Trump -- White, Nationalist, and Racist

 

Chris Wallace: You have repeatedly criticized the vice president for not specifically calling out antifa and other left-wing extremist groups. But are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha and as we've seen in Portland? Are you prepared to specifically do that?

Donald Trump: Sure, I'm prepared to do that. But I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing. If you look, I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace.

Wallace: Then do it, sir.

Biden: Do it. Say it.

Trump: You want to call them? What do you want to call them? Give me a name, give me a name, go ahead — who would you like me to condemn?

Wallace: White supremacists, white supremacists and right-wing militia.

Trump: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what: Somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left. Because this is not a right-wing problem – this is a left-wing problem.”

– Presidential Debate, September 29, 2020

Trump's hesitation, once again, to denounce white supremacy during Tuesday's presidential debate is mind blowing. During an exchange on the debate stage, moderator Chris Wallace repeatedly asked Trump if he would condemn white supremacists. Trump repeatedly didn't answer the question, and contended, with no citation, that the violence came from left-wing groups, but Wallace kept pressing.

Trump eventually responded to Wallace's question by referring to a white supremacist group, saying, "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what: Somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left. Because this is not a right-wing problem – this is a left-wing problem.

Trump has in the past sought to blame violence stemming from some recent protests on antifa, an umbrella term for radical left-wing activist groups that sometimes engage in street brawls.

"Within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people subscribing to some kind of white supremacist ideology is certainly the biggest chunk."

– FBI Director Christopher Wray

Contrary to the narrative promoted by Trump, experts who study domestic extremism as well as FBI Director Christopher Wray and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf have both testified to Congress that white supremacist violence is the most persistent and deadly domestic terror threat facing the country.

Biden pointed out Wray’s comments during the debate, to which Trump said, “Well, you know what? He’s wrong.”

“The facts are right now that right-wing extremism is the bigger problem (not the radicals of antifa.) That’s where the violence is coming from.

– Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism and former director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, where she spent the past two decades tracking and reporting on far-right extremist activity in the U.S.

The Proud Boys quickly embraced the moment on Telegram, an encrypted messaging service popular among extremist groups, posting clips of the president’s comment and even circulating an image with Trump’s quote superimposed over their logo.

Who Are the Proud Boys?

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Proud Boys were established in the midst of the 2016 presidential election by VICE Media co-founder Gavin McInnes. They are self-described “western chauvinists” who adamantly deny any connection to the racist “alt-right,” insisting they are simply a fraternal group spreading an “anti-political correctness” and “anti-white guilt” agenda. In truth, the Proud Boys is a far-right, anti-immigrant, all-male group with a history of street violence against its left-wing opponents.

Their disavowals of bigotry are belied by their actions: rank-and-file Proud Boys and leaders regularly spout white nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists. They are known for anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric. Proud Boys have appeared alongside other hate groups at extremist gatherings like the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville. Former Proud Boys member Jason Kessler helped to organize the event, which brought together Klansmen, antisemites, Southern racists, and militias. Kessler was only “expelled” from the group after the violence and near-universal condemnation of the Charlottesville rally-goers.

"I have been tried for attempted murder and multiple batteries and hate crimes. My JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task Force] file is a mile long."

– Brien James

The turn toward violence — and the blurring borders between ‘alt-lite’ and ‘alt-right’ — is typified by Brien James, the state representative for the Indiana Proud Boys and a member of FOAK (Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights. James gained his racist skinhead credentials in the Outlaw Hammerskins and the Hoosier State Skinheads before becoming one of the founding members of the Vinlanders Social Club (VSC), a racist gang known for its extreme violence. Since its creation in 2003, the VSC has been linked to at least nine murders nationwide. James once bragged that his Joint Terrorism Task Force file was “a mile long,” and allegedly nearly beat a man to death for refusing to Seig Heil at a party.

Is Trump's refusal to denounce white supremacists reflective of his own preferred racist views?

The Brookings Research Instititute reported (2019) …

“Donald Trump’s support in the 2016 campaign was clearly driven by racism, sexism, and xenophobia. While some observers have explained Trump’s success as a result of economic anxiety, the data demonstrate that anti-immigrant sentiment, racism, and sexism are much more strongly related to support for Trump …

“Even more alarmingly, there is a clear correlation between Trump campaign events and incidents of prejudiced violence. FBI data show that since Trump’s election there has been an anomalous spike in hate crimes concentrated in counties where Trump won by larger margins. It was the second-largest uptick in hate crimes in the 25 years for which data are available, second only to the spike after September 11, 2001.

“The association between Trump and hate crimes is not limited to the election itself. Another study, based on data collected by the Anti-Defamation League, shows that counties that hosted a Trump campaign rally in 2016 saw hate crime rates more than double compared to similar counties that did not host a rally …

'There is also causal evidence to point to. In experiments, being exposed to Trump’s rhetoric actually increases expressions of prejudice. (2017 survey – “Follow the Racist? The Consequences of Trump’s Expressions of Prejudice for Mass Rhetoric” by Brian F. Schaffner et al.)

(Vanessa Williamson and Isabella Gelfand. “Trump and racism: What do the data say?” Brookings. August 14, 2019.)

Donald Trump is a racist. Like most other cloaked racists of 2020, he deflects his views and refuses to acknowledge the bigotry of his White Nationalistic agenda. Several studies and surveys have shown that racist attitudes and racial resentment have fueled Trump's political ascendance, and have become more significant than economic factors in determining the party allegiance of U.S. voters. This makes Trump a racist of the worst kind. He uses hatred and bigotry for his own personal and political advantage. Trump employs blatant racism and xenophobia to excite his base and to strengthen his support among the White working class.

“For the past 40 years, the right wing has peddled a winning strategy to keep Americans divided: sell the economic agenda of the 1% to working- and middle-class white voters through a hidden formula: Fear People of Color --> Hate Government --> Trust the Market and the 1%.”

– Heather McGhee, president of Demos, a progressive think tank and MoveOn ally

UC Berkeley Professor Ian Haney López teamed up with MoveOn.org Civic Action, Demos Action, and Inequality Media, to demonstrate how Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump relies on racism as a strategy to divide the country for the benefit of himself and other wealthy Americans. He uses racism by triggering two major sources of anxiety for many white people: economic insecurity and demographic change.

