Category Archives: American History

A Meeting

The following is an excerpt from “Peer Review” a play. The setting is a home in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. The 47th president meets the 16th.

THE TALL MAN

We have all noticed your obsession with political enemies. Mr. Nixon has kept a

particularly close watch on this activity.

DJT

Nixon’s dead, and I don’t care. Look if people aren’t nice to me I’m not nice back. They

all think they’re so much smarter than me. Obama, the Clinton’s, that Puerto Rican chick

from New York. All jerks.

THE TALL MAN

Ha. The Army of the Potomac had generals who thought the same of me. (Pauses)That

reminds me of a time when a client came to my Springfield law office and hired me for a

patent case. The fellow paid a retainer, and I began research on the legal particulars.

Oddly enough I never heard another word about it. Later the newspaper said the trial had

been moved to Cincinnati, Ohio.

DJT crosses his arms pouting. The Tall Man

merely smiles.

THE TALL MAN

Well sir, I made the journey by train to attend that proceeding. To my surprise a new lead

attorney sat at the courtroom table, and pointedly ignored me. Later I learned he had

dismissed me as a long-lanked creature in a dirty coat. Of course my feelings were more

than a little wounded. However I remained in Cincinnati and observed the court

proceedings. There is always something to learn. That attorney, Edwin Stanton, made a

fine job of it, and I later made him my Secretary of War.

DJT

What the hell is wrong with you! All you dead guys are morons. Made him a Cabinet

Secretary. I would have made up a name, you know, like Pocahontas or Shifty Schiff and

never stopped hounding him. I’da ruined the guy.

THE TALL MAN

And that would have proven a mistake. Secretary Stanton proved a wise choice for his

management of the Union Army. Besides, in the words of Mr. Lyndon Johnson, again, it

is “Better to have your enemies inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing

in.”

The Tall Man laughs and slaps his leg.

THE TALL MAN

Stanton merited the post, as did most members of my cabinet, Seward at State, Chase at

Treasury, Blair as Postmaster General. They had been my competitors for the presidency,

and I appointed these men knowing full well they resented my election.

DJT

You’re crazy. I wouldn’t have let them in the White House. I’m still gonna get even with

the scumbags who stood in my way, DeSantis and Nikki Haley. May not be today, but I

will destroy them. I never forget.

THE TALL MAN

I required sound advice in a difficult time, and that these men were the best, except for

Simon Cameron. There was a scandal and he was undone. Deceivers like Cameron and

Floyd undo themselves. You could learn from their errors.

The Tall Man looks again at his writing, as DJT

speaks.

DJT

Who needs a cabinet anyway. Fill it with dopes who will do as I say. I’m in charge now.

THE TALL MAN

Americans are a free thinking people. Never will they all revere you as does a minority at

this particular moment. You, me, all of us have but a brief time in office. The American

people possess a truth beyond momentary and shifting opinions. Beyond a name on a

map America embraces noble ideals and accomplishes great things.

DJT

Just what I thought, a Rino. You liberals are what’s wrong with America.

THE TALL MAN

Ha. You foolish man. The whole idea of America is Liberal. This nation is the product of

the best political thinking of the 18th Century. It is the sovereignty of the people!

The Tall Man taps the pen on the desk top.

Mr. Madison crafted the Constitution and his Bill of Rights upon the rights of free people.

DJT

America doesn’t care about that anymore. Times have changed. I have changed it. They

want a strong man who gets shit done. Blacks, women, immigrants put back in their

place.

THE TALL MAN

You are mistaken. Only the people are the rightful masters . . .

Gail Chumbley is the author of the two-part memoir “River of January,” and “River of January: Figure Eight,” co-writer of the screenplay, “Dancing On Air” based own those books. She has penned three stage plays on history topics, “Clay” on the life of Senator Henry Clay, “Wolf By The Ears” examining the beginnings of American slavery, and “Peer Review” where 47 is confronted by specters of four past presidents.

