A Toast to the One that is Gone
Phil Ochs would be 84 today.
I first heard Ochs in researching songs of the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War for my Literary Activism class earlier this year (Shoutout to Mr. Fine if you are reading), It was his song “Here's to the State of Mississippi.” It is a song slamming the state’s people and government Mississippi at the time, was one of the most segregated states in the nation, and some of the most deplorable events took place in it, most famously the lynching of Emmett Till. I became a fan of his and listened to more and more as the year progressed. I found his songs to be impactful, beautifully written, and at times humorous, just perfect.
I have found folk music of this era, Ochs (of course), Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Pete Seeger to name a few, very therapeutic in the last month. My worry, fear, anger, despair.
Ochs was a great voice in this era for peace and for the dismantling of oppressive system all while writing and performing some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard.
Ochs is an inspiration to me. His knowledge, creativity, and drive to create a better world is what I strive to do.
I would love to write for hours about Ochs; however, I feel it is best to listen to his music and messages.
Here is my Ochs-dominated folk playlist with many other greats on it as well.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLReaCP8GgEow7ucSkDPT3M8T7THZvzMGJ&si=6FFsEBWRZ52ndUT0
RIP Phil Ochs 1940-1976
Some quotes to leave you with
In his song about America:
“Yet she's only as rich as the poorest of the poor Only as free as a padlocked prison door Only as strong as our love for this land Only as tall as we stand”- from Power and the Glory also
“But our land is still troubled by men who have to hate. They twist away our freedom, and they twist away our fate. Fear is their weapon, and treason is their cry. We can stop them if we try.“
“It's always the old to lead us to the wars Always the young to fall Now look at all we've won with the saber and the gun Tell me is it worth it all?” -from I Ain’t Marching Anymore
The Origin of Halloween
Halloween today comes from several different holidays. The most common theory among historians is from the Gaelic (Ireland and Scotland) harvest festival Samhain. The festival is celebrated from October 31st to November 1st, to mark the beginning of the winter season. Samhain was said to be Christianized by early Christians around the 4th century into All Hallows Eve Although it is thought that the holiday emerged as its own. All Hallows Eve is a feast before All Saints’ Day on November 1st. Halloween came to the US by way of Irish and Scottish immigrants in the 19th century.
Trick-Or-Treating
Trick-or-treating is said to come from souling a type of mumming that started in the Middle Ages. Mumming was done on holidays in the UK (I know the UK didn’t exist until the 1700s will be using it for simplicity) such as Samhain. Mumming consists of people going door to door to perform scenes from plays in exchange for food and drinks. Trick-or-treating comes from the Scottish tradition of guising where kids would go door-to-door to beg for treats. Early trick-or-treating appeared in North America in 1911 in Kingston Ontario, but it was called guising. Scary costumes were all there was till the 1930s when pop culture characters' customs started to be made. The actual phrase came about in the 1930s-1940s.
Jack-o’-lantern
Jack-o’-lanterns weren’t always pumpkins but oftentimes root vegetables turnips being the most common. The story of the Jack-o’-lantern comes from the Irish folk of Stingy Jack, a drunkard who tricked the devil, and trapped him in a tree surrounded by crucifixes. Jack freed the devil in the deal that his soul would never go to hell. Jack continued his life of drunkenness and when he died, he was not allowed into heaven he was said to now roam the earth with only the carved root vegetable with the light inside as a guide.
Apple bobbing
Apple bobbing comes from the roman era, two unmarried people would try to get the apple that was on a string the first to get it would be the next to marry.
Sources:
Random History Tangents: Public Enemy #1
Welcome to a new series I like to call Random History Tangents where I find myself going down a random Wikipedia rabbit hole and wanting to share it with you. This is post number one fittingly about public enemy #1
How did I get here? I went from the Public Enemy as in the hip hop group to the term Public Enemy #1.
A Public enemy was a term coined by the Chicago Crime Commission chairman Frank J Loesch to denote very dangerous crimes in the height of the “Ganster era” of Chicago.
