Livestock Market Memories!

Unknown Livestock Market--Photo by Getty Images, Bruce Forester

When I was a boy growing up in Knott County Kentucky, one of my favorite things to do with my father and one of his friends, whoever that friend might be on any given day, was to accompany them on a trip to one of the three livestock markets in the area to which my father, Ballard Hicks, often traveled since he regularly bought and sold both cattle and hogs as a means to supplement his income from operating our country store at Dema, Kentucky, and from his Social Security since he was already 64 when I was born.  I learned many things from my father and two of the things I learned which I have utilized throughout my entire life involved handling and dealing with livestock and attending, understanding, and benefiting from auctions.   My father never drove and owned only one car in his life, a 1955 Plymouth sedan which he took in lieu of a bad store debt.  When he wanted to travel to one of the stockyards we visited, he would make arrangements with one of his many friends who had a pickup truck and also traded in livestock or at least enjoyed going to the stockyards.  On those occasions, my mother would remain at home to run the store and my father, his friend, and I would all end up, in most cases, on the bench seat of an old pickup which would usually range in age from the early 1940's to the late 1950's.  I would be in the middle in most cases with my legs on each side of the manual shifter on the hump in the floorboard.  Just to the left of the gear shift would usually be the old fashioned floor starter button which a driver had to utilize with a foot.  There would never be any air conditioning and the heat might either be too hot or too cold in winter.  But I would not have missed these trips to the Isom, Paintsville, or Ivel Stockyards for anything in the world.  

Historic Livestock Sale, St. Paul, MN--Getty Images

I learned a lot about cattle, hogs, and horses, and maybe even a little about sheep and goats although neither Daddy or me ever wanted to trade sheep and goats, and there weren't many of them in Eastern Kentucky in those days.  I also came to love the art of auctioneering and and these stock yard trips had a lot to do with my desire to become an auctioneer some day and stand up in front of a crowd and induce them to do my bidding with a smooth, fast, professional chant.  We would spend the day at the sale until either Daddy or his friend bought or sold what they wanted to buy or sell, or sometimes we might stay for the entire sale and leave without either of them having spent or earned a dollar.  But it was always fun for all of us. 

I have learned a lot about several other things at livestock markets over the years.  Those educational experiences involved things like the difference between good auctioneers and bad ones just as much as they taught me the differences between bad cattle and good ones.  I learned about honesty and dishonesty.   One of the phrases I remember quite well from my father was that when he was selling livestock "if somebody asks the right questions, I give them the right answers".  That idea meant that you did not lie to a potential customer but you might not tell him the entire truth unless he asked the right questions.  I also remember another slightly different twist on this same concept when I walked once with my maternal grandfather Woots Hicks to a small farm a mile or two from our house to look at a milk cow the man was selling.  The man wasn't home and his wife sent one of their young sons to the barn with us to inspect the cow.  My grandfather asked the boy, a few years younger than me, "Does she give a lot of milk, son?"  The boy replied, "She sure does.  She gives a bucket full but you can't drink it.  It's bad milk."  It goes without saying that he did not buy the cow because the boy had volunteered more information about the cow than was necessary to give an incomplete but still honest answer to the question.  A simple answer of "yes" would probably have sold the cow and my grandfather would have taken his lumps on the deal without saying a word because he had not asked all the right questions in order to achieve the right answers.

Luling, TX Livestock Sale, Setup A Lot Like Paintsville--Getty Images

I also learned a lot about people in general, whom you could trust, whom you shouldn't.  I learned about how to associate with other males in the unique cultural world of Eastern Kentucky, Central Appalachia, the world of the livestock traders.  I learned concepts about people and dealing with them which I used years later both as a door to door salesman and as a mental health and substance abuse therapist.  I also learned things about people which I use today to create characters in Appalachian short stories and novels. I learned a little about trading everything from pocket knives and guns to other random items of value although I have never been a knife or gun trader.  I learned about what I like to call the "squat and spit" method of social interchange which was more common then than today.  Men would engage in conversation and squat on their heels to rest their legs and backs and, since most of them chewed tobacco, they would talk, spit tobacco juice occasionally, and just hang out together anywhere two or more of them encountered each other.  I learned a lot about the people, their family names, who lived in which county, who took better care of their livestock, who could afford what they needed, who might write a bad check, who always asked all the right questions, who might not know all the questions to ask, and who had the respect of the other livestock traders. 

The story below which I located in some old files from the Mountain Eagle, the local newspaper of Letcher County, demonstrates that I was not the only Appalachian child who learned valuable things at the stock yards. 

"The Isom Stockyard was a fascinating place for a child, mainly because of the cattle sale that took place every Saturday afternoon. It was also a social meeting place. You could learn everything that had happened in Isom during the past week. Women and children would attend, and while the men were interested in the cattle sale the women sat in the top bleachers to talk and gossip while the children played. I can remember going with Mother a few times. Dad usually went to see how cattle were selling as he bought and sold cattle now and then. Each year the cattle sale grew and vendors with all kinds of wares began to set up on each side of the highway until you could buy almost any thing you needed. Large numbers of people from all parts of the county visited Isom on those Saturday afternoons. On Saturdays, both the Ison and Holcomb restaurants served lunch to the cattlemen and buyers attending the sale. The Isom School served many purposes. In addition to teaching the children it was used to hold funerals. When a funeral was held while school was in session, the children were not dismissed but had to attend the funeral. If the burial was to be across the road in the Isom Cemetery, school children had to attend those. These funerals caused me to have many nightmares." The Way We Were Remembering Isom in the 1940's by Mountain Eagle Staff, & by Elva Pridemore Marshall, September 11, 2013, available on February 27, 2020, at 5:21pm at https://www.themountaineagle.com/articles/the-way-we-were-316/

Sadly, I have not been able to locate any online records of a similar nature about the Ivel and Paintsville Stock Yards or any photos of either of the three I have mentioned.  But I know quite a bit about the Ivel Stock Yards because the owner, Chester Layne was also a Tom's Candy and Peanut distributor in Floyd, Knott, Pike, and Johnson counties and was in our country store every week whether or not we had been to the sale at his facility at Ivel.  He was a wonderful salesman and I have written about him in other places in this blog.  Chester and my father often traded livestock outside the stock yards and he sometimes either delivered a registered bull to Daddy or bought and transported livestock from our property to his stock yard. He always kept Daddy up to date on what prices livestock were bringing and gave him tips on when to sell out or when to buy and hold.

