And then there were eight. Through your voting and politicking and advocating and agonizing, we have collectively whittled down the field of 32 saints to a mere eight as we continue our march to the 2013 Golden Halo. Welcome to the Round of the Elate Eight, aka the Round of Saintly Kitsch.
Here are the match-ups for the rest of the week: today it's modern Civil Rights martyr Jonathan Daniels vs. the 2013 Lent Madness Cinderella, Frances Perkins. Wednesday: Florence Li Tim-Oi vs. Oscar Romero. Thursday: Harriet Tubman vs. Hilda of Whitby. Friday: Luke the Evangelist vs. Dorothy Day (who defeated Benedict yesterday). Good luck with that. With all of these match-ups, if you need a refresher on these saints beyond the kitsch, simply click on the Bracket 2013 link and scroll down -- you'll find hyperlinks to all of the previous battles listed by round.
Jonathan made it to this point by defeating Macrina the Younger and Janani Luwum while Frances earned her spot in the Elate Eight by overcoming Damien of Molokai and Martin Luther King, Jr. One intriguing thing about this particular match-up is that both have New England roots and Massachusetts connections. Daniels hails from Keene, New Hampshire, while Perkins is from Newcastle, Maine. Daniels attended Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge while Perkins is an alum of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley. However, as far as Tim knows, neither one ever stepped foot in Hingham.
Last year the Supreme Executive Committee responded to those who didn't appreciate our kitsch in a post titled Kitsch Cranks. Sure, it's a bit snarky but it's a pretty good statement about where we stand on the issue. If there's anything we'd do differently, it would be to title it "Kitsch Kranks" because the "K's" form a better visual. Alas.
And finally, if you missed yesterday's Monday Madness video, Tim and Scott talk kitsch and even suffer through a certain holy "interruption." Oh, and like us on Facebook -- the Surgeon General insists it's good for your mental health.
Jonathan Daniels
From a series of exhaustive searches through the seedy underbelly of the internet that is Etsy and Pinterest, one might conclude that the Lent Madness kitsch cause for Jonathan Daniels is lost. In fact, Zazzle, that monumental edifice to internet kitsch, the site which is dedicated to the proposition that your cat, Mr. Biggles, is not only worthy of her own iPhone case – but that other people want to buy it – returns no results!
One might begin to think hope is lost. But lo, out of darkness, a light breaks from Jonathan Daniels Elementary
School in Keene, NH. On the walls of the school hangs a very brightly colored mosaic of the school’s namesake, no doubt lovingly crafted by its students. (According to a story from the Keene Sentinel – unfortunately located behind an internet paywall - one student at the school has proposed the building of a museum dedicated to Daniels – a worthy cause indeed, and worth the Lent Madness public rallying around, if it is indeed still in the works.)
While there isn’t much kitsch for Daniels personally, various aspects of his life are very well represented in the kitsch-o-verse. In what is either a deep act of homage or a statement of extreme passive-aggressive feelings towards the Granite State, one may buy this lovely cutting board of Daniels’ home state.
If framed NH-themed art is more of your thing, I suggest this stunning image, entitled “Moose in the Moonlight.” For the record, we have no idea whether Daniels had a pet moose as a child. (You can also find various Moose-Themed Coffee Mugs, but we wouldn’t dare undercut mug sales over at the Lent Madness “Lentorium.”)
College kitsch is, of course, relatively easy to procure. Daniels’ alma mater, the Virginia Military Institute, offers this one-
of-a-kind “We’re Number One” flashlight keychain. When looking at a “left-handed” version of the keychain, we note it looks much like Daniels’ home state of New Hampshire – no doubt in homage to one of VMI’s most distinguished graduates.
Perhaps one of the most common threads in New Hampshire kitsch – from the state’s license plates, to trucker hats with bears, and everything in between – is a devotion to the state’s motto: “Live Free or Die.” That seems to be the right note on which to end: Jonathan Daniels ultimately gave his life in the service of God, and of that ideal – that all of God’s children should enjoy equal rights and freedoms given to them for the service and glory of Jesus Christ.
