Indians break treaty with U.S.

I thought that would get your attention.  After hundreds and hundreds of cases where the U.S. broke treaties with Indians, a judge has ruled that the Muscogee Nation broke an 1866 treaty between the federal government and five tribes that granted their former slaves, also known as Freedman, “all the rights“ of citizens of the tribes.

The Muskogee Nation, worried that Black descendants of Muskogee slaves would outnumber Muskogee Indians, in 1979 decided that only Indians “by blood” were eligible for citizenship.  That was what Judge Denette Moser of the tribe’s District Court ruled was a violation of the 1866 Treaty.  Note that this was a judge for the Muskogee Nation.

See Chris Cameron, “Judge Rules Freedmen Are Eligible To Join Tribe,” New York Times, (Sept. 30, 2023), p. A14.

The Voting Machine saga

In 2006 Carbon County phased out its very large (about five feet high and long) and very heavy (about 800 pounds) voting machines and replaced them with light computerized machines.  The old machines were put up for bid.  I bid $50 for one and got it.  The other machines (about 70) were taken for scrap metal.

Today we took the machine I bought to the State Museum in Harrisburg.  I signed up to rent a box truck with a lift gate.  The truck the rental agency had available for me was huge, bigger than anything I ever drove before.  Luckily my friend Rocky, who was experienced, stepped forward to drive.

A number of people came to help load the machine on the truck.  Three were members of the Towamensing Township Historical Commission, one was a Towamensing Township Supervisor accompanied by two crew members, and one was a Carbon County Commissioner.  This was really a gift from our Township and our County.  The Director of Carbon County elections when the machines were used arrived to show us how to operate the machine and explained how they were transported to the polling places.  

We took photos and videos.  A local TV station reporter and a local newspaper reporter arrived to document the loading.  

When Rocky and I reached the museum, we found the truck was too tall to pass under the entryway to the loading dock in the museum’s basement.  After hurried consultation, two museum employees led us to a warehouse about 15 miles west of Harrisburg.  Unloading there went smoothly.  Museum officials were impressed by the excellent condition of the machine, and we will send them pictures of the Election Director explaining the machine’s provenance.  It was a good day.

Opposing solar farms

A group of people opposing a proposed solar farm in a nearby township was on the local news tonight.  I find these people incredibly annoying.  Unless they are living in homes that are completely off the grid, they are using electricity.  It has to be produced.  Oil?  Fracking for gas?  Nuclear power?  Burning trees?  We don’t have any geo-thermal around here, so that is out.  Hydro usually requires large dams.  

Solar and wind power are both clean.  Both contribute little to global warming.  They don’t require water.  They don’t produce long-term radioactive waste.  They don’t poison underground aquifers.  They don’t emit particulates.  They don’t produce air pollution.  

Oh wait.  They don’t look attractive.  Wow.

The AR-15

Two Wall Street Journal reporters, Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, have recently written American Gun:  The True Story of the AR-15.  The inventor was a guy named Eugene Stoner, and he built it in the mid-Fifties very close to Hollywood.  The first person to fire it who was not an employee of the manufacturing company was John Wayne. 

In 1966 the Pentagon ordered 403,905 of the rifles, but it called them M16s and made a few changes, some of which tended to make the rifle jam.  The first mass shooting using an AR-15 took place at an Oregon nightclub in 1979.  

I doubt too many AR-15 owners will read the book.  While I could be wrong, I don’t picture them as people who read much.

Modern day campaigning

Let’s say you are a candidate for a local office, perhaps borough council.  You want to reach out to the voters and give them your pitch.  What do you do?

Door to door canvassing?  Almost useless.  People have those doorbells that take your picture.  If they don’t know you they won’t answer the door.  If they do answer, they are often times rude or downright nasty.

Phoning?  Almost everyone has phones that show the number of the person calling.  If people don’t know the number, they won’t answer the phone.

Newspaper ads?  Small town newspapers are pretty much a thing of the past.  We still have one in Carbon County, but not very many people subscribe.  

Text messages?  You need a phone number.

Facebook?  Good luck with that.

Direct mail?  Have you priced postage lately?  Even a postcard costs 51¢.  51¢!

