On this date in 1875 …

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… President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1875. 

This tends to surprise many people, even those who can refer to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, maybe even the Act of 1957.  But it’s a bit of a shock that Civil Rights was the topic of an act of Congress only ten years after the end of The Civil War.  Yet political and legal battles would be waged for almost another century before full civil rights law was established.   

The 1875 Act was written in an attempt to provide equal access to public accommodations such as restaurants, trains, theatres, etc.  The reason why so many have problems recognizing the earliest civil rights law was that it was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1883.  Its rejection by the country’s highest court was based on the law’s lack of standing within the context of the 13th and 14th Amendments.  Fact is, in its eight-year existence the 1875 Act was rarely – if ever – enforced anyway. 

What is most telling to me, is the realization as early as the 1870s that only reliance upon national law held any potential for mitigating the heinous treatment of African-Americans, both pre-Civil War freemen and newly liberated slaves.  And that despite this realization, it would take another 89 years before full civil rights legislation was enacted.      

In 1957, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 provided voting rights to black Americans in a way that was ineffectual in increasing their political power.  Then-Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson is touted with the tricky political accomplishment of both progressing the measure through Congress, while at the same time ensuring the bill’s evisceration by assigning it to a Judiciary Committee run by anti-civil rights Senator James Eastland (MS).  The bill’s eventual passage also had to survive the longest lasting Senate filibuster by Senator Strom Thurmond, who railed on about nothing in particular for 24 hours, 18 minutes.      

It would not be until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that full civil rights to women as well as blacks would be institutionalized.  Oddly enough, the Act of 1964 was signed into law by the very same, now-President Lyndon Baines Johnson, after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

Extra credit

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During a recent food shopping expedition, after I had cleared the self-checkout and was loading up the car, a man who had just parked his old, battered jeep walked past and remarked, “That has to feel rewarding.” 

It was a rather odd comment when I looked back it.  

I had never seen the man before.  He was thin, about my age roughly, of average build with glasses and a Phillies cap.  He was obviously working on a noticeable wad of chew, which is not all that common in my area of the Philly suburbs. 

Being in my own little world of everyday minutia, I responded, “That’s a bunch of crap.  This is a pain in the (nether regions).” 

“No”, he came back as he stopped behind me, “It has to feel good to do things for other people.” 

Another odd remark … Why would shopping for my own family make me feel good about doing things for “other people”.  I do THAT all the time.  But of course, he wouldn’t know for whom I was buying groceries.  Just didn’t make sense to me in the split second it took for me to come back with, “You mean like extra credit?” 

Another odd remark in a strange conversation, this time from my end.  What had made me think of THAT rejoinder? 

He laughed and moved on into the store.

For several days now I have been thinking about how I could turn such a strange interaction into a funny blog post.  Even today as I tried to write a witty list of everyday stuff one does to which one would wish “extra credit” applied.  But the conversation continued to concern me.  Where was that guy coming from?  What were his set of assumptions?  Or maybe I was making a bit too much about a brief, weird give-and-take between two strangers in a cold, dark parking lot.

Then I remembered what had happened at the self-checkout.  Standing there with half a cart of nothing important.  It was the pre-dinner supermarket rush hour.  People scurrying in and out to collect a few things on the way home.  I was in no hurry though, because I knew dinner was awaiting my return with one crucial ingredient … taco seasoning. 

Arriving at the checkout ahead of several other shoppers, I told one guy to go ahead of me as he had only a thing or two.  Turned to my left and pointed an older woman, juggling a few things around a half-gallon of milk, to another self-checkout  as I waited.  And as I stood there and waved one more urgent shopper ahead of me, I thought about whether any of these everyday – admittedly tiny – random acts of courtesy meant anything.

Now that short, weird conversation out of nowhere sends a shiver up my spine.

Ode to the oldest son

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Just 24 years ago today the first of our three family installments landed after just 16 months of married bliss.  He was an unscheduled development.  We didn’t couldn’t wait as long as we had planned, being newlyweds and all … a nice spring Sunday … brunch with friends … a few mimosas … You get the picture idea.

But – make no mistake – we were ecstatic!  Legend has it I had a smile so wide, Tom Cruise was jealous. (Maybe just a bit too far a reach there.)  It wasn’t a totally smooth delivery, as Carol was hit with a rather severe blood pressure issue (preeclampsia).  Our relief was palpable, although it would be several more days before Carol was out of the woods. 

