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Is American
Idealism Dead?
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The photograph draws one to the NY Times story to which it is attached. This account is datelined: ISLAMABAD, MARCH 24. It was written by Somini Sengupta and was published in the Times on 25 March 2007. General Pervez Musharraf, the President of Pakistan, a nation new to democracy and still moving on toddler’s legs, has removed the leading justice of the top court in the land. Oh, yes, I should mention! Musharraf also put this Chief Justice in jail. Seems there was a ruling the General didn’t like – or, at least – he feared there was one coming. Sengupta points out in her report that “the Pakistani judiciary has swallowed hard to accommodate the military rule of Gen. Pervez Musharraf, repeatedly bending in matters of law and constitution.” Recently, however, the top court drew the line and that irritated Musharraf and he threw the Chief Justice out. According to the Constitution, the General has committed a no-no. The justice can only be removed if he has been found guilty of breaking the law. Now, where do we – the United States of America – come into all of this? Musharraf is an ally. He is a very important ally. Through Pakistan we can immediately access Afghanistan. In the northern mountains of Pakistan we continue to hunt for Osama bin Laden. Pakistan puts us close to Iraq and Iran. We don’t have many friends in that part of the world and we need Pakistani friendship. No one is expecting George W. Bush to criticize the General. Bush is trying hard to look the other way. This all offends me because it is not the America way. You know! It is not the way we have always viewed democracy and justice and fairness. It doesn’t jive with our concept of balance of powers. I’m just a dang idealist. I believe democracy is supposed to work a certain way and that we’re not to look away and hide our eyes when it doesn’t. We’re supposed to howl like hell and take to the streets in protest. However, George W. Bush is a little shaky on this whole concept of a democracy. I wanted once to write to him and explain that America is really a republic and not a democracy, but I figured he’d never understand the delicate shades of difference. After all, this is the same President who owns a prison called Guantánamo. Yes, it’s his prison. It doesn’t belong to the people of the United States. It’s George’s private jailhouse. No rules! No protection for the detained. Just work ‘em over ‘til you get their confessions (notice I italicized that word). Of Guantánamo, the NY Times recently editorialized: “The President has been told countless times, by a secretary of state, by members of Congress, by heads of friendly governments – and by the American public that the… detention camp has profoundly damaged this nation’s credibility as a champion of justice and human rights.” Wow! How’s that for idealism! A Champion of Justice and Human Rights! A bird! A plane! But, honest to God, that is the way I’ve always thought of this nation. From the time I was a little boy until recently, I’ve always thought the U.S.A. was something so very special and that it held to these high ideals and principles about justice and fairness. And then this General and President of the nation of Pakistan fires his Chief Justice of his Supreme Court and we look the other way. We sponsor a totally illegal and contemptible prison. We torture human beings and draw out phony confessions. This is not America! I expect Americans to stand up and shout out their protest. Yet, that shameful silent majority remains still and quiet. Where are all the real Americans who believe in all the stuff written by Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine, John Adams and Ben Franklin? Think about this! Without America setting the standard and being the ideal form of government in the world, who else is there? Remember when we were the focus of all those who wanted freedom and justice? Now, frankly, we are a laughing stock. It’s not just I saying this. Last week I heard the old fart and conservative, Donald Trump, saying the same thing. As he was saying it, I think I spotted a tear in the corner of his eye. First time I’ve ever appreciated Donald Trump! Am I ranting and raving? You bet! Someone has to! We can not and must not look the other way while this President, George W. Bush, destroys the image of the United States of America. We must stand up for our ideals! We must remain a beacon of freedom and justice for the rest of the world. Tell General Pervez Musharraf that he is wrong and do not look the other way. Tell George W. Bush to close down his filthy, rotten, illegal prison! Let’s try to regain some small pittance of respect in the world. And, next time, vote more carefully. Give it some thought! Weigh the options! Don’t just bite on the phony crap campaign organizers and directors tend to put out there. In terms of your citizenship, there is nothing more important that you do than casting your vote. When it’s done foolishly it can bring about catastrophe. The last two presidential elections prove that!