-- David Sibley
Frances Perkins
For a Celebrity Blogger, the Elate Eight round is fraught with fear. What if there IS NO SAINTLY KITSCH? After all, Frances Perkins was a serious woman who took her faith and her public service seriously.
Q: How many kitschy items could there possibly be for Secretary Perkins?
A: A fair few.
First, to help children learn about heroes of history, there is the “Color Me Perkins” coloring sheet. You can download it here.
To help you start your day, there’s the Frances Perkins mug. Available for $12.95, it’s “the perfect gift for the coffee and tea drinkin' feminists in your life.”
Let’s say you’ve put the finishing touches on the most influential legislation of the 21st century and would like to send it off with a friendly handwritten note to the Congressional leadership, you could not go wrong with a Frances Perkins notecard.
There is also a Frances Perkins cartoon by Michael 
McLean at Mini Dove Comics and, for the more serious among us, a lovely poster.
But the mother-perkins-lode may be found on the Mount Holyoke College website where some good soul has gathered no fewer than 57 (57!) examples of First Day Covers (FDC) of the Frances Perkins postage stamp issued to commemorate her 100th birthday on April 10, 1980.
Having studied all 57, I can assure you that not all FDC art is created equal. Here are two of my favorites. The first makes
her look like she’s playing Mel Gibson’s mother in “The Patriot,” and the second, besides being a little goofy, gets her birth year wrong.
To see them all, click here.
“But these commemorations are all secular!” some may say. “What do they have to do with serving God?”
When Frances Perkins said, “I came to Washington to serve God, FDR, and millions of forgotten, plain common workingmen,” she demonstrated by her life and work that there is no secular world. It all belongs to God.
-- Heidi Shott
Vote!
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118 comments on “Jonathan Daniels vs. Frances Perkins”
Lent Madness is the best centennial gift ever to the US Department of Labor. It's been a great way for people to learn about a much beloved Secretary, who has played a big role in our 100 year history. But Secretary Perkins also plays a big role in our present: she is our muse, model and namesake of our employee e-magazine. Kitsch or art? You decide. Click on my profile picture. You go, Madame Secretary!
: )
Carl, that's way beyond awesome.
Another fist shaken at the SEC/LM community for engineering this matchup! I'm beyond glad finally to know about Frances, love that it all belongs to God . . . and voting for Jonathan. He's had my heart for a long time, as I ponder how someone so young could be so strong, in ways I never could have been...or, I fear, could be even now. It was a thrill, twenty years ago, to see his name in the book of saints at Canterbury Cathedral....
You want kitsch? Don't forget that Frances Perkins appears in "Annie", belting out the reprise of "Tomorrow" with the rest of the Cabinet! That's not why I voted for her, though -- it was for her life of service and work to see that all Americans had the basic necessities.
Yes, Frances was a great service worker for the people and I admire her for everything she did, but I lived in the deep south during the great civil rights struggle. I remember the horror of those days only too well. Thank God for souls like Jonathan Daniels who knew the danger of standing up for the rights of their fellow Americans and died as a result. Jonathan was human and would not have chosen death, but he heard God's call to take a stand and could not turn away. Jonathan died, one of several deaths, including his inspiration, Martin Luther King. Jonathan died for the cause of assuring the basic civil rights of all Americans. For Mom, and for Rebecca, a teacher who worked as a maid in the summers and shaped my civil conscience as she did so. Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan!
I greatly admire Francis' work, yet her life was not at risk in doing so. I can't believe she beat MLK I can't believe she's beating Daniels. You folks have me scratching my head...
Ditto that!
Amen!
