Author: Webmaster (Page 47 of 97)
As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power–which groups have it and which do not.” In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people–including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others–she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of America life today
Rick Atkinson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning An Army at Dawn and two other masterly books about World War II, has long been admired for his unparalleled ability to write deeply researched, stunningly vivid narrative history. Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy he tells the story of the first twenty months of the bloody struggle to shake free of King George’s shackles. From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, the ragtag Continental Army takes on the world’s most formidable fighting force and gradually finds the will and the way to win. It is a riveting saga populated by singular characters: Henry Knox, the former bookseller with an uncanny understanding of how best to deploy artillery; Nathaniel Greene, the blue-eyed bumpkin who becomes one of America’s greatest battle captains; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proves himself the nation’s greatest diplomat; George Washington, the commander-in-chief who learns the difficult art of leadership amid the fire and smoke of the battlefield. And the British are here, too: we see the war through their eyes and their gunsights, and as a consequence the mortal conflict between the redcoats and the rebels is all the more compelling. Full of fresh details and untold stories, The British Are Coming gives stirring new life to the first act of our country’s creation drama. It is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. But once begun, the war for independence can have only one of two outcomes: death or victory.
Our second 2020 outing is at Oak Hills Park, Norwalk, Tuesday,
15 September, starting at 10:00 AM.
To sign up, email Peter Carnes, picarnes@gmail.com.
Provide your handicap to facilitate pairing.
Tee times will be announced once registration is complete.
Fee is estimated to be $50 (includes cart) payable when you arrive.
Members of Oak Hills pay a discounted price.
Confirmation and coordination will be via email during the week prior to play.
For directions to Oak Hills, go to. https://www.oakhillsgc.com/
Gilbert Alexandre
Gilbert Alexandre, born in Luxembourg May 26, 1935 and longtime resident of Darien, died peacefully Sunday morning August 2, 2020. While his passing is a sad day for us all Gil had a kind and generous soul who lived his life to the fullest leaving the fondest of memories for everyone who knew him.
As a six year old in 1941, Gil immigrated to the US through Ellis Island. This first of his many adventures began after his father Emmanuel made the decision to move the family to the US given the situation with the war in Europe. The family travelled to Marseille where they secured emigration papers to the US and formulated their plans to make the trip during those dangerous times. The family found passage on a boat taking them to the coast of Tunisia and from there a train to Casablanca. Outside Casablanca they spent time in a displaced persons camp while Gil’s father arranged passage to the US on a Portuguese tramp steamer. This next leg of the adventure took 28 days including a one week stop in Havana during which they could not leave the ship. Ultimately Gil & his family arrived in New York City where Gil recalled being taken on deck to see the Statue of Liberty.
His first few years in New York were spent at PS9, learning English, making friends and attending summer camp in Westchester. For the next decade Gil became a true New Yorker until he left town to attend Brown University where he received his bachelor’s degree in International Relations. From there he spent time learning the ropes at Marshall Fields in Chicago before joining the Army in 1956. On several occasions Gil mentioned particularly fond memories of his days in boot camp at Ft. Devens in Massachusetts and being stationed in Hawaii where he leveraged his card playing skills teaching Contact Bridge. After the Army, Gil returned to New York where he received his MBA from Columbia University. Gil spent the next five decades building and running his own businesses and enjoying life with family and friends who now miss him greatly.
Among his many passions he owned/operated a large department store, Nouveau Paris, in Luxembourg City that was founded by his grandfather Emile. A big part of his life for many years he managed the store from afar along with his mother Denyse, flying back and forth to Europe, as well as spending a month every summer there managing the store from 1968 until the early 1980’s.
He was a founding member of the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) and a Securities Analyst at Chase Investors Management Corp as well as Merrill Lynch before striking out on his own in the early 1980’s.
Gil brought adventure & humor into all our lives. From being a lifeguard at Craigville Beach on Cape Cod during college to scuba diving to photography to travelling the world to his great love of reading he always greeted everyone with a handshake and parted ways with “cheers”. Gil would often be seen in one of his many berets, always a bow tie and no holiday was complete without his favorite, foie gras! He loved spending time with the grandchildren hearing about what they were learning in school, projects they worked on and the books they were reading.
