War

“War, what is it good for?” This was the question asked by the blatant anti-Vietnam War protest song produced by Motown in 1969. It seemed appropriate for what I want to explore here. (Remember the Seinfeld episode where Elaine claims this was Tolstoy’s original title for War and Peace? But I digress). Is war ever good for anything? According to the song the answer to the question is “absolutely nothing.” This was certainly the sentiment held by many, myself included, during those turbulent times with regard to this particular war. But is there such a thing as a just war? Was Vietnam wrong, but WWII wasn’t? And if so, what constitutes a good war?

Many times we hear that war is wrong from a "Christian" perspective, because it breaks the commandment that says "Thou shalt not murder." Such an absolute statement creates obvious problems. For example, what does a Christian do in the case of being attacked by another nation or, as is currently the case, by a group of people bent on destroying our country?

It was the great church father Augustine of Hippo who first sought to give some specificity to a definition of a just war. In fact, his position, which he articulated in the early Fifth Century, has long been the Church’s traditional definition of a just war. Augustine held that a just war must have five components. A just war:

(1) Must be waged for self-defense, rather than conquest, plunder, or political oppression;

(2) Must be initiated by the proper authority, i.e., lawful government, rather than an angry mob, etc.

(3) Must be fought with the right intention: peace. It should not be fought to gain land, power, wealth, etc.

(4) Must have a reasonable chance for success.

(5) Must use means proportionate to the goal. If the goal of a war is to liberate an oppressed people, for example, it makes no sense to destroy all their cities in the process, or to bring them under further subjection.

Unfortunately, throughout the Middle Ages, as demonstrated especially by the Crusades, Augustine’s definition was usually not followed. European governments, all of which considered themselves Christian realms, routinely waged war against one another, and rarely for the purposes of self-defense. Even the Pope had a standing army, and he, too, invaded other nations.

Because of the endless European warring, and even more because of the teaching of Scripture, Martin Luther saw few valid reasons to go to war. For him self-defense and the restoration of peace were the only valid reasons to go to war, and even then war had to be begun with great deliberation.

If we look at the various wars America has been in how would they stack up with Augustine’s criteria? Let’s start with the American Revolution. It certainly was not waged for self-defense (no one was attacking us). After years of boycotts and protests in the colonies in response to British taxes and regulations, angry mobs stirred up by the inflamed rhetoric of the Sons of Liberty, took matters into their own hands in bloody skirmishes with the British. Wasn’t this against Augustine’s #2 criteria? (Reading about this time in our history I am struck by how familiar the themes are to our bipartisan bickering today and the American people’s complaints about taxes and government regulations!) Eventually, in the spring of 1775 British troop’s encountered colonial militia in the village of Lexington and that famous shot rang out. Though the source of the shot is unknown, it touched off eight years of war. The question is, were war, revolution, hatred and bloodshed the best way to achieve our independence? How would Gandhi have suggested we go about rectifying taxation without representation?

What about the Civil War? Some people think that the main agenda of this war was to free the slaves. But in reality this was a secondary consideration. The main reason was the preservation of the union. This seems to me to be in opposition to criteria #3- “Must be fought with the right intention: peace.” It should not be fought to gain land, power, wealth, etc. Who knows if it would have been so bad to have had a divided country? Europe does it with the European commonwealth. We know the approach Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would have advocated we take- he modeled it throughout the civil rights movement of the 60’s. Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael of course represent the militant approach to righting injustice. Who is right?

What about WWII, considered by most to be the epitome of the “just war?” The Second World War was a global military conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945. It involved most of the world's nations, including all of the great powers. It was the most widespread war in history, marked by the mass death of civilians, including the Holocaust and the only use of nuclear weapons in warfare. It was the deadliest conflict in human history, resulting in 50 million to over 70 million fatalities.

It is a popular misconception among Americans that the US voluntarily entered WW2, at least against the Germans. In fact, the US didn't. Although the US was leaning towards involvement in WWII, many people still saw it as a "European" conflict. That changed on Sunday, Dec. 7 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. A good portion of the US Navy was destroyed. The sunken ship Arizona still remains there today. The emotional reaction to Pearl Harbor was very similar to the feelings most Americans had after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center: Shock and disbelief followed by anger. The US entered the general war as a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor. But the US entered against Japan and did not, repeat not, declare war on Germany. However, a few days after Pearl Harbor, Hitler declared war on the US, thereby putting an end to the US dilemma. Whether the Americans would have declared war on Germany had not Hitler made the decision for them is one of the great unanswered questions of history. Probably the US would have entered the war against Germany, but possibly not on the scale that it did, and almost certainly not with Germany being given priority over Japan. But nobody will ever know for sure. So it would seem that WWII was justified under the criteria of self-defense.

Other wars in America’s history clearly fail to meet Augustine’s criteria. We undertook the war in Vietnam to support the South Vietnamese in their fight against the North. We ended up with the longest war in American history and the devastation of the Vietnamese homeland. If the reasons for going to war are things like keeping the world safe for democracy by stopping the spread of communism and protecting the American way of life (Korean War) or toppling “evil” dictatorships who also supposedly had weapons of mass destruction (Iraq), are these legitimate motives?

