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THE HATE SHOW. GOVERNOR CHRISTIES SAYS, "IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!"

9/30/2011

The Hate Show. “It’s none of your business!”
    When passing through Union Square Park in the 1950s, I liked to stop and watch the screamers. Their “message” was irrelevant; what drew me was the enraged delivery, like a bare knuckle fist fight.
    The 1960s pitted love against hate. The young broke with their elders--trust no one over thirty—talked of flower power, lived in squalor and sexual defiance--make love, not war—men grew long hair. Its dark side was the murderous Manson Family, the Weather Underground that blew itself up, the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), that became the antithesis of its name. It was a mad romantic patchwork, and it changed society.
    Is something like it brewing now? Occupy Wall Street, is growing instead of going, joined by the Transport Workers, while photos of the beefy white-shirted police officer casually pepper spraying four women (“like they were cockroaches,” said one commentator) have gone viral, seen by millions, and the NYC police department, after first “tut-tutting,” now speaks of investigating.
    Another hate show is the Republican presidential debates, but someone behind the scenes realizes that not one has presidential chops, so the spotlight is on New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie, who’s still saying no, only not as positively as before.
    There are things to admire about Christie: his support of the Muslim judge he appointed, of gun control, that immigration is federal, his acceptance of global warming, and get this, his belief in Evolution. On the other hand, he is one angry guy. It comes across on the stump (many wish Obama was angrier) but in a president, it must be under control and Christie’s is not. When a woman had the temerity to ask why he cut public school funding while sending his own kids to private schools, he replied, “It’s none of your business!” Went on angrily that he paid property taxes to support public schools, and as governor was responsible for all schools, to end saying: “With all due respect, it’s none of your business.”
    Instead of using the moment to explain kindly and reasonably that he wants his kids to have a religious education, he poured vitriol on the poor woman. Chris Christie is smart but hateful. And from how he talked to that woman, he's a bully. Sadly, he’s the best of a bad lot. If you want to hear that reply, here’s a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm-fsq-aA5E

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BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

9/29/2011

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Be Careful What You Wish For
    Warren Buffet and Bill Gates have more in common than their wealth. They have wisdom. Each recognized it in the other when they joined forces in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, now Gates’s full time job.
    Gates said recently that if he could have one miracle, it would be cheap, non-polluting energy, predicting that without it, the needs of China and India will overwhelm our planet bringing pollution, global warming rising oceans, deadly storms, starvation, plagues, extinctions, wars, terror, planetary destruction, and—fade out, fade in—a planet as different from today as today is from the age of the dinosaurs, and not a good place for humano sapiens.
    Science has been producing miracles for 200 years, so why not cheap clean energy? But what if it were achieved? After shocks to the oil and coal industries, people would get on with their lives, cheap limitless energy would be turned to making food out of hydro-carbons, and the world’s exploding population would re-explode. A planet of 6.9 billion would become 12, then 20, and the Malthusian nightmare would descend. Humans would crowd out all other species, occupy rain forests, woodlands, farmland, plains, mountain tops, seas, underseas. They would overwhelm Earth and planetary destruction would resume.
    If I had a wish it would be the same as a wise man in a fable. After his first two wishes brought no happiness, he said to the genie, “I wish for no more wishes!” Whereupon a great peace descended and he lived the rest of his life in simplicity and joy.
    I fear that Bill Gates’s miracle is far more plausible.