Door hangers?  That’s where you hang information on the front door knob.  It’s relatively cheap, and the voter may read it.  One problem is they don’t work in rural areas.

Television?  Way too expensive for the average candidate.

Yard signs?  They work, but most people won’t even think of putting up a yard sign.  Their neighbors might not like it.

If you have any solutions to this, let me know. 

Biden then and now

Two nights ago I watched a documentary about Nancy Pelosi, filmed and edited by her daughter.  It was fun to see her in action, and it was amazing how she managed to work around Trump and frustrate him.  What struck me, however, was seeing the portion on Biden’s swearing in in January 2020.  He looked so fit, spoke so well.  In just three years he seems to have aged a decade at least.

What will he be like at the end of another five years?  Yeah, I’m one of those Democrats who wishes he would step down.  On the other hand, a lame duck president often has very little clout.  Maybe he is just waiting until the right time.

Sen. Menendez should be in prison

He’s from New Jersey, so I shouldn’t be surprised at a little corruption, but this is over the top.  Gold bars!  Cash stuffed in suit pockets!  The wife as go-between with Egyptian military officials!  

I don’t know why the jury was unable to reach a verdict when Sen. Menendez was previously tried for corruption, but this time it looks like the authorities caught him with his hand in the financial cookie jar.  Whenever someone on my side (e.g., union official, Democratic legislator, cop), does something immoral or illegal, it bothers me far more than if some corporate tycoon or Republican congress member commits a crime.  It feels like a betrayal.  I hope Menendez does some hard time.  And no, I don’t need to wait for the trial.  

What is wrong with these people?

According to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center, four percent of the American people believe the political system is working “extremely or very well.”

Is it possible that four percent of the American people are living in a cave?

Advice for Kevin McCarthy (who evidently needs it)

Kevin, you worry too much about being the Speaker.  Call the bluff.  Make a deal with the Democrats.  Pretend you care more about the country than clinging to an office that you obviously aren’t cut out for.  The reason people like Marjorie Taylor Greene have so much power is because they know you will grovel just to keep your title.  Tell them to go to hell.  If you lose the title, you will at least gain some respect.

By the way, Kev, turning down an invitation for President Zelensky to speak to the House was a junior high school move.  Perhaps next time ask yourself, WWND?  

Playing hooky

When you were a kid, you went to school.  There were exceptions, of course, the main one being when you were sick.  I don’t think I ever stayed home from school if I wasn’t sick.  You just didn’t do that.

Covid altered behaviors.  Long school closures changed the way both parents and kids thought about school.  After the Covid closures about one-fourth of the kids nationwide were chronically absent, which meant they missed at least 10% of the school days.  The states that closed their schools the longest are generally the ones that have the highest absentee rates.  In California 30% of the students last year missed at least 10% of school days.  In Florida it was 32%.  In New York it was a 33%, in Michigan 39%.  

Students who are absent aren’t learning, unless they are learning to slack off.  According to some observers, students who are absent find it harder to keep up, get discouraged, and stay home even more.

Letter to Sen. J. D. Vance

Dear Senator Vance:

I read in the New York Times that you are worried that Sen. Fetterman lacks respect for the traditions of the Senate and demeans American institutions  You have already done that by supporting President Trump, a man who tried to overturn an election and overthrow the government.

I don’t often agree with Sen. Romney, but boy did he have you pegged when he said you were the Senator he respected the least.  Your lack of integrity has already demeaned the Senate, no matter how many suits you wear. 

Sincerely,

Roy Christman

(I'll let you know if he responds, but he probably won't.)

Agricultural workers from Africa

I’m about half way through William T. Hagan’s history entitled American Indians.  Although the first edition dates to 1964, the book has been revised and updated and is considered one of the best one-volume works on Native American history.  It is written in everyday language, but it is a difficult book to read.  What a record of deception, greed, violence, and genocide.  About 20 miles east of where I live is the Sullivan Trail.  It is a road that follows the path Sullivan took when he led an expedition to drive out the Indians from much of eastern Pennsylvania, burning homes and tearing down the stone houses of peaceful Indians.  His expedition was not really war; it was murder.

The historical record of many countries, including the U.S., is a tale that often includes horrific incidents and behaviors.  The idea of people like DeSantis that you can ignore atrocities because it makes students uncomfortable means you won’t really be teaching history.  

