04 July 1970

...was my first day of basic training after four days of being herded around the reception center at Fort Campbell, Kentucky processing into the Army. Today we are bussed to a concrete barracks where drill sergeants yell at us and we all line up on footprints painted on the pavement.

All things considered,it really sucked. It wasn't the Marines but it still sucked.

04 July 1973

Toby, the Dog was born on this day in 1973, one of six German Shepherd-Labrador-Irish Setter-Spaniel puppies who came into the world next door to my girlfriend’s apartment in Charlottesville, Virginia. The litter ranged in color from golden to black with variations of black, red and gold in between. I had claim on the second pick and chose a dark, red-hued male. He was small enough to hold in my hand and lived in a cardboard box. Two months later, we moved to a cottage about five miles south of town where Toby had lots of room to run. By late fall, he was a gangly adolescent of an indeterminate reddish-brown. By spring, he sported a sleet red coat trimmed with black and tan.

Toby shared the adventure of a new marriage, new job and moving to Richmond during his first year. We learned how to walk on a leash and explored the woods in Bryan Park near our home. He also stood by nervously as the marriage became more difficult and tense as it slid toward dissolution. Throughout it all he was a constant companion and soon became my hiking partner. In order to avoid more popular trails where a dog was likely to be an encumbrance, we hiked Virginia’s western mountains and discovered the wonders of Ramseys Draft, Massanutten Mountain and Big Schloss. We spent many an hour together at Reeds Gap on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

In 1982, Toby watched as I packed and packed and packed for my move to Arizona and then sat patiently behind me as we drove from Richmond to Phoenix. Arizona was a challenge for a hiking dog—far too many cactus, rattlesnakes and javalinas about for me to feel comfortable with him on the trail, not to mention the challenging terrain. We certainly explored the streets and alleyways of our new neighborhood and its environs. He and I did a couple hikes together; a grueling hike in New Mexico’s Gila Wilderrness on the July Fourth holiday in 1984 was his last major trip. After that, he stayed closer to home.

He adjusted well to the changes life brought to us. He had come to accept Maggie’s two dogs as she and I began to spend time together In 1985, I adopted (Maggie’s doings) a stray dog, Zona who delivered six puppies in my back yard. Toby tolerated the encroachments although he never quite warmed up to his new companions. He’d been an only dog for so long that he wasn’t likely to change at age 13. Still, he was part of the pack when we loaded all four dogs into the car for trips back and forth between our homes.

The four dogs in the car became the four dogs in the household in 1988 when Maggie and I began living together. By this time, the young dog full of explosive energy was an old dog with failing eyesight and hearing, one who slept most of the day. He still had enough energy to take me for walks but they were nothing like earlier years’ when we ranged all over central Phoenix.

Toby died 30 December 1988, just shy of 15 ½ years old. I miss him still and cherish the memories of our time together.

04 July 1776

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, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Still a good idea after all these years.

You'll Have to Pry Power from My Cold, Dead Hand

"Democracy won't come by the charity of the governing class. Fighting is the only way to gain democracy. . . . People are doomed to be slaves unless they are willing to sacrifice their blood."

message board comment from Suzhou, China about Iranian protests.

Governing classes rarely cede power willingly. If they cede power at all, they do so under duress, compelled by events. When it cedes power, some combination of forces has eroded the governing class’s authority or compelled it to accept a less advantageous position. Sometimes that less advantageous position is death. It is certainly a diminishment of wealth and self-importance. No wonder the governing class resists change.

In Iran a governing class that is itself a legacy of revolution that toppled another governing class, is now challenged both from within and from the street. The coalition of forces challenging Iran’s governing class is a potent one. That’s why the mullahs are fighting so hard against it; they recognize it for the danger it is. The real danger is that the demonstrators are challenging individuals rather than the system. They echo the same commitment to Islamic government and law as do the theocrats.