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THANK YOU FOR NOT AGREEING

9/28/2011

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Thank You for Not Agreeing
    In Manhattan’s Union Square Park in the 1950s you could hoist a flag, stand on a soapbox, and harangue to your heart’s content. Haranguers ranged from scruffy wild-eyed communists trying to save the world, to wild-eyed preachers in clerical collars trying to save your soul. All were so utterly convinced of their rightness it brought to mind a wise observation: “Those most certain of their convictions are the least likely to have any logical foundation for them,” It’s a comfort since I'm seldom that certain of mine.
    On a recent blog, The Brute Within, I noted that the U.S. had outlawed “racism, sexism, and homophobia,” which elicited “...gays and lesbians are barred from federal marriage rights... that’s both segregation and homophobia. People of color and poor people are still herded into substandard neighborhoods... that’s both segregation and racism. As for sexism, it's so entrenched in our systems as to be all but invisible..” To that, I can only say, Amen.
    Other readers disagree in ways I can’t affirm, but to all I say, thank you for your disagreements. I will never delete them. When I find myself uncomfortably certain that I am right, a small voice asks, “What makes you so sure?” Actually, I’m not.
    I try to find positions that rise from love, not hate, but in WW2, when bombing a hated enemy, I felt hate’s icy power and can feel it still.
    As a life form, I feel committed to life. I admire Albert Schweitzer’s “Reverence for Life,” but deplore so-called “right to lifers” some of whom condone murder of those who disagree. Yet both of our belief systems are riddled with internal contradictions.
    I believe in non-violence but am outclassed by the Jain religion which rejects even violent thoughts.
    I don’t like being an omnivore, yet remain one.
    People are starving in the Horn of Africa while I shop in horn-of-plenty super markets.
    Republicans vie to be presidential candidates in what looks like a vicious Punch and Judy puppet show. Are these malicious clowns completely out of touch with reality? Or am I?
    I have many other doubts, which may be why I don’t trust those who have none. My doubts allow me to hope that those without any are more likely to be wrong than I.

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"OCCUPY WALL STREET"

9/27/2011

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“Take Back Wall Street!”
    In the late 1960s there was a generational battle, rampant idealism, ugly brutality, youth crying, “Trust no one over thirty!” police cracking heads and making mass arrests. Now there’s another kids and cops confrontation. It’s happening in lower Manhattan where “Occupy Wall Street” protesters are trying to camp out in Zuccotti Park. They complain that Wall Street was the cause of the 2008 financial debacle, but no Wall streeter has ever been called to account. Beyond that there seems to be no agenda, no specific demands, no identifiable leaders. Is it a one-off, or the precursor of more to come? One panicky officer used pepper spray on four women, and other police carry plastic riot shields, portending
further violence.
    Some say it is nothing but a few attention-needy copy-cats stirred up by the Arab Spring. Another view is that it is a reaction against the Tea Party, whose minions, arriving in Congress after the 2010 elections, unwilling to budge from extreme positions, terrorized traditional Republicans who knew that a divided party would fall to the Democrats. So they caved. And now not one of their aspiring presidential candidates dare defy it. On the contrary, each competes in bowing and scraping. This poisons a major political party, controls the House of Representatives, and paralyzes the nation. Young people see it as compromising their future and are taking to the streets, the ultimate bastion of the powerless, turning first upon Wall Street, which they view as the belly of the beast.
Suckerfish like Noam Chomsky have already latched on. Expect Ralph Nader to
follow.
    History may seem to be repeating itself, but don’t be fooled. Twitter and Facebook can be mobilized to create Flash Mobs. Police force will quickly trigger bigger, more violent protests. If it catches fire in states where concealed weapons are legal, consequences could make the worst of the 1960s seem benign.
    Michael Bloomberg, NYC’s best mayor since Fiorello LaGuardia, is certainly aware of the dangers, but how much control has he over the situation, or over his own panicky police department?
    Keep your fingers crossed.

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NEIN, NEIN, NEIN!