Trump's approach isn't new in American politics. It’s part of a legacy of racism going back to the country’s founding, when the authors of the Constitution gave slaveholders immense political power while allowing them to treat enslaved Africans as less than human.“ It taps into this racial resentment toward Black people that is deep-seated,” said Pearl Dowe, a professor of political science and African American studies at Emory University in Atlanta. Dowe continued: “Politicians use it because it works. When Donald Trump talks about ‘heritage,’ he means who has the heritage to be an American citizen.”

“He’s deliberately pandered to the idea that America is a nation rooted in white culture and power,” Dowe said. “Others that reside here just reside; they are not due the full rights of citizenship. If others – people of color – stake their rights to citizenship and equality, then the way of life that white people are comfortable with will be no more.”

Tyrone Beason of the Los Anglese Times explains. “Trump demonizes entire ethnic groups as not fully American, lashes out at protesters and insinuates that white people, not people of color, are the ones most in need of protection.”

Jonathan Allen, a senior political analyst for NBC News, says Donald Trump has positioned himself as “the defender-in-chief not only of the Founding Fathers but of Confederates who actually tried to dissolve the Union and made war on it.”

God damn Trump for his racism. When Trump repeatedly accuses a reporter of “racism” for questioning him about his embrace of the term “nationalist,” he is deliberately drawing from the toxic well of white supremacist discourse and directly addressing that base.

“We have been insufficiently attentive to how carefully crafted and targeted Trump’s new right discourse and politics are, how they deliberately encourage and mobilize extremists, and normalize them as a crucial political constituency. President Trump is enabling extremists through what sociologists refer to as 'scripted violence.'

“We tend to say that Trump is 'dog-whistling' to white nationalists and supremacists; but it is far more serious than that. Speaking openly to the new right, Trump is rallying and emboldening a counterrevolutionary politics. If the American people do not act soon, we risk being caught in a downward authoritarian spiral or violent civil strife.”

– Bernard E. Harcourt is a professor of law and political science at Columbia University and the author of The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went to War Against Its Own Citizens (2018)

Biden -- The Natural Choice in Ohio

 

"He (Biden) portrays himself, and accurately I think, as kind of a blue-collar guy. He comes from a blue-collar background. He's always enjoyed strong union support, and he's getting that in 2020. He has the right profile to appeal to voters in many parts of the state, certainly in northeastern Ohio."

"There are all kinds of reasons why people who supported Trump in 2016 should move away from him in 2020. Part of that is that Trump is very good at sounding the same messages over and over again, even if they aren't necessarily valid, including on the economy. That presents a real opening for Biden.”

– Paul Beck, Ohio State professor emeritus of political science at Ohio State University and an expert on the state's political trends.

It's September 29, 2020, the day of the first presidential debate in Cleveland. Ohio is a longtime presidential battleground state that has again been looking competitive after trending toward Republicans in recent years.

Since 1896, Ohioans have sided with the winning White House candidate in all but two elections. Some Democrats feared the state was slipping away from them after Trump easily won there in 2016 and Republicans prevailed in most statewide races in the 2018 midterms.

Although Trump’s allies say he is well positioned to again capture the state, Democrats argue that suburban disillusionment with the president and the economic downturn brought on by the pandemic are giving Joe Biden an opportunity.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday (September 24) showed a statistical tie among likely Ohio voters, while a Fox News poll released the same day showed Mr. Biden leading Mr. Trump among likely voters, 50% to 45%.

(“September 24, 2020 - 2020 Race: Trump Has Slight Edge In Texas, A Tight Race In Ohio, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Texas Senate Race: Cornyn Leads Hegar.” Quinnipiac University. September 24, 2020.)

The Wall Street Journal reports that Biden is leading in national polls and in several other battleground states. The signs of competition for Ohio’s 18 electoral votes – the seventh-largest in the nation—come as polls show Trump is lagging behind Biden in other Great Lakes states he won in 2016 and could complicate his path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

(John McCormick and Catherine Lucey. “Trump, Biden to Debate in Ohio as State Looks More Competitive.” Wall Street Journal. September 28, 2020.)

Weakness in Ohio could signal broader problems across the Midwestern states that sent Trump to the White House four years ago.

“The Trump campaign knows it can’t win without Ohio,” said Scott Jennings, who was Republican Mitt Romney’s Ohio state director for the 2012 presidential campaign. “They can’t take it for granted because it’s such a big chunk of what they need to do.”

The gender gap is clear in Ohio – Trump ahead among men and Biden winning among women.

Biden is ahead in the poll among the state’s suburban voters, 54% to 41%, while Mr. Trump dominates, 63% to 32%, among rural voters.

For Biden to win the state, Democrats say he needs to boost turnout among Black and urban voters in the “three Cs” – Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati – while also performing better than 2016 nominee Hillary Clinton did in the state’s rural areas.

(John McCormick and Catherine Lucey. “Trump, Biden to Debate in Ohio as State Looks More Competitive.” Wall Street Journal. September 28, 2020.)

Beautiful Ohio

“Drifting with the current down a moonlit stream

While above the Heavens in their glory gleam

And the stars on high

Twinkle in the sky

Seeming in a paradise of love divine

Dreaming of a pair of eyes that looked in mine

Beautiful Ohio, in dreams again I see

Visions of what used to be.”

An allusion to “visions in dreams” from the state song may accurately portray a blue wave in the 2020 election. Joe Biden can deliver a Buckeye victory – a victory that could propel him to the White House.

Biden’s “Scranton strategy” focused on his roots and the manufacturing economy is perfect for Ohio, which struggled through Trump’s trade war, saw its worst year for job growth last year since the Great Recession. Biden's appeal comes from his stands on the coronavirus, the economy, and health care.

Also, it sounds simplistic, but the 76-year-old Biden is viewed as a normal fellow. That regular-guy thing goes a long way in Ohio, where the population is older and whiter than the rest of America – and growing increasingly more so.

"If Biden were to win Ohio, Trump’s path in the Midwest – and to a second term – would be blocked.”

– Kyke Kondik, author of The Bellwether: Why Ohio Picks the President

White Guns and Black Guns: American Visions of Patriots and Thugs

 

“By the light of the law, the answer is easy: The Constitution prohibits racial discrimination in all rights, including the right to bear arms. By the light of history, however, the answer is far more complicated. From America’s earliest days, the right to bear arms has been profoundly shaped by race. Indeed, for much of our history, the right’s protections extended almost exclusively to whites.

-- Adam Winkler, professor at UCLA School of Law and the author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America

White America has traditionally been leery of Black people with guns. From the founding generation that adopted the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms has mostly been for white people. 

