History of the Day: 11/5

Happy 67th birthday to Art Garfunkel, the less talented other of Paul Simon. Although his split from his former, musical partner pretty much spelled the end of his career, he is worth remembering for his songs All I Know and Bright Eyes (from the soundtrack of Watership Down, the creepiest children's movie of all time), and for his attempt to parody Don King's hairstyle.

Tonight is Guy Fawkes night in remembrance of the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot, when those crazy Catholics tried to blow up Parliament in 1605.

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I can think of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.

On this day in 1831, Nat Turner; another revolutionary who attempted to change the system; was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. Sadaam Hussein, former president of Iraq (who was assisted in the takeover of his own country by the Kennedy administration), was also sentenced to death on this day in 2006.

Ida Tarbell was born on this day in 1857. She is one of the greatest of the muckrakers, late 19th. c. investigative journalists who attempted to expose corruption and, thus, change their system. The work for which she is primarily known is The History of the Standard Oil Company, which exposed the trust run by John D. Rockefeller (although I prefer The Business of Being a Woman). We can look at how small, diminished and powerless modern oil companies have become to see her long-term effects.

Hmmmm ... let's see ... big oil, regime change, revolutionaries, and celebrations ... this means something ...

Ah, yes, and congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama and the DNC for, as my students would put it, "beasting" McCain and the RNC. Obama won the election by at least 200 electoral college votes (although three states, including NC, haven't been tallied yet). It just goes to show that anyone can become president, especially when the incumbent party is led by one of the least popular presidents of all time, the economy is in the toilet, and you are able to outspend your opponent by over 200 million dollars. In the words of Bruce Springsteen:

Ain't that America?

As a student of history, I must say I am excited to see how future textbooks will minimize and trivialize the significance of the last decade, this election and the coming years. I am reminded of the Chinese blessing/curse *:

May you live in interesting times.
May you come to the attention of those in authority.
May you find what you are looking for.

Now, the Democrats have what they have wanted for a while, the Mandate of the People and control of the House, Senate and White House (as well as a majority of governorships). Fortunately for them, they do not quite have a filibuster-proof majority, so they still have someone to blame when it turns out they can't fix the country after all. It was up to us all along.

So, I really congratulate the people of the United States for another (relatively) bloodless coup. We've overthrown the government yet again and put something, while remarkably similar, still a little different in its place. And that, at least, is something to be celebrated. I leave you with Walt Whitman's poem Election Day, November, 1884:

If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,
’Twould not be you, Niagara—nor you, ye limitless prairies—nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,
Nor you, Yosemite—nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,
Nor Oregon’s white cones—nor Huron’s belt of mighty lakes—nor Mississippi’s stream:
—This seething hemisphere’s humanity, as now, I’d name—the still small voice vibrating—America’s choosing day,
(The heart of it not in the chosen—the act itself the main, the quadrennial choosing,)
The stretch of North and South arous’d-sea-board and inland-Texas to Maine—the Prairie States—Vermont, Virginia, California,
The final ballot-shower from East to West—the paradox and conflict,
The countless snow-flakes falling—(a swordless conflict,
Yet more than all Rome’s wars of old, or modern Napoleon’s:) the peaceful choice of all,
Or good or ill humanity—welcoming the darker odds, the dross:
—Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify—while the heart pants, life glows:
These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,
Swell’d Washington’s, Jefferson’s, Lincoln’s sails.

* This exact quote isn't found anywhere in China. The closest approximations are the following proverbs:

时势造英雄 (shi shi zao ying xiong)
- Heroes/leaders are made over turbulent times.

and

寧為太平犬，不做亂世人 (ning wei taiping quan, bu zuo luanshi ren)
- It is better to be a dog in a peaceful time than be a man in a chaotic period.