Charlie Chaplin Called Upon Humanity & Democracy

"The Great Dictator" was a movie produced, directed and written by Charlie Chaplin and filmed during the early months of World War Two. Chaplin also starred in the movie, his first major sound movie, which offered a satirical look at fascism, and thus, it had an anti-fascist message, the bluntest part of which came in a dramatic speech delivered by Chaplin near the end of the picture. Today, WE should not dare ignore Chaplin's words, lest we continue on this path to the destruction of democracy and of hope. America has long been a beacon of light to many around the world. We have NEVER been a perfect country. We have things for which we must atone. But in spite of our flaws, peoples of the world have looked in our direction for hope in the face of tragedies, persecution and tyranny, because the good news is, while we are often slow to respond to our failings and shortcomings, including that of horrendous racism, Americans gradually gather the courage to do that which terrifies pompous, self absorbed dictators; that is, we look at ourselves and we then try to correct the negatives we see. We reach for our ideals after periodic retreats into the perceived comfort of the past. 

Here is the link to both the video of Chaplin's speech from "The Great Dictator" and the text of that speech.

https://www.charliechaplin.com/en/articles/29-the-final-speech-from-the-great-dictator-

 Photo is of the Warner Home Video 2003 DVD

WORD HISTORY:
Atone-This is simply the combination of the words "at" and "one," two words from the Germanic roots of English, and with the idea being, "to come to one," with the further meaning of, "to come to one in agreement;" thus also, "to make amends for, to reconcile, to return things to a state of being whole" (it once could also convey a sense of "to repair"). The "one" part of the compound "atone" has kept the old pronunciation for "one." "Atone" seems to have started in the 1300s (mid?), but it didn't really become widespread in usage until the second half of the 1500s. For the history of the word "at," here is the link to the article with that "Word History:" https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-third-man-one-of-greats.html
For the history of the word "one," here is the link to the article with that "Word History:" https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-former-confederacy-modern-american_30.html

2018, Perhaps The Most Important Election EVER

Signs of a developing trend leading to the crucial midterm election on November 6 have been in abundance in early special elections. Americans almost always seem to reprimand the party holding the White House in elections held at the halfway mark of a president's term. (DAMN! It just dawned on me, that must be why they call them the "midterm elections." See, just give me a few decades and I can figure it out.) It doesn't always seem to mean that Americans dislike the president in office at the time, but all presidents step on some toes, and those with smarting toes are highly motivated to limp to the polls to vote, often leading their own party to turn out in large enough numbers to give anything from a nudge to an outright smack upside the head to the occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, better known as the White House. There have been numerous special elections since Donald Trump took office in January 2017, and while these elections have produced a number of Democratic wins, including some stunning wins, even the Democratic losses have shown a major narrowing of the margins of Republican victories, compared to recent historical Republican margins in those regions. 

Thoughtful change often wins in the end, but it can take time and the question is, can American institutions and American ideals hold on long enough to win against a man who longs to destroy American democracy so that he can become the undisputed Führer of the United States? Republicans in Congress have knowingly rolled over for this strident, divisive and highly insecure president. Have we forgotten the longstanding question about Hitler and Germans? How could an educated and cultured people follow such a self centered and maniacal man like Hitler, a man with obvious emotional problems? We need not ask that question any longer, for the answer is right before our eyes in the United States of America, where a bigoted, resentful and spiteful old bastard with a bad hairdo has risen to lead this country (hey, Hitler had a bad hairdo too). The GOP has long cultivated the uneasiness of some white Americans about the attempts of black Americans, as well as other American minorities, like Latinos, women (who are actually a majority) and gays, to gain equality and fairness in our society. The thing is, in my lifetime, I have heard many divisive statements by American politicians, including, but not limited to, George Wallace* in the 1960s and 1970s, and David Duke** in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, but I've never heard a president of the United States use so much divisive rhetoric to further his own cause and to satisfy his own ego, as one Donald Trump, the unity of the country be damned!      