Let's look at American history.

Fearing slave revolts, early American lawmakers prohibited slaves – and often free blacks, too – from possessing weapons of any kind. After the Civil War, the question of guns and race changed: Many blacks from the South had obtained firearms when they fled to join colored units of the Union Army. When the war ended, the Army allowed them to keep their guns as compensation for unpaid wages. As many of those black soldiers returned to their home towns, those guns were seen by white racists as a threat to the enforcement of white supremacy.

Then, Southern states passed the Black Codes which barred the freedmen from possessing firearms. Racists formed groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Congress, still controlled by the North, reacted by proposing the 14th Amendment to make the Bill of Rights, which previously limited only the federal government, a limit on the states, too.

Winkler says …

“But, discrimination continued despite the 14th Amendment, and it affected the scope of the right to bear arms. In the early 20th century, an influx of immigrants from Italy, Greece, Hungary, and elsewhere in eastern and southern Europe – who, in the biases of the era, were seen as inclined toward committing crime and carrying hidden weapons – led states and cities to enact laws to restrict concealed carry.

“These laws, which were supported by the NRA, gave broad discretion to local authorities to decide who had sufficiently good reason to carry guns in public. In a society marred by racism, minorities were rarely deemed worthy of exercising that right. Even the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was turned down when he applied for a concealed-carry permit in 1956 after his house was bombed.”

(Adam Winkler. “The right to bear arms has mostly been for white people.” The Washington Post. July 15, 2016.)

During the civil rights movement Malcolm X and the Black Panthers took up arms and coupled a novel view of the Second Amendment: Not only did the amendment guarantee the right to have a gun at home, it also protected the right to have a gun in public, where the threats (at least to blacks from police) were usually found. These activists also interpreted the Second Amendment as providing a right to take up arms against a tyrannical government – which, in their case, meant racist police officers.

Armed civil rights activists were also early forerunners of the modern gun rights movement. In standing up against police violence, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers were ancestors of Black Lives Matter. Lawmakers in states such as California responded by passing new gun regulations intended to disarm black radicals. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies eventually destroyed the Black Panthers because photographs and videos of armed Black men sparked deep fears among some White Americans.

Winkler contends that today, gun rights activists echo Malcolm X when they say the Second Amendment entitles people to own weapons in case they need to revolt against a tyrannical government. And when open-carry advocates go to a protest with rifles slung across their backs, they are mimicking the Panthers, who in 1967 showed up at the California statehouse to protest gun-control proposals with long guns in their hands.

The irony: The modern gun rights movement — mostly white, rural conservatives — grew out of ideas first promoted by black, urban, left-leaning radicals. Gun politics remain highly racialized. Racial minorities are currently among the biggest supporters of gun control and whites the biggest opponents.

“A White man carrying a gun in public is seen as a patriot, a Black man a thug.

– D.L. Hughley

Recent Surge In Black Gun Ownership

A record number of Americans have purchased guns this year, including Black Americans. From KUNC in northern Colorado, Leigh Paterson reports that incidents of violence against people of color have pushed some to purchase guns for the very first time.

Jim Curcuruto, the National Shooting Sports Foundation director of Research and Market Development, wrote in a report, according to AOL News …

"The highest overall firearm sales increase comes from Black men and women, who show a 58.2% increase in purchases during the first six months of 2020 versus the same period last year. Bottom line is that there has never been a sustained surge in firearm sales quite like what we are in the midst of."

(Christianna Silva. “Some Black Americans Buying Guns: 'I'd Rather Go To Trial Than Go To The Cemetery.'” NPR. September 27, 2020.)

Philip Smith, the president of the National African American Gun Association, said that he had a massive influx of members in two waves: Once, in 2016, following President Donald Trump's election, and again during the recent racial justice protests. He said a year ago, NAAGA was getting maybe 10 new members a day; now, its seeing 10 new members an hour. He said there are many factors pushing Black people to buy firearms, including "the politics right now, the pandemic and the racial tone: Those three things together act as kind of a three-headed monster that is driving folks to come to us."

(Christianna Silva. “Some Black Americans Buying Guns: 'I'd Rather Go To Trial Than Go To The Cemetery.'” NPR. September 27, 2020.)

Not all of these Black groups are challenging White vigilante groups. Many say they formed for a variety of reasons: to protect protesters, to assert their Second Amendment rights and to guard their communities against corrupt police officers as well as White supremacists.

One member said that Black people "can't just sit there when your family gets murdered or people get murdered."

More Black women are buying guns. And, organizations of Black gun owners are forming. Many say they joined because stories about Black people being killed by White supremacists convinced them they needed to be armed.

“The only person you can count on to protect yourself and your family is you. I put this statement out because the police cannot always get to you on time, and the world is not a just place. We cannot assume that everyone who wears a police uniform is just and fair."

– Michael "Killer Mike" Render, hip-hop artist and activist

Why the White Attitude Toward Black Gun Owners?

Research suggests symbolic racism was related to having a gun in the home and opposition to gun control policies in U.S. whites. The findings help explain US whites’ paradoxical attitudes towards gun ownership and gun control. Such attitudes may adversely influence US gun control policy debates and decisions.

Mean scores for symbolic racism, and to a lesser extent the race IAT, indicated anti-black sentiment; however, participants had mean scores considerably below the midpoint of scoring for the stereotype that “blacks are violent.” After adjusting for all explanatory variables in the model, symbolic racism was significantly related to having a gun in the home.

(Kerry O’Brien, Walter Forrest, Dermot Lynott, and Michael Daly. “Racism, Gun Ownership and Gun Control: Biased Attitudes in US Whites May Influence Policy Decisions.” PLoS One. 2013.)

O'Brien et al. Explain that racism is related to policies preferences and behaviors that adversely affect blacks and appear related to a fear of blacks (e.g., increased policing, death penalty). This study examined whether racism is also related to gun ownership and opposition to gun controls in U.S. whites.

After accounting for all explanatory variables, logistic regressions found that for each 1 point increase in symbolic racism there was a 50% increase in the odds of having a gun at home. After also accounting for having a gun in the home, there was still a 28% increase in support for permits to carry concealed handguns, for each one point increase in symbolic racism.

