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The Fifth Amendment Debt 

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It is possible  Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, John Eastman, Alex Jones, Allen Weisselberg and two Trumps have no idea who John Lilburne was.  But they owe a large debt to this Englishman who died in 1657.

Trump aides, advisers, and defenders Stone, Flynn, Eastman, Jones and Weisselberg have “taken the Fifth” when summoned to testify on this or that issue involving our most recent former President.

Indeed, DJ Jr., the son of the aforesaid former president, reportedly has done it more than 500 times, as did Weisselberg, the former Trump organization chief financial officer, when summoned to talk about the elder Trump’s reputed manipulation of property values to get loans.

And so, for that matter, has the Big Guy himself. More than thirty years ago when he was carrying on with Marla Maples and his then-wife, Ivana, was divorcing him, DJT was asked about 100 questions about faithful marriage and reportedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment 97 times.  The questions came from his soon to be ex-wife’s lawyer who wanted him to explain his reported dalliances with other women.

But he must have had an epiphany sometime in the next twenty-or so years when he he told a crowd of followers during his campaign, “You see the mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

How does John Lilburne enter this unsavory set of circumstances?

Isaac Amon’s article for The Journal of the Missouri Bar a while ago tell us that John Lilburne was an English pamphleteer who was arrested in 1637 for writing things the king and his Star Chamber Court did not like and he was badly punished for it.

The Star Chamber?

It was the court of inquisition in England that was above the common law and answered only to the King.  Those brought before it were ordered to take “the ex officio oath” that promised they would admit charges against them—-before knowing what the charges were.

John Lilburne was arrested in 1637 for printing and circulating unlicensed books. When he was taken before the Court of the Star Chamber and asked how he pleaded, Lilburne refused to respond until he knew the charges against him and argued that he was not bound to incriminate himself. He maintained the oath was “against the law of God and the law of the land.”  He also demanded the right to confront his accusers.

That defiance earned him a sentence in February of 1638 of a £500 fine, imprisonment at the Fleet Street Prison, and to be whipped and pilloried until he obeyed the court. In April he was taken from his cell, his hands were tied to the rear of an oxcart that pulled him through the streets, as he was flogged with a three-tailed whip before he was locked in a stooped position in the pillory.  Even then he spoke loudly against those who sought to silence him—until he was gagged. He was taken back to prison where, despite his situation, he was able to write a pamphlet describing the cruelty of his punishment and another encouraging a separation of the English government fronm the Church of England.

Eventually he was released but he continued to stand for his contention

Lilburne was called “Freeborn John” by his supporters for his contention that citizens have “freeborn rights” that include the right to hear charges against them, to face their accusers, and to refuse to say something that might incriminate themselves.

He was a soldier in the first English Civil War as a “Roundhead,” the Parliamentarians who fought against the Royalists to determine the type of government England would have and to seek religious feedom.  He left the army after rejecting the Presbyterian Solemn League and Covenant, an agreement in which the Scots agreed to help the Parliamentarians if England, Scotland, and Ireland would unite afterwards under a parliamentary-presbyterian system.

Lilburne maintained the covenant was, in effect, an agreement to preserve the religion of Scotland and was therefore a restriction on general freedom of religion. He had no problem with the Scots being Presbyterians but he wanted no part of an agreement that bound others to that faith.

In the end, the Civil Wars of England united England, Scotland and Ireland into the United Kingdom, ended the monopoly on worship and government control held by the Church of England, protected the reform movement in Scotland, and cleared the way for the Protestantism to become established in Ireland, leading to political control under the Anglican Church of Ireland, a situation that led to “The Troubles” or the Northern Ireland conflict, a thirty-year sectarian conflict between Protestant loyalists and Catholic nationalists from 1968-1998. That’s a discussion for another day, perhaps.

John Lilburne was imprisoned again in 1645 for criticizing members of Parliament for living well at a time when English soldiers were poorly treated. While in prison he penned An Agreement of the People for a Firm and Present Peace Upon Grounds of Common Right.

Lilburne’s political activism saw him in and out of prison and even banished from England for a time. In 1657, while visiting his wife (who was expecting their tenth child) on temporary release from prison, he died.

More than three centuries after his death, James Madison, who was influenced by Lilburne’s story, wrote as part of the Bill of Rights, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”

The Fifth Amendment and the other nine statements of OUR “freeborn rights” were adopted in 1791.

In 1966, United States Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren specifically mentioned Lilburne in writing the majority opinion for Miranda v. Arizona that police must tell suspects that they have the freeborn right to remain silent in the face of accusations against them.

