This week's topics endeavor to turn away from the unabashed partisan politics of Washington. The Optimist; the Czech presidency; growth and Amazon; gentrification and school financing; change in MT; crisis in southern Italy; Denver's South High School; 2nd Amendment; States' Rights; "old" vs "new" China; reading non-fiction.

The Optimist, 28 January. This week's heartwarming stories. An Alzheimer's proposal; a different reading club; a new use for fish skin; baseball in Puerto Rico; sharecroppers to homeowners; and more.

Czech republic. Is the current president and leading candidate for re-election up to the task? The question here, in this centrally located EU country, is one of physical health of President Zeman. Like our own president, Zeman is far from beloved: seen to be physically failing, a bit foul mouthed, too close to the Kremlin, setting a bad example with his unabashed smoking and drinking, too anti-Muslim; just a bit too many toos? His large margin of victory in the 27 January runoff says, "apparently not."

Amazon. Metro Denver is among the 20 municipalities on Amazon's short (?) list for a second headquarters operation. Good news? Governor Hickenlooper was candidly of two minds. Given Denver's growing shortage of affordable housing and mounting traffic congestion was the prospect of 50,000 relatively high paying jobs, perhaps, too large a prize? That plus an undercurrent of feeling about how much would be too much in the give-away Amazon might seek in incentives, i.e. cheap land, lowered taxes, etc.

Gentrification and charter schools. As noted in the Amazon entry, affordable housing is a problem in the metro area. One area not often mentioned is the effect on schools, as this Denver Post article notes. It is increasingly likely that the questions about school financing will more to the 'burbs.

A first in Montana.  Wilot Collins is the newly elected mayor in Helena, the first African American to lead a Big Sky city. He defeated a 4-term Anglo incumbent by 338 votes, garnering 51.8% of the vote. Collins, an immigrant from Liberia, quickly joined the MT National Guard and will retire later this year; his daughter is on active duty with the USN. However, with a Facebook page filled with racist messages from people (some/all Montanans ?) he does not know, Collin's term will be interesting, to say the least.
     The author concluded, "It is worth wondering how the toxic tenor of national political debates might change if more of us practiced forbearance and gratitude. What would happen if, in the words of Montana’s first African-American mayor, we opened our arms to one another and said, 'I am here to listen?' "

Immigration to southern Italy. This book review of Tears of Salt looks at the crisis caused as immigrants fled northern Africa across the Mediterranean. Pietro Bartolo, an Italian MD living on Italy's southernmost island, has had a front row seat as this grim migration unfolded.

Denver South High School. Kudos to students and faulty at South. This Christian Science Monitor book review of The Newcomers is about a high school ESL program. Full disclosure: The author, Helen Thorpe, is the ex-wife of CO's current governor, John Hickenlooper.

Second Amendment. This book review from the Christian Science Monitor investigates, yet again, the "true" meaning of this controversial, one sentence-long  part of the Bill of Rights. " 'A fraud on the American public.' That’s how former Chief Justice Warren Burger described the idea that the Second Amendment gives an unfettered individual right to a gun. When he spoke these words to PBS in 1990, the rock-ribbed conservative appointed by Richard Nixon was expressing the longtime consensus of historians and judges across the political spectrum."
     The history of the NRA has been tumultuous. The NRA was founded by a group of Union officers after the Civil War who, perturbed by their troops’ poor marksmanship, wanted a way to sponsor shooting training and competitions. The group testified in support of the first federal gun law in 1934, which cracked down on the machine guns beloved by Bonnie and Clyde and other bank robbers. When a lawmaker asked whether the proposal violated the Constitution, the NRA witness responded, “I have not given it any study from that point of view.” The group lobbied quietly against the most stringent regulations, but its principal focus was hunting and sportsmanship: bagging deer, not blocking laws....Cut to 1977. Gun-group veterans still call the NRA’s annual meeting that year the “Revolt at Cincinnati.” After the organization’s leadership had decided to move its headquarters to Colorado, signaling a retreat from politics, more than a thousand angry rebels showed up at the annual convention. By four in the morning, the dissenters had voted out the organization’s leadership. Activists from the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms pushed their way into power. 

States' Rights. This term is normally thought of in conjunction with human right's issues. Now, however, with CA having become the ninth jurisdiction (8 states, plus D.C.) to have legalized recreational marijuana, the term has a new meaning: the mounting tension between these states and the federal government which continues to list marijuana as a schedule 1 regulated (prohibited) substance. Marijuana-related businesses find themselves in a legal limbo, e.g. they have no legal right to use a federally or chartered bank and moving marijuana or related products (i.e. cookies, candy, oils, etc) across a state line is illegal. The current US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, pushes ahead with plans to prosecute marijuana-related businesses.

