I’ve been thinking a bit more about “the mind of god/mind of man” issue that has been bouncing around in my head due to discussions about Louis Agassiz and perhaps Transcendentalism.

It has seemed to lead logically into Arendt’s thinking on Totalitarianism.

Monocultures and Monotheism. A reaching after domination by a single idea and a single species. Knowing the mind of God; The mind of god is the mind of man is the mind of the universe is the highest being, etc.

I just finished reading a short book called The End of the Wild by Stephen Meyer to support my show on Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (what exactly can that “legacy” be when it seems to have only spawned partisan economics?). The End of the Wild points to the fact that all species which are surviving are only those “fitted” to live in man’s orbit or wake. The environment continues to be reduced and will become a sameness.

Chaos is sameness, rather than what I think is the common misconception of it as crazy randomness (that is a better definition of fecundity, of life!).

The Bible is a testament to monoculture as well as monotheism. It is a giving up of all randomness to serve a single idea. The single idea is arbitrary but serving it is deeply logical. This leads to the rightness of murder and extermination of whole peoples and cultures. The Nazi idea of a “master” race logically justifies extermination of the lesser races primarily to try to guarantee a “clean” bloodline.

That is Arendt’s Totalitarianism. This is the human perception of the human species. Dominion and Mind. The Bible seems to me then a description of the human mind as it comes to understand its arbitrary capacity for dominion. The IDEA is all that’s needed.

Perhaps this terrifying logical outcome is unavoidable in the human: the chaos of the human as monoculture.

This, I think, is the drive to be entertained by vampires and zombies–we all know that we are superfluous when it comes to the IDEA and the arbitrary application of Power. Monocultures are not about individuals, not about freedom, not about rights…(neither are monotheisms by the way–that would more properly apply to the fecundity of pagan cultures). Just think of the words to realize the direction we’re taking–monocultures lead to sterility.

What can we do if our “masses” are “superfluous” and their “belonging” is engaged by a terrible ideal? This seems too easy, easier and easier, in the daily “chaos,” the sameness of experience encouraged by our tech-media cultures.

What is a “like” button and what does it serve?

Louis Agassiz

Episode 2 is now available for download: Agassiz, Inc.

Please share far and wide, early and often. Thanks!

This week I speak with biographer Christoph Irmscher about the legacy of Louis Agassiz, one of the most influential men in the development of the practice of science in America.  Irmscher’s book is called Louis Agassiz: Creator of American Science.

Louis Agassiz, a co-discoverer of the Ice Age, is often portrayed as a racist proponent of miscegenation and a failure as a theorist of human development–as the scientist who refused to see species in the light of Darwinian evolution on religious grounds. But as our guest the biographer Christoph Irmscher shows, Louis Agassiz was one of the most influential men in the development of Amercian Science.

The New York Custom House

I am hosting a radio show and podcast on WFHB, community radio, in Bloomington, IN, called The Custom House that will air on Saturdays at 5:30 p.m. through August and continue as a podcast.

The first show aired June 1 and can be downloaded here: Babo’s Razor. This show is about our inability to see through our cultural “blinders” even when there’s a razor at our throats. The fiction that illustrates this for us is Melville’s novella, “Benito Cereno.” My guest was Jonathan Elmer of Indiana University.

The second show aired June 8 (has yet to be posted) and featured biographer Christoph Irmscher. We discussed his book Louis Agassiz: The Creator of American Science. In one part of our discussion Irmscher details a letter that Agassiz wrote discussing Psalm 8 saying the Psalmist’s view is in error as he did not know that the mind of the scientist would bring Man closer to realizing God in himself.

This weekend, June 15, I’ll talk with Purnima Bose (International Studies at IU) about Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. We examine the “template” of theocratic totalitarianism that lives just below the surface in America.

Much more to come including shows on photography, environmentalism (Rachel Carson), moral machines, Sylvia Plath, Robert Browning, Autobiography, Herman Melville (Hershel Parker), Hannah Arendt (Eichmann in Jerusalem), Women and the Law and much more.

(Image via Wikipedia)

• David Ritchie, Denver…………………………4,000
• Arthur  Rock, San Francisco………………..5,000
• Greg Penner, Atherton, CA………………….5,000
• Allen/Jennifer Fournier’s, Far Hills, NJ..2,000
• Lydia Callaghan, Palo Alto CA …………..5,000
• Ken Thiry, Cherry Hill, CO ………………..3,000
• David Goldberg, Atherton, CA ……………1,000
• Charles Ledley, Boston……… 1,000
• Tim Marquez, Denver ………..1,000
• Geoff  Ralson, Atherton, CA …5,000
• Michael Bloomberg, NYC……10,000
• Leadership for Educational
• Equity, Washington, DC……….+1,240

$43,240

This means over 64% of Commissioner Hannon’s $67,438.00 came from those who do not live in Indy or Indiana, and most importantly, do not live in the IPS district or send their child/ren to IPS.

Some of these same donors gave to Rep. Mary Sullivan for her 2012 campaign for state senate. She received and accepted money from donors Rock, Ritchie, Callaghan, Penner, and Goldberg.

www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor_details.phtml?c=138306.

$202,764.00 vs. $4,957.00

Adding the donations of Commissioners Odle, Cosby, and Hannon had campaign funds totally $202,764.00. In contrast, their 6 opponents had a total of $4,957.

Were donations to IPS candidates from out-of-state supporters special to Indianapolis?