As a parent, you eventually learn that every child you are blessed with is totally different in at least several readily apparent ways.  Of course, you don’t actually learn that until #2 arrives; they get their feet under them; and promptly tear asunder the confidence you had that the whole parent thing is figured out!  But it’s a lesson you tend to learn at the wrong end of the diaper.  

Michael wasn’t exactly a walk in the park either as a baby.  It took us a while to figure out why he kept throwing up his formula once the breast-feeding tap was closed.  And we couldn’t figure out how any human being of any size could scream non-stop on a car trip – any car trip – especially that two-hour drive from hell – Philadelphia to Long Island.  After he suffered an anaphylactic reaction from licking a fork with raw egg drippings at around 18 months, the light finally clicked on and he was diagnosed with food allergies. Yet another parenting lesson learned.

Our oldest turned out to be our most athletically active child, our most independent, our costliest insofar as activities and boondoggles go, and our most frustrating – most recently anyway.  But after taking a year-and-a-half off from college to figure things out, we’re proud to say he’s back on track and pulling down some decent grades. 

Michael has also landed himself an exceptionally bright, lovely, level-headed girlfriend (Sorry, J!), who seems to have his best interests at heart and manages to keep him focused and on track.  (It’s true that behind many a great man stands a woman … with a cattle prod.)

No, it hasn’t been the smoothest ride.  There have been times we wanted to go all Homer Simpson-on-Bart with him.  But in the end, he’s turned out to be a considerate, well-mannered young man, who knows the importance of work ethic and responsibility.  He has the good sense to realize his current life will go far in determining his future success; and Carol and I wish him nothing but the absolute best in that regard. 

Maybe those parenting lessons took after all!

Happy Birthday, son!!   

Love, Mom & Dad

On this date in 1945 …

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… One of the most iconic events in American history occurred with the raising of the Stars and Stripes by U.S. Marines on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima (now known as Ioto). 

Raising the flag on Mount Suribachi

It is important to keep these incredible feats of bravery in the collective field of vision.  Generations of Americans to follow will become – very naturally – more removed from and less aware of these proud military accomplishments.

I readily admit, I have very little knowledge on the heroics of those who served in World War I.  This due to the fact that fewer and fewer of those veterans were around, and their exploits were in many ways overshadowed by other events – like WWII – that followed.

Whenever I take the time to sit and watch a favorite WWII flick (Saving Private Ryan and In Harm’s Way are two of my favs) or docudrama (Band of Brothers), I always have to remind myself that these were kids doing incredibly difficult and mortally dangerous acts. 

So simply take a moment from time to time to consider the immense sacrifices made in the past to the benefit of the nation and its people, from the American Revolution to present day Afghanistan and Iraq. 

An overwhelming majority of the real heroes never make it home again.  So if the opportunity presents, thank a veteran for their service and sacrifice.  Appreciate the fact that for so many that opportunity was lost long ago.     

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Other events from this date:

1836 – Alamo besieged by Santa Anna; entire garrison eventually killed .

1847 – 5000 U.S. troops under General Zachary Taylor defeats 15,000 Mexican soldiers under General Santa Ana near Buena Vista, Mexico.

1861 – With assassination threats rampant, President-elect Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington DC to take office.

1896 – Tootsie Roll introduced by Leo Hirshfield

1903 – Cuban state of Guantanamo leased to USA.

1904 – Control of Panamá Canal Zone acquired by US for $10 million.

1960 – Demolition begins on Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field.

1967 – 25th amendment (Presidential succession) declared ratified.

Birthdays:

George Handel, German-born composer (1685)

W. E. B. Du Bois, black American historian and sociologist (1868)

Peter Fonda, actor (1940)

Deaths:

John Keats, Romantic poet (1821)

John Quincy Adams, 6th POTUS (1848)

Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28th POTUS (1924)

Aleksei Tolstoi, Russian poet/writer (1945)

Just share the pain … please!

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I’m sorry, but the expectation that I “tough out” the economic pain caused by large government deficits, which were caused by economic mismanagement and two wars, are starting to wear me down. 

