The disaster over the Potomac

There are, of course, the heartrending facts of Wednesday night's aircraft tragedy. 

You find it difficult to turn away from the television screen--hour after hour, as additional details are reported, as we learn more about the collision, and about the lives of those who died on the airplane, and on the Army Black Hawk helicopter. It is terribly saddening.

There is also this: that there is invariably, with air disasters, a sense of eeriness. You see the indistinct video images of the Potomac crash, far in the distance. You hear the last communications with the helicopter, from Air Traffic Control: suddenly, no reply from the helicopter.  Just silence. You looked at all of the nighttime airport lights, the darkness of the Potomac, the many flashing lights of the rescue vehicles. Later, images of parts of the plane which remained above the water (including a section of the fuselage) were shown; they are sad, and haunting, to see. We may not get an answer (or, at least, a definitive one) for some time, about the basic mystery of why the tragedy happened.

Yet, the day after it occurred, it was deeply troubling (though, really, not surprising) to see the President--as bodies were still being recovered, and as the investigation was in its earliest stages--holding forth about the crash, at a news conference. The man who knows so little about so much pointed to what he saw as possible culprits: he rambled at length about DEI, questioning the capabilities of the F.A.A. and Air Traffic Control (although conceding, at one point, that “We don’t know that necessarily it’s even the controller’s fault"), attacked the Obama and Biden administrations, and in particular former Biden Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (“He was a disaster as a mayor. He ran his city into the ground and he’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of bullshit"); he also questioned the actions of the helicopter pilot. The publication Military Times reported: "Trump stated the helicopter pilot made an incorrect turn prior to the collision, though he did not provide evidence to support his claim."  I can't imagine what the loved ones of the dead were feeling, as they watched this disturbing display.

On Thursday night, I watched an interview with Captain "Sully" Sullenberger, on Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC program.  Captain Sullenberger was of course the pilot who (with co-pilot Jeff Skiles) landed USAirways Flight 1549, in January of 2009, on the Hudson River, following bird strikes which shut down the plane's engines; all of the plane's 155 passengers--in what is known as the "Miracle on the Hudson"--survived.

At the end of the interview, Mr. O'Donnell told Captain Sullenberger that he did not want to drag him into the political sphere, but asked if he had any reaction he wished to share, concerning the President's comments earlier in the day. Mr. Sullenberger said, tersely: "Not surprised.  Disgusted."   

Here are two links about the disaster, and the President's responses to it.  The first is from The Washington Post; the second is from the Military Times.

https://wapo.st/40zewmN

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/01/30/trump-blames-dei-army-pilot-error-for-deadly-black-hawk-collision/

(Please note: A sentence citing the Military Times story was added to the above post on January 31st.)

January 27, 1945

Today is the 80th anniversary of the liberation, by Soviet troops, of Auschwitz--"one of the most infamous camps of the Holocaust," as noted on the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. "The largest of its kind, the Auschwitz camp complex was essential to carrying out the Nazi plan for the 'Final Solution.' " 

From the website:

Located in German-occupied Poland, Auschwitz consisted of three camps including a killing center. The camps were opened over the course of nearly two years, 1940-1942. Auschwitz closed in January 1945 with its liberation by the Soviet army.

The website includes the following, about the camp complex:

The Auschwitz concentration camp was located on the outskirts of [the Polish city] Oświęcim...It was originally established in 1940 and later referred to as "Auschwitz I" or "Main Camp." 

The Auschwitz-Birkenau killing center, also referred to as "Auschwitz II," was located near the Polish village Brzezinka (German: Birkenau). This is about 2 miles (just over 3 km) from the Main Camp. The Germans started construction on Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1941.

Auschwitz III or Monowitz was located near the Polish village of Monowice (German: Monowitz). This is about 4 miles (approximately 6.5 kilometers) from the Main Camp. The Germans initially established the Buna subcamp there in 1942. In 1943, it became a concentration camp.

The Auschwitz camp complex also included numerous subcamps. The majority of these subcamps were located in the region around Auschwitz.

From the website:

It is estimated that the SS and police deported at least 1.3 million people to the Auschwitz camp complex between 1940 and 1945. Of these deportees, approximately 1.1 million people were murdered.

The best estimates of the number of victims at the Auschwitz camp complex, including the killing center at Auschwitz-Birkenau, between 1940 and 1945 are:

• Jews (1,095,000 deported to Auschwitz, 960,000 died)
• Non-Jewish Poles (140,000-150,000 deported, 74,000 died)
• Roma (Gypsies) (23,000 deported, 21,000 died)
• Soviet prisoners of war (15,000 deported and died)
• Other nationalities (25,000 deported, 10,000-15,000 died)

During the Holocaust, concentration camp prisoners received tattoos only at one location, Auschwitz. Incoming prisoners were assigned a camp serial number which was sewn to their prison uniforms. Only those prisoners selected for work were issued serial numbers; those prisoners sent directly to the gas chambers were not registered and received no tattoos.

https://www.ushmm.org/

Catastrophe, and order

The television images, from Los Angeles, have been terrifying, apocalyptic.