Guns remain central to the reproduction of whiteness from colonial America until the present moment. Other researchers found “in our current moment, guns are a material outcome of racialized demands for self-defense, but guns have become a mediant (in a relationship), intersecting with other mediants, of race itself, whitening certain kinds of gunowners while darkening others. This is not just true of those who possess guns, but those who are the victims of gun violence as the question of who is and is not a legitimate victim is in part mediated by the gun.”

Princeton anthropologist Brandon Hunter-Pazzara found among the many fears gun rights advocates worry about, perhaps we can frame their concern about their weapons being taken away not simply as a rhetorical plea in the service of America’s culture wars, but as a material fear that threatens to upend their white identity and their sense of self. In the same vein, we might begin to view gun manufacturers not only as “merchants of death,” but as builders in what we routinely refer to as the social construction of race – a co-constituted set of relations between people, places, objects, and events.

(Brandon Hunter-Pazzara. “The possessive investment in guns: towards a material, social, and racial analysis of guns.” Palgrave Communications 6, Article number: 79. 2020)

As the gun demonstrates, objects can represent a paradox for people of color when both their possession and dispossession leave them vulnerable to racial violence. Carrying a gun in public has long been coded as a white privilege. Advertisers have literally used words like “restoring your manly privilege” as a way of selling assault weapons to white men.

History confirms that when African Americans started to carry guns, White opposition soared. The U.S. has always had an uneasy time with the idea of black agency. That is especially true when it comes to owning weapons. The truth is that the gun culture has always been about White supremacy and White identity. It still is. And, it is especially troubling that gun rights proponents have largely been silent when police kill Black people for lawfully using their guns.

“A measure of anti-black attitudes, is a significant predictor of the gun control preferences and related beliefs held by whites, and to a similar extent among Latinos. The same is the case for beliefs that blacks are more violent than whites. Racial prejudice, even though it is no longer a dominant attitude among whites, still influences their gun control policy attitudes.”

– Alexandra Filindra, associate professor of political science and lead author of a study of factors that drive support for gun control among whites, Latinos and blacks

Trump Sows Division About a Peaceful Transfer of Power

 

"We're going to have to see what happens. You know that I have been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster. Get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very peaceful — there won't be a transfer frankly. There'll be a continuation … And the ballots are out of control. You know it. And you know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats.”

– Donald Trump on September 23 refusing to commit to a peaceful transition of power should he lose the election in November

Trump has repeatedly expressed doubt about the current election infrastructure, even though numerous studies have found voter fraud to be exceedingly rare in the U.S. He has waged a campaign against the unprecedented number of mail-in ballots expected this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, alleging that vote-by-mail is less secure than other forms of voting.

Trump has pushed a baseless theory that foreign actors are plotting to send in fake ballots, though his own intelligence community has found no evidence of such a plot. Trump has also suggested pushing back the election amid the coronavirus pandemic, though he has no authority to change its date.

(Matthew Choi. “Trump declines to commit to a peaceful transition of power after election.” Politico. September 23, 2020.)

September 23 was not the first time Trump raised doubts from pledging a smooth transition. Trump has similarly refused to commit to accepting the results of the November election, saying in July that he would “have to see” how things went. Then, he told Fox News' Chris Wallace …

“No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time, either.”

The Biden campaign responded to Trump's remarks:

“The American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”

Rep. Adam Schiff said …

“This is how democracy dies. A president so desperate to cling to power that he won’t commit to a peaceful transition of power. That he seeks to throw out millions of votes. And a Republican Party too craven to say a word. But we will fight back. America belongs to the people.”

Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee expressed his dismay at the president’s briefing …

“Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable.”

What It Is

Far beyond campaign tricks and stunts, Trump's refusal to commit to a transition is unthinkable and autocratic. Both sides worry that should their candidate fail to win, the worst will befall the country. Though the rhetoric is heated, most Americans heading to the polls on Tuesday expect their votes to be counted, and a President to be elected without violence and insurrection. Peaceful transition of government is a hallmark of American democracy and United States history.

In the darkness of the early morning hours of 1801, President John Adams departed from Washington, refusing to attend the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson and quietly leaving his office after a humiliating defeat in the previous year's election. The precedent of a peaceful transfer of power has stood ever since – the loser of every presidential election in U.S. history has willingly and peacefully surrendered power to the winner, despite whatever personal animosity or political divisions might exist.

Historial Note:

Only the fourth presidential election in United States history, the Election of 1800 proved to be a new low in the young nation’s political tug-of-war for power. Whereas George Washington received unanimous votes each time, the election of 1796 had been the first true competition for seats in the federal government. John Adams, then vice president, received the most votes and won the presidency.

At the time, the system was designed to allow the runner up the position of vice president. One did not have to be of the same political party or even on the same ticket to be pitted with each other upon victory. Former Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson won the second most votes, earning him the spot of vice president beneath his longtime political friend, Mr. Adams. However, their once strong friendship that grew from a firm partnership in seeing the Declaration of Independence ratified had recently shown signs of fracture. Throughout the Adams administration, Jefferson undermined his friend whom he increasingly became disillusioned with over policy choices. By the Election of 1800, a severe rift had formed between the two of them

In 1800, individual states scheduled elections at different times and although Jefferson and Burr ran on the same ticket, as president and vice president respectively, the Constitution still demanded votes for each individual to be counted separately. As a result, by the end of January 1801, Jefferson and Burr emerged tied at 73 electoral votes apiece. Adams came in third at 65 votes.

This unintended result sent the final vote to the House of Representatives. Sticklers in the Federalist-controlled House of Representatives insisted on following the Constitution’s flawed rules and refused to elect Jefferson and Burr together on the same ticket.

The highly influential Federalist Alexander Hamilton, who mistrusted Jefferson but hated Burr more, persuaded the House to vote against Burr, whom he called the most unfit man for the office of president. (This accusation and others led Burr to challenge Hamilton to a duel in 1804 that resulted in Hamilton’s death.) Two weeks before the scheduled inauguration, Jefferson emerged victorious and Burr was confirmed as his vice president.

A contingent of sword-bearing soldiers escorted the new president to his inauguration on March 4, 1801, illustrating the contentious nature of the election and the victors’ fear of reprisal. In his inaugural address, Jefferson sought to heal political differences by graciously declaring “We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”

Playground Games of the Past -- Marbles and Pocket Knives

 

Before Nintendo, before smart phones, and even before computers, marbles and pocket knives fascinated young minds. I remember these two readily available items making a splash on the school playgrounds of my youth. Just about every kid was “into” marbles and every boy carried a pocket knife … yes, carried a knife to school and often times in plain sight of teachers during recess.

