Sunday, January 31, 2010

Premonitions?

I don't believe in ESP, but I do take strong intuitions seriously. They are not always correct, but I suspect that they disclose things that we have either forgotten or not noticed consciously, e.g. body language of someone who speaks otherwise.

I recall 3 life and death premonitions from my childhood.

The first when I must have been about 6 or 7 occurred one night when my father was driving up one of those long uphill roads that one had to travel in Vermont before the super highways arrived. I was sleeping at his side and suddenly awoke and told him that he must pull off the road. He laughed at me at first, but finally yielded to my desperate appeal. Just as he did so, a huge truck came racing down the hill from around a curve on our side of the road. We would have been demolished, had I not acted -- perhaps the echo of a dream?

The second occurred when we were leaving Hanover, NH where we would visit my mother's family on Christmas. As we were leaving my beloved grandfather was waving good-bye and I was suddenly overwhelmed with sadness that I would not see him again. He died of pneumonia a week later.

The last occurred on July 6, 1944. A couple of teenage girls had kindly taken me and my friend, David, to the circus that day. A few minutes after events started I suddenly had the thought -- what would I do in case of a fire? I figured that we could not make it to the exit through the crowd, but looked around and saw that they had left a gap between the side wall and roof of the tent where I could see ropes dangling down. About two minutes later we saw the flames racing up the inside of the tent near the entrance. I grabbed David and steered him back up the stairs to the gap where we slid to safety. More than 100 died that day:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartford_circus_fire

Website has picture.
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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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Saturday, January 30, 2010

Moving Trial from Manhattan?

I am not bothered by our moving the trial of the 9/11 plotters out of Manhattan. The city is already jammed with traffic and such a well publicized trial could offer the temptation to set off a bomb in the area -- not hard to do with all the delivery trucks cruising -- or on a subway! All of us who live in NYC are familiar with days when some major event blocks our moving about. Imagine many months of such in an already busy part of our city. And many of us still cringe at the sound of a low flying plane!

However, I am glad that we are turning away from the violations of law and morality introduced by the Bush administration's invention of a new category of criminal and treatment of same -- neither a conventional criminal, nor a war enemy. We have held many an innocent individual for indefinite periods at Guantanamo and elsewhere on the basis of bounties offered to people to turn in a 'terrorist'. Obviously many used this device to get rid of personal enemies or settle grudges having nothing to do with terror -- or simply to pull in big bucks.

One of our cities 60 miles up the Hudson -- Newburgh -- is already offering itself for the trial -- new court house, federal prison and airport nearby per its mayor. Or a military base could be used.

The main point here is that we must stop acting like a small dictatorship imprisoning its enemies, real or imagined, without due process. We want others to see us as a model for democracies everywhere. We had better be that!

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

U.S. Drops Plan for a 9/11 Trial in New York City
By SCOTT SHANE and BENJAMIN WEISER
The Obama administration bowed to almost unanimous pressure from officials and business leaders to move the trial of
the Sept. 11 plotters from Lower Manhattan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/nyregion/30trial.html?th&emc=th
--
"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 [blind copies]

Friday, January 29, 2010

Lack of Democracy in Public Housing -- and the U.S. genererally!

My wife and I lived happily in public housing for three years (430 W. 125th St. in lower West Harlem) when we were graduate students. We had been given the privilege of bypassing the waiting list by a program designed to desegregate our project (later discontinued because of this special preference).

The cost for residents was 30% of income which saved us on graduate fellowship monies. We were seen as aliens at first -- bill collectors, school truancy officials, whatever. In time, however, people got to know us and the project did my wife the honor of electing her to the NYC Democratic Committee.

While living there we were able to make a difference in several ways. The entrance doors were open, making our stairwells a shoot up location for addicts. We suggested locks for the doors which ended the problem when installed. The elevators for our 21 story building regularly went out of service Friday nights, leaving us with no elevators until Mondays. We got the repair number and our elevators were repaired in hours.

My basic point here was that we made respect for residents by management a basic right and expectation.

I have been increasingly horrified by the decline in that respect of which the article below is only the most recent instance.

All sorts of games are being played with residents. Mandatory hours of community service and such are demanded as though they owed society for its largess -- not the sort of thing required of corporation CEOs!

What particularly impressed us was the improvement in the lives of kids living in decent homes where they could do homework etc. without disruption.

I see this horrendous abuse as just one more example of the split in American culture -- vast wealth for a few versus the well-being of the rest of us!

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

Lack of Democracy in Public Housing

"The city's Housing Authority is violating federal regulations that ensure residents participation in policy making, according to this new report by Community Voices Heard. Among the worst violations are the agency's mismanagement of over $20 million in funds earmarked for resident participation activities and the demolishing of a Brooklyn development without holding a public hearing, the study says. It also finds that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is failing to provide the appropriate oversight to ensure that residents can meaningfully and democratically participate."

For the full report, visit http://news.gothamgazette.com/t?ctl=165A03B:DF7B9BA7F88D8CA473847EE6CC291D20E8B2AAF67EB281F0&
--
"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 [blind copies]

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Bargain Buying Moves Our Jobs Overseas

One of the major reasons that American jobs are in shorter supply is that more and more Americans are buying from our discount stores -- large chains such as Target, Kmart, Cosgo, Walmart and the smaller 99¢ ones. These in turn are buying their products from the cheapest possible sources -- which turn out to be overseas nations such as China, India, and others that pay their workers minimum wages and do not provide benefits -- health, retirement -- such as do many of our own producers and sales outlets.

We are in effect caught between the devil and the deep blue seas. Most of us with ever lower earnings or losses of jobs seek out the cheapest sources of supply. But the effect of our bargain hunting is to sabotage our national economy!