But what about moral causes like freeing the slaves, defeating Hitler, getting rid of Saddam Husain, coming to the aid of Rwanda (I know we didn’t- but shouldn’t we have?) and Bosnia? In other words, isn’t it a noble and just cause to come to the aid of the oppressed? To free the captives and end tyranny?

One of my favorite Christian authors is Catherine Marshall, late wife of Peter Marshall, the famous Scottish-American preacher and Chaplain of the United States Senate. She had something to say about this: “Jesus chose God’s way to deal with the iniquity He loathed. Judas Iscariot wanted his Master to use the world’s technique by rebelling against Rome. Judas, the classic revolutionary, wanted armed political rebellion against the godless forces of Rome. Jesus deliberately refused, thereby telling us for all time, “No, the end does not justify the means.” He chose instead God’s way of changing men’s hearts, minds and lives via the cross. Certainly we cannot ‘love righteousness’ and ‘hate iniquity’ and then use any of iniquities techniques. Those who recognize in Jesus of Nazareth the First Rebel, see equally that his weapons were never those of unrighteousness. He will never allow us to do evil with the claim that it’s to achieve justice or right.”

This would seem to speak to America’s use of torture and other strategies of war which are so controversial. For example, the German’s introduced poison gas in WWI. It soon became used by both sides, though it never proved decisive in winning a battle. Its effects were brutal, causing slow and painful death, and poison gas became one of the most-feared and best-remembered horrors of that war.

No easy answers, but a topic worth thinking about since world peace doesn’t seem to be on the horizon any time soon.

Homelessness in the Wild West

Wagon Train Oregon Trail

(Article published in Street Speech by the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless) 

When we think of the Wild West, we usually think of cowboys and Indians, Buffalo Bill and shoot-outs at the O.K. corral. In other words, we tend to romanticize this period in our nation’s history. 

Real life at this time was not like the movies.  Real life was generally much harder, much duller, hotter and dustier.  It had little of the glamour depicted by Hollywood.  There were gunfighters, but shoot outs were few and far between and rarely occurred as a face to face standoff.  Being shot in the back was a much more likely scenario.  There certainly were cowboys, though it was a very hard, unglamorous life.  There definitely were Indians, and yes, they were called “Indians,” not the “politically correct” term “Native Americans.”  What we don’t usually picture when we think of the Wild West is paupers and panhandlers, yet both were very much a part of the Western frontier.

Recessions, like wars, have always been an integral part of American history and both have always been major contributors to homelessness. Shortly after our War of Independence, the nation witnessed the first in a series of depressions that have caused tremendous economic havoc. One of the worst was the 1837 crisis and the six-year depression that followed. This was a formidable financial meltdown, even by today’s standards. The origins of the panic were risky speculative lending practices in western states, a sharp decline in cotton prices, a collapsing land bubble and erratic American banking policy. Wages throughout America fell by 30-50 percent. There were no unemployment figures kept at the time, of course, but had there been, they would have been horrific. All of this sounds eerily familiar, doesn’t it? History has a way of repeating itself.

Public demonstrations by out of work residents of Boston, Philadelphia and New York City brought out hundreds of thousands of people in 1839 and 1840.  Making conditions even more critical was the arrival of a massive wave of poor immigrants, many from the Irish potato famine.  Major port cities in the east became a hub for the growing concentration of the unemployed and the homeless, greatly taxing public resources.  

Thus the economic hardship in the east became the major motivation for those making the long, often arduous journey west.  The first wagon trains of pioneers headed westward in 1841 along the overland trails- the most famous was the Oregon Trail.  They were in search of cheap land and a better life.    

People looked to the West, specifically California Territory and Oregon Territory, as though it were a biblical “Promised Land.”  Even the farmers of relatively economically unharmed Midwestern and Plains regions felt the wanderlust and started selling out or abandoning their homes and farms to get in on the westward migration. 

       

Then in 1848 gold was discovered in California and thousands of young men set out to make their fortune.
Most of these fortune hunters left for California in 1849 and were therefore known as the “49ers.” Those lucky enough to arrive first were able to find nuggets of gold in the streambeds and made quick fortunes. The gold was literally free for the taking. Yet the majority of those who made the trek out West were not so lucky, especially those who arrived late.

In addition to the lure of gold, others headed west to join crews building America’s railroads.  Both of these opportunities to make money brought waves of Chinese immigrants to America in the mid-1800’s.  They brought with them the habit of opium smoking.  Opium dens, places where opium was sold and smoked, soon sprang up in the alleys of San Francisco’s Chinatown and the Barbary Coast district. 

San Francisco 1849

San Francisco was initially just a way station for picking up supplies on the way to the gold-filled foothills.  In this wide-open town every kind of vice was catered to in the numerous brothels, saloons, dance halls, gambling houses and opium dens.  Lawlessness was rampant.  Prospectors who came into town from the gold fields could lose their fortunes in a flash in a game of cards or find themselves assaulted and robbed in a back alley.

