A Tribute on 9-11 (And a Brief Note on Chicago's Teachers)

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NO ONE OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER can ever forget the attacks on 9/11, the terrible loss of life, the shock and horror of an entire nation.

I was teaching a seventh grade class in American history that morning, when my principal knocked at the door. She whispered that there had been a terrorist attack in New York City. Until we knew more we were supposed to keep quiet rather than scare students. The story continued to develop, of course, and I was soon spending the rest of the day and much of the following week trying to help students make sense of cataclysmic events.

It was nice to hear this morning, via Facebook, that Lynzi Engel remembers:

I will never forget this day that happened 11 years ago. At the time I was so confused but later that day I had Mr. Viall and he explained what exactly was happening. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families that lost loved ones this morning 11 years ago and thank you to all the police, firefighters and the service men/women who are helped that morning and are still serving. This day will never be forgotten!!!

I retired from teaching in 2008. But if I was still in the classroom here's what I'd be doing on this sad anniversary. I'd be showing a compilation of short film clips recorded in 2001, including some of the most tragic events. Today's seventh graders were only one or two years old on September 11. So, I'd show them a scene filled with people falling, falling, from the North and South Towers. What moments of terror those must have been for desperate victims. And I'd add this detail, because I'd want the kids to have a sense of what it was like for real people. I'd tell them some of those who leaped from those burning buildings were holding hands, perhaps with friends, perhaps with loved ones, where they had been trapped by smoke and flames.

It's this small gesture that that might touch the hearts of today's kids and give them a sense of what a loss our nation suffered.

Nearly 3,000 died eleven years ago. Who were they?

Steven Coakley was coming off a regular shift with Engine Company 217, in Brooklyn, just as the first plane struck. On five separate occasions, as a part of his job, he had helped deliver babies. This was different and Coakley and the rest of Engine 217 rushed to the scene. Sal Fiumefreddo, a telephone technician, had a one-day assignment to install equipment at the trade centers. Divorced, feeling lonely, he met Joan Chao at at a friend's backyard barbecue the summer before. Now, on a crisp day in September the couple was getting ready to celebrate a first wedding anniversary. Gary Bird was starting a new job with Marsh & McClennan. Normally, he would be working out of Phoenix. On this day, however, he was scheduled for a meeting at the World Trade Center, beginning at 8:15 a.m. All three were killed.

Let's remember them all. Let's remember Jill Campbell, the young mother, whose son, Jake, was learning to crawl. (She didn't live long enough to be told; but he crawled for the first time that same day.) Let's remember Timothy J. Finnerty. A bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, we can assume he was hard at work on the 105th floor of One World Trade Center on 9/11. Just three days earlier he had enjoyed himself at his cousin's wedding. His wife, Theresa, remembered him cutting up (which was his style) and doing the "Lawn Mower Dance," followed by the "Sprinkler Dance" at the reception.

He was one of 658 employees of his company who perished in the attack.

At a funeral later, Keith Wiswall spoke fondly of his father and how much he liked working in the lawn. One day, Keith looked out the window and saw Dad using a shop vac to suck up berries from a neighbor's tree, because they were falling on his grass. David Wiswall was 54 when he died and no one has vacuumed the lawn since.

Kristin Walsh remembers her mother, Nancy, bringing Carol Flyzik home and introducing her as "her girlfriend." It meant an adjustment, but she and her two brothers came to love their stepmother. Flyzik was one of 76 regular passengers aboard American Airlines Flight 11, headed for the West Coast on a business trip. At 8:46 a. m. she perished when the aircraft crashed into the North Tower. Amy Sweeney was an attendant on the same flight, one of eleven crew members. When hijackers took over she kept calm and contacted ground supervisors, asking them to notify the F.B.I. Her grace and bravery in a time of tragedy were no surprise to those who knew her. She died without having a chance to see her children, Anna, 6, and son, Jack, 4, grow up.

(Seth McFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, was meant to be aboard but arrived at the airport too late.)

Mayra Valdes-Rodriguez, last seen alive on the 78th floor as she hustled others down the stairs of the South Tower to safety, was known for her contagious laughter. She didn't make it out alive. We know Maria Benavente removed her shoes to speed her descent from the same building, because they were recovered later in the ruins. It wasn't enough. She didn't get out. Bill Biggart, a photo-journalist, rushed to the scene in Lower Manhattan to record events. After the South Tower fell he phoned his wife to say he was safe. "I'm with the firefighters," he explained. Nothing at all to worry about. When the North Tower came down he and the firefighters around him died in the collapse. Joe Maloney, a firefighter and Mets fan was killed. Assistant Fire Chief Gerard Barbara, a Yankees fan, was killed, too. Mike Carroll, a fifteen-year veteran with Ladder Co. 3, died along with hundreds of brave firefighters. Since his remains could not be found a friend from his softball team carried a helmet down the aisle at his funeral mass.

Lincoln Quappe, another FDNY veteran, interviewed for a story in March, told a reporter, "Every fire is scary. That's the way it is. You're a damned liar if you say you're not scared." Even a little fire could get a guy killed. "It all comes down to fate," he added. Quappe was responding on 9/11, not to a little fire, but to a huge one, unlike anything he had had ever seen. Fate caught him up and swept him away.

Steven Cafiero first "met" his girlfriend on the Internet but they were unable to speak in person until another year passed. Now, in the weeks leading up to 9/11 they were talking about marriage and planning for children. Peter Gyulavary had also been blessed by fate--years earlier, at least--having met his American wife while she was vacationing in Australia. They eventually settled down in New York City and had a daughter, Geniveve, who turned 13 around the time of the attacks. Eskedar Melaku, came to America from Ethiopia as a young woman, to attend college and build a better life. Emerita de la Pena and Judith Diaz Sierra were fast friends and co-workers, each serving as maid of honor at the other's wedding. James Martello, a former Rutgers linebacker, liked to coach his 7-year-old son's football team when he wasn't at work. Sheila Barnes was a fanatic about clipping coupons and saving money. None of them survived.

Jerrold Paskins, 57, was only in New York on 9/11 to help complete an insurance audit. (His remains were identified two months later when a lucky 1976 bicentennial silver dollar he carried turned up at Ground Zero.) Christine Egan, born in Hull, England, was visiting her brother Michael in New York. That morning he decided to take her up to the restaurant, "Windows on the World," to get a cup of coffee and a panoramic view of the city. Moments before the North Tower collapsed, Michael Egan finally managed to reach his wife by phone. "You made it," she responded with immense relief. "No, we're stuck," he admitted. They were still on the line together when she watched in horror on television as the building collapsed.

Orasri Liangthanasarn, a native of Thailand and a recent graduate of New York University, a new administrative assistant at "Windows on the World" also died. In fact, no one who was in the restaurant that day survived.

