Alex Duma's Blog

Presidents Day

2012-02-20T17:17:00.000-08:00

I was in the office of my banker, Adam, the other day when I noticed a copy of Carl Sandburg’s six-volume life of Lincoln lined up along the credenza.

People often decorate their offices and living rooms with old books, so with a wink across the desk, I asked Adam if the Sandburg series was just for show.

“I’ve always liked to read, and the Sandburg set is from my father,” Adam told me. “Sometimes, when I’m here late waiting for a client to show, I dip into Sandburg’s 'Lincoln' to pass the time.”

The thought of a young executive leaving the world of mutual funds and annuities to travel with Honest Abe from the prairies to the White House heartened me. I wondered if we all might benefit by turning away from our cluttered desks, if only for a few moments, to revisit the words and deeds of the Great Emancipator.

Abraham Lincoln: 15 favorite quotes on his birthday

With the arrival of another Presidents Day, perhaps now is as good a time as any to acknowledge our debt not only to Lincoln, but to Sandburg, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 for the concluding volumes of his Lincoln biography. Sandburg, best known as a poet, seemed an unlikely biographer of the nation’s 16th president when he started the project in the 1920s.

“There were some critics who said at the time that a poet’s pen should not meddle in history,” Sandburg’s daughter, Paula Steichen, later recalled.

The poet comes through in many of the passages from Sandburg’s "Lincoln," which resonates with hymn-like clarity. Here’s Sandburg on the death of Lincoln’s mother:

“So the woman, Nancy Hanks, died, thirty-six years old, a pioneer sacrifice, with memories of monotonous, endless everyday chores, of mystic Bible verses read over and over for their promises, and with memories of blue wistful hills and a summer when the crabapple blossoms flamed white and she carried a boy-child into the world....“

Sandburg, who died in 1967 at age 89, wrote biography with the kind of flourish that can seem quaint to modern ears, but his basic sense of how to tell a good story is a reminder that even writers who aren’t professional historians also have something to contribute to presidential biography.

His "Lincoln," though perhaps little read today, is part of a larger tradition of presidential biography started by Washington Irving, the 19th-century writer who gained fame as the author of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" before turning to a mammoth life of Washington. Then, as now, Americans depended on popular writers to chronicle their commanders-in-chief – a practice that continues today in the able hands of David McCullough, Richard Reeves, and others.

Thanks to Sandburg and his successors, we can connect with the lives of our presidents on Presidents Day, and every other day of the year.

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Elizabeth Smart to Talk of Healing, Forgiveness

2012-02-19T05:57:00.000-08:00

A decade after she was snatched from the bed she was sharing with her sister, then held hostage and sexually abused for nine months, Elizabeth Smart is set to graduate college, engaged and the founder of an organization meant to help prevent crimes against children.

She also found forgiveness.

Smart, now 24, was kidnapped from her Utah home and abused by Brian Mitchell when she was 14 years old. She was rescued nine months later after being recognized on the street; her captor is now serving a life sentence in federal prison.

Smart will speak about her abduction and forgiveness March 8 at the USF Performing Arts Center, formerly known as Scottish Rite Center.

The event, hosted by the Fort Wayne Women’s Bureau and sponsored by 3Rivers Federal Credit Union, will raise money for the Women’s Bureau. Louise Jackson, CEO of the Women’s Bureau, says child abuse might be on Fort Wayne’s collective mind at this time, referencing the December murder of Aliahna Lemmon.

“That (event) may draw people to hear Elizabeth and may help people in the community heal from that terrible loss that we had,” Jackson says.

Part of Smart’s talk will focus on how she was able to get through the ordeal and the good that has come from her abduction, she said in a phone interview from her Utah home.

Through Smart’s foundation, and through the attention she has received since her kidnapping, she has spoken to thousands of people about her ordeal.

“If I hadn’t been kidnapped, if I hadn’t been through everything that I’d been through, if the media hadn’t played such a huge role in the entire case, nobody would listen to me,” Smart says. “I would just be another girl on the street.

“Since I can make a difference and people will listen to me when I speak, it’s when I realized I want to make a difference for other people. I have had this pretty horrific experience, but it can open so many doors for me that otherwise wouldn’t have been opened.

“Thank goodness it did happen to me and not somebody else, and I can go on and speak on it, and I’ll be fine. I can come home at night, and it won’t haunt me, and it won’t stop me from being happy. But somebody else, maybe not.”

Smart says although her experiences have made her more cautious, it hasn’t affected her relationships much. She points out that Mitchell is older than her dad, so she put him in a different category from men she might date.

“Knowing that I would have that opportunity to date if I wanted, knowing I could go out with boys my own age, knowing I was sort of master of my own destiny so to speak, I decided when I wanted to be in a relationship,” she says, and “I decided when I was done in a relationship. I don’t think that it stopped me from entering a relationship when I felt good about someone.”

Relationships are often affected when someone has experienced sexual abuse, says Abby Widmer, director for the Women’s Bureau’s rape awareness program.

“(Rape) affects every morsel of their body,” Widmer says. “There are things you wouldn’t think that are affected in a trauma like that. Relationships are a big one.”

