Jacqueline Marie Captain, 1957 - 2024

Jacqueline Marie Captain, 1957 - 2024

Happy Life, Happy Memorial Day

Fitchburg, Wisconsin — Jackie Captain passed away May 15, 2024. I love her, and long before we married.
It's Memorial Day weekend, Jackie's favorite holiday.

Jackie is a late convert to beer, brats, hot dogs, and burgers dipped in beer, butter, garlic pepper and onions that I made for us every Memorial Day weekend. Often, I would venture to Dane County's Brat Fest to throw em in the concoction, with some corn on the cob  on the side.

Perhaps because of her father, World War II veteran, Wesley Captain, Jackie was a patriot and anarchist, and an aesthetic.

One of Jackie's favorite quotes is from RFK's Statement on Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Indianapolis, Indiana, April 4, 1968.

Said RFK, "My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: 'In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.'"

Catholic agnostic Jackie would substitute the Universe, perhaps, for God. To a moral certainty, Jackie believed in human healing power and celebrating life through everyday acts of standing up for others.

Jacqueline Captain's Obituary from the Wisconsin State Journal is below.

Jacqueline Marie Captain, wife, neighbor, sister, daughter and friend to many passed Wednesday morning, May 15, 2024.

Jackie died of a long series of illnesses related to Sepsis, kidney disease and Crohn's Disease.

Jackie loved our neighborhood, now more than ever full of happy children welcoming Summer. Jackie loved kids running, biking down the street with dogs and wagons in tow.

Jackie loved her family, her community, her work and the giant family of which we and all life are members, Jackie believed.

Said a nephew of Jackie's this morning: "When I was a kid she was the funny, goofy aunt that always made time for family. She always had time for birthdays and came bearing cool gifts. She had a beautiful smile and laugh. I remember her knowledge of all music and movies and she would break into a verse of song lyrics often."

Jackie worked for peace, love and justice, trying, as Bertrand Russell wrote, using passion "making the world as a whole happier, less cruel, less full of conflict between rival greeds, and more full of human beings whose growth has not been dwarfed and stunted by oppression."

Jackie did PhD work on anti-fascist artists, Ben Shahn and Eugene Higgins before accepting positions that included a consultancy with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum before it opened; editorships; Professional Project Manager at American Family Insurance; and Administrative and Research Assistant to Dean, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Jackie Captain did her graduate work under U.W. Prof. Jim Dennis, renown art history U.W. scholar, and Madisonian.

Jackie was born in Wisconsin Rapids August 29, 1957 to Wesley and Helen Irene Captain, a beautiful World War II family determined to spread peace.

Jackie is predeceased by Wesley Captain (Father); Helen Irene (Mother); Jan Captain (Sister); and Allen Braund (Brother- in -Law).

Jackie is survived by her husband, Michael Leon; her siblings; Jean (Sharon) Duluth, Minnesota; Joe (Margitta) Gulfport Mississippi; Pete (Sally). Wisconsin Rapids; Judy (Kate), Stoughton; Mary (Allen Braund, deceased) Wisconsin Rapids; John (Joanne) Antioch. Illinois; Jim (Mary), Plain, Wisconsin.

Jackie passed, saying she missed joking with her Aunt Sweet Loraine Weaver of Wisconsin Rapids who turned 103 last year, still spreading sweetness.

Jackie's husband is Michael Leon of Fitchburg, Wisconsin. Leon said of Jackie that he "has never seen a more beautiful soul betrayed to her core by injustice. I think Jackie sometimes suffered because of her commitment and sensitivity, but Jackie was not alone."

Jackie is survived by many cousins, nieces, nephews, and even larger numbers of other family members.

Jackie had many friends, and loved working at American Family Insurance, and missed seeing her friends after retirement.

Jackie's family and friends would like to thank the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics, especially folks at the ER, and Trauma and Life Support Center (TLC) units; as well as Ingleside Nursing and Rehab Center (Mount Horeb) and Nazareth Health and Rehabilitation (Stoughton). We would like to thank Bristol Hospice Madison for all their love.

