"Israel's Dilemma"

While, in my opinion, Israel’s plight against Hamas’ terrorism, along with Ukraine’s war against Russia, are the West’s most important fights – and, sadly, the West sems to be abandoning both projects (or at least not providing the tools needed to win) – conservatives in the U.S. are abandoning their fight for free speech. Brendon Carr should be fired for pushing ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel. He was losing audience and would have been fired for business reasons, but government should not have forced the issue. As I told my grandson, Kimmel, in my opinion, is an ass, but he should be allowed to bray.

 

Censorship, as conservatives wrote continuously during the Biden and Obama Presidencies, destroys democracies. To now practice it, while in power, is hypocrisy of the first order. Throughout our history, censorship has been practiced by both sides: Democrat Attorney General Mitchell Palmer in 1919 during the “Red” scare; Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s. There is nothing to prevent private companies from firing employees who they feel are hurting their business with crude or offensive comments but, apart from calling “fire” in a crowded theater when there is none or urging one’s friends to assault an individual or institution, government should allow people to speak freely. Words can be offensive to some people’s sensibilities, but that is not reason to censor what they say.

 

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Enough of that. Despite warm days, summer is at an end, at least here in the Northern Hemisphere, with the arrival of the autumnal equinox this afternoon. With celebrations for Rosh Hashanah and the start of the Jewish New Year beginning this evening, it seems timely to consider Israel’s dilemma.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Thought of the Day

“Israel’s Dilemma”

September 22, 2025

 

“The reality here is that public opinion is shifting

very quickly and very dramatically away from Israel.”

                                                                                                                Howard Wolfson, Democratic strategist

                                                                                                                As quoted in The Wall Street Journal

                                                                                                                September 13-14, 2025

 

In Hamlet, (Act 1, Scene 4) Marcellus, after seeing the ghost of the murdered king, says: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” In my opinion, something is rotten among Western nations – theoretically enlightened individuals and governments – in their attitude toward Israel, a country, a democracy, that is trying to survive almost continuous threats from state-sponsored terrorists and authoritarian governments. It is now involved in, as Lauren Smith wrote last week in The European Conservative, “...a war between the West and barbarism. It is a battle of truly civilizational proportions.”

 

This condemnation and abandonment by most Western democracies and the United Nations represents, in my opinion, the world’s biggest threat to Western liberal ideals and precepts. Israel stands accused of genocide in Gaza and then starving those they did not kill. That is wrong. Israel has done more to warn the citizens of Gaza of impending attacks than any other country in time of war. Unlike other nations involved in war they have helped their enemies’ civilian populations by attempting to bring in food and aid.

 

Israel – a Country of less than 10 million that sits amidst almost 500 million Middle Easterners – is engaged in an existential war, battling for its very existence. In perfect double-speak, the UN recently condemned the October 7 (2023) massacre: “We condemn the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians on the 7^th of October.” But then the document went on: “We also condemn the attacks by Israel against civilians in Gaza and civilian infrastructure, siege and starvation, which have resulted in a devastating humanitarian catastrophe and protection crisis.” 

 

“Any man’s death diminishes me,” wrote John Donne in 1624. The death of innocent civilians during war is a tragedy. It would be nice if war played out on assigned fields, with the only victims being combatants. However, that is not the way wars are fought. During three months in 1940 over 23,000 Londoners were killed in the Battle of Britain. A like number of Germans were killed in the February 1945 fire-bombing of Dresden. And more than 200,000 Japanese were killed in the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. It is estimated that total civilian deaths in World War II were over 50 million, almost two-thirds of the total. It is estimated that Korea saw about two million civilian deaths and Vietnam around 600,000. In both cases, civilian deaths exceeded military deaths. Unlike past more conventional wars, Hamas is using schools, temples and apartments to hide combatants, terrorists, weapons and hostages. And unlike the Allies (or the Axis) in World War II, or the combatants in Korea and Vietnam, Israel warns civilians of their intent. Too many in the West – political leaders and the media – simply accept Hamas’ reports of civilian casualties in Gaza. Responsibility for those casualties lies with Hamas, not Israel.

 

For the most part, the post-World War II order held through the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Walter Russell Mead wrote in the September 16 issue of The Wall Street Journal that the subsequent decade saw “the muddled thinking of a generation of policy elites, who foolishly supposed that geopolitical conflict had ended forever.” That thinking prompted Francis Fukuyama to write The End of History and the Last Man. What these globalists failed to understand was the nature of man and nations – that men seek power and power corrupts. While Western governments reduced defense spending over the past thirty-five years, China and Russia have grown stronger, absolutely and relatively. That naivete should have ended on 9/11 when 19 Islamic terrorists flew two planes into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a field in Pennsylvania, killing 2,976. 

 

But it did not. The lessons of World War I and World War II – the Armistice that ceased hostilities during the First World and the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan that ended the Second World War – seem lost on much of Western leadership. Armistices and ceasefires do not work against those intent on global domination, as we saw in the two decades following the first World War, with the rise of Mussolini and Hitler. On the other hand, the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945 allowed for the re-building of those defeated countries via the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. By 1960, a mere fifteen years after surrender, West Germany and Japan, respectively, were their region’s largest economies.

