CLASS, NOT RACE

 [This essay is the concluding section to a longer piece I am currently writing but is too long to include in my blog. The longer essay is entitled “The (Not So) Great Society and the Fighting Marlows” which reviews the history of my family from 1871- 1971 and concurrently reviews the societal and political events of these 100 years. While in high school I fell in love with history because I felt that a study of our shared past could provide clues to my family’s overall state of health. It did that but never before have I written a comprehensive paper detailing my examination of the process and the conclusion to which I came. And I am confident that this conclusion is a stand-alone piece that is worthy of publication.]

 

My historical study of my family beginning with my great grandfather’s birth in 1871 to my marriage in 1971 and the concurrent cultural and political forces shaping my family that it is social class, not race, that is the key factor determining one’s success in contemporary American society.

Before I proceed, however, I want to note that I detest racism in all forms, manifestations, and points of origin and the particular form of American slavery which thankfully ended six years before my great grandfather’s birth was horrific first to the slave, then to the slave holder, and finally to the entire nation. The notion that the American South would engage in a civil war to keep their “particular institution” is amazingly difficult for me to digest even in 2022. The morphing of slavery into Jim Crow laws is also hard for me to understand why people would subject other people to such inhumanity. During the 1960s I watched on television the end of Jim Crow play out in Birmingham, at Ole Miss, and with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I also desire to note that many African Americans found success in Jim Crow America. For example, in my home state of Oklahoma the black folks living around Greenwood Avenue in Tulsa were so commercially successful that this area was often called “Little Wall Street.” I believe that it was a combination of white racism and white fear of black success that caused the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921, perhaps the worst in our national history. Since 1921 we have had a black president, black supreme court justices, black members of Congress, and black artists, entertainers, and athletes excel in their fields of endeavor alongside with whites and cheered on by white spectators. Therefore, in closing, I warn all Americans, regardless of race, to stay away from the race baiters and false prophets who speak of “1619,” “Jim Crow 2.0,” “BLM- the organization,” “defund the police,” and other nonsense.

 

Being successful in the United States today is not a result of “white privilege” (another piece of propaganda) but rather a concept known as “decision privilege”- the idea that our success springs forth primarily from our individual decisions. For years three decisions have stood down for persons from all races to be successful and these three decisions must be fulfilled in order-

1.     Graduate from high school

2.     Get a job

3.     Get married before having children

 

To these three I will several more decision points for all American to fulfill their dreams and they are in no particular order of importance-

·       Find a higher purpose for your life than mere self-fulfillment

·       Discover and cultivate a core set of values for your life

·       Develop your own educational attainment plan beyond high school

·       If all possible, stay married to your first spouse

·       Plan your retirement finances early, even in your twenties

·       Work up the job ladder until you reach the level for you

 

If one does not follow the nine decisions points faithfully one could readily enter a spiral of failure. John McWhorter in Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage In Black America describes three cultural biases that destroy the confidence of his fellow African Americans to be successful: victimology, separatism, and anti-intellectualism. And Tyler Cowen warns all Americans that the future will be bleak for those in the future who can not add value to technology- they will exist on cheap food and cheap entertainment.

 

The recent debates about “critical race theory” (yet another off-the-shelf nonsense promoted by racial hustlers) should be replaced by discussions over what I call “critical class theory” without the Marxist baggage. One’s social class is usually defined in terms of economics or income with three distinct classes- upper class, middle class, and lower class. That typology, however, is too limiting for contemporary realities. Therefore, I am presenting a more nuanced approach to social class with eight groupings-

 

·       Guardian Class- Like Plato’s “philosopher-kings”, Guardians consider themselves  to be protectors of the American Ideal as they perceive it to be. These folks are career politicians and civil servants as well as business, non-profit, and foundation leaders who circle in and out of political power depending on which political party has the presidency. An example is Susan Rice, who has served under three Democratic presidents in various capacities.

·       Monied Class- Members of this class have money and will donate generously to philanthropic causes congruent to their beliefs. While primarily business leaders, they will occasionally heed a call to public service for a time. Donald Trump is one example of this class.