The Public Enemy #1 label has been given to eight people.
*THIS IS NOT AN ENDORSMENT OF THESE PEOPLE.*
This is just for the education of the reader.
Al Capone: 1930
Capone in 1930
The first person to be given the label was Al Capone in April of 1930 by the Chicago Crime Commission. The man needs no introduction, he was the most notorious Gangster in Chicago during his reign. Leader of the Chicago Outfit of the Italian American Mafia, the gang committed almost every crime under the sun, due to bribes and fall guys no crimes were able to be traced back to Capone until federal agents found that he didn’t pay his taxes. His conviction on tax evasion was the only crime that Capone was convicted of. His sentence of eleven years in prison was the harshest for tax evasion ever given.
Angelo Meli: 1930
Angelo Meli was a gangster and the chairman of the Detroit Partnership of the Italian American Mafia. Born in Sicily, he moved to the US in 1917, settling in Detroit in 1918. He joined the Detroit Partnership and became the chairman in 1927. The Detroit police labeled him public enemy #1 in 1930. He was never arrested for the crimes committed under his leadership; however, attempts to deport him back to Italy fell short. He died in 1969.
John Dillinger: 1934
John Dillinger is one of the most famous bank robbers ever. His gang, the Dillinger Gang, was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations between September 1933 until July 1934. Dillinger was imprisoned in Indiana from 1924 to 1933 for a store robbery. In prison, he learned the ins and outs of bank robbing. The Dillinger Gang’s spree was used by J Edgar Hoover to justify the need for the FBI (Then the Bureau of Investigations BOI) to be in a bigger capacity. Which gave the US the FBI we know today. The BOI in 1934 named Dillinger Public Enemy #1. On July 22nd, 1934, Dillinger was hiding in a brothel in Chicago near the Biography Theater where he later went to see a show. The owner informed the BOI of Dillinger’s whereabouts and went to the Theater to ambush him. As he got out of the show BOI agents tried to arrest him, but he fled into the alleyway and was gunned down.
Charles Arthur Floyd: 1934
Charles Arthur Floyd aka Pretty Boy Floyd was a bank robber in the western and central states a departure from the Midwestern gangsters discussed so far. Right after the death of Dillinger Floyd was named Public Enemy #1. Spending most of his life in and out of prison for crimes such as robbing and murder. Floyd is viewed by some as an Anti-Hero, as he robbed banks, he would burn mortgage papers which would rid people of their debts. On October 22, 1934, Floyd was killed by BOI agent Samuel P Cowley in Ohio.
Lester Joesph Gillis: 1934
Lester Joesph Gillis aka as Baby Face Nelson was a bank robber in the Dillinger gang. After the death of Floyd, Gillis and the remanding Dillinger gang were labeled as Public Enemy #1. On November 27 1934 in a park of the Chicago suburb Barrington the “Battle of Barrington“ to place between Gillis and BOI agents. Gillis was killed along with Cowley the same aganet that killed Floyd.
Alvin Karpis: 1934
The final person labeled in 1934, Karpis holds the distention of the only person named by the BOI (became FBI in 1935) Public enemy #1 to be taken alive after he was arrested in New Orleans in 1936. Karpis was a gangster convicted of robbing and killing. He holds the record for the longest time served at the infamous Alcatraz Island serving time there from 1936 till 1962 when the prison began to close. He transferred to McNeil Island in Washington state where he met Charles Manson (Crime is so connected it is bizarre.) He was paroled in 1969 and wrote his memoir “Public Enemy #1“in 1971.
Charles Lucanio: 1936
Luciano was the founder of the Five Points Gang in New York City and was a major player in the spread of organized crime across the country. He was the first boss of the famous Genovese crime family the largest in NYC. He was named public enemy #1 of New York by DA Thomas E Dewy. Later in 1936 Luciano was arrested and sentenced to 30-50 years however his senate was commuted to deportation after his intelligence service in World War two.
