Columns
Brain Food
Peg and I like snow. We almost bought a vacation home in the picturesque hamlet of Craftsbury Common, Vermont where her folks are buried. We also looked at locations at Lake Tahoe. Both areas are inundated by winter snows. Vermont’s property taxes were steeper than the snow and only the truly wealthy or truly reckless can buy property in Tahoe. Therefore, we chose Osage County, Oklahoma. Oklahoma does not provide as much snow but it has some and one can enjoy a balanced budget. However, we still are captivated by stories of those hardy humans who find ways to at least survive huge snowfalls such as occur in Nevada-California’s Sierra Nevada mountains and in the mountains of South America’s Andes.
As Peg was sending me out to get more firewood during our recent blizzard, I reflected on our visits to the site of the Donner Party’s ordeal in Truckee, California on the Nevada Border. Most of you know of the Donner Party and of its most salient sociological history. In 1846 eighty-seven pioneers from Illinois followed their western dream but only about fifty of them made it to California. Many of the hardy trekkers died in the deep snows from cold, hunger and illness. And they had to rely on their deceased companions to do so. According to survivor accounts archived at the Donner Party Museum, all parts of their departed fellow humans but their brains provided sustenance. Apparently even starvation was not enough incentive to force down brains.
While Peg and I have been to Donner Pass several times we have not visited the site of another tragic but inspiring experience of humans surviving the deepest of snow thanks to their deceased friends and family. That occurred in 1972 when a plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby team and others crashed about 11,500 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains. Peg and I found this fascinating true story as related in the film Society of the Snow as we sat in front of a roaring fireplace and sipped wine, red, of course.
The movie that we found channel surfing in the vain hope of finding a football game, as they had all gone Peacock, told the survival story of how eighteen out of forty-five persons on a chartered Uruguayan Air Force flight crashed into a deep mountain snow field. Those who survived for the seventy-two winter days did so, in part, by harvesting the flesh of those who died in the crash or over the days thereafter.
What the amazing depiction made clear was that had the survivors been able to ask those who had not survived, the deceased would not have faulted their living companions. But they would have given of themselves to help those who were barely hanging on through cold and hunger. Of course, none of us wishes to be in the position of either the deceased or the survivors. But it is inspiring to think we too might have the courage and generosity to serve in either role.
Eternal Life
The ultimate human dream has always been to live forever. But, for those of us who have lived into the stage where passion and perambulation are less ascendent than relief from aches and the need for mobility enhancement devices, it may sometimes feel as if forever is not so attractive. However, most of us at all stages of life are not eager to test the alternative. Ergo, for most, to exist is preferable than to not. So, we humans spend a great deal of time searching for the elusive mythical secret to a life without end. Of course, when we envision eternal life, we are likely to see ourselves in a pre-serpent Garden of Eden rather than a Prometheus chained to a rock as an eagle devours our liver each day forever. Or we might mine for answers where we Americans have often looked, the movies. The 1967 cult classic, The Graduate, comes to mind.
In The Graduate Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman, is a recent college graduate who does not worry about eternity but is more concerned about what he should do with the rest of his young life. But Anne Bancroft in the role of middle-aged Mrs. Robinson seeks to extend her youth by seducing the clueless Hoffman. However, the real secret to Benjamin’s future and the whole world’s comes from the actor Walter Brooks who plays middle-aged businessman, Mr. Maguire, who confidentially whispers the one word answer to Benjamin: “PLASTICS”. In 1967 we did not recognize the prescient advice of Mr. Maguire. A mere six years later the first plastic soft drink bottle would be invented and released upon our planet.
Gentle Reader, these thoughts came creeping into my head when I found on the internet (what could go wrong?) reports of scientists discovering consumable plastic in almost every source of water we humans drink everywhere on earth. According to researchers at Columbia University plastic in bottled water, “[M]ay raise notable apprehensions regarding human health”. Well, my analysis is, as Coach Lee Corso might say, “Not so fast”. What if we who have created plastic are now having our cells replaced with it? If our planet is being inundated by never decomposing material that is also invading our DNA, is there an opportunity here? And we know plastic lasts forever as we cannot go anywhere without stumbling over a plastic container thrown away by some insensitive jerk fifty years ago.
We have already opened Pandora’s Box so why not channel Pollyanna and turn our attention to how gradually replacing our cells with plastic infused water might enable us to be as environmentally impervious to time as that first plastic soft drink bottle invented by DuPont Corporation engineer, Nathaniel Wyeth, in 1973. Whatever happened to Nathanial whose uncle was the lover of nature, painter Andrew Wyeth?
