VIDEO: President Truman's Yacht Ready To Sink

 

 

NBC News is reporting that President Truman's famous yacht, The USS Williamsburg, is slowly rusting away and sinking in an Italian ship yard. The news site reports?

Steel-hulled and built to look like a mini-Titanic, the 240-foot Williamsburg started out in the early 1930s as the Aras, a private yacht. She became a patrol gunboat during World War II. But it was as President Harry S. Truman’s yacht that she gained acclaim as his "seagoing White House."

Truman loved to do business on the Williamsburg as much as he loved the ship itself.

Over his seven tumultuous years as president, discussions on board with leaders including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill – often over card games and long bourbons - led to decisions that still affect the world today: the launch of the Cold War, the Marshall Plan, NATO, the Korean War, and the creation of Israel, to name but a few.

But, for the past 20 years, the USS Williamsburg has barely kept afloat in a quaint backwater in northern Italy.

The vessel's Italian owners – who run a shipyard – say that in four or five years it will likely sink from its own decay and will be cut up for scrap. How did it come to this? And what can be done to save it?

Ask Gianfranco Oddone, a man on a mission. Oddone is a retired ship repairman who once was a high school exchange student in Truman’s home town of Lamar, Mo. He will tell anyone who listens about the Williamsburg’s saga, as he seeks out a buyer who’ll sail this piece of Americana back to where Oddone believes it belongs -- in the U.S.

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History on Film: Massachusetts Has First Same Sex Marriages(May 17, 2004)

Today is the anniversary of the first day of marriage equality in America. On May 17, 2004, by order of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, same sex couples were able for the first time in America get legally married. Little did the nation know how common place this moment would become across the nation. Watch the video and remember fondly a great historic moment for LGBT citizens around the world.

History On Film: Nelson Mandela's First Television Interview (1961)

 

 

This is the first television interview with Nelson Mandela that took place over fifty years ago.

The interview was conducted at the height of the campaign where freedom fighters in South Africa were urging Africans to burn their passes that they were forced to show the police. The Sharpeville Massacre doing that campaign was when sixty-nine protesters were killed by the police. Mandela went into hiding in 1961 to lead the fight for freedom and founded "Unkhonto we Size".

In 1962, shortly after this interview he was sent to Robbins Island where he spent the next eighteen years in prison.

Is It Wrong To Ask If An LGBT Organization Should Still Exist?

 

 

 

"He who rejects change is the architect of decay"

-Former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson 

Over the last few years, LGBT Americans have experienced amazing change and the tide of victory appears to be on our side. Many of our institutions or agents of change have done a remarkable job in bringing us to this point in our history. If the Supreme Courts surprises us and give us a broad based ruling on marriage equality, then that change will be monumental.

Increasingly the communtiy should be reviewing our institutions/organizations and, with thoughtfulness and sensitivity, discussing if they still have a purpose to exist. Unfortunately, the mere suggestion sends people into spasms of indignant outrage and the idea is viewed as divisive That is a serious mistake.

No one is saying that the battle is over or that there is no longer a need for institutions/organizations to fight the war. In fact, only a fool would not recognize that even with the most profound Supreme Court decision there will be tons more to do. The question is not if work needs to be done but what work and who will be the effective agents of future change.

Recently The Atlantic ran article by James Kirchick questioning if LGBT Americans still need to raise millions for GLAAD since he believes the cultural war has been won. While he seem to be more upset of their anti-conservative stances than their work, he raised some interesting points for further discussion. Even if we deeply believe an organization should continue, we should never be afraid of discussing its purpose, budget and future.

Kirchick writes:

What a difference 25 years makes. Not only are media representations of gays plentiful, they are almost overwhelmingly positive, which is perhaps why GLAAD curiously removed the above sentence from its website. The entertainment industry, for many years a "celluloid closet" (in the words of the late gay film historian Vito Russo), is exuberantly pro-gay. Being gay isn't just OK these days, it's positively cool. From Broadway to Hollywood, the message is one of uncompromising acceptance of gay people. The list of celebrities and television shows affirming a gay-positive message is endless, from Lady Gaga and her mantra of "Born This Way" to hit television shows like Modern Family and Glee. Meanwhile, popular television journalists like CNN's Anderson Cooper and NBC News' Pete Williams face no barriers for being openly gay, a far cry from what it was like to work in the news industry just half a generation ago. The media's reaction to NBA player Jason Collins' coming out on the cover of Sports Illustrated has been almost exclusively supportive; just witness the hostility heaped upon Howie Kurtz, who was fired by The Daily Beast for a blog post in which he erroneously stated that Collins "didn't come clean" over his previous engagement to a woman. As far as the mainstream media, movies, television, and popular music -- the monitoring of which is GLAAD's raison d'etre -- goes, homosexuality has gone from the love that dare not speak its name to the love that won't stop talking. The best thing the organization could do is dissolve -- not because it is actively harmful, but rather because it is a victim of its own success.

Simply put, gays have won the culture war. Social historians can debate when exactly this happened. (Was it Ellen DeGeneres' "Yep, I'm Gay" Time cover? Or, as Vice President Joe Biden recently suggested, the popularity of Will & Grace?) Rather than being attributable to one instantaneous incident, however, today's mainstream acceptance of homosexuality came about gradually, assisted by the fact that most people today personally know someone who is openly gay. While the Stonewall Riots of 1969 may seem like a long time ago, in the full sweep of American history, no other social movement has progressed so far and so fast as that of gays.

With the incredible changes taking place in our society, politics and institutions, it is essential for us to review our organizations in order to plan effectively for the work that needs to be done over the next couple of decades. Merely adapting in order to survive never has an effective strategy.

LGBT Americans should not fear or shy away from such discussions. After all, we have been extraordinarily successful so far in advocating change and now is not the time to fear change.

