Tag: Culture

South Slammed as Rest of the Country Gets Free Pass — Again

Trish

A never-ending debate here at PR* concerns the degree of racism in the South, compared to the rest of the country. Editor-in-Chief Jon, who was born in Texas, grew up in North Carolina, and considers California home, feels the South is correctly maligned regarding racism. Editor Trish, who was born in North Carolina but grew up in Florida and considers it home, feels the South is used as a scapegoat to allow the rest of the country off the hook and an air of superiority to boot. Editor Buck, who was born in Florida and returned here after college, largely stays out of the argument.

George Stephanopoulos covered the Tennessee Senate race to fill Bill Frist’s seat on This Week. He unknowingly bolstered Trish’s case when he explained about candidate Rep. Harold Ford, that “if elected, he would be the first black senator from the South since Reconstruction.”

Because you know how we are down here: all unenlightened and everything, unlike the rest of you who are so colorblind and forward thinking. Take a moment now and pat yourselves on the back because it’s not at all surprising to hear Southern states would have sent less African-Americans to the Senate than say, California. Or New York. Or Ohio.

Except that none of those places has ever sent any.

In fact, only five African-Americans have served in the U.S. Senate — two from Mississippi, two from Illinois, and one from Massachusetts.

My point is not that the South is right to have done so little to erase color barriers in this country, rather that it is not alone in this deficiency. And as long as people can point to the South as the “real problem,” they avoid solving what is, in fact, an American problem. So what George Stephanopoulos should have said is that Ford would be the first African-American elected to the Senate in 48 states since Reconstruction.

And that sucks. Go, Rep. Ford.

*Where —full disclosure — we are all white.

Screw Columbus, I’m Celebrating Leif Erikson Day on Monday

Buck Banks

Not making this up: Leif Erikson Day, 2006

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

Leif Erikson Day honors a great son of Iceland and grandson of Norway who became one of the first Europeans known to reach North America. This day is also an opportunity to celebrate the generations of Nordic Americans who have contributed to our country and strengthened the ties that forever bind the United States with Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

Like the crew of risk takers that Leif Erikson boldly led on a quest to find new lands, Americans have always valued the ideals of exploration and discovery. A desire to seek and understand inspired their voyage more than a millennium ago, and it remains a central part of our national character as a new generation pursues great new goals today. Nordic Americans continue to make valuable contributions to our society that have expanded human knowledge and helped make our world a better place.

To honor Leif Erikson and to celebrate our citizens of Nordic-American heritage, the Congress, by joint resolution (Public Law 88-566) approved on September 2, 1964, has authorized the President to proclaim October 9 of each year as “Leif Erikson Day.”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 9, 2006, as Leif Erikson Day. I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs to honor our rich Nordic-American heritage.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.

GEORGE W. BUSH

What Would Jésus Do? If He’s the Publisher of the Herald, Resign

Buck Banks

Publisher’s clearing out: Okay, this might seem like a very local story, but the publisher of the Miami Herald, Jésus Díaz, resigned today. Whoo-hoo, you say, big deal, right?

Well, it is interesting insofar as there were two front-page stories about it, one a sometimes abstruse letter from Díaz himself and the other was a long, rambling account of the events that led to his resignation. Those events happened a few weeks ago when the Herald reported that several reporters for its Spanish-language sister publication, El Nuevo Herald, had received money from the U.S. government to provide anti-Castro commentaries on the U.S. government-run, Spanish-language Radio Martí network, which broadcasts propaganda to Cuba.

So Jesus fired them. On the spot. No appeal, no deal, no tolerance for ethical lapses of the sort that brought one reporter/commentator $179,000. That’s a lotta propaganda.

But then came the backlash. The local vocal Cuban community rose up, unsubscribed, pulled ads and boycotted the Herald in droves. Seems Jesus had run up against a basic difference between Spanish journalism and Anglo journalism. Apparently, in Spanish journalism it’s okay to eschew objectivism for partisan politics and accept money from the gubmint for it. Especially if you’re railing against Fidel Castro’s regime.

