I've thought and thought, but I just can't come up with anything to say or show to mark our national day.
I love my country, and there are still good people in it - but when I look beyond our little home and neighborhood, what I see is a nightmare version of America, a Bizarro world turned upside down, inside out. Not the country I grew up in.
Instead of a republic, we live now in a corrupt and corrupting dictatorship centered on the worship of a conceited egomaniac without a conscience, supported and sustained by supine legislators and venal judges. He is the complete antithesis of everything an American president should be, a monumental disgrace to the office held by Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts, and so many other honest, honorable, decent men.
The dictatorship is not yet total, but his lickspittle lackeys, verminous henchmen, and deluded supporters are straining every nerve to make it so. If they succeed, we shall have, not the blessings of liberty, but the scourging of a theocratic and plutocratic autocracy. Which is just what the Founding Fathers feared and tried to prevent.
The truth is, both the right and the left have gone far wrong, and no matter how the politics turn out, the old order of thing in this country and abroad has been shattered to pieces and will never return. The clock never runs backward.
This old man has outlived his time. Things may get better eventually, or they may get worse - either way, there's nothing I can do to affect the course of events. With the infirmities of advancing age, it's all we can do here just to keep ourselves and our little home in working order.
I could say many other things about politics and society, history and morality, but that's all I can manage for now - except a prayer: God bless America and God help us all.
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I don't feel like singing today, but here is the late, great Kate Smith with the song she made famous when my dad was in England serving with the U. S. Air Force, and my mom was working in a defense plant here in Texas, turning out artillery shells:
Bonus, 5 p.m.: Former President Bill Clinton has issued an encouraging statement on America 250 and the state of the country. Excerpt:
Our Founders were wise when they gave us our mission to form a more perfect union. They knew America would never be perfect but could always be better. That’s what they meant by “more perfect.” We’ve done that by being courageous enough to acknowledge our flaws and missteps—and then bold enough to leave them behind for brighter tomorrows.
That’s the lesson of our first 250 years: we can always do better. In how we treat one another, in person and online; in building a better future for ourselves, our families, and our communities; and in standing up, showing up, and speaking out for our democracy.
I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for
the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a
republic; a sovereign nation of many sovereign states; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American
patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.
I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it; to support its Constitution, to
obey its laws; to respect its flag; and to defend it against all enemies.
Bonus: Adam Kinzinger's Fourth of July message "Still Worth Believing In":
Kicking off your July 4th with Little Stevie Wonder's first big hit from 1965, which still brings a crowd to its feet after all these years. And it says something about the American dream, if you listen carefully:
Here's wishing a very happy Independence Day to all my friends and truckbuddies. Regardless of all the screaming and shouting, ranting and raving, there's still a lot to be thankful for in this country, and we should be proud of how far we Americans have come and of all we have achieved in the last 247 years. Despite all the flaws, faults, and frailties of human nature, it's a magnificent story, seen in perspective and as a whole; and the long-term trend has always been upward, towards a more perfect union, with liberty and justice for all. We should keep it going that way.
I'm proud to be an American. Having done the genealogy work and spent several thousand dollars getting records transcribed, I know for a certain fact that my people have been part of the American story since at least 1688, starting back in Maryland and the Old Dominion. Generation after generation, as decades passed and families moved westward, they played their part in building up this country: farmers and planters, lawyers and judges, teachers and preachers, surveyors and soldiers, tavern keepers and taxi drivers, fathers and mothers of many children. As far as I know, they were all honest, God-fearing, hard-working men and women, whether upright Anglicans or backwoods Baptists. Some were rich and some were poor; one family attended the same church as General Washington and his lady.
Sign at the site of the home of one of my ancestors, who dined at Mount Vernon on at least one occasion, as recorded by Washington in his diary.
Other families were poor, living in log cabins far back in the woods and swamps, so poor that one boy had only a shirt to wear until he was 12 years old, about the time of the Civil War. Some made music, some were mathematically inclined . . . and I suspect some made mighty good moonshine. And there is definitely some Cherokee blood in the mix too, which unfortunately has left no written account but which perhaps can be glimpsed in my profile. Family stories allege that there was also French and Spanish blood somewhere back in time, though I could find no record of such. And perhaps there was even a drop of African blood - I learned that, contrary to popular belief, it happened even in the best of families way back there, sometimes.
