Nina Cassian

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Nina Cassian

I just read that Nina Cassian died. Until I read her full-page obit in The Economist, I had no idea who she was – or even that she existed – but, after reading a couple of samples, I am loving her poetry. She was Jewish Romanian (the Jewish part is cultural not religious and, for that matter – the Romanian part is technically, I guess – only until she was granted asylum in the US in 1985 after a friend of her’s was beaten to death because of one of her poems).

Her poetry reflects that kind of Eastern European, Jewish, humor that has so informed the last 30 years of American humor (think Jerry Seinfeld or Andrei Codrescu if you listen to NPR). Typical of Cassian’s humor, and the O’Henry type twists she seems to favor, is Please Give This Seat to an Elderly or Disabled Person, a poem displayed in New York City subways by the Poetry in Motion program.

I stood during the entire journey
nobody offered me a seat
although I was at least a hundred years older than anyone else on board,
although the signs of at least three major afflictions
were visible on me:
Pride, Loneliness, and Art.

What drew my attention to her is a poem she wrote before her exile. It is a poem that I can definitely relate to. While it reflects on a meeting with the Romanian dictator, Ceausescu, it sums up what I think we all feel after a political argument that has gone nowhere.

With rational syllables
I try to clear up the occult mind
and promiscuous violence.
My linguistic protest has no power
The enemy is illiterate.

The world is a richer place because of Nina Cassian and our country, in particular, is a richer place because of Eastern European immigrants. Growing up, I was taught that the center of  Europe and by extension, the center of history was somewhere between England and France.  OK, Spain and Germany were players part of the time and it all started in Italy, but Eastern Europe was half way down the civilization ladder to Czarist Russia with its serfs. Lately I have began to think that I was taught the wrong European view. Eastern Europe was a huge influence on what we call Western civilization. I have been reading Tony Judt and reading about Oppenheimer and all the Eastern European scientists that have made our new – sometimes very scary – world.

We worship England and France, but – over the last sixty or seventy years – Eastern Europe may have had the biggest influence.

Happy Memorial Day and Thanks for your service

Americana

Memorial Day-0379

Yesterday, I watched the beginning of the Indianapolis 500 and I was appalled – maybe putoff would be a better word – by the opening ceremonies. They seemed so saccharinly patriotic – including a patriotic blessing of the race – to me and I kept getting hung up on the fact that the most flagrant flag wavers seemed like the kind of people who send kids into battle, not lead them.

I feel a little bit that way when I hear someone say Thanks for your service. Often, I am the only Veteran in the group and  Thanks for your service to a Vet – not said to me, my service was watching sunsets from a hill in Korea – has just felt hypocritical. But, after turning off the TV, I started thinking about it and concluded that Thanks for your service is the same thing as saying I’m glad you are going into the meatgrinder and it’s not me or mine. Then it makes sense. The hypocrisy drops away, all that is left is the real gratitude that somebody else is caring that burden.

So, to all the Vets out there, Thanks for your service.

It ain’t terrorism if the non-terrorist uses a gun or isn’t a Muslim

Americana, Religion

Asswipe Miller

This morning I woke up to a New York Times headline of Drive-By Attack Leaves 7 Dead in ‘Work of a Madman’.  The Times went on to say Seven people were killed and another seven injured on Friday night in a bloody drive-by shooting on the crowded streets of a small college town near Santa Barbara, as what police described as a mentally disturbed gunman methodically opened fire in a 10-minute spasm of terror. Of course he was mentally disturbed, he killed people at random; that could be one of the definitions of mentally disturbed.

A month, or so, ago, an old white man named Glenn Miller, killed three people at random. He was trying to kill Jews only because they were Jewish. The killing of people because they are all identifiable – preferably self-identifiable as well –  as a distinct group, is terrorism. Group isn’t the right word, but either is race or religion – maybe an identifiable other is the right way to put it – but terrorism is the right word. When Timothy  McVeigh killed 168 people on that April morning in 1995, only because they happened to be in Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, it was an act of terrorism.