The twist came when the reporters said they had told their former editor — who happens to be conveniently dead — that they were taking the cash for bashing Fidel, and he had said it was okay. Whoops — suddenly Jesus is twisting in the wind, having rashly fired the ethically challenged reporters without having consulted his Quija board to see if indeed the dead editor had approved of the deal with the gubmint.

So amid the hue and cry, new Herald owners McClatchy, which just bought Herald parent Knight Ridder last spring, sent a couple of top guys to Miami to confer with the hapless Jesus. In the end, Díaz (who was born in Cuba and raised in Atlanta) was crucified on the cross of Cuban Castro hatred, and made to give “amnesty” to the reporters and very publicly resign, posting his letter of resignation on the front page of the Herald.

Only in Miami.

Forget for a minute that Radio Martí is heard by absolutely nobody in Cuba because its signal is blocked, despite the U.S. government spending $400,000 per month to broadcast the signal from an airplane that flies just this side of Cuban airspace. Forget that it’s our government spending our tax dollars to pay ethically challenged reporters to broadcast bullshit to Cuba. Forget for a minute that there’s supposedly some nebulous “difference” between Spanish journalism and Anglo journalism. Forget the questionable excuse of “The dead guy said it was alright.” The fact is that the Herald caved to local vocal Cuban pressure because of — money. Subscription money, advertising money, all kinds of money. What price ethics, eh?

Jésus Díaz was right to fire those reporters, regardless of their language and regardless of whatever carte blanche they’d supposedly been given by some dead editor. What they did as reporters was ethically wrong, and the fact that they did not recognize it only means they are not equipped to be reporters for a Pulitzer Prize–winning newspaper, crappy as it sometimes is. We should be able to expect a higher standard than that for our 50-cent-a-day subscription.

By the way, Castro sucks! Ka-ching!

New Study Says Drinking is Fast Track to Wealth

Trish

I’m just saying: A new study shows drinkers earn more than the George Bushes of the world, and laws aimed to make it harder to drink are a solution in search of a problem.

San Jose State University’s Reason Foundation makes the case.

Men who drink earn 10 percent more than abstainers and women drinkers earn 14 percent more than nondrinkers

Drinkers earn 10 to 14 percent more money at their jobs than nondrinkers and men who drink socially, visiting a bar at least once a month, bring home an additional 7 percent in pay, according to a new Reason Foundation report by economists Bethany Peters, Ph.D., and Edward Stringham, Ph.D.

“Social drinking builds social capital,” said Stringham, an economics professor at San Jose State University. “Social drinkers are networking, building relationships, and adding contacts to their Blackberries that result in bigger paychecks.”

The study finds that men who drink earn 10 percent more than abstainers and women drinkers earn 14 percent more than nondrinkers.

Damn! Think I’ll crack open a cold one before I read on.

The study, published in the latest edition of the Journal of Labor Research, suggests that the growing wave of anti-alcohol legislation at state and local levels will have harmful effects on local economies and individual finances. Efforts to impose massive tax increases on alcohol, to restrict alcohol sales through zoning laws, and prohibit alcohol advertisements have all been stepped up in recent years.

“We’re quick to ban beer at sports stadiums and festivals. The legal blood alcohol level is dropping everywhere, and we’re barraged with overhyped warnings about binge and underage drinking,” Stringham said. “Instead of fear mongering we should step back and acknowledge the proven health and economic benefits that come with the responsible use of alcohol.”

Ain’t that the truth? Just last night, I responsibly consumed several units of Blue Moon with a coworker, and while I haven’t seen an immediate increase in my earnings yet, I am confident that with just a few more pitchers, I can prove Dr. Stringham correct.

Will God Change Parties in 2006?

Trish

Finally, some reassurance Americans haven’t totally lost their minds. Only 4 percent believe God belongs to a political party.

According to a study produced by Baylor University and administered by Gallup, 92 percent of us do believe in God. But after that initial agreement, defining who God is gets a little varied.

