Category: freedom

Freedom Can Work And Can Fail #1 Edward VI, Norman Rockwell And Gloria Vanderbilt

“Freedom Works” is an elemental aspiration to truth for me.

But the darknesses of human hearts mean that dream can turn out wrong.

Looking at three important freedom historical events on this date, February 20, my mantra “Freedom Works” doesn’t quite fit the bill every time.

In 1547, the 20th of February saw the coronation of Edward the 6th when he was 9 years old. My American monarchist friend says, “Poor little boy ….. Henry VIII’s desired, but mostly ignored son, motherless child who died too young  …… ” One of the great achievements of his reign, when the realm was governed by a regency council, was to lift the requirement for celibacy from Anglican priests. This happened when Edward was an 11 year old boy.

On February 20, 1924, in New York City, Gloria Vanderbilt (pictured above in 1959 from The United States Steel Hour) was born into money and a sensational high profile custody battle between her mother and paternal aunt. Gloria lived life as a fully functioning woman, whose four marriages and affairs with Brando, Sinatra, Howard Hughes and Roald Dahl underline how impossible celibacy can be for some people.

In “The Rainbow Comes And Goes” she wrote, “Remember whenever money is involved, it brings out horrific things in people. ……. Take time and be certain you place your trust in those whose interests and goals mirror your own.”

In 1943 on February 20, the Saturday Evening post published Norman Rockwell’s painting, “Free Speech”, based on Frankilin Roosevelt’s idea of “freedom of speech, and expression—everywhere in the world.”

The 1940’s. The Greatest Generation. Not what we are now.

In the modern world, Roosevelt’s idea of worldwide free speech has withered and died.

Geoff Fox, 20th February, 2023

IMOTA #6 JOHN BARRYMORE

It is John Barrymore’s 141st birthday today or tomorrow. I mark the occasion and his gifts by naming him an Indigenous Man Of The Anglosphere. He was called the “greatest living American tragedian” giving acclaimed performances as Hamlet and Richard The Third.

Barrymore with Carol Lombard in “Twentieth Century”

His sister Ethel and brother Lionel were also actors.

To begin with, on the stage, his brother Lionel was more likely to be cast as a leading man. John would get the comedy roles. An American cinephile friend of mine writes: “By the time they all went into the movies ( silents ), John became the one to have the leading man roles and was known as “THE GREAT PROFILE”. 

He loved living free.

Actors to portray Barrymore include W.C. Fields, Lawrence Olivier, Errol Flynn and Jack Cassidy.

Barrymore had alcohol problems at 14 years of age and was bankrupt in later life. He said, “Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.”

It wasnt always the life of a an unattached libertine. He married Dolores Costello, pictured below.

John Barrymore described Hamlet as a “normal, healthy, lusty young fellow . . … he was a great fencer, an athlete, a man who led an active, healthy life.” In the above photo Barrymore is being a normal young man with Dolores Costello in “The Sea Beast”. Later on, she became his third wife.

God Bless Freedom

But for most of us, Family Life Comes First.

Geoff Fox, 14th February, 2023, Down Under

Women For Freedom # 16 Simone Weil and Anita Ekberg

Today is the 114th birthday of mystical philosopher Simone Weil who wrote: “Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus—the bureaucracy, the police, the military. Not the one facing us across the frontier of the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brothers’ enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves. No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this apparatus and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others.”

In one week, on February 10th, court proceedings, criminal charges, will begin against me, a 65 year old man with no criminal record, for refusing to stop attempting to stand up for an aboriginal or First Nations man who wanted to enter a church and was threatened with arrest.

The Orwellian stupidity and callousness of government and the injustice system in Australia seems to know no bounds.

I take solace in these facts:

A. The best people in churches in Australia know that this sort of thing is wrong. They are a light in what is now for me a very dark life.

B. I can still normally at peace in places of worship and with people devoted to truth and to God.

C. Gazing on the glorious mystique and attractive power of beautiful women is not yet a crime.

Like Anita Ekberg (pictured above and below) whose breakout role as an unattainable star was in la Dolce Vita, which was released 63 years ago on this date in Italy. When Ekberg had earlier played Helene in “War and Peace”, she was billed as “Paramount’s Marilyn Monroe.”

