant crusader-usurper rides on through cyberspace [...].

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Text by: Roberto Suazo. “From hapless parody to knight crusader -- how far-right nationalism hijacked the real Don Quixote.” The Conversation. 5 January 2023. [Bold emphasis and italicized first paragraph in this post added by me.]

[lisa357]

Packing the Court

The current political news in the United States is bombarded with stories and rumors about “Court packing,” relating to its Supreme Court. The first consequential Chief Justice of that court was John Marshall of Virginia, appointed by President John Adams. Marshall’s very able leadership of the Court during the early years of the Republic led to its preeminence to this day. During those years, the total number of Court Justices changed frequently. Since 1868, however, the number has remained at nine.

 The most consequential and controversial Chief Justice after Marshall was Roger Brooke Taney. A supporter of President Jackson, he was appointed by Jackson to succeed John Marshall. Taney continuously disagreed with President Lincoln, and Taney’s Dred Scott ruling has been widely criticized through the years. It has been rumored that President Lincoln was preparing to put Chief Justice Taney in prison, but fortunately was finally persuaded to abandon the idea.

 In 1932 Franklin Roosevelt was elected President by a wide margin, along with substantial majorities in the Senate and House. Having followed Republican Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, FDRs Supreme Court consisted entirely of conservative Republican appointees. That court rejected a number of important New Deal proposals submitted during his first term.

 A proposed reorganization plan, which became widely known as “court packing,” would have gradually given Roosevelt control of the Court, was rejected by the Democratic Congress. The conservative Court, however, was apparently sufficiently alarmed by the writing on the wall that it became more amenable to New Deal proposals. Some see a similar acquiescing emerging in the current Roberts Court.

  In theory of course, the President will nominate, and the Senate will confirm, the most brilliant legal minds with an unyielding dedication to the Constitution, and no consideration of partisan political interests. In practice, however, the President will nominate someone with compatible political philosophies. Inevitably mistakes were made and unjust accusations were voiced. For instance, President Eisenhower reportedly stated his biggest mistake as President was to nominate Governor Earl Warren as Chief Justice, The scurrilous attacks on the well qualified Judge Robert Bork by Senator Edward Kennedy was an example of blatant extremism!

 On the other hand, some of the most brilliant and consequential names in American history did become Justice of the Supreme Court. John Marshall, previously noted, was the longest serving Chief Justice and has generally been considered to be the most important Supreme Court Justice. His

ruling in Marbury v Madison established the principle that the Supreme Court would be the ultimate determinant of the constitutionality of any and all Congressional legislation! That has been called “the most important American judicial opinion of all time.”

 In addition to the Court giants noted, there have been a few who have made their own special imprint:

 Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr; this famous son of a famous father was nominated as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. He had earlier performed with honor in the Massachusetts Militia during the Civil War. In his 30 years on the Supreme Court, he had become one of the most widely quoted justices in American history and has made a lasting imprint on its jurisprudence.

 Louis Brandeis: In 1916 Woodrow Wilson, possibly the most overtly racist President in American history, made news of a sort when he nominated the first Jewish American to be an Associate Justice. It has been said that Brandeis became one of the most influential jurists ever to serve on the Court. Legal scholars have universally praised the brilliance and impact of his opinions.

 Thurgood Marshall: He was a civil rights activist who became the first African American Justice when nominated by President Johnson in 1967. He had been a very successful civil rights attorney for the NAACP. He won enduring fame in the landmark Brown v Board of Education case which invalidated segregation in U.S. public schools.

 Sandra Day O’Connor: In July 1981 President Reagan made history by nominating her to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, the first woman to occupy that position. In September she was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. As the first female Justice she felt a special responsibility and was known to have fostered collegiality. During her tenure, her opinions tended towards conservatism.

 Moving forward in time to the present Court situation:

 Having managed, with questionable methodology, to take control of the Executive and Legislative branches of the American Republic, the Democratic party leaders, obeying the wishes of their ultra-left wing Socialist masters, are now focusing on the one remaining branch they do not yet control, the Federal Judiciary

 The current planned distortion would be to increase the nine-member Court by four. The Democrat President would appoint, and the Democrat robot Senators would confirm, four new liberal Justices. The fiction of an apolitical Court would be demolished, leading inevitably to a reduction and absurdum!

 If this political apocalypse were to take place, some years from now the political pendulum, also inevitable, would cause an opposite political party to add a sufficient number of justices to meet their goals, and the insanity would be perpetuated ad infinitum.

[workersolidarity]

You had this post about the villification of socialism and the Soviet Union vs how fascism is becoming more acceptable and you mention something about Stalin not being guilty of murdering millions. I'm studying gcse history, and in our Cold War unit it talked about the purges, gulags etc. I understand there is going to be some western bias but I thought that the purges and deaths caused by Stalin were pretty much undeniable truths? I'm not trying to be malicious, just actually curious.

Actually, there's no evidence Stalin ever committed anything remotely close to a war crime.

First off, most people can't wrap their heads around one very simple but important fact. Stalin was not even close to a dictator and never had powers anywhere near what even the US President has. Barack Obama launched a secret CIA Drone strike without Congressional Authorization in a country we not only weren't at war with, but that wasn't even recognized as having open hostilities with the US.

Everything Stalin did had to go through the Politburo and the Communist Party Leadership. The Western lies about the Governing structure of the Soviet Union not only ignores the countless Beaurocratic hurtles there were before the Secretary General of the Soviet Union could engage any major Policy changes, but it negates and ignores the tens of millions of Soviet Citizens who fought to the death to install the Communist Party to power, and paid the price of seven years of Western Interference leading and arming Nationalists and Fascists to fight a Civil War within the Soviet Union.

The Red Army was nothing but a motley crew of peasants with dated rifles and pitchforks fighting for what they believed in, fighting for the right for their families to live halfway decent lives without Aristocratic landowners taxing away the fruits of their labor.

The Peasants and Proletariat won the Civil War because the Communist Party had won the hearts and minds of the Soviet Citizenry. A Citizenry that gave their lives for Socialism. It was those Soviet Citizens who were responsible for installing Lenin followed by Stalin to power and they trusted him to lead the Communist Party.

That doesn't, however, mean he could snap his fingers and have anything done. And in nearly every single case of some kind of mass trials or murders of dissidents, these cases were approved by the entire Communist Party leadership. The NKVD was given their powers to investigate and make mass arrests, not for no reason at all, but because the Western Colonial Powers, at the height of the Western Capitalist international order, were CONSTANTLY interfering with the affairs of the Soviet Union.

They never stopped supporting with money and arms Ukranian and Russian Nationalist Groups that were responsible for terrorist acts throughout the first decades of the CCCP's founding.

In one famous case, Nikolai Bukharin was speaking to the Communist Party leadership, where he suggesting that the Party forgive the Anarchist groups responsible for terrorist acts across the country. He was hoping that by making peace with the Left-Wing and Anarchist Organizations fighting the Communists they would have an easier time fighting the far more dangerous, Western backed Right-Wing Nationalists that were far more prevelant and dangerous to the young Socialist Republic.

In the middle of Bukharin's speech, an Anarchist group bombed the Meeting of the Party leadership. This wasn't some peaceful situation with evil dictator Stalin murdering his own people for the fun of it! That would make no sense whatsoever!

Instead this was a consistent problem in the early years with Terrorism unlike anything Al Qaeda or ISIS could have ever hoped to accomplish. These were highly organized Terrorist groups made up of Western Backed Paramilitary Organizations, mostly made up of Right-Wing Nationalists and the Capitalists who lost their Industries, Land, and other Property when the Communists Nationalized industry. These were ruthless Kulaks that, although they were offered compensation for the loss of their land, preferred to burn millions of acres of crops and kill millions of Farm Animals rather than see Stalin's Agricultural Co-Ops succeed.

In fact the Kulaks were responsible for the vast majority of the loss in crops during the early 1930's when Western History books tell us Stalin for some reason out-of-the-blue just randomly decided to starve Ukranians and Russian Peasants responsible for putting him in Power in the first place.

The entire Western Narrative of Stalin as brutal dictator is completely absurd. Millions of people across Soviet Union mourned Stalin's death and still celebrate his memory in the streets of Moscow every year. Does that sound like a horrible evil dictator to you?

