Small towns such as Jennings, Louisiana, were once the bedrock of American life. That's where I was delivered into the world in 1946. It was an era when most Americans lived in rural towns. Agriculture, farming and oil thrived outside the big cities. Life poked along in the slow lane.
Jennings, population 9,663, had a flourishing downtown. Mercantile, clothing, feed, diners and a drug store dotted the streets. There was even a movie theatre. People waved a friendly hello as you walked or drove. You addressed men as "sir" and women as "mam." No exceptions.
There were almost as many churches as there were flavors of religions. Houses of worship were cramped on Sundays with spiffily dressed folks, including kids. No one wore flip flops. You were lucky to own one nice pair of pants, but if you did, it was reserved for Sunday use only.
Each school day opened with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag followed by a prayer. No one was offended. Weekends were for family gatherings. My Dad's brother Francis, wife Pauline, and kids Monica and Mike lived next door. Sharing meals and conversation with family was sublime.
When school recessed, I did not jet to Martha's Vineyard. I summered in Iota, Louisiana, population 1,500. My sister Charlene and I had some of the happiest times visiting with my grandparents, Fernan and Gussie Roy. I scaled trees, plucked wild blackberries and explored the surroundings.
A favorite summer ritual was a daily trip to the tiny Iota post office with my grandpa. All the men dressed up to fetch the mail. Most wore hats and suspenders. Town gossip and a runaway cow were the topics of discussion. I learned a lot about life eavesdropping on the Cajun-accented discourse.
Although our family moved five times, each instance we landed in a town of less than 34,000 residents. It wasn't until I reached the ripe old age of 24 that I discovered big city life in Dallas. I never again inhabited a small town. Yet I wax nostalgic for small town values and experiences.
Today small towns are battling for their very existence. There are 46.1 million Americans--about 14% of the population--residing in non-metropolitan counties spread across 72% of the nation's land mass. In 2015, there were 16,470 cities with populations under 10,000 and dwindling.
Since 2010, 1,350 non-metro counties have lost 790,000 people. (Statistics for small towns are elusive because Census data is not available.) In just one year period between July of 2015 and July 2016, the population in non-metro counties dipped another 40,000.
Small farms and agriculture, once a staple of rural America, are vanishing. In 1946, there were about 5.6 million farms in the country. In 2012, that number had shrunk to 2 million as farms became fewer and larger. Agriculture's role in the economy, once 33%, has shriveled to about 12%.
Some would call this progress. After all, Silicon Valley and other high-tech incubators are flush with jobs and money. Farm workers have been left in the dust. There were 3.4 million farm workers at the turn of the century. Now there are barely 1 million. Their average median pay is $11.41 per hour.
My Dad, like many returning World War II veterans, found employment in the agricultural business. It became a career that sustained our family. One of the benefits was Dad always had milled rice to put on our table. I think we gobbled more rice than the average family in Asia during those days.
Not only has the agricultural downturn sapped rural towns, but these quaint places have lost their local retail shopping. Walmart has replaced the local clothing, mercantile and drug stores. Homegrown grocery stores are practically extinct, swept into oblivion by behemoth chain grocers.
No doubt these changes have meant more selection and lower prices but there was something whimsical about a small town store. No one ever accused Walmart of being charming. And don't get me started on those omnipresent Golden Arches that are a blight on rural America's landscape.
Today driving through these towns is depressing. Downtowns no longer exist, unless you consider sagging, empty or boarded-up buildings signs of an economic pulse. To survive, a few small towns have become a clutter of antique shops hawking mostly junk. Not the stuff of my youth.
Am I beginning to sound like an old fogy? Perhaps it is a sign of senior seasoning, but I pine for those small towns and the values embraced by their residents. In the metropolises of America, you are often mocked for patriotism, belief in God, family ties and a humble lifestyle.
