I came in at 13, left at 23
And what a trip it was.
Called, the formative time of our lives.
Wow was it ever. First car,1926 Roadster.
Mike’s junkyard, “gooda a car you get for 12 bucks. No?”
First love, madly with Beatrice.
Wondered about in the haze of her smell.
Singing, “Let me call you sweetheart I’m in love with you
Let me hear you whisper that you love me too.”
Delicious while it lasted.
It wasn’t meant to be
Broke my heart long before 23.
Lost my romance
The roadster, Beatrice my sweetheart.
Yes, the depression decade.
The song of the time, no sweetheart stuff?
“Brother can you spare a dime?”
“Once I built a railroad made it run
Buddy can you spare a dime.”
Everybody lost a job.
The country out of work and hope.
Not In my world of radicals, anarchists, freethinkers,
How come you ask?
All, Marxists thats how come.
He taught us. Capitalist economy has a disease.
Regular economic dystrophy.
You lost your job? We knew it in our bones
Terrible. Never your fault. The system failed.
Wow what a relief, “no, no” never your fault.
Always, the capitalist system failed.
Result a permanent state of protest.
We marched, demanded jobs, Home Relief, Food
To City Hall, Albany, Washington yes Washington
Tens of thousands descended on the President.
FDR in the White House. He responded.
What else? Respond or face,
Social unrest. People riot in the streets.
Capitalist power threatened.
Soren, the Russian Revolution just across the ocean.
Our rulers wanted none of that.
A lot of shoe leather lost, marching, marching, marching.
Boy did we win.
The New Deal, Welfare, Unemployment Insurance, Social Security,
Unions right to organize, I became,
A union organizer, bringing workers together
A fair share of company profits.
More important their very own dignity.
Fascism was growing in Europe.
A most evil solution to the depression.
Solved the economic disease. The iron fist of a dictator.
New prison, the concentration camp.
Millions died there.
Picketed the German Embassy shouted
“Down with Hitler and Mussolini.” To no avail.
A war in Spain began the fight against fascism.
Americans, our Abraham Lincoln Brigade
Fought the fascists.
Freedom lost, as the rest of the world, did nothing.
With World War two we would pay a terrible price.
Over 50 million died in that Armageddon.
Europe in ruins.
We continued to live our lives.
Picnics in the parks, concerts at Lewsohn Stadium
Your Grandpa a street corner orator.
Called the masses, “rise up defend your rights.”
A new song, for the decade.To John Browns Body.
Solidarity Forever, “For the Union makes us strong.”
We marched sang with upraised fist.
Nothing exhilarates the human spirit as a crusade,
Not to be missed especially in youth.
Soren, Sure hope you can catch one.
Love Great Grandpabob.
PS. Never ever be without a cause, a women to love and a car.
Thank You Kate and Kaima N.H.W.Y.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Anniversary From Hell
Thats what I would call Obama’s year one in the White House. I was actually planning to do another blog in my Great Grandson, “Decades of you Great Grandpa series” It’s in the works about the 1930ies. But that will have to wait while we deal with what has surely set off alarms up in good old Democratic, New England.
Did the news from Massachusetts come as a surprise? No not really. I have had a feeling for sometime that the Obama White House never lost its way. It just never really found it. Back when I was fuming about Geithner, Summer, Bernanke et,al I felt quiet certain that the promise of “Change” was just another bit of campaign hogwash that I had listened to for most of my 92 years. What changed?
The occupant of the White House had to change because George had served his two terms. What exactly was the Obama administration going to change? Watching the Obama folks deal with the economic crisis it became clear that the President was more comfortable helping Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and their compatriots then dealing with how to get a real job creation program underway or stop the foreclosure epidemic. No change there. It was around this time I began to wonder if Obama would go down as a “gutless wonder?” That’s an old Bronx street expression that could very well apply to Obama if he doesn’t begin to fight, yes fight for all those “Changes” he promised. Or is he just a good orator?
I was reliving the early FDR days when thousands of people were put to work within months of FDR’s inauguration. This administration simply is to isolated from the daily lives of average Americans to have any idea how pissed off they are over the economy. If you didn’t lose your job there was a good chance you lost your home while the banks who caused that loss were being bailed out. To add insult to injury these same banks, a few months later are back making record breaking profits with the concomitant of huge bonuses. No change there. Heah Mr. President don’t you know why that truck driver in Democratic old Mass. won the election? PEOPLE ARE JUST ANGRY OVER YOUR FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE THEIR HURT.
If you still don’t get it, just take a look at what happened to the Health Care Legislation. Obama’s made nice with the Health Insurance companies and in the process gave away the store. Same was true with the Pharmaceutical Companies. Who by the way have been raising the prices in case the pending legislation got passed and just might effect their price structure.
The most powerful piece of the original proposal, the Public Option, at the fierce lobbying of the Health Insurers was dropped. That was critical to controlling costs. Yes the government would compete with the insurers for costs. Just like it does with Medicare. Then came the no abortion amendments. And again the administration caved on that. And so it went. People who said that the final legislation would be the greatest boom the Health Insurance industry could have ever dreamed of were absolutely right. So what now?
