Trump's mitigation measures

Sometimes when a pipeline company or a developer plans to wipe out a wetland, it will propose “mitigation" measures.  The mitigation may involve creating a new wetland in a nearby area, for example, flooding a field and planting semi-aquatic plants.

It turns out that President Trump, whom I never figured was much of an environmentalist, understands mitigation.  He was elected on a promise to “drain the swamp.”  He is now creating his very own swamp.  His proposed Secretary of Education is a complete incompetent.  His proposed EPA head is determined to increase pollution.  His proposed Health and Welfare Secretary benefited from drug company legislation he supported.  His Secretary of State, now approved, benefited from deals with Russia.

This swamp is so big, so extensive, so filled with muck, that it rivals the Everglades.

Note:  I am scheduled for a hip replacement operation tomorrow morning at 5 a.m.  That means this blog will be going dark for a few days, provided all goes well.  (I love that phrase, “going dark.”)  I have no idea how long I will be in the hospital; usually it is about three days, unless there are (and I hate this word) complications.

A map of Indian removal

My friend Tom sent me a link to a year-by-year mapping of Indian removal in the U.S.  The map brings home how Indian lands were taken by treaty or conquest, and how pitifully small (and often uninhabitable) those Indian lands are today.  

Here’s the link:  <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJxrTzfG2bo>.  The film only lasts about a minute.

I’ve wondered why President Trump decided to expedite the Dakota Access Pipeline.  Perhaps he was irritated that the lowest percentage of his vote anywhere in America was a county on an Indian reservation in the Dakotas.

Do the Patriots cheat?

It’s halftime, but this is not about tonight’s game.  It is about the fact that if you are a fan of the Patriots, you not only do not believe the football was deflated, you think the League was picking on Tom Brady.  If you are almost anyone else, you believe Bill Belichick is an evil man who will stop at nothing to win and there is no way an experienced quarterback can’t tell if a football was deflated.

In an article in the Sports section of today’s Times, Juliet Macur points out that supporters of a team, or by implication, a candidate, will refuse to believe bad things about that team or candidate.  She examines the findings of Dr. David DeSteno, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University, who studies group dynamics and group morality.  Here is what Dr. DeSteno found:

Just being part of a group, any group, is enough to excuse moral transgressions because in some way, you’re benefiting from it.  Your moral compass shifts.

DeSteno said that the closer you feel affiliated with a group, the more moral leniency you are willing to allow.  And while the article is about fans of sports teams, I think we all can make the leap to politics, and I’ll bet you can come up with some recent examples.

Jackie

Tonight Linda and I saw the film “Jackie,” starring Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy.  I am one of those people who remembers where I was when I heard the news that the President had been shot.  (On the steps of the Ursinus College Library.)  I remember calling my mom that night.  She was crying and wondering what would become of our country.

You learn from the film the appreciation Jackie Kennedy had for our country’s history and the role of the White House in that history.  Her efforts to redecorate the White House, criticized at the time for being too extravagant, were made with the recognition that the White House was our house.

The film also gets across the shock and the horror of those days.  We may not remember that when Kennedy went to Dallas, people had put up posters with his picture that said “Wanted.”  (I’ll bet if you think about it, you can come up with a recent echo of that kind of evil.)

I joined a carload of guys from Ursinus who drove down for the funeral.  I was in the crowd that watched the procession.  I didn’t recognize many world leaders, but I do remember Haile Selassie from Ethiopia (the only black guy in the front row of dignitaries) and Charles DeGaulle, who towered above the rest.

Becoming California

We tend to look at California as a post-racial state.  Less than half the population is white, and the whole state is a rich stew of Asians, Latinos, African-Americans, and whites.  The Asians include Vietnamese, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and Hmong, among many others.  Buddhists, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims are all represented.  This population generally lives in harmony, and Trump’s message of nationalistic bombast and prejudice fell on deaf ears.

It wasn’t always like that.  California had probably the worst record of any state when it came to treatment of Native Americans; an early governor talked about exterminating them.  The Workingmen’s Party in San Francisco had as its slogan, “The Chinese Must Go,” and anti-Chinese mobs killed hundreds.  Okies and Arkies were mistreated in the 30s.  Most Californians supported the internment of the Japanese.  You probably remember the Rodney King riots.  As late as 1994 Californians voted for Prop 187, denying health care and education to undocumented residents.

In 2017 that history feels so yesterday.  What we need to remember is that many areas of the country are just now experiencing what California experienced for 150 years.  Many white communities are seeing an influx of Spanish-speaking people.  Towns in Minnesota and Michigan are home to growing Muslim minorities.  While the rest of the country is gaining the diversity Californians take for granted, it is also experiencing some of the same prejudicial behavior and minority bashing California experienced in years past.

Eventually, we should come through it.  It helps if you have lots of minorities rather than a majority and a minority.  It helps if you have a diversity of kids in school sitting in the same classrooms and playing on the same teams.  It helps if you have religious leaders who preach tolerance.  And most of all, it helps if you have political leaders who emphasize common interests and goals as opposed to political leaders who ride to office by whipping up xenophobia and hatred.  

Frederick Douglass

The black abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass had met President Lincoln at least twice before he tried to get into Lincoln’s Second Inauguration celebration in March 1865.  A large crowd was in the White House, and Douglass was informed by the police that he could not enter.  He managed to get in, but another police officer than moved him to a window that was being used as an exit.

Douglass told a man passing by that he should tell Lincoln that Frederick Douglass was at the door and was refused admission.  Douglass was then invited to the East Room, where Lincoln’s loud voice was heard, “And here comes my friend, Frederick Douglass.”

Lincoln asked Douglass what he thought of the speech.  Douglass told him he thought it was a “sacred effort.”

Lincoln was dead a few weeks later.  Douglass died in 1895.

On Wednesday Trump praised Douglass.  He called him, “an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice.”  Does he think Douglass is still alive?  Really?

Why conservatives fear gay marriage

I never got why conservatives feared that gay marriage would undermine traditional marriage until I read an essay by Rebecca Solnit in her book Men Explain Things to Me.  

Same-sex marriages are generally marriages between equals.  They are non-hierarchical.  Both members of the marriage unit often keep their own names.  

Before you tell me that your marriage is a union of equals, I have a couple of questions.  Did the wife take the husband’s name?  Whose name did the kids take?  When you sign your income tax statement, who signs first, and who is the “spouse”?  Who does most of the housework?

Traditional marriage still results in a male-dominated relationship in almost all cases.  Same-sex unions avoid that trap, and, as a result, threaten old hierarchies.