There are presumably ways to fix things -- but even some of these are risky. China is one of the major offenders, but imposing import taxes on their products could induce retaliation -- they also hold much of our national debt.

Obviously careful moves are essential in reducing the effects of the price wars afflicting us. I trust Obama as the smartest president perhaps that we have ever had to work towards resolving our job problems. Will our chaotic legislators work with him? I hope so. So far the Republicans have been the party of "NO!" -- attacking Obama rather than working in our interests.

This coming year may be most interesting -- such, ironically, is purported to be an old Chinese curse:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times
--
"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 [blind copies]

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The White Shoe Gang

During my first year of studies at Union Theological Seminary (1956-7), I spent two evenings a week working with a small group of kids (about a dozen) at the Manhattanville Community Center in lower West Harlem -- just down the street from the 26th Precinct police station.

It took a bit of time for us to get to know each other, as I was white and they were African Americans. Living conditions were rough for them in dangerous and deteriorating walkup tenements -- subsequently replaced by a variety of high rises. On one occasion I drove a social worker -- a Vassar grad -- to the home of two brothers. It immediately became clear that she was nuts -- as we passed each street corner she would point to some guy and proclaim, "He's a communist!" The home of the kids was pretty grim -- two rooms with cardboard in the windows of one rather than glass and six kids (with various fathers) who lived with the mother -- little kids sleeping with her in a double bed and others in a stuffed chair in the other room (the older ones would put the littler ones on the floor when they fell asleep so they could sleep in it). As we were leaving one of the kids shut the door on the social worker's coat and she began screaming -- that she would take all the children away from their mother. When I reported this event to my agency supervisor, he dismissed it. Several months later he told me that I had been right and that the woman had virtually destroyed 30 or so families.

Back to the kids -- nothing that I tried to get them interested in at first worked -- basketball, other activities. Finally one asked me, "Teach, can we do some cooking?" They were all hungry! Thereafter I would bring with me a large box of cake mix and we would make a wild assortment of cakes that would be eaten down to the last crumb.

I finally broke the ice one night by offering to take them all on when we had had an argument over something. That room had a padded floor and I wrestled them down as they came at me until they finally brought me down and had me pinned like Gulliver. We then broke into laughter and were friends from there on. One night I inadvertently used the common kids' slogan of my day when picking members of teams: "Enie meanie minie mo, catch a nigger by the toe. Out goes y o you." "TEACH!!!!" I apologized and was forgiven.

One day one of the kids asked me why I was wearing white tennis shoes -- "women's shoes?" I explained that they were tennis shoes that men wore, too. At the end of the weekend I was contacted by a police officer who said that he understood that I was in charge of the white shoe gang. On my next meeting all were wearing white sneakers -- needless to say not purchased.

All of the kids were afraid for their lives and, thus, armed -- usually with knives. At one point I persuaded them that they should leave them with me and showed them the bottom drawer of a bureau where I would store them. A few weeks later I discovered that they had returned to reclaim them.

These were good kids eager to learn. I once found a pair of twins holding down a little guy and threatening to burn him with a cigarette. I grabbed them and nearly knocked their heads together. I explained that big guys take care of little ones. The twins became the protection agency for all little kids in the center. One night they wanted to have a dance with girls. I knew none would come so invited my future wife and some of her Sarah Lawrence friends to fill in. They did and danced with the boys who treated them with full respect -- bringing them chairs, offering to get food, etc.

Unhappily I left them all behind the next year with marriage and a year at Oxford. I ran into several later who filled me in on what had happened to the rest. Two had made it. One had moved to Long Island and the other -- the most violent -- became a hero cop. One of the heroes of the kids, incidentally, was the sole African American policeman in the precinct and probably all of NYC at that time.

I ran into one of the twins who took me to visit his family. A little sister asked if X was going to wear his dress that night? His brother was doing 15 to 25 for armed robbery. He explained that he had become a male prostitute working the theater district. As I left him downstairs he said, "I hope you won't misunderstand this" and leaned over and kissed me on the cheek.
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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)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Tryon: NY's Notorious State Juvenile Prison

By chance I spent a number of my early years working with kids: camp counselor in the U.S., supervisor as a teen exchange student in a community center in the (poor) East End of London (Bethnal Green), and finally several evenings a week at the Manhattanville Community Center (no longer in existence) in lower West Harlem while a student at Union Theological Seminary.

I am appalled and disheartened by what I read of one of our horrendous NY juvenile detention centers (below). My own experience in Britain had showed me that their attitudes towards poor kids were very different from ours in the U.S. At the British center for kids, the director and his wife lived in the center. They were from the community and the community was most supportive of the center's activities. In the U.S. most of our minority kids with problems are all too often brutalized, cut off from their families (mainly in NYC), and sent far upstate where it is too expensive for families to visit.

In Britain the aim was to help kids get launched in life. Our institutions rather brutalized them and made them unfit to become adults. Racism plays a large role in our mistreatment of troubled kids. Too often staff are not professionals -- just people needing a good paying job and they can be brutal with their charges -- beating them up to the point of breaking bones and knocking out teeth. This is true of some of our private ones as well as public. Decent people can't stand what they see and generally leave these institutions if they can afford to.

Read and weep if you care for kids.

Tryon Residential Center: A Look Inside the Infamous State Juvenile Prison (New York Magazine)
http://news.gothamgazette.com/t?ctl=1659CFF:DF7B9BA7F88D8CA477CE79DCB7D0136EE8B2AAF67EB281F0&
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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)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Monday, January 25, 2010

How Is Your Bank Treating You?