I sing a song of the saints of God....(who) followed the right, for Jesus' sake, the whole of their good lives long. Two modern-times' saints...gosh, that makes it really hard to choose because I want everyone to know that saints are folk like all of us. But Jonathan gets my vote today even though Frances is a still a hero of mine. It's usually easier when we compare two of different eras, you know!
Daniels for this deacon. The kitsch quality can stand some sprucing up, O Ye Mighty SECers. Last year's stuff was really interesting and I know y'all can do better. I am really sorry so many commenters are so disgruntled and unhappy as to how long one should've been dead to even qualify and other nit-picky stuff...Geez, Lueeze! Lighten up...it's Lent MADNESS and it's fun, fun, fun!!!...if you let it be. Chill out, fill your 2012 GOLDEN HALO winner-Mary Mags cup to the brim with some good quality coffee...no decaf allowed. They are all winners by virtue of the fact they are even included with input from those who replied to the SEC's offer to make suggestions.
I'm voting for Secretary Perkins's hats.
The kitsch thing is distracting..you're trying too hard to be funny..voted for Daniels..he was in my husband's VMI '61 class..but the first bio of Francis was over the top writing and research!! Thanks LM!
Yes, voting for more kitsch is a little shallow, don't you think? Daniels gets my vote.
I tried to rally the VMI family. No big response as of yet. Do you have a Bickford relation in the class of 86? Just wondering. That's my class. See you at the Mother I sometime!
Husband's family, Bickford, is from Hampton, Va. and ALL VMI folk. We live in Norfolk. Could it be our cousin Paul Bickford, Jr. in your class? He is married, 3 children and moving from Hampton to Atlanta as I type!!
I'm going with Daniels even though his kitsch really does need to be kicked up a (k)notch or two. I was born the year he graduated from VMI, but not in Lexington, though I later lived in Lexington, where I attended K-3rd grade and attended Robert E. Lee (yes, that is the parish's name) Episcopal Church. But I am really voting for Daniels because, as Heidi suggested, I must vote for the one who moves my heart today. I am forever grateful for Frances' work, but awed that a 26-year-old child of the establishment possessed the immediate instinct to prevent harm to "the other." And that he was there with her in the first place -- in an era when forging friendships that countered cultural prejudice required a rare form of courage. Onward to the Halo, Jonathan!
I have to stick by a fellow alum, but do offer a bit more kitsch. This is a picture of the new Daniels Arch (I know- it's square) into the Barracks at VMI. It's a Second Class (junior) privilege to enter and exit through there. Nice quote, however. http://www1.vmi.edu/archives/images/accnum/04568.jpg
I live in Hyde Park, NY, so must go to the store at the FDR museum and library to see if there is anything there that would qualify as Frances Perkins kitsch. My husband asked me who was leading. I told him I didn't want to tell him, to avoid influencing his vote. He said he would see the percentages when he went to vote. I said, You don't see them until after you vote. He said, Oh, you mean after you vote the first time? I think he was joking.
It is possible to see them before you vote. Just click the "View Results" link that's under the vote button. 🙂
Tough vote today. I've been loyal to Jonathon...but today Frances gets my vote.
While Jonathon was a real heroic character, it strikes me what a terrible, terrible loss it was for him to be taken at that age. It seems obvious, with his background and obvious character, that he would have been a truly remarkable man. I mourn humankind's loss, to say nothing of the loss of TEC.
After years as a Quaker i walked into the Church of the Advent and wondered who could hear the voice of God in all the glitter- then I read that just a few years earlier -Jonathan had heard just that voice in just that place and my eyes were opened! the message to leave what you know and where you are comfortable and follow wherever has continued to influence the path of my life. go Jonathan!
Relatives in Maine, NH, and VA. Memories of the Civil Rights struggles of the 60's. Mom went to Mt. Holyoke, also EDS (before women were accepted). What to do?
Voted for Daniels last time, Perkins this time. Both are worthy. The "loser" should totally get another shot next year! (also MLK)
. . . but the same people aren't included the following year -- that's just part of Lent Madness!