The brutality and force used against the demonstrators may well keep Ahmadinejad and Khamenei in power for the time being. Repression and violence worked for the Shah—at least until it didn’t work and his governing class was swept away by the Iranian people led by a determined band of Islamic nationalist revolutionaries. That history offers no certain answers for the future but human nature and individual behavior tell me that as long as Iran’s rulers allow a system in which most Iranians can meet their basic physical and emotional needs (which they have managed to do now for 30 years despite a few glitches) the ruling class will hang on.

That hold is tenuous, though. Right now, it looks like many Iranians have little or no faith in the current system and are no longer willing to acquiesce to it, willing to risk life, limb and liberty in their defiance . That lack of faith is the smoldering ember that may yet force a change.

All this makes me wonder why Americans weren’t out in the streets, protesting a stolen election in 2000. Maybe we still had faith in our national institutions. With today’s hindsight, we should have been shutting down the nation rather than allow CheneyBush to claim “victory”. With only foresight at our disposal, we somehow assumed that the stolen election was simply a matter of procedure and that CheneyBush was little different from Al Gore. Instead of taking to the streets, we sat back, chortled at the concept of hanging and pregnant chads and grew weary of the whole affair. The only ones on the streets protesting were paid Republicans protesting anything that would challenge their claim to Florida’s electoral votes. Most of us acted as if everything was normal.

The Iranians have already shown more initiative than Americans did in similar circumstances. I hope they get a better result.

Health Care Financing Solved

Reading commentary about health care reform in the US, I am staggered by the unwillingness of pretty much everyone who wrings their hands over the high cost of the proposed proposals (up to $1.6 trillion over 10 years) to look at the most obvious source of funds in the federal budget for the needed funds. That $1.6 trillion comes to $160 billion per year. This country spends almost that much on the unnecessary wars, not to mention the endemic waste and redundancy in the so-called "defense" budget that exceeds $1 trillion a year. I have no doubt that a good budget analyst/program evaluator could carve 10 percent out of that budget without endangering military security one iota. Apparently, that option is not only not on the radar, the radar isn't even in place.

Of course, the hawks and military will object mightily and point to all sorts of potential dangers to protect their budgets, but the reality is that America's pathetically unequal health care system is every bit as dangerous to our national well being as any potential enemy.

Anniversaries

June is an eventful month. I recently wrote about casting my first vote in a June 1969 primary election. Just one year ago this month I added fenders to my bicycle, thereby becoming a year-round rider in this wet climate. Five years ago I began writing this blog. On this day in June 1906 my father, Frank Fleming, was born. Seventy-three years later on 20 June his wife/my mother, Katherine Pie’ Fleming, died. That same day this June is Rose Johnson’s memorial in Phoenix. Maggie's mother, Marion O'Conner Reardon died last year on 25 June. On 29 June 1970, I voluntarily joined the US Army, casting my fate to…well, the Fates.

Oh yeah, I graduated from some schools and a kindergarten in several Junes.

Evil Roots

Bad Attitudes has a very good piece on Iraq as a laughing matter this past week on the Colbert Report. Two sentences particularly resonate with me.

We know, down inside, that our soldiers are being used as de facto mercenaries for venal contractors or pawns in the service of grubby political aims that have nothing to do with our freedom or security. (emphasis in original)

That certainly sums up my military service back in the day. I knew that going in and it's gnawed at me ever since. Which is why I am so angry to see the my country is doing the same goddamn thing all over again.

The second sentence is a 1795 quote from James Madison:

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few… [There is an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and … degeneracy of manners and of morals ... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

Now think of the past six decades and ask yourself how well America has pursued this founder's vision.

This all begins with Stephen Colbert but the point is that war is America's everyday normal.

Epitaph for an Occupation

"These commercials are boring, poor and annoying. Everyone knows they're American -- not Iraqi-made."

