Guest Opinion

The “Queen of Soul”, Aretha Louise Franklin’s funeral service was the day before the “Maverick’s”, Senator John Sidney McCain III.   Both were revered and celebrated by a huge range of people, with many speaking at their services, of which each had three.  McCain’s services were military, dignified, solemn.  The “Queen” wore a different gown for each of her three viewings, her services beautiful, soulful and celebratory.  What a Sad time, this passing over of two great souls, who touched so many hearts and minds.  A black woman, a white man, two Americans who overcame so much in their lives to go on to influence and inspire so many.  Reverend Al Sharpton spoke about Aretha, how she had helped Martin Luther King Jr. many times “to make payroll”; she said that she had made money …”got it from black folks and wanted to use it to help ‘our’ people”; she helped many.   Aretha born on 3/25/42 in Memphis, TN, her father, a Baptist minister and circuit preacher from Mississippi; she began as a child, playing piano and singing gospel.

McCain was born 8/29/36 in Coco Solo, Panama, (Naval Air station in the Panama canal zone); his father was a 4-star Navy Admiral, as his father was before him.  Aretha and John were both paid  R-E-S-P-E-C-T!   Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush were invited and spoke at McCain’s funeral service on Saturday at the Washington National Cathedral, was interred at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, MD.   Presidents Obama and Bush sent letters to be read to the mourners at Aretha’s service.  Bill and Hillary Clinton attended both Aretha and John’s funeral services.  More than 100 Pink Cadillacs rode with Aretha Franklin’s funeral procession to Woodlawn Cemetery, Detroit, MI.  “We’re going riding on the freeway of love in my pink Cadillac”, sang the Queen of Soul in her 1985 hit song “Freeway  of Love”. ***  At one of McCain’s services, someone sang the song, “I DID IT MY WAY”.

Aretha, one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, won 18 grammy awards; she was the first female inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; was the second woman to be inducted into UK Music Hall of Fame.  She was awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  She performed at the 2009 Inaugural Ceremony for President Barack Obama; she performed at the White House twice thereafter.  “She was an integral part of the Civil Rights movement, investing her time and money, raising her voice” for Civil Rights and Women’s Rights.  Reverend Sharpton told a poignant story of arriving at the White House the day of Aretha’s performance, asking a friend, “Where’s the Queen?”  Upon finding her … she said to him, “Reverend, I’m getting my hair done in the White House and we have a black president!”  It was a culmination of many battles and a celebration of American life.

John McCain had earned the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars, and two Purple Hearts; he was captured when the plane he was flying was shot down in Vietnam, he was tortured extensively as a POW for five years at the ‘Hanoi Hilton’.  His strength, bravery and resilience was demonstrated when returned to his beloved homeland, he ran for office, became a dynamic Senator for Arizona, ran for the office of president twice, losing to George W and Obama.  He continued to honorably serve the country he believed in and loved so well. He found much to love in life, as did Aretha Franklin.  “The Heart and Soul of America.”

Different kinds of GREATNESS, “‘woven into the fabric of the life and liberties of our country!”   Bush said McCain was “Unwavering, undimmed, unequal”.           “An extraordinary man, who made his country better”, said Obama, who then recited the words McCain loved — from Hemingway, ‘Today is only one day in all the days that will be, but what will happen in all the other days that will ever come, can depend on what happens today’.  Each choice is a test; some principles transcend politics, some principles transcend party. John knew we were all on the same team, in this one indispensable country, where anything is possible, where so many have sacrificed their lives for our freedoms and sovereignty.”  McCain warned us to “take seriously” the active measures that Putin has assailed against us; he warned that we hold our democracy and rule of law momentously.

I pray that these ‘celebrations’ help people to reflect on our shared experiences, bring us together even in a degree, help us feel the compassionate contributions that diversity can bestow on America, that those in Congress can take this ‘bipartisan moment’ into the coming weeks and months to influence their motives and actions, that they choose NOT “to sit in hypocrisy and complicity”.

