Obama, Percy Shelley, Louis Armstrong, Helen Thomas. These are the people with the same birthday as mine, the ones I choose to claim. Not Sheldon Adelson, who fits perfectly in Las Vegas and hopefully will stay there, or several cute young TV actors I never heard of.
Obama, yes, President of the United States, a title with many negative aspects attached. But by simple comparison with his predecessor the man is a genius, or failing that, knows how to speak intelligently. I could admire Obama simply because of who hates and opposes him. They all appear to be either thoroughly dishonest - hustlers of one kind or another, or idiots, certainly not clever enough to disguise their racism by use of common American bogeyman euphemisms....socialist, communist, muslim, terrorist... when word on the street in white working-class circles is plain-spoken: "We gotta get the nigger out of the White House" (overheard in Denver).
I was pleased to see Helen Thomas on the list. She "talked back" to W Bush and his lackeys, calling them on their bullshit and making them squirm. Thomas once said that if Dick Cheney ran for president, "I would kill myself."
Louis Armstrong. Yes! Jazz musicians all say that without him, their music wouldn't be what it is today. And while I didn't really "get" him when I was a kid, the older I get the better he sounds.
But Shelley is the most intriguing of the lot. He was a poet, widely revered but unrecognized in his life, a political radical and a boatman who died in his sailboat in the Mediterranean at age 29. And he was married to the author of Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley - who wrote the book at age 19. He and his social circle all came from money, and how many radical poets can say that now?
I have the same birthday, January 9, as Richard Nixon. I was born in 1930 when Hoover was President. Rather an embarrassment for a Quaker to share a birthday and year with the two Quaker presidents both of whom were a bust.
Every family has its black sheep. Nixon and Hoover were Quakers but so were/are:
Edward R. Murrow, Susan B.Anthony, and Thomas Paine.
Joan Baez and David Byrne.
Walt Whitman, Jorge Luis Borges, Julian Bond.
I’d be proud to be a member of that club.
Wasn’t it Nixon who had J Edgar Hoover send agents to infiltrate Quaker meetings? Peaceniks were not to be tolerated….
I sleep better at night knowing that the FBI watched the Quakers, Pete Seeger, and the Berrigan brother.
Shelley wrote four of the most beautiful lines I’ve ever read in “Adonais”– a poem written to commemorate the death of John Keats.
“Dust to the dust! but the pure spirit shall flow
Back to the burning fountain whence it came,
A portion of the Eternal, which must glow
Through time and change, unquenchably the same,”
Also, Smedley Butler who was the most decorated marine in the history of the Corp was a Quaker. Commissioned a 2nd Lt. when he was 17 years old. In his long career he picked up a couple medals of Honor plus other medals. After retiring he became a pacifist and was one of the first to speak out against the military industrial complex.
Ps> Annie Oakley also was a Quaker
So, Annie Oakley was a trick shooter in a western show, did not go around killing people as far as I know. My daughter is named Annie Laurie after the old Scottish song, either way I’m partial to the name. Perhaps we can credit the Quakers for Butler’s change of heart but I think he was truthful about war being a racket due to his involvement and refusal to deny the reality of it. You probably have noticed as I have, how the military establishment does not mention him or his revelations.
Annie Laurie Gaylor is the executive editor and co-founder of The Freedom from Religion Foundation: http://ffrf.org/about
I wonder if her parents knew the same song.
I thought Pete Seeger was a Quaker. When I tried to confirm this online, I found this information:
“Friends are certainly prominent among the many, many people around the world mourning the death and celebrating the life of Pete Seeger, who passed away on Monday, January 27, 2014. Although neither Pete nor his wife, Toshi, was a Friend, the couple had many connections with Friends. (Toshi predeceased Pete in July 2013.) In my work with Pete over the years, I was privileged to see and hear first-hand how he both inspired and contributed to Friends and Quaker causes, as well as took inspiration from them.”
I worked with the American Friends during the Vietnam War and liked them a lot. They were deeply involved in counseling draftees, facilitating moves to Canada, and educating the public about the horrors of that war. They were also in the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement.
Smedley Butler and Annie Oakley? Impressive. Quakers are found across the entire spectrum.
I wonder if Mr. Updergraft, Mr. Updergraff, and Mr. Updefgraf are Quakers.
Oh yes, Mr. Updegraff descends from 330 years of Quakers. The American Friends Service along with the British Friends Service Committee was awarded the Nobel Peace for their work in post WW 2 for feeding people in Europe
Mr. Updegraff,
I am impressed.
However, i understood from your previous missive that you were a Quaker.
I was joking about the misspellings of your name by another contributor.
Why make a joke concerning another contributor who is not part of this conversation, and sincerely apologised for grievous misspellings of Mr. Updegraff’s name, explaining that spell check does not work for dyslexics? Lo siento; LouisBedrock, for finding my disabiltiy amusing you so much to post a joke about it.
Have a nice posting day.
“Why make a joke concerning another contributor who is not part of this conversation, and sincerely apologised for grievous misspellings of Mr. Updegraff’s name, explaining that spell check does not work for dyslexics?”
Do you mean “apologized”?
Spell check does not work for proper nouns.
You suffer from logorrhea, not dyslexia.
Why make a joke?
a. Because I don’t like you.
b. It was funny.
Yes, I mean apologized. Thank you.
Perhaps I suffer from a combination of logorrhea and dyslexia, giving you the advantage of having your articles understood exactly as you express. Bully for LouisBedrock! ;))
I’m sure the dwarf tossers would agree with you in it being funny.