Dodger

In the summer of 1968, The Vietnam War was reaching its bloodiest phase. Young and healthy American men were being called up in their thousands - drafted into military service. When the final arithmetic was done after the war, it was determined that over 58,000 had died. Many more bore injuries both mental and physical that would affect them for the rest of their lives.

But this was not an issue for Donald J.Trump. As a student at The Wharton Business School in The University of Pennsylvania, Trump had been able to defer the draft on four previous occasions but in the summer of 1968 he graduated and so the old excuse he had used was no longer valid. Instead, supported by his father, Trump claimed that he was suffering from bone spurs and should not be enlisted on medical grounds.

It worked. But the truth of the matter is that he never suffered from bone spurs. It was all made-up. Perhaps it was fear or a self-preservation instinct but Trump was not prepared to fight for his country. Like many other rich kids he dodged the draft - plain and simple. Trump's peers at The University of Pennsylvania hardly remember him and it is clear that he lit up no lights with his modest academic performance.

The family of the doctor, who provided Trump with a letter to obtain the medical deferment, stated that their father, a podiatrist, often told them that he issued the letter as a favour to Trump’s father. At that time, Trump’s father was the landlord of the podiatrist’s office building.

I recognise that nearly all of the above will be familiar to well-informed Americans. It will come as no surprise to discover that what Trump said he was and what he did is invariably at odds with  historical reality. He is what in this country we used to call a romancer. Truth isn't top of his agenda and it never has been.

What I find quite flabbergasting is how a blatant and unashamed draft dodger could ever consider running for the highest office in America. In his position how could he even consider running to be mayor in some hick town in The Mid West. Wouldn't it be an automatic insult to all those boys who came home in body bags? And what about Trump's core supporters in their "MAGA" caps and pick-up trucks, how can they still cling blindly to their draft dodging hero? What could be more un-American than refusing to fight for your country?

By the way, as far as I can deduce, having a heel spur must be a rather painful condition  but Trump never had one. He was athletic and as fit as a butcher's dog when he was twenty two years old. The truth is that he just didn't want to go to Vietnam.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/CEGLySM

Joy

 Smiling so big

I feel free

Humans just want

Commiseration

And a little praise

from R's rue https://ift.tt/HfO9kY7

To Kill A Mockingbird

 

I met Nu in a cocktail bar on Frith Street (she had picked it as it was air conditioned) we then went along to Suvvlaki the best Greek restaurant in soho where we ate Greek tapas to die for , sat at an open window facing the street and watched the world go by.

I still felt as though was on holiday

We walked into Chinatown where we ate obscene ice creams at bubble wrap waffle before the theatre

Bliss

Most of us of a certain age have grown up with the goodness that is Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mocking Bird, 

His quote 

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

is one that follows a person through life, even though he was a fictitious lawyer in a non existent Southern town.

To Kill A Mocking Bird was not without its faults and I wondered how these would be addressed to a modern audience, most of whom loved the book as a child and saw it through a child’s eyes.

Aaron Sorkin’s production is a bold interpretation with the famous court scene divided into segments sandwiched in between the growing up stories of Scout and Jem Finch and their best friend Dil in rural Alabama.

Rafe Spall is no Gregory Peck in the lead role as Atticus. He isn’t polished and serene, and hasn’t that quiet heroic look.But his small town lawyer, is gentle, and humorous and brittle enough to still cry at the mention of his wife’s death. He is more flawed that his screen counterpart, but still retains those decent qualities most loved by Harper Lee’s fans.

The three children of the story are all played by young adults, and this works well that’s primarily to the actors playing Scout and Dill. Gwyneth Keyworth is exceptional as Scout, ad-libbing with the audience in her broad Southern drawl when they were late in settling down and David Moost, who gives Dill an odd sense of a young, very camp Truman Capote ( he was Harper Lee’s Best friend) 

In the novel the housekeeper come nanny, Calpurnia didnt quite have a proper voice when unfairness of racism was raised but Sorkin’s Calpurnia is not adverse in challenging even Atticus in his beliefs and behaviour and in one pivitol scene screams out what she thinks of the all white Jury who are sitting in judgement of Robinson ( a wonderful Jude Owusu)

The actress Pamela Nomvete turning from hired help to a roaring lioness impressively.

The new play has a great deal to say about the America, that still exists , most noticeably seen in the Trump years. Those disaffected and mistrusting of intellectual contact.

To kill A Mockingbird was a triumph , and a real rollercoaster of a play to experience.

It is one which will linger in the mind for a long while to come 

from Going Gently https://ift.tt/5b36wFs