I have been hearing some horrendous stories about banks gauging people in the Morningside Heights area -- Columbia and other academic institutions here and an hospital that has become a part of a consortium now doing battle with UnitedHealthCare over rates:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/health/policy/25insure.html?th&emc=th

We are happily served by our local branch of Banco Popular where we stayed when it replaced another bank (because we had a conveniently large safety deposit box there). They offered us $5000.00 overdraft protection at no cost (but no longer available) and we need keep only $250.00 in our savings account to avoid check charges.

Other banks in our area are doing such as the following:

1) raising interest rates on credit card balances to 29.99%.

2) charging $100 for an overdraft which previously would have been covered with a transfer from savings (one of those small print letter changes).

3) charging overdraft charges when the account has less than $100.00 remaining (another small print notice).

The banks seem to be rushing to do as much damage as possible before restraints are legislated -- a reason to support Obama's team.

I have directed this comment to my neighborhood, but others should feel free to add their own experiences by posting to the 440 list:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood

I mentioned our local hospital also because we are receiving erroneous bills from hospitals, too. One has to check everything these days. Being retired I fortunately have time to do so, but I worry about those to hard-pressed too do so.
--
"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 [blind copies]

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Jean?

Jean was by for the first time in several years. She is an NYU grad and homeless. Many of us have tried to assist her, but she is angry and groups that could arrange housing for her are thereby cut off in their efforts. For quite some time she ordered magazines for me -- just about everything published with slips in magazines for sign up. She apparently drove one of the Catholic priest residences in Brooklyn bats by buzzing and demanding food at 3 a.m. frequently. I think she spent some time in jail for harassment. I had spoken with them and others she harassed who tried to help her and eventually gave up, too.

Yesterday she asked me to come down and talk with her. I declined. What she wanted, I assume, was some money, but if one gives it to her, she puts one on her route and returns frequently -- others have told me. She has some family living in Harlem that can assist her -- or at least did.

I don't know what one can do with people so in need. I feel guilty rejecting her, but I am not in shape to cope with her face to face anymore.

I am amazed that she has survived so long. At one point someone beat her up badly.

Should we have some way to institutionalize such people? I don't know. She seems to get by with her life on the streets.
--
"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 [blind copies]

What Americans Do Not Know

I am constantly amazed at what Americans do not know -- and what our media seem disinclined to report to them. For example one cannot know why Iran held our embassy people hostage for a year without knowing that our C.I.A. and British oil interests drove out its elected head, Mosaddegh, in 1953 and replaced him with the brutal Shah who reigned for several decades until their revolt against him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh

Our Monroe doctrine pronounced by our president of that name in 1823 claimed that the Americas were ours to control. We have been doing so -- with disastrous effects upon the Latin American and island nations and particularly Haiti -- ever since.

Not a few are now worried that we seemed to be concentrating more on sending in the marines than medical provisions which could have saved countless lives (and amputations) had we acted as efficiently as did Israel which started operating its hospital there almost immediately.

With corporations liberated to control our media more than they already do, our democracy is now at risk. Most Americans get their news in fragments from TV. It is a well known fact that frequent repetition of a lie at best raises doubts about the truth and at worst replaces it. We shall now see even more of this sort of thing used to deceive the public.

Unhappily we have a Supreme Court run by the Federalist Society with which our Chief Justice was associated even though we learned this only after his appointment:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_Society

G-d only knows what further changes we may see them make in our laws, e.g. reversal of Roe v. Wade?

As a retired legal philosopher, I cringe at what I am seeing. One could see this beginning with Reagan's attacks on government regulation in general. Without limits corporations are free to run our country as their CEOs see fit.
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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)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Saturday, January 23, 2010

French Owe Haiti Massive Reparations

Haiti's history of poverty lies in a continued pattern of theft of its resources for that past two hundred years. In 1825 France demanded repayment for Haiti's liberated slaves. For decades Haiti was bankrupted by these repayments -- France was backed up by the U.S., Spain, and Britain. The U.S. has not only occupied Haiti on several previous occasions, it supported the most corrupt of governments on the basis that they were anti-communist. Both we and France owe debts to Haiti. Aristide, the elected president whom we removed in 2004 estimated that France owed Haiti $21 billion:

"Why $21 billion? It's the modern equivalent of the 90 million francs Haiti agreed to pay France in 1825, in return for official recognition of Haiti's sovereignty. For two decades following Haitian independence in 1804, the former mother country, with the support of the United States, Britain and Spain, enforced a crippling embargo, accompanied by a threat to recolonize and reenslave Haiti if indemnity wasn't paid for lost property -- i.e., slaves. Haiti, once France's richest colony, agreed to pay the price -- more than twice the value of the entire nation at the time -- but could only afford to do so using high-interest loans from French banks."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/01/04/reparation_day/

Google has a number of other sites that support this pattern of impoverishment and abuse of Haiti.
--
"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 [blind copies]

Coping with the Corporate Bullies!

Few of us have not had to battle medical insurance companies to get them to pay legitimate claims. And few of us are not being surprised by bank tricks, e.g. a change in a system of drawing from another account to cover overdrafts which comes to light only when one is hit by a $100.00 overdraft fee.

Now with the Supreme Court's decision to give 'free speech' to corporations, i.e. to allow their CEOs to fund ads attacking candidates that do not do their bidding, we are up against the greatest threat to us as individuals since the revolution against British dominance and taxation.

Obama has gotten off to a good start yesterday -- whacking the big banks. But we have much more to do. The Republicans have been selling the myth that 'big government' is our problem. We must convince people that big corporations are the major threat to them against which governments -- state and federal -- are their only protection.

Similarly we must reverse the 'cut your taxes' fiction. The real 'taxes' threatening us are those of the big corporations which screw us with their trick or treats such as those mentioned above.

