Monday, March 26, 2012

PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE

By Edwin Cooney

By all means, argue with me if you must, but I think I’ve discovered Public Enemy Number One. Don’t be jealous, because I discovered PENO before you did! Its two deadliest factors are that it’s often not even a crime! Even more, it occasionally preserves your physical wellbeing.

Three weeks ago, I wrote of my serious reservations about Florida’s concealed gun law and -- what do you know! – seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin of Sanford, Florida, the black kid who walked home with his hand in his jeans while toting only iced tea and skittles, is dead. Even more, the root of the problem ultimately goes beyond the writ or effect of that law. After all, crime, it seems, is an ever increasing danger both at home and abroad. Hence, politicians and gun dealers encourage John and Susie Q. Citizen to purchase and conceal guns. Police and other public law enforcement people aren’t nearly so enthusiastic about such weapon concealment statutes. Guns, as is their purpose, have the power to eliminate troublesome and perhaps only seemingly troublesome people.

One of the major factors that triggers “Public Enemy Number One” is illness—especially, potentially fatal illness. This cause is almost unavoidable since all of us have yet to experience what I’ll refer to here as “eternity.”

Over the past twenty or thirty years, smoking has been shown to be harmful to smokers and nonsmokers whatever the state of their health. So, slowly but surely, it has become unlawful to smoke tobacco. It can be dangerous to drive motor vehicles and even bicycles without seat belts or helmets so we make it unlawful to ride them without such safety devices. Many will insist that both antismoking and vehicle safety requirement laws are beneficial to all of us, however others will insist that they are “politically correct” just as much as they are beneficial to the public.

The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution empowers Congress (and the bad old federal government) to “lay and collect taxes” from whatever income source derived. It is said that politicians, especially those nasty liberal politicians, “tax and spend—elect and elect.” Their motive is that some make more money than others and therefore it is only fair to redistribute our national wealth.

America, the nation every American from President Barack Obama on down prays aloud that God will bless, lives in a world that doesn’t unanimously share its social, economic, political, or spiritual values. Thus some of those taxes maintain what Ike in his January 17th, 1961 farewell address called: “the military-industrial complex.” Most conservatives insist that the military-industrial complex, even with all of its weapons of mass destruction, is as sacred as is the “good book.”

Hence, above we have death, government regulations, war, and taxes as the main factors in the preeminence of Public Enemy Number One!
In case you haven’t already guessed, Public Enemy Number One is fear. By its very nature, fear limits or intimidates our capacity to respond effectively and rationally to conditions and circumstances that are real and potentially harmful to our wellbeing. Whatever my cause or my urgency, whether I’m a politician, a bureaucrat, a parent, a teacher or even a member of the clergy, I can depend on being able to control you if I can successfully make you afraid.

Fearful people may be determined, focused, and, in their defensiveness, creative. Inevitably, however, when people are afraid they’re angry. An angry person may, on occasion, be righteous (or, if you prefer, justified) in his or her anger but an angry person is seldom either a just or generous person.

Consider this: when your parent, teacher, preacher, and, most certainly, a politician wants to convince you of the righteousness of a cause, more often than not they scare you into seeing things their way. However, most of the time, when someone wants to sell you a product, they usually appeal to your desire for pleasure or gratification. While unhealthy or perverted gratification can be nearly as emotionally destructive as fear, most gratification is energizing in a positive way.

I’m convinced that the lowliest and the saddest people in the world are those who are afraid. Fear brings on vulnerability and eventually hopeless, resentful and soul destroying resentment.

The politician most readily convinces me when he or she offers peace and freedom in exchange for my vote. The preacher can most readily draw me to his or her message when the lure is love.

Make me afraid and you’ll numb my senses as I blindly take your advice and apply for a concealed gun license. Energize me and my senses are wide open to the best of all possibilities including the likelihood that most of the time those trained to enforce the law are perfectly capable of doing their jobs.

As I see it, Public Enemy Number One is a fear driven response to all conditions and circumstances. Anyone who only seeks to make you afraid is never a friend.