My roots run deep. Through my research I was able to find all 32 great-great-grandparents, at least their names and dates, going back to about the year 1800 - and their many descendants, scattered between the Potomac and the Rio Grande. They were all Southerners, from the British Isles, and Protestants, so far as I know. I say that merely as a statement of fact. I would have been just as happy to find some French or Spanish, Catholics or Jews, but they were scarce on the ground when I went hunting. I found a few lines that stretched further back to the late 1600s, but of course they were only a fraction of the whole. (Ten generations back from me would include over a thousand ancestors: do the math yourself and see.) With the internet, it has become relatively easy - though still tedious - to find names and dates nowadays; but sadly, in most cases that's all there is to be found. One looks at the lists of names and wonders how many untold stories are there, how many boys and girls grew into men and women, laughed and wept and loved, had their day in the sun, and now sleep the long sleep.
Only a few stories have survived the passage of time; and they are quite interesting. One direct patriot ancestor, possibly of Swiss descent, was wounded in a North Carolina battle in 1776, several months before the Declaration of Independence was signed. A collateral uncle was a lieutenant in the War of 1812; and half a century later, a collateral cousin was a Confederate general. A pair of brothers rode with the celebrated Mosby's Rangers, and lived to tell about it. A more distant girl cousin was the Confederate spy Laura Ratcliffe, who counted both Mosby and J. E. B. Stuart among her admirers.
Another Virginia cousin, a high-spirited boy of 14, thought it would be great sport to ambush single-handedly a squad of Union soldiers passing by the family homestead en route to the Battle of Manassas. The result was that the enraged troops promptly went and burned down the house! The menfolks were all away at the time. Stupid boy; imagine what his poor mama must have said to him afterwards. A couple of years later he joined the Confederate Army, lost a leg in some battle, and returned home sadder but wiser. Eventually, he got an education and in later life was, I think, superintendent of the local schools.
It would have been quite exciting to learn these stories when I was a boy and fascinated with the Civil War, but I knew nothing of all this until I started my genealogical research at the turn of the present century. And of course, whatever wealth there may have been in the family was swept away by the War; none of it came down to me. The South lay devastated for a generation afterwards, having paid a very steep and painful price for being on the wrong side of history. All my grandparents were born in humble circumstances deep in the countryside.
Let me say clearly here that it was a bloody, futile, senseless war, started for all the wrong reasons, and should never have happened; but once it started, these my kinsmen did what they had to do to defend their homes and families from the Yankee invaders - who often took the opportunity to steal or destroy everything they could, including food supplies, crops, and livestock - the necessities of life. Civilians suffered greatly. That's how wars always are; and brave men and women all down through recorded history have done what they needed to do to protect their loved ones and repel the invaders; there is no shame in that. You would do it too, gentle reader, regardless of the cause.
In the early 20th century, one grandfather delivered the U. S. Mail on horseback through his rural county; the other was a fireman on a steam locomotive. A generation later, my dad was an Air Force mechanic who was bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of the Bulge. He came through the war without a scratch, however, and went to college on the G.I. Bill, as millions of other veterans did. There he met my mother - the result being, eventually, me.
My great-great grandfather, drafted into the Confederate Army in 1862, aged about 36. Probably this picture was taken shortly before he went off to war. He died in the Battle of Franklin, Tenn., in December 1864, a few months before the war ended, leaving an impoverished wife and four children back in Mississippi.
My gggrandfather's younger cousin, who rode with Mosby's Rangers - notice the horseshoe emblem on his sleeve. After the war, he got an M. D, and became a highly respected physician in a small Texas town.
A younger brother of the above. He also rode with Mosby.
Yet another cousin was General Elkanah Greer, CSA, a wealthy planter in East Texas; at the time of his death in 1877, the Memphis newspaper remembered him as "a gallant soldier and an accomplished gentleman."
These are the kind of men your Head Trucker is descended from, Americans all - both before and after the War. My forefathers were brave, manly men who did the right thing as it seemed to them at that time - which is all anyone can do in any place or time. I wish I had inherited their toughness, but . . . I was cut from different cloth. My Texas uncles and cousins more nearly fit the family pattern.
So you see, I feel that in my veins flows the great mosaic of American life as it was lived, high and low, since the earliest settlements and peoples. I am the product of all who came before me; but I should be judged on what I have done in my life, not what they did or didn't do. Which is the only right way to judge anyone. To do otherwise would be pre-judging: prejudice. That is not the American way.