I have a vague memory of the first time I went to the Paintsville stock yards with Daddy.  I remember walking into the somewhat larger than usual sales area which still exists today although it has deteriorated badly and only has one sale a month for goats only.  We entered it from a walkway which was elevated above the holding pens and came in at the back and top of the semicircular seating area.  The auctioneer and clerk were in an auction block at the bottom and front of the arena which was slightly elevated above and behind the sales ring.  Livestock were driven into the ring through a gate operated by a chute man on the left side and, after being sold, left the ring on the right side through another gate operated by another chute man.  Usually one ring man was in the ring and they sometimes allowed the commercial livestock buyers to get inside the ring.  I don't even remember the name of the auctioneer who was working Paintsville in those days but I will always remember that I wanted to be an auctioneer some day when I looked the situation over and realized that one person was in charge of that whole setup.  I learned something there, and at other auctions that I attended in my youth, which I used in every auction I have ever conducted since getting my license in 1980.  Someone at every auction is in charge, either the auctioneer or the crowd, and if it is the crowd that means that the auctioneer and the sellers are having a bad day.  I also learned a lot about good and bad ring men and when I was in the auction business I was lucky enough to find the best ring man alive, Dewey Rogers, who has since passed on and I think of Dewey nearly every day.  No good auctioneer ever fully reaches his potential without at least one really good ring man or ring woman which are more common today than then.

One of the most lasting memories I have of going to auctions at the stock yards came about sometime in either the late 1950's or early 1960's.  Daddy and a friend of his, Johnny Banks, took me and two of Johnny's nieces about my age to the Isom sale and we were all wandering around in the walkways over the livestock pens and the two girls and I decided to have an adventure.  We climbed out on the big joist beams over a pen which held a bull which probably weighed close to a ton.  The bull was in one of those small, one animal pens which were usually used for bulls or other animals which needed to be kept alone.  He was not enjoying what was probably his last trip to the stockyards since he was most likely headed to the meat packers in Chicago that afternoon.  The bull was actually trying to turn around in the pen which was not more than three feet wide and eight feet long a lot like a rodeo chute in which cowboys mount bulls before a ride.  The two girls and I were actually sitting on the joist beam directly over the bull pen as the bull tried to turn and he had nails and lumber squealing, popping, and complaining when suddenly Daddy and Johnny Banks saw us and realized where we were.  They didn't actually give us a whipping when they yelled at us and got us down and back under control.  But you can bet your butt that before the talking was over we knew better than to ever crawl out over a bull in a pen again.

I also remember one occasion at Paintsville when I saw an incident which nearly cleared the arena for a while.  The gate man on the entry side yelled out, "Watch this one boys.  He's a little wild."  and a young bull, probably not over one thousand pounds shot out of the chute into the ring.  The auctioneer started his chant and the ring man jumped up on a little concrete wall which circled the ring about two feet high and held steel posts strung with steel cables to allow buyers to see livestock but keep the animals inside the ring.  The bull shot around the ring one time, saw that the exit gate was still closed and whirled back to the steel cables in front of where some of the commercial buyers and bigger farmers sat in the front row.  He hit the cables at full speed and his head and shoulders shot through the cables nearly into the laps of these regulars.  Most of the crowd thought the bull was going to actually make it through the cables into the seating area and a mad dash to the back started.  But two of the commercial buyers started kicking the bull in the face and actually managed to drive him back into the ring where the gate man on the exit side already had the gate open.  It was a very brief but exciting flurry for about a minute and has stuck in my memory for more than forty years.

Most of the small, local stock yards are gone now including Ivel and Isom.  Paintsville is primarily a dying flea market with one goat sale a month. Ivel and Isom are long gone. Lee City in Wolfe County has been rebuilt with steel and just isn't the same kind of place the old auctions were.  I miss the old Eastern Kentucky livestock yards and I am betting that some of my readers do also.   I apologize for not being able to locate historical photos of Paintsville, Ivel, and Isom.  If you have any you are willing to let me use on this blog post, send me an e-mail at rchicks@mrtc.com.  I will be sure to give you photographer credit on the blog. 

 

Some Thoughts About The Buffalo Creek Flood, February 26, 1972

Today, February 26, 2020, is the 48th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek Flood on Buffalo Creek in Logan County West Virginia which killed 125 people due to the criminal negligence of Pittston Coal Company.  At the time of the flood, I had never been on Buffalo Creek or even in Logan County.  I did not know anyone on Buffalo Creek at the time of the incident.  But like many other key moments in the history of the country, Buffalo Creek and that flood were seared into my memory.  Just two years later, I was enrolled in the Southern Appalachian Circuit of Antioch College in Beckley, West Virginia, and became much better educated about the crimes which caused the Buffalo Creek Flood.  I made my first trip up Buffalo Creek sometime in 1984 as a door to door salesman but that first trip up the creek is seared into my memory just as the day it happened was seared.  I will always remember that as I drove up Buffalo Creek past the coal camps of Saunders, Pardee, Lorado, Craneco, Lundale, Stowe, Crites, Latrobe, Robinette, Amherstdale, Becco, Fanco, Braeholm, Accoville, Crown and Kistler, I could actually still see many signs of the flood.  I had grown up near Wayland, Kentucky, and if you have ever known one coal camp town in Central and Southern Appalachia, you have known all of them in some key ways.  The streets were nearly all laid out along a common pattern.  Nearly all the houses for common miners were built along one or two similar patterns, often in duplexes intended for two families.  As I drove up the creek, one of the first things I noticed was that there was actually a visible high water line along the sides of the hills up the valley where the age of the trees above and below that line were clearly different.  That forty foot high wall of water had ripped down the valley and literally torn the trees and vegetation out of the ground up to the limits of its reach.  You could also see a line, depending on the type of ground a particular coal camp had been built, where there were no houses or only severely damaged houses below it and intact houses and blocks of houses above it.  You could see a few intact stretches of the old, crooked, two lane highway which had survived the flood and long stretches where there was only the much straighter and wider new road which had been built after the disaster.  

