Quote of the Day (Martin Luther King Jr.)

“Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize our strength into compelling power.”-- Martin Luther King Jr.

(Forty-five years after Dr. King’s March on Washington, a dream that must have been very distant to him at the time—the election of a black candidate as President—has come to pass. European intellectuals who scoffed at the idea that a country renowned for its longtime racism—in their sometimes belligerent misspelling, Amerika—would allow this to happen will need to think again. While they’re at it, they might ask how many of their leaders, on an increasingly multicultural continent, have been African-American—or even Jewish, come to think of it.

Congratulations to Barack Obama, the first African-American President of the United States, and Joe Biden, the first Irish-Catholic Vice-President of the U.S. Now, they have a new “nettlesome task”—not just to win an election, but a) to transition out of two military conflicts without opening the door to further inroads to Islamic terrorists, and b) to perform the greatest rescue mission on the American economy since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Let’s hope Obama's vast potential—his undoubted intelligence and eloquence—translates into accomplishing these tasks.)

Quote of the Day (“Fish Hooks” McCarthy)

"O, Lord, give me health and strength. We'll steal the rest." – Tammany Hall operative (and Al Smith lieutenant) “Fish Hooks” McCarthy, who, according to legend, stopped by St. James Church in downtown Manhattan on his way to work each day and muttered this heartfelt prayer

(Like “Fish Hooks” and other illustrious Celts, in the best American political tradition, I’ll be voting early and often. I advise all my readers to do likewise!)

This Day in American History (Utah Gains Statehood At Last)

January 4, 1896 – Utah was admitted to the Union as the 45th state – finally. 

For years, the territory had sought statehood, only to be rejected because of the polygamy practiced by those who used the abandoned desert as a refuge, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormons). 

In 1887, Congress even passed the Edmunds-Tucker Act, which disincorporated the Mormon Church, handed over elections to a commission appointed by the President, and called for the seizure of all church assets, except chapels and burial grounds.

It was only in 1890 – thirteen years after the death of the men who helped make their wilderness flower, Brigham Young, and four decades after the mob murder of its founder, Joseph Smith – that the elders renounced the practice and the territory’s statehood bid began to gather steam.

Americans’ deep ambivalence about Mormonism continues to this day. 

Though Mormons' low divorce and substance-abuse levels are admired, they continue to be regarded as a people set apart, in ways comical (Philadelphia Phillies’ star John Kruk, noting the addition of outfielder Dale Murphy, observed that his team consisted of “one Mormon and twenty-four morons”) or befuddled (NBA coach Phil Jackson, attempting to explain away anti-Mormon remarks by his player Dennis Rodman, said, “To Dennis, a Mormon may just be a nickname for people from Utah. He may not even know it’s a religious cult or sect or whatever.”)

Unlike his father George – a candidate believed to be a formidable Presidential contender until his infamous “brainwashed” remarks in 1967 – Mitt Romney has seen his religion rile voters on the right (evangelicals who often don’t even believe Mormons are Christians) and on the left (those annoyed by a ban on blacks into their ranks that stood until 1978).