Early Racial Tolerance

     Alexandria residents benefit from being surrounded by history, like the life and times of its most famous resident, George Washington.  When in 1775 George Washington was appointed by the Continental Congress to take command of the fledgling military forces, a young lady in Providence felt compelled to compose a patriotic poem and send it to him at his headquarters in Cambridge across the Charles River from Boston which at that time was occupied by the British. The 43 line poem, “His Excellency George Washington” was well received by George Washington not only because of its glowing tribute and encouragement, but because the poem acknowledged the imminent struggle for freedom and independence.
Celestial choir! enthron’d in realms of light,
Columbia’s scenes of glorious toils I write.
While freedom’s cause her anxious breast alarms,
She flashes dreadful in refulgent arms.
The poem went on to sagaciously and sanguinely predict victory over the British:
Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia’s state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late.    
     Shortly after receiving the poem George Washington wrote the young lady expressing his appreciation and extending an invitation to meet with her which he did in March of 1776.  What makes all this more remarkable was that the shining light was Phillis Wheatley an African slave who had been purchased by the Wheatley family of Boston. She had come from West Africa (probably Senegal) when she was just eight years old. The Wheatley’s encouraged their own daughter to tutor the slave girl in Greek, Latin and other subjects to the point that Phillis Wheatley was regarded as a prodigy. When she was only twelve years old she started to write poetry and in 1773 she published a book of poetry which made her a world celebrity. That year Phillis Wheatley made a literary tour to England and upon her return to Boston her master opted to manumit her.  She drew the favorable attention of America's founding fathers, including George Washington, who told her that "the style and manner [of your poetry] exhibit a striking proof of your great poetical talents."  She is recognized as the first African-American woman to publish a book and she is a cornerstone in African American literary heritage. Among other honors, the Phillis Wheatley YWCA in Washington, D.C. is named for her.
     The meeting between George Washington and Phillis Wheatley has been regarded as an early instance of racial tolerance and may have contributed to George Washington’s evolving attitude towards slavery. In 1776 he reversed an earlier decision and permitted the enlistment of black soldiers with eventually about 9000 slaves joining the patriots. George Washington in his last will and testament famously freed the slaves he owned making provisions for their education and training. Indeed Phillis Wheatley’s influence on George Washington may have been more momentous than she could have ever suspicioned.

Reflections on Gun Control

Gun control is yet another of this country’s divisive topics and therefore another opportunity where the facts become an irritation.  Just like war, most people do not support anything that could kill or cause injury to them or their family, but the inconvenient truth is that no matter how many laws are in place with the intention of reducing gun violence, criminals by definition will disregard these laws. Indeed, some of the cities with the harshest gun laws also have the highest rates of gun violence.  According to the Center for Disease Control about 5.2 out of every 100,000 Americans are homicide victims, not especially high by global standards, but there is no highly industrialized country with a homicide rate comparable to Black Americans whose rate of 19.4 per 100,000 persons, is about 12 times higher than the average rate in other developed countries. The NAACP reported that the leading cause of death among African-American teens ages 15 to 19 was gun related homicide accounting for 45 percent of all child and teen gun deaths while only 15 percent of the total teen population. The typical murder is committed with a handgun where both the perpetrator and the victim are young Black men.  Blacks are six times as likely as whites to be the victim of homicide and are seven times as likely to commit a homicide. Somehow these black lives don’t matter. Why? Black on black crime as a construct is viewed by many as racist because of the injustice of treating blacks as criminally suspect due to the actions of a small minority, but if this country wants to seriously address gun violence it needs acknowledge the causes of black on black crime and do something about it. For starters, seventy percent of black children are born out of wedlock, and roughly 60 percent live in homes without fathers.  This sad reality should motivate state and federal governments as well as local communities- especially churches and other religious organizations- to encourage blacks to get and stay married and implement processes and procedures that restore families. Children from households where a mother and father are present are less likely to engage in violent behavior, including gangs. The overwhelming majority of gun homicides in Chicago are gang related. A number of social pathologies have been attributed to those who come from fatherless homes, including juvenile delinquency, youths in prison, youth drug use, high school dropouts, behavioral issues, and trouble dealing with authority.  Thought leaders and Black community organizers need to shift their current focus on police departments to establishing alternatives that diminish the attractiveness of gangs, like job training programs that include a stipend. In an environment where the avowed policy of the Justice Department is to reduce the number of young Blacks incarcerated, an exception should be made for gun violence where law breaking should result in stiffer sentences.