From beginning to end, the stories were told about Stalin are completely and are in fact varifiably false. Like when they claim Stalin felt threatened by Bukharin and so he was "tortured" and "forced to plead guilty" to the crimes he was put to death for. Uh... yeah no.

Actually Bukharin had a perfectly normal trial, which like today's largest high profile trials in the US were made public. It was maticulously investigated, and Bukharin pled guilty to some but (importantly) NOT ALL of the Charges he was on trial for. If Bukharin was "tortured" and "forced" to plead guilty, why would he plead guilty to charges he knew he was going to put to death for, yet still ademently deny the other charges???

Again, that would make no sense whatsoever.

In fact, in the decades following Stalin's death, many of the lies that are STILL taught as fact about Stalin in Western Schools, were traced to Trotsky in letters released by his children after his own death. In many cases Trotsky's either admits privately to making up stories for the Western Media to help his own position, or he directly contradicts privately the things he was stating publicly that were reported as fact in the Western Media and are STILL treated as such in Western History books.

Another example: the famous quote supposedly from Stalin about one death is a tragedy but a million deaths are a statistic. Actually comes from a FICTIONAL book written by a Russian dissident which was then (once again) quoted as fact by Western Media outlets until it became a fact in the Western History books.

This kind of thing goes on and on and on throughout Stalin's time in leadership. The Western History books of try to depict (conveniently without listing sources) Stalin as a common dictator who was stealing from the Soviet Citizenry, just hustling the Public.

Which is awfully funny for a guy who spent his entire time as Leader of the Soviet Union sharing a Dacha with Chekov, another famous Soviet era Leader. Kind of a curious way to live if you just want power and wealth, don't you think?

Professor Grover Furr, who's spent more time than any other researcher in History studying Stalin and the early years of the Soviet Union, has not found, in any of the Soviet Archives or anywhere else, any example of even a SINGLE CASE where Stalin gave an order to have someone killed. In fact he's hasn't found ANY evidence of even a single case of gross Human Rights Violations, War Crimes or ANYTHING we could classify as a crime. Not one.

And he had written about the results of his research in countless books documenting his work. The Purges: a demand of the Communist Party at large, the Holomodor famine: completely discredited by the late 1930's yet is written about as fact to this day despite the fact that the only newspaper that claimed to have direct source evidence of this "horrible famine" that supposedly killed millions was a newspaper owned by notorious American Fascist William Randolph Hearst who paid shady writers to get dirt on Soviet Society, and also paid Mussolini the equivalent today of $40 million US Dollars to write Fascist Opinion articles in his Newspapers. And the only writer who actually claimed to have seen this famine in person? Went to prison a couple years later for defrauding banks and the US Government and during his trial admitted to making up the stories while he was under oath. It's been completely and utterly discredited. Yet it's in every History book as if it were fact.

I could literally go on and on all day about this. I've done my own research. And as soon as you start getting your information outside of Western sources of History, it's absolutely ASTOUNDING how quickly the veil falls away and the Emperor is standing there with no clothes. It's all bullshit. Top to bottom. When the Communist Party did away with an entire class of Elections that were important for some kind of accountability within the Communist Party, it was Stalin who fought tooth-and-nail with the Party leadership to reinstate public accountability elections and eventually had to come to a compromise with the Party that didn't quite return power to the Soviets but did reinstate certain levels of Public Elections and also gave suffrage to women and opened up Party Elections to women as well.

Stalin was a true believer in Socialist Principles. He fought his whole life to give power to the Working Class. Was he perfect? Of course not. Did he make mistakes? Obviously.

Two things you must keep in mind.

One: this was the world's first attempt at true actually existing Socialism. It's nothing short of amazing how much the Soviet Union, especially at it's peak under Stalin, managed to accomplish in such an incredibly short period of time without a single example in History to follow. In a few short years the Soviet Union went from a backwards, third-world country of extreme poverty made up mostly by peasant Farmers, of whom only a couple percent owned ANY kind of tractors or modern farm equipment at the time. To becoming a behemoth of an Industrial Superpower. Accomplishing what took the US and Britain over 100 years to accomplish in only two decades. Stalin literally installed Farm Equipment depots with all kinds of modern machinery at the time, including tractors, where Farmers could walk right up, take what equipment they needed free of charge, and return it when they were finished.

Rent in the Soviet Union averaged between 2-4% of income. Rent averages between 25-50% of income right now in the US.

Between the early 1930's and 1989, inflation within the Soviet Union was exactly 0%. Prices never changed from the time Stalin stabilized the Economy until perestroika began in 1989.

Literacy was 100% by the time Stalin died. Education was mandatory and college free along with Healthcare.

It's unquestionable that life improved DRAMATICALLY for the vast vast majority of Soviet Citizens. 99% of the 100 million people within the Union saw MASSIVE improvements in public services, Economic stability and growth, income growth, lifespans, huge drops in mortality rates, and in every single measurable way, life improved rapidly on a scale unseen in world history.

Maybe, just maybe, for once we should begin judging the Stalin Era based on the facts and not Capitalist Fiction.

[blackkudosuniverse]

Roland Hayes

Remembering Roland Hayes.

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Roland_Hayes

Roland Hayes (June 3, 1887 – January 1, 1977) was an American lyric tenor and composer. It is a common myth that Hayes was the first world-renowned African-American concert artist. He had a couple of predecessors that acclaimed fame. People like Sissieretta Jones and Marie Selika were very known, but the nature of their performances were not minstrelsy and that made it not possible for them to be recorded by recording companies. The recording companies wanted a vaudeville type of singer. Hayes was able to break this barrier in his career and in 1939 he recorded with Columbia. Critics lauded his abilities and linguistic skills with songs in French, German and Italian.

Early years and family

Hayes was born in Curryville, Georgia, on June 3, 1887, to Fanny and William Hayes. Roland’s parents were tenant farmers on the plantation where his mother had once been a slave. Roland’s father, who was his first music teacher, often took him hunting and taught him to appreciate the musical sounds of nature. When Hayes was eleven his father died, and his mother moved the family to Chattanooga, Tennessee. William Hayes claimed to have some Cherokee ancestry, while his maternal great-grandfather, AbOugigi (also known as Charles) was a chieftain from the Ivory Coast. Aba Ougi was captured and shipped to America in 1790. At Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Curryville (founded by Roland’s mother) is where Roland first heard the music he would cherish forever, Negro spirituals. It was Roland’s job to learn new spirituals from the elders and teach them to the congregation. A quote of him talking about beginning his career with a pianist:

"I happened upon a new method for making iron sash-weights," he said, "and that got me a little raise in pay and a little free time. At that time I had never heard any real music, although I had had some lessons in rhetoric from a backwoods teacher in Georgia. But one day a pianist came to our church in Chattanooga, and I, as a choir member, was asked to sing a solo with him. The pianist liked my voice, and he took me in hand and introduced me to phonograph records by Caruso. That opened the heavens for me. The beauty of what could be done with the voice just overwhelmed me."

At the age of twelve Roland discovered a recording of the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso. Hearing the renowned tenor revealed a world of European classical music. Hayes trained with Arthur Calhoun, an organist and choir director, in Chattanooga. Roland began studying music at Fisk University in Nashville in 1905 although he only had a 6th grade education. Hayes’s mother thought he was wasting money because she believed that African-Americans could not make a living from singing. As a student he began publicly performing, touring with the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1911. He furthered his studies in Boston with Arthur Hubbard, who agreed to give him lessons only if Hayes came to his house instead of his studio. He did not want Roland to embarrass him by appearing at his studio with his white students. During his period studying with Hubbard, he worked as a messenger for the Hancock Life Insurance Company to support himself.

Early career

In January 1915 Hayes premiered in New York City in concerts presented by orchestra leader Walter F. Craig. Hayes performed his own musical arrangements in recitals from 1916–1919, touring from coast to coast. For his first recital he was unable to find a sponsor so he used two hundred dollars of his own money to rent Jordan Hall for his classical recital. To earn money he went on a tour of black churches and colleges in the South. In 1917 he announced his second concert, which would be held in Boston’s Symphony Hall. On November 15, 1917, every seat in the hall was sold and Hayes’s concert was a success both musically and financially but the music industry was still not considering him a top classical performer. He sang at Walter Craig's Pre-Lenten Recitals and several Carnegie Hall concerts. He performed with the Philadelphia Concert Orchestra, and at the Atlanta Colored Music Festivals and at the Washington Conservatory concerts. In 1917, he toured with the Hayes Trio which he formed with baritone William Richardson (singer) and pianist William Lawrence (pianist).