Peter Hanson, a huge fan of the Grateful Dead, his wife Sue Kim Hanson, a native of Korea with a degree in microbiology, and their daughter Christine Hanson, two-and-a-half years old, were aboard United Flight 175, originally scheduled to fly from Boston to Los Angeles. Paige Farley-Hackel was supposed to be aboard. She and her sister Ruth McCourt were taking Ruth's daughter, Juliana McCourt, 4, on a trip to Disneyland. At the last minute, Paige realized she could use frequent flier miles and switched to American Airlines Flight 11 instead. They planned to meet up in California, before both planes in a cruel twist, were taken over by Osama bin Laden's men, and sent hurtling into buildings.

Hilary Strauch, a New Jersey sixth grader, was 12 years old on the day of the attacks. She had to watch on television at school as the tower where her Dad, George Strauch, worked went down in dust and mangled metal and ruin. Frank Martini and Pablo Ortiz, both fathers, could easily have escaped. Instead, they stuck around and used a crowbar to help free at least fifty people who were trapped in the North Tower. Martini and Ortiz stayed around too long to survive. Beth Logler, 31, had run cross-country in high school. Now, she was planning a wedding for December 30, 2001. She wasn't quite fast enough to make it out in time. Sara Manley Harvey, a Georgetown graduate, had at least been married a month. The magenta-colored napkins at the reception had matched the roses carried by the flower girls. Robert A. Campbell, 25, was a painter and window washer at the World Trade Center. That morning his parents think he was working on the roof. Brian P. Williams was a high school football star back in his Covington, Kentucky days, and moved later to the Big Apple to find work. Joseph J. Hasson III survived a terrible car wreck freshman year of college. Sixteen years later his time ran out in New York.

Brad Vadas found himself trapped in the smoke and ruins on the 88th floor, just above where the plane hit the South Tower. He managed to leave a phone message on his fiancee, Kris McFerren's answering machine: "Kris, there's been an explosion. We're trapped in a room. There's smoke coming in. I don't know what's going to happen. I want you to know my life has been so much better and richer because you were in it." He promised he'd try to get out, but to be safe added, "I love you. Goodbye." Ed McNally called his wife, too, and told her he was in trouble, trapped by flames on floors below. He told her where to find his life insurance papers. Then he admitted he'd been planning a surprise trip to Rome for her fortieth birthday. "I feel silly, Liz," he added, "you'll have to cancel that."

Neither man made it home that night for dinner.

Rick Rescelora survived heavy fighting in Vietnam but not this terrorist attack. Mike Warchola had one shift left until he retired from the New York Fire Department. And he died. Port Authority police officer Dominick Pezzulo was trying to free two trapped officers from the wreckage of the South Tower when the North collapsed and he was hit and killed by falling beams. John Perry was turning in retirement papers to the New York Police Department when the first plane struck. He asked for his badge and raced to the scene, ready to help others in a time of need. Moira Smith, a blond-haired policewoman, was last seen helping injured victims out of the lobby of the South Tower a few minutes before it came crashing to earth. Ed Nichols, for one, was bleeding from head, arm and abdomen when Smith took him gently by the elbow and led him to safety. Then she turned and reentered the lobby. About that same time, eyewitness saw melting aluminum pouring out of a gash on the 80th floor where the hijacked aircraft had hit.

In a 911 call a shortly after, an unidentified woman trapped high up in the tower reported the floor under her was collapsing. Moments later, Greg Milanowycz, trapped on the 93rd floor, called his father and reported, "The ceiling is falling, the ceiling is falling." Then the Tower collapsed.

At 9:37 that same day a third plane, a Boeing 757, carrying 57 passengers and crew, crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D. C., killing all aboard and another 125 Americans on the ground. Cheryle Sincock had already been at work inside for several hours because she liked to get an early start when possible. Husband Craig, a computer scientist for the United States Army, usually came to work a little later. Now, having been struck by a third hijacked aircraft, the Pentagon was billowing black smoke, and he found himself caught on the D. C. Metro, as it shut down for security reasons. He sprinted two miles, cutting across highways and through Arlington National Cemetery. He would help with rescue attempts until 11 p. m., go home for a brief rest, and return again at 4 a. m., in hopes of locating his wife.

Cheryle didn't make it.

Todd Beamer, you may recall, was one of the passenger on United Airlines Flight 93. His widow, Lisa, would later tell reporters that Todd "really didn't do much of anything without a plan." Her husband was one of the ringleaders of a passenger revolt to try to regain control of the plane before the hijackers destroyed it. A phone operator heard him ask others, including big Jeremy Glick, a former high school wrestler and judo champion, and Mark Bingham, an old rugby player: "Are you guys ready? O. K. Let's roll." And roll they did. Although they couldn't save themselves they did bring down Flight 93, before it could do any additional damage.

THAT'S WHAT I'D BE TALKING ABOUT TODAY, if I was still in the classroom. I know it doesn't have anything to do with standardized testing; but I can't help believing this kind of story still matters.  


The body of FDNY chaplain, Father Mychal Judge, is carried away.
He was struck by a falling body and died instantly.

  

I'd want students to consider the tragedy of the moment.



To My Son: Only Dumb People Don't Vote

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Dear Seth,
I know you voted in 2008 and since I'm traveling for a few days I wanted to remind you to vote next week. I think, in the long run, only stupid people don't vote. You know who I'm voting for. Still, if you were to vote for Governor Romney, that would be better than not voting at all. 
I wouldn't disown you.
Don't let anyone tell you voting doesn't  matter. I almost always vote for Democrats and for a variety of reasons. Under Obamacare, your sister could now get health insurance despite her pre-existing condition. We both know she has a good job with health care anyway. But there are plenty of type-1 diabetics out there and Americans with worse conditions and until President Obama pushed for reform these individuals were shit-out-of-luck.
(Hey, haven't I told you we both need to clean up our language?)
Listen to the right-wing guys, and they say, oooooo, this is "socialized medicine." And they're right. It's the same as Medicare, which Republicans blasted as "socialized medicine" way back in 1965. In this country I believe we ought to help out those who need it. We did it in 1965 for old folks. Now some of the people covered by Medicare want to deny similar care to others. That's a ridiculous position.
I'm also voting for Obama because the right-wing types think a woman should never be able to choose an abortion. I'm not a fan of abortion, but don't think others should tell a woman what she should do. Many of the guys in Mitt Romney's party think if your girlfriend was raped she should be required to continue the pregnancy. I say no way. The right-wing loses me when they say you can't have birth control in several forms, including "the morning after pill."  They say life begins at conception. They say they have religion on their side to support that position. Bah! They can't even agree on which book of religion is right.
Why else have I been voting Democratic most of my life? I don't like the way the Republicans treat the average worker. They want to crush unions, when the average union worker makes $10,000 more per year. I wish you worked in a union shop. I wish you made $10,000 more yearly. The right-wing guys say unions are terrible. I've seen the bad side of unions, but the good outweighs the bad. Unions give the regular guy some leverage in dealing with giant corporations. The right-wing guys say, well unions with their wage demands kill jobs. So we'll just ship those jobs to China. They don't think it hurts, though, if the average CEO makes 231 times what the average worker makes. The CEO wants big bucks. They think that's great. You want a raise. Ooooooo, trying to kill jobs in America. Then these same guys turn around, like Romney, and say they want to see you get better pay. 
They don't care a bit about you or any other regular worker.
A lot of politics comes down to opinion. To me the reasons to vote for Obama are clear. It took me a while, but I'm now in favor of gay marriage. I don't see how that hurts anyone else's marriage; and if a gay member of the military wants to marry, I say he's earned the privilege. I think the right-wing guys are full of crap on foreign policy, too. They said Obama was weak on Iran (which will be a threat if they get a nuclear weapon); but in the last debate Romney pretty much admitted his foreign policy boils down to "me, too. I'd do what Obama did. I'd just do it faster or better." You might have heard of the four dead American diplomats in Libya. That was really too bad. But earlier Obama took out Mohammar Qaddafi, the Libyan dictator, whose agents bombed Pan Am Flight 103 almost twenty-five years ago and killed 200 plus Americans; and he did that with the backing of all kinds of world nations and not one of our soldiers got killed. 
I'm still pissed at the GOP because I think they got us involved in an unnecessary war in Iraq and screwed up and didn't pay attention to the scumbags hiding out in Afghanistan. So all kinds of good, patriotic young American kids got killed. And who got us into that mess? Guys like Romney. Romney dodged the Vietnam War by going to France on a Mormon mission. Dick Cheney, the last GOP VP, talked tough when it came to foreign policy, but had five draft deferments in that same era. He could have served. He just didn't want to get his ass shot full of holes. Let some other guy get his ass shot full of holes, though, and guys like Romney and Cheney are all for that.
I could go on and talk about the environment, the terrible U. S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens' United, the religious intolerance on the right, and all kinds of other issues; but you get the idea. 
Vote on November 6. It makes a difference.
Love, Dad