Small towns likely will never recover from their spiral into obscurity. But Americans would be well served to cling to small town values. Family, faith and patriotism remain at the heart of what we know as the American experience. If we ever lose that, more than small towns will be gone forever.
Monday, April 30, 2018
Monday, April 23, 2018
Why Trade Deficits Harm America
Americans spend more time mulling a drink order at Starbucks than worrying about the trade deficit. It's tragic because the issue impacts millions of jobs. Despite the recent flood of trade deficit news, Americans remain aloof because reporting on the issue is jargon-laced. Let's try to change that.
The most glaring U.S. trade deficit is the one with China. In 2017, the deficit was $376 billion. That deficit was created because the U.S. exported (or sent) goods valued at $130 billion to China, while that country shipped $506 billion to our nation. Simple subtraction yields the deficit number.
When goods and materials are shipped overseas they count as exports. When the arrive in another country, this is recorded as an import. Without muddling the discussion, imports and exports may also include services, royalties and licensing payments. But let's stick with goods.
China exports consumer electronics, clothing, machinery and finished materials such as steel, to our nation. Those products are often lower priced than the same American manufactured goods. China's competitive advantage is chiefly a result of two factors: lower wages and currency manipulation.
Chinese firms aren't more technologically superior, they just pay workers less. An exact comparison of wages is complicated, so economists use a proxy called Gross Domestic Product per capita. Using this formula, the average Chinese earns $16,600 per year compared to $59,500 in the U.S.
Think about that gap between the two countries. It means Americans enjoy a higher standard of living, making it possible to purchase more goods and services than their Chinese counterparts. However, that standard is threatened when more jobs are outsourced to overseas firms.
The second advantage for the Chinese is their currency exchange rate. The Chinese claim to peg the value of its currency (yuan) to the American dollar. However, the government has exerted more influence on the exchange rate, ignoring market fluctuations that would lower the value of the yuan.
While the value of the American dollar drifts upward and downward, the Communist Chinese government props up its currency to advantage its homegrown firms. As a result, American goods become more expensive in China, while Chinese products are less costly for American buyers.
The impact of currency control and labor costs have helped China become the world's largest exporter of raw steel. Once No. 1 in the world, America has fallen to the third position behind Japan. The value of U.S. produced iron and steel was $113 billion in 2014, the latest year data is available.
In 2014, the U.S. produced 11 million tons of steel products but imported 39 million tons, the majority from China. In 1973, the U.S. produced 137 million tons. Today's production is less than one-tenth that amount. The U.S. steel industry has been decimated by foreign imports.
As our country buys more Chinese steel, the U.S. industry has shaved payrolls. In 1953, American firms employed 650,000 steelworkers, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). Today the number is 142,000. One in five steelworkers have lost their jobs.
Once thriving steel cities, such as Chicago, Gary, Indiana; Cleveland and Pittsburgh have all paid a heavy price as factories have been shuttered and workers have been laid off. China has become the world's largest exporter of steel at the expense of the American worker.
Other American manufacturing industries, such as textiles and electronics, have also been hard hit. About 900,000 jobs have disappeared in the textile and apparel industry since the 1990's. Some 760,000 computer and electronic jobs have gone overseas during the same period. Does anyone care?
The number of total manufacturing jobs in the United States has declined 34 percent between 1998 and 2017. As these industries shriveled, U.S. competitiveness also suffers. But politicians, Fortune 500 firms and the Chamber of Commerce don't appear fazed by the impact on American workers.
Trade policy defenders like to point out that American firms profit by investing in the Chinese market with its $23.12 trillion economy and its mushrooming population of 1.38 billion. Hundreds of American firms already have established a presence in China. It's good for their businesses.
But China extracts a steep price for allowing companies into its country. The Communist regime has turned a blind eye to the theft of U.S. technology and intellectual property, such as patents and copyrights. China also wields regulatory and legal power to hamstring U.S. firms.