An IPS family might assume that for some reason folks all around the nation heard about Commissioner Hannon’s campaign and wanted her to have enough to run against Jim Nixon whose campaign was funded by $300 and educator Larry Whiteman who had little or no money donated.

Buying school board seats in Minneapolis and Perth Amboy, NJ

In “So You Wanna Buy a School Board Seat…,” fellow pro-public education blogger, Edushyster, wrote about the situation in Minneapolis,  while another pro-public education blogger Jersey Jazzman wrote a November 4, 2012 essay, “How To Buy a School Board Race 3000 Miles Away,” about the same thing happening in Perth Amboy, NJ (Pelto, 2013).

Jersey Jazzman noted,  “It seems absurd, and yet it’s true: four wealthy Californians and one wealthy Coloradan–heavy hitters in the tech, financial, and health care sectors–have contributed tens of thousands of dollars to a slate of candidates running for the school board in Perth Amboy, a city of 50,000 with a majority Hispanic population. It really couldn’t be clearer: the ’Better Schools Now!’ slate is being supported by a group of wealthy outsiders who would love to bring a swarm of new charter schools to Perth Amboy.”
Here’s the bio’s of the multi-millionaires Jazzman mentions.  A close look at the profiles of these contributors provides clues as to why they support particular school board candidates.

Greg Penner, Atherton CA: $8,000 donation. Penner is the Founder of Madrone Capital Partners and a well-known conservative activist. Married to Walton fortune heiress Carrie Walton Penner, HE sits on the boards of Teach For America (TFA)  and The Charter School Growth Fund. CSGF invests in charter management organizations around the country, including the KIPP network and Nobel charter schools. CSGF is also an investor in Rocketship Education; see below.
 
Arthur Rock, San Francisco CA: $8,000 donation. Rock is a well-known venture capitalist who also serves on the board of TFA and is an active funder of KIPP. Rock has invested in the Rocketship Education, a “hybrid” school that features extensive use of computerized instruction and, consequently, has a smaller faculty than regular public schools. Larry Miller found that Rocketship had large student attrition rates and smaller percentages of special needs students than its neighboring public schools (Rocketship responds to Miller here).
 
David Goldberg, Atherton, CA: $8,000 donation. Goldberg is CEO of SurveyMonkey; his wife is Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. Both are partners, along with Rock, in Rocketship Education.
 
Kent Thiry, Cherry Hills, CO: $10,400 donation. Thiry is CEO of DaVita, a dialysis provider; he was previously a consultant for Bain Capital. DaVita has been the subject of several federal investigations (in fairness, the company was recently cleared in one). Thiry has been interested in Colorado’s schools and education policy for some time. He donated $33,000 to a slate of “reform” candidates in Denver school board elections last year, who were also endorsed by Democrats for Education Reform and Jonah Edelman’s Stand For Children.
 
Lydia Callaghan, Palo Alto, CA: $8,000 donation. Callaghan is the wife of Adam Weiss, a principal at Scout Capital Management. Weiss has been introduced at investor conferences by Whitney Tilson, founder of Democrats For Education Reform, a group well-known for supporting charter school expansion.

“Any time hedge fund managers…when they walk into the inner city areas and start talking about poor children’s education, it’s not because they want kids to read and write, it’s because they know that the federal government spends $600B on education and they want it and they’re going to get it.”
~ Chris Hedges
Louisiana

In the October 17, 2012 issue of The Nation, reporter Matthew Cunningham-Cook (2012) noted that for the fall 2011 elections a group of very wealthy billionaires, among them NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, turned the races for unpaid positions on the Louisiana school board (BESE) into some of the most expensive in the state’s history. Here, 7 education “reform” candidates for the BESE outraised 8 candidates endorsed by the teacher’s unions by $2,386,768 to $199,878.

In one race, a local Teach for America executive Kira Orange Jones raised $472,382. Her opponent, local New Orleans lawyer Louella Givens, had only $13,815. To support Jones’s campaign against Givens, Eli Broad, billionaire head of the education reform organization the Broad Foundation and a major trainer and placer of school superintendents, chipped in $5,000. Reed Hastings of Netflix kicked in the same. Houston energy hedge fund billionaire John Arnold and his wife Laura gave a total of $10,000, as did Walmart heiress Carrie Walton Penner and her husband Greg. New York City’s second-wealthiest man, Michael Bloomberg, contributed $10,000 as well.

Sound familiar?

This is worrisome: national-level millionaires contributing to IPS school board candidates. It reflects a situation where nation-level big box stores come into a community and use their buying power to lower prices, taking control of the market and causing locally owned businesses to close. Are national-level organizations like DfER and national lobbyists like SfC (along with their local Indiana/Indy franchises) which have given their own large support for local candidates–and the millionaires they have enabled to give even larger donations–influencing the vote of IPS board members? IPS commissioners accepting big money must know there are strings attached. Take note: these millionaires have no direct ties to the families and students living on East 10^th Street, State Street, Warman Avenue, Iowa Street, Boulevard Place, Coffee Street, or 30^th and Broadway.

Questions

• Why would anyone need such amounts of money ($67,000 or $57,000 or $78,000 which equal over $202,000.00) to run for an IPS school board seat (a job paying little) and especially against opponents with practically nothing, and in two instances actually nothing?
• Is this a power grab?
• Are candidates trying to buy school board seats?
• Why is this amount of money coming in from out of town?
• Are school board elections in Pike, Warren, Perry or the other townships next to be flooded with money from millionaires supporting board candidates who will carry out their national agenda?