Anita Ekberg got into men’s heads. Because she could. That’s freedom.

Geoff Fox, 3rd February, 2023, Down Under

Freedom Works #2 Annika Ledet And My Living In The Word

I photographed analogue photographer Annika Ledet from Sydney at the First Nations rally in Melbourne last week on January 26.

On the love, matilda art website it is written that: “Annika’s passion for photography started when she re-defined her notion of photography as a magical form of nonverbal communication ……… Annika has utilised photography as a way to overcome the barriers of connection experienced by two strangers. She believes that the most powerful photographs demonstrate a relationship existing between the photographer and their subject, this belief is greatly instilled in Annika’s works.”

For me, in my Word Art, the communication more fully happens when I add words to photos. I call this living in The Word by which I mean Logos or Rationality, Discourse and God.

My words in response to Annika Ledet.

So, for me, the personal in art becomes spiritual – sometimes.

Geoff Fox, 31st January, 2023, Down Under

IMOTA #5 DONALD TRUMP

While he is quite a flawed individual in some respects, I regard POTUS 45, Donald Trump, as easily one of the best American presidents in my lifetime. (along with Ike, JFK, RMN, and The Gipper.)

One of his strengths is that the fact that he is a family man has given him some really good and truly beautiful people working at his side.

Father Donald and daughter Ivanka at work in the Oval Office with wise words from their First Lady.

On the basis of the quality of the words and insightful thought in his Inaugural Address, on this date 6 years ago, I now name President Trump as number five in my series of Indigenous Men Of The Anglosphere.

Here is a selection of ideas from that speech:

“Today’s ceremony ……. has very special meaning, because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people …….

The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country …….

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people ……. 

The forgotten men and women of our country, will be forgotten no longer ……..

(Our) movement (has) a crucial conviction, that a nation exists to serve its citizens …….

We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny …….

We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example …….

……. through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity. We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements, but always pursue solidarity ……..

There should be no fear. We are protected, and we will always be protected ……. most importantly, we will be protected by God.

……. we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving. 

It’s time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black, or brown, or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots. We all enjoy the same glorious freedoms …….

……. whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty creator …….”

This sort of speaking is what I call Living In The Word.

If you wish to understand why such words and ideals are very important to me personally, please read “Augurs Of Freedom”, which I wrote three years ago about thoughts on Inaugural Day from three other presidents.

Recovering from trauma and restoring true greatness can only be done with love.

Family is the key.

Geoff Fox, January 20, 2023, Down Under

PostScript

God Bless Donald Trump.

We Are His Family.

(March 19, 2023)

FREEDOM WORKS #1 Prohibition In America Did NOT Work – Neither Do Lockdowns Now

On this date, January 16, in 1917, Admiral George Dewey died. His greatest achievement was, perhaps, to win the Battle of Manila Bay in the Spanish-American War in 1888 with one casualty on his side and 77 casualties to the enemy. The man knew how to achieve a desired result in war and minimise loss of life to the people he lead.

Far too many modern leaders in The West put their poll numbers way ahead of their peoples’ real safety.

Dewey’s personal motto was: “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”

(This reminds me of wise words spoken by my friend, Freedom Fighter John Murphy, last Saturday in Melbourne: “Don’t ever stop asking questions. If you do, you’ve surrendered, without even knowing it.” )

On this date in 1919, 104 years ago, America began a national learning experience which has now been almost forgotten. On that day, the American Congress ratified the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This amendment banned the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol. Prohibition was born.

Rates of alcohol related illness declined, but this social advantage was offset by massive increases in crime and declines in government revenue from taxation. (Some small government thinkers could legitimately describe declines in taxation revenue as an advantage not a disadvantage. I would disagree with them, but not with the absolute certainty that I am right and they are wrong.)

