#though of course this is getting close to when the U.S. would join WWII

[daydreamerdrew]

All-Star Comics (1940) #8, published in October 1941

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

The Interview: Rough Notes

I know I still need to finish O’Neil’s intro episode, but I finished watching The Interview and took notes.  I’ll properly arrange this later, and will do some re-writes, but here are some of her initial answers I came up with.

Elizabeth “Doc” O’Neil Character Sheet

What’s Up Doc? Part 1

Word Count: 2.1K

Do you see anything good at all coming out of this war?

No.

You answered that rather quickly.

You gave me an easy question. I don’t. I don’t see anything that can be gained or any real good in the long run. But I don’t see that in most wars really.

So you think there are some wars that can produce some good?

Only in extreme circumstances, but I don’t think Korea is one of them. 

Is there anything from home that you brought over with you? Home comforts?

Books, that’s really the only thing I could think of.

Really? Nothing else?

Well everything else is temporary, in terms of things you can bring over. Shampoo or make up or even a nice dress can only last you so long and then you spend however long you’re here wishing you had them for a little while longer. But books are more consistent, safer bet. 

What books did you bring if you don’t mind me asking?

I might mind you asking a little bit. (laugh) Ah, nothing of real high literature, really just any fantastical thing to distract you from all this for a while. 

What do you feel was the most difficult thing you had to adjust to over here?

The language I think, more than anything. 

You mean with the locals?

Yes. Korean is just so different from English. With something like French or German there’s enough of a base root to kind of figure it out, but Korean is completely foreign in comparison. It’s harder to get your foot in. But, at the same time it’s a study in universality. 

How so?

Well, facial expressions, I guess. You know a smile or tears or fear, it’s the same on every human face. I think we forget that sometimes, that there is that universal language we all share. 

Do you feel there are different pressures on you as a female doctor as compared to your male co-workers?

Yes and no. Um…(laugh) I know that’s not really an answer. Yes in the sense that it takes longer for people to trust me. With higher ups or other officers that come in here, let’s just say I’m always picked last for the team. But when we’re in OR actually doing our job I don’t feel that at all. I think the boys that come through here are just so happy to have their insides where they’re supposed to, they don’t care who did the sewing. 

What do you do when you’re not working?

Uh..reading, talking, catching up on sleep. Honestly anything really. Anything to keep you distracted for a while. I will say Pierce, Doctor Pierce, our chief surgeon, he’s probably the best at that. At keeping us distracted.

What sort of things has he come up with?

(laugh) I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say it on television.

So I take it there is a lot of boredom to go around.

Yeah, you can say that.

What do you do to combat it?

Same as before really, just about anything. But, I don’t really think it’s the boredom that really gets to me.  I mean there’s always something to do if you put your mind to it.  It’s the waiting, I think.  Like no matter how bored you might be there’s always this part that’s aware that it could end at any moment and you’re thrown right back into the chaos. 

Is there something special coming out of this in technical or medical elements as compared to WWII?

Nothing that makes any of this worth it. It may have taken a little slower back home to perform the tests and experiments we do here, but no.  Nothing that can make up for the loss of life here. 

Is there anything special coming out of this war? 

No. There’s nothing...you keep phrasing the same question over and over again in different ways; is this war worth it? And if I may be frank, by my count America has only been involved in two wars that have been worth it; the Civil War and World War II.  The Civil War to put an end to slavery and stop the systematic and tortuous execution of a people and World War II for the same reasons.  And I think that’s the only excuse.  That if somehow by the end of it you come out of a war with a net positive of people saved to lives lost.  So, no.  There is nothing special or good coming out of this war.

Do you get scared?

All the time, but I think that’s true of everyone here.

Is there a time you get more scared than others?

I think it’s the silence.  The silence is what scares me.  When you hear the bombs going off outside or gun fire, you know where you are.  You know where the fighting is coming from and you can focus on what you have to do.  But, in the middle of battle there are times everything goes quiet, no gunshots no anything, and those are the moments that scare me because I have no idea what’s going to happen next.  Either the fighting has stopped or maybe a bullet finally got me and I haven’t realized it yet. 

How would you describe yourself, are you a Captain in the U.S. Army or are you a doctor?

I’m a Doctor first, a woman second, and a captain last. 

Can you describe what you do?

We try our best to keep young boys alive which the U.S. Army is determined to kill, in however way we can. 

How do you keep your morale up?

Drinking, I think, is the common thing here. Ah, watching films. Um, God anything.  But, I don’t think morale is a good word for it.  Morale I always thinks implies some sort of patriotism or happiness in your work, and I don’t think there’s any of that really here.  I think it’s more just trying to find those moments where you can pretend you’re not here, if only for a little while.

How do you manage to stay sane over here?

The people.  The other doctors, nurses, and so on.  They’re how I stay sane.  If I were here by myself, I don’t think I could handle it. There would be no frame of reference to know this wasn’t normal.  But, so long as you can look to other people and see that they know this is crazy too, then it keeps you grounded. 

How did you pick the military as a career? You started as a nurse as I understand.

Yes, though I’m hesitant to call the military my career. Medicine has always been my profession, at least I’d like it to be.  I was training to be a doctor when World War II started, and it seemed at the time the right thing to do.  There was all the propaganda at the time and a kind of glamour to it, for lack of a better word. So I went and it...forced a new perspective. After you sew up enough kids with shrapnel in their spine, taking out appendices seems like small potatoes. 

So, is that why you joined? Some kind of greater purpose?

No, not greater purpose.  More I think the chance to do some real good.  Tangible good.  Plus the patients give you less attitude when they walk out. 

Has this whole experience changed you in any way?

Not drastically, at least comparatively.  Who I was at the start of the last war vs. who I was at the end of it was very different.  But who I was at the start of this war compared to who I’ll be at the end of it… I think, at least I hope, I’m more aware.  I’m more aware of other people and other perspectives and how that might shape how they see me.  I think in some ways I’m more open than I was just because there is really to pretext for hiding it.  But in terms of priorities, no I don’t think so. 

Do you have respect for authority over here?

Let me put it like this, I have respect for authority which has earned it. I do understand why the structure is there, but that doesn’t always mean the people in charge are there because they’re the best suited for the job. 

Can you tell me about the people with whom you’re working?

Wonderful.  All of them, each and every one.  I think I really got lucky in that sense. 

Does that include the nurses?

Of course.  The nurses here are fantastic and I don’t think people understand just how integral nurses are to every aspect of medicine.  Honestly, I think I worked harder as a nurse than I do now as a surgeon.  I’m more convinced than ever that nurses do exactly what the doctors do backwards and in heels. 

Do you agree now with romanticizing war? 

I don’t think I ever really did, but now it frankly disgusts me.  I can’t put it any other way.  Propping up war was some romantic adventure and proof of bravery is the most dangerous thing you can teach someone.  It genuinely makes me sick to think about. 

Do you have any heroes?

Marie Curie is probably the first that comes to mind. 

Could you explain who that is, for people who may not know?

Oh, yes. Marie Curie was physicist and chemist who pioneered studies in radioactivity. She one the Nobel Prize in physics for discovering two new elements, and in a way is the reason I’m here. During World War I she recognized how important it was to have mobile radiology units near the front lines.  Her involvement saved thousands of lives.  She was a woman of every study women aren’t supposed to study.  It’s hard not to look up to her. 

What do you think of president Eisenhower?

I’ve never met the man, so I can’t say. 

Do you ever get leave? 

Every now and again.  Tokyo is a great city, but unless you’re close to death or a mental institution, it’s hard to get away. 

Is there a lot of drinking here? 

No more than any other army camp I think.  It’s just another way to distract yourself. 

What do you think will happen when the U.S. leaves?

We’re going to be leaving it the same way we left it, but with more bombed buildings and dead bodies.  I honestly don’t know what’s going to happen to the people here, and I don’t think the U.S. Army really cares. 

Do you know the South Koreans? 

Of the families here, yes, very well.  At least I hope so after being here for so long.  I don’t think you can be here and not know them.  That who the U.S. army says we’re here for anyway. 

Can you tell me what you miss most back home?

My bed.  More than anything.  I miss having a real mattress and a hot shower.  My bed and my shower, those are the two things. I think it just comes down to being warm and comfortable.  It’s really either or here.  Either you’re comfortable and you’re freezing or you’re warm and you’re laying on a hard floor. 

What will you do when the war is over? Where is home?

I suppose I’ll go back to Philadelphia.

Is that where home is?

Home is a bit of a strong word, but it’s where my parents are and where I did most of my schooling.  I’ll probably head back there and try to find a job.

If home is a strong word, is there a place you would call home?

...I might have to get back to you on that. 

Do you want to say hello to anyone back in the states?

Um, I guess, hi Sophie. I hope you and Andrew are doing alright and I promise that next letter is coming. And if I you’re watching somehow; hi Mom, hi Dad.  I haven’t heard from you in a while so um, I’m still alive.  So, I’ve got that going for me.  

Would you want to see people here after the war? 

I hope so, yes.  When you go through something like this, you can’t really relate to anyone who hasn’t.  At least, it’s difficult to.  So as much as I don’t want to remember a lot of the things that have happened here, I know that they have and that I won’t be able to forget.  I want, at least the option, to reach out and talk to someone who understands.  I love so many of the people here, I don’t want them to be gone from my life. I don’t think I could take it. 

[oscopelabs]

War Starts At Midnight: The Three Wartime Visions of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger by Josh Spiegel

Few filmmakers have made films as thematically rich as those from writers/directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger in the 1940s. From 1943 to 1949, Powell and Pressburger, better known as the Archers, made seven superlative films that leapfrog genres with heedless abandon, from wartime epic to fantastical romance to psychosexual thriller to ballet drama. Thanks largely to cinephilic champions such as Martin Scorsese and his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker (who married Powell in 1984), as well as home-media ventures like The Criterion Collection, the Archers’ films have received a vital and necessary second life.

While the Archers’ 1940s-era septet have recognizable throughlines as well as a reliable stable of performers, three of those films are cut from the same cloth, despite telling radically different stories with varying tones. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale, and A Matter of Life and Death all take place, at least in part, during World War II, and all three films depict a nation at war, as much with other countries as with itself. When we think of British culture, we think of the stiff-upper-lip mentality depicted in popular culture for decades, typified by how Brits acted and reacted in World War II. But the Archers, in this wartime trio, debated the validity of fighting a war with that old-fashioned mentality, offering up films designed to be propagandistic enough to be approved for release but that also asked what it meant to be British in seemingly perpetual wartime.

* * *

“But war starts at midnight!” -- Clive Wynne-Candy

“Oh, yes, you say war starts at midnight. How do you know the enemy says so too?” -- Spud Wilson

The nuance of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp was likely always going to make it a sore spot for the British government. Colonel Blimp was not original to The Archers; he was a comic-strip character created by David Low in the 1930s, meant to skewer puffed-up elder statesmen of the British military. The stereotype of a fatheaded, pompous fool had pervaded the national consciousness so much that Winston Churchill feared the Archers’ adaptation would revive the public’s critical perception of the military when support was needed the most. But while the title invokes Colonel Blimp, the lead character is never referred to as Blimp, and is much less foolish than he may seem when initially seen attacking a young British soldier in a Turkish bath. Powell and Pressburger used the character and the staid, fusty old notions of British militarism as a jumping-off point for a detailed, poignant character study.