·       Elitist Class- Elitists are persons who have excelled in their fields of endeavor, some even achieving celebrity status. They differ from the Monied Class because they are usually first generation money and they differ from the Guardian Class because they rarely are interested in government service although they will donate money and publicly endorse political candidates. Some elitists feel they are culturally and morally superior to those in the Middle and Artisan Classes, and do not mind saying so. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Bill Gates are notable examples of this class.

·       Middle Class- Members of this class are what Peter Drucker called “knowledge workers.” Their primary work comes from their minds and includes educators, managers, military officers, and writers among others. I was a member of this class.

·       Artisan Class- Members of this class make things with their hands or do their primary work with their hands. Artists, farmers, carpenters, plumbers,  electricians, soldiers, forest rangers, and food servers among others are included in this class. Skill levels, compensation, and working hours among these workers vary. In the traditional three-class typology many of these people would be included in the Lower or Working Class while some would be in the Middle Class. My great grandfather Oscar (farmer), grandfather Bert (ship builder and tavern owner), and father Delbert (carpenter and construction worker) would have been in the Artisan Class.

·       Working Poor Class- The working poor work very hard, often at two or even three entry level jobs in a day. Their compensation is minimum wage or below with no fringe benefits. They are struck as poor because they lack the education, skills, and opportunities to enter the Artisan or Middle Classes, yet they are motivated to work.

·       Dependent Class- For various reasons, these folks receive their primary means of support from government or private assistance with little or no incentives, opportunity or motivation to work.

·       Leisure Class- Members of this class are primarily retirees. Their income sources are derived from pensions, savings, Social Security, and occasionally from parttime Artisan Class or Middle Class work. They are very open to volunteering in causes matching both their beliefs and skill sets. I am now a member of this class.

 

The above list of my social classes and descriptions is not hierarchical in terms of which is “best” nor in terms of one’s aspirations. The only classes one should avoid or rise out of as soon as possible are the Dependent and Working Poor Classes. The reality of our lives are so nuanced and complex so one go back and forth between two or even three classes during one’s lifetime depending upon one’s situation.

 

Not only are there benefits to being in one of the six “desired” social classes but also possible dangers or traps of which to be aware:

 

1.     The Guardian Class feels itself to be special. After all, its members are generally born in affluent circumstances, attend the “right” schools. go to Ivy League or similar colleges, marry the “right” spouses, and are usually mentored by Guardians. The danger of this class is that its members often feel entitled to govern the rest of us while not always following the rules they make for the rest of us. In both foreign and domestic affairs, Guardians tend to look out for themselves and may be condescending to those of the other classes.

2.     Members of the Dependent Class can also feel entitled, not for governing, but rather to the receipt of entitlements mandated by the Guardian Class for the Middle and Artisan Classes to pay in taxes for massive government programs and what they can get out of the Monied Class in its largesse. About 50 percent of all Americans do not pay federal incomes taxes and many of these folks are in this class.

3.     The Working Poor are in a maze almost impossible to escape once entered. These folks need to get a minimum of a real high school education with reading, writing,  and thinking skills and perhaps specific job training at a community college or apprenticeship even before fulltime work. Parttime jobs which develop one’s work ethic can also help.

4.     Middle & Artisan Classes:

·       Members of these classes need to decide on the appropriate education one needs after high school. For example, it was for some time that every high school graduate needs a degree from a traditional university to be successful. For some, it is necessary to enter certain professions. For others, it is not and they have options, either post-high school apprenticeship, community college, technical school, or a superb online education program in combination with any or all options. The key for the student is to be able to read, write, and think across the academic disciplines to be prepared for any job changes or employment disruptions. Consider the fictional Sergeant Leonard Borth as descripted in John Hersey’s novel A Bell for Adano, set in World War II. Before the age of 30 Borth had been a pre-medical student, a news correspondent, a travel agent, a personal secretary, a newspaper reporter, and radio salesman in cities across Europe and the United States.

·       Keep debt as low as possible. Pay off credit cards and loans, including house, car, and college, as soon as possible. Being enslaved to high debt limits one’s option, choices, and opportunities in life.

5.     Members of the Monied Class need to accumulate wealth not for its own sake but to use one’s personal wealth to invest in ventures and enterprises to uplift their fellow citizens.

6.     Elitists too often come across as even despising people in the Middle and Artisan Classes, especially in the South and Midwest (which is considered “flyover” country between the coastal elites).