What the Democrats must do is hit the specific abuses of us both with publicity and action. These cannot be handled with complex bills such as medical reform had become, but must be simple and obvious targets. Do you want to lose your medical coverage because of a pre-existing condition such as cesarean birth. It has happened. Had our insurance company used this rule, we could not have afforded the births of our two daughters who followed upon the cesarean that saved my son's life -- the cord was wrapped twice around his neck and he was being cut off from essential oxygen.

The Republicans have been selling their anti-public interest nonsense for decades and we must fight back lie by lie -- they seem to have no compunctions about lying and these are spread by our TV media with its instant opinion spots -- on both sides -- truth versus lie.

Let us hope that Obama can lead us in this battle to save American democracy. He has tried to be a reconciler, but it takes two to play that game. Now he must hit hard each lie as it is promoted. And hopefully our legislators can get their acts together with his and other Democrats' leadership. The independents are waiting to see which way the wind is blowing. It is time our ship of state stopped zig zagging and that we got our act together.
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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)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Friday, January 22, 2010

Open the Doors a Crack to Cuba?

I realize that Obama must be careful not to alienate the former Cubans living in Florida, but it is pretty obvious that this is the only reason that we have not opened doors that could be moving Cuba back towards democracy.

Perhaps there are some small moves that can be made, e.g. letting relatives visit freely? Possibly the Haitian situation which makes Cuban doctors valuable will help a bit? We could let Cuban scholars participate in our academic conferences, etc.

For all its lack of democracy Cuba has at least provided universal literacy and medical care for its people. And with a global economy developing we are likely to discover new neighbors moving in next door -- China, Russia -- where we could have made some investments ourselves.

I know that Obama has enough to handle now without stimulating opposition. But Cuba is something the rest of us can speak to. I gather the younger Cubans living in Florida are leaning towards more openness as well -- why not allow some of them to get medical training there? Latin America needs doctors.

What do you think?
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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)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Two Bad Days for the U.S.

Medical Reform is gone and with the Supreme Court's decision to allow corporations to fund ads in campaigns, our government has been sold to the CEOs of our major corporations.

The Democrats really blew it letting medical reform become so confused that few if any knew what the competing plans were proposing. They should have, say, asked the American Medical Association (which favors single payer medicine) to draft a plan for Congress which could have been modified and voted months ago. Later bits and pieces of reforms can be put in place. For example people doing physical jobs quite often are injured or their backs can't take it any more, so that reducing the age for Medicare should have strong support.

The one hope for Democrats is that they can propose such reforms that will be blocked by Republicans which over the long run will force them either to join with the reforms of discredit themselves with voters.

Obama is still respected and liked by people so that much of this burden will fall on him -- along with the innumerable other problems he inherited -- the nearly destroyed economy, two wars, etc. He is a quick learner and so will hopefully be able to handle all of these messes. Public jobs and more funding of people in need may help.

The recent Democratic c defeats were all of weak candidates, so strong leadership now may restore trust. If not, we had better plan to migrate elsewhere.
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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)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Monday, January 18, 2010

Get Ready to Run for Cover!

If the Democrats lose the capacity to block Republican filibusters tomorrow, we had all better run for cover from the excesses we can expect from our banks, drug companies, and other corporate interests that already control too much of our lives.

I was startled to learn the other day that one bank has initiated $100.00 penalties for overdrafts. In one instance a bank never received a mortgage payment that I made -- I happened to notice that the check was not cashed. It was not returned by the post office. They let me pay by phone -- with that charge, of course. Happily I am retired and can check such things regularly, but my heart goes out to those already overworked and running to catch up.

Needless to say a super majority is no way to run a legislative system and perhaps we should challenge it now while we still can. There are innumerable reforms we need to be making, if we are to continue as a democracy. The gross greed of our big money interests is destroying social justice here as it is.

I regretted losing one of our fine immigrant families -- a student and her doctor parents -- to Canada a few years back. Now I am relieved that they are securely there. A part of my own family bounced back and forth between Canada and Northern New England back when. Perhaps we should appeal to the Canadians to open their doors when we find ourselves beginning to run for cover?
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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)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Bring Back Aristide to Lead Haiti?

Haiti manifestly has no leadership now. President René Préval disappeared for the first two days after the earthquake and seems to be doing little if anything other than talking to Americans now. Perhaps it is time to bring back Jean-Bertrand Aristide from South Africa where he was shipped in 2004 after a questionable removal from the Haitian presidency? Reports on him range from viewing him as an effective reformer to a human rights violator:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Bertrand_Aristide

It is virtually impossible to get at truth in Haiti. But I would hate to see us once again becoming the occupying power there. We have an horrendous history of abuses of Haiti ranging back to its revolution against slavery and declaration of independence in 1804 (We were still a slave owning nation and threatened by this rebellion against slavery):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Haiti

I admit that I am speculating here, as it is so difficult to get at the truths about Haiti.
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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)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Decline in King's Support Towards the End of His Life

This is the Martin Luther king, Jr. weekend. I finally heard someone on TV mention his name a few hours ago -- Obama giving a speech/sermon at a church in the Capitol.

What most people forget is that King's popularity was declining towards the end of his life as he moved on from desegregation to concerns about poverty and wealth. If I remember rightly, he developed this concern in his last book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

Desegregation was okay with many, but challenging poverty in the late 1960s was not.

Needless to say this concern is even more acutely our principal justice issue today with the vast gap that has been opening up between the super rich and the rest of us who are slipping or in dire straights with the effects of our oligarchic economy.

Obama knows this and hopefully he and his fellow Democrats will be able to do something about it. They are up against massive lobbying by the powerful instruments of wealth which feel no responsibility for the public interest.

