I’ve always hated winter, and the older I get, the more I dislike it.  Part of the reason is how long it is – much longer than the other seasons.  The Chinese divide winter into two seasons: Early Winter and Late Winter.  And this year, unlike last, we’re having a “real” winter.  Tomorrow the high is supposed to be 19.

     All this is compounded by Covid.  I was exposed by a friend last Monday and I’ve been lying low ever since.  I have no symptoms at all.  The testing sites here are jammed, and therefore quite dangerous, so I’ve opted to wait before I use the one test kit I have.  I’ll do it this Friday, before I have a scheduled massage.  My masseuse asked me to test before I saw her.  New kits should arrive on Saturday.  It’s been very hard to find them anywhere.

     In addition, there’s politics.  I found the anniversary of January 6th very difficult.  As a historian, I have to go back to the War of 1812 to find a similar event — when the British invaded and burned the Capitol to the ground.  The Confederacy never reached Washington, D.C.  The first time Confederate flags were raised in the Capitol was on January 6, 2021.

     But I’m very glad Biden finally spoke out.  His speech, where he continually referred to “the former president” but never used his name, was excellent.  I especially liked when he said, “He’s not just a former president, he’s a former defeated president.”  However, it continues to be shocking that almost every Republican in Congress, regardless of how they themselves were menaced, continues to downplay the event and support Trump.  Hopefully this will change.  The rate of people getting, and dying from Covid is far higher in Republican districts than in Democratic ones.  The Republicans’ platform now consists of opposing vaccinations, opposing voting, and opposing women.

     I believe this is a losing strategy.  People have voted under even more arduous conditions than those the Republican states are creating.  I hope that the Supreme Court will not overturn Roe v. Wade.  In addition to stare decisus (the principle that the court not reverse long-established policies), Chief Justice Roberts cares that he has a good reputation.  He does not want to preside over a court that makes political rather than juridical decisions.  Let’s hope his view prevails.

     Also, this outbreak of Covid may decline as rapidly as it arose.  It did that in South Africa, which does have a much younger population.  But we can hope that it will diminish within a month or so here. 

     Finally, with regard to Covid, politics, and the weather, remember the end of the quotation with which I started this piece.  Shelley wrote, “If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind.”

I host two celebrations: Thanksgiving and a New Year’s Day Open House.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday – my shorthand for it is “great food and no presents.”  I took the occasion of my divorce, back in 1976, to celebrate it with friends rather than family and have done so ever since.  Last year I couldn’t have it because of Covid, but this year I did.  Seven friends attended.  I do the turkey, stuffing, and gravy; they bring everything else.  It was sparked by my 86-year-old former colleague and role model, Renate, who asked me if I was doing Thanksgiving this year.  I said, “Will you come?”  “Of course,” she answered, even though she lives on the far Upper West side of Manhattan and I’m in Park Slope, Brooklyn.  It was a lovely occasion.

     Recently, with the arrival of the Delta and Omicron variants of Covid, I cancelled my New Year’s Day Open House for this year.  Everyone who wrote me agreed that I’d done the right thing, even though they were disappointed.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to celebrate together next year.

     This mixture of joy and sorrow defines the human condition.  Twenty years ago, after 9/11, I was teaching history at Brooklyn College.  9/11 was a Tuesday, the college was closed Wednesday, and classes resumed on Thursday.  In my two morning classes, we discussed what had happened.  My third course, Tudor-Stuart England, met after lunch.  When I asked the students if they wanted to talk about what happened, they answered “No, we’ve been talking about it all morning.”  Then they said, “Take us back to the past.”  Since it was only September, we were still in the 1400s.  I replied, “Where there was only the Black Plague (which killed one-third of Europe’s population) to worry about.”  Tragedy and hope prevailed then and still do now.  So here’s hoping that next year will be better and we’ll have a happier New Year, even knowing that then there will be other things to worry about.