In 2015 the Texas State Board of Education and publisher McGraw-Hill Education came out with an approved textbook that told how the transatlantic slave trade brought “millions of workers from Africa to the southern United States to work on agricultural plantations.”  I don’t know what to even call that, but it is definitely not history.   

Taking your husband's name?

“Barbie” made quite a bit of the “patriarchy.”  In fact that word was mentioned in the movie many times.  (I wasn’t counting.)  While it is my experience that most weddings are planned by the fiancée, they are still very traditional affairs in which the patriarchy is alive and well. 

According to recent data from the Pew Research Center, in opposite sex marriages four out of five women changed their names to that of their spouse.  For white women, the figure was 86%.  Why would women do that, especially since once they get divorced, they are stuck with the creep’s name?

Interestingly, only 73% of black women changed their names completely.  16% used a hyphenated name.  (For white women’s only 3% hyphenated.)

Among Hispanic women, 60% took their husband’s name, while 30% kept their own names.  (In some Spanish-speaking countries it is customary for women to keep their names.)

And Asians?  The Pew sample was too small to make generalizations.

I learned the statistics in an article by Claire Cain Miller in an article in the Sept. 13 issue of the New York Times.  The snarky comments are all mine.

Hey, it could come in handy

A compendium of articles and illustrations of the first fifty years of Ms. Magazine has just been published.  It includes a letter from the September 1978 issue.  The letter writer notes that when she went to the county clerk’s office to get married, she was handed a “New Homemaker’s Kit.”  The kit included bottles of Fantastik and Bufferin along with pantyhose and a can of Spray ’n Wash.

I think the Bufferin was a nice touch.

Newfoundland dogs in Beltzville Lake

I was at Beltzville Lake today and saw about 10 tents by the water’s edge near the swimming area.  Curious, I walked down to see what was happening and learned it was the New Pen Del Newfoundland Club’s water tests.  The Club has members from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and they own and train Newfoundland dogs for water rescues.  Everyone, including the dogs, was pleasant and friendly.  

The dogs are divided into categories by the amount of training they had.  I watched some of the beginners, and it was obvious they needed more training.  A kind woman filled me in on what was happening.  These clubs are located across the country; today one of the participants had come down from Maine.  She told me that Newfoundland dogs were bred to help fisherman pull in their boats, and one of the exercises did involve dogs pulling a boat toward the shore.  She also noted that the dogs rescue swimmers, and there have been cases where a Newfoundland has pulled a child out of a swimming pool when no adults were around.

I think if I ever got a dog it might be a Newfoundland.  I’m not a very good swimmer. 

Dan Quayle was right

Dan Quayle was the Vice President during the first Bush presidency, just in case you’ve forgotten.  He gave a number of speeches decrying single-motherhood, and liberals jumped all over him.  I shocked one of my political sciences classes when I announced that Dan Quayle was right.

Liberals generally don’t like to make moral judgements.  There’s nothing wrong with single-motherhood, and if that is a woman’s choice, who are we to say it is wrong?

Well, it might not be morally wrong, but it leads to some societal difficulties.  Columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote a column entitled “The one privilege liberals ignore.” He quotes an economist from the U. of Maryland, Melissa S. Kearney, “Two-parent families are beneficial for children.  Places that have more two-parent families have higher rates of upward mobility.  Not talking about these facts is counterproductive.”

91% of conservatives agree that “‘children are better off if they have married parents.”  Only 30% of college-educated liberals agree with that.  Interestingly, most college educated liberals have children after they are married.  They raise their own kids in two-parent households.  As one family researcher says of liberals, “They talk left, walk right.”

Incidentally, the data shows that if the two parents are gay, the advantages for children are the same. 

One way to increase the number of two-parent families, by the way, is to lift the earnings of men with low levels of education. 

Thank you, Sen. Romney

Sen. Mitt Romney, former Presidential candidate and senator from Utah, has announced he will not run for re-election, saying it is time for a younger generation to take over.  He is trying to set an example and suggested that Trump and Biden should also give it up.  Romney voted to impeach Trump, and has been openly critical of the ex-president.  Romney also has said that quite a few other Republican senators make fun of Trump but won’t do it publicly.  Not exactly profiles in courage.

