Human Costs of Guns and Wars

I grew up with about every type of gun except automatic weapons -- BB gun, 22 rifle, 30 caliber rifle, 4-10 shotgun, and a 38 revolver that had allegedly been used in a murder (so the policeman told my father to whom he gave it -- kept in a safe). The upshot was that I became a pretty good shot (it was WW2 then and I was eager to serve as did two of my uncles). I was eventually turned off guns by a dear English nurse who had become the guardian of a good friend and his two sisters when their parents were killed. Cainie one day pointed out to me that the small bird that I had just killed might have been the mother of little ones now orphaned. And another happening made me vividly aware of the hazards of guns. Bill, my friend, had managed to persuade Cainie that he should have a shotgun. Finally she yielded. One day Bill jokingly pretended he was going to shoot a sister. He had pried the buckshot out of a shell in the gun. At the last moment he aimed at the ceiling and fired -- where a large hole appeared. He had removed only 1 of 2 layers of buckshot. Adlai Stevenson, Democratic Presidential candidate versus Eisenhower, killed a playmate with an 'unloaded' gun.

What the gun nuts do not realize is that the vast majority of people killed by guns in this country are suicides and accident victims -- often kids.

A word about my WW2 uncles. One joined the army and, during the pursuit of the Nazis up the Italian peninsula, was in a tent with his buddies hit by a German shell. Only he survived. The other uncle with a bad back joined the Merchant Marines and went through the hell of pursuit by German subs trip after trip. The worst event was his ship ramming an ammunition ship in a major ammunition unloading waterfront area. Fortunately they hit the crews' quarters and did not blow the city to hell. Both uncles had enlisted from high school. Neither returned to finish. All five of their sisters obtained college and some professional degrees. Both lived lives stunted by alcohol. Possibly the one in the tent suffered brain damage such as we now recognize.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Torture, but . . . !!!

As important as it is to root out torture once and for all, the U.S. now faces far more serious threats: a North Korean invasion of South Korea, a breakdown of Pakistan and loss of control of its weapons, a Swine flu pandemic, an Israeli attack on Iran, and a global economic disaster as a consequence of any of the above?!

I would hate to be Obama facing all of the these.

Comments?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Quality of Relationships -- NOT Genders

A number of years ago one of my distinguished wider philosophy colleagues, Tom Nagel (NYU University Professor), did an article in which he made the obvious, but all too often lost, point that it is the quality of human relationships (respect for persons), not genders, that makes us decent humans.

I have been joyfully married for more than a half century, but my oldest and dearest friend (now deceased) was Dan Huden. We met at a summer camp as kids, spent a number of summers on jobs together in our early years until our academic careers separated us, looked forward to carrying on our conversations in retirement -- unfortunately he died too soon for that.

Again my wife and I have more gay friends and neighbors than we can readily count -- or even think of as different from our other friends and neighbors. Some are happy and decent people. Some are not.

Still again the latest stats indicate that only a minority of adult Americans live in standard marriages. What could be more reasonable than people living alone joining up with a good friend of whatever gender? Some time back I was a member of a faculty seminar. Some of us were married and some not. Others had been married and had had children, but now shared life with people of the same gender.

As it took us a time to end off the miscegenation laws, so I hope soon whatever-gender marriages will be universally legalized. As one who has studied both theology and philosophy, I am aware, as most are not, that anti-gay biases were spawned by cultures (particularly the ancient Hebrews) who were threatened by the Hellenic tolerance for gay relationships (Socrates and all that). St. Paul unfortunately co-oped the Gospels of Jesus with his convert's hatreds -- anti-Semitic, anti-gay, anti-young widows, etc. See particularly his vicious Letter to the Romans on such topics. Unfortunately our theological illiterates have become Paulines rather than Christians.

And so it then went. But it's time discard such cultural trash!
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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American Psychological Assn Crap on Torture

The APA leadership declined to take a stand against torture until their members rebelled. We now know that an outfit hired to toughen our soldiers, Mitchell Jessen & Associates, was also promoting using its tactics to teach torture -- one of its trustees had been chair of the APA.

The real nonsense here is that the tactics used by friends to toughen one up are vastly different in effect if used by enemies threatening one's death, going over the line with pain, violating one's cultural norms (e.g. nakedness which is a disgrace for Muslims and standard phys ed shower stuff for Americans).

