A Few Minutes with the Mayor – October 2015

Last month at movie night, we commemorated the Battle of Britain which took place 75 years ago. Old City Hall was so packed people were turned away because of lack of room. Following an interview with Clifford Wilton who survived that battle, we ran the film Spitfire, a biography of the aircraft designer who built the plane that helped save England from a Nazi invasion.

I remember watching that same film in 1943 when it was paired with The Sky’s the Limit, a film starring Fred Astaire as an ace fighter pilot home on leave. None of us in that audience knew how the war would turn out, but just as with the British, there was a sense of we will never, never, surrender to the enemy. Indeed, that feeling was well summed-up in the wartime film Casablanca, in which Rick says to the Nazi general, Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.

I was roundly criticized for using the phrase the good old days on one of our movie nights. I was using the phrase culturally… we have no Gershwins or Irving Berlins today. Even if we did, our modern culture would probably reject their music. However, these critics objected to the phrase because of the “social (human) evils” of yesteryear. In their black and white world, there were no redeeming values in America’s past. How arrogant and how sad! What if the “Greatest Generation” had rejected our country because of its past? What if they had said, America is not worth fighting for. Let Hitler rule the world! We’re no better than he is.

Last month Ben Kuroki, the son of Japanese immigrants, died at the age of 98. Only 5′ 5″ he fought to join the Army Air Force and flew 58 bombing missions over Europe and Japan. While on leave he visited the Japanese internment camps where he spoke of service to America, embracing patriotism to those incarcerated because of their Japanese descent. “I have the face of a Japanese man, but my heart is American,” he would tell them. This is a part of what the “Greatest Generation” is all about. It may seem hard to believe, but they were a people filled with confidence, a people not working for themselves, but for their children’s future, a happy people.

It’s understandable if you have trouble believing this about them given the age we live in… an age of progressive movement toward anarchy… of politicians left and right who pretend to listen to the people but sell their immortal souls to the highest bidder… of educators whose only interest is in propagandizing their students… filling their heads with the nonsense that they are morally superior to all who have gone before… or of people who would burn the flag rather than honor it for what it stands, free people under the Almighty, which is what our founding fathers fought for.

I have always believed that far more than politics, it is music and art that defines a people’s culture. Beethoven’s music was called “longhair” by my generation. Composed a century earlier, it lacked relevance in the age of Glenn Miller or Artie Shaw. Similarly, their music is foreign in today’s world of rock music. Not that one can’t enjoy all three… I certainly do…. but each one defines its era, and they are all different.

On Sunday, October 11th, at 2:00pm, there will be a concert on the grounds of the Courthouse. It will run until 3:30 or 4:00pm and there will be chairs. If you’d like to bring your own… do so. Or spread a blanket on the lawn as at Britt. The music will be from the Battle of Britain era, but we’re actually celebrating living in our historic town of Jacksonville. Come and give a listen! These musicians are good!