A few days ago we watched Michael Flynn refuse to answer questions from a Republican member of the January 6 Committee, saying only, “Take the Fifth, “Fifth,” and “The Fifth” in responding to three questions.

A man almost four centuries ago endured imprisonment, whipping, the pillory, and even banishment from his country to give him that right.

But here’s the deal: While it is easy to think those who “plead the Fifth” are therefore hiding their guilt, there is far more to the plea than that. This amendment stands between us and Lilburne’s Star Chamber Court. All of us—you, me, them—are not forced to say something that others might consider an admission of guilt before any charges are filed. This amendment keeps the government from considering you guilty unless you can prove yourself NOT guilty.  This amendment protects our sacred concept that a citizen, no matter how reprehensible we might consider their behavior, is innocent until proven guilty.

We doubt that Mr. Flynn or any of the others we mentioned at the beginning of this piece know about or care about what John Lilburne went through to protect them.

But all of us should care—-because we Americans all have freeborn rights.

(image credit: Library of Congress)

Fun at Pevely; Landmark at Toronto; Tension Increases at New Hampshire

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(SRX at PEVELY)—Tony Stewart has finally won a race at Ken Schrader’s track in Pevely, Missouri.  Stewart won the main second heat and the main event to become the first driver to win twice this year on the Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) circuit.

The race was the first of the season or a dirt oval after four races on pavement.

Behind Stewart, several competitors finished with major parts of their cars in twisted piles in the pits, the result of ten cautions for track incidents in the 70-lap final.  Marco Andretti finished second for the third straight race.

Ryan Newman, who said his most recent experience on dirt was with his tractor on his farm, was fourth followed by track co-owner and NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader. Greg Biffle wrapped up the top five. Michael Waltrip, Ernie Francis Jr., Paul Tracy, Tony Kanaan, Hailie Deegan (the only woman driver in the series), Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte and Ryan Hunter-Reay finished out the field. Hunter-Reay, the winner of the 2014 Indianapolis 500, had never raced on a dirt track before.

The series finale will be on dirt next Saturday at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio, featuring the father-son duo of Dave and Ryan Blaney. Dave Blaney, who had a long career in dirt-track racing, is the cow-owner of the track. His son, Ryan, is a rising star in NASCAR for Penske Racing.

The championship points race has boiled down to a contest between Stewart, Labonte, Andretti, and Newman.

(INDYCAR)—Now only one driver has more INDYCAR wins than Scott Dixon.  Dixon climbed into a tie with Mario Andretti for second-most career victories with 52. It’s unlikely he’ll get to A. J. Foyt’s 67 wins in the series but he has moved closer to the points lead as he looks for his seventh series championship, which would tie Foyt.

 

Dixon pulled away from pole-winner Colton Herta on the last restart twenty laps left and crossed the line eight-tenths of a second ahead, ending a 23-race winless streak, the second-longest of his career.  Felix Rosenqvist, Graham Rahal, this year’s Indianapolis 500 winner, Marcus Ericsson, rounded out the top five.

The win extends Dixon’s record of eighteen seasons with at least one victory. He now has won at least once in 20 seasons, also a record.

Next up for INDYCAR are two races within driving distance of many Missourians.  INDYCAR will have a doubleheader weekend at the Iowa Speedway, a .875-mile high banked oval near Newton, Iowa.  The track was designed by former Missouri NASCAR champion Rusty Wallace. The races will be Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., and Sunday afternoon at 3.

(NASCAR)—Christopher Bell has upped the stakes for winless NASCAR Cup drivers hoping to make the 16-driver playoff field with his weekend win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.  Bell became the 14th driver to win a race this year, staying in front for the last 42 laps and pulling away to an almost-six second win over last week’s winner, Chase Elliott.

Bell, who might not be mistaken for someone 27 years old, had to outrun Elliott, the hottest driver in the series in the last four weeks. Elliott has won twice and has finished twice. He had come into the race ranked last among the top 16 drivers but is now guaranteed a playoff slot.

If the race was big for Bell, it was a bitter pill for teammate Martin Truex Jr., to swallow. Truex started from the pole, led 172 of the 301 laps, and won the first two stages. But a two-tire stop with 100 laps left didn’t work out. He dropped to fourth and has replaced Bell as the last driver in the playoff hunt.

Truex is still waiting for his first win of the year, as is Kevin Harvick who is the first driver outside the playoffs. Both former Cup champions have six races left to get a win that could put them into the round of sixteen for a ten-race runoff for the title.  They’ll get their next shot next Sunday at Pocono.

For now, Ryan Blaney, who is third in overall points, has the fifteenth playoff position.  Truex is 37 points behind him for the last slot. Harvick trails Truex by 68 points and appears to need a win to make the top 16.  Harvick is ninth in overall points.