This upcoming election is likely to be a fight to the death. Are Democrats, independents and anti Trump Republicans ready? Trump and the complicit and enabling Republicans will do anything and everything to minimize their losses and hold onto their control of Congress. The Koch brothers, the Mercers and all of the other "take me back to a previous century" people will spend unprecedented amounts to further Republican control of government. They will say it is to further the Republican Party, but that party is now the party of Donald Trump, which they will NOT tell you. Will the election prove to be the beginning of Trump's political demise, or will he and Republicans emerge stronger than ever, and likely be able to suppress the rights of Americans to protest and to stop the media from reporting critical news articles about them? Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China are Trump heroes, and they are dictators. We don't need to dig up Einstein to connect the dots for us to understand where Trump stands on democracy. This is all in front us, not hidden somewhere in the shadows of the news. Don't be in denial. Don't stick your head in the sand. We can't take our eyes off of them for one second. The young people of this country have stirred and have been springing into action. They can help to lead us through the potentially destructive nightmare of Trumpian fascism.

For the last couple of centuries, people around the world have looked to the United States as a beacon of hope. Some people have been inspired by the U.S. to pursue freedoms within their own respective countries, while others have left their homelands bound for American shores. We're seeing the light of that beacon flickering like a kerosene lamp running low on fuel. The question is, will WE choose to refill the lamp and keep this beacon of hope shining, or will we let the lamp go dry and extinguish its light, letting the path of hope go dark? We now have a man in office who praises dictators and judges people not as individuals, but by their ethnic, racial or religious backgrounds. That's what Führers do.


* George Wallace was the governor of Alabama in the 1960s, a time when desegregation of schools and public facilities was ongoing. For more on the issue of desegregation and racial politics, here are  two links: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-former-confederacy-modern-american_8.html 

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-former-confederacy-modern-american_15.html 

** David Duke is a long time member, and a former leader, of the "Ku Klux Klan," often known by its initials, "KKK," a racist and overall hate filled group dating to the post Civil War era in the American South. Duke was born in Oklahoma, but he has spent much of his life in Louisiana. As most Southerners of earlier times, Duke was a Democrat, and he sought office as such, but as Louisiana and the South, in general, moved more to the Republican Party, Duke changed to that party in the late 1980s. Duke became known for his anti Black American and anti Jewish views. 

WORD HISTORY:
Beacon-This word for "a light positioned on some high place to serve as a guide or warning, often for ships, but not exclusively so," goes back to Indo European "bhah," which had the notion, "to shine, to be bright, to appear as bright." This provided the later basis for West Germanic "bauknan" (English is West Germanic), meaning, "signal light." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "beacen/becn," meaning, "sign, signal." This then became "beken," before the modern version. The other Germanic languages have: German "Bake" (pronounced as if, "bahkeh") meaning, "traffic sign, railway signal," originally used in reference to "a fire set on a geographically high point or in a tower to provide sea navigation);" Low German Saxon "Baak" (sign or signal for ships), West Frisian "beaken" ("buoy"), Dutch "baken" ("beacon"). "Apparently," long ago, Old Norse, from the North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages, borrowed the word from Frisian as, "bákn," which meant, "signal, signal fire."^ This was passed down to the modern North Germanic languages as: Icelandic "bákn," which now means, "large stone column;" that is, "a column showing direction."

^ Centuries ago, the Frisian word was "baken/beken," and meant "signal or signal fire." Later, Frisian split into dialects, giving West Frisian the altered spelling and the narrowed meaning to the modern "buoy." Researching North Frisian is very hard, but it "seems" to have "beken," but I can't confirm that from multiple sources. North Frisian is spoken in the German region of North Frisia, which also includes a number of North Sea islands, called the North Frisian Islands (someone stayed awake late to come up with that name). Remember too, while North Frisian is the spoken regional language, standard German is taught to everyone in school.   

