Proto-Idiotarian
Thursday, January 19, 2006 at 04:43PM In a weak moment I allowed the other adult in this household to change the channel during a commercial. This must be one of the most common forms of marital interaction in the America of the 21st century. As a sign of my enduring affection, I handed him the remote and patted his hand and said, "Watch whatever you want, honey." And then I shut my eyes and prepared to doze. First, my ears recognized the digitized voice of the weather guy, "...cla-oudy and fifty-EIGHT degrees.." This went on through the whole five day forecast. Then the channel changed and a familiar voice began to intone a narrative about "Roosevelt." It could have been the History Channel but the voice was not the History Channel Voice. It was the PBS Voice. You know the one. There could be six different guys doing the narration for Frontline, The American Experience, or whatever. But they are all trained to maintain the cadence, balanced, no real inflection, certainly no outright emotion, just a knowledgeable interest is betrayed by the carefully modulated voice over.
I didn't even bother to open my eyes. I was just going to breathe deeply and go to my happy place, far, far away from PBS and The American Experience. I hadn't been paying attention to the ads, so I didn't know which American was having the experience this week. Then The Voice said something that made me flip over (OK, you may as well know: I was in bed. Fully clothed. Get your minds back where they belong.) and slap on my glasses. It was something about Eleanor. About her loneliness. Something about the war and her worry about her sons. It's a girl thing, not a political thing. Anyway, I thought I would hang on through the A.E. retelling of Eleanor's travails during World War II and see if it got interesting. Did it ever.
When I was a little kid, I read a biography about Eleanor Roosevelt, but truth be told, I've never really focussed on her. I remember that the book talked at length about how lonely she was. I remember that my parents' opinion of her was not high, to put it mildly, but she never loomed large as a public figure in my mind. She was, after all, a former First Lady, not the President. In my mind, I guess, she was at the fringe of influence in many ways. All this stuff I was sifting through in the moth-eaten database that is my brain as the tube flashed pictures of that famously homely face. Soon, the voice began talking of Eleanor's interest in the American Youth Congress.
Aside: Aren't there just some words or combination of words that scream Leftist? Congress isn't Lefitst but Youth Congress certainly is. Often, anything with the word "coalition" is, too. Of course, United People's Coalition for Peace/A Living Wage/ The Advancement of Workers of the Earth, etc. Just has that ring to it.
I was all ears. The Voice talked about her interest in it and her support of the representatives from AYC who were called before the Dies Committee in Congress (ours, not theirs, also known as HUAC) to testify as to whether or not they were Communists. To the best of my recollection the voice said, "Some thought that the group had connections to the Communist Party." Those who are fluent in PBS-speak can readily translate: "It was widely known that AYC was a Communist front organization." Her support included the fact that she had six of these folks stay at the White House while they were testifying before Congress. [I am agog at this point: I know nothing about the AYC, but the idea that the First Lady would stick her neck out in this way seemed amazing on its face.]
There is then a brief digression in the story line about Eleanor's lack of friends. We are painted a picture of a woman who was very shy, very much out of place with ordinary company, and not close to her husband, who, in any event, was otherwise engaged in saving Europe and sending millions of Americans into battle. But, thanks to her association, her patronage of the AYC, she found a friend, a very close friend, one Joe Lash. In AE's rendition, various people shared their reminiscences of the quality of this friendship, these two were by all accounts "soul mates." They were interested in the same things, they saw the world the same way, they just really enjoyed one another's company.
OK, I'll buy that. Then, through one thing and another, the thirty-something Lash found himself stationed in Illinois when this erstwhile peace activist was finally pressed into military service. Eleanor went to visit him. She stayed at a hotel. She booked a (separate) room for him so that their visit wouldn't be inconvenienced by the necessity for him to go back to base. She couldn't sleep. She invited him to chit chat the night away 'cause he was having trouble sleeping, too. So he sat up and gabbed with El 'cause that was the way they were.
People actually got in front of cameras and said this.
In part, we know all of this because J. Edgar Hoover (and military intelligence) had everything tapped and bugged up the wazoo because (a) Hoover hated Eleanor Roosevelt and (b) he thought that Joe Lash was a subversive. This practice was curtailed when the First Lady found out and complained to the President.
I was stunned. This was really outrageous. What an abuse of power. And talk about endangering constitutional liberties and all motivated by personal feelings...
At this point in the narrative we are treated to a montage, verbal and pictorial, of Eleanor's progressive causes, including her stand on racial equality.
I turned off the TV. My mind was abuzz. This is more or less what I was thinking: all of this was taking place right about the time that Whittaker Chambers confided in and provided proof to a high-level administration official of the depth and extent to which the Communists (Soviet spies) had infiltrated the State Department. This person believed him and had President Roosevelt's ear. Subsequent events proved that Mr. Chambers' warnings were completely and utterly disregarded, as Alger Hiss appeared at the President's elbow at Yalta. So while Ellie is having sleep overs with the boys and girls of of the AYC, the president was providing ample coverage for the card-carriers in the government.
Just for fun, wander over to the Wikipedia entries on the American Youth Congress, Joe Lash's wife Trude, whom he married in 1944, and HUAC. What you will read will make you, at the very least, retch any and every time you hear the name Eleanor Roosevelt. She took "dangerously naive" to new levels. It is mind-numbing what a huge security risk she posed because she was basically an emotional case.
It is difficult to justify the pervasiveness of the myths that have been carefully nurtured about the virtue of Eleanor Roosevelt, the horrors of HUAC and the consummate evil of J. Edgar Hoover, all a part of the common fabric of our current media reportage and entertainment. American Experience, Good Night and Good Luck, and for that matter, any interview with George Clooney, any play by Arthur Miller (I'll pay you a dollar for every high school student who hasn't at least heard of The Crucible.) The tarnishing of Hoover's and Chambers' reputations go on to this day, as though Richard Nixon never demonstrated that Whittaker Chambers was completely truthful and the Venona files had never corroborated Mr. Hoover's most paranoid insights.
Finally, as we ponder the Left-stoked hysteria (currently confined to the far Left) of the so-called "domestic spying" activities of the NSA, let us fortify ourselves with this grubby tale of people who would do this country immeasurable harm just to feel good about themselves. The stupid, the neurotic, the politically ambitious, which will call to mind who most famously talks to Eleanor Roosevelt in spirit.
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We were often referred to as Draft Dodgers in the U.S., but respected in the U.K., and Russia. Russia has even honored the U.S. Merchant Seaman with a reunion and medals in 1991, the 50th Anniversary of the first Convoy to Murmansk.
After he retired to Tucson, I was in town one evening and called his home and received an invitation to visit him; we had a delightful discussion and parted friends. And several years ago I received an email from Gen. Paul Tibbets calling the Merchant Seamen of WWII, "the unsung heroes of WWII."
But, Pegler, he never stopp3ed hating Eleanor and managed to take a swipe at her now and then to the end of his career. Like MacArthur, his boss finally sacked him after long and faithful service. One day Hollywood will take it upon themselves to take revenge upon his too; they never forget.