How sad it will be if the U.S. slides down this rabbit hole.
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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)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Connecticut Ghettos When I Was a Kid

My first memories were of West Hartford, Connecticut before we moved out to an outer suburb and built a house there. What I did not realize at the time was that there were neither Jews or African Americans living outside of Hartford and anywhere near us with one exception each -- an African American couple worked as servants near us and a Jewish grocery/liquor store owner had set up his business in a poor community (Oakland Gardens) between West Hartford and Farmington where we lived.

We did not see African Americans except the occasional woman riding a bus to a job as a household servant. Jews and others never mixed -- were excluded from non-Jewish organizations.

WW II and rumors of the Holocaust weakened anti-Semitism somewhat, but it was still in force when I went to Yale, learned of Yale's anti Eastern Jew admissions practices, and condemned them in an editorial in our student newspaper. Buckley had been notoriously anti-Semitic as an undergraduate at Yale.

I only discovered our Hartford African American ghetto on an occasion when I was helping deliver collected newspapers for the war effort to a location in Hartford where about six blocks of African Americans were clustered together.

The only active efforts to end segregation that I encountered was in 1957 when I happened to take a summer job with Suisman & Blumenthal, the major scrap metal company in New England, where African Americans constituted most of the workers and the Suismans sent able ones among their workers to college. To my knowledge this was the only employer of African American men in or near Hartford. That same summer I worked for the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft plant in East Hartford with 35,000 employees -- including one African American.

Needless to say it is still much easier today for African American women to get jobs than men. The same is true for a college education.

Yale was the first of the Ivies to begin to break down these prejudices. They were still operative at Vassar when I began teaching there in 1963 -- 3 African American women among its students.
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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)
--
Ed Kent [blind copies]

Saturday, January 16, 2010

No Deterrent from Homeland Attacks Except Persuasion

There are so many ways to attack us here and so few ways to block such an attack that we are bound to have some horrors down the line. Airplanes are but a small piece of the potential.

What we must be doing is persuading people out there that violence is not the way to go. The Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend is one of the best parts of our heritage and we should be spreading its message far and wide. Haiti may be an opportunity for us to show our caring side to the world -- rather than simplistic attempts to control things with military force which we can't afford anyway.

To personalize things here, one of my student summer jobs was working as an assistant to a blaster. It takes no great genius to blow things up.

We must concentrate on persuasion now -- we are not involved in a crusade against any religion except those advocating violence and right wing Christians are doing as much of that as the violent Muslim fringe groups.

It is impossible for us to wage a military war against terrorism because it has become so diffused and violent ones are likely to turn up anywhere. Our TV is haunted by people who have gone berserk and blown away former colleagues at offices and such.

Spotting such people before they erupt is no easy game. Living in NYC, which has been a prime target, I am relieved on a day to day basis that we have not had some mass killing incident.

And so it goes in this new century.
--
"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 [blind copies]

Friday, January 15, 2010

Totally Misinformed?

I am always a bit surprised to discover that educated people can be totally misinformed about recent (and past) history. Anyone knowledgeable about our interventions south of our borders should know that over the centuries we have exploited these states in the most brutal ways. Only a few decades ago we were supporting brutal rulers of a number of the South American states. From its origins in 1804 as a slave rebellion against the French, we have been messing up Haiti:

http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=haiti

http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/misctopic/leftover/whypoor.htm

My father was an honest broker and I recall his distress at the economic exploitation of South American countries when I was a small child. Education here and in Britain and reading since made me aware of the horrors of things we were doing -- usually in the name of anti-communism.

As today Tea Party-ites cannot distinguish a European social democracy from a communist or Nazi state, too many intelligent people play games to deceive others.

Truth and Reconciliation efforts were designed to cope with vast injustices in many parts of the globe. Read the list in this website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_reconciliation_commission

President Nelson Mandela's effort in South Africa to heal the harms of apartheid is often seen as the model for such things. We do owe some reparations here and there.

Beware the Ides of March! (The last time I used this image, I got a call from the authorities to find out what I meant. And I am personally worried about what Al Qaeda may be up to now.)
--
"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 [blind copies]

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Heartrending

When I was little, my mother would sometimes say, "Remember the hungry children in China" -- to get me to finish what was left on my plate (usually vegetables). Such children did not, of course, exist in my imagination.

Now we scarcely have a catastrophe when we are virtually on the scene viewing the worst of things. Haiti is all too evident an example. As I left the TV a few minutes ago live stuff was beginning to come in. The estimates of loss of lives run into many thousands. Beneath the concrete slabs people are moaning and crying out for help.

Mentioned once in the coverage that I saw is the likelihood that we shall next see the deaths of thousands more from the spread of deadly diseases -- the sewage polluted water or handling of dead bodies.

We are rushing there what we can, but a hospital ship is a week away. No way can we get there the equipment to rescue those trapped under those slabs.

Anyone with an bit of human compassion is devastated by such nightmare visions. I wonder what the result will be in the long run to such -- active concern or indifference? People can take in only so much human suffering without being impacted by it in a variety of ways. Usually private efforts at assistance in such situations cannot solve massive problems such as this. How long will Haiti remain on our consciousness before we begin to forget it and move on to other things? Back to the job market debates?
--
"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 [blind copies]

Monday, January 11, 2010

Thank G-d It's Obama!

I hate to think what would be happening, were McCain our president rather than Obama. I don't think I can recall so many major problems facing our nation since WW II. The list is almost endless.

We are trying to disengage from two 'wars' -- Iraq and Afghanistan -- which are costing us a fortune.

Iran threatens.

