Jews From The United States

"It is the job of every parent to show their children how to be successful. Accomplishing an aim or purpose."

"How demeaning that race hustlers want to keep blacks as victims, instead of healthy contributing members to society."

"Black parents must show their children how to dream, want a joyful happy successful life and how to achieve it"

"Circumstances of the black community will improve when thier parents make better choices for themselves and the future of their children."

"The Emett Till story in no way compares to the Trayvon Martin story. How anyone could say so is the thinking of a ill, uhealthy mind."

"The job of actually enforcing civil rights and desegregating Southern schools fell to Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon"

"What you have here is chapter and verse over and over again about an effort, a conspiracy – a criminal conspiracy – to thwart the will of the American electorate. There is no more serious crime in American history than that."

"It is only after much hesitation that the writer has reconciled himself to the addition of the term "neurodynamics" to the list of such recent linguistic artifacts as "cybernetics", "bionics", "autonomics", "biomimesis", "synnoetics", "intelectronics", and "robotics"."

"... the handling of the first public announcement of the program in 1958 by the popular press, which fell to the task with all the exuberance and sense of discretion of a pack of happy bloodhounds. Such headlines as "Frankenstein Monster Designed by Navy: Robot That Thinks" (Tulsa, Oklahoma Times) were hardly designed to inspire scientific confidence."

"The term "perceptron", originally intended as a generic name for a variety of theoretical nerve nets, has an unfortunate tendency to suggest a specific piece of hardware, and it is only with difficulty that its well-meaning popularizers can be persuaded to suppress their natural urge to capitalize the initial "p". On being asked, "How is 'Perceptron' performing today?" I am often tempted to respond, "Very well, thank you, and how are 'Neutron' and 'Electron' behaving?""

"For this writer, the perceptron program is not primarily concerned with the invention of devices for "artificial intelligence", but rather with investigating the physical structures and neurodynamic principles which underlie "natural intelligence". A perceptron is first and foremost a brain model, not an invention for pattern recognition. As a brain model, its utility is in enabling us to determine the physical conditions for the emergence of various psychological properties... we are fully aware of the simplifications which have been made from biological systems; but it is, at least, an analyzable model."

"As an unintended result of the Nazi occupation [of Denmark, where Morgenstern lived at the time], jazz became more popular than ever—a phenomenon universal to countries under the Hitler jackboot. In France, Django Reinhardt enjoyed the greatest acclaim of his career, and even in Germany, there were clandestine groups of jazz fans who'd meet to listen to records. Jazz was anathema to the Nazis. who considered it a mongrel affront to Aryan "culture," the product of an unholy alliance between Africans and Jews. But to those who hated the Nazis, jazz stood for freedom, for democracy, and for the spirit of America, which, especially after Pearl Harbor, seemed to embody hope for a better future."

"Then the next thing we did, which was in 1955, Art Tatum had a trio at Storyville [in Boston, Mass]. I really wanted Tatum solo. Guitar and bass – it's a fine – but I wanted to hear him himself. So we propositioned him. That turned out to be something that he immediately responded to. So we made sure that we got the best piano on campus and had it tuned to a T. I wrote a piece about him. The concert was terrific. ... Tatum played wonderfully. Then when we took him back to Boston and thanked him profusely, he then said – and this was something that I think jolted me and gave me maybe in the back of my mind the thought that I might want to get involved in this kind of thing – he said, "I want to thank you, because this is the first time I've done a solo concert all by myself." What he meant by that was that he had of course performed publicly solo piano before, but always as part of a program where there were other attractions. 1955 is a year before his death. It's astonishing."