Free trade benefits all countries when there is a level playing field. When one country plays by a different set of rules, it gains an unfair advantage. Right now it is a unassailable fact that the U.S. is losing the competitive trade battle with China because the Chinese are gaming the system.
Resolving the thorny issue will require political fortitude because China owns $1.17 trillion in U.S. debt, the largest amount held by any foreign country. Imagine the stock market reaction if the Chinese dumped U.S. Treasuries. Although it may seem far fetched, never underestimate the Chinese.
Policy makers have to decide if the risk of a stock market earthquake and a trade war are worth fighting for a more favorable agreement with China. American workers will be watching and hoping their jobs aren't sacrificed in the name of some Utopian view of free trade.
The most glaring U.S. trade deficit is the one with China. In 2017, the deficit was $376 billion. That deficit was created because the U.S. exported (or sent) goods valued at $130 billion to China, while that country shipped $506 billion to our nation. Simple subtraction yields the deficit number.
When goods and materials are shipped overseas they count as exports. When the arrive in another country, this is recorded as an import. Without muddling the discussion, imports and exports may also include services, royalties and licensing payments. But let's stick with goods.
China exports consumer electronics, clothing, machinery and finished materials such as steel, to our nation. Those products are often lower priced than the same American manufactured goods. China's competitive advantage is chiefly a result of two factors: lower wages and currency manipulation.
Chinese firms aren't more technologically superior, they just pay workers less. An exact comparison of wages is complicated, so economists use a proxy called Gross Domestic Product per capita. Using this formula, the average Chinese earns $16,600 per year compared to $59,500 in the U.S.
Think about that gap between the two countries. It means Americans enjoy a higher standard of living, making it possible to purchase more goods and services than their Chinese counterparts. However, that standard is threatened when more jobs are outsourced to overseas firms.
The second advantage for the Chinese is their currency exchange rate. The Chinese claim to peg the value of its currency (yuan) to the American dollar. However, the government has exerted more influence on the exchange rate, ignoring market fluctuations that would lower the value of the yuan.
While the value of the American dollar drifts upward and downward, the Communist Chinese government props up its currency to advantage its homegrown firms. As a result, American goods become more expensive in China, while Chinese products are less costly for American buyers.
The impact of currency control and labor costs have helped China become the world's largest exporter of raw steel. Once No. 1 in the world, America has fallen to the third position behind Japan. The value of U.S. produced iron and steel was $113 billion in 2014, the latest year data is available.
In 2014, the U.S. produced 11 million tons of steel products but imported 39 million tons, the majority from China. In 1973, the U.S. produced 137 million tons. Today's production is less than one-tenth that amount. The U.S. steel industry has been decimated by foreign imports.
As our country buys more Chinese steel, the U.S. industry has shaved payrolls. In 1953, American firms employed 650,000 steelworkers, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). Today the number is 142,000. One in five steelworkers have lost their jobs.
Once thriving steel cities, such as Chicago, Gary, Indiana; Cleveland and Pittsburgh have all paid a heavy price as factories have been shuttered and workers have been laid off. China has become the world's largest exporter of steel at the expense of the American worker.
Other American manufacturing industries, such as textiles and electronics, have also been hard hit. About 900,000 jobs have disappeared in the textile and apparel industry since the 1990's. Some 760,000 computer and electronic jobs have gone overseas during the same period. Does anyone care?
The number of total manufacturing jobs in the United States has declined 34 percent between 1998 and 2017. As these industries shriveled, U.S. competitiveness also suffers. But politicians, Fortune 500 firms and the Chamber of Commerce don't appear fazed by the impact on American workers.
Trade policy defenders like to point out that American firms profit by investing in the Chinese market with its $23.12 trillion economy and its mushrooming population of 1.38 billion. Hundreds of American firms already have established a presence in China. It's good for their businesses.
But China extracts a steep price for allowing companies into its country. The Communist regime has turned a blind eye to the theft of U.S. technology and intellectual property, such as patents and copyrights. China also wields regulatory and legal power to hamstring U.S. firms.
