My Letter Gets Printed … But
One of the reasons that Jackspotpourri is no longer stressing politics is that solid, fact-based, arguments are continually being disregarded by too many Americans who are sufficiently disconnected from reality, and hence, willingly susceptible to being conned into using their democratic rights to destroy democracy itself. (Wow! That sentence contains 46 words!)
This is the ‘Achilles Heel’ of democracy that Jackspotpourri has occasionally pointed out. Defenders of democracy seem to be protesting this in an ‘echo chamber,’ talking mostly to themselves.
If you disagree, just look at what has happened to many State legislatures and school boards, and even the Federal government. Eventually, people will ‘wise up’ and put an end to their ignorance and their political indolence but it might take a century or so to undo the damage their democratic rights have permitted them to carry out.
Meanwhile everyone should be doing their part to hasten that day. With that in mind, and escaping from that ‘echo chamber,’ here is a letter from me published in the Palm Beach Post on December 14:
"To the Editor: ‘A recent 'Your Turn' opinion column started by saying 'Lately, I have been thinking about the incoming Trump administration's policy proposals ... ' and went on to point out the effect they might have on women. Well, 'Lately' was not the proper time to think about them. Concerned voters should have thought about them before November 5."
When was the last time you wrote a letter to a newspaper? Try exiting the ‘echo chamber’ and get your thoughts out to others who might think differently from the way you do.
JL
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Shakespeare and Gender Issues
I am no Shakespearian scholar. When I start to look at the work of philosophers and critics like the late Harold Bloom, who had a fascination with Shakespeare, I am soon lost in the quicksand of criticism, even with his ‘Shakespeare, the Invention of the Human,’ intended for the general reader. But that shouldn’t stop me from commenting, within my limitations, about William Shakespeare and one of his plays on a less sophisticated level than a real ‘professional’ critic might.
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| William Shakespeare |
A good place to start is Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It.’ That play is about an exiled Duke, his daughter Rosalind, and assorted romances that all turn out well. It’s one of his ‘comedies,’ a genre loosely definable by the protagonists not having died by the final curtain. (His plays are usually divided into three categories: Tragedies, Comedies, and Histories.)
Gender issues have come into their own during the past century, but William Shakespeare was well aware of them a little over four hundred years ago and mockingly addressed them in ‘As You Like It.’ He would easily fit in today with what was once called ‘off-Broadway’ theatre and is now practically ‘mainstream.’
In Shakespeare’s time, all the parts in English plays were played by males, even the female roles. So the heroine in ‘As You Like It,’ Rosalind, was played by a young male actor.
Now this Rosalind, a wise and intelligent girl, was seriously interested in a guy named Orlando who was to say the least, shy. A ‘second son,’ he didn’t inherit any money but made a few bucks as a wrestler. So Rosalind took it upon herself (remember she is being played by a male) to disguise her sex, becoming Orlando’s supposedly male mentor and confidant in affairs of the heart.
The demands on the male actor playing Rosalind who was now imitating a male buddy of Orlando were stretched even further when she proposed that to help him, ‘he’ would pretend to be a female, specifically the play’s Rosalind, whom she actually was.
Now stop and think for a second. We have a male actor who is playing the role of a female, who pretends to be a male, and who in turn imitates a female. No wonder the audience roared with laughter, being presented with a play entitled ‘As You Like It,’ which included the kind of stuff audiences really like. And oh, yes … Rosalind also was involved in a suggested relationship with her cousin Celia that went beyond the level of affection expected between two young women, not uncommon in today’s theatre.
If you don’t read the play (try the Folger edition), I can assure you that Rosalind gets her man, straightens everything out, the Duke gets restored, and everybody lives happily ever after.
The play has its serious moments as well, when the exiled Duke’s house philosopher tries unsuccessfully to reassure him with his words of advice, starting with the famous lines ‘All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances. And one man in his time plays many parts … etc.‘ In ‘As You Like It,’ they certainly do that, although in another sense.
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I believe that William Shakespeare was a strong advocate of women’s rights in an age when they didn’t have any. That’s why he painted Rosalind (as well as Portia in ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ Viola in ‘Twelfth Night,’ and other female characters) very favorably despite having them pretend to be male in his plays in order to get some respect. With a woman on the English throne, Queen Elizabeth I, it was not a great risk for him to do so.
But when the ‘Puritans,’ led by Oliver Cromwell, who styled himself as the nation’s ‘Lord Protector,’ took over the English government from 1642 until 1660, they shut down the theatres as immoral and plays were not performed legally during that dark period. (By that time Shakespeare was dead.)
Censorship was not good then any more than it is today, and of course, beware of any leader who claims to be a ‘protector.’ Usually the person claiming to be a ‘protector’ is the one against whom ‘protection’ is needed!
For more information on female characters in Shakespeare’s plays who masqueraded as males, read ‘Shakespeare’s Disguised Heroines,’ from the website of a British theatre company, by copying and pasting this on your browser line: https://medium.com/lantern-theater-company-searchlight/conceal-me-what-i-am-shakespeares-disguised-heroines-670c661eba26#:~:text=Rosalind%20becomes%20Ganymede%20for%20her,lovers%20in%20far%2Doff%20lands or simply CLICK HERE.
JL
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Get Your Electric Vehicle Before the Tax Credit Disappears
Coming along with the purchase of an ‘electric vehicle' is a tax credit not available to purchasers of gas-powered cars. It is intended to lessen pollution by reducing the number of gas-powered vehicles on our highways. It also benefits Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of the company producing Tesla electric automobiles, which benefits from those who buy its cars and who are getting that sizable tax credit, often running into thousands of dollars. But Musk is also bosom buddies with the incoming president who favors increased digging for petroleum, the continuance of gas-powered vehicles, and the end of that tax credit. Am I the only person seeing a contradiction there?
JL
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Just Another Predictable School Shooting
I won’t comment in detail on the latest school shooting other than to once again point out that the Second Amendment contains 27 words, despite the Supreme Court’s horrid decision in 2008 (DC vs Heller) that its first thirteen words, clearly stating the reason for its second fourteen words, can be ignored.
Without its first thirteen words, there would not even have been a need for a Second Amendment to sanctify the existing right of people to keep and to bear arms.
(Hey, while you're online, check out the language of the Second Amendment. A simple 'google search' will get you there.)
JL
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Housekeeping on Jackspotpourri
Forwarding Postings: Please forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it (Friends, relatives, enemies, etc.) If you want to send someone the blog, you can just tell them to check it out by visiting https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com or you can provide a link to that address in your email to them.
There’s another, perhaps easier, method of forwarding it though!
Google Blogspot, the platform on which Jackspotpourri is prepared, makes that possible. If you click on the tiny envelope with the arrow at the bottom of every posting, you will have the opportunity to list up to ten email addresses to which that blog posting will be forwarded, along with a brief comment from you. Each will receive a link to click on that will directly connect them to the blog.
Either way will work, sending them the link to https://jackspotpourri.blogspot.com, or clicking on the envelope at the bottom of this posting.
Email Alerts: If you are NOT receiving emails from me alerting you each time there is a new posting on Jackspotpourri, just send me your email address and we’ll see that you do. And if you are forwarding a posting to someone, you might suggest that they do the same, so they will be similarly alerted. You can pass those email addresses to me by email at jacklippman18@gmail.com.
Again, I urge you to forward this posting to anyone you think might benefit from reading it.
JL
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