Chestertown Tea Party 10 miler

In recent years, the Chestertown Tea Party Festival organizers have felt the need to add a disclaimer that their event is not political. Their festival is inspired by a real, or at least legendary, event. Whether or not the citizens of Chestertown participated in an act of vandalism to protest British taxes is unclear. But that doesn't stop the town from celebrating it. They have been doing so every year, on Memorial Day weekend since 1968, which obviously predates the recent Tea Party political movement. So it must annoy them that they have to add a disclaimer.

Chestertown is a small town founded in 1706 on the Chester River, on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It is the county seat for Kent County. The downtown area has a nice historic feel to it. Many of the houses and buildings go back to the 18th century. While not a major tourist destination, it isn't a bad place to visit for a day trip.

The festival has all sorts of events, but the only one I participated in was the 10 mile race. Called the Run for Radcliffe, the race benefits the private Radcliffe school which is for kids with learning disabilities.

The race started at 8 am on Saturday, May 25, 2013. I overslept a bit and had to rush to get there from Annapolis. As a result, I missed my normal 2-3 cups of coffee. The excitement of the race was a nice substitute, however.

It was a bit crowded at the start because there was also a 5k race that was starting at the same time. However, after about a mile or so, the 5k runners changed course and the race became much less congested.

Downtown side street

The course took us mainly through the local suburbs and avoided the downtown area. Running through the downtown area might have been more interesting, but it also would have made it more difficult. People were busy setting up their stalls for the festival and there were lots of people walking around. Running through there would have just slowed everyone down and make life more complicated. There were a lot of hills in the course, but they were fairly mild. And for each uphill there was a corresponding downhill. The race was well supported with water and other refreshments. The locals were supportive and seemed happy that we were there.

I started out in the back and slowly increased my speed throughout the race. My five mile pace (they had a timing map at the 5 mile mark and we wore RFID chips on our shoes) was 9:44 per mile. My total race pace, at the end, was 9:30 per mile. So I was faster in the second half. It wasn't my best race, but I wasn't dissatisfied. Some older guy passed me in the first mile. He was huffing and puffing, while I was relaxed. I made it my mission to pass him, but did so slowly. I had him in my sights for a while and finally passed him around mile 7 and didn't see him again until after I finished.

The finish was great. They had a beer truck set up with free beer from the Fordham Brewery. I drank in moderation because I was driving and because it was still morning. I only had 3 to 4 pints. I walked around for a while before heading back.

I would certainly do this race again and recommend it to others. It was well supported, it was for a good cause, the people were friendly, it was a nice course, and they had free beer. What else could you ask for?

Graveside Service for H.L. Mencken

H.L. Mencken's grave

Henry Louis Mencken left this world on January 29, 1956. Yet his memory is still kept alive by those who continue to value liberty in a world that increasingly does not.

On January 27, 2013, several people attended a brief service of remembrance at his grave in Louden Park Cemetery in Baltimore. Oleg Panczenko of the Friends of the Mencken House gave these remarks,  which I fully endorse:

Do We Still Value Liberty?

Remarks for the Mencken Grave Site Memorial ServiceLoudon Park, 2013-01-27 14:00

By Oleg Panczenko

(1,011 words)

Mencken family graves

Mr Mencken wrote that “liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years” [1] and few, at least here in America, would disagree. It is part of the mythos of the American founding that this nation was “conceived in liberty”. With this statement we immediately hit a sour note, for the phrase “conceived in liberty” famously comes from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address which Mr Mencken described as “a mellifluous and emotional statement of the obviously not true. The men who fought for self-determination at Gettysburg were not the Federals but the Confederates.” [2]

I am not making the puerile, smugly self-righteous and snidely dismissive observation that the Founding Fathers owned slaves. That they did. They also established a system with a built-in cognitive dissonance but elaboration of this idea is a topic for another day.

In high-school civics class we were taught the childish fiction that The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights in particular, are there to limit the power of government and thus secure the liberty of the people. We were also taught that our government was a government “of the people, by the people, for the people”. But if this is so, why would we want to limit ourselves? The answer lies in the definition of government, which Mr Mencken defines as “the class of job-holders, ever bent upon oppressing the citizen to the limit of his endurance” [3]. What of the prohibitions on what government may do? Again, Mencken: “the execution of these prohibitions was put into the hands of lawyers, which is to say, into the hands of men specifically educated to discover legal excuses for dishonest, dishonorable and anti-social acts. The actual history of the Constitution, as everyone knows, has been a history of the gradual abandonment of all such impediments to governmental tyranny.” [4]