This urge to apologize is the result of my position on the political scale.  (You have all seen these questionnaires I’m sure, the ones that ask a range of political, economic, and social questions designed to measure your leftward or rightward political tilt.  The program then compiles the results to pinpoint your location on a two-dimension political scale.  I always test to the center of the scale, slightly conservative socially, slightly libertarian economically.)     

My apology stems from the fact that lately my libertarianism is starting to fray. 

You see, it’s much, much easier to remain faithful to your clan when everything is hunky dory (i.e. ducky, jake, copacetic, good).  It gets only slightly harder when things get tough but you can sense that the pain is shared … roughly equally and across the board. 

But now the board seems to have a wall across it.  I never had a problem when the wall prevented the better things on the other side from trickling over to my side.  But I have a real problem when the wall prevents whatever pain is being inflicted on me from seeping over to inflict those people on the other side, especially when they would barely even notice.

I’m a big fan of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.  Not because I’m convinced he possesses all the right answers, but because he is at least willing to speak plainly about what he perceives to be the problems; is unafraid to tack deliberately into politically turbulent areas; and is bold in taking the actions he deems essential to New Jersey’s longterm health.  Similarly, I can identify with Wisconsin’s Scott Walker.  His attempt to unilaterally suspend union bargaining rights seems a bridge too far.  But it’s hard not to agree with the view that unions cannot – in this economic climate – get away with paying little towards burgeoning healthcare costs or with enjoying incredibly generous pensions that are publicly funded.        

However, as a federal employee, I can also sympathize with the union members of Wisconsin.  So far this year I have had my salary frozen for the next two, three or five years depending on which flavor of the day emanates from Congress.  We have also heard the whisperings that unpaid furloughs could be in the offing as well.  No matter how you slice it, it comes out to a pay cut, since no one’s costs of living are frozen along with your frozen pay.

But you can deal with – if not fully accept – it, because you have the sense that The Other Guy is suffering along with you.

That’s simply not the case with the rich.

During the recent budget negotiations between the newly minted 112th Congress and the Obama administration I was an interested member of the audience.  The give-and-take that bounded back and forth between the two camps, and as examined eight-ways-to-Sunday by the talking heads, was a fascinating balancing act between how best to resolve the exponential growth of the national debt and at what point higher tax rates for the rich might retard business growth and investment. 

Should higher taxes kick in for those making over $250K a year?  $500K?  a million?  The warnings were dire.  The pictures, painted by the analysts, bleak.  Common sense seemed to indicate that the line had to be drawn in there somewhere.

So, you can imagine my befuddlement at the decision to punt the issue, not into next year but two years hence (or quite coincidentally, after both The House and President Obama run for re-election in 2012).

Even then, I wasn’t particularly annoyed … libertarian supply-sider that I am.

No, it wasn’t until I started grappling with the first-hand economic realities that I had to start venting some steam.  Health insurance – up, food prices – up, gas prices – up, new tires for the car … you get the picture.

No.  I’m sorry.  This has got to stop. 

You can’t keep dumping on the working people without throwing some of the manure over that wall.  The rich can be characterized as Hosni Mubarak-like, disconnected and blithely oblivious.  But the “solutions” are just few more strafing runs away from Moammar Gadhafi!

Double Nickle

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I have come to dread the divisible-by-five birthdays. 

Birthdays lost their attraction quite awhile ago, roughly around the time I turned 45.  There is little more sobering than seeing the Big Five-O getting larger and larger in the windshield … unless of course – it’s The Big Six-O. 

Usually these times give me pause to consider where I’ve been; what’s been accomplished; and where I want to go.  Unfortunately, it also elicits regrets over opportunities missed, decisions on which I desperately want a re-do, and  uncertainty about the future.  But if you’re looking for me to answers those questions here tonight … Fahgetaboutit!     

This year, I choose to count the blessings bestowed upon me and those I care for most.

I choose to appreciate the little things in life.  The small triumphs that make all the worrying worthwhile … the worry a silly indulgence in retrospect.

I choose to give thanks for overall good health, sufficient wealth, and the tolerance of those I love for my eccentricities. (Of these I have a few, but then again, too few to mention.) 

I choose to bask in the warmth of family and friends. 

I choose to cherish the love of a patient woman (See eccentricities above).