But, if you met and talked to many of the surviving residents as I did, you would hear stories if the people trusted you about how and why they had survived the flood, some due purely to blind luck, others who had left the creek because it was apparent for several days that the two sludge dams in the head of the creek would fail in the heavy rains that came that week.  You would also hear heart rending stories of the dead who had died purely because state and federal regulators in West Virginia had ignored many warning signs before the flood, had refused to force Pittston to properly repair and reinforce the aging and overloaded dams.  You would hear stories from local residents who had survived the flood and spent days without basic services as they helped search for the missing and dead.  You would hear mothers and fathers grieving for dead children, surviving children mourning parents who would never see those children grown or see their grandchildren, you could meet the undertaker who buried many of the dead and refused to discuss the disaster, and you could also meet the people who had been forever damaged in heart and soul by the flood and its multiple aftermaths and could not and would not ever discuss it because they had no words to tell their losses and grief.  

Every year, when this day comes, I remember Buffalo Creek where I have spent many days, met many survivors, and learned a great deal about just how corrupt American corporations and politicians had shirked their moral, ethical, and legal responsibilities on Buffalo Creek.  I remember that many good, decent, hard working men and women, numerous potentially successful children, and a lot of older citizens were cheated out of a decent end to decent lives because Pittston was not held responsible for their crimes on Buffalo Creek both before and after the flood.  May all the dead rest in peace! 

"The Tragedy Of Platitudinous Piety" by Bill Best--Book Review

I have written previously about the work of Bill Best on this blog.  Bill is both  an internationally known expert on saving, propagating, and preserving heritage food crops and an Appalachian author of some note.  He managed to do all that while working as a swim coach and administrator at Berea College in Berea, Kentucky.  I first became aware of Bill and subsequently became friends with him when we both recently had true Christmas stories published in an anthology from the  Jesse Stuart Foundation.  I respect Bill and his work tremendously both for what he has previously accomplished in his highly productive life and for the work he continues to do today in a variety of ways including his work with heritage crops, the ongoing work he does in the field of Appalachian Studies, and his continued work on a part time, volunteer basis with Berea College.  

This little book was published in 1982 by Kentucke Imprints, a short lived publisher in Berea.  The book was reviewed in winter 1983 Volume 10, Number 2 of Appalachian Journal by Tijan M. Sallah.  It is also anthologized in Bill's book, "The Great Appalachian Sperm Bank and Other Writings" which was also published under the Kentucke Imprints label and might be easier to locate a copy of in that collection, which I will also discuss at length in this blog at some date in the future.  "The Tragedy Of Platitudinous Piety" is more appropriately a pamphlet since it is only one piece of satire of about fourteen pages.  If you attempt to locate a copy of the book, in either form, you will likely have better luck on used book websites such as Alibris or AbeBooks where I often locate such disappearing works.  But be aware that AbeBooks does not have the tight systems of response time and other aspects of quality control from their independent vendors which is more commonly adhered to on Alibris. 

Bill loves to write satire and this is one of his best.  My only objection to it (and this might be due to my own density at times) is that it can be a bit slow for the average reader to figure out the actual subject matter which (if my aforesaid density has not misled me) is the Jonestown Mass Suicide and cults of personality in general.  Platitudinous Piety is actually the main character in this little story and becomes enamored with a cult which leads to his eventual demise.  A great deal of Bill's thinking in the greater discussion of cults of personality can be contained and summarized in the final paragraph of the work.  That paragraph reads "I must say that, although I disagreed with Platy's philosophy, his activities, and his programs, I was very upset and saddened by his death.  He was truly a lonely, searching person, and none of us knew how to reach out to him in ways which he would understand."  Since this book was written about the Jonestown Mass Suicide, it is easy to pass it off as not being relevant in today's world.  But having come to know the author a bit more than superficially, I can assure that Bill Best would tell you that "The Tragedy Of Platitudinous Piety" has a very serious application in American politics today.  Nearly every person who falls victim to a cult of personality is "...truly a lonely, searching person..." and in most of those cases "...none of us (knows) how to reach out to.." them in ways which can salvage these people both from their own self-destructive tendencies and from those people like Jim Jones, Marshall Applewhite, and the TRAITOR Donald Trump who would use them, abuse them, and discard them when they are no longer useful or when their destruction will serve the cult leader's purposes more than their ongoing lives might. 

Since Jonestown, America has suffered from several other cults of personality and related mass suicides including the Heaven's Gate suicide of 39 people in California.  But the worst case of a cult of personality in America is ongoing today and involves the irrational, indefensible, and bizarre devotion of a few million people to the TRAITOR Trump.  He is far more dangerous than Jim Jones or Marshall Applewhite ever work and is wreaking havoc on the moral and political centers of American society while serving the needs of his Russian master Vladimir Putin.  But what the hell?  Why should I waste my time and energy continuing to warn America and the world about what is going on when no one seems to listen?

Read this little satire by Bill Best, or better still, go dig up a copy of "The Great Appalachian Sperm Bank and Other Writings by Bill Best and read several of his satires in one volume.  They are enlightening, informative and fun.  

Reflections On "The Hawk's Done Gone and Other Stories" by Mildred Haun

A recent Facebook message exchange with another lover of the short story cycle genre has reminded me that I have never written specifically on this blog about "The Hawk's Done Gone and other Stories" by Mildred Haun.  I have thought about it numerous times and have even reread the book at least once since I began this blog.  I was first exposed to this book about 1974 in Beckley, WV, by the great Appalachian poet and educator, Robert "Bob" "Billy Greenhorn" Snyder.  Bob loved this book and rightly so.  It is one of the most truly Appalachian books in all of Appalachian Literature.  It is also one of the finest works in Appalachian Literature which utilizes dialect writing.  I have said before in this blog that I do not generally attempt to write in dialect because it is very difficult to do appropriately and can be quite laughable and, yet, demeaning when it is done poorly whether the dialect being written about is Appalachian, African American, southern, or nearly any other dialect which is depicted as the dominant manner of speech for any minority group.  

This book falls squarely into the genre of literature known widely as the short story cycle.  I, like many other students of American Literature, was not even aware of the term until fairly recently.  Yet, I had also known literally since the days I was first exposed to the book that it has often been the subject of an ongoing argument as to whether it is a group of short stories or a novel.  Other well known books which also fall within that genre include "The Nick Adams Stories" and "In Our Time" by Ernest Hemingway, "Winsesburg, Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson,  "Go Down, Moses" by William Faulkner, and "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan.  "The Hawk's Done Gone" was written primarily in an undergraduate short story writing class at Vanderbilt University when the author was completing her bachelors degree and needed one more course to fulfill the requirements.  It was originally published in 1940 and a later edition with a few extra stories was released in 1968 two years after the author's death.  It has been the subject of much readership and discussion primarily by students of Appalachian Literature.  But it has also often been a point of argument in the discussion of the short story cycle.