I was there in a small way. Grad students in my day always needed money and were used as subjects in all sorts of pain and mental disruption experiments. I was a simulated space shot guy for 48 hours -- deafened, blinded, strapped in, subject to a variety of pain tests, e.g. a gadget that boiled water on a patch of my arm. It didn't bother me except that it harmed my hearing for life -- those psychologist observers did not know what they were doing or did not care. A number of the guys came screaming out with wires dangling and, thus, lost pay (one dollar an hour). Another grad student that summer told of the LSD things that the C.I.A. did to his group to extract information -- some went psychotic and may have stayed that way.

So no more bull on torture please, Mr. Cheney.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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American Obsession with Punishment

The U.S. now holds about 1/4 of those in prison world-wide. All too often when a bad event happens here, the first question asked is whom shall we punish?

Today's horror of the disclosure of the authorization of brutal torture by the Bush administration -- from Bush on down -- has raised this question of punishment in many quarters. When these guys were caught out at Abu Graib, their solution was to punish those down at the bottom of the ladder, presumably as cover for their own guilt. Cheney is now mounting an aggressive self-defense as the one presumably at the center of such things. Any prosecution would have him claim 'politics'.

I do not envy Obama with far weightier things at hand, e.g. the threats of a war between Israel and Iran or an attack on by the North on South Korea with its 1 and 1/2 million troops at the border and its nuclear capacity.

Prosecuting the high level guilty would create mayhem here in all ways -- and with our frail economy.

So which way to go? Comments?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Unforgetable Moments - Good and Bad

When one retires, one has time to recollect moments that will forever be engraved in one's memory. Some of mine:

One of the earlier ones was of Bert, an elderly African American who lived in a shack between the rows of houses built later on streets surrounding it. He was a kindly man who would gently tell me not to tease my dog (I was about 4 at the time) and bandaged his leg when it got cut on a broken milk bottle. One time he was digging in his garden and brought up some worms. He told me they were good eating and sent me home with some to tease my mom.

What a wonderful lesson in tolerance for a little white boy!

*********************************

Another similar happening occurred in northern Vermont at our cottage. An elderly native American used to circle our lake in his birch bark canoe with handicrafts to sell. I think he came down from Canada. One day, as he was leaving he noticed my interest in his canoe and invited me to hop into it -- one had to step only on the ribs to avoid breaking through the thin bark. He taught me how to locate myself properly (kneeling on the bottom rather than sitting on a seat which makes a canoe unstable and how to paddle properly in the face of wind.

Never again did I proclaim the slogan of the day ("The only good Indian is a dead Indian"). And went I on to teach other kids how to handle a canoe properly as a camp counselor.

**********************************

I was startled to see the flames racing up the inside of the Barnum and Bailey circus tent on July 6, l944. I was fortunate to escape. It was a hot day and by chance, just before the fire broke out, I had pondered that it would be difficult to get out an entrance should there be a fire. I noticed that there was a break behind us where wall met the roof of the tent with ropes hanging outside. So when the fire broke out, I grabbed my pal, David, and we both raced UP the stairs and slid down a rope to safety. I did not even drop the box with the little chameleon that I had purchased. David and I were separated outside and a neighbor spotted me and walked me back to Hartford and home. David stayed and and saw the horrors of more than 100 horribly killed. Notlong afterwards David was committed to the state mental hospital where he remained in a catatonic state.

What can one say?

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A Life Magazine graphically showed the emaciated bodies of Jews rescued from one of the death camps. I have despised anti-Semitism (and comparable racist brutalities) ever since, although I am a critic of Israeli abuses of the Palestinians.

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At about four I developed what was diagnosed as rheumatic fever. I was not permitted to walk and, as my mother was very pregnant with my brother, an English nurse would care for me nurse and carry me out to a cot in our apple orchard where she taught me to read and count beyond 100 and read me endless stories.

I learned how kind and caring a person can be.

**********************************

A few years later I used these skills in the 3 years of classes with Miss Loretti/Mrs. Batista (who married mid way). My telling event occurred one day when my mother, sick of having to urge me to hurry up mornings, let me meander myself into being late to school -- a major crime in those days. I told Miss Loretti that my mother had been busy that morning. To my horror that noon my mother, who used occasionally to pick me up for lunch, also offered Miss Loretti a ride. To my horror the truth came out as I cringed in the back seat.

What a marvelous way to learn that lying is not the way to go.

**********************************

There are, of course, many great moments (such as the day of my marriage in 1957) and sad ones, too.