I choose to continue to have what fun I can get out of life, to enjoy whatever life brings my way.

This should be more than enough.  Enough to keep me going.  Enough to make all the problems manageable.  Maybe enough to make the next five years most fulfilling.

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Note:  Although my birthday was celebrated here today with family, it will be observed by the nation tomorrow!  Please feel free to take the day off from work, should you be employed at a place where this national holiday is recognized.

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Events in history that occurred on February 20:

1872 – New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.

1915 – The World’s Fair, entitled the Panama-Pacific Exhibition, opens in San Francisco, celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal and San Francisco’s recovery from the 1906 earthquake and fire.

1927 – Golfers in South Carolina arrested for violating Sabbath.

1944 – Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in newspapers.

1975 – Margaret Thatcher elected leader of British Conservative Party.

Birthdays:
Ansel Adams, photographer (1902)
Aleksei N Kosygin, Soviet premier (1904)
Sidney Portier, actor (1924)
Patty Hearst Shaw, famous kidnap hostage (1954)
Kelsey Grammer, actor (1955)
Cranky Man, blogger (1956)

Deaths:
Frederick Douglass, escaped slave/anti-slavery leader (1895)
Chester W Nimitz, US Admiral during WWII (1960)
Walter Winchell, writer/actor (1972)
Clarence Nash, voice of Donald Duck (1985)
Richard York, actor-Bewitched (1992)

My Philly sports memories, circa 1964-80

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My earliest sports memory is walking into the living room where my father is watching a football game on the black-and-white TV.  He was a solid Philadelphia Eagles and Notre Dame football fan.  I recall sitting down and asking him which team he was rooting for – the team in black or the team in white.  Whichever team he said he was rooting for, I would say that I was rooting for the other.  I’m sure he really appreciated my rebellious nature! 

Here are some of the images and names I remember most from the mid-1960s to 1980: 

Dr. J afloat, suspended beneath a wild Afro, Michael Jack … firing that bare-handed grab on the charge, Norm Snead, Ben Hawkins … chinstrap flying,

Ben Hawkins

Timmy Brown, Pete Retzlaff, Cookie Rojas, Clay Dalrymple, Bobby Wine, walking through the tunnel to catch my first glimpse of the field at Connie Mack Stadium (Thanks, Dad!), Ballantine rings, Longine clock, the right field “spite fence”, a double distelfink doubleheader, frantic ’64 anxiety, Gene Mauch, silver wings on green helmets, horrible green wings on white helmets, Bobby Jones and Billy Cunningham, Chris Short and Jim Bunning, Doug Favell and Bernie Parent, Wilbert Montgomery breaking through the line against Dallas (’80 NFC Championship), Harold Carmichael and Tim Rossovich (renown glass-eater), Bobby Wine and Tony Taylor, Bobby Clarke and Bill Barber, Rick MacLeish … hair flowing, 1980 Superbowl fizzle, Dave Schultz, The Broad Street Bullies, Darrell Dawkins … Chocolate Thunder, Franklin Field, The Spectrum … blow-away roof, The Vet, Philadelphia Phil and Phyllis,

Philadelphia Phil & Phyllis

The Bull, The Secretary of Defense, Fathers Day ’64 with Jim Bunning, LCB Line, Ross Lonsberry, Dallas Green, Danny Ozark, Dick Vermiel, Moose Dupont and Big Bird, bench-clearing brawls, The Hound, Joe Scarpatti, Leroy Keyes, Wes Covington and Tony Gonzales, The Tugger … arms raised, 1980 World Series victory, Pete Rose … spiking the ball, Boone-to-Rose … The Catch, Joe Kuharich, Leonard Tose, Ron Jaworski, Bill Bergey, the Curt Flood debacle, Richie Allen … massive homeruns, the car, the headlight, “Coke” and “Trade me” scrawled in the infield dirt, Johnny Callison, Bob Uecker, Rick Wise … 2 homerun/no-hit game, Larry Bowa, Bake McBride, nosebleed seats for the ’76 MLB All-Star Game, By Saam, Richie Ashburn, Harry Kalas, Paul Owens, Rudy Carpenter, Steve Carlton, Kate Smith, Dornhoeffer and the Watson brothers, Eddie Van Impe and Barry Ashbee, Stanley Cups in ’74 & ’75, fog-bound games in The Aud (Buffalo), powder blue Phillies road uni’s, George Brett meet Dickie Nole and have a seat!

