What My Dad Found in the Great Seal of the United States

My dad died a couple of years ago. To say we didn’t always see eye-to-eye at times is an understatement. Our differences, however, weren’t on the political front. A fellow West Pointer, historian and teacher of international relations, my dad helped to shape many of my political viewpoints. Through the years, he emphasized one particular theme often. My dad believed the guidance we find on one side of the Great Seal of the United States, “E Pluribus Unum,” embodies the most important strength of America. Literally translated, this means, “From Many One.” If you never noticed the Great Seal before, it is on the back of every dollar bill in use since 1935. The words “E Pluribus Unum” are on the banner held in the eagle’s beak.

On July fourth 1776, congress authorized the creation of the Great Seal, our national emblem, and appointed the first of three committees that would take six years to finalize its design. Many of our founding fathers worked on these committees. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams comprised the first. The guidance they chose to include on our national emblem is significant and lasting.

From 1892 to 1924, America experienced a massive influx of European immigrants through Ellis Island, the “Gateway to America.” The way these people, with all their disparate languages and cultures, integrated themselves into America represents the ideal of “From Many One.” My own German ancestors had immigrated to New York only a few years earlier. Listening to a cabbie from India speak of finding a husband for his daughter back in his home village, it is easy to imagine the process “From Many One” has somehow broken down. The sight of a Muslim woman in full burka, or a Mexican-American waving a Mexican flag at a soccer game where the Mexican national team is playing the American national team might raise the same sentiments.

Especially in the political arena, this American ideal, “From Many One,” seems an impossible dream, a fading Camelot that never really existed except in the imagination. Today, we Americans divide ourselves politically by race, by religion, by ethnic origin, by political persuasion, and further, by belief, into a myriad of interest groups. In America, heralded as a great melting pot of ideas and cultures, sometimes it seems cultures don’t melt, ideas don’t blend, and the pot boils over. One has only to watch Sunday morning TV, or walk by a newsstand, to notice advocates on all sides of issues clawing at each other. Can it be that it has always been this way? Have Americans always torn at each other’s throats in so unseemly a fashion?

As a person who became an adult during the 1960’s my observation is yes, it has always been this way. The revolution that gave birth to America tore families apart, and less than half of those living in America at the time supported it. That America fought a bloody civil war in the 1860’s indicates how divided “We the People” were then.  

My dad saw all this and it troubled him, as it troubles me. However, he took a longer view, one I try to emulate. He recalled that it took generations for the European immigrants to integrate themselves into America. Little Italys and Irish communities still stand alongside newer little Koreas, little Vietnams, and Chinatowns. Swedish and Norwegian flags still hang from homes in my hometown of Seattle. That Indian cab driver’s son is a UW graduate and a Microsoft engineer, his daughter is a UW graduate and a registered nurse. Who knows how “integrated” into mainstream America their children will be? The flag-waving Mexican’s kids speak English (and Spanish) and watch American TV, and that Muslim woman deserves the right to worship and dress any way she chooses, a right guaranteed to all Americans, bought with generations of American blood. The process, “From Many One,” takes time. It is happening before our eyes, albeit slowly.

Dad also realized “From Many One” did not mean to make us all the same, homogenized into a single set of beliefs, except with regard to the principles of the constitution. It is in these all Americans must come together as one: freedom of speech, assembly, worship, equality before the law. Sometimes defending these freedoms takes strange forms, like recognizing the right of the truly offensive to burn the American flag as a form of free speech, like defending the rights of protesters who spit at you as you march off to war. The true essence of America is respect for the rights of others to dress, live, worship and express opinions that do not agree with our own ways.

American politics is a full contact sport. We don’t have to go far to find people who disagree vehemently with one or another of our views. However, on this special day, September 11th, while we remember the attacks that brought us together in anger, in grief, and in shock, let us reaffirm that we will defend the rights of those who disagree with us. They are our acquaintances, friends, neighbors and family. The freedoms we cherish make America wonderfully messy. My dad would be the first to encourage us to advocate strongly for our own positions. Today, however, he would probably want us all to take time from polarizing rants to stand on the middle ground where many become one.

Pete Grimm

"Lips held on, as hands began to explore" - Excerpt from Old Scores

Old Scores – A Thriller with More Than a Touch of Romance

“Come on then. I’ll ride with you and walk back,” he said. He slipped on his jacket and escorted Darla out the door amid hugs and kisses for Sarah and Alex.

“You are playing with fire, my boy,” Alex warned him in a whisper.

