Sally Henmings

"Few episodes in the life of Sally Hemmings reveal the complexities of slavery, power, and personal agency more vividly than her years in France and the decision that ultimately brought her back to Virginia... In 1787, fourteen-year-old Sally Hemmings accompanied (Thomas) Jefferson's youngest daughter, Maria Jefferson, across the Atlantic to France ... (Thomas) Jefferson was forty-four years old when Sally arrived in Paris. He was one of the most influential Americans of his era, a wealthy plantation owner, diplomat, and future president. Sally was an enslaved teenager under his authority. The imbalance between them was profound... An enslaved person could not freely reject the wishes of an owner without risking severe consequences." Sally Henmings had six children fathered by Jefferson. Her youngest son believed that she was pregnant while returning to Virginia with Jefferson. She was about sixteen at the time. - Shadows of Monticello, The Untold Story of Sally Henmings

Note to Vestry: Every Kinda People

Grateful to Les for letting me know about the potatoes that were available at the food pantry.  One of our sometime Latino family neighbors in Benton Harbor was not able to find transportation to Monday's food pantry.  I took to their house a couple bags of food yesterday for their family.  My reward was a fist bump with their youngest, a pre-schooler.

I should have a request for reimbursement for rent or utilities from immigration assistance funds at the upcoming Vestry meeting.

I first met J several years. His wife and kids were homeless doubling up in a sympathetic person's  basement.  Originally, immigrant funds helped them rent a motel, one you would not want to be in, in Benton Township.  They eventually found an upper rental in the country and the funds allowed them a first month's rent to move to more stable housing.

Unfortunately, the couple was in a serious auto accident.  J had a broken hand and his wife cracked ribs and other ailments.  She could no longer manage the steps to the upper rental.  Thus, they found another rental in mid-county.

This past year or so, many immigrant families here from what Trump called "shit hole" countries are struggling with fear of ICE and deportation.  I do not know why they felt the need to leave their Latin American home country.  Poverty, violence, fear of J being drafted into a corrupt military or something else.

J's family needed help with rent this month after I had not seen him in a while.  The good news is that his and his wife's casts from their accident have been removed and they appear to be in good physical health again.

On my way home from handing them a personal check for rent, I turned on my truck radio and heard one of my favorite songs:

Said the fight to make ends meet
Keeps a man upon his feet
Holding down his job
Trying to show he can't be bought

It takes every kinda people
To make what life's about, yeah
Every kinda people
To make the world go 'round

- Robert Palmer

https://youtu.be/XwCHFaarTjY?si=1RF4yT1OmaWkzz2u

Rob Burgess

P.S. Do you think our musicians could play those seemingly simple organ chords?  

Posted on a Volunteer Income Tax Blog

 

My first personal tax returns were completed by hand in the mid-1970s.

At the time, I was stationed overseas with the U.S. Navy.  They

were mailed to the IRS from an FPO in Japan. 

 

Yes, we were in the Pacific when the North and Vietcong overran Saigon in April 1975.

Our sister ship, the USS Worden and the carrier, USS Midway, among

other vessels of the U.S. 7th Fleet rescued the Vietnamese "boat people" and 

transported them to Guam.  I will never forget a young Vietnamese

woman on Guam holding up a picture of an American serviceman and

asking us if we knew him.  I assumed it was his and her child standing nearby

her.  To this day, I wonder what happened to that young woman.

 

Sorry.  I digress.  With the GI Bill I graduated from college and started

working for Touche Ross, then one of the so-called Big 8 CPA firms.

In the late 70s, tax returns even at that national firm in Michigan were

prepared on Wang word processors.  If one schedule needed to be changed,

for example, ACRS depreciation, several schedules and forms might need

also to be changed on the word processor.  The forms did not flow 

together so the several forms would just need to be re-typed.

 

Though I was an auditor, during tax season we were required to work

55 hours per week and help the tax staff complete 1040s, corporate 1120s, and 

partnership 1065s.

 

I first volunteered for VITA 20 years ago.  One of our volunteers a

few years back was a retired tax partner with a large national CPA firm.

She once told me that completing certain of our client's returns, 

especially those involving non-traditional families with dependents

and EITC were "more complicated than some of (her) corporate 

client returns."

 

I do not disagree.  In my tax classes in college, training at Touche Ross, 

and in the CPA exam, they did not (and maybe still do not) train us or ask

tax law questions about topics like SSI.  Heck, I did not even know what

that was when I first started volunteering.  

 

If you happen to run into a Vietnamese woman now in her 70s

who was in the refugee camps on Guam in late spring 1975, give

her a warm greeting from a former Navy petty officer.

My Newspaper Opinion Maker Piece for Wednesday, August 5

The older I get, the more I realize that our most precious commodity is not gold or silver, but time.  Time with our loved ones and friends.  Time to sip a cold lemonade from a lawn chair on a summer’s day.  Time to root for our favorite athletes and athletic teams. 

The U.S. House of Representatives has decided to mess with our time.  On July 14, the House voted to make daylight saving time (DST) permanent in the United States.  Locally, Congressmen Bill Huizenga and Tim Walberg voted for permanent DST. 

Two other candidates for statewide office in Michigan had different reactions to the bill.  Representative Haley Stevens candidate for U.S. Senate voted against permanent DST. Congressman John James candidate for Governor did not vote on the bill according to the Congressional record.  Neither Mike Rogers nor Abdul El-Sayed running for U.S. Senate nor Jocelyn Benson running for governor are in the House of Representatives so could not vote on the bill.  It would be interesting to have these five candidates on record on this matter.