The book is comprised of twenty-two interconnected short stories and a Prologue.  As is generally universal in the short story cycle, most, if not all, of the stories are capable of standing alone as highly readable, well crafted short stories.  But the stories are all set in a small community in East Tennessee which is based on Haun's own homeland in the Hoot Owl District of Cocke County where she spent most of her life.  Most of the stories are about various members of the White and Kanipe extended family and its matriarch Mary Dorthula White who also serves at the narrator of most of the stories.  Mary Dorthula White is a granny woman or midwife who delivers most of the local babies, prepares the dead for burial, and is sometimes suspected of being a witch.  I have written about the book in a comparison with "The Patron Saint of Ugly" by Marie Manilla in an article which has been published online in the "Mildred Haun Review Journal" at Walters State Community College in the area in which Mildred Haun spent her life.   In that article, I discussed how the book exemplifies several of the Appalachian cultural values which Loyal Jones wrote about in his seminal book, "Appalachian Vaules".  "The Hawk's Done Gone" is an excellent illustration of several of those cultural values including Love of Place; Independence, Self Reliance, and Pride; and Religion.

My favorite of the stories in the book is "Barshia's Horse He Made, It Flew" which I believe is Haun's masterpiece.  The story is narrated by Mary Dorthula White and the character for which it is entitled is her step-son Barshia Kanipe who can be described as being somewhere between odd and mentally ill.  Barshia uses the hide of a dead mule and other items to construct a winged horse which he hauls to the top of the family barn in an attempt to fly.  It is one fine piece of fiction and I won't spoil the story or the book by disclosing the entire plot and ending.

Many of the stories are at least partially involved with death and Mary Dorthula White actually maintains a family record in the family Bible which is the one personal antique she is able to prevent being sold by her shiftless husband, Ad Kanipe, and his sons from a previous marriage.  This book is one of my favorites in all of Appalachian Literature and I believe if you read it you will agree. 

"The Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle The Ethnic Resonance of Genre" by James Nagel--Book Review

 Nagel, James:  The Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle The Ethnic Resonance of Genre (Baton Rouge, LA. LSU Press, 2001)

 Over the last several months, I have become more and more interested in that genre, or more appropriately sub-genre, of American Literature known as the short story cycle.  The short story cycle can be described as "...the collection of a group of independent stories that contain continuing elements of character, setting, action, imagery, or theme that enrich each other in intertextual context." (Nagel, p. 15)  To put it a bit more simply, a short story cycle is a collection of short stories which have common characters, settings, or other elements such as a common conflict, plot, or theme which is discussed in multiple stories by a single author.  Some of the best known examples of short story cycles which my not have been previously billed as such would include "The Nick Adams Stories" by Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck's "The Pastures Of Heaven" or "Tortilla Flat", Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge", or Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg Ohio".  I have to confess that I have not read all these books although I have long been in love with "The Nick Adams Stories" and wrote about them at the link above.  I have also been a devoted fan of the work of Flannery O'Connor and John Steinbeck since I was in my early teens and have read nearly everything both of these wonderful authors have published.  But the short story cycles which James Nagel so ably writes about in this book which we are discussing here are more recent and, perhaps, more popular among modern American readers.  

In his book, Nagel devotes lengthy and scholarly chapters to each of the works he has chosen.  Those works are: Louise Erdrich's "Love Medicine"; "Monkeys" by Susan Minot; Sandra Cisneros's "The House on Mango Street"; "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brian; Julia Alvarez's "How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents"; "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan; and a second collection about Viet Nam and the Vietnamese people, "A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain" by Robert Olen Butler.  I suspect that "The Joy Luck Club" is the best known of the collections discussed in the book.  I must confess, as I did about a few of the books listed above, that I have not read any of the works studied in Nagel's excellent work.  When I bought the book and read it, my interest was in the genre and not the work of any specific author.  I am writing and have already completed several short stories in my own version of a short story cycle.  At the bottom of the front page of this blog, I have a section or list entitled "Links To Other Sites About Appalachia".  At the top of that list are several links to some of my short stories which fall into my own short story cycle which I have tentatively entitled "Tales From Widespot".  I read Nagel's book to further inform myself about the short story cycle and to hopefully improve my own work.  Like many of the writers and readers which Nagel discusses, I had read quite a few short story cycles without even knowing what a short story cycle was.  In a few places in the book, Nagel writes about other reviewers who have reviewed various of the books he discusses without knowing the term short story cycle, or at least without having made it known to their readers if they did know.  

I realize that for many readers the concept of the short story cycle and Nagel's book might seem a bit arcane and not worth the time or bother.  But I can assure you, if you are a lover of literature, that Nagle's book is well worth reading and so are many of the short story cycles he discusses at length or only mentions in passing such as the works of O'Connor, Hemingway, and Steinbeck.  At times, short story cycles come so close to being a novel that they are generally billed as being novels.  My other favorite short story cycle which Nagel does not even mention in his book is "The Hawk's Done Gone" by the Appalachian author Mildred Haun.  In a non-fiction article which was published in "The Mildred Haun Review Journal", I compared Haun's book with "The Patron Saint of Ugly" by my friend Marie Manilla.  If you are a fan of Appalachian Literature and have not read Mildred Haun's book, I strongly encourage you to do so.  It is a fine introduction to the concept of the short story cycle.  So are "The Nick Adams Stories" and  "Tortilla Flat".  

But to get back to my discussion of Nagel's book, it is a wonderful way to learn about the short story cycle and to dig deeper into the histories of some of the more modern books which you might have already read such as Amy Tan's book or Louise Erdrich's.  I will be doing the same over the next few weeks and months and I promise that I will be writing about them on this blog when I do.  I will also be working to publish my own short story cycle collection and to add to it.  For me, the short story has long been my favorite form of writing.  It allows for few mistakes if the author is attempting to produce high quality work.  The books which Nagel disusses are all obviously high quality work and so is his discussion of them.  If you are student of literature, and particularly the short story, this is a book which you should consider reading.  If you do not enjoy reading scholarly books, you might not enjoy his book or even wish to read it.  I leave that choice to you but rest assured  I found the book well worth reading and writing about. 

