This is one of several new banners Jane Mason has made for our ClubRunner home page. Thanks, Jane!
Welcome to another issue of our weekly bulletin!
Find out who our upcoming speakers are, what we covered during the last weekly meeting,
and learn more about Lebanon Rotary and our projects.
Rotary Club of Lebanon, NH
Thursday, November 16, 2023
Attending: Phil Bush, Phil Rentz, Bill Secord, Steve Whitman, Bill Babineau, Dean Cashman, Rich Wallace, Ernst Oidtmann, John Yacavone, David Crandall, Hank Clarke, Jim Damren, Joy Gobin, Cal Wolfe, Marion Steiner, and Ed Friedman (over Zoom)
12 noon, ring the bell and call meeting to order—President David Crandall
4-Way Test of the Things We Think Say or Do—Jim Damren
Joke of the day—Dave Crandall
Where did Ernst Oidtmann leave his keys? (On the piano.)
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program
Bruce Pacht introduced a TED Talk delivered by John Biewen, a journalist who presently hosts the award-winning podcast “Scene on Radio.” Bruce noted that white supremacy has recently raised its ugly head even in the Upper Valley, while anger and violence permeate our society throughout the nation. Only this week, physical violence was threatened on the floor of the United States Senate during a committee hearing that had to forcefully be brought to order by Committee Chair Bernie Sanders with the help of Senator Maggie Hassan. Biewen’s podcast series “Seeing White” has become more relevant than ever.
John Biewen on “Seeing White”—
Major points:
We can address White Supremacy only by opening up to the truths of our country’s history.
What’s up with us white people—emphasis on the us—white folk writ large. Only 20% of “good white people” supported Martin Luther King, Jr., while he was alive.
Although that negative attitude changed after Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin and instances of police brutality became more known, still systemic racism persisted.
Then with the rise of Donald Trump, the majority of Americans accepted his racist message.
What about “whiteness”? Where did the idea of being a “white person” come from? We’re all 99.9% genetically the same.
Race is a recent invention. The Greeks, even though they had slaves, didn’t see race: they saw culture.
Racism started with a lie (not a misunderstanding) used by slave traders in the fifteenth century to justify their treatment of Africans. In the 1450s, Portuguese author Gomes de Zurara described Africans being sold as slaves in Portugal as beastly and lumped them into a single group of people who lived like animals and needed to be saved by civilized Europeans, who were inherently superior. He invented the African race and the concept of whiteness/blackness.
Actual laws regarding “blackness” were first written in North America. Race became a story told to justify exploitation.
Racism today is still a tool related to the pocketbook and power. It is a “white” problem—not a “black” problem.
“White guilt” doesn’t get anything done; a feeling of responsibility is required. We need to show up.
Wherever we show up, we should do so with humility and vulnerability.
After the screening of Biewen’s TED talk to the club membership, Bruce Pacht emphasized that the presentation was not meant to shame anybody, but only to have us all listen.
Announcements
Marilyn and Ron Bedell are back from their cruises, but they are not here for today’s meeting because Marilyn has tested positive for COVID.
Hanover Wild has won the state hockey championship!
We received a letter from Alice Ely, Executive Director of the Public Health Council of the Upper Valley, thanking members of the club for helping with the council’s recent flu clinics—especially Bruce Bergeron, Hank Clarke, Marilyn and Ron Bedell, Suellen Griffin, and Angela Nelson.
Charities Board
The Charities Board has two trustees ending their terms. The two members volunteered to serve another term, so no election is necessary. John Yacavone will serve a second three-year term and Bruce Pacht will serve a second three-year term from July 1, 2024-June 30, 2027.
This day on November 16, 1776
President Elect Ernst Oidtmann gave us an American Revolutionary history lesson—with a Dutch twist:
On November 16, 1776, the American Brig Andrew Doria sailed up the roadstead and fired a gun salute. She flew a red-and-white-striped flag of the Continental Congress. The guns of the fort on the diminutive Dutch Island of St Eustatius in the West Indies returned the ritual salute, indicating that the vessel and its flag represented a legitimate nation—the first formal recognition from a foreign power in our nation’s history.
The salute was ordered on his own initiative by the governor of St Eustatius, Johannes de Graaff. St Eustatius was the source of all the gunpowder for the first few years of the revolution, smuggled by Dutch ships and making their owners quite wealthy.
Sir Joseph Yorke, the British minister to the Netherlands at the time, wrote to a colleague after the war (paraphrased): "Dutch greed and Washington's perseverance made the revolution succeed." A self-described "grateful American citizen," F.W. Cragin of New Hampshire commissioned de Graaff's portrait, which hangs in the State House of New Hampshire.
Meeting Schedule
November 23, NO MEETING—Thanksgiving
November 30, speaker—Carl Gross, Manager/Lebanon Municipal Airport
December 7, speaker—Aaron Rivkin, Hopkins Center for the Arts
December 12, Holiday Party at the Quechee Inn
December 14, Club Business—2024/2025 Election of Officers and Trustees
December 21, Ernst Oidtmann—Piano Recital
December 28, NO MEETING—Happy Holidays
January 4—John Chaffee, Sustainable Lebanon. Phil Bush may speak also.
January 11—Rod Smolla, President of the Vermont Law School. He will speak about Supreme Court decisions.
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