It has felt, at moments, as if you've been witnessing the end of the world.

And then, on Thursday, as the fires continued, you watched the funeral service for President Carter, at Washington's National Cathedral.

There was the precise and calm order of the funeral. The gathering of the Carter family. The sequence, notably, of the seating arrangements for the President and the First Lady, the Vice President and the Second Gentleman, the Clintons, the Bushes, former President Obama, the former Vice Presidents, and former Second Ladies, and the soon-to-be-restored President, and the returning First Lady.  

There was the quietly moving order of the scriptural readings, and prayers; the music (choral singing, and the lovely solo rendition of "Amazing Grace"); the affecting tributes--including those from President Biden; from Rev. Andrew Young; from Steven Ford, delivering a eulogy his late father, Gerald Ford, had written years ago for his good friend; the warmly personal words from Jason Carter, grandson of the late President.

The funeral for President Carter, at the cathedral--this counterpoint to the devastation and trauma in California--had a soothing effect: the honoring of Mr. Carter's life of service, and devotion, to his family, and his faith, to his community in Plains, to his country, and to the world.

President Carter

Earlier today, in Washington:  the casket carrying Jimmy Carter arrived outside the Capitol building, and then was brought into the Rotunda.

 

January 6th

Today is, of course, the fourth anniversary of the 2021 assault on the United States Capitol, by supporters of Donald Trump.  During the attack, some 140 law enforcement officers were injured.

Yesterday, The New York Times published the following story about January 6th, and its aftermath: 

‘A Day of Love’: How Trump Inverted the Violent History of Jan. 6

The secondary headline of the story read:  

The president-elect and his allies have spent four years reinventing the Capitol attack — spreading conspiracy theories and weaving a tale of martyrdom to their ultimate political gain.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/05/us/politics/january-6-capitol-riot-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.m04.Ws_E.myinCSrSr2dR&smid=url-share

Two "Your Hit Parade" pictures, 1951 & 1952

I've posted the following photographs before--the first in January of 2012, and the second in December of 2010.  

Both photos are from the Hit Parade television show, on NBC, which came to TV in 1950, after having been heard on radio since 1935; the pictures are of rehearsals of the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

The song was written by Johnny Marks (who also wrote "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" in the late 1950s, and "A Holly Jolly Christmas" in the 1960s). "Rudolph" first became a hit during the Christmas season of 1949, sung by Gene Autry, accompanied by the vocal group The Pinafores.

Additional versions of "Rudolph" were released in 1950 and 1951 by several other performers, including Bing Crosby, Spike Jones, Sammy Kaye, and Sugar Chile Robinson. The song became a hit, again, during the 1950, 1951, and 1952 Christmas seasons.

The song appeared on the the Hit Parade's survey of top-seven songs twice in December of 1951, and once in January of 1952.

In the January 5, 1952 performance of the song--seventy-three years ago yesterday--my mother, singer Sue Bennett, was accompanied by the Hit Paraders choral/vocal group--though two of the three performers seen in front of her, at the left, and the right, look like they might be Hit Parade dancers Virginia Conwell and Bobby Trelease--both of whom regularly appeared (in addition to their significant dancing roles on the show) in non-speaking, non-dancing acting roles.  Perhaps the Hit Paraders vocal group was singing off-screen, during this number.

Sue Bennett singing on Your Hit Parade, January 5, 1952

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For one of the show's December 1951 performances of "Rudolph," my mother sang the song with Snooky Lanson, one of the Hit Parade's primary stars.  

In the rehearsal photograph, below, my mother and Mr. Lanson are seated together.  Members of the Hit Parade Dancers are seated or stretched out on the floor of the stage in front of them--including Dusty McCaffrey (far left), and Carmina Cansino (wearing hat, second from right). The two dancers near the center of the picture, closest to the camera but facing away from it, are likely Virginia Conwell (left) and Bobby Trelease (right).  

A section of the December 29, 1951 script, for the telecast (also seen below), shows announcer Andre Baruch's introduction to the song, which also featured the Hit Paraders choral group.  The group may, as indicated previously, have sung off-camera during this particular number (although the Hit Paraders, during the life of the program, were routinely featured on-camera, in both singing, and acting roles).

Snooky Lanson and Sue Bennett singing on December 29, 1951 telecast of Your Hit Parade, accompanied by the Hit Parade Dancers.  (Copyright for both photos, above, held by Lost Gold Entertainment, Inc.)