sdWhy You Treat Me Like a Dog?: September 2005 .comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}
The Main Page
Sunday, September 18, 2005
 
Book Review: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
The premise of this book is that Charles Lindbergh (of Spirit of St. Louis fame) wins the 1940 Presidential election instead of Frankin Delano Roosevelt on an isolationist, "America First" platform. The story is told through the eyes of a young Philip Roth, a child of a Jewish family living in a predominantly Jewish suburb of Newark, New Jersey.

Masterfully told with Roth's characteristic wit, the novel goes through the travails of the Roth family as the Lindbergh administration gradually unveils it fascist, Nazi-leaning policies. Jewish families are to be resettled in the Heartland to help their assimilation into the American melting pot. Prominent Jews and sympathizers like Justice Felix Frankfurter and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia are quietly rounded up by the FBI. The American equivalent of Kristallnacht occurs, while the Roth family strives to maintain an almost ironic air of normalcy in the face of a climate of increasing fear and antisemitism. On a certain level the book is a superficial attempt at presenting an alternative history; some of the events occurring seem a bit outlandish and implausible in our political system of checks and balances with a Supreme Court charged with protecting our Constitution, an independent press and various other safeguards of democracy.

The book was released on the eve of the 2004 election, and many reviewers have seen the book as an allegory for that election and its aftermath. As we continue to live in a climate of fear, with a global war on terror in progress, Roth reminds us that we must continue to be vigilant on the homefront. It is only too easy for the Lindbergh administration to violate the civil rights of American Jews, echoing the internment of Japanese Americans and perhaps, though hopefully not, foreshadowing further violations of our own civil rights in the name of homeland security. Roth shows his political colors here, condemning the America Firsters of the 1940s (Lindbergh really was virulently isolationist and racist) and by extension their contemporary conservative offspring. As we are in the process of selecting new Chief and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, we must remember the importance of a judiciary charged with jealously guarding the Constitution, no matter what the political or social climate of the day.

The book is a quick read, Roth seems to make his political points in setting up the story, but then just as the reader has begun to become engrossed in the character's lives, he wraps it all up with a seemingly neat twist in the last chapter. Too much happens in this one chapter, the book should be longer and in the end leaves one wondering if Roth was more interested in just completing it to get his message across, or if he actually sought to tell a good story. (But then the question can be asked, what is the true purpose of literature?) Nonetheless, it is a fascinating novel that should be read by all interested in American history and the road not taken.
- posted by wanderer @ 9:49 PM 0 comments
Saturday, September 03, 2005
 
Some Thoughts About New Orleans
On a personal level, among the things that scare me the most about what happened in New Orleans is the realization that we cannot count on the federal government to effectively and expeditiously bail us out in the event of a national disaster. Whether it is because of Bush's usual inability to lead until he is thrust into that role simply by virtue of the Office or because the National Guard is spread too thin to respond to what it was created to respond to, the fact remains that our elected government failed us.

There is simply no excuse for FEMA not being prepared to respond to a Category 5 hurricane (or 8.0 magnitude earthquake, or ruptured dam, or major fire, etc.) in a major metropolitan area in the United States. They blew it. For the director of FEMA to be unaware that there were nearly 25,000 hungry, thirsty, sick and increasingly desperate people at the New Orleans Convention Center is inconceivable and inexcusable. What the hell does he think his job is? He should be fired, or at least resign. Unfortunately the folding of FEMA into the Department of Homeland Security is at least partially to blame. While dealing with the threat of terrorism on the home front is certainly important, the same approaches cannot be extrapolated from dealing with a terrorist attack even on a complex as large as the World Trade Center compared with a natural disaster affecting a wide swath of the American heartland. I'm afraid that FEMA's mission has become diluted by the Bush Administration's now pathologic obsession with the "war on terror."

Imagine the Federal response if Kennebunkport was hit by a major disaster! Or even Houston! The hierarchy of race and class in this country again rears its ugly head. It is now becoming clear that emergency planners were well aware of the deficiencies of the levees surrounding New Orleans. These were known to be built to withstand only a Category 3 hurricane, and yet each year Corps of Engineers funds earmarked to upgrade the levees have been diverted to more pressing, "homeland security" issues and the "war on terror." Perhaps this is excusable in the aftermath of 9-11, especially if there is no immmediately impending Category 4 or 5 hurricane on your doorstep. But if it is two, three days before Hurricane Katrina is on your doorstep, for heaven's sake, build up a supply depot in Baton Rouge, have a tent camp ready to rise, send the Navy and the hospital ship Comfort steaming towards the Gulf Coast, mobilize the National Guard. Oh wait -- they're all in Iraq -- they can't come, they're too busy building the world's next great democracy, protecting "homeland security."

To quote Maureen O'Dowd of the New York Times, paraphrasing Don McLean:

W. drove his budget-cutting Chevy to the levee, and it wasn't dry. Bye, bye, American lives. "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," he told Diane Sawyer.

I am reminded of a story about the elder George Bush. While he was President he was visiting a grocer's convention and saw a standard check-out counter with the usual barcode scanner. The former President was so impressed with this "new technology" and asked if it would soon be available in stores...

The Katrina fiasco again illustrates how out of touch the Republican Leadership is and has been with day to day American life. Bush was too busy on vacation to actually think about preparing for the disaster. Once the disaster happened, he was too out of touch to recognize that the levees failing was both anticipated and expected for years. His Homeland Security Department "didn't know" there were starving, thirsty and sick thousands stranded in New Orleans.

Their attention will soon turn away from New Orleans in any case. Now that Chief Justice Rehnquist has died, they will need to find a new judge to fill the seat. Gotta prepare for the next Presidential election...

Those of us who live in disaster prone areas of this country should check their emergency preparedness kits this Labor Day Weekend. Check that you have enough fresh water, canned goods, and medicine to get you through at least 5 days following a major event. Katrina has taught us that we cannot count on anyone but ourselves to survive such events. Perhaps this is what went through the minds of many of the looters in New Orleans. I'm not sure we can blame them for it.

- posted by wanderer @ 10:07 PM 1 comments

Powered by Blogger