Happy New Year to all

Motherdear: You must be joking. But thank you just the same. Good to hear from you.

I must say that the end of 2005 has left me more or less speechless. What more can one say about the runaway criminality of the Bush/Cheney administration, the rampant corruption in our current political system, the unspeakable horrors of Bush's totally unnecessary and immoral "war" in Iraq, the suffering of the victims of Katrina apparently now more or less abandoned by the administration, the secrecy and constant stonewalling and lies of Bush/Cheney and their cronies, the very near fascist takeover of the United States, and the shame of the current administration in the eyes of the entire world? Justin Raimondo has said that 2006 will be a year of revelations. I hope so. But I sincerely hope we can go a lot further than mere revelations. How about some real jail time? Some justice?

When I was a boy my father (may he rest in peace) never received anything for Christmas other than Lucky Strike cigarettes and neckties. Now that I am old and no longer either smoke or wear neckties all I receive are socks and books. One of the books I received (that I asked for) which I have now read is a biography of Stepin Fetchit (Lincoln Perry) by Mel Watkins. Most of you probably don't even remember Stepin Fetchit. I only remember him as a minor character actor who portrayed "the laziest man in the world." He was, of course, a shiftless, lazy "darky" who bumbled and created a notorious black stereotype. He was also, I learned, an accomplished dancer. As his career began in silent pictures and then continued on for a time with "talkies" I confess I did not see much of them or him. I was not aware, for example, that he was in fact a genuine "star" right up there with W.C.Fields and Charlie Chaplin. He was for a time the highest paid black performer in the U.S. (no doubt the world), had a huge following, owned a fleet of expensive cars, thousand dollar suits, and promoted himself shamelessly. He was a good friend of Jack Johnson and later of Muhammed Ali. Of course as the civil rights movement began to develop and naturally took an extremely dim view of his characterization of blacks his star faded. He kind of faded away and died broke. Watkins, who did not have a lot of information to work from, has done a very credible job. If you have any interest in the early years of Hollywood, and especially of the treatment of black entertainers at that time, I think you would enjoy this book.

Let us all look forward to a much better year. So Happy New Year to everyone. Be of good cheer and hope for the best.