Obama needs to take a serious look at his priorities. If he can get focused on the economy then he needs to take a very critical eye on his economics team. Get those old Wall Street guys out of there. Bring in fresh new faces and with them a team of, “can do” people who will deal with the unacceptable high levels of unemployment. Mr. President this Anniversary From Hell can be your great wake up call and I sure hope you heed it.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Did the news from Massachusetts come as a surprise? No not really. I have had a feeling for sometime that the Obama White House never lost its way. It just never really found it. Back when I was fuming about Geithner, Summer, Bernanke et,al I felt quiet certain that the promise of “Change” was just another bit of campaign hogwash that I had listened to for most of my 92 years. What changed?
The occupant of the White House had to change because George had served his two terms. What exactly was the Obama administration going to change? Watching the Obama folks deal with the economic crisis it became clear that the President was more comfortable helping Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and their compatriots then dealing with how to get a real job creation program underway or stop the foreclosure epidemic. No change there. It was around this time I began to wonder if Obama would go down as a “gutless wonder?” That’s an old Bronx street expression that could very well apply to Obama if he doesn’t begin to fight, yes fight for all those “Changes” he promised. Or is he just a good orator?
I was reliving the early FDR days when thousands of people were put to work within months of FDR’s inauguration. This administration simply is to isolated from the daily lives of average Americans to have any idea how pissed off they are over the economy. If you didn’t lose your job there was a good chance you lost your home while the banks who caused that loss were being bailed out. To add insult to injury these same banks, a few months later are back making record breaking profits with the concomitant of huge bonuses. No change there. Heah Mr. President don’t you know why that truck driver in Democratic old Mass. won the election? PEOPLE ARE JUST ANGRY OVER YOUR FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE THEIR HURT.
If you still don’t get it, just take a look at what happened to the Health Care Legislation. Obama’s made nice with the Health Insurance companies and in the process gave away the store. Same was true with the Pharmaceutical Companies. Who by the way have been raising the prices in case the pending legislation got passed and just might effect their price structure.
The most powerful piece of the original proposal, the Public Option, at the fierce lobbying of the Health Insurers was dropped. That was critical to controlling costs. Yes the government would compete with the insurers for costs. Just like it does with Medicare. Then came the no abortion amendments. And again the administration caved on that. And so it went. People who said that the final legislation would be the greatest boom the Health Insurance industry could have ever dreamed of were absolutely right. So what now?
Obama needs to take a serious look at his priorities. If he can get focused on the economy then he needs to take a very critical eye on his economics team. Get those old Wall Street guys out of there. Bring in fresh new faces and with them a team of, “can do” people who will deal with the unacceptable high levels of unemployment. Mr. President this Anniversary From Hell can be your great wake up call and I sure hope you heed it.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Buy American?
Here I am again recalling the Great Depression of the 30ies. Living long means you are repeatedly called on to tell “how was it back there when the stock-market dove and a third of the workforce was unemployed?” Clearly it wasn’t good, but as a kid you have a different perspective. My family never had a lot so we didn’t have much to lose. Yes, our diet changed. We ate lots more animal organs and drank powdered milk and listened to FDR’s “Fireside Chats” on the radio. I do remember him pleading with us to “BUY AMERICAN.” This was part of a campaign to get the unemployment rate down. I have been puzzling about how this might apply to our present unemployment problem. This is what I have come up with.
Traditional manufacturing has been disappearing from the US since the advent of globalization. We stopped making almost all the stuff that we traditionally bought, including clothing, shoes, appliances, furniture, cars, electronics, toys and food. Too many economists have long argued that we no longer need our manufacturing base. I remember when Kenneth Galbraith argued that all we needed was people to do our laundry and we would sell our knowledge and service industries to the rest of the world. At the time it struck me as pretty idiotic. Since I was closely associated with Unions, I was told that I simply did not understand the emerging paradigm. I admit that was intimidating.
Now it is 30-40 years later and where are we? We are told that the economy is dependent on the consumer. If the consumer stops buying, the whole economy goes bust. What I can’t get through my thick head is what good is consumer spending if the major beneficiaries will be China, Malaysia, Honduras, Viet Nam, and lets not forget oil and the Middle East. Our new bunch of economists seem to forget what their forerunners told us.
We are only now beginning to reap the consequences of giving up our industrial manufacturing base. It was through those good, unionized jobs in steel, auto, chemicals, appliances, and machine tools that generations of Americans were able to make it into what became known as the middle class. The machine tool industry that used to dominate the economies of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont are all gone. They were the essential essential tools necessary for making machines that made all the manufactured goods. Without them we will end up making nothing. Doesn’t anybody understand the threat this is to our military? (Imagine me having to ask this question?)
Oh how I remember members of the Machinists Union saying, “I work in this dump to make sure my kids can go to college and never have to enter a factory door.” For many of those Machinists that turned out to be true. But for many of their children the factory was still their best opportunity for a decent job with solid benefits. Most of that was wiped out in the Globalization euphoria. I am sure there are many turning points, but for me it was when China was welcomed into the WTO in 2001. Since then we have shut 42,000 factories. We have lost about 17 million manufacturing jobs; the same number of jobs that presently represent the millions of unemployed. (I include those out of work people who have given up looking as well as those in part-time work.) By the way, on a percentage basis this is not far off from the 1930ies figure.