Surprisingly, some of California’s first millionaires made their wealth, not in gold, but in selling supplies to the prospectors.  When the hordes began to flood the city prices on everything rose astronomically.  Eggs could cost $50.00 a dozen and blankets sold for anywhere from $40.00-$100.00.  But just like the unpredictability of the miners striking it rich, it was the luck of the draw for these merchants too.  Some were wiped out by disastrous fires that swept through rows of hastily constructed wooden buildings. In less than two years the city burned to the ground six times.  

As the city of San Francisco grew in population, so did the ranks of the homeless.   The city went from a population of a few hundred in the 1840’s to over 20,000 by 1850.  Alcohol and drugs, particularly opium, were readily available creating a subculture of addicts.  Others became beggars after having failed to strike it rich in the gold fields. They were left penniless after spending everything they had getting to California and buying their mining supplies.  Still others blew whatever they made in panning for gold in riotous living.  Panhandling became a way of life- a life we see again years later among many of today’s homeless.

Sadly, the Civil War seemed to be the saving grace of many of these destitute homeless.  It provided an opportunity for work for many unemployed, rootless, poor and homeless men.  Once it was over, however, its aftermath produced a huge new wave of destitute, displaced and dispossessed people. They included wounded war veterans, freed slaves, and widows and orphans.  The need for assistance was now beyond the capacity of local governments and charity organizations and the federal government became an actor now for the first time in helping the homeless.

Again, the end of the war encouraged many to venture West in search of land, work on the railroads and jobs as cowboys in the cattle industry, which in the late 1860’s started to drive cattle to new railheads for mass distribution.  By the turn of the century most of the opportunities for easy to find work on the frontier were gone.  The railroads were built, the gold rush had ended, the land fenced and in many places the transient cowboy was replaced by the permanent rancher.

Homelessness in Colonial America

"Sturdy Beggars"

(Article published in Street Speech by the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless) 

The problem of homelessness in America is not new.  As a matter of fact it is as old as the settling of the country by the colonists.  Just like today, people became homeless for a variety of reasons and stayed homeless for varying lengths of time during America’s first two centuries.  The first arrivals in the New World came from a broad cross section of English society and included many of England’s wandering homeless, vagrants, criminals, the mentally ill and misfits of all sorts.  Intent on increasing the population of the new colonies, English officials routinely offered criminals the choice of boarding ships headed for America as an alternative to going to prison.  Thus the potential was there from the beginning for the problem of homelessness to be introduced into the colonies by some of the new arrivals.  Many knew no other way of life and were ill equipped for survival on their own.  But not all new arrivals were reprobates.  Some who came were mountain men, hunters, trappers, and fur traders.  The movie Jeremiah Johnson accurately depicts this type of rugged individualist.  Others were seeking freedom, especially religious freedom or land and a chance at a better life.

 

The colonists needed hard workers to tame the wilderness.  Trees had to be felled, houses built, and land cleared for farming.  A strong community spirit quickly developed where everyone pulled together for the common good.  Those who were not willing to pitch in and do their part were called “sturdy beggars,” an English term for those who were fit and able to work, but begged or wandered for a living instead.  Since taking care of them put a serious strain on the meager resources of new communities, they were mostly left to fend for themselves and often starved or froze to death. 

As the colonies became self-governing communities, they enacted laws to keep order, levied taxes to generate revenue, and elected officials to manage town affairs.  Early welfare practices were modeled on the English Poor Laws enacted by the British. This included cash assistance known as “outdoor relief.”  Those eligible were usually long- time members of the community who had experienced a personal calamity like an injury, a long-term illness or the death of the family breadwinner.  The elderly, widows and orphans were also looked after.  Because local communities had to pay a special poor tax in order to provide this relief, assistance was neither generous nor frequent.  

Just as colonists believed they had a duty to care for their neighbors in need, they also believed they had the right to refuse aid to “outsiders.”  This led to the common practice of “warning out.”  It consisted of a notice ordered by the Board of Selectmen of a town, and served by the constable upon any newcomer who was likely to become dependent on town resources.  Communities thereby pressured or coerced undesirables to settle elsewhere or wander from colony to colony in search of aid.  The first “warning out” was recorded on June 6, 1654 in Plymouth Colony.  

As more and more settlements were established, skirmishes erupted.  As early as 1675 there was an Indian uprising known as King Philips War.  The effects of warfare quickly became the biggest cause of homelessness in colonial America.  It was a major consequence of the French and Indian Wars of 1756-63 and later, the American Revolution.  The classic, The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, is a story about the conflict between the French and the English that takes place in colonial America.  It paints a visceral picture of this period in history.  It was not a safe time for homesteaders living in isolation in the wilderness.  When war forced them to flee their homes they usually lost everything.

