Everts Family

Growing up, my cousin Ellen Everts lived upstairs from us with my paternal grandmother. We kids were always told to be extra nice to her and not to bother her and to be quiet around her. This always struck us as odd because she seemed like any other adult in the house in most regards. She was a court stenographer and practiced her shorthand at night by recording the dialogue on tv shows. She said the pacing was almost perfect. Ellen giggled like a little girl when I kissed her on the cheek goodbye, smoked Salems incessantly, and practiced yoga (where? Who in the 60’s had even heard of yoga?) but otherwise seemed just like all the rest of the adults in the house. My sister hated having Ellen as her middle name. Her father was Charles Everts who married Julia Ann Baumhauser. Remember her from 03-FEB? They operated a farm about 10 miles outside of Hot Springs AR. She had two sisters. Miriam Ollie was born in 1905. Thelma Lenora was born in 1913. Ellen was born in 1911. It was a prosperous farm. Charles’ sister Cornelia lived nearby. She had a son, Harry Lewter. Harry had been a cook in WWI for the 12th Calvary before returning home to work as a laborer on the railroad. He had a daughter, Mary Alice, in 1931 and married his 14 year old bride, Lena, a few months later. Fourteen is not a typo. At some point Ellen moved to Texas for a while. All we know is that it was for work. Then the fateful day arrived. It was 08-FEB-1935. Lewter came by the Everts house and asked to borrow Charles’ shotgun to do some hunting. Julia said that he needed to ask Charles, who was out clearing some trees. Lewter took the gun anyway and turned it on Julia and then one of the daughters. The other daughter ran from the house in the direction of her father. She was shot in the back. Lewter then went back in the house to finish Julia who was trying to crawl away. He nearly blew her arm off. After that he went to find Charles and gunned him down. Julia survived both attacks before succumbing 5 hours later in the hospital. There was no police force in the area so Lewter went to the Justice of the Peace to turn himself in. When police did arrive Lewter begged them to put him in the electric chair and get it over with. When asked why he had murdered them all he just kept saying, “Those folks weren’t living right.” This from a man who married a 14 year old girl. At one point he took off his glasses, broke the lenses, and tried to slit his wrists with a broken shard. He was placed under suicide watch at the state hospital. Details get fuzzy at this point. Ellen came back to AR. Lewter was convicted and sent to Arkansas State Penitentiary. Lena divorced him in 1936 and remarried the same day. She had 2 more children. Lewter was released at some point prior to his death and returned home. He was diagnosed with atherosclerotic brain syndrome and sent to the local VA hospital. He died in 1964. His daughter Mary Alice applied for a veteran’s grave marker for him and he is buried in Hot Springs AR. Mary Alice died in the early 2000’s. The Everts family that Lewter murdered is buried in a cemetery just north of Hot Springs. They’re all together in one site with one marker listing them all. Ellen lived until 2007. She’s buried near her family. We didn’t know any of this about Ellen until we were adults. It was our cousin, Minta, who gave us the broad details originally while we were recording an oral history of the family. When we asked Ellen about it she pulled out her box of clippings and told us the story. I wish we had known her better. In an effort to protect her the adults in our family kept us from knowing this woman the way she deserved. All of this is from oral history, corroborated by newspaper articles and other written materials. BTW this is not the story about the gruesome murder. Stay tuned.

You belong

Stretching up to God The Heavenly host greets us You're loved. You belong.

The POTUS Tweet

I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. - Frederick Douglas, Trump's close friend

I am Caucasian, white in the vernacular. As such I have lived a life of privilege. It doesn't matter that I live in a solidly middle-class neighborhood, that I have mostly middle-class possessions or that my salary places me somewhere in the middle-class economic spectrum. I have lived a life of privilege just by virtue of being white.

Recently the POTUS tweeted an attack on four women of color. These women are, by the rule of law, as American as I am. That attack can most charitably be characterized as unenlightened or as a political ploy to further divide the democratic party. As for me, it just makes me want to leave the TU out of POTUS.

So what to do? I don't have money to throw at political parties or candidates. I don't have any significant political or economic power at all. That doesn't mean I'm helpless - not while I have a vote, a keen mind, and a relentless spirit.

I can offer my thoughts and prayers. (BFD - see quote above)

I can write a Facebook post condemning his tweet. (BFD but I'm doing it anyway)

I can contact all of the elected officials who allegedly represent me and express my displeasure. (Also BFD and will probably end with me on an FBI watch list.)

But something has to be done. Those of us who have long profited from white privilege have to speak out for our people of color. We have to come together with everyone of good spirit and object to the anti-intellectual, misogynistic, anti-environmental, war-mongering, and unconstitutional attacks on our liberties. On us.

I work a challenging and demanding schedule. I've made time on my calendar to contact every elected official who is, in some sense, responsible to me as a voter. I am going to contact each and every one of them by every means available to express my dismay at the POTUS's tweet and conduct. I am going to let them know that unless they stand up to his egregious behavior that I will do what's in my power to get them out of office.

It will probably amount to no BFD. But I can also imagine other people who have benefited from white privilege doing the same. Now there's a thought and a prayer.


https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Eros

I am Eros. I am Pan
Of the unending bacchanal

I will rain down kisses
And tender caresses,
Trickling rivulets of desire
Cascading into a swollen river
Of passionate joy

I am Eros. I am Pan
Of the unending bacchanal

My currents will sweep you up
Higher and higher
To a place where only
The Erotes go to join
Till softly, gently, I'll lay you
On a beach of pristine sand
Exhausted and exhilarated

I am Eros. I am Pan
Of the unending bacchanal

Global Warming

The globe gets warmer

Icecaps melt, weather amok

Yet folks seem colder

Longhorns

Obama, Bush or whoever
Their policies have been....whatever
We've been through it all
Still heeding need's call
We'll always be Longhorns together

I don't care

I don't care about your thoughts or prayers or best wishes. Those are between you and God. I care about how you treat the people around you as the fruit of those things. I don't care about your apologies. I care about what you do to make it better. The smallest actions trump the biggest intentions. I don't care about your baggage, your pain, or the reasons you use to excuse your poor behavior. We all have those. Thoughtless, rude behavior is a choice and there is no excuse.You can chose not to be an asshole even when you're in so much pain that you just want to curl up and cry. It's when you act with respect and love despite all of your pain that you find Christ. Or your Buddha nature. Or whatever it is that drives the best in you. Chose to be kind. Always.