A fifteenth winner who is not one of those three would knock Truex below the cut line with Harvick.

Fourteen different winners in a year is far from the record.  Nineteen different drivers posted victories in 2001.  Eighteen did it in 2002 and 2011.  Seventeen did it in 2013.

(FORMULA 1)—F1 races next in the Grand Prix of France. It’s race 12 of 22 on this year’s schedule.   On the Circuit Paul Ricard, near Marseilles.

(Photo credits:  Stewart—SRX Racing/CBS; Dixon—Rick Gevers at WWTR 2021;Bell—Bob Priddy at WWTR, 2022)

 

Recycle this sign?

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Saw this sign on the internet a few days ago:

There are many who harbor this sentiment as we go into the 2022 midterm elections and anticipate the heat and smoke of 2024.  Sad to say, too many of those we voters have put in positions of responsibility who are more interested in staying in positions of power have left too many voters feeling as this property owner felt six years ago.

The sign carries a message of hopelessness.  The present political climate encourages that feeling.

The sign is a message of self-pity at a time when self-pity cannot be allowed.

This sign could be seen, insead, a message of opportunity. A challenge.

The proper response lies within those who think a yard sign such as this is all they can do.

Because it isn’t

Channelled, controlled anger can be a powerful force.  Just make sure it’s directed at eliminating those who would leave us believing this sign is all we can do.  Just make sure the mind overrules the gut in considering the people who want our votes.

And maybe a scattered few will realize they are better than those who have created this climate and they will be replaced by those who represent our better selves.

Lightbulbs and voters have one big thing in common.  Both can be unscrewed.

 

The Chair

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It was one of those little mysteries that we notice that stays quietly in the backs of our minds but doesn’t nag at us.  But then somebody says something and the mystery is solved although they don’t know there ever was a mystery.

This mystery is rooted in the story of one of Jefferson City’s most prominent 19th Century citizens, the donation of a building to the city, the founding of a church, and the creation of a center to help the city’s needy a century after a man’s death.

And a mausoleum.

Joseph M. Clarke, Ohio-born, Illinois newspaperman, Alabama horse trader, Osage County Missouri plantation owner, state legislator, and Jefferson City banker is at the center of the story.

He was a city developer and philanthropist and upon his death toward the end of 1889, he bequeathed Bragg Hall to the city.  Bragg Hall still stands at the corner of High and Monroe Streets, on the southwest corner. For decades, the upper floors were city hall, with the city council chambers (which doubled as the Municipal Court during the daytimes) on the top floor.

One of the provisions of his will was that the city had to pay for a life-size bronze statue of Clarke to be kept in the building. Portraits of his wife, Lavinia, and of his two sons, Marcus and Junius, also were to be placed prominently in the building. All of them wound up in the council chambers, the statue in the southeast corner where it watched the council proceedings, the portraits of his sons on the east wall and the life-size portrait of his wife on the west wall.  In those days, five councilmen sat on each side of the room and I always felt sorry for the councilmen on the east because Mrs. Clarke was, well, a very severe looking woman and I often wondered if any of the council members felt her withering gaze.

Bragg Hall became inadequate as a city hall in the 1970s and after negotiations with Clarke descendants, the city sold the building and moved to a new city hall.  But the new building didn’t seem to have adequate space for the bronze Clarke and the canvas family members.  Four years later, when the city opened a nutrition center, it was named for Clark. And today folks who have meals there do so under the watchful eyes of Mr. Clarke and his sons. And I think Lavinia is watching their table manners closely.

One of the other things Clarke did was to give the First Christian Church a lot at the corner of (then) East Main and Adams Street as the site for its first sanctuary, to which he also contributed liberally.

All four members of the Clarke family are in that mausoleum in the old cemetery.  One day while I was doing some church research about Clarke, I went to the mausoleum, the interior of which was pretty dusty and cobwebby and peered through the locked door.  There wasn’t much to see except for a very old chair that was slowly collapsing under the weight of dust and decades.

Why is that chair there? I wondered.  Were they expecting visitors?   Were they thinking someone would come in a sit with them for a while?  Somebody would come in and tell them what had happened with their gifts?

That chair was the mystery that stuck in the back of my mind for several years.  Since then, the mausoleum has undergone a maintenance and repair effort.

A few weeks ago I think I learned what that chair was and why it was there.

The Christian Church has been without a minister for more than a year, a situation that will be resolved this coming Sunday when our new minister preaches his first sermon.  In the interim we have had “pulpit supply” ministers filling in, including three retired ministers who are members of the congregation.  We’ve had sermons from two lay members. And on June 26, a young woman who was raised in our church—her parents and her grandmother are still active members—and then went on to become a minister stood in the pulpit and asked what kind of a church we would be in the future, one stuck in the old ways or “will we accept the mantles of change and embrace our own giftedness and passions?”