Marbles

Cat's eyes, peeweees, milkies, crystals, bumblebees, steelies, boulders – all of these are types of beautiful marbles and once upon a time, they were sought-after treasures of grade school kids. When I was growing up, marbles were inexpensive toys that became a staple for play everywhere – especially at school – both a fad and affordable status symbols.

Rob Lammle of Mental Floss provides a brief history of the colorful orbs:

“Believe it or not, but no one really knows where marbles originated. They've been found in the ashes of Pompeii and in the tombs of ancient Egyptians, and they were played with by Native American tribes, so it's impossible to pin down a precise country of origin. The earliest examples were simply stones that had been polished smooth by a running river, but for centuries artisans made them by hand from clay, stone, or glass.

“Mass production became possible in 1884, when Sam Dyke of Akron, Ohio, created a wooden block with six grooves, each of which held a lump of clay. An operator would roll a wooden paddle over all the clay balls at once, with a back-and-forth and slightly lateral motion, creating six marbles.”

(Rob Lammle. “A Brief History of Marbles: Including All That Marble Slang.” Mental Floss. November 03, 2015.)

I honestly don't remember playing many traditional “Ringer” games with marbles – drawing a circle and using a “shooter” to knock other people's marbles out of the boundaries. These games did go on. However, we played lots of marbles at lunch recess in a very simple way.

People would set up marbles in a horizontal line (or even one special marble) on the sidewalk, spaced evenly apart, and others would take turns behind a designated line rolling other marbles to hit one of the marbles in the line and be awarded possession of the entire setup.

We played “keepsies.” Rolled marbles that missed their mark were kept by the setup person, and setup wins went into the pocket of the shooter. Some days the entire sidewalk would be full of enticing marble setups: the playground resembled a county fair arcade.

Playing this marble game took little skill and rewards occurred mainly through luck on the slightly bumpy sidewalk, so everyone was enticed to take a chance on winning. Many a grade-school fortune was won and lost as marbles rolled on their adventurous way. And, of course, occasion arguments took place. For example, if a student offering a setup would hide a marble's defect by placing a chipped side to the pavement, a winner was dismayed.

Pocket Knives

In the good old days, three-blade pocket knives – with names like Case. Buck, Barlow, Remington, Gerber, and Schrade – provided boys hours of inexpensive entertainment. When I was growing up as a Baby Boomer, a pocket knife was an essential item for every young man's pocket. It was used to cut about everything from fishing line to string, paper and an occasional finger. A knife was a highly functional tool entrusted to young boys. Probably a good share of young ladies also carried a pocket knife. Back then, no one would ask about such possession.

Whether it was used to slice a freshly picked apple or to cut some twine, a pocket knife was a prized possession to virtually every grade-school boy. The few who didn’t have one wished they did. It was like a billfold – something they had with them at all times. And … Yes, we all took them to school.

Did the teachers worry about all those weapons in the classroom? Only to the extent that they distracted boys from the arithmetic or English grammar on the blackboards. In fact, if a female teacher asked whether anyone had a knife to assist her with some classroom chore, chances were every boy in the class would raise his hand in a fashion far more enthusiastic than their responses to her academic questions.

On the playground? If a boy ever pulled a knife out of his pocket during a fight, the rest of the male student body would have taken the knife away from the aggressor, kicked his ass until he said “uncle,” and maybe … or maybe not … given him back his knife. No, knifes were not used as weapons – that was the rule in my rural school, and everyone, even the orneriest bully on the playground, played by the rules. Things were well understood.

What boys did do on the playground was play a variant version of Mumbley-peg known as “Stretch” or “Splits.”The two players began by facing each other some distance apart with their own heels and toes touching, and taking turns attempting to stick their knives in the ground outward of the other player's feet. If the knife stuck, the other player had to move his foot out to where the knife stuck while keeping the other foot in place, provided the distance between foot and knife is about twelve inches or less. Play continued until one player falls or is unable to make the required stretch.

As I remember playing Stretch, a player could also stick his knife between the opposing player's feet, requiring that player to make one jump in his stretched out position at 180 degrees without falling down. Even if the player jumped successfully, sticking a knife from that backward position was very difficult.

Teachers watched us play this knife game, and we all passed through our schools in harmony. I really believe we students knew the utility of pocket knives and never considered using one to cut another person. The knives were often prized possessions handed down through the family to the next gracious boy. That gift came with stern warning for safe and proper use. And, failing to follow these warnings meant forfeiting the blade and paying a dear price in swift discipline.

“Men have always carried pocket knives. One of the highlights of a visit to the U.S. Capitol is to see where Daniel Webster, and many other Senators – some later Presidents – carved their names or initials in their Senate desks. I guess serving in the U. S. Senate is a lot like attending the 8th grade – lots of idle time.”

-- H. Riley Bock, Trustee and Former President, State Historical Society of Missouri

Of course, in our violent society knives are no longer welcome in schools. In fact, pocket knives are not allowed on airplanes, in the Social Security office, or in any other official state setting. Trust? Reality? Safety? All of these things have played a part in making the ban necessary. 

Today is a far cry from the days of old when something as simple as a marble or as dangerous as a knife could inspire games and fun. People who grew up with these objects wonder how things got to be the way they are now. I'm sure studies could enlighten the reader, but the research would still leave Baby Boomers collectively scratching their heads. “Simpler, safer times” would ring out in unison.

Trump Doubts American Icon RBG and Her Last Wishes

“I don’t know that she (Ginsburg) said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff and Schumer and Pelosi. I would be more inclined to the second, OK? That came out of the wind. It sounds so beautiful. But that sounds like a Schumer deal or maybe a Pelosi or shifty Schiff. So that came out of the wind. Let’s see. I mean, maybe she did and maybe she didn’t.”

– Donald Trump when asked about Ruth Bader Ginsburg's last words on the Fox News program “Fox & Friends” (September 21)

NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg, a longtime friend of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, reported that the justice had dictated the following statement to granddaughter Clara Spera, a lawyer, days before she died of pancreatic cancer September 18.

"My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."

Spera told BBC Newshour in an interview on September 21 that she had personally taken down the request from Ginsburg and verified with her that she understood it correctly.

“In the final days of her life, I asked my grandmother if there was anything she wanted to say to the public, to anyone, that wasn’t already out there,” recalled Spera.

“I pulled out my computer and she dictated the following sentence to me. She said: ‘My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.'”