Set over four decades, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp begins near its finale, as Great Britain struggles to gain a foothold over the Nazis. We first see our Colonel Blimp, the portly, bald, and mustachioed Clive Wynne-Candy (Roger Livesey), beset upon by younger soldiers in the club where he now lives as part of a training exercise. Clive is infuriated because they’ve started hours earlier than planned; before the smug young soldier leading the charge can explain himself, the two get into a tussle that speaks to why Powell and Pressburger wanted to tell this story. In the production of their previous film, One of Our Aircraft is Missing, the directors removed a scene where an elderly character tells a younger one, “You don’t know what it’s like to be old.” (The idea that this could serve as the thematic backbone to an entire feature was provided by the Archers’ then-editor, David Lean.) Clive’s rage at being taken off-guard leads him to thrash young Spud Wilson and teach him a lesson: “You laugh at my big belly, but you don’t know how I got it! You laugh at my mustache, but you don’t know why I grew it!”

And so, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp flashes back 40 years, a rare instance where a movie indulging in the now-hoary in medias res technique pays dramatic dividends. The rest of the film focuses on three points in the life of the man known first as Clive Candy: his time in the Boer War, the devastating World War I, and his twilight years of service as World War II ramps up. For a war film, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp offers exceedingly little bloodshed. Powell and Pressburger’s film examines how such gruesome action informs men like Clive away from the battlefield, instead of depicting that action in full. Each section of Blimp shows how his noble efforts make him hardened and intractable over time, even against the tide of a truly tyrannical force. At first, Clive’s militaristic mantra is honorable: “Right is might.” But as the film reaches its third hour, he learns that his theory, one embodied by his nation, has been so cruelly disproven by the Nazi scourge that he and Britain must change their ways.  

In the earliest section, Clive steps to the aid of Edith Hunter (a young Deborah Kerr), a British governess in Berlin who’s concerned about a German soldier spreading anti-British lies regarding their treatment of South African women and children in the Boer War. In so doing, and after insulting high-ranking German officers, Clive must duel with a German soldier chosen by lot, Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook). Watching a Brit face off with a German soldier might’ve felt appropriate, at least to the watchful eye of the British government. But Powell and Pressburger shrewdly show us the build-up to the duel itself, not the actual fight; instead, we see the aftermath, as Clive and Theo both convalesce in the same hospital, become close friends, and fall in love with Edith. Only Theo is lucky enough to win her heart; though Edith has as much love in her heart for Clive as for Theo, Clive only grasps his feelings once she’s left his life.

Portraying Theo, the film’s major German character, as surprisingly decent is one significant way in which the Archers brought nuance to what might have been another propagandistic WWII-era film. His innate humanity becomes heartbreaking as the film progresses. In the second section, Theo is a prisoner of war who’s initially too proud to admit his previous connection to Clive, before they reunite briefly. In the final section, Theo is older and much wiser than his friend, yet no luckier. He’s seen in a British immigration office, attempting to leave Germany on his own: his two sons have become Nazis and Edith has passed away. (“None of my sons came to her funeral. Heil Hitler,” Theo says grimly.) Theo then explains what drew him back to the UK, in a measured yet passionate soliloquy. No matter how many faults Theo sees in the Brits—after he reconnects with Clive post-WWI, Theo tries to point out that regular citizens “can’t be adjusted from war to peace as easily as you”—it is still a far kinder place to live than Germany. That the film’s most impassioned speech, expressing fondness for the British way of life, comes from a German is one of its many welcome surprises.

The film’s most haunting twist revolves around the women in Clive’s life. When Edith joins Theo in Germany, Clive is so shaped by her memory that when he settles down and marries the charming Barbara Wynne, she just so happens to look like Edith’s twin. Barbara, like Edith, passes away before World War II begins, but though Clive has aged, he hasn’t changed; his driver, Angela “Johnny” Cannon, looks just like Barbara and Edith, to the point where he introduces Johnny to Theo, fully aware that both men spot the similarity. Kerr, thus, is playing three strong-willed women, all of whom feel like perfect fits with the men of the film.

Clive, like his country, stays firmly and proudly rooted in the past, much to his detriment. When Theo, as an older man, reasons with Clive about how his way of waging war is outdated, it falls on deaf ears despite being a darkly accurate portrait of how WWII could have been lost: “If you let yourself be defeated by them just because you are too fair to hit back the same way they hit at you, there won’t be any methods but Nazi methods.” Only after Spud Wilson’s gambit to throw oldsters like Clive off their game in the training exercise does Clive begrudgingly realize that time has passed him by. The old-fashioned sportsmanship of battle could no longer apply for the Clive Candys of the world; at least this one realized it.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp ends wistfully, as Clive surveys the literal waterlogged wreckage of his life, having lost his house in the Blitz. He, Theo, and Johnny stand by the debris, and he recalls Barbara’s long-ago declaration: “You’ll stay just as you are till the floods come.” As he looks at where his house once lay, he says to himself, “Now here is the lake and I still haven’t changed.” Livesey, one of the very best actors to work with the Archers, imbues that line with a fine blend of pride and heartache, as he does with the salute he gives to the passing, much younger army of his native land. This elder statesman isn’t quite Colonel Blimp, only grasping Theo’s warnings about the Nazis after it’s too late, but he can see complexities of his life where others might not.

It took The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, like the other films explored here, years to fully get its due in the U.S. While Churchill didn’t bar Blimp from release in the United Kingdom, he enforced an export ban on the feature because he saw it as a less-than-helpful presentation of the military at such a dire period. (Or, as some have wondered, he may well have seen the older Clive Candy as a critique of him. Of course, Churchill reportedly never saw this film, because that would have been too challenging.) A shortened version was released in U.S. theaters in 1945, cutting out the flashback structure. The truncated TV version, which runs just 90 minutes—the original is 163 minutes— was still able to excite a young Scorsese, who helped fund a restoration in 2013 for this classic.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp was, perhaps, doomed for failure; its treatment of people perceived as the enemy could gain resonance only with distance from WWII. The British War Office and Churchill stated their antipathy to the production even before it began filming, refusing the Archers’ request to release Laurence Olivier from service to star as Candy. (Livesey, to note, is wonderful in the film, so the Archers’ loss is our gain.) But Clive Candy was able to weather attacks, and so too was Blimp, the beginning of a seven-year period where the Archers upended expectations, strove to break cinematic ground, and stayed true to their artistic principles. Here is the lake, and still, this movie hasn’t changed. It only grows with age.

* * *

“It’s a great thing to sit back in an armchair and watch the world go by in front of you.” – Sgt. Bob Johnson

“The drawback is…that people may get used to looking at life from the sitting position.” – Thomas Colpeper

Fourteen months after The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Powell and Pressburger released another film set during World War II, which presented both the natural wonder and beauty of England while calmly displaying the ways in which the war had devastated some of its history. A Canterbury Tale wasn’t a hit with critics or audiences in the late summer of 1944; by the time it was released in the United States, the year was 1949, and a movie about three young strangers who journey towards Canterbury Cathedral in the waning months of World War II needed new, American-focused framing scenes to entice audiences.

Over 70 years after its initial release, what can we make of A Canterbury Tale? The allure of this low-key drama is, like its setting, ineffable and mysterious. The three leads, waylaid in the small English town of Chillingbourne while they wait for another train to Canterbury, ostensibly try to solve a mystery whose solution isn’t that mysterious. Some aspects of this film—whose three protagonists were all newcomers—feel less like drama and more like the Archers trying to make UK citizens turn away from the dark days of World War II and remind them of their land’s own beauty. From the vantage point of the 21st century, A Canterbury Tale is an utterly fascinating and serene look at how small towns tried to maintain a community-wide calm in the midst of terror.

Bob Johnson (Sgt. John Sweet) is an American soldier on his way to Canterbury Cathedral to meet a fellow Yank and do right by his mother back home in Three Sisters Falls, Oregon. Peter Gibbs (Dennis Price) is a British soldier who seems outwardly as arrogant as Blimp’s Spud Wilson, even though his true passion is playing the organ. While he plays it at cinemas back home, he’d rather play the kind of organ in the handsomely appointed Canterbury Cathedral. Alison Smith (Sheila Sim) has been conscripted into the Women’s Land Army; assigned to a farm in Chillingbourne, she has personal memories from her time near Canterbury that she can’t help but unearth. These strangers are brought together one dark Friday night by happenstance: Bob misheard the station stop and got off early, but he and Peter end up helping Alison after she’s beset upon by a mysterious figure who puts, of all things, glue in her hair. Strangest of all, this isn’t the first time a young woman was attacked by “the glue man” in Chillingbourne.

In a more predictable film, this inciting incident would lead our trio down some dark paths in Chillingbourne, a name that portends something terrifying. But while there’s an unquestionably disturbing subtext to a man placing “sticky stuff,” as Alison describes it, in young women’s hair, there’s little in the way of conventional twists in A Canterbury Tale. When our heroes meet Thomas Colpeper (Eric Portman), the magistrate of Chillingbourne who’s coincidentally the farmer to whom Alison has been assigned, it’s immediately obvious that he’s the glue man. Our heroes use the summer weekend, as they wait for the next train to Canterbury, to build up evidence, but as the weekend progresses, Bob and Alison (and eventually Peter) lose interest in solving the case as they fall in love with the British countryside.

Unlike Blimp, A Canterbury Tale has an ensemble of disparate characters who mostly have never seen serious battle. So many of them are average people conscripted into action, trying not to admit how terrified they feel. A Canterbury Tale features no bloodshed, but Powell and Pressburger stuck to the notion of making the film feel like a document of regular civilians by casting few recognizable actors. Portman worked with the Archers on the earlier film 49th Parallel and was, at the time, this film’s most well-known actor. Sweet, on the other end of the spectrum, was the least well-known; this was his first and only role in a film.

Recently, much was made about how Clint Eastwood’s The 15:17 to Paris, in which three young men who foiled a real-life attack, feature those three men playing themselves. When Powell and Pressburger cast their American character, they didn’t change his name to match the actor’s, but they might as well have: John Sweet was an Army Sergeant at the time, and his first-time performing style is always evident. Unlike the performances in The 15:17 to Paris, however, Sweet’s work is oddly charming. Watching him interact with the ensemble allows for the understandable awkwardness of his performance to take on a double meaning; Sweet is the outsider as much because he’s untrained as because he’s American. Bob Johnson is incurably curious and inquisitive, having so little awareness of British traditions, making his languorous journey through Chillingbourne all the more compelling.

By the close of A Canterbury Tale, all three of our heroes receive a blessing in the style of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. For Bob, it’s a revival of a romance he presumes is finished. His paramour, who he figured had moved on, has instead joined the Women’s Army Corps in Australia and has responded to the letters he thought had been ignored. Even before that, the people Bob meets in Chillingbourne, from the boys playing soldier to the local mechanics and a fellow military man from Seven Sisters in England, serve as a kind of blessing. When we first meet Bob, he’s all too happy to get his visit to Canterbury out of the way; before the movie ends, he’s taken to running down the sloping hills of Chillingbourne with his new friends, an overgrown boy at play. Stopping in Chillingbourne brings him joy even before his love life is given a new chance.

Alison, too, becomes closer to nature as she explores Chillingbourne. Of all people, she finds herself associating with Colpeper, even after she’s correct in presuming that he’s the culprit. Her blessing arises from memories she has of spending a summer outside Chillingbourne in a caravan with her fiancé, now presumed dead. But before she can receive the happy news that her fiancé is alive and well, she has to almost commune with the Earth to try and move on. By the second half, Alison is so in touch with nature that she hears the sounds of music and voices in the hills, akin to the centuries-old pilgrims Chaucer wrote about.

