Point Roberts: An Update

In earlier essays I’ve talked a bit about Point Roberts, the unique and funky “exclave” we live in. Unusual locales like ours tend to attract unusual people. One of them is the retired college teacher, world-class quilter, high-powered fund-raiser and respected blogger Judy Ross. The easiest way to introduce you to her is to reproduce, with her permission, her latest entry about The Point. I’ve included a photo of her and husband Ed Park. It follows, but if you’d like to read her blog, go here.

Sweet Sounds

         by Judy Ross

This past weekend, we in Point Roberts were gifted with two extraordinary concert performances on Friday and Saturday nights.  You’d think we were an urban setting to have such options for our entertainment.  But, we are not.  We’re a very small place that’s difficult to get to.  And thus it is worth calling to all our attention what extraordinary events these were.

On Friday night, Michael Munro impressively performed four big pieces, one each by Bach, Berg, Schoenberg and Schubert.  On Saturday night, The Mystic Winds (a woodwind quintette) gave us a swirling experience of many pieces associated with World War I, whose 100th anniversary we just ‘celebrated.’  (Actually, hard to think of celebrating that event.)  Both performances involved professional musicians coming here to give us an evening of splendor.  (Not enough that we live in a place of unusual beauty but we also get culture!)

That we get it at all is to the credit of Lucy Williams who has been producing dozens of concerts on behalf of the community and Trinity Lutheran Church for the past half dozen years or so.  She started out doing it as a way to raise money for an emergency generator that the church needed in order to qualify as an emergency shelter in the event of a real emergency.  And after that was paid for, she continued bringing us music of all kinds in order to fund the annual children’s summer music camp and, more recently, to help with fundraising for the new library.  (Since I’m heavily involved in the new library fundraising, I’m particularly grateful to her for this help.)  But, more than that, we can all be grateful to her for her gift to the community: it is not an easy matter to produce a dozen concerts a year when it is all voluntary.  Lucy has been able to find individuals and groups of all kinds—jazz, fada, Barbershop, popular, classical, etc.—AND has been able to persuade them to come here to play for us without having to pay them: they perform as a gift.  Furthermore, she does not sell tickets to these fine performances: it is all by donation, because it is all for the benefit of the community.  A gift squared.

In Vancouver and other places where I have lived, concert tickets are not obtained by donation.  It’s another part of the unusualness of Pt. Roberts that our concerts do not require us to buy tickets, although we are asked to make a donation to something that is for our own benefit and use.  So extremely admirable as a community model.

I wrote last month about local institutions and our need for them to be strong.  Lucy has a very strong record for the institution of producing concerts here.  How can we thank her for her service?  We can thank her best by going to the concerts whenever we can.  She already has 10 more concerts scheduled including a trombone group and TWO choirs singing ABBA!  Great.  Come, enjoy!  Thanks to Lucy!

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A note on Lucy to wrap this up. Lucy looks and sounds like what she is, a Texan with a classic southwestern drawl and, to boot, she’s a blond. She is also an excellent oboist and founder of the Point Roberts Wind Ensemble. As Judy notes she’s a startlingly effective organizer of musical events. Here, she appreciates the beauty of Judy’s quilts which she makes when not blogging. Thanks to Ed and Judy for the photos.

But if you hang around a bit and look closely you begin to discover other remarkable things. Turns out she’s not your stereotypical “dumb blond from Texas,” although she uses that public face to good measure. She’s an hysterical stand up comic who does the “dumb blond from Texas” bit perfectly. When she and Dick (who was a Professor of Mathematics in the California university system) lived in Los Angeles she used to work the improv clubs around town. An agent offered her a contract with plans to go on tour. She turned him down because she had too much else going on. A big piece of this “other stuff going on” you won’t discover unless you stop by their house. It is filled with French antiques. In addition to all her other talents, our dumb blond from Texas is also a respected antiques dealer with an international flair (her business partner is in Paris).

Like I’ve said before, Point Roberts attracts and holds dear some of the more unusual and compelling folks. Lucy is like a lot of us here. She and Dick visited and within a few days knew this was home.