Free trade benefits all countries when there is a level playing field. When one country plays by a different set of rules, it gains an unfair advantage. Right now it is a unassailable fact that the U.S. is losing the competitive trade battle with China because the Chinese are gaming the system.
Resolving the thorny issue will require political fortitude because China owns $1.17 trillion in U.S. debt, the largest amount held by any foreign country. Imagine the stock market reaction if the Chinese dumped U.S. Treasuries. Although it may seem far fetched, never underestimate the Chinese.
Policy makers have to decide if the risk of a stock market earthquake and a trade war are worth fighting for a more favorable agreement with China. American workers will be watching and hoping their jobs aren't sacrificed in the name of some Utopian view of free trade.
Monday, April 16, 2018
The Holocaust: Never, Ever Forget
The names conjure evil on a scale the world has never seen. Auschwitz. Treblinka. Belzec. Mujdanek. Chelmno. Sobibor. Those were the six Nazi death camps where Jews were brutally tortured, gassed, starved and burned alive in ovens. The world must never forget the horror.
During the sinister reign of Nazi terror, the Germans operated 40,000 camps, prisons and other ghastly facilities within their country and in the nations it occupied. But the six slaughterhouses were the final stop for most of the Nazi victims: six million Jews, including 1.1 million children.
The depraved campaign, directed by demonic German leader Adolf Hitler, was designed to butcher every living Jew in Europe. Before Hitler began his purge in 1933, about 9.5 million Jews lived on the continent. When the war ended in 1945, less than 1.5 million Jews remained.
This human carnage became know as The Holocaust. President Trump signed a proclamation last week declaring April 12 through April 19 as the Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust to remind Americans of one of the darkest periods in recorded history.
The timing of the proclamation could not have been better. Hate crimes against American Jews rose nine percent in 2016, reports the FBI. That is a sobering statistic in light of the political embrace of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who preaches anti-Semitism to growing audiences.
That's why countries need to be vigilant. The darkness of denial has already descended in Poland, where all six extermination camps were located. The government has passed a law criminalizing statements that suggest Poland was complicit in the Holocaust, despite damning evidence.
Poles imprisoned in the death camps were given roles as guards and block captains. Some were willing participants in torture and beatings. But the government now believes that part of Polish history is better forgotten to protect the country's new shiny progressive image.
In America, no government edict is required to scrub the Holocaust from memory. Many schools today no longer teach students about the Nazi campaign to eradicate an entire race. As a result, young people are growing up naive about Jewish genocide and the racial purity preached by Hitler.
A study by the Claims Conference, a consortium of diverse groups, found 22 percent of Millennials have never heard of the Holocaust. Some 41 percent believe less than two millions Jews were killed. And a stunning 49 percent could not name a single Nazi death camp. Their ignorance is chilling.
Even American adults are no longer knowledgeable about the Holocaust. More than 10 percent do not know about the Nazi purge. One in three adults incorrectly identified the number of Jews killed. Nearly 60 percent of adults are convinced another Holocaust could never happen again.
That last finding is alarming in light of recent events. This month the heinous Assad regime in Syria used chemical weapons, specifically a form of poisonous gas, to kill an unknown number of men, women and children. This is not the first time the Syrian dictator has gassed his own people.
Some Americans do not want this country to intervene to halt the massacre of Syrians. For those who know U.S. history, it is an eerie reminder of America's reluctance to enter World War II despite reliable reports of the systematic decimation of Jews. It took Pearl Harbor to change minds.
But there are more recent examples of global hand-wringing. In a single 100-day period in 1994, an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans were slaughtered in the largest genocide since 1945. Not a single nation intervened to stop the bloodshed. The world's condemnations rang hollow.
That is why President Trump's proclamation deserved more news coverage. The world can never again fold its arms and allow mass killings. Nations that do nothing are complicit by their inaction. How many Jews could have been saved if the U.S. and its allies had acted sooner?
