Wilson brags O.T.

[Wilson Gray]

According to my late stepfather, whose family is originally from
Arkansas and after whom my half-brother is named, his mother told him
that he was named after his maternal grandfather, Morris Cohen and,
she added, "They were married." He said that it was several years
before he caught on to why it was that his mother always added that
codicil.

We both wondered whether that could possibly be true. We finally
settled on the following theory.

Given that Jews, as well as blacks, occupy a peculiar, special
position in American, if not the whole of Western, society, it may
have been the case that the usual anti-miscegenation laws were not put
into effect to block the legal union of his maternal grandparents.

Of course, that story and the theory fail to answer other questions,
such as why Mr. Cohen's family wasn't opposed to the union on
religious, if not racial, grounds. The story didn't claim that the
maternal grandmother had converted. Furthermore, my step-father was a
semi-practicing Catholic, as are the rest of us. How did that come
about? And he never laid claim to any Jewish heritage beyond passing
along the story. And neither did his mother, for that matter. Indeed,
she didn't exhibit any kind of religiosity.

It didn't occur me to question my stepfather about his
pswaydo-Catholicism. I was, in those days, a serious, Jesuit-educated
practitioner of The One True Faith and there were certain questions
that I didn't care to have addressed, such as the fact that both he
and my mother were divorcees and not widows. So, how were they
claiming to be married in the eyes of Holy Mother Church?

You never really know, or sometimes, never even want to know, the
whole story of the skeletons in the family closet.

-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain



On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 10:33 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Wilson brags O.T.
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I couldn't help noticing the middle name of Wilson's half-brother in the passage quoted below ("...But U.S. District Judge _Morrison Cohen England, Jr._ disagreed. ...)
>
> A lantsman?
>
> Would Wilson perhaps be able to explain its very welcome presence there?
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> ________________________________
>
> Message from Wilson Gray, Thu 2/12/2009 2:53 PM
>
> The below-named judge is my baby (half-)brother!
>
> -Wilson
>
> _Judge_ denies request to keep Proposition 8 donors secret
>
> By Aurelio Rojas
> arojas at sacbee.com
> Published: Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009
>
> A federal judge today denied an attempt by Proposition 8 supporters to
> withhold disclosure of late campaign donors to the state's same-sex
> marriage ban.
>
> California's Political Reform Act, approved by voters in 1974,
> requires disclosure of the name, occupation, and employer of anyone
> contributing $100 or more to campaigns. The suit challenges the
> constitutionality of the disclosure requirement, claiming that donors
> to Proposition 8 have been ravaged by e-mails, phone calls and
> postcards -- even death threats.
>
> YES ON 8 campaign officials said hundreds of people have alleged
> harassment, intimidation or threats. Attorneys for Proposition 8
> assert that First Amendment rights to be free from retaliation
> outweigh the state's interest in disclosure.
>
> But U.S. District Judge _Morrison Cohen England, Jr._ disagreed.
>
> "The court finds that the state is not facilitating retaliation by
> compelling disclosure," he said.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org