Mencken, writing in 1924, lamented that “the old rights of the free American, so carefully laid down by the Bill of Rights, are now worth nothing. Bit by bit, Congress and the State Legislatures have invaded and nullified them.” [5] He gave examples of the failure of the Federal Courts to preserve the rights of free Americans: The Espionage Act cases, the labor injunction cases, the deportation cases, the Postal Act cases, the Mann Act cases, and the Prohibition cases [6]. Some of these are no longer good law. The names of most of these rubrics are sufficient to give one an idea of what they dealt with. The Mann Act dealt with prostitution, immorality, and what we now call human trafficking, serious matters indeed, but the operative concept of “immorality”, as expressed in the act, was nebulous and made criminal certain consensual acts.

Because of such writings, and many others, Mencken today is lauded as a defender of liberty. Mencken is certainly a rich source of well-turned phrases. But was he a defender of what no one wants any more, at least in the form understood by him and his contemporaries? Americans are happy with qualified liberties, the qualification being that “liberty” is the freedom to do what I approve of and something to be trumped by other considerations if it involves another doing what I do not approve of.

But is even this notion of selective liberty still operative? Is “liberty” part of the word-noise of what passes for discourse today? That Americans complacently endure insults and indignities when they travel by air speaks louder than words.

In Mencken’s time the cases brought before the Courts which affected the “old rights of the free America” were matters of news. The newspaper reader had at least a sense of what was being considered and why it was important. There was Mencken, a man with a national audience, who could object to highly visible constrictions of liberty.

Americans today are less aware of the ongoing diminishment of their liberties even though the means of dispersing news are far superior now to the newspapers, radio and newsreels of Mencken’s time. I offer the following unextraordinary example.

How many of you have heard of the country where people have been detained and strip searched for the following offenses: driving with a noisy muffler, driving with an inoperable headlight, failing to use a turn signal, riding a bicycle without an audible bell, having outstanding parking tickets, making an improper left turn, and violation of a dog leash law?[7]

Surely a legislature has gone mad if such things are permitted! Surely such things could not happen here today! If they did happen here it would have been in a backwards time years ago and the laws permitting such things would have long ago been voided by our Supreme Court.

The country is the United States of America, the land of the liberty-loving. The acts listed have occurred within, say, the last ten or so years.

On April 2, 2012, the United States Supreme Court held in a 5-4 decision that “officials may strip-search individuals who have been arrested for any crime before admitting the individuals to jail, even if there is no reason to suspect that the individual is carrying contraband.” [8]

Is this a surprise? Over ninety years ago Mencken wrote: “when it comes to the mere rights of the citizen it [the Supreme Court] seems hopelessly inclined to give the prosecution the benefit of every doubt.” [9]

A survey of 855 registered voters conducted after the Court announced its decision found that 31% of voters thought that regardless of the offense, officials should have the authority to strip search anyone taken to jail even if there is no reasonable suspicion. It is heartening that of the roughly two-thirds who disagreed there was no appreciable difference between Democrats and Republicans. What is disheartening is that 31% agreed. [10]

Mr Mencken wrote that law “is necessary only when it is necessary. The rest is only insult and oppression, and the citizen is under no more obligation to submit to it than he is to submit to any other insult or oppression.” [11]

To what extent will you “submit to insult or oppression?”

Notes and References

1.) Mencken, H. L. “Why Liberty”, Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1927-01-30, part 8, p. 1.

2.) Mencken, H. L. Minority Report (1956), item 332.

3.) Mencken, H. L. “Editorial”, American Mercury 2(3):281-286 (1924-07).

4.) Ibid.

5.) “Répétition Générale”, Item 8, “On Minorities”, Smart Set 67(2):25-34 (1922-02).

6.) Mencken, H. L. “Editorial”, American Mercury 1(1):161-164, p. 163:1 (1924-02). The following suggestions for further reading are merely pointers to the huge body of writing about each set of cases. For Espionage Act cases argued before the Supreme Court see Schenck v. United States, 249 U.S. 47, (1919), Debs v. United States, 249 U.S. 211 (1919), Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616 (1919), and Social Democratic Publishing Co. v. Burleson, 255 U. S. 407 (1921); for Labor Injunction cases argued before the Supreme Court see In re Debs, 158 U.S. 564 (1895), Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U.S. 274 (1908), and American Steel Foundries v. Tri-City Central Trades Council, 257 U.S. 184 (1921); for Deportation cases see Turner v. Williams, 194 U. S. 279 (1904), and Goldman v. United States, 245 U. S. 474 (1918); the Postal Act cases refers to prosecutions under the Comstock Postal Act of 1873; for the Mann Act cases argued before the Supreme Court see Hoke v. United States, 227 U.S. 308 (1913), Athanasaw v. United States, 227 U.S. 326 (1913), Caminetti v. United States, 242 U.S. 470 (1917); for the Prohibition cases argued before the Supreme Court see National Prohibition Cases, 253 U.S. 250 (1920).