Another contributing factor to homelessness at this time was the economy.  What early colonial prosperity there was resulted from trapping and trading in furs. In addition, fishing was a primary source of wealth in Massachusetts and from 1612 tobacco was grown in Virginia. But throughout the colonies, people lived primarily on small farms and were self-sufficient.  If crops failed or market prices on commodities fell, hard times followed.  The colonial economy suffered one such downturn in the 1720’s and 30’s which led to a rise in the homeless population. 

Immigration of poor people to the colonies also led to a rise in homelessness.  Immigrants often arrived penniless, having spent their savings on the trip to America.  Many also arrived sick and could not find work.  Some cities, like Philadelphia, responded by passing a law allowing local authorities to expel arriving indigent immigrants.  In 1719 the arrival of hundreds of improvised Scotch-Irish refugees led authorities In Boston to order one ship of immigrants to leave the community at once. 

While the “wandering poor” could be found throughout the colonies, it was in the cities where they were most conspicuous.  Some cities established workhouses where inmates could be whipped if they refused to work or they were put in jail and subjected to hard labor.  In the colony of New York it was customary to inflict various types of corporeal punishment on convicted vagrants, including stockades, pillory, ear-cropping, and branding.  The Puritan work ethic supported this punitive approach to vagrancy, a view which was strangely at odds with the Puritan belief that charitable giving was a religious duty with no distinction made between the deserving and undeserving poor. 

Boston passed an act requiring their homeless to be ‘bound out’ to families needing laborers or servants.  This was a form of indentured servitude dating back to the early years of the American colonies. Workers or servants were not paid wages, but received food and shelter and clothing instead. All of these approaches were based on the belief at the time that the “idle poor” were unlikely to work unless forced to do so.  Public policies like these kept the growth of homelessness, for the most part, within manageable proportions. 

Prior to 1700 homelessness was considered a minor problem in the colonies.  Compared with many parts of Europe where the number of beggars in rural areas reached massive proportions, itinerant beggars here were not yet a serious problem.  The growth of homelessness in urban areas was much more significant, but even in our most populous cities like Boston, Philadelphia and New York, they did not compare to London or Paris.  Homelessness in young America would not become a significant problem until well into the next century.  

Homelessness and Addiction: A Double Jeopardy Explored

(Article published in Street Speech by the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless)

I grew up in New York City where my father was a fireman. My first exposure to the homeless was at around the age of twelve when my father took me with him to the Bowery Mission. He, along with other firemen and policemen, belonged to the Christian Alliance of Policemen and Firemen. They served meals and presented the gospel to the homeless alcoholics who came into the mission for sustenance, and perhaps a bit of human compassion.

The Bowery area of lower Manhattan reminded me of a wasteland buried in a corner of an otherwise vibrant, thriving city. As I think of it now, the images it evokes are of broad streets, empty of traffic on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Only when you looked for them, or when pointed out to you, did you notice the bodies slouched in doorways, most clutching bottles wrapped in brown paper bags. They were so still; as if props placed there for a movie set depicting the morning after some invisible plague had struck. This was the face of homelessness I saw back in the sixties and it had a strong impact on me.

Has this image changed over the past decades? I think we would all agree that it has. Today the face of homelessness has expanded to include men and women of all ages who have been released from psychiatric hospitals and have “fallen between the cracks” of our current community mental health system. It also includes young Iraq and Afghanistan-era veterans- men and women, who are now joining the Vietnam-era veterans who are still homeless. Families have increasingly become homeless due to the current economic recession. Children who have run away from home for various reasons and sometimes women escaping from abusive situations also contribute to the new face of homelessness. In other words, there are as many reasons for homelessness as there are homeless people.

What hasn’t changed, however, is the fact that substance abuse continues to be the most significant problem connected to modern homelessness. Drug and alcohol abuse can cause people to fall into homelessness but the struggle to stay alive on the street often drives homeless people to drugs and alcohol. It’s a chicken and egg scenario.

A 2008 survey by the United States Conference of Mayors asked 25 cities for their top three causes of homelessness. Substance abuse was the single largest cause of homelessness for single adults (reported by 68% of cities). Substance abuse was also mentioned by 12% of cities as one of the top three causes of homelessness for families.

Emergency shelters, soup kitchens and job training help the homeless to regain their independence. But it is critical to develop resources with the focus of resolving not just homelessness, but addiction as well.

Public perception concerning homelessness and addiction is also a problem. Both are issues that do not elicit much public sympathy. For many people, providing support to homeless individuals who use drugs is counter-intuitive. This negative bias coupled with the economic disadvantages of people suffering through both homelessness and addiction can make it difficult or impossible to seek and obtain proper help. With resources already stretched thin in most communities, homeless people with addiction problems are generally not a priority.

Street Speech helps change that negative bias by providing public education about the complex issues of homelessness. It also puts a human face to an otherwise impersonal societal issue. Vendors connect with their customers and share a bit of themselves over time so that they both come away with an appreciation and respect for each other. I felt the same way about the exchanges at the soup kitchen in the Bowery with my father and the homeless he was there to serve.