"Silas Marner" by George Eliot--Book Review

This has always been one of my favorite novels ever since I read it in my teen years, more than half a century ago.  It has been absolutely timeless and has been published in dozens of different editions from nearly every publisher which sells classic fiction.  You can find it in any decent bookstore from coast to coast. I recently reread this little classic with my wife and it was just as wonderful an experience as it was the first time all those decades ago.

George Eliot was the pen name of an English woman named Mary Anne Evans who published at least seven novels in the late nineteenth century.  "Silas Marner" was Eliot's third published novel in 1861.  It is frequently found in high school and college literature courses; in some abbreviated form in text books of both English and world literature; and, is one of the best known early novels by women in English.  But "Middlemarch" is generally considered to be her masterpiece.  If it is that much better than "Silas Marner", then it truly is a masterpiece.  I have never read "Middlemarch" but I assure you I will manage to do that in the near future and I already own a copy.  I would love to read all her published works if I had unlimited time.  I cannot recommend her work more highly.

This wonderful story of a lonely, miserly bachelor who is robbed of all his money and then saved, both emotionally and morally, by the sudden appearance of an orphan two year old girl on his doorstep upon the winter death of her drug addict mother is a tale which is priceless in its ability to give pleasure to both the ordinary recreational reader and the advanced student of great literature.  Eliot's combination of long, complex sentences and interspersed short sentences of only three or four words is a type of writing which was not common at the time in which the author lived.  Her skill set was unusual and unusually advanced for the late nineteenth century.  The story is brief, only 175 pages in the edition which I just read from Arcuturus, an English publisher.  But the story it tells is one that leaves strong, positive, enlightening, and educational impressions.  This is a novel which no reader of great literature should ever pass up.  The plot is direct but complex with strong characterizations of Silas Marner, the adopted daughter Eppie, and her secretive biological father who also lives nearby and is a major factor in the life of the community.  Read this story!  Enjoy it! Relish it!  This is a book which you will never regret coming to know. 

A Further Updated Reading List For The Resistance!

In early January 2017, I posted  A Reading List For The Resistance which was primarily a list of historical works both factual and fictional which placed the illicit, illegal, irrational, and TREASONOUS rise to power of Donald Trump into its proper perspective. On October 15, 2018, I amended that list with a sizeable collection of recent memoirs and historical works and will now add some more recent political works by living critics of this TRAITOR along with further dystopian literature since we are now approaching the nadir of the worst constitutional crisis since 1861 and our very form of democracy is under daily attack by the Russian Owned Criminal Syndicate which occupies the White House illegally based on the TREASON of Donald Trump.  This has further and even more disastrously been exacerbated by the additional TREASONOUS votes in the US Senate which whitewashed a minimal selection of this TRAITOR's crimes against America which the US House of Representatives chose to focus on in the most legitimate impeachment effort in American History.  Every member of the US House and Senate who voted to whitewash these TREASONOUS acts must be voted out of office in their next election. There has been a long list of recent memoirs, biographical works, and investigative books which have furthered the body of works which every American should be reading.  I have not read all of these highly important books but they are on my "To Be Read List" and most of them are already in my possession.  They need to be on your lists of future reading also and the sooner you read them the better. Not only do you need to read these books.  You need to fully understand, comprehend, and accept what they are saying about the TREASON and stochastic terrorism which is destroying America and is centered in the White House and being directed by Vladimir Putin from Moscow.  I have reviewed nearly all of the books I have read on this blog and will continue to do so with future reading.  I do have a complex life and never find myself up to date and saying "I wish I had something to read."  It would benefit all of you to lead a similar life of reading, study, and research.  If every American had read and studied this way over the last four years, this country would not be in the current and steadily deepening crisis.  Russia would not have been able to hack our election in 2016, and we would have a legitimate president instead of a TRAITOR living in the White House. If you had read and understood these earlier books and their messages, Russia would not be in a position to hack and control another election in America. You can also always go to the bottom of the home page of this blog to the list called "Books I Have Read Lately" to find what I have thought was worth my time and effort to read.  I will admit that not everything on that list is political.  A large portion of it is Appalachian Literature and great literature along with an occasional book which some of you might legitimately refer to as "trash" or what I call "drug store fiction".  But even I need an occasional foray into lighter literature.  The heavier and more honest political analysis is often dark, depressing, and scary.  But it is also very important if we are to save American Democracy from this band of TRAITORS. 

Recent historical events led by the US Senate's whitewash of the TREASON, the firing this week of two of the most important government employees who testified in the US House, and the increase in stochastic terrorism by the TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House have made it necessary to return to effort to induce others to read and learn what is actually happening in this TREASON. I have also had a few recent encounters which have motivated me to do this update and I admit that it is somewhat overdue based on our increasing political peril in this country.  Try to read at least one of these books between now and the federal election of November 3, 2020.  If it is not too late in your state, be certain to be registered to vote.  Register as a Democrat!  Vote the straight Democratic ticket.  It is the only way we can stop the ongoing treason in America and stymie the ongoing Russian effort to destroy America, American Democracy, and the entire free world.  If you have enough courage to find out what is actually happening in America today this list of books will assist you greatly in that effort.  Notice two things, please, about the additions to the first two lists.  The authors include an anonymous federal government employee whose legitimacy has been vetted by the New York Times, a world class political reporter whose credentials were temporarily withdrawn by the TRAITORS who live in the White House, a former US Presidential nominee, a former US prosecutor & FBI Director, a former US Director of National Intelligence, 27 of the best psychiatrists in America, a former US Secretary of State, and the man who broke the Watergate story.  The second thing to notice is that two of the titles from two of the most experienced people on the list use the word “Fear”. When some of the most dedicated political workers and journalists use the word "Fear" in book titles about the crimes of an occupant of the White House, you had better bet that it long past time for every American to do something to protect the country and democracy as a whole.

