Beware

Here is your open thread for March 15, 2020.

The one and only Sly Stone was born on the Ides of March, 77 years ago today.

This is the first anniversary of the Christchurch mosque shootings when a voluntarily aggrieved white man killed 51 people and injured 49 more on a deadly rampage at two houses of worship in New Zealand. It seems like more than a year ago.

Today is the birthday of Andrew Jackson, which is to say it is a day when we mourn that Charles Dickinson wasn’t a better shot.

Longtime US Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes was born on March 15, 1874. After Kristallnacht, Ickes proposed making the US territory of Alaska a homeland for Jewish refugees from Germany and Europe. Alas, this idea was not pursued, but Ickes’ birthday is a good excuse to re-recommend Michael Chabon’s terrific 2007 novel The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, a noirish detective story set in an alternate history based on Ickes’ proposed Jewish Alaska. The mystery itself is compelling, but if, like me, you’re fascinated by expansive and allusive world-building, you’re going to love this book.

On this day 104 years ago, more than 6,000 American troops crossed into Mexico. They spent the next year down there trying to catch Pancho Villa, but didn’t. Out of kindness, I suppose.

Bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins was born 108 years ago today. Here’s “Woke Up This Morning.”

Alan Bean — who walked on the freakin’ Moon — was born 88 years ago.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg turns 87 today. Judd Hirsch turns 85. So does Jimmy Swaggart.

Creepy director David Cronenberg turns 77. I would recommend The Fly (1986), because it’s one of the most remarkable films I’ve ever seen. But I don’t ever want to see it again and you probably don’t either. (The movie won the Academy Award for Best Makeup. Jeff Goldblum, indefensibly, wasn’t even nominated for the best performance of the year. But, still, I’m not yet ready to watch that performance again.)

The great Ry Cooder turns 73 today. In a career that has spanned decades, he’s produced vast amounts of gorgeous, amazing music. Check that out later and celebrate his birthday instead by just enjoying the cheesy fun of the devilish guitar duel from Crossroads (Cooder plays the Ralph Macchio side).

Twisted rocker Dee Snider has been takin’ it for 65 years. Hall-of-famer Harold Baines turns 60. Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath, who is less than just a pretty face, turns 52. Eva Longoria and will.i.am turn 45.

March 15 is the International Day Against Police Brutality. I wouldn’t recommend getting a bumper sticker honoring this event.

Finally, today is the 55th anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “American Promise” speech before Congress. You can watch the speech here. You can read the text here. It was, as LBJ said, a moment that “lay bare the secret heart of America” — a moment in the struggle that has shaped every outcome of every election ever since.

But even that isn’t enough to describe the full meaning of the backlash against Selma and the Voting Rights Act that Johnson muscled through in its wake. The way you read the Bible is shaped — directly and pervasively — by that backlash. The words you use when you pray are shaped by that backlash. And that backlash is a long, long way from finished.

We shall overcome. Talk amongst yourselves.