In 1933, the 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment and nationwide prohibition was at an end. Many communities continued to ban the sale of alcohol and still do.

Prohibition can work in communities which choose it, but, used as a solution imposed on one part of many people’s lives as a cure-all for deep and complex problems, it was a massive failure in America between 1920 and 1933.

The moral of the story is that freedom works. Local autonomy works. Great big virtue-signaling decisions that do not see the whole picture and which are imposed on everyone are a recipe for disaster.

Likewise, in modern times, from 2019 and well into 2022, if not beyond, the Great Barrington Declaration’s call for freedom as opposed to uniform prohibitions on normal life was initially unheeded by most governments, with rare exceptions like, at times, Donald Trump in Washington and Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas.

Australia has had no opponent of lockdown tyranny of that calibre in Government.

But, on the streets of Melbourne last Saturday, John Murphy’s words: “We are all victims in a silent war.” rang 100 percent true for me.

Geoff Fox, 16th January, 2023, Down Under

St Mary Of The Cross And Martin Luther King Junior: Their Spirit Lives On In “Women. Life. Freedom.”

Today is both the 181st birthday of Australia’s only Saint, Mary McKillop, and the 94th birthday of America’s cultural hero, Martin Luther King Jr.

3 years ago today I wrote this about them here.

I see echoes of the greatness of both these figures in the “Women. Life. Freedom.” movement which is opposing murderous tyranny now.

Geoff Fox, 15th January, 2023, Down Under

Huck Finn Week – Day 1 – Beautiful Journeys To Freedom

We are made to dance our way to freedom.

Next Saturday, the 10th of the 12th, 2022, is the 138th anniversary of the first publication in Canada and the United Kingdom of Mark Twain’s classic novel The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn.

It is a youthful story, seen through the eyes of a teenager, which, IMHO, helped liberate the American imagination from the evil idea, associated with slavery, that black people were not fully human.

The glorious story of the deep bonds of human fellowship between white boy, Huck, and the runaway slave, Jim, goes right to the heart of what the American nation is (or at least looks like to me ) – a glorious quest for equality and freedom.

The powerful primal force of the Mississippi River carries the fugitives away from the northeastern Free States they had yearned to reach into the South where slavery and its attitudes were strongest.

But, through the strength of basic human decency amid much ingenious conniving along the journey, they eventually find their way back to freedom.

Another very important pilgrimage for Freedom is described in Australian Country Music singer Dusty Starr’s song “Epic”, in which Dusty sings of the meaning for him and many other people of early 2022’s Convoy to Canberra

Mark Twin wrote that Australian history “does not read like history, but like the most beautiful lies …… (which) are all true ……….”.

For me:

Australia is journeys,

Always was and maybe always will be

In the songlines of old dreamings,

But then convicts of pommy cruelties sent around the world

Broke down hoping to get home but going, going, held ……….

Australia’s yearned in journeys constantly returning:

Explorers, drovers and foreign wars,

Swaggies and grey nomads ……..

Talk about walk about getting out

From bad laws that drove ‘em mad

So full on sad losing all they had ……..

Australia’s failed us and gave up

Staying alive with beautiful lies

Where the heart sighs

Forced to compromise

But still willed for going going

Hoping hoping

For truthful youthful

Beautiful eyes

Beautiful eyes

Beautiful eyes

Monica is a pure force for freedom.

Geoff Fox, 5th December, 2022, Down Under

Police State Crits #12 A Victim Of Police Stands Up Strong

Aussie country singer, Wonni Slim, pictured above, doesn’t just stand up against the Victorian police state with his song “Roll Out The Rubber Bullets”.

He is on the front lines outside Parliament House speaking the truth as often as he can:

The young police officer, whose out of control unaccountability Wonni mentions in the above clip, has already admitted his guilt with his face:

When the bad cops get away with deliberate crimes or inexperienced cops make mistakes and commit crimes against the public, then life is harder for everyone except those who benefit from dangerous government and police overreach.

God Bless Wonni Slim.

God Bless Freedom.

Geoff Fox, 4th December, 2022, Down Under