WAR

 As I’ve said, been studying the life of Herbert Hoover, a complicated person who was responsible for saving millions of lives around the world during its wars and disasters but bears the historical onus of neglecting his own people in our great crisis. In Kenneth Whyte’s massive biography, I ran across an interesting passage. It states how Hoover felt that WWI would forever change how societies dealt with each other.

“Total war [Hoover] realized engendered total hate.”

That’s an interesting observation. World wars tend to change the paradigm of history. Our politicians today spend the money that could be used to feed the hungry to buy bombs. In an oxymoronic dribble that only fools would cherish, they claim that war brings peace.

Does it? Or does our warlike compulsion resonate more like peeling away layers of an onion representing our society, revealing a more pungent evil with each stripping?

When one considers how so many so-called followers of the Galilean have abandoned his sermon of love and now embrace and worship our dictator’s rages of hate, we weep for Zion. It seems that in the history of Homo sapiens, we have learned much more about how to destroy than how to love.

In short, we have abandoned our better nature, layer by layer.

Herbert Hoover

 In August of 1914, the German army invaded Belgium on its way to attack France. Belgium was a prosperous county that traded for most of its foodstuffs. The German army stripped the country of what food and livestock it produced while murdering thousands of innocent civilians, a phenomenon known as “The Rape of Belgium.” The British navy closed the ports through which food arrived. A country of 7.5 million people faced starvation.

When no help came, Herbert Hoover, who was living in Europe, initiated a great effort called the Commission for Relief in Belgium.

Under Hoover’s leadership, the CRB became a logistical powerhouse. It coordinated international donations, chartered ships, and oversaw the distribution of food within Belgium through local committees. At its peak, the organization fed more than 10 million people daily, not only in Belgium but also in parts of northern France. Hoover emphasized efficiency, transparency, and strict neutrality, ensuring that aid reached civilians rather than military forces.

I’m studying the life of this complex man in what I call my “hair shirt hour.” I spend it learning about or reading things I should have done already but didn’t want to.

I’m curious and eager to see how this man could have been so compassionate at one point and so seemingly cruel at another. Wish me luck

Morning Thoughts: April 2, 2018

Over my career as a planning consultant, I’ve worked for many a mayor. I’ve found them to be a honest, hard-working, and dedicated group. Of course, the nice thing about being a consultant is that it doesn’t allow one to judge one’s clients. I may have a slight bias, although I do have a good vantage point.

That said, I’ve seen all kinds, genders, races, backgrounds. A very few traits, predominately back in the day, I could attribute to prejudice of one sort of another. Meantime, I’ve never known one to steal, ignore the law, or collude with foreign enemies. Most do use the political prerogative of prevarication, but almost always to further the common good, scarcely ever for fun, entertainment, or retribution.

A few of them moved to other offices. Several became state reps or senators. One made a try at governor once, but failed. One became a U.S Representative. I think there may be more, and some from other states, but I can’t recall. Lyndon Johnson had been a teacher, an occupation as honorable as that of mayor.

Overall, cities are well run, usually more so than (this is my humble opinion and please feel free to harbor your own) state or federal governments. Of course, (my opinion again) there’s not a city I can think of that isn’t being operated better than our present federal government.

That brings me to this morning’s point, which is: maybe it is time for a mayor to be president. Goodness knows, we’ve tried everything from engineers to vice-presidents to movie-actors to trust-fund babies to professional wrestling promoters. A mayor couldn’t do worse, and, if past performance is any indicator of future probability, could do much, much better.

Attorneys have dominated the ranks of president and have generally served us well. Given the current bias against the educated, though, there are many who don't want to to see another president trained in law, and familiar with the United States Constitution. Betsy DeVoss probably doesn't even want to see a college graduate again as president.

But trend is not destiny.

Back to mayors, though. They understand balanced budgets. They understand diversity in population. They understand public finance. And half of them understand the need to keep a careful eye on the males of the species. That half would also understand that government can never provide the military-industrial complex all the taxpayer money that it wants. Women are much better than men at saying “no.”

To follow the idea further, I even have someone in mind. In the interest of non-partisanship, I can’t name names, but this one is a Southerner who understands a bit about hurricanes and a lot about a city enjoying itself when it isn't being ravaged by a hurricane.

This one denies even thinking about running for president, a fact that historically means one thing:

He’ll run if he thinks he has a chance. Yes, it's a male. Female politicians at the national level still tend to make too many heads explode. He has the current disadvantage of being thoughtful, educated, erudite, intelligent, and an attorney. But we had such a president just one back. There may be hope for us again.

We’ll know he’s serious the day Fox “news” starts producing lies and slanders against him.

I even think that the lack
of hair would lessen the
ridicule from other countries.