Now, with the big picture framed by school board elections in New Jersey and Louisiana,  (and Colorado [Marcus, 2011]) we can see why these out-of-state folks contributed to IPS candidates and begin to question why these candidates accepted these thousands of dollars and what the donor expects in return. Do we really want out of state interests running our IPS?
 
“It’s just an attack by folks [Latinos for Education Reform] who aren’t in this district and can’t vote    
  here and are trying to influence the vote in northwest Denver.”
                 ~Arturo Jimenez, Denver school member whose 2011 campaign raised $68,073, winning
against opponent Draper Carson who raised $177,440.

Campaign Finance Reform:  Taking the money out of school board elections
Do we need a limit put on the amount money school board candidates can collect so that school board elections are about the issues and not who can buy school board seats or who is following agendas of out-of-state interests?

What’s also important is what happens with the monies not used in the campaigns? How can citizens find out? See the financial reports at Indianapolis Public School.

Who is running IPS?

A review of the financial reports concerning the donations to the campaigns of 3 of the 4 recently elected IPS commissioners reveals that if we based the answer to the question, “Who’s running IPS?”on who contributed to their campaigns, the response would be that it’s certainly not these commissioners or the neighborhood IPS families who voted them in.

 
“Pro-reform coalitions tend to be dominated by business and political elites and supported by       
  neighborhoods with large concentrations of highly educated middle-class professionals.”
~ David Kimball and Lana Stein, “Democracy at Work? School Board Elections and Reform in St. Louis”

A review of Commissioner Odle’s donations show they came from local businesses, developers, attorneys, doctors, politicians, and friends–the degreed people he’s met in his  executive and philanthropic work who live in the suburbs, in the north side Indy neighborhoods, and downtown Indy’s townhouses and the gentrified neighborhoods Kimbal and Stein (2007) refer to.

Most of Commissioner Odle’s contributions came from zip codes in Indianapolis: 46218, 46220, 46228, 46230, 46236, 46239, 46240, 46250, 46254, 46256, 46260, 46268, and 46278.  Other contributions came via supporters from zip codes in Carmel: 46032, 46033, and 46074; Fishers: 46037; and Zionsville: 46077. He did have 2 out-of-state donors, the more significant being NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg from whom Commissioner Odle accepted big $10,000.00 donation. Remember his opponent (Larry Vaughn) in the November election had no campaign funds. See the links below for more details on Commissioner Odle’s finances. See his 2012-10-12 and 2012-12-31 reports at Odle, Samuel.

Commissioner Hannon’s local donors resided either in north side Indy neighborhoods or suburban areas or towns. Donations came from zip codes in Indianapolis: 46208, 46217, 46220, 46228, 46237, 46240 and 46256.  Other donations came via supporters in zip codes in Carmel: 46032 and 46033; Fishers: 46037; Zionsville: 46077; and, Noblesville: 46062. See Indianapolis Public School.

Are the local so-called “pro-reform” coalitions dominated by local and national business and political elites–and supported by large concentrations of highly educated middle-class professionals of all colors living in neighborhoods north of 38^th Street–trying to control IPS?

Do we actually want a public school system run by donors who perhaps have no child/ren in a regular (non-magnet, non-special program) school where the majority of IPS families send children? Is this the way the system is supposed to work? Are the wealthy supposed to run IPS? Is this the type of democracy we want and tell others around the world to copy?

Finally, the high level of influence of the corporate reform agenda on Commissioners Hannon and Odle is reconfirmed by the fact that Hannon is Network Coordinator for Teach Plus, an organization sharing the same suite (330) as the Mind Trust in public television’s WFYI building at1630 North Meridian Street (http://www.teachplus.org/page/indianapolis-169.html).  As well, in 2011, Odle helped shape and support the Mind Trust’s plan which proposes mayoral control of IPS (Jarosz. 2011).
 
The Big Picture

To continue to put what is going on locally in perspective, a review of the efforts of national education lobbyists Stand for Children to influence local elections around America is needed.

See “APPENDIX: The Big Picture” below.

Summary

A summary of the information presented in the above pages shows how a national organization, by way of a franchise, localizes its national agenda.  These groups have lots and lots of money, and national political clout (Sawchuk, 2012). They take advantage of the local politics of states like Indiana (also Florida, Louisiana, or Arizona) which have a legislative majority of pro-business or corporate school reform legislators (both Democrats and Republicans) and governors.  These franchises use their advantage to get laws past favoring a national reform agenda, forcing this on local districts.
 
Conclusion: What does the future hold?

Due to the present amount of monies invested and the amount of return on investments in all aspects of American public education, which has a budget of over $600,000.000.000.00, one could predict that at this rate, investors and/or politicians from India, Germany, Korea, England, or Canada will be contributing to local school board elections and will be expecting things in return.

2013 elections in California: $10,000,000.00 race for 3 spots on LA school board

“The race in [Monica] Garcia’s District 2 is expected to be the most expensive. United Teachers Los Angeles reportedly vows to spend $4 million to unseat her. Insiders say Garcia, a close political ally of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, will likely raise a similar amount.” ~Barbara Jones “15 candidates file to run for LAUSD school board seats” LA Daily News 12.05.12

In LA, 15 candidates have filed paperwork and the three races are anticipated to cost $10 million, between direct contributions and independent expenditures from labor and reform allies.