In April 1920, he traveled to Europe. He began lessons with Sir George Henschel, who was the first conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and gave his first recital in London’s Aeolian Hall in May 1920 with pianist Lawrence Brown as his accompanist. Soon Hayes was singing in capital cities across Europe and was quite famous. Almost a year after his arrival in Europe, Hayes had a concert at London’s Wigmore Hall. The next day, he received a summons from King George V and Queen Mary to give a command performance at Buckingham Palace. He returned to the United States in 1923. He made his official debut on 16 November 1923 in Boston's Symphony Hall singing Berlioz, Mozart, and spirituals, conducted by Pierre Monteux, which received critical acclaim. He was the first African-American soloist to appear with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1924.

Late career

Hayes finally secured professional management with the Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert Company. He was reportedly making $100,000 a year at this point in his career. In Boston he also worked as a voice teacher. One of his pupils was the Canadian soprano Frances James. He published musical scores for a collection of spirituals in 1948 as My Songs: Aframerican Religious Folk Songs Arranged and Interpreted.

In 1925 Hayes had an affair with a married Bohemian aristocrat, Bertha von Colloredo-Mansfeld (1890-1982), née Countess von Kolowrat-Krakowský, who bore his daughter, Maria "Maya" Dolores Kolowrat (1926-1982). Married since 1909 to a member of a German princely family, Hieronymus von Colloredo (1870-1942), twenty years Bertha's senior, he refused to allow the expected child to bear his name or to be raised along with the couple's four older children, managing to quietly obtain a divorce in Prague in January 1926, while Bertha left their home in Zbiroh, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) to bear Hayes' child in Basel, Switzerland. Hayes offered to adopt the child, while the countess sought to resume the couple's relationship, while concealing it, until the late 1920s. Maya Kolowrat would marry Russian émigré Yuri Mikhailovich Bogdanoff (1928-20012) and give birth in Saint-Lary, Gers to twins Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff in 1949, who later attributed their early interest in the sciences to their unhampered childhood access to their maternal grandmother's castle library.

After the 1930s, Hayes stopped touring in Europe because the change in politics made it unfavourable to African–Americans.

In 1932, while in Los Angeles for a Hollywood Bowl performance, he married Alzada Mann. One year later they had a daughter, Afrika. The family moved into a home in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Hayes did not perform very much from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1966, he was awarded the degree of Honorary Doctorate of Music from The Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford. Hayes continued to perform until the age of eighty-five, when he gave his last concert at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was able to purchase the land in Georgia on which he had grown up as a child.[3]

He died five years after his final concert, on January 1, 1977.

Racial reaction

Even when Hayes became a successful musician he faced the same prejudices as most African-Americans at the time. During his tour of Germany in 1923, some people protested against his concert in Berlin. A newspaper writer criticized him as “an American Negro who has come to Berlin to defile the name of the German poets and composers.” The night of the concert Roland faced an angry audience who mocked him for ten minutes. Hayes stood still until they stopped and then he began singing Schubert’s "Du bist die Ruh". Hayes’s remarkable voice and musical talent won over the German audience and his concert was a success.

The Chicago Defender (National edition of July 25, 1942) reported a case in which Hayes' wife and daughter were thrown out of a Rome, Georgia shoe store for sitting in the white-only section. Hayes confronted the store owner. The police then arrested both Hayes, whom they beat, and his wife. Hayes and his family eventually left Georgia.[3]

On many of his concerts Hayes would attempt to abandon the use of segregated seating. At a concert in Atlanta, Georgia Hayes had the main floor of the auditorium as well as the boxes and first balcony halved between the races. The galleries were reserved for colored students at a special rate. No whites were allowed in them except the ones chaperoning the students.

Hayes taught at Black Mountain College for the 1945 Summer institute where his public concert was, according to Martin Duberman, "one of the great moments in Black Mountain's history" (215). After this concert, in which unsegregated seating went well, the school had its first full-time black student and full-time member of the faculty.

Legacy

* In 1982, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga opened a new musical performance center, the Roland W. Hayes Concert Hall. The concert venue is located at the Dorothy Patten Fine Arts center.

* The Roland Hayes Committee was formed in 1990 to advocate the induction of Roland Hayes into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. In 1992, when the Calhoun Gordon Arts Council was incorporated, the Roland Hayes Committee became the Roland Hayes Music Guild and Museum in Calhoun, Georgia. The opening was attended by his daughter Afrika.

* There is a historical marker located on the grounds of Calhoun High School (Calhoun, Georgia) on the north-west corner of the campus near the front of the Calhoun Civic Auditorium.

* Hartford Stage and City Theatre (Pittsburgh) shared the world premiere of "Breath & Imagination" by Daniel Beaty, a musical based on the life of Hayes, on January 10, 2013.

* Part of Georgia State Route 156 was named for Hayes.

* A bronze plaque, mounted on a granite post, marks Hayes' home, at 58 Allerton Street in Brookline, Massachusetts. The plaque was dedicated on June 12, 2016, in a ceremony in front of the home in which Hayes lived for almost fifty years. The ceremony was attended by his daughter Afrika, former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, Brookline Town officials, and many more.

Discography

LPs

* Roland Hayes (vocal), Reginald Bordman (piano) – The Life of Christ (Amadeo, 1954)

* Roland Hayes (vocal), Reginald Bordman (piano) – Negro Spirituals (Amadeo, 1955)

Compilations

* The Art of Roland Hayes (Preiser, 2010)

[arcticdementor]

Architecture is suffering a crisis of confidence. More and more mainstream figures in the field are admitting that the profession has lost its way. As I previously mentioned, Frank Gehry, the world’s most famous architect, recently said that “98% of everything that is built and designed today is pure sh*t. There’s no sense of design, no respect for humanity or for anything else.” Architectural thought-leaders seconded and thirded him. And he’s since been fourthed by another.

…

And now The New York Times, the ultimate arbiter of elite opinion, recently published an op-ed that declared, “For too long, our profession [architecture] has flatly dismissed the general public’s take on our work, even as we talk about making that work more relevant with worthy ideas like sustainability, smart growth and ‘resilience planning.’” The authors are not kooks on the fringe but architect Steven Bingler and Martin C. Pedersen, former executive editor of Metropolis magazine, both of them very much in the establishment.

The authors observe that self-congratulatory, insulated architects are “increasingly incapable … of creating artful, harmonious work that resonates with a broad swath of the general population, the very people we are, at least theoretically, meant to serve.” Bingler and Pedersen note that this has been a problem for over forty years (my emphasis), and that things are even worse today.

As a case in point, they mention the 2007 “Make It Right” charity program, founded by amateur architect and furniture designer Brad Pitt. The program invited firms, most of them avant-garde, to design housing for poor New Orleanians whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The architecture world was exhilarated: The initiative was to be a showcase for how the best contemporary design could improve lives.

The predictable result was weird, sometimes discomforting houses of non-native motley futuristic design that have virtually no relation to each other or the beloved historic architecture of the city. A story in The New Republic called the 90-some houses a waste of money and a distracting sideshow: The homes were expensive to build ($400,000 on average) and the high-tech fabrication has made them expensive to fix; mold has grown on the untested experimental materials, and the eco-wood decks and stairs are already rotting.  The neighborhoods are wastelands—failures of urban planning that isolate residents from social networks and public services.

…

While most of the architectural establishment has responded to the op-ed with noticeable silence, Mark Lamster, architecture critic for the Dallas Morning News, did bravely publish a post on Facebook in which he began by quoting the opinion piece: “We’ve taught generations of architects to speak out as artists, but we haven’t taught them how to listen.” Lamster then commented, “super-smart nyt op-ed from Martin Pedersen and steven bingler [sic].”

