American exceptionalism

It is hard to take Rickie Santorum seriously as a presidential candidate.  He is at one or two percent in the polls, he lost his Senate race in Pennsylvania to Bob Casey, and he is spending time in Iowa and New Hampshire making outrageous statements about President Obama, the Second Amendment, abortion, and racial issues. Nevertheless, when Donald Trump is polling as the most popular of the Republican candidates, perhaps we need to take Rickie seriously.

At an N.R.A. convention, according to the Pocono Record, Rickie criticized President Obama for failing to tout “American exceptionalism,” the idea that this country is the most exceptional country among all others in the world.  And we are exceptional. 

We have lower life expectancy than Greece, Spain, or Costa Rica although we spend more money on health care per person than any other country in the world.  We have one of the highest rates of mental illness, less social mobility than almost every European country, one of the highest rates of incarceration, one of the highest levels of obesity, one of the highest rates of drug addiction. We are so exceptional it makes my head hurt. 

Patriotism should never be confused with nationalistic bombast.  Love of one’s country should not be confused with a blindness toward its problems.   

At vespers at 4-H camp we sometimes sang a song to the tune of Finlandia by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.  When I was a teenager, I thought it was one of the most beautiful songs I knew.  I still think so.  Here are two of the verses from the 4-H songbook.  Maybe it can serve as an antidote to this exceptionalism rhetoric.

This is my song, oh God of all the nations, 

a song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is; 

here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;

but other hearts in other lands are beating

with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,

and sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine.

But other lands have sunlight too and clover,

and skies are everywhere as blue as mine.

This is my song, thou God of all the nations;

a song of peace for their land and for mine.

We need a queen

With all the excitement surrounding the royal wedding in the UK, I was reminded again of a major flaw in our Constitution.  Our Founding Fathers made the Chief of State and the Head of Government the same person, and it hasn’t worked well.

Almost every major democracy splits those two functions.  Japan has a Prime Minister and an Emperor.  The UK has a Prime Minister and a Queen, Germany a Chancellor and a President, Belgium a Prime Minister (sometimes) and a King.  The Head of Government is the politician.  You can dislike him or her with no feeling of guilt.  The Chief of State, on the other hand, is the symbolic leader of the nation--the person who visits the sick troops in the hospital, tours the natural disaster area, comforts the populace in time of national turmoil.  Everybody loves the Chief of State.

When you mix the two, as in the U.S., it gets confusing.  President Obama visited Tuscaloosa today and was genuinely moved by the devastation, yet I’m sure there were many people who thought this was just a form of campaigning for the 2012 election.  If the Queen had visited, no one would have questioned her motives.  Perhaps we could borrow that young woman Kate who was married today.  She seems nice.

Note:  Linda C. was interviewed this evening on a show called the “Young Turks” on MSNBC.  She explained why the Ryan budget is such a bad deal for Medicare and the American people.  She was excellent.  

Good news on condors

In the 1980s California was home to 27 condors, all of them in zoos.  No condors existed in the wild.  A breeding program was implemented--I remember seeing the baby condor chicks fed with hand puppets made to resemble adult condors so the babies wouldn’t imprint on humans.  The San Diego Zoo was a leader in the condor breeding program.

As the condor population increased, some condors were introduced into the wild.  Condors are carrion-eating birds, so California banned lead shot, which was interfering with reproduction when condors ate dead animals and ingested the lead which had killed them.

Today’s Morning Call carried an article entitled “From nearly extinct to thriving,” which noted that the total condor population could hit 400 this spring, with 200 birds living in the wild.  The condors still have problems, including the toxin DDE, which they ingest when eating marine carcasses. Nevertheless, this is a success story.   The largest flying bird in North America, a bird I thought was destined for extinction, has bounced back.

Who is responsible?  Private wildlife agencies, private environmental groups, the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service, and the state of California.  Without our taxes, the condor would be long gone.  I am so pleased the condor is on its way to viability, and I am so pleased that our state and federal governments made it possible.  And I am so tired of the conservatives who want to "starve government."

Congressman Lou Barletta: Stupid or a liar--you make the call

A week ago, on April 20, Congressman Lou Barletta held a “town hall” at the Amvets in Lansford.  The town hall had been advertised in our local newspaper, the Times News.  I had been to a Labor Council meeting on Monday and a Palmerton Area School Board meeting on Tuesday, and I didn’t feel like going to meetings three days in a row.  My wife Linda said she would go to the Barletta town hall by herself.

At that meeting she confronted Barletta about his vote in favor of the Ryan budget, a vote to kill Medicare as we know it.  While she was talking, two guys wearing tee shirts with the chopped-up snake began to yell at her to shut up and sit down.  Another member of the audience, unknown to Linda, stood up and told the two men who were yelling at Linda to “Let the lady speak.”  They told him to shut up, he said “Make me,” and he was escorted out of the town hall by the Lansford police.  Linda, at that point, sat down.  

Today, April 27, the New York Times published an article (“Voters Attack Republicans on Medicare”) in which Barletta is quoted, “My town halls are being disrupted by Democrats.  They are apparently being sent to do just that.  I am not sensing the general public is angered over Medicare reform [sic].  When I explain that people over 55 are not affected there is almost a sigh of relief.  He added, “I am not going to do anything different.”