Alison’s connection is validated and shared by Colpeper, with whom she’s convening in those same hills Bob runs down. Even after Alison confirms Colpeper’s nighttime habits, she admits, “I was very mistaken about you.” Their connection is more emotional than anything else; Colpeper tells her that hearing voices as she does only works “when you believe strongly in something.” Colpeper’s strong belief in respecting Britain’s history is how he became the glue man. After his historical lectures were met with boredom and few attendees, he made it so British soldiers had little choice but to listen about their homeland’s history. By giving the soldiers a bad name (other townspeople, including the young women, presume one of them is the glue man), Colpeper assumed he could make a small encouragement to the British military to learn about the land it defended. As he explains to Peter on the train to Canterbury, “There’s no sin in being a savage, but a missionary who doesn’t try to do his duty is a bad missionary.”

Though Portman’s enigmatic performance turns Colpeper frosty even here, the magistrate receives a blessing from an unlikely source: Peter. Though Peter is the most gung-ho of the three young people to find the glue man, he chooses not to give Colpeper away to the authorities after he receives his blessing: the chance to play the Canterbury Cathedral organ. But Peter’s decision to let Colpeper walk is portended in one of the wonderful flourishes thrown in by the Archers in the film’s lush black-and-white cinematography. While on the train to Canterbury, Peter scoffs in response to the magistrate asking him if he is an instrument of judgment and says, “I’ll believe that when I get a halo over my head.” Cue the train light creating a halo effect over him.

There is no action-heavy setpiece in A Canterbury Tale, which instead features plenty of images of the main characters taking in the beauty of Chillingbourne. Through Colpeper, we see how hard it is for regular people to both support the military in wartime and forgive soldiers their vices. Through Peter, we see how soldiers didn’t quite grasp that their presence in small towns threw other people’s lives into upheaval. You could argue that very little happens to the characters in A Canterbury Tale; all that does happen is that Powell and Pressburger let the audience watch these people’s unremarkable yet compelling lives, and that they each secretly want to find some purpose when they arrive in Canterbury. The heroes appreciate what it meant to be British in decades gone by, and reflect on how that impacts their actions in the present. A Canterbury Tale was a love letter to England, made as gorgeous by its rolling hills as by its people. Though it didn’t hit big originally, and additional footage featuring Bob reconnecting with his girlfriend (Kim Hunter, about whom more very shortly) didn’t help it translate in America, A Canterbury Tale is a truly entrancing story of how badly people needed their unique burdens eased in such a horrific time of history.

* * *

“This is the universe. Big, isn’t it?” – Narrator

It’s hard to decide which is the best Archers film. Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes, perhaps their most broadly appreciated films in America, are remarkable leaps forward for Technicolor cinematography, while showcasing incredible performances, breathtaking set designs, and more. They are gorgeous films, featuring some of the most jaw-dropping images in the Archers’ filmography. But the film released the year before, suggesting the possibilities of what the Archers would do next, is just a touch greater. It is a film that was well-received initially, despite receiving a new title for its U.S. release; a film that’s only getting its first Region 1 Blu-ray release this summer although it offers some of the richest, most colorful images in Three-Strip Technicolor; a film that’s influenced everything from The Simpsons to Harry Potter. It is A Matter of Life and Death.

What if someone was supposed to die, but got misplaced? What if that person, with their extra time, fell in love before they were found by their bringer of death? This, in effect, is the concept of A Matter of Life and Death, in which Peter Carter (David Niven), a cheerful RAF pilot, is meant to die when he escapes his damaged plane without a parachute. Before Peter jumps, he contacts June, a winsome young American radio operator (Hunter), to share what he presumes are his last thoughts in the strangest Meet Cute ever. Peter jumps from quoting Walter Raleigh to brazenly declaring, “I love you, June. You’re life, and I’m leaving you.” But once Peter exits the plane, the damnedest thing happens: he wakes up on the beaches of England very much alive, after which he meets June in person, officially starting their relationship.

The whimsy of A Matter of Life and Death is clarified when we learn why Peter was apparently able to cheat death: his French conductor (Marius Goring, who co-stars in The Red Shoes) couldn’t locate Peter in the thick English fog. Peter is dismayed to learn that his permanent eternal presence is requested in the Other World, taking him away from June. She, of course, is concerned that her new boyfriend might be going mad; kindly local doctor Frank Reeves (Livesey again) believes Peter might be suffering from a brain injury. The perpetually unanswered question is just that: is Peter hallucinating the Other World because his mind is going, or is he really at death’s stairway?

Powell and Pressburger don’t answer the question, providing just enough medical details, down to the smell Peter notices when he speaks to his Conductor, that it might just be a mental malady. (I submit that Peter isn’t hallucinating the Other World because the film never answers one question: how the hell did he survive that fall from the plane?) The closing moments of the film suggest that either option is possible, when it’s revealed that the judge of the Other World’s court of appeals and the surgeon operating on Peter are played by the same actor.

But the mystery of Peter’s circumstances is not what makes A Matter of Life and Death so special. This is one of the most ambitious films the Archers ever made. It is a buoyant, bursting-with-emotion romance between two star-crossed lovers whose connection is straight out of a fairy tale. It is a film designed to help bridge divides between the British and the Americans in the immediate aftermath of World War II. (The story begins just six days before the European section of WWII concluded.) And it is, above all else by the finale, meant as a rousing and spirited defense of the British people. When the Other World allows Peter to appeal his case, he chooses the firm, well-spoken Reeves—who dies tragically in a motorcycle accident before Peter’s surgery—to plead Peter’s case, passionately arguing in favor of his client’s basic humanity.

In these spectral, spiritual moments, Reeves goes head-to-head with Abraham Farlan (Raymond Massey), the first American felled by a British bullet in the Revolutionary War, in arguing for Peter’s clemency. But it becomes clear that Reeves and Farlan are not arguing over Peter’s right to live longer than originally planned: they are debating what it means to be British and to be American. Farlan doesn’t think much of the romance between Peter and June, seeing it as another case of two people ruining relationships back home because they’re thrown into unexpected circumstances abroad: “Men and women thousands of miles away from the love they left behind. Minute sparks, instead of scorching flames.”

This is the Archers’ irreverent way of presenting the British and American states of mind post-WWII. It’s also a sign of their empathy as filmmakers: when Reeves argues that the current jury—all men from different countries around the world impacted by England’s imperialist rule at varying points of history—is unfairly biased, he asks for six American citizens. The reveal is powerful in 2018 as much as it may have been in 1946: the six American citizens are all immigrants, French to African to Irish. There is no one type of American citizen, as there is no one type of British citizen: this film is a dissertation on what it is to be human.

Visually, A Matter of Life and Death is unparalleled in the Archers’ work; the cinematography shifts from Technicolor (in the real world) to black-and-white (in the Other World), and the design of the Other World creates a series of gasp-inducing images. There is the impossibly wide shot of the attendees of Peter’s appeal, in a vast auditorium that reveals itself to be the size of an entire galaxy; there is the design of the literal stairway to heaven (hence its American title, Stairway to Heaven), which seems appropriately infinite without being terrifying; there is the moment when Peter’s fellow RAF pilot, waiting for him in the Other World, peers down to the vast center where files on all people from Earth are kept, and we see his silhouette from far above. The sense of scope and scale in moments like these should be teachable moments for anyone crafting some big-budget spectacle; this film’s moments of wonder were accomplished with a meager budget.

The grandness of A Matter of Life and Death—a movie that begins with the camera panning through the vast universe and closes with lovers reuniting happily—is coupled by its creators’ aims, to emphasize the humanity in people of different creeds and cultures. Peter Carter seems almost carefree in his opening scene, throwing slang left and right to the woman who he’ll fall for even as he expects to die. By the end, Peter and June are united by what Reeves deems the most powerful force on Earth: love. It’s a declaration that manages to be corny and life-affirming at the same time, much in the same way as Powell and Pressburger attempt to emphasize the universal qualities of mankind throughout the spiritual-court climax. In this film, as in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and A Canterbury Tale, to be British is to be human.

* * *

Unlike some of their British cohorts, such as David Lean and Alfred Hitchcock, most of the Archers’ films didn’t immediately hit big in America. Powell’s 1960 horror film Peeping Tom didn’t exactly end his career (he kept making films after that disturbing effort), but it garnered fiercely negative criticism. Over the last couple of decades, the Archers’ films have received well-deserved revivals. Last year, A Matter of Life and Death received a 4K restoration overseen by Scorsese and Schoonmaker, which is translating to the film soon receiving a Region 1 Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection. (It is painfully overdue.) Before that, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and the operatic The Tales of Hoffman both received restorations, hopefully introducing more people to the wonder of these filmmakers.

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale (which also deserves the Blu-ray treatment), and A Matter of Life and Death are the product of fertile creative minds who used the backdrop of World War II to explore vastly different worlds that all happen to exist in Great Britain. This trio runs the gamut of genres and emotions, all while showcasing the kind of soldiers who protected the United Kingdom throughout the first half of the 20th century. The raffish romantic lead of A Matter of Life and Death could easily have been the same kind of soldier to surprise the elderly Clive Candy in the opening of Blimp, or he could have just as easily stumbled across Chillingbourne’s glue man. He could have even been the young Clive Candy. These characters are distinct enough to exist within their own stories as they are to represent attitudes and personalities across all of the Archers’ films. These films encompass a vast universe, one that offers new wonders to cinephiles. Just as the pilgrims came to Canterbury for blessings, so too do true cinephiles receive blessings when they make the pilgrimage to watch Powell and Pressburger’s films.

[shooktim-blog]

Today I’m publishing the third post in a new limited-run series all about great weekend getaway destinations around the country that I personally love. The project is done in partnership with Marriott International, continuing a relationship that I’ve had for a long time and deeply value. Even before I started my blog I was an enthusiastic guest of Marriott International properties, so it just makes sense. For the next couple of months I will be highlighting a number of different cities around the U.S. that I think are ideal places for a long weekend escape. Whether you live regionally and can drive there or simply hop on a plane for an easy flight, they all have one thing in common – they’re fun cities to explore. Today I’m excited to share why I decided to add Los Angeles, and specifically Hollywood, to that list.

Why Los Angeles – Hollywood

There are a number of factors with my determination on what cities to visit in my quest to share great weekend getaway destinations, including how easy they are to reach. Since LA is one of the world’s most important and visited cities, connections are available from just about any place on the planet. It’s also a city that I think is misunderstood, particularly in terms of tourism. One reason for this is the incredible size of the LA region, it sprawls across much of Southern California. That’s also why that for the purposes of this post, I decided to mostly, but not completely, focus on Hollywood. That’s the part of the city where most first time visitors want to go and, in spite of its kitsch at times, it really is worth the trip for the reasons I discovered on my own visit to the neighborhood.

Experiences in and around Hollywood

LA is frankly too immense to condense into a brief blog post; even highlighting just one neighborhood deserves a book. For the purposes of this mini-guide though I want to share those experiences that I either personally really enjoy or think make for a well-rounded trip to Hollywood.

Old Hollywood Tour

I didn’t have a lot of time in the city and so I joined a brief, 1-hour tour of Old Hollywood. It was actually a fantastic experience as the guide and I walked around downtown Hollywood, admiring the old classic buildings and learning all about the remarkable history of this unusual neighborhood.

