and what is so rare as a day in June?

Just about all of us memorized the poem (shown below) in high school, but it has a much richer history than all of us are aware of.

First off, here’s the part that we remember:

And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days;

Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,

And over it softly her warm ear lays:

Whether we look, or whether we listen,

We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;

The stanzas above are a small part of a larger work titled, “The Vision of Sir Launfal”, which was released by James Russell Lowell in 1848. You can read it in its entirety in the link below, but the COMPLETE poem involving the month of June goes from line 34 to line 95 of “Prelude to Part First”.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17119/17119-h/17119-h.htm#PART_FIRST

The “rest of the story” is steeped in biblical history, since Sir Laundal was in search of the holy grail, the chalice that Jesus drank from at the last supper.

(To quote Indiana Jones, “this is the cup of a carpenter”. )

Here’s a couple of paragraphs from “Part First”:

My golden spurs now bring to me,

And bring to me my richest mail,

For to-morrow I go over land and sea,

In search of the Holy Grail;

Shall never a bed for me be spread

Nor shall a pillow be under my head,

Till I begin my vow to keep

Here on the rushes will I sleep,

And perchance there may come a vision true

Ere day create the world anew."

Slowly Sir Launfal's eyes grew dim,

Slumber fell like a cloud on him,

And into his soul the vision flew.

The drawbridge dropped with a surly clang,

and through the dark arch a charger sprang,

Bearing Sir Launfal, the maiden knight,

In his gilded mail, that flamed so bright

It seemed the dark castle had gathered all

Those shafts the fierce sun had shot over its wall

In his siege of three hundred summers long,

binding them all in one blazing sheaf,

Had cast them forth: so, young and strong,

And lightsome as a locust-leaf,

Sir Launfal flashed forth in his unscarred mail,

To seek in all climes for the Holy Grail.

The poem is 345 lines long, and it worth reading in its entirely.

In the end, or course, Sin Launfal finds the holy grail – but it is not what he expected.

Remember these words as you read the closing lines:

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it 
to them, saying,“This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in 

remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. (Luke 22:19)

4 dead in Ohio

I rarely even have the radio on in my car on anymore.  When I do, it’s tuned to NPR, and I’ll generally listen to it for a few minutes before turning it off again.

The topic of the day today was the Kent State shootings of May 4, 1970.

Four Kent State University students were killed and nine were injured on May 4, 1970, when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd gathered to protest the Vietnam War. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Southeast Asia. In its immediate aftermath, a student-led strike forced the temporary closure of colleges and universities across the country. Some political observers believe the events of that day in northeast Ohio tilted public opinion against the war and may have contributed to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.

 President Richard M. Nixon had been elected in 1968 due in large part to his promise to end the Vietnam War. And, until April 1970, it appeared he was on the way to fulfilling that campaign promise, as military operations were seemingly winding down.

However, on April 30, 1970, President Nixon authorized U.S. troops to invade Cambodia, a neutral nation located west of Vietnam. North Vietnamese troops were using safe havens in Cambodia to launch attacks on the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese, and parts of the Ho Chi Minh Trail—a supply route used by the North Vietnamese—passed through Cambodia.

Even before Nixon’s formal announcement of the invasion, rumors of the U.S. military incursion into Cambodia resulted in protests at colleges and universities across the country. At Kent State, these protests actually began on May 1, the day after the invasion.

With a major protest already scheduled for noon on Monday, May 4th, once again on the Commons, university officials attempted to diffuse the situation by prohibiting the event. Still, crowds began to gather at about 11:00 that morning, and an estimated 3,000 protesters and spectators were there by the scheduled start time.Stationed at the now-destroyed ROTC building were roughly 100 Ohio National Guardsmen carrying M-1 military rifles.

Over just a 13-second period, nearly 70 shots were fired in total. In all, four Kent State students—Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, William Schroeder and Sandra Scheuer—were killed, and nine others were injured. Schroeder was shot in the back, as were two of the injured, Robert Stamps and Dean Kahler.