The world will never know the answer to that haunting question. But we should heed the words of the president. "We must ensure that the history of the Holocaust remains forever relevant and that no people suffer these tragedies ever again," Mr. Trump wrote in his proclamation.
If we the people allow the Holocaust to become a footnote in history, then our country and indeed the world is doomed to turn a blind eye to evil even when entire populations or races are obliterated by maniacal rulers and hate-mongering regimes. Please vow to never, ever forget the Holocaust.
During the sinister reign of Nazi terror, the Germans operated 40,000 camps, prisons and other ghastly facilities within their country and in the nations it occupied. But the six slaughterhouses were the final stop for most of the Nazi victims: six million Jews, including 1.1 million children.
The depraved campaign, directed by demonic German leader Adolf Hitler, was designed to butcher every living Jew in Europe. Before Hitler began his purge in 1933, about 9.5 million Jews lived on the continent. When the war ended in 1945, less than 1.5 million Jews remained.
This human carnage became know as The Holocaust. President Trump signed a proclamation last week declaring April 12 through April 19 as the Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust to remind Americans of one of the darkest periods in recorded history.
The timing of the proclamation could not have been better. Hate crimes against American Jews rose nine percent in 2016, reports the FBI. That is a sobering statistic in light of the political embrace of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who preaches anti-Semitism to growing audiences.
That's why countries need to be vigilant. The darkness of denial has already descended in Poland, where all six extermination camps were located. The government has passed a law criminalizing statements that suggest Poland was complicit in the Holocaust, despite damning evidence.
Poles imprisoned in the death camps were given roles as guards and block captains. Some were willing participants in torture and beatings. But the government now believes that part of Polish history is better forgotten to protect the country's new shiny progressive image.
In America, no government edict is required to scrub the Holocaust from memory. Many schools today no longer teach students about the Nazi campaign to eradicate an entire race. As a result, young people are growing up naive about Jewish genocide and the racial purity preached by Hitler.
A study by the Claims Conference, a consortium of diverse groups, found 22 percent of Millennials have never heard of the Holocaust. Some 41 percent believe less than two millions Jews were killed. And a stunning 49 percent could not name a single Nazi death camp. Their ignorance is chilling.
Even American adults are no longer knowledgeable about the Holocaust. More than 10 percent do not know about the Nazi purge. One in three adults incorrectly identified the number of Jews killed. Nearly 60 percent of adults are convinced another Holocaust could never happen again.
That last finding is alarming in light of recent events. This month the heinous Assad regime in Syria used chemical weapons, specifically a form of poisonous gas, to kill an unknown number of men, women and children. This is not the first time the Syrian dictator has gassed his own people.
Some Americans do not want this country to intervene to halt the massacre of Syrians. For those who know U.S. history, it is an eerie reminder of America's reluctance to enter World War II despite reliable reports of the systematic decimation of Jews. It took Pearl Harbor to change minds.
But there are more recent examples of global hand-wringing. In a single 100-day period in 1994, an estimated 500,000 to 1,000,000 Rwandans were slaughtered in the largest genocide since 1945. Not a single nation intervened to stop the bloodshed. The world's condemnations rang hollow.
That is why President Trump's proclamation deserved more news coverage. The world can never again fold its arms and allow mass killings. Nations that do nothing are complicit by their inaction. How many Jews could have been saved if the U.S. and its allies had acted sooner?
The world will never know the answer to that haunting question. But we should heed the words of the president. "We must ensure that the history of the Holocaust remains forever relevant and that no people suffer these tragedies ever again," Mr. Trump wrote in his proclamation.
If we the people allow the Holocaust to become a footnote in history, then our country and indeed the world is doomed to turn a blind eye to evil even when entire populations or races are obliterated by maniacal rulers and hate-mongering regimes. Please vow to never, ever forget the Holocaust.
