HAZARD (Continued from page 19)
from a knee-in-the-neck on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis. Nearly 100% of Americans support the 1st Amendment right of all Americans to peacefully protest, but not to rob, loot, assault local storekeepers and burn down their private property without penalty, and without promised police protection. The primary role of government at all levels is to protect and preserve the safety and security of all citizens, regardless of color, race, or creed. Nearly 100% of Americans favor bi-partisan leadership and cooperation in Congress. What happened to the days when two affable Irishmen – Ronald Reagan and “Tip” O’Neill – could debate by day, then sit down over dinner with a bottle of port and craft legislation that both leaders could live with? Today, red and blue voters may live in the same neighborhoods, but political discourse among friends too often descends into acrimonious and distasteful bitterness. Nearly 100% of Americans believe that the proper pathway for disadvantaged minorities is a strong educational experience, coupled with teaching traditional American values and principles. Nearly 100% of Americans support legal immigration but disagree as to how many slots should be based on merit vs. family relationships. Nearly all oppose open borders for drug dealers, terrorists, sex slaves, and criminals. Nearly 100% of Americans support robust job growth, which allows minority workers to escape the binding chains of welfare and lifetime imprisonment in urban ghettos. Rodney King got it right back in the 1992 when riots and looting shook Los Angeles. He asked, “Why can’t we all just get along?” It is important to view the world through the windshield rather than through the rear-view mirror. We show weakness when we do not work together, or function as a team, or adhere to the principles of individual freedom and personal responsibility as laid down by our forefathers who went to war to create and preserve this less-than-perfect union.
What to Do to End the Rioting and Pull this Nation Together Again
Here is a twofold “Hazard” Plan for President Donald Trump to implement tomorrow: As president of all 331 million Americans, including 44 million African Americans, Donald Trump needs to arrange a nationally televised meeting at the White House, for a listening conversation with selected Black activist protestors and agitators to find out exactly what it is they specifically want. He also needs to invite and include high-profile successful conservative Black leaders like Dr. Ben Carson and Senator Tim Scott of SC, plus a selection of conservative Black military leaders, Black CEOs, and Black sports heroes and coaches. With America watching, the president should serve only as moderator and a listener; his panel of conservative Black leaders would offer alternative ideas to protestors to meet their specific demands. The president needs to avoid telling the group how great he is, or what he has done for Black America. Let other Black conservatives carry that message. Secondly, as a follow-up, I would encourage the president to invite former President Barack Obama to the White House for a televised friendly “fireside chat” with the American people. Barack’s message would focus on promises he made to the American people during his terms in office: “We have made enormous progress in race relations over the course of the past several decades. I’ve witnessed that in my own life. And to deny that progress I think is to deny America’s capacity for change.” “We should all be thankful for folks who are willing, in a peaceful, disciplined way, to be out there making a difference,” but in addition, “We need to condemn the criminals and thugs who tore up the city of Baltimore on Monday night, after rioting and looting. When individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot, they’re not protesting. When they burn down a building, they’re committing arson.” Inclusion of your foes in delivering unified messaging plays to concepts of inclusion, caring and fairness. For Americans of both political persuasions, and most especially for independent voters, unity of message numbs the differences between red and blue and encourages all voters to think more of the greater good of the nation over party loyalty. Unified messaging also provides a more hopeful platform for meaningful economic and social change. That same message of inclusion and unity has been reiterated by presidents throughout our history. Theodore Roosevelt said the one sure way to bring down America would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities, each insisting on their own identity.” George Washington said that “the bosom of America was open to all, but only if they were willing to be assimilated to our customs, measures, and laws; in a word, soon become our people.” Woodrow Wilson said flatly, “You cannot become Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does not consist of groups. A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group has not yet become an American.” •MJ 25 June – 2 July 2020
