Tulsa 100 Years Ago: The Media, Dick, and Sarah

 Avoid the boastful intriguers who speak to you of racial equality/ There has never been such a thing in the history of the world. Nor will there ever be.

From a Tulsa World editorial addressing the black population of the city a few days after the Tulsa race massacre in 1921.

At the time there were two major, white owned newspapers in Tulsa. The World, published in the mornings, was considered the more progressive of the pair. The Tribune, which hit the streets in the afternoons was more lurid in content and aimed at a blue collar readership. It is reported on the afternoon of May 31, as a black suspect accused of attacking a white girl, sat in a cell on the top floor of the county court house, it ran an op-ed piece with the headline, "To Lynch a Negro Tonight." Within a few hours of its publication the terrible pogrom began.

Hey, who says the media doesn't matter?

The 19 year old kid on the top floor of the court house was identified at the time as Dick Rowland. The Tribune reported he went by, "Diamond Dick." Later accounts spelled his last name as, Roland. Years later researchers claimed his birth name was, either Jimmy Jones, or Johnny Jones. Apparently he arrived on the planet in Vinita, OK. His father was unknown. His mother had moved to Tulsa along with her three children a year, or so before and changed her name to Rowland.

The same day the Tribune ran the infamous op-ed it reported the suspect had attacked a young white girl who was operating the lone elevator in the Drexel Building in downtown Tulsa. It noted the victim had scratches on her hands and neck and her clothing had been torn. The story also described her as an orphan working her way through business school.

This was all news to Sarah Page, the alleged victim. After the nightmare was over she wrote a letter to the sheriff stating she had screamed only because Rowland accidently stepped on her toe. Why she didn't say that immediately remains a mystery.

So does she. Sarah Page had arrived in Tulsa only a few months before. The reports of the time listed her as 17, but some have claimed she was as young as 15. Later it was speculated she had come from Kansas City and was attempting to get away from a husband who she was in the process of divorcing. There have even been questions raised about her name, some believing Sarah Page was in fact an alias she was using in her bid to get away from her unknown spouse.

Years later it was rumored Rowland and Page were romantically involved--that when he stepped into that elevator, on Memorial Day, when most of downtown Tulsa was closed for the holiday, when arguably neither one of them should have been working, they had a lover's quarrel. 

Yes, there is a possibility what has been described as the most destructive act of racial violence in the history of the republic was caused by a teenaged girl who was so pissed off at her boyfriend she decided to let him stew in jail for a couple of days. Or, that she \and he were so scared their interracial affair would be exposed they both wouldn't own up to what really happened.

After Page's letter arrived prosecutors dropped the charges against Dick Rowland. He immediately and understandably got out of town. Relatives said he initially fled to Kansas City. They claim he died years later somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.

Sarah Page took off also. No one knows for sure where to. Rumors have it she went back to Kansas City where she and Rowland hooked up once again, before eventually going their separate ways. However that ending to their tale is pure conjecture.

The Tulsa Tribune lasted for decades after the death and destruction over those horrifying 18 hours ended. All evidence of the incendiary editorial have disappeared. Even microfiche records are missing the entire op-ed page for the day of May 31, 1921.

Indeed, all we are left with is the reality of what happened and the consequences. And we are still, finally, dealing with both 100 years later.

5-29-21

Dispatches From the Far Right Edge

 It's weird out there and not in a good way. So much so, sometimes it isn't hard to believe the former President of the United States not only fucked up the response to the COVID virus, but is patient zero when it comes to a far more pervasive disease. Indeed it's a malignancy that is spreading at a frightening rate despite his political demise. It is easy to spot those who have been infected. Just check out the dark corners of social media sometime. They are the ones who just won't shut up. Below you will see what I mean. 

Authors and posts are courtesy of Twitter user, Patriot Takes. His work researching this madness has been cited by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.            

*Pepe Lives: (Pepe the Frog is a meme regularly used by white nationalists)

All signs point to Trump returning to the White House in legendary fashion. Who's ready to witness a nuclear level meltdown from the establishment...the likes of which we've never seen?

*Roger Stone: (Former and perhaps current Trump advisor, recent guest of the federal prison system)

Alex Jones for Governor of Texas!