What is most telling, however, is the vitriolic response the op-ed triggered in Aaron Betsky. Called “one of the 21st century’s architectural power brokers,” Betsky is the former head of the Cincinnati Art Museum, and was director of the 2008 Venice International Architecture Biennale, the most important architecture show in the world. An architectural priest and patrician, he is to the profession what The New York Times is to the chattering classes: a voice of the high-status quo. Indeed, he writes for Architect, the official magazine of the AIA.

Betsky rained down on Bingler and Pedersen with ridicule and scorn: Their piece was “so pointless and riddled with clichés as to beggar comprehension.” He summarized their position: “we have three of the standard criticisms of buildings designed by architects: first, they are ugly according to what the piece’s authors perceive as some sort of widely-held community standard (or at least according to some 88-year old ladies); second, they are built without consultation; third they don’t work.”

Yet Betsky then admitted, “All those critiques might be true.” They are irrelevant, he claims, since architecture must be about experimentation and the shock of the new. (Why this should be the case he does not say.) And sometimes designers must stretch technology to the breaking (or leaking) point: “The fact that buildings look strange to some people, and that roofs sometimes leak, is part and parcel of the research and development aspect of the design discipline.” Ever brave, he is willing to let others suffer for his art.

At no point did Betsky consider the actual human beings, the unwilling guinea pigs who live in the houses. He implicitly says of the poor residents: Do their roofs leak? Let them buy buckets. And as for sickness-inducing mold, there’s Obamacare for that. Betsky also does not consider what a leaky roof means to people whose prior homes were destroyed by water. The architects, having completed their noble experiments, effectively say like the arrogant King Louis XV of France: “Après moi, le deluge” [After me, the flood]. No wonder architects have an image problem.

Betsky also would not appear to care that some of the new houses look like they have already been damaged by a flood. As he wrote in May, “Buildings under decay are much sexier than finished ones, perhaps because they remind us of our own mortality.” It logically follows that the “decaying” Katrina houses are simulated ruin porn, a pleasing mix of sex and death. He had previously said that the decay of New Orleans even prior to the hurricane could seem “elegant” to some. One of his favorite architects, the Dutch firm MVRDV, proposed a Make It Right house that looked like a trailer broken in two, and another one that looked like a house piled on top of a house.

…

Modernist architecture, like Modern art, has tended to be a revolt against bourgeois taste (and values): If granny, abuelita, or bubbe is for it, they’re against it. But if bourgeois taste is bad—all that chintz and those lace curtains, those cushy sofas, that flag flown from the front porch—just imagine what architects think of the working class and poor. If the architects had their way, elevator music in New Orleans public housing would be screeching Stockhausen, not native Louis Armstrong or Fats Domino. Modernists have no room for harmony, rhythm, or soul; they are high-culture elitists, not multiculturalists who celebrate class and ethnic diversity.

Many leading 20th-century architects, including Philip Johnson and Mies van der Rohe, were openly disdainful of the public’s preferences. On occasion they evinced subtle and overt racism. In 1913, in one of the most influential essays in the history of Modernist architecture, “Ornament and Crime,” [PDF] the Austrian architect Adolf Loos declared that modern man (read: white northern Europeans) must go beyond what “any Negro” could achieve in design, and strip away all that is superfluous, all that is morally and spiritually polluted. It is Papuans and other primitives who, like innocent children, ornament themselves with tattoos. Loos’ race has superseded them: “the modern man who tattoos himself is either a criminal or a degenerate.” The same held for ornament in architecture. (To this day, architects—who continue to believe they are the vanguard of civilization’s progress—find ornament retrograde. Yet ordinary people stubbornly continue to adorn themselves with cosmetics, jewelry, and, yes, tattoos.)

In the 1920s, during the time he was a member of the French Fascist party, the seminal architect Le Corbusier said he was disgusted by the “zone of odours, [a] terrible and suffocating zone comparable to a field of gypsies crammed in their caravans amidst disorder and improvisation.”  He also chimed in with Loos: “Decoration is of a sensorial and elementary order, as is color, and is suited to simple races, peasants, and savages… The peasant loves ornament and decorates his walls.”

…

Betsky, to his credit, doesn’t pretend that architects should even try to make outreach. Showing little sympathy for democracy, he says that appeals to the public are “mystical.” The people—the 99%—do not deserve a seat at the table. Yet Betsky would have us believe that he and the architecture he supports are “progressive.”

[nebris]

Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Ponte Palacios y Blanco[1] (24 July 1783 – 17 December 1830) (Spanish: [siˈmom boˈliβaɾ] (listen),[a] English: /ˈbɒlɪvər, -vɑːr/ BOL-iv-ər, -⁠ar[2] also US: /ˈboʊlɪvɑːr/ BOH-liv-ar),[3] also colloquially as El Libertador,[4] or Liberator of America[5][6] was a Venezuelan military and political leader who led what are currently the countries of Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Panama to independence from the Spanish Empire.

Bolívar was born in Caracas into a wealthy family and, as was common for heirs of upper-class families in his day, was sent to be educated abroad at a young age, arriving in Spain when he was 16 and later moving to France. While in Europe he was introduced to the ideas of the Enlightenment, which later motivated him to overthrow the reigning Spanish in colonial South America. Taking advantage of the disorder in Spain prompted by the Peninsular War, Bolívar began his campaign for independence in 1808.[7] The campaign for the independence of Colombia (Gran Colombia—later New Granada) was consolidated with the victory at the Battle of Boyacá on 7 August 1819. He established an organized national congress within three years. Despite a number of hindrances, including the arrival of an unprecedentedly large Spanish expeditionary force, the revolutionaries eventually prevailed, culminating in the victory at the Battle of Carabobo in 1821, which effectively made Venezuela an independent country.

Following this triumph over the Spanish monarchy, Bolívar participated in the foundation of the first union of independent nations in Latin America, Gran Colombia, of which he was president from 1819 to 1830. Through further military campaigns, he ousted Spanish rulers from Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, the last of which was named after him. He was simultaneously president of Gran Colombia (present-day Venezuela, Colombia, Panama and Ecuador), Peru, and Bolivia, but soon after, his second-in-command, Antonio José de Sucre, was appointed president of Bolivia. Bolívar aimed at a strong and united Spanish America able to cope not only with the threats emanating from Spain and the European Holy Alliance but also with the emerging power of the United States. At the peak of his power, Bolívar ruled over a vast territory from the Argentine border to the Caribbean Sea.

Bolívar is viewed as a national icon in much of modern South America, and is considered one of the great heroes of the Hispanic independence movements of the early 19th century, along with José de San Martín, Francisco de Miranda and others. Towards the end of his life, Bolívar despaired of the situation in his native region, with the famous quote "all who served the revolution have plowed the sea".[8]: 450  In an address to the Constituent Congress of the Republic of Colombia, Bolívar stated "Fellow citizens! I blush to say this: Independence is the only benefit we have acquired, to the detriment of all the rest."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sim%C3%B3n_Bol%C3%ADvar

[newscountryindia]

Republic Day 2021: 25 Quotes Of Famous Personalities Who Inspire Us

Republic Day 2021: 25 Quotes Of Famous Personalities Who Inspire Us

Republic Day 2021 Image: India will celebrate its 72nd Republic Day Republic Day 2021: India is all set to celebrate its Republic Day. On 26th January, 1950 the Constitution of India came into force and India became an independent republic with a democratic government. 26th January is also celebrated as Republic Day because it was on this day in 1929 that the leaders of India’s freedom movement…

[expatimes]

Iranian officials react to Biden victory in US presidential race

Tehran, Iran - Figures from across the Iranian political spectrum have reacted differently after Joe Biden was projected as the winner of the presidential election in the United States.

Shortly after Biden's victory was reported by major US media outlets, the English-language Twitter account of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reposted a segment of a speech made last week in which he called the US elections a “spectacle”.

“This is an example of the ugly face of liberal democracy in the US,” the tweet read. “Regardless of the outcome, one thing is absolutely clear: the definite political, civil, and moral decline of the US regime.”

The situation in the US & what they themselves say about their elections is a spectacle! This is an example of the ugly face of liberal democracy in the US. Regardless of the outcome, one thing is absolutely clear, the definite political, civil, & moral decline of the US regime.

- Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) November 7, 2020

President Hassan Rouhani, quoted by state media on Sunday, said Biden should make amends for President Donald Trump's policies towards Iran.

