I was reading a column by George Will in the Washington Post about the use of the name Redskins by the Washington NFL football team. One of his points was quite poignant to me because I plan to put out posts next week about the Boston Globe’s attack against Mayor Marty Walsh over the issue of diversity on his staff.
George Will wrote: “The federal agency [U.S. Patent and Trademark Office] acted in the absence of general or Native American revulsion about “Redskins,” and probably because of this absence. Are the Americans who are paying attention to this controversy comfortable with government saying, in effect, that if people are not offended, they should be, so government must decide what uses of language should be punished?” (my emphasis)
I’ll paraphrase Mr Will in posing my question: “Are we comfortable with the Boston Globe’s mau mauing of Mayor Walsh because there is not perfect diversity among his staff and in his hiring policies after he has been in office less than a half year and more so by it suggesting to the people who are most interested in diversity and who are not bothered by the Mayor’s efforts to date that they should be offended by them.”
I also plan to discuss the globbering of Patricia Campatelli. Her matter is the prototypical example of how the Globe performs globbering. It has been doing this for many years. Its act is like one of those old vaudeville acts performed at the Old Howard in Scollay Square. (The article about the Old Howard is delightful. It is well worth reading if the name Rose la rose means anything to you. So also is the one about Scollay Square.)
A vaudeville act is repeated over and over again with the strict sameness. After watching the act a few times repeat customers know what to expect, the jokes get stale, they tire of them and the hook comes out. The Globe’s act is a similar in one respect since it has long ago worn thin to those aware of it. Yet the hook never comes because it is not there to entertain us but to rile us up.
Unlike the vaudeville acts which were motivated by fun where no one was damaged and all knew that the offerings were put out there for everyone’s pleasure or titillation the Globe acts otherwise..
The Globe is a different sort of villain than the vaudevillian. Its act is quite serious. It is designed to filch reputations, destroy livelihoods, and sic prosecutors against a person out of favor. The articles on Campatellli will be here in Monday and Tuesday’s first edition.
The other subject relating to Mayor Walsh will be here for the afternoon edition through Wednesday and over on the Hub Gab site. It will discuss the return to the Globe of its ancient bias against an inner city Irish politician. Some suggest that bias could no longer exists because there are some Irish in somewhat prominent positions on that paper. When I hear that I recall one of the few conversations I had with my grandfather Pa Connolly.
I was going on how the WASPS were really cruel to the Irish immigrants. Having come over to the U.S. from Connemara he could speak from experience. He corrected me. He said: “the worst people to the Irish were the Irish.” In recent years that was made clear by Judge W. Arthur Garrity, a Boston Globe favorite, who had a great animus toward the Irish of South Boston. In his rashness he instituted a mindless busing system of the students of working class Boston families. The adverse effects of his rulings can still be felt 40 years later.
I’d have to suggest that the anti-Irish attitude of the Globe toward the descendants of the immigrant Irish is so much a part of its DNA that it may never be washed away. Like a hidden disease in a body, it lurks in dark corners until the right moment to come out.
Yet those Rock and Roll fans who remember the song “Henry Got Flat Feet” know that it came out in response to the song “You Gotta Dance With Me Henry” They might see some hope in that Henry has now taken over the Globe. This might be in response to that destructive DNA. Perhaps he might be able to chase out.
So as we lead up to our national holiday you may enjoy tuning in here so that you will be prepared with ammunition for the 4th of July festivities.
Matt, I thought it would be grand if someone tracked Globe and Herald Reporters they way they spy on, track and attempt to ruin others. So, we’d get let’s say 10 volunteers to act as Private Detectives and dig up dirt on Lehr, his family, his relatives working as hacks, any illicit drug use or illicit gambling, any extra marital affairs; we’d to the same for Howard the corrupt fatso Carr; then we’d do what the Globe, Carr, Gelzinis have done in past; We’ll trail their wives, children,brothers and publish dirt on them. Then we’ll get some crazy DA to indict Carr (let’s say hypothetically we find he deliberately lied, i.e., covered up facts about John Martorano’s murder of Eddie Connors or Tony Veranis; that is, lets hypothesize that Carr is a remote accessory after the fact to murder: e.g. he swept his hard drive clean of Interview Materials with Jim Martorano John Martorano Kevin Weeks Pat Nee and others. So we get out corrupt DA or corrupt Federal prosecutor to indict Carr. Gelzinis, Jacoby, Lehr, O’Neil, Cullen on some trumped up or thin ice Charges, and we let the FEDs or State Prosecutors take five years to prosecute them, which causes them all to go bankrupt, and then after their serving their 10 year prison sentences, their lives destroyed, bankrupt because some jury believed they “lied to an FBI agent about whether they swam in the Cully”; then we or our hypothetical trackers, our “Spot On Spotlight Team” will play Bob Dylan’s song, “How does it feel?”