We are facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Poverty in various parts of the world is stimulating mass murders -- mainly of Muslims by fellow Muslims.

Our world population growth is threatening the resources needed for human life and creating political conflicts connected therewith -- particularly water.

The freakish weather that has hit other parts of the globe as well as the U.S. is both killing people and again stimulating murderous conflicts. If the world is warming, the lives of billions will be threatened.

Our Western major religions seem to have a number of members who are bent on wars and variously abusing people.

Peace-makers are attacked for sabotaging national interests.

Frankly I don't know how Obama keeps all of these and other threats to humanity in mind, let alone figures the best ways to cope with them. He obviously cares about the well-being of people and peace, but there are so many conflicts of interests that it is difficult to figure how to weigh them against each other.

And unhappily we have the party of 'No' which constantly places him under attack rather than joining in the struggle to save ourselves.
--
"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 (blind copies)

My Last Sermon - Yuk!

While I was studying theology I did church services (and sermons) both in England and in NYC. I cringe as I recall my last sermon which made me realize that I was really doing critical editorials rather than the range of Christian sermons.

The location was a Manhattan church where I had preached the previous summer. Typical of my concerns then (early 1960s), I blasted away on civil rights.

My embarrassment came after the service as people were leaving. A nice man informed me that in the year since I had given my last sermon the church had invited a Latino church to join them -- one did services in English in the morning and the other did them in Spanish in the evenings.

Really what I had done was attack a group of people with my political concerns for justice who did not deserve such.

I certainly supported the social democratic concerns of the U.S. Protestant churches of that time which were about to be overwhelmed by what is in the news now -- operations that promise you a raise if you believe in Jesus while collecting monies from you or that thinly disguise the racism that still pervades our nation.

It has been sad to see the transformation which one of my teachers, Reinhold Niebuhr, foresaw in the 'feel good' approach of Billy Graham. My theology teachers strongly supported my switch to social/political/legal philosophy
which I enjoyed teaching for four decades.
--
"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 [blind copies]

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Terrorism - Muslims Killing Muslims!

We think of terrorist killings generally in terms of Americans killing Muslims or Muslims killing Americans. But the fact is that far more Muslims are being killed by fellow Muslims -- Al Qaeda, rival religious groups (Sunni versus Shiites, etc.)

We make a vast mistake identifying our wars against terrorists whereas what we are really seeing is an anarchistic heresy within Islam that is killing indiscriminately. Anarchy is really the name of this game plus presumably some profit-making on the part of some involved.

Our response has been too often mistakenly militaristic rather than calling terrorists enemies not just of us but of humanity in general. We need to be helping the sane Muslims -- the vast majority, I assume, in protecting themselves. This is not an easy role to play. The Bush administration wanted to dominate the Middle East from a base in Iraq. We need to figure how we can turn things over to Muslims to cope with their own murderers. Pakistan is one of the nations now also at risk of destabilization by the new attacks on its central economic cities.

Reports of these mass killings are so erratic that it is almost impossible to calculate the total Muslim killings of fellow Muslims which the websites below try to do respectably with Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/4920

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,660619,00.html
--
"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 [blind copies]

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Is Our Xmas Airplane Terrorist Still a Partisan of Al Qaeda?

I did a blog recently entitled "Cults -- Religious and Political" in which I suggested that Al Qaeda is really a political cult which in effect brain washes its members. A source cited in the blog noted that the three ways people get out of cults are:

1. by one's own decision,
2. through expulsion
3. through intervention (Exit counseling, deprogramming)

The reason that I mention this here is that our Xmas airplane terrorist is reported to be providing much valuable information presumably to our security people. I wonder whether his experience with Al Qaeda has persuaded him to disassociate himself from it? He must have had quite some time to contemplate on his long plane trip across the Atlantic and one wonders how determined was his effort to blow it and himself to hell?

I argued in my blog that the most effective way to cope with our terrorists is through persuasion. It is madness to kill oneself and innocent people for an ideology of such screwed up views of our fellow humans -- women, children, and all.

Incidentally I notice that Google is still holding my blog, "Richard Cheney -- America's Mass Murderer," at the top of the Richard Cheney subject heading: http://www.bloggernews.net/123420
--
"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 [blind copies]

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Talking to the Tax People -- Depressing!

For the first time in many decades I am going to have to do my taxes myself. I can understand why people hate taxes so, although I personally believe that there is no free lunch and what we do not pay for via taxes hits us from other directions, e.g. the medical corporations making out like bandits, banks not regulated, etc.

If one needs some phone numbers, one can eventually get through to people for info:

Federal 1-800-829-1040

NY 518-457-5181 or 1-800-225-5929

There are websites also.

To return to my main point, life would be far easier if we had single payer medicine. It costs far less and one does not have to worry about tax deductions for medical expenses, etc. All our comparable democratic/industrial nations get a far better deal than we do on such things.

And so it goes for 4/15/2010
--
"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 [blind copies]

Monday, January 04, 2010

Cults -- Religious and Political

The wiki site below gives a pretty good description of cults -- how they differ from standard religious or political organizations, how they attract followers, the dangers associated with them -- some murderous and others suicidal.

Al Qaeda looks to be to be a typical example of what is described in the wiki piece. We call talk about "wars on terror," but in fact what we are dealing with is not a rational organization. One cannot defeat it by military means. The wiki piece suggests that people leave cults:

1. by one's own decision,
2. through expulsion
3. through intervention (Exit counseling, deprogramming)

If we wish to win this 'war', we had better reframe our understanding of the nature of the enemies with whom we are dealing and adjust our responses accordingly. Lashing out blindly with military force plays into the hands of those whom we are trying to deter. Persuasion is the only effective tool that we have.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult
--
"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 [blind copies]

Republicans?