People like NY Times Columnist Thomas Friedman seem unable to quit writing about the wonders of Globalization and what it has done for the people in Third World Countries. That is in serious question. If one starts with a zero income and foraging for food in the garbage dumps, and than lands a job making sneakers for Nike at the wondrous salary of $2.50 a week, yes you can call that progress. For Friedman that is a dramatic improvement. For the people who have lost their jobs and for the US economy, that’s a tragedy. It does not solve the problem of the third world country as Nike will pack up and move to another third world place where they can get the same work for $1.50 a week. In the meantime the whole structure of our economy here at home has been busted; resulting in our highest unemployment since the great depression while Nike makes record profits from its overseas operations.
The argument that our industries were inefficient and outmoded is sheer humbug. It took a US Steel plant two man-hours to make a ton of steel. In China it takes 12 man-hours to make the same ton and three times the amount of carbon emissions. So who’s more efficient? We were of course. So why can’t we compete? China keeps its currency artificially cheap. Its companies pay zero, zilch, nothing, for health care and housing, and pay poverty wages. Should we want to compete with that? I think not, unless we want to take us back to the living standards of the 19th century.
So what will consumer spending do for us now? It will increase the trade deficit, since we are buying more from overseas than what we sell. The US trade deficit will not decline unless we can re-establish a manufacturing base. We simply cannot keeping buying stuff from China with nothing to sell them. In 2008 our world wide import was $2.5 trillion. In the same year we exported $1.2 trillion, or a deficit of $800 billion. In 2008 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide, not a one made in the US. Our major export to China now is our waste paper. Maybe that’s what they sell back to us in the stink smelling Dry Wall?
All of this is to say we need a policy that will bring back our manufacturing base or we are doomed as a major player in the world economy. Have you read all those predictions about China becoming the worlds dominant economic powerhouse?. It was our manufacturing ability that made the US the number one player in the world’s economic competition. Without it we are doomed to be a second rate country completely dependent on others to keep supplying us with our basic needs, as well as buying our debt in hope that someday we may find a way to pay them back. How to bring back manufacturing? Maybe start with Buy American as a wake up call?
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Traditional manufacturing has been disappearing from the US since the advent of globalization. We stopped making almost all the stuff that we traditionally bought, including clothing, shoes, appliances, furniture, cars, electronics, toys and food. Too many economists have long argued that we no longer need our manufacturing base. I remember when Kenneth Galbraith argued that all we needed was people to do our laundry and we would sell our knowledge and service industries to the rest of the world. At the time it struck me as pretty idiotic. Since I was closely associated with Unions, I was told that I simply did not understand the emerging paradigm. I admit that was intimidating.
Now it is 30-40 years later and where are we? We are told that the economy is dependent on the consumer. If the consumer stops buying, the whole economy goes bust. What I can’t get through my thick head is what good is consumer spending if the major beneficiaries will be China, Malaysia, Honduras, Viet Nam, and lets not forget oil and the Middle East. Our new bunch of economists seem to forget what their forerunners told us.
We are only now beginning to reap the consequences of giving up our industrial manufacturing base. It was through those good, unionized jobs in steel, auto, chemicals, appliances, and machine tools that generations of Americans were able to make it into what became known as the middle class. The machine tool industry that used to dominate the economies of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont are all gone. They were the essential essential tools necessary for making machines that made all the manufactured goods. Without them we will end up making nothing. Doesn’t anybody understand the threat this is to our military? (Imagine me having to ask this question?)
Oh how I remember members of the Machinists Union saying, “I work in this dump to make sure my kids can go to college and never have to enter a factory door.” For many of those Machinists that turned out to be true. But for many of their children the factory was still their best opportunity for a decent job with solid benefits. Most of that was wiped out in the Globalization euphoria. I am sure there are many turning points, but for me it was when China was welcomed into the WTO in 2001. Since then we have shut 42,000 factories. We have lost about 17 million manufacturing jobs; the same number of jobs that presently represent the millions of unemployed. (I include those out of work people who have given up looking as well as those in part-time work.) By the way, on a percentage basis this is not far off from the 1930ies figure.
People like NY Times Columnist Thomas Friedman seem unable to quit writing about the wonders of Globalization and what it has done for the people in Third World Countries. That is in serious question. If one starts with a zero income and foraging for food in the garbage dumps, and than lands a job making sneakers for Nike at the wondrous salary of $2.50 a week, yes you can call that progress. For Friedman that is a dramatic improvement. For the people who have lost their jobs and for the US economy, that’s a tragedy. It does not solve the problem of the third world country as Nike will pack up and move to another third world place where they can get the same work for $1.50 a week. In the meantime the whole structure of our economy here at home has been busted; resulting in our highest unemployment since the great depression while Nike makes record profits from its overseas operations.
The argument that our industries were inefficient and outmoded is sheer humbug. It took a US Steel plant two man-hours to make a ton of steel. In China it takes 12 man-hours to make the same ton and three times the amount of carbon emissions. So who’s more efficient? We were of course. So why can’t we compete? China keeps its currency artificially cheap. Its companies pay zero, zilch, nothing, for health care and housing, and pay poverty wages. Should we want to compete with that? I think not, unless we want to take us back to the living standards of the 19th century.
