When I was a kid, my cousin Keith was my idol. He was five years older than me, and between the ages of 10 and 16 or so, those five years are an eternity: in my eyes, he was practically an adult, and I was the puppy he generously allowed to tag along at his heels, snuffling up all of the pearls of wisdom and insight he dropped. He taught me lots of swears, taught me about anatomy and sex (to the extent of his own limited knowledge), introduced me to (then) cool music, even had me be Best Man at his wedding when I was just 16, and had to make the toast with ginger ale. In short, he treated me as a beloved kid brother, and I was excessively grateful for that.
Keith and his parents--and maybe his older brother, I can't recall--were pretty proficient archers, and used to travel great distances by car from their home in Springfield, VT. to participate in archery tournaments around the country. This was the late 1950's/early 1960's, mind, and auto travel of great distance was no mean feat. I recall him telling me after one trip to Kansas or Arkansas or somewhere faraway and exotic, how one time they pulled into a gas station for a fill-up (in the days of full service) and the attendant, as the gas pumped, idly glanced at the license plate on the car and said "Vermont! What state's that in?"
The answer is finally in, after all these years: Vermont is in the same state of bigotry, hatred, ignorance, fear, xenophobia and stupidity as every other state in the country, and likely everyplace humans live the world over. This little item appeared in The Week in the Feb. 20 issue:
A proposal to add a Latin phrase to Vermont's state motto caused an uproar when some residents mistook the ancient Roman language for Spanish. A state senator proposed adding "Stella quarta decima fulgeat" ("The 14th star shines bright") to the state seal. But protestors took to the internet to declare, "Vermont ain't no Latino area," and "This is America, not Mexico." And those are among the mildest and least-stupid-sounding comments.
But wait, it gets even better: the suggestion for the motto originated with an 8th grader in the Riverside School in Lyndonville, VT., interested in the history of her state. Seems the motto originally appeared on old coins minted in Vermont, and is a sign of the pride Vermonters felt at being the 14th state in the nation. When the story aired on WCAX TV in Burlington, well, the merda, the mierda, hit the fan. Viewers became incensed (um, Vermonters, that means "wicked pissed") and began to spout off idiotically by the dozens in on-line forums (hmm, where does that word come from?). One person actually wrote, in protest, "When in Rome do as the Romans do." A little learning is a stupid thing.
You shouldn't just take my word for it, though. My source for the quotes is a site called BDCwire/vermont motto. It'll make you laugh, cry, swear, shake your head at where we are today, and/or vomit, if you're like me. And for those of you who won't bother to check it out yourselves, here are a few of the surnames of the Vermont "natives" who want to keep the "foreigners" out: Flanders, Zucker, Lamoureux, Lepisto, Salzano, Gauld, Smolnik, Swierczynski and Prevuznak. Yep, we sure need to keep Vermont pure from all them foreigners. And the thing is, of course, that these people have the right to vote (even they can make an "X", I'll bet), and procreate, which I'll wager they do prolifically (means "a wicked lot"), just the same as regular people whose hairlines and eyebrows don't meet and whose knuckles don't scrape the ground when they walk upright (it can be done, through something called "evoluti"--oh, never mind). Vermont currently has a motto, to which the proposed Latin would be appended; wanna guess what it is? "Freedom And Unity." God, irony is such a rich vein, innit? And it just drips and oozes from virtually every word, every syllable, every letter of this story.
Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire are the three least-diverse, whitest states in the nation, each at least 96% caucasian, according to the 2010 census. Ninety-six percent! I knew we were pretty insular if not inbred, but that still amazes me. I've been picking on Vermont in this piece because the impetus for it originated there, but of course neither ME or NH is any different attitudinally, each containing its share of bigots and yahoos I'm sure at least equal to The People's Republic of Vermont. It's nice to know that bigotry and stupidity are equal-opportunity, and that you don't even have to know someone--or some group--to hate them. In fact that probably makes it easier.
I read the article in The Week while I was in Ossining, NY this past week. Ossining's in Westchester County, but put aside your presumptions: Ossining's very diverse, with a large black and Latino population, and I had been thinking how great it was to be among and interacting with people different from me, people of different races, cultures, and ethnicities. If you're there and you're paying attention, you can't help but realize that any differences between people are superficial and that underneath it all we all want and need the same things: love, primarily, along with respect, dignity and safety and security. We all know the code words that whites trying to raise their diversity IQ use, and Joltin' Joe Biden used pretty much all of them in this infamous quote about then-Candidate (and putative Biden opponent) Obama in 2007: "(He's) the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." Yep, nailed it: "articulate" (the biggie), "clean," "bright;" "Look at me, everyone, I'm open-minded as hell, can't you see?"
I include that last in the hopes it'll mitigate what I'm about to say, which could be taken in that same "Why, they're real people, much like you and me" tone. We were in Ossining to deal with my father-in-law's ongoing life-and-death struggle. The doctor on call on Friday, not his regular Dr. and so largely unfamiliar with his particular circumstances, was Dr. Kwon, a young Korean woman, who spoke very strongly accented English. Although she was unfamiliar with Sandy's case, she was clearly familiar with the disease and its progression, and with human nature. Her manner and affect were fantastic; she was calm, compassionate, careful to explain what she could and to draw the line where she could not. Her air of quiet and unruffled competence, evident in spite of our occasional struggles to understand her English, and the constant demands from her beeping pager, were just what we needed to facilitate decisions and help us on to the next steps. It was almost like she was a real doctor, a white guy; how'd she pull that off?
So, the two words before the colon in the title of this piece are just randomly chosen, or not, one from the real Latin, one from Spanish. I don't even know what they mean, maybe, and why should I: they're not English, so they don't really matter. Anyway, this week's playlist of Latin, Mexican, and Spanish-flavored songs:
Os Iusti Benedictine Monks Of Santo Domingo
Con Sabor Latino Poncho Sanchez
Latin Flute Eumir Deodato
Latin Note St. Germain
Leroy's Latin Lament War
Mexican Home John Prine
Mexican Moon Concrete Blonde
Mexican Cousin Phish
For A Spanish Guitar Gene Clark
Our Spanish Love Song Ginger Baker Trio
Sing Me Spanish Techno The New Pornographers
Spanish Wells William Topley
Spanish Blood Garland Jeffreys
Spanish Bombs The Clash
Spanish Caravan The Doors
Spanish Castle Magic The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Spanish Moon Robert Palmer
Spanish Harlem Leon Russell
Spanish Stroll Mink Deville
Spanish Steps Van Morrison
Spanish Is The Loving Tongue Dylan
Spanish Johnny David Bromberg
Spanish Key Miles Davis
Spanish Suite Stephen Stills
My favorites here, for larger purposes, are "Os Iusti," which translates, with a little extension, as "The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom," (cf the online comments about the motto) and "Mexican Cousin" by Phish, who are, of course, from Vermont. Hope you can join me on Tuesday, from noon till two, on WOOL FM, 91.5, or on wool.fm on the webs, streaming live 24/7. You should become a member, and help keep us on the air.
"Freedom And Unity," man.
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