Gaining a Perspective on Current Politics and World Affairs: Why I Don’t Take Things So Seriously

I “came of age” in the tumultuous 60’s.  I don’t believe politics had any impact on me at all at this time.  I was totally self-absorbed, as most teenagers are, and dealing with angst of adolescence and adjusting to a new high school.  Events like the building of the Berlin Wall, astronaut John H. Glenn’s orbit of the earth, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald, the escalation of the war in Viet Nam were all momentous times in our history.  They surely rival current events with the election of our first black President, the ongoing unrest in the Middle East and the assassination of the US Ambassador, and three other Americans in Libya. But I have no recollection of discussing them over the dinner table with my parents, hearing about them in school or watching them over and over again on the nightly news.  In fact I never read a newspaper and rarely watched the evening news on TV back then.  I must confess I was totally unaware of (and probably would not have cared) what was going on in the larger world around me.  Such things as the formation of the National Organization for Women (NOW), and the first successful heart transplant went unnoticed by me.  What I do remember was when the Beatles stormed America and appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show."  I was shocked and saddened by the assassination of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy (I remember going to view his body at St. Patrick’s Cathedral).  I also remember watching Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon and the coverage of Woodstock-"Three Days of Peace and Love" that drew hundreds of thousands to a farm in upstate New York (I was on the wrong coast at the time).  Even though I was of voting age during these years, I don’t remember ever doing so.

The decade of the 70’s I think mirrors current events on the world stage- the antiwar movement with riots on college campuses and a huge protest march on Washington, legalization of abortion by the Supreme Court, the Arab oil embargo which caused severe shortages and skyrocketing energy prices, and the economy in the worst recession in forty years.  Several scandals during this decade seem eerily similar to the current intrigue with Libya. The Pentagon papers scandal in 1971 involved the unauthorized release of a 7000 page document to the press. The papers were top secret US Department of Defense documents pertaining to the US involvement in the Vietnam War spanning a period of 1945 to 1971, commissioned by the Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. Daniel Ellsberg, a worker with this department leaked the ultra-secret information to the New York Times when he became disillusioned with the role played by the US in the war.

The Watergate scandal, however, is probably the most infamous political scandal that US has ever witnessed. It left such a long lasting impression on the collective consciousness of the American public that ‘Watergate’ became synonymous with scandal. The Watergate scandal was basically a botched bid to re-elect the then president Richard Nixon to office in the approaching elections.  Five former CIA operatives and a former NY district attorney broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters on May 27, 1972.  The men tapped phones, photographed documents and indulged in shadow practices.  A second break in attempt was spotted by a vigilant security guard who called in the Washington police. The five men were arrested and with their arrest, subsequent investigation began to unravel what was one of the worst scandals that the US had ever seen.  The President’s involvement in the affair was proved beyond doubt by tapes which had recorded his private conversations with top ranking officials of the government. Coming on the heels of a complete denial by the President of any knowledge of the affair, these tapes sealed his fate. Faced with imminent impeachment, Richard Nixon was left with no choice but to resign as President of the United States on August 9, 1974.  The scandal is also well known for the mystery source that fed the investigative Washington Post reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, most of the critical information. The unidentified source was simply known as the ‘Deep Throat’.  It was an era of social and political upheaval (aren’t we hearing the same said about this present era?).

There was upheaval in my life during these years too.  I married an alcoholic, gave birth to my son Jason, divorced and became a single mother, got caught up in the drug culture for a brief time, and started nursing school in Los Angeles-again (3rd time is a charm).  No wonder I had only a passing interest in world events and still didn’t bother to vote.

The 1980’s were known as the “Me” generation of status seekers. During this decade hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts, and mega-mergers spawned a new breed of billionaire. Personalities like Donald Trump and Leona Helmsley epitomized the meteoric rise and fall of the rich and famous. “If you've got it, flaunt it” and “Shop Till you Drop” became watchwords of the day. Cocaine was the drug of choice and disco clubs like Studio 54 became famous for the hedonistic lifestyle of the decade. The sexual revolution, ushered in during the 60’s, with its dictum of free sex, led to the AIDS epidemic, devastating the gay community. The decade began with double-digit inflation, and high unemployment. The Iran-Contra Affair (86-87) had all the earmarks of the current Libyan embassy scandal. This scandal took place when Ronald Reagan was in the White House. Many of the murkier details of the scandal are still hidden thanks to a thorough hush up job by loyal Reagan officials and it is still not clear to what extent the President’s complicity goes in the affair.  The scandal revolved around the arms-for-hostages deal which the US government allegedly arranged with some politically influential Iranian groups. The plan was to facilitate the safe return of US hostages who were being held in Iran by terrorists. The profits from these deals were going into funding the Nicaraguan contras, for whom President Reagan had expressed support earlier.  Although a direct link was never established connecting the President with the dealings, critics believe that the orders did come from high up in the line of command and that Reagan was in the know all the while. The President did publicly accept moral responsibility for all the dealings even though he was ‘unaware’ of them.  An investigative committee was appointed by Reagan himself, which, understandably, declared him innocent.  On a more positive note, at the very end of the decade the Berlin Wall came down!

