Update from the Heartland
No.560
3.9.12 – 9.9.12
Blog version: http://heartlandupdate.blogspot.com/
To all,
The follow-up news items:
-- All three segments of the CBS 60 Minutes program on
Sunday, 9.September.2012, featured “Killing Bin Laden” – Operation NEPTUNE’S SPEAR [489, 490, 503] – or, at least the
rendition offered by “Mark Owen” [AKA Matt Bissonnette] [558]. No matter how
you cut it, a very impressive operation.
Yet, the mechanics of the special operations mission are not the real
issue. The critical element in
this whole affair was the public disclosure of unnecessary details in the
immediate aftermath of the mission and the loss of value in the treasure trove
of intelligence material collected that night. To my knowledge, Bissonnette may have exceeded certain norms
and perhaps the law, but he is of minimal concern considering the public
handling of special mission operations and highly sensitive intelligence.
“Keeping the Dream Alive – Work hard and you will prosper:
the premise of the American Dream has nurtured our nation and changed the
world. Here’s how the idea got
started – and why its future is in doubt”
by Jon Meacham
TIME magazine
Published: July 2, 2012; vol. 180, no. 1 | 2012; pp.26-39
I finally got around to reading the article. Interesting premise! As with most doom & gloom
hypotheses, Meacham offers a worthy representation of “the American Dream” and
a cogent argument for its decline, however, I think he significantly
under-sells the power of freedom and the resilience of We, the People. Unfortunately, money is our form of
royalty in this Grand Republic.
Aside
the economic and socio-political aspects of Meacham’s premise, far too many
citizens are driven by expectations of the American Dream – or what I
euphemistically call The Box.
Society defines the boundaries, restrictions and constraints of the
ideal, “normal,” adult life to achieve the American Dream – heterosexual
marriage, monogamous-for-life, happily-ever-after, where sex is for procreation
only (as sex for pleasure is hedonistic, sinful, and contrary to good family
values), to produce two children (preferably one boy & one girl), home in
suburbia, on a tree covered street with a white picket fence. Acceptable adulthood is a Norman
Rockwell painting. Further, anything
outside The Box is wrong, against appropriate family values, a sin against God,
and in some states is outright illegal.
The inspiration and opportunity of the American Dream are worthy of our
support and encouragement, however, the dicta of The Box intrudes upon private
choices and the very freedom we cherish.
We must adjust the American Dream to respect the private choices of
every citizen.
Even
in the public domain, we must improve, I shall say refine, the American
Dream. I want The Dream to be
real, not an illusion intended to placate the less wealthy. I want every citizen to have the opportunity
for success. I want wealth to mean
something as an objective to all of us.
Yet, there are far too many examples where wealth is out of balance. We must get folks out of our bedrooms
and find appropriate balance for money.
In that sense, I think Meacham struck resonance. The American Dream does not entitle
anyone to wealth, and poverty does not entitle anyone to a Cadillac, color
television, or any other trappings of the middle class, and just being in this
country does not entitle everyone to vote, or to any of the benefits of
citizenship. Let’s get real!
So, we have us a horse race. President Barack Hussein Obama and Vice President Joseph
Robinette “Joe” Biden, Jr. accepted their nominations as candidates
representing the Democratic Party in the Fall election. I did not see any Press coverage,
certainly nothing even remotely comparable to the flood of coverage for the
Republican and Democratic conventions, for the Libertarian Party that nominated
Governor Gary Earl Johnson of New Mexico and Judge James “Jim” P. Gray of
California, or the Green Party that chose Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala as their
candidates. We have eight weeks
until we decide who will serve us as president for the next four years, and who
will represent us for the next two years.
News from
the economic front:
-- President Mario Draghi of the European Central Bank (ECB)
announced new measures to support the debt markets of fiscally challenged European
countries, as the ECB will buy government bonds of remaining maturities between
one and three years without announcing any limits in advance, as long as the
government is under a program approved by the euro zone. Further, the Wall Street Journal reported the ECB would not claim the status of
a senior creditor “if the bonds [the ECB] buys subsequently have to be
restructured, and that the bank will remove an equal amount of money from
circulation as it purchases bonds.”
The market responded positively to the announcement.