The study also found belief in an authoritarian God — along with frequent church attendance — is strongly tied to the notion Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks

According to the study, believers hold four very different views about their deity:

Authoritarian — An angry God who metes out punishments to sinful humanity and is very active in their daily lives or worldly affairs.

Benevolent — An active but forgiving God, less willing to condemn or punish.

Critical — A God who judges the world harshly, but doesn’t intervene.

Distant — A God who is neither active in worldly affairs nor angry, a sort of cosmic prime mover.

The study also found belief in an authoritarian God — along with frequent church attendance — is strongly tied to the notion Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks.

I guess we know which God Dick Cheney believes in. The question is how to get God to read a copy of the 9/11 Commission Report.

What We Really Lost After 9/11

Trish

Today’s New York Times marks the empty, token sacrifice we’ve made since 9/11, and names what we were really cheated of.

It was a time when the nation was waiting to find out what it was supposed to do, to be called to the task that would give special lasting meaning to the tragedy that it had endured. But the call never came.

The attacks themselves have begun to acquire the aura of inevitability that comes with being part of history. We can argue about what one president or another might have done to head them off, but we cannot really imagine a world in which they never happened, any more than we can imagine what we would be like today if the Japanese had never attacked Pearl Harbor.

What we do revisit, over and over again, is the period that followed, when sorrow was merged with a sense of community and purpose. How, having lost so much on the day itself, did we also manage to lose that as well?

The time when we felt drawn together, changed by the shock of what had occurred, lasted long beyond the funerals, ceremonies and promises never to forget. It was a time when the nation was waiting to find out what it was supposed to do, to be called to the task that would give special lasting meaning to the tragedy that it had endured.

But the call never came. Without ever having asked to be exempt from the demands of this new post-9/11 war, we were cut out. Everything would be paid for with the blood of other people’s children, and with money earned by the next generation. Our role appeared to be confined to waiting in longer lines at the airport. President Bush, searching the other day for an example of post-9/11 sacrifice, pointed out that everybody pays taxes.

That pinched view of our responsibility as citizens got us tax cuts we didn’t need and an invasion that never would have occurred if every voter’s sons and daughters were eligible for the draft. With no call to work together on some effort greater than ourselves, we were free to relapse into a self-centeredness that became a second national tragedy.

What the Times doesn’t say is that it could have been no other way with a leader as morally vacant as ours, a president whose first words of inspiration were to buy, buy, buy and show our patriotism and courage by indulging in mindless consumerism.

There was a time when America could do better than this, and I’m still not convinced we chose the alternative. It’s a plain fact that George Bush received less of the popular vote in 2000, and from everything I’ve read about Ohio in 2004, I think the chances are good he did that year also. Those of us who want something finer are still out here. We just have to get better at claiming it.

The Bushwhackers: He Swapped the Bottle for the Bible

Trish

Tired of being tired of Bush? Go to the Bushwhackers’ site and watch the video for their song, “He Swapped the Bottle for the Bible.”

Their sound is traditional country, but don’t look for songs from their CD, “Beatin’ Round the Bush” to be played on your local Hot Country format station

The Bushwhackers’ sound is traditional country, but don’t look for songs from their CD, “Beatin’ Round the Bush,” to be played on your local Hot Country format station. Not with lyrics like these:

He swapped the bottle for the bible
Now he might be liable
To blow us all to bits…won’t that be nice?
He swapped the bottle for the bible
He’s as stubborn as a child,
How did we make this crazy mistake twice?

…A few more years, we won’t have to see his silly grin.
We’d be so much better off if he was three sheets to the wind.

Other songs on the CD include “Buckshot Dick,” “The Daughters Love To Drink,” and “Never Saw No Weapons.”

The group’s leader, Richard Levy, a former Herman’s Hermit, lives in my own hometown of St. Augustine, Fla.

McDonald’s Hummers a Big Bummer

Trish

McDonald’s is giving away toy Hummers in its “boy” Happy Meals. What’s next? Wal-mart introducing a line of arctic fox stoles?