7.     Those folks fortunate to enter retirement and the Leisure Class should see this as an opportunity to serve their communities

There must also be some public policy goals for our social class structure in the United States. Briefly, they include:

 

·       The Guardian Class must be held in check to prevent it from leading us into needless wars and other short-sighted foreign and domestic schemes. (David Halberstam ironically labeled them “The Best and the Brightest”- in his book with the same title-for their misjudgments and miscalculations for getting us involved in Vietnam).

·       Elitists must be challenged about their attitudes towards others.

·       The Middle and Artisan Classes must be grown.

·       The Dependent and Working Poor Classes must be shrunk.

·       The Monied Class must consider its wealth as stewardship for themselves and a trust for others.

·       The Leisure Class must be given opportunities to serve others.

 

In closing, social class is a complex phenomenon, much more than noting one’s skin color. Yet, one can successfully navigate the complexity of social class by at least being subconsciously aware of it, finding one’s preferred class, and seeking assistance along the way.

 

-----Coda-----

 

To illustrate social class in the United States I offer examples of two men who both have had either a best-selling biography or a best-selling autobiography (along with a movie based on the book) dealing their struggles of social class.

 

My first example is Cedric Jennings of Washington, DC. Jennings was the son of a Working Poor mother. His father was incarcerated in jail for most of his childhood. Jennings and his mother had high hopes for his future but he had several challenges to overcome. His high school was considered one of the worst in the nation and his best friend was a drug dealer. Jennings’s first college choice- MIT- rejected his application but he was admitted to Brown University.

 

At Brown, Jennings struggled academically as compared to the more prepared students from the Monied, Elitist, and Guardian classes. But, with perseverance and intelligence, he overcame once again and graduated with a degree in education. Then Jennings received graduate degrees in education from Harvard University and in clinical counseling from the University of Michigan. Today Jennings is a counselor and youth minister in the DC area. Therefore, he has chosen the Middle Class in which he lives his life. Read Ron Suskind’s A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League for more information.

 

My second example is J.D. Vance of Cincinnati, Ohio. Vance was born in Middletown, Ohio but his family roots were in Appalachian Kentucky his closest kin were Working Poor. His maternal grandparents had to Middletown where they could enjoy the fruits of a Middle Class life. When the steel plants closed in the city his grandparents were again Working Poor and his mother began a life of drugs and marriages. While his sister was able to leave the situation, Vance endured and finally was living with his grandmother after his grandfather had died. His grandmother disciplined him and gave him hope for a better life.

 

After high school graduation, Vance joined the Marine Corps which shaped him further for success. Leaving the military Vance entered Ohio State University where he graduated in two and a half years. Nest he was accepted at Yale Law School. After graduation, Vance became a venture capitalist, married his law school sweetheart, and wrote his Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis. Vance returned to Ohio to become a nonprofit executive and presently he is a candidate for the US Senate. While Vance has shown potential to gain entry into the Guardian Class, he is at present in the Middle Class.

A VICTORY FOR THE CONSTITUTION

 The Tenth Amendment to our Constitution is perhaps the most ignored part of this document. This amendment, part of our Bill of Rights, in essence states that all powers not specifically delegated to the national government belongs to the states and the people if not already prohibited.

In the context of the recent Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Mississippi the Supreme Court was restoring a constitutional right to the states and people taken away by the Supreme Court in 1973. In other words, the Roe decision, according to diverse jurists such as Ruth Baden Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas, was poorly decided and weak. Abortion cannot be something to be decided by the national government, it is to be decided on by the states and their people. So, for 49 years, we the people were denied a right constitutionally guaranteed to us.

So, anti-constitution hustlers like Schumer, Pelosi, AOC, and the “talking heads” on The View, CNN, and MSNBC are wrong- people were not denied a right last Friday, June 24, we won back a right. We live in a constitutional republic, not a democracy. (Oh yes, for a list of constitutionally granted powers to the national government, see Article I, Section 8.)

1893- THE YEAR THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC DIED

 Our story begins in 1844 when the Free Will Baptists came together to create their first institution of higher learning. Unlike their more numerous brethren in the South, this group of Baptists were anti-slavery and pro-education for everyone, so blacks and women were admitted to their college from the very first year. After several moves and name changes this school became known as Hillsdale College in Hillsdale Michigan, about halfway between Detroit and Chicago.

