Freedom of Expression

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A few years ago, in Salem, Oregon, there was a late night cable access television program where the host could be seen dancing nude and even defecating on camera. His actions, however offensive, were expressions of art and protected from censorship.

Within each of us is an vast potential for individualized creative expression. We all have a choice of how we manifest our expressions, our art.

Under the umbrella of art, comes a plethora of expressions: paintings, from oils to illustrations; music, both composition and performance; literature, with its story and poetry; film and theater with its drama and comedy and form, from sculpture to carvings, but the most important expression of all is appreciation of things beautiful.

Perhaps there ought to be a litany of requirements that before anyone may use the public airwaves to express prurient, voyeuristic and lewd creations as art, they must first demonstrate a knowledge and appreciation of the other arts that express the beauty and grace of humankind.

It Could Have Been Madam President

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Some thoughts on Victoria Woodhull.

She comes to mind because this is a presidential election year and Hillery Clinton is seeking her party’s nomination as its candidate. Victoria Woodhull, however, was the first woman to run for President of the United States.

The time was 1872. Victoria Claflin Woodhull was already famous. She was born into a family of hypnotists, spiritualist’s and medical eccentrics. She gained some fame when she and her sister charmed Commodore Vanderbilt with their spiritualists powers. He became their investment counselor and the Woodhull’s made a lot of money in the market.

Victoria lectured and joined her sister in publishing a weekly newspaper where she informed her readers she was destined for public office.

She formed the Equal Rights Party and cast herself to run for president.

Her campaign platform was probably her undoing. She advocated free love.

A group of New Yorkers, upset over her constant attacks on the sanctity of the family got together to drive her from the city. She spent more time fighting eviction than campaigning and lost the election.

Eventually ill health and finances brought her political career to a close. Victoria Woodhull went to England and married a prominent British banker.

Kruschchev then and now.

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Some thoughts on how things change.

When I was a teenager in the late 1950’s, there was the pervasive fear of nuclear war with the then Soviet Union. All across our nation, cities and villages designated public places as fallout shelters and stockpiled them with water and food. Civil Defense directors were appointed to oversee and plan for survival after a nuclear war.

Individuals prepared for the worst by constructing home shelters and conducting family drills in what to do in case of a nuclear emergency. Our radio’s had special spots on the dial for people to tune to for information. Radio stations would test the system periodically by playing an alert tone and saying, “if this had been an actual emergency listeners were instructed to tune to 640 or 1240 on the radio dial for emergency information.”

The Soviet leader behind most of this fear was Nikita Khrushchev. A hard communist, who once told America, “ we will bury you.” Meaning communism will dominate democracy.

Nikita Khrushchev had a son named Sergai. He is a distinguished professor at Brown University in Rhode Island and is now an American citizen.

Rumors of a woman Pope

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Pope John the VIII or was it Pope Joan?

Nobody knows if it’s a true story, but during the later part of the 13th century it was believed to be fact. It all happened hundreds of years before that, so its hard to tell truth from fiction.

There was a person who became Pope John VIII and supposedly ruled the Church for over two years from 855 to 858. It was a relatively short papacy and was first mention by Mariano Scoto, a Benedictine monk in a document called the Chronicon. In his writing he mentions the rumor of a woman pope, by the name of Joan who reigned for two years, five months and four days.

The next time, in historical writings, that Joan is mentioned is nearly a hundred years later by another Benedictine monk, Sigiberto of Gembloux. He writes in a work called Chronographia: “It is quite well known that this John was a woman and…having become heavy with child gave birth while she was pope”.

The legend of a woman pope states that her name was Joan and an Englishwoman, born in Mainz, now in West Germany. She apparently fell in love with an English Benedictine monk and dressing as a man went with him to Athens where she studied and became highly educated. The story says from there, she moved to Rome, impressed the Roman Curia with her wit and wisdom and was named a cardinal and then elected Pope.

Supposedly during a papal procession she gave birth and died and was buried on the spot.

For centuries the church has denied there ever was a woman pope and has supplied numerous documents to refute the rumor, but still it persists.