On misery in our streets; seditionists and the law; a Burberry scarf and a vicuña coat; Buzz Aldrin at 93; and more
I’m no Charles Kuralt, but I get around the country a bit, and I am struck by something: Never have I seen so much begging. Begging everywhere (by able-bodied people). My question: Is the need greater than ever? Or have our mores changed?
I posed this question on Twitter, and got a variety of responses. Some people said, “Biden! Duh.” Other people said, “The need is greater” — in other words, there is more poverty.
Frankly, I don’t think so. In the world of my grandparents and great-grandparents, there was a helluva lot more poverty — grinding poverty — and less begging. Mores change, same as economic conditions do.
Many responders said, “Drugs.” (Back to that in a minute.) One foreign scholar said, “Having spent the last couple of months in the U.S., I just get the sense that public space has been abandoned.” Yes. So do I.
When I was young, there was a slogan — an anti-rape slogan: “Take back the night.” It may be that all 24 hours need to be “taken back.”
About drugs: People need their fixes, and they need them urgently, and they will do anything to get them. Addiction is a nasty thing, a destroyer of souls, bodies, and hopes.
Years ago, a friend of mine said that he was worried about drug legalization. Why? “We could become a nation of zombies. We could see the zombification of America.” I mentioned this to another friend of mine the other day. He said, “I’m a libertarian, but I am skeptical of legalization. Zombies can’t govern themselves. They lose their autonomy. They are ripe for dictatorship, which prefers zombies to thinking, able people.”
That is an interesting point of view.
I’m a “drug warrior,” I suppose, but I hope I am one who is open to evidence, arguments, and policy experimentation. I hope, too, that legalizers will be open to evidence and all the rest. I hope that, if legalization doesn’t turn out the way they expected, they will say so.
You know?
In my little neighborhood, headshops have come in, with their customers — and an accompanying stench and disorder, out on the sidewalks. I grew up in a semi-druggie town, Ann Arbor, Mich. But what I see today makes the Ann Arbor of the 1970s seem like Provo, Utah, c. 1956.
One more thing: In California recently, I saw many beggars who made an eating gesture with their hands. (I saw this in India, too, years ago.) The message: I need money for food (and not, say, drugs). Believable? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. This is a very painful, very important issue.
To be continued.
• Two days ago, I received a bulletin, which said,
The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) mourns the death of renowned Swazi human rights lawyer Thulani Maseko and calls for a credible, independent investigation into his assassination on Jan. 21, 2023.
According to eyewitnesses, Maseko’s assassin fired gunshots through an open window at his home in Luhleko, 30 miles southwest of the capital Mbabane, as Maseko watched television with his wife and two young children.
Each year, I participate in the Oslo Freedom Forum and usually write an online journal, recording some observations, experiences, and thoughts. Let me paste an item from 2016:
It’s a joy to see, for the first time, Thulani Maseko, who is with his wife, Tanele. Oslo has seen Mrs. Maseko before: She was at the Freedom Forum, speaking for her husband, who was a political prisoner back home in Swaziland. Now he is sprung and speaking for himself, against that monarchical dictatorship.
I say, “What I’d like for Swaziland is a constitutional monarchy, like Great Britain, and, for that matter, this country, Norway.” The Masekos say, “Exactly!”
The murder of Thulani is a terrible jolt. People like him risk so much. On these bravehearts, liberty heavily depends.
• A report out of Washington: “Four More Oath Keepers Members Convicted of Sedition in Second Trial.” We are a nation of laws, not men. If you want to change things, politically, we have a system: a democratic, constitutional system. If you go the route of sedition, you ought to face the consequences. I don’t care whether your views are left, right, or Martian. I care more about the rule of law than about anyone’s views.
• Another headline: “George Santos’ former roommate says the congressman stole his $520 Burberry scarf and wore it to a ‘Stop the Steal’ rally.” (Article here.) Huh. The phrase “Burberry scarf” made me think of “vicuña coat.”
(Fans of American political lore will know that Eisenhower’s chief of staff, Sherman Adams, was forced to resign when it was revealed that he had accepted from someone a vicuña coat — a pricy garment.)