“I read it back to it and she was very happy with that,” Spera said. “When I asked ‘is that it, is there anything else you’d like to say?’ she said ‘the rest of my work is a matter of public record.’ So that’s all she wanted to add.”

Known for her toughness and incredible resiliency, Ginsburg had battled cancer several times throughout her life. She was treated for colon cancer in 1999, underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2009 and had cancerous lesions removed from her lung in 2018. Ginsburg received chemotherapy for a recurrence of pancreatic cancer in 2019.

Asked later why he believed the words attributed to Ginsburg might not have actually come from the justice, Trump told reporters her stated position “was just too convenient.”

“It sounds to me like it would be somebody else. I don't believe — it could be, it could be, and it might not be, too,“ he said without elaborating.

Rep. Adam Schiff, whom Trump disparagingly identified as "shifty Schiff," tweeted a denial of Trump's claim:

"Mr. President, this is low. Even for you. No, I didn't write Ruth Bader Ginsburg's dying wish to a nation she served so well, and spent her whole life making a more perfect union. But I am going to fight like hell to make it come true. No confirmation before inauguration."

A new “low” indeed. As the nation mourns the loss of the iconic 87-year-old Supreme Court justice and women’s rights crusader, Trump besmirches her accomplishments. Ginsburg was a tireless fighter for freedom and justice, a true American hero.

For Ginsburg, principle was everything – not only equal rights, but also the integrity of democracy. Always concerned about the consequences of her actions for the system as a whole, she advised young people “to fight for the things you care about but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”

Accolades and tributes poured in after her death.

Former President George W. Bush:

"Laura and I join our fellow Americans in mourning the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She dedicated many of her 87 remarkable years to the pursuit of justice and equality, and she inspired more than one generation of women and girls."

Former President Jimmy Carter:

"A powerful legal mind and a staunch advocate for gender equality, she has been a beacon of justice during her long and remarkable career. I was proud to have appointed her to the U.S. Court of Appeals in 1980."

Former President Bill Clinton:

“With the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, America has lost one of the most extraordinary Justices ever to serve on the Supreme Court. She was a magnificent judge and a wonderful person – a brilliant lawyer with a caring heart, common sense, fierce devotion to fairness and equality, and boundless courage in the face of her own adversity. Her 27 years on the Court exceeded even my highest expectations when I appointed her.”

Former President Barack Obama:

“Over a long career on both sides of the bench – as a relentless litigator and an incisive jurist – Justice Ginsburg helped us see that discrimination on the basis of sex isn’t about an abstract ideal of equality; that it doesn’t only harm women; that it has real consequences for all of us. It’s about who we are – and who we can be.”

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts:

“Our Nation has lost a jurist of historic stature. We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn, but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her – a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”

Journalist Dan Rather:

“A shock. A sadness. A great loss. The passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg leaves a hole in a nation already reeling. She is an American hero, in every sense. We can honor her by joining to carry forth her legacy of equality, empathy, and justice. May she Rest in Peace.”

Tennis great and advocate for gender equality Billie Jean King:

“So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.” My Shero, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, has died. To pay tribute, those who believe in equality & freedom must fight for the ideals she championed. For her. For us. For generations to follow.”

Donald Trump is a selfish narcissist who demands attention and who would do anything to help secure an election. “Anything” includes attacking the memory of an American icon just hours after her demise. So exceedingly disrespectful. His thin skin and denigrating comments are not presidential. In fact, the combination is unacceptable in an American president.

It is true that Ginsburg said in July 2016: “I can’t imagine what this place would be—I can’t imagine what the country would be – with Donald Trump as our president.” She quickly apologized for her remarks saying …

“On reflection, my recent remarks in response to press inquiries were ill-advised and I regret making them. Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office. In the future I will be more circumspect.”

Trump's familiar cries of “Witch hunt!” and “Hoax!” appease his adoring crowds. They willingly buy into conspiracies and misinformation that promote division. A day after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, chants of "Fill that seat! Fill that seat!" broke out during President Trump's campaign rally in Fayetteville, N.C., on Saturday.

"That's what we're going to do. We're going to fill that seat!" Trump said, saying his supporters should print "Fill that seat!" on T-shirts.

Now, as part of his demand for a rapid Supreme Court replacement, Trump lies and creates another false narrative. Those who fight for power will bend or break rules to give themselves every advantage. They have no principles or integrity. It is up to the public to hold these government officials accountable – demanding stronger guardrails against abuses and voting power-mongers out of office. “Fill that seat?” How about “filling” the one in the oval office – the seat of executive power in the U.S. federal government?

Fame and Glory -- Why Mark David Chapman Killed John Lennon

“I assassinated him… because he was very, very, very famous and that’s the only reason and I was very, very, very, very much seeking self-glory, very selfish.”

-- Mark David Chapman in his apology to the Lennon family for assassinating John Lennon

On December 8, 1980, madman Mark David Chapman fired four hollow-point bullets from his .38 special revolver and ended the life of a musical icon who fought tirelessly for peace and love. The music world ground to a halt that day. However, the death of 40-year-old John Lennon represented much more – culture and honesty lost a valued proponent.

“For everyone who cherished the sustaining myth of the Beatles, the murder was something else. It was an assassination, a ritual slaying of something that could hardly be named. Hope, perhaps; or idealism. Or time. Not only lost, but suddenly dislocated, fractured.”

– Critic Jay Cocks for his 1980 Time cover story about the legacy of John Lennon

Of all people, why would anyone kill John Lennon? The composer of “Imagine” and “Give Peace a Chance” inspired countless others as a medium for peace and political activism. Lennon wished only to create change through his craft. As a Beatle and as a solo artist, John worked tirelessly for social justice and for the spread of love.

“My husband John Lennon was a very special man. A man of humble origin, he brought light and hope to the whole world with his words and music.

– Yoko Ono

Why?

Mark David Chapman is serving a 20 years-to-life prison sentence for shooting and killing Lennon. He became eligible for parole in 2000 and is required to have a parole hearing every two years. Chapman was denied parole for the 11th time last month (August 2020) on the grounds it “would be incompatible with the welfare of society.”

Chapman said he had purchased the gun no more three months prior to the shooting. He left his wife in Hawaii to come to New York City, telling her he needed to “find himself.” This evidently was a violent, crazy man's way of explaining his quest for glory.

He had a list of three other potential targets in case Lennon did not work out.