So what will consumer spending do for us now? It will increase the trade deficit, since we are buying more from overseas than what we sell. The US trade deficit will not decline unless we can re-establish a manufacturing base. We simply cannot keeping buying stuff from China with nothing to sell them. In 2008 our world wide import was $2.5 trillion. In the same year we exported $1.2 trillion, or a deficit of $800 billion. In 2008 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide, not a one made in the US. Our major export to China now is our waste paper. Maybe that’s what they sell back to us in the stink smelling Dry Wall?
All of this is to say we need a policy that will bring back our manufacturing base or we are doomed as a major player in the world economy. Have you read all those predictions about China becoming the worlds dominant economic powerhouse?. It was our manufacturing ability that made the US the number one player in the world’s economic competition. Without it we are doomed to be a second rate country completely dependent on others to keep supplying us with our basic needs, as well as buying our debt in hope that someday we may find a way to pay them back. How to bring back manufacturing? Maybe start with Buy American as a wake up call?
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Friday, January 1, 2010
9/11 All Over Again
I cannot believe that we are reliving 9/11 all over again. No, very luckily we have not had a plane brought down by some terrorists from Saudi Arabia. That’s where they came from last time. (Alas it was not a result of an action by one of the many Government Agencies setup to protect us.) What saved us this time was the action of a passenger on the plane.
After 9/11 by the time the smoke cleared and the debris from the WTC was carted away, all the explanation we got from the White House was “a failure to connect dots.” Man, if that wasn’t the biggest dose of White House bullshit. I can’t remember any bigger. There was an FBI agent in Minneapolis, Miss Crowley, sending memos to headquarters in Washington that some Muslims were learning to fly big airplanes, but not land them or takeoff. (Maybe they wanted to fly them at 30,000 feet just for the thrill of it?) But no one connected the dots. Hey, maybe they were going to smash these suckers into something and that’s how they would land them? But no one connected the dots.
What pissed me off back then is that in spite of billions of dollars spent on agencies like the CIA and the FBI, they were failing to do what the taxpayers were paying them for. Not one single person back then in the Bush years was fired for incompetence as a result of 9/11. Not one single person held responsible. Can you believe that?
Okay, so here we are again. The father of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a young man from Nigeria, warned the US Embassy in Nigeria that his son was getting cuckoo as a result of too much training in Jihad. The father warned that his son could be up to no good. Now the first thing that SOMEBODY in the Embassy should have done was lift the Visa that permitted him to travel by plane to the USA. It wasn’t done. He or she should be fired.
The National Center for Terrorism in the US, a super agency setup after 9/11 and headed by Dennis Blair, was sent a memorandum from the British M1 saying Abdulmulallaro was suspicious and they had put him on a no fly list. The agency did nothing. Dennis Blair should be fired. Next comes the CIA that also got information about Abdulmulallaro, and they failed to connect the dots. Sorry, but nice old Mr. Pannetta was put there because the Obama folks’ couldn’t find a bright young policeman who might have had a better idea than to keep thinking about dots. Pannetta should be sent packing back to California where he much prefers to be anyhow.
My whole point here is that the unwritten Washington law states “no matter how badly officials screw up, nobody gets fired.” That simple rule came into effect in order to protect them all. Talk about a union. There’s one that covers the collective asses of all those high on the Federal tit. I am just anxious to see whether or not Obama can deliver at least some of that promise of “Change” so loudly touted in the campaign.
Yes Mr. President, there are times you need to use your authority as the Commander in Chief (the equivalent of the CEO) and simply say to Ms. Napoletano, Mr Pannetta, Denis Blair, and the State Department Head of the Nigerian Embassy, “Sorry folks, you simply failed to do you jobs so you are out of here.” Wow, wouldn’t that be refreshing. Maybe I’m just dreaming, but hopefully maybe not.
Lest I forget, A very happy New Year to youall. Kate and I danced in 2010 as we have done for the last 22 years.
Thanks Kate. N.H.W.Y.
After 9/11 by the time the smoke cleared and the debris from the WTC was carted away, all the explanation we got from the White House was “a failure to connect dots.” Man, if that wasn’t the biggest dose of White House bullshit. I can’t remember any bigger. There was an FBI agent in Minneapolis, Miss Crowley, sending memos to headquarters in Washington that some Muslims were learning to fly big airplanes, but not land them or takeoff. (Maybe they wanted to fly them at 30,000 feet just for the thrill of it?) But no one connected the dots. Hey, maybe they were going to smash these suckers into something and that’s how they would land them? But no one connected the dots.
What pissed me off back then is that in spite of billions of dollars spent on agencies like the CIA and the FBI, they were failing to do what the taxpayers were paying them for. Not one single person back then in the Bush years was fired for incompetence as a result of 9/11. Not one single person held responsible. Can you believe that?
Okay, so here we are again. The father of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a young man from Nigeria, warned the US Embassy in Nigeria that his son was getting cuckoo as a result of too much training in Jihad. The father warned that his son could be up to no good. Now the first thing that SOMEBODY in the Embassy should have done was lift the Visa that permitted him to travel by plane to the USA. It wasn’t done. He or she should be fired.
The National Center for Terrorism in the US, a super agency setup after 9/11 and headed by Dennis Blair, was sent a memorandum from the British M1 saying Abdulmulallaro was suspicious and they had put him on a no fly list. The agency did nothing. Dennis Blair should be fired. Next comes the CIA that also got information about Abdulmulallaro, and they failed to connect the dots. Sorry, but nice old Mr. Pannetta was put there because the Obama folks’ couldn’t find a bright young policeman who might have had a better idea than to keep thinking about dots. Pannetta should be sent packing back to California where he much prefers to be anyhow.