Monday, April 9, 2018
Racism: Memories of Mississippi
What I remember about growing up in Mississippi were the hateful signs. They were posted near restrooms, lunch counters, bus terminals and other public areas. One read: Whites Only. The other said: Colored. The message was clear: The color of your skin dictated how you were treated.
Colored meant inferior. Unequal. It was racism at its ugliest. The year was 1960 and Dr. Martin Luther King's nascent civil rights movement was gaining national momentum. In Mississippi, he was crowned with the derisive sobriquet Dr. Martin Luther Coon. Racial hatred knew no bounds.
In 1961, I became eligible to earn a driver's license at age 15. Mississippi had lowered the driving age to accommodate the state's agricultural industry. Farm kids by necessity were operating family tractors and trucks on roads and highways. The land was tilled and harvested by blacks.
During a lunch break, my Dad ushered me into the Driver's License Bureau office. When he cracked the door, the waiting room was sardined with people, all of them African-American. My Dad glanced around and tugged my arm and whispered: "We'll have to come back some other day."
Before we reached the door, a voice called: "Are you here for a driver's license?" My Dad answered in the affirmative. A state trooper motioned us to follow him into his office. He closed the door and smirked: "None of those ("n" word) are getting a license today. The dumb asses can't read."
My license exam began after the trooper plopped his feet on his desk. What color is a stop sign? Red. How about a yield sign? Yellow. He grinned, "You passed the written test." He ordered me to drive Dad's car around the block. "If you don't hit any cars, you pass the driving test."
I never forgot the looks on those black faces as I strutted out the door. Instead of feeling elated about getting my license, I dawned on me that I was part of a conspiracy to deprive African-Americans of their right to legally drive. It was a cruel way to punish a people simply for being born black.
The other seminal event in my education about racism occurred in 1962. I was in high school when the first black student (James Meredith) attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. The state's governor vowed to block his path. A group of whites rioted at the campus.
Amidst the turmoil, students at my high school were kept informed about developments by announcements over the intercom. When Meredith was initially rebuffed from enrolling, the classroom erupted in whoops of applause. The song "Dixie" blared over the intercom.
Confederate flags became a symbol of resistance. Flags were duct tapped to radio antennas of cars and pickup trucks at school. A few students boasted about plans to load up their vehicles with guns and speed to Oxford to prevent that ("n" word") from stepping foot near lily white Ole Miss.
I was ashamed of my state. Dr. King, in his famous speech "I Have a Dream," pointedly referred to Mississippi as a state "sweltering with the heat of injustice." Racism was an epidemic, oozing from every corner of life. Decades removed, I can't fathom how blacks survived with their dignity intact.
More than 60 years later, change has crawled into Mississippi. Signs no longer taunt blacks. About 12 percent of students at Ole Miss are African-Americans. Mississippi leads the nation in black home ownership. However, too many blacks continue to live in stinging poverty.
For many, change has been agonizingly slow in a state where African-Americans account for 37 percent of the population, the highest in America. Mississippi remains No. 1 among all states in poverty (21.9%) and illiteracy (21.5%). But sometimes change is about more than statistics.
On a visit to the state capitol Jackson several years ago, I was gobsmacked to walk into an an upscale hotel restaurant and find blacks seated at three or four tables. They appeared right at home where once African-Americans donned aprons instead of dinner napkins. The wait staff was mostly white.
Waitresses addressed their African-American customers as "Sir" and "Ma'am." One black customer registered a complaint about the food. The waitress was respectful and accommodating. That doesn't represent waves of progress in most states. But in Mississippi, it qualifies as a tsunami.
It has been 50 years since Dr. King was gunned down in Memphis. The man once scorned by Mississippians might be surprised to witness blacks and whites together in a college classroom studying about the civil rights movement. Dr. King would have surveyed the situation and thundered:
"Free at last, Free at last, Great God almighty, we are Free at last!" But he might have added: "It's about time."