It looks like that no matter what we say we want we humans are willing to replace all of nature with plastic. Therefore, I suggest we should now replace those pesky Greek gods who punished Prometheus and Pandora with A.I. Surely if A.I. can beat humans at chess and solve the Rubik’s Cube faster than humans can down a Coca-Cola, A.I. can be coaxed into finding a way for us to transform our plasticized drinking water into an Elysian libation that will preserve our bodies forever.
As for me, I had such a tough time with college physics that I became a judge. So, I must leave the details of eternal life to those A.I. geniuses who are most likely in India or Dubai. For now, I will do my part by eschewing soft drinks for beer that still comes in glass bottles.
Democracy At Risk
Donald Trump did not find fault with his election victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 even though many Americans were astonished. However, four years later President Trump and many others questioned President Joe Biden’s victory. Some Trump supporters even marched and more on January 06, 2021 in protest as still sitting President Trump verbally urged them on.
Former President Trump is now seeking the presidency again, but some are protesting his right to do so. These never Trumpers are asserting that Trump is now prohibited from running by Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution that provides:
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
As many of us learned in high school, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were ratified by Congress soon after the Civil War. Generally, the 13th prohibited slavery, the 14th provided for Due Process for Blacks, including citizenship, while the 15th gave Black men the right to vote.
I do not know about you, Gentle Reader, but I had never given a moment’s thought to Section 3 until after January 06, 2021 and until former President Trump announced his intention to run again. I do recall Alabama Governor George Wallace who defied the United States Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 in Brown vs The Topeka, Kansas Board of Education that ordered an end to school segregation. In Wallace’s inauguration address on January 14, 1963 he declared, “…segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”. Yet, Wallace was allowed to run for the presidency only five years later in 1968 without anyone raising the 14th Amendment. America’s voters made their free democratic choice and rejected Wallace’s racist position.
The first time I heard mention of Section 3 being used to keep Trump off the ballot I remember my bemusement. Then, as the tiny tinkling of the anti-Trump candidacy tocsin became a loud tolling of ballot disqualification, my bemusement became concern.
Some who advance the preemption of Trump’s second term warn that our democracy would be in danger if he is reelected. These self-anointed saviors assert that to preserve our democracy we must assure the MAGA fanatics cannot steal our self-government. And the best way to do this is to disenfranchise them by eliminating their candidate from the ballot. Well, you see the oxymoron of saving democracy by denying it to those they dislike. Yet, that is the petard the Section 3 crowd is raising. Of course, they know that just as with Bush vs. Gore 2000, the matter will end up in the tender mercies of the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court. How did that work out for our democracy? Can you say Iraq War?
Politics is not Bean Bag. If you have never run for political office and lost, you may not appreciate the visceral impact it has. Most people have played on or supported some sports team and have experienced the disbelief and angst from some loss they attribute to a bad call by an umpire or referee. Well, I assure you, Gentle Reader, a loss of an election is a much more gut-wrenching experience.
As one of my brothers told me after he lost his only foray into local politics, “I cannot understand how I lost, everyone I talked to told me they voted for me”. No matter how graciously a losing candidate handles a loss, many of them wonder if, in fact, they won and somehow the outcome should have been otherwise. Ergo, Donald Trump was a part of that, “I can’t believe it!”, tradition. Was he wrong? Was he a poor sport? Was he a jerk? Yes, yes and yes. Did he take up arms against the United States? No.
Should we attempt to save our democracy by keeping him off the ballot? No! Let the voters decide. Part of democracy means allowing people to make poor choices or, at least, choices we dislike. However, democracy means making sure we all have the right to do so.
20,000 “Accidents”
Israel’s soldiers killed three former Israeli Jewish hostages December 15, 2023 in the Gaza Strip. According to Israeli Defense Forces accounts the three men were unarmed and shirtless. They carried a white flag with the word “HELP” written in Hebrew. The men cried out to the soldiers for help in Hebrew as they held their arms up while emerging from a building. The Israeli soldiers immediately shot and killed two of the men and wounded the third man who retreated back into a building. The soldiers followed him, and even after their commander ordered the firing to stop, the soldiers killed the third man.
Israel called the incident a “tragic accident”. But the killings were intentional, not accidental. Those three killings of unarmed Israelis were the same as the 20,000 intentional killings of Palestinian civilians by Israel since the October 07, 2023 intentional killings of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas.