 

One does not have to be a fan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appreciate what the abandonment of Israel by so many in the West means. Unlike its neighbors, Israel is a democracy. Its leadership changes according to popular elections. Since its founding in 1948, fourteen individuals have served as Prime Minister (the same as the number of U.S. Presidents who served during that same time). As well, Israel is more inclusive than its neighbors. About 20% of Israel’s population is Arab, while ten of the 120-person Knesset are Arab. Can one say the same about Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, or Saudi Arabia?

 

Hamas, which has with the blessing of the Palestinian Authority governed Gaza since Israel withdrew in 2005, is intent on eliminating Israel. As Fred Fleitz, vice chair of the America First Policy Institute in the Center for American Security, wrote on americangreatness.com last Friday: “...the Palestinian leadership rejected statehood offers in 1947, 2000, 2008, and 2009.” Their goal is the eradication of Israel, and the establishment of a Palestinian state, “from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean).”

 

Yet, the truth is that the Palestinian people will only survive and thrive if the terrorists who now lead them, in Gaza and the West bank, are eliminated. In a victory for Hamas and other terrorist organizations, twenty-three European states will have recognized Palestine as a state (a concept, not a physical place) by the end of September. That marks a defeat for Israel and, importantly, a defeat for the Palestinian people. For the West, it marks a big step in the wrong direction –  another rung down the ladder that leads up to liberalism.

"Who Am I?"

 

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

More Essays from Essex

“Who am I?”

June 3, 2025

 

“Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am?”

                                                                                                                                Lear, speaking to the Fool

                                                                                                                                King Lear. Act I, Scene IV, 1606

                                                                                                                                William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

 

Besides satisfying a personal curiosity, the study of one’s ancestry is fascinating in an intellectual sense: First, it personalizes history. How much more interesting it is to read about the American Revolution or the Civil War with knowledge of an ancestor then alive. Second, such a study considers a mathematical paradox –We know that about 75,000 years ago small groups of earliest humans began migrating out of Africa, traveling north, east and west. Those few humans have given us a global population today of over eight billion. But we also know that each of us descend from two parents, four grandparents, and eight great grandparents, a process that doubles with each generation going back. How could so many ancestors be reduced to so few that came out of Africa? How to reconcile that apparent contradiction? The answer – we are all related.  

 

A few weeks ago a friend and I were talking. She was born in England, raised in France, and as a nine-year old crossed the Pyrenes in 1940 on foot with her family to avoid Nazi occupation. In our conversation, she referred to me as a “Real American.” I was prompted to see if I could name all of my four-greats grandparents, most of whom would have been born before the American Revolution, and to discover if all (or most) were born in North America.

 

Starting with the surnames of my four grandparents, I spent many hours researching, working backwards into the past.  I had the invaluable help of a sister who had done most of the preparatory work years ago, and was thankful for the internet, which is a plethora of information, though not always accurate. Ultimately, I was able to name, with relative certainty, sixty of the sixty-four. (I believe I know the names of the other four, but I am not certain.) Of course I also had to come up with names and dates of thirty-two three-greats grandparents, along with sixteen two-greats and eight great grandparents – 120 names in all. Of the sixty four-greats for whom I was able to name and find a birth date, fifty-eight were born before the American Revolution (between 1713 and 1770), one in 1777 and one for which I could find no date. All but two were born in Colonial America. Two were born and died in Ireland – Martha Jackson (1777-1808) and Col. Hugh Hanna (1770-1806). A brother of Martha, James Jackson (1782-1840), brought their orphaned daughter – my three-greats grandmother Mary Jackson Hanna (1801-1843) – to Alabama in 1818, where she married Joseph Lawrence Dawson Smith (1799-1837). More on James later.

 

One of the fun things about studying one’s ancestry is coming across colorful characters; for most of my ancestors, to quote Henry David Thoreau, had to have led lives “of quiet desperation,” in an unsettled country, alive with danger. To name a few of the more interesting ones: James Williams (1741-1826) was a four-greats grandfather who married Susanna Shaw (1744-?). He was captain of a militia unit that marched to  Roxbury, Massachusetts on April 20, 1775 where they met no resistance. While he was not at either Lexington or Concord, he was still considered a “Minute Man.” Asa Messer, senior (1739-1806) and Abiah Whipple (1746-1809) gave birth to Asa Messer, junior (1769-1836) who married Deborah Angell (1776-1862). The younger Asa, a three-greats grandfather, became the third president of Brown College, then known as Rhode Island College. Noah Webster (1758-1843), the lexicographer, and his wife Rebecca Greenleaf (1766-1847) were four-greats grandparents. A seven-greats grandfather was Richard Hunnewell (c.1645-1703) of Scarborough, Maine. He was known as the “Indian killer.” Fittingly, he was killed by Indians, at what is now known as Massacre Pond near Prout’s Neck, on October 6, 1703. 