I spent the decade getting serious about parenting and building my career. I watched the news more but was not greatly affected by it. I was making enough money to live comfortably for the first time and I was enjoying my life. I was living first in Boston with a childhood friend, after purchasing our apt. when it went condo, and later in a lovely house in Great Barrington in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains in Western Mass. As the decade came to an end, I remarried. I seemed to have reigned in my inner demons enough to live a less chaotic lifestyle and I was beginning to see that my life could be stable- financially and emotionally. As I think about it, I have never been afraid of a downturn in the economy or of being unemployed. I never gave much thought to what politicians in Washington were up to either.

The 90’s are known as the electronic age with the birth of the World Wide Web in 1992 changing forever how we communicate. Other highlights in the 1990's included the United States playing the role of world policeman, sometimes alone but more often in alliances. The decade began with Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and the resultant Gulf War. In 1993, war was in the African country of Somalia, as television images of starving children led to an attempt to oust the warlord, General Mohamed Farrah Aidid. By September, 1994, the U.S. was once again sending troops to a foreign country to overthrow a military dictatorship, this time in Haiti. In 1996 about 20,000 American troops were deployed to Bosnia as part of a NATO peace keeping force. In late March 1999, the U.S. joined NATO in air strikes against Yugoslavia in an effort to halt the Yugoslavian government's policy of ethnic cleansing in its province of Kosovo. The decade was to end much as it began with U.S. forces deployed in many countries, and the U.S. playing arbitrator, enforcer, and peace keeper throughout the world.

On the domestic front the big issues were health care, social security reform, and gun control - debated and unresolved throughout the whole decade. Violence and sex scandals dominated the media throughout the decade. President Clinton’s sexual misconduct led the pack, especially the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The country was shocked by the blatant perjury that the President had committed by lying under oath after the evidence was made public. He narrowly escaped impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice. Incidence of violence included riots in South-Central Los Angeles after four white policemen were acquitted of video-taped assault charges for beating a black motorist, Rodney King, a bomb was detonated in the garage beneath the World Trade Center, the trial of football hero, O.J. Simpson for the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her male friend, Ron Goldman pitted whites against blacks when he was acquitted, the Oklahoma City bombing by Timothy McVeigh, and a disturbing rise in school shootings, the most lethal of which was at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. On the positive side, the booming economy led to record low unemployment and the stock market reached an all-time high as individuals learned to buy and trade via the Internet.

Personally, my career reached an all-time high too when I was appointed Director of Patient Services at the Austen Riggs Center. My second marriage threatened to end as badly as my first until a move to Little Rock and some counseling and a recovery program gave us both a new lease on our relationship. So once again, personal issues took precedence in my life and world events were only of mild concern.

The New Millennium began with Y2K fears proving to be unfounded and George W. Bush taking over the Presidency. On Sept. 11, 2011 Al Qaeda terrorists crash three planes into New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Other significant events included the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the expansion of the war in Afghanistan to Iraq with the subsequent scandal over faulty Intel. Sound familiar? 2007-2008 is notable for the election of Barack Obama as America’s first black President and the financial crisis, considered by many economists to be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It resulted in the threat of total collapse of large financial institutions, the bailout of banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world. In many areas, the housing market also suffered, resulting in evictions, foreclosures and prolonged unemployment. I had begun to vote at last, but never enthusiastically. I didn’t believe it meant much or would really change things for the better in America or the world.

Political corruption may be defined as bribery, graft, extortion, robbery, patronage, nepotism, cronyism, conflict of interest and kickbacks. Political corruption in particular has a long history in America dating back to before the American Revolution. Ethically questionable behaviors have haunted American politics from the time Europeans settled the country. With the availability of land, bribery and graft led to highly unethical practices. Royal governors and officials used their positions to enrich themselves and Colonial merchants ignored tariff duties and mercantile regulations. The taming of corruption was a major feature of the federal Constitution of 1787.

By the early nineteenth century, governmental contracts provided possibilities for official malfeasance. For example, fraud, corruption and greed in the Bureau of Indian Affairs was rampant in the 1800’s. Agents accepted bribes from companies with licenses to trade on the reservations of many Native American tribes. The scandals of the Ulysses S. Grant presidency are legendary. One such scandal involved Grant’s brother-in-law. In 1869 speculators Jim Fisk and Jay Gould attempted to corner the nation’s gold market. They enlisted the help of Grant’s brother-in-law, who had pledged to prevent the President from acting to ruin the scheme. The scandal became known as Black Friday.

