Civil War Redux – An Uncivil Uprising

 

Seems like folks are all in for another civil war … this war even less civil than the last one. North versus South. White versus non-white. Richer versus poorer. Self-centered versus selfless. Who will win? Who won the last one? 

Odds are on those who lie the most and lie the least believably. Odds are we will all lose. The bigots are on the rise and the fall of the shining city on the hill is imminent. 

I am so sorry to say that my older and wiser brother, rest his soul, was right: what happened in Nazi Germany can happen here … is happening here. 

I feel so helpless to do anything. And then I remember Franz Jäggersätter … see In Solitary Witness by Gordon Zahn – see https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1500357.In_Solitary_Witness. 

I want to do something positive beyond contributing to the campaigns of those dedicated to peace, love and kindness but I am not sure what I have to offer at this late stage of my life. Three governors who manipulate those seeking asylum in this country from tyrants have treated innocent persons to a taste of American tyranny. Woe is me.

Memories

 I find phrases popping into my mind as I reluctantly (habitually) listen to the news, which is generally quite disturbing. Phrases like “civil war” and “war between the states” came to mind as I listened to the President’s address yesterday.  But those phrases seemed totally out of place … out of tune. More appropriate would be “uncivil war” and “war within the states.” It is not north versus south or free states vs. slave states. Maybe it does involve the soul, or more simply, character. Whatever happened to other phrases that also came to mind, such as “love your neighbor” and “be kind to strangers.” It did not matter if your neighbor was black or white or stranger than Corporal Klinger. I was taught that love and kindness should be boundless and, while trying to live up to boundless love and kindness is often a challenge or even repugnant, that is what we are charged to do … my father was referring to a higher power, of course. I found those sentiments embedded in writings that led up to the founding of today’s western democracies, and implied in the President's repeated use of "we the people." And yet … and yet … I am feeling old and my thoughts seem stale and passé. I have a grandson who is fascinated by dinosaurs … I will have to let him know that I am among those lost beasts.

Mike Spector

2 Sep 2022

What does being presidential mean?

 

I have witnessed the public behavior of a number of previous US presidents and have acquired an informal understanding of what it means to be presidential. The current ex-president does not seem to fit easily into my understanding of being presidential.

So, I started thinking about presidents in other contexts … presidents of a congregation, of an enterprise, of a university, of a professional organization, and so on. I also have some experience with some of those kinds of presidents. My father was president of our congregation in Oak Ridge, Tennessee prior to becoming an ordained Rabbi. I wrote the president of IBM when I worked at the SDD Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado expressing my disagreements with the war in Vietnam and hoping IBM would also express similar disagreement, and he wrote back in agreement. Surprising. I posted his response on my office cubicle bulletin board, which bothered at least one of my co-workers who complained to my supervisor. My university president is also a model of presidential behavior and walks a thin line between Texas politics and maintaining a humanistic campus. I have heard a previous CEO of a political organization express strong disagreement but always in a civil and reasonable tone. None of those persons ever used nasty language nor did I ever hear any of them curse at anyone or anything. Oh yes … I have to admit to having been the president of a professional organization and I have expressed strong discontent publicly while in that role but without cursing or personally attacking anyone.

It seems reasonable to expect the president and ex-presidents of our country to act presidential at all times, especially in public. One ex-president fails to meet my expectations of presidential behavior … only one. It seems so unusual that so many others do not seem bothered by that person’s public discourse and behavior. Do I need to reconsider what it means to be presidential?

 

Mike Spector

August, 2022

Classified Clearances

 

With all the news on the recent search of #45’s home at Mar-a-Lago and the boxes of documents classified as Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information, I have been recalling my years as an Air Force Intelligence Officer during the Vietnam conflict and the Top Secret SCI clearance that I had. We simply called it a coded clearance and it required a serious background investigation even though I already had a top secret clearance when I arrived at Clark Air Base as a recent graduate of the nine-month Intelligence School at Lowry AFB (now closed). I worked in a secure facility … 12 hour shift work, 3 shifts on and 4 days off … not so bad … lots of time to get into trouble which I managed to do … not on purpose, though. I read many highly classified texts … my job was to summarize and synthesize what I read during my shift to pass along to the high ranking officers the next day. Most or the time it was just the number of people killed although I read about John McCain’s capture and detention in North Vietnam during my tenure. I vaguely recall there being levels of TS SCI clearance and I think mine was at the third level – relatively low level … there were many more levels … at least eight, I believe … probably more than that. In addition, I learned that one could not share TS SCI information even with someone with the appropriate clearance if that person did not have a clear need to know. I even originated a rare few of those highly classified documents. I detested the war and hated my job but it was better than dropping bombs on people.