Israel is responsible for the destruction of water resources, hospitals, mosques, churches, businesses and homes in Gaza. By preventing humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, Israel is responsible for the endemic disease, thirst and starvation of up to 2.2 million Palestinians, 70% of whom are women and children. The armaments, money and political cover given to Israel by the United States enable this deliberate genocide.
Israel asserts that by dropping leaflets that order civilians to abandon their homes Israel is absolved from killing them. But the people have nowhere to go as the 2.2 million Palestinian civilians in Gaza have the Mediterranean Sea to their north, Egypt to their west and are otherwise surrounded by Israel. Egypt and Jordan have taken some refugees in but have no obligation to do so. Israel is responsible for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and should be mainly responsible for assuaging it.
Gaza is an area of 360 square kilometers and Israel has 22,143 square kilometers. If, in fact, Israel wishes to avoid civilian casualties, it should allow the Palestinian civilians to shelter inside Israel, especially East Jerusalem, until the war ends and Gaza is re-built for human living. Border crossings from Gaza into Israel could be opened with quick and efficient security checks. Aid from the United States could provide temporary shelters, food, water and medical care. Great Britain, that created Israel out of Palestine starting in 1917 through 1948, also could and should help provide border security and humanitarian aid.
A reasonable alternative, if Israel does not wish to have the Palestinian civilians sheltered within the borders of Israel, would be to have non-Hamas Palestinians moved to the current illegal Israeli settlements in both Gaza and the West Bank. These areas are already free of Hamas fighters and have shelters, water, medical facilities and security checkpoints in place. The illegal Israeli squatters would have to be ordered to vacate the areas. But that is already called for by international law. If East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank were used to shelter Palestinians, that would be consistent with the pre-1967 borders and consistent with the Oslo Accords for a two-state situation.
Of Gaza’s 2.2 million population, at the most 40,000 are with Hamas. Screening the refugees would not be onerous as anyone who has walked through a magnetometer or who has been scanned with a hand-held unit can attest. Once the conflict ends, that is, once Israel is satisfied Hamas is no longer a threat, the United States, Great Britain, Israel and the United Nations could carry out a Marshall Plan to repatriate the Palestinians or the state of Palestine could finally be established.
The United States is almost alone in its support of Israel’s genocide of Gaza’s Palestinians. The United Nations has called repeatedly for a humanitarian ceasefire and humanitarian aid to Palestinians, but until December 22, 2023 the U.S. blocked such action by veto. Finally, the U.N. Security Council managed to pass a weakly worded resolution allowing some humanitarian aid; the United States abstained. However, Israel has indicated it will not cooperate with the resolution, so innocent civilians will continue to be killed by Israel and those not directly killed by Israeli military action will die from or be degraded by deprivation of basic humanitarian necessities.
Why is America putting its prestige on the line to support Israel’s position? The answer may lie in history. Israel claims its god gave Palestine to the Hebrew people and helped them escape bondage in Egypt. Most estimates are the Book of Exodus was written during the 13 century B.C. A part of that divine intervention was the killing by Israel’s god of the first-born child of every Egyptian from Pharoah’s, to those of prisoners in dungeons and even the first-born of maidservants. The Israelis still celebrate this genocidal slaughter of innocent humans on Passover. Also, their god caused the Red Sea to part and drown all of Pharoah’s army. Then, according to the Jewish myth, their god gave the Hebrews the land already owned and inhabited by the Canaanites and others. See the Book of Exodus, Chapters 10-13.
Many of our early American ancestors of mainly European descent believed their Christian god gave us mainly white Americans all the land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, Manifest Destiny, even though it was already inhabited by millions of Native Americans. And just as Israel has demonized Palestinians as terrorists for many years, America’s Declaration of Independence describes Native Americans as:
“He (King George III) … has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”
The cultural memories and Volksgeists of America and Israel are strikingly similar and the religions of both assuage any moral dilemmas from eliminating the original inhabitants of coveted land and resources by any means deemed necessary. The German philosopher Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779-1861) and the Austrian philosopher Hans Kelsen (1881-1973) described these memories as the Volksgeist or spirit of a people. And the German psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) said these subconscious suppressed memories can actuate behaviors. Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist who posited humans act and react as archetypes based on historical myths that are sometimes misinterpreted or misapplied.