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The Early
Morning After Last night, I listened to the president’s nationally televised speech, announcing his intention to send another 20,000 troops to Vietnam – oops, I mean Iraq. I’m elderly, you know, and these catastrophic decisions by presidents seem to mush together in my memory bank. The reaction to the speech has begun and I’ve gone through the local papers and the New York Times to read what all the wise guys and pundits are saying. Basically, all-in-all, they are agreeing that we have a jerk in control – a guy who calls himself the Commander and Chief of U.S. Armed Forces. My god, that’s a scary thought! Could our founding fathers have intended this? Let me give some credit here. Of the pieces I’ve read this morning, in an attempt to be “fair and balanced” in my approach, I want to cite the opinions of Paul Krugman and David Brooks, both writing in the New York Times. Neither one likes the President’s idea, but they come at him a little differently. David Brooks begins by spanking the Democrats and liberals: “The Democrats have been fecund with criticisms of the war, but when it comes to alternative proposals, a common approach is social Darwinism on stilts: We failed them, now they’re on their own.” |
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I give the liberals and Democrats a little more credit than that; for, they are just in a state of shock over the depth and complexity of this mess the president has dragged us into. Brooks is wrong about one thing: The liberals don’t favor a quick exit and they do understand the consequences, clearly pointed out by the Baker Hamilton Commission, of such an action. However, Brooks is correct about another thing: “The liberals have no idea of what else to do!” It’s difficult to blame them. As Brooks points out, Joe Biden is the most “intellectually serious” of the lot and he’s mired down right now in hearings and study. Joe’s got no real answers right now. But, who does? It's impossible to cover up a mess like this and nearly impossible to recover from it. The Brooks column rises to a great crescendo when it correctly points out exactly who the enemy is in Iraq: “It’s the maelstrom of violence and hatred that infects every institution, including the government and the military.” Can you beat that? No wonder no one can come up with a war strategy or any single battle tactic! Paul Krugman is tougher and he opens his column with the real question about whether the proponents of a “surge” in Iraq “are cynical or delusional.” Yet, the great wisdom of the Krugman column is something I have been thinking about for many months now and the thoughts always take me back to a gambling junket I took to Las Vegas many years ago. A couple dozen guys were on the trip. I had established a maximum amount of money I was willing to lose and determined, without any wavering, that I would quit if I reached that point. Two guys in the group quickly lost astronomical sums of money – the entire amount they had guaranteed by a letter of credit held by the casino. They were devastated. They didn’t know how to go home to tell their wives they had lost all their savings and more. Their solution was to hit the rest of us up – that is, those of us who had won a few bucks – so they could go back to the tables and try to recoup their losses. As Kenny Rogers twanged: “You gotta know when to fold ‘em!” Of course, Krugman is more erudite in his explanation of this phenomenon. He cites Daniel Kahneman, a winner of the Nobel Memorial Price in Economic Sciences, who argued “that the administration’s unwillingness to face reality in Iraq reflects a basic human aversion to cutting one’s losses – the same instinct that makes gamblers stay at the table, hoping to break even.” Indeed, that’s what I’ve been thinking about this administration and this war policy for months. This President is as loony as my two friends were in Vegas. This President is an ego-maniac who is totally unwilling to look at his great failure and see it for what it is. As Krugman says: “Either way, what’s clear is the enormous price our nation is paying for President Bush’s character flaws.” However, Krugman rises to his eventual climax one paragraph later and I could only sit for a moment and tremble after reading what he had to say. “I began writing about the Bush administration’s infallibility
complex, the president’s Yesterday, Minnesota’s Republican Senator, Norm Coleman, jumped on the band wagon of those opposing the President. He spoke fervently from the floor of the Senate, telling the President that this approach would not work and that he could not support it. Nice timing, Senator Coleman. You are up for reelection in 2008 and your opposition will be fierce and furious because of your ass-kissing support of the president up to this point. Who can blame you for now trying to save your own ass? I can, Senator, and I won’t forget how you supported a constantly increasing engagement in this war. It’s sad that I could only chuckle as I listened to the Senator’s speech. It was my way of avoiding an outburst of tears. It’s a crappy morning in Minnesota. It’s very dull and gray and there is dirty snow upon the ground. It’s chilly and lonely! I’m thinking of all those wonderful young men and women whose lives were wasted in Iraq and Vietnam.
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Poverty is Unnecessary |
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I guess! It seems that way. Yet, Muhammad Yunus, a 2006 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, says, “Poverty is unnecessary.” Would that it were so! In its citation of Yunus as a prizewinner, the Nobel Committee claims that lasting peace cannot be achieved in the presence of poverty. I have always had the lingering, lurking belief that a great deal of the unrest, civil war and terrorism in the world is rooted in poverty. Is it so difficult to believe that poverty must sometimes become so unbearable that it causes the birth of ferocious anger? |
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Our nation is now waging a war on terrorism. Our strategy and methods will not win the war. Oh, we may win a victory here and there – destroy a terrorist cell or an infamous terrorist leader. However, in a world of ravaging poverty in the face of astronomical wealth, there will always be anger among the poor and a hatred of the rich. Muhammad Yunus strives “to make poverty a museum artifact.” Read about him. You all know how to google. I tend to believe he is correct. The Scandinavians claim to have eradicated poverty in their countries. Only psychological poverty remains; that is, poverty by choice. With a will to do it, America could do the same. It could also be a reality throughout North America. It would take great, wise and creative leadership, but it is a possibility and not a fantasy. My conservative friends will begin, at this point in my argument, to raise howls about socialism and communism. No, that’s not where I’m going. It could happen under creative capitalism. There needs only to be a will to accomplish it. We have an enormous amount of poverty in America. It is one of the most shameful characteristics of our great nation – that we would allow such a deficiency to exist. As comfortable, wealthy folks, we are encouraged to give to charities and non-profit organizations that provide handouts to the poor. Send a few cans of soup to the food-shelf. In a great nation of remarkable economic genius and of powerful entrepreneurs, isn’t there some more effectively attack poverty – to grab it by its roots and to pull it forever from the soil of the nation? If Muhammad Yunus can come up with the ingenious idea of a microcredit bank, can’t we come up with some ideas also? Are we serious when we say we want to fight terrorism and eliminate it? Do we mean it when we say that urban violence must end? These are fights that tanks and guns will not win. They are battles that the creative, economic mind could solve. It is a war that America could wage with great creativity and at less cost than the current war in Iraq. And, in waging such a war, America’s international friends would take great notice and we would return to a place of world leadership again. Jesus may be correct. However, we should make sure that only those who choose to be poor would remain anywhere in our nation and in the world.