Hillsdale College now is known for their classical liberal arts education in the Christian tradition offered to every student. In fact, Hillsdale’s two-year core curriculum is mandatory for all students regardless of major. Another highlight of Hillsdale is their no cost no credit courses offered to anyone. I am currently a student in this category filling in the gaps of my professional education with liberal arts course gaining knowledge for its own sake.

The course in which I am currently enrolled is The Rise and Fall of the Roman Republic. The other day on one of the course videos the professor stated that the Roman Republic lasted about 500 years and the Roman Empire, its successor, lasted slightly less than 500 years. That fact motivated my thoughts in several directions. The Baptists I hang with have repeatedly compared the United States with Rome (almost always with the Empire, not the Republic) and that empires usually do not last long. The United States will soon be 246 years old, and so as many of my Baptist friends would say, may soon collapse.

Then I began to think about if the United States had a similar experience as Rome when the Republic became an Empire. The Roman conversion is not precise, but it begins when the Romans conquered the entire Italian peninsula and began their foreign adventures. Their presence in Sicily initiated the first of three wars with Carthage, an empire based in North Africa and Spain. So, did the United States undergo a similar conversion from republic to empire? Yes, we did. And, like Rome, the date of change is not precise, And, again like Rome, our change began with our manifest destiny motivating our ancestors to move from sea to shining sea, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. But first, a little background.

When our Founders assembled in Philadelphia in 1787 to jettison the Articles of Confederation by writing a new constitution they looked to the ancient Greek city-states and the Roman Republic (not the Empire) for guidance. From Sparta the Founders saw a city-state with checks and balances in government, but also too much martial spirit for their liking. From Athens they learned about the spirit of democracy, but also its excesses. And from the 150 or so, Greek city-states as a whole they learned about the need for unity, not just to resist invasions like from Persia, but also in more peaceful times.

When the Founders looked to the Roman Republic, they liked the republican virtues that sustained the Romans but also they examined the Romans’ mixed constitution of power granted to the kingship, aristocracy, and common people. Using lessons they learned from the Greeks and Romans, and also from the Swiss Confederation, our Founders created a constitution of federal union not only for 13 states hugging the Atlantic coast of North America  but also for a continental union expanding westward.

While the Founders could envision our constitutional republic (not a democracy) spreading towards the Pacific, they did not see our republic gaining territory beyond either coastline to become a colonial empire like Rome or Britain. And like Rome this thirst for colonies would doom the American republican experience as we morphed into an American Empire.

To be clear, a constitutional republic is a republic governed through a written constitution designed for a nation reaching its natural borders. An empire, at least for us Americans, is our republic for whatever reasons extending ourselves beyond our natural borders to possess other lands as colonies, possessions, and territories. Because the Founders designed our constitution for the government’s powers to be limited in scope, an emerging American empire required enlarged government with increasing powers.

Our constitutional republic reached its zenith in the 1820s with the Monroe Administration. The Monroe Doctrine gave notice to European powers to stop their interference with the American nations south of the United States and with the statement by Secretary of State (later president) John Quincy Adams that the United States does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy, Americans continue to focus on the internal development of the republic, (By the way the staff of the State Department under Adams consisted of six clerks and two messengers,)

But the first crack in our constitutional republicism appeared two decades later. In 1846, the United States provoked a war with Mexico over our annexation of Texas, invaded Mexico capturing its capital city, and had half of Mexico ceded to it through a treaty. This war was opposed in principle by two future presidents- Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln and Army lieutenant U.S. Grant.

From May 1 to October 30, 1893, Chicago hosted the World’s Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair. The American Historical Society chose to meet in Chicago during the fair and one of its presenters was a young professor of history form the University of Wisconsin named Frederick Jackson Turner, Dr, Turner read to the assembled scholars his academic paper entitled “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” which ignited Turner’s frontier thesis. Turner announced to the assembly that for all practical purposes the frontier no longer existed for the United States.