I know--I'm suggesting the SEC make an exception.
I'm right there with ya, Lois. That's why despite my love of Jonathan Daniels' witness -- I have a poster of his icon from EDS hanging above my home altar -- I had to go with another Christian laywoman, Frances Perkins. She shows us all that indeed God is in charge of all the world.
Oops, I meant ETS, of course!
Wish I had checked this post earlier today... There is a lot of Jonathan Daniels stuff out there... Jonathan M. Daniels icon at EDS ... And, a few years ago, a composer wrote a musical piece in Jonathan's honor - had a world premiere in Virginia and several of Jonathan's ETS classmates attended, representing the school. When I was at EDS, I met and assisted Mike Bell of Cheyenne, WY, chair of St. Mark's Jonathan Daniels Society, who made it his mission to teach people about Jonathan. He has an arch at VMI as well as plaque. "Here I am, send me" is a video of his story (Larry Benaquist and William Sullivan) and William Schneider's "The Jon Daniels Story."
An impossible choice, so I had to go with the scriptures: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
I find the invitation to vote, to choose one and only one, is an interesting spiritual discernment. I feel the need to flow through -- or to be called through -- the urge to want to vote for both. Mindfully and prayerfully listening, feeling, paying attention to a tug in favor of one of two worthy saints prompts questions like, "I wonder what this might mean about how God is revealed for me?" Or, "I wonder what this might mean about how God is revealed particularly in this saint's life and legacy?" Or, "I wonder what the kitschy items might tell us about how God may be known to have a great and deep sense of humor?" My bracket's a mess, but I appreciate Lent Madness so much. Today I am tugged toward Jonathan, which is no slight to Frances in my mind.
Seriously love what ya'll are doing here. I've learned so much! This is one of the best Lenten experiences I've ever had.
Both Jonathan and Frances lived Christ-like lives in caring for the needs of others.
Neither appears unapproachable. Neither sounds strident. Both persevered in faithful work. So, of course, choice is impossible---Lent Madness impossible!
I vote for Jonathan Daniels because he did not expect to die that day, but thought only to protect the girl. Impossiblely sad. But true.
And this wonderful young man, a product of VMI and then seminary, was destined to do great things. I mourn that life -- never lived, cut short, all too soon.
I believe the girl he shielded went on to do some things. I pray that the man who fired the shot has had some kind of epiphany...
Ruby Sales began and is still involved in - http://www.spirithouseproject.org/. The shooter - Tom L. Coleman - was found not guilty of manslaughter charges by an all white, all male AL jury. He claimed self-defense. He never faced other prosecution and continued playing dominoes at the county courthouse. He died in old age in 1997.
I am really disillusioned by Jonathan Daniel being voted down. Political appointees who follow their conscience and Lord are truly rare and are to be commended. Further, that the same faithful and conscientious political appointee is able to be so effective on behalf of so many is remarkable. However, none of this rises to the level of taking a shotgun blast to chest for a child who was murderously hated simply for the color skin.
If it helps, please consider that it was then, is now, and always will be a combination of people working together who accomplish positive change -- those working on the front lines AND those working within organizations or government agencies to make systemic changes so that martyrdom for such causes is no longer necessary. Lives (pl.) are saved by safer working conditions, too.
I voted for Daniels, btw, but I can't imagine him for one second begrudging Perkins her advancement - please remember that everyone here is ultimately on the same team! (I'd use a team cycling/Tour de France metaphor here if that didn't presently have such a taint of corruption about it.) An Associated Press article on that other Madness this morning says they sometimes have ferocious Blue Devils in their Final Four. That is NOT what we're about here. Our bracket is about saints in light -- all of 'em! : )
And then there's the rest of us schmos, whose job is to listen, learn, and respond when God calls us to action through these remarkable people. THANK YOU, Sheldon, for the information and link above to Daniels/Sales ongoing nonviolent justice work.