The Restless Wave by John McCain  "Worse misfits have not been seen in a White House since William Taft got stuck in his bathtub."  (John McCain, p. 327)  When I read that sentence in John McCain's last book, I laughed out loud.  I have read and reviewed this book since I did the first update to this list, and this book was the most pleasant surprise I have had in a book in quite some time.  I began reading it since McCain had recently died and he had up put some level of public resistance to TRAITOR Trump.  However, in 2016, he had failed to go the full mile and endorse Hillary Clinton for president instead of just refusing to endorse TRAITOR Trump. Yet this book is far more positive about Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama than toward TRAITOR Trump.  I had begun the book expecting to hear a pretty standard espousal of fairly Right Wing Repugnican politics and a play by play of McCain's career.  But the book is often very honest about McCain's serious misgivings, distrust, and opposition to TRAITOR Trump. I know absolutely that McCain pulled his punches in this book and failed to fully say all he knew about the crimes of TRAITOR Trump, perhaps because a lot of what he knew was classified. But whatever the reasons, he fell short of taking the full step and calling a spade a spade.  But the book is very well worth reading.  

Facts And Fears by James Clapper This book continues James Clapper's public denunciation of the crimes of TRAITOR Trump.  I have reviewed it here.  The one glaring shortcoming in the book is the use of acronyms for literally dozens of branches of the federal government and international agencies which Mr. Clapper worked with or for during his lifetime of public service.  For the person not well versed in the federal bureaucracy, this use of hundreds of acronyms is confusing and irritating in spite of the insertion of a list of full names in the back of the book.  But this book is one of the first on the list that I would suggest that you read.  It is a fine historical perspective on American intelligence efforts over the last forty years and brutally honest, especially so about the Russian collusion and hacking of our 2016 election.  With any discussion of the hacking of the previous election in 2016, you need to understand that Russia has not stopped their efforts to rule the world and to use any means to do so.  Vladimir Putin has just recently further consolidated his grip on absolute power by firing the entire upper levels of government and installing a tighter group of his loyalists. You can believe he would like to do the same thing to the rest of the world, especially the democratic countries of the world and he has a compatriot living in the White House.  You also need to understand that in spite of the efforts of the US House and the Democratic Party nothing has been done on a federal level to tighten American election security, the Iowa Caucuses on February 3, 2020, were an absolute disaster and nearly a week later of this writing we still do not have a complete set of statistics from those caucuses, and, despite Iowa denials, we have no absolute certainty that Russia was not behind the problems either in whole or in part.  

A Higher Loyalty Truth Lies And Leadership by James Comey  First and foremost, I want to say that this book is about James Comey and his life of public service much more than it is about his firing and public victimization by TRAITOR Trump.  I have reviewed it here.  This book, just as is true of James Clapper's, is much more about facts and history than it is about any emotion the author might feel toward the current illegal occupant of the White House.  It is an excellent piece of work which I do not believe would have ever been written if Mr. Comey had not felt that it was his duty as a patriot and lifetime public servant to do so because of the criminality of TRAITOR Trump.  Read it!  Learn from it!  Familiarize yourself with and utilize the truths it contains.  Also, be fully aware that since the publication of the book, James Comey has spent a great deal of his time in the effort to continue to expose the truth about the TRAITOR who illegally occupies the White House. 

Collusion Secret Meetings, Dirty Money And How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win by Luke Harding  I have reviewed this book here.  This is the first historical book that I read about the crimes of the TRAITOR Trump. It was well worth the experience and has often guided me in my choices about other subsequent reading.  Luke Harding is a writer for The Guardian and is a tremendous writer, researcher, and fact finder in the very dangerous world of international politics.  He and his colleagues are on that list of journalists whom every American citizen should read regularly. You should also regularly read The Guardian online at the link above. This book goes a very long way to explain and corroborate the information contained in the Steele Dossier which literally began the revelations about the crimes of TRAITOR Trump.  This book also does a great job of putting the timeline of the crimes of TRAITOR Trump into a logical frame for the less aware reader.  This book "reads like a spy novel" is what my friend and follower of this blog Steve Sargent said about it.  My response to that was "it is a spy novel". However, it is also the farthest thing in the world from fiction. 

The Dangerous Case Of Donald Trump Edited by Bandy X. Lee, M. D. I reviewed this book here.  This is one of those books that every reasonably intelligent citizen of this country should read.  I have been promoting this book ever since the day the initial publicity campaign began when it was released.  This book was written in individual articles by 27 of the best, best known, most experienced, most respected psychiatrists in the country and edited by Dr. Bandy X. Lee, M. D. who is a psychiatrist and professor at Yale University.  Her credentials are incredible and so is this book.  Just as the letter to the senate from 2,400 law professors should have put an end to the legal career of Brett Kavanaugh, this book should have put an end to the public life of TRAITOR Trump.  Read this book even if you do not choose to read another book on this list or another book of any kind for the rest of your life. Do not let the fact that it is written by a bevy of psychiatrists deter you from reading it. It is written in highly accurate terms which are based in the principles of psychiatry but it is not a psychiatric book.  It is written in language which any high school graduate can understand. When you are done with this book,  you will have a far better understanding of the serious and dangerous mental illness of TRAITOR Trump.  You will also have a far better understanding of the pervasive terror millions of intelligent Americans suffer from because he illegally occupies the White House.

Fire And Fury by Michael Wolf  I reviewed this book here.  This book is not nearly as well written and likely not nearly as honest as any of those I have discussed earlier.  But I read it and reviewed it because it was the first book written and published by someone who was an insider in the so-called "administration" of TRAITOR Trump.  Wolf seems to have begun his research hoping to write a glowing review of the Russian Owned Criminal Syndicate.  It did not turn out that way at all.  However, put this book somewhere later in your reading since it is not nearly as high quality work as most of the others and still attempts to put a positive swing on the actions of the perpetrators.

Fascism A Warning by Madeleine Albright  Former Secretary of State Albright's book has been postively reviewed by most of the media people who have read it. I concur absolutely.  Secretary Albright was born in Czechoslovakia and immigrated to the US to become our first female Secretary of State and one of our best.  This is her description of a Fascist: "A Fascist is someone who claims to speak for a whole nation or group, is utterly unconcerned with the rights of others, and is willing to use violence and whatever other means are necessary to achieve the goals he or she might have.”  There is no more accurate description of TRAITOR Trump.  This is an excellent, well written book by one of the best diplomats who ever worked in the US government.  Read this book, absorb the truths it contains, and take the title seriously.  It is a warning about the danger of the fascism being practiced in the White House today.