I have the year 1893 as the death of the American Republic. Nevertheless, like the Romans, this was a process preceded by certain events which propelled the United States into an American Empire. The process could be said to have begun in 1886 with the capture of Geronimo, an Apache medicine man and freedom fighter, by the US Army which led to peace in the Southwest. Beginning in1889, the unorganized lands in Oklahoma were opened to white settlement with a series of land runs. In 1890, the last major battle of the American Indian Wars occurred at Wounded Knee in South Dakota in which the US Army killed nearly 300 Lakota men, women, and children, and in which ironically 20 Medals of Honor were awarded to the soldiers. And finally, earlier in 1890, a book written by naval officer and Naval War College professor Alfred Thayer Mahan entitled The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783. This book was a major success which propelled the United States and other world powers to view sea power as the major way of expansion, a way of protection, or both.

Events following Turner’s pronouncement in Chicago demonstrated a strong coming imperial streak in the American mindset. In 1894, the US Army was sent to Chicago to help end the Pullman Strike by organized labor. The precedent was now set for military intervention to quell domestic disputes instead of patrolling the now non-existent frontier for marauding Native Americans.

Then, in 1897, President McKinley appointed New York City Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. Roosevelt was an activist and used his power behind the scenes to place the US Navy on a war footing. Early in 1898, the US continued its intervention in the Spanish colony of Cuba by dispatching the USS Maine to Havana Harbor to “protect” American interests in that place. When the Maine blew up in February, the American press seized upon the idea that Spain was responsible for the catastrophe and used public opinion to pressure Congress to declare what future Secretary of State John Hay called a “splendid little war.”

The war went generally well for the US starting with the US Navy's big victory over the Spanish fleet in Manila Bay in the far-off Philippines. Roosevelt was just as responsible for the feat as was Admiral Dewey. But now TR was in Cuba with the “Rough Riders” of the 1^st Volunteer Cavalry Regiment. After losing Cuba to the Americans, Spain sued for peace.

More US soldiers died from disease than from Spanish bullets but that did not stop our government from acquiring tropical Puerto Rico and the Philippines as well as Guam from Spain. Hawaii was annexed and   The American Empire was now fully born. And the war was good for TR. In three years he entered the White House and became our first modern president.

Modernity in America in the early 1900s meant overseas expansion was the new frontier. The Philippine-American War, fought right after the Spanish-American War, was a brutal and bloody conflict on both sides. US soldiers and marines used waterboarding, internment camps, and in some instances, mass executions in attempts to :civilize” the Filipinos to prepare them for eventual independence (which indeed came on July 4, 1946). When Federal Judge William H. Taft, future president and chief justice, was appointed civil governor, the US military became less aggressive overall.

It was indeed an anti-imperialism streak in the United States at the time which used bad news from the Philippines as evidence we should not be involved in foreign entanglements as President Washington had advised in his Farewell Address in 1797. Samuel L. Clemens (aka Mark Twain) was one of the leaders of this movement and he poignantly pointed out the hypocrisy of praying for the safety and well-being of one’s own soldier son while ignoring the mother whose son was on the other side of the conflict. Nevertheless, this movement was just as rife with racism as was the imperialists.

TR continued on. He intervened in the Colombia/Panama dispute. With the navy and marines showing just enough US support, Panama became independent of Colombia and granted the US rights to construct the Panama Canal in one of the major engineering and management feats of our time. TR also promoted construction of the US Navy’s “Great White Fleet” and then ordered it on a global cruise to demonstrate American sea power. And TR personally injected himself in the Russo-Japanese War to get both Russia and Japan to begin peace talks; of course, TR was the chief negotiator of the peace talks.

The American Empire ripen some more with Woodrow Wilson as president. Not only was Wilson a racist, he was a interventionalist in Mexico and some other Latin American states. And after his leadership in getting the US to get involved needlessly into World War I, Wilson led the efforts to violate free speech rights of millions of Americans.  Our government deemed any criticism of the war effort as unpatriotic and perhaps even treasonous.

Franklin Roosevelt strengthened the American Empire with his New Deal agencies and with foreign affairs. Early in 1941, FDR ordered the US Pacific Fleet from its base in San Diego California to its new base at Pearl Harbor Hawaii. An unintended consequence of this action was that Japan found it could easier initiate a surprise attack against an American territory in the middle of the Pacific Ocean than against the continental United States. During the war Japanese Americans and African Americans were distinguishing themselves fighting the Nazi war machine, their families at home suffered in internment camps and under racist Jim Crow laws, respectively.

