The posts from the trip are here:
Part One: Systems Failure
Part Two: Eureka Valley
Part Three: Loosing Control
Part Four: Above Ubehebe
Part Five: Above Ubehebe 2
Part Five: Going home
A couple of Immigration Ceremony photographs
Yesterday, there was a picture gallery of new US Citizens in The Guardian. They had just been sworn in as naturalized citizens and it reminded me of the only Immigration Ceremony that I have seen. It was in November of 2006. Michele and I had gone to see Marianne Nannestad become an United States Citizen. A United States Citizen having all the rights that I was born with and often don’t appreciate.
The Ceremony started out much differently than I expected. It was instructive, informative and legalistic with lots of detailed instruction rather than celebratory; it bordered on being jingoistic.
I have read that an organization is dead when it worries more about keeping people out more than it worries about trying to get more people in. While there are people in our country who feel that way, they are in a – shrinking, I hope – minority.
Towards the ceremony’s climax, the presenter, read a list of countries – in alphabetical order from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe including Great Britain from which there seemed to be a surprising (to me) number of people – that the immigrants were from. As the country was named the immigrants from that country stood and remained standing until the whole class -group? – was standing. Then the soon to be Citizens repeated the Oath of Citizenship that has remained unchanged since George Washington wrote it.
I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.
In the end, it was very very moving. I left thrilled that I live in this great country that doesn’t just tolerate immigrants but still wants them.
Thoughts on brown dress shoes at the start of the F1 season
Formula 1 is a distinctly English sport. It is billed as being international but eight out of the eleven teams are based in England (two are based in Italy, and one is based in Switzerland). Even the head track engineer for Ferrari, based in Italy – duh! – is English (Pat Fry). The guy who runs the Mercedes Team, Ross Brawn, is English. On NBC, F1’s new US home, the technical broadcast voice, Steve Matchett is English.
Yesterday, while watching a promo to the Malaysian Grand Prix, I noticed that NBC has their announcers wear navy blue suits with white shirts and a tie of their choice. I also noticed that the two non-English announcers were wearing black shoes with their blue suits and Steve Matchett, the English guy, was wearing brown shoes with his blue suit.
About forty years ago, I started wearing – some might even say affecting – cowboy boots. This was before George Bush the Younger burst onto the national stage with his cowboy boots, so it was acceptable. (I think, I was copying Lyndon Johnson and Sam Rayburn, who I admired.) Anyway, a very nice pair of brown goat Lucchese boots were my favorites and I took them to England, on a trip, as my dress shoes. Several people, here, remarked that brown shoes may not be dressy enough for London but I had seen lots of pictures of men wearing brown shoes with suits in England – including prince Charles and, now, Steve Matchett – so I felt safe.
While in London, we rode the The Underground almost everywhere – it is probably more accurate to say that we only went where we could go by The Underground – and I noticed that the cars had grooming tips mixed in with the adds above the windows. This was when Prince Charles was trying to save the proper England and was campaigning against modern architecture and gauche – read modern – behavior. The grooming tips were like Gentlemen wear shirts with collars and – the one I remember the most said something like Gentlemen never wear brown shoes after 6 PM. It turns out that to be proper in England, a Gentleman should wear brown shoes – or boots? – before 6 PM but not after. I was glad to see that Steve Matchett, the only Englishman on the broadcast team, is still following the rules even if I wasn’t.
Fossilized hubris
This morning, I heard somebody on the radio talk about fossilized hubris, but then I realized that was not what they said. It was only what I heard, connecting audio dots that weren’t there. Now I have fallen in love with that term, even if it is imaginary. It reminds me of the ruins of an old Mississippi plantation that Michele and I visited in 2008. The plantation had been captured by the Union during General U. S. Grant’s Vicksburg campaign and that campaign has been on my mind because it started about 150 years ago, in April 1863.
Michele and I went to Vicksburg in 2008 to see some Civil War Battlefields in which Grant had been the Union commander. Grant chose to not to attack the citadel of Vicksburg directly, instead going down river to a location near the, now, abandoned plantation. Standing on the parapets of Vicksburg – The Gibraltar of the West – overlooking the Mississippi, it was easy to see why.
Later, standing in the empty, quiet, ruins of the Plantation, sweating in the late spring sun, and surrounded by what would be called jungle anywhere else, we could feel how difficult even that road of attack must have been. But, standing in the abandoned ruins, the year that Barack Obama, a black man, would be elected President of the United States – in 2008 – was a very good feeling. It was like standing in fossilized hubris.
We invaded Iraq 10 years ago
“Fuck Saddam, we’re taking him out.” President George Bush to three U.S. Senators in March 2002.
“The Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas.” President George Bush
“My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.” Vice President Dick Cheney.
“[Saddam] is a threat. He’s a murderer and a thug. There’s no doubt we can do this. We’re stronger; he’s weaker. You’re looking at a couple weeks of bombing and then I’d be astonished if this campaign took more than a week. Astonished,” Bill Clinton
“Five days or five months, but it certainly isn’t going to last longer.” Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
“Sunni Islamist insurgents linked to al Qaeda are regaining ground in Iraq, invigorated by the war next door in Syria and have stepped up attacks on Shi’ite targets in an attempt to provoke a wider sectarian confrontation…After Operation Iraqi Freedom promised to liberate the Iraqi people, Iraq has struggled with a decade that drove the country into sectarian mayhem which killed tens of thousands and the turmoil of a young democracy emerging out of dictatorship. Since the last election in 2010, Maliki’s Sunni and Kurdish critics have accused him of consolidating his own authority, abusing his control of the security forces to pressure foes and failing to live up to a power-sharing deal.” Reuters
“At least 56 killed in Baghdad attacks. Twelve bombs explode in Shia areas on tenth anniversary of US-led invasion of country.” The Guardian
Total United States causalities: 4,487 dead, 31,965 wounded.