Matt, I promise no more long comments. Or at least until Mr. T. authorizes me, on a case by case basis, to occasionally divulge info in a long-form Memo. 2. I was Marty Walsh last night at City Hall Plaza: He said, “This is my first international event since I became Mayor. Let me introduce the persons responsible: For the Galway boxing clubs, Padraic Foley; for the South Boston, Dorchester, Greater Boston boxing clubs Mr. Peter Welsh.” We then say 10+ great fights, 90lbs to heavyweights. I connected with my old L-Street Gang, Curt Lee, ex-Boston cop, partner of my BC High classmate, John Mackin, and Frankie Hogan, retired Boston Firemen, whose two grandsons (two of his half-dozen grandchildren) were boxers: one won, the younger one lost, but it was actually a draw, the refs seemed to favor the Galway Boys, who were, in fact, slightly better fighters, pound per pound. Curt and Hogan and Paul X told me John Martorano no longer goes down L-Street, so I’ll be going back there. When words spread of that fact, the audience went wild. 2. Marty Walsh announced that his Mom and Dad (deceased) were from Galway. 3. When Police commissioner Billy Evans spoke to the good size crowd, the first thing he said was, “My folks are from Sligo.” Then he finished by turning to the 10 or 14 Galway fighters and said, “I hope you win; I hope you lose.”
The crest of the arm holding the sword is not really threatening the Indian on the shield. It is an separate design element signifying the militia of Massachusetts found in the shoulder patch of the Massachusetts National Guard Headquarters and on the crests of Massachusetts National Guard units. It is also found at the top of the badges of various Massachusetts city and town police in addition to the Great Seal of Massachusetts or the city or town seal.
http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Catalog/HeraldryMulti.aspx?CategoryId=5818&grp=2&menu=Uniformed%20Services
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_National_Guard
http://www.epolicesupply.com/police-badges/state-badges/massachusetts/blackinton-model-b587.html
http://image.spreadshirt.com/image-server/v1/designs/12429866,width=178,height=178/Marlborough-MA-Police-Badge.png
http://rlv.zcache.com/quincy_massachusetts_police_badge_round_stickers-ra31398a0d3da4fef8545490a85968569_v9waf_8byvr_152.jpg
The end of this .pdf has a proposed revised Great Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:
http://www.tmealf.com/ICV-23.pdf
Ed:
Enjoyed your two comments. I have lived in Massachusetts all my life and must have seen the seal a thousand times I could not have described it if asked. I’m surprised that there is an indian in it although I shouldn’t have been. And as for the arm above the shield with a sword, I had not noticed it. In others words it has no impact on my life and I’m surprised others think it is somewhat offensive.
Rather than offensive it seems to me it is complementary to the indians in that it recognizes their status in the state prior to its takeover by the settlers. People don’t put into seals things they disdain. But some would say not being an indian I can’t have an opinion on that.
So I have to imagine that an Irishman is in the seal. If he were, or even if it were an Irishwoman to keep with the tenor of the times, I think I would be pleased. But I do recognize too many of the original settlers and their descendants as well as all those sons and daughters of the Mayflower would rise up from their graves in outrage if someone suggested the state recognize an Irisman even if it is to but him at jeopardy of being beheaded.
I will admit if there is any state where a group could find a remedy to their hurt feelings it is in Massachusetts. But why are they starting with the seal? Why not start with the name Massachusetts. Isn’t that also an Algonquin word which everytime it is spoken may brings back memories to some of the way in which the original inhabitants of the state were treated by the settlers. Such trauma should not stand. Let’s change that first.
As for the seal if it is interpreted as representing an original settler with a sword ready to strike the peaceful indian I recommend that it be changed. Each year the legislature should vote upon who to put in it. Back in the 1940’s we could have a Nazi or Japanese soldier standing there. Now we can have a Muslim terrorist. Or perhaps a member of the Tea Party.
Thanks for commenting.
Should we now expect the Massachusetts Legislature to expunge “Sapphire the Indian” from the Great Seal of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, where some say the sword-wielding arm of Myles Standish is prepared to behead the peaceful Indian?
http://www.americanheraldry.org/pages/index.php?n=State.Massachusetts
http://www.manataka.org/page2763.html
“Sapphire” refers to the azure color of the blue field, not the name of the Indian.
Happy 4th to all!
Mr. C., hope you’re enjoying the shade and cool breezes like those near Boston . Looking forward to your posts of the next few days as a means of distraction from the coming heat and humidity !
There may be nothing that you write that’s more valuable than that the writings and other output of The Boston Globe (and, by extension, other members of Big Media) deserve much skepticism (at a minimum) and a ton of persistent scrutiny (much like what the Globe Spotlight Team does).
GOK:
Thanks for your hope but my back is out so I’m stuck inside for a few days but I don’t begrudge others from enjoying the fine weather. You’re right about the need to point to things that the Globe is doing since it seems to have this wide field over which to run and no one in the media seems to suggest that perhaps it is wrong or it is doing somethng for other than the proper motives.
I’m really amazed that unless I got involved more deeply in the Whitey matters that I had no idea of the way in which it operated to destroy people, those I call POOF, and the manner in which it builds up a case against the person by repetition, innuendo and rumor to the point everyone accepts the Globe’s conclusion without scrutinizing the basis for it; and when I say everyone I mean prosecutors and the courts.
Thanks for the nice words and coming around once in while. I hope you too have a nice 4th of July.