America Once Fought Fascists, Now It Votes Them In

(This was originally published November 10, 2016, but I made a few updates on May 31, 2018. The updates are noted below, except in this paragraph: Trump, under federal investigation, along with several cronies, for dealings with Russia and possible obstruction of justice and other crimes uncovered during the investigation, has attacked the US justice system, including the FBI. He has used the constitutional power of the pardon to free political allies and to send a message that those under indictment or already charged can count on a pardon, if they keep their mouths shut about him, his son and his son-in-law. The rule of law is under heavy assault as is the truth. Today Trump said it was untrue that he fired former FBI director, James Comey, because of the Russia investigation. Trump claimed this is a media fabrication, but it was Trump himself who said the Russia investigation was the reason on television last year. He also told the then Russian ambassador that with Comey fired, the pressure of the Russia investigation would ease. Note: some presidential pardons by other presidents have drawn fire for being political, but never was the nation's system under attack by those presidents as it is today by Trump.)    

I don't think Americans fully understand what just happened to their country, but they are about to find out. Emboldened racists, bigots, religious fanatics, will be on the move. Don't be surprised to see laws banning the teaching of evolution (religious fundamentalists have been pushing this for awhile), or any other belief not consistent with fundamentalist creationism. EVERYTHING will be on the table folks. Donald Trump's statement, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters," shows how very dangerous the situation has become, and it is reminiscent of Nazis chasing down and executing disloyal Germans for not believing in "final victory," even as Allied troops were just blocks away in 1945. 

Democracy is far more fragile than many realize. It has survived in the U.S., and is taken for granted by most Americans, because, over time, largely responsible people, in spite of some philosophical differences, transferred power back and forth, based upon elections. They believed in the overall system. Obviously, THE major exception was the Civil War era. For some time now, we have had a growing element, led by self designated "conservatives," begin to trash this very system, a strategy that became ever more nasty, ever more divisive. Their disciples took to the airwaves to spread the faith, and in hateful and divisive speech that could bring a smile to the face of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, the faith did, indeed, spread. They have preached hatred of government at all levels, as well as of "liberals, " which seems to mean just about anyone remotely connected to modern times, instead of to some previous century with some sort of perceived "glory days."  Dispirited Americans, angry at wealthy business interests and at free trade that cost them good paying jobs, were often a ready made audience for these these venom spewing manipulators, who were paid for by .... wealthy business interests and free traders. I haven't heard this expression for quite some time, but many a drinker and outright alcoholic, suffering from a hangover, would oft say, "I need a drink, because what makes you sick, will make you well." Really? The propagandists convinced many an American that what benefited a few, would really be good for them too, although statistics have shown the opposite, but they voted for Republicans, because "what made you sick, will make you well."

The Nazis and communists both USED democratic systems to DESTROY the respective democratic systems in various countries. Hitler did not "seize power," the Nazis became a major political party and the number of votes they received convinced some German leaders that they needed to be in the government. Weimar was far from perfect, but it retained the constitutional right of the people to vote, and chancellors came and went, Reichstag (parliament) representatives came and went, so at least providing for some semblance of democracy, even though the chancellors constitutionally circumvented the Reichstag,* by issuing decrees, because the Reichstag was so dysfunctional (sound like Congress under Republicans the last few years?) People have long dissected every aspect of the Nazi takeover of Germany. Why? History helps to teach us what went before, and hopefully, how we can avoid the mistakes of the past. That's why the nonsense of memorizing dates is, well, NONSENSE! They are irrelevant. Those here now will not have to dissect or read about how this has happened in the United States; no, because we have watched it unfold before our very eyes, with far too many participating in it directly. We allowed Republicans to get away with not voting on a Supreme Court nominee offered by a sitting U.S. president. The Republican controlled Congress has sat dormant for years; let me tell you, they will sit dormant no longer, as they plan to consolidate power and strip you of rights and dignity. They enabled money to buy tremendous access into government, something that now will no longer be possible to overturn. It's all too late, folks. This is what we allowed to happen. Since Reagan, some have allowed themselves to be bought for tax cuts. The saddest thing is, many of those same people already had lots of money, but they gave up their consciences for tax cut money they didn't need. 