An upcoming book details some of Romney’s own attitudes toward his colleagues.  For example, he said Ted Cruz was very smart and knew that Trump lost in 2020, but was willing to put his own political ambitions ahead of the Constitution.  We all knew this, except possibly the part about Cruz being smart.

Malaria, the Panama Canal, and the seven/nine wonders of the world

Recently a presidential candidate gave his opinion on the Panama Canal.  Here is a quotation from a portion of that interview:

“We lost 35,000 people to the mosquito.  Malaria.  We lost 35,000 people.  We lost 35,000 people because of the mosquito.  Vicious.  They had to build under nets.  It was one of the true great wonders of the world.

“One of the nine wonders.  No, no, it was one of the seven.  You could make nine wonders.”

No, it wasn’t Biden.  You probably guessed it was Trump.  You are right.  This was taken from a recent interview Trump had with Tucker Carlson.  We keep hearing a great deal about Biden and his word slippage, but Biden never comes close to that level of incoherence.  It is time we start to worry about the next four years under a President who already seems to have an issue with dementia, and I do mean Donald Trump.

This quotation is from a column by Frank Bruni entitled “Trump Is Really Old, Too.”

Tommy Tuberville and the U.S. Senate

At the California Green Party organizing convention held in in Oakland, some delegates advocated that any decisions would have to be made by unanimous vote.  One argument was that Native Americans decided issues by unanimous vote, even if it took them weeks to reach a decision.  I objected to this on a number of grounds.  First of all, most of us did not have weeks to decide issues.  Secondly, I didn’t know enough about Native American governing structures to know if that were even true, and was it true for all groups?  Finally, allowing one person to hold up a decision is the most undemocratic form of government there is.  It basically means rule by one person.  

Which brings us to Tommy Tuberville, the Senator for Alabama who is single-handedly preventing the military from staffing decisions.  This is not Tuberville’s fault.  The Senate had 100 members.  They presumably make rules.  If their rules are that arcane, that stupid, that ridiculous so that one Senator can decide for the 99 others, then there is something basically wrong with the U.S. Senate.

Wrong target

When we remember what happened to our country on 9/11, we also must remember what happened subsequently.  The U.S. attack on Iraq was a major error.  While Saddam Hussein was a terrible dictator, no evidence has ever been produced that he had anything to do with 9/11.  

Bus tour of Palmerton

In conjunction with the Palmerton Community Festival, the local Historical Society sponsored four bus tours of historic Palmerton.  I was the guide for two of them.  Palmerton received state recognition a few years ago because it was a “company town” with clearly differentiated classes  The Zinc Company built small “bungalows” for the workers who came from Eastern Europe and Mexico at the beginning of the last century.  Middle management and research workers lived slightly above in elevation, usually in duplexes.  The owners and executives lived higher up behind a stone wall in an area known as “Residence Park.”

Riders in both tours had lived or continue to live in some of the bungalows.  From the beginning the kids of both the bosses and the workers went to the same high school, named for the president of the Zinc Company.  The company helped to fund the construction.  (I graduated in 1960.)  The company helped to build the community hospital. (I was born there and had my appendix out there.)

The Company was far more benign than area coal companies.  In the early days it had a Sociological Department to help the immigrants.  It laid out the streets.  The company president designed the park in the middle of town and the company helped to pay for a huge swimming pool after World War II.  The pool is still in use.  The Company even had a program to aid workers in buying their homes.

At one point the Zinc Company employed about 3000 workers, including my grandfather, six uncles, three aunts, and me for one summer.  The company also left a mess–there was so much pollution that portions of the Blue Mountain were denuded and soil had to be removed from people’s yards.  Guys in hazmat suits came into people’s homes and took away their rugs.  But that’s a story for another time.

Old age crisis

Tonight I’m canning pasta sauce and listening to oldies, and the Eagles come on singing “Take it to the limit,” and I realize that in my 80 years of life I have never taken anything to the limit.  This depresses me no end.  Is it too late?  Can I make that trip to Sardinia I always thought about?  Can I buy a Vespa and drive across the country?  Why am I standing by the stove canning pasta sauce when I have so little time left.

The pasta sauce is really tasty, but it doesn’t seem like it’s enough.