"I came up with whatever famous people I could," Chapman said.

It’s long been believed that Chapman’s plan to kill his idol was formulated in the midst of his heavy drinking. In recent years Chapman has claimed that his hit list extended beyond Lennon. In 2010, he claimed he’d chosen Lennon “out of convenience.”

It could have been Paul McCartney, Elizabeth Taylor, talk-show host Johnny Carson, former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, actor George C Scott, even Ronald Reagan. Hawaii governor George Ariyoshi rounded out the list.

Chapman had decided John Lennon was a hypocrite. The release of “Imagine” in 1971 – a song Chapman considered communist – was perhaps the final straw. Chapman would say …

“He told us to imagine no possessions and there he was, with millions of dollars and yachts and farms and country estates, laughing at people like me who had believed the lies and bought the records and built a big part of their lives around his music.”

(James McMahon. “The shooting of John Lennon: Will Mark David Chapman ever be released?” Independent. March 02, 2020.)

Chapman killed Lennon because he was "angry and jealous" at the way the Beatle was living and was seeking "glory" for himself, according to hearing transcripts.

Chapman told parole commissioners in 2020 …

"At the time my thinking was he has all of this money, lives in this beautiful apartment and he is into music representing a more cautious lifestyle, a more giving lifestyle. It made me angry and jealous compared to the way I was living at the time. There was jealousy in there."

When asked if anything in this thinking had changed during the last 40 years of his incarceration about why he shot Lennon, Chapman said it boiled to glory. Chapman confessed …

"It was just self-glory, period. It was nothing more than that. It boiled down to that. There's no excuses."

Chapman concluded his plea with a lengthy soliloquy and apology to Yoko Ono.

"I just want her to know that she knows her husband like no one else and knows the kind of man he was. I didn't. I just judged him from a book and I murdered him. He was in a book. He was extremely famous. I didn't kill him because of his character or the kind of man he was. He was a family man. He was an icon. He was someone that spoke of things that now we can speak of and it's great.”

Chapman continued …

"Back in the '60s when you said the things that he said, you were a creep. I remember I was in my 20s and I was conscious of the times and the press and presidency and all of that and how they looked upon anti-war people. Now we realize that Vietnam was a horrible mistake. This has to go and you put your life on the line back then when you felt that way. This was the kind of man he was.

“I assassinated him, to use your word earlier, because he was very, very, very famous and that's the only reason and I was very, very, very, very much seeking self-glory, very selfish. I want to add that and emphasize that greatly. It was an extremely selfish act. I'm sorry for the pain that I caused to her. I think about it all of the time."

(Aaron Katersky. “Mark David Chapman, man who killed John Lennon, said in parole hearing he wanted 'glory.'” ABC News. September 21, 2020.)

Chapman says he now has become a devoted Christian and pledged to become an evangelist. According to Chapman: "Look how low I went, but yet God still loves me and cares about me and has given me purpose and meaning in my life."

Where has the meaning gone for the millions of fans of John Lennon? In an allusion to a Lyle Lovett song “God Will,” I can relate to who can forgive Chapman …

“God does
But I don't
God will
But I won't
And that's the difference
Between God and me”

To me, Mark David Chapman is a dream killer who robbed the world of an irreplaceable musical innovator living his life in defense of peace and love. No other rock artist has had the musical and cultural influence of John Lennon. Perhaps the world was not fit for an artist who exemplified truth and conviction. Still, Chapman extinguished the hopes and ideals for the future. He crushed love that would have been.

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”

– John Lennon

Among his many accolades, John Lennon was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) with the other Beatles in 1965. Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer of all time and included him as a solo artist in their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.

In 1987, Lennon was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Lennon was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994. Participants in a 2002 BBC poll voted him eighth of "100 Greatest Britons".

John Lennon continues to be mourned throughout the world and has been the subject of numerous memorials and tributes. In 2002, the airport in Lennon's home town was renamed the Liverpool John Lennon Airport. On what would have been Lennon's 70th birthday in 2010, Cynthia and Julian Lennon unveiled the John Lennon Peace Monument in Chavasse Park, Liverpool. The sculpture, entitled “Peace & Harmony,” exhibits peace symbols and carries the inscription "Peace on Earth for the Conservation of Life · In Honour of John Lennon 1940–1980.” In December 2013, the International Astronomical Union named one of the craters on Mercury after Lennon.

Empty Garden (Excerpt)

By Elton John

“What happened here
As the New York sunset disappeared
I found an empty garden among the flagstones there

Who lived here
He must have been a gardener that cared a lot
Who weeded out the tears and grew a good crop

And now it all looks strange
It's funny how one insect can damage so much grain”

Do You Remember the Biggest Home Remedies?

 

If you are a Baby Boomer like me, you probably remember the remedies often used by your parents when you became sick or injured. Most families then did not have an overflowing medicine cabinet with dozens and dozens of medications like those of people today. Parents relied upon what they considered “tried and true” remedies they knew very well to treat their kids. Some of these medications had been around a long, long time.

Three staples I vividly remember were Fletcher’s Castoria, Vicks VapoRub, and Mercurochrome. I hated to get ill or hurt because I knew I faced these treatments, which to me were worse than the affliction I had suffered.

Fletcher’s Castoria

My dad's answer to any illness was what he called a “physic” – a purgative, an evacuant, a laxative. He was a major proponent of “being regular” for good health. Of course, I had faced the dreaded spoonfuls of castor oil treatment – quickly followed with a teaspoon of sugar– a ritual used by many parents as a once-a-year tuneup for the system. I even remember cod-liver oil, a disgusting liquid literally squeezed from the fermenting livers of cod fish.

No kid alive could stomach these oils – neither castor nor cod liver. The administration of such products often led to laxative tantrums.

“Castor oil was one of those dirty words that I never wanted to hear when I was growing up. It seemed to be a cure for everything because every time I turned around, somebody was standing there with a spoonful of the nasty stuff, just waiting to poke it into my mouth. It's flavor was enough to make me sicker than I ever thought of being.”

– Sharon Brown, retired high school art and humanities teacher.

Dad used a physic for any illness I got. Thank God improvements over castor oil and cod liver oil came during my childhodd. Not nearly as nasty as castor oil, Castoria was advertised as a children's laxative designed to accommodate their “delicate” systems. The remedy has a longstanding history. One writer with tongue-in-cheek said, “Fletcher’s Castoria: the way to digestive and family harmony. Without it, you might end up slapping the kids around.”

