Opinion 2

opinion

by Isiah Smith, Jr.

“The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” —Leonardo de Vinci

1943 proved to be a critical year in the annals of American history. That year foreshadowed the disruptions that impact our lives to this day. On Jan. 1, Project Y—The Manhattan Project’s secret laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico, for development and production of the first atomic bombs under the direction of Robert Oppenheimer—began operation.

Later, in January, the Casablanca Conference began, and FDR traveled from Miami to Casablanca, Morocco, to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II. His goal: to finalize Allied military plans with the British Prime Minister. It was a precedentsetting odyssey. No president had ever departed the States during wartime, or ever visited Africa, or even ever traveled in an airplane. Since Lincoln, no president had visited an active battlefield. Too dangerous! And FDR accomplished all those things without the press finding out.

A day later, on Jan. 15, the world’s largest office building, The Pentagon, was dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.

It was the year the Allied Forces, codenamed Operation Torch (OT), took back North Africa (Morocco and Algeria). OT was commanded by General Dwight Eisenhower and included the British First Army. After their initial resistance, the Vichy French agreed to a ceasefire. The Allies encircled several hundred thousand German and Italian personnel in northern Tunisia, finally forcing their surrender in May 1943.

The campaign had been marked by numerous atrocities and abuses by both German and Italian forces towards prisoners of war and local Jewish, Barber, and Arab populations. These acts were often motivated by racism and antisemitism. 1943 was also the year a Japanese destroyer sunk future President Lt. John F. Kennedy’s PT-109 boat.

History consists of many small, seemingly unconnected events. Momentous events are buffeted by smaller, seemingly less important events that, viewed retrospectively, presage massive social changes to come.

On June 17, 1943, on an unseasonably hot 98-degree Fahrenheit day in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Newton Leroy McPherson was born. McPherson’s birth would profoundly impact politics, and thus life, in the United States. I would argue that this man’s birth provided the DNA leading directly to the violent divisions and ideological battles that culminated in 2020 in a bloody uprising against the government and the American way of life.

Forty-seven years later, in 1995, McPherson became the 50th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and a two-fisted political provocatory who was intent on burning everything to the ground down around him. Through adoption, he had become Newton (“Newt”) Leroy Gingrich. Thus began an unprincipled assault on American politics, launching a frontal attack on any notion of civility and bipartisan cooperation in politics. He almost single handedly transformed political discourse into a contact sport with the singular goal winning by any means necessary. If “opponents” are destroyed in the process, so much the better.

In the future, when writing about the evolution of public policy, political discourse and thought in America, historians will demarcate the times as Before Newt and After Newt. Before Newt, political discourse was a gentleman’s sport, rich in analysis, critique, nuance, metaphor, and cooperation and respect. If it accomplished anything at all, it was the sharpening of wit, wisdom, and the discovery of a way forward toward forming a more perfect union.

That seems hard to believe today, when name callings, vulgar nicknames, and unrestrained lies are the order of the day.

The Gingrich era saw politics and public policy transformed from a system of thought and analysis to a belief system. That ideology demanded nothing more than slavish devotion approaching religious fervor. To paraphrase writer and speaker Byron Katie, when you argue with beliefs, you lose, which perhaps explains why both Democrats and Republicans evolved into enemy camps armed with competing sets of beliefs. Under this sad situation, constructive conversations were not welcome at the table of political discourse and policy discussions. Reasoned analysis was rejected in favor of empty slogans, lies, and misdirection.

The genius of mutually constructive conversation is that it offers both an endless supply of new ideas and fresh ways of handling existential issues facing our country today. As Neil deGrasse Tyson writes in his new book, Starry Messenger, “Unless we check our egos on our selfimportance, we run the risk of believing the world revolves around us and our opinions. Personal truths are not truths.”

Of even greater threat to our national wellbeing and continued viability as a functioning democracy is the belief that the truth lies in a party, a person, an ideology, or in a system of beliefs. Ensnared in such traps, the freedom to think is replaced by embracing someone else’s untested ideas and world view. That way leads to autocracy and spiritual and moral decay, as evidenced by the last six years of American political history.

Every day, the divisiveness, mutual antipathy, and distrust between different schools of thought seem to grow exponentially. What the future holds I cannot predict.

Suspicions Confirmed

Amou Haji, 94, of Dezhgah, Iran, also known as the World's Dirtiest Man, refused to bathe for more than 60 years because he was afraid doing so would make him sick, Fox News reported. Apparently, he was right: For the first time, "villagers had recently taken him to a bathroom to wash," the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. "Not long after, he fell ill and finally ... he gave up his life," the report went on. Haji had no family, but villagers had built him a cinder-block dwelling for shelter on the outskirts of town.