A Breathless Moment in Loony Land

The GOP has made a couple of moves lately that are so bizarre, so insane, so utterly wackadoddle crazy that it is becoming difficult to grasp that these proposals have actually been put forward by presumably sane people. Here’s the latest candidate for the year’s stupidest, most incoherent and ridiculous proposal (to date — I suspect they’ll come up with something that trumps this one):

Bill H.R. 1422 (aka the Science Advisory Board Reform Act): First, a short primer on Science Advisory Boards. They are a staple of governments everywhere. They are created to provide advice on matters that pertain to scientific understanding and how scientific advances link with governmental policy. In 1978 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established a Science Advisory Board for just this purpose. The board’s functions focus on the environment and their advice dovetails on the translation of scientific advances into public policy. Makes sense, yes? Of course it does — provided that you’re not a brain-dead Republican.

Representative Chris Steward (R-UT), the prime sponsor of H.R. 1422, is not happy with the kinds of advice scientists have been providing the EPA. The key clause in his piece of legislation states “Board members may not participate in advisory activities that directly or indirectly involve review or evaluation of their own work.”

If you read that slowly and carefully, it should take your breath away. What is says is that any scientist who has published research on a topic that comes under consideration for policy issues will be, should this snippet of insanity become law, forbidden from giving testimony or providing advice to the Board on that topic.

Of course, the way scientists become expert on a topic is by doing research on it and publishing their findings and theories in peer-reviewed journals. Were this bill to become law, these individuals would be prevented from providing any advice to the government. In short, it would block any scientist of note from providing advice to a Science Advisory Board.

Now in what totally insane world would this be a desirable goal? A significant lacuna in this bill lets you see the answer. There is nothing in it that prevents those with financial or business interests in the issues under discussion from presenting their perspectives and views or providing advice to the Board.

Take a hypothetical (but likely) scenario: the topic before, say the EPA, is climate change. A distinguished scientist with decades of research into meteorology and the impact of human activities on global climate and the CEO of a major oil production corporation who has deep financial interests in denying any anthropogenic role in climate change both ask to provide testimony.

Only the latter would be permitted to present his/her point of view.

As Andrew Rosenberg, Director of the Union of Concerned Scientists noted, this bill would turn the very notion of “conflict of interest” on its head. The scientist with no conflict would be barred from providing testimony while those with compelling financial interests would be given full access to present their views.

Obama has said he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk. This is comforting but I can’t help wondering what might happen if this crazy, benighted electorate were to put a Republican in the White House in 2016.

Ironic Stupidity Trumps Insanity: In the Mind of the Randians

Actually, that title might be better the other way around: insanity has trumped stupid. In either case, the topic is the same: the so-called “monetary policy” of the GOP. Not surprisingly, it really isn’t a policy. It also has little to do with the monetary system and, of course, is just another talking point using their favorite gambit: fear.

It is seen most poignantly in various statements and speeches by Senator Rand Paul in which he warns of a coming slide in the value of the dollar and a linked hyperinflation. He likes drawing attention to the wildly inflated German economy just before WW II and hinting that if the Fed isn’t reined in we’re heading in that direction.

This is, to anyone paying attention, utter nonsense. The Fed isn’t doing anything other than keeping the economy humming along with sound adjustments in the money supply and interest rates. Inflation hasn’t even been hinted at since Obama took over — if anything it’s a tad lower than optimal. The dollar isn’t losing value. In fact, it’s gaining as Europe struggles with its self-imposed austerity mess and China’s growth slows. The dollar is what it has been for the longest time, the world’s strongest and most respected currency. In countries around the world the US dollar is the universal currency.

These facts are pretty obvious and tough to duck. When Paul spouts his nonsense at fairs, townhalls and other gatherings of the tea party believers it works because they don’t know any better and seem to take such pleasure in being frightened.

But with the folks who see how empty these claims are more is needed. It’s supplied in the most astonishing manner: the government, the new conservative claim goes, is cooking the books. The inflation rate isn’t low, it’s soaring but they’ve buried the true data. The fact that these numbers about inflation aren’t produced by the government but by independent agencies seems lost on them. The story here is too weird and too long. Go to this piece in the Washington Post for an explanation.

But listing these tidbits of silliness isn’t enough. You have to ask, if the GOP’s position is idiotic and, alas, trumping the merely stupid, why are they doing this? Why claim the government is lying when there’s no suggestion of this anywhere but in the minds of right-wing paranoids? Why warn constantly about inflation when there’s not even a hint of it? Why worry about rising interest rates when they’re at historic lows? Why demand the break-up of unions? Why crusade against Social Security? Call for reductions in the size of government? Campaign against raising the minimum wage? Vote to repeal the ACA? Insist on reducing business taxes? Inheritance taxes? Taxes on the top earners?