 

There is a connection to T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) on both my father’s and mother’s side. My grandfather Sydney M. Williams (1873-1963) was a second cousin of the poet, as they shared great grandparents: Thomas Heywood Blood (1775-1848) and Mary Sawyer (c.1775-1850). My grandfather once told me that the only time he met the poet, who was fifteen years younger than he was, Eliot was wearing a sailor’s suit. On my mother’s side, her father Henry Stuart Hotchkiss (1878-1947) descended from his three-greats grandparents, William Greenleaf (1725-1803) and Mary Brown (1728-1807). Those two were one set of T.S. Eliot’s two-greats grandparents. There is also a distant connection to Gideon Welles who was Lincoln’s Secretary of the Navy. He and my two-greats grandmother Isabella Welles Hunnewell were third cousins, sharing a common ancestor in Samuel Welles (1660-1731) who lived in Glastonbury, CT, which was home to Gideon Welles.

 

As for the southern branch of my family, the James Jackson mentioned above emigrated to Tennessee and then to Alabama, where he owned a large cotton farm, “Forks of Cypress.” He was a two-greats grandfather of Alex Haley, author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and Queen: The Story of an American Family. James and Martha Jackson (a four-greats grandmother of mine) were children of Hugh Jackson (1709-1777) and Elinor Gault (c.1710-1791), both of whom lived and died in Ireland. Thus Alex Haley and I – he as the three-greats grandson of Hugh and Elinor, and I as the five-greats grandson of the same couple – are cousins. James Jackson was also the owner of “Peytona,” considered the greatest race horse of the time. His race against the mare “Fashion” on May 13, 1845 at Union Course on Long Island – a race between the north and the south (as well as mare versus stallion) – was the subject of a Currier & Ives print. “Peytona,” who had traveled 1,500 miles, won the race.

 

The most colorful connection, however, is Edward Augustus Silsbee. He was the youngest of eleven children, seven of whom lived into adulthood. My paternal grandmothers’ maternal grandmother (in other words, a two-greats grandmother) was the third oldest, Sarah Ann Silsbee. She was born June 18, 1814 in Salem, MA. He was born on February 19, 1826 in the same town and died on April 5, 1900 in Boston. At age 24 Silsbee commanded the clipper ship Columbia on an 18^th month voyage from Salem to San Francisco, the East Indies, Calcutta and back home. The Log of the voyage is now at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem. A copy of it is at the home of our son who was named for Edward Silsbee. Following his career at sea, Silsbee, a life-long bachelor, became, as described in 2017 by Dr. Tim Sommer, a Visiting Fellow at Harvard’s Houghton Library, “a Shelley enthusiast and ardent collector in pursuit of literary relics.” Silsbee lived in Florence between 1872 and 1879. There, he ingratiated himself with Claire Clairmont and her niece Paulina. Claire had been an intimate companion of Percy Bysshe Shelley who had died in 1822. The story of Silsbee, Clair Clairmont and her niece inspired Henry James’ novella, The Aspern Papers. Ultimately, Silsbee acquired Shelly’s notebooks and donated them to the Houghton Library at Harvard. A charcoal sketch of Edward Silsbee by John Singer Sargent (photo attached) is now at the Bodleian Library at Oxford (donated by him in 1899), with other Shelly artifacts Silsbee had collected. In the portrait, Silsbee’s craggy face is discernable behind his flowing white beard.

 

On my desk I have a photograph of my only great-grandparent who lived to see me born. In the photo, she holds me – at a slight distance, as though I had soiled my clothes. I look happy (see attached photo). Sadly, I do not remember her. She was born Mary Bolling Kemp in Petersburg, VA on January 15, 1861. Her mother died young, in 1867, likely from the effects of the siege of the city, which lasted from June 9, 1864 until March 25, 1865.

 

Marriage among cousins was not unusual at the time. Four sets of three-greats grandparents married cousins: Benjamin Williams (1757-1830) married Lydia Williams (1774-1845) on November 28, 1793. She was his first cousin once removed. John Welles (1764-1855) married his first cousin Abigail Welles (1776-1844) on April 28, 1795. Justus Hotchkiss (1772-1812) married his third cousin Susanna Hotchkiss (1775-1825) on April 27, 1800. And on March 12, 1812 Joseph Washington (1770-1848) married his second cousin once removed, Mary Cheatham (1796-1865).         

 

History comes alive when personalized. We know these people lived. They laughed and they cried; they loved and they argued; most important, they bred and produced descendants. Their lives cause us to behold the miracle of our own birth. It is difficult, with our conveniences, to imagine the lives they led – no paved roads or even trains; no telephone, telegraph, or flush toilets. Leaving home, many expected to never return. Most of my four-greats grandparents lived to see the United States gain its freedom from Britain, yet they all died before slavery ended. Most of their grandchildren (my great grandparents) died before women gained the vote. 

 

Like us, they grew to adulthood. As the 1950s were my generation’s time to grow from child to adult, and the 1920s the decade for my parents and the 1890s for my grandparents, my four-greats grandparents came of age in the years just before, during, or just after the American Revolution. It is sobering to think of the challenges they faced, and one is reminded of these lines from Kipling: “Beyond all outer charting/We sailed where none have sailed.”[1]

 

Yet their values were the ones we espouse: humility, justice, diligence, dignity, responsibility and kindness. “We are,” former Senator Paul Tsongas (D-MA) is quoted, “a continuum. Just as we reach back to our ancestors for our fundamental values, so we, as guardians of that legacy, must reach ahead to our children and grandchildren.” When asked why spend so much time looking back to those long dead, I am reminded of Edmund Burke’s quote in Reflections on the Revolution in France, published in 1790: “People will not look forward to posterity who never looked backward to their ancestors.” Can we derive wisdom from the past? Perhaps. Though Canadian comedian Norm MacDonald once wrote: “The only thing an old man can tell a young man is that it goes fast, real fast.” That it does.

