Stepping into a Political Metaphor – at an Airport

You step off a plane, and you walk into a political metaphor. 

We were returning from three weeks in London, arriving at O’Hare Airport in Chicago before transferring to our flight to St. Louis. The British Airways plane had been late leaving London, but we made up for most of the lost time in flight. We taxied a bit in Chicago, a bit defined as taking the grand tour of O’Hare Airport. But we finally deplaned.

 

The entry hall was chaos. As the signs indicated, non-US citizens were directed to one section of roped aisles, and US citizens to another. 

 

I wasn’t worried. We had a three-hour+ layover in Chicago, and I had completed the Mobile Passport Control from on the US Customs and Border Protection app, which – in theory – would help speed the process. And sure enough, an agent directed the MPC people around the lengthy line for US citizens. But as we walked around, I couldn’t help but notice that the number of US citizens in the US citizen look looked few and far between.

 

What MPC allowed us to do, however, was only break into the line, with a lot of hostile looks from those already waiting. And I was right: the line wasn’t only US citizens. In fact, there were hardly any US citizens in the US citizens’ line. The crush of non-citizen visitors was so large that they had started moving them into the US citizen line, and they overwhelmed it. Ahead of me was a woman with an Egyptian passport, and ahead of her was a woman from China with a whole sheaf of immigration papers. She was behind a family emigrating from some Middle Eastern country. And there were almost all non-citizens ahead of them.

 

One woman, a US citizen, relied upon the kindness of strangers to advance in the line so she could try to catch a connecting flight. Others were becoming increasingly vexed. I thought a couple in an adjacent line were going to become unglued and lose control right there.

 

We waited in line for an hour. When we finally reached the agent, we spent all of 60 seconds answering the questions I had already filled out on the form. Which she knew: she had my submitted form on the screen in front of her. She waved us through with the CBP authorized form. 

 

We raced to retrieve our bags. Then we had to take the train from the International Terminal to the Terminal with our flight to St. Louis. The crowds to board the train were dense; we had to wait for the next train. We made it to our gate just as the flight was boarding. Our 3+-hour layover had disappeared.

 

The CBP could have easily reduced the lines considerably by segregating US citizens, like they were supposed to. But the point was made: US citizens have no more right to enter the United States than anyone else. 

 

Lessons learned:

 

If at all possible, avoid Chicago O’Hare if you’re arriving on an international flight. We’ve come back from Europe many times, and we’ve never had that kind of experience.

 

If you travel frequently to and from the US, enroll in Global Entry, where you scan your passport. It’s similar to the system Britain generally has for visitors; entry through Border Control at Heathrow Airport took us less than about 30 seconds. 

 

And expect our government to treat US and non-US citizens alike, regardless of the inconvenience or the cost. That’s just how it is these days. 

 

Photograph of an O’Hare Airport terminal by Karson via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Monday Readings

 

Shoreline – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Jonathan Edwards: Founding Father of American Political Thought – Gordon Arnold at The imaginative Conservative.

 

First Draft, Last Draft: How Hemingway Became Hemingway – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

Why Canada is Destroying Its Churches – Samuel Sey at Slow to Write.

 

Helene: the have and the have-nots – Brian Miller at A South Roane Agrarian. 

 

And he speaks

After Exodus 20:1-2 

And, signifying all

that came before

is connected to what

follows, he speaks,

the voice to be heeded,

the voice to attend,

the voice like no other,

the voice that spoke

creation into existence,

he speaks. He is the Lord,

the Lord our God; he speaks

in the voice that all

hear, all understand.

He is our God, the God

who brought us out

of slavery, out of Egypt,

into the land he promised,

calling us back, striking

the chains that bind us.

The voice is the voice

of the one who made us,

the one who delivered us.

 

Photograph by Irina Iriser via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

A Biblical Perspective about Obedience at Work – Hugh Whelchel at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

 

When You Fear Your Best Days Are Behind You – Lois Flowers. 

 

Modern Mysticism: Rod Dreher’s Living in Wonder – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Reading is Fundamental – Marty Machowski at New Growth Press.

 

This Who Make Them Become Like Them – Brad Littlejohn at Commonwealth Dispatches.

 

The Unity of Charity: C.S. Lewis and the End of Ecumenism – Michael Ward at An Unexpected Journal. 