I have lived through a number of wars since I was a child in WW II. I have never seen our political parties not working together on behalf of the country in facing threats to the nation -- with the exception of the Iraq intervention which was generally viewed as illegal and also a diversion from what should have been our target -- Afghanistan.

Now I hear that the Republicans plan to make security their primary campaign issue in our forthcoming elections. Such is designed to frighten people. But it betrays our country when it is directed against our national leadership. Even Bush initially had wide support with Iraq until it became clear (except to Cheney) that Hussein was an enemy of Al Qaeda, our primary threat.

I grew up in a Republican household and the Republicans used to be generally decent people -- not attacking our leadership in times of national emergency. Where are the Robert A. Tafts and Eisenhowers?

Is it our TV media format that encourages Republican pols to attack on any and all fronts? I see little if anything that they are offering to our nation apart from their attacks. Criticism is acceptable as free speech, but the Republican 'No' tactic looks to me to be dangerous for our democracy. People can be all too easily misled when they are confronted by often repeated misrepresentations of the basic facts. We see this pattern in the worst of regimes, but how sad to have it be the modus operandi of one of our major political parties.
--
"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 [blind copies]

Post WW II Lynchings

1947 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People' annual report calls 1946 "one of the grimmest years in the history of the NAACP." The report details violence and atrocities heaped on "Negro veterans freshly returned from a war to end torture and racial extermination," and said "Negroes in America have been disillusioned over the wave of lynchings, brutality and official recession from all of the flamboyant promises of post war democracy and decency."

The MUNIRAH CHRONICLE each day reports historic events affecting African Americans. This is from its 1/3/2010 report.

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

When I was a child lynchings were common. They were not punished and legal authorities in some Southern states even boasted of their participation in them.

I am now an 'elder'. Imagine how African Americans my age feel as they recall these horrors. I mention this background because it is fairly obvious that echoes of it still exist -- the silent racism of so many and the treatment of African American men throughout our country by our police.

Things have improved, but 'tribal' prejudices and abuses continue long after they are officially outlawed. This is, of course, not just true of the U.S. But it is a battle still to be fought here.

And we are now at risk of identifying Muslims generally as "terrorists" because of the madness of a few.
--
"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 [blind copies]

Sunday, January 03, 2010

No Military Solution to Al Qaeda

It is becoming increasingly clear that there is no military solution -- wars -- to the threats of Al Qaeda. The most recent security airplane threat was carried out by a guy apparently supplied with his bomb equipment by one of the
frail national units that are virtually ungoverned and natural Al Qaeda bases. We do not have the financial or military resources to enter and control each of these and the Afghan situation looks to be yet another military failure in the making.

What we are engaged in is a war of ideas or ideologies -- particularly that of Al Qaeda and others along similar lines who can encourage horrendously murderous acts by previously normal individuals such as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

The U.S. is the heir of the evils of colonialism -- indeed, it is guilty of some of them itself. Iran is a major threat to us now. It was working its way towards democracy under Mohammad Mosaddegh until our CIA and British oil interests drove him out of office and brought back the cruel and hated Shah in 1953. Needless to say all Iranians are aware of this event even if most Americans are not:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh

There will be no easy answer to the Al Qaeda cult mentality.
Such suicidal groups have been around for some time and use their religions to commit violence and even suicide. We have had several American ones in recent decades.

I fear that we shall have to live with Al Qaeda for some time. No way we can simply kill it off. It seems to thrive in response to our attacks. Hopefully sane Muslims -- the vast majority -- will reject this mentality which is presently murdering more fellow Muslims than any others. They are the ones with whom we must join forces -- not such as Hamid Karzai who looks to be a crook now being rejected by his own parliament.

I wonder whether Obama and our pols are up to this challenge? Certainly we are a nation in many ways divided against itself.

And so we shall see what this next year brings.

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

Yemen's Chaos Aids the Evolution of a Qaeda Cell
By STEVEN ERLANGER
While the government has been distracted by rebellions, Al Qaeda has built support in poor and lawless territories.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/world/middleeast/03yemen.html?th&emc=th
--
"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 [blind copies]

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Preschool Makes a Lifetime Difference

I happened to catch a fragment on npr about an extended study of the effects of preschool -- in this case until the subjects were 40. The results indicated that preschool had a lifetime benefit which left people with better lives in every way -- jobs, lifestyle, etc.

I had a bit of extended education myself: serious illness at 4 which left me in the hands of a skilled nurse who tutored me so that I did not fall behind where I had been in kindergarten, later I spent an extra year as an exchange student in a British public school, and still later I did a degree in theology before starting graduate philosophy so that I did not start teaching until I was thirty. All of those extras made a vast difference in my life. They helped me choose the right career and made me good at teaching in it.

The sad thing now with our budget cuts is that precisely preschool education is being cut or mangled. Needless to say kids from backgrounds in which their parents are not well educated suffer even more from this loss. A quick check indicates that they are being hit the hardest of all. How sad that we are cheating the kids that need this support the most!

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

Preschool Programs Hit By Budget Cuts

http://www.earlychildhoodfocus.org/artman2/publish/preschool/Preschool_Programs_Hit_By_Budget_Cuts.shtml

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

British Research Confirms Benefits of Preschool for All
Myth of Fadeout Refuted By long-term Positive Effects of High-Quality Pre-K

http://nieer.org/psm/?article=273

--
"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 [blind copies]

Racism Still Impacts Higher Education

One of the principal reasons that I chose to teach in CUNY (City University of NY) was to increase the numbers of African Americans winning college degrees. The university actually opened its doors the year I began teaching philosophy at Brooklyn College -- 1970.