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To Where |
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It’s quiet and lovely here in Sheepy Hollow. We’re having ‘Native American Summer’ right now. The daytime temps are just perfect; yet one feels the crispness and wonder of autumn in the air. The leaves on the trees are vibrant in color and those that have fallen are crunchy under foot. It’s a glorious and wonderful time in the hollow and it’s a good time to think and ask one’s self some important questions. Self, I’ve got one for you today! Where has the middle class gone? I read the other day that it is now piddling to have an accumulated wealth of a few million. That no longer meets the standard of wealthiness. It now takes dozens of millions to be considered wealthy! It’s not uncommon to have a few million bucks in assets today. If you’ve got a slightly nicer than average home and a little bit of land, a few bucks in the bank and a lack of debt, you are a millionaire. And, if so, that get’s you into the middle class! The rest of you schmucks are in either the lower middle class or something far worse than that. |
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Today, it is not uncommon for a corporation, like a major health provider, thrilled with its profits, to announce a bonus for its chief executive in the range of 100 million dollars or so. Never mind that those excess profits were earned off the hard working backs of those we use to call the ‘middle class’ but are now dues paying members of the ‘lower middle class’ or lower. There are oil company executives out there who are stuffing millions and millions into their personal accounts. War mongers are gathering bucks in by the hundreds of millions. How have corporations done it? There’s lots of interesting answers. The old ‘smoke and mirrors’ routine fits in here somewhat. However, the major benefactor of big business in the last decade has been big government. Did you know that we’ve got a big, big government? Under the leadership of the Republican Party – the party that has pretended to be against big government – the size of government in the United States has grown to an all-time big size and then some! Listen to the ‘ringy-ding-ding’ and the ‘ka-chung-chang’ of the cash registers. That’s the sound the few getting filthy rich on the backs of the former middle class. Oh, don’t forget this little extra benefit for those making these hundreds of millions: their taxes have also gone down while the debt of our nation is soaring. What surprises me most is that it was a bunch of you schmucks, who were formerly part of the middle class and are now in the lower middle class, who voted for these Republican phonies. What were you thinking? You must have liked all that BS they threw out there about wholesome values and the American way (right or wrong)! The Republican Party is not the party of more wholesome and higher moral standards and values! It is not! They are really just a bunch of greedy SOBs that want to line their own pockets on your backs, you dumb jerks. Here’s what the Republican Party has given you…
And you, you schmuck, are now thinking of voting for these bastards again. You want to return Republican U.S. Senators and Representatives to Washington so they can do more of the same. Are you out of your freaking minds? You keep listening to their spin – to that stupidity about their party standing for religious values, moral superiority and honesty in government. Are you blind? Are you deaf? Haven’t you been watching and listening for the last 6 years. Haven’t you been lied to enough? Haven’t you been cheated enough? I’ve had enough of friendly political debate! The guy on the other side is a selfish, no good, greedy, cheating and miserable SOB and I refuse to recognize the miserable jerk as a civilized political adversary. Throw the buggers out and let’s give America back to the middle class – or to the lower middle class. Listen, you schmucks, let’s again be really proud when we raise the American flag. Once again, let’s stand for freedom and justice for all. It’s going to take years of sacrifice and hard work to repair the damage that the Republicans have done to this country, but let’s get on with it now. END [RETURN TO NEWS from SHEEP HOLLOW] [RETURN TO CHARLIE WRITES] |
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It Ain’t Like Me to Like Texas I don’t particularly like Texas. It’s too big and too brawny; and, it’s too boastful and brash. Texans, themselves, are all right. They try to be friendly and they generally are until they find out you disagree with them on the two important issues in life – religion and politics. Then they pretty much freeze you out and treat you like a freak. Now, I am doing some reevaluating! Ann Richards died this week and I felt some pain and a deep pang when I heard the news. Ann Richards was something very, very special. Never met her; yet, I adored her like all get out. What a great broad! I felt the same way about another beautiful Texas lady – the incredible Barbara Jordan who went and left Congress way too long before she should have and also went and died long before I was ready to say good-bye to her. There are plenty of Texans I dislike immensely. I guess I dislike some people in almost every state; however, when I dislike a Texan I identify them much more with their state than I do other people who I find distasteful. I just can’t abide Mark Cuban and Ross Perot. I certainly do like or appreciate George W. Bush in any way. All three of these guys are weak in the brain area and all three are pretty dangerous if they are set free without supervision. I could list many other Texans I dislike even more than those guys. Tom Delay might make it to the top of the list. Jerry Jones is up there pretty high also. |