Americans have sat and watched fascism rise and, now, take over. Traditional conservatives were complicit. Romney played to the fascists in 2012, but then he later tried to change things in the last few months as Trump rose to lead the GOP. Romney is not a fascist, he's a pandering chameleon, who at least finally stood up, but was far too late in doing so. There is NO reset button. Buyer's remorse will get you nowhere. Once you let fascists in, try to get them back out. Many Americans have now not only endangered their freedom, they have given the nuclear codes to a wacko, thus endangering the world and all of humanity. They totally gerrymandered themselves into essentially permanent control of the House of Representatives and many state legislatures. They now will cement the Supreme Court to do their bidding and to make the present and future more akin to something like the 14th Century, than to modern times. Fundamentalist, fanatical religion will now be front and foremost, and BLATANTLY involved in governing.

The big media was complicit, with seemingly not even one innocent person under that Big Top circus tent. When they go to the toilet, they wipe their mouths afterward, because that's where the real dung comes out. Further, and this is not about my just previous comment, but my suggestion for progressives is, if you're going to watch MSNBC, don't take everything as gospel. They are good people, but they are so committed to one side, they lack perspective at times. I'm a devout progressive, but I rarely tune in to any of the chatter stations. Over time I've seen posts online suggesting that everything will be fine, because people on MSNBC said how the demographics are going to pretty much guarantee Democratic wins. Further, other posts told of the imminent demise of the GOP, something I highly questioned in a reply, only to be told how wrong I was. Hopefully, everyone now sees how badly the situation was misjudged; in fact, it is now DEMOCRATS who are in a perilous situation, and although we won't go away, expect very difficult times. If things turn out better than that, great, but be prepared for just about any shenanigans you can imagine, and even some that you can't imagine. As for intellectuals, they sat debating the definition of a fascist, as if that were the important issue at hand. Like Sheldon Cooper, they worry about proper definitions, while not understanding what is going on around them. When someone shouts to them, "Look, that guy is going to set fire to the forest," they reply, "Oh, I don't see a forest, all I see is a bunch of trees." (Updated 5-31-18) As they walk to the gallows, they will ask, "Hm, I wonder if this is fascism?" And someone will reply, "We'd better get this resolved, because they're going to hang us in about the next 60 seconds."

Obama is a VERY good man, I love him, BUT he came to office promising change, "Change We Can Believe In," and he immediately sent the wrong signal by giving Wall Street bankers prominent positions within his administration, after Wall Street bankers brought about the mortgage crisis, which brought the economy to its knees, along with phony high oil prices. The more things change, the more they stay the same. He didn't need Larry Summers or Tim Geithner to tell him that the country needed a stimulus. Symbols DO MATTER. He then chose the absolutely worst issue to take on at that point in his presidency, and in that overall time frame ... HEALTH CARE. The atmosphere was more full of noxious fumes than being locked in a 4 x 4 room with a lactose intolerant person who just ate a slice of cheese, a bowl of vanilla ice cream and washed it all down with a pint of 1% milk (trying to watch their weight). The whole thing was not thought through, and regardless of the president's great intentions, it was THE thing that derailed his presidency, as it gave Republicans, flat on their backs from the Iraq War and the economic meltdown, the opportunity to get up and start swinging, a role they love, and just in time to get all energized and to rout Democrats in a crucial "census election," giving them control of many state legislatures and governorships, so they could adjust (gerrymander) congressional and state legislative districts to keep themselves in control for the foreseeable future. With the House of Representatives then in Republican hands, Obama could not get legislation passed. The next midterm, in 2014, saw Republicans take control of the Senate; and, thus later, prevent a vote on the President's Supreme Court nominee, leaving the seat empty. Now that they have Trump, the Republicans will approve his nominee, and control the court for decades (Update 5-31-18: Trump nominated and the Senate confirmed, highly conservative Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court, who took office in April 2017). ALL OF THIS TRAGEDY traces back to a well meaning man trying to help millions of Americans get health care, but it was terribly misguided, and now the ultimate insult will come, as Trump and Republicans repeal the law, removing the largest legislative achievement of Barack Obama (Update 5-31-18: Trump and Republicans failed to repeal the law, but just barely; however, Trump and Republicans have weakened the law, leaving it vulnerable, but its ultimate fate remains to be seen). All of the rancor and the decimation of Democratic officeholders in the 2010 election, and even the loss of the Senate in 2014 can be somewhat attributed to health care, as the huge losses in 2010, set up the Republican win in 2014, it will all have been in vain.  