Her sermon was based on the story of Elijah, the prophet from the Old Testament Book of Kings where stories of his miracles are told—one of which is resurrection. Early in the message, Sarah Blosser Blackwell referred to an ancient custom that sometimes is practiced in some homes today:

An empty chair at a family gathering was likely referred to in passing as the “Elijah” chair.  The idea was that since Elijah did not die an earthly death, but instead was taken up into heaven, and we should save him a space in case he returned. According to Jewish tradition, Elijah was known as the messenger of the covenant and, thus, was present at every circumcision, so a chair was left open for his arrival.  Later that became the place of honor for the godfather of the child.

And there it was!

That was why the chair was in the Clarke family mausoleum—the Elijah Chair where he could sit when he returns as a harbinger of the arrival of the Messiah.

I don’t think there’s a chair in the mausoleum since the repairs were made. I could see no sign of it as I peered through the three dingy windows.  It’s unknown if the chair had been put there at the request of the Clarkes or if it was just part of a tradition in 1889.

I kind of think there should be a chair in there now, though.

 

Sports—Racing: Elliott wins at home; Leclerc brings it home; Schrader will race at home

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(SRX)—Next up for the Superstar Racing Experience drivers: Ken Schrader’s I-55 Speedway at Pevely, Missouri, the first dirt track they’ll drive on this year.  And Schrader finally gets to race in a series  he helped create.

Former NASCAR champion Bobby Labonte will be going to Pevely after winning the last pavement race in the short-track series at Nashville.  Labonte, who is 58, is the oldest driver to win an SRX race. He started from the pole and led every lap in the final heat, holding off a serious challenge from INDYCAR driver Marco Andretti. Another former NASCAR champion, Matt Kenseth, was third and former INDYCAR driver Paul Tracy came home fourth. Four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves was fifth.

Two-time INDYCAR series champion Josef Newgarden, a native of nearby Henderson, won the first heat while driving his first race in a car with fenders. Local track favorite Cole Williams won the second heat but was only 12th in the 13-car field in the final.

Newgarden spun on the 49th lap of the 75-lap final heat but rallied back to finish seventh. He called the race “a big learning session…just how these guys drive. They’re very rough.”  But he wants to do it again.

Labonte’s win has moved him ahead of Ryan Newman in the SRX points standings. Andretti’s runner-up also moves him ahead of Newman.

The series finishes up with two dirt-track races, the first being next Saturday night at Pevely, a track owned by veteran NASCAR driver Ken Schrader.  Schrader, who helped develop the cars used in the series, will compete in an SRX race for the first time—as the home track “guest” racer.

Pevely is about a half-hour south of St. Louis on I-55.

(NASCAR)—Chase Elliott is the first driver to pick up three wins this year, and number three has come at Atlanta Motor Speedway, his home track.  Elliott is from Dawsonville, about an hour’s drive south of Atlanta.

The win was in doubt as Elliott and Corey Lajoie battled for the lead through the first two turns of the last lap. But Lajoie hit the wall trying to pass Elliott on the backstretch as Elliott moved to block him and the race ended under caution with Elliott in front. Lajoie took his injured car home in 21st place.

Lajoie’s crash produced the last of thirteen caution flags.  A dozen drivers contributed 27 lead changes in the 260-lap race.

Ross Chastain, whose reputation as a driver often in the center of incidents, added to his credentials before finishing second, his fifth top-two finish of the year. He was collected in a nine car crash near the halfway point of the race then tangled, again, with Denny Hamlin when both were running in the top ten, leaving Hamlin with a badly damaged car that limped to the end 25th.

Daytona 500 winner Austin Cindric, the leading Rookie of the Year candidate, was third. Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five.

Elliott’s win ups his regular season points lead to 47 over Blaney. Chastain runs third, fifty points back.

(INDYCAR)—INDYCAR’s next race is in Toronto next Sunday.

(FORMULA 1)—Ferrari’s Charles LeClerc had to deal with throttle issues and with challenges from Max Verstappen to win the Austrian Grand Prix.  It’s LeClerc’s first win since the Australian Grand Prix in April. He’s been dogged by mechanical and strategy problems since.

He beat Verstappen to the line by about 1.5 seconds to claim his first podium finish after five failures and move to within 38 points of Verstappen’s lead in the standings.

LeClerc and teammate Carlos Sainz were headed for a 1-2 finish before an engine failure sent Sainz’s car afire with fourteen laps left.