A Surreal Landscape

In a scene from Hitchcock’s The Birds locals are gathered in a cafe eating and chatting. An attractive blonde is on the telephone explaining that children at the local school were dive-bombed by attacking crows. An elderly lady in a beret and smoking cigarettes lectures the other diners that crows don’t behave in such an aggressive manner and that there has to be another explanation. The woman identifies herself as an ornithologist and holds forth explaining crows and even seagulls do not do such things. Immediately after her expert testimony all hell breaks loose outside the cafe window, with masses of birds swooping down on passersby. The scene is chaotic and bloody leaving no doubt these attacking birds are in fact lethal. As the nightmare scene ebbs, the camera catches the bird expert, her head bowed in grief and bewilderment, stunned everything she knew and believed no longer applied to any bird in her understanding.

That woman resembles this lifetime American history educator. I’m a fairly decent generalist in subjects ranging from PreColumbian America through today, give or take minutia. But I too, am stunned by the surreal landscape of what I believed about democracy has been easily undone by a vulgar man-child and a compromised and opportunistic Republican Party.

It feels like all my understandings of my country no longer apply. The epic and fraught-filled struggle of forging the Constitution, the furnace of Civil War, the reforms of the Progressive Age, the promise of the New Deal, and Great Society are gone, rapidly destroyed by sinister design. A totalitarian despot has seduced a once noble political party rendering the valiant patriotism of those whom came before moot. Simply writing this lament is difficult, as all I once believed and explored is no longer valid.

An online troll explained it as “no one cares about that anymore.”

That means the principled determination of General Washington to serve our nation doesn’t matter. The misguided genocide of the Five Civilized Tribes upon the Trail of Tears doesn’t matter. With nearly 700,000 deaths, the crucible of Civil War no longer matters. Those brave GI’s on Omaha Beach, (including my own grandfather) and at the Battle of The Bulge no longer matters. Those brave students who occupied lunch counter stools in the face of racial violence did so for nothing. Those boys who perished in the Vietnam War are irrelevant. In point of fact no veteran matters anymore.

American history and all the sacrifice of our forefathers and mothers doesn’t count.

That 47 can fly in a foreign “gift” aircraft with a classified budget is a good thing to do with our tax money. That he remodels a room in the White House in a golden gilt is a good thing. Who really cares if former medicaid recipients suffer.

Suck it up buttercup, these are the new rules of Trump’s America.

That he has done away with investments in the Arts and Humanities is a positive. That he has placed incompetent sycophants from Fox News in high Federal positions is good. Forget he stole top secret intelligence documents. The country elected him anyway. That he has drastically shifted the tax burden onto the middle class and off of the super wealthy is how God wants it, just ask today’s Christians.

That old white men rape girls is a good thing. 

The GOP bows at his feet and gleefully ratifies every stab-wound of domestic legislation is now to be celebrated, so pop a cork. In fact destroying America for profit is now simply wholesome and righteous. 

America’s heroes, like Sergeant Alvin York in the Argonne Forest, or Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain at Gettysburg endured their generations difficulties so that Trump can plow up Mrs Kennedy’s rose garden for a putting green. Suffragette Alice Paul who went on a hunger strike and endured the torture of forced feeding did so that the current president can manipulate votes is just fine. The murders of JFK, Dr King, Harvey Milk, or the murder of Minnesota State Senator Melissa Hortman is merely a part of the 24/7 news cycle.

Indeed nothing of our past story matters because Mr 47 has disqualified all of it to make money, and more money because that’s all that matters today. Plus of course he is a convicted felon and is terrified of going to jail where he belongs.

So when you see this disoriented American History educator with her forehead in her hand, much like the bird expert in the movie, please understand the gravitational pull of her entire life’s work is today rendered null and void. 

Gail Chumbley is the author of the two-part memoir “River of January,” and “River of January: Figure Eight,” co-writer of the screenplay, “Dancing On Air” based on those books. She has penned three stage plays on history topics, “Clay” on the life of Senator Henry Clay, “Wolf By The Ears” examining the beginnings of American slavery, and “Peer Review” where 47 is confronted by specters of four past presidents.