Hollywood Walk of Fame

For 15 blocks, the sidewalks of Hollywood are dotted with more than 2,500 five-pointed stars, each honoring a different artist who has contributed to the entertainment industry. One of the city’s most popular attractions, more than 10 million people visit them every year, looking for their favorite celebrity or to recognize those who may not be as famous.

La Brea Tar Pits

I’m not sure why exactly, but I’ve always wanted to visit the tar pits and while they’re not in Hollywood itself, they are a very short Uber ride away. The bubbling tar pits have always been known, but it wasn’t until 1901 when it was first realized that fossilized prehistoric animal bones were preserved in the pools of asphalt. Today it’s a world-class facility with interactive exhibits and access to those famous pools in an expansive and relaxing urban park.

Photo source: Kirsten Alana Photography

Runyon Canyon

A favorite among locals for years, this is a great day hike if you’re yearning to leave the city behind and immerse yourself in nature. There are several different trails available, depending on your time and fitness level, and the views are legendary. Since it’s also in Hollywood, celebrity sightings are pretty common, so be sure to keep an eye out.

Photo source: Kirsten Alana Photography

Griffith Observatory

Another great spot to get a fantastic view of the Hollywood Sign, Griffith is also one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. There’s so much more to the observatory though than its views. A gorgeous building in its own right, the Greek influenced architecture belies an important scientific mission. Used in both WWII and to train the Apollo pilots, today it houses an extensive array of space and science-related displays.

Where to Stay

Los Angeles is one of the best cities if you’re looking for incredible hotels and hospitality. While there are many more that could be added to this list, here are a few everyone should know about.

W Hollywood    

I couldn’t have picked a better hotel for my first time visiting Hollywood. With an enviable position on Hollywood Boulevard, it was an easy walk to all of those touristy sites I most wanted to visit. Even better, it’s a W so I knew that my experience there would certainly be memorable. I started my experience at their rooftop pool, a decidedly funky space with incredible views. There are also plenty of options if you’re peckish or meeting friends for a drink, including the Delphine Eatery & Bar, The Living Room or outside at the vibrant Station Hollywood.

Residence Inn Los Angeles L.A. LIVE    

I’ve stayed in and around the L.A. LIVE complex many times and I always enjoy being in the city center. L.A. LIVE is an enormous entertainment complex in the South Park District of Downtown Los Angeles, California, adjacent to the Staples Center and Los Angeles Convention Center. There are several Marriott brands represented, including one I have come to really enjoy, the Residence Inn. I stayed with them on my Route 66 trip across the country, and l Iove the feeling of community in each hotel. With plenty of space in your room to unwind, it’s also a nice sanctuary after a busy day.

Le Méridien Delfina Santa Monica

Originally created by Air France in the 1970s, Le Méridien has grown substantially since opening its first hotel in Paris and has changed hands a few times, now resting comfortably with Marriott International. Since I’ve stayed at a number of Le Méridien hotels around the world, I knew what to expect but, as always, the realities of amazing service are always wonderful to experience. Le Méridien Delfina Santa Monica enjoys a terrific location in this idyllic seaside town, and it was also where I ended my trip on Route 66. It was the perfect place for a celebration and along with the hotel’s famous hospitality, they made my experience something I know that I’ll never forget.

What to Eat

One of the world’s most energetic and diverse communities, you can literally find anything you want to eat in L.A., but for my money here are a few that I particularly enjoy.

Downtown LA Food Tour

I was surprised to find this tour option, but since I always love a great food experience I knew it was something I couldn’t miss. Downtown LA doesn’t get the respect it deserves; probably due to the number of times it has had to reinvent itself over the decades. Today though it’s once again being revitalized, as I discovered on a fun food walk around the oft-neglected downtown core. Over the course of 3 hours, the guide took us not only to tasty restaurants and cafes, but also gorgeous spots hiding in plain sight. Whether it was old art deco theaters or vibrant murals painted on the sides of massive brick buildings, the tour did indeed open my eyes to how much fun downtown LA can be.

The Waffle Hollywood

To help me narrow down my brunch options, I asked some local friends for their advice, which is how I found this fun spot in Hollywood. An easy walk from the W Hollywood, The Waffle more than satiated my need for great breakfast food. Served in a “comforts of home” environment, there’s plenty of variety from those classics we all know and love to more edgy vegetarian options that add a new spark to the breakfast experience. No matter the time of day, definitely make sure to enjoy at least one meal here during your trip.

Harlowe Bar

Another great local tip, this is a quirky old-fashioned space in West Hollywood that has very quickly been attracting more and more attention. With a decidedly vintage, 1930s feel, the design details inside this unassuming space are worth the visit alone. But when you add in very creative cocktails that are constantly changing and a delicious and eclectic menu, you have a winning combination.

Fun Day Trips

Southern California is home to any number of fun day trips, including a few I think everyone should try to add into their schedule.

Santa Monica and other beaches

The greater Los Angeles area is famous around the world for its incredible beaches, and there are any number to enjoy close by. I love Santa Monica because it’s where I ended my Route 66 drive, but it’s popular for many other reasons as well. With its famous pier as the centerpiece, the beaches and nearby restaurants are world-class. But there are also many other beaches to enjoy, some of which so small they don’t even have names. Get in your car, start exploring and I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Anaheim

For a variety of different reasons, I’ve found myself in Anaheim a couple of different times in the last year and I have definitely come to enjoy my time there. Anaheim has changed a lot in recent years, and you’ll find a community with lots to see and do, from the nearby Nixon Library to beer crawls among the region’s up and coming breweries. Most people though visit Anaheim with one goal in mind – Disneyland. Arguably the world’s most famous theme park, I think spending some time exploring the park is a must-do experience, no matter your age. Designed to appeal to just about everyone, the park is just as much fun today as it was the day it opened in 1955.

Santa Catalina Island

Part of California’s Channel Islands, this long-popular getaway will have you start wondering if you’re still in Southern California. While only about 4,000 people live on Catalina, more than a million visit every year to enjoy the small town of Avalon, the many watersports available or just to enjoy some peace and quiet. There’s also a lot of history to learn about on the island, so spend some time delving deeper into this quirky community.

I wasn’t an immediate Southern California convert, but it’s now one of my favorite parts of the country because it’s not what one expects. Sure, you can find all of the stereotypes in and around LA but, if you spend some time doing a little research, you’ll discover so much more. Los Angeles, and Hollywood in particular, has a lot to offer the casual visitor, making it another fantastic weekend getaway destination.

The post Great American Weekend Getaways: Los Angeles (Especially Hollywood) appeared first on LandLopers.

[benrleeusa]

[John K. Ross] Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions

Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature from the Institute for Justice.

New on the podcast: Special guest Arthur Spitzer of the ACLU of D.C. joins the panel to talk about an American detained in Iraq, jury trials for petty crimes, and banning display of the First and Second Amendments. Click here for iTunes.

In 1958, New York banned "gravity knives," which were used by German paratroopers in WWII and are now quite rare. But NYC officials interpret the ban to apply to any knife that can be opened with a flick of the wrist, so tens of thousands of people (many, or perhaps most, of them minorities) have been arrested in recent years for carrying common folding knives, often for work. Second Circuit: The law isn't unconstitutionally vague. The possibility that the law is being selectively enforced is concerning, though; the other branches "may wish to give further attention" to the ban. (Gov. Cuomo vetoed reform in 2016 and 2017.) (We discussed an earlier ruling in the case on the podcast.)

Woman gets 163 messages over the course of a year from her cell phone provider, Time Warner, notifying her she has an overdue balance. Yikes! She's not in arrears; the calls are meant for some other customer. She explains the issue, but the calls continue. Did Time Warner violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act? The Second Circuit says no; Time Warner isn't an autodialer as the statute defines it. The TCPA doesn't apply.

Man buys cell phone with reassigned number, receives a text message every time the prior owner of the number gets an email—27,800 of them over 17 months. He is unable to resolve the issue with Yahoo (which provided the text service the prior owner signed up for), so he sues. Did Yahoo violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act? That sounds super annoying, says the Third Circuit, but Yahoo isn't an autodialer as the statute defines it; the law doesn't apply.

Illegal immigrant dinged for pot possession in 2002 in Wake County, N.C. gets no jail time or fines but must pay $100 court fees. Fast forward to 2015, and the feds move to deport him. Does the 2002 incident count as a "conviction" under the relevant statute, thus preventing him from applying to not be deported? No sir, says the Fourth Circuit; to count as a conviction, the statute says there must have been "some form of punishment, penalty, or restraint on the alien's liberty," and court fees don't count. He can ask not to be deported.

Allegation: Assistant principal at Houston middle school orders strip search of 22 girls after $50 goes missing from choir class. (The search turns up nothing). School district: Which was unconstitutional, but you can't sue the school district. District court: That's so. The district's failure to provide Fourth Amendment training to staff doesn't amount to deliberate indifference, and even if it did, you can't show such training would have prevented the searches in question. Fifth Circuit: Plaintiffs may be able to show both those things. The case should not have been dismissed.

In 2012, New Orleans officials detect code violations at city-owned property. Yikes! They commence enforcement action against a former owner (from whom they'd seized the house in 1998 over unpaid taxes). In 2015, officials sell the house to couple without mentioning the still-ongoing code enforcement proceedings. By happenstance, the couple catches wind, persuade officials to cancel the lien against the house. Yikes! Without warning, the city demolishes the house. The couple complains; officials send them an $11k bill for the demo. Fifth Circuit: Could be the couple have some colorable Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment claims.

Informant buys drugs at Grand Rapids, Mich. house from man with history of drug convictions. Police stop another man seen near the house; he has drugs. Several unnamed sources tell police they bought drugs at the house. A search of the home turns up contraband. An open-and-shut case? Not so, says two-thirds of a Sixth Circuit panel. Officers waited eight months after the controlled buy to apply for a search warrant; the application says the other man was seen in the area, not in the house, and the application doesn't give any indication as to the reliability of the unnamed sources. Suppress the evidence.

Drug addict is accused of pushing sexagenarian out of parked car, stealing the car in 2006. She dies of head injury. He asks for a lawyer; Shelby Charter Township, Mich. police interrogate him without one. At trial, prosecutors repeatedly characterize his failure to deny the crime during the interrogation as inculpatory. (He's convicted, sentenced to life without parole.) Michigan courts: Everything is on the up-and-up. Sixth Circuit: The Fifth Amendment protects against uncounseled interrogations after right to counsel is invoked, the Fourteenth Amendment means silence isn't inculpatory, and the Sixth Amendment guarantees him a lawyer who would have brought that up at trial. These errors likely influenced the jury. New trial or release him.

Judge McKeague of the Sixth Circuit cites Mark Twain's quip that "there are three kinds of falsehood: lies, damnable lies, and statistics," in reinstating guilty verdicts of an Ashland, Ky. cardiologist for health care fraud and making false statements to health care benefit programs. The doc led the nation in billing Medicare for angiograms and apparently performed quite a few unnecessary procedures.

Seventh Circuit: The district court should probably appoint counsel to a mentally ill prisoner who alleges Green Bay, Wisc. corrections officers deliberately disregarded his serious risk of suicide. Concurrence: We're getting a little too close to declaring "a presumptive right to counsel in some categories of civil cases."