Trump/Russia by Seth Hettena  This book provides an excellently researched timeline of the more than 30 year history of interactions between TRAITOR Trump and Russia.  Hettena's reputation as a reporter, researcher, and writer are excellent.  He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and that, in itself, is a recommendation of his mind and ability to function successfully in a high pressure environment. I reviewed the book here.  This is also a book which every American should read and you should read it before you ever go to the polls to vote again.  This is one of the better books which have been written about the TREASON of Trump and does an excellent job of tracking, documenting, and proving the long, lurid history of the TRAITOR's involvement with Russia and his ownership by and indebtedness to Russia both for his ability to survive the disaster of his casino bankruptcies and his ability to illegally rise to power with the assistance of Russia.

The Plot To Destroy America by Malcolm Nance Malcolm Nance is a career US Navy man and the author of several books on counter terrorism, intelligence, national security, and Islamic extremism. Everyone of his books are well worth reading and should be added to your reading list just as they have been to mine.  He is a trained intelligence expert and cryptologist.  His unique perspective and ability to write about what he knows without endangering his security clearance or his reputation is remarkable.  Malcolm Nance is the kind of person you could expect someday to be a national security adviser to the next duly elected, legitimate administration to occupy the White House. He is perfectly capable of being a US Secretary of State at some point in his life.  Although I have not fully reviewed this book on this blog, I have read it and I am remiss in not having posted a review of it.  I will do so in the near future.

Russian Roulette by Michael Issikoff & David Corn  These two authors are writers for Yahoo News and Mother Jones Magazine respectively.  This book is another examination of the Russian interference in the 2016 election.  While I consider Mother Jones to be a far more reputable source of news than Yahoo, these two authors also have excellent reputations and their work is well respected. I have read this book but am also remiss in not having written a review of it for this blog.  I will also review this book in the next few days if at all possible.  It is well worth reading, instructive about the TREASON of Trump and his closest associates.  

Now we arrive at the list of books which are still sitting on my "To Be Read" shelf.  I fully intend to read and review all of them but all I can say about that is that I am behind.  If you have or choose to obtain copies of any or all of them go ahead and read them.  I have read reviews of them by others and am aware of the work of most of the authors.  They are all worth your time.  As soon as I finish each of them, I will return to this blog post and update my comments on them.

Fear by Bob Woodward Bob Woodward needs no introductions anywhere in the world.  He is one of the two men who broke the story of the Watergate Conspiracy and eventually could be said to have helped bring about the resignation of Richard Nixon.  His reputation is flawless and he has steadily written political works since the 1970's.  Nearly all his books, more than a dozen, have been best sellers and above average works.  His ability to develop sources deep within sheltered organizations was first seen in the information he and his co-author Carl Bernstein obtained from Deep Throat who eventually revealed himself as Mark Felt, a former Deputy Director of The FBI at the time he was providing information to Woodward and Bernstein.  This might be the first book some of you read or may have already read.  Tell me about it if you have.

The Apprentice: Trump, Russia and the Subversion of American Democracy by Greg Miller This book was written by Pulitzer Prize winning Washington Post reporter Greg Miller.  No author should ever need to have their resume bolstered after having been employed at the best newspaper in the nation and winning a Pulitzer Prize.  Place this book high on your list of works to be read as I have.  I can't wait to get to it and neither should you. 

Everything Trump Touches Dies: A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever by Rick Wilson  Numerous reputable Republicans who desire to keep their reputations intact have spoken out over the last three years about the crimes and ignorance of TRAITOR Trump. Former Republican Presidential Nominee and current US Senator Mitt Romney actually voted to convict and remove TRAITOR Trump on one charge of abuse of power.  Many have left the Republican Party over the long string of criminal actions by the current illegal occupant of the White House.  The rest should do the same.  Rick Wilson has a more than thirty year career as a Republican political operative and worked in the Department of Defense under Dick Cheney.  His resume and his political roots make this book worth examining. 

House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia by Craig Unger Craig Unger has a Harvard education and a growing list of books written primarily about connections between Republican politicians and less than desirable partners. This book examines the long history between TRAITOR Trump and the Russian Mafia whose upper echelon members own many of the apartments in Trump Tower and numerous other Trump developments all around the world.  Nothing more need be said about that connection when you look at the list of business deals and money laundering schemes which have been perpetrated between these principals. This book seems to be worth the time to read it.  Let me know what you think if you get to it before I do. 

Now we get to the earlier books which I had put on my first Reading List For the Resistance.  Each of these works is also worth your time and the entire list is intended to lay the groundwork for you to fully understand the actions of the TRAITOR Trump and his Russian Owned Criminal Syndicate.  Each of these books was listed here for an important reason.  Read them to understand those reasons.  Your mind and your self-esteem will thank you for it. 

United States Constitution The US Constitution and individual rights has been under attack from the first second the Republicans took control of the US government. The recent whitewash by the Repugnican majority in the US Senate of the crimes and TREASON of the TRAITOR Trump has been the worst of these actions. But they will not be the last such attacks on American Democracy and they may well not even be the worst before we are free of them and their tyranny. The TRAITOR Donald Trump has already, on numerous occasions, stated a desire to restrict freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and all rights of Muslim citizens and immigrants in general. Just this week, he has practiced a clearly Fascist retribution against two of the most important impeachment witnesses and the brother of one of them who was never involved in the effort to impeach.  Every citizen should have a solid understanding of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence even in the best of times for our country. Now that we are involved in the worst of times, it is even more important that you know what the Constitution says and what it does not.  It is being misrepresented, misinterpreted, and attacked on a daily basis by these TRAITORS.  Every citizen should also be willing to stand up and speak out in defense of these basic principles of American Democracy at any time the TRAITOR Trump or his generally uneducated, ignorant, and unprincipled followers make attacks on these concepts.  The Capitol Net publishes pocket copies of the Constitution and many other important American political documents which are cheap and easily ordered from their web site.   Capitol Net will actually send you a free pocket copy of the Constitution upon request. Get a copy, read it, study it, understand it, carry it with you wherever you go, and be prepared to confront ignorance about the foundations of American Democracy wherever you encounter it. 

The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay Do not ever listen to and accept the opinion of another about what the Founding Fathers thought, intended, or wanted.  Read what they said for yourself and form your own opinion.  Read this book and learn exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind as they molded the fledgling American Democracy.