"While most first-time visitors wanted to see the Statue of Liberty (arriving by ocean liner, I'd already seen it) or the Empire State Building, I wanted to go to Fifty-Second Street, that legendary block of jazz clubs I'd read so much about. It wasn't much to look at from the outside, though the names on the various marquees and sandwich boards made me drool. History tells us that by the spring of 1947, the street was well into its decline and fall, and to be sure, there were signs touting strippers and comedians. But having Sidney Bechet, Charlie Parker, and Billie Holiday all on the same block wasn't shabby. I soon discovered that it was possible to hear a lot of music from outside the clubs, if their wasn't too much traffic noise and the doorman didn't chase you away. Eventually I learned how to nurse a beer through several sets of music by drinking from the bottle, which was opaque, instead of from a glass, which the bartender could easily spot when empty, or, if I wanted to stick around all night, to tip the bartender well on the first transaction, after which he'd leave me alone with my empty bottle."

"My first assignment for Down Beat was to do an interview with Milt Jackson, whom I didn't know and who was not a very easy interview. I asked several of my musician friends. But the fortunate thing was that he was recording for Atlantic, and Down Beat arranged for me to attend the session. He was recording with Coleman Hawkins, whom I had at that time already befriended. In fact, Coleman did a very big thing for me in terms of establishing me in the musicians' circle. Coleman was known for never buying anybody a drink. It's not that he was cheap, but he once explained it to me. He said, "You buy somebody a drink. Then they buy you one. You wind up drinking more than you really want." But he was noted for not doing that. We had become friendly. Coleman had this big, booming voice. Even in a noisy bar you could hear him over the crowd. His voice really carried. He said to me, "Danny. What are you drinking?" Everybody turned around and looked. That was like my initiation. Anyway, Coleman was recording with Milt Jackson. I had a little bit – he could see that I – after the session, when I started talking to Milt, that Milt was – he didn’t know me from Adam. Who is this guy? I was not – I couldn’t say that I was an experienced interviewer by then. So Coleman came over and just put his arm around and said, "He’s okay." Then Milt opened up."

"As I got to know her better and just fell in love fast, I learned what drives Kamala. And it's what you've seen over these past four years and especially these past four weeks. [...] She finds joy in pursuing justice. She stands up to bullies, just like my parents taught me to. She likes to see people do well, but hates when they're treated unfairly. [...] Her empathy is her strength."

"But it doesn't have to be that way; What we had should never have ended. I'll be dropping by today. We could easily get it together tonight, It's only right."

"Well, the South side of Chicago is the baddest part of town. And if you go down there, you better just beware Of a man named Leroy Brown. Now, Leroy, more than trouble, You see, he stands, about, six foot four. All the downtown ladies call him "Treetop Lover", All the men just call him "Sir" (Right on).And he's bad, bad Leroy Brown, The baddest man in the whole damn town. Badder than old King Kong, Meaner than a junkyard dog."

"Well, I know it's kinda late; I hope I didn't wake you. But what I gotta say can't wait. I know you'd understand.Every time I tried to tell you The words just came out wrong. So, I'll have to say "I love you" in a song."

"Like the pine trees lining the winding road, I've got a name, I've got a name. Like the singin' bird and the croakin' toad, I've got a name, I've got a name.And I carry it with me like my daddy did, But I'm livin' the dream that he kept hid.Movin' me down the highway, rollin' me down the highway, Movin' ahead so life won't pass me by."

"But there never seems to be enough time To do the things you want to do, once you find them. I've looked around enough to know That you're the one I want to go through time with."

"But tomorrow's a dream away and today has turned to dust. Your silver tongue has turned to clay and your golden rule to rust. If that's the way that you want it well that's the way I want it more, Cause there'll be one less set of footprints on your floor in the mornin'. Oh there'll be one less set of footsteps on your floor in the mornin'."

"Well, I had just got out from the county prison, Doin' ninety days for non-support. Tried to find me an executive position, But no matter how smooth I talked, They wouldn't listen to the fact that I was genius. The man said, "We got all that we can use," Now I got themSteadily depressin', low down mind-messin' Workin' at the carwash blues."

"If I could save time in a bottle, The first thing that I'd like to do Is to save every day till eternity passes away Just to spend them with you."

"You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger. And you don't mess around with Jim."