In 2014, Montana man kills grizzly bear without a permit. (The authorities are none the wiser until months later when his ex-wife's boyfriend rats him out.) The authorities: Which is a federal crime. Ninth Circuit: But it's a petty crime (punishable by up to six months and a $25k fine), so the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial doesn't apply. Still, his conviction is vacated because the trial judge ignored his subjective belief that he was acting in self-defense.

Woman is arrested on state charges in 2014 relating to murder. Shortly after, the feds indict her on a separate charge—but don't tell her. She pleads guilty to state charge, gets sentenced in 2016. Nine months pass, and the feds finally unveil the 2014 indictment. (She's duly tried and convicted.) A speedy trial violation? The Tenth Circuit says no. While the feds don't have a good excuse for the nine-month delay, she failed to show how it hurt her at trial, and, since she was serving her state sentence, it's not as though she were in prolonged pretrial custody.

Haitian man is convicted in U.S. court for taking American citizen hostage in Haiti. Man: I didn't know she was an American, I didn't have fair notice I could be dragooned to the U.S., and Congress doesn't have the authority to outlaw (this) crime beyond U.S. borders. Eleventh Circuit: Nope. The U.S. and Haiti are parties to an international treaty on hostage taking that puts everyone on notice and gives Congress all the authority it needs. And you needn't know the victim is American for the law to kick in.

Did a pair of Florida counties violate federal overtime pay requirements by requiring sheriffs' deputies to arrive at work in their uniforms and failing to pay them for time spent donning and doffing said uniforms and policing accoutrements? The Eleventh Circuit says no.

Low-IQ high school dropout posts ISIS videos on Facebook. Surprise! An FBI informant contacts him, befriends him, videorecords him dressing up as an ISIS recruiter, and persuades him to buy a (fake) bomb to detonate on Key West, Fla. beach. Eleventh Circuit: No reason to reconsider his sentence of life without parole. (Please enjoy some longform journalism on the case.)

Mesquite, Tex. officers arrest 110-lb. teen tripping on LSD. Officers tell him to calm down, but the teen repeatedly screams, thrashes, and bashes his head against the police cruiser. Officers tase him multiple times. One says, "motherfucker, I'm going to kill you." (Audio here.) The teen dies of head injuries. District court: Can't sue the officers for depriving him of medical help. But a jury might find one officer, who tased the teen in the genitals, used excessive force. (Click here for some longform journalism on the teen's parents' years long effort to get the video that made this case possible.)

Man charged with misdemeanor (touching a minor over her jeans) is denied a jury trial; the offense is considered petty, and the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial applies only to "serious" crimes punishable by more than six months. He's convicted. Man: I'm an immigrant. I will almost certainly be deported. D.C. Court of Appeals: Which is a serious consequence. He gets a jury trial. Dissent: So now noncitizens can have jury trials for petty offenses, but citizens can't. Concurrence: D.C. officials could remedy that by restoring citizens' right to such trials (which was stripped by legislation in 1994).

Wisconsin judges shall defer to state agencies' interpretations of state law no longer, says the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The Chevron doctrine, which the state borrowed from federal law and which mandated such deference, violates the state Constitution.

California requires some semiautomatic handguns (generally models introduced after 2010) to be stamped with microscopic identifying information. Also, the guns must be equipped to microstamp bullet cartridges when the gun is fired. Plaintiffs: That technology doesn't exist; complying is impossible. California Supreme Court: California law "never requires impossibilities," but the microstamping requirement isn't invalid.

Georgia legislators recently approved a law requiring lactation consultants, who provide breastfeeding advice and support to new mothers, to obtain a license requiring years of college coursework and supervised clinical training. A salutary measure to protect public health and safety? Not at all! The law will serve only to enrich one group of consultants (who lobbied for it and who mostly already meet its requirements) at the expense another group of consultants. There is no evidence the second group provides anything other than excellent care, and indeed a state agency concluded in 2013 that licensing will not benefit the public. The law will create an instant shortage of consultants, particularly in rural, low-income, and minority communities. This week, IJ joined forces with Mary Jackson—who has trained doctors and nurses about lactation but may soon be out of a job—to challenge the law. Faced with a an injunction motion, the state has agreed to a stay of enforcement until the trial court can decide the case. Read more here.

[melindarowens]

Virgil: On This Memorial Day, Breitbart Readers Remember and Look to the Future

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I. Memorializing the Greatest Generation

Memorial Day is the day in which we remember, with solemn gratitude, all those who gave their lives in military service to our country.  Elsewhere here at Breitbart News, others have recollected the fallen; as Abraham Lincoln said in eulogizing those who died at Gettysburg in 1863, “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”

Interestingly, Memorial Day was once known as Decoration Day.  After all, it was, and is, the virtuous custom to decorate the graves of the war-dead.  And in the name “Decoration Day,” we see something important for the sake of our civic life: the ability of each patriot to offer appropriate honors in his or her own way.  That is, with flowers, cards, notes, or perhaps a bit of memorabilia.

Today, such personalized displays of devotion are particularly common at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC.  Why?  Most likely, because that war is relatively recent; plenty of people alive now still feel a close connection to Vietnam-era warriors.

Yet the passing of the years has meant that other American wars are rapidly receding from our personal memory.  For instance, we might point to World War II.  During that conflict, from 1941 to 1945, the population of the US was about 133 million.  And yet in 2010, less than 5.5 million Americans were over the age of 85; that is, born in 1925 or earlier.  Which is to say, the number of Americans today who could have had any adult participation in the war is small—and rapidly getting smaller, as old age takes its toll.

Yes, it’s painful to think that all the heroism of that era is no longer with us, at least not in a personal way.   To be sure, there are many museum displays, history books, movies, and TV shows about World War II.  And yet still, there’s nothing like the power of a personal reminiscence, as anyone who has ever sat at the knee of a revered elder knows full well.  It will indeed, be a sad moment when the last voice from that era is stilled.  So the least that each of can do is help to make sure that every one of those vital voices is archived in some form.

Moreover, perhaps on this Memorial Day we can recall more of the voices from World War II, reaching beyond the ranks of the heroes who died in uniform.  That is, for the sake of the enlarging the historical record, we can recollect some of the memories about those who served, too, on the homefront, namely, in war production.  If their personal risk and sacrifices were less than those who fought in battle, their contributions were nonetheless enormous: As Virgil has argued many times, America’s greatest comparative edge in World War II was its industrial production.

For instance, in a March 17 piece, “Donald Trump, Rosie the Riveter, and the Revival of American Economic Nationalism,” Virgil took note of President Trump’s speech, two days earlier, recalling the B-24 plant at Willow Run, Michigan.  That was the plant that built 9,000 bombers that we used to flatten enemy targets.

The B-24 assembly line, 1943, Willow Run Plant. (Source: The Henry Ford/Flickr)

A B-24 flying over a burning oil refinery at Ploesti, Rumania, during Operation Tidal Wave, August 1, 1943. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

And that piece brought forth an outpouring of WW2 memories from Breitbart readers, many of them recording what they had heard, over the years, from fathers, mothers, and other loved ones who lived, worked, and fought in that era.  Virgil sifted through all the comments, more than 1800 of them; these left him inspired, informed, amused, and, okay, sometimes bemused.

For starters, Virgil enjoyed the comments specifically about a key theme of the article, which was war production in World War II; these postings were often from descendants of workers and veterans.  Let’s take a look:

Reader “MadMen” said simply, “It makes me really miss my grandparents who both worked in those factories.”  Meanwhile, reader “NHnative” reported that one family’s inheritance from WW2 includes, to this day, a devotion to sewing:

My grandmother was sewing parachutes . . . She moved on to sewing the uniforms.  She’s still sewing daily at age 91 on her 1953 Singer. . . .  All the girls in my family are accomplished seamstresses and it all started with those parachutes.

Reader “Last Ride” recalled a father who is, shall we say, particularly close to the B-24 Liberators made at Willow Run, Michigan, and other parts of the country:

My dad started his career in the USAF as a B-24 pilot just as they were being retired from service, and ended his career as a B-52 pilot.  He loves the B-24 and moved to Ohio to be near the USAF Wright-Patterson museum to be able to visit one of the last ones around. He told my mom she should feel lucky that the plane could not say “I do” or she would have been replaced, I believe him.

B-24 Liberator bombers of the U.S. 8th Air Force flying towards their targets in occupied Europe on Aug. 12, 1943. (AP Photo)

Meanwhile, the legendary Rosie the Riveter received much attention.  Reader “Feet2Fire” reminded fellow commenters that there’s plenty to learn about Rosie from the website Diaryofarosie.

Women Riveting a B-24, 1944, Willow Run Plant (Source: The Henry Ford/Flickr)

Yet reader “53Skylark” raised a point of personal privilege—or, more precisely, Pittsburgh privilege—when he asserted:

The iconic Rosie the Riveter was based on a woman riveter employed by Westinghouse in Pittsburgh.  In the original iconic picture she is wearing a Westinghouse employee badge.  She did NOT originate at Willow Run.  And, all of the steel for the planes, ships, tanks, bullets, etc. was made in Pittsburgh. The former steel capital of the world.

To which reader “Jonsen” replied:

Rosie became a symbol of more than one woman, though.  She was a symbol for all women working at home to help the cause.

(As Virgil noted, while the actual Rosie the Riveter worked at Willow Run, the larger story of “Rosie” is complicated: The immortal “We Can Do It!” image does, indeed, come from Pittsburgh.  Yet the great artist Norman Rockwell, too, added his own image of Rosie–and his model was from Vermont.)

Norman Rockwell, Rosie the Riveter, Saturday Evening Post

Indeed, Rosie was more than just an individual; she was, and is, an archetype.  Reader “TexanForever” recalled:

My mom was a “Rosie the riveter” at the North American plant in Grand Prairie, Texas.  While I was in grade school in Dallas she was riveting together P-51’s.  Being by nature very modest, she hated wearing slacks, but she did it for the war effort.

Or as reader “Sam Houston” put it:

This hits home to me as my Father and Uncle were WWII Vets. My Step Mom was a Rosie the Riveter on the B-24 Liberator, tail section, at Consolidated Air Force Plant #4 at Carswell Army Airfield in Fort Worth, Texas.  She left the dairy farm in Yantis (East Texas) for the War Effort. . . .  I am so proud of her and our Greatest Generation!

The actual Rosies, of course, are mostly departed by now, which makes commenters wish all the more to savor their memory.  As reader “william couch” recalled, “In the early ’70’s, I worked with 2 Rosies.  It was @ the plant in Rosecrans, CA.”  And reader “Gary Eaker” offered a strong summary lesson:

Great image.  Rosie the Riveter.  Americans joining together to do what needs to be done to PROTECT AMERICA. We must join together.

Of course, Rosie will always live on in spirit.  Indeed, as reader “Vypurr” explained, she holds up well: “Rosie had more Moxie and balls than any liberal crybaby Beta male today.”

Yes, the Rosies had spunk; reader “backhome1999” recalled this anecdote of female feistiness:

My Mom was one of those women.  The story she tells, she was responsible for 1/2 of the airplane to connect everything to the pilot’s area, and she would finish in a few days while her male counterpart doing the same job on the other 1/2 of the airplane took up to 2 weeks finishing his side.  She asked for a raise . . . she finally made as much as a man during that time, which was unheard of.  But she did her job in 1/2 the time (and they knew it).