My whole point here is that the unwritten Washington law states “no matter how badly officials screw up, nobody gets fired.” That simple rule came into effect in order to protect them all. Talk about a union. There’s one that covers the collective asses of all those high on the Federal tit. I am just anxious to see whether or not Obama can deliver at least some of that promise of “Change” so loudly touted in the campaign.
Yes Mr. President, there are times you need to use your authority as the Commander in Chief (the equivalent of the CEO) and simply say to Ms. Napoletano, Mr Pannetta, Denis Blair, and the State Department Head of the Nigerian Embassy, “Sorry folks, you simply failed to do you jobs so you are out of here.” Wow, wouldn’t that be refreshing. Maybe I’m just dreaming, but hopefully maybe not.
Lest I forget, A very happy New Year to youall. Kate and I danced in 2010 as we have done for the last 22 years.
Thanks Kate. N.H.W.Y.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Thoughts Around XMas Time
A couple of items in the Times today caught me eye. First there was a fire at the Morris Park Gym up there on Morris Park Avenue in the North Bronx. I lived two blocks away from that Gym at 586 Morris Park Avenue. (The things we remember.) On occasion I would stop in and watch, mostly Golden Glove hopefuls, working out. Periodically a trainer would ask if I wanted to try a little workout in the ring. I did once, got one good smack in the nose that started to bleed and that ended of my boxing career.
There were many old time boxers who hung out at the gym and dreamed of comebacks. There was old Italian guy who they called “smash” mostly because thats what his face looked like. He would run up and down the street shadow boxing with some unseen opponent. Kids would go find a bell somewheres and when they saw Smash they would hit the bell and he’d come tearing out as though he was in the ring yelling, “where is he where is he?” Kids would point, “he’s over there. Pointing in another direction “No he’s over there.” and this poor old guy would go punching and yelling “where’s the bastard. Wheres that yella sonamabitch.”
One long Spring evening as the game with “Smash was going on my Papa came by and happened to see what was happening. He called me over sat me down on the stoop and asked, “why are you torturing that poor man?” I said I thought he liked the idea of boxing and that’s what he was doing.” Papa disagreed. He said,” the mans brain has been punched so much that he now is punch drunk and can’t do anything else. He is sick and should not be tormented by a bunch of kids taking advantage of his sickness to get a few laughs, that's just cruel.” “But” Papa I said “he seems to enjoy it.” “No” he said, “he just can’t help himself and that's how we know he is sick. So I don’t want you to be part of that anymore. It’s cruel and we don’t believe in being cruel to others or animals like our dog or cat.”
When my Papa left all the kids gathered round the stoop wanting to know what he said? I told them as best I could. They talked about it for a while and then they agreed we wouldn’t do that anymore.Yet periodically I would see Smash running up and down Morris park Avenue shadow boxing with a shadow. I never saw the kids do the bell thing again.
Second piece that caught my eye was an Obituary to Lester Rodney who I had occasion to meet back in the 30ies. He was a sports writer for the Daily Worker a communist newspaper. As the Obit said he was a very early champion of Black athletes in the major leagues. “In 1936, more than a decade before Jackie Robinson broke the major league color barrier, Mr.Rodney pressured the baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and the major league club owners to end baseball’s racial barrier.”
“In recounting the mounting pressures baseball faced to end its color barrier Arnold Rampersad wrote in his 1997 biography of Jackie Robinson that the most vigorous effort came from the “Communist press.” He added, “that if Robinson was perceived by civil rights workers ---and especially Martin luther King as a historical turning point, anybody who facilitated the emergence of Jackie Robinson should be seen as one of the heroes of race integration.” He was referring to Lester Rodney.
It is sad that that the role of the left in the history of the 20th Century is often denigrated to mostly the horrors of Stalin in the Soviet Union. It is the obituaries that periodically we learn of the the Lester Rodneys of the thirties of which I consider myself to be a part. The left in this country was in the forefront of most of the movements for change that had direct bearing on the dramatic improvement of the plight of the working class that nowadays is called the middle class. (With the loss of manufacturing it is rapidly disappearing. (More about that in my next blog.)
I found it interesting that this obituary appeared on XMas eve period of time when the christian world is celebrating the man I believe was the first socialist thinker Jesus Christ. He and my father had an awful lot in common. For that I am so very thankful.
Wishing you all a very Happy Holiday and a Better New year.
Thank you kate N.H.W.Y.
There were many old time boxers who hung out at the gym and dreamed of comebacks. There was old Italian guy who they called “smash” mostly because thats what his face looked like. He would run up and down the street shadow boxing with some unseen opponent. Kids would go find a bell somewheres and when they saw Smash they would hit the bell and he’d come tearing out as though he was in the ring yelling, “where is he where is he?” Kids would point, “he’s over there. Pointing in another direction “No he’s over there.” and this poor old guy would go punching and yelling “where’s the bastard. Wheres that yella sonamabitch.”