I've seen posts by some on the left who talk about revolution, but it's not practical, as the weaponry is on the OTHER side! Militia groups and many, but certainly not all, gun owners from all walks of life, didn't buy all of these weapons, especially automatic weapons, to hunt ducks. This has always been about staging a coup d'état, or protecting a regime favorable to them, which they will now have. Further, many, perhaps most, in law enforcement, and many in the military, will gladly carry out suppression of any revolt at Trump's direction; both favor Republicans in elections by substantial amounts. The militias and others, just like Hitler's Storm Troopers and Mussolini's Blackshirt militia,  will operate to control the country. Some of you, and I love you and I love your spirit, needed to learn "compromise," and the art of having to hold your nose to support something you may not completely agree with, but you have to do it to avoid the greater harm, although I'm not sure it would have made a difference anyway, and we've always had some smaller political parties in the US which get anything from a percent or two of the vote, up to far larger percentages. Now is not time to be fighting over what is past, but if you're driving down the road in a Smart car, and an eighteen-wheeler is headed right for you, you crash into the guard rail to avoid being run over, literally, by the truck. It wasn't a great choice, but you had to take it. We saw this same thing, a lack of perspective, with Edward Snowden, who exposed U.S. government spying on its citizens, but then ran to Russia and Vladimir Putin, one of the enemies of humanity. You know, can you imagine an Italian in 1936 saying, "Boy, that Mussolini is a son-of-a-bitch, I'm going to go live in .... Germany!" Julian Assange is in much the same vein. Okay with both of them, show our faults, but also show the faults of others, but there was NO perspective. 

* (Updated 5-31-18) I say, "constitutionally circumvented the Reichstag," because Article 48 of the German constitution of the Weimar Republic gave the president the power to rule by decree in an "emergency," a term that was not defined within the constitution. The chancellor submitted the decrees to the president. 

WORD HISTORY:
Abet-This word, related to "bite," goes back to Indo European "bheid," which had the notion "to split." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "bitanan," meaning "to bite," and the derived "baitjanan," which meant, "to make or cause to bite;" thus, "incite, egg on," especially for use with dogs in hunting. Old French borrowed the word, likely from Frankish, a Germanic language/dialect, as "beter," and tacked on the prefix, which came from Latin "ad," itself from Indo European "ad," with the notion of, "to, toward, near, at," with the French form meaning, "to incite dogs to chase after." English borrowed the word in the latter half of the 1300s as "abetten," but it could have also blended with an existing English word from the same Old Germanic word, the English word being, "bætan," which also meant, "to hunt with dogs," but originally, "to make bite."       

