Dreams of the sovereign

We’re an odd bunch, we Americans. We prize our individuality, our liberty; we compete, we like to win. But when the situation demands, we coalesce and pull together, then separate again as the crisis passes. World War II was a great example – individual liberty was sacrificed to the greater good of protecting and perpetuating our country, our values, our way of life. We willingly bought War Bonds, submitted to rationing, hung blackout curtains, and joined the services in droves. But after the war, sailors and soldiers and Marines shed their uniforms and returned to the bustling, unruly competition of civilian life.

The key to this collectivization is its voluntary and temporary nature. When we recognize a threat to “us,” we willingly take up the traces. But when subservience is tyrannically imposed, we bristle, resist, and subvert. It's human nature. Note the Arab Spring, the French Revolution, and our own Revolutionary War.

Societies vary in the degree of individualism permitted. For instance, under Islamist rule, thou darest not be Christian. In China, you must not speak your mind unless you are in alignment with the Party. Even in England and Canada, you may be prosecuted for the offense of “offending” another. And many countries on Earth demand that their citizens be disarmed (hint – subservient).

Much to the dismay of the United Nations, we in the United States come from a much different mindset. Our Founding Fathers, reacting to the strictures of the English sovereign, turned that paradigm on its head and declared that “all men are created equal.” Gasp – a concept unknown in the world at that time, and still unknown to vast reaches of the Earth today.

We have something special, folks. Think about it. You are the boss of your life. If you want to be Christian, so be it. If you want to be Muslim, that’s cool. “None of the above” is a perfectly acceptable alternative as well. The government is subordinate to you – you are the sovereign!

So how does a nation of over 300 million individual sovereigns accomplish anything? In spite of the protestations of those of the liberal bent, our system rewards individual effort and risk taking, and the sum of those parts is enormously powerful in giving us all the benefit of a brisk, growing, and munificent engine of wealth. Oh, to be poor in America – the reason that our borders are overrun.

Financial dislocations, depressions, recessions are wholly due to foolish governmental interventions. There are no exceptions. If we were free to each pursue our individual dreams, the sum of our efforts would provide increasing wealth and employment and security. It is government policies, distorting market forces, which cause us pain. Social engineering, the holy grail of progressives, is our bane. With the exception of equal rights for all humans (black, white, female, male, gay, or Episcopalian), they are wrong on all other counts.

Leave us our individual dreams; have faith that the collective result will be excellent. We are each, after all, sovereign.

Let's control the maniacs

Insane Asylum, Jacksonville IL - 1901

First, we must agree to set political correctness aside. It is a scourge that inhibits critical thought and open, honest debate. After the enormous evil visited upon Sandy Hook Elementary School, political correctness will not serve us well. We must be brutally honest with ourselves.

Our culture has changed – there is no denying it.

And the statistics are very odd. David Kopel, writing in theWall Street Journal on 12/18/12, cites a University of Alabama analysis of a New York Police Department study of “active shooters.” While the nation’s overall homicide rate has dropped by over half since 1980, the number of mass shootings has increased markedly: 18 incidents in the 1980s, 54 in the 1990s, and 87 in the 2000s. Let that sink in – we are far safer overall than we were in the 1980s, but the number of high profile, media-splashed, mass shootings has increased markedly.

How are we going to address this problem? We must start by recognizing what has happened to us.

Coarsening of culture

The  violence in movies, video games, rap videos, etc, is so commonplace as to become acceptable, even normal. Each successive movie seems bent on exceeding the visceral impact of its predecessors. Is it any accident that James Holmes, the shooter in Aurora, Colorado, dyed his hair red and told arresting officers that he was “The Joker?”

Copycat acts fueled by the 24x7 news-hungry media

It seems that many of these shooters are driven by a need for recognition. A man was stopped by the Maine State Police in July with clippings of the aforementioned Aurora Batman massacre. He had just seen the Batman movie, was heavily armed, and was on his way to New York where he planned to kill his former boss.

Shutdown of mental hospitals

As far back as October 30, 1984, the New York Times recognized that we had a serious problem. In an article titled “How Release of Mental Patients Began”, the Times laments “The policy that led to the release of most of the nation's mentally ill patients from the hospital to the community is now widely regarded as a major failure.” The politicians’ zeal to close mental intuitions was supported by the theory that mental illness could be chemically managed. (And at a far lower cost – that was the attraction). Only problem was, it wasn’t working.