The Environmental Working Group has put up a parody site that allows you to generate your own golden arches sign on the subject. My favorite: “Would you like a war with that?” Next runner-up: “Global warming…I’m lovin’ it!”

From the site, you can also send McDonald’s an email asking them to end this campaign, which in a world of scare resources sends the wrong message to both kids and their parents. Let them hear from you.

Whose Anniversary?

Trish

Ever since Jamestown, Virginia announced its intention to celebrate its quadricentennial next year as “America’s 400th Anniversary,” residents of my own St. Augustine, Florida have been in a snit. It’s not just the fact that St. Augustine celebrated its 400th anniversary back in 1965, or that the city was the thriving capital of the Spanish colony before Jamestown had a name.

American students often get the impression from history classes that the British got here first, settling in Jamestown, Va., in 1607…The lessons have left out a lot.

We sniff the barest hint of (dare I say it) racism in Jamestown’s pronouncement. The Spanish, after all, were part Moorish by the time they came ashore in Florida, in stark contrast to the lily white English. They were also Catholic, which was just slightly more exotic than what the Pilgrims had in mind.

Juan Ponce de Leon declared Florida to be Florida in 1513. Its mission system had been in place nearly 200 years before the first mission in upper California was built. Florida had flown three flags (Spanish, French, British — and Spanish again) by the time it joined the Union 15 years before the Civil War, and had ended the Third Seminole War just two years earlier, in 1858.

The Spaniards had very different relations than the English did with the people who were already here — and the runaway slaves who had escaped to Florida from the United States to live among the Creek and Miccosukee. It might be a little rosy to say we all lived together in peace and harmony, but it was better than after Spain lost us to the British or when Andrew Jackson launched the first War of Indian Removal, aka the First Seminole War, in 1817 — in which he banned “Negroes” from Pensacola to the Suwannee River.

Now others are starting to notice the same thing St. Augustinians did in Jamestown’s slogan: the implication that British settlement in this country is somehow more noteworthy than any other. The Boston Globe:

American students often get the impression from history classes that the British got here first, settling in Jamestown, Va., in 1607. They hear about how white Northerners freed the black slaves, how Asians came in the mid-1800s to build Western railroads. The lessons have left out a lot.

Forty-two years before Jamestown, Spaniards and American Indians lived in St. Augustine, Fla. At least several thousand Latinos and nearly 200,000 black soldiers fought in the Civil War. And Asian-Americans had been living in California and Louisiana since the 1700s.

Now, more of these and other lesser-known facts about American minorities are getting more attention. The main reason is the nation’s growing diversity.

The Globe story goes on to note there are “hundreds of efforts underway to tell the untold stories” of America’s history. Jamestown telling the truth — and changing its slogan — would be a good start.

Still Eating Meat? This’ll Put You Off Your Feedlot

Trish

Being a vegetarian, meat headlines always leave me a little unsettled. Still, the news has been particularly bad lately.

The normally poisonous gas keeps red meat red no matter how old it gets, instead of allowing it to turn that rainbow-sheened gray that would normally be part of the decomposing process

First we find out American meat packers are trying to package the stuff in carbon monoxide gas in order to keep it looking � and looking only � fresher longer. The practice was already banned by the European Union.

The normally poisonous gas keeps red meat red no matter how old it gets, instead of allowing it to turn that rainbow-sheened gray that would normally be part of the decomposing process. Consumers, we are told, will indirectly save money because instead of grocery stores having to dispose of animal parts and pieces when they’re edible but revolting, now they can keep right on selling until that cow’s been dead…a real long time. The results aren’t quite as planned.

At issue is the growing practice of spiking sealed packages of meat with small doses of carbon monoxide. The gas…can keep meat looking bright red and fresh even as it spoils…

The July issue of Consumer Reports…took bacterial counts on 10 samples of locally purchased ground beef and steaks that had been treated with the gas. All the meat looked red, but two had spoiled by their “use or freeze by” dates and one “was on the brink of spoilage” one day before its stamped date.

Other studies showed that even if the stuff looked great in the package, you better stand back when you open it up.

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