"Operator, well could you help me place this call? Cause I can't read the number that you just gave me. There's something in my eyes, You know it happens every time I think about the love that I thought would save me.But isn't that the way they say it goes? Well let's forget all that And give me the number if you can find it So I can call just to tell 'em I'm fine, and to show I've overcome the blow, I've learned to take it well. I only wish my words could just convince myself That it just wasn't real. But that's not the way it feels."

"Irene Paull worked against injustice all her life, and part of that work was her exquisite writing"

"From the labor movement of the 1930s to the the civil rights, peace, and women's movements of the 1950s through the 1970s, Irene Paull conveys the richness of ethnic, working-class and oppositional cultures within the fortress of America. Her voice rings as true as it did sixty years ago."

"Irene Paull was an intensely feminine, brilliantly intelligent and morally passionate woman. The privilege of publishing her stories in Jewish Currents, and the luxury of the friendship I enjoyed with her (mostly through her remarkable letters), have been among the ornaments of my personal and professional life."

"Uneasy is the head that wears a crown. ("Justice in Connor's Kingdom")"

"Greed and hypocrisy are indeed inseparable companions. ("To a Young Girl Graduate")"

"Irene Paull was a great person, as these selections of her writings make clear. She had no pretensions and great honesty with herself and others. If the world is still here in a hundred years, it will be because of people like her."

"Woe to our memory if it can be said by unhappy future generations that we defeated Hitler and Mussolini, only to lay down arms to the Hoovers, the Vandenbergs, the Wheelers, Hearsts, Knutsons, and McCormicks of America. If we allow Germany to be built up again as a bulwark against the Soviet Union, if we permit American cooperation to be transformed into American imperialism-woe to our memory if we allow the seeds of a third world war to be planted under our victorious feet!"

"Hatred springs from uncertainty and fear."

"The ones we love are like lighted candles in our being. When one goes out, it leaves a part of us in darkness. I have a duty to perform, grappling with the darkness where once you used to be-a duty to you and to all youth like you born into a world of poverty and depression and war, a world which seems to have no present and no future. I have a monument to build to your memory...a better society where youth can blossom to its rich fulfillment. Goodbye, little sister! Thousands of crushed and broken youth lie like you in their needless graves, youth who had no present, and saw no future. But millions of us have set our teeth against the wind. The working class is moving toward a happier world where its beloved children will not be gnarled and twisted and broken, but will grow straight as the young trees straining towards the sun. ("She who Died Without Living")"

"Irene Paull is a voice of our time, of all the struggles, of the wars and depressions. Early she protested the violent, oppressed life of the Duluth harbor and the timber industry, the anti-Semitism, the exploitation of the immigrants in labor. She became a voice of the people, collecting the poems of lumberjacks."

"History itself is the only arbiter of "dangerous thoughts" and to whom they are dangerous. For the world does move. Men's thoughts change as the times change. You can no more freeze the thoughts of mankind than you can stop the earth from moving on its axis, than you can freeze a lovely face into eternal youth. To try to do this is not only to make a mockery of democracy, it is to stop the movement of progress and to whip up a fierce tide of reaction. Who should have the right to determine that another man's thoughts are "dangerous"? ("Jailed for her Thoughts")"

"The independent strong woman was a bad woman, even in the radical press. Irene and I had a vision of the free new woman growing in her own pattern-a new crop, new protein, new communication, new connections, new conceptions-birthing out of terrible hunger and anger."

"What the liberals who advocate that the United States pursue the isolationist course desired by Hitler, Mussolini, the Mikalo, Chamberlain, and our own Hearsts and Coughlins fail to understand is that domestic and foreign policies are essentially a unit. The aggressions and banditry of the fascist dictatorships in their relations with other countries are the external expression of the policy of enslavement and terror at home."

"One would imagine that those who write about Communist theory would trouble to learn something about it."

