whats the closest thing to Traveling back in Time? to get a feel of times past?

[ChiTownScion]

My own view was that while it may have been the worst of times and not really the best of times, there were examples of Americans displaying what Mr. Lincoln referred to as, "the better angels of our nature." In 1953 and 1954, for example, Edward R. Murrow stood up against Joseph McCarthy on national television: in fact, he was instrumental in turning public opinion against him. And from your own state came a woman who, in 1950, made a Declaration of Conscience that was ahead of its time but earned Margaret Chase Smith her place in history. She regarded it as her finest hour, and I'd agree.

Ultimately the black listings not only ended but came to be regarded as a legacy of shame. At least by serious students of history who are willing to learn from our less than stellar episodes. They were, no question about it, very painful times that ruined many lives: those who persevered and didn't sell out their ideals earned well deserved respect. Those of us who know you here know that while you may have worn many hats, the one thing that no one can ever accuse you of is weakness or being a quitter. The short term would have been miserable for you (I'd agree), but long term I see you as emerging as a hero-- at least in my alternative history guesstimation.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Whenever I think of the blacklist era, I don't think of it as history. I think of it as individual faces on very personal terms. People like Philip Loeb, a very fine actor and a kind and sensitive man, who killed himself in a Manhattan hotel room after General Foods forced his firing from "The Goldbergs." Or Don Hollenbeck, a very fine and honest news broadcaster, who stuck his head in the oven after the Hearst newspapers demanded and got his firing because he went on the air after Murrow's McCarthty broadcast and declared his personal support for what had just been said. Or Minnie Pious, bless her, the greatest female dialectician who ever worked in radio, who couldn't feed herself because she couldn't get a non-radio job with her crippled back -- and when someone in the New York AFRA local proposed doing something to help her, he was shut down by an opponent who said "let her starve." Or, out on the West Coast, Jean Rouverol -- who had to skip out of a rehearsal for "One Man's Family," pack her kids into the car with nothing but the clothes on their backs, and flee to political asylum in Mexico because the FBI was about to arrest her "on suspicions."

I knew people who knew all of them personally. One degree of separation. Good people, all of them, who were targeted solely because they *were* good people. Those who said then and still say now that "It Can't Happen Here" don't realize that it already did.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The best testimony before the Inquisition was that of radio and movie actress Jody Gilbert, a self-described "fat comedienne" who showed her utter contempt for the whole proceeding by turning it into a non-stop barrage of jokes at the expense of the Committee. "I am not hiding behind the Fifth Amendment," she roared, "I AM STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF IT." The guts that it took to do that in that place and at that time are an inspiration to me to this day.

Jody didn't work again for twelve years, but until the day she died she never had to hang her head in shame.

 

[tonyb]

Every person is presented with circumstances that test just what sort of character s/he is.

I’ve failed those tests more than once. I believe that a person with any degree of self-awareness would confess the same.