Talking Virginia Politics

In years past Virginia gubernatorial elections were the backwater afterthought ( if anyone outside of the Commonwealth paid any attention at all) from the previous year’s presidential elections. Not so these days as the parties take advantage of the Only Game in Town to sharpen their skills for the next round. New Jersey also elects a governor in 2009 but lacks the recent history of political change that makes Virginia a full-scale battleground.

I still pay attention to Virginia politics but don’t really keep up with events there so my information is sketchy. Still Virginia is where I’m from, a place never too far out of mind and covered regularly by the Washington Post, one of my regular news sources. The Post does pay attention to Virginia politics, so I do too, sort of.

I don’t have a favorite candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. I definitely have a least favorite—Terry McAuliffe—whom the Post describes as a 17 year McClean resident with no “natural base in the state”. That’s because McAuliffe’s residence was a matter of convenience for a DC insider, not because of any inherent interest in the state; McAuliffe’s stage was national; he was the Clintons’ main money-man. As chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he shrank the Democratic base to a bare electoral majority that the party could not always command, leaving the nation vulnerable to eight years of CheneyBush and a Republican Congress. His successor did just the opposite and essentially restored the party’s base. For me, McAuliffe is the epitome of the wheeling-dealing mentality that looks too closely at the short-run bottom line and pays no attention to the longer term consequences.

Either of the other two candidates, Creigh Deeds or Brian Moran, is fine by me. Unlike McAuliffe, both have longstanding experience representing Virginians and have dealt with many of the state’s critical issues. Moran is from Northern Virginia, the state’s economic engine and locus of an immense snarl of development and traffic. Deeds is from Bath County, on the West Virginia border, and considered the most conservative of the three. What little I know of him leads me to think he is more of a thoughtful conservative than a rabid one. I know that four years ago he came almost defeated the man who is the presumptive Republican nominee for governor this year. Either Deeds or Moran will do.

The tenor of the campaign sounds ugly at this distance. Too much “my opponent is/did/said (fill in something evil here)”. But that’s the nature of high stakes politics these days, especially when big money is involved. I know the candidates held a series of debates and maybe actually discussed real issues but, as I said, I don’t pay attention to the specifics. I might have missed something along the way.

All I actually know is that Creigh is an unusual name and that after Tuesday, the 2010 election cycle begins.

Houses of War?

Yesterday during the Friday peace vigil, a woman yelled to us from a passing car that "Without war you wouldn't have a place to live", a truly odd statement. Certainly better than the occasional upraised finger but puzzling. I'm thinking that she is referring to defending the "Homeland", the idea that foreign aggressors will attack and force me out of my home. For an American, though, that possibility is pretty remote. But the conflation of war and security is pervasive. As long as people believe that others want to dispossess them, the rationale for war will be strong. And since Americans have everything while many others have little or nothing,we will always be on guard lest "they" take what is "ours". The yelling woman believes that her home is at risk and the only way to defend it is by killing others.

Since I am not a pacifist, I can understand the utility of using force against an attacker. If you physically attack me with harmful intent, I WILL respond with equal and quite possibly greater force in order to stop the attack and preclude further danger. The same is true of nations; I don't gainsay that responsibility. But just as it makes sense for me as an individual to work with others to create an environment where we all are free from threats and the likelihood of attack is nil, so too do nations have the same responsibility to create a secure international environment.

If I could have an extended conversation with the woman, I would point out that war often creates just the opposite result: people without homes. The world has plenty of people displaced by war--Iraq, Darfur, Palestine Pakistan and many others. War seems to have done little for their living conditions. My own experience in war was of not having a place to live. Sure, I had a place to be for about a week out of each month but the rest of the time I was just wherever I was at the moment and still alive. When the war finally ended four years later, it didn't change the fact that I had a place to live.

Of course, looking back on it, the US has been at war in one form or another during my entire lifetime—Korea, Vietnam, Central America, the Middle East not to mention the Cold War and all its clandestine operations and near catastrophes. Maybe that’s what has kept a roof over my head all these years.

Ya think?