One long Spring evening as the game with “Smash was going on my Papa came by and happened to see what was happening. He called me over sat me down on the stoop and asked, “why are you torturing that poor man?” I said I thought he liked the idea of boxing and that’s what he was doing.” Papa disagreed. He said,” the mans brain has been punched so much that he now is punch drunk and can’t do anything else. He is sick and should not be tormented by a bunch of kids taking advantage of his sickness to get a few laughs, that's just cruel.” “But” Papa I said “he seems to enjoy it.” “No” he said, “he just can’t help himself and that's how we know he is sick. So I don’t want you to be part of that anymore. It’s cruel and we don’t believe in being cruel to others or animals like our dog or cat.”
When my Papa left all the kids gathered round the stoop wanting to know what he said? I told them as best I could. They talked about it for a while and then they agreed we wouldn’t do that anymore.Yet periodically I would see Smash running up and down Morris park Avenue shadow boxing with a shadow. I never saw the kids do the bell thing again.
Second piece that caught my eye was an Obituary to Lester Rodney who I had occasion to meet back in the 30ies. He was a sports writer for the Daily Worker a communist newspaper. As the Obit said he was a very early champion of Black athletes in the major leagues. “In 1936, more than a decade before Jackie Robinson broke the major league color barrier, Mr.Rodney pressured the baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and the major league club owners to end baseball’s racial barrier.”
“In recounting the mounting pressures baseball faced to end its color barrier Arnold Rampersad wrote in his 1997 biography of Jackie Robinson that the most vigorous effort came from the “Communist press.” He added, “that if Robinson was perceived by civil rights workers ---and especially Martin luther King as a historical turning point, anybody who facilitated the emergence of Jackie Robinson should be seen as one of the heroes of race integration.” He was referring to Lester Rodney.
It is sad that that the role of the left in the history of the 20th Century is often denigrated to mostly the horrors of Stalin in the Soviet Union. It is the obituaries that periodically we learn of the the Lester Rodneys of the thirties of which I consider myself to be a part. The left in this country was in the forefront of most of the movements for change that had direct bearing on the dramatic improvement of the plight of the working class that nowadays is called the middle class. (With the loss of manufacturing it is rapidly disappearing. (More about that in my next blog.)
I found it interesting that this obituary appeared on XMas eve period of time when the christian world is celebrating the man I believe was the first socialist thinker Jesus Christ. He and my father had an awful lot in common. For that I am so very thankful.
Wishing you all a very Happy Holiday and a Better New year.
Thank you kate N.H.W.Y.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Celebrities
Warning: This Blog is rated “R”. (Need to do this as I have some readers who have who have told me their children shouldn’t hear bad words.) Oh well, what can I say.
Celebrities
I have long been fascinated with our country’s intense interest in the lives of our chosen. These are people in the worlds of entertainment, sports and politics. At a very young age I learned of celebrities like Heavyweight Champion Jack Dempsey and movie stars like Charlie Chaplin, Tom Mix, Gloria Swanson and so on. They were written about in The Daily News, The Mirror, and most notorious, The Police Gazette. I do remember one Gazette headline, “Crooner Russ Colombo Shot by a Pal?” All the boys in PS 34 thought that was the funniest thing in the world. Fatty Arbuckle, the 350 pound comedian, got on top of some Hollywood starlet and killed her. Now that was almost as much fun as the Colombo thing, but there was that extra zest of sex. We didn’t have a clue what that was about, but we knew it was forbidden fruit.
Than there was the case of Errol Flynn and his encounter with a Starlet on his yacht. In the 30ies and 40ies there were all kinds of law suites that could result from some casual assignation, like “alienation of affection.” This girl friend of Flynn’s sued him for that and so the whole steamy story ended up in the tabloids. The young women described to the judge what happened on the boat. Flynn invited her to come on down to the cabin. Then he got undressed. The judge asked,”Did he have all his clothes off?” “No,” replied the woman, “he kept his shoes on.” Later on in the trial the judge asked Flynn why he kept his shoes on? Flynn replied, “Your honor, you have to be very careful about athletes foot.” Well of course the whole country got a great laugh out of that one. Yes, I know what your thinking, so how come Schrank remembers that so well? I’ll tell you later.
Keep in mind that was all well before television. Radio was just in its infancy. That meant the major source for this stuff came from the tabloids. We would pick it up primarily from our parents or older kids who were reading the tabloids. What was it that made this stuff about celebrities private lives so interesting and engaging?
With the advent of television this kind of celebrity gossip has become a major business enterprise. Which brings me to yes, you guessed it, Tiger Woods. I was sitting in a bar in St Croix. It was sometime around 4.30 and all the blue collar pickup-truck guys were there. The PGA was on the tube and it was Tiger’s first big win. The guys at the bar are pissin’ and moanin’. “Jesus Christ, now the fuckin’ niggers are gonna take over the only white man’s game.” I said, “Well, you got to admit he is one cool golfer.” That of course went nowheres, as I was told how we white folks have lost football, basketball and even baseball, the country’s signature sport. What did impress even the worst of the bar crowd was Tiger’s cool.
So what happened? We seem to have an obsessive need to create these celebrity heroes. We imbue them with all kinds of magical powers. They are not supposed to have any ordinary human foibles. Sports fans buy team jackets and jerseys to wear because, as one guy explained to me, “It makes me feel just like him.” With all this we still have that puritan streak that wants us to think of our heroes as chaste, sincere homebodies. It’s the sex stuff that we really eat up, because all of us have the same desires that we try to tamp down, but so often get the best of us. That’s why I remembered the Errol Flynn story so vividly. So what is going on here?