     One of the four medieval temperaments, “sanguine” means optimistic or positive, especially in an apparently bad or difficult situation.  (The others are choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic and these categories supposedly encompassed all people.)  I am sanguine by nature and I’ve found it especially helpful nowadays.  In recent weeks, Republicans have passed an outrageous anti-abortion law in Texas, which forbids any procedure after six weeks, when most women don’t even know they’re pregnant, has no exceptions for rape or incest, and empowers any citizen to arrest a woman or doctor and receive a $10,000 bounty.  A number of Republican state legislatures are severely limiting voting rights, in the hope of disenfranchising black and brown citizens – part of the “Make America Great Again” agenda, which only benefits whites.  And Republicans in Congress are currently refusing to raise the debt ceiling, as they did many times under the Trump presidency, which threatens that the U.S. government will go bankrupt – a major national calamity. 

     In the face of all this, most people are dismayed and discouraged.  I’m not.  I think that the Republicans have created a losing strategy.  Being anti-voting and anti-woman, as well as disagreeing to a standard parliamentary maneuver to fund the government (whose deficit they added considerably to with the Trump tax cuts, especially for rich people) seems to me a good way to lose elections.  I’m joined in this opinion by the eminent professor of history at Boston College, Heather Cox Richardson, who publishes a daily column called “Letter from an American.”   She argued on October 5 that Republicans under Mitch McConnell will force the Democrats to end the filibuster, a move that would tremendously help Biden’s agenda.

     Personally, I think the Republicans will lose big in 2022.  And I don’t think I’m being unduly unrealistic.  Whether that happens or not, it’s much pleasanter to live as an optimist than a pessimist.  In this, I think back to the seventeenth-century philosopher, Blaise Pascal.  In his so-called “wager,” he argued that it makes more sense to believe in God than not.  If you believe, and God exists, you win big.  If he doesn’t, you don’t lose much.  If you don’t believe in God, and he exists, you lose big.  If you don’t believe and God does not exist, nothing is lost or gained.

     A major objection to this argument, then and now, is that people are unable to will themselves into belief or disbelief.  But this premise does not hold.  Psychology argues convincingly that people can change their basic beliefs.  In this case, I think that living optimistically is not only a much more pleasant way to exist, but it also can aid political decisions.  Try it out!

         When Obama first became president in 2008, I sent him a letter urging that he withdraw United States troops from Afghanistan.  I wrote that “The Brits couldn’t do it, the Soviets couldn’t do it, and we can’t do it” and by “it” I meant liberate that nation from its debilitating customs.  I think I was and am correct.  Afghanistan was and remains a nation of war lords.  It has always oppressed women, far more than its many Muslim neighbors.  The Afghani burka covers women completely, from head to toe, and even hides their eyes, installing a mesh fabric over them so that they can see out, although dimly, and others can’t see in.  If they want to discard these customs and get rid of the Taliban, they have to do it themselves.  Do you believe that they can’t?  Then who can?  Societies must create their own changes and ways.  No one else can do it for them.

         Many years ago, in the early part of this century, I and others supported Afghani women’s groups.  We received a letter from them, saying “Please don’t support us anymore.  When you do so, the men of our region say that we are being supported by the West, and that diminishes our power.”  I believed them then and I do so now.  I really admired Biden for pulling us out of there; I was dismayed this morning to learn that he putting more U.S. troops back in.  Stay the course, Mr. President!  You were right the first time.

         Recently, I’ve been taking the subway again and I realize that I’ve forgotten which end of the train stops where in various stations.  This used to be common knowledge for me, a frequent subway rider.  Get on the front end to be at the right staircase for Canal Street, on the back end to connect to the Lexington lines at Union Square.  The same is true of mask-wearing.  The first time I walked down the street with no mask on, I was jubilant.  I called out to a woman my own age who also wasn’t wearing a mask, “Isn’t it great” and she replied, “Freedom!”  But then yesterday, I had a coffee with a friend, got up from the table to order inside and realized I didn’t have my mask with me. 

This situation is the same with work. Many are going back to working on a “hybrid” basis: half at home and half in an office.  As a college professor, that was my normal working pattern.  One day I’d go into teach and be surrounded by students, faculty, and staff; the next I’d either be in an archive or, increasingly, as the internet expanded, at home working alone.  I enjoyed the contrast and I think many are also enjoying not having to choose between working either at home or in an office, but having the benefits of both.