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Yet, I keep going back to Ann Richards and Barbara Jordan. They were solid, real, home-grown Texans. They had a spirit that spread beyond Texas and seeped into the soil of other states far, far way from their home territory. Both of them had hearts as big as their home state and brains nearly as huge. I know their souls were immense as well; and, even now, those souls must be looking down from heaven and they’re hoping some special heroes or heroines are going to step up and save America from this terrible, murky morass it is in. There have been some other Texans I’ve admired over the years. I liked Lady Bird. There was something very special about her that LBJ generally kept pretty hidden. I like Barbara Bush, too, though it would be hard to convince me that she is really a Texan. Then there was Tom Landry! Was he a Texan? What a solid guy! Jim Hightower is pretty neat. He tells it generally like it really is. Is Molly Ivans really a Texan? Man, I like her and her wit and her views on life and politics. Red Adair seems like he is pretty special and I’d like to find out more about him. Someone told me Carol Burnett is a Texan and she ranks high on my list of favorite famous people. Sandra Day O’Connor gets very high marks from me, even though I often disagreed with her. She was a lady and she was bright and she was open-minded. Then, too, the great Babe was a Texan – the great Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Wow! Do I admire what she accomplished and I admire the way she lived, too. (I own a wonderful, old, beaten-up, first-edition of her book on the game of golf). There were a lot of terrific golfers from Texas and I admire many of them. Kathy Whitworth is way up at the top of that list. So is Ben Crenshaw. And, Lee Trevino always made me feel good about life. Harvey Pennick was an extraordinary and special guy and his writings about golf are precious to me. What’s not to like about Walter Cronkite? Hard to believe he is a Texan! I would’ve put him somewhere out of Wisconsin or Iowa – somewhere up there in the real heart and soul of the nation. My sister, who is a transplanted Texan, told me that Scott Joplin is a native Texan. I guess I have to take her word for it. He’s one of my favorite characters from the music world. I also think I might enjoy the company of Nolan Ryan. Of course, when it comes to baseball, Dizzy Dean was way up at the top of my list of great personalities. Oh, how I loved listening to him do the play by play of the St. Louis Cardinal games when I was a child. What a terrible memory I’ve got. I just remembered that Bill Moyers is a native Texan. Well, spank my bottom for not listing him earlier. This guy rises nearly to the level of Ann Richards and Barbara Jordan. No one ever told it better and more accurately than Bill Moyers. I still find myself searching out nearly everything he writes and any broadcast he does. I’ll never forget the extraordinary documentary he did about the old hymn, Amazing Grace. A lot of Texans I know only from the history book; however, I think I might have liked Sam Houston and Davy Crockett. Stephen Fuller Austin must have been pretty special, too. Even though I’m a died-in-the-wool Democrat, I sure didn’t like Lyndon Baines Johnson and Sam Rayburn. They were a bit too power-hungry for my tastes. Add John Connelly to that list. I didn’t like him either – as a Democrat or as a Republican. So, let’s be clear about this. There is nothing I like better about Texas than Ann Richards and Barbara Jordan. Their lives were pretty darn special and they made my life happier and richer in hope. I guess I could write long biographies about each of them here, but you could do as well and learn as much by jumping on the Internet. Barbara Jordan: http://www.elf.net/bjordan/ Ann Richards: http://www.voice.neu.edu/980622/citations/richards.html It’s enough for me to say that they were both sparkling, loyal and dedicated Democrats. They both stood up for the little guy and the middle class. They watched out for the less fortunate in our society and they cared deeply about justice for all. They were both fantastic speakers. Ann Richards had a magnificent wit and sense of humor. Barbara Jordan had the pipes – pipes like no other – and they were deep and powerful. There was rarely a hitch in a Barbara Jordan speech and they were often like poetry. When I get to ranking all the great people who made big, big impacts on my life, Ann Richards and Barbara Jordan will on that list and very close to the top. No doubt about it, Barbara Jordan and Ann Richards cause me to have good, solid, wholesome feelings about Texas; but so did Barbara White and Marge Emmins. My, oh my, they were solid women, too. There’s no time or space here, but perhaps I’ll tell you about them some other time and in some other place. They, too, are of the solid type. They, too, make me feel good about Texas. My sister is a Texan, too. Gosh! That's hard to say with a straight face. She was born in the Bronx in 1930. She spent her formative years in that borough of New York City. She polished off those youthful years out in New Jersey. Then she married a Texas guy and ended up down there. Ever heard a Bronx accent intertwined with a Texas drawl? You bet! Crazy as all damned get out! However, my sister also happens to be a saint and, if Texas knew, they'd probably claim her as one of their native own. What's that? You think the word 'saint' is too strong? Then you don't know my sister. But, that's for another essay -- perhaps when I write about Marge and Barbara.