Most of all Jackie was blessed by two forces of nature, family friends, So and Tina, whose reservoirs of love and intelligence appears endless.

Jackie loved them all.

Family and friends are welcome to bring outdoor plants to Jackie and Mike's front lawn to create an oasis of peace at 5767 Monticello Way, until June 15.
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MLK on Poverty in America

Believe MLK would be on the side of those who to this day who cannot walk into the capitol unobstructed.

Fighting for Their Rights

Americans hated and later proven to have been rational and morally worthy, right, in their views are many. And a few need to be especially remembered.

Today is Muhammed Ali's birthday. Ali was the avowed enemy of the provincial, xenophobic, and dogmatic who despised his commitment to determine his own religion, his opposition to the obscene Vietnam War, and his commitment to civil rights. Ali was proven right in his life by history, by facts.

Monday is Martin Luther King day. King was also despised by many for opposing the obscene Vietnam War, and for his championing of civil rights, equality, and social justice. King and millions of other Americans were proven right.

In California today, a landmark civil rights trial is under way, Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, in which civil rights petitioners demand their rights and claim their liberty to marry just like any other Americans. As the attorneys in the case, David Boise and Ted Olson have spoken out eloquently for gay rights being the great civil rights issue of our time.

The marriage equity-civil rights community, energetic and growing, will be proven right and those who are provincial, xenophobic, and hateful will ultimately fail in their despicable attempt to deny a class of Americans their due process and equal protection of the law under the United States Constitution.

Keep up on developments at the American Foundation for Equal Rights and read the legal filings of these civil rights plaintiffs.

Robert F. Kennedy's Address on Dr. King's Death

Robert F. Kennedy's Address on Dr. King's Death (April 4, 1968)

Engaging speech, heartening to listen to a political giant vis a vis a self-important, arrogant and divisive ass like Hillary Clinton, a small person who we wish would just go away.

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

[Editor's Note: And a hearty Happy Birthday to my mother today, an Irish, black-taxi-riding woman from Georgia who remains committed to treating all human beings as human beings and is a true inspiration to justice. Anita sees hope in human kindness small and large, and is a big Obama fan. Peace.]

Update: Barack Obama on King (nice)

- Martin Luther King, Jr.'s last speech

From TalkLeft

by Jeralyn

I hope we all take a few minutes today to reacquaint ourselves with the extraordinary wisdom, vision and passion of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Some of my favorites:

- A one-minute video that features excerpts from Dr. King's 1967 speech, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence , April 4, 1967, Riverside Church, New York City, amidst images of King, Vietnam, Bush, Iraq and more.

- Letter From Birmingham Jail (pdf), April 16, 1963

- I've Been to the Mountaintop: April 3, 1968. Dr. King's last speech, the day before his assassination, in support of the striking Memphis sanitation workers.

- The I Have a Dream Speech

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GOP Pres Candidates Looking Bad

Update II: The GOP is not so hot on the Huckster:

- Rush at War with the Huckster.

- Condi Rice: Huckster 'simply ludicrous'.

- National Review's Rich Lowry: "Huckacide"

- Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer: "overdose of public piety," "scriptural literalism,"

- Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes: Huckster "seems to believe the best foreign policy is one guided by the Golden Rule;" [maybe the Huckster is dangerous; if the guy starts campaigning on human rights and compassion, look out, though I doubt that will happen].

Update: Arianna Huffington has a piece comparing the Huckster to Frankenstein running amok and leading the pack in the GOP primary. Writes Huffington:

With Mike Huckabee's continuing surge, the Republican Party now has an Iowa front-runner whose religious beliefs are virtually identical to those of George Bush. He's anti-choice, born-again, against gay-marriage, and gets political advice directly from God.

So why is the Republican establishment suddenly in a state of near-apoplexy about Mike Huckabee? Shouldn't they be happy? They've been cultivating evangelicals and fundamentalists for 30 years. Now they finally have a candidate who's truly part of the movement. So what's the problem?