It takes time and effort to adjust to our new situation.  This is especially true about vaccination.  As an historian and of course also as a human being, I am appalled that getting vaccinated has become politicized.  I know what happened to non-vaccinated people in the past –- they died.  I found it interesting to learn that when the smallpox vaccine was introduced in 18th-century England, there was hardly any disagreement to getting vaccinated.  Smallpox killed.  If you survived it, you might be blind and almost certainly would be covered with disfiguring pox marks.  In contrast, there was quite a bit of opposition to being vaccinated in the United States during this era.  What accounts for the difference?  I think that since the U.S. was founded on opposition, on not accepting received opinion, that attitude carried over to other areas.  Vaccination is one.  Gun ownership is another.  Despite the constant figures that more people, including children, die from gun violence in the United States than in any other nation, many Americans oppose gun control.  I think that this opposition arises at least in part from the belief of many Americans that they want to be able to overthrow the government if that is necessary, just as it was in 1776.

     But about vaccination, gun control, and other topics, it’s time to develop a new mentality.  We are in a new world, one in which the “old normal” exists only as old habits.  We need to create a new normal, which values prevention, intervention, and kindness over force and brutality.  This is necessary in so many areas, not just in taking the subway, wearing masks, or vaccination.  I think it’s the solution to police work –- neither “defunding” the police nor strengthening it – but rather stressing prevention and intervention over enforcement.  These new goals are assuredly worth working for in the years to come.

About three years ago I developed stomach problems which were first misdiagnosed and then not solved.  Last June, I had major surgery.  Then last fall, one of the health care aides whom I needed for a few months, brought in bed bugs.  It was a chore to get rid of them.  When that was over, a pipe in my bedroom ceiling began to leak.  I had to have workers remove it and replace it.  Then came January 6.  To most of us, that insurrection in the capitol was bad, but to a historian, who had to go back to the War of 1812 to find a comparable event, it was worse.

Like many others, I coped with 2020 by keeping track of difficulties, measuring them, and feeling good that I had managed to deal with them.  But those times are over.  Conditions got better with Biden’s election, which was celebrated here in Park Slope with cheers and jubilation.  Even the buses and cars honked in celebration.  I loved his inauguration.  Harris’s statement, “I may be the first, but I won’t be the last,” brought tears to my eyes.  Since then, I think they’ve both done a great job.  Biden used to be known for putting his foot in his mouth, but he hasn’t done that now.  Just not having “the former guy” as president has made a tremendous difference – not having his presence weigh on one’s life.

In addition, Biden, unlike Trump, has done a wonderful job with Covid 19.  Instead of fake remedies and down-playing solutions, he’s enabled 2,000,000 people to be vaccinated, double the number he originally promised.  Although it is extremely troubling to have Trump supporters ignore common sense remedies, hopefully their numbers will continue to decline.  Basing your life on unreality is not a winning strategy.  And as of now, not only is his base declining, a group of eminent Republicans is discussing leaving the party.  Discouraging the vote is also a losing strategy – look at all the Black people who have voted under even more arduous conditions through the years.

Life is beginning to become more normal.  After I had my second vaccination, I  counted the days until it kicked in.  I was having dinner party fantasies and the day after I became immune, I had six vaccinated friends over for dinner.  We all enjoyed it.  I’m seeing friends at restaurants, walking more, going to different venues.  Last week I saw the marvelous Alice Neel show at the Metropolitan Museum.  Instead of clenching on to bad news, I am trying to celebrate good news.  It takes an adjustment, but it’s totally worth the effort.  All of us need to try it now!

On Tuesday evening, March 16th, at 6 p.m. I gave a talk for the Brooklyn Public Library on the life and work of Ernestine Rose. This virtual lecture was in honor of Women's History Month as part of Midwood Library’s Women Pioneers series.

To watch if you are receiving this as an email: Go to the blog post or to the the video link.