 

I think of the question that titles this essay: Who am I? Unlike Lear’s relationship with Goneril, my daughter loves me. While I have genes from all my ancestors, I am not them. I am my own self, an individual who has tried to do the best he could with the talents he inherited and with the knowledge he acquired. I love my wife and the children we raised together, and the children they, with their chosen spouses, have raised. One’s personal history does provide a sense of belonging, but we are a consequence, not the cause. As for who we are, Dr. Seuss put it well in Happy Birthday to You: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” So, yes, even though not all of my four-greats grandparents were born in North America, I proudly accept the moniker of “Real American.” 

 

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[1] Rudyard Kipling, “The merchantmen,” first published in Pall Mall Budget, May 15, 1893.

"Doubt and Skepticism"

 Friday’s disastrous meeting in the White House is a reminder of how doubt and skepticism can help us observers, and our political leaders. Certainly, there was enough blame for each of the three participants – President Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Vice President J.D. Vance – to take a share. Besides watching a re-run of the events on YouTube, I read twenty interpretations of the afternoon’s events, from all perspectives. Yet, I am still unsure how best to allocate blame. It is common knowledge that Mr. Trump is thin-skinned and likes to be praised. Mr. Zelensky is stubborn and theatrical – look at how he dresses. Mr. Vance is smart but immature, at least in matters of diplomacy.

 

All three made mistakes in that Oval Office meeting, but especially, in my opinion, Mr. Vance. He should have kept quiet. In debate or argument, Mr. Trump, right or wrong, does not need defending. He often digs himself into a hole, but just as often extracts himself. Mr. Zelensky would have been better served to have kept quiet, not argue with Mr. Vance, and let the offered deal play out. Mr. Trump, as everyone knows, shoots from the hip, but he is also quick to walk back what he has said. I feel confident he knows that Putin is a dictator and that Zelensky is not. Was he wrong to imply otherwise? Of course. But did Mr. Zelensky believe he could win over Mr. Trump by publicly disagreeing with him and his Vice President? It would seem so. Contrast Mr. Zelensky’s behavior with that of Emanuel Macron and Keir Starmer when they met with Mr. Trump.

 

Nevertheless, there is doubt in my mind as to who bears most responsibility.

 

I hope you find this essay of interest.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Doubt and Skepticism”
March 3, 2025

 

“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect

confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.”

                                                                                                                                Robert Hughes (1938-2012)

                                                                                                                                Australian author & art critic

                                                                                                                                “Modernism’s Patriarch”

                                                                                                                                Time Magazine, June 10, 1996

 

“Our doubts are traitors and cause us to miss

the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.” 

                                                                                                                                Lucio speaking to Isabella

                                                                                                                                Measure for Measure, 1604

                                                                                                                                William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

 

As the two epigraphs infer, doubt is personal. In her Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath, the American poet wrote “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” On the other hand, in The Selected Letters of Tennessee Wiliams, the playwright is quoted: “I don’t believe anyone ever suspects how completely unsure I am of my work…”

 

………………………………………………………….

 

Doubt, including self-doubt, and skepticism are not synonymous but are related. Doubt can be defined as uncertainty regarding one’s abilities (as Lucio infers). It also serves as questioning one’s judgement (as Robert Hughes suggests). It is intuitive, reflecting a lack of knowledge, as Thomas wanted proof of Jesus’ resurrection. On the other hand, a skeptic is one with an open mind who questions the truth of something stated or alleged, or at least who defers judgement until more facts are available.

 

This is not to argue that belief in one’s self is uncommon. When a youth, I was not skeptical about much and had few self-doubts. Many of us were raised on the American folktale, The Little Engine that Could. Theodore Roosevelt, allegedly, expressed a similar sentiment: “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” All good advice, so long as it does not morph into cockiness, arrogance, or conceit. As I grew older, I read and thought more, I became more skeptical. I recall, when a teenager, the president of a brokerage firm who told me that the longer he worked in the business the less he felt he knew about finance.

 

Self-doubt is often a positive. Fyodor Dostoevsky struggled with doubt. In an 1855 letter to his friend Natalya Fonvizina, he wrote: “…the mind which does not labor will wither.”[1]Recently, I had a conversation with an old school friend, now living in Denver, and told him of my struggle with this essay. He reminded me of “Pascal’s Wager”[2] – that even if one cannot definitively prove the existence of God, it is better to believe in Him, as the potential benefits outweigh the risks of being wrong. Believe you can do it, he said.

 

But it is for our political environment I am most concerned, where skepticism has been overwhelmed by a tidal wave of hubris. In a 1901 letter to the Swiss professor of Greek and history Jost Winteler, the 22-year-old Albert Einstein wrote: “Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” In our hyper politically-polarized world, neither doubt nor skepticism is widely extant. Instead there is an attitude of “either you’re with me or you’re against me.” This fractionalization has set brother against brother and friend against friend. Conservative students are hesitant about speaking out. In schools and universities, speech that is deemed “harmful” is disallowed. The dogmatism of progressives on the left and ardent Trump supporters on the right are notably void of skepticism.

