For decades I used this phrase to convey my heartfelt belief that despite our differences we Americans have one thing in common and that’s that we are all human beings–that there is a commonality to our experience and despite the fact that human nature is flawed everyone is deserving of respect because we are all human. I believed with Anne Frank that “in spite of everything…people are really good at heart” and with Martin Luther King that “ the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
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My first presidential election was in 1960, and I voted for John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was handsome, charismatic, literate, and a WWII naval hero. I was a newly commissioned Marine Corps fighter pilot and the world was full of promise.
Five years earlier Kennedy published Profiles in Courage, a book celebrating eight US Senators who had exhibited courage in the face of adversity and opposition. They included John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Sam Houston as well as some whose names you wouldn’t recognize today. But Kennedy chose these men (yes, they were all men) from different eras of American history because he admired their integrity and principled action.
“The dead dwell in the conditional tense of the unreal.”
You’ve probably never heard of David Siegel or Scott McGehee, but you will. They are business partners, screenwriters, directors, and filmmakers who’ve made eight feature films over the last 30 years—titles that include The Montana Story, What Maisie Knew, The Deep End, and Bee Season. All well worth seeing.
They make the kind of films I love—small, , thought provoking, literary, and independent. But I might never have heard of them either but for the fact that my friend, Dave Northfield, is one of Siegel’s best friends and the two of them stayed at my apartment in Berlin after graduating from UC Berkeley in the early 80s.
It will be interesting to see if anyone still visits Jack Bernard’s Travels. It’s effectively been on pause since the fall of 2023 when I went back to school for a low residency two year novel writing program at Stanford. No novel yet, but last week I finished the last required course which means I now have more time and flexibility to write here.
I’ve missed writing the JBT blog and commenting on things that matter to me—art, film, food, books, travel (and occasionally politics)—and I’ve missed hearing back from you about what you like or don’t like. I haven’t been totally absent–in 2023 I posted twelve essays and last year I wrote two restaurant reviews, a critique of Boeing’s engineering failures, and three essays on why I couldn’t support Biden (before he pulled the plug). Nevertheless, JBT has been off more than on.
T. S. Eliot wrote that “April is the cruelest month.” For me it’s November. The days have suddenly gone from the warm bright colors of Indian Summer to the rainy grays of approaching winter. The transition comes quickly, and now I have to think twice about whether to wear a rain shell, a down parka or both. Adding to sunlight affective disorder (SAD) is the darkness and impending doom of this week’s presidential election.
M and I used to getaway by getting on an airplane and flying to some exotic destination. It wasn’t so much getting away as getting to, but times have changed. We have aged. Our world is smaller. And, today we focus on local pleasures—especially food and friends.
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