Bang! Bang! Bang! PENO—what do you mean you’re not dead!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY

Monday, March 19, 2012

FORWARD, MARCH!!!

By Edwin Cooney

Okay, make of this what you will! Every day of every month of every year is transitional, but to me, there’s something special about the month of March. Up until 1752, March 25th was the first day of the New Year in the British colonies – and that, of course, included us. In 1751, the government of King George II subtracted eleven days from the calendar and made New Year’s Day on January 1, 1752 instead of on March 25, 1752.

What’s so attractive to me about March is that it seems that so many world transitioning leaders have been born in March or have conducted transitional events during the month. Let’s take a chronological trip through March from the 1st to the 31st rather than by year.

On Thursday, March 1st, 1945, FDR sat in his wheelchair before the 79th Congress and reported on his recent trip to the Yalta Conference with Churchill and Stalin. It was his last speech before that body thus ending the New Deal era in American history.

On Sunday, March 2nd, 1931, Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader who brought Russia and its fifteen other republics out of Communism, was born in the Soviet state of Georgia.

On Wednesday, March 4th, 1801, Thomas Jefferson became the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.

On Saturday, March 4th, 1933, FDR was the last president to be inaugurated on the fourth of March. His inauguration, the first of four for the people’s aristocratic patrician president, ushered in “The New Deal,” bringing about a new relationship between the government and the people.

On Thursday, March 5th, 1953, Joseph Stalin, perhaps historically the most notorious practitioner of brutal repression, died near Moscow thus ending the darkest era in Soviet history.

On Sunday, March 7th, 1965, “Bloody Sunday,” John Lewis of SNCC (The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and the Rev. Hosea Williams of SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) guided about six hundred people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge just east of Selma. Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark led local law enforcement officials who successfully blocked civil rights advocates on their first attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

On Tuesday, March 9th, 1965, the second march from Selma to Montgomery was also halted by Sheriff Jim Clark and the Rev. James Reeb was beaten to death.

On Wednesday, March 12th, 1947, President Harry Truman ushered in a new era in foreign policy by asking Congress to provide aid to starving people and nations otherwise threatened by anarchy or Communism.

On Thursday, March 12th, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed legislation lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.

On Sunday, March 15th, 1767, President Andrew Jackson, the president many historians credit with largely democratizing American politics, was born in the Waxhaws Region which straddles the border between North and South Carolina.

On Monday, March 15th, 1965, President Lyndon Baines Johnson in one of his most eloquent speeches delivered his Voting Rights address before the 89th Congress.

On Tuesday, March 16th, 1751 (or Friday, March 5th, 1751 using the “old style” date), James Madison, father of the American Constitution, was born at Port Conway, Virginia of King George County.

On March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated annually to honor the life of the man who brought Christianity to Ireland.

On Sunday, March 21st, 1965, the third and ultimately successful march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama began.

On Thursday, March 25th, 1965, civil rights leaders brought their grievances to the steps of the state capitol at Montgomery, Alabama.

On Thursday, March 26th, 1979, President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed an Israeli/Egyptian Peace Treaty in Washington D.C. to bring to an end 30 years of war between the two states.

On Sunday, March 31st, 1968, President Lyndon Baines Johnson announced at the end of an address on Vietnam that he would not seek or accept renomination as President of the United States of America. Many historians mark that announcement as the close of “the old politics” and the beginning of “the new politics!”

Aside from significant dates, the month of March brings Spring to northern latitudes and Fall to southern latitudes between the 19th and the 21st. March is the month Christians often celebrate the resurrection of Christ. The “Ides of March” (March 15th) marks the murder of Julius Caesar by Brutus and Cassius. Here in the United States, March marks the beginning of spring training for professional baseball and the close of the college basketball season, “March Madness,” a tournament that includes 68 top college teams.