A Whole Lotta' Denyin' Goin' On: Dark Days for the Right

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THESE ARE BLEAK TIMES FOR OUR FRIENDS ON THE RIGHT as they face up to the horrid reality that they tried to "Take Back America" and failed in ignominious fashion. The only solace they seem to find since Barack Obama won a second term in (to them) a stunning fashion comes from churning out petitions demanding the right to secede from the Union they so badly wanted to take back.

Still, there are embers in the ashes of even the worst defeats. The Nut Job right still rules the radio air waves. Fox News has four more years to convince unbalanced individuals that Obama is a Muslim or maybe a Cylon. And the U. S. House of Representatives is still firmly in their all-taxes-are-poison political grip. Michele Bachmann, the queen of the Nut Jobs, returns for another term, ready to deny that gay people actually exist. Steven King is back, too, prepared to go to his grave denying that President Obama has ever had a valid U. S. birth certificate. In fact, when last heard from on the topic, King was insisting that Obama's parents might have faked the birth announcements that appeared in two Hawaiian newspapers, which announcements poor Steven King was forced to admit during a town hall meeting that he had personally seen in the Library of Congress records, by sending a telegram from Kenya.

What we're saying, all boiled down, is there's a whole lot of denyin' goin' on!

Marco Rubio doesn't exactly deny that he once supported Mitt Romney long ago; but he has been busy this week denying that he agrees with Romney's post-election statements, which sound suspiciously like Romney's pre-election statements when you think about it. No, says Rubio. The GOP doesn't hate people on food stamps. No. The GOP doesn't think Latinos and women and young voters are stupid and only voted for Obama because he promised lavish "gifts." No, no, no. Rubio denies that Republicans believe any of this. Indeed, based on answers to questions in an interview he did this week, Rubio seemed to be warming up for a possible Nut Job-backed run at the White House in 2016. Talking to a reporter from GQ magazine, Rubio stood by his party's basic position of denial on gay rights. That is:  gay people should vote with us next time around, even if they don't exist, and even if the loudest voices on the right insist God sends hurricanes to punish America for giving gay people who don't really exist something akin to equal rights.

The reporter, apparently realizing that our friends on the right are know at times to deny...well, let's just say basic science...asked Rubio if he might care to comment on the age of the earth. Rubio answered carefully, knowing that on the Nut Job right the deniers are always ready to explode into anger:

I'm not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that's a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I'm not a scientist. I don't think I'm qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries.

Meanwhile, three GOP experts in climate change denial now stand in line, one of the trio almost certain to become the next head of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology! (Ironically, this committee oversees NASA, the National Weather Service and the National Science Foundation among other entities.) Representative James Sensebrenner from Wisconsin is mildest in his denunciation of scientists, who he believes are twisting the facts to make climate change sound worse than it is. Lamar Smith of Texas sees it in a more sinister light and sniffs out willful bias in reporting on global warming at ABC, CBS and NBC.

Not Fox, of course. Oh no, oh no.

Dana Rohrabacher, goes all-in on the paranoia when he insists there's an an even bigger conspiracy afoot. As Christine Gorman reported for Scientific American, in a speech on the floor of Congress this past December Rohrabacher warned about an "insidious coalition" of research scientists and politicians:

[A] coalition that has conducted an unrelenting crusade to convince the American people that their health and their safety and–yes–their very survival on this planet is at risk due to manmade global warming. The purpose of this greatest-of-all propaganda campaigns is to enlist public support for, if not just the acquiescence to, a dramatic mandated change in our society and a mandated change to our way of life. This campaign has such momentum and power that it is now a tangible threat to our freedom and to our prosperity as a people.

AT THIS POINT, IT'S GETTING HARD to keep track of all the Nut Job right's denials and a brief recap is probably in order. As it stands, our friends on the right don't believe in:

Thermometers--as in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association records that show September 2012 temperatures marked the 331st month in succession during which global temperatures were above the 20th century average.

Photographs--as in NASA satellite cameras that showed the Arctic ice sheet had been reduced by fifty percent this summer compared to historic coverage limits.

The speed of light--which would seem to prove, according to scientists (but not necessarily anyone like Marco Rubio who might want to run for president with support from the Nut Job right) that the universe is a little older than a few thousand years.

Fossils--sure those ancient sea creatures and dinosaur bones embedded in limestone appear to be tens of millions of years old; but who are you gonna' believe? Scientists, who insist on considering evidence, or Steven King and a book written thousands of years ago to guide the Jews, at a time when no one had heard of light-years or dinosaurs or Bunsen burners.

Sperm--as we all now known, sperm don't work in cases of rape.

Lamestream media--everyone except Megyn Kelly at Fox News and Glenn Beck, in whatever bunker he's currently hiding, hates the right-wing with implacable resolve.

Percentages--as in percentages in any opinion poll that might have shown that President Obama might actually win a second term in office. Which of course, the Nut Job right absolutely knew was mathematically and politically and morally impossible.

Liberal pollsters-- people like Nathan Silver and their lamestream math, with their liberal bias, insisting that President Obama would win all the battleground states except North Carolina, win the popular vote, and pile up more than 300 electoral votes. Which all the real news people at Fox said was impossible, and Rush Limbaugh said it, too. And who are you gonna' believe, real patriots with tea-bag hats or these fossil-loving commie freaks?