Appendix: Good Ole' Molly Ivans In response to the call to action from Ivans, the extraordinary poet, Maya Angelou, wrote:
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Sunday Morning
Coffee, the New York Times and Garrison Keillor |
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I’m an avid reader of the news. I do it because it is enjoyable. I suppose I got started when I was laid up and couldn’t really get about very much and it became a good way to pass my time. I tried, for a long time, to be balanced in my reading; that is, to give time to journalists from both the right and left. It got awfully tiresome, however, to read the careless, inaccurate, undocumented babble from the right. Most of that writing is done out of a sense of anger – even furious anger. It’s like throwing mud at the wall. It sticks for a short while and then, in the heat of the day, in dries and falls into the abyss.So, I tend to turn to the columnists in the middle and to those who lean a bit leftward. They are proud of their reputations for accuracy and they work faithfully to report well. Their columns and stories are nearly always well founded and documented. I'm thinking of journalists such as Tom Friedman, Frank |
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Rich, David Brooks, and Nicholas Kristof. Maureen Dowd even writes rationally when she rants – a great polar opposite and contrast to the nasty and simplistic Ann Coulter. One of my Sunday morning treats is to read the NY Times as thoroughly as possible and then to turn to the opinion page in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune to read what surprise Garrison Keillor might have for me in his regular Sunday column. There’s nothing finer on a Sunday morning than a marvelous, fresh, hot pot of coffee and the New York Times as a warm-up for Garrison Keillor. This morning for instance, reading David Brooks in the Times, I was reminded of the observation of Adam Smith that the "chief part of human happiness arises from the consciousness of being beloved." I pushed back from my desk and wandered down to the laundry room and gave my wife a big hug. Sometimes the reading is a little unsettling. This morning, for example, it was troubling to read about the Congressional testimony of Lawrence Wilkerson concerning the erroneous intelligence information that was supplied to Colin Powell before our nation decided to invade Iraq. I held Powell in such enormous esteem and, perhaps, I still do. In 2000, I would have voted for him for President in a heart-beat. I listened so attentively to his speech before the United Nations, as he explained so precisely why the U.S. had no alternative but to wage war against an evil dictator who had stockpiled “weapons of mass destruction” that posed a real and imminent threat to our country and to the world. Wilkerson, who is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army, sadly testified that Powell’s speech was “the perpetuation of a hoax.” Because of his enormous fondness for Powell, he described his discovery of the deception as the “lowest point in my professional life.” After listening to Powell, I personally felt confident we were doing the correct thing in going into Iraq. Later, discovering that we were so blatantly lied to, I knew that the war had no foundation in truth and was destined to become a tragedy. Today, I am confident that Powell knows he was duped; however, the ever-loyal soldier has just quietly disappeared – “faded away” as General Douglas Macarthur told us old soldiers do. Someday Powell will write another book – his late memoirs – and the truth about the deception will become public knowledge. Powell’s descent is so much like a great Greek tragedy play and I am so much saddened by it. The right will argue that the intelligence provided to Powell was just wrong. They will blame it on weaknesses in the system. They are too proud to face the truth. It was a pack of lies. And so, all of this led to the creation of other rationalizations to justify the war and additional lies needed to be piled on top of lies in order to do it. We learned in Vietnam that a war without a precise moral justification is a doomed affair. At least, I thought we learned it! Even our current President’s father knew the wisdom of “a justifiable war” when, in explaining our entrance into the Gulf War, he carefully defined the mission of freeing up Kuwait and then ordered that we stop short of invading Iraq. There is nothing more threatening to the health of a nation than lies and deception that stem from the very top of government. We learned that in the Nixon era. At least, I thought we learned it. President George W. Bush has wasted his years in office on a war that has no justifiable basis. He has tried, time and time again, to invent such justification, but that is a futile task. This will be his historic legacy and his presidency is doomed to serious ill regard. He will be ranked with the least worthy of all American Presidents. Oh, had the voting system in Florida only worked properly in 2000. Oh, had the voting machines in Ohio only worked properly in 2004. How much damage we could have avoided! Such are the ramblings to which my Sunday morning reading often lead me. Don’t be mistaken, however. There is often good, positive and hopeful material as well. This morning David Brooks wrote “Of Human Bonding.” What a well-built piece. He writes of the value of strong parental attachments. He sees no more important defense mechanism in times of temptation and threat. “If school is unsatisfying but having a child or joining a gang seems as if it would be emotionally satisfying, then many students, especially those with insecure attachments at home, are going to follow their powerful drive to go where the attachments seem to be.” He muses about the enormous and wonderful charitable contribution of Warren Buffet and then concludes: “If I had $37 billion, I would focus it on the crucial node where attachment skills are formed: the parental relationship during the first few years of life. I'd invest much of it with organizations, like Circle of Security, that help at-risk mothers and fathers develop secure bonds with their own infants, instead of just replicating the behaviors of their own parents. I'd focus on the real resource crisis that afflicts the country.” There’s so much good stuff, including the Review of Books and the Arts section. I also can’t ignore the sports section. Reading sports in the New York Times is simply a different experience. Imagine! Literate, highly intelligent journalists writing sports stories. Amazing! These guys are not the trash talkers who control most of the sports departments in other newspapers around the country. The sports writers in the