Another scary statistic – fully half of the active shooters mentioned above were proved mentally defective. How many of the remainder had mental problems as well? Is it an accident that young, white, socially maladjusted males make up the majority of the shooters?

Ejection of Christianity from the public square

In an apparent misreading of the First Amendment, thinking that we were guaranteed “freedom from religion”, liberals have rushed to eliminate religious influences from the public square. Moral relativism, preached by secular humanists, claims that Christian values are in no way superior to, say, the Taliban interpretation of Sharia law that justifies the subjugation, beating, and shooting of women who do not submit.

We have created a void of values which, in the face of the other cultural influences above, is very dangerous.

Imaginary ”gun free zones”

Hold firm to your grip on the pledge to avoid political correctness. This one is tough. Almost all of the mass shootings studied by the New York Police Department occurred in imaginary gun free zones. An actual gun free zone requires metal detectors and armed guards to enforce it – witness our airports since 9/11. An imaginary gun free zone is declared by government fiat or corporate policy, but is not enforced. Prime examples are shopping malls, movie theaters, schools, and post offices.

The characteristic of imaginary gun free zones is that law abiding citizens obey the rules while criminals, maniacs, and other evildoers do not. This creates all the conditions required for a massacre – defenseless citizens become the prey of armed perpetrators. As good as our first responders are, they just can’t get there in time.

How can we proceed?

So what are we to do? The prescription seems obvious. We need a renewal of ethical values to counteract the inevitable coarsening of culture. Whether these values are religion-based or not, they must abhor the taking of life and be inculcated early into our young.

We need to be judicious in how early and often our youth are exposed to violence in the media and on the internet. A tough problem, but one that deserves serious debate. Hollywood will push back vigorously.

We need to readdress the availability of mental health services and long term institutionalization of the violently insane. It is crazy that anyone, even with no insurance, can get treatment for a broken leg, but parents with a disturbed teenager have few options.

Where gun free zones are desired, we must create actual ones, not just imaginary. Metal detectors and armed guards are required to do so. If a government agency or corporation requires you to give up your means of defense, then it becomes responsible for defending you.

And we must look to our politicians to lead. Governor Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, in his foolish eagerness to banish Christmas, and hence Christ and Christian values, from the public square, is not part of the solution. Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, in his equally unwise bid to eliminate long-term psychiatric beds, is likewise part of the problem.

This is not an easy problem to solve. And focusing on guns alone is a dangerous red herring. These young perpetrators are crazy but not stupid – there are many other ways to wreak havoc. The root cause must be addressed – maniac control.

The unintended consequences of Obamacare

President Obama signing the Affordable Care Act

What do these disparate items have in common?

          -  9.9 horsepower outboard motors

          -  50-seat regional jets

          -  29 hour work week

All are unintended consequences of government actions.

For instance, the great state of Maine, as well as other jurisdictions, require that 10 horsepower outboard motors and above be registered (and therefore taxed). What was the reaction of manufacturers? Of course, they detuned their 10 horsepower models slightly and rebranded them as 9.9 hp. Now, in the marketplace, 10 horsepower motors are extremely rare and 9.9 models plentiful.

The Federal Aviation Agency has a safety regulation (FAR 121 section 391) that specifies the following:

“For airplanes having a seating capacity of more than 50 but less than 101 passengers – two flight attendants [are required]”

Airlines could save a lot of money by using only one flight attendant in a 50 seat aircraft. And indeed they did, ordering the Bombardier CRJ200 in the 50 seat configuration in great numbers even though the aircraft was capable of carrying 52 passengers.

And finally, the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) defines full time employees as those working 30 hours or more, and requires that those employees must be provided with full health insurance coverage.

“For purposes of section 4980H, a “full-time employee” is an employee who is employed on average at least 30 hours per week.”

So, once again, the reaction of the marketplace is predictable. The Huffington Post reports that the “Community College Of Allegheny County will cut the hours for some instructors to avoid paying for their health insurance coverage under new Affordable Care Act rules.” CCAC President Alex Johnson announced that they will be cutting the hours of 400 employees to less than 30 hours to avoid paying for health insurance, thereby saving $6 million.

But the surprising thing here is the comments posted in response to the Huffington Post article by their audience of typically liberal readers. Here is an example, directed at CCAC:

“If you can't afford to pay for employee benefits, don't start a business. Period.”

So let’s analyze this sentiment. This particular individual, representing the voting bloc that reelected President Obama, is advocating for higher unemployment.

How about this one?

