Mr. Rogers Defends PBS

In 1969, when President Richard Nixon (R) wanted to cut funding to PBS (sound familiar?)  Fred Rogers of  the long running PBS show Mister Rogers Neighborhood headed to Capitol Hill to defend that funding in a Senate hearing  

Same Conservacrap, Different Democratic President

If you think that President Obama being called a 'communist', 'socialist' or whatever epithet du jour by 'white' wingers is something 21st century that the conservafools have conjured up, note the circa 1968 protester and what they are calling President Lyndon B. Johnson in this photo.

Does this rant look familiar?  And you thought studying history was a waste of your precious class time.

This is a small sample of what Jorge Santayana was talking about when he uttered his classic comment 'those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it'.

Right wingers have flung the 'communist' or 'socialist' tag at not only President Obama, but LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.  If you hit Google you'll find a few posters that already have current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pre-slimed with it as well.

Same conservacrap, different US president.

Happy 50th Independence Day, Jamaica!

Like me and many of my friends, 1962 is a special year for the island nation of Jamaica..  It was 50 years ago on this date that a ceremony occurred signaling that the Jamaican Independence Act was now in force, it was no longer a British colony after 307 years of British rule and from this day forward Jamaica would handle its business as an independent nation.
 
At a few moments before midnight on August 5, 1962 at the National Stadium in Kingston the Union Jack was lowered for the last time and replaced with the brand new black, gold and green flag of a newly independent nation.  .

It triggered several joyous days of celebration across the island before the day to day business of running their nation began with the August 7 opening of the first Jamaican parliament.

Like all nations in their post-independence day phase Jamaica has had their good times and bad times, but the 2.8 million people who live in the third largest Anglophone country in the Western Hemisphere and their people across the Jamaican Diaspora love their country, are proud of its accomplishments, and proud of their Jamaican heritage.

They wish to use this 50th Anniversary year to reflect on Jamaica's past half century, learn the lessons from them, dream of a better Jamaica and get to work building that nation for future generations. 

The people of Jamaica are also determined to imagine a better future for themselves and their country and work hard to achieve it.


And now, please rise for the Jamaican national anthem, a song we US track fans got way too familiar with during the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 and are hearing again during these London Games.






Seriously, to all my TransGriot readers there, happy 50th Independence Day, Jamaica!.

Joe Frazier Passes Away

Former heavyweight and 1964 Olympic champion Joe Frazier is inextricably tied with 'The Greatest'.  He won a lot of fights and an Olympic gold medal during his career but unfortunately he lost his battle against liver cancer and passed away at age 67 last night.

Muhammad Ali said in a statement that the "world has lost a great champion."  "I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration. My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones."

The South Carolina born Frazier became an icon in his adopted hometown of Philadelphia, PA and a legendary fighter as well thanks to his unforgettable battles with Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. .

Then undefeated Joe Frazier beat a then undefeated Ali in the heavily promoted March 8, 1971' Fight of The Century' at New York's Madison Square Garden. He won in a unanimous decision after stunning Ali with a hard left hook in the 11th round and knocking him down in the 15th round to defend his heavyweight title.

He'd picked it up after Ali was stripped of it and suspended for three years for his refusal to be inducted into the Army.  After boycotting the WBC tournament held in protest of the decision, he beat Jimmy Ellis in a 5th round TKO to claim the title.

Frazier eventually lost his unbeaten record and his WBA and WBC titles to an unbeaten George Foreman in a January 22,1973 bout in Kingston, Jamaica when he was knocked out in the second round by my fellow Houstonian. 

Frazier would clash with Ali in two more bruising fights in a January 1974 bout in New York and the legendary October 1, 1975 'Thrilla In Manila' before he eventually retired from boxing with a 32-4-1 record in 1981.

In later years he owned a boxing gym in which he trained his own son Marvis and his once white hot rivalry with Ali mellowed over time.  He was also awarded the Order of the Palmetto in his Beaufort, South Carolina birthplace in 2010.

As 'The Greatest' said about Frazier, we have lost a great champion.

Rest in peace 'Smokin' Joe'.
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Pan Am's Flying Again

But only on Sunday nights on ABC at 9 PM CT.

As a former airline employee, I was definitely looking forward to seeing this show when it started on September 25 but was tied up with other more pressing business in DC.  

Caught the tail end of the 'We'll Always Have Paris' episode last Sunday and finally took some time to sit down and watch the pilot and the full first episode and fell in love with the show.

Pan Am is set in 1963 and follows a group of Pan Am pilots and flight attendants as they live, love and work at 30,000 feet and on their layovers.  In some cases they are front line covert soldiers in the Cold War. 

It tells some of the story in flashback form, as it did in the pilot episode when we see Captain Dean Lowery flashback to a 1961 flight from Cuba in which they flew out the released Bay of Pigs invasion prisoners with Bridget showing up at the last moment.   There was another in which Laura is shown leaving her fiancé Greg at the altar on her wedding day with big sis Kate's help..  


We get to watch Maggie Ryan, sisters Kate and Laura Cameron, and Colette Valois endure all the hassles of being flight attendants during that glamorous era of jet travel such as weight checks, sexism, the no marriage rule and the joys and pains of dealing with the public such as drunken businessmen who think grabbing the flight attendant comes with the price of their ticket as happened to Maggie in the 'We'll Always Have Paris' episode .



Trilingual Kate finds herself being recruited as a covert intelligence operative while dealing with the fact her fresh out of training baby sister has become a celebrity due to a LIFE magazine shot of her in her Pan Am uniform.  

Maggie is on probation for not wearing a girdle and was reinstated when Bridget quit.  She isn't afraid to test the rules and her Pan Am supervisors last nerves. 

Colette is a French flight attendant with a tragic past that has yet to be revealed, but we do know from the pilot episode she discovers that a former lover of hers is on her New York to London flight with his wife and child.   

Oops.  Can you say awkward?

Captain Dean Lowrey is in love with his girlfriend Bridget Pierce, a British flight attendant who was the purser on his crew until she had her MI6 cover blown on an undercover assignment.in which she failed to follow orders and was forced to quit Pan Am and vacate her London flat. 

Dean is searching for her and is mystified as to what happened to her.   In his search for answers to the mystery,  he isn't getting any straight answer out of the people that can shed light on what happened to Bridget or her current whereabouts.

Interestingly enough, the Association of Flight Attendants released a statement after the Pan Am pilot episode aired:     

"The premiere episode of the new Pan Am drama on ABC may be a nostalgic escape to the days before deregulation, but it also highlighted the myriad of social injustices overcome by the strong women who shaped a new career. Weight checks, girdle checks, the no marriage rule, sexism, gender discrimination, racism – all of this was challenged by intelligent, visionary women who helped to usher in the call for social change throughout the country and around the world." 

That they did, and I have much love for the flight attendants of mine and any airline and what they had to endure during my Air Marshal days and now.

But I'm still going to chill out and watch this drama that gives us a glimpse of what pre-deregulated air travel was like on not only one of the iconic airlines in the United States, one that has a deep impact in our popular culture as well.  .