"I, John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of
this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood."

Yup, old John Brown (golly, I say 'old' but he was only a couple of years younger than I am now), was right about that at least: It was going to take an ocean of blood to settle America's nasty addiction to slavery. But is racism purged from 'this guilty land'? Oh well, he shed his share of it before he was led to the gallows back in 1859, before that fierce old buster exited this mean old world on this day in history. 

It's the deathday of brilliant, TV innovator Desi Arnaz, too. He left a very different America on 2 Dec. 1886. Get a load of him HERE. 

On the other hand, who came into the world on this day in history? The terrific character actor, Ray Walston, in 1914, the year the Great War broke out in Europe, for one; and glorious singer, Maria Callas, for another, in 1923, plus legions of those whose lives are lost to us. 

      And I got to go to the movies today. Isn't it wonderful, sitting in the dark with strangers, light, color, music, words, and story spilling equally over one and all?