On March 16th from 6 - 7 p.m. I’m giving a talk on Ernestine Rose for the Brooklyn Public Library. Here are the details from the BPL:

In honor of Women's History Month, Midwood Library is pleased to present a virtual lecture and discussion on the life of women's rights activist Ernestine Rose. Join us for a lively discussion as distinguished author and historian Bonnie Anderson, a Brooklyn resident and a professor emerita of history at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, shares poignant insights on Ernestine Rose. 

Here is the Zoom link for the event.

Please register for the program to receive a reminder with the Zoom link via email the day of the event.

You can read more about Ernestine Rose in Bonnie Anderson’s latest book, The Rabbi's Atheist Daughter, available at the Brooklyn Public Library.

     In his dystopic story of 1909, The Machine Stops, E.M. Forster describes a room of the future.  “Then she generated the light, and the sight of her room, flooded with radiance and studded with electric buttons, revived her.

There were buttons and switches everywhere – buttons to call for food, for music, for clothing.  There was the hot-bath button…there was the cold-bath button.  There was the button that produced literature.  And there were of course the buttons by which she communicated with her friends.  The room, although it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world.”

Although he did not predict computers, Forster portrayed how we now live during the Covid pandemic.  To Forster, the way of life he described was decadent and curtailed; to us, it is a fairly successful adaption to unfortunate circumstances.  In Forster’s story, the hero must destroy this method of living and bring humanity back to “normal.”  But what about us?

     People now talk about a “new normal” after the pandemic.  I have found hope in the work of the Italian historian Gianna Pomata.  She wrote about the impact of the bubonic plague on Renaissance Europe.  (I learned about her from Lawrence Wright’s article in last summer’s New Yorker.)  Pomata argued that after the Black Plague, “nothing was the same.”  Instead of dwelling on the tragedy of destruction, she focused on renewal: “Because of the danger, there’s this wonderful human response, which is to think in a new way.”  Pomata then discussed the rise of both capitalism (instead of the medieval guild system) and democracy (instead of monarchy and aristocracy).

         Regardless of opinions about capitalism, I remain basically optimistic.  I don’t think we know yet what our positive reactions to Covid will be.  But I do believe they will occur and that we too will find creative solutions to our situation.  May it come soon.

The concept of “the big lie” comes from the German general Erich von Ludendorff, but was publicized by Adolf Hitler. Ludendorff argued that “Jews and Communists” had blamed Germany’s defeat in the First World War on him — a position that came to be known as the “Stab in the Back Legend.” In Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf (My Struggle), published in 1925, he repeated Ludendorff’s argument. Ludendorff and Hitler became and remained close political allies and helped bring the Nazis to power.

Hitler defined the big lie as a lie so colossal that no one would believe that anyone could “have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.” His most influential use of the concept was his assertion that the Jews were responsible for all of Germany’s misfortunes and so should be exterminated. In their 1943 assessment of Hitler, the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (a predecessor of the C.I.A.) maintained that “people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.” This big lie was the major justification for the Holocaust, which killed at least 6,000,000 Jews.

While it is difficult to believe that a United States politician would use a Nazi tactic for his own ends, this is exactly what Donald Trump did in 2020. Immediately after the presidential election in November, Trump began asserting that the election was a fraud, that if he lost, it was only because of foul play, and that any loss by him should be reversed. He kept asserting these falsehoods up to and including January 6, 2021, when he incited a mob to storm the Capitol building to try and seize the government. While this attempted coup most closely resembled the Confederate South’s attempt to undermine Pres. Lincoln’s election of 1860, the Confederacy never conquered Washington, D.C. The event closest to January 6 occurred during the War of 1812, when the British did occupy Washington, D.C. and burned both the White House, then called the Presidential Mansion, and the Capitol Building.

Trump’s attempts to undermine a free and fair election, in which the results of both the popular and Electoral College votes were not even close, did not end on January 6. His supporters tried to deny the results and Trump is still proclaiming that he “really” won. This Big Lie must not prevail. Many Democrats now argue that it is reason enough that he be convicted in the Senate of his second impeachment. May it be so.