The American Melting Pot and The Electorate

This was first published in March 2013

The United States has really always been a nation of minorities. These minorities have "usually" joined together to form the nation, although the process hasn't always been pretty. The original American states were a mixture of ethnic and nationality groups,* with a fairly substantial Dutch presence in New York (originally a Dutch possession), a German element in many places, especially Pennsylvania,** a substantial English presence in most of the former colonies, especially in New England and the mid Atlantic, a smaller Scottish and Welsh presence; a substantial Scots-Irish presence in many places, especially in parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia and North and South Carolina.*** Time only added to these numbers, as Europeans flocked to the U.S. in the 1800s and about half of the 1900s, although the variety of people expanded, as Italians, Greeks, Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbians, Croatians, Slovenians, Lithuanians, Norwegians, Swedes, Portuguese, Jews (often of Russian nationality)****, Hungarians, Rumanians, Basques, and others came in fairly high numbers as immigrants. Not only that, the other side of the world provided plenty of immigrants too, in the 1800s especially, Chinese, who formed Chinese communities, not only in the western part of the country, but also in the east, as they settled throughout the country. As the U.S. expanded westward, the number of states grew, as did the inclusion of ethnic minorities already present in some of the newly acquired territories, such as substantial Hispanic populations in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, as well as a number of people of French background, especially in Louisiana. 

There were also hundreds of thousands of people from sub-Saharan Africa held as slaves (they could not vote), primarily in southern states, where they were used as cheap labor, literally slave labor, generally on large plantations. Even in the early decades of American independence slavery in northern states was limited, as laws in these states began to phase out the practice of owning slaves. This split between north and south widened so much and was so contentious, it ended with southern states trying to leave the Union, which resulted in the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln issued the "Emancipation Proclamation," freeing America's slaves, an act confirmed by the defeat of the Confederacy in the war. The 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution just after the Civil War helped form the legal basis for former slaves to vote, but at that time, the South was under Reconstruction; that is, occupation by Federal troops. When Reconstruction ended not long thereafter, southern states began to pass laws to restrict black American voting, often under the guise of a poll tax, the non payment of which deprived a person of the right to vote. Not only that, black voters were often threatened, beaten, or even killed, if they tried to vote. In those times, black Americans were almost exclusively Republicans, while white southerners of all income levels were just as exclusively Democrats, as they opposed the party of Lincoln, the Republicans.

Another group that gradually became a minority was the vast indigenous Native American population (initially, of course, they were the majority, although they were spread out). Over time, "undoubtedly" a good deal of that population simply was absorbed into the general population, although determining a number is pretty much impossible, as association of white Americans with "Indians" was often prohibited, or at least frowned upon by society. So if your great, great grandparent was involved with a Native American, which resulted in a child, they probably didn't run out and tell everyone in sight, or ANYONE in sight. The same was true of white association with black Americans, as the cases of Thomas Jefferson and Strom Thurmond have demonstrated, as both fathered children with black women. Obviously Thurmond didn't pass out cigars at the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan, although he used race as a political weapon for decades. Anyway, something around a million people still inhabit America's hundreds of "Indian" reservations, although most people who term themselves as full or partial Native Americans live outside of reservations.

Then there was America's largest minority, certainly now a majority, WOMEN. They only got to first cast ballots in the election of 1920!!!    

In Part Two, where is the U.S. on voting rights now? Will we go back to excluding legal residents from voting? Obviously, some would like to do just that.

* The actual ethnic and nationality composition of the original states cannot be completely certain, but immigration records available from ports of entry, and overseas records of people leaving for America, plus early land and court records, give what is likely a good picture of what early America looked like.

** The so called "Pennsylvania Dutch" were/are really Germans, largely, but not exclusively, from a region around the Rhine River in western Germany known as the Palatinate (Heidelberg is one of the main cities), who came to America mainly in the late 1600s. The German name for themselves being "Deutsche," with dialect variations, like "Deitsch" and "Teitsch," the then American Colonists pronounced the term as "Dutch." This association with "Dutch" was further reinforced by the fact that a number of the new arrivals had traveled the Rhine River into Holland (the Netherlands) where they then boarded ships for America. Their speech came to be called "Pennsylvania Dutch," or "Pennsylvania German," an amalgamation of Upper German dialects from that general area of Germany, which then also included Alsace (on the western side of the Rhine, but now part of France), and part of the German area of Switzerland. For a little more on Alsace, see my article:

http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/11/german-question-part-fifty-five.html