Clinton Emails

With regard to emails on her server that were are the highest level of classification, in a recent NPR interview, Hillary Clinton stated: “Well, first, let me say that this is the continuation of an interagency dispute that has been going on now for some months. As the State Department has confirmed, I never sent or received any material marked classified, and that hasn’t changed in all of these months.” Like many Clinton statements, parsing is required. Clinton’s attitude is the result of a long standing systemic distrust between DOS and DOD characterized not by cooperation, but by competition due to a number of factors not to mention that the DOS budget is a fraction of the DOD budget. If you are at DOS you consider yourself the incarnation of "soft power" while on the other hand, DOD is clearly the instrument of war. These cultural differences are made dramatically manifest due to this latest Clinton scandal where DOD security classifications were viewed by DOS as being intrinsically DOD/Intel, and revocable by DOS. By the way, this interagency dysfunction brings the unfortunate Benghazi incident into a clearer perspective. 

Could critics of personality tests have their own agenda?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test is based on the theories of Carl Jung, in which the test-taker reveals himself to fit four dichotomies: introverted or extroverted, intuitive or sensing, judging or perceiving, and thinking or feeling and classifies respondents by the initials of the predominate dichotomies. Notwithstanding vocal critics, MBTI is the most widely used and trusted personality assessment tool which reinforces its validity, albeit non-scientifically. The reality is that MBTI is a user friendly tool providing insight into the human complexity by classifying respondents into easily digestible categories. Arguably, some of the recent criticism comes from zealots of political correctness and anti-profiling who regard any categorization of the human personality as an example of prejudice.

Don't drink the water in Naples

Living in Italy made for awareness about the callous and reckless dumping of toxic waste in the Naples environs, but it is only from time to time does this crisis come to the attention of a wider population. Last Sunday's WaPo did report that the Italian government confirmed higher-than-normal incidents of death and cancer among residents in and around Naples, thanks to decades of toxic waste dumping by a particularly treacherous element of the Mafia, the local Camorra.  The rates of babies in the provinces of Naples and Caserta hospitalized in the first year of life for tumors, especially brain tumors, was determined to be excessive.  The government blamed the excessive health issues to contaminants found at illegal hazardous waste dump sites which include high levels of lead, arsenic and assorted industrial solvents. In general, these dumps are the result of the Camorra's disposing of toxic waste from Italy's industrialized North for a fraction of the cost of legal disposal. In Italy where wire tapping is commonplace, a local mob boss was overheard when asked what he suggested doing about the toxic aquifers, "Drink bottled water!"

American Unexceptionalism

In an earlier post, I wrote about how it has become a norm to confuse fact with opinion which is an obvious and unfortunate testament to the country's disintegrating morals. Another contributory factor to this confusion is a pervasive anti-intellectualism which has resulted in the younger generation being less informed, despite a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips. After all, it makes it easier to confuse facts and opinions, if you don't really know what are the facts. The younger generation sees the internet not as a learning tool, but as a social networking tool with a focus on themselves and their friends. Mark Bauerlein, in his book, The Dumbest Generation, revealed how a whole generation of self-absorbed youth has become less informed and less literate than preceding generations. Coupling ignorance with a doddering moral compass does not make for a shining city on the hill. 

Are Baltimore rioters the beginnings of ISIS in America?

Counter terrorism officials observing the recent rioting in Baltimore should be concerned that those responsible for the mayhem could be co-opted by ISIS and unleash home grown violence reminiscent of the race riots in the late 1960’s or worse.  The parallels between the ISIS zealots and the Baltimore rioters are noteworthy. These rioters are fundamentally rootless and are untethered from society having little or no ties to family, culture or faith.  In a classic case of trying to extend one’s own values to another segment of society, media pundits incessantly admonished the mothers and fathers. The media is right, of course, that IF the rioters did come from a strong family environment, they would be less likely to be thugs. On the other hand, the more likely scenario is that they come from single parent homes, a mother struggling to support her family, family members involved with drugs and criminal activities/incarcerated – or all of the above. The erosion of the family in the Black community has been well documented, and the Baltimore riots are yet again a consequence.  Institutions and other organizations that should be trying to fill this void have not.  What sort of school is teaching these kids that it is OK after classes to go on a rampage at the local mall? The only difference between these thugs and the ISIS fighters is that ISIS is better armed and organized.  The situation would seem to be a huge opportunity for the radical Nation of Islam.

Philosophical differences between ISIS and the Nation of Islam are almost indistinguishable. Ironically Mayor Stephen Rawlings-Blake during a press conference stood alongside the leader of the local chapter of the Nation of Islam and thanked them for helping her deal with the riots. Last November  in a speech about the Michael Brown case, the leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, told the crowd: “We’ll tear this ******* country up! We going to die anyway, let’s die for something.” This sounds a lot like the tweet urging the Baltimore high school students to go on a “purge”. The fact that the Nation of Islam has long standing ties to Lybia increases the likelihood of ISIS co-opting and channeling the anger and violence of untethered black males in our major cities.