At one point, I hosted an Air Force Captain – he became a Major while there - who was headed to Hong Kong to co-lead a highly classified intelligence monitoring operation along with a British officer. He had to await his TS SCI clearance which took months to get. We became friends and on one of my breaks I decided to visit him in Hong Kong. He even took me to that classified facility in the New Territories on a mountain ridge and introduced me to the British co-commander and his wife. I learned that one task at that facility was monitoring all of the air traffic in that part of the world … from southern China down to Indonesia and east and west likewise. The system was not yet perfected so that transmission of information was not yet automated but was being tested with hand developed messages that were not timely. When back at Clark Air Base I was on my third day of duty on a swing shift (4 pm to midnight) with a fresh second lieutenant coming on duty after me. He had not been briefed on the Hong Kong facility (that was not my job) and got one of those dummy messages and believing it to be serious sent it to PACAF HQ as if it was the real thing ... classified as a war message… it reported unusual air traffic conditions in Indonesia and PACAF HQ thought it was real and timely and called him that night and told him to retransmit it to the Pentagon … as a level 8 message which I could not have read even if I wanted to … but I was off to Bagio on my days off. That was the beginning of my troubles. When I came back to work, The Colonel called me in and read me the riot act as if I was responsible. The Colonel was fired that same day for incompetence and I was blamed for that as well, although I had nothing to do with the matter. That was when the powers that remained at CLARK AB decided to punish me and send me to Thailand to be in charge of a group of enlisted misfits who had to build a fence around Ubon Air Base.

Well, the end of the story was that Al Gore senior eventually came to my rescue and I came back to Clark AB three months later to be with my wife and newborn son who just three months old … born just before I was sent to Thailand. So much for my TS SCI clearance. I did manage to escape the Air Force with an honorable discharge. 

 

Uncivil War

 

I think of my older and wiser and departed brother often. His academic studies involved war and international relations. He has more entries in the Sage Encyclopedia of War than anyone else. I recall when we were in high school a family visit to Gettysburg. I was fascinated by trees as we walked around that sacred place while Danny was interested in the battle and how it progressed. I also recall talking with him about that war and I said it could never happen again, and he said do not be so sure. He was nearly always right. As I listen to the news, which I seem unable to avoid, I am thinking how right he was. We seem to be on the verge of what I call an uncivil war. It is not a regional north versus the south affair. It is a fair versus fear affair. Fear seems inclined towards intolerance and violence whereas fair seems inclined towards openness and understanding. History suggests that fear will prevail. My training suggests that the future may not resemble the past. But my brother was smarter and steeped in history. I worry.

What bothers me most is that I have no control of what is happening or likely to happen in the future. I can vote, but it may not count. I can contribute to those I support, but my funds are limited unlike the deep pockets of the true believers and truly crazed supporters of the new uncivil war that is waging in this troubled land of the freely betrayed and home of the mentally wounded. What can I do? I feel hopeless. The few times I have strayed outside a small circle of similarly concerned people, I have been told to shut up and stay away … even by some family members. I am troubled.

I am so troubled that I seem to find it hard to focus on work. I did manage to submit a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation and teach a summer course but it was a struggle. I even volunteered to be considered to serve another term as the doctoral program director at UNT, but I am feeling less than competent to continue as a professor due to having such a troubled mind. Retirement is not attractive as that would only increase the amount of time I would be consumed by the troubling states of disarray in this troubled land.

“It takes a worried man to sing a worried song” echoes in my mind. What to do? Eat more ice cream? More watermelon and fried chicken? I grew up in the South. I have lived and worked and spent much time in the North, South, East and West, and in other countries. There seems no escaping the madness that has gripped this troubled land. Where will it lead? How many more will die and be assaulted?

Worse than those concerns is that the madness seems not just prevalent in this troubled land but across the globe. Still, against all odds, there is grit and resilience in Ukraine, hope in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and sanity in New Zealand. But many are fleeing madness in South America and Africa. In spite of isolated instances of humanity, the overall state of the planet might be considered endangered … not just by global climate change but by global intolerance and inhumanity.

A still small voice in a dark cave is asking, when will it end? How will it end? Who can end the madness? The still small voice goes silent.