9/26/2011

Nein, Nein, Nein!
    Stop the Presses! Herman Cain won the Florida straw poll! The other Republican candidates must be doing a double-time review of the plan he calls, “Nine, Nine, Nine.” So, let’s see.
    * Nine percent flat national income tax.
    * Nine percent flat corporate tax.
    * Nine percent flat national sales tax.
    Maybe Steve Forbes can sue for copyright infringement, but it’s clean, simple, and fair. Fair? Um, let’s take a closer look.
    Nine percent national flat income tax. Everybody would pay nine percent, no deductions. Big break for the rich, very rich, super rich, and obscenely rich. Put a few million more into Warren Buffet’s pocket. As for the poor, why should they get away with paying no income tax at all?
    Nine percent flat corporate tax. Maybe bad news for multi-nationals weaseling out of all taxes, great news for the rest whose tax is almost double nine percent.
    Nine percent national sales tax. On everything? Will I have to pay an extra 45 cents for my Sunday NY Times? Will I have to pay 9% federal tax plus 8.875% state and city tax on my next TV set? Will I have to add $11 extra to my weekly grocery bill? Will the subway go from $2.50 to $2.73? Will college cost $900 more for every $10,000 it costs now? Will people too poor ever to have paid tax, start paying taxes on rice, pasta, milk, sox, T shirts? Will the national average food cost for a family of four go from $700 dollars a month to $763? Will there be a tax on food stamps? Will it raise gasoline taxes by another 9%? General Motors, listen up! Great news for the Volt!
    Nine per cent added to the average food bill, will not be noticed by the rich because there’s just so much one person can eat. Even the difference between the tax on pasta with cheese, and sirloin with truffles won’t ruffle million-and up-earners, but will ravage a family at the poverty line. Nor will 9% more for silk underwear and Ferragamo shoes, be noticed by million-and-ups, but be a drag if you buy your underwear at Wal Mart and wear it until it falls off.
    Herman Cain, master mind of “Nine, Nine, Nine,” is not your ordinary Republican candidate. Unlike Romney, he’s never held public office, but like him, he’s a business man. He’d sure like to give Americans the business.
    “Nine, Nine, Nine,” turns out to be one more Republican trick to let the rich pay less, the poor pay more. But it sure has a lilt. Sing it to the tune of “Three Blind Mice.”
                                               Nine, Nine, Nine, (echo), Nine, Nine, Nine
                                                See how it runs, (echo), See how it runs
                                    I        It runs all over the middle class,
                                                   It’s author must be a horse’s ass
                                            Did ever you see such a plan so crass,
                                                           As Nine, Nine, Nine

THE BRUTE WITHIN

9/24/2011

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The Brute Within
    After Rick Perry defended his decision to let children of illegal immigrants attend Texas colleges for in-state tuition, he was attacked by Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. Talking heads later called his admission that he had a heart a tactical error. Brutishness has become the standard for this slate of presidential candidates.
    Tigers and ocelots run down prey individually, wolves and hyenas work in packs. Humanity has used these, and every other tactic as it toiled out of savagery, from innocence to conscience. Today, we possess knowledge of good and evil, discovered, according to some, by eating the Forbidden Fruit, by others as gradually emerging along with civilization on our way out of the jungle. Yet the brute within has always demanded its due.
    In Rome, slaves fought to the death to feed the blood lust of a brutish crowd. Ex-wrestler and governor, Jesse Ventura, calls professional wrestling an “art form.” Wrestling fans know that every bout is fixed, just as Shakespeare fans know who will win the sword fight between Hamlet and Laertes. People are there not to learn outcomes, but for the show.
    The 66 years since WW2 have seen profound changes. The USSR broke into its constituent parts. The doomed communist experiment is over everywhere except for the strange capitalist-tinged variety in China, hesitantly followed by Cuba, with North Korea a desperate rotting tyranny. The once warring polities of Europe strive to become a Eurozone. The U.S. has outlawed segregation, sexism, and homophobia, yet struggles with the brutish underlying causes of all three. And now, the Arab Spring. Yet our inner brute pops out when some tormented soul appears on top of a building, and someone below screams, “Jump!” And when Texas was named as leading all states in number of executions, it elicited a brutish chorus of applause.
    Bush against Gore pitted ignorance against idealism, and although the Supreme Court installed Bush, at least a majority of Americans had voted for Gore. But John Kerry, war hero, strategic thinker, pragmatist, with a family that would have graced our nation, was rejected in favor of a strutting popinjay. And now the candidates of a major political party seem to have decided that an appeal to thudding brutishness is a winning strategy.

