In Impromptus today, I begin with “cancel culture,” and the worst cancellation of all: being kicked out of your own tribe. People fear it. Being reviled by the other tribe is no problem — you bask in your own. But when your own turn on you? This is very human stuff.
I also discuss America’s most hounded baker; Elon Musk and China; a social drama in Brooklyn; and more (including lotsa language). Let’s have some mail.
My column yesterday was headed “Snapshots of America.” A reader writes,
Thank you for your pictures of my city — Kansas City. We Kansas Citians have a notorious inferiority complex and are always looking for anything that strikes us as a jab against our beloved town. I detected none of that in your travelogue (quite the opposite, in fact), so thank you. I hope you enjoyed your time in our city.
The picture of the Folly Theater (a former burlesque house — gasp!) reminded me that in our younger days my wife and I had season tickets to what is now called the Harriman-Jewell Series, the performances of which were — and are — in the Folly Theater. Although the cultural options here do not match those available to you in New York (there’s that inferiority complex coming through!), the Harriman-Jewell Series is a civic treasure. . . .
As a student at William Jewell College (the “Jewell” in “Harriman-Jewell”), I could attend any performance for free. I saw Itzhak Perlman and Emanuel Ax display their mastery at no charge. Can’t beat that.
Anyway, thanks for coming and saying nice things about Kansas City.
And I didn’t even mention Jack Stack! (Barbecue of the gods.)
My “snapshots” yesterday included a picture of the Frick Collection, in New York. A reader writes,
We toured a few years ago, and my wife and I were recalling our favorite parts. She mentioned the Renoir on the stairs. I allowed as how that would be title of my next (okay, first and only) novel: The Renoir on the Stairs. A mystery, obviously.
Wonderful title! A fine start.
Among my pictures of Milwaukee was one of the Civil War memorial — whose base reads, “To those who fought in the War for the Union, 1861–1865.” I commented, “Thank God for those men. Thank God for the preservation of the Union and the abolition of slavery.”
I knew that comment would tick off our Neo-Con readers (“Neo-Confederate”), and it did. The line never changes: “The war had nothing to do with slavery; it was a war of aggression and conquest,” etc.
As a colleague of mine pointed out — a historian whose name rhymes with “Bick Rookhiser” — Alexander H. Stephens refutes all these Neo-Cons in his Cornerstone Speech of 1861. It’s hard to out-Confederate the vice president of the Confederacy — who says,
The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution, African slavery as it exists amongst us — the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.
Go on, Mr. Vice President:
Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this as the “rock upon which the old Union would split.” He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact.
Why is this speech called the “Cornerstone Speech”? Describing the new government — the Confederate government — Stephens says that
its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.
And so on and so forth. I am among those who appreciate the Cornerstone Speech for its spectacular candor, a candor that should redden the cheeks of the Neo-Cons. (Maybe the old Cons were more honest?)