Amazing Disgrace

 

How bittersweet the sound. Gather around, children, come and listen to things I have heard, but there are some discouraging words. 

I was taught when I was younger that the Confederacy lost the Civil War and that slavery had eventually been abolished in this land of the free to be as greedy as you please. But apparently the defeated are rising again … and of course it helps to keep many from voting. 

Meanwhile, they send the least advantaged to war only to withhold support for their wounds when they return. It does not help to befriend dictators who invade other countries with the hopes of building a hotel or casino in the dictator's land. I used to think this was the land of innovation and invention and opportunity and optimism. But division and dissimulation have become the norm and form of discourse and decision-making. The tired, the poor, the huddled masses would love to breathe free … or just breathe … but the air is not clean and the water not safe in areas where those tired and poor and huddled masses happen to live. 

This nation of immigrants is saying no to more immigrants and punishing many of those already here, except for models and wives of the wealthy. The media used to be trustworthy in reporting facts and analyzing complex situations but so many media people are now playing the gotcha game favored by politicians. 

Why do some people expect bumper sticker simple solutions to complex and challenging problems? Why do some people expect something simple to resolve something complex? Why do some people prefer slogans to solutions? A slogan will not solve the climate crisis or the gun violence crisis or the racial prejudice crisis or the health crisis or any other crisis condemning our children to a dark and dismal future. What is amazing are not the rare and few acts of kindness one might cite in response. What is amazing is how low we have fallen and how far our species is from the grace many used to praise and seek. 

The desert is not in some remote location. It is in the heart of your neighbor and even in yourself. Myself.

Short vs. Long

 

No, I am not thinking about Marc Short or Shelley Long. I am thinking about what a person values and what interests a person pursues. Of course, I first experimented on myself, which is not always a good or representative point of departure … but it is hard to avoid. In general, I found huge gaps between the two and noticed that when I was younger I tended to focus and act primarily on short term interests and values. I wanted to be a pilot, so I managed to get admitted to the Air Force Academy where my eyes started to deteriorate and I was not able to go to flight school and developed a strong interest in philosophy and was named the outstanding cadet in philosophy at ISAFA1967... yes, I am older than dirt. I opted for becoming an intelligence officer after graduation as I thought I would get to remain in the USA … this was during the Vietnam conflict in which about half of my Academy classmates died … and work on building an intelligence database … but then I was given a choice of learning Vietnamese or going to the Philippines as an intelligence officer. 

As I valued my life, I chose Clark Air Base in the Philippines. I think it was there that I began to shift from short term pursuits to a focus on long terms values and interests, such as acting in accord with that honor code we followed at USAFA. Truth … the truth began to be more important than being promoted or finding a better position in the Air Force. And, speaking truthfully in intelligence briefings and debriefings got me sent to Thailand and put in charge of airmen who were convicted of various offences and sent there to build a fence around the base along with machine gun bunkers … and I was put in charge of those people??? Surprisingly, I found many of them interesting and serious and managed to develop a working relationship in which I became Sergeant Mike to them in spite of my officer status. That might have been the result of my trading many roles of concertina wire for a box of steaks which we cook on the perimeter fence we had built. The person I replaced had built a machine gun bunker facing inside the base rather that outside the base. We had to rebuild it although we all thought it was an interesting way of protesting that officer’s mistreatment.

Anyway, I was saved from my own mistreatment by Senator Al Gore senior who managed to get me out with an honorable discharge as I was being treated as if I had committed an offence without a hearing or evidence and offered an honorable discharge or reassignment elsewhere. My choice of the discharge marks my shift from short term pursuits to a stronger focus on long term values. 

Of course things got worse after my discharge with unemployment and a divorce. I wandered about and managed to find a position with an IBM research and development lab outside Boulder, Colorado. I learned a lot at IBM, including being first in my programming class, but I found the work boring and wanted to do something that might have a more directly positive impact. So I got a leave of absence and went to Israel as a volunteer teacher for a year, where I reverted to short term interests and pursuits … i.e., girls. When I returned to IBM I really felt lost. 

My older and wiser brother was completing his PhD in history at the University of Texas and said I should apply to study there, which I did. I was admitted with a year delay due to a cap on admissions and lack of funding. At UT, I was initially a teaching assistant for an ethics course. I found the students uninterested although the professor was very supportive of me. In my second year there, the department had a dilemma as none of the faculty wanted to teach logic so I spoke up and said I could do that. I then became a lecturer for the remainder of my studies being paid half the salary of a beginning assistant professor. Teaching logic was easy for me but boring for most of the students. I was a little frustrated and I now know that part of the problem was me … I expected students to find logic relevant and useful but few did. Initially I blamed them, but the fault was mine as I later realized years later.