History on Film: V-E Day (May 8, 1945)

 

 

The European theater of war came to an end on May 8, 1945 with the unconditional surrender of Germany. The war in the Pacific lasted a little over three more months.

All over the world celebrations burst forth in the streets and pubs. No where was it received with more joy than in London that had suffered tens of thousands of deaths from the Blitz that shattered the city.

See the celebrations and the speech by Prime Minister Churchill.

VIDEO: A Tribute To Basketball Player Jason Collins

 

 

See this video of our new hero as history is made today!

 

Hell's Kitchen Journal: Travels With Patsy (1970)

 

 

 

 

Many of my friends and allies in the LGBT community know my sister Patsy. They just know her as Patsy like Cher or Madonna. She has always had my back and shares my wicked sense of humor. Throughout our lives we have had many wonderful moments together. Visiting this weekend with her in Denver, we started to reminisce about a trip we took throughout remote Utah and Western Colorado. The time was September, 1970 and the states had not yet been overcome with their rapid population growth.

Patsy brought out some notes she made on the trip and I thought I would share them with you. Here are Patsy notes from our journey in forty-three years ago.

"Clearly, Toto, I am not in Baltimore anymore. I have flown into Denver to meet David who is working on the Craig Barnes 'peace' campaign for Congress. The two of us rented a Ford Bronco and took off into the remote wilds of the West.

We have just gotten out of the foothills and into the mountains have run out of gas.

Upsetting? Annoying? No. We can't stop laughing.

We hitched a ride to the nearest gas station, got gas and the kind folks drove us back to the truck. I love the fact I was standing on a mountain road 'hitchhiking'!

We laughed even harder when the gas station guy said, 'Did you two know that there is an auxiliary tank that it is totally full?"

Once again, we set off. We are giddy as if we have been set free of the world problems. We are in our best hippie clothes.

We talk non-stop. We stay in cheap motels and do mean CHEAP motels!

We are eating in wonderful diners, with the juke box connection right on the table. We are playing country music. We are playing cowboy songs. Singing along with Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, we are eating non-healthy and raging delicious dinner food.

We are on dirt roads that tightly hug the sides of mountain leaving little margin of error. A piece of big earth-moving equipment has plummeted off the side of the steep cliff.

Coming upon a deep stream, we are wondering how deep and if we can safely travel across it. I got out to test the depth by slowly wading into it. As I was doing that, a pickup truck pulled around the Bronco and went on through. It had only been a few inches deep but look how brave I have been.

The day is hot and sunny and we are on a long, flat dirt road through rock formations and in the middle of nowhere. Earlier another truck approached us with three men inside. One of them on the passenger side had a gun and was leaning out the window pointing it at us. Acutely aware of our hippie appearance, our hearts stopped in fear! As they got closer and closer, we felt that there was no place to hide. We prayed hard and it worked! God is good!

Our final stop is Lily Lake which is high up on the Western side of the Colorado mountains. The cabin was is so perfect we have changed from hippie to settler mode. It is quite chilly in the mornings and the mist lingers over the lake. Trampling through the woods, we are too disorganized to call it hiking, we are falling in love with this place.

This cabin is high up in the mountains among many peaks. They are covered with brilliant yellow aspen trees. From the front of our cabin is a big lake with lily's and wild ducks. There is no heat except for a wood burning stove. No electricity in any room except the kitchen and fortunately high water for my bath. Although it is a little hard to read in the tub by kerosene lamp. it is snowing tonight and we must chop wood for the wood stove or we will freeze to death!

This trip is exactly what we both needed at this time. Colorado is beautiful and it does look like the 'Sound of Music'. Utah, however, absolutely has wiped me out. I cannot begin to tell you how overwhelming it is to me. It is so desolate. It is very much keeping with my mood and I feel very tuned into it. The area is really cowboy country filled with tumbleweed, ranges, deserts, mesas, rocks, dust and cactus. There are millions of wildflowers, big birds and native Americans. I have taken many pictures but know they will never begin to capture what I saw. and certainly not how I feel right now"

PHOTOGRAPHS: Most Popular And Powerful Images From Flickr

 

 

 

BuzzFeed.com recently printed thirty of the most powerful images from the photograph site Flickr who was celebrating their fifth anniversary. There are some amazing photographs. Here are some of my favorites.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE REST OF THEM.......

History on Film: The Funeral of King Edward VII (1910)

 

 

England's King Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria, died on May 6, 1910. Two weeks later he was buried in one of the grandest funerals ever seen in Europe. Royal watchers claim it was the largest gathering of royalty (to this day) ever to take place.

The list of those attending was astounding. The above is a photograph of the nine European Monarchs who attended the funeral:

The nine European Monarchs who attended the funeral, photographed at Windsor Castle on 20 May 1910. Standing, from left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, King Manuel II of Portugal, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King George I of Greece and King Albert I of Belgium. Seated, from left to right: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King George V of Britain and King Frederick VIII of Denmark.

 

Support KICKSTARTER Campaign For 'The Lavender Scare' Documentary

 

 

 

An extraordinary part of our history is being told in a new documentary film about the notorious witch hunt against gays in the Federal Government in the early 1950's known as the Lavender Scare. This week is the 60th Anniversary of the Executive Order demanding that all LGBT employees in the Federal government must be fired.

The purge of homosexuals from the government was massive in the 1950's but continue for four decades until President Clinton an executive order allowing LGBT civilians to work for the Federal government.

At last, this documentary give those victims of the 'lavender purges' a voice. Their stories will be heard by an entire nation.

The producers have started a KICKSTARTER campaign to raise $50,000 to complete "The Lavender Scare". I have given and I hope you will join me. Please click here and make it possible for our history to be told for future generations.