“Canton High Graduates 208”
The Canton Journal
Canton, MA, June 1964
— posted by Roger W. Smith
“Canton High Graduates 208”
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Tag Archives: Roger W. Smith
sophomoric
This story was told to me by my older brother. We both had the same outstanding English teacher in high school.
There was a student in our school, Canton High School in Canton, Massachusetts, named Kim Hubbard. His mother, known to us kids as Mrs. Hubbard, was the kindly and perpetually cheerful librarian at the circulation desk at the local library. She seemed to always accidentally on purpose not take note of the fact that a fine was required when a book was overdue.
Her son Kim was a student for a couple of years at a prep school before transferring to Canton High. He was in the graduating class one year ahead of my brother. I vaguely remember him as a high spirited, intelligent kid known for his sense of humor and penchant for acting zany to get a laugh.
For his first assignment in English class — as the story goes — Kim turned in a paper from his sophomore year at the prep school. I recall that my brother said that he got a C.
“This paper is rather sophomoric,” the teacher, Mr. Tighe, said.
— Roger W. Smith
May 2022
post updated; 50s and 60s songs
“Use of A-Bomb Condemned”
Glass, “Satyagraha”
I am posting here some of my favorite parts of Philip Glass’s opera Satyagraha (Sanskrit सत्याग्रह, satyāgraha “insistence on truth,” 1979).
Loosely based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, the opera comprises the second part of a trilogy of Glass operas including Einstein on the Beach and Akhnaten.
The title refers to Gandhi’s concept of nonviolent resistance to injustice, Satyagraha, and the text, from the Bhagavad Gita, is sung in the original Sanskrit.
I have known the piece, which I admire, since the early 1980s.
— posted by Roger W. Smith
March 2022
Monteverdi post updated
golden moments
I woke up late this morning and looked outside to see what the weather was like. Rain had been forecast. It was misty with a light drizzle.
Well, maybe I can go out for a walk, I thought. I was going to use the rain as a reason to make myself stay home and get things done. Our taxes, for example.
I have always liked overcast days. Cloudy skies. I seem to recall that my mother called them gray days.
It all goes back to a wonderful day I had when I was seven or eight years old. In Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was such a day. A gray day. Heavily blanketed skies. I forget what time of year. I believe autumn.
A big cardboard box had been left on the sidewalk. A box probably used for a refrigerator delivery. Another boy and I crawled inside, cut holes (probably) for “windows.” Pretended the box was our house. We played all afternoon. We had such fun together. Such a good time. We enjoyed so much playing TOGETHER.
I never saw this boy again. Cannot recall his name. Have no idea where he lived or why we never crossed paths again.
My wife understands completely. She called them golden moments. You have a wonderful romantic interlude for a day. “They don’t call back.”
But it’s a wonderful memory.
— Roger W. Smith
March 24, 2022
I would be very pleased were it said of me
“He [William Blake] was a man without a mask; his aim was single; his path straight-forwards and his wants few … His voice and manner were quiet, yet ALL AWAKE WiTH INTELLECT. … He was gentle and affectionate, loving to be with little children, and to talk about them.”
Samuel Palmer
— posted by Roger W. Smith
in a semi-inebriated state
from my favorite pub, NYC, March 19, 2022
with a nod to my mentor (the man who said that the life of the mind is “like breathing”) Dr. Ralph Colp Jr.
Thomas Tomkins
I am posting here a few selections by the Welsh composer Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656).
He is a new discovery for me.
— Roger W. Smith
March 2022
my comments on Ukraine
my Facebook comments re Ukraine invasion, February-June 2022
See attached Word document (above).
Glory to heroes. Thank you very much. Madam Speaker, members of the Congress, ladies and gentlemen, Americans, friends, I am proud to greet you from Ukraine, from our capital city of Kyiv, a city that is under missile and airstrikes from Russian troops every day. But it doesn’t give up, and we have not even thought about it for a second, just like many other cities and communities in our beautiful country, which found themselves in the worst war since World War II.