 

At the risk of widening even further the gulf between conservatives and progressives, I place most (but not all) of the blame on progressives. Certainly, there are some on the right who don MAGA hats, pump fists in the air and, incoherently, raise their voices for Mr. Trump. However, most on the left do not just disagree with Donald Trump, they hate him, and they let hatred drive their responses; reason falls victim to emotion. In part, their aversion to Mr. Trump lies in his muddled syntax. Like Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter, Mr. Trump speaks in unintelligible riddles. Whether he is negotiating a deal, reflecting whomever he most recently spoke to, or speaking from ignorance, I don’t pretend to know. But I suspect he is neither as stupid nor as uncompassionate as he sometimes sounds. His opponents would be wise to let skepticism replace their instinct for immediate condemnation. 

 

We witness this arrogant audacity from media disciples of both parties, especially on televised cable evening news programs, podcasts and video-sharing sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion and Twitch. Social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) make it easier for viewers to limit their news to only that with which they agree. Do Rachel Maddow or Jesse Waters ever have moments of doubt, of questioning their loudly proclaimed ideologies? 

 

There are, of course, situations when conviction should be paramount – love for family, belief in freedom, and faith in God. “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think,” said Christopher Robin to Pooh. But generally, skepticism is healthy and doubt drives creativity.

 

True conservatives tend to be skeptics. In 1967, the prescient Daniel Patrick Moynihan was invited to speak to the Harvard chapter of Phi Beta Kappa: “Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government agencies to do good.” Conservatives are concerned of the power that accrues to political leaders and for the tendency of the state to expand inexorably. This concern is not only because of the difficulty of paying for ever more programs, but because such growth threatens individualism, the bed-rock of conservative thought. Doubt and skepticism are generally associated with reflection, not spontaneity.

 

“Skepticism: the mark and even the pose of the educated mind” are words attributed to educator John Dewey. Like chastity, as the philosopher George Santayana is alleged to have once said, it [skepticism] should not be relinquished too readily. Truth (the holy grail of the skeptic) is illusive, perhaps never to be discovered; it is the search that is important.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] As quoted by Gary Saul Morson, professor of Slavic languages at Northwestern University, in the February 28 issue of The Wall Street Journal.

[2] Blaise Pascal, 17^th Century French philosopher.

"June"

 Yesterday I woke thinking of those lines from Hosea: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.”  But sitting at my computer I again Googled the song. “June is Bustin’ Out All Over,” and my mood changed. The show Carousel is largely a tragedy, but this song is joyful. I encourage everyone to listen to all eight minutes and forty-four seconds. If it doesn’t bring a smile, nothing will. And it introduces this brief essay (460 words), celebrating the new month.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

More Essays from Essex

“June”

June 1, 2024

 

“And what is rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days?”

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891)

“June”

The Vision of Sir Launfal, 1848

 

It was June that was on Oscar Hammerstein’s mind when he wrote these lyrics for Carousel in April 1945:

 

“You can see it in the trees

You can smell it in the breeze.

Look around! Look around! Look around!

June is bustin’ out all over.”

 

On June 20th the earth’s northern hemisphere will have its longest day – the summer solstice – when the north pole reaches its maximum tilt toward the sun. For us, that date marks the start of summer, but for many in northern Europe, summer begins (or began) on the first of May, which explains why Shakespeare titled his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for the holiday still celebrated by some on the first Saturday after June 20^th. Today June 19^th is celebrated as Juneteenth, to commemorate the end of slavery.

 

June is named for the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter and goddess of women, marriage and fertility. It is the month when trees are fully leafed and flowers in full bloom. While one can scientifically explain why animals hibernate and perennials re-blossom each spring, anyone who does not see the miracle in nature misses the magic of June. It is a time of renewal, when dreams become life.

 

June was the month when school days ended and summer vacation began, endless days when one was ten. It is the month for graduations, especially high schools and some colleges. It is among the top three months for weddings, the month when “young Virginia creepers/ Have been huggin’ the bejeepers/ Outta all the mornin’ glories on the fence,” and the “sheep aren’t sheepish anymore.” 

 

It was June when I started my first job out of college; it was the month in which I enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves, and it was the month in which our third and last child was born. It was the month during which two of our children were married, and in which our youngest granddaughter and my father-in-law were born. It was in the month of June that two brothers and two sisters were married. And it was on June 10, 1908 that my grandfather Sydney M. Williams married my grandmother Mary P. Hunnewell.

 

In his 1906 collection of poems, Bird and Bough, John Burroughs (1837-1921) included the poem “June’s Coming:” 

“Now have come the shining days

When field and wood are robed anew,

And o’er the world a silver haze

Mingles the emerald with the blue.”

 

June has arrived, the month that fulfills life’s regenerative promise.

"Open Letter to Grandchildren"

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Essay from Essex

“Open Letter to Grandchildren”

October 8, 2022

 

“Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths,

but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.”