Osama Bin Laden: 2001
The Public Enemy #1 label went unused for 65 years until the September 11th attacks in 2001. Bin Laden was the leader of the terrorist group al-Qaeda responsible for many attacks on western countries allied with the United States. The US fought al-Qaeda for years trying to catch Bin-Laden. Bin-Laden was killed by US Navy Seals in a raid on his compound in Pakistan on May 2, 2011. Bid Laden is responsible for the murder of 1000s.
Joaquin Guzman: 2013
The last man to be given the label was the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, “El Chapo. “He is believed to be responsible for the deaths of 34,000 people. The Cartel deals in drugs. Guzman was arrested and escaped multiple times staying captured since 2016 and is being held in ADX Florence a supermax prison. He was given Public Enemy #1 by the Chicago Crime Commission in 2013 the very same organization that started the label in the US.
Overall, the label has been used to denote the biggest criminals in the United States. I found this to be an interesting if dark topic and want to find more obscure history to tell you.
Thanks for reading
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Enemy_No._1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_Meli
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dillinger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Face_Nelson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Karpis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Luciano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaqu%C3%ADn_%22El_Chapo%22_Guzm%C3%A1n
Birthday Twins
Happy World Porridge Day to those who are celebrating.
Thelonious Monk 1917-1982
Jazz composer and performer considered one of the greatest of all time played from 1933-1976 all over the world
Shane Doan 1976
Shane Doan played from 1995 to 2017 all with the Arizona Coyotes, he won two world championship golds with Canada in 2003 and 2007. His number was retired by Coyotes in 2019. In 2021 he joined the Coyotes front office and his son Josh plays for him in what is now the Utah Hockey Club.
Chris Pronger 1974
Chris Pronger played from 1993-2011 for the Hartford Whalers, St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks and Philadelphia Flyers. He is a two time Olympic gold medalist winning with Canada in 2002 and 2010. He won the Stanley Cup with the Ducks in 2007. He won the Hart trophy for NHL MVP and the Norris trophy for best defensemen in 2000
Dale Earnhardt Jr 1974
Was a NASCAR driver from 1999-2017 two time Busch Series Champion in 1998-1999. 26 wins in NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR hall of famer.
David Lee Roth 1954
singer for Van Halen
How politics has affected the Olympics
By Jason Coulombe
About: This is an adaptation of a speech from my introduction to speech course at EIU. This is by no means a full deep dive into every games just what I wanted to highlight in my speech which was about 7 and a half minutes. Enjoy!
According to an Article by Liam Reilly, a writer for CNN, “The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris drew a combined average of 30.6 million viewers across NBCU’s constellation of platforms (The broadcaster of the Olympics in the US) marking an 82% jump in viewership compared to the Tokyo Games and making the Games the most-streamed Olympics of all time. The media giant on Monday shared that its coverage saw a whopping 23.5 billion minutes of stream time,” (Reilly) The Olympics are the largest international event in the world. Given that the nations of the world are competing against each other at the highest stakes, political tensions have shown themselves at every games. I will inform you on how global politics has affected the Olympic games.
To give a better understanding I will go chronological and base it on three distinct eras, from the start of the modern Olympics in 1896 till the last games before World War two in 1936, the Cold War era Olympics from 1948 to 1990, and from the 1992 games till the most recent games this year.
Alfred Senn was a professor of History at the University of Wisconsin Madison; He wrote Power Politics and the Olympic Games in 1999, which discusses how world politics affected the Olympics from its founding till its publication date. From the start of the Olympic games the co-creator Frenchman Barron Pierre de Coubert was given a “Baptism of Fire in the delicate nuances of sport’s actual and potential in international relations” (Senn, 22) in dealing with the organizing of the first Olympics games, From the very start of the Olympics, world politicians were seeing the games as an opportunity for showcasing their countries.
