All this talk about Joe the plumber could not help but remind me of my plumbing past. I mention this only to give me some credibility to comment on the new fifteen minute hero from Pennsylvania.
Anyone who read “Ten Thousand Working Days” will surely remember the chapter “Plumber.” The year was 1934 and we were in the depths of the depression. I was one of the few lucky kids to have a job. Since that time I have gone on to many things but never lost my plumbing skills. Ask my wife if you don’t believe me. So wherever I have lived I made friends with the local plumbers. The thing about plumbers is they know some of our best secrets. Like for instance, everybody defecates, and it all stinks--rich, poor, old, young, and even Hollywood beauties. I remember going to fancy apartments in NYC. Some very embarrassed young women would point me to the toilet, then hide in shame for the rest of my time there.
Because of this fundamental knowledge of the human condition, most plumbers I have known have a very low tolerance for bullshit, except in cases as the local plumber once said, “if he is a bullshitter himself.” So here we meet McCain’s man from Pennsylvania. Plumbers, who have their own philosophy, would have immediately spotted the fact that he did not have a license. Second, that he “owed taxes” meant he was taking cash for at least some of his work. Any of you living in a small town and who hire locals know this is not an uncommon practice by local craftsmen. Joe Plumber may need a new career once his 15 minutes is over, as the locals may be wondering about his tax problems? Oh I could go on about plumbers, but enough of that for now.
Here we are in the last weeks of the most historic election campaign that I have lived through. (Just turned 91.) As expected, the right wing nuts are going crazy just thinking about Obama winning, so all the stops are out. My hope is that all those young “warriors” that have joined the Obama crusade will be able to pull it off. “God I wish I could have joined them. The most memorable days of my life have been spent in crusades marching and singing and speeching. However this comes out, I just love those new recruits to the band of happy warriors who have made the world a better place and helped make it possible to have a candidate like Obama. That’s what people have done through the years to win the struggle for a better and more equal society.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
What's Eating John McCain?
Watching the last debate I began to wonder out loud about where the John McCain of the year 2000 went? Kate and I recalled that we even toyed with the notion that he wouldn’t be that bad as a president after all. He was a maverick and he was okay on Roe V Wade and was certainly not your die hard right wing Republican nut. In fact, when asked in 2000 about the abortion issue, he said while he did not favor abortion, he would not look to overturn Roe V Wade because of the harm that it would do to so many women. We thought that wasn’t so bad. So it occurred to me last Wednesday, what happened to the McCain of 2000?
Having watched him through the debates, I have always had a feeling for his discomfort. He seems to be playing some kind of a weird role that makes him itchy in his skin. His thrashing about on the bailout suspending, the campaign, then rushing to Washington and rushing back to the debate showed a man in confusion. The weird choice of Sarah Pailin as VP had many sober Republicans wondering “what on earth is he thinking?” She was the final sop to the devils on the right.
Then came this Greek chorus of people, mostly Republicans, who were complaining that “he should just let loose and be the old John McCain.” In the Wednesday night debate, when asked about Roe V Wade, he said he would be in favor of its repeal. That’s what sent me wondering what happened to the “old John McCain?” Ahaa I thought, he had made a Faustian bargain with the right wing devils in order to ease their concerns about his “maverickisms.”
In the Faust legend, Faust makes a deal with the devil for one supreme moment in a life that would go on forever. Of course the bargain doesn’t work out that way once the the Devil, Mephistopheles, takes control and Faust is doomed. For McCain, his supreme moment in life would be the Presidency. His bargain with the right wing nuts of the party will make him their prisoner. No matter how the election turns out, this could be his doom. Even if elected, I don’t believe he would be able to cancel the deal he made with the right wing and thus would remain their prisoner. Not a very assuring scenario considering the problems the next President will be confronting.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Having watched him through the debates, I have always had a feeling for his discomfort. He seems to be playing some kind of a weird role that makes him itchy in his skin. His thrashing about on the bailout suspending, the campaign, then rushing to Washington and rushing back to the debate showed a man in confusion. The weird choice of Sarah Pailin as VP had many sober Republicans wondering “what on earth is he thinking?” She was the final sop to the devils on the right.