I have the honor to greet you on behalf of the Ukrainian people, brave and freedom-loving people who, for eight years, have been resisting the Russian aggression, those who give their best sons and daughters to stop this full-scale Russian invasion. Right now, the destiny of our country is being decided, the destiny of our people, whether Ukrainians will be free, whether they will be able to preserve their democracy.
Russia has attacked not just us, not just our land, not just our cities. It went on a brutal offensive against our values, basic human values. It threw tanks and planes against our freedom, against our right to live freely in our own country, choosing our own future, against our desire for happiness, against our national dreams, just like the same dreams you have, you Americans.
Just like anyone else in the United States, I remember your national memorial in Rushmore, the faces of your prominent presidents, those who laid the foundation of the United States of America as it is today: democracy, independence, freedom, and care for everyone, for every person, for everyone who works diligently, who lives honestly, who respects the law. We in Ukraine want the same for our people, all that is normal part of your own life.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FRIENDS, AMERICANS, IN YOUR GREAT HISTORY, YOU HAVE PAGES THAT WOULD ALLOW YOU TO UNDERSTAND UKRAINIANS, UNDERSTAND US NOW WHEN WE NEED YOU, RIGHT NOW. Remember Pearl Harbor, terrible morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you. Just remember it. Remember September the 11th, a terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to turn your cities, independent territories, in battlefields, when innocent people were attacked, attacked from air, yes. Just like no one else expected it, you could not stop it.
Our country experience the same every day., Right now at this moment, every night for three weeks now, various Ukrainian cities, Odessa and Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Sumy, Zhytomyr and Lviv, Mariupol and Dnipro, Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people. Russian troops have already fired nearly 1,000 missiles at Ukraine, countless bombs. They use drones to kill us with precision.
THIS IS A TERROR THAT EUROPE HAS NOT SEEN, HAS NOT SEEN FOR 80 YEARS, AND WE ARE ASKING FOR A REPLY, FOR AN ANSWER TO THIS TERROR FROM THE WHOLE WORLD. IS THIS A LOT TO ASK FOR, TO CREATE A NO-FLY ZONE OVER UKRAINE TO SAVE PEOPLE? IS THIS TOO MUCH TO ASK, HUMANITARIAN NO-FLY ZONE, SOMETHING THAT RUSSIA WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO TERRORIZE OUR FREE CITIES? If this is too much to ask, we offer an alternative.
You know what kind of defense systems we need, S-300 and other similar systems. You know how much depends on the battlefield, on the ability to use aircraft, powerful, strong aviation to protect our people, our freedom, our land, aircraft that can help Ukraine, help Europe. And you know that they exist and you have them, but they are on earth, not in the Ukrainian sky. They do not defend our people. I have a dream. These words are known to each of you today. I can say I have a need. I NEED TO PROTECT OUR SKY. I NEED YOUR DECISION, YOUR HELP, WHICH MEANS EXACTLY THE SAME, THE SAME YOU FEEL WHEN YOU HEAR THE WORDS, ‘I HAVE A DREAM.’
I AM GRATEFUL TO PRESIDENT BIDEN FOR HIS PERSONAL INVOLVEMENT, FOR HIS SINCERE COMMITMENT TO THE DEFENSE OF UKRAINE AND DEMOCRACY ALL OVER THE WORLD. I AM GRATEFUL TO YOU FOR THE RESOLUTION WHICH RECOGNIZES ALL THOSE WHO COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST UKRAINE, AGAINST THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE, AS WAR CRIMINALS. HOWEVER, NOW IT IS TRUE IN THE DARKEST TIME FOR OUR COUNTRY, FOR THE WHOLE OF EUROPE, I CALL ON YOU TO DO MORE. New packages of sanctions are needed constantly, every week, until the Russian military machine stops. Restrictions are needed for everyone on whom this unjust regime is based.
We propose that the United States sanctions all politicians in the Russian Federation who remain in their offices and do not cut ties with those who are responsible for the aggression against Ukraine, from State Duma’s members to the last official who has lack of morale to break this state terror. All Americans’ company must leave Russia from their market, leave their market immediately because it is flooded with our blood.