                                                                                                                                Anne Frank (1929-1945)

                                                                                                                                The Diary of a Young Girl, 1952

 

I last wrote you as a group in May 2017, over five years ago, when you ranged in age from nine to seventeen. Now, you are between fourteen and twenty-two. That first letter was to tell you something of what it was like to grow up in the 1950s. This letter is an open letter (meaning it will be available to others), which offers advice, but which is mindful of the risk of an older generation advising a younger. The opportunities you have, and the challenges you face, are not the same as what I had and faced. Much has changed in the past six and seven decades. But the emotions that govern our behavior are the same. We are unique individuals, but sadness, doubt, and stress are common to all, just as are joy, trust, and relaxation. It is how we handle myriad emotions – some good, others not – that help determine what kind of a person we become and what kind of life we will lead.

 

………………………………………………..

 

Coco and I could not be prouder as to how you have navigated childhood and begun to enter adulthood. The pressure on youth – always high – has intensified, as communication and social media have intruded in ways unimaginable when I was a child. It is important to maintain perspective – easier said than done – for the road of life is long. It traipses through open fields and into dark woods, past extensive vistas and around blind corners. Along its path will be experiences, places to visit, and thousands of people to meet. 

 

All of this adds to self-understanding, something the Ancients recognized as critical to a happy life. The first of the three maxims at Delphi is “Know thyself.” You will be tested and tempted. But in keeping one eye on the future and the other on your values will allow you to maintain your moral compass. While experimentation is fine, recognition of the long journey ahead will help distinguish the good from the bad, the safe from the dangerous – the helping hand versus the proffered, proverbial apple. 

 

Each of us is unique, with our own talents and aspirations. The goal should be selfless self-satisfaction, ensconced in realism – what is possible that fulfills and makes you happy. If you find a spouse to love and to share your dreams (which I hope you do), your goals will be shared ones. But there is no right goal, no one better than another. It is personal. If not in family, you may find happiness in work, in sport, or perhaps in faith. What brings you satisfaction may not apply to a sibling or cousin.

 

Through family, friends, reading, school, and college, young adulthood is the time to realize and appreciate one’s unique talents, where lie one’s abilities, and what are one’s limitations. Be mindful of your needs, enthusiastic about what you love, but exercise restraint toward what you want. A few of you may know how you would like to spend your life, but for most the quest will take longer. It is best to play to your strengths, to enforce them through study and work. And it is important to understand your weaknesses, to correct them if possible, but to avoid the unreachable, like Stuart Little’s elusive search for Margalo. As you follow your dreams you will be tested, as were King Arthur’s knights in their search for the Sangreal. As well, keep in mind the old adage that perfection is the enemy of the good.  

 

Luck plays a big role as our lives unfold – people we meet, friends, coaches, and teachers; accidents and where we live. There are events over which we have control, but much of life is based on chance. There is an old saying that we make our own luck, and there is some truth in that. We should each be responsible and accountable. But chance over which we have no control can alter one’s life. Sixty-four years ago, then thirteen-years-old, a cousin dove into what turned out to be a shallow pool; her life changed – through no fault of her own. A month shy of my 21^st birthday I met the woman who became my wife. At the time, my moral compass was faltering. But, in meeting her, the arrow spun to true north. Despite my youth, I immediately knew she was the woman for me. In order to win her, I had to straighten myself out. One blessing has been each of you. My first job after college was with Eastman Kodak. They posted me to Hartford. Would my life have taken different turns had they moved me to Nashville, Detroit, or San Francisco? Probably, but I don’t think about what might have been. Every day, we make hundreds of decisions. Most we make instinctively, unconsciously, yet all have consequences, some significant, others not. We decide and move on. It is the moral compass, gained in our early years, that guides us through life’s myriad challenges and decisions.

 

……………………………………………

 

We rarely think of how lucky we were to be born. The right sperm and the right egg, stretching back millions of years to the very origins of life. The odds against that are incalculable. Thus, to not make the most of our time on earth is a mistake. While you ten are all related by blood, either as siblings or cousins, each of you is a special individual. As citizens of this country, we are equal in our rights, but we are not equal in our abilities or aspirations. It is why knowing who we are, being honest with and about ourselves, is so important. None of you are likely to play professional football, for instance. But each of you will have opportunities to use your innate talents that have been honed at home, in school, and in college. Success to one may not be success to another. But that is no matter; a productive life, well-lived, should be the goal.

 

As I come to the end of this pontificating sermon. I cannot help thinking about life, how exciting it is, with its valleys and peaks, with its tears of sadness and joy, with its hazards and opportunities. In the final act of my life, I envy you still in your first. Keep in mind, the one constant in your life is character. Guard it with care. Do not let it be diluted. Try not to follow the mob. Do not be seduced by suggestive slogans, bewitching words, or tantalizing offers.  Keep in mind Anne Frank’s advice in the rubric that heads this letter. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius speaks to his son Laertes, as he is headed to France: “To thine own self be true.” That is all you need to know.

"Donald Trump - Antihero?"

 If we weren’t so uptight and fearful of offense, one might find humor in today’s politics. A hundred years ago Finley Peter Dunne would have had fun with what our political class has provided. Mark Twain would have enjoyed chronicling John Kerry’s chasing around the globe in his exhaust-spewing private jet warning the multitudes to stay out of the gas-guzzling vehicles they need to get to work. Mel Brooks, in his prime and without the puritans who now dominate our cultural and media institutions looking over his shoulder, could have made us look in the mirror at what we have done to ourselves and our society. But, sadly, the ability to laugh at ourselves has become a lost art.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Donald Trump – Antihero?”