NY Times are actually prepared to give you solid and enlightening information. I care so little about soccer that I wouldn’t dream of reading news stories about the sport – except, of course, in the NY Times, where I know I’ll be entertained by delicious writing by journalists like Jere Longman: “While Brazil appeared lethargic, almost uninterested — until it was forced into a frantic attempt to level the score — France beat the defending champion Brazilians at their own beautiful game: crisp short passes on the ground, ornamental footwork and an effervescent spirit.” What a grand morning. The coffee is delicious and so is the newspaper. I turn to the local paper next, looking for Garrison’s weekly column. I find it and spot George Will’s column just above it. Will, who writes for the Washington Post, is somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum. He writes well and sensibly. No rants. Solid information, well gotten. I read his column about the Supreme Court carefully. He quotes Judge J. Harvey Wilkinson, a Justice on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit: “Americans deserve not a liberal court, not a conservative court, not even a wise or Solomonic court, but a court that respects the limits of its power and the place of others within the constitutional structure.” I pour myself a fresh, hot mug of coffee and add a dab of cream. Now “they” are saying that coffee is likely good for us – that a grand amount of it each day will likely fight off diabetes. I wonder a bit about the cream though. Garrison is quoting Solomon. Strange! Solomon gets mentioned in two consecutive columns, sitting one on top of the other in the Sunday paper. “The thing that has been is the thing that shall be; and the thing that is done is that which shall be done: there is nothing new under the sun.” If that’s true, Garrison asks, then where are the wonderful little downtown districts that have been displaced by Wal-Mart? Where is the Woolworth’s lunch counter with its grilled cheese sandwich and chicken soup special, when “everybody seemed to be more or less in the same boat?” Solomon, those times are gone. We’re paying nearly four bucks now for a cup of coffee with a bit of froth on top and we’re not all pretty much in the same boat. There are half-a-billion-dollar private yachts now, Solomon, and chief executives with billion dollar stock options who don’t want to pay individual income taxes and they don’t want their estates taxed after they die either. Solomon, we don’t anymore seem to be the kind of nation that accepts the responsibility of caring for its less fortunate. It happens every week. I read Keillor’s column and I start thinking too much and I start ranting. What a wonderful Sunday morning. END |
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Well, Shut My Mouth! |
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I had lunch with Reed Mackenzie today. Almost all of you know him. He’s the former President of the United States Golf Association (USGA) – one of those blue blazer guys – and a former President of the Minnesota Golf Association. Reed heard I was going off to a USGA Golf Rules Workshop in March and he thought he ought to talk to me first.
You know? It was one of those conversations you have with one of your kids when you take them off to their first dress-up dinner. You don’t want them to embarrass you so you lay down the rules of behavior. We used to have those conversations with our boys all the time, when they were young and before we took them up to Woodhill for dinner. Back then it was always coat and tie and impeccable manners and no sparkly things stuck on your nostrils. Remember those good old days? |
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Well, Reed was worried about how I might represent Minnesota at the big workshop. Among other things, he wanted me to improve my grammar and brush up on the proper golf terminology. “I can’t tell you,” he said with an exasperated sigh, “how many times I’ve heard you talk about pin placements.” I cocked my head to one side and looked at him the way my kids used to look at me. “So?” That’s all I said. I looked incredulously at him. “So?” “Well,” he said very softly, so the guys at the next table at the Minneapolis Club wouldn’t hear him, “we do not play golf on a bowling alley. There are no pins on a golf course. There are only holes. The proper terminology is hole location and one mustn’t ever say pin placement.” He explained this to me with the kind of sternness that a parent might use on a child who had just used the “F-Word” at a tri-club swim meet. I took a big bite of the spectacular Minneapolis Club Salad. I must say that I felt my cheeks reddening some. They were also pretty hot. “Yeh,” I said, “and what else do I say that offends you.” “Well, as long as you asked,” he said, “I could mention another term or two that I find offensive.” “Yeh?” “Yeh!” “Okay! Let me have it!” He seemed to grow a little uncomfortable. He squirmed a bit. Believe me, he wasn’t embarrassed. He was more exasperated. It was like he wanted to tell me not to make the trip down to the Windy City. It would be less embarrassing for all concerned if I stayed at home. That’s the kind of look he had on his chubby face. There was a long moment of silence and then he spoke. “Well, you’ve got to remember that we mustn’t call a bunker a sand trap because there is no such thing. Banish sand trap from your vocabulary and remember that they are bunkers.” He took a deep breath and continued. “And there are no pins, as I said before, on any golf course. There are flagsticks. There are no cups because there are only holes. And, for heaven’s sake, there are no tee boxes. Teeing ground is the proper terminology. Can you remember these things?” He slid a neatly typed piece of paper across the table to me. I looked down at it. I was fighting back some tears. I don’t think they were tears of rage. They were more like those tears I fought back when my French teacher in high school chuckled at me and told me I would never be able to pronounce the beautiful, romance language properly. At that very moment I determined I would learn to speak French perfectly – fluently! Here, at the Minneapolis Club my head was spinning. My mouth was dry. I puckered my lips. I spoke as much through my nose as I possibly could. I picked up my wine glass and swirled the small, remaining bit of wine around casually. “Le vin est bon!” “What?” I had Reed on the ropes and he was confused. I could tell he was thinking about asking me not to go to Chicago. “You must stop referring to your foursome,” he said. “What?” “It’s a group of four and not a foursome. Foursome refers to a type of game of golf in which two fellow competitors play against two opponents and each side plays one ball alternately. And, it’s not a best ball match you play with your friends. It’s a four-ball match. Do you think you can remember that? For heaven’s sake, it’s not medal play. It’s stroke play, Charlie! And don’t talk about a partner when you clearly mean it’s a fellow-competitor.” His face was bright red and his ‘Adam’s apple’ was jiggling somewhat. He took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. There was a long, uncomfortable pause. I finally broke the silence. “Le vin est bon!” It’s all I could think of. END |