*Forthright: (Unknown person presumably addressing Congressman Adam Schiff)

Hey ASSHOLE. Are you and your fellow sick-minded, radicalized liberals in the House of Reps gonna form a committee to investigate the events of January 6th? If you are, know that you will only incriminate yourself and Pelosi since the entire fucking charade at the Capitol was STAGED by the Democrats. 

*68KingKong: (An obvious fan of Tucker Carlson)

Was just watching some Tucker Carlson and I realized why I can't stand Joe Biden. Joe Biden should be hanged for his crimes against America! His actions are purposely taking America down. We should no longer sit by and watch this clown show.The dumb old bastard sickens me!

*John Miller: (A devotee of the aforementioned, Pepe the Frog)

Any immigration reform plan must have as one of its goals first the reduction and eventually the elimination of the black race in the USA.

*ccpkillah: (Someone who didn't do so well in English class)

I have my gats but I know that BLM antifa are pussy don't need my gat I'll fuckin stab them in the fuckin face I would love to find out who one of them are I would go to the house and do it bare hands.

*tfkUSA: (A real optimist who is also somewhat challenged by the language)

Every day I wake up with a smile knowing Trump and military are in charge and the plan is awesome. just wait for it! When the EBS kicks in, the whole world yell in joy best day ever coming.

Finally this, from the pulpit.

*Kenan: (An internationally unknown biblical scholar)

It's the second Beast that causes everyone to receive the Mark. The man of lawlessness. Joe 30330 divided the nation when through lies he took the highest office in the world in 2020. 2020 divided by 30330 equals 0.066600. And they will worship (believe in) his image. He will suffer a head wound and be resurrected. The Biden clone is the second Beast in the Revelation of Saint John.

Yes, it is true. There is something out there that looks and sounds human, but is terribly different from the rest of us. It doesn't feel like us, or think like us. I'm not even sure it breathes like us. In the end, it wasn't created by Donald Trump, but there is no doubt that son of a bitch let it out of the cage.

And now--we are left to deal with it.

5-22-17

Along Came Clyde

 Until the other day Georgia Congressman, Andrew Clyde's only claim to fame, or rather odd coincidence, was that he entered this world on the same day President John F. Kennedy exited it. While some psychic/reincarnation types might find that significant it should be noted Mr. Clyde was out of country on the date of his birth, having landed on the planet somewhere in Ontario, Canada.

After college he served as an active duty officer in the United States Navy for 11 years, then another 17, or so in the reserves. He also received an MBA from the University of Georgia and began selling firearms out of his Athens garage as a hobby. 

The hobby quickly grew into a thriving business known as Clyde Armory Inc. which has two expansive locations. It also had tax problems. The IRS seized around $940,000 from it at one point, although they ended up returning all but $40,000. Brother Clyde raised enough hell about the whole affair he ended up testifying in front of congress. Later a section of a bill signed by Donald Trump limiting the amount of money the IRS can grab was named in part after him.

No one knows for sure, but the odds are pretty good that testimony whetted Andy Clyde's taste for politics of the right wing persuasion. Last year he ran to represent Georgia's 9th congressional district. It was a crowded republican primary, but he came in second, then won the runoff. Since Georgia's 9th is so deep red--according to polling sources even redder than Marjory Taylor-Greene's 14th district--winning the general election was a foregone conclusion.

So on January 3rd, 2021 Athens' own Andrew Clyde was sworn in as a duly elected member of the United States House of Representatives. 72 hours later all hell broke loose.

After the coup failed the newly minted representative was one of  12 republican members of congress  to vote against awarding Capital Police gold medals for their defense of the building on that terrible day. Last Wednesday we found out why.

During a house committee meeting Mr. Clyde said, "Let me be clear. There was no insurrection. And to call it an insurrection, in my opinion, is a bald faced lie." He added that the video evidence of the rampaging mob looked like, "A normal tourist visit."

Yes, but only if you believe the German army was enjoying a group tour of Stalingrad in 1942.

Given his statements you have to wonder where Andrew Clyde was that cloudy afternoon during the, "non insurrection." Well we now have photo evidence of his whereabouts at least during part of it. He was, along with others, frantically barricading a door to the House Chamber with furniture--presumably in an effort to prevent the normal tourists from lynching him and everyone else in the place.

So is Congressman Clyde bat shit crazy, or simply an evil fuck? I prefer the latter, it's the realist in me.