"Mein Kampf" by Adolph Hitler Donald Trump's campaign was a carbon copy of the campaign Hitler used to gain power in Germany.  One of Trump's ex-wives has stated that he kept a copy of Hitler's speeches by his bed.  Many of the same techniques Adolph Hitler used to gain and maintain power are the same which have been used on a daily basis by the TRAITOR Donald Trump over the last three years and that use is not accidental.  It is deliberate emulation of Adolph Hitler and it will become more widespread now that this TRAITOR has had his TREASON whitewashed by the US Senate.  

"Night" by Elie Wiesel This is a classic and powerful personal account of the Holocaust by a Jewish survivor who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his work to bring about world peace. And, yes, it can happen here. The TRAITOR Trump has uncovered, nurtured, spread, and encouraged a great deal of hatred already in this country.  With great power and the recent whitewash of his TREASON, he will do worse.  

"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak This is a fictional work about the Holocaust written for adolescent audiences.  But it does an excellent job of informing the reader of how the Nazis spread terror during the Holocaust.  It is well worth reading by the adult reader to learn about how terror is spread by unjust governments.  While this book is fiction, the descriptions of Nazi terrorism in Germany are factually based and quite accurate. 

Black Earth The Holocaust As History And Warning by Timothy Snyder One of the most cogent quotations from history comes from the philosopher George Santayana:  "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  The TRAITOR Donald Trump is backed by a coalition of extremist groups ranging from the Ku Klux Klan to the American Nazi Party and, obviously, the Russian Communist Party. The TRAITOR Trump has consistently refused to condemn them, their ideologies, or their actions.  Here is a link to a great story from Mother Jones about those groups.  Most of the followers of these groups are psychologically very similar to the German citizens who became Hitler's Brown Shirts and SS Troopers.  And the most important thing to remember about the Germans who carried out Adolph Hitler's crimes against humanity is that before Adolph Hitler rose to power those people were considered to be ordinary German citizens just as most of TRAITOR Trump's followers would have us believe they are ordinary American citizens.  This book by Timothy Snyder looks at the Holocaust both as a historical event and as an event that could be repeated if the people of today do not heed the warnings provided by the Holocaust.  This is one of the most important books to have been written in the last 25 years. I bought my copy of this book during a visit to the El Paso Texas Holocaust Museum.  If you get the opportunity to visit a city which has a Holocaust Museum, make certain that you visit that site and learn from it all you can because it can be repeated in the United States.  If you do not believe that is possible, just ask yourself one more time what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017.  It can happen again on any day in America. 

Stubborn Twig: Three Generations In The Life Of A Japanese American Family For those of you who do not believe that anything remotely resembling the crimes of the Holocaust could happen in America, this book is a must read since the TRAITOR Donald Trump has risen to power and had his TREASON whiewashed by the Repugnican majority in the US Senate,  During his entire public career, the TRAITOR Trump has preached disrespect, disregard, and unconstitutional labeling of groups in America such as the United States House, the media, Muslims and immigrants.  This book details the life of a very successful and patriotic Japanese American family which had their land and property seized during World War II and were sent off to interment camps simply because of their ethnicity.  Yes, it can happen in America and it already has under the administration of one of the greatest American Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt.  

The Cherokee Removal A Brief History With Documents edited by Theda Perdue & Michael Green  For those of you who have read "Stubborn Twig..." and still find yourselves saying it couldn't happen here, it already has...twice, once to the Japanese Americans and once to the Cherokee.  In many ways, the disrespect that the TRAITOR Trump shows to Muslims and immigrants is a lot like the attitude which Andrew Jackson showed the Native Americans.  Hispanic immigrants from Central and South America have seen on a daily basis since January 20, 2017, that their lives and their children's lives are not worth a cent to this TRAITOR who is willing to commit crimes against humanity and cage children in order to further his personal objectives in defiance of US laws and the US Constitution. 

The United States Of Appalachia How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture, and Enlightenment To America by Jeff Biggers  This book will teach you a great deal about the birth of American Democracy, especially for those of you who have never heard of the State Of Franklin or do not know where most of the men who died at the Alamo were actually from.  Jeff Biggers will also show you a lot about how a few dedicated citizens can change a country for the better. 

A Nation Defiant Polish Resistance To The German Occupation Of Poland by Richard S. Fuegner  The only way the country will be able to successfully resist, confront, and stop the destruction of American Democracy by Traitor Trump and his henchmen will be by utilizing a committed, determined, and well organized populist resistance.  Such a resistance is forming in America and can win this battle in the long run but that resistance must learn techniques which have been successful in other periods and other places.  This is an excellent book about the Polish resistance and will teach you a lot.

When Even Angels Wept by Lately Thomas During 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin led an effort known as the Communist Witch Hunts which destroyed the lives and careers of many thousand falsely accused Americans.  Senator McCarthy, another classic megalomaniac, led a senate investigation into alleged communism in the country and dragged hundreds and thousands of innocent socially active people in front of the committee where they were pilloried, denigrated, and defamed with little to no evidence in most cases.  Many of these people spent the rest of their lives unemployed, defamed, and in poverty.  But Senator McCarthy was confronted and stopped before he could completely destroy the country and American Democracy.  This is a great book to learn about one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the country and to utilize that knowledge to prevent TRAITOR Trump and his henchmen from perpetrating another such crime.  

I hope every person who reads this post will go on to read at least one of the listed works, especially the United States Constitution, which will be under attack for the next four years by the Republican Party whether or not Donald Trump is successfully prosecuted for treason.  I would also suggest that you read as much dystopian literature as you can such as the works of George Orwell, Phillip K. Dick, Aldous Huxley, and Anthony Burgess.  

“I have lived my life and I have fought my battles, not against the weak and poor—but against power, injustice, and oppression.”  Clarence Darrow 

“Why, this far into the twenty-first century, are we once again talking about Fascism?  One reason, frankly, is Donald Trump.  If we think of Fascism as a wound from the past that had almost healed, putting Trump in the White House was like ripping off the bandage and picking at the scab.”  Madeleine Albright, “Fascism A Warning”, p. 5-6. 

“Bigger misfits haven’t been seen inside a White House since William Taft got stuck in his bathtub.”  John McCain, “The Restless Wave”, p. 267

“I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written: Yes We Can. Yes We Did.  Yes We Can.”  President Barack Obama

 “These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." Thomas Paine