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MISSION AND MORALITY

9/23/2011

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Mission and Morality
    Martha Graham said, “Every life has its mission and some demand all that we can give.” Her mission was to dance, and she danced for most of her ninety-six years. The mission of St Francis of Assisi was to serve God as expressed in nature. Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking, were driven to explore the reality beneath. The mission of others is to strive for wealth or power, collect art, or stamps, or beer cans.
    The fundamental mission of life is to live, and social creatures like humans seek others with whom they can fulfill it. We need to be among our own kind, as do elephants, among the most intelligent of non-human species. And just as elephants produce loners who become “rogues,” so do humans. Rogue humans—an Adolph Hitler—can produce such deep harm we call it Evil.
    Social groups develop a sense of right and wrong. Some thinkers claim that right and wrong is only defined within a social order—a relative morality. Others believe it is absolute, and that some rights and wrongs transcend all group identities. Anthropologist, Colin Turnbull, lived among an African tribe—the Ik—whose survival mechanism seemed to abolish love. Margaret Meade discovered an island people—the Mundugumor—whose society, based on war, head-hunting, and cannibalism considered stealing and murder perfectly ethical when turned against other tribes.
    Some believe evil is a spirit—the Devil—who can capture souls. Others say it is a lack of mission, lack of connection, something provoked by the soul’s loneliness. Florence Nightingale felt a call, became a nurse, established the very concept of nursing, and searched battlefields at night, “The lady with the lamp,” looking for wounded soldiers. It is astonishing that the human species can produce such extreme embodiments of Good and Evil as Florence Nightingale and Adolf Hitler.
    Deep thinkers ponder good and evil, which doesn’t mean you, or I, or anyone else cannot. During WW2, I believed that humanity was engaged in an absolute clash of Good with Evil. Sixty years later, I still do. And I ponder now what drives those who seek raw power, unbounded wealth, and act in ways that diminish the lives of others. Are they well intentioned but wrong, or have they begun to enter the dark territory where evil begins?

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THE HIGHEST PLACE

9/22/2011

The Highest Place
    The crash of a World War II fighter at a Reno air show last Friday was national news. It plunged into a grandstand, killing nine and its pilot. Videos by air show fans are being studied. Early speculation blames the antique plane, not its antique pilot, James Leeward, 74, too young to have flown in World War II, yet far older than one expects a pilot to be, especially of a P-51, Mustang, the best American fighter of World War II, flown by “fighter jocks,” like Chuck Yaeger. But why was James Leeward, a Hollywood stunt pilot, doing 400 miles an hour 100 feet off the ground? Because he had to: flying was in his blood.
    The US Army Air Force made me a pilot in WW2. The day I soloed I knew I loved it, and like every cadet, wanted fighters. But the army needed bomber pilots, and I loved my B-17 too. Every minute aloft was magic, and although I never lost that feeling, after the war I didn’t consider being a commercial pilot; civilian flying—A to B—seemed too routine. Combat aside, it was the adventure of military flying, different planes, destinations, adventures, what kept James Leeward in the air long after he should have settled into an easy chair.
    I caught the tail end of the war, seven non-memorable “milk run” combat missions before Victory in Europe Day. My best memory is flying the Atlantic: Goose Bay, Labrador, to the Azores, to Cairo, Egypt, to Gioia, Italy. And after VE Day, flying troops from Naples, Italy, across the Mediterranean Sea to Rabat, Morrocco, first leg of their trip home. I remember my last landing, wondering how I’d endure being a ground-pounder again, opting to stay in the Air Force reserves for five-years, after which flying was displaced by dancing.
    As an inner experience, flying and dancing have much in common, but that is a different blog. Years later, I wrote a one-woman show for my wife, Elizabeth, based on Amelia Earhart. It opened and closed with a song, “The Highest Place,” sung by Amelia. It’s my song too.
                         The Highest Place (© Stuart Hodes, 2011)
    In the highest place, I’m eye to eye / With eagles in the sky,
    Over oceans gliding by. The engines roar, and I am borne
    Aloft, where angels play. / I fly into the dawning day
    To circle midst the clouds, I stay
    Where purest air weaves in my hair / Until I touch the morn.
    Muse of my heart, O purest light / The highest place is mine in flight
    I keep the moon in sight / Wrapped in the blanket of the night.
    I dreamed I reached the highest place, to swim in space
    And now, within my dream’s embrace, / I brush my lover’s face
    I touch the highest place.

