Memorial Day

I visited my mother for Memorial Day and her memories of WWII are sharp. "Best time of my life..." she always says. And why not? Everything was organized, everyone had a purpose. Entertainment was scheduled. All are welcome. Everyone in a uniform. And we were generally in the lead.

My father was in the navy eight years, being held in after four years because of Pearl Harbor. He was on destroyers in Alaska where the Japanese had invaded and in the Caribbean where the Germans U boats were attacking shipping. Destroyers are supposed to protect valuable shipping, engage and destroy ships. In the entire four years none of the ships he served on ever was obliged to open fire in a fight. Like most people in uniform, he never saw battle.

Something like 18 people support one person fighting. And those in actual combat, if wounded, are patched up and sent back in to fight, if possible. Funny thing about those who actually fought... the generally are not so gung ho.

After visiting my mother I went to Home Depot to buy a utility sink, and the store offered a 10% discount to veterans. I asked the Somali clerk if that included conscientious objectors. She said yes, if I had government ID. Sigh, I stopped carrying my draft card long ago.

The TV is full of war movies today. I rented Hearts and Minds, a documentary circa 1974. I highly recommend it. In one shot Daniel Ellsberg points out Truman, Eisenhauer, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon all lied about US involvement in the Vietnam war. Ellsberg thought it a tribute to the American people that all those five presidents, well across the political spectrum, all though they had to lie to the American people, assuming if the American people knew the facts we would not tolerate it. But then he observed, it is sad how easy it is to lie to the American people.

In Seattle the police released a video of a fellow being pushed by a police officer and them sustaining an injury that has put the lad in a coma, possibly terminal. When the video finally came out it is pretty clear the lad had ceased running when he received a horrendous shove from an officer, precipitating the fall and injury. The police say the lad was falsely identified as a troublemaker, and they say in defense "we do not know why he ran." Perhaps he ran because he was falsely accused. Who knows? The question the film begs is why did the officer give the lad such a shove? Why are we getting so violent?

A year ago I was a delegate to the Washington State Republican Convention. I had gone on a business trip and when i came back, my wife had volunteered me to be a precinct delegate, then I won a district caucus, and elected to go on the the state convention. Of course I was as Ron Paul delegate. Growing up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood, I already knew politics were corrupt, but my wife wanted to learn all about it, so I was her stalking horse.

The one thing that struck me was the conclusion that the political parties are the fountain head of the violence in America. It was clear in the process, if the Ron Paul people pressed their legitimate claims in the process, they would ultimately be dealt with violently. As it stood, they need only to be lied to, cheated, hoodwinked, etc. In fact, I was pretty sure there were plenty of agente provocateurs in our midst wishing to precipitate violence, with a view to discrediting Ron Paul movement. I think the general feeling among the Ron Paul people was, "ML King showed us there are good reasons to go to jail... but reforming the Republican party is not one of them..." Indeed, since then the Ron Paul people have formed in essence a third party.

A leader of that local movement asked a group of us to meet to discuss pushing forward. I invited them to meet at my house, and I met some new people, seeking leadership in this new movement. I declined to go forward with them, and wished them well. privately these new people are no different than anyone else seeking political office, and will no doubt in time be like the rest.

Ultimately it is the politicians who are responsible for the wars and the police officers who push non-threatening people down. The political parties claim a monopoly on public affairs and set the tone. After that, it is a matter of gamesmanship for anyone getting a govt paycheck, military and police included, to be pleasing to the political masters.

Politicians represent their parties and the government, but they are not America. America is the Mississippi River, the Tetons, and locally Hood
Canal, Recreational Equipment, Puget Consumer Co-op, Bastyr College, Grand Central bakery and all the people around all of that and so on. If al of that disappeared, America would be gone. If the politicians disappeared, all that would be there. It's clear we do not need them.

But people want them. Americans want to believe, we are for good things and against bad things, generally. We don't now an alternative. We've forgotten alternatives, or they have been so mischaracterized as to be feared. Once insurance companies managed risk. The less loss, the more money they made, which would bring in competitors who kept premiums low. We were learning there was little we needed govt to handle. So the govt got involved, and made insurance companies an offer they could not refuse: switch the model from managing risk to managing actuarial tables. That is, instead of improving safety and limiting loss, just figure present failure rates and take in four and pay out one. Taxpayers would pay the govt for health and safety, and then again if they wanted better than the govt offered (like schools.) Now we have AIG and other insurance companies being bailed out, and health and safety deteriorating.

Changes are coming, and it would be good if people knew their alternatives.

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