Saturday Good Reads - Oct. 5, 2024

We just returned from three weeks in England, and it was overall an enjoyable trip, with both highlights and a couple of disappointments. But a pleasant surprise was to find a post by A London Inheritance, a blog I’ve followed for some years. This post featured the Blue Coat School on Caxton Street in Westminster, roughly 50 yards from our hotel. It’s all about the school and when it started, and the neighborhood it’s been part of for more than 300 years. 

It was rather startling to watch a video of former Senator and presidential candidate John Kerry speaking at Davos, disparaging the First Amendment for how it gets in the way of the experts trying to save us from ourselves (my words, not his).  Andrew Napolitano at Consortium News provides a brief overview of the freedom of speech – where it came from and why it’s important. (And John Kerry should know better.)

 

One of the fastest-growing genres of music is – surprise – contemporary Christian. Brett McCracken at The Gospel Coalition takes a look at why.

 

More Good Reads

Hurricane Helene

Mules to the Rescue in North Carolina's Blue Ridge - Brian Swartz at Emerging Civil War.

British Stuff

 

Cruikshank at the Tower of London – Spitalfields Life.

 

Israel

 

Mr. Biden, This is How You Defend Israel – Douglas Murray at The Free Press on the 1975 speech by Daniel Patrick Moynihan,

 

The Killing of Nasrallah – and the Virtue of Escalation and Let Israel Win the War Iran Started – Eli Lake at The Free Press.

 

Life and Culture

 

Don ‘t bet on green energy – Debra Lieberman and John Constable at The Critic Magazine.

 

The Tyranny of the Present Moment – Glenn Arbery at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Morgoth’s Realm in the Far North: The Lost History of Middle-Earth, Part 4 – The Saxon Cross.

 

The Songs of Power: Hearing God’s Music in Middle-Earth – Clinton Manley at Desiring God.

 

Was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Inspired by a Real Murder Case? – Olivia Rutigliano at CrimeReads. 

 

American Stuff

 

Rescue the Republic: My Speech in Washington – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

Why Don’t the People Have a Hammer? Maybe We Do – Walter Kirn’s speech at Rescue the Republic.

 

Faith

 

A Wide Place – Seth Lewis.

 

Poetry

 

“When the First is on the Punkin,” poem by James Whitcomb Riley – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Night in the Mountains – poem by David Whyte.

 

Rise My Soul, the Lord Had Risen – The Village Chapel 

Illustration: The Book of the Queen, parchment manuscript (ca. 1410-1414) depicting Christine de Pizan (1364-1430).

And she sang our song

After Luke 1: 46-55 

A young girl, from

a no-account town,

a girl who accepted

the messenger and

the message even with

the personal disaster

portended, accepted

with joy.

 

And she sang her song,

and she sang our song,

for we receive

the messenger and

the message 

in the same way, not

counting the earthly cost.

 

And she sang our song

for the one who’s done

great things for us,

for the strength he’s

shown us, for the mercy

he bestows.

 

And she sang our song

for the scattering of the proud,

for the fall of the mighty,

for exalting the humble,

for feeding the hungry.

 

And she sang our song

for the remembrance

of his mercy, for the help

he’s provided, for the promise

he’s made to us, the offspring.

 

And she sang our song.

 

Photograph by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

What If He’s Faithful? – Glenna Marshall. 

 

Online Conversation: Words Against Despair with Christian Wiman – Tom Walsh at The Trinity Forum.

 

Death Song – poems by the Venerable Bede at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin). 

 

An Invitation to a Different Story: A Review of Letters to a Future Saint – Alex Sosler at Front Porch Republic.

"The Sting of the Honey Bee" by Roger Longrigg

Dan Mallett has to be one of the most unusual protagonists in a detective or crime story that I’ve ever read.

He’s not a policeman or private detective. He was once a banker, to please his mother, but he finally couldn’t stand the dailyness and tedium of it. So, he followed in the footsteps of his father: poacher and thief.

 

Dan has certain skills that lend themselves to detective work. He can quietly set traps for birds without the owner of the land aware of it. He has connections to fences for stolen goods. He knows how the police operate, and he knows the police really well. But what starts as a simple pony party for children will take Dan very close to death.

 

Roger Longrigg

A man arrives from London with his two young children, determined to buy the family farm he believes his father was cheated out of. The farm is occupied by two elderly and rather unlikeable sisters, who operate a pony riding business. The man makes a generous offer, which the sisters refuse. The man then takes a series of steps to force the two women to sell, and he covers himself extremely well. It’s a benefit that the local people have never liked the two curmudgeonly sisters and are glad to see them go.

 

The man, as it turns out, is connected to the London underworld. And he’s hired goons to frighten and terrorize the sisters. Dan’s more concerned about a pony he stole and hid among the sisters’ stock, and what the police will do when the sisters finger him. But he also sees what’s coming down on top the sisters’ heads, and he decides to help. Or he finds himself in such a fix that risking capture by the police may be the best option.

 

Sting of the Honey Bee is the second of the Dan Mallett novels by Roger Longrigg, writing as Frank Parrish. It’s less of a detective story and more of general crime novel; the only mystery is how Mallett is going to escape disaster and help the sisters survive the onslaught of a London gang leader. It’s got a bit of romance as well, with Dan admiring and somewhat falling for the pony trainer hired by the gang boss who has no idea what’s really going on.

 

Watching Mallett at work and pulling off a stunning upset makes the novel an absolutely fun read.

 

Longrigg (1929-2000) wrote numerous mystery and suspense novels under different pseudonyms. He used Frank Parrish for the eight Dan Mallett novels, and Ivor Drummond and Domini Taylors for others. He’s also published under his own name, both fiction and non-fiction, about foxhunting and horse racing. 

 

Related:

 

Fire in the Barley by Roger Longrigg.

Some Thursday Readings

 

The Legacy of The Lodger, Marie Belloc Lowndes’ Influential Jack the Ripper Story – Victoria Gilbert at CrimeReads. 

 

“The Unfortunate Fate of Septimus Wise”: A Ghost Story – Stephen Masty at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

“A Vagabond Song,” poem by Bliss Carman – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Rose at the Golden Heart – Spitalfields Life.

A Language Lesson

I have a short story in the fall edition of Cultivating Oaks Press. The edition focuses on the theme of “fortitude,” and my story is entitled “A Language Lesson.” This is how it begins:

As the train arrived at Heidelberg Station, Sam McClure smiled to remember the first time he’d arrived here. In 1906, he’d just turned 16 and was preparing to spend his high school junior year with a family in Germany. He’d traveled by himself across the Atlantic on the H.M.S. Heimat for Hamburg, sent a telegram to Heidelberg to alert them of his arrival, and taken the train to his sponsoring family. His textbook-fluent German had been more than useful from the time he boarded the German liner in New York Harbor.

 

The Mittelstein family had been waiting: Dr. Aaron Mittelstein, chemistry professor at the university; his wife Ada; and their three children, Wolfgang, 18, Paul, 16, and Annaliese, 13. Wolfie was preparing to leave for university in Berlin. Paul, known as Mitti for being the middle child, was almost exactly Sam’s age and would share the same classes in Gymnasium, the German school he would attend. Annaliese would be attending Gymnasium with them.

 

Sam hadn’t known then what the Mittelsteins thought, but for him it had been love at first sight. That love, and what would become his deep friendship with Mitti, sustained him through a huge bout of homesickness and a steep cultural learning curve. He’d come to love this family so deeply that he returned four years later and stayed with them for a year abroad at the university.

 

To continue reading, please see my post at Cultivating Oaks Press. You can read all of the contributions here.

Photograph: Ransacking a Jewish home during Kristallnacht 1938.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

The red star returns – Gary Saul Morson at The New Criterion on the specter of communism.

 

The death of conservatism? – Henry George at The Critic Magazine.

 

Slange Var! – Samuel Schaefer at Front Porch Republic on toasts.

 

Fine dining, POW Style: Johnson’s Island Rat Club – Kevin Donovan at Emerging Civil War.

Poets and Poems: Ellen Kombiyil and "Love as an Invasive Species"

Love as an Invasive Species: Poems by Ellen Kombiyil packs a powerful punch. Collectively, the 40 poems are a story about women, working-class women who often find life stacked against them but keep fighting for themselves and their families.  

The collection is evenly divided into two “sides,” Side A and Side B, a reminder of an old 45 rpm record. The book is designed as a double book, so you read Side A, flip the book to the back cover, turn it upside down, and read Side B. The poems on each side correspond to each other in the order they’re in. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

The Best of Haiku 2024: Winners of the 2024 SCP Haiku Competition – Society of Classical Poets. 

 

Michaelmas: A Sonnet for St. Michael the Archangel – Malcolm Guite.

 

“Before the Ice is in the Pools,” poem by Emily Dickinson – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

Spirals and Seasons: An Interview with Katharine Whitcomb – Tweetspeak Poetry. 

Hannah Arendt, Poet - Srikanth Reddy at The Paris Review.