Other commenters compared and contrasted two very different women named Rosie, often adding observations about how things have changed, for the worse, since the 40s.  One such was reader “Cindy”:

Now instead of Rosie the Riveter, we have the likes of Rosie O’Donnell and Amy Schumer making more for doing worse than nothing than most of us make in a lifetime.  Long before the celebs showed their true colors, America made the yuge mistake of placing people who don’t contribute to our society in a meaningful way on a high pedestal so kids would dream of becoming THAT.

And speaking of popular culture, reader “chicodon” added:

Every young person should see this.  Glenn Miller was the hottest musical act on the scene for young people in 1942.  The entire country was patriotic, including Hollywood.  It’s from before my time but it was America. . . . Can you picture ANY act today doing this?  Rooting for the military?

Glenn Miller (1904 – 1944) in military uniform. (Photo by D. Hess/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Indeed, the lyrics to the Glenn Miller song “chicodon” links to, “People Like You And Me,” are stirring:

Say, get a load o’ those guys, High in the skies, Wingin’ to victory; Up and at ’em in the fight for People like you and me!

Hey, get a load o’ those gobs, Doin’ their jobs, Keepin’ the sea lanes free; Just to make the future bright for People like you and me!

“Gobs,” we might note, was affectionate slang for “seamen.”  At the same time, in that song, the vital work on the homefront was also not forgotten:

We’ll have to roll up our sleeves, Tighten our belts, But through the dark we’ll see The lady with the liberty light for People like you and you and you, And people like me, People like you and me!

Miller, we might recall, joined the US Army during WW2 at the peak of his career—and at age 38.  He died on December 15, 1944, when his airplane crashed into the English Channel; he had been preparing the next leg of his famed orchestra’s morale-boosting tour for the troops.

Of course, Miller’s sacrifice was common; many celebrities joined the armed services, and many more pitched in—and more than a few died.

For his part, reader “Euclid” took note of the visual elements of Virgil’s article, for which the author can claim no credit:

LOOK AT THOSE PHOTOS! Black and white American men and women all working together in harmony. . . .  Look at us now!  The most divided ever among race, gender, class, age, etc!

Men assembling the cockpit of a B-24, 1942, Willow Run Bomber Plant (Source: The Henry Ford/Flickr)

Yes, everyone found a way to pitch in back then; as Trump likes to say, the blood of patriots is all the same color.

Without a doubt, we were mostly inspired by patriotism back then, and yet for some, the production effort was personal.  Here’s how reader “Katherine” recalled the war work of her grandfather; please note the family-values kicker at the end:

My grandfather was a tool and die maker for Ford, and was asked to be a foreman at the Pratt and Whitney plant in Highland Park, Michigan, which built the engines for the B-24. He didn’t want to be a foreman, but he did it because one of his three sons who were in the service was a B-24 bomber pilot, and he wanted to be sure his son had good engines to fly.

B-24 Liberator Bombers in Flight, 1943 (Source: The Henry Ford/Flickr)

So it’s little wonder that even today, many remember the good work that was done.  For instance, reader “Havegunwilltravel” wrote:

My father was a B-24 pilot in WW 2.  He flew from England over Germany and he often told me that it was his airplane that brought him back every time. The B-24 was hard to fly, no pressurization but she was tough not like what we have today, “MADE IN CHINA” crap.  I would like to thank all the people who worked at Willow Run who took pride in their work and built one of the greatest airplanes in the world.

Another commenter, reader “Jake Manchester,” added:

I love stories about America’s exceptionalism.  Imagine building one B-24 every hour.  Now that, my friends, is American exceptionalism.

Yet in those days, as reader “sally forth” recalled, just about everyone was exceptional:

It wasn’t just Rosie, it was everyday citizens with victory gardens, & scrap metal drives.  Those that sold war bonds & those that bought war bonds.  It was rationing of food & gas.  Farmers & entire families produced more food. Every PATRIOTIC American was somehow involved to win the big one & bring the boys home.

And yes, Virgil will say it again, a great commander-in-chief led us to victory.  As reader “backhome1999” remembers:

My Mom worked in a factory building planes for the WWII effort, and the photo of FDR reminds me of her story about FDR driving through the plant one day on her way into work and waved at her.  She helped build B-17’s, Douglas plant, Long Beach, Calif.

Virgil recognizes that not every Breitbart commenter, including reader “Crazycatkid,” is a fan of Franklin D. Roosevelt.  And yet we all might recall that his fellow Americans thought so highly of FDR that they elected him to the White House four times; indeed, each of his presidential victories was a landslide.  Moreover, the fact that his image has been on the US dime for the last 70 years tells us something about his enduring popularity; even two Republicans, Nancy and Ronald Reagan, revered him.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on board an American warship, circa 1935. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images

Yet in addition to the warm glow of nostalgia from those days, there’s also the chill pang of loss. Reader “Texan Forever” wrote:

We were a nation united. . . .During this period my favorite cousin, T.J. Morrow, was a left waist gunner on a B-24.  In 1943 while over Germany he was killed instantly by flak.  The crippled bomber managed to limp to Belgium where the remaining crew bailed out. T.J.’s body went down with the plane and was buried by a Belgian farmer.  His remains were later brought back to America.

Indeed, we never forget those who gave all.  And if personal memories are now flickering out, well, the rest of us will have to step up our game and keep the remembrance going.   As reader “HandsomeRogue” added, “It’s our American history. It’s a legacy our Parents/Grand-Parents lived and we have—largely—failed to share.”

Those who hear the call to remember our history should, of course, visit grave sites and battlefields.  Yet in addition, there are other ways to gain perspective.  As reader “WTP1776” noted, “Every year they fly the WWII planes right over my house . . . I love hearing the dishes shake in the cupboard . . . they look so swell.”

In fact, learning about the winged marvels that brought victory in WW2 can be fun, as well as informative.  As another reader posted:

If you EVER have the opportunity to ride in a WWII warbird and have the money, do it.  It’s an experience of a lifetime.  Not just for the flight experience itself, but for at least getting a hint first hand what those young kids crewing them must have gone through in combat conditions.

II. The Task Ahead

The point of Virgil’s article was not only to take note of President Trump’s celebration of Rosie and the Greatest Generation, but also to observe that the outlines of an American manufacturing revival—which is to say, a revival of American greatness, including military greatness—can now be seen.  And plenty of readers see it, too: Virgil lost track of the number of “MAGAs” scattered through the comments.

Yet some Michiganders had a more immediate reaction.  For instance, one Michigan reader wrote, “I have seen President Trump mention us in Michigan more (in a good way) in the past 3 months, than my entire life (since 1960).”

Yet at the same time, there are lessons for all Americans to learn.  For example, one reader connected the success of the national effort during WW2 to earlier American team efforts:

This is truly the American way.  It has always been our way.  It is only a short distance in time and space from the barn-raising in farm country to the factory at Willow Run.  From that barn-raising to Willow Run to today we are Americans who work and succeed together.

As reader “Vypurr” observed, “Nationalism is what kept America alive in WWII.”  And  reader “Tiger Kitten” turned that point into a larger sentiment:

Nationalism is a good thing, it keeps cultures intact, countries strong, and morale high, whereas globalism does nothing but destroy cultures.  Without borders you not only have no country, you have no culture, either.

Meanwhile, reader “FLGibsonJr” added valuable historical perspective, linking Trump’s ideas on trade today with the American tradition—as described by Virgil—of Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay:

America was famous around the world for its Protectionism.  In fact it was Protectionist Tariffs that paid for essentially our entire government including all of our military.  Furthermore, it was Bismarck who looked at the American System of high tariffs and the British System . . . of free trade and chose the American System of high tariffs and then went about building one of the great economic powers in the world.

“FLGibsonJr” continued by urging a fellow commenter not to be seduced by “globalist corporate propaganda.” The free-trade policies stemming from such propaganda, he added, might enrich companies, but they will be “devastating for countries like the United States.”

Meanwhile, reader “American Worker’s Warrior” put the matter in even starker terms:

We couldn’t win a war like WW2 today, not after the uniparty’s NAFTA decimated our industrial base, and now we have to rely on China and Asia to make the microchips for all our smart missiles and tech.

Others added similarly-minded policy prescriptions, connecting past to present. One such was reader “newsies2”:

The Willow Run Bomber Plant was as example of what our great Country was capable of doing, when the need arose.  This plant went up in the space of less than a year, and was capable of producing an airplane that helped win the war.  One has to admit that it was a great success.  In my thinking, the article, as it mentioned, is about SELF-SUFFICIENCY!  . . .  Trump is talking about our People working together to be strong and self sufficient once more.

Today, some are already doing their part.  For instance, reader “JRG” has a personalized trade policy:

During WW2 my mom worked in a factory making piston rings while my dad was in the Pacific doing what Marines do.  I go out of my way to purchase products that are made in the USA even though I know it will cost me more.

Still, many commenters made the point that automation will change the factory of the future and factory employment in the future.  And this is undoubtedly true.  Indeed, some, such as reader “greg,” went out of their way to make the point, sharply, at Virgil’s expense:

This article is ridiculous.   It would have you believe that there is some chance that there will be manufacturing jobs coming back to the US.

To which reader “Jonsen” riposted, “It’s about the can do spirit.”  “Jonsen” added, quoting Virgil, “before WWII ‘we had the resources in place.’”  And those at-the-ready resources, as Virgil noted, included a quality workforce.

As reader “Kris Johnson” wrote of those we’re-all-in-this-together days:

Tears fill my eyes at the thought of the America of my grandfather. . . .To imagine a time when management was proud to provide good people with good jobs.  Good American companies built excellent American products that worked and lasted beyond expectation.

Indeed, as reader “AngelHorseMomMD223” pointed out, even today, labor is still important:

If automation was THE issue in regards to employment, they’d be importing machines, not highly skilled H1B visa workers or unskilled laborers.

Indeed, the issue of trade came up often in the comments.  For instance, reader “MechMan” wrote, “We must be careful not to become anti-free trade.  Free trade is a good thing.” To which reader “Mbekos” responded, “There is no free trade, none. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Germany, all of them had non-tariff ways to win the trade war with US.” And reader “GSR” added, “Free trade can benefit a company, but too much of it can destroy a nation.”

Meanwhile, reader “GahD of Socialism,” the name notwithstanding, made a powerful point about capitalism: “When a country has a manufacturing-based economy, it thrives.”

Yet at the same time, reader “Franco” added a point that was widely understood in the 40s, and less widely understood today: “Can’t have a manufacturing sector without strong consumption and demand.” That is, people need the money in their pockets to buy the things that are being made; too much concentration of wealth at the top means too little demand for products—and so the economy stalls.

Thus reader “Tyler’s” point on the distribution of wealth, then vs. now, deserves to be taken seriously: “During those years CEO and leadership pay was 80 times the median worker. Now it’s 900 times the median worker.”

In addition, reader “Gregory Brittain” added another good point about the value of widespread prosperity:

In addition to the economic effects, the social effects of good jobs are at least as important.  Good jobs leads to more marriage, two-parent families, more children, more stable communities, less crime and more social harmony as a bigger piece of pie is available to all who work for it.

Another reader took note of a line from Virgil’s article, describing corporate culture back then: “A well-paid employee was loyal to a company, and the company, in turn, was loyal to the employee.”  Then the reader added a crucial observation about all-too-common corporate practices today:

THIS is what has fallen by the wayside with the infection of the globalist mindset.  Billionaires see themselves as countries unto themselves, and have no loyalties to anyone or anything else.