Our IPS has a civic, not a private purpose (Resseger, 2012)

What is about to happen in LA is a warning. As more and more money from the private sector (representing corporations and wealthy individuals from outside a school district who favor privatization) continues to influence local school board campaigns, the ante is raised for all candidates. At this pace, school board elections will not be about children, but money and power. This not only corrupts the long standing tradition of grassroots local school board campaigns being about district issues and influenced by district stakeholders, but threatens our democracy. Public schools were not created to meet the needs of private interests. IPS has a public purpose.

John Harris Loflin
johnharrisloflin@yahoo.com
© 2013 Education-Community Action Team

References

Cunningham-Cook, M. (2012, October 17). Why do some America’s wealthiest individuals have fingers in Louisiana’s education system? The Nation.

Jarosz, F. (2011 April 30). Should the mayor have control of Indianapolis’ public schools? Indianapolis Business Journal.

Kimball, D. & Stein, L. (2007). “Democracy at Work? School Board Elections and Reform in St. Louis.” (pdf)

Marcus, P. (2011, October 17). Denver school board race steeped in politics. Colorado Statesman.

Pelto, J. (2013). Wait, What! Beware! Education Reformers Are Coming for Your School Board.

Resseger, J. (2012). The Public Purpose of Public Education: Message on Public Education 2013 United Church of Christ Justice & Witness Ministries.

Sawchuk, S. (2012, May 14). New Advocacy Groups Shaking Up Education Field: Their sway over policy and politics appears to be growing, especially at the state and local levels. Education Week.

APPENDIX:  The big picture

To continue to put what is going on locally in perspective, a review of the efforts of national education lobbyists Stand for Children to influence local elections around America is needed.

2010 Washington state legislative session Using money and clout, SfC:

• turned out and testified at hearings, met with key legislators and generated 600 calls and 5,325 emails during critical times.
• advocated in local districts distributing 4,000 postcards and attended town hall meetings.
• collaborated with pro-reform organization to have a strong presence in the media with over 30 editorials over the course of the 2009-2010 sessions and recruited the support of 34 superintendents in 2010.
• pushed state senate leadership at a critical moment to Race to the Top—wrote/delivered 327 personal postcards, ran 42 radio ads, sent over 300 emails, made 100 calls and generated 20,000 auto-dial calls to motivated voters.

 
A look at the 2010-2011 elections
 
In 2010-2011, SfC has helped elect 19 school board members in: Tennessee (Memphis and Nashville), Colorado (Denver), Oregon (Portland, Reynolds, Salem-Keizer, Lane County, Hillsboro, Central Coast), Washington (Issaquah, Tacoma), and Texas (Houston). In 2010 and 2011, SfC helped elect 41 legislators in CO, OR, and IL.  http://stand.org/national/about/what-weve-done

Illinois
On Oct. 7 2010, SfC Illinois PAC gave $175,000 to legislative candidate Ryan Higgins (R-IL). This was the single largest “outside” legislative campaign check in modern Illinois history. He lost.

According to Illinois Times reporter Rich Miller in an Oct. 21, 2010 article, “Who’s behind SFR?” noted the group contributed $650,000 to rank and file legislative candidates since Oct. 4, 2010.
www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-7903-whorss-behind-stand-for-children.html

In 2011, members of the Chicago Teachers Union critical of Stand for Children’s funders held a picket, chanting “Billionaires, billionaires, we’re no fools, Stand for Children destroys our schools.” http://austintalks.org/2011/04/stand-for-children-illinois-stands-for-billionaires-and-corporations/

Stand for Children’s use of big money to influence the passage of Illinois SB7

In July of 2011, Jonah Edelman, Co-founder of Stand for Children, talked in detail about how SfC came to Illinois with the express purpose to take down the teachers unions. Aided by the millions of dollars they raised from top Chicago corporate executives, SfC was able to influence Illinois state legislators to get Senate Bill 7 (SB7) passed. This landmark legislation severely curtailed teachers’ rights and job security. It has been hailed by Arne Duncan and other corporate reformers as a model for the nation in how to takeover public education: identify and support candidates with pro-SfC education platforms and then get them elect into office at state and local levels.
www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/09/992927/-VIDEO-How-to-Fool-the-Unions-and-Bribe-Politicians-Aspen-Institute-Bragging-Session

“I’m being quite blunt here, the individual candidates were essentially a vehicle to execute a political objective…” ~ Jonah Edelman on why he used big money to influence the vote on SB7
 
When Edelman found out his remarks were taped and made public, he soon apologized. http://preaprez.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/jonah-edelman-apologizes-to-my-blog-readers/

A look at the 2012 elections 

Massachusetts SfC endorsed 9 legislators Boston, Worchester & Springfield.

Indiana SfC endorsed 8 house/senate candidates in Indiana.

DfER also backed 15 state legislators and 12 US legislators. In Indiana they endorsed Andre Carson, Tim Delany and Mary Sullivan, and John Gregg. Only Carson won.

Colorado SfC endorsed 11 legislators.

Washington SfC endorsed 24 legislative candidates. SfC endorsed Republican Rob McKenna for governor. Democrat Jay Inslee won.

It’s interesting, not all folks in the state of Washington see SfC as a positive organization.

The Washington American Federation of Teaches filed a complaint against SfC, alleging a deceptive mailer on behalf of candidate Sylvester Cann and saying: SfC, “…uses money from ultra-conservative donors across the country to enact legislation to fund vouchers, de-fund public schools, and expand charter schools…”

Oregon SfC endorsed 38 legislative candidates.

SfC had previously endorsed 3 successful candidates for the Lincoln County Oregon School District Board of Directors in the May 2007 election.

Illinois SfC endorsed 26 legislators.

