Tuesday,
September 3, 2013
A
50th to celebrate. Not to lessen the
importance of my sister's 50th wedding anniversary, but
the March on Washington, August 28, 1963, was a momentous event, the
beginning of so much that we now take for granted. Nevertheless,
Michael Fletcher's August 27th story in the Washington
Post, pointed out some unpleasant facts:
Even
as racial barriers have tumbled and the nation has grown wealthier
and better educated, the economic disparities separating blacks and
whites remain as wide as they were when marchers
assembled on the Mall in 1963.
When it comes to household income and wealth, the gaps between
blacks and whites have widened. On other measures, the gaps are
roughly the same as they were four decades ago. The poverty rate for
blacks, for instance, continues to be about three times that of
whites.
There
are “Miles to go before [we] sleep.”
William
Darity, Jr., of Duke University continues, “Certainly,
poverty has declined for everybody, but it has declined in a way that
the proportion of blacks to whites who are poor is about the same as
it was 50 years ago.” And, as if he were looking into a very clear
crystal ball in 1963, A. Philip Randolph, the March's visionary,
said, “Yes, we want a Fair Employment Practice Act, but what good
will it do if profit-geared automation destroys the jobs of millions
of workers, black and white?” [emphasis added] The
problems of “globalization” was not yet on the horizon.
A
typical work week? According to the August 28th
Politico, Congress has a very full plate between now and
December 31st. Especially, when one considers the
congressional work week: 9 days in September, 14 days in October, in
total, less than 40 working-days prior to the end of the year. This
certainly appears to show American voters whose interests are being
served first and, conversely, whose ox is being gored.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/immigration-reform-95980.html
The
Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T. E. Lawrence...
I've often wanted to tackle Lawrence's “history” of his
involvement with the Arabs and their WW I effort to dislodge the
Ottoman empire from this area and help the overall English war
effort. Having read the introduction and first chapter, I have
concluded this will not be an “easy read,” no ordinary wartime
conflict book. I learned, for example, that virtually the entire
manuscript was lost after the war when Lawrence was changing trains
in Reading, England, and that portions were rewritten yet a third
time. Stay tuned.
Syria,
chemical weapons (CW), and weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Deferred until next week given the president's decision to ask for
congressional approval.
Secrecy
and security. In an increasingly, instantly transparent world,
what are a nation's real secrets and to what end are they kept? In
last Friday's column, David Ignatius quoted John Maguire: “Secrecy,
compartmentation and over-classification today are used to conceal
malfeasance, systemic corruption and intelligence shortfalls.”
Maguire is a career CIA operations officer who retired several years
ago.
At
week's end, Labor Day, 2014.
The
holiday began in 1894 and was created by the workers themselves. It
proved to be a force for unionization in America.
The traditional holiday ending the summer is much changed. For
those not among the “1 %-ers”, the long-ago words of President
Lincoln probably ring more than a bit hollow, though CEOs and bankers
taking advantage of the revolving door between banking to government
service might want to take note.
"Labor
is prior to and independent of capital," Abe declared in his
first state of the union address. "Capital is only the fruit of
labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.
Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher
consideration."
Looking
back, today's workers might remember the words from two songs long
favored in earlier laborers' taverns. “Those were the days my
friend, we thought they'd never end...” Also, “Say,
don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time. Say,
don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?”
(The
first is often
credited to Gene Haskin, but he merely put English lyrics to a much
earlier Russian romance song. The second, which became something of
an anthem during the Great Depression, is by Yip Harburg.)
Recall,
anyone?
Recall election, that is. Sunday's “Perspective Section” in
the Denver
Post
featured point-counter point essays. The pro-point of view was
written by the chairman of Colorado's Republican party; the anti-
side was submitted by the state's Democratic party chairman. For the
first time in CO history, state legislators are facing recalls over
their votes in favor of gun control legislation. (Recalls for other
elected officials have occurred.) As you might imagine, these two
particular recalls are attracting national attention and outside
money, including a $350,000 donation from a pro-gun control advocate,
NYC mayor, Michael Bloomberg. Since neither legislator represents
me, I will not be voting, but, as they say, full disclosure requires
that I note I do favor citizen recalls in general and I would have
voted in favor of the gun control measures in question.
The respective
links:
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