After the war, President Truman authorized the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The problem with the CIA is not its mixed record of successes and failures, but that it is hardly “central” at all. In addition to the CIA 16 other top-secret intelligence agencies fall under the umbrella of the Director of National Intelligence, a post created after 9/11 to coordinate these agencies which often conduct warrantless searches of phone calls by American citizens as well as other unconstitutional actions. They are aided by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court, which violates the Constitution as does the Patriot Act, passed after 9/11.

Also, after the war, there appeared, at least in public, a new social class whom I call the Guardian Class, members of which are akin to Plato’s philosopher-kings who are destined to rule other Americans for their benefit as they perceive that benefit to be. Guardians are usually career politicians and civil servants who attend the “right” schools (Ivy League and similar colleges), gain the “right” mentors, and marry the “right”  spouses. Guardians span the partisan divide as, for example, the Democrats have the Kennedys and the Republicans have the Bushes.

Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas in their The Wise Men offer biographies of six prominent Guardians interspersed with public events and how these men help shape those events for the post-World War II generations. David Halberstam in The Best and the Brightest chronicles how Guardians in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations got the United States deeply involved in Vietnam.

Not all our modern presidents have been Guardians. From 1961 onward I count only Kennedy, Ford, Bush 41, Bush 43, and Obama in that class. If a president is not a Guardian, he (and the future she) will be surrounded by advisers who will be primarily Guardians.

Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947 and amended in 1949 which created the National Security Council (NSC). The NSC is composed of pertinent cabinet officers and presidential advisors, and is chaired by the president, and serves as the president’s principal forum for national security and foreign policy decision making. On paper the NSC as originally intended looks good but the NSC as it developed throughout the years raises red flags for republican principles of governance.

First, the role of the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs or National Security Advisor (NSA) has been enlarged and strengthened. Rather than being an “honest broker” for differing perspectives of council members the NSA has received power far more than warranted and in some cases the NSA’a power and prestige ellipces that of the secretaries of state and defense.

Second, the NSC staff has grown both in size and in power throughout the years. Currently, under the Biden Administration, the NSC staff has at a minimum about 141 members working issues such as technology, cyber policy, gender policy, strategic planning, partnerships, global engagement, global health, specific global regions, human rights, southern border, economics, labor, energy, climate change, counterterrorism, and arms control. Thus, the NSC has become a combination of mini redundant departments of state, defense, homeland security, and other federal agencies. As the American Empire grows so does its byzantine governance.

In the early Roman Republic only citizens could serve in the army. To be a citizen meant that a man had some degree of wealth to own property such as a farm or villa. To be an ideal citizen meant that a man was a farmer, a soldier, and was involved in civic responsibilities. Later the Romans needed more military manpower so they abolished the citizenship requirement for army service. While this action created a more professional army, soldiers became less identified with republican virtue of service.

The US ended its active selective system draft in 1973. As the number of veterans of our military branches- Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Space Force- shrink each year I now believe every adult needs to serve in some capacity, whether it is community service, national service, or military service. And some benefit should be attached to service- perhaps the right to vote or even citizenship itself.

Afghanistan was the staging area for the Al-Qaeda attacks against the United States on 9/11 in 2001. Small teams of US special forces and CIA operatives were quickly dispatched to that country. They joined with the Northern Alliance opposition and toppled the Taliban government which had given refuge to Al-Qaeda and its leader Osama ben Laden (OBL), the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

OBL and his followers retreated to the Tora Bora Mountains along the border with Pakistan. Delta Force Major Thomas Greer (aka Dalton Fury) was given a small task team of US and UK commandos and ordered to find and kill OBL. According to Greer’s accounts he was denied reinforcements as his team began to close in on OBL so as to not offend our Afghan “allies.” As a result, OBL was able to escape to Pakistan. He was not killed until several years later by US Navy Seals in the Zero-Dark-Thirty mission.

Once the first mission to kill OBL failed, the US decided to “nation-build” and so we spent thousands of American and Afghan lives and billions of dollars in our longest war ever. Our imperial intentions were honorable but unrealistic. Planning our exit was inevitable and would be difficult but the way it was finally conducted was unimaginably sloppy to the point of being criminally negligent.