SfC opened its Chicago chapter in 2012.

Tennessee 

With $200,000 from a single out-of-town source, SfC got 4 of 7 candidates it endorsed for Memphis school board elected to office.

Arizona 

For the November 2012 Phoenix school board election, SfC endorsed 2 school board candidates in the Phoenix Roosevelt School District and 2 in the Murphy School District.

IPS SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS

a. to catch rain water coming off the roof
b. to catch and direct rain water deflected by a roof out away from a vulnerable foundation
c. to correct an imposition
d. to protect a preconception

We have a gutter on our house that is a bit askew in one place over the porch and near the front steps. Consequently the rain will come off the room slip by the gutter in that spot and pour straight down. This has clearly been the case over the years prior to our occupation as the front walk has begun to sink a bit and now pools water right in front of the porch. My “fix” has been to insert a stick underneath the roof lip to adjust the drip line to meet the guttering in the right place as the guttering itself will not adjust properly. This works, but the pooling persists, naturally, due to the current sloping state of the ground.

I moved this stick the other day as my son and I were headed out for school (a ten-minute walk), a minor adjustment made by a shrewd handyman.

As we crossed the road my son asked me about this. Why? You tell me. I don’t know. Guess. You were doing something to the gutter. Yes. What? I don’t know. What is a gutter, that is, what is its purpose on the house? To collect the rain. Why? I don’t know. Where does the rain go without the gutter on the house? Straight off the roof and into the ground. What’s wrong with that? I don’t know. Are houses built so that their “bottom” sits right on the ground? I don’t know. Is ours? No. What is it built on. A wall? Yes. Why? I don’t know. Why are there gutters? C’mon, Dad!

Why can’t you just tell me? Why won’t I just tell you? Ugh.

What is the Bill of Rights? What? What is the Constitution? What is the sunrise? What is “an apple a day”? What is the Bible, the Quran, the Vedas, the Analects? Dad, what are you talking about? What the heck are Vedas? Foundations.

What formed the Grand Canyon? A river. How? Um… What is a river? Dad!!!

What happens when it rains on city streets? What do you mean? When the rain falls on our yard where does the water go? In the ground. Can it go in the ground when it hits our roof? No. Can it go in the ground when it hits our streets? No. Where does the water go that falls on the streets? The sewer? Yes, through those storm drains. There’s a lot going on underground to make what is above ground work and persist. What happens if there are no storm drains and no sewers? I don’t know…road rivers. And? I don’t know. What formed the Grand Canyon? Hmmm.

What happens to a sand castle when the tide rises over it? What’s that got to do with it? Well? I guess it ruins it. Right. Water makes stuff happen whether as falling drizzle, rising tide or rushing torrent.

Why do we want to keep the water away from the wall?

Why are their gutters? Because there are houses. Without houses there are no gutters. Without streets, without houses, without gutters, without sewers…Just rain on the ground.

Hey, what about a rain barrel? Yes, what about a rain barrel? It doesn’t just take away water. Good.

Question: What is a cistern?

a. a big rain barrel
b. a big hole in the ground
c. a way to collect rain water for use
d. a functional representation of a way of thinking.

Question: What is learning?

Here is the audio file in 3 parts:

The Great Lawsuit Part I–Fuller

The Great Lawsuit, Part II–Fuller

The Great Lawsuit, Part III–Fuller

Some excerpts follow:

It is worthy of remark, that, as the principle of liberty is better understood and more nobly interpreted, a broader protest is made in behalf of woman. As men become aware that all men have not had their fair chance, they are inclined to say that no women have had a fair chance. The French revolution, that strangely disguised angel, bore witness in favor of woman, but interpreted her claims no less ignorantly than those of man. Its idea of happiness did not rise beyond outward enjoyment, unobstructed by the tyranny of others. The title it gave was Citoyen, Citoyenne, and it is not unimportant to woman that even this species of equality was awarded her. Before, she could be condemned to perish on the scaffold for treason, but not as a citizen, but a subject. The right, with which this title then invested a human being, was that of bloodshed and license. The Goddess of Liberty was impure. Yet truth was prophesied in the ravings of that hideous fever induced by long ignorance and abuse.

Though the national independence be blurred by the servility of individuals; though freedom and equality have been proclaimed only to leave room for a monstrous display of slave dealing and slave keeping; though the free American so often feels himself free, like the Roman, only to pamper his appetites and his indolence through the misery of his fellow beings, still it is not in vain, that the verbal statement has been made, “All men are born free and equal.” There it stands, a golden certainty, wherewith to encourage the good, to shame the bad. The new world may be called clearly to perceive that it incurs the utmost penalty, if it rejects the sorrowful brother. And if men are deaf, the angels hear. But men cannot be deaf. It is inevitable that an external freedom, such as has been achieved for the nation, should be so also for every member of it. That, which has once been clearly conceived in the intelligence, must be acted out.

***

Neither can she complain that she has not had her share of power. This, in all ranks of society, except the lowest, has been hers to the extent that vanity could crave, far beyond what wisdom would accept. In the very lowest, where man, pressed by poverty, sees in woman only the partner of toils and cares, and cannot hope, scarcely has an idea of a comfortable home, he maltreats her, often, and is less influenced by her. In all ranks, those who are amiable and uncomplaining, suffer much. They suffer long, and are kind; verily they have their reward. But wherever man is sufficiently raised above extreme poverty, or brutal stupidity, to care for the comforts of the fireside, or the bloom and ornament of life, woman has always power enough, if she choose to exert it, and is usually disposed to do so in proportion to her ignorance and childish vanity. Unacquainted with the importance of life and its purposes, trained to a selfish coquetry and love of petty power, she does not look beyond the pleasure of making herself felt at the moment, and governments are shaken and commerce broken up to gratify the pique of a female favorite. The English shopkeeper’s wife does not vote, but it is for her interest that the politician canvasses by the coarsest flattery.