Another was the Credit Mobilier scandal. A dummy corporation was set up for the completion of the last 600 miles of the transcontinental railway by Congressman Oakes Ames of Massachusetts. The scheme was to have Credit Mobilier, which was entirely controlled by the same people, bill the Union Pacific for the costs of constructing the railroad. There were no other bidders for the work, so UP paid much more than Credit Mobilier spent. As a publicly traded company, Credit Mobilier could point to a record of profits that demonstrated that it was efficient and profitable, so its shares traded at a high price. Ames distributed shares to members of Congress at prices well below market. Those members merely had to sell the stock at market to reap large profits. During the subsequent Congressional investigation, it was found that more than thirty individuals representing both parties had received benefits, including the future president James A. Garfield. Stockholders, as well as the federal government, were bilked out of millions of dollars. Despite the loss of $20 million (a huge sum in the 1870s), no prosecutions ever occurred.

FYI: This type of corruption still goes on, for example, with members of government profiting from insider trading. With public confidence in Congress at an all-time low, a bill was recently introduced (The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge- STOCK- Act), which makes it illegal for members of Congress and their staffs to trade stocks based on inside information learned on the job. The very fact that this bill has been drafted makes it clear that such practices are common.

Here are a few more examples from the past: President Lincoln, at the height of the Civil War, replaced department head Simon Cameron with Edwin M. Stanton because of corruption concerns. The disputed election of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, who lost the popular vote but won the presidency with one electoral vote, was the worst political corruption (until the 2000 presidential election). The election season degenerated into the opposing sides launching vicious personal attacks on the opposition candidate- just like today. Is the practice of special interest groups making large donations to campaigns to ensure their candidates victory new to the election process? Think again. In the Presidential Election of 1896, the financial titans of the time period—John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J P Morgan—gave financial support to the Republican Presidential nominee, William McKinley, to defeat Democratic nominee William Jennings Bryan, and even threatened their workers with lost jobs and closed down industries if Bryan won. Corruption is not limited to the federal government either. Local governments, such as the infamous Tammany Hall in New York and the Daley political machine in Chicago were corrupt and accepted illegal contributions from business and others.

Sexual scandals are nothing new either. Here are a few highlights from further back in our America’s history: Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, had an affair while he was married to a woman who was also married. He was blackmailed by her husband, forcing Hamilton to confess and tarnishing his career. Thomas Jefferson was accused of fathering the children of his slave. President James Buchanan (D) and future Vice President William Rufus King (D-NC) were the subject of scandalous gossip alleging a homosexual affair in Washington, D.C. for many years. Andrew Jackson referred to them as Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy (1850s). The list goes on and on and on.

Conclusions: There is an old adage that says, “Be careful what you ask for.” The Bible tells us that the leaders of Israel wanted a king like all the other nations had. Samuel the prophet was very upset with their request and asked the Lord for advice. The Lord told him to give them what they requested, “But solemnly warn them about how a king will treat them.” The Lord then goes on to describe the misuse of power, the servitude, and the taxes that would break the people’s backs. He knew what kind of rulers they would have and what sort of government. He ended by saying “You will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but the Lord will not help you. And so it was and so it still is (I Samuel 8: 4-18).

I do not think it is a coincidence that the end times will be ushered in by the Antichrist coming to power as a political leader! There is nothing new under the sun, what seems so disturbing now with our federal and local government leaders has been done before- many times. We live in a fallen world and it is the nature of politics and politicians to breed corruption.

When the Sun Stood Still: A Short Story

The heat rose like a living, breathing thing, expanding across the land as the day brightened by degrees.  The early morning clatter of the birds faded, perhaps muted by the competing sounds of awakening life. 

The boys began to stir; a light film of perspiration already covered their brows.  It was going to be another Midwest scorcher.  The glare of the sun slid fluidly, like liquid gold, beneath the shades in their bedroom, casting glowing fingers across their limbs. 

Tommy woke first, flinging an arm out and kicking the bed sheet aside.  Sitting up, he rubbed the sleep from his eyes and shook his twin brother Bobby. 

"C'mon, no more school, remember?  Let's go fishing!"

Bobby woke from almost complete somnolence to alertness in one abrupt moment. 

“Yeah, let’s go,” he responded, leaping out of bed.  

Both boys were towheads with fair skin and freckled faces. When awake, they were in perpetual motion, the rough-and-tumble play typical of ten-year olds.

   

A sense of excitement spurred the boys into action as they scrambled for shorts, sneakers and yesterday's socks, discarded in a ball under their beds. 

They raced each other down the stairs, accompanied by shouts of joy, grabbed their fishing poles from the back porch and were gone.  The slam of the screen door punctuated their departure.

Ellen stood in the boys' bedroom doorway, hands thrust deep in her jeans pockets.  The commotion had been like the burst of a machine gun, shattering her nerves.  The sudden and complete silence that followed helped restore her equilibrium. 

At 27, Ellen looked much older.  Her sandy hair was pulled severely back into a ponytail.  Her slender build and pale complexion made her look frail and vulnerable. 

"God how I love them,” she thought to herself, "but sometimes it's just so hard to cope with their energy and exuberance.” 