Trish Forsyth Voss

9/03/18

Trish Forsyth Voss

Never has the party who controlled the House, the Senate and the White House shut down the government!  Our Founding Fathers’ dust is spinning in their graves, swirling, about to cyclone-out to spin us a much-needed miracle!  I  highly recommend everyone see one of Spielberg’s best movies: THE POST, a highly dramatized, historical look-back at the SCOTUS decision 6 -3 to uphold the New York Times, The Post, and other’s First Amendment right to publish The Pentagon Papers.  The movie lays out the national events, the person, Katharine Graham, who owned The Post, the decisions and what publishers stood to lose — to speak Truth to Power.  Newspapers connect readers.  “The press was to serve the governed, not the governors; Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government, and paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.” (Hugo L. Black, NY Times 1971).    An ongoing civic conversation takes place among us in news broadcasts, books, TV, movies and newspapers.  If you think we have rancorous discourse these days you should have heard the Tories and Whigs; read about “Printers and the American Revolution” by Stephen Botein, or “The Dangerous Lives of Printers: the evolution of the Freedom of the Press”.  Many high-minded printers have risked fortune, life and limb to be on the correct side of history and compassionate humanity.  Take, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, an abolitionist printer, his press destroyed three times in St Louis, MO, before moving to Alton, IL, where he was eventually murdered by a pro-slavery mob.  His brother, Owen Lovejoy, “Abolitionist in Congress”, had a fellow Representative pull a pistol on him, on the floor of the U.S. Congress.  Read about Isaiah Thomas, a Patriot Printer and his “Forge of Sedition”.  My two favorite subjects in school were Writing and American History, particularly Revolutionary times, so you see that I come by this passion naturally; the Sons of Liberty always had my heart!  The pen can be “mightier than the sword”!  “The moment we no longer have a free press anything can happen.  What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule — is that people are not informed”, Hannah Arendt.  “The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state”, William Blackstone.  We need our present Congress to work up a miracle!  And a step in that direction is Patriot Jeff Flake, R-AZ, stepping up to give that stirring speech on January 17, 2018; please Google it and listen to it in its entirety; let us come to “a principled fidelity to truth and to shared facts”.  He called President Trump out on his revolting statement that, “the free press is an enemy of the people”.  Senator Flake rejected those “shameful, repulsive statements”, saying that “Trump has it entirely backward … Despotism is the enemy of the people, a free press is despotism’s enemy, making it a guardian of democracy”.  He urged the Senate, “It’s our responsibility to put more guardrails around the President; no longer can we compound attacks on truth with our silent acquiescence; let us resolve to be allies of truth”, and he addressed the despicable remarks that Trump has made about journalists crafting “fake news”, and the disastrous effects of the President’s statements here and around the world: “80 journalists were killed in 2017 and 262 have been or are imprisoned worldwide”.   Flake stated that Thomas Jefferson wrote: “We hold these truths to be self-evident … so, from our very beginnings our freedom has been predicated on truth. The founders were visionary is this regard, understanding well that good faith and ‘shared facts’ between the governed and the government would be the very basis of this ongoing idea of America”.  Senator Flake avowed that “the Russia matter is not a hoax; the attacks were real and constitute a grave threat to both American sovereignty and to our national security”, and quoted that , ‘George Orwell warned, “the further a society drifts from the truth — the more it will hate those who speak it”.  Flake asserted, “it is the people’s ‘birthright’ to criticize their government and it is our job to take it; what matters is the daily disassembling of our democratic institutions”. “Debate on public issues should be uninhibited,  robust and wide-open, and it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes sharp attacks on government and public officials”, stated William J. Brennan Jr, associate justice of Supreme Court (NY Times v Sullivan 1964).   Flake warned, “We are in an era in which the authoritarian impulse is reasserting itself, to challenge free people and free societies, everywhere”; and said, “If we compromise our truth for the sake of politics — we’re lost”.