"the political situation in the past year and a half cannot be viewed in simple terms of growing strength of reaction. On the contrary, it is the strength of the democratic mass movement, the overwhelming Roosevelt victory in the 1936 election, and the tremendous growth and strike achievements of the C.I.O. that have caused the economic overlords to organise a widening offensive in an effort to halt and disrupt the legions of democracy. To defeat this offensive, to guarantee for our country "democracy-and more democracy," security, and peace, unity is needed, unity behind the recovery program, unity in the creation in every locality and on a national scale of a democratic front in the elections such as emerged with notable results in the last New York City campaign. The time is short in which to achieve this unity, but it is not yet too late."

"Let us not be blind to our own India: the Negro people. The two situations are not entirely identical, but it is a question whether the differences are in our favor. Though there has been improvement, can it be maintained that the treatment still accorded our 13,000,000 black fellow-Americans doesn't hurt both the war and the peace?"

"The time was the era shortly after the First World War when waves of post-war immigration carried to the new world like rotting bilge water all the bitter hatreds, prejudices and venoms of Tsarist Russia and Poland."

"Lack of labor unity in Germany-for which the leaders of the Social-Democratic Party were primarily responsible, just as the leaders of the A. F. of L. are chiefly to blame for the division in our own labor movement-made possible the triumph of fascism through the duping of the middle classes and farmers In France and Spain, on the other hand, labor unity was the foundation on which was built the People's Front alliance of workers, farmers, and small business and professional people, through which the road was blocked to fascism. In our own country, the A. F. of L's executive council, by extending the split into the political field, is greatly increasing the danger of a reactionary victory. A united labor movement would overnight become a powerful attracting force for the farmers and middle classes and would help stiffen the spines of the faint-hearted New Dealers and progressives in Congress."

"The future will not be fashioned by a few individuals, no matter how gifted, sitting down and cutting ingenious patterns, nor even by the efforts of governments alone. It is being fashioned by the action of the peoples of all countries, by their blood and sweat-yes, and by their vision too. The middle-class men and women of America have every reason not to permit themselves to be diverted away from this historic mainstream by illusory schemes and plans that have no roots in life; on the contrary, every consideration of the present and future should impel them to join fully with their brothers and sisters of other classes, particularly of the working class, in the great liberating war that alone can bring a great liberating peace."

"The future is the child of the present."

"the pipers of reaction, despite themselves, also perform a positive function. Their diagnosis is wrong, their remedies are dangerous, they are quacks and shameless hypocrites, but they call attention to the fundamental maladies of our day. Certainly the New Dealers have no cause to be holier-than-thou. Without the New Deal and its trail of broken promises, there might never have been the Share-Our-Wealth Clubs and the Union for Social Justice. This is election year, but the question of which is the bigger and better circus cannot forever blot out the question of bread. There is an awakening in the land, and pipers of a new day are arising in the thousands of men and women who are moving toward farmer-labor action against threatening disaster. Therein lies the hope of America."

"The recent history of international Social-Democracy, both "left" and right, demonstrates that there is no middle-of-the-road between reform and revolution, that Communism, the Communism of the Communist International and its sections throughout the world, offers the only way out of the ghastly blind-alley of capitalism for all producers of hand and brain."

"every issue, no matter how small, the bipartisan tory coalition saw one fundamental issue: who shall control the nation's destiny the handful of Wall Street monopolists or the masses of the people?"

"in advanced capitalist countries the party of the proletariat, as well as the cultural movement of the proletariat, goes forward not through alliance with the liberals, but in irreconcilable struggle against them. Our allies are those who, breaking with treacherous bourgeois liberalism, seek their way, however falteringly, toward the world of all power to the workers. These, still filled with many of their bourgeois prejudices, require not sermons and decrees, not "Communist snobbery", as Lenin called it,but a personal approach and comradely guidance. And let us remember that these new allies are coming not merely to the proletarian literary movement, which in this country is at present very weak, but to the knowledge, the experience, the revolutionary clearsightedness and intransigence of a movement that is international in scope, that sets itself heroic goals embracing every field of human activity."