I need to go back to Walden Pond and Henry David Thoreau, who suggested that “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” If that was true back in Thoreau’s time how much worse must it be now? Back then there was opportunity to gain some identity through individual effort, to make a living and support a family. The mass society that we live in now has very little room for individuals to become much more than another number in the world of people going to work in the office towers of the city or the assembly lines of the factory. It is in that “desperation” that people try to live another life by creating a closeness with a celebrity of their own choosing. We imbue them with the characteristics we admire and feel uplifted because he or she is us and we are them. The fans made Tiger Woods into somebody he obviously never was. It’s as if he was imagined by his fans into this chaste, clean, cool homebody where the word “cheated” would never be heard. Yes, like in “Home on the Range.”
It’s not that Woods went off the track. It’s his legions of fans who were off the track right along. They needed him to be this pure cool golfer who could show the world how great we are. Now he has behaved like so many who live in quiet desperation that we can no longer abide with him. He has really betrayed his fans by acting like so many of them. He broke that hero mold, so what have we got left. Nothing but that dammed old “quiet desperation.”
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Celebrities
I have long been fascinated with our country’s intense interest in the lives of our chosen. These are people in the worlds of entertainment, sports and politics. At a very young age I learned of celebrities like Heavyweight Champion Jack Dempsey and movie stars like Charlie Chaplin, Tom Mix, Gloria Swanson and so on. They were written about in The Daily News, The Mirror, and most notorious, The Police Gazette. I do remember one Gazette headline, “Crooner Russ Colombo Shot by a Pal?” All the boys in PS 34 thought that was the funniest thing in the world. Fatty Arbuckle, the 350 pound comedian, got on top of some Hollywood starlet and killed her. Now that was almost as much fun as the Colombo thing, but there was that extra zest of sex. We didn’t have a clue what that was about, but we knew it was forbidden fruit.
Than there was the case of Errol Flynn and his encounter with a Starlet on his yacht. In the 30ies and 40ies there were all kinds of law suites that could result from some casual assignation, like “alienation of affection.” This girl friend of Flynn’s sued him for that and so the whole steamy story ended up in the tabloids. The young women described to the judge what happened on the boat. Flynn invited her to come on down to the cabin. Then he got undressed. The judge asked,”Did he have all his clothes off?” “No,” replied the woman, “he kept his shoes on.” Later on in the trial the judge asked Flynn why he kept his shoes on? Flynn replied, “Your honor, you have to be very careful about athletes foot.” Well of course the whole country got a great laugh out of that one. Yes, I know what your thinking, so how come Schrank remembers that so well? I’ll tell you later.
Keep in mind that was all well before television. Radio was just in its infancy. That meant the major source for this stuff came from the tabloids. We would pick it up primarily from our parents or older kids who were reading the tabloids. What was it that made this stuff about celebrities private lives so interesting and engaging?
With the advent of television this kind of celebrity gossip has become a major business enterprise. Which brings me to yes, you guessed it, Tiger Woods. I was sitting in a bar in St Croix. It was sometime around 4.30 and all the blue collar pickup-truck guys were there. The PGA was on the tube and it was Tiger’s first big win. The guys at the bar are pissin’ and moanin’. “Jesus Christ, now the fuckin’ niggers are gonna take over the only white man’s game.” I said, “Well, you got to admit he is one cool golfer.” That of course went nowheres, as I was told how we white folks have lost football, basketball and even baseball, the country’s signature sport. What did impress even the worst of the bar crowd was Tiger’s cool.
So what happened? We seem to have an obsessive need to create these celebrity heroes. We imbue them with all kinds of magical powers. They are not supposed to have any ordinary human foibles. Sports fans buy team jackets and jerseys to wear because, as one guy explained to me, “It makes me feel just like him.” With all this we still have that puritan streak that wants us to think of our heroes as chaste, sincere homebodies. It’s the sex stuff that we really eat up, because all of us have the same desires that we try to tamp down, but so often get the best of us. That’s why I remembered the Errol Flynn story so vividly. So what is going on here?
I need to go back to Walden Pond and Henry David Thoreau, who suggested that “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” If that was true back in Thoreau’s time how much worse must it be now? Back then there was opportunity to gain some identity through individual effort, to make a living and support a family. The mass society that we live in now has very little room for individuals to become much more than another number in the world of people going to work in the office towers of the city or the assembly lines of the factory. It is in that “desperation” that people try to live another life by creating a closeness with a celebrity of their own choosing. We imbue them with the characteristics we admire and feel uplifted because he or she is us and we are them. The fans made Tiger Woods into somebody he obviously never was. It’s as if he was imagined by his fans into this chaste, clean, cool homebody where the word “cheated” would never be heard. Yes, like in “Home on the Range.”
It’s not that Woods went off the track. It’s his legions of fans who were off the track right along. They needed him to be this pure cool golfer who could show the world how great we are. Now he has behaved like so many who live in quiet desperation that we can no longer abide with him. He has really betrayed his fans by acting like so many of them. He broke that hero mold, so what have we got left. Nothing but that dammed old “quiet desperation.”
