[Magdalen] Now Keillor.

[ME Michaud]

You do not seem to understand the difference between an affair and an
assault.
-M


On Thursday, November 30, 2017, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:

> It is interesting that in the case of men in positions of some power, the
> exploitation of women "just because" was a sort of hobby. Bill Clinton said
> the reason for Monica Lewinsky was "because I could."
>
> It was a given up until just a short time ago (and still is a given in a
> lot of arenas, I suppose) that men can routinely do stuff to act out the
> fact that they are totally in control over any female under them, and can
> do whatever they want with them. The females are still seen as objects. But
> of course, objects that also happen to be sentient have to be kept in line,
> and those actions served to keep most of the flock in line.
>
> I am reminded of the case of FDR. He had some kind of relationship with a
> secretary, and Eleanor got him to swear never to see her again, and at the
> same time, it seems to have ended their marriage in all senses but name
> only.  FDR had ongoing relationships with several women throughout his
> life. I understand that he was simultaneously making arrangements with two
> (2!) women that after he left office he would quietly separate from Eleanor
> and they would live together ever after.
>
> One of these was Miss "Daisy" Margaret Suckley, who became a friend before
> FDR was president. She was also from aristocratic stock, and gifted the
> famous dog Fala to the President. She and three other women were with FDR
> in Warm Springs when he suffered his fatal stroke. She lived at the family
> estate, "Wilderstein," in Rhinebeck, just north of Hyde Park, and she died
> there at the age of 99. My wife is a librarian and archivist, and is
> friends with one of the archivists at Wilderstein, who was straightening
> things out after Miss Daisy had passed away, and they noticed a box under
> Miss Daisy's bed. It turned out that in that box were a treasure trove of
> letters. There were a lot of letters from FDR in which these matters were
> spelled out.  The letters were sold, and an editor published selections
> from them as the book, _Closest Companion_, which pretty much demonstrates
> that these things were going on.
>
> Stories of affairs are all over the place, and it seems that the country
> has decided the simple way of dealing with this double standard in our
> leaders is to let sleeping dogs lie. The trouble with that is that people
> grow up assuming that Washington, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Roosevelt were
> our fine leaders, and there is little said about their affairs. Thus it
> seems that today when someone has a zipper problem, the attitude is that
> it's something new, which is just not true. It used to be that a gentleman
> had his wife and his mistress, or perhaps several sometime mistresses.
>
> I don't know what ought to be done about this, except that probably one
> thing would be to face the fact that these affairs were at one time the
> rule rather than the exception, and we need to work out a way of being
> realistic with our past history without throwing it all in the trashbin.
> For instance, George Washington was a very happily married man who also had
> affairs and who also had slaves, and who also set the pattern for so very
> much that is good and just and honorable about the office of the President.
> He wasn't blameless, and we should recognize his virtues and his faults
> equally, not trying to stereotype him into some myth.
>
> Surely the same can be said for Eisenhower, Kennedy and Clinton.
>
> "You mean to say that those horrible things are somehow okay because a
> president did them?" I think we should cut it out with saying whether
> something is "okay" with us, since we don't get to judge anyway, don't even
> begin to have the full story, and saying something is okay is really
> pointless, since this is all history now. We can look dispassionately at
> it, fully recognizing the good the person did, absent all those "Yes,
> but--"s, and also looking at the harm they did without flinching too.  We
> have a unique opportunity in Monica Lewinsky to examine the after effects
> of this. Washington is so far removed it is next to impossible to get
> anything beyond innuendo and rumor, but here we have the opportunity of
> taking a real lesson from the woman involved. My understanding is that she
> feels it has essentially ruined her life, which, without arguing up or
> down, I think ought to get more than some pulp journalist's casual
> sensational examination.
>
> The Diocese of New York is making 2018 the year of lamentation, planning a
> series of events designed to explore slavery and New York's contribution
> (if that's the right word) to it. Such examination might be some steps
> toward finally beginning to deal with the after effects of slavery,
> enabling us to get on to the subject of reparations and healing. The
> following article, written by the rector of my current parish is an
> explanation of some of the ideas involved.
>
> http://www.evergreeneditions.com/publication/?i=427324&
> article_id=2844782&view=articleBrowser&ver=html5#{
> "issue_id":427324,"view":"articleBrowser","article_id":"2844782"}
>
> or, if that engulfs your browser:
> https://tinyurl.com/ya3q4xza
>
> Also:
> https://ednyreparationsblog.wordpress.com/author/ednyreparations/
>
>
>
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
> except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
>
> On Wed, Nov 29, 2017 at 12:48 PM, M J _Mike_ Logsdon <mjl at ix.netcom.com
> <javascript:;>>
> wrote:
>
> > http://enews.earthlink.net/article/top?guid=20171129/
> > a9fa334b-db15-4f70-9238-0a617872feb6
> >
> > The world is upsidedown.  I'm sure that right now it needs to be that
> > way.  But I'm frankly getting dizzy.
> >
> > M J (Mike) Logsdon.
> >
> > "Aaugh[.]" -- Charles Brown.
> > "Avoid dull needles and use a soft cloth." -- E Kovacs.
> >
>