Currently, Michigan changes clocks twice a year: springing forward one hour to DST in March and falling back one hour to standard time in November. Michigan is the westernmost state in the Eastern Time Zone, although not all of Michigan observes Eastern Time. Four Upper Peninsula counties bordering Wisconsin have chosen to follow Central Time, like their Wisconsin neighbors.  Four other states south of us, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida are also split partially in eastern time and partially in central time.

Michigan City and Laporte County bordering New Buffalo recognize central time.  South Bend due south of us is eastern time.   That Indiana city has the following sunrises and sunsets like ours on December 31, sunrise is at about 8:10 a.m. standard time and sunset is at 5:23 p.m. standard time.     If Berrien County were to switch to year-round DST, sunrise would not be until 9:10 a.m. in late December.   School children would be waiting in the deepest dark for school buses, and 16-year-old teens would be driving to school in pitch darkness if we remained on year-round DST.

The United States tried permanent DST at least once before.  On January 6, 1974 the United States switched to DST for sixteen months.  According to History.com, there was “swift backlash.”  History.com further reports that “In cities such as Detroit, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Seattle, the sun didn’t rise until around 9 a.m. “Almost everybody [was] getting up in the dark and going to work and to school in the dark.  The New York Times wrote on January 8 about the disorientation. “Commuter trains … were delayed, many school children missed their free breakfasts, some workers walked to subways and buses with trepidation, and many people felt strange…as the day began an hour earlier for most in an eerie darkness.”

History.com further states “a 16‑year‑old Chicago boy was struck and killed on his way to school and that other children died in predawn accidents in Virginia, Ohio, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and California. The worst cluster occurred in Florida, where eight children were killed in the first weeks of winter DST…Farm families described children “waiting on dark country roads for buses as cars were whizzing past them.”

In short, History.com states that Americans quickly turned against permanent DST. “A University of Chicago survey found support for year‑round DST dropped from 79 percent in December to 42 percent in February.”

Somewhere in my house are the four varsity letters that I earned in golf at my high school in Saginaw County.  As a result, I get it, golf fanatics and golf courses like being open until nearly 10 p.m. summer evenings.  Yes, there have been a couple Christmas days in my lifetime when Michigan was so warm that golfers were out on the course on December 25.  However, snow is more likely to fall and be on the ground in Michigan in the winter than sane golfers are to be on the course.

Perhaps, ice skaters, sledders, and snowboarders could be out an hour later in the winter months if those months were DST.  But really, do we really want sixteen-year-olds driving to school in pitch darkness?  Shouldn’t we care more about the safety of school children waiting for school buses on poorly lit country roads and side streets than an extra hour of light in the evening?

For this and other reasons, I vote a resounding NO when it comes to permanent DST.

Mental Health Movie

 Honestly, I enjoyed the Armand Assante 1997 made for TV flick of the Odyssey more than the Matt Damon version in theaters now.  The current Odyssey may have better special effects and also is imbued with flashbacks to The Iliad. Admittedly, I did not see the current version in Imax. That likely would even add to the special effects.

Maybe it is just I appreciate Assante and Greta Scacchi who played Penelope in the 1997 version more than Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway, not that the latter were bad. They were not.

Homer's classic from more than 2,500 years ago survives to this day.

Part I and II of the 1997 version are available on Youtube.

https://youtu.be/VRUGgqymvUM?is=5e35jeuprHQhja5v

Ramble On

 I ain't tellin' no lie

Mine's a tale that can't be told
My freedom I hold dear
How years ago in days of old
When magic filled the air
'T was in the darkest depths of Mordor
I met a girl so fair
But Gollum, and the evil one
Crept up and slipped away with her
Her, her, yeah
Ain't nothing I can do, no

- Led Zeppelin's reference to Tolkien

https://youtu.be/_h9MxNn8P7w?is=tSGwnJg8l3XPNuj1

She's Not There

Nobody told me about her

What could I do?
Well, nobody told me about her
Though they all knew

Well, it's too late to say you're sorry
How would I know, why should I care?
Please, don't bother trying to find her
She's not there

Well, let me tell you about the way she looked
The way she acted, the color of her hair
Her voice is soft and cool, her eyes are clear and bright
But she's not there

- Santana

https://youtu.be/k0R4-N4pXXg?is=waLH00agnYaN3S2_

Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

Though I've tried before to tell her
Of the feelings I have for her in my heart
Every time that I come near her
I just lose my nerve as I've done from the start

Every little thing she does is magic
Everything she do just turns me on
Even though my life before was tragic
Now I know my love for her goes on

- The Police

Doctor My Eyes

 Doctor, my eyes have seen the years

And the slow parade of fears, without crying
Now I want to understand
I have done all that I could
To see the evil and the good without hidin'
You must help me if you can

Doctor, my eyes
Tell me what is wrong
Was I unwise
To leave them open for so long?

- Jackson Browne

https://youtu.be/LtRFw_QDbIo?is=_4nEcVoJiEarddMn

Heard after Dollar General pet food run

I sat on the roof and kicked off the moss
Well a few of the verses, well they've got me quite cross
But the sun's been quite kind
While I wrote this song
It's for people like you that keep it turned on

 

So excuse me forgetting
But these things I do
You see I've forgotten, if they're green or they're blue
Anyway the thing is, what I really mean
Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen

 

And you can tell everybody
This is your song
It may be quite simple, but now that it's done
I hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind
That I put down in the words
How wonderful life is while you're in the world

- Elton John