In a civil suit filed by the injured Kent State students and their families, a settlement was reached in 1979 in which the Ohio National Guard agreed to pay those injured in the events of May 4, 1970 a total of $675,000.

https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/kent-state-shooting

17 days after the Kent State shooting, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded “Ohio”, and it was released in early June

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRE9vMBBe10

Not surprisingly, there is a Facebook page dedicated to the Kent State shootings:

https://www.facebook.com/FourDeadInOhioTheKentStateMassacre/

Although we are all familiar with the Kent State shootings, a less well-known shooting occurred at Jackson State (Mississippi) 11 days later. Although not related to the Vietnam War, it simply happened at a time when protests on campus were common.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_State_killings

The Sterling Hall bombing that occurred on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus on August 24, 1970, was committed by four men as a protest against the university's research connections with the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. It resulted in the death of a university physics researcher and injuries to three others.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Hall_bombing

On almost the same day that the students at Kent State were being fired on, I was on a plane to Fort Bragg, North Carolina to start my basic training as part of my commitment to the Minnesota National Guard. A month after I arrived, I received word that my cousin, Warrant Officer Donald J. Lundequam, was killed when the helicopter he was piloting was shot down. More than anything else, his death really brought the horror of the Vietnam War home to me. His name is on Panel W9, Line 14. Thomas Brennan, incidentally, is on Pane W56, Line 17.

http://thewall-usa.com/index.asp#search

My neighbor, Larry Kusilek, was killed on February 16, 1967 – and I went to his funeral. Another high school classmate, Patrick Mercier, was killed about a month later, on March 31, 1967,

The broadcast on NPR reminded me of the fact that the Kent State shootings occurred almost exactly 50 years ago, a fact that reminds me that I AM getting older. 

In all, the Vietnam War resulted in the deaths of 58,220 Americans over the 21 year period the war was being conducted.  and the Kent State shootings were a significant factor in turning the public against the war.

The first COVID19 death in the United States occurred in Washington State on February 29. By the end of this week, 100,000 Americans will have died from COVID19, a number that could have been cut in half if our country had taken aggressive action om March 1 instead of March 16.

Where’s the outrage?

you deserve a break today

About three years ago, I received a Facebook “rant” comparing the hourly wages of McDonald’s employees and military personnel. The gist of the argument was that “burger flippers’ were making far too much money for what they did compared to military personnel, who often were called on to risk their lives. 

I did a bit of research, and found that comparing the two occupations is like comparing apples and oranges.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2017/06/is-it-time-to-raise-minimum-wage.html

Although the Federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, most states have higher minimum wages than that – even red state Arizona, which has a minimum wage of $12 an hour.

The folks in this country who think that burger flippers should not be making $15 an hour would be shocked to learn that burger flippers in Denmark make $22 an hour. On top of that, McDonald’s workers in Denmark get six weeks of paid vacation a year, life insurance, a year’s paid maternity leave and a pension plan. And like all Danes, they enjoy universal medical insurance and paid sick leave.

On top of all that, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra is amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enuOArEfqGo (the good, bad, and the ugly)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT1NJwEi6nw (for a few dollars more)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4niv522mbtM (a fistful of dollars)

A Big Mac flipped by $22-an-hour workers isn’t even that much more expensive than an American one. Big Mac prices vary by outlet, but spot pricing suggested that one might cost about 27 cents more on average in Denmark than in the United States. That 27 cents is the price of dignity. The article below goes into a lot more detail, and is worth reading. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/08/opinion/us-denmark-economy.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote a book titled “That Used to be Us”, which I read a few years back. In many ways, Denmark today is what the United States looked like in the Eisenhower years. 

The golden age of American capitalism, from 1945 to 1980, was a period of high tax rates (up to 91 percent for the very wealthy), strong labor unions and huge initiatives, such as the G.I. Bill of Rights to help disadvantaged (albeit mostly white) Americans. This was a period of rapid growth in which income inequality declined — and in some ways it looked like today’s Denmark.

The United States may still have the world’s largest economy (for now) but we are definitely not the happiest country in the world.

Finland has the best schools in the world, and they are #1 in terms of happiness.  However, Denmark is ranked as the 2^nd happiest in the world, and not just because the minimum wage is $22 an hour.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2020/03/20/ranked-20-happiest-countries-2020/#306edfd97850

We are currently ranked at #18, and that’s a decrease from 4 years ago, when he had a more stable political climate.

Despite the fact that there are lots of people wearing MAGA hats, we are a long way from being the most respected country in the world. In fact, we are ranked at #22. The Nordic countries also come out well on this list, but the most respected country in the world is one we share a border with – and it’s not Mexico.

For a lot of reasons, most of us have felt an increased sense of anxiety since January of 2017, but we don’t have to travel to Denmark to get a break from it.

All we have to do is vote.