The Sanguine Sixties

I remember where I was 12 years ago today. It was the middle of the day, and I was in the tv room at home for some reason, with the television on, which was unusual because I rarely watched it. CNN was on, and they announced that a new Pope had been chosen. I remember feeling underwhelmed. Even though we had arrived at this papal election by an unusual route--Pope Benedict's resignation--I thought it would probably be the same old thing. Pope Benedict was a fine scholar, who was the chair of the committee that wrote the Catechism of the Catholic Church, but I'm not sure he ever wanted to be Pope. Anyway, my expectations were pretty low but I thought I'd watch to see who the new Bishop of Rome would be. Almost immediately, I was surprised. I don't remember them saying his name, but they reported that the new pope was the first from South America. That got my attention. Then, they said that he was a Jesuit and that there had never been a Jesuit pope. Now, I was really sit...

  Today on the campus of Bradley University a statue was dedicated to Major Robert H. Lawrence, Jr. Class of 1956. In 1967, Major Lawrence was the first African-American, selected for the Air Force's Manned Orbital Laboratory program. Robert Lawrence came to Bradley from Englewood Technical Preparatory Academy in Chicago. He majored in chemistry, served as Cadet Commander in the Air Force ROTC, belonged to Omega Psi Phi fraternity, and graduated at the age of 16.  After he graduated from Bradley, Robert became a U.S. Air Force pilot. In 1965, he earned a PhD in physical chemistry from Ohio State University.                                                                                    Peoria mayor Rita Ali and other dignitaries spoke at the statue dedication. Here is...

Above is a photo of Eugene Russell, an employee and friend of Moses Pettengill, a Peorian active in the abolitionist movement. Here is some information about Eugene from a Peoria Magazine article written by Barbara Meyn. Eugene Russell was a former slave in Louisiana who had been a servant to a rebel officer before falling into the hands of the Union Army. Moses hired him in 1864 to work on the Moss Avenue property with the understanding that he should have one hour each day to study, beginning with Webster’s American Spelling Book. Eugene stayed on for about two years and afterwards, would return to the Pettengill house for supper with the family. He later moved to Washington DC, where he attended Howard University. I initially learned about Eugene Russell from a Peoria Historical Society lecture on Peoria's role in the Underground Railroad. Moses Pettengill was a prominent Peoria abolitionist and helped runaway slaves. He met and befriended Eugene. Lots of unanswered questions ab...

It's Black History Month, which is still a thing and even more needed now with the great opposition to teaching much of our history. What are we so afraid of? Why don't we want to know the truth of our past? Interesting questions to ponder.  Some of the schools in Peoria had the above sign displayed on their marquees this month. Celebrating resilience. This sentence struck me as I don't think of resilience as something to be celebrated. What does resilience mean? According to the dictionary, resilience is "the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties." Ugh, I hate difficulties and relative to much of the world, I've had very few of them. Even so, I view resilience as a necessary evil, a quality developed to respond to hard, challenging times. It's cultivated through gritted teeth in tough predicaments, which often seem like they defeat us. Maybe like the people who don't want to learn our history, warts and all, I don't want to...

I met my friend Jeanie Gorman freshman year in our homeroom class. I was the first kid in my family to go to high school and awkward and shy to boot. I remember that first day, looking at Jean, several rows over and how her smile took in the entire classroom. She laughed and joked, and everyone was in on it. "This," I thought, "is someone I want to be friends with." And, lucky me, I was for the rest of my life. Our high school years were fun, but when I really got to know Jeanie was after I graduated from college and returned to Peoria. We were roommates for seven years and during that time, I got to appreciate the full impact of Jean's gifts, one being her love of singing. She had a beautiful voice and sang at many weddings and funerals. She seemed to know the words to every song ever written. It was an amazing talent and with her lovely propensity to break out into song at any moment--"Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,"-- living with her wa...

My favorite author, David Lodge, died on January 1, 2025. Below is an essay I wrote about him. He would have turned 90 years old today. David Lodge 1935-2025 In Memorium   I have never understood why certain things aren’t more popular: the music of the Bodeans, living in medium-sized Midwestern cities, and the novels of David Lodge. In the case of Lodge’s books, ever since I fortuitously pulled How Far Can You Go? off the shelf of the Peoria Public Library some 35 years ago, his novels have been one of the great joys of my reading life. Funny, accessible, edifying—they hit every sweet spot I have as a reader.   So it was with sadness that I learned from the NY Times (buried many articles down in the book section) that Mr. Lodge died on January 1, 2025, a few weeks shy of his 90 th birthday. Besides writing novels, short stories, essays, and criticism. Mr. Lodge also taught from 1960 to 1987 in the English department at the University of Birmingham in England before he retired ...