For his part, reader “Lew Ross” was even more blunt:

I wish there was some way to prosecute politicians who purposely hurt American wages [by] assisting globalists in cheap labor and higher profits abroad and south of the border.  For almost two decades average household earnings have been stagnant for the working-to-lower-middle-class, and nobody has paid any price for betraying the nation.

Not surprisingly, President Trump figured in many of the comments.  Reader “Stella S” posted, “I listened to that speech.  It was heartfelt from an American President to American workers.”  Or as reader “NYPATRIOT” declared, “Make America Great Again, and the manufacturing powerhouse of the world!” And reader “Buckeye Ken” wrote:

President Trump bringing the globalists to heel is a good thing.  Lord knows that he is not opposed to anyone making money, but the overall good of the nation must be considered first.

To be sure, Trump had critics, too, among the commenters.  One such was reader “Stever Collette,” who jibed: “ALL of Dishonest Donald’s products are made overseas.  His hotels and clubs continue to use foreign workers on temp visas.”

Okay, in American everyone can have his or her own opinion, and more than a few of those opinions seem to end up in the Breitbart comments section.

And reader “ConfidentSpaceman” put all these diverse options into a useful context, saying of this site,“It has become the modern equivalent of the public square.”

And so maybe that’s a good place to stop.  WW2 was fought, in part, for freedom, and so those who fought—on the battlefront and on the homefront—would be gratified to know that freedom is still a cherished value.

Finally, Virgil is grateful to the following readers for their nice comments: “aha!,” “Alexa,” “AngelHorseMomMD223,” “Brick Wilson,” “DesertSun59,” “DJTWILLWIN,” “HandsomeRogue,” “Jake Manchester,” “larry king,” “Lizzy,” “MadMen,” “Marianne,” “NHnative,” “NK210,” “Sam Houston,” “Texan Forever,” and “Tiger184.”

And thanks to all the other commenters, too, even those who were not so nice; Virgil learns from all of them.

And more to the point, thanks to those who shared their personal histories, the overall canon of American history has thus been enriched.

Listen to Breitbart’s Rebecca Mansour discuss this article on Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM:

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Virgil: On This Memorial Day, Breitbart Readers Remember and Look to the Future

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I. Memorializing the Greatest Generation

Memorial Day is the day in which we remember, with solemn gratitude, all those who gave their lives in military service to our country.  Elsewhere here at Breitbart News, others have recollected the fallen; as Abraham Lincoln said in eulogizing those who died at Gettysburg in 1863, “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”

Interestingly, Memorial Day was once known as Decoration Day.  After all, it was, and is, the virtuous custom to decorate the graves of the war-dead.  And in the name “Decoration Day,” we see something important for the sake of our civic life: the ability of each patriot to offer appropriate honors in his or her own way.  That is, with flowers, cards, notes, or perhaps a bit of memorabilia.

Today, such personalized displays of devotion are particularly common at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC.  Why?  Most likely, because that war is relatively recent; plenty of people alive now still feel a close connection to Vietnam-era warriors.

Yet the passing of the years has meant that other American wars are rapidly receding from our personal memory.  For instance, we might point to World War II.  During that conflict, from 1941 to 1945, the population of the US was about 133 million.  And yet in 2010, less than 5.5 million Americans were over the age of 85; that is, born in 1925 or earlier.  Which is to say, the number of Americans today who could have had any adult participation in the war is small—and rapidly getting smaller, as old age takes its toll.

Yes, it’s painful to think that all the heroism of that era is no longer with us, at least not in a personal way.   To be sure, there are many museum displays, history books, movies, and TV shows about World War II.  And yet still, there’s nothing like the power of a personal reminiscence, as anyone who has ever sat at the knee of a revered elder knows full well.  It will indeed, be a sad moment when the last voice from that era is stilled.  So the least that each of can do is help to make sure that every one of those vital voices is archived in some form.

Moreover, perhaps on this Memorial Day we can recall more of the voices from World War II, reaching beyond the ranks of the heroes who died in uniform.  That is, for the sake of the enlarging the historical record, we can recollect some of the memories about those who served, too, on the homefront, namely, in war production.  If their personal risk and sacrifices were less than those who fought in battle, their contributions were nonetheless enormous: As Virgil has argued many times, America’s greatest comparative edge in World War II was its industrial production.

For instance, in a March 17 piece, “Donald Trump, Rosie the Riveter, and the Revival of American Economic Nationalism,” Virgil took note of President Trump’s speech, two days earlier, recalling the B-24 plant at Willow Run, Michigan.  That was the plant that built 9,000 bombers that we used to flatten enemy targets.

The B-24 assembly line, 1943, Willow Run Plant. (Source: The Henry Ford/Flickr)

A B-24 flying over a burning oil refinery at Ploesti, Rumania, during Operation Tidal Wave, August 1, 1943. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

And that piece brought forth an outpouring of WW2 memories from Breitbart readers, many of them recording what they had heard, over the years, from fathers, mothers, and other loved ones who lived, worked, and fought in that era.  Virgil sifted through all the comments, more than 1800 of them; these left him inspired, informed, amused, and, okay, sometimes bemused.

For starters, Virgil enjoyed the comments specifically about a key theme of the article, which was war production in World War II; these postings were often from descendants of workers and veterans.  Let’s take a look:

Reader “MadMen” said simply, “It makes me really miss my grandparents who both worked in those factories.”  Meanwhile, reader “NHnative” reported that one family’s inheritance from WW2 includes, to this day, a devotion to sewing:

My grandmother was sewing parachutes . . . She moved on to sewing the uniforms.  She’s still sewing daily at age 91 on her 1953 Singer. . . .  All the girls in my family are accomplished seamstresses and it all started with those parachutes.

Reader “Last Ride” recalled a father who is, shall we say, particularly close to the B-24 Liberators made at Willow Run, Michigan, and other parts of the country:

My dad started his career in the USAF as a B-24 pilot just as they were being retired from service, and ended his career as a B-52 pilot.  He loves the B-24 and moved to Ohio to be near the USAF Wright-Patterson museum to be able to visit one of the last ones around. He told my mom she should feel lucky that the plane could not say “I do” or she would have been replaced, I believe him.

B-24 Liberator bombers of the U.S. 8th Air Force flying towards their targets in occupied Europe on Aug. 12, 1943. (AP Photo)

Meanwhile, the legendary Rosie the Riveter received much attention.  Reader “Feet2Fire” reminded fellow commenters that there’s plenty to learn about Rosie from the website Diaryofarosie.

Women Riveting a B-24, 1944, Willow Run Plant (Source: The Henry Ford/Flickr)

Yet reader “53Skylark” raised a point of personal privilege—or, more precisely, Pittsburgh privilege—when he asserted:

The iconic Rosie the Riveter was based on a woman riveter employed by Westinghouse in Pittsburgh.  In the original iconic picture she is wearing a Westinghouse employee badge.  She did NOT originate at Willow Run.  And, all of the steel for the planes, ships, tanks, bullets, etc. was made in Pittsburgh. The former steel capital of the world.

To which reader “Jonsen” replied:

Rosie became a symbol of more than one woman, though.  She was a symbol for all women working at home to help the cause.

(As Virgil noted, while the actual Rosie the Riveter worked at Willow Run, the larger story of “Rosie” is complicated: The immortal “We Can Do It!” image does, indeed, come from Pittsburgh.  Yet the great artist Norman Rockwell, too, added his own image of Rosie–and his model was from Vermont.)

Norman Rockwell, Rosie the Riveter, Saturday Evening Post

Indeed, Rosie was more than just an individual; she was, and is, an archetype.  Reader “TexanForever” recalled:

My mom was a “Rosie the riveter” at the North American plant in Grand Prairie, Texas.  While I was in grade school in Dallas she was riveting together P-51’s.  Being by nature very modest, she hated wearing slacks, but she did it for the war effort.

Or as reader “Sam Houston” put it:

This hits home to me as my Father and Uncle were WWII Vets. My Step Mom was a Rosie the Riveter on the B-24 Liberator, tail section, at Consolidated Air Force Plant #4 at Carswell Army Airfield in Fort Worth, Texas.  She left the dairy farm in Yantis (East Texas) for the War Effort. . . .  I am so proud of her and our Greatest Generation!

The actual Rosies, of course, are mostly departed by now, which makes commenters wish all the more to savor their memory.  As reader “william couch” recalled, “In the early ’70’s, I worked with 2 Rosies.  It was @ the plant in Rosecrans, CA.”  And reader “Gary Eaker” offered a strong summary lesson:

Great image.  Rosie the Riveter.  Americans joining together to do what needs to be done to PROTECT AMERICA. We must join together.

Of course, Rosie will always live on in spirit.  Indeed, as reader “Vypurr” explained, she holds up well: “Rosie had more Moxie and balls than any liberal crybaby Beta male today.”

Yes, the Rosies had spunk; reader “backhome1999” recalled this anecdote of female feistiness:

My Mom was one of those women.  The story she tells, she was responsible for 1/2 of the airplane to connect everything to the pilot’s area, and she would finish in a few days while her male counterpart doing the same job on the other 1/2 of the airplane took up to 2 weeks finishing his side.  She asked for a raise . . . she finally made as much as a man during that time, which was unheard of.  But she did her job in 1/2 the time (and they knew it).

Other commenters compared and contrasted two very different women named Rosie, often adding observations about how things have changed, for the worse, since the 40s.  One such was reader “Cindy”:

Now instead of Rosie the Riveter, we have the likes of Rosie O’Donnell and Amy Schumer making more for doing worse than nothing than most of us make in a lifetime.  Long before the celebs showed their true colors, America made the yuge mistake of placing people who don’t contribute to our society in a meaningful way on a high pedestal so kids would dream of becoming THAT.

And speaking of popular culture, reader “chicodon” added:

Every young person should see this.  Glenn Miller was the hottest musical act on the scene for young people in 1942.  The entire country was patriotic, including Hollywood.  It’s from before my time but it was America. . . . Can you picture ANY act today doing this?  Rooting for the military?

Glenn Miller (1904 – 1944) in military uniform. (Photo by D. Hess/Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Indeed, the lyrics to the Glenn Miller song “chicodon” links to, “People Like You And Me,” are stirring:

Say, get a load o’ those guys, High in the skies, Wingin’ to victory; Up and at ’em in the fight for People like you and me!

Hey, get a load o’ those gobs, Doin’ their jobs, Keepin’ the sea lanes free; Just to make the future bright for People like you and me!

“Gobs,” we might note, was affectionate slang for “seamen.”  At the same time, in that song, the vital work on the homefront was also not forgotten:

We’ll have to roll up our sleeves, Tighten our belts, But through the dark we’ll see The lady with the liberty light for People like you and you and you, And people like me, People like you and me!

Miller, we might recall, joined the US Army during WW2 at the peak of his career—and at age 38.  He died on December 15, 1944, when his airplane crashed into the English Channel; he had been preparing the next leg of his famed orchestra’s morale-boosting tour for the troops.

Of course, Miller’s sacrifice was common; many celebrities joined the armed services, and many more pitched in—and more than a few died.

For his part, reader “Euclid” took note of the visual elements of Virgil’s article, for which the author can claim no credit:

LOOK AT THOSE PHOTOS! Black and white American men and women all working together in harmony. . . .  Look at us now!  The most divided ever among race, gender, class, age, etc!

Men assembling the cockpit of a B-24, 1942, Willow Run Bomber Plant (Source: The Henry Ford/Flickr)

Yes, everyone found a way to pitch in back then; as Trump likes to say, the blood of patriots is all the same color.

