I couldn't remember what my favorite doll in England when I was aged 4-7 was.
Finally, I Googled, "what were those darkie dolls called" and I remembered again.
I
once told my counselor at Penn that my father was not a racist because
he had all these international friends, and his girlfriend in England
was perhaps Scottish--
"Fiona McIntyre"--I made up the name as I did not wish to use her real name.
My
father went to public school, which my mother said was private, called
Taunton, and in Burma later, he used to sing a little ditty called
"Ching
Chong Chinaman, very funny Chinaman" and another rhyme about Japanese,
because of course Burma underwent a Japanese Occupation during World War
II.
"He smiles and bows a friendly bow, sorry this my garden now."
When I told my counselor abt the GW doll, she said, "Of all the dolls he could have given you, think about that?"
This
was a counselor who counseled me at Student Health for about 10 years
in grad school. She was very supportive (was Jewish, like many of my
profs.) and encouraged me to enter my poetry in a competition, which
resulted in the William Carlos Williams Award.
I came back to poetry because I saw an article about Anne Sexton in a psychiatry magazine in her waiting room.
--
So it's hard to tell.
Some people whom you think might be liberal are not at all--some still believe in "strong men" after all this time in the USA.
When
I spoke to my father's best friend's daughter recently (Not Fiona's
daughter) she said, "We were about the same (liberal) as other people in
1920-30."
I
don't believe it, I think they are more liberal than others, but then I
do live and maybe have always lived in a "liberal bubble."
Philadelphia was very liberal and very Democrat.
I
never heard of Fox News and all these blind racists before until 2017,
and near me there's a Fox building that I can walk past--there never
seems any activity there, though I think in early 2017 there was a
demonstration that came down Wisconsin Av, but I didn't know it was
happening, only saw it on TV.
They were demonstrating in front of VP Pence's house before he moved into the house in the National Observatory compound.
km
5-15-2019
