Written January 12, 2024, MLK weekend, at Alma, Colorado.

I had heard of him, but I knew little about him. He was born a slave, escaped and became an abolitionist, finally he became a revered national figure. In my ignorance Frederick Douglass was a shadow who lacked substance. That has changed. More on this in a moment.

LibriVox (LibriVox | free public domain audiobooks) is an online resource for those who enjoy audiobooks. Its distinguishing feature is that the books are all in the public domain, the copyrights having expired. The books are read by volunteers. Many of the readings are excellent, even approaching professional quality. LibriVox has an excellent iOS app that facilitates searching the catalogue and allows for downloading to smartphones and similar devices so that one can “read” off-line. I understand that there is a Google Play app, but I am not familiar with it.

The LibriVox catalogue consists of over 40,000 books and continues to grow. The great majority of the selections are read in English, but a sizable number are in German, French, Italian, and a host of other languages.

Most readers are familiar with H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, to name just two authors. Most readers recognize their most popular works such as “War of the Worlds, “The Invisible Man”, “The Time Machine”, “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”, and “Around the World in 80 Days”. However, on LibriVox there are 71 titles by Wells, and 81 by Verne, all free to read.

The quality of the readings can be variable. I have found a number of narrators that are exceptional. Among them are:

Mark Smith whose readings include: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Call of the Wild, Great Expectations, Robinson Crusoe, and Swiss Family Robinson.

Karen Savage whose readings include: the Anne of Green Gables series, The Scarlet Pimpernel series, and Jane Austen’s books.

Ruth Golding whose readings include: Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence.

There are others.

I came upon a strong recommendation to read The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, an autobiography, narration by Lee Smalley.

Born into slavery in 1816, (or 17, or 18, slaves were not usually allowed to know their birth history) in secret he taught himself to read and write. He details his life as a slave, his escape to freedom, and his subsequent ascension in the ranks of abolitionists. He became an international celebrity while fearing for his life and possible recapture. He associated with such luminaries as John Brown, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Hays, and Garfield, to name just a few. To consider him a genius may be an understatement. Having no formal education, his prose is that of the most highly educated person. His commentary is straightforward and striking. His voice reaches from the 19th Century, across the 20th, and speaks today with an eloquence that is decidedly relevant in our fractured society and politics.

To name just a few of the modern controversies that he directly addressed nearly 150 years ago: The efforts to negotiate an avoidance to war, whether there was any benefit to the enslaved by virtue of their servitude, and identification of the issues that resulted in the Civil War. He didn’t speculate, he was central to and lived the times.

This is his third autobiography, the previous two having been written before the Civil War. In those first efforts he could not fully tell the story of his escape to freedom without endangering the lives of those who had helped him. This third effort covers the scope of his life from birth, his early years in bondage, his escape to freedom, through his growing activism and celebrity, the Civil War and post-Civil War reconstruction, and his Presidential appointments as the United States Marshall of the District of Columbia and as U. S. Minister to Haiti.

This is an exceptional read, and my recommendation is all the more appropriate on this holiday weekend that honors the life of Martin Luther King.

Peace Everyone. Pete

Posted January 6, 2024, at Alma, Colorado

In September 1920, a crowd had gathered outside of the Cook County Illinois Courthouse where a Grand Jury had convened to take testimony in what would later be called the “Black Sox Scandal”. 8 professional baseball players from the Chicago White Sox stood accused of conspiring with organized crime figures to “throw” the 1919 World Series in favor of the Cincinnati Reds. Among the 8 was “Shoeless” Joe Jackson an illiterate son of a sharecropper and an unlikely prospect for baseball fame.

Yet, “Shoeless” hit .409 in his rookie year, a record that stands today, and in 12 years of play he achieved the 4^th highest lifetime batting average in Major League Baseball (MLB) history, .356. He was the sports hero of countless children across the country. Desperate to believe in him, their cry went out, “Say it isn’t so “Shoeless” Joe!!”

The heavily favored White Sox were defeated by the Reds, 5 games to 3 in a best of 9 game series. The Sox played uninspired ball, committing unexplainable errors and miscues in a fashion that was atypical for them. Underground betting odds in Cincinnati seemed to predict the outcome. Although “Shoeless” Joe set records in the Series as a batsman, he allowed an unusual number of extra-base hits in his outfield position.

