Skip to main content

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave

Although I have read Frederick Douglass' Narrative a number of times, I pulled it off the shelf this weekend to read again in the wake of the controversy surrounding The Marriage Vow pledge signed by Michelle Bachmann.  The Michelle Bachmann's of the world, and there seem to be more of them out there than I had imagined if the Iowa straw poll numbers are any indication, could learn an awful lot from Douglass' Narrative.  If she can actually read, that is.  Those eyes of hers make me wonder.

Comments

  1. I knew of that "pledge," but hadn't read it. That's downright creepy.

    And yes, I agree that voters have not done their part by, at minimum, staying informed. When you read the exit polls it's amazing to find out what people actually believe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not to mention, I should add, what candidates like Bachmann actually believe.

    ReplyDelete
  3. avrds -- The thing about voters, whether in Iowa or my benighted state of Georgia, is that they really believe they are staying informed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. More the tragedy of it. Fox News does not an informed electorate make.

    I was going to respond that if she does make it, she would make an easy opponent for Obama, but .... these days, given your point above, who knows. And given the cuts to education nationwide, it can only get worse.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Enjoyed some badly needed R&R in Druskininkai this past week. Nice to see some new posts when I got back.

    This "marriage vow" business first cropped up last month when some Iowa yahoos got Michelle and Santorum to sign it. It was nice to see that Romney at least steered clear of it. This has to be the most outlandish "pledge" yet concocted with all its references to blacks in America, as if it was some kind of halcyon period back in those antebellum days. And, these teabaggers would like us to believe they are not racist. I can't even imagine any presidential candidate touching a "pledge" like this with a ten-foot poll.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oddly enough, Bachmann signed the pledged but then claimed the copy she signed didn't include the stuff about slavery. Haven't seen anything to corroborate her version of events.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Or probably more to the point, she never bothered to read it. "I believe in marriage. Sure, I'll sign."

    Regardless, to pretend she doesn't believe that stuff now that she has been called on it is a little disingenuous. All these far righters seem to be feeding on a deep-seated racism, and a fear that they are losing their country demographically to non-white, non-protestants.

    As a friend said to me the other day -- we have become an extremely diverse country, and yet we are still dominated by a small number of white male conservatives. No wonder they are trying to restrict the right to vote around the country. Someone might stop and figure that out and actually vote them all out.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Very scary that she and Perry seem to be the front runners for the repubs.Have a great new 23 inch all in one gateway with wifi and it still won't accept my google id here.bosox

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse,

    http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/seven-ways-rick-perry-wants-change-constitution-131634517.html

    Maybe we should get rid of the 13th,14th, and 15th amendments as well?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!