Actual voters--in 2010 the Nut Job right scored a huge victory in the mid-term elections; but actual American voters vanished two years later and idiots and members of the "entitlement class" showed up like herds of sheeple and voted for Obama.

American women--who sometimes lived under the same roofs as American men who tended to go for Romney; but somehow these females went for Obama by a sizable margin, perhaps in part because they fell for lamestream reports about the powers of sperm.

Colleges--Americans with advanced degrees voted in favor of Mr. Obama by a sizable margin. This has something to do with the fact that college students are all brain-washed by professors, and maybe the fact that the educated people prefer actual facts and tangible evidence with their political discussions. Like fossils or birth certificates or the speed-of-light.

Finally, our friends on the seem ready to deny the unique place in history of the United States of America, which is, despite various imperfections, still a land of surpassing freedoms. They say they love freedom more than liberals do. They say they believe in the Founding Fathers more than liberals do. They say they believe in the Bill of Rights more, too. They used to say, if you criticized this country, that you ought to move to Russia or some other communist country.

NOW, THEY LOSE ONE ELECTION and they're ready to bail out, to furl the red, white and blue. They're ready to give up on the country they love.

They reveal themselves as babies, not patriots. But if you point that out, they'll deny that, too.

How long until the right-wingers decide President Obama is actually a Cylon in disguise?

The First Thanksgiving: What Your Third Grade Teacher Didn't Mention

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WITH THANKSGIVING UPON US it is time once again to tabulate our blessings. (If you're Donald Trump or any member of the Walton clan that may take longer.) For many Americans it's enough that the Yankees didn't get to the World Series. A majority of our citizens, who apparently received lavish gifts, are thankful Mr. Obama won reelection.

And speaking of stuffing, Rush Limbaugh has angrily been threatening a move to Costa Rica. We should all be so lucky.

Sometimes, you look at the world and wonder if humankind has lost its collective grip on whatever marbles it once had. We might even wonder (if we live in a red state) whether God has forsaken our nation. Our Pilgrim ancestors and their neighbors, the Native Americans, would scoff at our whining.

Maybe, this Thanksgiving, we should start by thanking God for the First Amendment. Religious freedom, which we take for granted (unless we worry about the War on Christmas), was a rarity in the 1600s. In those days it was still possible for judges to order heretics branded on the forehead with an "H" for questioning accepted religious belief. Sometimes you could cut off an ear or two to make the lesson clearer.

So, no. Life wasn't better four centuries ago. When the Pilgrims left England for exile in Holland in 1608, the King James Bible did not yet exist, although arguments about correct church doctrine were still common. Fifty scholars would gather together in 1611 to work on a definitive translation of the ancient texts into English.

Perhaps we should count modern health care among our blessings--including, perhaps, a prayer of thanks to the U. S. Supreme Court for upholding the constitutionality of Obamacare. Disease in the Pilgrim days was a major factor in shaping history. Outbreaks of Black Plague, for example, regularly closed London theaters in the time of Shakespeare, who died in 1616. (Be thankful today that none of your loved ones have to worry about rat-borne killer diseases.)

That same year Shakespeare died (and Pocahontas, visiting England died as well) an epidemic of smallpox brought to the shores of Massachusetts by fishing vessels plying the coastline in search of codfish swept away most of the native population and left the land more or less open for English settlement.

IN 1620, THEN, 105 PASSENGERS BOARDED THE MAYFLOWER and headed for America. Only half of the people aboard, however, were "saints" or church members, technically, real "Pilgrims." London city officials saw a chance to thin out the ranks of orphans, whose support was a drag on the taxpayers. So they packed off Richard More, 7, and Ellen More, his little sister, just to be rid of them. Paul Ryan might have applauded their fiscal discipline. (Then again, Mr. Ryan might recall that the Pilgrims, and the English generally, were no fan of the Roman Catholics.)

Other passengers included William Bradford, who would go on to lead the colony and write a book about it, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, whose romance became the focus of a famous poem by Longfellow (which few today read) and Elizabeth Hopkins, well advanced in her pregnancy. (She gave birth to a child named "Oceanus" during the voyage.) There were also a number of goats on board; but the goats do not play a role in the story.

The Mayflower finally dropped anchor off Cape Cod in November and scouting parties were soon sent out to locate the best possible site for a settlement. In the cold winter ahead tuberculosis, pneumonia and scurvy took a heavy toll among the settlers. Bradford described the Pilgrim’s lowest point:

That which was most sad...was that in 2 or 3 months time half of their company had died, especially in Jan. and February, being in the depth of winter, and lacking houses and other comforts...There died some times 2 or 3 of a day...[so] that of 100 and odd persons, hardly 50 remained. And of these in times of most distress [trouble], there was but 6 or 7 sound [healthy] persons.
Yeah. Good times. (Be thankful for flu shots.)
 Meanwhile, the Pilgrims had a number of skirmishes with the previous landowners. And the Pilgrims understood if the Indians chose to attack they had little hope of survival. They buried their dead in secret, planted seeds over the graves, and prayed that the “wild men” would not discover their weakness.
Who knows? Maybe God does work in mysterious ways. (Today, we are told he sends Superstorm Sandy to punish America for supporting legalization of gay marriage.) The Pilgrims were lucky, if nothing else. The Native Americans, not so much. The smallpox outbreak of a few years before had been devastating. Thousands of the original inhabitants were wiped from the land, “they not [even] being able to bury one another. Their skulls and bones,” Bradford recalled later, “were found in many places lying still above the ground, where their houses...had been; a very sad spectacle to behold.”

You may recall this part of the story from back when your teacher talked about it in third grade:  How the Pilgrims met Samoset, who stepped out of the forest shadows and greeted them in good English (he had been hanging out with some of the crewmen from those earlier fishing expeditions). He called out to them hearty: “Welcome!”

Then he asked if they had beer. (Fans of watching the NFL this afternoon can relate.)

Anyway, moving along:  Samoset introduced the Pilgrims to Squanto, who understood English even better, since he'd been kidnapped by fishermen and taken to England as a slave, before he escaped, was captured again...and...it's a long story. (See:  People were more religious in those days, more honest, still followed all ten of the Ten Commandments!) Squanto showed his new buddies where to catch lobster and how to raise corn, using fish as fertilizer. (The colony was saved and the way to the foundation of the Red Lobster chain was opened.)
 The plot thickened. Squanto introduced his new friends to Massasoit, leader of the Wampanoag tribe and ruler of the lands surrounding Plymouth Bay. His people had been hard hit by the plague four years before and he was anxious to sign a treaty of peace. In turn, Massasoit hoped for aid against his powerful neighbors, the Narragansetts, long the Wampanoags bloody rivals, and a people almost unscathed by the great disease outbreak. (Or:  as Mitt Romney once put it, "We need to be sure we always have a strong military. With plenty of bayonets.)

Well, that's pretty much the story. The Pilgrims didn't want to get wiped out after a rough winter. The Wampanoags knew that the enemy of their enemy was their friend and a treaty of peace was signed and both sides kept it for half a century.


