For this week: a 21st century man without a county; teenager in charge; CO visitors; monuments; "whataboutism;" Barcelona, Barcelona, and Phoenix.

Kurt Vonnegut and Julian Assange. First there was Vonnegut's book (Man Without a Country); now Raffi Khatchadourian writes in the New Yorker about his multiple interviews with Mr. Assange who is now "holed up" (since June 2012) in the Ecuadorian embassy in London's posh Knightsbridge neighborhood. Assange is the "keeper," a complex man, one with many secrets, but no country. Assange remains an enigma who provokes diverse comments.

Teenage behavior. "You don't like me, so I'm taking my ball and going home." After numerous prominent members of two presidential business advisory councils criticized the president and resigned, President Trump simply disbanded both councils, "rather than putting [further] pressure on the business people" that made up those groups. Yes, of course!

FL "flatlanders" in CO.  My niece and her mountain bike-riding husband live in FL and just spent ten days in the Rockies. It is always refreshing to be reminded by "youngsters" about the beauty of our state. After Carlos competed in the infamously brutal Leadville 100 mountain bike race (9 hours, 28 minutes), they  climbed their first "Fourteener" (Grays Peak, 14,278 feet), rode RTVs in the Gore Range, and whitewater rafted on the Arkansas River. Like many other visitors, they will be back.

Robert E. Lee, et. al. Last week's horrid news from Charlottesville, reminds us yet again that our nation's history is profoundly complex, both uplifting and troubling. Lee's statue (and those of other famous Confederates in various locations) may be the least vexing. Startlingly, there is a little known (until now) Confederate memorial in a not-often visited back corner of the "hallowed ground" at Arlington National Cemetery. There are also Confederate dead buried here.
     It may be news to some Americans that our most famous national cemetery, final resting place of the Tomb of the Unknowns, JFK, RFK, and other famous Americans, is actually on the grounds of Robert E. Lee's confiscated, ancestral home; in fact, the house still stands atop the hill in Arlington. During the Civil War, more and more Union dead were purposely buried on Lee's land, a "thumb-in-the-eye," so to speak, to the Confederacy.
     In a column, "America's Second Civil War," conservative columnist Patrick Buchanan asks, in effect, why, two years ago, did VA's Democratic governor Terry McAullife say statues of Lee and Stonewall Jackson are "parts of our heritage," yet after Charlottesville declare them "flashpoints for hatred, division, and violence." Buchanan goes on to note that Lee statues are one thing, what of alleyways, streets, boulevards, highways, even interstate segments named for Lee and numerous other Confederate notables?

What about this or that? In Saturday's (8/19) Washington Post, Dan Zak wrote a column with the online title of "Whataboutism: The Cold War tactic, thawed by Putin, is brandished by Donald Trump." He wrote, "We’ve gotten very good at what-abouting. The president has led the way [using] a durable old Soviet propaganda tactic... [T]he practice of short-circuiting an argument by asserting moral equivalency between two things that aren’t necessarily comparable." The president ruminated about the removal of General Lee, a slave owner; would that lead to the removal of statues of Washington and Jefferson, Founding Fathers and slave owners?

Barcelona, Charlottesville, Phoenix. The city leaders in Phoenix are concerned that a Trump rally tentatively scheduled for sometime the week of 9-21 through 9-26 might turn violent. There is even a FoxNews report that the president might take this opportunity to pardon ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio, "found guilty two weeks ago of criminal contempt for defying a state judge’s order to stop traffic patrols targeting suspected undocumented immigrants."
     Representative Ruben Gallego (D, AZ, district includes downtown Phoenix) said, “I absolutely think it’s inappropriate to be holding a political rally a few days after an innocent woman was mowed down by a neo-Nazi [in Charlotesville]...It’s throwing tinder onto an ongoing fire" The story continued, Gallegos's "words echoed those of Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton (D), who earlier this week made an extraordinary request for Trump to stay away out of fear that the president’s appearance would “enflame (sic) emotions” and draw violent agitators from outside the state’s borders.
     During the height of the anti-Vietnam era, appearances by then-President Nixon was similarly dimly viewed by many US mayors; at best, he was an uncomfortable, unwelcome guest. US Senator Tim Scott (R, SC), the only African American Republican in the Senate, is rapidly becoming the voice of reason for his party, whose leaders seem to have been struck deaf and dumb in the wake of Charlottesville. Senator Scott suggested that the president sit down with Representative John Lewis (D,GA) and other Civil Rights leaders. The problem, of course, is that the president has to be #1 and meeting with universally respected leaders who might outshine him would be anathema.   

Thank you for reading.