When Miller, 73 and the founder of a Ku Klux Klan group called the White Patriot Party, killed people with a gun nobody said he did it because he is white and nobody called it an act of terrorism. McVeigh was a Roman Catholic and a Gulf War veteran. Nobody says that McVeigh’s behavior typifies Catholic behavior. When a Christian kills 168 people, he does not do it because he is a Christian, he does it because he is fucked up.

When two Muslim boys blow up a bomb, killing people in Boston, it is also terrorism. But they did not do it because they were Muslim, like McVeigh they did it because they were fucked up. It was no more about Islam than McVeigh was about Christianity.

 

Mathew Brady’s picture of General U. S. Grant and the new American Hero

Americana, War, What's a man?

This is a very much modified copy of a post I made in 2009. I am reposting it now because, 150 years ago, the Army of The Potomac was in the middle of what is now known as The Overland Campaign. Grant  and Lee had battled to a draw in The Wilderness on May 5th through the 7th, 1864. This is where the Army of The Potomac learned that Grant was a different kind of general and they were going to become a different kind of Army.

Up until now, the Army of The Potomac would move south, fight the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, and win lose or draw – sadly, it was often lose – retreat to rebuild and re-provision for the next battle. This time, when Grant pulled his troops out of the battle-line, it was not to retreat, but to move further south to attack again at Spotsylvania Court House (May 8–21), then again and again. This was total war. Grant had said I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer, and he meant it.

Grant had come to do a job and he did it. The picture below shows just that.

This is a new kind of portrait and Grant was a new kind of general. The picture was probably taken during the Overland Campaign just after the battle of Cold Harbor. Grant is not the patrician hero, Grant, like Lincoln, was a mid-westerner. A common man. In this picture, he is tired, his eyes are sad, his boots are muddy. This is probably Matthew Bradley’s most famous photo. Not only because of it’s informality, but because it is so penetrating. I have read that a good portrait is an artifact of a relationship. This is a portrait of a real man, the dynamic new kind of American from the West.

Grant was the new American hero. The quiet man just doing his job. John Wayne. Gary Cooper in High Noon.  No braggadocio flourishes, just quietly getting the job done.

 

 

PG&E and Government

Americana, Around home

PG&E

I resaw Erin Brockovich – the movie, not the real person – the other day. I had forgotten how good the movie is and how bad it paints PG&E. I have alot of experience with PG&E and they are every bit as bad as the movie depicts. They are, by far, the worst organization I have ever worked with.

In my experience, PG&E is way more difficult to work with than any state organization, worse than any water department or city. It is much harder to do business with than the Federal Government.  Without going off to far on a Libertarian rant, I think that a huge number of laws and codes are just there to protect some vested interest; a rich vested interest. However, governments are – to a greater or lesser degree – accountable to the people. The less accountable they are, the worse they are. The United States – Federal – government is not as accountable as I would like, nonetheless, it is still accountable. But PG&E isn’t. It may pretend to be but, in almost every area, it isn’t.

The PG&E entrenched bureaucracy with its unknown – to the outside world – table of organization and power centers, does what it thinks is best for itself. The picture above is a scan of a mailer that PG&E sent out telling us what a good job they are doing. The mailer neglects to tell us that a 30″ gas pipeline blew up in September of 2010 because of neglect and eight people were killed and alot more were injured. They do tell us that they replaced nearly 15 miles of gas transmission lines in the Bay Area and pressure tested an additional 50 miles but they neglect to tell us that this is out of 48,579 miles of natural gas distribution and transportation pipelines in Northern and Central California.

The second worse organization was a railroad, Union Pacific (I think). We were building a soundwall next to their tracks and wanted to get permission to encroach on their right-of-way with our cranes. The request had to go to engineering and a right-of-way committee and I would call week after week for a schedule without getting one. Finally, I told our guys to just do the work and try to stay away from their right-of-way as much as they could. We had been finished with the work for about six months before the permission to do the work came through . When people say that the government should be run more like a business, I wonder what they are really talking about.

Aside from the obvious, a business is designed to make money and government is supposed to protect Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness, a business that has been around for a hundred years is probably run much worse than any government.

 

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