The pumpkin pies were baked. The invitations went out. Massasoit, with ninety followers, attended the first Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621. The guests brought five deer. The hosts provided fresh bread, roast duck, goose, and wine. Together they celebrated and feasted for three days. There were foot races and games of shooting skill and much fun to be had. (One drunk settler started going on about how Obama wanted to deny hunters the right to carry assault rifles but he soon passed out and was heard from no more.) 

Believe it or not, turkey is not mentioned by any of the eyewitnesses.

Of course, the Pilgrim's survived and thrived. (This is why NFL players still point when they score touchdowns and thank God for granting us the inalienable right to watch football.) Even troubles with tribes beyond Massasoit’s control could not break their spirits. When a sachem named Wituwamat threatened Plymouth the Pilgrims took quick action. The chief and three followers were invited into the settlements to talk. There, without warning, Captain Myles Standish and his soldiers fell upon them and cut them to pieces. Then they chopped off Wituwamat’s head and spiked it atop their fort wall. It remained there for many years as a warning, but apparently did not spoil anyone's appetite at future Thanksgiving dinners. 
Nothing about humanity has changed in four centuries. The first Pilgrim minister seemed “crazed in the brain” and was booted out of the colony. (Pat Robertson?) John Sprague drank too much and was arrested after riding his horse into a friend’s house. (Lindsay Lohan?) John Billington, an original Mayflower passenger, committed murder and was hanged. A married woman was caught having an affair with an Indian. She was whipped and ordered to wear the letters “AD” for adultery on her sleeve. 

In another case of married people behaving badly, a young wife got in trouble after she was left behind while her husband went away on business. When she, too, had an affair, Pilgrim officials arrested everyone involved. All three individuals, husband, wife, and lover were locked up, side by side, in the stocks. (Hear that Paula Broadwell and General David Petraeus?)
 Years later, Bradford sat down to write a history of the Plymouth Bay Colony. He was proud that his people hadhelped English roots take hold in America and compared the Pilgrimsto the first candle that helped light a thousand others. (If Wituwamet had been writing the story he might have told it differently.)

With a deep sense of satisfaction Bradford noted:   
Ourfathers were Englishmen who came over this great ocean, and were ready toperish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heardtheir voice.  Let them therefore praisethe Lord, because He is good; and His mercies endure forever.

So, there you have it. The story of the First Thanksgiving, with a few details added. (And I'm sorry I had to leave the story of the two Indians who mooned the Pilgrims one day out.) Today, thank God for all your blessings. Be thankful, if for nothing else, that you weren't born in the seventeenth century.

Good wishes to all Americans, liberal and conservative alike. May you all digest your turkey in peace and harmony.

As for Rush? Maybe he'll send us a postcard.



There's myth; and there's history.
Happy holidays to all.

 

The Timely's and the Godsend's

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The year before J1 was born, we bought the house we still live in today. I remember my sister telling my mother "Aw, he bought her a dollhouse.", and that's exactly what it is. She, referring to my dollhouse, sits proudly in an old neighborhood, that's nice and flat, and is covered in a canopy of Oak and Walnut tree's that are older than she is.
When J1 was 18 months old, he met his lifelong friend Z. They met at what I like to call "Baby Harvard" which is the best child care center in the city. The center is housed up on the hill, where both Z's mother and I work. Soon after we met, they moved their family to my neighborhood, and our kids have gone to all the same schools. They are the Timely family.
A year or so later, the Godsend's moved into the old yellow and white Victorian across the street. The house had been broken into two units for decades, and the Godsend's, with all their children, grandchildren, and extended family, restored it to it's original glory of a single family home.
Together, our village has weathered many storms, both figuratively and literally, and we've all been there for each other. Recently, the Godsend's announced that they would soon depart our sweet village, and while I know that change is the only constant, it's a day I've always dreaded.
Once, when we were teenagers, my sister told me she dreamt that I had gone down the drain in the kitchen sink as a big blob of slime. No surprise there, but then she said I suddenly flew back out as a butterfly. I've never forgotten that dream.
I think I'm ready to talk about the long storm I've weathered, because I believe I'm coming out the other side. But this I know for sure, I would have never survived without the support of my village. And for me to tell these stories, you've got to know who the Timely's and Godsend's are, because none of it could have happened without them.

The Timely's and the Godsend's

To contact us Click HERE
The year before J1 was born, we bought the house we still live in today. I remember my sister telling my mother "Aw, he bought her a dollhouse.", and that's exactly what it is. She, referring to my dollhouse, sits proudly in an old neighborhood, that's nice and flat, and is covered in a canopy of Oak and Walnut tree's that are older than she is.
When J1 was 18 months old, he met his lifelong friend Z. They met at what I like to call "Baby Harvard" which is the best child care center in the city. The center is housed up on the hill, where both Z's mother and I work. Soon after we met, they moved their family to my neighborhood, and our kids have gone to all the same schools. They are the Timely family.
A year or so later, the Godsend's moved into the old yellow and white Victorian across the street. The house had been broken into two units for decades, and the Godsend's, with all their children, grandchildren, and extended family, restored it to it's original glory of a single family home.
Together, our village has weathered many storms, both figuratively and literally, and we've all been there for each other. Recently, the Godsend's announced that they would soon depart our sweet village, and while I know that change is the only constant, it's a day I've always dreaded.
Once, when we were teenagers, my sister told me she dreamt that I had gone down the drain in the kitchen sink as a big blob of slime. No surprise there, but then she said I suddenly flew back out as a butterfly. I've never forgotten that dream.
I think I'm ready to talk about the long storm I've weathered, because I believe I'm coming out the other side. But this I know for sure, I would have never survived without the support of my village. And for me to tell these stories, you've got to know who the Timely's and Godsend's are, because none of it could have happened without them.

A Tribute on 9-11 (And a Brief Note on Chicago's Teachers)

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NO ONE OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER can ever forget the attacks on 9/11, the terrible loss of life, the shock and horror of an entire nation.

I was teaching a seventh grade class in American history that morning, when my principal knocked at the door. She whispered that there had been a terrorist attack in New York City. Until we knew more we were supposed to keep quiet rather than scare students. The story continued to develop, of course, and I was soon spending the rest of the day and much of the following week trying to help students make sense of cataclysmic events.

It was nice to hear this morning, via Facebook, that Lynzi Engel remembers:

I will never forget this day that happened 11 years ago. At the time I was so confused but later that day I had Mr. Viall and he explained what exactly was happening. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families that lost loved ones this morning 11 years ago and thank you to all the police, firefighters and the service men/women who are helped that morning and are still serving. This day will never be forgotten!!!

I retired from teaching in 2008. But if I was still in the classroom here's what I'd be doing on this sad anniversary. I'd be showing a compilation of short film clips recorded in 2001, including some of the most tragic events. Today's seventh graders were only one or two years old on September 11. So, I'd show them a scene filled with people falling, falling, from the North and South Towers. What moments of terror those must have been for desperate victims. And I'd add this detail, because I'd want the kids to have a sense of what it was like for real people. I'd tell them some of those who leaped from those burning buildings were holding hands, perhaps with friends, perhaps with loved ones, where they had been trapped by smoke and flames.

