Ruminations, December 28, 2008

The Troubled Asset Relief Program

The $700 billion bail out program is formally known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program or its acronym – TARP. Excuse me but isn’t a “tarp” a thing used as to cover up something else? Just asking.

Bowling for baskets

President-elect Barack Obama’s administration has put together what is probably the greatest basketball team of any administration. Obama, who in high school had the nickname of “Barry O’Bomber,” sunk a 3-point basket on his first try in a military gym in Kuwait last summer. He’s a pretty good sandlot player (to metaphorically mix sports).

On the other hand, during the presidential campaign, Obama tried his hand at bowling and embarrassed himself by rolling a 37.

Will the White House contain a basketball court? There is some talk that it will. The question is where to locate it. Current thinking is that it will replace the seldom-used White House bowling alley. The National Basketball Association has promised to help.

This is not a positive development for everyone. The United States Bowling Congress wants Obama to keep the bowling lane.

Pity poor Obama’s plight. What to do? What to do? Choose a basketball court where he can shoot three-point baskets and wow the crowd or a bowling alley where he can roll a puny 37? Hmmm. Tough choice.

George W. Bush, climate savior

If President Bush gets blamed for everything bad occurring on his watch, conversely, he should be credited for everything good occurring on his watch. To wit:

·         Some say that 1998 (Before the Bush Administration) was the hottest year in 1,000 years.

·         The world temperature has since declined to the point where 2008 (After Bush) may be the coldest year of the century.

So let’s give Bush credit for single handedly stopping global warming and turning it around. What do you think the odds are for a Nobel Prize?

The genealogy of an American

Like many Americans, my ancestors were not in America at the time of its formation. However, I have always considered myself, as many of us have, a spiritual descendant of some of the great American founders like George Washington, John Adams and James Madison. These great Americans were of western European stock but there are a lot more than western Europeans going into the American family tree.

American humorist Bob Newhart referred to this phenomena in a kind of oblique way sometime ago. He had a comedy routine that had to do with the Revolutionary War and posed the question: what if the Revolutionary War had been fought as we might play a football game? Newhart’s routine, with him serving as the referee, began something like this:

General Gage, meet General Washington – General Washington, General Gage. I’m going to toss the coin, call it in the air, General Washington. (Coin tossed.) You called heads and heads it is. Your choice, General Washington. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. Okay General Gage, General Washington says that his men will wear earth tones and hide behind rocks, trees and stone walls. Your men will wear bright red uniforms and march ten abreast down the middle of the road.

The British tactics for war were the same as all successful European armies. Since American colonists, especially their leadership, were western European descendants, why didn’t they wear bright colored uniforms and march ten abreast down the middle of the road? From whom did they learn camouflage? From whom did they learn to hide and shoot from protected cover?

The “Boston Tea Party” might provide some clues. The Boston Tea Party, as you remember, was an act of rebellion in 1773 where a large number of Bostonian colonists, disguised as Indians dumped several hundred chests of tea into Boston Harbor. Disguised as Indians? They fooled no one; everyone knew that they were not Indians. Maybe part of their message was that they were not Englishmen but Americans; hence the dress was not European but Native American.

Ethno-historian James Axtell thinks that Native Americans, or Indians, had an enormous influence on the colonists. He writes, “Without the steady impress of Indian culture, the colonists would probably not have been ready for revolution in 1776 because they would not have been or felt sufficiently Americanized to stand before the world as a new nation. The Indian presence precipitated the formation of the American identity.” It’s an interesting idea. What it says, in essence, is that not only did Europeans influence and change Indian culture but the Indians influenced and changed the colonists. The reason Bob Newhart’s Americans dressed in earth tones, and hid behind rocks is that they were a new people taking their spiritual roots from European colonists and Native Americans. “Without Indians,” Axtell says, “America would not have been America as we know it.”

Let’s look at another aspect of America – agriculture. There is no question that agriculture was a great export and helped define this nation and contributed to its wealth, especially in its early formation. Before cotton became king in the early 19^th century, rice was king. Charleston, South Carolina, was the premiere American shipping harbor for rice, with exports going from 10,000 pounds in 1698 to over 20 million by 1730. They were pretty good at using slave labor to grow rice but – how did they get so good? The Europeans who came to the Carolinas had never grown rice in Europe. The Native Americans who were indigenous to the region had never seen rice. From where did the skill to grow it and grow it proficiently come? The skill, the seed stock and the labor all came from the Windward Coast of Africa. The Senegambia region of Africa had an environment similar to that of South Carolina and had been growing rice – surplus rice – for a couple of hundred years before South Carolina was able to exploit it, before some Africans, probably slaves, brought the seed stock and the technique to the American shores. We can, therefore, reasonably infer that a great deal of America’s initial wealth and agricultural base came from some unknown Africans – not only their labor but their know-how.

So Americans are, spiritually anyway, part European, Native American, African and …and …and … If not a melting pot, America is at least a stockpot.

While it is true that Western Europe has dominated the formation of the American nation, we can’t ignore the often unstated contribution of others. As Axtell says, when two or more cultures come together, “One culture may predominate and teach more than it learns” but “the education process is always mutual.”

When we think of our spiritual ancestors who created this nation, we need to include – not only the likes of George Washington, John Adams and James Madison but – Squanto, Sacajawea, W.E.B. Dubois, Cesar Chavez, unknown slaves, migrant workers and other people who have been represented on this land. And so, with that in mind, I am proud to claim as among American spiritual cousins Bobby Jindal (the first East Indian American to be elected governor), Joseph Cao (the first Vietnamese American elected to the U.S. House), Barack Obama (the first African American elected President) and all the others who helped and continue to shape this nation. And like all cousins, we may not always agree but we are nonetheless proud of their achievements because – shucks, we’re family.

Caroline Kennedy for Senate

Caroline Kennedy is as qualified for the U.S. Senate as many of the other senators who have represented New York. New York seems to have a tendency to select carpetbag and/or glitzy celebrities over more qualified individuals.

In 1964, New York selected Virginia and Massachusetts resident Democrat Robert Kennedy as its senator over Republican Kenneth Keating. Kennedy’s political qualifications were that he was associated with his brother, who had appointed him as attorney general. His opponent, New Yorker Keating, was a centrist and had 12 years of experience in the House of Representatives and six years in the U.S. Senate.

Then there was the election of Illinois and Arkansas resident Hillary Clinton in 2000. Clinton’s political experience consisted of her marriage to Bill Clinton. Her opponent was New York Republican Rick Lazio, who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives for eight years.

Then, in 1970, there was the election of Connecticut Republican James Buckley as senator. Buckley’s political experience was naught. Buckley lacked the glitz of the Kennedys or Clinton but he was a carpetbagger. In a three-way race, Buckley bested New Yorker Richard Ottinger (six years in the U.S. House of Representatives) and New Yorker Charles Goodell (nine years in the U.S. House of Representatives and three years as a U.S. senator).

Caroline Kennedy is at least a New York resident. Experience? Not a factor. She has the glitz and is as qualified as many of her predecessors. She will probably be selected.

Robert J. Kulak

West Hartford, Connecticut