BONUS: Yes, we locked up American citizens in camps
Queensbury Ethics Board rules Town Board member has conflict of interest
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A Flicker of Eternity is not a new film, but unfortunately, many Americans will find its content groundbreaking.
The National World War II Museum screened the documentary short on "The Day of Remembrance" on Feb. 19. Many of you are not familiar with that either. I know I wasn't.
It was on that day in 1942 that President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 authorizing the forced relocation of 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps in the western United States for one and only one reason - their ancestry.
It remains one of the darkest days in U.S. history, although the year is not over yet.
Men, women and children of all ages were rounded up by the military and put in hastily constructed internment camps that were often not fit for human habitation. Families lost their homes, businesses and possessions in months and years afterward and many of their children went off to war.
It is a reminder our government committed atrocities in the past and it is important to know that so it doesn't happen again.
On hand at the museum was one of the producers of the film, Sharon Yamato, and Judge Fred Fujioka, whose father fought with the all-Japanese-American 442nd Regiment in Italy during World War II.
A Flicker in Eternity is described as "the coming-of-age tale of Stanley Hayami, a talented young teenager caught between his dream of becoming a writer/artist and his duty to his country." The movie is based on Hayami’s diary that begins while incarcerated in an internment camp and runs through his service in Italy
"I want you to fall in love with this kid," Yamato recalled being told when she was shown Stanley's photograph. "My interest was piqued. How could you not fall in love with a face like that? When I read his diary it was so engrossing. This is a film completely in Stanley's voice."
In the project's first incarnations, the filmmakers argued over the tone of the movie with one producer wanted it to be "angrier."
"Stanley was not angry," Yamato contends. "I wanted people to know about this period of history. If we don't talk about it, it won't be remembered. It happened in the United States of America. It was at least 20 years before people talked about it. At the same time it showed the tragedy of war."
The film chronicles the resistance of some of the young men to enlist in the camps. They wanted assurances their constitutional rights would be reinstated after their service.
Eventually, the Japanese-American men were also subject to the draft. Many still refused to go while in the camps, but Stanley went.
Stanley is clearly the star of the film, not for anything he did on the battlefield, but for his detailed diary complete with detailed sketches of everyday life in the camp. That experience provides the real value to the film.
In what entry in his diary, he writes about his last night in camp and preparing to leave for the Army the next day.
"As long as the memory of that person is alive, they are alive," Judge Fuijoka said. "Stanley would have gone on to do great things."
Stanley was killed on the final day of combat in Europe when he rushed to the aid of two wounded colleagues. He took one back to safety, then went back for the second only to be shot and killed.
"His mother was still at Heart Mountain (internment camp in Wyoming) when she got the telegram," Judge Fuijoka said. "She posted her Gold Star on her window at Heart Mountain."
Yamato said the internment became "a source of shame" in "The Japanese American community and was rarely talked about for decades afterward.
It should be a source of shame for all Americans, but talked about so it does not happen again.
Conflict of interest
Thanks to all of you who contacted a Queensbury Town Board member to question the conflict of interest councilman Tim McNulty has by also being chairman of the Warren County Republican Committee.
But as I said in Monday's newsletter, I suspect the Town Board will remain silent unless good citizens step forward and demand they address the conflict.
I urge you all to call or email ALL the members of the Queensbury Town Board even if you don't live in Queensbury. I suspect this type of ethical violation is happening in communities all across the region.
Queensbury Town Board
Contact information
You can contact your representative and weigh in on this matter:
- John Strough, Town Supervisor - johns@queensbury.net
518-761-8229
- Anthony Metivier, Ward 1 councilman - ametivier@queensbury.net
518-932-1109
- Scott Gushlaw, Ward 2 councilman - scottg@queensbury.net
518-331-4836
- Michael Dixon, Ward 3 councilman -dixonm@queensbury.net
518-812-7562
Tim McNulty, Ward 4 councilman
518-480-7236 - timothym@queensbury.net
Stefanik on ice
The New York Times reported Monday that Speaker Mike Johnson said the reason Elise Stefanik had not been confirmed as U.N. Ambassador is that he still needs her vote to pass the budget bill.