No better example comes to mind than the 1936 Olympic Games. The 1936 Olympics were held in Berlin during the height of the Nazis’ power in Germany, they planned for the games to be a show of the strength of Germany after their rebuilding from the First World War. Oliver Hilmes is a German biographer who wrote Berlin 1936 in 2018 which is a day-to-day retelling of the Berlin games. In which he writes on the opening ceremony,
“At precisely 1 p.m. the gates of the Olympic stadium open. The roughly 100,000 spectators from all over the world have been instructed to get to their seats by 3:30. An 804-foot-long Zepplin the Hindenburg one of the biggest airships ever built is circling over the stadium” (Hilmes, 13). the size of the stadium and the airship were just some of how the Germans attempted to show their power beyond just athletics.
The United States also saw the Olympic games’ power as written in the US Olympic committees report of the 1936 Olympics “Young people imbued with the democratic spirit of competitive sports are not swayed by radical propaganda. For these and many other reasons the Olympic to grow in strength and power” (Rubien, 31). This can be seen in Jessie Owens.
Jesse Owens is considered the star of the 1936 games winning 4 gold medals for this reason he is considered a folk hero for beating Hitler Journalist Larry Schwartz wrote for ESPN, “Owens' story is one of a high-profile sports star making a statement that transcended athletics, spilling over into the world of global politics.” (Schwartz)
The 1936 games were the last for 12 years as the world was plunged into war.
This Section will go over major events of the Olympics that occurred between the restarting of the Olympic games after World War Two meaning the 1948 London Games till the end of the Cold War in 1990.
At the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, Australia the recent violence of the failed Hungarian Revolution against the USSR had many Hungarian athletes motivated to win, Erin Elizabeth Redihan wrote on this in the book The Olympics and the cold war 1948-1968, a quote from a Hungary athlete ... “We had a duty to come to Melbourne and tell the world about our wonderful revolution” (Redihan,129).
The 1968 Olympics saw Black United States Athletes taking the games as a political stand on domestic racial issues with some boycotting the games, again from Senn “some black athletes who favored the boycott including spirter Tommie Smith and John Carlos agreed to go to Mexico City with the thought of making a pointed statement there in front of the whole world”(Senn, 136-137). Carlos and Smith would both podium in the 200m and give the Black Power salute which is one of the most famous moments in sports history, met with a mix of reactions as written in an article for Time Magazine by Ben Cosgrove
“When Olympic sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood atop the medal podium at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City, bowed their heads, and raised black-gloved fists during the playing of the national anthem, millions of their fellow Americans were outraged. But countless millions more around the globe thrilled to the sight of two men standing before the world, unafraid, expressing disillusionment with a nation that so often fell, and still falls, so short of its promise,” (Cosgrove).
The 1980 Olympic Hockey Semifinals between the USA and USSR is one of the most famous hockey games ever the USSR had come into Lake Placid with four straight gold medals the US would shock the world and beat the USSR and go on to win the gold medal. This became another example of the games in the United States as soon as it happened as told by EM Swift in a Sports Illustrated article written the week after
“So move over, Dallas Cowboys. The fresh-faced U.S. hockey team had captured the imagination of a country. This was America's Team. When the score of the U.S.-Soviet game was announced at a high school basketball game in Athens, Ohio, the fans—many of whom had probably never seen a hockey game—stood and roared and produced dozens of miniature American flags. In a Miami hospital, a TV set was rolled into the surgical intensive care unit and doctors and nurses cheered on the U.S. between treating gunshot wounds and reading X-rays. In Atlanta, Leo Mulder, the manager of the Off Peachtree restaurant, concocted a special drink he called the Craig Cocktail, after U.S. Goalie Jim Craig. What's in a Craig Cocktail? "Everything but vodka," Mulder said. Impromptu choruses of the Star-Spangled Banner were heard in restaurants around Lake Placid,” (Swift)
The 1980 Winter Games were the last time a major event played into the theater of global politics, in more recent history politics affected the behind-the-scenes. The Early 1980s saw a wave of Olympic protests amid global tensions While the 1980 Winter Games were held in Lake Placid New York the 1980 Summer Games were held in Moscow Back to Senn where he said, “In protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan many western states including the United States boycotted the Moscow games with some flying the Olympic colors instead of their own” (Senn,173).