Old vs New China. This report by Ann Scott Tyson takes the reader on a tour of present day China with Ms. Scott, a reporter (and Chinese speaker) who first visited as a cub reporter in November 1983. Her insights are well worth the read. She says, "By the time I left in 1992, China was a second home. I spoke and often dreamed in Chinese. In many respects, I knew China better than I did my own country." On this most recent trip, she was visiting her son, who now lives and works in Shanghai.

Reading, non-fiction. The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, Daniel Ellsberg. In today's uncertain world, one with a nuclear-armed North Korea and a US president not prone to long term thinking/planning, Ellsberg's revelations about the uncertainties of nuclear war planning/execution in the Cold War era are, once again, bone chilling. For any readers familiar with Herman Kahn's seminal Rand Corporation work, On Thermonuclear War, Ellsberg's revelations will be even more enlightening.
     Ellsberg is, of course, better known -- then and now -- for his role in the publishing of the Pentagon Papers. This being the 50th anniversary, the "Papers" are again in the news. This New Yorker story concerns some little known facts about the case, i.e. those who helped him, but have remained in the shadows. The "Papers" are the subject of the Academy Award-nominated film, "The Post," for which Meryl Streep has also been nominated as Best Actress.

Thank you for reading. 

We resume after a skiing interlude with relatives from Sweden. This week's topics: the Optimist; shut down; the president's appeal; opioids on the reservation; presidential racism; clutter; corruption, papal style; immigration.

Optimist for the past several week. Uplifting stories, including a delightful story about a very knowledgeable, dedicated 14 year-old girl, a MD high school student, who works with NASA and has developed programs to study the effect of climate change on mangroves along the world's coastlines. And more feel good stories from the 21 Jan issue. including a school going delirious because "We've got lights!" And a 4th grader on MLK, Jr.

Shut Down. Against all commonsense, it happened: a government shut down. Those involved, Democrats and Republicans alike, voiced righteous indignation and proclaimed the other side to be totally at fault. Nevertheless, there is an large element of "I'm taking my toys and going home," the middle school playground mentality on display. Me thinks, the worry is less about today, but rather about Tuesday, November 6, 2018. How many of members of the House and Senate may have to go out on November 7th and find a "real job?" Too many in the Capitol could not in good conscience subscribe to the memo line on AZ Senator Flakes' recent check: "Country before party."
     One "lady-on-the-steeet" interviewee said, "I'd say [congress] is acting like adolescents, but that would be insulting to adolescents."
     Many historians point to a specific date in 476 AD [CE, if you prefer] when Rome "fell." Our date may be uncertain, but there can be little doubt that the American Empire is headed downhill, led by those in Washington.

Trump's enduring appeal. Perhaps this article from the Christian Science Monitor explains as well as any why voters continue to proclaim themselves Trump supporters. Those in Inez, KY, are not alone in this regard; every state has similar cities, towns, and villages that hold to DJT regardless of what he says/does.

Opioids in Indian country. Last year the Cherokee Nation filed suit against Big Pharma in their tribal courts. These "white" companies were understandably opposed of appearing in those "foreign" courts, where, Lordy, they might be treated as second class citizens. Last week a federal judge ruled that if the case is to go forward, it would apparently be in federal court.
     The story notes, "If tribes truly are sovereign nations with the legal authority to protect their people, last week’s decision in the Cherokee Nation case was certainly a significant setback. If any company moved operations into another country and allegedly broke the law, there’s little doubt it would face that country’s legal system. However, in Indian Country, at least when it comes to the opioid epidemic and widespread sexual assault, that does not seem to be the case."

Presidential racism. George Will's recent column ("Who's worthy of immigrating here?) reminds us that presidential pronouncements on immigration have been with us since the beginning -- most of which would today be shouted down as racist.
    James Madison (Will says he the first): “It is no doubt very desirable that we should hold out as many inducements as possible for the worthy part of mankind to come and settle amongst us.”
    Thomas Jefferson: Who worried that too many immigrants might be coming from Europe with monarchical principles “imbibed in their early youth,” ideas that might turn America into “a heterogeneous, incoherent, distracted mass.”
    TR:  Who worried that America would become a “polyglot boarding house,”[and] supported America’s first significant legislation restricting immigration, passed to exclude Chinese people, because he believed Chinese laborers would depress U.S. wages and be 'ruinous to the white race.' ”
    Woodrow Wilson: The president of Princeton, later the occupant of the Oval Office, contrasted “the sturdy stocks of the north of Europe” — e.g., Norwegians — with southern and eastern Europeans who had 'neither skill nor energy nor any initiative of quick intelligence.' ”

Clutter. Feeling buried? One Optimist story tackles the problem, as do a myriad of other de-cluttering books on the topic. One of the more imaginative titles is “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning,” by Margareta Magnusson.  When one reads about the depressingly huge number of families made instantly homeless due to recent fire, floods, and mudslides, you cannot help but think: what would I put in my new place. "When the storm passed, [one fortunate family] drove back and found only minor damage. But the experience left [the homeowner] with an urge to purge."
     Similarly, when every vacant corner lot seems to be sprouting yet another "storage locker" business, you cannot help but wonder: to store what, for whom, for how long? Whose locker will be seen on next week's "Storage War" program?