It's this small gesture that that might touch the hearts of today's kids and give them a sense of what a loss our nation suffered.

Nearly 3,000 died eleven years ago. Who were they?

Steven Coakley was coming off a regular shift with Engine Company 217, in Brooklyn, just as the first plane struck. On five separate occasions, as a part of his job, he had helped deliver babies. This was different and Coakley and the rest of Engine 217 rushed to the scene. Sal Fiumefreddo, a telephone technician, had a one-day assignment to install equipment at the trade centers. Divorced, feeling lonely, he met Joan Chao at at a friend's backyard barbecue the summer before. Now, on a crisp day in September the couple was getting ready to celebrate a first wedding anniversary. Gary Bird was starting a new job with Marsh & McClennan. Normally, he would be working out of Phoenix. On this day, however, he was scheduled for a meeting at the World Trade Center, beginning at 8:15 a.m. All three were killed.

Let's remember them all. Let's remember Jill Campbell, the young mother, whose son, Jake, was learning to crawl. (She didn't live long enough to be told; but he crawled for the first time that same day.) Let's remember Timothy J. Finnerty. A bond trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, we can assume he was hard at work on the 105th floor of One World Trade Center on 9/11. Just three days earlier he had enjoyed himself at his cousin's wedding. His wife, Theresa, remembered him cutting up (which was his style) and doing the "Lawn Mower Dance," followed by the "Sprinkler Dance" at the reception.

He was one of 658 employees of his company who perished in the attack.

At a funeral later, Keith Wiswall spoke fondly of his father and how much he liked working in the lawn. One day, Keith looked out the window and saw Dad using a shop vac to suck up berries from a neighbor's tree, because they were falling on his grass. David Wiswall was 54 when he died and no one has vacuumed the lawn since.

Kristin Walsh remembers her mother, Nancy, bringing Carol Flyzik home and introducing her as "her girlfriend." It meant an adjustment, but she and her two brothers came to love their stepmother. Flyzik was one of 76 regular passengers aboard American Airlines Flight 11, headed for the West Coast on a business trip. At 8:46 a. m. she perished when the aircraft crashed into the North Tower. Amy Sweeney was an attendant on the same flight, one of eleven crew members. When hijackers took over she kept calm and contacted ground supervisors, asking them to notify the F.B.I. Her grace and bravery in a time of tragedy were no surprise to those who knew her. She died without having a chance to see her children, Anna, 6, and son, Jack, 4, grow up.

(Seth McFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, was meant to be aboard but arrived at the airport too late.)

Mayra Valdes-Rodriguez, last seen alive on the 78th floor as she hustled others down the stairs of the South Tower to safety, was known for her contagious laughter. She didn't make it out alive. We know Maria Benavente removed her shoes to speed her descent from the same building, because they were recovered later in the ruins. It wasn't enough. She didn't get out. Bill Biggart, a photo-journalist, rushed to the scene in Lower Manhattan to record events. After the South Tower fell he phoned his wife to say he was safe. "I'm with the firefighters," he explained. Nothing at all to worry about. When the North Tower came down he and the firefighters around him died in the collapse. Joe Maloney, a firefighter and Mets fan was killed. Assistant Fire Chief Gerard Barbara, a Yankees fan, was killed, too. Mike Carroll, a fifteen-year veteran with Ladder Co. 3, died along with hundreds of brave firefighters. Since his remains could not be found a friend from his softball team carried a helmet down the aisle at his funeral mass.

Lincoln Quappe, another FDNY veteran, interviewed for a story in March, told a reporter, "Every fire is scary. That's the way it is. You're a damned liar if you say you're not scared." Even a little fire could get a guy killed. "It all comes down to fate," he added. Quappe was responding on 9/11, not to a little fire, but to a huge one, unlike anything he had had ever seen. Fate caught him up and swept him away.

Steven Cafiero first "met" his girlfriend on the Internet but they were unable to speak in person until another year passed. Now, in the weeks leading up to 9/11 they were talking about marriage and planning for children. Peter Gyulavary had also been blessed by fate--years earlier, at least--having met his American wife while she was vacationing in Australia. They eventually settled down in New York City and had a daughter, Geniveve, who turned 13 around the time of the attacks. Eskedar Melaku, came to America from Ethiopia as a young woman, to attend college and build a better life. Emerita de la Pena and Judith Diaz Sierra were fast friends and co-workers, each serving as maid of honor at the other's wedding. James Martello, a former Rutgers linebacker, liked to coach his 7-year-old son's football team when he wasn't at work. Sheila Barnes was a fanatic about clipping coupons and saving money. None of them survived.

Jerrold Paskins, 57, was only in New York on 9/11 to help complete an insurance audit. (His remains were identified two months later when a lucky 1976 bicentennial silver dollar he carried turned up at Ground Zero.) Christine Egan, born in Hull, England, was visiting her brother Michael in New York. That morning he decided to take her up to the restaurant, "Windows on the World," to get a cup of coffee and a panoramic view of the city. Moments before the North Tower collapsed, Michael Egan finally managed to reach his wife by phone. "You made it," she responded with immense relief. "No, we're stuck," he admitted. They were still on the line together when she watched in horror on television as the building collapsed.

Orasri Liangthanasarn, a native of Thailand and a recent graduate of New York University, a new administrative assistant at "Windows on the World" also died. In fact, no one who was in the restaurant that day survived.

Peter Hanson, a huge fan of the Grateful Dead, his wife Sue Kim Hanson, a native of Korea with a degree in microbiology, and their daughter Christine Hanson, two-and-a-half years old, were aboard United Flight 175, originally scheduled to fly from Boston to Los Angeles. Paige Farley-Hackel was supposed to be aboard. She and her sister Ruth McCourt were taking Ruth's daughter, Juliana McCourt, 4, on a trip to Disneyland. At the last minute, Paige realized she could use frequent flier miles and switched to American Airlines Flight 11 instead. They planned to meet up in California, before both planes in a cruel twist, were taken over by Osama bin Laden's men, and sent hurtling into buildings.

Hilary Strauch, a New Jersey sixth grader, was 12 years old on the day of the attacks. She had to watch on television at school as the tower where her Dad, George Strauch, worked went down in dust and mangled metal and ruin. Frank Martini and Pablo Ortiz, both fathers, could easily have escaped. Instead, they stuck around and used a crowbar to help free at least fifty people who were trapped in the North Tower. Martini and Ortiz stayed around too long to survive. Beth Logler, 31, had run cross-country in high school. Now, she was planning a wedding for December 30, 2001. She wasn't quite fast enough to make it out in time. Sara Manley Harvey, a Georgetown graduate, had at least been married a month. The magenta-colored napkins at the reception had matched the roses carried by the flower girls. Robert A. Campbell, 25, was a painter and window washer at the World Trade Center. That morning his parents think he was working on the roof. Brian P. Williams was a high school football star back in his Covington, Kentucky days, and moved later to the Big Apple to find work. Joseph J. Hasson III survived a terrible car wreck freshman year of college. Sixteen years later his time ran out in New York.