(You can spend $520 on a scarf? Who’m I kidding — probably a lot more.) (Hermès?)
• I wish to quote from an excellent, rip-roaring essay by Kevin D. Williamson, titled “Nemesis Is a Comedian.” He says,
. . . so now Republicans feel themselves compelled to defend the newly elected Long Island Rep. George Santos — who, on top of being a hugely prolific pathological liar and petty criminal, also turns out to be — of course! — an actual drag queen, albeit a desultory and amateur one.
More from KDW:
My friend and colleague David French was pilloried . . . for insisting that we should not gut the First Amendment in order to prevent local libraries from participating in — because we live in the dumbest timeline — “drag queen story hours.” You know how these stories always go: The little men on Twitter insisted that French is a champion of drag queens and various exotic expressions of sexual license (he is, in fact, a quite orthodox Evangelical) rather than an actual constitutional lawyer who understands that the institutions that protect the free speech you like also protect the free speech you don’t like — a package deal.
Yes.
• In the past, some Republican friends of mine got very cross with me when I suggested that Donald Trump was, at heart, an authoritarian, with not a single liberal-democratic bone in his body. “If not for our ‘guardrails’ . . .,” I said. And how much banging can those guardrails take?
Anyway, I think about those Republicans when I see things like this:
• Out of New Delhi, here is a report:
Days after India blocked a BBC documentary that examines Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role during 2002 anti-Muslim riots and banned people from sharing it online, authorities are scrambling to halt screenings of the program at colleges and universities and restrict clips of it on social media, a move that has been decried by critics as an assault on press freedom.
(Article here.)
The more you know about the world, the more you realize how rare a thing our First Amendment is.
• News out of Harrisburg:
In his first official act, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed an Executive Order on Wednesday, eliminating four-year degree requirements for approximately 92 percent or 65,000 state jobs in the Commonwealth.
(Article here.)
Is that a wise move? Probably, although I am no student of this issue. I do know — or think I know — that overcredentialization is a problem in American life.
• Believe it or not, there are people in our general political world who extol medieval peasant life — all that fresh air and exercise, etc. One thing I have noticed: Not one of these extollers actually chooses such a life for himself.
• Hear the latest buzz on Buzz? “Astronaut Buzz Aldrin marries longtime love on 93rd birthday.” And what are you doing on your 93rd?
• I know a lady in New York who is almost 100. She saw Fancy Free, the ballet, when it was new — in 1944. Jerome Robbins, the choreographer, also danced. On Tuesday, she attended a rehearsal of this ballet at Lincoln Center. Don’t you love it? I do.
• Let me recommend a piece about Bush 41 — his return to Houston, after the White House, 30 years ago. A beautiful piece about an admirable man. He’s the kind of person I like to see in public service.
Incidentally, most people said that Bush would never return to Texas, after his presidency was up. Houston was just an address of convenience, they said. That turned out to be quite wrong.
• “Betty Lee Sung, Pioneering Scholar of Chinese in America, Dies at 98.” To read this obit, go here. Very, very interesting life. I would like to paste a paragraph from the obit:
“I think the number one challenge today is that Asian Americans are usually viewed alongside America’s relations with their mother country,” Dr. Sung told Downtown Express, a Lower Manhattan newspaper, in 2004. “For example, if relations with China are good, then Chinese are perceived in a positive light. This has to end. Asian Americans need to be treated as Americans first.”
Oh, sing it, Betty.
• Scott Rolen has been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame. I was moved by something he said: “There was actually never a point in my life that I thought I was going to be a Hall of Fame baseball player. Never did I think I was going to get drafted. Never did I think I was going to play in the major leagues. Never going to be whatever.”
So pleased for him.
• End with a little music? I don’t have a review or anything for you. But I’ll tell you this: On Sunday, January 15, I heard an organist in church play “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” — and entwine it, ingeniously, with “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Obviously, the organist was honoring Martin Luther King’s birthday. It was stirring — a musical expression of the American promise. Wish I had a recording.
Thanks, everybody, and see you later.
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