In 2003 came the disasterous decision to invade Iraq. The search for “weapons of mass destruction” quickly became the false ridden “weapons of mass delusion.” The initial military campaign and occupation by US and UK imperial forces went well enough but too soon our soldiers, sailors, and marines were drawn into a counterinsurgency for which we were ill prepared by having no clear military doctrine from which to draw upon.

Our Guardians and military leaders were again negligent for failure of readiness to win the hearts and minds of everyday Iraqis. To totally disarming and dismissing the Iraqi army left many former soldiers without jobs and only too ready to fight the invading infidels and banning all Baathists from the government eliminated skilled technicians from key positions in providing electricity, water, and other services to the people. Imperial Proconsul Paul Bremmer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, has never been called to explain himself for these decisions.

Only after a counterinsurgency doctrine was in place, new commanders named, and a surge of additional forces ordered was the Iraqi situation stabilized. Yet years of fighting and dying with no objectives clear to average (Artisan and Middle Class) Americans who were sending their sons and daughters to do the fighting and dying, the US was ready to “get out of Dodge” when the opportunities presented themselves. Now Iraq is more prone to agree with neighboring Iran than with Western interests.

The teaching of virtues through civics and citizenship lessons have faded in our public schools despite the fact our Founders considered virtuous citizens essential for our American Experiment. They pulled their ideals of virtues from the Roman Republic which had an integrated core of virtues as follows:

·       Acting in good faith; reliability, gratefulness, loyalty,

·       Selfless: generous, simplicity, incorruptible, charitable

·       Justice: order, fairness, responsible, empathy

·       Resolute: endurance, perseverance, courage

·       Duty: respectful. Industrious, dedicated

·       Purity: sense of morality, health, dignity, truthful

·       Self-Control: restraint, modest, merciful, gravity, economical

·       Honorable: moral actions, pride, reputation, humanity

However, the Founders did not put the early Romans up on a pedestal. They understood that their actions were not always realized in light of their ideals. Perhaps one might  a modesire tore contemporary version of virtues from, for example, the old Boy Scout Law:

·       Trustworthy

·       Loyal

·       Helpful

·       Friendly

·       Courteous

·       Kind

·       Obedient

·       Cheerful

·       Thrifty

·       Brave

·       Clean

·       Reverent

Whatever system of virtues is used, the virtues must be taught at home. at school, and during religious instruction with all intentionality at age-appropriate levels for virtuous citizens.

Rather than continue with a litany of complaints, I trust the discerning reader senses the direction of our beloved nation. Perhaps one day the American Empire will cease and when that happens perhaps we will turn again to limited government with separation of powers, checks and balances, and natural rights for all sustained, promoted, and activated by a virtuous citizenry.

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,

that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,

deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

(from the Declaration of Independence)

 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,

nor prohibited by it to the States,

are reserved to the States respectively,

or to the people.

(10^th Amendment to the Constitution)                     

D DAY 1944: REMEMBERED

 In memory of those Americans, British, and Canadians who stormed those five Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, and to those airborne forces who led the Allied assault the night before. Their mission was to begin the liberation of the French and Europeans from the death snares of Nazi Germany and its terroristic Gestapo apparatus. And they so did.

Thank you! 

SURVIVOR 42- PART DEUX

Several weeks ago, I posted an essay reporting and analyzing on an incident from Survivor, Season 42. The incident involved the reactions of two young black women who are players in the CBS reality show and what they said when they came to a special tribal meeting and saw two other black players who had been voted off. They claimed racism was to blame for the situation without accusing anyone specific of being racist.

The two women survived being ousted by playing their immunity idols. Back at camp after the tribal meeting the fitness trainer, who was one of my favorites to win, admitted that she needed to play the game more with her head than with her heart. I was encouraged that she and the other young woman would not play the race card again in future episodes. And, unless I missed something, there was no more mention of race again, at least what was broadcasted to the public. But unfortunately, the fitness trainer was voted out several tribal meetings later because she was considered too big of a threat to win it all.

Last Wednesday was the final episode of Season 42. The season’s winner among three finalists won the jury vote 7-1 because most of the jury thought that player had the best strategy. Who was that person? The seminary student, the other black woman! I invite the reader to ascertain whether racism was really at play in Season 42.