Ladies and gentlemen, members of Congress, please take the lead. If you have companies in your districts who finance the Russian military machine in Russia, you should put pressure. I’m asking to make sure that the Russians do not receive a single penny that they use to destroy people in Ukraine.
The destruction of our country, the destruction of Europe. All American ports should be closed for Russian goods. We — peace is more important than income and we have to defend this principle in the whole world. We already became part of the antiwar coalition — a big antiwar coalition that unites many countries, dozens of countries, those who reacted too in principle to President Putin’s decision to invade our country — but we need to move on and do more.
We need to create new tools to respond quickly and stop the war. The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24th. And it would be fair if it ended in a day, in 24 hours, that evil would be punished immediately. Today, the world does not have such tools. THE WAR OF THE PAST HAVE PROMPTED OUR PREDECESSORS TO CREATE INSTITUTIONS THAT SHOULD PROTECT US FROM WAR. BUT THEY UNFORTUNATELY DON’T WORK. We see it, you see it.
So we need new ones, new institutions, new alliances, and we offer them. We propose to create an association, U-24, United for Peace, a union of responsible countries that have the strength and consciousness to stop conflicts immediately, provide all the necessary assistance in 24 hours if necessary, even weapons, if necessary. Sanctions, humanitarian support, political support, finances, everything you need to keep the peace and quickly save the world, to save lives. In addition, such association, such union could provide assistance to those who are experiencing natural disasters, man-made disasters, who fell victims to humanitarian crisis, or epidemics.
REMEMBER HOW DIFFICULT IT WAS FOR THE WORLD TO DO THE SIMPLEST THING? Just to give vaccines, vaccines against Covid to save lives, to prevent new strains. The world spent months, years doing things like that much faster to make sure there are no human losses, no victims. Ladies and gentlemen, Americans, if such alliance would exist today that is U-24, we would be able to save thousands of lives in our country, in many countries of the world.
Those who need peace, those who suffer inhumane destruction. I ask you to watch one video — video of what the Russian troops did in our country, in our land. We have to stop it. We must prevent it, preventively destroy every single aggressor who seeks to subjugate other nations. Please watch the video.
AND IN THE END, TO SUM IT UP, TODAY — TODAY IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO BE THE LEADER OF THE NATION. TODAY IT TAKES TO BE THE LEADER OF THE WORLD, BEING THE LEADER OF THE WORLD MEANS TO BE THE LEADER OF PEACE. Peace in your country doesn’t depend anymore only on you and your people. It depends on those next to you and those who are strong. STRONG DOESN’T MEAN BIG. STRONG IS BRAVE AND READY TO FIGHT FOR THE LIFE OF HIS CITIZENS AND CITIZENS OF THE WORLD. For human rights, for freedom, for the right to live decently, and to die when your time comes, and not when it’s wanted by someone else, by your neighbor.
Today, the Ukrainian people are defending not only Ukraine, we are fighting for the values of Europe and the world, sacrificing our lives in the name of the future. That’s why today the American people are helping not just Ukraine, but Europe and the world to give the planet the life to keep justice in history. Now, I am almost 45 years old; today, my age stopped when the hearts of more than 100 children stopped beating. I see no sense in life if it cannot stop the deaths. And this is my main issue as the leader of my people, great Ukrainians.
AND AS THE LEADER OF MY NATION, I AM ADDRESSING THE PRESIDENT BIDEN, YOU ARE THE LEADER OF THE NATION, OF YOUR GREAT NATION. I WISH YOU TO BE THE LEADER OF THE WORLD; BEING THE LEADER OF THE WORLD MEANS TO BE THE LEADER OF PEACE. Thank you. Glory to Ukraine. Thank you for your support. Thank you.
— President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, address to a joint meeting of the House and Senate, March 16, 2022
— posted by Roger W, Smith
March 17, 2022; updated June 2022