All posts by Steve Stern

Left Wing of the Possible

Americana, Politics

I’m a radical, but I tell my students at Queens, I try not to soapbox. I want to be on the left wing of the possible. Michael Harrington, a founder of the Democratic Socialists of America. 

The Left Wing of the Possible is also the title of an interesting and very complimentary article on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic Socialist phenom from the Bronx, in the New Yorker (interestingly, the same article is entitled Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Historic Win and the Future of the Democratic Party in the online edition). The article is by David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker since 1998, who wrote a very favorable article on Barrack Obama in 2007, painting him as a centrist, that was instrumental in my getting on the Obama bandwagon. As with most New Yorker articles, it is about 75% context, so, if you are at all interested in politics, I suggest you give it a read.

Ocasio-Ortega is running on a platform that, the article points out, is not that radical. She is running on a platform that includes single-payer health insurance, a minimum wage of $15, equal rights for women and minorities, and free college,  but, to quote Bernie: “not the government taking over industry”. As the article title suggests, she wants what she thinks is possible. I think it is possible, too and, I don’t understand why I often read the opposite from the Democratic establishment. Taking a hypothetical Trump voter – who voted for Trump because they don’t like income inequality or are afraid that their middle-class life will not be there for their kids, not a Trump voter who voted for him because they think he is a racist – I think they are more likely to vote for somebody who is pushing free college rather than somebody who is pushing  we will significantly cut interest rates for future undergraduates because we believe that making college more affordable is…important.

I don’t think that the Democratic voter base, including many Trump voters – many of whom also voted for Obama – are against free college and single-payer health care, for that matter, I think the Democratic corporate base is. I think that, if the Democrats want to win back Congress, they are going to have to start listening to the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezes, not just their rich financial contributors.  

As an aside, after WWII, education at state colleges was virtually free and remained so at the University of California until 1970 when a $150 “education” fee was added. Now the tuition fee is  $14,460. As an aside to the aside, I don’t think it is a coincidence that, as the number of minorities has gone up at Cal, so has the tuition. I think the governmental and educational infrastructure, consciously or unconsciously, just doesn’t think educating people of color is as important as it was when most of the students were white. End aside. 

 

Hanging Out with Foreigners

Cousins' Trip

This trip would not have been possible without the generosity of Michele’s extended family starting with Martina and Christian Stabenow and their family who hosted the cousins’ get together in Schifferstadt, Germany. After the Re-U – to blatantly rip off Neal Stephenson’s term for a family reunion – Michele and I went to Strasburg for a couple of days and then we spent a night with Martina and Christian’s daughter, Uli, and her husband Timmy. Then it was back to Martina and Christian’s for two nights when we came back to Germany to see the qualifying for the German Grand Prix. Staying with a German family, even for a few days was great fun and gave us access into German private life that we wouldn’t have otherwise had. 

Both of the places we stayed were in small villages and one of the biggest surprises – to me – was that the villages were dense and discrete, at the edge of the village, the farming country started, Bam! just like that, unlike here where small towns seem to fade into the surrounding countryside. When we went for a walk, we were in the village and then in the country. It is very human-friendly. As an aside, I think the Europeans are much more serious about protecting their environment than we are. They had way more solar panels on roofs than we do and France had windmills everywhere.  End aside.

And, now, a couple of non sequiturs: the German toilets have the water tank in the wall (which, as a builder, I found very interesting and kinda confounding) and the cousins use different kitchen appliances than we do. Martina had a meat slicer like I’ve only seen in a deli here, that made thin slices (to be politically correct, I should probably say that it was Christian’s also, but the slicer did seem to be Martina’s). Uli had a Thermomix gizmo that, according to their website, combines twelve appliances into one with functions that include weighing, mixing, chopping, milling, kneading, blending, steaming, cooking, whisking, precise heating, stirring and emulsifying.  

In France, we stayed with Cousin Marion who showed us a corner of France we probably never would have seen otherwise and, I have to say, it is a corner I loved. Visiting Marion was fascinating, she was born in England but has worked most of her life as a photo-journalist in – among other places – South Africa, Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, Portugal and, now, France. She photographed Jerry Brown and Linda Ronstadt in Kenya and spent five months on one of the last working Arab dhows as it sailed around the Middle East (and she wrote a super book about the adventure). Marion took us to Auch to see the unusual Cathedral – unusual,but not bad unusual, it is a Gothic Cathedral with a Renaissance front – and treated us to one of our best meals on the trip, lunch at a small hotel nearby. 

