State's Rights!?

I never quite “got” the appeal of States Rights.

There are several embarrassing bills making their way through the Utah Legislature that are designed to “send a message to Washington” and assert our State Rights.

Our little experiment in democracy began with State's Rights, slavery and the disenfranchisement of women, and I’m of the opinion that you couldn’t have the last two without the first.

I am not a huge fan of any government but let’s face it, the worst government isn’t practiced in DC. The most awful government is practiced in our towns, cities, counties and states. It is made by part-time power-brokers who got 113 of their constituents to vote for them and garnered 97% of the vote.

State’s Rights advocates say they want to protect me from the Feds but who is going to protect me from them? Attend a School Board meeting, or a City Council Meeting, and you’ll see they are focused on the petty, the power and the money, not you and me.

The best evidence that municipal government isn’t working is traffic jams. They didn’t plan well or design correctly. They allowed unchecked growth because it meant more tax revenue.

Our schools are a local mess, beginning at that mean little local board with seats filled by your neighbors and going right on up to the State Board of Education.

If that isn’t enough to remind you that local isn’t always better, then talk to anyone in this state about renewing your Driver’s License … (admit it, you just shuddered, didn’t you!?)

We often hear about the evils of multi-level marketing but how about the evils of multi-level government? All those layers of government spend most of their time duplicating the efforts of other government entities, asserting their rights and grabbing power from one another.

For every layer there are taxes to be paid. Or transferred. You pay taxes on every layer and then the Feds give some of “their” money to States, Counties and Municipalities to do stuff, like maintain roads, provide education, pay Medicare claims or clean up the air and water.

The Feds also pay States to enforce stuff. That stuff is often the stuff States don’t want to implement but are willing to grumble and impose if it means enough money to balance their budgets.

All that means is that the State’s Right advocates who say they’d be willing to forego Federal money to have more power locally aren’t telling the whole story. Your taxes won’t get smaller and judging by the evidence, your government services will: A) Go away, B) Get worse, or C) Cost more.

Is that the message you want to send to Washington? If so, please reelect the clowns currently in the Utah State Legislature.

Delightful Daughters

On Valentine’s Day my youngest daughter gave birth to Olivia Grace, the latest of my nine grandchildren. Livy is my eighth granddaughter. While Natalie was doing that “little thing” I was completing the novel Honolulu by Alan Brennert.

Honolulu is set in Hawaii in the first half of the 20th Century and tells the story of a Korean “Picture Bride” named Regret. Brennert characterizes the position of women in that place, culture and time as little more than the servants of men and mere receptacles for men’s pleasure and the birth of more men.

When I began reading his novel, I’d wondered if Brennert would be able to successfully navigate the perspective of the protagonist. Brennert is, after all, a 21st Century American male, of European descent, who did not grow up and does not live in The Islands. (For the same reasons, I’m not really capable of knowing how accurate he was.)

Brennert’s character development is satisfying. He delves successfully into the carefully controlled lives of his female Korean characters along with the differences in opportunity and justice in Turn of the 20th Century Hawaii based upon ethnicity and wealth. Brennert’s narrative added to my appreciation of the 21st Century Islands (a place I truly love.) My next visit to The Islands will be more colorful and rich because of the narrative.

I was born one year before the fictional end of Brennert’s book. Since then I've witnessed the formation of the Civil Rights Movement, observed the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and seen most of the intent of the Equal Rights Amendment become the Status Quo.

Like many men of my generation, I cannot imagine being disappointed at the birth of a daughter or granddaughter, let alone feeling that I’d been somehow less “blessed” than my friends with many sons. (This does not mean that my son, sons-in-law and grandson are chopped liver. I enjoy their company immensely.)

Yet, while we live in a time of unprecedented opportunity for women, there are still men I know who are disappointed at the birth of a daughter, balk at working for a woman, and far too many who view women as less capable than men. Those feelings are foreign to me. Even in the Enlightened Western World, we cannot yet say that we’ve “arrived” in the Promised Land of Equality.

I adore my daughters and enjoy every moment I spend with them. They have always given me such joy. They are so bright, so full of life, so very delightful. They often feel differently about the same “facts” than I do. This has caused me to look at things very differently. My daughters have been great companions. There are few things I enjoy more than talking with them or listening to them converse with one another (especially if they don’t know I am listening.)

My daughters, and their daughters, have been a great and wonderful gift in my life and I shall truly enjoy getting to know Olivia just as I have enjoyed the company and personalities of her mother, aunts and cousins. I can already tell she is going to bless my life.

While your wallet is open ...

The tragic events in Haiti continue to attract our attention. I hope that all of you within the "sound" of my electronic voice will not forget the homeless and needy in your own communities while you give so generously to those across the sea. Their needs have not diminished and it has been particularly cold so far this year.

Brilliant Fun

Rarely have I been as amused by a book as much as I am with Zachary Mason's novel, The Lost Books of the Odyssey. It is brilliant fun. And the brilliance is in the substitute illusions Mason creates. Mason takes the alternate ending to a depth rarely seen.

My all-time favorite books are authored by men with only one name: Homer and Virgil. I know and love those time-worn epic tales of the lives of ancient Greeks and Trojans and the early Romans. I'm fluent with the poems and their characters, twists, and turns. I'm also very familiar with the various translations of each, with most of the explanations by classical experts as to this twist, that character, and even the philosophical and psychological examinations of the texts.

Mason's novel just makes those ancient tales all the more pleasurable. I think you'd enjoy it. The one drawback is that too many have not read even one translation of the original from front to back and would not recognize the unusual treatment Mason gives to many of the story elements. Too many get their Illiad from the movie Troy and their Odyssey not at all.

So if you haven't read Homer's original in any translation, start there first. And then pick up a copy of Zachary Mason's book. The short chapters stand on their own and will have you musing whimsically before you drop off to sleep. And maybe the grin will carry you through until the alarm clock savagely wakes you in the morning.