Brad Vadas found himself trapped in the smoke and ruins on the 88th floor, just above where the plane hit the South Tower. He managed to leave a phone message on his fiancee, Kris McFerren's answering machine: "Kris, there's been an explosion. We're trapped in a room. There's smoke coming in. I don't know what's going to happen. I want you to know my life has been so much better and richer because you were in it." He promised he'd try to get out, but to be safe added, "I love you. Goodbye." Ed McNally called his wife, too, and told her he was in trouble, trapped by flames on floors below. He told her where to find his life insurance papers. Then he admitted he'd been planning a surprise trip to Rome for her fortieth birthday. "I feel silly, Liz," he added, "you'll have to cancel that."

Neither man made it home that night for dinner.

Rick Rescelora survived heavy fighting in Vietnam but not this terrorist attack. Mike Warchola had one shift left until he retired from the New York Fire Department. And he died. Port Authority police officer Dominick Pezzulo was trying to free two trapped officers from the wreckage of the South Tower when the North collapsed and he was hit and killed by falling beams. John Perry was turning in retirement papers to the New York Police Department when the first plane struck. He asked for his badge and raced to the scene, ready to help others in a time of need. Moira Smith, a blond-haired policewoman, was last seen helping injured victims out of the lobby of the South Tower a few minutes before it came crashing to earth. Ed Nichols, for one, was bleeding from head, arm and abdomen when Smith took him gently by the elbow and led him to safety. Then she turned and reentered the lobby. About that same time, eyewitness saw melting aluminum pouring out of a gash on the 80th floor where the hijacked aircraft had hit.

In a 911 call a shortly after, an unidentified woman trapped high up in the tower reported the floor under her was collapsing. Moments later, Greg Milanowycz, trapped on the 93rd floor, called his father and reported, "The ceiling is falling, the ceiling is falling." Then the Tower collapsed.

At 9:37 that same day a third plane, a Boeing 757, carrying 57 passengers and crew, crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D. C., killing all aboard and another 125 Americans on the ground. Cheryle Sincock had already been at work inside for several hours because she liked to get an early start when possible. Husband Craig, a computer scientist for the United States Army, usually came to work a little later. Now, having been struck by a third hijacked aircraft, the Pentagon was billowing black smoke, and he found himself caught on the D. C. Metro, as it shut down for security reasons. He sprinted two miles, cutting across highways and through Arlington National Cemetery. He would help with rescue attempts until 11 p. m., go home for a brief rest, and return again at 4 a. m., in hopes of locating his wife.

Cheryle didn't make it.

Todd Beamer, you may recall, was one of the passenger on United Airlines Flight 93. His widow, Lisa, would later tell reporters that Todd "really didn't do much of anything without a plan." Her husband was one of the ringleaders of a passenger revolt to try to regain control of the plane before the hijackers destroyed it. A phone operator heard him ask others, including big Jeremy Glick, a former high school wrestler and judo champion, and Mark Bingham, an old rugby player: "Are you guys ready? O. K. Let's roll." And roll they did. Although they couldn't save themselves they did bring down Flight 93, before it could do any additional damage.

THAT'S WHAT I'D BE TALKING ABOUT TODAY, if I was still in the classroom. I know it doesn't have anything to do with standardized testing; but I can't help believing this kind of story still matters.  


The body of FDNY chaplain, Father Mychal Judge, is carried away.
He was struck by a falling body and died instantly.

  

I'd want students to consider the tragedy of the moment.



To My Son: Only Dumb People Don't Vote

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Dear Seth,
I know you voted in 2008 and since I'm traveling for a few days I wanted to remind you to vote next week. I think, in the long run, only stupid people don't vote. You know who I'm voting for. Still, if you were to vote for Governor Romney, that would be better than not voting at all. 
I wouldn't disown you.
Don't let anyone tell you voting doesn't  matter. I almost always vote for Democrats and for a variety of reasons. Under Obamacare, your sister could now get health insurance despite her pre-existing condition. We both know she has a good job with health care anyway. But there are plenty of type-1 diabetics out there and Americans with worse conditions and until President Obama pushed for reform these individuals were shit-out-of-luck.
(Hey, haven't I told you we both need to clean up our language?)
Listen to the right-wing guys, and they say, oooooo, this is "socialized medicine." And they're right. It's the same as Medicare, which Republicans blasted as "socialized medicine" way back in 1965. In this country I believe we ought to help out those who need it. We did it in 1965 for old folks. Now some of the people covered by Medicare want to deny similar care to others. That's a ridiculous position.
I'm also voting for Obama because the right-wing types think a woman should never be able to choose an abortion. I'm not a fan of abortion, but don't think others should tell a woman what she should do. Many of the guys in Mitt Romney's party think if your girlfriend was raped she should be required to continue the pregnancy. I say no way. The right-wing loses me when they say you can't have birth control in several forms, including "the morning after pill."  They say life begins at conception. They say they have religion on their side to support that position. Bah! They can't even agree on which book of religion is right.
Why else have I been voting Democratic most of my life? I don't like the way the Republicans treat the average worker. They want to crush unions, when the average union worker makes $10,000 more per year. I wish you worked in a union shop. I wish you made $10,000 more yearly. The right-wing guys say unions are terrible. I've seen the bad side of unions, but the good outweighs the bad. Unions give the regular guy some leverage in dealing with giant corporations. The right-wing guys say, well unions with their wage demands kill jobs. So we'll just ship those jobs to China. They don't think it hurts, though, if the average CEO makes 231 times what the average worker makes. The CEO wants big bucks. They think that's great. You want a raise. Ooooooo, trying to kill jobs in America. Then these same guys turn around, like Romney, and say they want to see you get better pay. 
They don't care a bit about you or any other regular worker.
A lot of politics comes down to opinion. To me the reasons to vote for Obama are clear. It took me a while, but I'm now in favor of gay marriage. I don't see how that hurts anyone else's marriage; and if a gay member of the military wants to marry, I say he's earned the privilege. I think the right-wing guys are full of crap on foreign policy, too. They said Obama was weak on Iran (which will be a threat if they get a nuclear weapon); but in the last debate Romney pretty much admitted his foreign policy boils down to "me, too. I'd do what Obama did. I'd just do it faster or better." You might have heard of the four dead American diplomats in Libya. That was really too bad. But earlier Obama took out Mohammar Qaddafi, the Libyan dictator, whose agents bombed Pan Am Flight 103 almost twenty-five years ago and killed 200 plus Americans; and he did that with the backing of all kinds of world nations and not one of our soldiers got killed. 
I'm still pissed at the GOP because I think they got us involved in an unnecessary war in Iraq and screwed up and didn't pay attention to the scumbags hiding out in Afghanistan. So all kinds of good, patriotic young American kids got killed. And who got us into that mess? Guys like Romney. Romney dodged the Vietnam War by going to France on a Mormon mission. Dick Cheney, the last GOP VP, talked tough when it came to foreign policy, but had five draft deferments in that same era. He could have served. He just didn't want to get his ass shot full of holes. Let some other guy get his ass shot full of holes, though, and guys like Romney and Cheney are all for that.
I could go on and talk about the environment, the terrible U. S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens' United, the religious intolerance on the right, and all kinds of other issues; but you get the idea. 
Vote on November 6. It makes a difference.
Love, Dad

A Whole Lotta' Denyin' Goin' On: Dark Days for the Right

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THESE ARE BLEAK TIMES FOR OUR FRIENDS ON THE RIGHT as they face up to the horrid reality that they tried to "Take Back America" and failed in ignominious fashion. The only solace they seem to find since Barack Obama won a second term in (to them) a stunning fashion comes from churning out petitions demanding the right to secede from the Union they so badly wanted to take back.