Corruption,  here and there. The Pope's current visit to the not-always-faithful in Latin America has had its ups and downs. When he inveighed against political corruption, one had to wonder about the clerical pot calling the secular kettle black. Problems with the Church's toleration of sexual abuse was just one of the issues that caused the very uncommon booing of Christ's Vicar in Chile.

Immigration, still. One major issue a the heart of the current shutdown standoff is what to do about the so-called Dreamers. Columnist Eugene Robinson writes that the president is being "used" by those around him. He writes, "Trump has always wanted to preside, not actually lead; and whenever he strays into the weeds of policy, he gets hopelessly lost." The recent supposedly bipartisan meeting in which the President said "Yes," only to be not so gently reigned in by a contrary-leaning senator, illustrated Robinson's point. Then, leaving aside the supposed concern about new immigrants from questionable countries, the US is not about to become suddenly "whiter" were immigration to be totally shut off. Census statistics tell us that white Caucasians have lower birth rates than any other group of Americans, steadily "losing ground."

Thank you for reading. Watch your local PBS lineups for this coming month's programs during African American history month.

The items for the first blog of 2018: Optimist, 31 December; the royal interview; an educated America?; full circle on Korea; who's old?;

The Optimist. 17 good stories from 2017. 

Prince Harry and Barack. It was far from your usual situation. A sit-down, back-and-forth, mutual interview between a prince (Harry) and a former president (Barack Obama) on Today, the BBC's Radio 4's flagship program. As noted by The Hill and NY Times and the Guardian. Who you are/were puts you in the spotlight and people take note.
     One of  their shared concerns seemed to be an “ 'obsession' in empowering a new generation of young civic leaders worldwide." A group, of which Obama said: “This generation is the most sophisticated, the most tolerant in many ways, the most embracing of diversity, the most tech-savvy, the most entrepreneurial, but they do not have much faith in existing institutions.” To which one can rightfully say "Amen," especially looking at the aging (disconnected?) leaders of America's Democratic and Republican parties. Of the top 4 congressional leaders only one, House Speaker, Paul Ryan (R) is less than 50 (at 47); the others, McConnell (R), 75; Pelosi (D) 77; Schumer (D) 67.

Colleges as whipping boys. Catherine Rampbell writes about "Why do so many Republicans hate college?" Does a Republican prove her/his conservative bonafides by repeatedly cutting their state's funding for colleges? She notes that "[AZ] Attorney General Mark Brnovich recently sued the board of regents of Arizona’s public universities, which under state law is technically his client. Brnovich complains that tuition is too high to meet the state’s constitutional requirement that colleges be 'as nearly free as possible.' The suit unfortunately leaves out the fact that Arizona has cut state funding per student by 41 percent  since 2008, second only to Louisiana [down 43%] in higher-ed disinvestment." If President Trump truly wants to make America great again, he will have to have a long, undoubtedly contentious, sit down with state legislators.

Korea, again. Last Saturday, Colbert King,  Washington Post columnist wrote about visiting his local D.C. library in 1949 and its role in awakening his understanding of the world beyond. He quoted a fellow 4th grader about the sheer joy of the place. He also remembered that when he visited in 1949, America was in that too brief interlude between wars. They remembered WW II and were soon to reading about Korea. He notes sadly that Korea is once again in the news, even more sinister this second time around.
     I, too, remember June 25, 1950, when North Korea invaded the South. I was "at work" with my father at the local newspaper. The morning edition's headline announced that the Korean War had begun. My did and I delivered newspapers together. How could a war have begun without my knowing that trouble was brewing? That morning I became a student of history.

Old, really? Stanford professor Laura L. Carstensen writes presciently about how the old are referred to.
     "As long as we are healthy and engaged in life — as most people in their 60s, 70s and older are — we don’t view ourselves as old. But by using 'they' rather than 'we' in our minds and our conversations, we keep an entire stage of life at arm’s length. By failing to identify with “old,” the story about old people remains a dreary one about loss and decline...Language matters: We need a term that aging people can embrace."
     In the 1970s, Maggie Kuhn, co-founder of the Gray Panthers, hinted that she's been incorrectly introduced. She said, “Two things: I am not young, and I’m no lady. I am an old woman. And the fact that you cannot call me what I am without insulting me illustrates the depth of the problem we face.” 

      Does "old" work for you?

Thank you for reading. I hope your New Year begins well.