Our Torturers - Bush on Down

I happened to hear this report by Ami Goodman last night:

* The Story of Mitchell Jessen & Associates: How a Team of Psychologists in Spokane, WA, Helped Develop the CIA's Torture Techniques *

We broadcast from Spokane, Washington, less than three miles from the headquarters of a secretive CIA contractor that played a key role in developing the Bush administration's interrogation methods. The firm, Mitchell Jessen & Associates, is named after the two military psychologists who founded the company, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. Beginning in 2002, the CIA hired the psychologists to train interrogators in brutal techniques, including waterboarding, sleep deprivation and pain. We speak with three journalists who have closely followed the story.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/21/the_story_of_mitchell_jessen_associates

................................

and today's New York Times Lead story completes this grim tale of torture authorized by Bush on down ("In Adopting Harsh Tactics, No Inquiry Into Past Use."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/us/politics/22detain.html?_r=1&ref=us

It looks as though the fat is in the fire and one wonders where we shall be going from here. I am relieved that the truth is out. I am not a retributivist, but at the very least this shameful truth must be told.

Ed Kent
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Israeli Attack on Iran?

The London Times reports an imminent attack by Israel on Iran:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1079092.html

Such would be a disaster -- with ramifications both immediate and for decades to come. The air route to Iran for Israel is over Iraq -- in the face of U.S. airpower there. Can Obama deter this madness? What a job he has on all fronts!

Comments?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Feelings

I was having a pleasant chat with my brother this afternoon -- he is a brilliant scientist now retired. Our political views are more or less polar opposites which shows independence of mind, but makes political talk a bit hazardous. Our 'little' sister tiptoes around us with such subjects.

It is fascinating to see that intelligent people can end up with such opposed views -- my scientist brother mentioned that he had been reading a book that maintains that global warming is a recurrent event and not caused by human activities. We both care about people, but differ in our notions about what governments should do for them. Our views on European socialism -- vastly different info and evaluations.

About that point in our conversation I figured that I better get on with some blogs that have been delayed -- the hazards of aging. I have pressure on a spinal nerve that messes up my left hand for typing -- but I should have no excuse for typos, as I can see them post eye surgery last month.

I wonder how many other families have such political differences and how they handle them? There are so many pressures on people. We had a visit today from a homeless one who drops by every few months. It is a sad case. She mainly seeks shelter at the residences of Catholic priests who had her jailed one time. We and many others have tried to get her off the streets -- but she is one of the angry ones and institutions can't help her. Having been a teacher for many decades, I know of too many such cases. They are heart-breaking.

And so it goes.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Highways Versus Rails -- and Wars

One of the several vast mistakes that Dwight Eisenhower (a man who meant well) made during his presidency was to launch a system of national highways rather than expanding our rail systems (as the Europeans were doing). The trucking industry in those ways had more political clout than the railroad companies. The costs have been and still are immense. The states are obliged to maintain the highways. It is the large trucks that destroy them. Rails use electricity which can be garnered from the cheapest and least polluting sources, e.g. hydro power.

Now Obama has returned us to transportation sanity - high speed rails -- more than a half century later. I am continuously amazed at the depth and range of Obama's knowledge.

As to Eisenhower's other major gaff -- he should never have allowed the C.I.A. to destroy Iran's democracy -- headed by Mossadeq -- to retain our dominance over its oil and bring in the brutal Shah who tyrannized over the Iranians (while being on 'our' side against the Soviets) until the Iranian revolution drove him out in 1979. This brutal fact is presumably known by every Iranian child and never mentioned by our media or pols.

Good things Eisenhower did -- ended the Korean war and tried to keep us out of a Vietnam one. He knew the costs of war and tried to warn us against the "military industrial complex" during his last weeks in office.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Gay Rights at Last?

I guess the fulfillment of human rights must follow certain paths -- establishment of a just government followed by the implementation of specific rights to all sub groups in a particular society. During my lifetime I have watched successive groups making their way past oppressive barriers. Jews had to open the doors to both prestige colleges and communities where restrictive covenants built into local deeds barred them from buying restricted properties. African Americans and some other recent immigrant arrivals are still struggling for just treatment of all -- check out our imprisonment stats.

One of the big breakthroughs for African Americans (and some others) was the Loving v. Virginia case of 1967 which legalized marriages against the bar of miscegenation laws:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia

The recent decisions of Iowa and Vermont to legalize gay marriages seems to follow the Loving pattern. What now is needed is a national judgment settling the issue for all. It may take some time with our primitive religious bigotries riding high in some communities, but hopefully the day of justice will come. Many if not most of us have gay friends and some of our most talented and productive people are among them.

I recall a friend pointing out early in the civil rights era that those of us who cared for justice should speak out -- loudly or quietly if one prefers. But let's start tracking down our pols at least and make them justify their bigotries, if that's where they still are.

Loving, of course, was an apt name for that classic case. Perhaps some appropriate words and thoughts can be achieved with gay rights, too.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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