*** Scots-Irish, often rendered as "Scotch-Irish" in America, were the people who came from what is now Northern Ireland, or Ulster, primarily during the 1700s. These people generally descend from Protestant Scots and northern Englishmen who were encouraged by King James I in the early 1600s to migrate to the general area of northern Ireland to settle on lands confiscated from Irish nobles (Catholics). The idea was, this would gradually bind more and more of Ireland to the crown and to Protestantism. King James was a Scot, and prior to his ascending the English throne, he was known as King James VI of Scotland. The confiscated Irish lands were often taken over by wealthy English and Scottish landowners and the "Scots-Irish" settlers worked for them. Tough economic times and domination by the landowners saw a couple of hundred thousand Scots-Irish emigrate to the American colonies, with more coming after the founding of the United States.

**** Until the end of World War One, Russia included a large segment of Poland, including Warsaw, as well as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and parts of what is now Rumania. All of these areas had fairly large numbers of Jews who were often persecuted (even violently) by so called Christians in these areas. Primarily in the latter part of the 1800s and the early part of the 1900s, Jews who could, left these areas, with a fairly large number coming to the U.S. Some, however, migrated to other parts of Europe, where later they or their descendants were murdered in large numbers when the Nazis controlled much of Europe. Some wisely got out before the massacre started, again with many coming to America, as did some of the survivors in the postwar era. 
 
WORD HISTORY:
Major-This word goes back to Indo European "megh/magh," which had the notion of "great, large." This gave its Latin offspring "magnus," with the same meanings, which then produced "maior," a comparative form; as in, "big>bigger," or "large>larger." English borrowed the word in the 1200s as "maiour," before the modern version. Latin "maior" was also used as a noun to mean "an elder," and from that meaning came     "high ranking official or senior officer," rendered as "major," during the Middle Ages, which was taken by French for a military officer. This was then borrowed by English during the 1600s. A verb form developed in American English, circa 1900,  meaning "to take a specific course of study in college, to specialize in a profession or subject;" as in, "to major in business management" or "to major in English." German also borrowed the military rank "major," with the same spelling, but basically pronounced.as "mah-your." 

The Gap Between Us

I guess because of our history of people coming from all over the world to settle in The United States, we don't always know much about other areas of the world. That might sound contradictory, but it really isn't. Many folks came to these shores to escape dictatorship, oppression, religious persecution, economic ills, or some other suffering in their own land. Just think, it has to take something pretty bad to make people want to leave the land of their birth. I think that's probably why many, when they got here, tried hard to become Americans. Perhaps later, they thought of the ways of their homeland. In fact, I don't recall where I heard this, but I've heard it more than once, that immigrants frequently (but certainly not always) tried to make sure that their children were totally American, but when it came to their grandchildren, they began to talk and teach them about their country or region of origin. And we Americans like to celebrate our various ethnic heritages, but we always remember that we're Americans first.

If I remember correctly, maybe a decade or so ago, when asked to give a location for Ireland, something like a fifth of American children thought it was in the Pacific. And this was about Ireland, where Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day like it was OUR holiday! We aren't great about the details of other places in the world.

Now, when it comes to much of the Muslim world, the average American knows even less. Before, it seemed almost unnecessary, but with increasing violence in the past decade, culminating in the 9/11 attacks, that part of the world has become front and center to us. Like college students who waited to the last day to study for their finals, we are now forced to "cram" for a very important exam. So far, we haven't gotten the knowledge to pass. I'm not much into a lot of conspiracy theories, so I won't dwell on how we got into Iraq, but the fact is we're there, and a further fact is, we were not prepared to be there. Winning the war on Saddam was not difficult, nor was it terribly painful for us. Winning the peace and stabilizing the country seems to be a mission without end, but with endless pain. To me, it is because we didn't understand where we were going. After numerous reasons for our invasion, the Administration settled on establishing a "democratic" Iraq. That appeals to most Americans, and in many ways, the overall strategy seemed to be right; a democratic Iraq could help change the entire Middle East. Turning blueprints into reality is something else.