(Photo Credits: SRX and Rick Gevers)

Who is This Guy?

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A strong Republican citizen asked me the other day, “What do you know about John Wood?”  And at the end of our discussion, he made an interesting suggestion about him.

John Wood is running for Roy Blunt’s Senate seat as an Independent.  It’s far too late for him to file as a Republican but he’s the kind of moderate Republican that former Senator John Danforth has been hoping would give GOP voters an alternative to the crowd of candidates that Danforth considers so closely tied to ex-President Trump that the GOP could lose that seat in November.

My friend thinks Wood would pull votes away from candidates of both parties but would hurt the Republican nominee the most, especially if it’s Eric Greitens.

Here’s a thumbnail description of John Wood.

(This entire discussion becomes academic if he cannot gather 10-thousand signatures of Missouri voters and present them to the Secretary of State by the close of business on August 1.  Barely meeting the minimum might say something about his candidacy.  Getting thousands more than necessary might say something, too.)

He’s a 52-year old lawyer and is the latest product of the “Danforth incubator.”  John Danforth used his election as Missouri Attorney General in 1968 to begin cultivating bright and young Republican assistants whose success in statewide office broke the Democratic hold on Missouri politics and produced the Republican control.   Before he was a lawyer, he worked for Danforth.  He clerked for U. S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who had been an Assistant Attorney General under Danforth.  He also has worked at the United States Court of Appeals.

President George W. Bush appointed him the federal prosecutor for western Missouri in 2007. He served into 2009. After leaving that job he was chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.  When John Ashcroft was United States Attorney General, Wood was the deputy associate general counsel in that office. He also filled that job in the Bush Administration’s Office of Management and Budget.

For a time he was the Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel for the U. S. Chamber of Commerce.  He joined the January 6th Committee as a senior investigator at the invitation of Representative Liz Cheney.

He calls himself “a lifelong Republican” who has told the Post-Dispatch he is not interested in being part of “a race to the bottom” and an effort “to see who can be the most divisive and the most extreme.”

He thinks Greitens will win the Republican primary on August 2 but he thinks he can win in November behind “a coalition of common-sense voters,” most particularly Republicans who won’t back Greitens as well as moderate and conservative Democrats—and independents, of course.

We won’t delve into his positions on issues in this entry except to say they are distinctly mainline Republican.  He has said he would support Mitch McConnell remaining leader of the party in the Senate and that he wants to be part of a “governing coalition,” an indication that he might work better across the aisle than many other Republicans (or Democrats) in Washington.

He says he’s not a spoiler, that he’s running to win.

Simply put, he’s a wild card in a race that needs one. He’ll have Danforth money and muscle behind him.  But it doesn’t take much searching to realize that John Danforth doesn’t set the philosophical tone for the party that he once did.

All of that might be true, maintains my friend. However—-

Is he really running to gain statewide name recognition so that he can challenge Josh Hawley in 2024?  After all, Danforth says supporting Hawley four years ago was the biggest political mistake he’s ever made.

Stay tuned.

(Photo Credit: Twitter)

Canning

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John Wesley had a birthday last week. He would have been 219 years old.

He was the founder of the Methodist Church.

Garrison Keillor’s “The Writer’s Almanac” commemorated his birth by passing along “John Wesley’s Rule,” noting that there’s no evidence he actually wrote it.  But it’s a good thing to remember as we breathe the increasingly toxic political air that is being generated in these times.

You might want to print it out and post it in several places in your home.

Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as you ever can.

Sounds like a good platform for a candidate.  A candidate adopting this standard as part of the campaign platform could certainly stand out in today’s political climate.  Certainly wouldn’t hurt to see somebody try it.

Sports: Racing—Newman still has it; Reddick, McLaughlin get it; Zhou survives it

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By Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor

(SRX)—Three races, three winners for the Superstar Racing Experience, which brings NASCAR and INDYCAR competitors together in just two weeks on the dirt track at Pevely.  Series points leader Ryan Newman picked up his first win on the pavement at Stafford, CT during the weekend.

The point standings show four INDYCAR drivers and five NASCAR drivers in the top ten. Just behind Newman is series co-creator Tony Stewart, who was an INDYCAR champion before moving to NASCAR—the only driver to record that achievement.

Newman got past pole-sitter Marco Andretti after a competition caution with ten laps to go to win the third heat. Stewart was third with Bobby Labonte fourth and Hailie Deegan—a young woman from the NASCAR truck series—fifth.

The series races at Nashville next weekend before moving to Ken Schrader’s Federated Auto Parts Raceway near Pevely on the 16th, then wrapping up the season at Sharon Speedway in Ohio, owned by former NASCAR competitor Dave Blaney, father of current Cup driver Ryan Blaney.

