Earthquake blogging

Can't seem to get this song out of my mind (unfortunately).

Ta-Nehisi Coates visits Gettysburg

He dreads his visit:



At this point, I've toured quite a few battlefields -- the Wilderness, Petersburg, Shiloh, Fort Donelson. I have, for several reasons, been dreading a trip to Gettysburg. I should say a return to Gettysburg, because I came here in middle school on a field trip. I remember liking it a great deal, but having no deliberate sense of the Civil War in relationship to slavery, or Gettysburg in relationship to slavery. I certainly didn't know that Confederate Armies had kidnapped free blacks during the campaign. Of course, once you understand that the South seceded to preserve an economy built on enslaved black people, the act doesn't seem that shocking.



but in the end sees that we're not all that bad after all:



I can't go much further, because I risk giving up my article. But the point I'm driving at it's very tough to consider Gettysburg, as its commonly rendered in the American imagination, when you're black. And yet in point of fact, perhaps more than any other battlefield in the country, the folks at Gettysburg have done a really good job in making clear that the war was about slavery. What struck me more than anything was the film in the visitor center. It was narrated by Morgan Freeman. There were quotes from Frederick Douglass. You really couldn't watch it and think the Civil War was about anything else.



and he's still here!



And yet still, I had that weird feeling. I never feel more "outside" than when I'm visiting battlefields. I have one more day here, and a lot more to think about.



I wish he'd stopped by the College to say "hey" and to find out how we overwhelmingly liberal overwhelmingly northerners get by in a town that fetishizes the gallantry of the Confederate invaders. Maybe he did stop by but nobody told me. Where are you now Ta-Nehisi? Wanna get a beer?

Job-killing spending cuts

During the debt ceiling battle the Republicans have shown once again how much better they are than Democrats at the rhetorical aspect of politics. When Republicans talk about government debt, they never fail to claim that reckless spending is costing jobs, whereas the Democrats' proposals for "job-killing tax hikes" on "families" and "job creators" will just make matters worse. Democrats weakly counter that cutting spending during a recession will slow down the recovery, but their words lack the force that comes from endlessly repeating phrases like "job-killing tax hikes", "failed economic stimulus", and so on. I recommend that from now on, no Democrat ever mentions spending cuts without attaching the modifier "job-killing".

To bring the matter home: this spring President Obama, caving into pressure from Republicans for spending cuts, slashed funding for community action programs. These federal budget cuts and similar cuts at the state level have forced the South Central Community Action Program, which provides social services in Adams County, to terminate some important programs. Most crucially, Wee Care, my kids' day care center which also serves a lot of low income people in Gettysburg, is closing at the end of the summer. They need something like $100,000 a year to operate, and they're no longer going to get it from the state and federal government. So they close - and with their closing, a dozen or so hard-working, patriotic Americans who have devoted their lives to educating our children, will lose their jobs. Jobs killed by our politicians' obsession with cutting spending and unwillingness to raise taxes even a little bit to preserve essential programs. To quote Charlton Heston: "Damn you! Goddamn you all to hell!"

This episode is really a microcosm of what's happening all over this country. The recession is grinding the life out of low income communities while the well-healed protect themselves from the pain. Over the next few years I suspect that the class divide in this country is going to be more and more obvious, and eventually too toxic to ignore. Let's put this in perspective: Gettysburg College is gearing up for another fund-raising campaign with a goal of raising something over $100 million dollars. I wish us luck. That kind of money will allow us to continue to (start to?) pay competitive salaries for faculty, offer new programs for our students, and overall sustain the quality of our college. But an endowment of just $2 million or so - the kind of generous donation Gettysburg gets every year or so - would save the SCCAP programs permanently and, I'd argue, do much more good at the margin than anything Gettysburg College is going to do with this money. Will anyone step up? Will anyone even think of asking? No, I'm afraid Gettysburg College and society's upper crust in general will continue to get along just fine while the bedrock beneath us crumbles away.

Power broker? Your words, not mine

I'm not saying I'm a power broker, but judging from last night's primary results you don't stand a chance in the Democratic primary for county commissioner unless you stop by my house for dinner or at least a long chat. For borough council, best treat me right when I stop in your coffee shop. Your chances of winning a school board seat are enhanced if you invite me to your Christmas parties. And if you want to be a district magistrate, it helps to be the ex husband of the current wife of my golf and poker buddy.

It's hostile out there

On Wednesday Bruce Larson and I gave a talk at the monthly meeting of Gettysburg's Democracy for America group about the election results. Well, we didn't talk really so much as respond to questions from the audience. It was a very polite, civil affair where nothing much profound was said. Certainly no one said anything disparaging of the opposition except perhaps to wonder why so many Americans seem to vote against what the DFA members view as their interests. The local paper covered the event and though the reporter mischaracterized some of our remarks made the event seem if anything more anodyne than it really was. So I was surprised at the tone of some of the comments to the online article (of which there are, at last count, 65):

Really? You have no idea why Americans booted your side out? You're as out of touch as your leaders. Here's a crazy idea, listen to the American people! When they say they don't want our gov't to grow bigger, then don't! When they say stop bailing out businesses, then don't! When they say we don't! want your health care rammed down our throat, then don't! The American people know your message, and we ain't buying it! If the Republicans don't listen to us, we'll kick them out too. See I could have sat on that panel of eggheads and given you a real answer instead of joking about bumper stickers!

Have you learned nothing from the Bit$h slap America sent you Nov. 2nd.? We are not confused. That is your first mistake, why do many Democrats, and edu-endoctrinators like the professor think that anyone who isn't a left wing liberal must be stupid, confused, racist or uncompassionate? American is fed up with government growing bigger and bigger, further intruding on our lives. America is disgusted with liberals who want to bring this country down, liberals who think we should apologize to the world. American doesn't want better slogans or more bumper stickers, this show just how stupid you view the general public as being. Do you really think that a bumper sticker will make us forget the terrible job you've been doing and the contempt you have for our freedom, our rights and our will? Its no wonder you lost, get used to it, 2012 is gonna be the next slap coming your way. You mocked the Tea Party, America back the tea party. Start packing your bags, Freedom is back, and it kickin' A' and taking names.

"they had no answer"?? Really? That is somewhat amusing as I watched at times the MSNBC tv coverage of the election tuesday, it seemed that their pundits; Matthews, Maddow, Robinson, O'Donnell, and the mad man Olberman didn't seem to have an answer to what happened tuesday evening either. It seems that those presented to us as being some of the brightest and the best from the left really don't have any great understanding of or any keen insight into the issues really confonting the country does it? The problem is that they so arrogantly and condescendingly present themselves as possessing these qualities.

So let me get this straight, you asked a few college professors, from a small private privledged college, in a rural agricultural area of Pa why the Dems lost so many seats. How the heck do they know, they are completely out of touch with what the average American goes through day to day....

I guess all professors @ GC are democrats who cannot grasp the notion of what Barrak ran on? Change? Wow! Don't send your kid to this school is what I just read. No discussion on social healthcare, taxes, cuts or actually having people who aren't puppets for lobbyist. I love america but something needs to change and it is government. The results will not change anything but what you are seeing is people who are sending a message that don't plan on being a career polititian unless you provide a service for your state and not big government or big business. The professors jobs should be on the block for not being open minded.

Really? The democrat analysts are just as out of touch as the group itself. We as taxpaying CITIZENS are sick and tired of paying 40% of our income to the government. It has to stop somewhere. The democrats will always get the majority of the black and hispanic vote, and everyone else looking for a handout. Fortunately, for now, we the LEGAL CITIZENS out number these people, and we are voting. Get in touch with reality.

Wow.