Krugman got close to an answer in a recent column: to a conservative “… markets aren’t just a useful way to organize the economy; they’re a moral structure.” And that, sports fans, is the key. As we’ve pointed out before, this kind of clinging to an outmoded moral framework contaminates conservative thinking on issues like women’s health, abortion, gambling and education. It is why conservatism, stripped of its genteel veneer, is ugly, destructive and regressive.

Each of the sensible, viable and effective moves that the Fed makes offends. Even the thought of a stimulus package, or the government buying up bonds or increasing the minimum wage gives them headaches. They still live in a world where money is something that sits in a bank, backed by gold or other precious metals, where your worth is based on your accomplishments, what you built — and think you did it wholly on your own.

But modern monetary policy, the real thing, the economic principles that do, in fact, determine how the world’s economy operates doesn’t operate that way. It uses paper or statements about money in digital formats. Cash is worth what it is because of the faith in the government that backs the paper. It is faith and belief, these make up the glue that holds it together. The conservatives, with their commitment to the antiquated gold standard seem to have forgotten that it is always faith and trust. Gold has value because people believe it has value. Any bartered product has value when those involved in the exchange share the faith and belief in its value.

The Randians of the right (Paul and Ayn) cling to an outmoded, unworkable view. The fact that it is obvious that they’re wrong and that the neo-Keynesian model is far better has no impact on them because they’ve been captured by the same seed they sow: fear.

The deeper irony is that if they were to gain power and impose their broken economic models on us they would get precisely what they fear.

Susan Boyle and Oh So Many ...

Susan Boyle fascinates me. If you’re one of the few who don’t know who she is go here and join the other 150 million who have watched this truly extraordinary performance. If you want all the details and the complexities of her life, they can be found in this extended interview and retrospective. Since 2009 Boyle has sung all over the world, released seven albums which have sold tens of millions of copies, been invited to meet the Queen of England and has an estimated total worth in excess of $30 million.

But it’s not the stunning and, frankly, well-deserved success that fascinates me. In my mind she sits in a rather unusual group of individuals that includes Harry Truman, Dag Hammarskjöld and Pope John XXIII.

All were rather ordinary folks until history showed what a little trickster she is. Truman was a little-known and little-respected politician. FDR needed a new candidate for Vice President. Henry Wallace, FDR’s VP from 1940 - ‘44, was too far to the left for most Democrats and his pro-Soviet stance unsettled many in both parties. Roosevelt, who had a strong commitment to Wallace’s vision, finally agreed and the party moved to Truman. HST was seen as uncontroversial, something of a hack but capable of pushing around the paperwork that was, and still is, a necessary part of governing.

Hammarskjöld was an economist and a career diplomat who was viewed as a competent technocrat. He was a member of the Swedish delegation to the United Nations when Trygve Lie resigned. Having never joined any political party (despite the fact that his father had been the Prime Minister of Sweden), he was viewed a safe choice, uncontroversial and, like Truman, someone who could handle the boring details while others did the heavy lifting.

Pope John XXIII, born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, came from distinctly humble beginnings and lived most of his life as an unexciting priest best known for never pissing anyone off. When Pius XII died, Cardinal Roncalli was 78 years old and was called to Rome to help elect the next pope. He bought a return train ticket. After 11 deadlocked ballots the Cardinals turned to him as a safe caretaker pope who would shuffle the papers and keep things in order until the various internal battles within the Vatican could be sorted out.

Most Americans know about Truman’s startling emergence as a strong, effective leader. While many historians and observers of the political world take umbrage with many of his decisions (dropping the first bomb was a cruel and terrible act; dropping the second an indefensible one under any circumstances), there is little doubt that this second-rate political hack and practitioner of the backroom deal became a remarkable president. He oversaw the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe, made shrewd economic decisions that kept the economy strong in the slump that occurred after the war and, was the first president to support serious legislation on civil rights.

Hammarskjöld is probably largely unknown to Americans. This is too bad. He was an astonishing person. Hidden beneath the “competent technocrat” label was a poet, a mystic, an extraordinary diplomat and true visionary whom John F. Kennedy called “the greatest statesman of our century.” During his short tenure at the UN (1952 - 1961) he was present as a calming voice, a richly insightful negotiator and a mediator of some of the most inflammatory international settings of that era.

He worked closely with the Arab states and Israel, traveled to China to negotiate the release of prisoners of the Korean War, set up the UN Emergency Force, intervened in the Suez Canal crisis and played a role in the Holy See being given a Permanent Observer position. He died in a suspicious plane crash during one of his many trips to Congo to negotiate a peace in that war-torn country. There are many, including me, who cannot help wondering if he was assassinated. He had become too dangerous: a modern Buddha, above the fray, driven only by a love of justice and fairness. I am pleased to note that there is a new effort to investigate his death.