Everyone Needs a Hobby -- Rosie Grant, 33, of Takoma Park, Maryland, stumbled upon a new hobby while finishing an internship at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C., a year ago, The Washington Post reported. Her studies revealed her own interest in cemeteries, and she found social media threads of other taphophiles like her. On one of those, Grant noticed a list of ingredients engraved on a headstone in Brooklyn, New York, and thought she'd give the spritz cookies a try. Naomi Odessa Miller-Dawson's recipe didn't include instructions, but even so, Grant said the results were heavenly. "Cooking these recipes has shown me an alternative side to death," Grant said. "What a cool gift (MillerDawson) put on her gravestone." Grant has found other gravestone recipes -- several in the U.S. and two in Israel, all from women. -- Remember the scene in "The Empire Strikes Back" when Han Solo gets frozen in carbonite? Catherine Pervan and her daughter, Hanalee, owners of One House Bakery in Benicia, California, have brought Solo back to life -- in bread, The New York Times reported. The two worked together for more than a month to create the 6-foottall "Pan Solo" sculpture from bread dough; now he stands outside their store as part of downtown Benicia's scarecrow contest. "People are just super interested in it, and you see people smelling it and poking it," said Hanalee.

Nightmare Scenario

A woman known as Jahrah, 54, who worked at a rubber plantation on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, lost her life at work on Oct. 23 after being swallowed by a 22-foot-long python, the Guardian reported. Her husband reported her missing when she didn't return home from work; while searching for her, he found her sandals, headscarf, jacket and tools. Authorities caught a python that had been spotted nearby and found Jahrah's body in the snake's stomach, the local police chief said.

Backtrack

The state of Maine is walking back a 2015 decision to eliminate its review process for vanity license plates, the Associated Press reported on Oct. 27. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has called the resulting vulgarities the "wild wild West," with about 400 offensive plates being subject to recall. "What I would say to those who want to engage in objectionable or questionable speech: Get a bumper sticker," she said. Because the plates are technically the property of the state, new rules to stifle the nasty messages can be enforced, she said. Recall letters began hitting mailboxes this month.

It's a Mystery -- A huge, hollow metal object sat by the side of the road in New Brunswick, Canada, for weeks, and no one seemed to know what it was or how it got there, the CBC reported on Oct. 21. Finally, the New Brunswick Department of Transportation had it hauled away. Canadian Forces spokesperson Jamie Donovan said it likely is not connected to the military, and the DOT won't claim it, either. Lying on its side, it's about 10 feet tall and has a concrete base and a hatch. "At this point it really is a mystery we are looking into," said Alycia Bartlett of the DOT. -- A Florida neighborhood is on high alert after a series of overnight visits from a welldressed man wielding a machete, WSVNTV reported. On Oct. 17, around 5:30 a.m., residents heard a knock at the door and saw the man on their doorbell camera, but he walked away after tapping the door with the machete. Other neighbors in Lauderhill had the same experience. "He didn't seem like someone lost or confused," one resident said. "He seemed very intentional, very businesslike, like he was dressed for business, just with a machete." Police have stepped up patrols of the area but say no crimes have been committed.

Compelling Explanation -- After a "consensual search" on Oct. 26 in Clearwater, Florida, Robert Lawson, 50, was found to be in possession of methamphetamine and a syringe, The Smoking Gun reported. Pinellas County deputies approached Lawson as he loitered in a park; when they found the drugs and paraphernalia, Lawson demanded that they call the FBI and St. Petersburg Police because "he is allowed to carry methamphetamine," the police report noted. He was held in the county jail on $2,150 bond. -- An unnamed 64-year-old woman in Gastonia, North Carolina, was charged for firing a gun within city limits on Oct. 24 after officers arrived to find her shooting at Mountain Dew cans in her backyard. Why? She told officers that she didn't approve of her father drinking the soda, Fox News reported. "We totally understand that not everybody is a fan of the Dew but we can't stress enough how dangerous this is!" Gastonia police posted on their Facebook page.

It's Come to This

The town of Llandudno in Wales has resorted to setting up a task force to address one of its most pressing problems, Metro News reported: marauding goats. The Kashmini mountain goats, which normally reside on the Great Orme headland near the town, got bold during the pandemic -- moving into the community, eating hedges, sleeping in bus shelters and mixing it up in the supermarket parking lot. The new task force's main goal is protecting the animals from injury or death. "We should be very proud to have these wonderful animals on our doorstep," said councillor Geoff Stewart. The goats are descendants of those presented to the town by Queen Victoria about 100 years ago. In-Home Health Care with More.

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