Gil was predeceased by his parents Denyse & Emmanuel Alexandre and is survived by his wife Julie Forrester-Alexandre, son Phil Alexandre & grandchildren Johnny & Nicole, daughter Daryl Whitmoyer (William) & grandchildren Kate & Turner, Julie’s daughter Dagny Forrester & grandson Nate, son Mark Forrester (Tricia) & grandchildren Kirsten, Caroline & Sarah.
A memorial service will be planned in the future once safe for family and friends to gather. He will be laid to rest with his parents in Paris.
Gents,
We have some times reserved for a golf outing at Sterling Farms. The date is Tuesday 25 August at 11am. Cost will be $51 with a cart (single occupant). Before fully securing this reservation, I want to get a sense for the number of you who are likely to play.
If you are interested, please respond to me directly: picarnes@gmail.com. This is just an indication for planning purposes. Once we reach a critical mass, I will contact you again with an official invitation.
Peter Carnes
Your Host: Bob Baker
Discussion Leader: David Mace
Our current affairs group will talk about income inequality in America and what we should do about it.
The Black-White Wage Gap Is as Big as It Was in 1950
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/opinion/sunday/race-wage-gap.html?referringSource=articleShare
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality
Racism’s Hidden Toll
How does income inequality affect our lives
Video recording of the discussion: https://youtu.be/8x4ej7hyeA4
Michael Avery Poler
Michael Avery Poler passed away peacefully at his home in Norwalk, Connecticut on July 1, 2020, surrounded by family, including his wife of 42 years Petrea. Michael was born on September 23, 1935 in Huntington, New York to parents Helen M. (Saylor) and Emmons Edson Poler. Michael attended the Kent School in Kent, Connecticut (Class of 1954) and Babson College in Wellesley Hills, MA (Class of 1957). He also served in the United States Army Reserves from 1954 to 1962, attaining the rank of staff sergeant.
From a young age, Michael would never be far from the water. From the ages of nine through thirteen, he spent the summers at Camp Dudley on shores of Lake Champlain. As a student at the Kent School, he served as coxswain for a crew in the Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames in 1953. Upon moving to Rowayton in 1960, Michael crewed various amateur fishing vessels, some ill-fated, before taking the helm of White Bear, which he faithfully captained for 43 years. For decades, Michael shuttled children and grandchildren to Jones Beach in Wantagh, New York. Most often, though, Michael could be found on the porch of their home overlooking Chasmars Pond, where he and Petrea would entertain friends and family or, on the rare occasion that their house was empty, enjoy some peace, quiet and a few rounds of dominoes.
Michael was a devoted member of the United Church of Rowayton where he sang in the choir for 58 years. Additionally, Michael acted as a Lay Leader and Deacon in the Church, held various chairmanships, and served as treasurer for the Church’s Memorial Garden. A lifelong choirboy, Michael also sang for Christ Church in Bronxville, New York and the Choir and Glee Club at the Kent School.
Michael worked for ITT Rayonier Inc. for 42 years, before he “retired” in 1990 and founded MAP International Inc., where he served as president until his death. Michael also served as treasurer for Five Mile River Recitals and the Emig Foundation. He was a member of the Darien Senior Men’s Association and the Union League Club in New York City.
Michael also leaves behind eight children – Christine P. Fleming, Theodore A. Poler, Kimberly P. Albanese, Timothy E. Poler, Peter A. Sweeney, Christine C. Sweeny, Catherine M. Sweeny, and J. David Sweeny; fifteen grandchildren; his younger sister, Margaretta E. Poler; sister-in-law Gail M. Poler; and four nieces and nephews. A skilled craftsman, Michael also leaves behind a meticulously organized workshop, where several sons-in-law and grandchildren learned the proper way to carve a turkey under his impatient supervision. Michael is predeceased by his parents, his younger brother Henry S. Poler, and his granddaughter Jae Ling Sweeny.