-- The U.S. Labor Department reported the economy added
96,000 jobs in August, fewer than the 125,000 gain forecast by economists. Private companies accounted for all of
the growth in payrolls with 103,000 jobs. The Labor Department also revised
lower the employment numbers in July and June, by 22,000 and 19,000,
respectively. The unemployment
rate fell to 8.1% from 8.3% as 368,000 people withdrew from the workforce.
Comments and contributions from Update no.559:
“I love Clint Eastwood. I've watched Jose Wales countless
times, but I was embarrassed for him Thursday. You could see him lose his train of thought and struggle to
keep it together. I'm not sure we
watched the same performance.
“Just my opinion.”
My response:
Yes,
he had a few bobbles, which to me made him all the more human. A few others I felt were intentional,
thus my roughhewn observation. He
recovered well, and did not get flustered as so many do. I do agree, it was not a polished,
flawless delivery. Nonetheless, I
thought it was very effective. As
with you, that’s just my opinion.
Another contribution:
“Great to continue to get your Blog. The time of Landing on the Moon, was a great
time to work at NASA. We and the
country were on a high.”
My reply:
It
may not be the glory days of 1969, but NASA is still doing heady stuff. I look for great things from
Curiosity. I intend to live to
witness humans landing on Mars.
My very best wishes to all. Take care of yourselves and each other.
Cheers,
Cap :-)
2 comments:
I read that entire American Dream article (Jon Meacham, Time Magazine). It’s very long. I missed the doom and gloom you mentioned. As far as I could see, he said it’s up to “We the People” that you both go on about to decide whether the American Dream continues. That dream is, in any case, poorly defined except by marketers who see their product as part of it. Let us remember meanwhile that the whole thing is a concept, not a concrete fact. I did not understand the part of your discussion beginning with, “The American Dream does not entitle anyone . . .” It’s supposed to be a dream rather than a reality, right?
I will note here as elsewhere that the prosperity of the US in the 1950s and 1960s was as much a product of World War II as anything else. The USA had the only major economy left intact after that war. We had a great time but we didn’t bother to maintain our lead as other countries caught up to us.
You define the Box pretty clearly, but I think it’s not as restrictive today as you picture it. In my childhood it was, but a great many people have loosened the shackles at least as far as sexuality. The Tea Party and their radical Christian allies make a great deal of noise, but here in Central Ohio as opposed to in the media most of my friends know at least one gay person or couple as friends, mixed-race couples are not notable, and many of us have other causes on our minds. This might look very different to me if I lived in a different place.
Your use of middle names, in this case the mainstream Presidential candidates’ middle names, still interrupts the flow of my reading.
I will be a bit more direct and encourage your readers who wish to vote without holding their noses to vote for either the Green Party or the Libertarian Party candidates, according to their own beliefs. If they have independents with whom they agree, that’s even better.
In my case, I will vote from the comfort of my home. For anything beyond that, I have run completely out of energy. Living in a “swing” state has meant resisting the temptation to trash the TV when the hundredth political ad of a given day comes on.
Calvin,
Re: doom & gloom. The tone of his essay was, gee, wasn’t it great, and now it is virtually gone. We have heard the argument many times over. Folks seem to conveniently forget the stifling injustice of the segregation, the violent social convulsions of the 60’s, and the dramatic immorality of Watergate, the inhumanity of Vietnam, the constant threat of nuclear Armageddon, among so many others. We survived those; we’ll survive this. The American Dream is not dead; it is just changing. I gave Meacham credit for his good points.
Re: entitlement. Here is where the debate gushes up. We create expectations with the notional American Dream that leads many folks think of poverty in monetary terms, or welfare without constraints, or everyone should have a house in the suburbs on a tree-covered street, or folks rush into traffic to retrieve dollars thrown from a robber’s vehicle. We have been through this debate; I suspect this will open it again.
Re: The Box. I am heartened Central Ohio is progressing. South Central Kansas is not. That aside . . . are all Ohioans able to exercise their freedom of choice and seek their Happiness without interference from external sources, and enjoy all the rights & privileges of citizenship? I suspect not. Ohioans who choose to live in The Box probably cannot recognize all the rumblings, but I am fairly certain those who wish to live outside The Box would not agree that they enjoy the same rights & privileges.
Re: full names. I shall endeavor to keep it to a minimum, but I do think it is important to be precise.
Re: voting. Thank you for your encouragement.
Re: swing state. Kansas is definitely not a swing state, yet we still get a flood of these noxious political advertisements.
Thank you for your comments; always appreciated.
Cheers,
Cap
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