(NASCAR)—Tyler Reddick has won his first NASCAR Cup race in a fierce battle with Chase Elliott at Road America.  Elliott had a narrow lead after the final pit stop with 18 laps left but Reddick got past Elliott two laps later and pulled away to win by 3.3 seconds. Kyle Larson was third, 21 seconds back.

Reddick is the fifth first-time winner this year and the 13th Cup driver to make it to victory lane.  His win means there are only three playoff spots left to fill in the next seven races. His victory pushed former champion Keven Harvick out of the top sixteen in standings, endangering Harvick’s chances of making the playoffs.  Harvick is tenth in points but fourth among non-winners.

The race is the third road course race of the year. Each has produced a first-time Cup career victory—Clay Chastain at Circuit of the Americas and Daniel Suarez at Sonoma.

(INDYCAR)—This one was for mom and dad.

Scott McLaughlin has on his second INDYCAR race of the season but it’s the first time his parents have seen him win since he moved from the Australian Supercar series two and a half years ago.  They came to the United States in May to watch him run the Indianapolis 500, the first time they had seen him since he came to the Northern Hemisphere.

McLaughlin had to hold off defending series champion Alex Palou for the last 17 laps and got to the finish line about a half-second before Palou. The best drive of the day, however, was by Will Power, who started 21st, spun on the first lap and recovered from the end of the field to snag third place.

Pole sitter Pato O’Ward led the first 28 laps before his car started losing power and quit entirely while coming out of the pits on the 54th of 80 laps.

The race was a disaster for the Andretti team and confrontations between teammates Romain Grosjean and Alexander Rossi resulted in a team meeting called quickly after the race.  Rossi, on the inside, ran Grosjean off the track by going wide on a turn and one lap later drove him straight off the course on another turn.  Grosjean called Rossi “an idiot” after the race before a team employee took him away from a television interview for the meeting.

Earlier in the race, Grosjean pushed teammate Colton Herta off the track and Rossi tangled with another Andretti teammate, Devlin DeFrancesco.  The four Andretti drivers finished 15th to 21st.

(FORMULA 1)—The Grand Prix of Britain started with a frightening crash and ended with a first-time winner.

You can see it from a grandstand view at:

Formula One salutes FIA and ‘halo’ for saving two lives at Silverstone (msn.com)

Ferrari’s Carolos Sainz got the win in his 150th F1 start.  Lewis Hamilton, who had his best finish of the year, in third, called the race “Formula One at its best.”  Sainz is only the second Spanish driver to win in the long history of Formula One.  Two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso was the first.

The first lap was hardly racing at its best. It was, in fact, racing at its scariest.  The only Chinese driver to ever compete in F1, Guanyu Zhou, in an Alfa,  got upside down on the start after a bump from Mercedes driver George Russell as a crowded field headed to the first turn. His car skidded off the track, through a gravel area, and flipped over the SAFER barrier into a catch fence in front of dozens of fans. Several other cars were damaged in collisions in the melee and the race was stopped until rescue teams could get Zhou out of his car and onto a stretcher.

He later sent a message saying he was fine but gratified that Formula 1 had begun using a “halo” cockpit protection system that he thought saved his life. Doctors say he’s cleared to drive in the next race in the series.

The red flag at the start of the race might have prevented an even more tragic event seconds later as the cars roared down a straightaway.  Instead, they were going slowly enough to avoid a series of climate protestors reportedly from Just Stop Oil who had gotten onto the circuit and sat down on the track.  Police arrested five men and two women.

(Photo credits: Newman at Indianapolis 2019, Rick Gevers; Reddick and McLaughlin at WWTR, Bob Priddy)

The Fourth of July

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This is a day of eloquent words.  The celebration of that eloquence is overshadowed by the festival this day has become.

We’re not talking only about the eloquence of the Declaration of Independence, approved by the Continental Congress on this day (but not signed by the 56 delegates for some time), but for the eloquence of a speech by a special man before thousands of admirers on this date.

This is the day in 1939 that Lou Gehrig, one of the greatest players and greatest people to play baseball, said goodbye—with words of courage and gratitude before a crowd of almost 62,000 people in Yankee Stadium who had come for baseball games but mostly to pay tribute to Lou Gehrig.

The words were spoken a little more than a month after a consequential trip to Missouri.

The most memorable line came at the beginning, not the end—as is the case with the Declaration’s most famous line.

“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.

“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies – that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body – it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that’s the finest I know.

