Month: January 2017

We went to see Mamma Mia, the stage play, for my birthday one year. Not long after, the movie, starring Meryl Streep, came out, and I’ve seen that a few times, too. I like Abba’s music. The songs I know feel upbeat and happy, even if the subject isn’t.

My millennial friends, no doubt, think me hopelessly square (People of a Certain Age, we know the real meaning of that word!) for my preferring music where one can understand the words and dance energetically. But, there it is.

A favorite Abba song is “I Have a Dream.” One lyric visits my head from time to time: “If you see the wonder of a fairy tale, you can face the future even if you fail.” What’s not to like about hopefulness and wonder?

Dreams seem a special form of hope. I wonder if hopefulness is a pre-condition to dreaming. And, I wonder how many of us ever chose to dream, really big, about being someone, doing some things, going somewhere.

“You gotta have a dream. If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?” Can’t you hear Bloody Mary signing in South Pacific?

The movie LaLaLand invites one to think about dreams, too. The two leads have parallel dreams, each involving a passion, a hoped-for self. In a crucial scene, Mia, the aspiring actress, berates Sebastian, the wannabe jazz club owner, for abandoning his dream in favor of playing keyboards in a popular band.

Sebastian replies that, perhaps, his dream is unrealistic and unreachable. Perhaps he needs to modify his dream, acknowledging the realities of daily living. And besides, he continues, some people dream about doing what I am doing now!

There is a cost to dreams. That is one of the points of this movie.

Mia’s and Sebastian’s dreams were their individual dreams. We have recently marked the birthday of a man made famous by the words “I have a dream.” His vision encompassed all of us. It certainly costs. As a nation, we sometimes seem to have settled for less.

Equally worrisome, if some social commentators are right, belief in the American Dream has faded over time. Do large numbers of Americans still believe that they can achieve a better life for themselves and their families than their parents had? That has been a fundamental factor in the sunny optimism that is a part of our national mythology.

I can’t remember having a dream quite like Mia’s or Sebastian’s. I did want to succeed Mickey Mantle in centerfield for the Yankees. I have told my history students that I would like to be a Supreme Court Justice because the court could use someone offering opinions untainted by an attorney’s way of thinking. Neither was a serious dream; if either had been, wouldn’t I have tried harder?

I never dreamed of being a teacher, getting a PhD or co-founding a school. I never dreamed I would be lucky in love, sharing my life with my best friend since a year before King’s speech. I never dreamed that I would live in a nice house with a great view in “the best weather on the planet,” to quote our local TV weatherman.

Looking back, these would all have constituted reasonable dreams.

So Mia and Sebastian make me wonder about the importance of dreams. In dreams like theirs, there seems to be a passion, a thirst demanding to be quenched. Goodness knows that more people dream dreams like theirs than ever win fulfillment. If, like Sebastian said he should do, I’ve “settled,” compromised with the realities of daily living, I have no complaints. I am content.

Of course, Bloody Mary was right. “If you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true?

Mia and Sebastian have reasons why their dreams are achievable. Mia knew something about the craft of acting. Sebastian was a jazz musician himself. Their dreams, in these ways, were grounded.

My brother-in-law wondered if there is a unique quality to the dreams of aspiring artists of any sort because art and passion always seem connected. He might be on to something. An artist without passion might be a contradiction in terms.

Looking back, I can see that I have sought to be upbeat and happy, like Abba’s music. Perhaps that has been my dream. Nothing grand, like being a Yankee centerfielder or a Supreme Court Justice or a movie star. Just finding happiness and being upbeat.

Dr. King challenges us to work toward that time when all people have the opportunity to just find happiness and be upbeat, to share in the benefits of our unique society. Maybe an American Dream built on this notion, rather than on being better than or making more than, is a worthwhile dream.

In it, there is room for Mia and Sebastian, Bloody Mary and Dan, those who see the wonder of a fairy tale, those with passionate thirst needing to be quenched and those who are content.

That’s the beauty about dreams. They can be as big as we want to make them.