7.) List extracted from Justice Breyer’s dissenting opinion in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of Burlington (2012). See http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/pdf/10-945.pdf.

8.) The case is Albert W. Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of County of Burlington, et al. 566 U.S. ___ (2012). See http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/11pdf/10-945.pdf.

9.) “Répétition Générale”, Item 8, “On Minorities”, Smart Set 67(2):25-34 (1922-02).

10.) Fairleigh Dickinson University College at Florham, PublicMind Poll, “Nation Sides with New Jersey Motorist Against Court, Automatic Strip Searches”, 2012-04-02. See http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2012/strip/final.pdf.

11.) H. L. Mencken, “Notes on Government”, Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1926-01-10, Part 8, p.1.

Dr. Dean Ahmad, Islam and Liberty at the Anne Arundel County Campaign for Liberty meeting

Earlier this month, I had an opportunity to hear Dr. Dean Ahmad of the Minaret of Freedom Institute give a talk on the relationship between Islam and Liberty. Dr. Ahmad is a Muslim and a libertarian. Anti-Muslim bigotry has been on the rise the last few years, especially on the right. This is extremely unfortunate and misguided.

I am happy that Dr. Ahmad is out fighting both against religious intolerance and in support of freedom.

In case you couldn't attend, here is his presentation:

 Rudwan Abu-rumman, Dean Ahmad, and William Cooke

Maryland Folklore - book review

Maryland, as readers of this blog know, has a rich history involving strange stories, characters, legends, and locations. It should come as no surprise that writers would seek to collect these tales and put them together in book form for the masses. One writer, George G. Carey, did this and did it well in his book, Maryland Folklore.

 

Published in 1989 by Tidewater Publishers, cheap copies of the book can be purchased online or sometimes found in used bookstores. I picked up my copy from Back Creek Books in Annapolis.

 

Carey, who was once Maryland’s State Folklorist, had previously written two books, Maryland Folklore and Folklife and Maryland Folk Legends and Folk Songs. At the request of his publisher, he updated both and combined them into this book.

 

Divided into six chapters, the author writes first about Folktales and Tall Tales, then Legends, Folk Heroes and Local Characters, Urban Legends, Shorter Forms, and finally about Material Culture. Each chapter is then broken down into different sections.

 

The first chapter on Folktales and Tall Tales is broken down into sections on Storytelling and Storytellers and then into Folk Narratives.

 

Carey wrote about the history of storytellers and about some individual storytellers from Maryland such as Captain Alex Kellam from Smith Island. Kellam was a waterman turned insurance salesman. He would hang out around local bars in Crisfield to tell stories and tall tales. “He often acted out his stories with facial grimaces, hand gestures, dialectical innovations, onomatopoetic sounds, voice alterations. He laced his yarns with jingles and rhymes, and would from time to time break into song.” Carey was so impressed with Kellam that he brought him to speak to undergraduates at Yale when he was teaching a course there in 1982.

 

In his Folk Narratives section, Carey wrote about several tall tales and stories that were told in the area. Some were fairly amusing with good punch lines. Others, less so. But Carey’s job as a folklorist is not to only preserve the amusing or good stories, but all that were being told.

 

The second chapter on Legends, Folk Heroes, and Local Characters is perhaps the most interesting part of the book. It is broken-up into sections on Places and Events, the Devil, Witchcraft, and Treasure Legends.

 

In the places section, Carey wrote about typical legends of bloody prints being left at places where people died, especially if they had been murdered. The stains could never be permanently removed. Ghosts also stalked houses were terrible events were said to have taken place. For example, he wrote that “[a] home in Midland afforded a much more gruesome tale. On Paradise Street there, a young husband took a butcher knife and killed his wife and children before he turned it on himself. As late as 1950, people in the area swore that a figure appeared night after night in the doorway of the room where the murders took place. The figure always carried a knife and his features seemed demonically possessed. Inexplicable screams also issued from the residence and startled nearby neighbors." Whether or not such a house exists or did exist or if anyone was murdered there, I have not yet been able to determine, but plan to work on finding out.