This caused the USSR and the Eastern Bloc countries to dominate the games with the USSR East Germany and Bulgaria in the top 3.
The 1984 games were protested by the Eastern Bloc, in response to the American boycott in 1980 once again from Senn “the Soviet Communist Party decided not to send a team to Los Angeles fearing for their safety” (Senn,197).
This section will focus on the Olympics from 1992 till today.
Due to the fall of the USSR, many former Eastern Bloc countries played under the Unified team with Olympic colors in 1992. This team won the most gold medals of any team that year in Barcelona with 112.
The Russian Olympic team was banned from the 2024 games by the Guardian’s Sean Ingle “Russia’s Olympic Committee has been suspended for violating the Olympic charter with “immediate effect and until further notice” after it incorporated sports bodies from four territories annexed from Ukraine.” (Ingle).
Global politics have and will continue to affect the Olympic games as long as they continue to happen. I hope you learned something new about this topic. Thanks for reading
Sources
Book
Senn, A. E. (1999). Power, politics, and the Olympic Games. Human Kinetics.
Senn’s book gives the history of how politics and the power that comes with it have influenced and impacted the Olympic games, from the first games of the Olympics during the cold war up to the publication of 1999. I have chosen to highlight events from the Olympics of the Cold War and the politics that go along with it. This book provides facts about those events.
Reference Resouce
Rubien, F. W. (Ed.). (1937). Report of the American Olympic Committee. Games of the XIth Olympiad, Berlin, Germany, August 1 to 16, 1936. IVth Olympic winter games, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, February 6 to 16, 1936. American Olympic Committee.
The report from the American Olympic Committee on the 1936 Berlin Olympics, contains facts about the events and statistics of the events. I have selected key events from the 1936 Olympics to highlight which I will gain information from this report.
Book
Hilmes, O. (2018). Berlin 1936: sixteen days in August (J. S. Chase, Tran.). Other Press.
Hilmes’ book gives a day-by-day retelling of the events of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games from the organizers to the athletes. I have chosen to highlight certain events from the 1936 Olympic games involving the organizers and their reactions to events of the game, this book will give me the facts about those events.
Book
Hilton, C. (2006). Hitler’s Olympics: the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Sutton.
Hilton’s Book is a Retelling of the events in and around the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. I have chosen to highlight certain events from the 1936 Olympics and will use this book to get facts about them.
Book
Redihan, E. E. (2017). The Olympics and the Cold War, 1948-1968: sport as a battleground in the U.S.-Soviet rivalry. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers.
Redihan’s book goes over how the politics of the Cold War influenced and affected the Olympic games from 1948-1968. I have chosen to highlight certain events from the Cold War and the Olympic games from this period. This book gives the facts that I will use.
News Article
Laker B (2024) What Happens When Politics Takes Center Stage At The Olympics https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminlaker/2024/09/01/what-happens-when-politics-takes-center-stage-at-the-olympics/ Forbes Date Accessed September 13, 2024
News Article
Reilly, (2024) Paris Olympics ratings soar 82% over Tokyo Games, delivering a big boost to NBC’s Peacock streamer https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/13/media/paris-olympics-ratings-nbc-peacock-viewership-streaming/index.html#:~:text=The%202024%20Summer%20Olympics%20in%20Paris%20drew%20a,the%20Games%20the%20most-streamed%20Olympics%20of%20all%20time. CNN Business Accessed September 18 2024
News Article
Schwarz (2013) Black Power Salute: Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Olympics https://web.archive.org/web/20131014191417/http://life.time.com/culture/black-power-salute-tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-at-the-1968-olympics/#1 LIFE.com (archive.org) Accessed September 20, 2024
News Article
Swift (1980) The U.S. went bonkers when Mike Eruzione's shot beat - 03.03.80 - SI Vault (archive. ph) https://archive.ph/20140215214309/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1123214/index.htm#selection-557.0-569.46 Accessed September 20, 2024