A number of years ago, The Food Network had some shows about life and food in the Middle East, and in Morocco and Algeria, I believe. While there were several different countries involved, they all shared many cultural similarities, especially the Muslim faith. Now, I'm NOT trying to play stereotypes here, but many scenes featured foods being cooked on stones, and grains being pounded into flour with rocks by the woman/women of the household. On any given weekend, Americans like to go camping so we can "rough it," although even then, we have to have a portable TV, a radio, a CD player, and any one of a number of computerized gadgets to send and read emails, or to connect to the Net. There aren't too many of us really willing to "rough it" anymore. Yet, in many countries, and NOT just in the Middle East or North Africa, a fairly significant segment of the population "rough it" every day; it is their way of life. I'm not putting it down. But it does begin to show the divide we have with many folks around the world. We look at them as kind of "primitive," and they can't even imagine what we're like, except that we seem to be threatening their beliefs with women's rights, gay rights, sex education, etc.

As folks settled America, some wandered into the backwoods and into the mountains where they stayed for generations. When "civilization" came to their parts, there was "culture clash." It is still going on to this day, but is just less obvious to most. I hope all of you have seen one of the great Tarzan films with Johnny Weissmuller, "Tarzan's New York Adventure." Talk about "culture clash!" As Tarzan looks out the window of the plane hovering over New York City, he views the "jungle" down below; a jungle of tall buildings. He asks Jane about it. She says that in civilization people live that way. He asks why, and she says, "So they can get things done faster." Tarzan asks why, and she says ,"To save time." Tarzan again asks, "To save time? Why?" Jane then says something to the effect that all the scribes in the world haven't figured that one out. People in many "westernized" countries lead pretty fast lives. We want things quickly, and we jump from one fad to another. In many of the Middle Eastern/North African countries, life is much slower. Many folks don't own a lot, and they don't expect much. I suppose there aren't many fads to capture their attention either. They have by their very way of life something we pretty much lack, patience. Lest we forget, the planning for 9/11 took bin Laden and associates 5 to 7 years. Can you imagine Americans taking that long to plan anything? We'd lose interest after a few months, if not a few weeks.

Did you hear the story from last week, where Christian and Muslim religious leaders sponsored a soccer game to show unity. It was in Europe (I think it was in perhaps Sweden. I hear things on the radio while I'm working, and the basic story sticks with me, but the details get sketchy.) Anyway, come game time, the Muslims refused to play, because the Christian team had women on it. So much for any unity. It's a small story, but it points up the difficulties that exist. If we can't agree about a soccer game, how can we agree about bigger issues?

One other important thing, in my opinion: Many of these countries have not had many human rights' laws. They have been ruled by dictators of some sort, or by colonial powers. Some have managed to gradually bring in the force of law, but in many cases, the force of law is that of ancient times, and the law of "might makes right." Let me tell you, this is NOT going to change any time soon. It will take a long time, just as it did in westernized countries. American-style democracy developed in increments, it just didn't happen when the Constitution was ratified, and we still argue about the details of our democracy.

To me, there is something of a "civil war," not only in Iraq, but within Islam itself. Iraq "may" be the crucible, the Stalingrad-like battle that tips the advantage one way or the other. On one side, there are those Muslims who want the religion to be modernized, at least to some extent. On the other hand, there are those who want Muslims to live under the religious beliefs from centuries ago. Let's hope the reformers make progress...sooner, rather than later.

Hey, I've gotta run! I have to find a good smooth stone to cook my flat bread.