Democracy overseas, Security at home: Bush43 legacies?

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Several interesting developments over the past few weeks deserve closer inspection from the perspective of George W. Bush’s presidency.  I have often been accused of being a “Bush defender/apologist”, which I proudly was most notably on national security.  I always felt the Bush presidency was suddenly and unavoidably shaped on 9/11.  Any President, after having that happen on his watch, would be hawkishly driven on matters of National Security … At least they should be.  Yet the battering Bush43 took in his efforts to protect the country from further attacks was withering.  So it’s interesting – to say the least – to assimilate the following events.  

1. Barack O’Bush? 

McClatchy Newspapers revealed this weekend that the Justice Department asserted that the FBI can obtain international phone records WITHOUT any legal process or court oversight. 

Sorry … Left out one small detail of that opening paragraph.

It was “The Obama administration’s Justice Department …”.

Just didn’t want you to confuse it with the Bush administration’s Justice Department!  Frankly,  it’s very hard to tell the difference between the two in this area.

Do you remember the promise to shut Guantanamo down?  How about the rage and hysteria after 9/11 over those provisions in the Terrorist Surveillance Program and The Patriot Act that were going to eliminate all vestiges of Liberty?  Remember the angst over wiretapping?  Internet and e-mail tracking and monitoring?  All supposedly reporting directly to Darth Cheney? 

Do you remember those promises of openness and transparency made by President Obama as he transitioned to The White House?

 The prison at Guantanamo Bay remains open to this day, after President Obama signed the 2011 Defense Authorization Bill that effectively prevents the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners to the mainland or to foreign countries.  President Obama leads one to believe that he was forced to accept those provisions in order to get the authorization bill through Congress.  But he did so with barely a whimper – in December – when his lame duck congressional majority was still intact. 

Now we learn that the Obama Justice Department has asserted the legal opinion that the FBI can obtain international phone records on a voluntary basis from providers without legal process or a qualifying emergency.  That in itself is extremely insightful.  Has President Obama been convinced that the terrorist threat is so active, so dangerous, and so near that these measures are indeed necessary to protect the country?  In other words, has President Obama discovered that President George W. Bush was right in his domestic approach to the War on Terror?!? 

And that isn’t even the most interesting part!

How did McClatchy Newspapers find out?  By chance – perhaps inadvertently – through a response the Justice Department provided the news organization on an open-records request.  There was no administration press release, no announcement, no openness, no transparency.

Gosh, you might think The Evil Empire was still residing in The West Wing!

2. The march of democracy?   

Add another Middle East authoritarian regime to the scrap heap of history, as the regime of Hosni Mubarak was forced to the ground by the clamoring of everyday Egyptians.  There are a number of causes for the demise of Mubarak.  The Egyptian economy was a mess.  Unemployment was high.  Too many people – especially young people – were left idle for too long.

They clamor for regime change.   But chances are they will not willingly fall in behind another strongman, and certainly not accept a military government  in the longterm.  The native populations are also restless in Tunisia, Yemen, Algeria, even Iran.  Can Iranians – again the young and the restless – bring down that government or even that theocracy?!?

Remember the criticism of President George W. Bush over his penchant for exporting democracy?  (Note specific references in the article to Egypt.)  Do you remember those claims that exporting democracy would not work in many areas of the world, especially the Middle East? 

The theme – beginning to grow in places – is an analysis of what effect Bush Doctrine experiments in Iraq and Afghanistan have had on the people in those countries currently in the midst of upheaval.  Certainly we are hearing Democracy mentioned more often in places where it has been nothing more than a definition in the dictionary.

Even President Obama said, ”The Egyptian people have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day, the moral force of nonviolence … that bent the arc of history toward justice once more.”

Of course there is no guarantee that these shaky countries will turn to or allow democratic solutions.  There is no guarantee that if they do, we won’t end up with regimes that are worse for their citizenry or that are threatening to U.S. interests.  But the thought that democracy is the first possible solution emerging from the smoky haze in such places as Tahrir Square has to put a smile on the face of the most blatant Bush defender.   

Perhaps a Bush43 legacy is just beginning to bud!