He is where too many in the republican party are at right now. This gaggle of fascists are willing to say anything, including day is night and night is day to perpetuate their own power and myths. We have, as a nation, reached the surreal moment when Newspeak has become part of the rhetorical canon. It arrived only 37 years after Orwell's novel predicted it would.

Good luck negotiating deals with people like Andrew Clyde, Mr. Biden. And while  you're at it, for God's sake watch out for those tourists.

5-17-21 

Liz Cheney and the Right Wing Gotterdammerung

 Elizabeth Lynne Cheney, the republican congresswoman from Wyoming and third ranking GOP house member looks to be headed toward a political train wreck on Wednesday of this week. That's when her fellow republicans will vote to replace her as their conference chair..

This isn't the first time GOP House members have tried to give, Ms. Cheney the boot. Earlier this year, in February, the far right wing  attempted the same thing, but failed in a 145-61 vote. The difference between then and now being republicans were so stunned by her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump they apparently felt her action was some sort of horrible aberration--you know, like a minor stroke.

Of course, no one has ever accused the republicans of being the most astute medical diagnosticians so after Cheney refused to shut up about their cult leader they turned on her with a vengeance. The word traitor is flying about and probably in some corners, so is the term heretic. The day after tomorrow House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, who supported her nearly three months ago, has already announced he will be voting for New York republican and Trump purist, Elise Stefanik.

There is precedent for this sort of thing. In the waning days of Herr Hitler's  Reich, his hard core became more virulent than they had been even when things were going well. Defeatists and purveyors of the truth were shot in the streets as a warning to others whose faith might be wavering. Although Ms. Cheney won't be put up against a wall, at least not yet, there is no doubt her days as a GOP mover and shaker are done.

Not that we should sympathize with her too deeply. After all, she helped plan and sell the Bush/Dick Cheney misadventure in Iraq. .She also sold her sister down the drain on the issue of gay marriage during an ill conceived run for the U.S. Senate in 2013. It was a campaign so crippled from the beginning she was forced to drop out for, "family health issues," before a single vote was cast.

So, Liz Cheney is quite familiar with political back stabbing. It is a great and treasured tradition in her family. So much so no one, but rank amateurs are surprised her old man hasn't said a word in public to support her.

In the end Representative Cheney's drumming from the corps tells us more about the current state of the republican party than it does her. When Trump was in office she voted exactly how he wanted her to over 93% of the time. It was only after she pointed out the truth, that the son of a bitch had tried to overthrow the government and was lying about the results of the 2020 election that The Almighty Base turned on her.

It is doubtful Donald Trump will run for the White House in 2024, but he and millions of his followers want to make sure a political and cultural clone of him does. It is, in truth, the politics of diminishing returns. The more success Joe Biden and democrats have the harder it will be to convince independents and those whose lives are impacted positively by their policies to fall for the Trumpian bullshit again.

Ultimately that is what Liz Cheney knows and what she is desperately trying to head off. Right now at least, it isn't working. 

Indeed, the loyalists are increasingly frantic because the Allies are on the move. They feel it all slipping away and they've gone mad with dread and hate. And anyone who even hints Trump and they are wrong must be dealt with.

It is, in the current scheme of things, their only solution as the right wing Gotterdammerung nears.

sic vita est

5-10-21

  

The Night It Seemed All Was Right With the Country

 What we witnessed last night during a COVID diminished joint session of Congress was a President delivering a Presidential address. The change in style, form, and content was jarringly different from what we have suffered through the last four years.

The bombast, the accusations, the ego driven nonsense, and the see through lies were all gone. When Joe Biden stood at the podium, backed for the first time in American history by a female speaker and Vice President, all seemed right with the country once again. 

Biden isn't a natural orator like Obama and certainly not on a par speaking wise with Jack Kennedy, but let's face it, Don Trump is a fairly easy act to follow. The stutter caught up with him two, or three times, but it never threw him off track. You could see him pause after those brief moments, gather himself, then carry on calmly with the tone of an elder statesman, rather than that of a carnival barker whipped up in a meth induced frenzy.

He explained what his administration had accomplished in its first 100 days without excessive hyperbole and outlined what he wanted to do sans apocalyptic bluster and grotesque oversell. In short, Mr. Biden spoke to us individually and the nation as a whole with dignity and humility. 