Since everyday is the first day of the rest of all our lives, you may legitimately argue that what you’ve just read is a lot of fluff -- and I wouldn’t argue too vigorously with you. Still, March, which was once primarily known as the month named after Martus, the Roman God of War, has “come a long way baby!”

As for this particular piece of writing, you may, if you like, legitimately paraphrase the cowboy, who said, after being shown all of the fancy “doo-dads” at the Neiman Marcus Department Store in Dallas, Texas:

“I ain’t never in my life read so much information I could do without!”

My only defense is that I had a hell-of-a-good time giving it to you.

Oh, one more thing: “company, halt!” Who says I never give the reader a break?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY

Monday, March 12, 2012

MY LITTLE PILGRIMAGE

By Edwin Cooney

Okay, so my recent trip wasn’t exactly a “pilgrimage” since it was neither to Lourdes nor Mecca, Jerusalem, or even Saddleback Ranch. Yet, there was something about my recent visit to my elder son Eric that had religious overtones about it. I guess I’ll let you decide whether or not I’ve just returned from a “pilgrimage.”

The greatest irony of my referring to my recent trip as a pilgrimage is that it was to Las Vegas, Nevada -- perhaps the most singularly sinful/secular of places in the whole wide world.

To visit my elder son on his birthday was to relive, through the veil of time and events, the miracle of his birth on that increasingly long ago date of Tuesday, March 7th, 1978. It was a snowy and blustery day in Batavia, New York as Eric’s sweet petite mommy and I were awakened at 2 a.m. Mama’s water had broken and it was obviously time to go to the hospital. As it turned out, the placenta was ahead of the baby and the possibility that mama might otherwise suffer a fatal hemorrhage necessitated a cesarean section. Happily, baby Eric was safely born at 8:26 a.m. and thus a 34 plus year journey began for Eric, his mama, and his daddy.

Countless times during the past few days I’ve wondered at his handsomeness, his articulateness, and his capacity for love which today he’s doling out in heaping spoonfuls to his newly born daughter. Countless times, during the last few days, I’ve recalled almost every aspect or event of those 34 years.

I’ve thought of the box of Eric cigars I handed out to every male I could find who’d accept and smoke one of them -- and as it turned out, I handed all of them out before I realized I hadn’t saved one for myself! I’ve thought of his christening and the little blue outfit he was dressed in and how happy his Grandma Edith (whose last name is Eric’s middle name) was that day. I’ve thought of Grandpa Tom and Grandma Connie as well as Aunt Kathy and Uncle Tom. I’ve thought of origins and beginnings, of ends and conclusions. I’ve thought of those arduous side trips of warning and worry, disappointment and renewal, experience and reflection all of us have known since his very first birthday.

Additionally, I’ve recalled how anxious I was and how calm and strong his mama was the time we had to take him to the hospital when he was only ten months old. Then there was the time I kicked his nerf football way up on the roof and how impressed he was that his daddy could kick anything so high and far. Also, I recall his heartfelt wish when his mama was pregnant with his brother. He made it plain that he wanted “a boy brother -- not a girl brother.” Later, there’s the memory of the unassisted double play he made at third base to end a baseball game during the summer of 1986 when he was just eight.

One of the most natural tendencies of fatherhood is to be proud and I’m certainly proud that he’s my son. Yet, to say I’m proud of him is to suggest that I’ve achieved what in reality only Eric has achieved. Hopefully, the love Eric’s mother and I feel for him has energized him to overcome his mistakes and thus to become what he’s rapidly becoming: a nurturing adult contributing to our national wisdom and prosperity. However, the achievement of solid citizenship is Eric’s -- not ours!

Eric and his younger brother are extensions of their mother and me and while divorce, sadly, has separated us, we still share that abiding love and concern for the future of both our sons.

Even after thirty-four years, there remain points of contention between father and sons. Neither of my lads exactly reflects either my preferences or my values. Very disappointing is the fact that neither of my sons is a Yankee fan. In fact, both are practically anti-Yankee! Neither lad has my interest in history, although my younger son comes closest. Neither accepts as much as I do the doctrine of Christianity. However, I was encouraged during my visit to hear Eric assert sympathy for the idea that God is the source and the main force of love in the world. (I don’t know that his brother would disagree with that at all, for he and I haven’t yet had that conversation!)

