Several of my classmates, including one injured in a high school chemistry lab experiment gone wrong, corrected my description of the blow-up in a recent blog. The demonstration was to show how water and sodium reacted together, not, as I mistakenly wrote, water and hydrochloric acid.
Our teacher, Julius Nash, was not trained as a chemistry instructor. Biology was his area of expertise, but he was drafted into teaching chem by the school administration. At the time, few in our class, including me, extended to him the respect he deserved. We did not know of his battle against McCarthyism in the New York City public school system.
Mr. Nash’s back story in my blog, and in a separate note to my classmates, elicited many responses, including the following from one of the injured:
“For some strange reason, on that fateful day, I departed from my usual custom of sitting in the back of the lab where I would be working on the NY Times crossword puzzle, and moved to the front. Others in the class moved up (at Mr. Nash’s invitation) to better view the experiment, but I was the closest. Mr. Nash proceeded to take a chunk of sodium–a rectangular piece about 1” x 2” x 1/2”–from a bottle in which it was covered by a viscous liquid (not water!) and dropped it with a tong into a beaker or small glass tank of water. Before doing so, the lab assistant (a really humble, kindly fellow whom we referred to as ‘Igor’), tapped Mr. Nash on the shoulder and, gesturing with his hand, whispered to use only a sliver. Mr. Nash confidently replied to him, ‘No. This is ok.’
“Nash then dropped the sodium into the water but nothing happened–apparently because it was still covered by the substance that was protecting it from combining with any other element. A few seconds passed and then the sodium started to bubble and suddenly exploded. Slivers of glass hit me in the face but fortunately not in my eyes. The ensuing combination of the sodium and the H2O—sodium hydroxide—covered my face including my eyes. One or two other students were also hit but less severely.
“Separate and apart from this incident Mr. Nash had not been one of my better teachers, but had I known of his heroic stance during the McCarthy period I am certain I would have had a greater respect for him.”
More typical was this note: “I am fascinated by the information about his life prior to Flatbush.
“I just finished a book on the McCarthy Era and the sufferings of those in the entertainment fields. Actors, producers, writers and others in Hollywood and on Broadway suffered the same experience as Mr. Nash and other teachers. Many of them as well, had their careers and/or lives destroyed.”
Another wrote, “I feel privileged to have been a student of Mr. Nash.”
A third expressed what many felt: “I am stunned, and somewhat ashamed, that I had been so oblivious to Mr. Nash’s quiet personal heroism and political courage.”
Still another put the story into greater context: “I remember hearing when we were in high school that just about all our secular faculty were men and women who refused to sign the loyalty oath for New York City schools and hence lost their jobs. But this is a much fuller story, and I very much appreciate your sending it to us. We were surrounded by quiet heroes, Mr. Nash not the least of them.”
Is Ukraine a Domino?: Whomever becomes the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates will have to grapple with Ukraine’s fate. We know Joe Biden is all in, so The Times capsulized the positions of the GOP contenders (https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/05/us/politics/trump-desantis-ukraine-russia.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare). To me, the would-be autocrat-in-chief’s comments are the most disturbing.
Donald Trump says there are parts of Ukraine where the residents speak Russian, so why not let Russia possess those areas.
“I could’ve made a deal to (allow Russia to) take over something,” he has said. “There are certain areas that are Russian-speaking areas, frankly.”
Trumpist reasoning, if taken at face value, would find nothing wrong with China invading Taiwan. The Taiwanese, after all, speak Chinese.
And while we are pondering linguistic geopolitics, Trump’s good friend Kim Jon Un could argue a takeover of South Korea would be nothing more than language unification.
Consider what could happen to Switzerland. In areas adjacent to their borders Swiss nationals speak German, French or Italian. A veritable three course meal of annexation.
Arabic is spoken throughout Northern Africa, albeit with different accents, similar to what we have in America, though in some parts of the South, such as New Orleans, it is difficult for a Northerner to communicate intelligently with someone from the Big Easy.
The same spread of language across a continent could be said of Spanish in Latin and South America. Does Trump envision hegemony south of our border?
Mindful readers will note I have not included anything about Africa south of the Sahara. I simply do not know enough of the spoken languages there, nor of the mostly artificial borders created when colonial empires dissolved, to make a cogent statement. I’ll have to wait for direction from the provocateur-in-chief before commenting.
