Having suffered through daily tweets from President Heel Spurs, the Phantom discovered last Sunday a Bpston Globe article about Henry Lee Higginson, founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and was transfixed, as he read, discovering Higginson had fought in the Civil War, survived and in 1917 he faced down the cries of "patriots" who decried the German conductor of Higginson's beloved orchestra, when the conductor neglected to play the national anthem before a concert.
These 3 men lived through a truly trans-formative period in American history: they were part of the most convulsive time in our nation's history, it's most violent and extreme time, and they saw World War One, or at least its advent, and listened to the drumbeat of pseudo patriotism and saw it from the perspective of true patriots.
If I were given a budget to produce a TV series and total license, I would chose this time, the lifespan of these three men to illuminate what America is all about, the best and the worst, the most intense conflict and the clearest vision of the American experiment.
This was a time in American history when there was intense anti-immigrant feeling toward Germans, who had previously become fully integrated into American society, but during the first World War, became an despised group.
During WWI, criticism of the government or the war was outlawed and another Civil War veteran, Oliver Wendell Holmes, issued a scathing dissent in a Supreme Court case which sent several men to prison for 20 years for issuing pamphlets (in Yiddish, of all things) criticizing the war and calling for resistance.
Reading about these men as they progressed through life to a time when "patriotism" no longer meant facing hostile fire which ripped through your body, but simply required brave speech, or singing the national anthem brings our current state of affairs into stark relief.
Another contemporary, Joshua Chamberlain, of Maine, who played a pivotal role in saving the battle of Gettysburg, was wounded so gravely at Petersburg he was given a death bed promotion to brigadier general, but he defied expectations and lived to be present at Appomattox, where Grant gave him the honor of receiving the surrender of the Confederate army.
These 3 New Englanders were contemporaries, born between 1834 and 1843 and each lived into the first part of the 20th century and played significant roles launching modern America into the American Century.
Like most human beings, they each took stands we may now criticize, but on balance, each was heroic in ways Donald Trump can never hope to be.
Higginson, for all his clear eyed appreciation of what real patriotism was--he supported his German conductor and never asked him to play the national anthem--he also supported a movement to prevent Southern and Eastern Europeans from immigrating into the US.
Chamberlain supported capital punishment, but he also opposed creating a special police force to enforce Prohibition.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, was the most complex in his moral positions. While he decried the silencing of opposition to war during times of war, he also saw the First Amendment Freedom of Speech as being limited: "Freedom of speech does not give you the right to cry 'Fire' in a crowded theater." He recognized in certain instances, speech can be a form of action. He also voted to allow the sterilization of a young Black woman who was said to be mentally deficient, "Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
But whatever fault you can find in their positions over their long lives, you know they each saw war, had post war careers which entailed difficult decisions based on their experience in the real world and they each knew what sacrifice and suffering meant.
Looking at our current batch of "leaders" one has to wonder how far we can get with these hot house flowers: Trump, Sessions, Cornyn, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Lindsay Graham.
Where is the steel in their back bones?
Where is the steel tempered by flame?
 |
| Colonel Higginson |
These 3 men lived through a truly trans-formative period in American history: they were part of the most convulsive time in our nation's history, it's most violent and extreme time, and they saw World War One, or at least its advent, and listened to the drumbeat of pseudo patriotism and saw it from the perspective of true patriots.
If I were given a budget to produce a TV series and total license, I would chose this time, the lifespan of these three men to illuminate what America is all about, the best and the worst, the most intense conflict and the clearest vision of the American experiment.
This was a time in American history when there was intense anti-immigrant feeling toward Germans, who had previously become fully integrated into American society, but during the first World War, became an despised group.
 |
| O.W. Holmes |
During WWI, criticism of the government or the war was outlawed and another Civil War veteran, Oliver Wendell Holmes, issued a scathing dissent in a Supreme Court case which sent several men to prison for 20 years for issuing pamphlets (in Yiddish, of all things) criticizing the war and calling for resistance.
Reading about these men as they progressed through life to a time when "patriotism" no longer meant facing hostile fire which ripped through your body, but simply required brave speech, or singing the national anthem brings our current state of affairs into stark relief.
 |
| General Chamberlain |
Another contemporary, Joshua Chamberlain, of Maine, who played a pivotal role in saving the battle of Gettysburg, was wounded so gravely at Petersburg he was given a death bed promotion to brigadier general, but he defied expectations and lived to be present at Appomattox, where Grant gave him the honor of receiving the surrender of the Confederate army.
These 3 New Englanders were contemporaries, born between 1834 and 1843 and each lived into the first part of the 20th century and played significant roles launching modern America into the American Century.
Like most human beings, they each took stands we may now criticize, but on balance, each was heroic in ways Donald Trump can never hope to be.
Higginson, for all his clear eyed appreciation of what real patriotism was--he supported his German conductor and never asked him to play the national anthem--he also supported a movement to prevent Southern and Eastern Europeans from immigrating into the US.
Chamberlain supported capital punishment, but he also opposed creating a special police force to enforce Prohibition.
 |
| Justice Holmes |
Oliver Wendell Holmes, was the most complex in his moral positions. While he decried the silencing of opposition to war during times of war, he also saw the First Amendment Freedom of Speech as being limited: "Freedom of speech does not give you the right to cry 'Fire' in a crowded theater." He recognized in certain instances, speech can be a form of action. He also voted to allow the sterilization of a young Black woman who was said to be mentally deficient, "Three generations of imbeciles are enough."
But whatever fault you can find in their positions over their long lives, you know they each saw war, had post war careers which entailed difficult decisions based on their experience in the real world and they each knew what sacrifice and suffering meant.
Looking at our current batch of "leaders" one has to wonder how far we can get with these hot house flowers: Trump, Sessions, Cornyn, Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Lindsay Graham.
Where is the steel in their back bones?
Where is the steel tempered by flame?
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