The reaction on the right bordered on stunned confusion. Ted Cruz, late of Cancun, seemed at times to be nodding off to sleep. At others, usually during the numerous rounds of applause, he glanced to his left, apparently shocked by the level of enthusiasm the President was generating. 

Mitch McConnell, the deposed king of the Senate. sat defensively. He steadfastly refused to applaud, even when Biden spoke about lowering child poverty by 50% and reducing the prices of prescription drugs for all Americans, including his own hard pressed constituents. He seemed made of stone, or salt, depending on your theological viewpoint.

Lauren Boebert, the mad Congresswoman from Colorado was much the same, although she managed to shake her head in disagreement when Biden touched on the epidemic of gun violence in America. In her defense she may have been depressed by the recently released video of the NRA's Wayne LaPierre's botched elephant hunt in Botswana. Not by the killing, of course, but by how it showed LaPierre is such a poor marksman that after three close range shots it was the guide who finally had to dispatch the poor beast.

This morning former Trump aide, Stephen Miller called Joe Biden's address, "lifeless." If by lifeless he meant the President didn't personally degrade political opponents by calling them derisive names, or otherwise make any statements the GOP could latch onto as outrageous, he was correct. Biden, among other things, didn't comment on the past election at all, or the insanity continuing in Arizona concerning the outcome in November. He even refused to tilt his head back, while thrusting out his chin like Miller's old boss had. It is a pose Donald Trump stole from the late, unlamented, Benito Mussolini. 

Trump himself made a call to Fox News, apparently because no one else will talk to him, whining about Biden not acknowledging his accomplishments. Yes, you can say many things about the former guy, but you'll never be able to deny he considers himself the most victimized man on the face of the planet.

A post speech national poll taken by CBS showed that 85% of the people who watched it approved of what Joe Biden said. That is a staggering number although in the past it has been proven most people watching a Presidential address are from his party. Still, a Reuters/IPSOS poll reveals Biden's approval rating 100 days in is at 55%, while 38% disapprove of the job he is doing. 

Finally, the really good news is there is a distinct feeling the Trump tsunami is ebbing, rolling back onto itself. Indeed, what republicans haven't seemed to grasp is the nation as a whole is tired of management by chaos and whim--that improv government doesn't work nearly as well as improv comedy.

Whatever the case, last night, Joe Biden proved he is the man America needs and, at least for the moment, the one it wants.

sic vita est

4-29-21

A Perfect Spring Day in Oklahoma City

 April 19th, 1995 fell on a Wednesday. On that day 26 years ago it was much like today in Oklahoma City. The sky was clear and so brilliantly blue it was if you could see all the way to God. The temperature, also like today, was mild enough for short sleeves. In other words it was shaping up to be a perfect spring day.

At around nine am however, all the perfection was shattered.

When the massive explosion ripped a huge chunk out of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building I was in Edmond, pulling out of a parking lot. I was driving a cab at the time while fielding a never ending stream of rejections for a novel I had written. The Yellow Cab dispatcher, who was located about 10 blocks north and one block west of the building, came on the radio. His exact words were, "What was that?" A split second later the sound of the blast rolled through. You felt it as much as heard it. The concussion set off car alarms throughout the parking lot. At that point I was about 11 miles north of downtown Oklahoma City.

I turned south onto what is still called the Broadway Extension. It's the highway which leads straight into downtown OKC from Edmond. A huge plume of smoke was rising over the skyline. My initial thought was that a plane had crashed in the middle the city. 

For reasons I'm not sure of I drove south to the 23rd St exit. By then every time the dispatcher came on the air his voice was nearly drowned out by sirens, what sounded like dozens and dozens of sirens. The state capitol complex, just east of 23rd and Broadway, had just ordered an emergency evacuation of all its workers. At the end of the off ramp I ran into what can best be described as traffic gridlock. 

The dispatcher said something about a gas line explosion. I wasn't convinced. Turning on the car's radio I found most of the rock and roll stations had hooked into TV feeds. The talking heads were babbling out of control. Confusion was rampant. No one knew what was going on, or what had actually happened. The word bomb would not be mentioned for another two, or so hours.