He said the Biden victory is “an opportunity for the next US government to make up for past mistakes and return to the path of adhering to international obligations with respect to global rules”.

He said by resisting the “imposed economic war” of the US, the Iranian people have proven that US “maximum pressure” campaign has been defeated.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted his hopes that the new administration would “accept multilateralism, cooperation & respect for law” and said, in parting, that Iran's record has been one of “dignity, interest & responsible diplomacy”.

The American people have spoken.

And the world is watching whether the new leaders will abandon disastrous lawless bullying of outgoing regime — and accepting multilateralism, cooperation & respect for law.

Deeds matter most

Iran's record: dignity, interest & responsible diplomacy.

- Javad Zarif (@JZarif) November 8, 2020

First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said the era of Trump and his “adventurous and warmongering team” has come to an end, and that Iran would not forget the "maximum pressure" campaign of economic sanctions and the assassination of top general Qassem Soleimani.

“I hope we will witness a change in the destructive policies of the US and a return to law and international obligations and respect for nations,” Jahangiri wrote in a tweet.

Trump withdrew from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, which placed curbs on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, and unilaterally reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran.

He also ordered the assassination of Soleimani in Iraq via a drone strike, for which Iran has promised “harsh revenge”.

Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said the ending of Trump's presidency was a “predestined verdict of history”.

Ayan #Tram, You saw my nest, judgment is estimated date of est. Buy landfill #America Bar Karnamah Srasar Nakami Thinkkah Qaladari and Zorgoye Ra is the solution to the problems of Meddanset, Mehr Mardudi Zand. Whatever country is elected. Where is Raddard Kah Zair just opposite or in house Sefid?

- Ali Shamkhani (@alishamkhani_ir) November 8, 2020

[Translation: The end of #Trump is not a surprise, it is the predestined verdict of history. Most people of #America rejected the record of all the failure of thinking that bullying was the solution to problems. Does the elected government understand that under the white frame of his picture in the White House, instead of the words “the forty-fifth president”, he should write: “A lesson for the future”]

Of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted a verse from the Quran and a short video of part of a speech by Hassan Nasrallah, Speaker Secretary-general of the Iran-backed Lebanese political party and armed group Hezbollah.

In the video, Nasrallah predicted that Trump would lose the election and that he is losing the Middle East region.

“When the US leaves our region, these Zionists will pack up and leave. We might not even have to fight a battle against Israel, ”he said.

'Trump is gone' vs 'American imperialism remains'

Hamid Baeidinejad, the Iranian ambassador to the United Kingdom, said the political life of a man “who only spread hatred” had “come to an end”.

“Trump couldn't make Iran surrender and now his [political] life came to an end while wishing for a phone call from Iran, ”he wrote on Twitter.

Sarangam Omar Saysi, Mardi Kah, just disliked Mayrakand completely. Tramp, Netwant, Iran. pic.twitter.com/8VZkNC8LF7

- Hamid Baeidinejad (@baeidinejad) November 7, 2020

Baeidinejad also attached a meme based on a famous photo from 1979, days before the revolution that birthed the Islamic Republic. The original photo showed two men on a bike, one holding a newspaper with the headline: “The shah is gone”. The meme had the headline changed to: “Trump is gone.”

Culture minister Abbas Salehi said Trump was gone while Iran remains standing.

"Tomorrow and other days will also be the same!" he said in a tweet.

Hesameddin Ashena, adviser to President Hassan Rouhani, tweeted that Iran refused to bow down to US pressure, and Biden should learn from that.

"Iranians stood tall until that dastardly man was gone," he wrote.

But some members of parliament, which had been formed with a conservative majority after low-turnout elections in February, expressed scepticism that a Biden presidency bodes much better for Iran.

“Apparently the world is rid of Trump, but the evil of American imperialism remains,” Tehran representative Nezameddin Mousavi wrote on Twitter.

He said Trump, who he described as a “poisonous zombie”, was a product of the American system and that “zombies are still alive”.

Member of Parliament Ali Akbar Alizadeh said on Twitter that differentiating Trump and Biden at best emanates from “naivete and a lack of correct understanding of US foreign policy fundamentals on Iran”.

. #world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=13591&feed_id=15278

[nooradeservedbetter]

Not to put too fine a point on it, Daniel Swift’s piece, Hanging Out With the Italian Neo-Fascists Who Idolise Ezra Pound, is appalling. It is the careless journalism of someone who, knowing little Italian and even less about Italian politics, has conversed with fascists and regurgitated whatever they told him. The result is a completely distorted representation of what the group is about and how they operate.

The building in which Swift's interview takes place, which CasaPound militant Adriano Scianca's claims they are 'occupying', was in fact bought for them in 2012 by none other than the Mayor of Rome, using €11.8 million of local government money. The Mayor at the time was Gianni Alemanno, a man steeped in the history of Italian fascism: a leading member of the Italian Social Movement (MSI - the postwar reformation of Mussolini’s Fascist Party) and later the far-right National Alliance; even his wife, Isabella Rauti, was the daughter Pino Rauti, ex-leader of the MSI whose name crops up in relation to numerous cases of far-right terrorism, including the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing.

Gianni Alemanno’s son, Manfredi, would follow in his father’s far-right footsteps: in 2011, he put himself forward as a candidate for student elections at his college for Blocco Studentesco, the youth wing of CasaPound. Two years previously, after throwing Roman salutes and getting into a fight at a party, Manfredi was protected from prosecution by police with connections to his dad.

So the idea of these guys as a plucky, if rough-round-the-edges, group of rebels doing their bit for the community against all odds is laughable. They’re a far-right gang with links to both fascist terrorists and the highest echelons of Italian politics.

More interestingly, however, is how Swift depicts the group’s activity: they “arrange conferences” on Ezra Pound, the modernist poet they are named after; they house “20 homeless families”; “they collect used syringes from parks in poor neighborhoods”; “they clean bike paths”. The only mention of violence comes from a “CasaPound supporter” who, in 2011, killed two Senegalese traders in Florence. From this description, the impression is of a group engaged in cultural activities and local volunteering albeit with the odd wayward sympathiser.

And yet, the reality could not be further from the truth. To cite some examples from this year alone: in February, a group of at least 15 CasaPound militants attacked one young man after he posted a meme mocking the group on Facebook. Over the summer, uniformed CasaPound members prowled the Central Italian seaside, harassing migrant beach vendors and forcing them to leave. And even last Tuesday, the very day Swift’s article went on the Lit Hub website, Roberto Spada, related to the Spada crime family thought to control Ostia, on the outskirts of Rome, brutally assaulted a journalist who had been asking him about his support for CasaPound.

So it’s curious that for an organisation for which racism and violence are such frequent features of their activity, that so little mention would be made of that racism and violence. When Swift mentions CasaPound are housing “20 homeless families who have nowhere else to go,” he neglects to mention the proviso on which that charity is based: whites only. The ethno-nationalist underpinnings don’t get a mention and it is (to be charitable) frankly bizarre why this is so.

Even more bizarrely, Swift spends less time talking about the violence and racism of a notoriously violent racist group than he does talking about how much he enjoyed their restaurant.

Quote:

At a corner we meet a couple of other men—beards, clipped hair, grins—and we duck into the shade of an open-fronted restaurant. It looks like any other in Rome—white tablecloths, photos of minor celebrities who have eaten here—except all the waiters have tattoos up their forearms, and except that at the end, after cold antipasti, a heavy tagliatelle all’Amatriciana with fat nuggets of bacon swimming in the sauce, red wine from a carafe, bitter brown digestivo, and coffee, no bill ever came. What we are doing, Seb tells me as we eat, is not connected to money.

Waiters with tattoos, fabulous food, fine wine. And what’s this? No bill? These fascists are generous as well as cultured! Il Duce, you're really spoiling us!

Reading the article, it seems Swift is bending over backwards to sanitise the reputations of as many fascists as he can. Swift discusses Pound's Canto 72, written as the Nazi-backed Republic of Salò was in a state of collapse and where a dead fascist general says "I don't want to go to paradise, I want to continue to fight. I want your body, with which I could still make war". While noting Canto 72 has often been seen as the "smoking gun" of Pound's fascism (with good reason, in my opinion), Swift is "not sure", claiming to see "odd hesitations" in the poem. What these are, he doesn't say. But it's worth highlighting Mark Ford's point that as late as 1956 Pound was still spewing fascist bile, writing that “the fuss about ‘de‑segregation’ in the United States has been started by Jews”. Of course, Swift knows this. What's utterly baffling is why he doesn't point this out in his article.