Brilliant Thoughts by Ashleigh Brilliant Born London, 1933. Mother Canadian. Father a British civil servant. World War II childhood spent mostly in Toronto and Washington, D.C. Berkeley PhD. in American History, 1964. Living in Santa Barbara since 1973. No children. Best-known for his illustrated epigrams, called “Pot-Shots”, now a series of 10,000. Email ashleigh@west.net or visit www.ashleighbrilliant.com
Good Brief
W
hen General Sir Charles Napier captured, for the British Empire, the Indian province of Sindh (now a part of Pakistan) in 1844, he reportedly announced this achievement in a one-word telegram. That single word was not English, but, in those days, when every upper-class Englishman received a classical education, the message would have been intelligible to any reader who knew Latin. But even if they understood the word, they wouldn’t have grasped its meaning in this context, unless they also realized that it was a pun. The word was, “PECCAVI,” which in Latin means “I have sinned.” (“Sinned” – “Sindh” – Get it?) The only problem with this anecdote – which I actually learned as fact, in History class at school – is that it is not true. The truth appears to be that the story was first printed in Punch Magazine, which had received the idea, by mail, from a 16-year-old English girl named Catherine Winkworth. There may also be a moral dimension to this tale, in that it was felt by many at the time, and by far more since, that the entire British conquest of India was ruthless, reprehensible, and certainly sinful. And it is worth noting that Catherine Winkworth herself went on to have a distinguished career as a translator of hymns. May I also remind you that it was another young woman, Annie Ellsworth, who (in the same year, 1844) suggested to Samuel Morse the first words (quoting the Bible) which Morse sent publicly by telegraph: “WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT.” I might further point out that Punch, in its report, while crediting General Napier, and not Miss Winkworth, also compared the General’s alleged telegram, in terms of concise reportage from a military leader, to its only notable predecessor – Julius Caesar’s famous statement (which was also in Latin, of course) after a Roman victory, in what is now northern Turkey, in 47 BC: “Veni, vidi, vici.” This has much more pizzazz than the English translation: “I came, I saw, I conquered.” And it is validated by more than one Roman historian. While we’re in the foreign language section, Ripley (“Believe It or Not”) relates that a French artist named Charles Hue was once arrested in a place called Peku, and informed his friends with a telegram reading:
• The Voice of the Village •
“O P Q R S T.” This was correctly interpreted to say, in French, “Au Peku arresté” (“Arrested at Peku.”) Another celebrated wartime report, using only one more word than Caesar’s three, was radioed, in January 1942, by Donald Francis Mason, the pilot of a U.S. coastal reconnaissance light bomber, after an encounter in the North Atlantic with a surfaced German submarine. It said: “SIGHTED SUB, SANK SAME.” This received wide publicity, at a time when America had just entered the war, and morale-boosters of every kind were much in demand. (Which makes me wonder if any special haiku were written in Japan, celebrating the successful attack on Pearl Harbor.) The only problem with that sub story is that, according to official German records, no U-boats were reported missing that day. However, as has often been said, in war, Truth is the first casualty. Then let us leave war, and bring brevity a little closer to home. It was a two-word telephone message, which a friend took down for me in 1965, which changed my own life dramatically. I had been waiting anxiously to hear whether my application for a teaching position on board a cruise ship, converted into a “floating university,” had been accepted. The message, from the Director of the program, was: “ANCHORS AWEIGH!” You may know that, since that experience, my career has been primarily based on writing epigrams limited to seventeen words. But seventeen is a maximum – there is no minimum, and some of these expressions have been as short as two words. One of them says, “Happy Everything!” – a pleasant and useful enough message – which has been very popular as a postcard – but perhaps only a little more original than “Happy Birthday” or “Merry Christmas.” There is another one, however, for which, although it has been part of my published series since 1978, I cannot take complete credit. It was left by a friend, not as a “submission,” but simply as part of a note on my front door. I suppose I can claim credit for seeing this two-word message as a piece of literature which deserved whatever literary immortality it was in my power to bestow. It simply says: “HELLO FOREVER!” •MJ MONTECITO JOURNAL
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