Upstate New York .
Small town, suburb of Syracuse .
Senior year in high school. History class. Teacher: Miss Gifford. Old, frail,
bony, and oh so very proper! Short hair, stern look in her eyes, she glowered
at the class and said: “Cause, Effect, Result; those are the words that tell
the story of mankind. That’s history.”
And don’t you know we got that message!
Logic. Something happens and it has an effect on some
people, a large enough effect that they wonder about it and take action. The
action is taken by several people, maybe many more than several. The action may
not be exactly the same thing, either. But taken as a whole, the action of many
have a result. That is felt by more people. And soon an historical fact begins
to take shape. It may take weeks or months; often it happens over years. For
example, who knew for sure in 2007 that the seeds of a long and nasty recession
in America
would spell doom to many international economies? Who then would feel confident
to say that the American recession was more like a depression for millions of
people? But there you have it. Entire industries are being redesigned, some put
to rest for good. New careers replace now dead ones. Retirees are the new
part-timers and never-to-stop-working laborers for the next 20 years.
Looking back we can understand many things that were
decidedly hazy at their time. Life’s like that. It takes time to understand it,
to adjust to it, to make sense out of it and move on to a better place.
Hubert H. Humphrey, Minnesota Senator, Congressman, American
Vice President and failed presidential candidate, was a long view thinker upon
the American experience. He said once:
“Today we know that World War II
began not in 1939 or 1941 but in the 1920’s and 1930’s, when those who should
have known better persuaded themselves that they were not their brother’s
keeper.”
A little thing that grew to enormous proportions. Some
people became irritated at what could be but wasn't yet. Wanted things better.
Looked for a scapegoat, someone to blame. A pompous little man named Hitler
looked at Jews, made them the butt of jokes and swelled a small political tide
to control of Germany .
And kept that power grab on a roll to neighboring nations, regions,
continent…until the world took notice. Pogroms. Middle of the night raids,
smashing homes, grabbing women and children, imprisoning them. Gunning down men
at the edge of open pits freshly dug as a mass grave. Over and over again.
Inhuman horror committed in the name of power and right and religion, and…add
your own misnamed cause here.
The holocaust happened. Millions witnessed it. Millions died
in it. Millions more died as the world finally came to its senses and put a
stop to it.
How many times in the story of mankind has something like
this happened? The Crusades pop to mind.
The American Civil War, too. World War I? Korean War? Viet Nam conflict? The entire
middle east morass of seething hate and mania?
Now let’s look at this a little more calmly. A much more
simple approach that brings the lesson of the day home to our living rooms and
kitchen tables of this morning. Ponder
these two quotes and tell me we don’t have a major problem in our midst that
won’t go away until good people see that good things are done and order is
restored:
From Bernie Sanders, Independent Senator from Vermont , comes this
statement:
“Last year, McDonald’s tripled
the compensation of CEO Don Thompson to $13.8 million. David Novak, the boss at
Yum Brands, the owners of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken,
received more than $44 million in stock options last year alone. If the
companies have enough money to do that, maybe we can end starvation wages.”
Kindly recall that these corporations employ hundreds of
thousands of part time employees, maybe millions. They pay those employees
minimum wage and offer very few employee benefits, in fact engineering work
schedules to minimize hours below the requirement standard for offering health
care benefits. And these are the employers who fight tooth and nail against
universal health care and Obamacare. They are politicians donating money to
politicians so legislative decisions fall in their favor so they can make more
money as corporations and pay their executives ludicrously high incomes.
“The
Class Warfare Hustle
Laugh or weep. Tell me how this statement is inaccurate in
2013 economic reality. I think it is on the mark.
Cause. Effect. Result. History in the making. Are we savvy
enough to get it? Are we courageous enough to do something about it? Ah. Now
that’s the question.
September 19, 2013
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