Colored meant inferior. Unequal. It was racism at its ugliest. The year was 1960 and Dr. Martin Luther King's nascent civil rights movement was gaining national momentum. In Mississippi, he was crowned with the derisive sobriquet Dr. Martin Luther Coon. Racial hatred knew no bounds.
In 1961, I became eligible to earn a driver's license at age 15. Mississippi had lowered the driving age to accommodate the state's agricultural industry. Farm kids by necessity were operating family tractors and trucks on roads and highways. The land was tilled and harvested by blacks.
During a lunch break, my Dad ushered me into the Driver's License Bureau office. When he cracked the door, the waiting room was sardined with people, all of them African-American. My Dad glanced around and tugged my arm and whispered: "We'll have to come back some other day."
Before we reached the door, a voice called: "Are you here for a driver's license?" My Dad answered in the affirmative. A state trooper motioned us to follow him into his office. He closed the door and smirked: "None of those ("n" word) are getting a license today. The dumb asses can't read."
My license exam began after the trooper plopped his feet on his desk. What color is a stop sign? Red. How about a yield sign? Yellow. He grinned, "You passed the written test." He ordered me to drive Dad's car around the block. "If you don't hit any cars, you pass the driving test."
I never forgot the looks on those black faces as I strutted out the door. Instead of feeling elated about getting my license, I dawned on me that I was part of a conspiracy to deprive African-Americans of their right to legally drive. It was a cruel way to punish a people simply for being born black.
The other seminal event in my education about racism occurred in 1962. I was in high school when the first black student (James Meredith) attempted to enroll at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. The state's governor vowed to block his path. A group of whites rioted at the campus.
Amidst the turmoil, students at my high school were kept informed about developments by announcements over the intercom. When Meredith was initially rebuffed from enrolling, the classroom erupted in whoops of applause. The song "Dixie" blared over the intercom.
Confederate flags became a symbol of resistance. Flags were duct tapped to radio antennas of cars and pickup trucks at school. A few students boasted about plans to load up their vehicles with guns and speed to Oxford to prevent that ("n" word") from stepping foot near lily white Ole Miss.
I was ashamed of my state. Dr. King, in his famous speech "I Have a Dream," pointedly referred to Mississippi as a state "sweltering with the heat of injustice." Racism was an epidemic, oozing from every corner of life. Decades removed, I can't fathom how blacks survived with their dignity intact.
More than 60 years later, change has crawled into Mississippi. Signs no longer taunt blacks. About 12 percent of students at Ole Miss are African-Americans. Mississippi leads the nation in black home ownership. However, too many blacks continue to live in stinging poverty.
For many, change has been agonizingly slow in a state where African-Americans account for 37 percent of the population, the highest in America. Mississippi remains No. 1 among all states in poverty (21.9%) and illiteracy (21.5%). But sometimes change is about more than statistics.
On a visit to the state capitol Jackson several years ago, I was gobsmacked to walk into an an upscale hotel restaurant and find blacks seated at three or four tables. They appeared right at home where once African-Americans donned aprons instead of dinner napkins. The wait staff was mostly white.
Waitresses addressed their African-American customers as "Sir" and "Ma'am." One black customer registered a complaint about the food. The waitress was respectful and accommodating. That doesn't represent waves of progress in most states. But in Mississippi, it qualifies as a tsunami.
It has been 50 years since Dr. King was gunned down in Memphis. The man once scorned by Mississippians might be surprised to witness blacks and whites together in a college classroom studying about the civil rights movement. Dr. King would have surveyed the situation and thundered:
"Free at last, Free at last, Great God almighty, we are Free at last!" But he might have added: "It's about time."
Monday, April 2, 2018
Stonewalling FBI and DOJ Losing Public Trust
Drip. Drip. Drip. That's the sound of the FBI and Department of Justice releasing documents ordered by Congressional oversight groups. Requests are slow-walked. Months pass without action. Then the agencies release a trickle of documents, always heavily redacted. Drip. Drip. Drip.