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
Monday, December 7, 2009
The Afghanistan Dither
After many weeks of “dither,” this word seldom heard or used burst into prominence. The right wing accused Obama of dithering, i.e. lacking decision making regarding the war in Afghanistan. I went to Webster to see what exactly it meant to “dither.” “Dither: Trembling, quivering. State of great agitation, excitable confusion. To act hesitatingly or in a disturbed or excited manner.”
There you have it. Now which word is referring to Obama? Well he was not quivering or in great agitation, so I guess he was hesitating. How dare he hesitate when we are supposed to be off to war. Yes, McCain, Beck, Huckabee, et al were accusing the President of the brand new crime of “dithering” over what to do with the war in Afghanistan. The White House insisted that the President was very deeply involved studying his options with all his top advisors. In fact the Sunday Times reported that he had been in constant discussions with 16 of his top advisors, half of whom were military and the others Cabinet members like Clinton, Biden, Rice and Emanuel. That’s who he had been dithering with for weeks trying to figure out what to do about the Afganistan war.
They came to the conclusion that they would send in 30,000 more troops and create some benchmarks to be met for the Afganis’ under Karzai. In exchange for this effort we would start to draw down our troops by 2011. Here’s the thing that drives me nuts. We have this big kabuki gathering of Generals and other high level government bureaucrats. Each plays their role. “I am the General so give me more troops and stuff. I am Special Envoy so I tell Karzai to shape up or else. As Secretary of State I will get support amongst allies,” and so on and so forth.
I don’t believe that any of this had beans to do with the final decision. During the campaign Obama made clear his opposition to escalating the war. Now he’s the President, so what happened? What is missing from the West Point speech and the long newspaper articles is the political considerations that that went into the decision making process.
Here’s how I think it went. First of all, we have this serious economic situation here at home. If we don’t get the unemployment numbers under control by 2010 Obama is going to take a shellacking in the midterms. If he walks away from Afghanistan, the right wing will use the old excuse that the Dems are soft on terrorists and are giving into our enemies. That’s a serious threat to Obama’s chances in 2012. That’s what went into the Administration’s decision to pick up where George Bush left off. Did we already forget that with all the expose of the “phony war” against non-existent WMD, old George won re-election anyway. In my opinion, if Obama wants a second term, he has to follow the Bush strategy. Political lesson: “It is far better to keep fighting a dumb war that will solve nothing in the end than to take action against it and end it.” The politicos are also haunted by the spectacle of poor old LBJ in his last days; a sort of King Lear victim of the Veitnam fiasco. I am also reminded that we nostalgically cling to our myths of wild west frontier where the lone shootemup cowboy is our legendary hero. We want to relive that in every military encounter.
So as we listen to all the Generals, Special Envoys’ Holbrooke or Mitchell, and assorted other experts, keep in mind that what we are seeing is primarily a political decision. It has more to do with what’s happening on the ground here at home than in the hills of Kandahar, Waziristan or Kabul.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
There you have it. Now which word is referring to Obama? Well he was not quivering or in great agitation, so I guess he was hesitating. How dare he hesitate when we are supposed to be off to war. Yes, McCain, Beck, Huckabee, et al were accusing the President of the brand new crime of “dithering” over what to do with the war in Afghanistan. The White House insisted that the President was very deeply involved studying his options with all his top advisors. In fact the Sunday Times reported that he had been in constant discussions with 16 of his top advisors, half of whom were military and the others Cabinet members like Clinton, Biden, Rice and Emanuel. That’s who he had been dithering with for weeks trying to figure out what to do about the Afganistan war.
They came to the conclusion that they would send in 30,000 more troops and create some benchmarks to be met for the Afganis’ under Karzai. In exchange for this effort we would start to draw down our troops by 2011. Here’s the thing that drives me nuts. We have this big kabuki gathering of Generals and other high level government bureaucrats. Each plays their role. “I am the General so give me more troops and stuff. I am Special Envoy so I tell Karzai to shape up or else. As Secretary of State I will get support amongst allies,” and so on and so forth.
I don’t believe that any of this had beans to do with the final decision. During the campaign Obama made clear his opposition to escalating the war. Now he’s the President, so what happened? What is missing from the West Point speech and the long newspaper articles is the political considerations that that went into the decision making process.
Here’s how I think it went. First of all, we have this serious economic situation here at home. If we don’t get the unemployment numbers under control by 2010 Obama is going to take a shellacking in the midterms. If he walks away from Afghanistan, the right wing will use the old excuse that the Dems are soft on terrorists and are giving into our enemies. That’s a serious threat to Obama’s chances in 2012. That’s what went into the Administration’s decision to pick up where George Bush left off. Did we already forget that with all the expose of the “phony war” against non-existent WMD, old George won re-election anyway. In my opinion, if Obama wants a second term, he has to follow the Bush strategy. Political lesson: “It is far better to keep fighting a dumb war that will solve nothing in the end than to take action against it and end it.” The politicos are also haunted by the spectacle of poor old LBJ in his last days; a sort of King Lear victim of the Veitnam fiasco. I am also reminded that we nostalgically cling to our myths of wild west frontier where the lone shootemup cowboy is our legendary hero. We want to relive that in every military encounter.
So as we listen to all the Generals, Special Envoys’ Holbrooke or Mitchell, and assorted other experts, keep in mind that what we are seeing is primarily a political decision. It has more to do with what’s happening on the ground here at home than in the hills of Kandahar, Waziristan or Kabul.
Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y.
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