***

Yet even this acknowledgment, rather obtained by woman than proffered by man, has been sullied by the usual selfishness. So much is said of women being better educated that they may be better companions and mothers of men! They should be fit for such companionship, and we have mentioned with satisfaction instances where it has been established. Earth knows no fairer, holier relation than that of a mother. But a being of infinite scope must not be treated with an exclusive view to any one relation. Give the soul free course, let the otganization be freely developed, and the being will be fit for any and every relation to which it may be called. The intellect, no more than the sense of hearing, is to be cultivated, that she may be a more valuable companion to man, but because the Power who gave a power by its mere existence signifies that it must be brought out towards perfection.

In this regard, of self-dependence and a greater simplicity and fulness of being, we must hail as a preliminary the increase of the class contemptuously designated as old maids.

***

Women here are much better situated than men. Good books are allowed with more time to read them. They are not so early forced into the bustle of life, nor so weighed down by demands for outward success. The perpetual changes, incident to our society, make the blood circulate freely through the body politic, and, if not favorable at present to the grace and bloom of life, they are so to activity, resource, and would be to reflection but for a low materialist tendency, from which the women are generally exempt.

They have time to think, and no traditions chain them, and few conventionalities compared with what must be met in other nations. There is no reason why the fact of a constant revelation should be hid from them, and when the mind once is awakened by that, it will not be restrained by the past, but fly to seek the seeds of a heavenly future.

Their employments are more favorable to the inward life than those of the men.

Woman is not addressed religiously here, more than elsewhere. She is told to be worthy to be the mother of a Washington, or the companion of some good man. But in many, many instances, she has already learnt that all bribes have the same flaw; that truth and good are to be sought for themselves alone. And already an ideal sweetness floats over many forms, shines in many eyes.

***

The late Dr. Channing, whose enlarged and tender and religious nature shared every onward impulse of his time, though his thoughts followed his wishes with a deliberative caution, which belonged to his habits and temperament, was greatly interested in these expectations for women. His own treatment of them was absolutely and thoroughly religious. He regarded them as souls, each of which had a destiny of its own, incalculable to other minds, and whose leading it must follow, guided by the light of a private conscience. He had sentiment, delicacy, kindness, taste, but they were all pervaded and ruled by this one thought, that all beings had souls, and must vindicate their own inheritance.

***

I wander all night in my vision,
Stepping with light feet . . . . swiftly and noiselessly stepping and stopping,
Bending with open eyes over the shut eyes of sleepers;
Wandering and confused . . . . lost to myself . . . . ill-assorted . . . . contradictory,
Pausing and gazing and bending and stopping.

How solemn they look there, stretched and still;
How quiet they breathe, the little children in their cradles.

The wretched features of ennuyees, the white features of corpses, the livid faces of drunkards, the sick-gray faces of onanists,
The gashed bodies on battlefields, the insane in their strong-doored rooms, the sacred idiots,
The newborn emerging from gates and the dying emerging from gates,
The night pervades them and enfolds them.

The married couple sleep calmly in their bed, he with his palm on the hip of the wife, and she with her palm on the hip of the husband,
The sisters sleep lovingly side by side in their bed,
The men sleep lovingly side by side in theirs,
And the mother sleeps with her little child carefully wrapped.

The blind sleep, and the deaf and dumb sleep,
The prisoner sleeps well in the prison . . . . the runaway son sleeps,
The murderer that is to be hung next day . . . . how does he sleep?
And the murdered person . . . . how does he sleep?

The female that loves unrequited sleeps,
And the male that loves unrequited sleeps;
The head of the moneymaker that plotted all day sleeps,
And the enraged and treacherous dispositions sleep.

I stand with drooping eyes by the worstsuffering and restless,
I pass my hands soothingly to and fro a few inches from them;
The restless sink in their beds . . . . they fitfully sleep.

The earth recedes from me into the night,
I saw that it was beautiful . . . . and I see that what is not the earth is beautiful.

I go from bedside to bedside . . . . I sleep close with the other sleepers, each in turn;
I dream in my dream all the dreams of the other dreamers,
And I become the other dreamers.

I am a dance . . . . Play up there! the fit is whirling me fast.

I am the everlaughing . . . . it is new moon and twilight,
I see the hiding of douceurs . . . . I see nimble ghosts whichever way I look,
Cache and cache again deep in the ground and sea, and where it is neither ground or sea.
Well do they do their jobs, those journeymen divine,
Only from me can they hide nothing and would not if they could;
I reckon I am their boss, and they make me a pet besides,
And surround me, and lead me and run ahead when I walk,
And lift their cunning covers and signify me with stretched arms, and resume the way;
Onward we move, a gay gang of blackguards with mirthshouting music and wildflapping pennants of joy.

I am the actor and the actress . . . . the voter . . the politician,

The emigrant and the exile . . the criminal that stood in the box,
He who has been famous, and he who shall be famous after today,
The stammerer . . . . the wellformed person . . the wasted or feeble person.

I am she who adorned herself and folded her hair expectantly,
My truant lover has come and it is dark.

Double yourself and receive me darkness,
Receive me and my lover too . . . . he will not let me go without him.