Trish Forsyth Voss

Republicans can lie all they like about Obama’s legacy, in attempting to dismiss all the good he instituted, and try to roll back as much as possible, while perpetuating their list of bogus scandals that only Fox followers believe — dark fantasies that won’t be included in mainstream history books.  Republicans live in an alternate reality where their alternate facts form their faulty and fragile ideological constructs which will pour forth from the White House as bad policies, poorly vetted and executed.  Trump gained the presidency with a minority of votes, but We The People, need to reject their propaganda and skewed world views.  We need to hold the line, upholding our Western democratic values — in progressive civil and human rights, in continued, steady diplomacy with our allies, in global trade, in immigration with strong vetting for accepting refugees, in upholding smart regulations that safeguard clean air, water, food and financial protections like Dodd-Frank, so we don’t have a repeat of the 2008 economic collapse in housing, banking and business.  So in President Trump’s first week in office, as he tripped over himself to speedily keep his promises to his base, his threatening and careless comments about Mexico, our third largest trading partner and one we import oil from, could spark a trade war and hurt American businesses in Mexico.  His sloppy Executive Orders, bypassing legal oversight, or even a quick review by Homeland Security, embarrass our country, at the least and possibly endanger our servicemen and women stationed around the world, especially in those excluded  Muslim countries.  What was the national security need for this hasty action?  Explain to the American people.  There is already a long, thorough vetting process involved in admitting visitors to our country, but this kind of reckless implementation, chaotic, confusing actions and lack of attention to details is NOT gaining popularity for this narcissistic leader.  Trump signed an order “massively rolling back regulations”, which we cannot know what that means yet.  He has appointed Steve Bannon, his chief strategist, to the National Security Council, giving a backseat to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of Intelligence.  He has launched on beginning his much-anticipated relationship with Putin, wo we can only pray that doesn’t turn out to be a huge national disaster!  We need to join in the strength of our diversity to stand united in representing our shared American values!  NOW, while we still have a democracy to defend!

Trish Forsyth Voss

On pledging allegiance to the flag, are you one of those persons who gets upset if others don’t stand with the proper hand over their heart …stance to salute and honor our flag, or if someone “takes a knee” to the national anthem?  Do you really believe in liberty and justice for ALL?  Do you ever try to undercut your fellow citizens in reducing their liberties — even in your own mind?   Would you ever even contemplate telling your very own neighbors an outright lie — like say, for instance — “the caucus starts at 7:00 p.m.”, when you know darn well it starts at 6:00 p.m. and late-comers would be locked out, knowing that they will miss their opportunity to participate in the local democratic process  –just so you can garner a few more votes for your candidate?  How about the liberty or freedom of religion — for everyone to worship in whatever denomination they choose?  Or is yours the only real faith — the only path to salvation?  And what of the right to be free “from religion” — to choose a secular path of life?  Do you believe that Jews, Buddhists or Muslims should be entitled to the same rights as you enjoy — IF they are citizens?  And what of justice?  Do you believe that ALL LIVES MATTER?  Would you be traumatized to see or hear of a white, unarmed neighbor shot down in the street, possibly for as little as a traffic violation?  What if that unarmed person was poor? homeless? black?  Should the same level of justice be applied to ALL?  Some folks might be more upset to see a dog shot down in the street.  And what of immigrants?  Refugees?  Those in war-torn regions?  Aleppo?  Iraq?          What is our responsibility to our neighbors?  Jesus said, “Whosoever shall give them a cup of water in my name”, they shall be rewarded.  Perhaps it would be wiser to abstain from pledging allegiances or vows that you don’t truly uphold.  Don’t be hypocrites!   “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of the devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.”  And “when you dance with the devil, you don’t change the devil, the devil changes YOU!