Anyway, I wanted to say something meaningful about focusing on long term values and interests rather than just pursuing short term interests. The discrepancy became obvious to me while watching and listening to such folks as Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and Chris Murphy, and then contrasting their behavior and interests with those of such folks as Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham and Joe Manchin.  

It seems all too easy to differentiate those who emphasize long terms values and interests over short term gains and pursuits, yet the short termers seem to gain the support of so many others. Why is that? What am I not understanding? How could anyone belittle Liz’s heroic leadership on the Jan. 6 Committee or Adam’s willingness to say what he believes rather than pursue another term as Senator of Chris’ long time efforts to rectify the conditions that led to Sandy Hook and Uvalde. How? Yet they are continually attacked by small-minded people supported by a few with deep pockets and strong interests in deepening those pockets. But so many of those mindless followers fail to see that their own short term interests are being marginalized by the deep pocket people.

Whew … I had to get that off my mind and out of my fingers.

 Mike Spector

July 2022

 

So much evil in so many places

 

Due to the advice of family and friends, I am limiting the time I watch or listen to the news. However, it is impossible for me not to see so much evil in so many places, including our own supremely pernicious court. Putin reeks of evil, and it shows in his snake eyes. But more worrisome are the insurrection and climate deniers in my own country. What seems to matter to so many people are their own views and personal gain. When I was younger, I was somewhat like that, but I do not think I ever tried to deny obvious truths. My views on the war in Vietnam got me into trouble when I was an intelligence office in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Al Gore senior came to my rescue and I managed to escape from that madness. Gore senior later urged me not to lose faith in my country in spite of some faults that I saw. Gore senior was a rare politician … not many like him these days. There used to be men and women of integrity on both sides of the aisle. Not so many these days. A few come to mind, including Liz Cheney, whose father I abhorred, and Amy Klobuchar, for whom I voted, and perhaps a dozen more, mostly on the left side of that aisle of despair that threatens our democracy. That supremely divided court seems determined to return the country to the unhappy days of an imaginary past. I am slowly coming to understand one thing in the Jewish bible that my father could not adequately explain to me – namely why the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children and children of the children for several generations to come. I seem to recall my father telling me that was simply a description of human behavior … what was likely to happen based on human behavior. The point was to be a beacon of good as a parent so that one's children would do good all their days. Perhaps my father was right. I cannot recall anything wrong he ever did … I cannot even recall him ever cursing although my mother could curse up a storm when upset. So I wonder about the childhood of Donald Trump and Valdimir Putin and Clarence Thomas and teens with AR-15s and so many others who seem determined to spread hatred and violence in what I used to think of as a beautiful planet in my youthful backpacking days. I have seen much natural beauty and met some amazing individuals, but as I age I worry that those sights and special people are being systematically lost and put down and destroyed. I really wish I could ignore all that is happening these last few years, but it seems to me that what I regarded as beautiful in nature and righteous in people is being destroyed by a minority of misguided bigots. I write to try and rid my self of these thoughts … to no avail. What gives me hope are my children and grandchildren ... the children are our future. 

 

Mike Spector

July the first and hopefully not the last, 2022

Higher Order Hypocrisy

 

The Supremely Hypocritical Court ruled against Roe v. Wade because abortion was not mentioned in the Constitution. Of course airplane travel was also not mentioned in the Constitution yet we have a Federal Aviation Authority. The right to bear arms was given to state militia, not to teenagers … oh, I almost forgot, AR-15s were also not mentioned in the Constitution, nor was the right to safely attend elementary school without fear of hiding from weapons of war in the hands of teenagers.

We have lost our democracy to bullies, billionaires, intolerant and hateful religious groups, far-right-wing anarchists, holier-than-God bigots, white nationalists, and others comprising a powerful and highly vocal and volatile minority of citizens. I am guessing that AR-15s are owned mostly by men and many in Texas where an 18 year old person can purchase multiple AR-15s and untold boxes of death yielding bullets. According to ownership data, most gun owners are while, male, and Republican. Let’s simply say that assault rifle owners are mainly white males. According to medical reports, [most] abortions are performed on women … of all races and political orientations. If men decide gun-ownership issues, then women should decide abortion rights issues. Yet, that is not how democracy in these divided and misguided states works. The supremely stupid opinion removing the 50 year old Roe v. Wade ruling was made with the premise that abortion was not mentioned in the Constitution and Roe v. Wade was dividing Americans, in spite of polling evidence suggesting that the overwhelming majority of Americans were in favor of keeping Roe v. Wade.