I roll myself upon you as upon a bed . . . . I resign myself to the dusk.

He whom I call answers me and takes the place of my lover,
He rises with me silently from the bed.

Darkness you are gentler than my lover . . . . his flesh was sweaty and panting,
I feel the hot moisture yet that he left me.

My hands are spread forth . . I pass them in all directions,
I would sound up the shadowy shore to which you are journeying.

Be careful, darkness . . . . already, what was it touched me?
I thought my lover had gone . . . . else darkness and he are one,
I hear the heart-beat . . . . I follow . . I fade away.

O hotcheeked and blushing! O foolish hectic!
O for pity’s sake, no one must see me now! . . . . my clothes were stolen while I was abed,
Now I am thrust forth, where shall I run?

Pier that I saw dimly last night when I looked from the windows,

Pier out from the main, let me catch myself with you and stay . . . . I will not chafe you;

I feel ashamed to go naked about the world,
And am curious to know where my feet stand . . . . and what is this flooding me, childhood or manhood . . . . and the hunger that crosses the bridge between.

The cloth laps a first sweet eating and drinking,
Laps life-swelling yolks . . . . laps ear of rose-corn, milky and just ripened:
The white teeth stay, and the boss-tooth advances in darkness,
And liquor is spilled on lips and bosoms by touching glasses, and the best liquor afterward.

I descend my western course . . . . my sinews are flaccid,
Perfume and youth course through me, and I am their wake.

It is my face yellow and wrinkled instead of the old woman’s,
I sit low in a strawbottom chair and carefully darn my grandson’s stockings.

It is I too . . . . the sleepless widow looking out on the winter midnight,
I see the sparkles of starshine on the icy and pallid earth.

A shroud I see — and I am the shroud . . . . I wrap a body and lie in the coffin;
It is dark here underground . . . . it is not evil or pain here . . . . it is blank here, for reasons.

It seems to me that everything in the light and air ought to be happy;
Whoever is not in his coffin and the dark grave, let him know he has enough.

I see a beautiful gigantic swimmer swimming naked through the eddies of the sea,
His brown hair lies close and even to his head . . . . he strikes out with courageous arms . . . . he urges himself with his legs.

I see his white body . . . . I see his undaunted eyes;
I hate the swift-running eddies that would dash him headforemost on the rocks.

What are you doing you ruffianly red-trickled waves?
Will you kill the courageous giant? Will you kill him in the prime of his middle age?

Steady and long he struggles;
He is baffled and banged and bruised . . . . he holds out while his strength holds out,
The slapping eddies are spotted with his blood . . . . they bear him away . . . . they roll him and swing him and turn him:
His beautiful body is borne in the circling eddies . . . . it is continually bruised on rocks,
Swiftly and out of sight is borne the brave corpse.

I turn but do not extricate myself;
Confused . . . . a pastreading . . . . another, but with darkness yet.

The beach is cut by the razory ice-wind . . . . the wreck-guns sound,
The tempest lulls and the moon comes floundering through the drifts.

I look where the ship helplessly heads end on . . . . I hear the burst as she strikes . . I hear the howls of dismay . . . . they grow fainter and fainter.

I cannot aid with my wringing fingers;
I can but rush to the surf and let it drench me and freeze upon me.

I search with the crowd . . . . not one of the company is washed to us alive;
In the morning I help pick up the dead and lay them in rows in a barn.

Now of the old war-days . . the defeat at Brooklyn;
Washington stands inside the lines . . he stands on the entrenched hills amid a crowd of officers,
His face is cold and damp . . . . he cannot repress the weeping drops . . . . he lifts the glass perpetually to his eyes . . . . the color is blanched from his cheeks,
He sees the slaughter of the southern braves confided to him by their parents.

The same at last and at last when peace is declared,
He stands in the room of the old tavern . . . . the wellbeloved soldiers all pass through,
The officers speechless and slow draw near in their turns,
The chief encircles their necks with his arm and kisses them on the cheek,
He kisses lightly the wet cheeks one after another . . . . he shakes hands and bids goodbye to the army.

Now I tell what my mother told me today as we sat at dinner together,
Of when she was a nearly grown girl living home with her parents on the old homestead.

A red squaw came one breakfasttime to the old homestead,
On her back she carried a bundle of rushes for rushbottoming chairs;
Her hair straight shiny coarse black and profuse halfenveloped her face,
Her step was free and elastic . . . . her voice sounded exquisitely as she spoke.
My mother looked in delight and amazement at the stranger,
She looked at the beauty of her tallborne face and full and pliant limbs,
The more she looked upon her she loved her,
Never before had she seen such wonderful beauty and purity;
She made her sit on a bench by the jamb of the fireplace . . . . she cooked food for her,

She had no work to give her but she gave her remembrance and fondness.

The red squaw staid all the forenoon, and toward the middle of the afternoon she went away;
O my mother was loth to have her go away,
All the week she thought of her . . . . she watched for her many a month,
She remembered her many a winter and many a summer,
But the red squaw never came nor was heard of there again.

Now Lucifer was not dead . . . . or if he was I am his sorrowful terrible heir;
I have been wronged . . . . I am oppressed . . . . I hate him that oppresses me,
I will either destroy him, or he shall release me.

Damn him! how he does defile me,
How he informs against my brother and sister and takes pay for their blood,
How he laughs when I look down the bend after the steamboat that carries away my woman.

Now the vast dusk bulk that is the whale’s bulk . . . . it seems mine,
Warily, sportsman! though I lie so sleepy and sluggish, my tap is death.