To finish our trip, we ditched the rental car and stayed at Cousin Claude’s home, in Paris (while she, as a proper Parisian, spent the summer out of town). It was an extraordinarily generous offer, a great opportunity, and a spectacular way to end our trip. 

 

Hello Reykjavik, Goodby Reykjavik

Cousins' Trip
We blew through Reykjavik so fast the only reason I know for sure we were there is that I have a couple of photos. We got in late, spent about two hours trying to get our rental car and got into town about 11:00 PM – in broad daylight – after all the restaurants were closed (except, fortunately, a sandwich shop). The next morning, we wandered down to a working harbor, ate an early lunch, and flew home.   
 

A Couple Thoughts while Leaving Paris (not for long, I hope)

Cousins' Trip, Travel
“Everybody leaves Paris for the Summer, nobody is there but tourists” almost everybody I talked to about going to Paris in the summer. First, a couple of caveats: we are not actually staying in the Paris of the guidebooks, we are one stop on the Metro – subway – past the ring road that defines the edge of the tourist Paris, and eight stops from the Bastille station. Every morning, we walk a couple of blocks, get on the Metro, and get off somewhere near an amazing monument or museum and every day, no matter what the hour, the Metro is crowded with a mix of tourists and locals (mostly locals). I was prepared to be intimidated by Paris, having been told that it is pretty formal, that nobody wears shorts, but the July Paris, this July Paris at least, is less formal than San Francisco (I brought a blazer and slacks that I’ve never even taken out of the suitcase). At first, I thought it was just the tasteless tourists that were wearing shorts, my mind got changed when  we were having dinner in a nice restaurant near the Pompidou Center and a local couple comes in with the guy in cargo shorts (we knew they were local because they kissed the owner on both cheeks).  
A First Thursday Gallery opening in the shadow of the Pompidou Center
At first, Paris seemed impossibly huge but, walking around, it seems to me that it is not so much huge as dense. I have no idea how many museums are in Paris but we hardly scratched the surface and didn’t see several that we were near the top of my list, like the Musee National Du Moyen Age that Linda Melton recommended or the Musee des Arts et Metiers or, or, or….
Institut Du Monde Arabe (Arab World Institute’s Museum)
It may be impossible to get a lousy meal in Paris but a truly memorable meal is not that easy and certainly not very cheap.
Second to last course in a memorable five course dinner at Restaurant Claude Colliot
Michele enjoying excellent Dim Sum at Chez Ann
Travers de porc rôti au Miel et Romarin, Purée de carottes – one of the best ribs and carrots I’ve ever had –  in the foreground with Filet de Loup de Mer, PoèLèe de lègumes in the background    
 After French, the language we heard on the street the most was English which is certainly not a surprise, but it was a surprise that the third most heard language was Chinese. There are Chinese tourists everywhere and not just in groups, there are lots of Chinese families in Paris, I’m thinking they are the new Americans. 
One surprising thing to me – although it shouldn’t have been given the number of bombings – is the strong, militarized, police presence (usually one of them is carrying an assault rifle) 
Two last things, the Parisians are very serious about both cars – many of which we can’t get here – and graffiti.  
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A week in Lyon is probably not enough, but a week in Paris is crazy not enough.

Private Lives in Public Places

Cousins' Trip, Travel

Everybody I know loves Paris, it is impossible not to. Walking around it – her? – it feels like we are at the center of the kind of civilization we all want, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” and, I want to add, “Civility”. It seems to me that one of the things that give Paris that feel is its lousy housing. It is hot here, slightly under or slightly over 90° every day and most people live in small apartments in old, masonry, buildings, without air conditioning – or, even, much in cross-ventilation – so people live much of their private lives in public. If, at the end of the day, you want to wind down by reading a book, it is much more comfortable outside in a park or along the cooling Seine. If you want to get together with a friend for a glass of wine, it is more comfortable to meet at a local bistro where we are all jammed together.   I think this public living is a good part of what makes Paris so attractive; it promotes tolerance and community, equality and fraternity, a Civilized world.