Actually, that is the problem. The evangelical crowd was fine when it was just a resource to be cynically exploited every few years in demagogic anti-gay get-out-the-vote campaigns. But now the holy-rolling monster the GOP's Dr. Frankensteins have created has thrown off the shackles, fled the lab, and is currently leading in Iowa. And the party doesn't know what to do.

In the 2008 election that is indisputably a challenging historical period for the GOP to begin with, the top five candidates for the GOP presidential nomination all present major problems in assembling a winning GOP coalition in the general election, and even two weeks away from the Iowa caucuses no candidate looks like a winner.

But as Chris Cillizza says: Someone Has to Win the GOP Nomination.

Below is Cillizza's take on the top five GOP presidential candidates with additional weaknesses (most previously published) added in brackets.

Rudy Giuliani isn't positioned to win a single state before Florida's Jan. 29 primary. [James Dobson, the leading religious right leader of the Focus on the Family group that self-consciously rallies religious right voters has made clear that Rudy is political anathema; hence Rudy will perform badly with the religious right; and Rudy’s past positions on affirmative action, abortion, civil right for gays, and immigration will kill his candidacy, no matter how often he portrays his inner-jerk persona in an attempt to appear tough.]

Mitt Romney has fallen behind in Iowa and his flip flops on issues like abortion and gay rights make him unacceptable to the Republican base. [As Governor of Massachusetts, Romney was even more pro-choice and pro-civil rights for gays than Rudy. The massive effort underway to convert him into a rightwinger won’t fly (detailed in a Harper’s (November) piece by Ken Silverstein). As quoted by Silverstein: “(Romney) says all the right things, his speeches run through the litmus test on conservative issues, but there’s no conviction behind it. …,” said Cyndi Mosteller, a social rightwinger and GOP politico in South Carolina. Add to that Christian religious bigotry against Mormons and you have a political loser.] Update: Romney drawing heat for falsely claiming he and his father marched with Martin Luther King, adding to the growing perception that Romney will do and say much anything to further his political ambitions. See also NYT's Romney Learns That ‘Facts Are Stubborn Things’.

Mike Huckabee is surging in Iowa but doesn't have the money or organization to take advantage of a win in the Hawkeye State.
[The rapist-pardoning Huckster is a divisive fake just dying to be found out. Even the Republican establishment has blasted the guy. Provincial, ignorant of foreign affairs, his success in the GOP race thus far has depended directly upon his below-the-radar-and-ascending appeals to the religious right, and his ability to mount a positive, above-the-fray campaign as the other Republicans competed for who is the most mean-spirited in advocating for draconian measures such as more torture, more Gitmo prisons, more war, more fences, and more trashing of Mexicans as Karl Rove's dream of a GOP appeal to Hispanics evaporates. Add to this that he would be deficient in traditional GOP political strengths in foreign affairs and tough-on-crime appeals, and the Huckster would be a goner in the general election.]

John McCain is running a single-state strategy in New Hampshire, but in that state he trails Romney by double digits. ["Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John McCain under any circumstances," said James Dobson. Few religious right leaders have forgiven McCain for his wildly unpopular (in Republican circles) McCain/Feingold bill, and his April 9, 2000 speech trashing the religious right (that’s the Robertson/Falwell “agents of intolerance” speech). McCain would perform worse than Rudy; let's hope for Joe-mentum for McCain.]

Fred Thompson doesn't seem to care much whether he wins or loses. [As a late September piece in The Politico notes, quoting Dobson: "Isn’t Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won’t talk at all about what he believes, and can’t speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?" Dobson asked in the message, obtained by The Associated Press. "He has no passion, no zeal and no apparent ‘want to.’ And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!" Grandpa Fred is dead, and he comes across as tired and wooden: An older version of an unenergetic John Kerry.] And as Cillizza notes: Apathetic.

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