The Times wrote:
Mr. Johnson is under pressure this week to hold his fractious conference together to pass a budget resolution, with potentially only a single vote to spare. Ms. Stefanik, a former member of House leadership, is a team player whose support could be crucial, given the difficult math.
“If we get the budget resolution passed this week, which is the plan, then it’s possible that Elise Stefanik would go ahead and move on to her assignment at the U.N. as the ambassador there,” Mr. Johnson said on Monday during a talk at the America First Policy Institute. It was a blunt acknowledgment of the political reality of trying to pass a budget to enact President Trump’s agenda after he raided the House Republican ranks to fill out his administration.
When she was introduced at the Conservative Political Action Conference over the weekend, Stefanik was introduced as the U.N. ambassador, not the congresswoman from New York which is something her constituents already knew.
The Times reported Stefanik is not seated on any subcommittees in the 119th Congress, though she continues to attend hearings. Meanwhile at the U.N., there was a showdown among nations over whether to support Ukraine. The United States voted to vote with Russia and against Ukraine in its war with Russia.
How many of Stefanik's loyal followers here in the North Country will be on board with her support of Russia once she takes over at the U.N.?
Will she stand with Ukraine or Russia? I suspect she will do anything President Trump wants her to do.
Lie of the year
It's only February, but this whopper could be the lie of the year.
The White House reported that Elon Musk had found the U.S. was spending $50 million to send condoms to Gaza. A few days later, Donald Trump said it was $100 million.
It all seemed hard to believe and when the fact-checkers were done it turned out it was pure fantasy.
Records from the U.S. Agency for International Development showed there was no such program for Gaza and the money budgeted to buy condoms worldwide (to stop the spread of HIV in underdeveloped countries) was less than that.
Finally, you could buy roughly 1 billion condoms for $50 million and there are only 1 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Don't believe anything that comes out of this White House.
Economic reminder
I saved this quote from last fall about the economy. It seems appropriate considering that inflation has ticked upward and the stock market is lower than when Donald Trump took office. I believe this is from the New York Times.
"President Trump is inheriting an economy that is about as good as it ever gets,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “The U.S. economy is the envy of the rest of the world, as it is the only significant economy that is growing more quickly post-pandemic than pre-pandemic.”
The reminder here is that presidents can only do so much to affect the world economy. I said that when Joe Biden was president and it is just as true today, but so many people voted for Donald Trump because they believed otherwise.
They were obviously misled.
Pope lashes out
And then there is the Pope's reaction to Donald Trump's immigration policies last week before he was hospitalized.
The Associated Press reported the Pope said anyone schooled in Christianity "cannot fail to make a critical judgement and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality," he said. "What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being begins badly and will end badly."
I suspect Trump will see the Pope in court as part of a defamation suit.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
Queensbury Town Board conflicts of interest have been around forever. The GOP runs the show.
Whether it’s outside contractors, staffing, policies, etc, they all pass through the GOP sieve. John Strough has been a “David” type force during his terms as Supervisor. We owe John a lot of gratitude for his tireless efforts. Say a prayer for John has he continues his work while facing a personal hardship.
Thank you for highlighting another travesty in our history. Outright legally sanctioned discrimination against Japanese Americans existed in the west, I understand that German Americans were shunned on the east coast during the war, but not to the extent that the Japanese Americans endured. There was also a Broadway production about the internment camps based on the actor George Takei's experience as a young boy. The play, a musical titled "Allegiance" was also filmed live with an introduction by Takei, and presented in select theaters (I saw it in 2016) and also describes the choices Japanese Americans faced while being interred and losing everything they had before. I'm sure we can single out other "accepted" discriminatory history against Jewish and Irish immigrants to name just two ethnic groups, as they arrived to make better lives for themselves. So many prejudices pepper our history while the tapestry of the world's seekers of human dignity arrive at our shores. I'm sure many or all of Ken's readers can attest to that. I think it is a weakness of the human species, we're animals after all, trying to "protect" ourselves from "The Other" in such an ugly and unforgivable way.