July 28, 2022

 

“Recently, scholars have used antihero archetypes to describe politicians and

explain their effect and affect, including former U.S. President Donald Trump.”

                                                                                                                                Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

                                                                                                                                July 23, 2022

 

Antihero is defined as a character who lacks qualities of a traditional hero – morality, courage, an obeisance to traditional rules of behavior. Wikipedia lists such fictional characters as typifying the antihero: Shakespeare’s Othello, John Milton’s Lucifer, Jane Eyre’s Edward Rochester, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby, and George MacDonald Fraser’s Harry Flashman. Do you, as does Wikipedia, see our former President among that group? I leave you to be the judge.

 

No matter one’s opinion, the word ‘antihero’ may make wince the large swath of Americans who see Mr. Trump as a villain – some for his character, which was revealed in his lack of positive response during the afternoon of the January 6 riots; others for his antiestablishment/anti-elitist credentials, which threatened official Washington, including members of January 6 committee. ‘Hero,’ even when preceded by ‘anti’ would not be to their liking. 

 

Yet even those who despise him cannot ignore the fact he was (and is) a hero to his estimated twenty to thirty million die hard supporters, most of whom live in non-elitist communities and work in non-establishment jobs. His supporters, who encompass all genders and races, see big-city and suburban financial and cultural elites as sanctimonious, hypocritical, and uninterested in the social and economic mobility that has characterized the United States. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Joseph Epstein, wrote “My sense is that just as Mr. Trump gave us Joe Biden, liberal culture earlier gave us Mr. Trump.” I agree. Mr. Trump was thrust upon us, in reaction to those who derided American history, patronized minorites and who treated millions of white, working-class Americans as ‘deplorables.’  Those who now reject him most vehemently bear primary responsibility for his political rise. 

 

Donald Trump went to Washington to clean out the “swamp,” and the “swamp” fought back just as Senator Chuck Schumer said it would, when he told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC in January 2017: “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you…he’s being really dumb to do this.” Ms. Maddow did not follow up, as a good investigative journalist would have done, on the implication that intelligence services have too much power, that they embody the “swamp.”

 

Had Mr. Trump been born five hundred years earlier, Shakespeare might have found him a candidate for one of his tragedies. He has an outsized ego and lacks principle, but he took on an adversary (the “swamp”) embedded so deeply into our culture that attempts to cleanse it were akin to Hercules’ task of cleaning the Augean Stables. Sadly, unlike Hercules, he failed.

 

Regardless of whether Mr. Trump is an antihero, hero or neither, it is my ardent wish – despite what he achieved: increased employment and incomes for minority workers, the Abraham Accords, restoration of pride in America’s imperfect greatness and more – that he retire from public life and release Republican candidates to battle issues not personalities. However, despite their demonization of him for his moral shortcomings following the 2020 election, Democrats do not want this to happen, for they recognize that their best chance of election success in 2022 and 2024 is to keep his name front and center, which is the fundamental – though unstated – excuse for the January 6 committee. Mr. Trump has become Democrats’ biggest asset and Republicans’ biggest liability. It is why Democrat PACs throw money at Republican fringe candidates supported by Mr. Trump. (Ironically and indicative of our odd state of political affairs, Mr. Biden has become Democrats’ biggest liability and Republicans’ biggest asset.)

 

Frankly, I do not care whether Donald Trump is considered an antihero or not. He is (and was) a force of nature that arose to contest an increasingly out-of-touch, entitled, moralizing and self-righteous elitist establishment – composed of people from both political parties – who instinctively disagree with the Chinese proverb that it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish. While Mr. Trump was (and is) a flawed man, there was good his Administration accomplished. And his Presidency was tragic in that it cost him a fortune, damaged what reputation he had, and the “swamp,” as we know through the ongoing (and unheralded) Durham investigation, survives. That is a tragedy for all Americans.

"Wisdom"

 As we always have, we live in a dangerous world. There always has been evil and there always will be. It manifests itself in nations and in individuals. Democracies such as ours are formed, in part, to keep people safe from those who would do us harm. It means recognizing the world for what it is, not as we would dream it to be. It is why we have police forces and why we have armies. Political correctness, which has birthed wokeness, is the antithesis of wisdom. Those who really want diversity, equity and inclusion should bring back the draft, as it was in the post-World War II and pre-Vietnam era, when every inductee was subjected to the care of a basic training sergeant. Those NCOs had one goal, which was to convert every recruit into a soldier. They did not care about one’s race, religion or gender. They did not concern themselves with words like “diversity,” “equity,” or “inclusion.” They did not distinguish between the privileged and the unprivileged , or between oppressors and victims. If a recruit disobeyed orders, they were punished. Some adapted to the discipline more easily than others, but every individual was treated the same. 

 

Enjoy the long, Labor Day weekend. The weather this morning in Connecticut is crisp and cool, a harbinger of the Autumn that is to come.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Wisdom”

September 4. 2021

 

“Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds

like foolishness to someone else…Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. 