Memory

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

A Lincoln, March 1861

An American Prayer

Whatever your beliefs it’s time to lift your voice and be heard

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for heroes proved

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea

Katherine Lee Bates, Samuel Ward

Gail Chumbley is the author of the two-part memoir “River of January,” and “River of January:Figure Eight.” She has also authored three stage plays, “Clay,” “Wolf By The Ears,” and “Peer Review,” all examining moments in American History. In addition, Gail is the co-writer of a screenplay, “Dancing On Air,” based upon the River books.

Great Things

My America is a place of perpetual greatness, not this dark moment of greed and misconduct. G.C.

Remarks at Gettysburg, 1889

“In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays.

Forms change and pass; bodies disappear, but spirits linger, to

consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and

women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know

not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were

suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field to

ponder and dream; And lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall

wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their

souls.”

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Gail Chumbley is the author of the two-part memoir River Of January and River Of January: Figure Eight. Chumbley has authored three historical plays, Clay about Senator Henry Clay, Wolf By The Ears, an examination of American slavery, and Peer Review, where 47 meets presidents from the past. Additionally, Chumbley has co-authored Dancing On Air, a screenplay depicting the true adventures of an aviator and showgirl.

An SOS

I sent this letter to my Senators. Feel free to use it how you can.

Dear Senator,

I am reaching out to share my growing dread with this current administration. Arbitrary cuts to government programs, gestapo-like assaults upon peaceable communities and the shrinking of America’s international role is chilling.

As a career history educator I know these actions are decidedly harmful to all of us and that he is attempting to gut the rule of law. It’s as if the United States is drifting into a new Dark Ages and few are standing up for tenets of the Constitution, a hard-won, and hard-defended blueprint of government.

Please restrain yourself from the temptation of pursuing unfettered power, and apply the oh-so-needed brakes on this administration; we are counting on you to hold him to account.

I am a child of the Cold War era and recall the fear of air raid sirens and Soviet attack. But today I am more afraid. What is good about the United States is bad to this administration, and quickly ransacked out of existence, criminals are pardoned, and the guilty go free.

This damage does not fully rest on the White House, he could not carry out his pillaging without the silence of Congress. I implore you to have courage and stand up to this feeding frenzy and let us go back to being America, which still is “the world’s last best hope.”

Gail Chumbley

SLC 

American Expatriates and Celebrities

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility–I welcome it.  John F Kennedy, 1961

To American expatriates abroad and celebrities remaining at home,

Armed with your fame and recognizable voice all of you hold a public leadership role whether you choose to have one or not. Brave, out-spoken spokesmen for Democracy are a bit short on the ground and America needs her sons and daughters to rise up in defense. 

No one runs us out of our home.

This is not a normal time, nothing about this administration is normal and leaving the country or remaining silent sends a message of throwing in the towel. You are abandoning the rest of us to hold the frontlines the best we can, but your face and words are needed. Too many in the press, in politics, and in the sports world are caving to accept this unacceptable lout out of fear or resignation. That behavior must end.

Charlie Chaplin, Adolph Zukor, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr  sold war bonds during the First World War, Gable and Stewart enlisted in the service to fight Nazi tyranny. Carole Lombard lost her life in a plane crash after raising $2 million dollars for the war effort. You owe it to Dalton Trumbo, Ring Lardner and those of The Hollywood Ten who stood fast for freedom when caught in the fear of America’s Red Scare. Lena Horne, Pete Seeger and Zero Mostel, among others, faced blacklisting through the perilous period of McCarthyism. This is exactly the same ‘once in a generation’ moment testing our commitment to our democratic principles.

Leaving the country or remaining silent sends the terrible message of surrender. And leaving is selfish. Giving up on resistance essentially says to hell with the United States. This is the time when we need you most to stand tall. Liz Cheney hasn’t cut and run, nor has Adam Kinzinger. And he hates them the most because they know he’s an absurd phony. They also know they will never give up on America and neither should you. 

Now that is a valiant example of patriotism. We can do no less.