“So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”

As far as the trip to Missouri—

Gehrig had sensed something was wrong when he hit “only” .295 in the 1928 season with 29 home runs and 114 runs batted in—the kind of season most of today’s major leaguers would love to have.  But it lowered his lifetime batting average to .340 and left him 287 hits short of becoming the seventh player with 3,000 hits, an achievement he could have expected to reach in 1939 under normal circumstances.  It also left him seven short of 500 home runs and six short of 2000 runs batted in, both statistics he would have achieved in ’38 if he had had a normal year.

He was troubled at the start of the 1939 season by the fact that he was only four for fourteen in the World Series, all of the hits being singles, and going four-for-28—again, all singles—to start the year.  He didn’t hit a home run during spring training and his coordination in the field was off.  He played his last major league game on April 30, then told manager Joe McCarthy he was benching himself after 2,130 straight games.

But there would be one more game. Gehrig was still the Yankees’ captain, often the man who took the lineup card to the home plate umpire at the start of the game, as he did during a series in June against the St. Louis Browns. It was there that Gehrig told reporters he was going to the Mayo Clinic soon for some tests but expected to return to the playing field during the summer.  “I can’t help believing there’s something wrong with me,” he told them. “It’s not conceivable that I could go to pieces so suddenly. I feel fine, feel strong, and have the urge to play…I’d like to play some more and I want somebody to tell me what’s wrong. Usually a fellow slows up gradually.” But this year, he said, “Without warning…I’ve apparently collapsed.”

After wrapping up the series with the Browns, the Yankees went to Kansas City for an exhibition game against their best minor league team, the Kansas City Blues, team that matched rising Yankee star Joe DiMaggio against brother Vince, who played the same position for the Blues against the Blues’ up and coming double play duo of shortstop and future Hall of Famer Phil Rizzuto and second-baseman Jerry Priddy, who combined that year for 130 double plays, a league record. They were called up by the Yankees in ’41.

Lou Gehrig played his last game on June 11, 1939 in Kansas City. He played in great pain, but played errorless ball at first base. His last at-bat was in the third inning. He grounded out to Priddy.

While the rest of the team took a train to Cleveland for a series there, Gehrig and his wife, Eleanor (in this AP photo from 1936), flew to Rochester for tests on the 13th that she had arranged.  Six days later, the clinic’s Dr. Harold C. Habein issued a “Two whom it may concern” letter telling Gehrig he had been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, an illness that “involves the motor pathways and cells of the central nervous system and in lay terms is known as a form of chronic poliomyelitis—infantile paralysis.”

The letter concluded, “The nature of this trouble makes it such that Mr. Gehrig will be unable to continue his active participation as a baseball player inasmuch as it is advisable that he conserve his muscular energy. He could, however, continue in some executive capacity.”

Gehrig took the letter to manage Joe McCarthy and team president Ed Barrow on the 21st.  They released the information to the media that day and announced that July 4th had been set aside for Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day at the stadium.

Gehrig admitted he was shocked by the findings. He told New York sportswriters, “Mrs. Gehrig and I are fully resolved to face the situation calmly” and he called the trip to the Mayo Clinic “the best move I ever made.” But he didn’t ignore the reality of his situation. “My friends tell me not to worry. They slap me on the back and say, ‘Don’t worry, Lou. Everything is going to be all right.’ But how can I help worrying.”

He was honored during a forty-minute ceremony held between games of a doubleheader against the Washington Senators.  There were a lot of gifts including a fruit bowl and two candlesticks from the New York Giants. The one that might have had the most meaning was a 21-inch silver trophy from his 1939 teammates, their names and a poem by New York sportswriter  John Kieran engraved on it.

To LOU GEHRIG

We’ve been to the wars together;
We took our foes as they came:
And always you were the leader,
And ever you played the game.

Idol of cheering millions:
Records are yours by sheaves:
Iron of frame they hailed you,
Decked you with laurel leaves.

But higher than that we hold you,
We who have known you best;
Knowing the way you came through
Every human test.

Let this be a silent token
Of lasting friendship’s gleam
And all that we’ve left unspoken.
Your Pals of the Yankee Team.

When Gehrig walked back to the dugout that day, the only one of the many gifts he took with him was that trophy.

Kieran said his poem was a “feeble interpretation” of how the players felt about Gehrig, who was his neighbor in the suburb of Riverdale, New York. Kieren often visited Gehrig as his health declined. One day, Kieran later related, Gehrig pointed to the trophy and said, “Some time when I get—well, sometimes I have that handed to me—and I read it—and I believe it—and I feel pretty good”

Lou Gehrig died, only 37 years old, On June 2, 1941.  Six months later, the Baseball Writers Association of America voted unanimously to ignore the traditional waiting period for admission to the Hall of Fame and unanimously elected him.