When it became obvious to everyone it was indeed a bomb rumors suddenly ran wild of a yet another device found in the remains of the Murrah building. A second panic ensued. Rescue workers were ordered off of the site, sometimes leaving survivors still half buried in the rubble. Local TV recorded scenes of people running through the streets like extras in a Godzilla movie. To this day no one knows who sounded the alert to a second bomb, which didn't exist.

Rescue squads returned later--some had refused to leave despite the threat of a second explosion--and continued to pull people from the building. That night a surgeon had to perform an emergency amputation of a woman's leg which was hopelessly trapped and mangled beneath a concrete slab. 

In all 168 people were officially listed as dead, including 19 babies and toddlers in a second floor daycare center. The body count might be off since there was a spare leg found on the street which didn't match any of the other victims, but no one wanted to pursue the matter.

The beast who drove the Ryder rental truck loaded with 50 gallon drums packed with Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer and diesel fuel, then parked it directly in front of the building, was arrested the afternoon of the explosion. He was fleeing north on I-35 and was stopped by a Highway Patrol Trooper. The arrest charges had nothing to do with the bombing. His getaway vehicle didn't have a license plate and he was carrying a concealed weapon. 26 years later, thanks to the Oklahoma legislature the second charge would have been moot, because its now legal in Oklahoma for anyone to conceal and carry a weapon without any sort of license, or training.

Tim McVeigh was arrested by the FBI the next morning mere minutes before he walked out of the Noble County jail on bail. His bondsman was quoted that day as saying, "That boy needs a lawyer worse than anyone I've ever seen."

McVeigh got one, but it didn't do him any good. He was executed in June 2001. Less than three months after his death radical Islamic terrorists flew two planes into the World Trade Center Towers and another into the Pentagon. A fourth would plow into a field in Pennsylvania. Timothy McVeigh's act of terrorism paled in comparison both in its scope and number of casualties. Since then, outside of Oklahoma City, most American don't even remember him, or the horror of that day.

The shock felt on the 19th turned into a profound sense of violation for most residents of OKC by the next morning. It soon morphed to anger, then a desperate hunger for revenge. McVeigh's accomplice, Terry Nichols escaped the needle and is spending life in federal prison. When he was sentenced Oklahoma City howled for his blood.

All this happened a generation ago. But, as we've seen the Tim McVeighs are still with us. In fact, some of them are currently sitting in Congress.

As the green lady once said, "What a world, what a world."

4-19-21

The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time Syndrome

 So what is a 19 year old American kid to do when his Mom calls the authorities and tells them he has gone a little funny in the head? In March of last year that is exactly what Brandon Hole's mother did. She had become so concerned over her child's mental stability she believed he might pick up his pump action shotgun then in some way provoke the police into killing him. It's an act known as, "suicide by cop."

Her concerns were taken seriously. The FBI dropped by for a little chat with Brandon and shortly thereafter his shotgun was confiscated. At that point the state of Indiana had two weeks to prove in court young Mr. Hole was too bats to possess his weapon, or any other.

That is when things went awry. For one reason, or another the court hearing which would determine Brandon Hole's competency to own a firearm was never held. So even though the police hung onto the shotgun it remained perfectly legal for him to go out and buy another weapon of his choice.

Which exactly what he did--twice. Once was in last July, then he bought another in September. They were, of course, assault style rifles capable of far more efficient carnage than his shotgun.

Hole showed up Thursday at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis carrying them both. In the end he didn't wait for the cops to shoot him. He saved them a few bullets by blowing his own brains out, but only after he had killed eight innocent people simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

In the United States The Wrong Place, at the Wrong Time Syndrome has become an increasingly common cause of death. Currently the cure for it continues to elude us even though it is out there, right in front of us.

Yes, thanks to the legislative prowess of the gun fetish crowd this insane shit isn't going to stop. On Thursday in Indianapolis even their, "good guy with a gun," nonsense was proven just that. According to one survivor someone in the FedEx parking lot attempted an armed response to the attack. That person ended up becoming part of the body count.

There is some minor disagreement on what a mass shooting is, however most sources define it as four, or more victims excluding the perpetrator in the same approximate location around the same time. Through March of this year, according to Wikipedia, there have been 126 mass shootings in the United States. 148 people have been killed and another 485 wounded.

Indeed, the price of freedom , as they say, is high. 

Especially if you end up being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

4-18-21