Out-Competed

9/21/2011

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Out-Competed
    Last week I titled a blog, “Skunked by Chinese Capitalism.” (Sept 16th) The Chinese government backs private enterprises with cash, low cost land, and low taxes, recouping everything by taking a percentage of profits. You may deplore government mixing into private enterprise, but the fact is that China is out-competing us. You can hardly buy toys, electronics, or hardware not made in China, and their food products are creeping into supermarket freezers. What a contrast to 1956, when I toured south Asia seeing Chinese goods which were embargoed from even entering the U.S.A.
    Despite the fact that the Obama administration saved the American auto industry, the Tea Party is demanding government stay out of business, part and parcel of a romantic vision of a vanished past when the U.S. could feel separate from the Old World. It had begun with the first settlers who wanted to forget all that had driven them out of the old country. On one occasion, they boarded a ship in Boston harbor, and tossed bales of tea overboard, a gesture that energizes people to this day.
    One may wish globalization did not exist, but only fools deny that it does. Those who want government to lower taxes so as to permit more investment, miss one crucial detail; lack of government policy to support domestic industry drives investment abroad, and likely into in one of the countries whose governments do, if not China then, Singapore, Taiwan, or South Korea. President Obama’s proposal of a tax credit to businesses that create new domestic jobs is a powerful idea that should be implemented quickly.
    When former Michigan Governor, Jennifer M. Granholm, visited China, a Chinese businessman asked her if the U.S. was developing a policy to support its industries. Told that we must first settle some internal politics, he smiled, and replied, “Take your time.”

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OPEN LETTER TO TRADITIONAL REPUBLICANS

9/20/2011

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An Open Letter to Traditional Republicans
Honorable Sirs:
    You are well aware that the Tea Party is attempting to capture the Grand Old Party. If it succeeds, the GOP may well go the way of the Whigs, who supported slavery and disappeared after the Civil War.
    As a traditional Republican you are dismayed by demagogues like Rick Perry, innocents like Michele Bachmann, and befuddled theorists like Ron Paul. You wait for a voice of reason, but bound by staunch party loyalty, remain silent. You worry about dire scenarios:
    Tea Party extremism intensifies as the election nears, repels voters, and the GOP fades, perhaps never to extricate itself from its Tea party image.
    The Tea Party dons a veneer of moderation, captures the White House, then enacts legislation that brings conflict and chaos. The U.S.A. fades as a moral beacon and world power. China and the Eurozone move in.
    There’s a less gloomy scenario. One traditional Republican, standing strong, restores sanity, heartens and emboldens all traditional Republicans, and saves the GOP. Choose any issue — tax breaks for billionaires, oil subsidies, the jobs bill — break Tea Party ranks and cast your vote. Others will take heart, the Grand Old Party will find its traditional voice and return to its essential role as a main stream party and platform for honestly conservative ideas.
    This third scenario may already be in progress, quiet voices exchanging ideas at a luncheon or committee meeting, making plans to stand against fanaticism, save the Grand Old Party, and assure that the U.S.A. has its two major political parties in the coming crucial years. Please make it so.
       Respectfully yours,
                Stuart Hodes

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Author (Yuma, AZ, 1944)

Being 90 years in this world, with great kids, great grandkids, great wives (two, one at a time) and great memories, I wonder why some people seem to have stopped loving the U.S.A.? I will wonder in print right here. If you wonder too, or can provide some answers, please comment.
Stuart Hodes

       With my friend, Nero.
             April, 2012.
    Photo by Ray Madrigal