Was the 2016 election stolen?  Was there outright voter manipulation in some states?  Jill Stein is behind a recount effort in three battleground states and has raised millions of dollars to pay for it.  Clinton’s people have joined the effort.  Cyber-hacking could have interfered with electronic voting machines.  We know there were purged voter rolls casting many legitimate voters out, many provisional ballots tossed out, voter-suppression tactics employed, an aggressive Russian disinformation agenda aided by WikiLeaks — to hijack our election, FBI Comey’s ploy eleven days preceding 11/8, an additional $200 million in “dark money” gifted to the GOP 2 weeks prior to election day, an abundance of online fake “news” sites spewing outrageous lies, and mainstream media failing to call Trump out on his constant barrage of lies, while focusing incessantly on disparaging Hillary’s private email server, which was NOT illegal!  There is a vast network of GOP gerrymandered states , which greatly hinder a democratic outcome; that situation needs remedied NOW!  If the recount shows Trump to have not legimately garnered the necessary 270 electoral votes, the Dirty Tricks party should not be awarded the election as the result of cheating and chicanery!  This election stinks on so many levels; 11/9 felt like 9/11.  Hillary was NOT a flawed candidate!  We have flawed elections because only half of those eligible to vote — voted, and most people don’t feel the need to adequately educate themselves on most issues.   Hillary won the majority of the popular vote — with nearly 3 million more votes than Trump, so those millions of voters feel extremely disenfranchised!  She has won more popular votes than any presidential-candidate EVER, except Barack Obama!  There is a legal, constitutional remedy set by the Founders for this “electile dysfunction”.  The Electors who vote on December 19th actually determine who the president-elect is; and if enough of those pledged for Trump decide his conflicts of interest too multitudinous, instead vote for Hillary , she would be our president-elect.  There is precedent for this: “Abraham Lincoln’s winning total in the 1860 election included 4 electors who were pledged to Stephen Douglas”; they changed their minds.  This election is the very scenario that our Founders had in mind in setting up the Electoral College system, seeing that the uneducated electorate could be duped into voting for a totally unfit candidate — the country could be saved by the Electors — from Trump and his vast array of Swamp Monsters dismantling our democracy piece by blessed piece!

My older brother is a Vietnam vet; he earned a Bronze Star for his service.  My father served during the Korean Conflict, but not in it.  His older brother fought in WWII and was captured with fellow soldiers, taken to Nazi prisoner-of-war camps, where he was tortured and nearly starved to death; he later received several medals.  That “greatest generation” that fought, and so many died … not just for our country, but to free the millions horribly oppressed in Europe under the evil regime of Adolf Hitler’s ghastly Germanic forces.  Hitler believed in a superior race and stirred up the masses with his fiery rhetoric against the “others’, especially Jews.  When he came into power he instituted horrific progroms of government-sanctioned prejudice against the Jewish people.   How was one deranged man able to influence and seduce so many?  Hitler himself was daily injected with methamphetamine, and the pill form was distributed to many of the German fighting troops to “heighten aggression and diminish human warmth and empathy”.   Hitler was criminally insane and he surrounded himself with sadistic monsters, willing to do the evil bidding of their Fuehrer.  Hitler’s megalomania knew no bounds; he took over most all of Europe, and his soulless death squads are responsible for the extermination of several million human beings.  The total death toll of WWII is estimated at 50 – 80 million people!  Try to take that in … for just a moment!  That was the price for a world, the outcome of a nation that vaulted forth and rallied behind a psychopath, who preached a doctrine of white supremacy, and told his fellow Germans why they were the perfect race.  And in believing that message they were willing to turn a blind eye or even to take an active part in confiscating the homes and possessions of their Jewish neighbors, in watching them shot down in town squares, in seeing them and their family members loaded like cattle on train cars to be shipped to “work camps” where they were raped, tortured, experimented on, and millions worked to death or gassed in furnaces.  When our Allied Forces finally got to some of those death camps they freed an emaciated, demoralized, grateful remnant of people and witnessed gruesome sights beyond imagination; many later suffered from PTSD.  The vast stash of possessions stolen from these creative, hard-working, faithful Jewish people included priceless works of art,  jewelry, beautifully-crafted furniture, their clothing and even barrels full of gold fillings taken from their teeth!  Our Allied Forces delivered the remnant from the hell of Hitler’s design.  My uncle, Wayne Rex Forsyth, was a hero!  Even though he was taken prisoner-of-war!  He left an idyllic countryside to experience a hell on earth, the conception of a madman!  He didn’t serve to get medals; he certainly wouldn’t have asked for or accepted one someone else had earned.  My 5th great-grandfather, Elijah Forsythe, emigrated here from Scotland to join us in the Revolutionary War.  His son, William Forsyth, fought in the War of 1812.  My 2nd great-grandfather, John Forsyth, fought in the Civil War, was a captain of a colored-company of soldiers, who were indeed fighting for freedom. My other ancestors emigrated here from Sweden and Spain; and some were Native American.  My Spanish grandfather, Hilario Mendoza, born in Texas, was a career military man, Army-Air Corps aviator, enlisted in 1918; he fought in WWI and served through WWII before retiring.  We are a country of immigrants.  We need to embrace our diversity.  We are a country founded on freedoms, one being freedom of and from religion.  We need to celebrate our own traditions and welcome and respect others.  We are a country of laws and compassion; we need to learn how to love our neighbors, as ourselves.  With Veteran’s Day coming upon us just following Election Day, please do not denigrate the service of our men and women by voting for Donald J. Trump, who is like the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler; who is against all the best ideals this country of ours stands for — our “better angels” who serve and have served so we live in freedom.  We need to NOT take our freedoms lightly!  We need to be aware of the rebirth of  “American Nazism” in this country, to uproot, not cultivate.  (Google the subject).  White supremacism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism should have no place in our 21st century society.  Hate speech can quickly go from talk to violence, as witnessed by some political allies.  Let us pull together and celebrate the glorious history of the birth of our nation and all those immigrants who fought as Americans for the freedoms we enjoy and often take for granted.  Let us remember ALL our heroes, who have fought valiantly for our shared ideals, for progress, for the human and civil rights that have brought us thus far.  Let us NOT turn back!  E Pluribus Unum.