One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

                                                                                                                                         Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)

                                                                                                                                         Siddhartha, 1922

 

Wisdom is defined by Random House Webster’s Dictionary: “The quality or state of being wise; sagacity, discernment, or insight.” If that definition leaves you confused as it did me, then read what Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) wrote in Literary Remains, Volume I, published posthumously in 1836: “Common sense, in an uncommon degree, is what the world calls wisdom.” Wisdom involves judgement and the ability to anticipate the consequences of one’s actions. It involves honesty about oneself and the admission of one’s mistakes and limitations. It is empirical not conjectural; it sees a world where reality – not optics – is the driving force.

 

Wisdom is often associated with age. I recall when I was learning to drive, and that while my father agreed my reactions might be faster than his, he said I lacked judgment. He was right. In The Admirable Crichton, J.M. Barrie wrote: “I’m not young enough to know everything.” But, as can be seen in President Biden’s decision to ignominiously leave Afghanistan, age does not necessarily bring wisdom.

 

It is, of course, presumptuous to write about wisdom, because the reader must assume the author considers himself wise. That is not my claim. I agree with Shakespeare’s court jester Touchstone who in As You like It says: “The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” Wisdom is rare and illusive, especially in our Twitter-filled world. 

 

The ego-driven ex-Presidencies of Clinton, Obama and Trump show none of the wisdom of former retiring Presidents, like Truman and Eisenhower. Is it wise to assume interest rates will always remain low? What will be the costs on thirty and more trillions of dollars of debt when interest rates do rise? Regarding the federal budget, has it been wise to let discretionary spending (about half of which is defense) decline from 67% of the budget in 1962 to 30% in 2019, while mandatory spending (mostly entitlements) increased from 25% in 1962 to 62% in 2019? In 1962, we were faced with a USSR that wanted to “bury” us. Today, we are faced with a combative China, a resurgent Russia and myriad Islamic terrorist groups who chant: “Death to America.” Yet defense spending, as a percent of GDP, has declined from 9.3% to 3.4%. Has that been wise? Was it wise to leave billions of dollars of military equipment in Afghanistan, thereby making the Taliban-led government – harborers of terrorism – one of the better armed nations in the world? Should social justice be the goal of our armed forces, or should they focus on strategy and winning wars?

 

In a competitive world, is it wise for schools and universities to focus on diversity (except for opinions), and to promote inclusion, equity and social justice while ignoring the benefits of aspiration, ability, merit, dedication and hard work? Which would be better for our nation one, two and three generations out? Would it not be wiser to encourage economic mobility than a static equity? Would it not be wiser to encourage unity rather than division? Should we not demand equality before the law and promote opportunity in a color-blind world, rather than preaching racial hatred in a world of oppressors and victims? Are the administrators at Amherst College wise to require students to double mask when inside and refrain from leaving campus, or are they over-reacting to the detriment of students’ mental health? As an airline passenger, would you rather the pilot be selected based on a diversity quota or on ability, regardless of his or her race or gender? And what about the neurosurgeon about to cut into your brain?

 

Will corporate managers focused on “wokeness” serve all stakeholders in businesses better than managers focused on profit? A Profitable business can pay its employees, and it pays its suppliers on time. A business is profitable because of satisfied customers. Businesses that make a profit pay taxes and contribute to the community. Of course, owners and shareholders benefit when a business is profitable, but if it incurs losses everyone suffers. Is it not wiser to make profitability the principal goal?

 

Wisdom involves thinking through issues, something in our hectic, harum-scarum world that has become passé. Generation Z – those born between 1995 and 2010 – has become, in the words of Jeremy Adams, author of Hollowed Out: A Warning about America’s Next Generation, “prisoners of presentism.” They are experts on Instagram, Twittering, You-tube, and they are hyper-aware of the latest fads and pop-culture. But can they think? What do they know of history and the classics? Will multiculturalism destroy what generations of wisdom have wrought? 

 

Wisdom, like the skepticism critical to science, is based on reading, listening and questioning – making decisions based on facts. In his poem “Little Giddings,” in Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot wrote:

 

“We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.”

 

Eliot was telling us that sometimes we must return to where we started, to understand where we have been. The search for wisdom is enduring and its path is characterized by doubt. Gandhi once wrote: “It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

 

It is, however, today’s lack of wisdom that is most apparent and most troubling. It permeates our political classes, our universities and cultural institutions, our large banks and corporations, and much of media. How do I know? Like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart response when asked to explain “hard-core” pornography in 1964: “…I know it when I see it.” This lack of wisdom is highly visible. We know it when we see it. It is in Washington, where partisanship has replaced statesmanship. We see it in schools and colleges that call for diversity, except in ideas. We see it in corporations that feel the need to hire diversity, equity and inclusion managers. We see it on the lawns of wealthy, white, virtue-signaling suburbanites with their signs supporting BLM, an organization that promotes racial disharmony. We see it with sports and entertainment figures who call for equity but whose own success is based on singular talent, merit and hard work. Animals have an innate sense – the wisdom to adapt – something we seem to have lost. We complain about rising seas and anthropological-caused super storms, yet we continue to build homes in risky, coastal tidal zones. 

 

Leaders sometimes mistake idiocy for wisdom. A few days ago, Victor Davis Hanson wrote for American Greatness: “In the hours after the horrific deaths of 13 servicemen, we have been reassured by our military that our partnership with the Taliban to provide security for our flights was wise.” Really?