Then came this Greek chorus of people, mostly Republicans, who were complaining that “he should just let loose and be the old John McCain.” In the Wednesday night debate, when asked about Roe V Wade, he said he would be in favor of its repeal. That’s what sent me wondering what happened to the “old John McCain?” Ahaa I thought, he had made a Faustian bargain with the right wing devils in order to ease their concerns about his “maverickisms.”
In the Faust legend, Faust makes a deal with the devil for one supreme moment in a life that would go on forever. Of course the bargain doesn’t work out that way once the the Devil, Mephistopheles, takes control and Faust is doomed. For McCain, his supreme moment in life would be the Presidency. His bargain with the right wing nuts of the party will make him their prisoner. No matter how the election turns out, this could be his doom. Even if elected, I don’t believe he would be able to cancel the deal he made with the right wing and thus would remain their prisoner. Not a very assuring scenario considering the problems the next President will be confronting.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
October
Being sure you really don’t want to hear any more about the melting financial bubble or the election, I thought I would switch over to another poem. I might add that October is a tough month for me. Both a joyous and sad day have come together. My very dear Papa died an hour before the day I was born. While I enjoy the birth, my most blessed life is a reminder of our mortality. Try as I might, I find them hard to separate. When emotions become confused I find it’s a good time to retreat to the woodworking shop or maybe to a poem that is waiting to be written. And with that I send you what I hope is a gift of another poem about one of my most favorite friends.
Luigi
Is a very big cat.
Stretched out before the fireplace
He appears as Buffalo rug
Head and all.
He watches the world outside
Where a Doe and two Bambies
Take a stand and stare back.
Neither seem to know
What the other is doing here.
Luigi makes a move to the outside.
The Doe five times his size
Breaks and bounds over the hedge
With the Bambies in tow.
Luigi stands in wonder
Of his prowess.
Thank you Kate. N.H.W.U.
Luigi
Is a very big cat.
Stretched out before the fireplace
He appears as Buffalo rug
Head and all.
He watches the world outside
Where a Doe and two Bambies
Take a stand and stare back.
Neither seem to know
What the other is doing here.
Luigi makes a move to the outside.
The Doe five times his size
Breaks and bounds over the hedge
With the Bambies in tow.
Luigi stands in wonder
Of his prowess.
Thank you Kate. N.H.W.U.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Socialism as a Dirty Word?
Talk about things turning into their opposites. I grew up in a world of “utopian socialists.” The key word here is “utopian.” We believed that if the world could be “owned by labor,” it would be a real life utopia. No need to wait to die to go to heaven. We could have heaven on earth. Like many true believers, we not only believed it but we sang about its wonders at every opportunity.
One of my best memories of that kind of singing was in the early fifties in London. Arthur Horner, the President of the Welsh Miners Union and a member of the Communist Party, invited me to their convention. The intense discussion of the coal crisis in Britain was the central issue before the convention. The deeper down the Welsh mines had to go, the more expensive their coal. As a result, Polish coal was cheaper and Welsh mines started to shut down. There was a real crisis looming. No matter. At every opportunity the whole convention would burst into song. My memory of the songs was the sounds of hope for a better world.
That better world that we demonstrated, marched, and sang about was socialism. It was our version of religion. Not “pie in the sky” as in that old Wobbly song, but a heaven right here on earth in our own lifetime. I think that utopian vision was the engine that drove the idea of socialism. A central problem for the left in todays world is the lack of any kind of utopian vision for our future. Our politicians try to fill that human need with their constant repetition of how American exceptionalism creates an opportunity for all of us to go from rags to riches, just like Google’s entrepreneurs. In my youth it was Andrew Carnegie or Henry Ford. That’s how capitalism captured the market for utopian dreams. My immigrant father told how in the early part of the last century in Europe people spoke of the streets in America as being paved with gold. Now the the worst thing a conservative Republican can say about the bailout is that it smacks of socialism. The very word “socialism” has become the hell word to describe government intervention in the bailout crisis.