 It only took a minute for Darla to drive the little Focus back to her apartment at the southern end of Pigeon Point Road. Darla parked in front, then leaned over to him, took his face into both of her hands and sweetly and softly kissed him on the lips. The kiss lingered and built in intensity. Moments later lips crushed together with hot aching passion and dancing tongues. His hands found Darla’s waist and pulled her toward him.

Whoever designed the front seats of the Ford Focus didn’t have passion between two full-sized adults in mind. An intrusive console separated the bucket seats.

His assistance and her flexibility allowed Darla to slide out from under the steering wheel, across the console, and onto his lap to straddle his waist. During the entire operation, their lips never parted. Darla gripped her fingers behind his neck and pressed her mouth to his, parting her lips wide, taking his tongue deep into her mouth. Lips held on, as hands began to explore. Darla dug her nails into his chest. He ran his hands across the strong muscles of her back and untucked her blouse from the confines of her skirt, finding her bare skin with his fingers. He ran his hands up and down her body marveling at her strength, and the slimness of her waist. Then he grasped her full breasts from outside her bra. Darla tore her lips from his, and in one quick motion reached and unclasped the bra. It magically disappeared out one sleeve of her blouse, leaving her breasts free, cupped in his palms. She moaned in pleasure and rubbed against him. Again, his lips found hers and their tongues danced. The pressure on just the right body parts became intense. His hands left her breasts and ran up her thighs under her skirt, pulling her tighter against him.

Harold Ramis, Danny Rubin – Groundhog Day and New Year’s Resolutions

Harold Ramis, Danny Rubin – Groundhog Day and New Year’s Resolutions

It is New Year’s Day and, like many Americans, I’m reviewing last year’s resolutions. Have I made any progress? Why am I losing and gaining back the same twenty-five pounds. Why are this year’s resolutions to improve my relationships, my physique, my Spanish, my guitar playing, my painting and my writing virtual carbon copies of last year’s resolutions? What do I have to show for the last year of my life? Whenever I chastise myself in this way, my favorite films of all time, Groundhog Day, comes to mind. I have watched Groundhog Day countless times since its release in 1993. Co-written by Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin and based on a story by Danny Rubin, it is Harold Ramis’ directorial masterpiece.

Most writer’s know the “Hero’s Journey,” the monomythical path most fictional heroes travel chronicled in Joseph Campbell’s Hero of a Thousand Faces and amplified by Christopher Vogler in The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers. Groundhog Day represents a classic and successful adherence to these principles with beautiful emphasis on the transformational experience of the main character, Phil Connors. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Bill Murray played Phil Connors, a misanthropic Pittsburgh TV weatherman who hated his assignment to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities in Punxsutawney. Trapped in Punxsutawney by a snowstorm, Connors finds himself waking up day after day at 6AM to the clock-radio on his nightstand playing "I Got You, Babe" by Sonny & Cher, and reliving the same day over and over.

Quickly he realizes only he can remember what happened on previous trapped days, for everyone else it is as though that day did not exist. Free to act without consequence, he lets his inner demons run wild. Then he despairs that nothing he does has any lasting effect and tries repeatedly to kill himself. His relationship with news producer Rita, played sweetly by Andie McDowell, makes him re-examine his life and, like Helen Hunt did to Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets, she inspires him to become a better man. He uses his time trapped in his one day to improve, learning to play the piano, speak French and to learn all the minutia of the lives of the Punxsutawney townspeople. Some viewers estimate he spends ten years or more improving himself and trying get his one day exactly right. Still he cannot escape his fate. Finally, he absorbs the lesson that not only must he do good things, he must do them for the right reasons. This lesson transforms the way he interacts with the townspeople and Rita. He wins her heart (and her bod in bed – a prize denied him when he sought it for the wrong reasons) and he wakes up a new man on a new day.

On New Year’s Day it is easy to wake up feeling like Phil Connors, like you are covering the same ground over and over with the goal of making yourself a better you, and never getting it quite right. I’m not going to lose a lot of sleep over it however. I’ve decided that the life is about living my own Mythic Journey. Being in the moment, enjoying the journey brings its own joy, not necessarily achieving every goal set.

I have my own inspiration to become a better man in my bride of 45 years (as of December 27^th). Her simple solution for that weight I keep gaining and losing is not letting me buy any new trousers. When my thirty four inch waists get snug, they become a constant reminder to do something about it that works. That she has kept the same wonderful figure she had when I met her inspires me as well.

As for the rest of my New Year’s resolutions, they are simply guides, helping me set priorities and make decisions about what to do each day. God is in the doing.

Have a wonderful New Year.

Cheers,

Pete