Who is dividing Americans? The gun-righteous fanatics who want to allow AR-15s in the hands of teenagers? The righteous- religious fanatics who want to completely ban abortions of all kinds everywhere in America? One can no longer believe that anyone being nominated to the court will tell the truth when being vetted by Senators. One can no longer believe many Senators, although the minority righteous leader does seem to usually tell the truth even wallowing in his beloved nickname, Moscow Mitch.

I now have tremendous respect for Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who seem truth-oriented without appealing or yielding to popular far-right sentiments. And there are hollow regrets at the court’s ruling offered by such lawmakers as Susan Collins and Joe Manchin and a lame vote by John Roberts not to over-turn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Divide and denigrate are the watchwords of the Trumplicans and the Mitch-McDuckheads … meanwhile Roger Stone and Steve Bannon and many minor facilitators and shadow boxers it is easy but not best to forget are tearing down the weak walls of our constitution… the facilitators of the decline and fall of the American Republic are numerous and unfortunately surprisingly successful.

Well, it should not be a surprise and the regrets will only accumulate after the lost of a shining city upon a hill. America was not meant as a citadel for Christians … it was not meant as a citadel for gun-owners … it was not meant as a citadel for billionaires and bigots, as they require so much more than a citadel. America is not a shining light for other nations or societies. New Zealand may be that shining light … or perhaps Norway where there are so many immigrants wanting to come to American according to #45. How stupid can some people be???

And there is Lady Liberty with these words welcoming visitors to our shores:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Those who are destroying this fragile democracy might propose the following words to replace those sacred words:

“Give us your rich, your privileged, your massive egomaniacs yearning for more wealth and power. Send then to our polluted shores. We lift a lamp beside this golden goose-egg Republic!”

I know … too much sarcasm and too little action on my part to help preserve our fragile democracy. I have donated what I can to a few worthy politicians … mostly democrats but I will will support Cheney and Kinzinger if they run again. I cannot walk far due to back pain and no one reads my blog so small donations are about all I can muster at present. I wish I could do more to repay the education I received as an Air Force Academy distinguished graduate.

Mike Spector

June 2022

 

 

I admit it ...

 

I have been told that I am spending too much time watching or reading the news, and that is causing me stress and detracting from my professional and personal responsibilities. That advice has come from multiple persons including family members. I admit it. They are right. However, all the things that have been happening occupy my thoughts much of the time, and I simply cannot purge those thoughts.

The long-time agony of Trump’s presidency and the deplorable … despicable … behavior of so many Trumplicans has been with me for years already. Then came the insurrection and the deniers of what we all saw. And the continuing sad saga of those unable to speak out publicly about the ongoing attacks on our democracy. So damned deplorable.

What could be worse? The insane Putin the Pretender invading Ukraine … but then there is at least the bravery and persistence of freedom lovers resisting that maniacal invasion. A glimmer of hope by some people with integrity and internal strength. How different would the world be if the Polish people had been able to muster the courage and persistence exhibited by Zelensky and so many brave Ukrainians? Now there is a new Hitler menacing the world – Putin, who will eventually receive his just desserts … hard to be just when so many have been killed due to his egomaniacal rule. We had a former President who was heading down the same dark tunnel.

And a teenager purchased two AR-15s and several boxes of ammunition and walked into an elementary school in Uvalde and murdered 19 children and two teachers. And that deadly massacre is now almost forgotten due to other senseless murders and violent acts. And the leaders of Texas and the gun lobby see nothing wrong with allowing any 18 year-old kid to buy a weapon of war that most police officers have to be trained to use and only allowed to carry when needed in special circumstances. Arm the maniacs and send them to Ukraine … or, better yet, send them to Russia.

We are losing the war with civility … and it appears we have already lost the war with the climate. Stick your head in the sand … hold your nose … collect your obscene profits … let others struggle and starve … no need to change your minds or hearts … the times are not changing after all of that … so damned depressing …

I admit it ... I am so depressed I often find it hard to concentrate and work ... 

 

Mike Spector

June 2022