He was alleged to have admitted his participation in the conspiracy but later recanted the purported admission in the criminal trial that followed. He and the other 7 players were acquitted. Nevertheless, “Shoeless” Joe and his confederates were banned for life from the MLB.

The controversy persists to this day. Did “Shoeless” participate in “fixing” the 1919 World Series? There are grounds supporting those who believe he did, just as there are for those who believe he did not. History will provide no better answer.

Fast forward to January 6, 2021: Christine and I sat transfixed like hundreds of millions of others around the world. A drama played out before our eyes on every television network station. The United States Capital was under attack. Law enforcement was overwhelmed by the violent mob. Windows to the Capital were smashed to gain entrance. Shouts from the mob included the avowed intention to kill the Speaker of the House and to hang the Vice President of the United States. Members of the House and Senate cowered in fear for their lives. What we witnessed that day is seared into my memory, holding its place alongside the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Martin Luther King. Just like “9-11”, the riot at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, the killings at Kent State, and the Space Shuttle disasters, I cannot unsee what occurred on January 6, 2021.

Yet, there are those desperate to believe other than what we saw, “It was a peaceful tour of the seat of government”, “The FBI orchestrated it”, “The “rioters” were hired actors”, The images are phony”, “Fake news” …

This desperation of belief, unlike that with “Shoeless” Joe and the Black Sox Scandal, is not a matter of conjecture or opinion. It happened in real time before our eyes. Under our system of justice, the accused are entitled to Due Process of Law, a presumption of innocence, and proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. To date over 1,200 have been arrested and charged. Of approximately 170 who have gone to trial, all but 2 have been found guilty. Over 700 have pleaded guilty and over 350 have charges still pending. More suspects are being identified each week as the task of analyzing over 44,000 hours of security and media video is monumental and continues.

In the American system of jurisprudence, a finding of “not guilty” does not mean it did not happen. The nation and the world witnessed the events unfold that day. It was an insurrection; it was an attempt to overthrow the government of the United States. Those who are desperate to believe otherwise are fools. Those who try to convince us that we have “lying eyes” are charlatans, hucksters, and much worse they are desperate to deceive.  Like it or not, the Constitution that the insurrectionists sought to shred, affords each of them with the right to promote falsehoods. It does not require us to disbelieve what we saw that day.

It has been 3 years. Peace Everyone. Pete

Written December 26, 2023, at Alma, Colorado.

This last week I happened upon a post written by a minister. It vilified as a betrayal of Christ the permission given by Pope Francis to Catholic priests to grant blessings to same sex couples. The post troubled me. Why the outrage? What is the harm in such a “blessing”? Was this minister really speaking in defense of Christ or just disguising his own prejudice? Would Christ, who favored love over all else, have been offended by such blessings?

I had encountered this minister years ago when his assignment included ministering to inmates on death row. It occurred to me that his calling included bestowing blessings upon society’s worst criminals, those convicted of taking the life of another in cold blood. Why then the rejection of two people who do nothing worse than profess their committed love for one another.

Does any human, by the act of granting a “blessing”, bind the hand of God? If so, then the Creator of the Universe is subservient to the will of man. Alternatively, if the favor of the Creator is exclusively the Creator’s to grant, then the act of granting a “blessing” is just a human gift of acceptance and a wish in favor of the recipient.

Tradition, dating back beyond written history, found recognition in the practice of “blessing” not only people but inanimate objects. In modern times it is commonplace to “bless” farm fields, crops, animals, food, houses, buildings… our bicycles in 2010, and before a church congregation in 2013 our backpacks were blessed (along with us) as Christine and I prepared to walk the Camino de Santiago in Spain. What is the purpose of “blessing” soulless objects? Perhaps it is a petition that these things may better serve us and our purposes.

The “blessing” of ships, civilian or military, is ancient and commonly accepted. Earlier this month in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the Naval assault ship USS Bougainville was christened with the words, “God bless this ship and all who sail on her!”

Which brings me to the biblical Christ who was a spokesperson for the poor, hungry, powerless, and marginalized. He spoke against oppression in every form but never against love.  He said that the second of the two greatest of God’s Commandments was to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Christ further declared that those who live by the sword shall die by the sword.

It is likely that Christ would have chosen to confer blessing upon companions professing their love and not on a warship. The former is the model of one of the two greatest Commandments, and the latter is a very large and lethal 21^st Century sword.

Peace Everyone. Pete