Five Cities, Six Take Offs and Six Landings and No Ordinary Time – Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Last Wednesday I visited six cities on Southwest Airlines. I was I accompanying my sister home from Cleveland where she had a successful revision to her ten year old hip replacement.  We flew from Cleveland to Chicago, to St. Louis, to Tulsa where I dropped her off. Then I flew on on to Phoenix and finally home  to Reno.

I had lots of time to read as we puddle jumped across the U.S. I finished the last 200+ pages of No Ordinary Time – Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II by Doris Kearns Goodwin. What a great book!

The book provided several learnings and surprises for me. I realized how ignorant I am about the history of prejudice in this country. Although I knew that segregation and racial prejudice were prevalent in the 1940’s, I did not really appreciate how bad it was. Black men were only allowed to enlist in the Navy as mess men. In the Army black soldiers were not allowed to fight. Segregation and terrible conditions were the norm. Goodwin summarizes the progress made during the war. “Between 1940 and 1945 the Negro Military Force had increased in size from 5,000 to 920,000 and the number of Negro officers had grown from 5 to over 7,000. Moreover, whereas almost every Negro soldier in 1940 was confined to a service unit, by war’s close Negroes held responsible jobs in almost every branch of the army as artillerymen, tankmen, infantrymen,  pilots, paratroopers, doctors and more.” When I realize that the young African American men who were being treated so badly as second class citizens during World War II were the peers of my father it gives me some small window of empathy for the feelings that African Americans of my fathers generation must have. I could certainly understand bitterness. It certainly makes me ashamed of our country’s history.

No Ordinary Time also gave me a lot of insight into the strengths and weaknesses of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and their relationship. I knew FDR was a great leader. I certainly didn’t realize that the war in Europe didn’t even start until the very end of his second term. I had some understanding of what an extraordinary woman Eleanor was but I had no idea how hard she worked and what a large contribution she made both to the war effort and to FDR’s success.

Eleanor published a newspaper column  “My Day”  from 1935 to 1962. She wrote the column consistently six days a week. When I think of how I can’t even manage to write a blog a day it impresses me that she published 400 words every day and never missed a day except for 4 days when FDR died. She was a blogger ahead of her time .

Will Obama build a team of Rivals?

Not too long ago I heard Obama talk about the Doris Kearns Goodwin book Team of Rivals. Recently I read Team of Rivals and loved it. I bet Obama will follow Lincoln's example and bring his rival Clinton into his cabinet. As I was preparing to write this post I Googled Obama and "Team of Rivals" and discovered that my prediction is not an original one. Among others Andrew Sullivan, who publishes The Daily Dish wrote about the same idea.

The Humbug Trail at Malakoff Diggins State Historic paek – The Sierra Canyon Hiking Group Thursday Hike

Last Thursday seven of us from the Sierra Canyon Hiking Group went to Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park in California and hiked the humbug trial down Humbug Creek to the Yuba River.  It took us about two hours to get to the park from Reno.

From the park brochure I learned that Malakoff Diggins was the largest
and richest hydraulic gold mine in the world. Gold was discovered there
in 1851 and hydraulic mining began in 1853. Millions of dollars worth
of gold were recovered and 41 million cubic yards of earth were
excavated leaving an open pit over a mile long and up to 600 feet deep.

The hike was beautiful. We went down about 1000 feet and 2.5 miles to the Yuba River, had lunch by the river, and then climbed back up again. Afterward we stopped for a few minutes at the park headquarters where they have rebuilt the old gold mining town of North Bloomfield.

Marion at Yuba River 5-29-08 
Yuba river 5-29-08

I Shook John McCain’s Hand

 Last week I found out that John McCain was going to be in Reno on Wednesday and was doing a town hall meeting. I went and thoroughly enjoyed it. I even got to shake his hand.

I had to wait about 30 minutes to get into the Boy's and Girl's club where the town hall meeting was being held but I think pretty much everyone who wanted to did get in. There were about 600 people there. Before he came out they had all the Republican elected officials and candidates go behind the curtain, I assume to have their pictures taken with McCain. McCain was introduced by Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina. I wonder if he might be the vice presidential candidate.

McCain spoke for a few minutes before he started taking questions. It was interesting that the two subjects he chose to speak about were pork barrel spending and the war. He had a list of things from the farm bill and the latest emergency appropriations bill that  he used as examples of waste. He said he would veto bills containing wasteful spending. The list included things like 215 million for asparagus growers, 93 million for race horses, and 75 million for commercial fisheries. He said that Republicans allowed spending to get completely out of control and that Obama wants to continue more of the same.

On the war he said that  Obama has only been to Iraq once and won't sit down and talk to General Petraeus. He said that Obama wants to sit down and talk to the leader of Iran but not to General Petraeus. It has always seemed to me that a Presidential candidate going to Iraq is a lot of work for the military with questionable return on investment. But I suppose that hearing form the troops that are on the ground in Iraq is worthwhile. McCain gave an example. He said he knew that we were in trouble in Iraq right after the invasion when he visited Iraq. He said many soldiers came up to him and stressed the need for more troops.

After his brief speech McCain took questions. It is easy to see why he likes the town hall format. He is very good at engaging with people and answering their questions. When asked about increasing the use of nuclear power he pointed out hat he is a straight talker. He said that in Iowa he told the farmers that he is against Ethanol subsidies and although it may be unpopular in Nevada, he is in favor of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain. John McCain does a very good job of building trust. I think that the fact that people believe they can trust him to be honest with the American people will be one of the main reasons that people vote for him.

There were a wide variety of questions. About health care for the working poor McCain emphasized his belief that the government should stay out of people's choices about health care. He said he favors giving people a $5000 annual tax credit for health insurance.

McCain was full of humorous quips. At one point he pointed out that France currently has a pro American president. McCain said it just shows that if you live long enough anything can happen.

Since the event I have been trying to synthesize my take aways from seeing McCain in person. I do trust him. I do believe that he would make a strong president and would not take us to war capriciously. I do worry a bit that Obama might be a weak president like Jimmy Carter.

McCain is quite low key which means he doesn't really build up excitement and enthusiasm in a crowd. But maybe that can work to his advantage. He has a realness that is appealing.

I do worry that McCain would be bad for the country economically. He certainly did nothing  in the town hall meeting to demonstrate his economic credentials.

All in all I am really glad I went. I still haven't decided who I am going to vote for in November but I feel better informed and I had a lot of fun. Oh, and now I can say I shook John McCain's hand. All I had to do was walk over to the ropes by where he was going to walk out and when he walked by I just stuck out my hand.

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Sierra Canyon Hiking Group Monday Hike East of Reno

Duke and I hiked with the Sierra Canyon hiking group on Monday for the first time in over a month. The group has done quite a bit of hiking east of Reno but this was our first hike in that area. It was also the first time I have been the only woman on a hike. Usually the women outnumber the men but on this hike there were six men and me. We started just a little bit north of the Mustang exit off of Interstate highway 80 (exit 23). and hiked about 2.5 miles up a dirt road to some towers with a great view of Reno. It was a cool and rainy day, really a perfect day for hiking. The elevation gain was 1100 feet so it was a good workout. If you would like to see all of the pictures from the hike you can see them on Flickr here.
Hiking at Mustang 5-26-2008 011