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Myths Created by the Republican Right I’m getting up in years. I could leave this earth at any time, on any day now, and I can’t do it without having my say to you about how you’ve been duped by one of the biggest, cruelest con-jobs in the history of America. If you’re a hard-working American, take notice of what I say because you’re being made a fool of. Is your allegiance with the National Republican Party and President Bush? This is a question I must ask of my friends and family in these dimming years of my life; because I am quite confused by the movement of common, hard-working, middle class people over to this radical party and its political philosophy. |
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I feel as if you’ve been hood-winked – fooled – into believing that current Republicans really stand up for you and your interests. You’ve bought into their simplistic sales pitch and their fear mongering. You’ve played precisely into their hands. These radical Republicans have pulled off one of the biggest political swindles in the history of the world! I mean it! Let’s look at it clearly. Let’s ask the correct questions and try to understand plain answers to those questions. Let’s try to see who the current Republican Party really protects and serves. And let’s begin by considering a number of political myths that Republicans have managed to sell to the working people. Myth 1: Spending money on problems doesn’t really do any good! This is the number one myth that the Republicans have managed to perpetuate and sell to the working man. In fact, spending money on some of these problems is the only way to alleviate them. Education is the best example I can think of, but there are several others. Under years of Republican dominance in Washington, the amount of spending we’ve allocated for education has dropped and dropped. So has the quality of education in America – so much so that Bill Gates decries the fact that he is not getting enough workers from the American school system who can compete for jobs at Microsoft. His company is forced to go elsewhere. Do we really think money won’t solve this? Spent wisely, of course it will. Our schools now need to compete globally. Do you think the rich 10% of America’s parents care about the degradation in our public school system? Of course they don’t! They’ll just send their kids to the best private school in the nation. Come on, working man, get your head out of the sand. We also need to spend more money on our national infrastructure – on bridges, roads, transportation systems and communications systems. President Bush threatens to veto any such spending bills in this area. We can’t afford it, he says. Well, of course we can’t – not under the current tax structure that gives such enormous tax breaks to the wealthy and makes the working man pay for nearly everything. Just do away with the tax breaks that the President has given the rich over the last few years and we’ll easily pay to rebuild America and we’ll also get rid of our current, staggering national debt. And what about poverty? We can’t take any pride in the numbers of poor children and poor families we have in America. Dozens of industrialized nations are ahead of us in this area. Poverty hurts America. It degrades our spirits. It eats away at our souls. We could rebuild the economic structure of the country again and put poor America back to work if we want to. However, we’ll have to spend money to do it. What a great national investment it would be. The Republicans are currently calling this “throwing money at problems.” No, that’s the wrong way to put it. Think of it as an investment in America’s future. We must invest in our nation for the sake of the future and for the sake of our children’s children. As I look at my grandchildren today, nothing is more important to me that securing for them a wonderful, free and generous nation in which they can grow into happy, productive adults. I’m not talking about honest, old-time Republicans. The party of John McCain, Nelson Rockefeller, Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater is not the party now in control in America. The far right-wing of the Republican Party, even though a minority, is in control because they understand how to use the big lie and how to use the tactic of fear. It is time they get removed from power. It is time to return to the moderate wings of both parties. It is time to rebuild the America we were all proud to call our home of the brave and the free. It is time to elect leaders who will serve all Americans and not just the wealthiest, tiniest percentage of our population. We, who represent middle-America, must unite to stop this foolishness. END |
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Learning from History |
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Who said that? Some wise guy! It was something like that any way! Am I missing something here? I gather that George W was not a good student. Did he not study history at all? Oh yes, during Vietnam he was too busy skipping his Reserve sessions and was running around trying to get some obscure Republican politician elected to office. He wasn’t paying attention to the lessons that Vietnam was teaching us.
No man should be elected to the presidency
who has not thoroughly studied both What have we gotten ourselves in to? |
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Are we not now caught in the most classic
example of a “catch 22” situation?
Am I missing something here? Does roughly 50
percent of our nation’s population really want this And why has the oil cartel now decided to reduce production, driving up our price of gasoline? Are there any connections here or am I missing something? Is there anyone here who believes this President thought these things through before deciding to go into Iraq? Or was that decision made long before his inauguration? END |
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Vietnam and Iraq |
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“…this White House no longer has any more control over the insurgency at home than it does over the one in Iraq.”