A show of the summer softness . . . . a contact of something unseen . . . . an amour of the light and air;
I am jealous and overwhelmed with friendliness,
And will go gallivant with the light and the air myself,
And have an unseen something to be in contact with them also.

O love and summer! you are in the dreams and in me,
Autumn and winter are in the dreams . . . . the farmer goes with his thrift,
The droves and crops increase . . . . the barns are wellfilled.

Elements merge in the night . . . . ships make tacks in the dreams . . . . the sailor sails . . . . the exile returns home,

The fugitive returns unharmed . . . . the immigrant is back beyond months and years;
The poor Irishman lives in the simple house of his childhood, with the wellknown neighbors and faces,
They warmly welcome him . . . . he is barefoot again . . . . he forgets he is welloff;
The Dutchman voyages home, and the Scotchman and Welchman voyage home . . and the native of the Mediterranean voyages home;
To every port of England and France and Spain enter wellfilled ships;
The Swiss foots it toward his hills . . . . the Prussian goes his way, and the Hungarian his way, and the Pole goes his way,
The Swede returns, and the Dane and Norwegian return.

The homeward bound and the outward bound,
The beautiful lost swimmer, the ennuyee, the onanist, the female that loves unrequited, the moneymaker,
The actor and actress . . those through with their parts and those waiting to commence,
The affectionate boy, the husband and wife, the voter, the nominee that is chosen and the nominee that has failed,
The great already known, and the great anytime after to day,
The stammerer, the sick, the perfectformed, the homely,
The criminal that stood in the box, the judge that sat and sentenced him, the fluent lawyers, the jury, the audience,
The laugher and weeper, the dancer, the midnight widow, the red squaw,
The consumptive, the erysipalite, the idiot, he that is wronged,
The antipodes, and every one between this and them in the dark,
I swear they are averaged now . . . . one is no better than the other,
The night and sleep have likened them and restored them.

I swear they are all beautiful,
Every one that sleeps is beautiful . . . . every thing in the dim night is beautiful,
The wildest and bloodiest is over and all is peace.

Peace is always beautiful,
The myth of heaven indicates peace and night.

The myth of heaven indicates the soul;
The soul is always beautiful . . . . it appears more or it appears less . . . . it comes or lags behind,
It comes from its embowered garden and looks pleasantly on itself and encloses the world;
Perfect and clean the genitals previously jetting, and perfect and clean the womb cohering,
The head wellgrown and proportioned and plumb, and the bowels and joints proportioned and plumb.

The soul is always beautiful,
The universe is duly in order . . . . every thing is in its place,
What is arrived is in its place, and what waits is in its place;
The twisted skull waits . . . . the watery or rotten blood waits,
The child of the glutton or venerealee waits long, and the child of the drunkard waits long, and the drunkard himself waits long,
The sleepers that lived and died wait . . . . the far advanced are to go on in their turns, and the far behind are to go on in their turns,
The diverse shall be no less diverse, but they shall flow and unite . . . . they unite now.

The sleepers are very beautiful as they lie unclothed,
They flow hand in hand over the whole earth from east to west as they lie unclothed;
The Asiatic and African are hand in hand . . . . the European and American are hand in hand,
Learned and unlearned are hand in hand . . and male and female are hand in hand;

The bare arm of the girl crosses the bare breast of her lover . . . . they press close without lust . . . . his lips press her neck,
The father holds his grown or ungrown son in his arms with measureless love . . . . and the son holds the father in his arms with measureless love,
The white hair of the mother shines on the white wrist of the daughter,
The breath of the boy goes with the breath of the man . . . . friend is inarmed by friend,
The scholar kisses the teacher and the teacher kisses the scholar . . . . the wronged is made right,
The call of the slave is one with the master’s call . . and the master salutes the slave,
The felon steps forth from the prison . . . . the insane becomes sane . . . . the suffering of sick persons is relieved,
The sweatings and fevers stop . . the throat that was unsound is sound . . the lungs of the consumptive are resumed . . the poor distressed head is free,
The joints of the rheumatic move as smoothly as ever, and smoother than ever,
Stiflings and passages open . . . . the paralysed become supple,
The swelled and convulsed and congested awake to themselves in condition,
They pass the invigoration of the night and the chemistry of the night and awake.

I too pass from the night;
I stay awhile away O night, but I return to you again and love you;
Why should I be afraid to trust myself to you?
I am not afraid . . . . I have been well brought forward by you;
I love the rich running day, but I do not desert her in whom I lay so long;
I know not how I came of you, and I know not where I go with you . . . . but I know I came well and shall go well.

I will stop only a time with the night . . . . and rise betimes.

I will duly pass the day O my mother and duly return to you;
Not you will yield forth the dawn again more surely than you will yield forth me again,
Not the womb yields the babe in its time more surely than I shall be yielded from you in my time.

***

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then . . . . I contradict myself;
I am large . . . . I contain multitudes.

I concentrate toward them that are nigh . . . . I wait on the door-slab.

Who has done his day’s work and will soonest be through with his supper?
Who wishes to walk with me?

Will you speak before I am gone? Will you prove already too late?

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me . . . . he complains of my gab and my loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed . . . . I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

The last scud of day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadowed wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.

I depart as air . . . . I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,

I effuse my flesh in eddies and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your bootsoles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop some where waiting for you

“The Olde Manse” (of Emerson and Hawthorne)

An audio recording by Doug Storm of “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. (42:16)