Finally, in the estimation of the author, Michael was a truly great grandfather/grumpa/far far. He will be missed dearly by all who knew him, but his absence is sure to be felt most acutely in the ice cream industry.
A public memorial service for Michael will take place in September, circumstances permitting. In the meantime, Michael asked that anyone so-inclined make a donation in his memory to Camp Dudley, Westport, NY and The United Church of Rowayton.
Sept 9, 2020, 12:00
THE GREAT INFLUENZA
THE EPIC STORY OF THE DEADLIEST PLAGUE IN HISTORY
BY JOHN M. BARRY
A keen recounting of the 1918–20 pandemic.
This deadly global flu outbreak has gotten hazy in the public memory, and its origins and character were unclear from the beginning, writes popular historian Barry (Rising Tide, 1997, etc.). But influenza tore apart the world’s social fabric for two long years, and it would be a mistake to forget its lessons. (It also tore apart the American medical establishment—but that was for the good.) With the same terrorizing flair of Richard Preston’s Hot Zone, the author follows the disease in the way he might shadow a mugger, presenting us with the vivid aftereffects as if from Weegee’s camera: “Influenza killed more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century; it killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years.” But Barry is not interested simply in hugely disturbing numbers. He charts how the pandemic brought a measure of scientific maturity to the medical world and profiles such important personalities as Paul Lewis and William Henry Welch, institutions like Johns Hopkins, the Rockefeller Institute, and the Red Cross. He covers with an easy touch the evolution in our understanding of viral disease and the strides that have been made to counter its effects, such as vaccines. He watches the flu spread until there aren’t enough coffins to house the bodies, and he watches as the military fails to alert the general public because the brass feared it would hurt wartime morale. Influenza appears to have spread like a prairie fire from a military base in Kansas throughout the world, thanks to WWI troop deployment and the disease’s highly contagious nature. There was nowhere to hide, Barry chillingly explains: “It now seemed as if there had never been life before the epidemic. The disease informed every action of every person.” Emerging viruses, including new strains of flu, will likely visit us again.
Majestic, spellbinding treatment of a mass killer.
From Charles Salmans:
There are several recent interviews on YouTube of John Barry, author of The Great Influenza, the book we are next discussing. I have watched two of these in full.
I thought the better one was this podcast on MSNBC. It’s 46 minutes. One annoying thing: 7 ads you have to skip past.
Barry was also interviewed for 55 minutes on the Great Courses link (see below). In my opinion the interviewer is not as good, but at the 12 minute mark she asks about the similarities and differences between the 1918 flu and Covid.
In short, Barry says that the 1918 flu was a lot more lethal than what we are seeing today, but Covid 19 is a lot more contagious because you can be unaware you are a carrier. Covid 19 is stealthy.
1) In 1918 you got sick and it was obvious. In many cases people were dead within a day of showing symptoms, and sometimes in as little as 4 hours. As those of you have read the book know, it contains horrifying descriptions of people severely ill, bleeding from the eyes and ears, turning so blue their race was indeterminate.
2) Today people who are sick carry the transmittable virus for a longer period, up to 14 days, and may be asymptomatic. It is taking a much longer time for Covid 19 to move through a community, making lockdowns longer and harder to contain. In 1918 a wave swept through a community in six to ten weeks and then was gone.
What is similar:
1) Importance of informing the public and being honest. Using the war and patriotism as an excuse, there was a lot of disinformation and denial in 1918. There continues to be denial today from the White House and some Governors. Today if we can achieve vigorous testing and contact tracing, we can control Covid 19, but we seem still to struggle with as effective a response as in some other countries.
2) In 1918 they recognized the importance of social distancing, just as we do now. In that regard, at least so far, that’s the most effective means of disease control. So nothing has changed in 100 years!
Here’s the interview in which John Barry compares the 1918 pandemic to Covid 19 (12 minutes into this 55 minute interview).
From Bert:
A Warning for the United States From the Author of ‘The Great Influenza
Video of the discussion: https://youtu.be/KWeThH_yStQ