The war in Vietnam was lost because the United States of America really had no moral right to be there and, as a result, could not unite the nation in a resolve to win. History’s final judgment is that we lost that conflict because of extraordinarily poor political and diplomatic decisions spanning both major political parties. And, the nation sat back and compliantly watched our entry into that war because it had been lied to about the reason for it (review the Gulf of Tonkin issue). |
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In the years immediately following our retreat from Vietnam, I grew more and more satisfied about the results of my decision to be an active protestor and to work the streets. Joining with hundreds of thousands of other Americans, who would not believe the lies of the Johnson and Nixon administrations, we made America look at itself through the lens of truth. The nation and its historians began to get it right. Our involvement in that civil war was wrong and we lost because there was no way to win. Our politicians had not understood the real issues and incorrectly saw the conflict as one of Communism against Democracy. Following the war, I became convinced that my nation would learn from this history and would not make the same mistake again. Now Cindy Sheehan comes along and here we go again. This is not a momentary eruption that will soon fade away. This is the beginning of a long and agonizing protest by the people against those who again led us into war by lying to us. For some reason it takes Americans a long time to admit they’ve been lied to. They want to believe their political leaders even if they are of an opposition party. We are hopeful and positive people. However, a time comes when we face reality and we know a lie from the truth. Now we begin to recognize that George W. Bush is just another Richard M. Nixon! He is just another LBJ. He is a man impaled on his own lies and he does not know how to extricate himself from the embarrassment of this awkward position. So, he tries revisionism. Now, after several other of his explanations have failed, he tells us we are in Iraq because of 9-11. Mister President, we went to Afghanistan because of 9-11. We went to Iraq because of WMD. The American people know the difference. In broad agreement we went after Osama bin Laden. Had we stayed that course we may have succeeded. Once this administration diverted us to Iraq, the original cause was lost and we incited new peoples to the cause of our real enemy (terrorism). And now the American people are beginning to rise up. It is just the beginning. It is beginning slowly, just as it did against the Vietnam War. The protest will pick up speed rapidly and begin to roar like a wild-fire out of control. Americans do not lack the resolve to fight for freedom and democracy and to protect our nation against predators; however, we lack the will to fight silly and unnecessary wars such as this one in Iraq – such as the one in Vietnam. And, the American people refuse to be lied to. We are patient and we always allow opportunity for the liar to admit his falsehood and move to the truth, but our patience has run out. We shall wait no longer. We will now rise up in extraordinary numbers and demand truth and justice. The long, national protest against the War in Iraq has begun. It will last until America understands its mistake and admits its lie. The sooner the President recognizes this, the sooner the coming nightmare will end. And, as Frank Rich wrote in the August 21, 2005 New York Times…
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Remember When? I remember when Minnesota was a really great place to live! And, geez, I was proud. That was before email, of course, and I used to write to my family back-east – from which I had moved over 45 years ago to make Minnesota my home. It was great bragging about Minnesota. We are first in this and this and that and this and that. Wow! This was a wonderful place to live. Remember? Our Governor was on the cover of Time Magazine, holding a giant Walleye for the whole world to see. Remember? We were first in education! First in ease of transportation. First in quality of life. First in health-care. First in recreation choices. First in cultural opportunities. First in social justice and equal rights. First in caring for the elderly. First in lack of poverty! Ah, it was the good life – even though we were way down there when it came to comfortable weather. |
Bragging about Minnesota and its splendor |
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Somewhere along the way, someone figured we were paying too much for all those honors. Various governors and many different legislative representatives, who should have been the guardians of our state’s quality of life, figured we were paying too much for all this because we were also first in the amount of taxes we were paying. So, they torched it all! And now, a generation later, we’re just another state and the joint is mosquito infested at that (because they cut funding to control the buggers) and the weather still sucks. There are dozens of better states to live in. The roads are trashed. Our schools are declining at a rapid rate and classrooms are crowded. The poverty levels have risen dramatically. We’re only average in health-care. We don’t take very good care of poor children and unhealthy elderly folks. Remember when we used to laugh at Mississippi and Louisiana and Arkansas because they were so low on the charts. Now the really great states are laughing at us. Here’s the rule: You wanna a truly great meal, a fabulous night out, and a delightful trip home, you gotta pay for it. We know that. We want the best theaters and the finest museums. We want the very best schools. We want the best public university in America. We want a great transportation system. We want clean water and air. We want terrific parks and open space. We want top-notch health care to be available to everyone. We want all our professional sports teams to succeed. We want the best police protection and the best fire-fighters that money can buy. Dang right it’s more expensive than living in Mississippi! That is exactly the idea! We’re not fools. You must pay to live in a really great state. Back then (you remember when), most of us thought it was worth it. To live in the finest place in America, we were willing to pay for it. Now, we just live in a discount state and I don’t even write to the family any more.
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After Reading Mark Frost’s
Frost’s account of the early 20th century frequently makes me think of my father and wonder about his life in that era – especially about the horrifying events of the Great War in Europe. Only days before reading this book, I read two novels by Anne Perry, set in the same period, that raised many similar questions about my father’s young life. I am curious about both why he rarely spoke of the years and how they affected him. He would have been a very young man when the war broke out (only 16) and just into adulthood when America entered the fight and he was shipped off to Europe to participate. Where did he go? What was his role? What did he encounter? When one just reads of the mustard gas that the Germans used, one is made to feel frightened and queasy. How must it have felt to be there and to see the yellow clouds hovering just over the ground? |
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Part
of our problem is a failure to understand and appreciate the people of
Iraq -- to know and appreciate them as our equals with all the wonder
and mystery as human beings in our own nation.
This
story of Bobby Jones and his remarkable "grand slam" in 1930 is one of
the most interesting sports books I've ever read -- along with Frost's
other extraordinary account of The Greatest Game Ever Played.