“This is being portrayed as a failure of Obamacare, but it's more a failure of inadequate financing of state run higher education.”

This Obama voter is calling for higher tuition rates, a burden that parents and students already find intolerable.

And CCAC is only the tip of the iceberg. Similar stories are emerging regarding many other companies including Walmart and numerous others. For instance, the New American reports:

“According to the Orlando Sentinel, Darden Restaurants, Inc., operator of casual dining chains such as Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and LongHorn Steakhouse, is doing just that [reducing hours].”

The Affordable Care Act was validated by the Supreme Court and cemented by the election of 2012. The only surprise is that Mr. Obama’s supporters are surprised by its unintended consequences. Apparently, the 1,017 page bill should have been read before being voted into law.

Many liberals are now calling for additional legislation to prohibit companies from reducing hours to avoid health insurance costs. Proof only that big government always leads to even bigger government.

At what cost dignity?

Students at the Barnard School, Washington DC, 1955

One thing that we used to learn young is that there is never something for nothing. That axiom appears to be on the wane. At least one state plans to give away academic achievement.

Imagine that you work at a jewelry factory on a line that produces earrings. You are paid by the piece and are expected to complete 10 sets per hour. You are pretty good at your job and regularly meet or exceed your quota. You are proud of your performance and feel that you earn every penny of your paycheck. 

Suddenly, one day, your manager approaches and asks to speak privately. Upon discovering that you are of Lithuanian ancestry, she confides that you are no longer to be held to the same standard as your peers. Instead of the 10 pieces per hour expected of your coworkers, you will only be required to complete five (although you will be paid the same).

How will you react?  How do you feel? Relieved, because ten sets per hour was demanding and now you can coast? Or ashamed, because you will now take it easy while your coworkers continue to produce at the higher level? The answer might well be the latter since you were deemed not capable due only to your Lithuanian ancestry. What’s wrong with being Lithuanian, anyway? 

A poor analogy, perhaps, but something quite similar is about to happen in Virginia. The state board of education, upon receiving a federal waiver from the “No Child Left Behind” act, is adjusting expectations for students based on their ancestry.

According to Virginia Public Radio, this is the scoop. “Here's what the Virginia state board of education actually did. It looked at students' test scores in reading and math and then proposed new passing rates. In math it set an acceptable passing rate at 82 percent for Asian students, 68 percent for whites, 52 percent for Latinos, 45 percent for blacks and 33 percent for kids with disabilities.”

So now, depending on your ancestry, you will be held to different levels of expectation and standards of success. An African American student is expected to achieve only roughly half of an Asian American. What kind of message is that to send to striving students? How is that expected to motivate and cheer them on to succeed? And how will they fare in college, once graduated from high school under this tiered multi-ancestral success scheme?

Another approach is to believe that all students are capable of great achievement if only they are nurtured and encouraged. Students who are believed in and presented with high expectations can achieve great results.  Lowering the standards of success is cruel and destructive. It is far better to cultivate and raise each individual student to their greatest human potential. 

One thing is clear - this policy benefits only adults. The teachers and their unions, by redefining failure as success, have mitigated their own failures. And bureaucrats also come out on top - they no longer have to focus energy on the problem because, poof, they have made the problem vanish. The only faction accruing absolutely no benefit - the children.

Lowering expectations unavoidably leads to the diminution of human dignity. How can we possibly do that with a clear conscience? 

The banana boat who went to war

SS Contessa

Autumn of 1942 was grim, somber. The Axis was ascendant – Japan had conquered the Philippines and Singapore and most of the western Pacific including a wide swath of China and all of Korea. The map of Nazi Germany’s conquests had ballooned to include central Europe (except Switzerland), Scandinavia (except Sweden), Italy, and North Africa. There was no good news on the home front. Rationing was in effect, blackouts, German submarines sinking our coastal freighters. These were scary times – we were in an uncertain, but committed, struggle for survival.

Then a banana boat went to war.

The SS Contessa, owned by the Standard Fruit Company (later the Dole Food Company), was a tramp steamer built in 1930 in Glasgow, Scotland. She had a shallow draft and was designed to haul tropical fruits in iced storage holds from Honduras and Nicaragua to New Orleans.  With four steam engines, she managed 15 knots on a good day. The economics of tramp steamers were such that a few first-class passengers were carried on these trips, enjoying a tropical cruise, and general cargo hauled on the otherwise empty returns to the Caribbean. Altogether, Standard Fruit eked out a modest profit.