Daniel E. White

January 23, 2017

We were watching pre-inauguration coverage by CBS in 1993 when Walter Cronkite intoned, “No two Presidents have ever taken their oath of office with their hands on a Bible opened to the same verse.” Judy, from the “Show-Me” state, asked, “I wonder if that’s really true?”

People of a Certain Age, you know that the questioning of Walter Cronkite was like asking the Oracle at Delphi, “are you sure?” It was, however, the birth of the research and writing project that resulted in my having ISBN numbers for two editions of So Help Me God. To find an answer for Judy, I had to examine over 50 previous inaugural ceremonies. Once that was done, I was on my way to writing a book.

With the inauguration of the 45^th President a little more than a week away, the fact that I am thinking about inaugurations is not surprising. And, because I have been speaking to retirement communities about So Help Me God and giving away copies, my interest has never really gone away.

I begin my talks with a funny story but move quickly to observe that the phrase “rancorous politics” is redundant. Nastiness is normal in presidential politics. John Quincy Adams refused to attend the swearing-in of Andrew Jackson, and Lincoln’s opponents freely compared him, negatively, to a baboon. In 1884, one party called their opponents the party of Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion.”

The negativity offends our sensibilities. So why do so many campaigns spend so much money on negative ads?

I point out to audiences that most of our presidents have taken office with nearly half (or more) of the populace opposing them. Which job have you ever taken where 50% of the people affected did not want you? Presidents who can claim to have united these United States behind their leadership have usually led the country in a war. Even then, there is a lively history in the U.S. of opposition to any and all of our wars. Every president promises to unite the country. Let’s hope they keep trying.

I also pose a quiz for the folks. What are the first words spoken by every president, from George Washington to Barack Obama? Answer: “So help me God.” The Constitutional oath ends with the words “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Once the oath is finished, the new president is official. George Washington added “so help me God,” and the tradition was started.

On a wall of the Reagan Library, “So Help Me God” is included in the etched oath, incorrectly, a common mistake.

Washington also began the tradition of swearing the oath on a Bible, a practice he borrowed from the coronation of kings and queens of Europe. Two presidents—John Quincy Adams, and Franklin Pierce—have elected not to use a Bible. Each used books of law. A third president used a Catholic Prayer Book. Bound in black and looking like a Bible, it was used on Air Force One in 1963 for President Johnson because no one could find a Bible. There is a story for each instance in the book.

Some presidents have followed Washington’s lead and sworn on an open Bible. He opened a Bible borrowed from the nearby Masonic Lodge randomly, to Genesis, fittingly to a verse about the beginning of things. Some presidents have even used two Bibles, usually a personal one on top of the one used by Washington.

The inaugural stands used to be constructed on the east side of the Capitol. President Reagan had them erected on the west side, facing the rest of the country.

Jimmy and Roslynn Carter got out of their car and walked in the Inaugural Parade, So has every President since.

Until the 20^th century, few heard inaugural addresses. No microphones, no recorders, no radio or TV. Some of the addresses have not been memorable. Others have entered American mythology—Lincoln’s Second; FDR’s “nothing to fear but fear itself;” Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country,” a paraphrasing of something said by Warren Harding in 1921.

One president died as a result of the pneumonia he contracted while making a two-hour long speech in freezing weather without an overcoat. William Henry Harrison died 39 days later.

The United States is unique in history for many reasons, not least of which is that enormous power transfers peacefully on a regular basis. We can all be proud of that even if we chafe at a particular president.

My book ends: “In nearly every instance, the unity noted by R.W. Apple and William Safire as the defining quality in the inaugural act has quickly fractured under the stress of practical politics…Inaugurations are a moment of cleansing when we all say we hope to be better, individually and as a nation, in our interactions with others. Often we fail. Yet sometimes we don’t. Through our presidents, in their proud and humbling moment of inauguration, we pledge to keep on trying to be worthy of being the city on the hill, to do justly and love mercy. So help us God!”

(Incidentally, Walter Cronkite was wrong.)

Daniel E. White

January 9, 2017