Dr. Samuel Pitcher (1824-1907) of Barnstable, Massachusetts, an1850 Harvard Medical School graduate, composed the cathartic of senna, sodium bicarbonate, essence of wintergreen, dandelion, sugar and water. The remedy was initially sold under the name Pitcher's Castoria.

In 1871, Fletcher and Rose bought the formula from Dr. Pitcher and renamed the laxative “Fletcher's Castoria.” It became wildly successful. In fact, when funding ran short for a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty, Fletcher offered to construct the statue's base in exchange for permission to advertise Castoria on the statue, but this offer was rejected. “Children cry for Chas. H. Fletcher's Castoria” was one of the most widely recognizable advertising slogans at the beginning of the 20th century.

Over time the product formula has changed. The medicine was heavily promoted on ads and billboards in the late 1800s and early part of the 20th Century, and evidently the paint used for the ads was of a very high grade, because several ads survive to this day all over town.

Here is a 1940 Life Magazine advertisement for Fletcher’s Castoria. Apparently the company liked to use corporal punishment in its ads; there are more examples.

Vicks VapoRub

Whenever I had even a hint of a cough, my mother would generously slather my chest and throat with Vapor Rub at bedtime. Sometimes, she would place a towel or a washcloth across my chest to prevent the Vapor Rub from smearing on my pajamas or whatnot. I hated the treatment – it was smelly and sticky and, to me, an uncomfortable mess. Mom and Dad believed in Vicks, and, I must say, it did seem to help quell the coughing.

In 1894, the Greensboro pharmacist Lunsford Richardson II developed a mentholated topical ointment, Vicks Magic Croup Salve, to cure a common infant affliction: congestion and a barking cough. Named for Richardson’s brother-in-law, Dr. Joshua Vick, according to some, and for the Vick seed catalog according to others, it was later rebranded as Vicks VapoRub. Hardly a one-off effort, VapoRub was only one among Richardson’s 21 patented remedies.

Richardson caught the bug and died during the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic – an ironic fate, since the flu helped sales of his ointment rise from $900,000 to $2.9 million that year; Richardson’s descendants have even claimed the product “saved America from the flu.”

The VapoRub we know is now owned by the American consumer goods company Procter & Gamble. It is intended for use on the chest, back and throat for cough suppression or on muscles and joints for minor aches and pains. It has also been used to treat mosquito bites. People today even use it to deter toenail fungus or rub it in palomino stallions' nostrils to prevent them from scenting mares in heat.

That pungent odor? VapoRub is a compound of petrolatum, cedarleaf oil, nutmeg oil, thymol, and turpentine oil; the active components are camphor, menthol, and eucalyptus oil.

Alison Kinney of The Atlantic explains:

“Because camphor is highly toxic when ingested, in 1983 the FDA mandated that over-the-counter products may contain no more than 11% of the substance. As for menthol, it can make just about any part of your body feel cooler, kill tracheal mites in honeybees, and make floral perfumes smell more flowery. Eucalyptus oil has many boring medicinal uses. And petroleum jelly, a byproduct of crude oil refining which we have no qualms about smearing on babies, makes things besides babies pleasantly slippery, like hairballs in cats, or terrarium walls for the thwarting of gecko escape.

“With all these properties and potential uses, the only surprising thing about the pervasively reposted “12 Surprising Uses for Vicks VapoRub” is that human ingenuity has not yet exhausted all its possibilities.”

(Alison Kinney, “Vicks VapoRub and Me.” The Atlantic. July 10, 2014.)

Bruce Rubin of the Department of Pediatrics at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine told Scientific American …

“Vicks is not bad. It does what it is meant to do: It gives the brain the sensation of relief of stuffiness, menthol triggers specific cold receptors in the nose and bronchial tubes. That is why it has been added to cigarettes called things like Kool. If you can’t sleep because you are so congested, and put it on your chest, it makes you feel better. It doesn’t open things up—but for most kids, it doesn’t plug things up, either. Vicks doesn’t improve air flow, but it does give that same sensation of increased air flow.”

(Alison Kinney, “Vicks VapoRub and Me.” The Atlantic. July 10, 2014.)

Mecurohrome

The standard treatment for childhood cuts and scrapes was initially iodine. Count me in the crowd of kids who would rather endure a thousand cuts before letting Mom or Dad put Iodine on my wound. That stuff burned like fire … and the pain seemingly lasted for many minutes after application. When it touched the skin, you couldn't even remain in one place – you took off screaming and running around in circles like a banshee. Parents would try to distract you, bribe you with a lollypop or popsickle, or tell you the biggest lie – “This won't hurt” – but that stuff stung like hell. Parents would try to soothe the iodine-treated kid by saying, “The hurt means its killing germs.” The coverup didn't work!

Along came a reddish orange liquid antiseptic called Mecurohrome. Most folks under the age of 30 have never even heard of this topical antiseptic. Mercurochrome became the go-to in lieu of that nasty stinging Iodine. Sure it still hurt (Not as bad?) stained your flesh pinkish-red, but you could probably wear that temporarily as a battle scar. At least, that's what the Greatest Generation tried to sell to us.

The very sight of that glass tube freaked out the bravest kid. It was an evil-looking design that no child my age will never forget.

“When a child fell and got a cut or scrape, out came the mercurochrome in a little bottle with a glass tube attached to the inside of the cap. The tube was dipped in the solution and used to paint the mercurochrome all over the surface of the wound. Then a Band-Aid, or gauze patch with some tape went over that to keep it clean. Everyone did this.”

– Anonymous

Mercurochrome was a mercury-containing compound. Moms kept an abundant supply of Mercurochrome around and a scraped knee or small finger cut got a little sting and turned red with its application. Others remember that “little sting” still “burned like hell.” Needless to say Baby Boomers hid millions and millions of cuts and scrapes from their parents in fear of the treatments.  

Mercurochrome (technically known as merbromin) is off the drug store shelves. Has it been banned? Well, sort of.

Even though Mercurochrome had just a small amount of mercury, mercury poisoning was a consideration. (You may recall the recent FDA advisory that warned pregnant women and young children not to eat certain fish because of high mercury levels.) To affect testing, the FDA pulled the GRAS status and classified mercurochrome as a "new drug" in 1998, which meant that anyone wanting to sell it nationwide had to put it through the rigorous and costly approval process. No one did, and the FDA forbade the sale of Mercurochrome across state lines, which effectively killed the product.