And yet, you can’t help but feel Swift's article is based around what he feels is the ‘novelty’ of the situation; but that novelty is actually based on two entirely false premises. First, the idea that fascists are the working class, the downtrodden masses. And second, that the working class lack the culture to read (let alone write) literature.

Both premises are obviously and demonstrably false. Swift says he wasn’t expecting CasaPound’s “high-mindedness”; yet, fascists have always found support among artists and intellectuals. Gabriele D’Annunzio and Luigi Pirandello, two of the most famous Italian writers of the twentieth century, were both fascists from wealthy backgrounds.

Equally, the idea of the working class as some uncultured blob is also false. Working-class people not only appreciate literature but have produced a wealth of it; whether Elio Vittorini, anti-fascist resistance fighter and son of a rail worker, or the Proletarian Literature movement in Britain which produced writers like James Barke, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, James Hanley and George Garrett.

So what we have with Swift’s article is an academic who was pleasantly surprised by the "high-mindedness" of some fascists when he should know that the 'high-minded' (or at least a section of them) have always been drawn to fascism.

And when he imagined their 'low-mindedness', who do you think he was expecting? Not posh students with links to Rome's political elite (a very real element of CasaPound’s demographic). No, he was expecting working-class men with sloping brows and dragging knuckles who could hardly string a sentence together let alone have opinions about poetry.

Ultimately, Swift seems to have really taken to CasaPound. He “warmly” shakes hands with Scianca after their interview and they agree to exchange copies of their books. Later, describing the farewells at end of his meal, he says,

Quote:

As we stand to leave I offer to shake hands with the waiter and he reaches out his right hand, with the tortoise on the forearm, and he grasps my arm just above the wrist, and smiles. We are close, this waiter and I; and for that instant bound in a frozen gesture, and even as it was strange and abrupt, it was also familiar. This is the Roman handshake I had read about.

It’s clear from these quotes that CasaPound’s activists are supposed to be sympathetic characters in Swift’s story; their benevolence has been amplified, their vices turned all the way down. The absolute wanton irresponsibility of an article like this when far-right nationalism is seeing a surge in popularity across Europe and North America is abundantly clear but perhaps some people need it spelt out for them: fascists are in a coalition government in Austria; they have entered German parliament for the first time since the war; they are killing people on trains and at demonstrations and have set up militias in America; their extremism is increasingly turning into the talking points and policies of mainstream politics. Now is not the time to be writing puff pieces about how charming they are and how interesting their take on Ezra Pound is.

At one point Swift declares, “I wanted them to like me.” After his glowing write up, I have absolutely no doubt they will.

[newstfionline]

Headlines: Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Chaotic first debate (AP) The first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden deteriorated into bitter taunts and near chaos Tuesday night as Trump repeatedly interrupted his opponent with angry — and personal — jabs that sometimes overshadowed the sharply different visions each man has for a nation facing historic crises. There were heated clashes over the president’s handling of the pandemic, the integrity of the election results, deeply personal attacks about Biden’s family and how the Supreme Court will shape the future of the nation’s health care. The two men frequently talked over each other with Trump interrupting, nearly shouting, so often that Biden eventually snapped at him, “Will you shut up, man?” Over and over, Trump tried to control the conversation, interrupting Biden and repeatedly talking over the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News. The president drew a lecture from Wallace, who pleaded with both men to stop talking over each other. Biden tried to push back against Trump, sometimes looking right at the camera to directly address viewers rather than the president and snapping, “It’s hard to get a word in with this clown.”

Mail delays (Washington Post) By a two-to-one margin, a poll of 1,929 Americans conducted in August found that respondents rejected the idea that the Postal Service should be “run like a business” in favor of running it like a public service, a belief prevalent among half of Republicans, 69 percent of Independents and 82 percent of Democrats. Recent slowdowns in the service have not gone unnoticed: among those polled, a little more than half said mail takes more days to arrive than it did at the same time last year, 42 percent said mail comes later in the day, 37 percent said there’s less mail delivered than usual, and 17 percent said the recent changes have caused a “major problem” for them.

3 Killed in Fresh Wildfires in Northern California (NYT) California’s famed wine country, already suffering an economic blow brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and covered in smoke for weeks, is on fire again. The state’s losses were mounting on Monday as two new wildfires burned out of control, killing three people in Shasta County, the sheriff said. And in wine country, the famous Chateau Boswell winery was gone, a community of tiny homes for homeless people has burned, and an untold number of houses were feared lost. The two fast-moving blazes, the Zogg Fire in Shasta County and the Glass Fire in Napa and Sonoma Counties, are uncontained and had burned more than 67,000 acres by Monday night, prompting new evacuation orders for thousands of people as the year’s grueling wildfire season wore on.

New York City Faces a Financial Abyss (NYT) The unemployment rate in New York City is 16 percent, twice as high as the rest of the country. Personal income tax revenue is expected to drop by $2 billion this fiscal year. Only a third of hotel rooms are occupied, and apartment vacancies in Manhattan have hit a peak. New York, more than any large city in the world, has been forced to grapple with the coronavirus outbreak’s dual paths of devastation: The virus has killed 24,000 people in the city and has sapped it of hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in tax revenue. Numerous economic indicators suggest that New York City will face an extended financial crisis, the likes of which has not been seen since the 1970s. The city has already slashed spending to make up for billions of dollars in lost tax revenue, but it may lose billions more. Shootings are on the rise, some New Yorkers are fleeing for the suburbs, businesses are reconsidering their need for office space—structural changes reminiscent of those that preceded the city’s 1975 fiscal collapse, some budget hawks say. “We’re on the verge of a tragedy,” said Richard Ravitch, the former state official who helped engineer the rescue of New York City’s finances in the 1970s and thinks this crisis is worse. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to the city.”

Pandemic Drives Hike in Opioid Deaths (NYT) In the six months since Covid-19 brought the nation to a standstill, the opioid epidemic has taken a sharp turn for the worse. More than 40 states have recorded increases in opioid-related deaths since the pandemic began, according to the American Medical Association. In Arkansas, the use of Narcan, an overdose-reversing drug, has tripled. Jacksonville, Fla., has seen a 40 percent increase in overdose-related calls. In March alone, York County in Pennsylvania recorded three times more overdose deaths than normal.

We make the rules, Portugal tells U.S. after China threats (Reuters) Portuguese leaders have criticised U.S. ambassador George Glass after he said they must choose between the United States and China or risk the consequences. Glass told the newspaper Expresso at the weekend that Portugal had to pick between its American “friends and allies” and its “economic partner” China. He described the country as a “battlefield” between Washington and Beijing. Portugal could expect consequences related to security and defence if it choose to work with China over the United States in developments related to 5G networks and others, he said. In response, Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva told Lusa news agency: “In Portugal the decision-makers are the Portuguese authorities, who decide which are Portugal’s interests”. China looped Portugal into its Belt and Road initiative in December 2018 and in recent years Chinese companies have invested about 10 billion euros in the country, making it one of the biggest recipients of Chinese investment in Europe.

Azerbaijan and Armenia reject peace talks as Karabakh conflict zone widens (Reuters) Armenia and Azerbaijan accused one another on Tuesday of firing directly into each other’s territory and rejected pressure to hold peace talks as their conflict over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh threatened to spill over into all-out war. Both reported firing from the other side across their shared border, well to the west of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region over which fierce fighting broke out between Azeri and ethnic Armenian forces on Sunday. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, speaking to Russian state TV, flatly ruled out any possibility of talks. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told the same channel that talks could not take place while fighting continued. Further fuelling tensions between the two former Soviet republics, Armenia said an F-16 fighter jet belonging to Azerbaijan’s close ally Turkey had shot down one of its warplanes over Armenian airspace, killing the pilot. Dozens of people have been reported killed and hundreds wounded since clashes between Azerbaijan and its ethnic Armenian mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh broke out on Sunday. Nagorno-Karabakh is a breakaway region that is inside Azerbaijan but is run by ethnic Armenians and is supported by Armenia. A descent into all-out war could drag in regional powers Russia and Turkey. Moscow has a defence alliance with Armenia, which is the enclave’s lifeline to the outside world, while Ankara backs its own ethnic Turkic kin in Azerbaijan.