Those of the future are depending on all of us to make this perilous moment right and to pass on an unsoiled America for generations to come. Moreover, our posterity will learn who stood fast in this momentary struggle for liberty and those who abandoned America in its time of need.

This is merely one chapter in the story of America and we are still a young nation. The United States is founded upon the will of the people and this administration is not your will or mine. Today’s corrupt collaborators who have prostituted our republic for momentary gain will fall by the wayside. These sycophants will share this wannabe dictator’s fate.

And that petty bag of stupid will fail, it is in his DNA. That’s what he’s always done. And there will be a lot of rebuilding ahead of us and your encouraging presence will be critical. No one runs us out of our country, nor do we forsake our duty in time of America’s need. We are not a servile people and do not bow down to anyone. Our rights according to Mr. Jefferson are derived by our Creator, and no one man can take them away. 

America has come so far in realizing A More Perfect Union. The expansion of the vote, black males, women, white and black, Native Americans, and for 18-year-olds. Other gains include people with disabilities, women in the military, reproductive rights, marriage equality, and the election of America’s first black President. And all of us at home have witnessed much of this affirming progress.

So come home, we really need you in our time of peril. We need your voice, your humor, music and the public demonstration of your persistence. That goes for the rest of you with a public profile. You are still here, and we need you to step up. Do not be afraid. Stand fast and speak truth to power.

Be loud. 

Gail Chumbley is the author of the two part memoir River of January, and River of January: Figure Eight. She has also authored three stage plays, Clay, Wolf By The Ears, and Peer Review. Chumbley is the co-writer of Dancing On Air a screenplay based on her River books.

A Useful Myth

Arguing for the goodness of his vast wealth, Andrew Carnegie, in 1889 proffered society is all the better for the existence of the rich. He stated that God had given him the talent to make money, and he would use his God-given talent to it’s full extent. This steel baron continued that the prosperity of the few, like himself, lifts the standard of living for all citizens. Shorthand for his philosophy, let the rich get richer because it’s good for everybody.

Economist and social critic Henry George took issue with Carnegie’s premise. In rebuttal George insisted that in no way did concentrated wealth help anyone except the rich. Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth was in fact a myth, and useful one for oppressing the lower classes. Where Carnegie argued the betterment of people, George countered a wedge had been forced through society, crushing the poor into oblivion. 

In our time Carnegie’s argument has permeated American culture, and has matastasized so deeply in our belief system, that the super rich are nearly worshipped. Today’s robber barons, Bezsos, Zuckerberg, Musk, Gates, and others are perceived as superior, breathing the rare air of the most blessed.

These characters are untouchable.

In the tradition of Henry George the reality is something quite different. According to psychologists the super wealthy share strikingly similar characteristics. Obsession with money drives these individuals. Making money, keeping money, and making more money is an obsession. Appearances are everything and must be maintained at all times. The exhaustive race for money and rank distorts moral judgement, compassion, and empathy. Screwing others over is part of the game.

Another characteristic shared by the ultra rich is confidence and a capacity for risk, however I would argue that also describes gang leaders and con men. Most compelling is that these individuals are no happier for their efforts.

Like Henry George our culture needs to dispense with the notion that wealth implies moral superiority. God did not make these men rich no more than God make drunks drunks, and druggies, druggies. This is obsessive-compulsive behavior and should be seen as such.

As to charitable work among this crowd, remember the Sacklers made OxyContin, a ton of money, that lead to thousands of American deaths, all the while donating millions to museums and universities. Clearly vast wealth does not require a moral compass, nor does it help the most vulnerable among us.

The Presbyterian in Scotland-born Carnegie knew his justification ran counter to his childhood faith. From the First Commandment’s “Thou shall have no other gods before me,” to Jesus’ “Verily I say unto you it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. This steel baron betrayed and countered the tenets of his youth, creating the false god of money.

And Americans have been devout followers ever since.

Gail Chumbley is the author of the two part memoir River of January, and River of January: Figure Eight. She has also authored three stage plays, Clay, Wolf By The Ears, and Peer Review. Chumbley is the co-writer of Dancing On Air a screenplay based on her River books.