In late summer of 1942, the American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill proposed a major Allied campaign against the Nazi juggernaut. Operation Torch was intended to strike at the German Nazi and Vichy French occupation of North Africa, thereby opening a second front, drawing German troops away from the Russian front, and setting the stage for an invasion of southern Europe in 1943. Such colorful characters as Dwight David Eisenhower and General George S. Patton were called on to plan and lead the campaign. Another, perhaps intended, byproduct of the operation was to bring some sorely needed good news to war-weary American and British and Canadian civilians.

The major challenge was the sealift: 107,000 troops and all of their associated gear and tanks and airplanes and fuel and chow had to be landed on the coast of North Africa. A huge convoy of over 340 ships must be assembled, and quickly, if the landing date of November 8th were to be met.

The Contessa was pressed into naval service and summoned to Newport News. She was loaded with nearly 1,500 tons of explosive cargo – because of her relatively shallow draft, she was a critical element in the strategy to deliver fuel and bombs to an Allied air force to be based at Port Lyautey in French Morocco, 12 miles up the shallow Sebou River. This air force would provide vital air cover to the Allied landings, but would be toothless without Contessa’s cargo of provisions and weaponry.

The convoys, three in number and totaling 340 ships, were separated to avoid German submarines, destined to rejoin before passing through the straits of Gibraltar. One of the convoys was guarded by the battleship USS Massachusetts, “Big Mamie” (now ensconced in Fall River). The experience of crossing the storm-tossed Atlantic in autumn is best characterized by the chronicle of the destroyer USS Barnegat. From the US Naval History and Heritage Command, this description:

“On 24 October, [Barnegat] received orders to transport VP 73 to Londonderry, Northern Ireland. During the passage, Barnegat encountered heavy seas and, at 1541 on the 26th, took a ‘rapid, heavy roll to starboard’ while efforts were underway topside to secure depth bombs that had come adrift on deck. A torrent of water cascaded across the fantail and swept Ens. George V. Grabosky and two sailors over the side. Barnegat, herself, had to try to recover her drifting men, since the stiff gale precluded the lowering of a boat. Men on board worked lifelines and tended knotted lines, grapnels, and lifebouys, as she struggled against the elements to maintain proper position for a rescue. The two enlisted men were finally recovered, but the officer was not found.”

Life at sea was indeed arduous, and without relief. Very shortly after arriving in port, Barnegat was ordered back to sea with an Operation Torch convoy, with no chance of respite for her crew. But they persevered.

Meanwhile, the Contessa had reported to Newport News, Virginia, for refitting and loading of ordnance and aviation fuel. Unfortunately, upon her arrival, most of her crew scattered and could not be located. A US Navy military history of the episode recounts that the jails of Norfolk were scoured and men pressed into service. With this motley crew, and a US Navy liason officer, Lt. A. V. Leslie, her captain “volunteered to sail her unescorted across the submarine-infested Atlantic.” The crew proved worthy and the Contessa arrived at Safi, Morocco on 10 November. 

The Contessa had still to complete her mission, delivering vital supplies to the allied airbase, 12 miles up the shallow Sebou River. The tale is best told by the official US Navy military history.

“The cruise of this vessel sounds like a story by Conrad. After a hectic voyage during which she lost her way, the Contessa turned up at Safi a few hours prior to that landing. She was thereupon headed up to Mehdia, escorted by the Cowie. Up the winding channel, over sand bars, past obstructions, the Contessa scraped her way in spite of dented plates and leaking steams. Two miles south of Port Lyautey she ran hard aground and, before she could be floated, the ebb tide swung her around until she was pointing downstream. She had accomplished her mission, however. Lighters were rushed out from the airport, which had just been occupied, and her invaluable cargo was safely disembarked.”

With this kind of dedication, Operation Torch was a success. The Contessa delivered her store of weapons and fuel to the airfield at Port Lyautey with great skill and courage, though not without high adventure. The landings on the North African coast were difficult, but the Allies prevailed. General George Patton began to build his reputation as a tough, successful warrior. And on the home front, a little bit of cheer was finally felt in this dismal war.

So during this November, when we celebrate Veterans Day, let’s please remember, and honor, the sacrifices of all our active duty and veteran military members and their families. Your life would not be as comfortable, as safe, your rights inviolate, without them.

And don’t forget a hat tip to that brave little banana boat, the SS Contessa, who went to war and then returned to the fruit trade, as figuratively, all of us veterans did.