Moscow to keep school kids home 2 weeks in October (AP) Moscow authorities are extending school holidays by a week amid a surge of new coronavirus cases. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Tuesday ordered all schools to go on holiday between Oct. 5-18 and urged parents to keep their children at home during this period.

In Proud Corners of Afghanistan, New Calls for Autonomy (NYT) BAZARAK, Afghanistan—His face juts alongside the single-lane roads carved into the remote and forbidding Panjshir Valley, and looms over twisted hulks of Soviet tanks and the patchwork of cornfields. Seemingly everywhere, billboards carry the image of Ahmad Shah Massoud, the admired and assassinated military commander from this region, and quotes that testify to Panjshir’s pride and willingness to go it alone. One reads: “Dependency is a disgrace.” The Panjshiris, who are known for holding off the Soviets in the 1980s, protecting their remote and forbidding valley from the Taliban in the 1990s and helping lead the opening salvos of the U.S. invasion in 2001, find themselves once again drawn toward defiance. This time, the struggle is against the national leadership in Kabul. The restiveness in Panjshir, where many are outraged by the effort to make peace with the Taliban, is raising fears that the province and other regions might take up arms and try to force more autonomy for themselves, in an echo of the early days of Afghanistan’s warlord era. There are also growing concerns that as they did in the past, Panjshir and other breakaway places will more actively court regional actors like Russia, India and Iran for cash if the government in Kabul appears to weaken further. Panjshiris “don’t see themselves in the government anymore,” Mohammad Amin Sediqi, the deputy governor of Panjshir, said from his desk in Bazarak, the provincial capital. “We fought for a better Afghanistan, and now we’re stepping back and watching history repeat itself,” he added. The people of Panjshir, who are mostly of the ethnic Tajik minority, simply “don’t trust the government anymore,” said Mohammad Alam Izedyar, the deputy head of the upper house of Parliament who represents Panjshir. “The government isn’t going to resist for long and be able to defend its people.”

Amnesty Int’l halts India operations, citing gov’t reprisals (AP) Human rights watchdog Amnesty International said Tuesday that it was halting its operation in India, citing reprisals from the government and the freezing of its bank accounts by Indian authorities. Amnesty International India said in a statement that the organization had laid off its staff in India and paused its ongoing campaign and research work on human rights, alleging that Indian authorities froze its bank accounts on suspicions of violating rules on foreign funding. The statement said that the authorities’ actions were “the latest in the incessant witch-hunt of human rights organizations” by India’s government “over unfounded and motivated allegations,” and that the group’s “lawful fundraising model” was being portrayed as money laundering because it has challenged the “government’s grave inactions and excesses.” Amnesty India’s executive director, Avinash Kumar, said the accounts were frozen as a result of the group’s “unequivocal calls for transparency in the government” and accountability of New Delhi police and the Indian government regarding “grave human rights violations in Delhi riots” and Indian-administered Kashmir. The rights group regularly accuses Indian authorities of committing human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir and has released multiple reports on the raging conflict in the region.

Dark days ahead for Lebanon (AP) The past year has been nothing short of an earthquake for Lebanon, hit by an economic meltdown, mass protests, financial collapse, a virus outbreak and a cataclysmic explosion that virtually wiped out the country’s main port. Yet Lebanese fear even darker days are ahead. The country’s foreign reserves are drying up, the local currency is expected to spiral further out of control, and incidents of armed clashes between rival groups are escalating. Bickering politicians have been unable to form a government, putting an international bailout out of reach. The country risks slipping into chaos. “Absent a major change in either side’s political calculations, the coming weeks will see continued stalemate, a caretaker government that lacks the capability to implement any serious reforms, and an acceleration of the economic collapse,” said Mike Azar, a former Johns Hopkins SAIS professor of finance.

Aid group warns that 700,000 children in Syria risk hunger (AP) An additional 700,000 children in Syria face hunger because of the country’s badly damaged economy and the impact of coronavirus restrictions, an international aid group warned Tuesday. Save the Children said the new figures mean that in the last six months, the total number of food-insecure children across the country has risen to more than 4.6 million. After nearly a 10-year conflict that killed some 400,000 and displaced half the country’s population, Syria’s economy has been badly harmed by the war as well as by widespread corruption, Western sanctions and a severe economic and financial crisis in neighboring Lebanon. The local currency crashed in recent months making it more difficult for many Syrians to buy food. The spread of coronavirus in the war-torn country has worsened the situation.

Kuwait ruler, longtime diplomat Sheikh Sabah, dies at age 91 (AP) Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, the ruler of Kuwait who drew on his decades as the oil-rich nation’s top diplomat to push for closer ties to Iraq after the 1990 Gulf War and solutions to other regional crises, died Tuesday. He was 91.

[thisdaynews]

Breaking:Despite warning from United States, Iranian police open fire at protesters(Video)

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/breakingdespite-warning-from-united-states-iranian-police-open-fire-at-protestersvideo/

Breaking:Despite warning from United States, Iranian police open fire at protesters(Video)

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Iranian security forces fired both live ammunition and tear gas to disperse demonstrators protesting against the Islamic Republic’s initial denial that it shot down a Ukrainian jetliner, online videos purported to show Monday.

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There was no immediate report in Iranian state-run media on the incident near Azadi, or Freedom, Square in Tehran on Sunday night after a call went up for protests there.

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Videos sent to the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran and later verified by the Associated Press show a crowd of demonstrators fleeing as a tear gas canister landed among them. People cough and sputter while trying to escape the fumes, with one woman calling out in Farsi: “They fired tear gas at people! Azadi Square. Death to the dictator!”

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Another video shows a woman being carried away in the aftermath as a blood trail can be seen on the ground. Those around her cry out that she has been shot by live ammunition in the leg.

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“Oh my God, she’s bleeding nonstop!” one person shouts. Another shouts: “Bandage it!”

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“Police treated people who had gathered with patience and tolerance,” Iranian media quoted Rahimi as saying. “Police did not shoot in the gatherings since broad-mindedness and restraint has been agenda of the police forces of the capital.”

However, uniformed police officers were just one arm of Iran’s security forces who were out in force for the demonstrations.

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Riot police in black uniforms and helmets gathered earlier Sunday in Vali-e Asr Square, at Tehran University and other landmarks. Revolutionary Guard members patrolled the city on motorbikes, and plainclothes security men were also out in force. People looked down as they walked briskly past police, apparently trying not to draw attention to themselves.

The Guard previously has been accused of opening fire on demonstrators during protests over government-set gasoline prices rising in November, violence that reportedly saw over 300 people killed.

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The crash of the Ukraine International Airline early on Wednesday killed all 176 people on board, mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians. After pointing to a technical failure and insisting for three days that the Iranian armed forces were not to blame, authorities on Saturday admitted accidentally shooting it down in the face of mounting evidence and accusations by Western leaders.

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Iran downed the flight as it braced for possible American retaliation after firing ballistic missiles at two bases in Iraq housing U.S. forces earlier on Wednesday. The missile attack, which caused no casualties, was a response to the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top general, in a U.S. airstrike in Baghdad. But no retaliation came.

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Iranians have expressed anger over the downing of the plane and the misleading explanations from senior officials in the wake of the tragedy. They are also mourning the dead, which included many young people who were studying abroad.

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At earlier protests Saturday, students in Tehran shouted: “They are lying that our enemy is America! Our enemy is right here!”

Javad Kashi, a professor of politics at Tehran Allameh University, wrote online that people should be allowed to express their anger in public protests. “Buckled under the pressure of humiliation and being ignored, people poured into the streets with so much anger,” he wrote. “Let them cry as much as they want.”

There’s also been a cultural outpouring of grief and anger from Iran’s creative community.

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Some Iranian artists, including famed director Masoud Kimiai, withdrew from an upcoming international film festival. Two state TV hosts resigned in protest over the false reporting about the cause of the plane crash. Jan. 11, 2020

Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s most-famous actresses, posted a picture of a black square on Instagram with the caption: “We are not citizens. We are hostages. Millions of hostages.”

