Will the real America please stand up! That old TV show What's My Line ? always revealed the true identity of their peculiar contestant with these words. Now today the real America can reveal itself, a nation built on comity and civility. "Liberty" which is much bandied about is crucial, but it is not the sole virtue in America. Rather we are a nation not only built on individual freedom, but on common cause and civil discourse. Without these latter virtues the "liberty" the "Yahoos" bellow about becomes a yoke around another's neck as they live in fear of expressing themselves and making their wishes known on that most important of days - election day. The results of a fair election must be honored by all the citizens or no citizen's liberty is protected. Losers can always cry foul, but they are required to prove their case and not just assert the charge or just cry. This past presidential election has been arguably the most broadly and repeatedly adjudicated in American history with court after court and state after state affirming and reaffirming the results. But some choose not to believe the simple facts, rather they choose to live in a fantasy world where only their desires are always paramount and other Americans (particularly those of other ethnicities) ought to put up with that "separate but equal" environment.
To celebrate the day I have been saving my all-time favorite Captain America story to read. It's written by Steve Englehart and penciled by Sal Buscema with inkers Jim Mooney, John Verpoorten and Judomaster's own Frank McLaughlin on the inks. It's the story of another "Captain America" who lived in a time when paranoia was rampant and dread of the foreign commonplace. This throwback Cap comes back to make this fictional America great again, but finds standing in his way the one true Captain America, the hero who fought for freedom and always sought to find a better way to do just that. First those vintage Stan Lee (actual writer is unrecorded but surely Stan had something to do with them) and Johnny Romita stories about that other Captain America and then the real Cap. Alongside his partner the Falcon, Cap fends off this threat from a misbegotten past seeking to find purchase in the now.
Rip Off
Thanks for sharing Rip. Today let’s be optimistic and happy!
ReplyDeletehttps://imgur.com/a/OJ7Y4RN
Optimism is the order of the day. The problems will mount up quickly enough and the shiny new will wear off, but for today I want to smile.
DeleteI don't want to rain on your parade on this important day but a few years ago Harry Belafonte was interviewed by the BBC and he said that America was built on racism, violence and exploitation.
ReplyDeleteFar be it for me to argue with one of my esteemed elders, but I'd suggest that while racism and exploitation might well have fueled the growth of the country the idea of in theory at least of a people ruling themselves is not something to dismiss casually because it has been implemented imperfectly. The experiment is ongoing and hopefully despite terrible glitches the movement forward to an increasingly liberal attitude about all peoples will continue. We are better now than we were once upon a time and we will hopefully be better in the future than we are now.
DeleteA great day indeed for many Americans and others throughout the world. That Cap series was also one of my favourites. Sal's art was like reading an animated comic full of action and great scenes.
ReplyDeleteSal Buscema is vastly underrated. He was a substantive talent and his storytelling was damn near immaculate. Those who write him off as a "hack" miss the point of craftsmanship.
DeleteOpposition to the USSR was not paranoid or because of "dread of the foreign", any more than opposition to Nazi Germany was. Both were murderous totalitarian dictatorships who sought to conquer the world, who had killed millions, and were willing to kill however many it took to have their way.
ReplyDeleteThis is not to say that the Englehart/Sal Buscema stories weren't well told and entertaining. They were. The idea that the 50's were some kind of benighted period due to strong opposition to mass murdering communists who occupied Eastern Europe, installed a dictatorship in mainland China, and who tried to take over South Korea is frankly ridiculous. Comparing anything to the Trump administration except it being another jerk President you don't like is your right, but it's not correct. It's all the "Real America". Pendulum's swing. People who disagree with the Biden administration aren't going anywhere, much as people who disagreed with the Trump administration didn't go anywhere. I like your blog a bunch. Keep up the good work.
I have to politely disagree.
DeleteThe difference between Clinton and Bush and Obama was a distinction between leaders of different parties with somewhat different policies distinctions -- some say so small as to not matter. But Trump is a different character completely. He is indeed a "jerk President I don't like" but if that were the only complaint then we'd not have seen citizens whipped into a frenzy by baseless and witless conspiracy theories spewed over Twitter for years storming the gates of the Capitol. It is a difference of kind and not degree. Unlike "Socialism" which is the boogeyman of the moment, Trump was indeed an existential threat to the fabric of the nation, and we are well rid of his menace.
As to Communism of the killer Stalin and his ken, I will grant that it was a very real threat (which we learned in the 80's was overstated), but not every one of your neighbors was equally so. The frenzy which suggested that "Pinkos" were under every kitchen table and the drive to compel people to name names in public forums was political theatre of the most heinous kind. It was a world of "Jim Crow" and "separate but equal" was the law of much of the land. This was the golden era that was the "great" that so many apparently want to "make again".
That said, I appreciate the kind words about the blog and hope that in these less contentious times you will continue to check it out.
Looking ahead with positivity and optimism. Here's to a better road ahead.
ReplyDeleteGood words and good thoughts. Agreed amigo!
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