To have visited Eric and his family is to come as close to the past and the present, the injured and the healed, the sinned against and the forgiven, the loved and those to be loved as I’ve recently experienced.

As I promised, I’ll let you decide whether or not I’ve just returned from a “pilgrimage,” but if you want it straight, that’s how it feels!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY

Monday, March 5, 2012

WHEN IN SEARCH OF TRUTH, I CHANGE MY MIND -- BLAME TRUTH, NOT ME

By Edwin Cooney

At least two of those who responded to last week’s column (in which I challenged the wisdom of Florida’s concealed weapons law) wondered when I became sympathetic to the plight of criminals rather than to the plight of the victims of crime.

I’m not aware of being in the slightest sympathetic to the plight of criminals any more than I’m sympathetic to the goals and mores of Adolf Hitler or Osama bin Laden. However, my insistence that there may be a flaw in our response to criminality caused at least two readers to suspect that perhaps Jesse James or Al Capone must be among my ancestors!!!

What I am increasingly aware of, however, is how a lifetime of experiences and observations can change one’s outlook on issues that one had made conclusions about many years ago.

At one time I saw murder as immoral, but I didn’t see state or nationally authorized killing (aka “war”) as immoral because I didn’t believe that democratically elected authority could be immoral. I once saw capital punishment and war as sad but necessary realities for our personal protection. I’ve come to believe that we seldom have to kill to protect ourselves. However, when that becomes necessary, it’s usually because we didn’t take a preventive measure before things became dangerous. Remember Winston Churchill’s observation that even as late as 1935, World War II could have been prevented without the firing of a single shot (Churchill’s Sinews of Peace speech on March 6th, 1946 in Fulton, Missouri).

Even more, I once saw reality as absolute truth rather than as situational or circumstantial truth. Unsettling as it is, I’ve come to realize that every situation possesses its own reality and that reality is often, although not always, amoral.

At one time I was sure that every sane person understood the relationship between cause and effect. However, after years of parenting, riding in cars as a passenger with both good and bad drivers, and studying history, I’m not sure any of us really grasps cause and effect when our need for gratification or justification gets in the way.

Call me a relativist if you must, but it has been my experience that those things that are most true are circumstantial. Try these “truisms” on for size and see how they fit:

1) People don’t realize the crushing dehumanization of being a victim until they’re victimized!
2) Most people don’t understand the forces of criminality until they commit a crime or are accused of one.
3) Most people avoid those who live with disability unless they bear a disabled child or become disabled themselves.
4) Even with its numerous virtues, democracy has no monopoly on morality.
5) Taxpayers have no monopoly on righteousness.
6) Truth doesn’t belong exclusively to good people.
7) Human principles are the keys to both morality and immorality.
8) True righteousness has more to do with love than it does with judgment.
9) As our “Creator,” God blesses others as much as God blesses America.
10) Finally, anyone who thinks he’s just composed ten absolute truths is absolutely full of himself!

Even more unsettling is what happens when truth is obscured by myth. This is what President John F. Kennedy had to say on that subject during a June 1962 Commencement Address to the graduating class of Yale University.

“As every past generation has had to disenthrall itself from an inheritance of truisms and stereotypes, so in our own time we must move on from the reassuring repetition of stale phrases to a new, difficult, but essential confrontation with reality. For the great enemy of the truth is—very often—not the lie: deliberate; contrived; and dishonest; but the myth: persistent; persuasive; and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the clichés of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion rather than the discomfort of thought. Mythology distracts us everywhere.”

Unlike those of us who call ourselves “columnists,” presidents come face to face every day with reality. Ah, but it’s a very special kind of reality, isn’t it?

It’s called “political reality!”

I may miss my guess, but I’m betting that most of you see little that’s true or real about politics!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY