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Veterans Day; Whitey Bulger sentenced to life in prison; Yasser Arafat died; Charlie Chaplin’s “His Trysting Place”

 

⇒ What You Were Talking About This Week: Veterans

On November 11, Americans honored the men and women who serve or have served in the U.S. Armed Forces by commemorating Veterans Day. Unlike Memorial Day, which has a history of celebration in some form dating back to the post-Civil War era, the history of Veterans Day is more recent.

The Treaty of Versailles formally ended World War I, but an armistice was signed seven months earlier on November 11, 1918 to stop the fighting. One year later in November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson declared November 11 as Armistice Day. In 1939, Congress made Armistice Day a national holiday though it was still dedicated to those who had served in WWI. Following World War II and the Korean War, in 1954 Congress amended the previous act and formally replaced “armistice” with “veterans.” It was then that President Dwight Eisenhower issued an official proclamation which stated, “On that day [November 11] let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting and enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.”

Today, estimates suggest there are approximately 22 million veterans in the U.S.—with 2.6 million from the post-9/11 era. Unemployment is particularly high among the latter group and receiving high-quality care remains a big challenge. Earlier this year, news reports uncovered secret waiting lists and other falsified documents across several Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers. This sparked significant outrage and led to a shakeup of leadership within the VA. It is worth noting that despite this unfortunate cover-up, the VA health system is generally effective. For example, according to a January 2014 Veterans Health Administration report, the VA suicide prevention program contributed to a lower rate of suicide among both male veterans with mental health issues and male veterans over 30 compared to the national male average (which, interestingly, grew by 27.3 percent during the same period from 1999-2010).

We owe our veterans more than we could ever give back. But, in case you’re looking to get involved, here are just a few of the organizations doing amazing work for veterans and military families.

⇒ Last Year: Notorious Boston Gangster Gets Life in Prison          

On November 14, 2013, a federal judge sentenced James “Whitey” Bulger to two life sentences plus five years in prison for the crimes committed during the decades he ran amuck in Boston’s Southie neighborhood. Bulger was convicted earlier in the year for participating in 11 murders, along with a laundry list of other crimes including drug trafficking, racketeering, money laundering, and extortion. In handing down the sentence, U.S. Federal Judge Denise Casper affirmed, “The scope, the callousness, the depravity of your crimes, are almost unfathomable,” and later added, “[t]he testimony of human suffering that you and your associates inflicted on others was at times agonizing to hear and painful to watch.”

The sentencing hearing included testimony from family members who fell victim to Bulger’s crimes. Equally disturbing was the extent to which corrupt FBI agents protected Bulger, even alerting him to possible indictments; Bulger served as an FBI informant and officials turned a blind eye to his crimes. Martin Scorcese’s Oscar-winning movie “The Departed” is reportedly inspired by the life of Whitey Bulger, with Matt Damon filling the role of corrupt FBI informant.

Nontheless, Bulger sat on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List—alongside Osama Bin Laden—after he fled Boston and lived on the run for 16 years before being captured in Santa Monica, California in 2011. Still, that didn’t stop him from visiting Alcatraz and donning stripes with his girlfriend for a photo. In fact, Bulger reportedly liked Alcatraz after serving there for three years in the 1960s, so much so he once wrote to Alcatraz historian Michael Esslinger: “’If I could choose my epitaph on my tombstone, it would be ‘I’d rather be in Alcatraz.’”

⇒ 10 Years Ago: Yasser Arafat Dies

Ten years ago, Yasser Arafat, the longtime chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) died in Paris, France on November 11, 2004. He served as chairman of the PLO from 1969 until 2003.

Arafat emerged as a Palestinian leader in the 1950s and 60s and came to symbolize the Palestinian people’s quest for statehood, which he pursued through diplomacy and violence. Over the course of his reign, he oversaw several high-profile acts of terrorism. One of the most notorious among them was the murder of Israel athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. A U.S. State Department circular telegram to allies, including Great Britain, from September 1972 cited intelligence linking the Black September (BSO) terrorist group that carried out the attack in Munich to Arafat, who in the telegram is described as the head of the PLO and Fatah (a political party). The following passage from the telegram addresses the sharp difference in views behind such acts of violence:

 It is thus not credible to make [a] distinction, as terrorist organizations and certain Arab governments sometimes try to do, between “respectable” Fedayeen organizations [freedom fighters] and those engaging in indiscriminate terrorism. We therefore hope that governments will express publicly their condemnation not only of BSO but of Fedayeen terrorism in general and at the same time call publicly on states harboring or supporting terrorists to cease this support.

This passage is particularly noteworthy given present day geopolitical challenges in the Middle East.

Arafat became more controversial over time—it seemed people either loved him or hated him, including some Palestinians toward the end of his life. Whether fruitful or not, he participated in several rounds of peace talks with Israel, one of which resulted in a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. His death continues to be mired in controversy, with some believing he was poisoned. Regardless of where you fall, he was certainly a “wily and enigmatic” figure in history.

⇒ 100 Years Ago: Charlie Chaplin Directs “His Trysting Place”           

We can all picture him. The cane and bowler hat. The rumpled, if not slightly oversized suit. The mustache. Charlie Chaplin, or the Little Tramp, was a master of the silent film whose subtle comedy laid the groundwork for the actors in “talkies” that followed him.

Chaplin began as a stage actor. In 1914, he starred in his first movie (a one-reeler) called “Making a Living.” Over the course of the same year, he went on to make 34 short films, including the November release of “His Trysting Place” which Chaplin directed. The plot—a humorous misunderstanding that leads to some trouble in paradise, so to speak— is clearly a sideshow when you watch a minute or two of this charming black and white movie where Chaplin’s slapstick brand of comedy is on full display.

Across all of his films, Chaplin favored improvisation—a characteristic that would distinguish him from other leading actors of the day. He also had a way with women that would eventually put him at odds with some women’s organizations. Chaplin had four marriages and countless affairs with actresses. The Washington Times captured a particularly funny event where he tried to run away from what seem like divorce lawyers; the title of the article reads “Flying Across Country from Honest-to-Goodness Process Servers and His Pretty Wife Who Wants a Divorce While the Cameras Missed it All!” This seems built for Entertainment Tonight!

Surely every star has his vices. Instead, consider his outspoken role in “The Great Dictator” (1940) in which Chaplin sharply criticized the fascist regimes of Hitler and Mussolini. Around the time of that movie’s release, Chaplin reportedly said, “I want to see the return of decency and kindness.” Now that’s worthy of applause.