Roncalli, quietly assembled the Second Vatican Counsel and delicately crafted the first major changes in The Church in centuries. He stepped outside the veiled confines of the church. He acknowledged the Church’s discrimination of Jews, he was the first pope to travel outside the Vatican in over a century. He reformed the liturgy and, ultimately, was canonized.

And there are many more … Lou Gehrig was a back-up 1st baseman for the Yankees and used mainly as a pinch hitter. Then, when starter Wally Pipp went into a prolonged slump, Gehrig got his chance. He took it.

Tom Brady, who just claimed his 4th Super Bowl victory, was an afterthought. Not picked till the 6th round in the NFL draft of 2000 (198 players were selected before the Patriots took him with a supplementary selection), he warmed the bench till the starter Drew Bledsoe was injured. He is now generally regarded as the greatest quarterback — ever.

Jay Hunter Morris was an understudy for the role of Siegfried in the Met’s production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Actually, he was more than just the understudy. When Ben Heppner came down with a cold and couldn’t go on, the regular understudy withdrew, citing illness. In desperation, the Met turned to Morris. If you want to know what happend, go here. If you don’t want to bother following that thread I’ll tell you: Morris is now regarded as one of the finest Wagner tenors and is the Met’s first choice as Siegfried.

There is a thread that binds them all, these and the thousands, millions of others with similar, if less well-publicized, stories.

It is found in one of the more profound things Stephen Jay Gould, the anthropologist and science writer, ever said. When asked by a reporter if he ever regretted not having had the chance to meet and talk with people like Darwin and Einstein he responded in classic Gouldian fashion. He said he actually missed far more not meeting the many of equal brilliance, of equal vision who spent their days picking cotton, being worn down by the brutal conditions of the coal mines or bound into submission in societies who treated them as chattel.

There is genius in many of us. It’s buried under pain and deprivation, hidden beneath oppression, pushed off stage by prejudice and discrimination. When I hear Susan Boyle sing it fills me as sounds from no other artist can. Tune in and when you hear her, stop and look. See Truman grinning while holding up a paper that says “Dewey wins.” Hear the soft transcendent voice of Hammarskjöld forming bonds between adversaries. Watch the fourth child (of fourteen) born to sharecroppers in a village in Lombardy assemble the Second Vatican Council and gently drag the Church into the 20th century. React to the sharp crack of a Louisville Slugger as the ball slices between two outfielders, watch the sublime arc of a football as it lands gently into the hands of a receiver and resonate to the rich voice of an astonishing tenor who comes from a tiny, backwater village in Texas as he takes on the role of a lifetime.

Join me in celebrating the best that is within us all.

Is There Irony in ISIS?

Those who follow my blatherings know that I’m a great fan of irony. The latest installment here is the backlash that is emerging against ISIS or ISIL or IS or whatever your favorite abbreviation for the bizarre, reckless and vicious gang of misanthropes currently marauding in the Middle East is. As the great, gray Times notes, the horrific murder by conflagration of a Jordanian pilot is producing a rather impressive backlash.

Why is this ironic? It’s because we created these terrorists. It’s because the inhumane, vicious, violent path that the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld gang took after 9/11 had the same effect. Rather than win some metaphoric war, rather than entice a nation, a region, to adopt an alien way of life, it produced exactly what any moderately insightful psychologist could have told you: it produced a backlash.

Our benighted efforts in Afghanistan, in Iraq to import a Western form of government, a North American sort of culture was doomed to fail.

ISIS’s efforts to establish a twisted version of fundamentalist Islam in the region is doomed to fail and for the same reason. People are, for the most part, comfortable with the lives they live. They are content with their culture, its mores, food, dress, beliefs, the routines that fill their days. They will resist the imposition of another’s values, fight against efforts to import an alien vision. If this isn’t obvious stop for a moment, think how you would react if a wave of acolytes from afar, brandishing weapons and icons of an unfamiliar deity entered your town or village.

The misguided, naive, doomed mission that Bush et al. set us on is now being matched by the equally misplaced rampage of ISIS. Neither can succeed in the long run because both fail to understand that one cannot truly impose one’s will upon another. One cannot force a nation to adopt someone else’s utopian vision any more than one can force someone to love you.