What this may mean for America is we Americans often see ourselves as always doing good. As French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) said, “America is great because she is good”. Many of us tend to believe that whatever we do is divinely inspired and cannot be wrong. Israel may see itself as an historic victim that must always be in a self-defense mode, a Volksgeist of being in constant fear of annihilation. And many of us Americans have often seen ourselves as that miraculous shining city on a hill that gives light to the world and is always on the side of right.
That may be why Israel and America stand virtually by ourselves on the developing genocide in Gaza. We both may need to re-examine the validity of our myths and the morality of our actions.
Merry Christmases!!
Last year (2022-2023) Peg and I were in the country of Georgia on Christmas Day (December 25th). However, when we wished some of our Georgian friends “Merry Christmas”, they said as Coach Lee Corso might have said, “Not so fast”. Many Christians in that one-time Soviet Union country do not adhere to Pope Julius’ date for Jesus’ birthday as December 25, but also celebrate the Gregorian date in 2023 of January 07. Many Georgians recognize both dates and the “Christmas Season” for many others runs from December 25 of one year through the first week of January of the next.
The beautiful city of Batumi, Georgia where we worked for six months with Georgian judges was right on the Black Sea and was decorated with colored lights and yuletide trees. The streets were filled with festive shoppers and frequent carolers for two weeks as our Georgian friends showered us with home-grown wines and baklava; I was pleased to see the Christians championing the marvelous Muslim delicacies as a Christmas tradition.
Pope Julian I’s term was 337 to 352 and Pope Gregory’s was 540 to 604. They both instituted a calendar with Julian’s arbitrary date of December 25 for Christ’s birth not being contested by Gregory, but due to the new method of calculating days of the year, the date for Christmas migrated to January 7. If you are fascinated by the vagaries of how this all worked, you probably need to get out more. All Peg and I cared about was after years of only having one Christmas we now had two with Advent gaining about another two weeks. I hope Santa Claus can keep up in 2023/2024.
I have already let it be known that I am expecting gifts on both December 25, 2023 and January 7, 2024. Also, I hope that with the expansion of the Holiday Season the NCAA will finally open up the bowl season for all college football teams, not just those who have won 6 games or more. We only have 43 college football bowl games involving 86 schools now. So, if we let the other 46 or so Division I colleges play we could have another 23 bowl games between December 25 and January 07. It would certainly be better than having to watch the national news. Besides, my alma mater, Indiana University, would get to play a bowl game then.
Anyway, Peg and I say to our Georgian friends (and also to our American friends), Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night, good night!
A Slippery Slope
At December fifth’s House Committee on Education and the Workforce, presidents of Harvard, Penn and M.I.T. answered questions about free speech matters at their universities. One should first question what our government was doing micro-managing private speech and assemblage at non-governmental institutions. Another dangerous issue was raised when a wealthy alumnus of Penn threatened to withdraw a one hundred-million-dollar donation if Penn did not fire its president who did not testify as the alumnus approved. President Elizabeth Magill and Penn bowed to the combined pressure of politics and money; she and the Chairman of Penn’s Board almost immediately resigned. The Black female president of Harvard, Dr. Claudine Gay, and the Jewish female president of M.I.T., Dr. Sally Kornbluth, have not, as yet, stepped down. Congress took umbrage at the three university presidents’ responses to a hypothetical question about possible antisemitism on their campuses. Each president stated free speech is vital on college campuses and all speech and protest must be judged within the context it is made. Congress was offended by the failure to unequivocally prohibit the hypothetical call for Jewish genocide without regard to the circumstances and context in which such hypothetical speech might be uttered.
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution seeks to guarantee all the rights set forth in the Constitution:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Our Founders knew Free Speech is essential to preserving all of our rights. As former slave Frederick Douglass stated:
“Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist.”
And to paraphrase my fellow columnist, Benjamin Franklin, who published Poor Richard’s Almanac, freedom of speech is the freedom that secures all the others. Of course, Franklin was concerned as an individual citizen, a working member of the press and an influential Founding Father.
Congresspersons who set themselves up as the arbiters of speech and assembly at private universities may see themselves as protecting students from hateful speech and protests. But it is the core mission of our colleges and universities to provide forums where differing views of important issues may be aired and debated. Students go on to be future presidents of other colleges or even of the United States. They will become members of the Supreme Court and Congress and will serve throughout our nation on school boards and in local, state and federal government. It is imperative that they learn to challenge the status quo and themselves. A good starting point is the First Amendment.