Lots of stuff happening today in history. In 1893 we mark Gandhi's first documented act of civil disobedience. The short version is he does a Rosa Parks before Rosa Parks & on a train in South Africa no less. Go Gandhi! In 1899 Carrie Nation starts vandalizing private property in the name of temperance. Uhm, Okaaaaaay. Flash forward to 1965 when the Supreme Court upholds the right of married couples to use birth control in Griswold v. Connecticut. GO GRISWOLD! When right-to-privacy advocates talk about the constitutional right to privacy, they are actually referring to the argument made by Griswold's team which claimed that while not explicitly set out in the Constitution, it can be inferred. This gives us that unusual circus today where people manage to adhere to specifics as doctrine & still claim the right to privacy as Constitutionally protected. Good Times.
Some interesting birthdays as well: Georgiana Cavendish better known as the Duchess of Devonshire was born in 1757. If her name doesn't ring a bell, pick up one of her biographies; the most recent is film starring Keira Knightley. I understand that it was based on the biography by Amanda Foreman which is just under 500pp & makes the Clintons look like stay-at-home dullards.
1837 gives us Alois Hitler, another parent of a famous political leader (did I mention G. Cavendish's son went on to be Prime Minister? Well, he did). 1848 has Paul Gauguin who, if you don't think was important enough in his own right, was pivotal in the emergence of Vincent van Gogh. 1909 brings us to Virginia Apgar of Apgar Test fame, & if you don't know what that is & why it is important, ask a pregnant lady. In Fladidah history, we have the birth of Harry Crews in 1935.
Little sidebar about Harry Crews: for me all his accomplishments, failings & well everything about him are best summed up by the fact he had a quote from e.e. cummings tattoed on his right arm, moving me one step closer to getting "Jenny is a mind worm" on my left wrist.
A few more birthdays: 1952 gives us the Nobel prize winning author Orhan Pamuk, a frontline advocate for free speech in Turkey, putting yet another face on the Turkish protests our liberal media is still barely covering (but Michelle Bachman makes a Youtube video that they don't have to pay to play & they cannot play it enough). Who else....1958 is the artist formerly known as Prince Rogers Nelson (apparently Prince is his real name, who knew? Lots of people, I'm sure, just not me) was born.
& a few death days: Betty Neels the queen of early Harlequin Romances died today in 2001. Anyone who has been unlucky enough to be trapped with me on a long car ride or whatever sooner or later hears my rant about the value of Harlequin Romances in tracking the changing mores of our society. Yep, I'm a fun drunk, too. In 1980 we lost Henry Miller -yes Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller. There's a death-day companion for our Betty. & lets round this one out with Dorothy Parker dies today in 1967; sometimes my mother answers her phone with Ms. Parker's moniker "what fresh hell is this".
It is tempting to wonder "what is up about June 7th?", but the reality is I could cherry pick any day of the year & give you a handful of similar compare&contrasts. & if this blog hangs around long enough, I probably will.
Showing posts with label court. Show all posts
Showing posts with label court. Show all posts
Friday, June 7, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
What would John do?
Today, in 1925 the John above was indicted. His case used to be, for me, the very definition of losing the battle but winning the war. Lately though I am not so sure about the win.
I am talking about the Scopes Monkey Trial. The gist was the state of Tennessee had made it illegal to discuss evolution in any publicly funded classroom. If this is sounding a bit samey, that might be because Tennessee has more recently made it illegal to discuss homosexuality in elementary & middle school (apparently by high school the kids can handle it).
You don't need me to walk you through the ins&outs of the trial itself. The highlights are:
John Scopes was a high school teacher who was aware of the law (the Bulter Act to be precise) & may not have even violated it but had said he thought it was a bad law & agreed to violate it.
He was defended by Clarence Darrow who came in the door with a...let's call it diverse...legal background. A whole lot of other famous people passed in & out of that courtroom, but I will spare you the list of attorneys at either table.
The trial was a good old fashioned circus & was intended by both sides to be just that. One side wanted that law struck down & the drafters ridiculed, the other side thought it was about damn time someone took a stand against this anti-bible science nonsense. At least that is how I remember it. The ACLU had been looking for a "test case" & this one was tailor made.
The whole business was famously covered by H. L. Mencken & if you don't know who that is look him up. If you don't want to look him up, imagine a 24-hour news cycle hairdo who spends her/his spare time translating Nietzsche, writing books on ethics & generally contributing to our society more than his own short-term bank balance. Yes, I am talking about you Hairdo who spent actual news bytes promoting your country music album.
John Scopes lost & was ordered to pay the fine ($100), went on to the Tennessee Supreme Court where the conviction was overturned (the technicality: the jury should have decided the fine, not the judge) but the law stood. Until 1967 when it was repealed more or less just in time as the US Supreme Court ruled the following year that a ban on speech based entirely on religion was indeed a violation of the First Amendment.
But all of that was yet to come, in the past. Today we celebrate the day John Scopes was indicted. Picture your high school science teacher. He has been taken out of his house & down to the station & is being booked. He is about to lose his livelihood & ultimately will choose to live in another country on another continent. But today, he thought it was still important enough to move a specific religious doctrine out of the classroom & open the door to alternative.
I am talking about the Scopes Monkey Trial. The gist was the state of Tennessee had made it illegal to discuss evolution in any publicly funded classroom. If this is sounding a bit samey, that might be because Tennessee has more recently made it illegal to discuss homosexuality in elementary & middle school (apparently by high school the kids can handle it).
You don't need me to walk you through the ins&outs of the trial itself. The highlights are:
John Scopes was a high school teacher who was aware of the law (the Bulter Act to be precise) & may not have even violated it but had said he thought it was a bad law & agreed to violate it.
He was defended by Clarence Darrow who came in the door with a...let's call it diverse...legal background. A whole lot of other famous people passed in & out of that courtroom, but I will spare you the list of attorneys at either table.
The trial was a good old fashioned circus & was intended by both sides to be just that. One side wanted that law struck down & the drafters ridiculed, the other side thought it was about damn time someone took a stand against this anti-bible science nonsense. At least that is how I remember it. The ACLU had been looking for a "test case" & this one was tailor made.
The whole business was famously covered by H. L. Mencken & if you don't know who that is look him up. If you don't want to look him up, imagine a 24-hour news cycle hairdo who spends her/his spare time translating Nietzsche, writing books on ethics & generally contributing to our society more than his own short-term bank balance. Yes, I am talking about you Hairdo who spent actual news bytes promoting your country music album.
John Scopes lost & was ordered to pay the fine ($100), went on to the Tennessee Supreme Court where the conviction was overturned (the technicality: the jury should have decided the fine, not the judge) but the law stood. Until 1967 when it was repealed more or less just in time as the US Supreme Court ruled the following year that a ban on speech based entirely on religion was indeed a violation of the First Amendment.
But all of that was yet to come, in the past. Today we celebrate the day John Scopes was indicted. Picture your high school science teacher. He has been taken out of his house & down to the station & is being booked. He is about to lose his livelihood & ultimately will choose to live in another country on another continent. But today, he thought it was still important enough to move a specific religious doctrine out of the classroom & open the door to alternative.
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