Without a doubt, we were mostly inspired by patriotism back then, and yet for some, the production effort was personal.  Here’s how reader “Katherine” recalled the war work of her grandfather; please note the family-values kicker at the end:

My grandfather was a tool and die maker for Ford, and was asked to be a foreman at the Pratt and Whitney plant in Highland Park, Michigan, which built the engines for the B-24. He didn’t want to be a foreman, but he did it because one of his three sons who were in the service was a B-24 bomber pilot, and he wanted to be sure his son had good engines to fly.

B-24 Liberator Bombers in Flight, 1943 (Source: The Henry Ford/Flickr)

So it’s little wonder that even today, many remember the good work that was done.  For instance, reader “Havegunwilltravel” wrote:

My father was a B-24 pilot in WW 2.  He flew from England over Germany and he often told me that it was his airplane that brought him back every time. The B-24 was hard to fly, no pressurization but she was tough not like what we have today, “MADE IN CHINA” crap.  I would like to thank all the people who worked at Willow Run who took pride in their work and built one of the greatest airplanes in the world.

Another commenter, reader “Jake Manchester,” added:

I love stories about America’s exceptionalism.  Imagine building one B-24 every hour.  Now that, my friends, is American exceptionalism.

Yet in those days, as reader “sally forth” recalled, just about everyone was exceptional:

It wasn’t just Rosie, it was everyday citizens with victory gardens, & scrap metal drives.  Those that sold war bonds & those that bought war bonds.  It was rationing of food & gas.  Farmers & entire families produced more food. Every PATRIOTIC American was somehow involved to win the big one & bring the boys home.

And yes, Virgil will say it again, a great commander-in-chief led us to victory.  As reader “backhome1999” remembers:

My Mom worked in a factory building planes for the WWII effort, and the photo of FDR reminds me of her story about FDR driving through the plant one day on her way into work and waved at her.  She helped build B-17’s, Douglas plant, Long Beach, Calif.

Virgil recognizes that not every Breitbart commenter, including reader “Crazycatkid,” is a fan of Franklin D. Roosevelt.  And yet we all might recall that his fellow Americans thought so highly of FDR that they elected him to the White House four times; indeed, each of his presidential victories was a landslide.  Moreover, the fact that his image has been on the US dime for the last 70 years tells us something about his enduring popularity; even two Republicans, Nancy and Ronald Reagan, revered him.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on board an American warship, circa 1935. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images

Yet in addition to the warm glow of nostalgia from those days, there’s also the chill pang of loss. Reader “Texan Forever” wrote:

We were a nation united. . . .During this period my favorite cousin, T.J. Morrow, was a left waist gunner on a B-24.  In 1943 while over Germany he was killed instantly by flak.  The crippled bomber managed to limp to Belgium where the remaining crew bailed out. T.J.’s body went down with the plane and was buried by a Belgian farmer.  His remains were later brought back to America.

Indeed, we never forget those who gave all.  And if personal memories are now flickering out, well, the rest of us will have to step up our game and keep the remembrance going.   As reader “HandsomeRogue” added, “It’s our American history. It’s a legacy our Parents/Grand-Parents lived and we have—largely—failed to share.”

Those who hear the call to remember our history should, of course, visit grave sites and battlefields.  Yet in addition, there are other ways to gain perspective.  As reader “WTP1776” noted, “Every year they fly the WWII planes right over my house . . . I love hearing the dishes shake in the cupboard . . . they look so swell.”

In fact, learning about the winged marvels that brought victory in WW2 can be fun, as well as informative.  As another reader posted:

If you EVER have the opportunity to ride in a WWII warbird and have the money, do it.  It’s an experience of a lifetime.  Not just for the flight experience itself, but for at least getting a hint first hand what those young kids crewing them must have gone through in combat conditions.

II. The Task Ahead

The point of Virgil’s article was not only to take note of President Trump’s celebration of Rosie and the Greatest Generation, but also to observe that the outlines of an American manufacturing revival—which is to say, a revival of American greatness, including military greatness—can now be seen.  And plenty of readers see it, too: Virgil lost track of the number of “MAGAs” scattered through the comments.

Yet some Michiganders had a more immediate reaction.  For instance, one Michigan reader wrote, “I have seen President Trump mention us in Michigan more (in a good way) in the past 3 months, than my entire life (since 1960).”

Yet at the same time, there are lessons for all Americans to learn.  For example, one reader connected the success of the national effort during WW2 to earlier American team efforts:

This is truly the American way.  It has always been our way.  It is only a short distance in time and space from the barn-raising in farm country to the factory at Willow Run.  From that barn-raising to Willow Run to today we are Americans who work and succeed together.

As reader “Vypurr” observed, “Nationalism is what kept America alive in WWII.”  And  reader “Tiger Kitten” turned that point into a larger sentiment:

Nationalism is a good thing, it keeps cultures intact, countries strong, and morale high, whereas globalism does nothing but destroy cultures.  Without borders you not only have no country, you have no culture, either.

Meanwhile, reader “FLGibsonJr” added valuable historical perspective, linking Trump’s ideas on trade today with the American tradition—as described by Virgil—of Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay:

America was famous around the world for its Protectionism.  In fact it was Protectionist Tariffs that paid for essentially our entire government including all of our military.  Furthermore, it was Bismarck who looked at the American System of high tariffs and the British System . . . of free trade and chose the American System of high tariffs and then went about building one of the great economic powers in the world.

“FLGibsonJr” continued by urging a fellow commenter not to be seduced by “globalist corporate propaganda.” The free-trade policies stemming from such propaganda, he added, might enrich companies, but they will be “devastating for countries like the United States.”

Meanwhile, reader “American Worker’s Warrior” put the matter in even starker terms:

We couldn’t win a war like WW2 today, not after the uniparty’s NAFTA decimated our industrial base, and now we have to rely on China and Asia to make the microchips for all our smart missiles and tech.

Others added similarly-minded policy prescriptions, connecting past to present. One such was reader “newsies2”:

The Willow Run Bomber Plant was as example of what our great Country was capable of doing, when the need arose.  This plant went up in the space of less than a year, and was capable of producing an airplane that helped win the war.  One has to admit that it was a great success.  In my thinking, the article, as it mentioned, is about SELF-SUFFICIENCY!  . . .  Trump is talking about our People working together to be strong and self sufficient once more.

Today, some are already doing their part.  For instance, reader “JRG” has a personalized trade policy:

During WW2 my mom worked in a factory making piston rings while my dad was in the Pacific doing what Marines do.  I go out of my way to purchase products that are made in the USA even though I know it will cost me more.

Still, many commenters made the point that automation will change the factory of the future and factory employment in the future.  And this is undoubtedly true.  Indeed, some, such as reader “greg,” went out of their way to make the point, sharply, at Virgil’s expense:

This article is ridiculous.   It would have you believe that there is some chance that there will be manufacturing jobs coming back to the US.

To which reader “Jonsen” riposted, “It’s about the can do spirit.”  “Jonsen” added, quoting Virgil, “before WWII ‘we had the resources in place.’”  And those at-the-ready resources, as Virgil noted, included a quality workforce.

As reader “Kris Johnson” wrote of those we’re-all-in-this-together days:

Tears fill my eyes at the thought of the America of my grandfather. . . .To imagine a time when management was proud to provide good people with good jobs.  Good American companies built excellent American products that worked and lasted beyond expectation.

Indeed, as reader “AngelHorseMomMD223” pointed out, even today, labor is still important:

If automation was THE issue in regards to employment, they’d be importing machines, not highly skilled H1B visa workers or unskilled laborers.

Indeed, the issue of trade came up often in the comments.  For instance, reader “MechMan” wrote, “We must be careful not to become anti-free trade.  Free trade is a good thing.” To which reader “Mbekos” responded, “There is no free trade, none. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Germany, all of them had non-tariff ways to win the trade war with US.” And reader “GSR” added, “Free trade can benefit a company, but too much of it can destroy a nation.”

Meanwhile, reader “GahD of Socialism,” the name notwithstanding, made a powerful point about capitalism: “When a country has a manufacturing-based economy, it thrives.”

Yet at the same time, reader “Franco” added a point that was widely understood in the 40s, and less widely understood today: “Can’t have a manufacturing sector without strong consumption and demand.” That is, people need the money in their pockets to buy the things that are being made; too much concentration of wealth at the top means too little demand for products—and so the economy stalls.

Thus reader “Tyler’s” point on the distribution of wealth, then vs. now, deserves to be taken seriously: “During those years CEO and leadership pay was 80 times the median worker. Now it’s 900 times the median worker.”

In addition, reader “Gregory Brittain” added another good point about the value of widespread prosperity:

In addition to the economic effects, the social effects of good jobs are at least as important.  Good jobs leads to more marriage, two-parent families, more children, more stable communities, less crime and more social harmony as a bigger piece of pie is available to all who work for it.

Another reader took note of a line from Virgil’s article, describing corporate culture back then: “A well-paid employee was loyal to a company, and the company, in turn, was loyal to the employee.”  Then the reader added a crucial observation about all-too-common corporate practices today:

THIS is what has fallen by the wayside with the infection of the globalist mindset.  Billionaires see themselves as countries unto themselves, and have no loyalties to anyone or anything else.

For his part, reader “Lew Ross” was even more blunt:

I wish there was some way to prosecute politicians who purposely hurt American wages [by] assisting globalists in cheap labor and higher profits abroad and south of the border.  For almost two decades average household earnings have been stagnant for the working-to-lower-middle-class, and nobody has paid any price for betraying the nation.

Not surprisingly, President Trump figured in many of the comments.  Reader “Stella S” posted, “I listened to that speech.  It was heartfelt from an American President to American workers.”  Or as reader “NYPATRIOT” declared, “Make America Great Again, and the manufacturing powerhouse of the world!” And reader “Buckeye Ken” wrote:

President Trump bringing the globalists to heel is a good thing.  Lord knows that he is not opposed to anyone making money, but the overall good of the nation must be considered first.

To be sure, Trump had critics, too, among the commenters.  One such was reader “Stever Collette,” who jibed: “ALL of Dishonest Donald’s products are made overseas.  His hotels and clubs continue to use foreign workers on temp visas.”

Okay, in American everyone can have his or her own opinion, and more than a few of those opinions seem to end up in the Breitbart comments section.

And reader “ConfidentSpaceman” put all these diverse options into a useful context, saying of this site,“It has become the modern equivalent of the public square.”

And so maybe that’s a good place to stop.  WW2 was fought, in part, for freedom, and so those who fought—on the battlefront and on the homefront—would be gratified to know that freedom is still a cherished value.

Finally, Virgil is grateful to the following readers for their nice comments: “aha!,” “Alexa,” “AngelHorseMomMD223,” “Brick Wilson,” “DesertSun59,” “DJTWILLWIN,” “HandsomeRogue,” “Jake Manchester,” “larry king,” “Lizzy,” “MadMen,” “Marianne,” “NHnative,” “NK210,” “Sam Houston,” “Texan Forever,” and “Tiger184.”

And thanks to all the other commenters, too, even those who were not so nice; Virgil learns from all of them.

And more to the point, thanks to those who shared their personal histories, the overall canon of American history has thus been enriched.

Listen to Breitbart’s Rebecca Mansour discuss this article on Breitbart News Daily on SiriusXM:

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from CapitalistHQ.com http://capitalisthq.com/virgil-on-this-memorial-day-breitbart-readers-remember-and-look-to-the-future/