Widmer points out that women who are raped will often have trust issues. Often, they will become hypervigilant, constantly checking to see whether doors and windows are locked, assuring no one is in the room with them.

In fact, Widmer calls it rare for someone to say an assault doesn’t have an effect on their relationships. She suggests that perhaps Smart has an excellent support system, and some of the people who have most trouble dealing with what has happened to them are those without a support system.

Smart says she doesn’t think about her abduction a lot and advice from her mother is part of how she has managed to move on.

“She more or less said the best punishment I can give to my captor was to be happy and to do things that I wanted to do and to live my life the way I wanted to live it,” she says.

“The perpetrator, they just walk away and don’t think about it again, and the victim, they carry that pain around with them every single day of their lives, and it becomes so incredibly difficult to function. Nobody should be living their life like that. (You have to) say, ‘No, you can’t do this to me. I’m going to do something about it. I’m taking my life back.’ That’s why I do what I do.”

Smart is a senior at Brigham Young University, where she is majoring in harp performance. She’s played the harp since she was 5.

She admits that playing the harp has nothing to do with her eventual career goals, which are to work in child advocacy – something she already does through her speaking engagements and the Elizabeth Smart Foundation. She urges those who have experienced abuse to speak up, as many who have been raped never tell anyone.

“If you think that person that abused you is still out there, there’s a good chance he’s hurting someone else,” she says. “It could stop if you come forward and talk about it.”

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Bobby Brown leaves Houston funeral after spat

2012-02-19T03:03:00.000-08:00

Newark, New Jersey (CNN) -- Singer Bobby Brown made a brief and dramatic appearance at ex-wife Whitney Houston's memorial service Saturday, leaving abruptly after being told that his entourage couldn't sit together, police sources told CNN.

Brown accused security of treating his family badly and barring him from visiting with his daughter, an account that Houston's family vehemently denied, according to a family friend.

On CNN's live video feed, Brown was seen arriving with several people and appeared emotionally distraught, with red eyes and head hanging as he walked up the aisle of the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey. He approached Houston's casket, passed it and went back down the aisle.

"My children and I were invited to the funeral of my ex-wife Whitney Houston," Brown later said in a statement. "We were seated by security and then subsequently asked to move on three separate occasions. I fail to understand why security treated my family this way and continued to ask us and no one else to move. Security then prevented me from attempting to see my daughter Bobbi Kristina.

"In light of the events, I gave a kiss to the casket of my ex-wife and departed as I refused to create a scene. ... I will continue to pay my respects to my ex-wife the best way I know how," the statement said."

Brown was expected to attend with two guests but showed up with 10 people, a close friend of the Houston family told CNN on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

"The family approached Bobby and told him that he could stay in the area reserved for family, but that his guests would need to move to a different section to make room for Cissy (Houston) and the rest of the family," the family friend said. "Bobby said no."

When Brown refused, the family asked police to intervene.

"The police told Bobby that he could stay in the area reserved for family, but that his guests needed to move," the friend said. "Bobby said no, and left with all of his guests."

The family friend maintained that Brown was always invited to the funeral.

"There was never a question of whether he would be invited or not," the friend said.

Describing what happened at the service, the Rev. Al Sharpton posted on his Twitter account: "I am at Whitney's funeral. I spoke with Bobby Brown trying to calm him down and not distract from the services. Today is about Whitney."

Brown was scheduled to perform with his group, New Edition, later Saturday in Connecticut. Brown considers performing as therapy to get him through a difficult time, a source close to him said Sunday.

He and Houston were married from 1992 until 2007, with Houston getting sole custody of their daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, when they divorced. Their daughter was born in 1993.

When they married in July 1992, questions arose about whether it was a publicity stunt to help polish Brown's image as a bad boy who had weathered drug rumors and had acknowledged having three children out of wedlock. Houston scoffed at such rumors, saying that anyone who questioned their marriage didn't understand what the commitment meant to her. They married in a lavish ceremony at her New Jersey estate.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, reports begin to surface about Houston's struggles with drug addiction, health problems and her rocky marriage with Brown. Her album sales dropped, and her voice began to show signs of wear.

In a now-infamous interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer in 2002, Houston admitted using drugs, but denied using crack. "Crack is whack," she said, quoting a line from a mural painted in 1986. In the same interview, Houston said, "The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy."

In 2004, filming began on the short-lived reality show "Being Bobby Brown." "The show aired during the worst years of the couple's crumbling marriage: drug use, lifestyle excess and bad behavior were all caught on tape, and Houston's reputation sunk to new lows," according to Biography.com. Houston later said she did the show to try to save her marriage.

In March 2011, Brown announced that he and his New Edition bandmates were reuniting and planning a new album and tour.

The group -- made up of Brown, Ralph Tresvant, Michael Bivins, Ricky Bell, Ronnie DeVoe and Johnny Gill -- had reunited periodically over the years, with and without Brown.

Brown's music career initially took off with New Edition, which started as an R&B boy band.

He left New Edition in 1986, after hits that included "Candy Girl," "Cool It Now," and "Mr. Telephone Man."

His solo career has included his 1988 multiplatinum album, "Don't Be Cruel," which featured the hit singles "Don't Be Cruel," "Every Little Step," "Rock Wit' Cha," "My Prerogative" and "Roni."

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