But one of the obvious problems was that noted below in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. A gender gap was obvious among my students. I tried to figure what the problem was. My male students had reasons to be angry -- they were frequently stopped and searched by police when returning home from evening classes. Jobs were harder to get for them than for women. Some found it necessary to drop out to help support their families. Feelings to facts -- it was nevertheless hard to figure the growing gap which could make such a difference in lives lived.

How to fix this problem lies with early education and strong support for boys. Many need male figures to guide their lives. Too many are arrested and jailed -- not infrequently wrongly. I recall a guy (claiming he had a gun in his pocket) demanding my money on a subway trip home from Brooklyn. I got the police there in a hurry and they asked whether I wanted to cruise the streets looking for the guy (who had gotten only a $20.00 bill). I told them it would be pointless as I could not distinguish him from others. With the trauma of being held up I had not seen a face not distorted (his) or what he was wearing. I suspect many a false identification occurs with grave injustices resulting.

I am glad that we have many African Americans getting first rate educations now, but we still have a way to go to overcome endemic racism in this country.

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

(from) The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education

The Outlook for the Future: Black Women’s Lead Is Likely to Widen

"Today black women hold a large lead over black men in enrollments in almost all undergraduate and graduate programs. And this gender gap has grown over the past 30 years. Most important, black women have a college graduation rate that is significantly higher than the rate for black men. This current and growing enrollment gender gap among African Americans, coupled with a far higher college graduation rate for black women compared to black men, means that in future years, the gender gap in African-American degree attainments is certain to grow even wider. The most serious news is that if present trends continue, a generation from now black women with a four-year college degree will outnumber black men with a bachelor’s degree by a ratio of 2 to 1."

http://www.jbhe.com/news_views/64_degrees.html
--
"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 [blind copies]

Ollie -- Not to Be Eaten!

My daughter with her four children is at the moment visiting friends in CA. I was slightly in shock when she mentioned that a new addition was being made to the family.

It was with great relief that I learned that the new family arrival, Ollie, is a 1 LB LAP DOG (MALTESE) WHO NEVER MAKES A SOUND. My grand daughter had eagerly wanted a dog -- the family has only a hamster now.

The possible catch here is that the last dog the family had some years ago became ours when a new residence in a another state turned out not to permit pets. I will admit that we became very attached to her and missed her when she finally had to be put away due to a painful illness.

Personally I grew up surrounded by animals - dogs, cats, but also two lambs and a pig. It was WW II and the two latter additions were supposed to provide food eventually. But Betsy and Butch became family pets who mowed our lawns as did Tiny, our pig and general garbage disposal unit. Tiny was picked up by my father when he noticed a burlap bag bouncing around on the side of the road. Tiny had probably fallen off a truck.

It was interesting to learn that our farm animals vary tremendously in intelligence. Tiny was by far ahead of the rest and a real friend to us as well. Needless to say, he did not become our bacon. We eventually returned our proposed meals back to the professionals.

With farming having become largely a cruel corporate operation, I wonder how many kids have direct contact now with more than the small dogs that we see in our neighborhood or the cats that my other daughter has.

I fear a great loss with the decline of family farming in this country. Animals now appear on a plate or in a bun. And those are not always so healthy.

One of the major beef suppliers to our schools, McDonald's etc. has been mixing ammonia into its beef so that it can make a few more bucks selling the scraps that tend to carry infections. Apparently the process does not work very well either:

Safety of Beef Processing Method Is Questioned - NYTimes.com
Dec 31, 2009 ... A Beef Products Inc. processing plant in South Sioux City, Neb. The company injects fatty beef trimmings with ammonia to remove E. coli and ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/us/31meat.html

Perhaps it is time to become a vegetarian?
--
"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 [blind copies]

Friday, January 01, 2010

Gay Friends

We have many friends who are gay. We don't think of them as different in any way from other friends.

Sadly, a talented couple who had been together in our building since we moved into it many decades ago have now both died of natural causes. Both were first rate workers in their fields with a variety of social contributions. One died two years ago and the other several nights ago in his sleep.

As one who studied theology for 3 years, I am all too aware of the barbaric roots of the anti-gay and other equally vicious and too often murderous prejudices dating from primitive times -- women, Jews, and people from other 'tribal' roots.

We have been making some gains with our prejudices. Many still linger, sadly enough. It takes generations to curb prejudices and if people choose out the most vicious stuff from the ancient origins of their religions, we may be stuck for some time with murderous stuff.

When I was studying theology half a century back, we were beginning to end off some of these prejudices. But our Christian tendencies have been of late mired in Sarah Palin type murk.

Let us hope for better.
--
"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 [blind copies]

Reforming Our Immmigrant Policies?

For several years I supervised our immigrant advisory program at Brooklyn College. The rules have changed considerably since 9/11 and I don't remember all the specifics.

However, two cases particularly stick in mind. One was of a young boy literally jumping with joy when I told him he was already an American citizen. As I recall there was a cutoff age after which children of an American parent no longer qualified.

The other involved one of our ablest students. We fought fiercely to allow her to finish her degree with us when her parents were challenged for overstaying their time here. Both were medical people and the mother had already passed the tests to qualify to practice here. We won a stay for our student, but she decided to move to Canada with her parents where the family was welcomed and is now contributing to medicine there -- a real loss to us.

I hope we can revise our program to allow the bulk of our currently undocumented people to stay here under certain conditions:

1) No criminal record.

2) Productive employment.

And we need temporary access for our farm programs.

From what I have observed in our Global world we can well use such people here in the states. They are creating more jobs for others than taking them away from people, so far as I can see. They do things that others can't or won't. It would cost a fortune to expel millions.

What do you think?
--
"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 [blind copies]