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Saeed Maroof, the captain of Iran’s national volleyball team, also wrote on Instagram: “I wish I could be hopeful that this was the last scene of the show of deceit and lack of wisdom of these incompetents but I still know it is not.”

He said that despite the qualification of Iran’s national team for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after years of efforts, “there is no energy left in our sad and desperate souls to celebrate.”

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Meanwhile, another video making the rounds showed the national symbol of Iran, four crescents and a sword in the shape of a water lily flying through what appeared to be a 1980s-style video game like “Galaga.” Music chimes when it touches oil as it fires on symbols representing people, knowledge and ultimately an airplane.

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“To be continued,” the caption at the end of the clip reads.

[upshotre]

JFK’s Assassination: Fifty-Six Years After by Tony Ademiluyi

In 1929, the United States had the famous great depression which was the worst recession that hit the country. Multimillionaires suddenly became bankrupt as their worthless stocks piled up. Some jumped to their deaths from the window while others took to alcohol and gambling. The then Governor of New York, Franklin Delano Roosevelt saw a great opportunity in the nationwide crisis and used it to launch himself into national reckoning by putting his name forward as a President Candidate of the Democratic Party. He promised Americans the New Deal if elected into office. He went on to make history as the first disabled man to become the US President. One of the first things he did upon assumption of office was the creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission to bring in some sanity into the nation’s stock market. However, the appointment of the first man to head it was viewed by the discerning public as an anti-climax. He appointed Joseph Patrick Kennedy to head SEC. There was widespread condemnation of it because he was heavily involved in insider trading which was the root cause of the stock market crash. FDR was smart enough to know that it took a ‘crook’ to catch a ‘crook’ and resisted public pressure to have it rescinded. Kennedy got to work and the first thing he did was to outlaw insider trading which has now set a global template for stock exchanges around the globe. FDR later made him the first American of Irish descent to be made the country’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom. In 1941, he was forced to resign his position as he failed to publicly support America’s entry into World War II. He had the ambition to succeed FDR but his pacifist stance sounded the death knell to that. Facing the new reality, he decided to transfer that ambition to his eldest son, Joseph Kennedy Jr who was a law student at Harvard before he suspended his studies to join the military to halt the spread of Nazism. Joe Jr never returned back alive and so the Patriarch decided that the next son, John Fitzgerald Kennedy would become the President one day. JFK was ill throughout most of his life and nearly didn’t go to the Second World War due to his bad health. He took numerous barbiturates for his back pain amongst other ailments. He initially wanted to be a writer and academic. His reluctant entry into politics was at his father’s insistence. His book ‘Profiles in Courage’ was a Pulitzer Prize winner. He wrote it from his hospital bed where he was being treated for his bad back. He was an orator, a ladies’ man, well built and charismatic. His leadership potential was spotted while he was at Harvard pursuing a degree in political science and was voted ‘Most likely to succeed’ by his fellow classmates. His wealthy father ensured he travelled round the world before his 21st birthday and had a brief spell as a student of the London School of Economics and Political Science where he learnt at the feet of the world famous Jewish Economist and though leader, Harold Laski. He returned back home in 1945 as a decorated war veteran and cashed in on that to run for Congress in 1946 which he won. He was barely twenty-nine. Having spent sometime in the Congress where he made his mark, he decided to run for the Senate which he did successfully and was elected a Senator in 1952. The following year he met his wife, Jacqueline Bouvier in a party and they got married later in the year. In 1956, he lost the nomination for the Vice-Presidency and was a media friendly senator as his views were reported across the nation on a daily basis. 1960 was his big break as he put his hat in the ring for the American Presidency. His most powerful rival for the plum job was Lyndon Baines Johnson who had been in the Congress long before him. The election was an epoch making one as it was the first in the nation’s history to have a televised debate. The debates exposed Kennedy as more knowledgeable and politically mature while it showed Johnson as fidgety and insecure. JFK went on to win the nomination and in a stroke of political sagacity went on to make Johnson his running mate. It was a smart move of Kennedy as he badly needed southern votes to coast home to victory. He eventually won and one of the quotes in his inaugural speech is still in use till this day ‘Ask now what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.’ He was the youngest elected President at 43. His charisma and ability to connect with the Average American despite his privileged background was so great that not even his fiercest critics screamed to the High Heavens when he appointed his younger brother, Robert as the Attorney-General. He was totally committed to ensuring equality for all Americans irrespective of race and gave a sturdy backing to the civil rights efforts of the black emancipators particularly the activities of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr who had private meetings with him in the White House. He was committed to ensuring the spread of democracy and free markets across the planet and sponsored some insurgents who were opposed to the Communist regime of Cuba’s Fidel Castro in the popular Bay of Pigs invasion. The agenda ended up in a cul-de-sac as Castro’s forces won the battle. Kennedy was humble enough to apologize to the nation and he was swiftly pardoned by the public. He did his best to avert another World War as the Cold War between them and the now defunct Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was fast tilting towards an arms struggle. He did his best to ensure unprecedented prosperity for all especially the minorities with the blacks in particular. He was responsible for Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon as the first person on earth to do so in 1969 as he set the motion for the feat during his short lived Presidency. His cabinet was made up majorly of young and vibrant people and was nicknamed ‘The Camelot.’ In November 1963, he went to Texas the home state of the Vice-President to campaign for a second term. On November 22nd that fateful year he was shot dead allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald. Some conspiracy theorists opine that Oswald was merely used as a decoy and up till date no one really knows the true killer. The world mourned in unison as his lifeless body was lowered into mother earth. It should also be noted that he was the first Roman-Catholic to sit in the White House and remains the only till date. His father was so devastated that he suffered a stroke while greatly impaired his speech. His family really suffered tragedies as Robert was killed in 1968 while celebrating a California presidential primary election victory. His son, John Kennedy Jr died in a plane crash before he turned fourty. His legacies live on and he will be sorely missed.   May his gentle soul continue to rest in the Bosom of the Lord! Tony Ademiluyi writes from Lagos and is the editor of www.africanbard.com Read the full article

[parkersrevenge]

Do you have any really juicy sources or quotes/views of your faves on the underground railroad?

More Than Freedom: Fighting for Black Citizenship in a White Republic is an amazing source for Boston’s particular role in the abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad. I highly recommend checking this book out. It rightfully focuses on the free black community and the black leaders, and less so on the white abolitionists (though the likes of Sumner and Parker are naturally included). It’s so good!

But I think I’ll use this as an opportunity to talk about an amazing man named Lewis Hayden, otherwise this post would take pages. If you want more facts though, please just ask! I could rant about Boston’s abolitionists all day!

So, Lewis Hayden.

Lewis Hayden is someone we all need to learn more about, hands down. He was born in slavery in Kentucky, and as a child he met the Marquis de Lafayette, who according to Hayden said hello to him and doffed his hat. Hayden had never experienced that level of.... well, honestly, acknowledgment and respect and human decency before, and he carried that event with him the rest of his life.

When he was older his wife and children were sold to Henry Clay, who then in turn sold them further down south. Tragically, he was never able to find them again. He decided as a form of revenge to teach himself how to read, and along the way met and fell in love with a woman named Harriet Bell- a woman just as amazing as he was. He quickly realized that he was just as likely to lose her, and this time he would never allow that to happen again. Not long after their marriage, they escaped and eventually made their way up to Boston, which would become their home.

In open defiance of slave catchers and former masters, Lewis Hayden quickly established himself as a well respected speaker at anti-slavery conventions, and his home quickly became known as “the safest safe house in Boston”, owing to the fact that he would rather die than let anyone take him or anyone in his home back into slavery. He is now widely regarded as the leader of Boston’s Underground Railroad, helping countless people escape from slavery and start new lives in the city. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, he expanded his efforts and assisted in helping people escape all the way up to Canada. (His most famous case was William and Ellen Craft, who I have talked about before and are one of the coolest historical couples of all time).

During the Civil War, he helped to recruit black troops for the Union Army, and was also a huge advocate for women’s rights. The peak of his career occurred after the war, when he was elected to the Massachusetts Legislature. In his remaining years, he successfully fought and campaigned for men of color to be elected to government positions. He was an amazing man, and he deserves so much more acknowledgment then he gets.