Mittwoch Madness: Return to Teaching & Doctoral Studies, a Sad Day in Margaritaville, and Alabama Gives us a Lot to Drink About
Sorry folks for the silence of the past week. I am trying to get back into what we called a “battle rhythm” when I was in the military. After a nice summer off where I was able to collect my thoughts, continue rehabbing from me quadriceps surgery in March, and do a lot of writing here, I had to readjust my life to adapt to going back to teaching and begin the second year of classes in my Doctor of Strategic Leadership program. I rapidly hit crunch time with the doctorate class because unlike last year when classes started after the residency week, they began the same day as it. Thus I was a week late starting the first unit of my class on Global Leadership. This meant that I had to do two weeks of work in one. I did it but had little time for anything else. Thankfully, I did manage to prep all of my lesson plans and schedule for the three classes I am teaching this year, European History from the Late Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, American History to 1865, and Ancient History. I will call the year History of the World, Part I. Yes, that has been taken already, but what can I say?
Today I am getting this written before getting some handouts of maps so my students get acquainted with the geography of the history they will be studying, because, after all, as Jimmy Buffett said, “Without Geography you’re nowhere.”
Speaking of Jimmy Buffett. I woke up Saturday morning to see multiple notifications on my iPhone that the legendary singer, songwriter, and performer had died. The news hit hard. I had always loved Jimmy’s music beginning as a teenager when some songs would play on AM Top 40 radio stations. Then came the 1980s and being stationed overseas, and then seminary, hospital residency, and mobilization in the 1990s and then unrelenting deployments in the 2000s, so it wasn’t until after Iraq that I began to catch up and 2017 when I saw him and the Coral Reefer Band in concert, I can finally say that I became a Parrot Head. His Radio Margaritaville Station on Sirius became my go to station. No matter how bad I was stressed or suffering from the effects of PTSS (PTSD), his music and stories about life had a way of calming my soul. Of course they still do, but I won’t get another chance to see him in concert again. Fins Up, Jimmy, we do have a lot to drink about.
Speaking of a lot to drink about… there’s Alabama.
Alabama’s Attorney General is saying that the state law criminalizing abortion can be enforced to ban the travel of women to other states for abortion care, and to prosecute for them for actions legal in other states. Nothing like this has been attempted since the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery overturned the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. That act required the citizens and governments of Free States to comply with the demands of slave owners to surrender alleged escaped slaves on the word of a slave owner’s word. The Act bypassed Federal Courts and required law enforcement in Free States to comply with the demands of Slave States, even when the people being seized were Freemen. Likewise, it trashed the Free State laws that recognized escaped slaves as free people. Alabama’s Attorney General’s action harkens back to a far darker time in our history.
Likewise, today, a Federal District Court panel ruled against the Alabama State Legislature ruling their attempt to subvert the ruling on the Supreme Court was unconstitutional in that it violated the Voting Rights Act. That was good news, but don’t expect the Ala-Asshats to back down without whistling Dixie in order to try to ensure the Court’s order can be enforced before the next Congressional elections in order to once again eviscerate the voting rights of Blacks in the State. It seems that for the Alabama legislature that things haven’t changed much since 1963, except that they are now Republicans.
And finally, Senator Tommy Tooberville continues his one man attempt to harm national security in ways that Vladimir Putin has not been able. The Alabama Senator, who’s full-time residence is in Florida continues his blockade of critical military nominations, because the DOD allows members and their families in foreign countries or states that restrict live saving OBGYN care including abortion to have their travel expenses paid. Mind you, these people are all volunteers who give up many freedoms to serve, and quite a few are from states where abortion remains legal, but Tooberville will only relent if DOD stops supporting military personnel. So, the former football coach with a bachelors degree in physical education, who never served in the military continues his block of the confirmation of 307 General and Flag Officers nominated for key positions throughout the United States Military, including the Chief of Naval Operations, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, the Chief of Staff of the Army, and the Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command. Not only is the Commander of the Indo-Pacific Command’s appointment on hold, but 21 Flag and General Officers in that critical area. Think about that the next time he or any of his MAGA buddies say that they oppose the Communist Chinese, North Korean, and Russian threats in the region. Not only that, but the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will soon be vacant and many others. Tooberville has even threatened to make personal attacks on the nominees. This isn’t the action of a patriot, it is the behavior of an ill-educated misogynistic man child who holds to beliefs about women more in line with the Taliban, the Iranian Mullahs, and the Saudis than like 70% of Americans. By the way, let’s no forget Tuberville’s now retracted support for White Nationalists.
Is it possible to ask Alabama to leave the Union so we don’t have to deal with their bullshit and stop propping up their regime with taxpayer dollars from States that actually care about the country and observe our laws? Sometimes I wish that Sherman’s March through the South had included Alabama.
Yes, we have a lot to drink about. Until the next time…