Still, there are embers in the ashes of even the worst defeats. The Nut Job right still rules the radio air waves. Fox News has four more years to convince unbalanced individuals that Obama is a Muslim or maybe a Cylon. And the U. S. House of Representatives is still firmly in their all-taxes-are-poison political grip. Michele Bachmann, the queen of the Nut Jobs, returns for another term, ready to deny that gay people actually exist. Steven King is back, too, prepared to go to his grave denying that President Obama has ever had a valid U. S. birth certificate. In fact, when last heard from on the topic, King was insisting that Obama's parents might have faked the birth announcements that appeared in two Hawaiian newspapers, which announcements poor Steven King was forced to admit during a town hall meeting that he had personally seen in the Library of Congress records, by sending a telegram from Kenya.

What we're saying, all boiled down, is there's a whole lot of denyin' goin' on!

Marco Rubio doesn't exactly deny that he once supported Mitt Romney long ago; but he has been busy this week denying that he agrees with Romney's post-election statements, which sound suspiciously like Romney's pre-election statements when you think about it. No, says Rubio. The GOP doesn't hate people on food stamps. No. The GOP doesn't think Latinos and women and young voters are stupid and only voted for Obama because he promised lavish "gifts." No, no, no. Rubio denies that Republicans believe any of this. Indeed, based on answers to questions in an interview he did this week, Rubio seemed to be warming up for a possible Nut Job-backed run at the White House in 2016. Talking to a reporter from GQ magazine, Rubio stood by his party's basic position of denial on gay rights. That is:  gay people should vote with us next time around, even if they don't exist, and even if the loudest voices on the right insist God sends hurricanes to punish America for giving gay people who don't really exist something akin to equal rights.

The reporter, apparently realizing that our friends on the right are know at times to deny...well, let's just say basic science...asked Rubio if he might care to comment on the age of the earth. Rubio answered carefully, knowing that on the Nut Job right the deniers are always ready to explode into anger:

I'm not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that's a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I'm not a scientist. I don't think I'm qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries.

Meanwhile, three GOP experts in climate change denial now stand in line, one of the trio almost certain to become the next head of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology! (Ironically, this committee oversees NASA, the National Weather Service and the National Science Foundation among other entities.) Representative James Sensebrenner from Wisconsin is mildest in his denunciation of scientists, who he believes are twisting the facts to make climate change sound worse than it is. Lamar Smith of Texas sees it in a more sinister light and sniffs out willful bias in reporting on global warming at ABC, CBS and NBC.

Not Fox, of course. Oh no, oh no.

Dana Rohrabacher, goes all-in on the paranoia when he insists there's an an even bigger conspiracy afoot. As Christine Gorman reported for Scientific American, in a speech on the floor of Congress this past December Rohrabacher warned about an "insidious coalition" of research scientists and politicians:

[A] coalition that has conducted an unrelenting crusade to convince the American people that their health and their safety and–yes–their very survival on this planet is at risk due to manmade global warming. The purpose of this greatest-of-all propaganda campaigns is to enlist public support for, if not just the acquiescence to, a dramatic mandated change in our society and a mandated change to our way of life. This campaign has such momentum and power that it is now a tangible threat to our freedom and to our prosperity as a people.

AT THIS POINT, IT'S GETTING HARD to keep track of all the Nut Job right's denials and a brief recap is probably in order. As it stands, our friends on the right don't believe in:

Thermometers--as in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association records that show September 2012 temperatures marked the 331st month in succession during which global temperatures were above the 20th century average.

Photographs--as in NASA satellite cameras that showed the Arctic ice sheet had been reduced by fifty percent this summer compared to historic coverage limits.

The speed of light--which would seem to prove, according to scientists (but not necessarily anyone like Marco Rubio who might want to run for president with support from the Nut Job right) that the universe is a little older than a few thousand years.

Fossils--sure those ancient sea creatures and dinosaur bones embedded in limestone appear to be tens of millions of years old; but who are you gonna' believe? Scientists, who insist on considering evidence, or Steven King and a book written thousands of years ago to guide the Jews, at a time when no one had heard of light-years or dinosaurs or Bunsen burners.

Sperm--as we all now known, sperm don't work in cases of rape.

Lamestream media--everyone except Megyn Kelly at Fox News and Glenn Beck, in whatever bunker he's currently hiding, hates the right-wing with implacable resolve.

Percentages--as in percentages in any opinion poll that might have shown that President Obama might actually win a second term in office. Which of course, the Nut Job right absolutely knew was mathematically and politically and morally impossible.

Liberal pollsters-- people like Nathan Silver and their lamestream math, with their liberal bias, insisting that President Obama would win all the battleground states except North Carolina, win the popular vote, and pile up more than 300 electoral votes. Which all the real news people at Fox said was impossible, and Rush Limbaugh said it, too. And who are you gonna' believe, real patriots with tea-bag hats or these fossil-loving commie freaks?

Actual voters--in 2010 the Nut Job right scored a huge victory in the mid-term elections; but actual American voters vanished two years later and idiots and members of the "entitlement class" showed up like herds of sheeple and voted for Obama.

American women--who sometimes lived under the same roofs as American men who tended to go for Romney; but somehow these females went for Obama by a sizable margin, perhaps in part because they fell for lamestream reports about the powers of sperm.

Colleges--Americans with advanced degrees voted in favor of Mr. Obama by a sizable margin. This has something to do with the fact that college students are all brain-washed by professors, and maybe the fact that the educated people prefer actual facts and tangible evidence with their political discussions. Like fossils or birth certificates or the speed-of-light.

Finally, our friends on the seem ready to deny the unique place in history of the United States of America, which is, despite various imperfections, still a land of surpassing freedoms. They say they love freedom more than liberals do. They say they believe in the Founding Fathers more than liberals do. They say they believe in the Bill of Rights more, too. They used to say, if you criticized this country, that you ought to move to Russia or some other communist country.

NOW, THEY LOSE ONE ELECTION and they're ready to bail out, to furl the red, white and blue. They're ready to give up on the country they love.

They reveal themselves as babies, not patriots. But if you point that out, they'll deny that, too.

How long until the right-wingers decide President Obama is actually a Cylon in disguise?