So here we are in yet another severe economic crisis of capitalism. The tragedy of our time is the lack of any serious discussion regarding an alternative the the existing system. We have been repairing and fixing it since the great depression of the thirties, and God knows we probably saved it from itself. It was all those marches and demonstrations in the thirties demanding government action in the face of the hardships that gave us the safety-nets that we depend on today to get us through this crisis. And who organized all that resentment into common causes? It was the left. The communists, socialists, and a whole assortment of radical groups all seeking some form of socialism as the antidote to the capitalist crisis. That is precisely what is missing today. There is simply no organized force out there that can channel all the rage and resentment into a mechanism for change.
I attribute the loss of any semblance of an organized left today to the downfall of the Soviet Union. Though it never was a truly socialist country, the Soviet Union somehow managed to capture the idea of socialism. With its collapse went any possibility of resurrecting the idea. That leaves us with no real alternative ideas for dealing with yet another capitalist crisis. Yes, we will find some ways to get us through this mess. The system, fearful of social unrest, will make some more imperfect adjustments until the next crisis. I hope to see the emergence of a new left before I depart this planet.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
One of my best memories of that kind of singing was in the early fifties in London. Arthur Horner, the President of the Welsh Miners Union and a member of the Communist Party, invited me to their convention. The intense discussion of the coal crisis in Britain was the central issue before the convention. The deeper down the Welsh mines had to go, the more expensive their coal. As a result, Polish coal was cheaper and Welsh mines started to shut down. There was a real crisis looming. No matter. At every opportunity the whole convention would burst into song. My memory of the songs was the sounds of hope for a better world.
That better world that we demonstrated, marched, and sang about was socialism. It was our version of religion. Not “pie in the sky” as in that old Wobbly song, but a heaven right here on earth in our own lifetime. I think that utopian vision was the engine that drove the idea of socialism. A central problem for the left in todays world is the lack of any kind of utopian vision for our future. Our politicians try to fill that human need with their constant repetition of how American exceptionalism creates an opportunity for all of us to go from rags to riches, just like Google’s entrepreneurs. In my youth it was Andrew Carnegie or Henry Ford. That’s how capitalism captured the market for utopian dreams. My immigrant father told how in the early part of the last century in Europe people spoke of the streets in America as being paved with gold. Now the the worst thing a conservative Republican can say about the bailout is that it smacks of socialism. The very word “socialism” has become the hell word to describe government intervention in the bailout crisis.
So here we are in yet another severe economic crisis of capitalism. The tragedy of our time is the lack of any serious discussion regarding an alternative the the existing system. We have been repairing and fixing it since the great depression of the thirties, and God knows we probably saved it from itself. It was all those marches and demonstrations in the thirties demanding government action in the face of the hardships that gave us the safety-nets that we depend on today to get us through this crisis. And who organized all that resentment into common causes? It was the left. The communists, socialists, and a whole assortment of radical groups all seeking some form of socialism as the antidote to the capitalist crisis. That is precisely what is missing today. There is simply no organized force out there that can channel all the rage and resentment into a mechanism for change.
I attribute the loss of any semblance of an organized left today to the downfall of the Soviet Union. Though it never was a truly socialist country, the Soviet Union somehow managed to capture the idea of socialism. With its collapse went any possibility of resurrecting the idea. That leaves us with no real alternative ideas for dealing with yet another capitalist crisis. Yes, we will find some ways to get us through this mess. The system, fearful of social unrest, will make some more imperfect adjustments until the next crisis. I hope to see the emergence of a new left before I depart this planet.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
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