When Eleanor Gehrig died in 1984 she donated that trophy to the Hall of Fame. It and other Gehrig memorabilia are on display in Cooperstown.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. There still is no cure for it. Nor is there an effective treatment to stop it or reverse its progression.

July 4th.  A day we normally observe eloquent words.  Perhaps a few of us today will remember, too, words not only of eloquence but of courage in the face of a life to come and gratitude for the life that had been.

 

It’s Not Over   

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Regardless of your feeling about the U. S. Supreme Court’s abortion ruling last week, here’s something to remember:

It’s not the final word.

It’s not the final word any more than the 1973 ruling in Roe was the final word.  It just turns the tables on the argument.  Abortion opponents have spent the last fifty years chipping away at the ruling and looking for the right legal lever to overturn the whole thing.  Dozens, probably hundreds, of state laws (somebody might add up all of the ones in Missouri) have attacked the issue only to be thrown out at some level of the court system. This one finally worked.

The ruling obviously does not end here.  The anti-abortion element of American society is on the defensive for the first time in almost a half-century. We will be interested to see if a pro-choice population that has watched as pro-life elements have attacked Roe will be galvanized into activism.

It is not generally a good idea to poke a dozing Tiger with a stick.

Survey after survey has indicated a general approval of Choice by Americans.  The Gallup organization in early June reported, “A steady 58% majority believe that the…ruling…should stand while 35% want it to be reversed. These sentiments are essentially unchanged since 2019.”

The wording on Gallup’s poll question has changed somewhat through the years but, “Dating back to 1989, support for reversing the decision has averaged 32%, while opposition has averaged 59%.”

In the most recent poll, the question focused on the impact of an overturn and whether respondents favored letting states set their own standards.  That survey, run last month, showed 63% of respondents thought it would be a “bad thing” to let states set their own policies. Those who said it will be a “good thing” were at 32%.

There has been no doubt this issue has been a partisan thing for a long time. In the most recent Gallup survey, 80% of Democrats and 62% of Independents favored the status quo.  Among republicans, 58% favored what the court ultimately has decided. Only 34% of independents and 15% of Democrats favored reversal.

But the U.S. Supreme Court is not ruled by polls although its makeup might be determined by people whose political positions ARE ruled by polls.

Catholic voters, for example.

A Pew Research Center 2019 survey found 56% of Catholics felt abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Forty-two percent disagreed.  The 56% is close to the 60% of non-evangelical Protestants and 64% of Black Protestants who supported legal abortion. In one of the fastest-growing demographics—people who are not religiously affiliated—83% told pollsters that abortions should be legal in all or almost all cases.

Writing in America, the Jesuit Review in 2018, Patrick T. Brown, a former government relations staffer for Catholic Charities USA, said, “Since 1973, no institution in the United States has been more firmly committed to protecting the unborn than the Catholic Church. Yet Catholics are just as likely to procure an abortion as other U.S. women. Why?

“According to the latest numbers from the Guttmacher Institute, 24 percent of women who procure abortions identify as Catholic, almost the same as 22 percent of all U.S. women who called themselves Catholic in a 2014 survey by Pew Research Center. In the same sources, evangelical Protestants made up 27 percent of all women in the United States but only 13 percent of those who underwent abortions, revealing a greater reluctance toward choosing abortion, a greater reluctance toward revealing their religion on a survey or both.”

Here’s one thing you won’t hear:   Republicans who are critical of “activist” judges when discussing this ruling.  You won’t hear Republicans railing against “legislating from the bench” either.

Again, this ruling tends to reverse the table.

There are fears this ruling is just the beginning of court-established national policies on contraception, LGTBQ+ rights, and gay marriage being dismantled and becoming matters of states’ rights.  Roe does not mean the court’s rulings on those issues automatically will be part of the Right’s version of a cancel culture but those who want them reversed should ponder how hard they want to poke those Tigers and what the reaction will be when they have poked too hard.

This ruling is certain to become a significant election issue in November when we will learn if it and reactions to findings of the January 6 Committee as well as fears of the present court’s future actions will produce less of a Red Wave than many on the Right expect.

Pro-life interests have prevailed.

For now.

But a younger generation born and raised in an era of birth control, abortion, and gender recognition in its various forms might be maturing with different outlooks.

In times such as these and decision such as this, we often return to former New York Governor Al Smith, a Catholic who ran for President in 1928, a time when there was a lot of “anti” attitudes in our nation.  Many think Smith’s greatest liability in the election was his religion.  He warned:

“It is a confession of the weakness of our own faith in the righteousness of our cause when we attempt to suppress by law those who do not agree with us.”