I say there's way too much blather these days about diversity, and not nearly enough talk about UNITY. Without which, we have nothing. And anybody who doesn't like it here is free to go live somewhere else. Good luck finding another country that will suit you better. Or just go . . . jump in the lake.
Here's some live cams from around the nation to show that life goes on in America, and not too badly, despite everything that upsets and divides us: just look at the living mosaic of races, sexes, and ages in these scenes. Everybody gets a chance. Everybody gets to dance. Rich or poor, old or young, gay or straight, everyone has a place in the sun. That's the American dream. And it's a good thing.
Below is a reminiscence of the famous concert by Marian Anderson on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939: a thrilling moment in our history that united Americans of all kinds instead of driving them apart. That is what the American dream is, really: E pluribus unum.
Diversity is a very popular word these days. But I say, diversity without unity will destroy us. And sooner rather than later.
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
While watching one of the memorial services for George Floyd last month, at which several people spoke from the pulpit, I was struck by the remarks of a grieving young woman, perhaps a teenager, who in the middle of saying her piece asked, contemptuously, "Make America Great Again - when has America ever been great?"
And while listening to newscasters and protesters and professional chatterati of all stripes during the past month, I have been distressed to hear pompous expressions and condescending judgments that seem to be based on the notion that nothing at all has changed in this country since 1965 - or indeed, since 1865. Which seems quite wrongheaded to me; remembering vividly the segregated society of my childhood and youth, I could write a long list of things that have changed markedly for the better just in my lifetime, for all kinds and conditions of people, despite whatever seems to have gone wrong at present.
That is not to say that our country, or any one of us, has reached perfection yet. We never will. We can only continue working and reaching toward a more perfect union, even though our reach exceed our grasp. Though we may always fall short of what we seek, the persistent striving for it is what counts.
How the nationwide disgust and outrage over the brutal murder of an innocent man got diverted into refighting the Civil War is a bit more than I can understand. That conflict was ended, settled, and done with two centuries ago; and our enduring union was bought dearly, cemented with the blood of brothers from all parts of the land, all part of our one big American family: Americans all, before and after the fight.
The enmities of that needless, senseless war were laid to rest long ago along with the bones of those who sacrificed themselves, as brave men in every age have done, in defense of their homes and families, and for what seemed to them the greater good in that day and time. Mistaken or not, may they all rest in peace. There is no North or South, no East or West, in the grave.
It is certain that those on both sides who survived the bloodshed were anxious to move forward as one people and bind up the nation's wounds, not tear them open again. How much more so should we humbly desire to heal and reconcile with one another, we who live in this vastly different modern age, knowing and understanding so much more than they about all aspects of life on this fragile planet?
It seems to me that today's perils, conflicts, and injustices are what deserve our earnest attention and steady focus now. The past belongs to the dead, who are beyond all praise or reproach; it is the present that belongs to us, the living - along with the sacred duty to carry on the good work that was begun, not ended, in 1776. Lazily to castigate the past, which cannot be changed, instead of working hard to repair the present, which can always be improved, is a useless waste of time and spirit.
So today as we celebrate the nation's 244th birthday, I offer these musical selections as a reminder of the permanent possibility of progress - now quick, now slow, but always upward - that has made the United States an inspiration to all the world from its beginnings, and will continue to do so, if only we remain one united people devoted to liberty, equality, and justice for all - in the enduring bond of brotherly love and mutual respect.
That is much easier to say than to do, of course. But we must try anyway, and not be foolishly diverted from the essential issues that now confront us. Though the forces of intolerance and disunity abroad in the land are bent on tearing us apart, I believe it is not yet too late for the better angels of our nature to prevail, and lead the American experiment onward to ever-greater heights.
Red and yellow, black and white, male and female, straight and gay, we are all Americans; we are heirs of the past but not bound to repeat it. Let us fix what is broken and mend what is torn: good neighbors and fellow workers in all the good we can do for our country. Let us be friends; we must not be enemies.
Early or late, progress happens. The story of how the following performance came about is too well known to repeat here. The great American contralto Marian Anderson sings "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in April 1939:
The late actor and author Ossie Davis attended the concert as a college student, and here recounts what it meant to him:
In September 1942, Miss Anderson christened the Liberty ship Booker T. Washington in a shipyard in Los Angeles, and sang "The Star Spangled Banner" (the second half of the clip is silent):
Bonus: Miss Anderson sings Schubert's "Ave Maria" in the original German - one of the loveliest renditions I know of this sacred melody:
This is a PSA made by the Ad Council in the wake of the September 11th attacks, and reissued ten years later. I find it very timely and very moving still.