Written by: Trish Forsyth Voss; printed as Guest Opinion in 10/24/16 issue of The Register-Mail newspaper, Galesburg, IL.

No matter which Sunday Easter falls on, I still celebrate the resurrection of my savior, Jesus Christ, from the dead.  The importance is the event, NOT the date.  Easter occurs on the first Sunday following the first full moon that occurs on or after the day of the vernal (spring) equinox.  Easter and its related holidays, calculated to follow Passover, are based on the lunar calendar, very similar to the Hebrew Calendar.  The range for Easter Sunday is March 22 – April 25.  The Easter March 22nd date was last in 1818, and will be again in 2285; the Easter April 25 date was last in 1943 and will next be in 2038.  If people don’t celebrate the real meaning of Easter, it has nothing to do with the date it falls on.  It has more to do with upbringing, culture, and what we choose to believe and teach.  The same for all the other “holidays”, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.  More of us like picnics than parades; and many were never taught to decorate the graves of their own family members, much less veterans and those fallen in war.  In fact, Memorial Day for those of us who do decorate graves, has become the standard day to take flowers to the gravesites of our own dearly departed.  On May 5, 1868, John A. Logan, Union Civil War veteran, issued a proclamation for Decoration Day to be observed annually and nationwide.  It was thereafter observed for the first time on Saturday, May 30, 1868.  The date was chosen because it was NOT the anniversary of any particular battle, and because it was an optimal date for flowers to be in bloom.  In 1882 the preferred name for the holiday was changed to Memorial Day, and the usage became more common after WW2.  “On 6/28/1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a three-day weekend.  The change moved Memorial Day from May 30th to the last Monday in May.  It typically marks the start of summer vacation, while Labor Day marks its end.”  The “convenient three-day weekend” just might make it more convenient (than mid-week) for employed persons and school-age kids to travel to wherever and “celebrate” Memorial Day in whatever fashion they choose (hopefully honoring our fallen soldiers).  I took my third-grade grandson on Saturday, May 24, to help me decorate some graves by planting red, white and blue flowers on them, and some moss rose for my grandmother’s grave.  My husband and I own a house that was built in 1860 by a Scotsman, Peter Gordon, whose four stepsons (last name of Tait) signed up for the Civil War in the foyer of this home.  Two of those young men came back from war, and two were killed in battles in Tennessee; their remains were buried in the old Scots cemetery outside Victoria, Illinois, (or there are two grave-stones designated there for them).  I have taken my grandson to their graves also, commemorating their lives and service to this country, by cleaning up their gravesites and bringing flags and flowers.  I agree that if we don’t teach and inspire our younger generations to honor our traditions and beliefs, chances are that they won’t.  And regardless of our best intentions, they may not anyway!