Ok, here are a number of points:

1. He should have said “differently.”  It’s an adverb.  (Sorry, I can’t help myself).
2. Linda’s point was that she has a daughter, a grandson, and nieces, and they will be affected by the Ryan budget, even if she isn’t.
3. Speaking in a calm and reasonable manner is not being disruptive.
4. Linda was not part of an organized group.  She knew one other person in the audience, and he did not speak.
5.   If Barletta thinks she was part of an organized group, he is stupid.  If he knows she wasn’t and is trying to divert attention to public opposition to his vote, he is a liar.  You make the call.

Kafkaesque

“Guilt is always without doubt.”

--Franz Kafka, “The Penal Colony”

People who have never read Franz Kafka, and I’m one of them except for two short stories, have an almost instinctive understanding of the adjective “Kafkaesque.” It’s a world of menace, of bureaucratic cruelties, a surreal universe in which events happen without reason, but with malice.

On Monday, April 25, the New York Times published three pages of selected documents relating to Guantanamo.  Guantanamo is Kafkaesque.  Prisoners are held for the flimsiest of reasons, Prisoners were tortured at whim, prisoners are kept for years without trial.  Who gets released and who remains seems to be determined more by chance than any rational reason. 

President Obama promised to end this mess, but Congress has passed legislation forbidding the detainees from being brought to trial in the U.S.  Military tribunals will be starting, but much of the evidence is inadmissible because it was obtained after torture.  

I am hoping that at some point in our history we will look back on Guantanamo the way we look at the Trail of Tears or the Japanese internment camps.  The very fact that the U.S. controls a piece of Cuba is a remnant of an imperial past.  The way we have handled the prisoners at Guantanamo is a stain on the United States.  The way Congress has handled it makes the stain larger.  What a travesty.  Guantanamo flies in the face of everything this country is supposed to stand for.  I am ashamed of it.

Collective Goods and Natural Gas

One function of government is to provide “collective goods.”  These are goods that individuals or individual corporations cannot provide by themselves, either because they require a long-term investment with little possibility of payoff (the space program), or the risk is too great (the Tennessee Valley Authority), or the initial investment is too massive (the Interstate Highway System).  

Another kind of collective good is when the government decides to enforce a standard or rule which individuals or individual companies might support, but they need the government’s help to see that everybody else follows the same standard.  The minimum wage is an example.  Let’s say one company’s board of directors wishes to pay its employees a minimum of $10 an hour, but its competitor is paying $5.00 an hour.  Obviously the “good” company can’t compete.

Today the Pocono Record, in an article entitled “Drillers Change Their Tune,” explained how a leading natural gas industry group, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, is now pushing for regulations to stop using riverside treatment plants to treat fracking residue.

John Hager, DEP head under Gov. Rendell, said he had been approached by two drillers, Range Resources of Texas and Atlas Energy, which stated that Pennsylvania’s lax rules on fracking put the state’s rivers and streams at risk.  Note the problem--two drilling companies will not be competitive if they are being environmentally responsible and other companies are not.

Last week the Corbett administration called on the drillers to stop using riverside treatment plants, and the drillers said they would comply by May 19.  Range Resources spokesman Matt Pitzarella said “More than being a public health issue, it is a public trust issue.”  This is great P.R. for the drillers, but it may also benefit the environment, although one alternative to riverside treatment is to inject the toxic waste into deep wells in Ohio.  

There are at least two lessons to draw from this.  Individual companies can’t do this alone.   They need a collective decision to enforce the regulations on all the companies.  Secondly, when suggestions to help the environment are coming from natural gas drilling companies, what does that say about the Corbett administration?

She’s bad, she’s nationwide:  Tonight the lead story on MSNBC’s “Hardball” featured Linda’s critique of Congressman Barletta and his vote to destroy Medicare.  She made the point that Barletta did not campaign on that issue.  Chris Matthews praised how good she was.  He’s right.

Milk

Occasionally I find myself in agreement with people complaining about too much government regulation.  According to Lancaster Farming, Rural Vermont, an advocacy group, was teaching people how to turn raw milk into butter, yogurt, and cheese.  In February the Vermont Agency of Agriculture said Rural Vermont violated state law by holding classes in which raw milk was processed and served.  Evidently it is illegal in Vermont to use raw milk for anything other than drinking.  

I was raised on raw milk.  In fact, I milked the cow whose milk I drank.  I sometimes poured milk on my cereal without stirring it, which meant I got all the cream and my parents and sister were left with skim milk.  (When milk is not homogenized, the cream rises to the top.)  

The FDA notes that raw milk can contain such dangers as salmonella and E. coli.  On the other hand, raw milk contains healthy bacteria and enzymes not found in pasteurized milk.  It seems to me that as long as a consumer is aware of the potential dangers that may be found in raw milk, he or she should be allowed to purchase it, drink it, and make cheese from it.

Incidentally, the same Apr. 23 issue of Lancaster Farming that contained the article on raw milk in Vermont had another article with this headline:  “Study: Half of Supermarket Meat May Have Staph Bug.”  That was based on 136 samples of beef, chicken, pork, and turkey purchases in grocery stores in Chicago, L.A., Washington, Flagstaff, and Fort Lauderdale.  

The American Meat Institute said the study was misleading.

I buy my meat from a local butcher in Polk Township.