With my tiny voice here on this blog, I appeal to all my truckbuddies, and to all my fellow Americans, to remember in this darkening time that while we may be a nation of many colors, we are all one people under Old Glory. I pray that everyone from all sides, of all stripes and shades and opinions, will remember that above and beyond the individual pursuit of happiness, it is our duty as Americans to preserve and extend "the blessings of liberty" handed down to us, to make common cause across all lines and divisions, to seek peace and pursue it - not merely abroad, but starting right here at home with our friends, relations, and next-door neighbors.
I seem to hear the ominous ticking of a clock. We have had a very good thing going here in this country for nearly 250 years now. Do we really have to destroy it all in sordid squabbles, putrid politics, and internecine conflict? Must we, really? Is there not still time to turn back the tide of hate and simply love this country - and one another? Is that not the greatest and best agenda of all?
Brothers and sisters, Americans all, I am not asking anyone to surrender. I am just asking everyone to unite, despite all differences, under the starry banner that is red and blue - for our own good, and for that of the whole world. While we still can. God help us so to do.
PBS will air the annual concert A Capitol Fourth live from the West Lawn of the U. S. Capitol beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. Along with the U. S. Army Band "Pershing's Own," headliners include Alabama, Barry Manilow, and KC and the Sunshine Band. Description:
Celebrating 35 spectacular years on the air, A Capitol Fourth will kick off the country’s 239th birthday with an all-star musical extravaganza that puts viewers front and center for the greatest display of fireworks anywhere in the nation. America’s favorite Independence Day celebration is broadcast live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, millions more at home, and our troops watching around the world on the American Forces Network.
Here's a short interview with Jerry and Michael Colbert, father and son producers of the program:
And here's a clip of KC and the Sunshine Band rehearsing in front of the Capitol yesterday:
Gawd, I can't believe the once-young-and-studly Harry Wayne Casey, whom I saw in concert in 1976 at the height of his fame, looks like a boring old middle-aged man . . . like me!
Where does the time go?
And the White House released this video celebrating a good week for the President, and marking in part the progress of liberty and equality in this our wayward but beloved land of hopes and dreams:
Ya know fellas, your Head Trucker ain't no spring chicken anymore, and can't keep up with what all those crazy kids are doing these days. But over the weekend I ran across this number sung by some little girl who isn't half bad - she has a mature, powerful voice, and I think she should keep up with her singing, she might even make a career out of it one day.
And normally I don't like anyone messing around with the National Anthem - but I'll make an exception in this particular case, and I think you boys will like it too. Enjoy, and have a good one now, ya hear?
And then there's a voice from the past:
Excerpt from a letter by Thomas Jefferson, June 24, 1826, declining with regret an invitation to attend the 50th Independence Day celebrations in Washington, D. C. (spelling and capitalization as per the original):
may it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the Signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government. that form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion.
all eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. the general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view. the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. these are grounds of hope for others. for ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.
By a curious chance, Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, a few hours before his friend and fellow co-signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams.
P.S. - a belated happy Canada Day to my truckbuddies north of the border.
What the delegate from Texas would have said.
From the White House, a performance of "America the Beautiful." Yeah, it's partly a campaign ad - but aren't you glad it's not McCain or Bush or Romney?
The awesome Pat Benatar leads this kick-ass live performance of Martina McBride's great hit:
The first time I ever heard it, it didn't grab me. But over the years, I've come to think of the chorus as a kind of anthem for anyone beaten down, despised, and abused. Including all of us queer people.
One day our true freedom to be all that we are will come. Meanwhile, enjoy the holiday, y'all.
The Gaither Vocal Band singing our national anthem in four-part harmony. Turn up the volume before you start, fellas. If this doesn't move you . . . what will?
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
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We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
and welcome to the Blue Truck, a blog for mature gay men with news and views on gay rights, history, art, humor, and whatever comes to mind. Plus a few hot men. The truck's all washed and gassed up, so hop in buddy, let's go.
CAUTION: For mature gay men only beyond this point. Some posts and links may not be suitable for children or the unco guid. You have been warned.
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My Story
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Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?
It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.
If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God.