She leaned against the doorframe, shoulders slumped, as if she needed the solidness of the wood to keep her erect and connected to her surroundings.  The tiredness in her eyes spoke of hard times and lost hope. 

She loved summertime, the illusion that the sun is standing still and the future is keeping its distance.  It was as if the planet had come lazily to a stop enabling her to hear the buzzing of the dragonflies and breathe in the sweet smell of the wisteria and honeysuckle in the yard. 

The long, slow days made her feel there was time for everything.  She watched hypnotically as the twin model airplanes, suspended from the ceiling in the boys' room, slowly turned in half arcs, moving on air currents neither seen nor felt. 

She daydreamed about her own childhood summers on her parent's farm.  She remembered how the period from June to September seemed an eternity.  Kids were free to just be themselves, without school to tell them who they were.  You could spend an entire morning stone skipping on the pond, watching them bounce off the surface of the water before sinking. Or lie on your back in a field of clover watching clouds scud across the sky, and maybe later go for a Good Humor.  You could lose your watch and not miss it for days. 

She moved slowly to the boys’ beds and bent to straighten the disheveled covers. Glancing up at the wall, her eyes fastened on a picture of a clipper ship, sails billowing as it rode the open sea.  She remembered fondly a similar print, which had hung over her bed as a girl.  Her's had the figure of Christ in the background, with outstretched arms, and the motto, "He is the Captain of my ship, the Master of my fate,” stenciled on the bottom. 

The memory caused her to unconsciously straighten her back as a gentle smile graced her face, softening its lines.  She let out a sigh as the heat of the day warmed her bones and the light pressed down on her, bringing her focus back to the present. 

Life was somehow bearable once more, perhaps only for a few hours, but right now, that was all that mattered.

California Dreamin': A Short Story

In the early seventies California was a place of radical political views, fashion fads, new age healing techniques, "designer" diets and non-conformist lifestyles.  In my view, Los Angeles was the hub of all this extremism.  It was also a company town; Hollywood held out the promise of dreams-come-true, and for a time, I too fell under its spell and believed my marriage could be saved by a fresh start in a new location. 

My husband Bill and I had recently reconciled after a year of separation and had moved here from New York City.  We were living temporarily with my sister and brother‑in‑law after the birth of our son.  Bill was a journeyman carpenter and cabinet maker so in exchange for our room and board, he agreed to build floor to ceiling oak bookcases and cabinets in my brother-in-law’s den.  The house was located in an upwardly mobile, middle class housing development in the Agoura Hills.

The housing development sat in a bowl of sun‑scorched hills, brown and dry, except for a few brief weeks following the rainy season when they turned verdant. It looked like it might have been used as the movie set for E.T.  Kids, like the ones in the movie, raced their bikes through winding streets and cul‑de‑sacs leading to dirt trails that climbed into the hills where rattlesnakes and coyotes roamed.

During the week Bill worked for a contractor building a house in the exclusive horse community of Calabasas, a few miles away. Sometimes, on a Sunday when the crew was off, he would take me to see the progress they were making. The guard at the gate to this private enclave knew Bill and he would let us drive through. It gave me a glimpse of a way of life that reflected it's wealth in the thoroughbreds grazing in the acres of fenced in yard, rather than by the Porsche in the driveway beside a manicured lawn.

With a new baby and a limited budget, our favorite pastime was taking long rides exploring the surrounding hills and canyons. We often went along the twisting Topanga Canyon road, which cut through the hills from the valley to the coast. We would find a spot to park the car and hike up into the hills feeling like we were leaving civilization behind. I still remember the profound solitude and stillness which magnified the sounds of chirping birds, buzzing insects, and the occasional rustle of a small animal in the underbrush.  Heat would envelop me like a heavy overcoat; it felt luxurious rather than oppressive.

The houses here were hidden from view by the thick foliage of eucalyptus, wisteria, honeysuckle and scrub pine. The only access to them was by steep driveways that disappeared under a dark canopy of trees. The air smelled wet and menthol‑clean.  I could understand why the remoteness that characterized canyon living in L.A. attracted an odd assortment of residents: nudists, celebrities, covens of witches, EST enthusiasts and even lunatics. 

On one such trek we stumbled upon the abandoned movie ranch where years earlier Charles Manson and his "family" had lived for a time plotting their Helter Skelter conspiracy. It frightened me to think about the horror of what they had done and how the isolation of the canyons had made it easy for them to melt away from public scrutiny.

Later that same summer, when I returned to work part time as a nurse at a valley hospital, I discovered one of my co‑workers was a former member of that infamous family. Barbara Hoyt had lived at the ranch, but had not participated in the murderous sprees. Charlie's girls had tried, unsuccessfully, to kill her with an overdose of LSD to prevent her from testifying at the trials which came later.  Where else but in Los Angeles could you find a former member of the Manson family, dressed in a white nurse's uniform, standing next to you drawing up a shot of Demerol for a patient!

Ironically, I was soon to face my own day in court when I filed for a divorce and put an end to my dream of saving my marriage.