 

The section on the Devil dealt mainly with tales of people from Maryland who were said to have sold their souls for material gain. One such person was a man from Crisfield named Skidmore who not only prospered greatly, but was able to work magic against his enemies.

As the author of Witch Trials, Legends, and Lore of Maryland, I was most interested in Carey’s section on Witchcraft. Carey explained how social outcasts, especially if they were women, could come to be seen by society as being witches. He used this to explain the popular legend of Moll Dyer from St. Mary's County. Carey also told the story of a "typical" witch, this one from Crisfield, "Old Aunt Hanna". She threatened to put spells on people if they angered her. Another alleged witch, Henny Furr, was a black woman who lived in Mount Vernon on the lower Eastern Shore. She bewitched dogs that went onto her property, poisoned people, and engaged in other disturbing behavior until she met with a mysterious end. Carey also wrote about the methods that people used to protect themselves from witches.

The Treasure Legends section addressed the various stories about buried treasure, especially around the Chesapeake. It was thought that Captain Kidd may have buried treasure at any number of locations around the bay. Many others buried their fortunes as well. Sometimes a ghost would haunt the treasure to keep others away. These ghosts must be effective at their jobs because no large treasures are known to have been recovered in the area.

The chapter on Folk Heroes and Local Characters is about amusing local people of old, such as "Lickin' Bill" from the lower Eastern Shore. Bill earned his name because he tended to lick various things around town with his tongue. A large man who never lost a wresting match or game of strength, he was also known for being a devout Methodist and for his wit. An inability to get his clothing properly tailored resulted in the humorous scene of him "going to church with his pants legs just below his knees and his coat sleeves up to his elbows." Other tales are told about other amusing characters, most of whom must no longer be living and who would have been mostly lost to history, but for this book. 

Carey's chapter on Urban Legends starts off with some general stories about mishaps with fast food, trips to Mexico, escaped killers, and other tales that are not necessarily connected to Maryland, but are said to have also taken place here (and lots of other places). Black Aggie from Druid Ridge Cemetery in Baltimore is covered in some detail by the author. For a few decades in the 20th century, this ominous-looking statue invoked fear in the hearts of many. Children and college students would constantly trespass onto the grounds of the cemetery to sit on her lap, if they had the nerve, until it was removed from the grounds in 1967. The book's author would not have been aware of this, but for anyone seeking her, Black Aggie currently sits in the courtyard of the Federal Circuit Library, which is located here. Although there is no security to the courtyard, I'm fairly certain it is not a good idea to jump onto Aggie's lap. The US Marshalls inside might have some sort of a problem with that.

Carey's chapter on Shorter Forms is broken into sections on Traditional Speech and Names, Proverbs and Proverbial Speech, Riddles and Tongue Twisters, Children's Games and Traditions, Folk Belief, and Folk Magic. Many of the speech patterns and sayings have continued to today and some didn't seem especially connected to Maryland, such as the saying "as easy as pie." The sections on Folk Belief and Folk Magic could probably have been merged with the section on witchcraft in the previous chapter as the subjects are essentially the same.

Finally, Carey's chapter on Material Culture is divided into sections on Folklife, Foodways, Screen Painting, Rug Weaving, and Boatbuilding. Most of this book is focused on the eastern and western parts of Maryland, but the section on Screen Painting is exclusively about Baltimore City. Screen Painting became a popular form of art in Baltimore in the early 20th century. Although declining in popularity the last few decades, there is an organization dedicated to the art. Screen Painting may be on the way to making a comeback.

Maryland Folklore is a amusing book about Maryland's lost or forgotten art, culture, history, and beliefs. I recommend trying to find a copy.

Update on where you can buy Witch Trials, Legends, and Lore of Maryland

My book, Witch Trials, Legends, and Lore of Maryland is available now at several new places. Here is the full list, at this time.

Annapolis:

The Annapolis Bookstore on Maryland Ave.
The Annapolis Cigar Company on Main St.
Back Creek Books on West St.

Baltimore:

Atomic Books in Hampden.

Boonsboro:

Turn the Page Bookstore on Main St.

Kensington:

Kensington Row Bookshop on Howard Ave.

Leonardtown:

Fenwick Street Used Books and Music on Fenwick St.

Oxford:

Mystery Loves Company on S. Morris St.

 St. Mary's City:

Historic St. Mary's City Museum Shop

All copies should be signed and available for about $10.

You can also still purchase the book (unsigned) from Amazon and other online booksellers.