Two house committees are losing patience with the government foot-dragging. Committee chairmen are threatening to slap subpoenas on the nation's top law enforcement agency and the justice department over what appears to be a deliberate attempt to thwart Congressional investigations.
The simmering dispute threatens to boil over into a Constitutional crisis. The FBI and Department of Justice are acting as if they are above the law. They were warned in December to produce documents in a timely manner or face contempt citations. The agencies just shrugged.
While stonewalling Congress, the FBI and DOJ have treated the media to a flood of information. Both have leaked details on the probes to newspaper and television reporters, while obstructing the Congressional investigations with flimsy excuses for noncompliance.
The House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee are growing impatient. Only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands requested by the committees have been released by justice and the FBI. Both agencies blithely admit they have been negligent, unafraid of blowback.
Justice Department official Ian Prior acknowledged his agency has discovered more than 30,000 documents responsive to Judiciary's request. Thus far it has delivered 3,000 documents, Prior publicly conceded. He claimed two dozen FBI agents were assisting on the document search.
The House Intelligence Committee has experienced the same government stiff arm. It has asked for 1.2 million documents related to its probe on the government's actions with regard to charges of spying on the Trump campaign. To date, the FBI has handed over a few thousand documents.
The government's behavior raises troubling questions about why they have not been forthcoming. What are they hiding? Have documents been destroyed? Are the two agencies complicit in a cover up? Who are they protecting? Only full disclosure can resolve those issues and restore credibility.
The two high-ranking government officials gumming the document discovery process are FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They have unambiguous authority to order their departments to fully comply with document requests in a timely manner.
After blistering Congressional condemnations, director Wray has lifted the embargo, if only slightly. He announced plans last week to double the FBI agents to 54 on the document search. In a rare moment of contrition, he said the current pace was "too slow." A tortoise is speedier than the FBI.
If these agencies continue to frustrate the investigations, the House should vote to impeach Wray and Rosenstein. It is time to hold them accountable for the action of their employees. The underlings (aka Deep State) in their agencies cannot be allowed to obstruct Congress without facing consequences.
Imagine for a moment if the FBI or DOJ had requested documents of a business firm as part of a government investigation. What do you think would happen if the business decided to dribble a tiny portion of the documents? The CEO would face an obstruction of justice charge and jail time.
The FBI and DOJ cannot be allowed to skirt the same laws they are duty bound to enforce. The two agencies are behaving as anarchists who are unaccountable to Congress. Both are losing the trust of Americans who are convinced the agencies have been corrupted by politically partisanship.
There is a way to restore confidence. The House should vote to appoint a special counsel to get to the bottom of the FBI's handling of Hillary Clinton's email server investigation and the DOJ involvement in authorizing FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign, including alleged FISA court abuses.
If the DOJ and FBI have nothing to conceal, they should welcome an opportunity to clear the air. However, they obviously don't want anyone snooping in their business. Otherwise they would have long ago surrendered the documents sought by Congress. So what are they hiding? And why?
Two house committees are losing patience with the government foot-dragging. Committee chairmen are threatening to slap subpoenas on the nation's top law enforcement agency and the justice department over what appears to be a deliberate attempt to thwart Congressional investigations.
The simmering dispute threatens to boil over into a Constitutional crisis. The FBI and Department of Justice are acting as if they are above the law. They were warned in December to produce documents in a timely manner or face contempt citations. The agencies just shrugged.
While stonewalling Congress, the FBI and DOJ have treated the media to a flood of information. Both have leaked details on the probes to newspaper and television reporters, while obstructing the Congressional investigations with flimsy excuses for noncompliance.
The House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee are growing impatient. Only a fraction of the hundreds of thousands requested by the committees have been released by justice and the FBI. Both agencies blithely admit they have been negligent, unafraid of blowback.
Justice Department official Ian Prior acknowledged his agency has discovered more than 30,000 documents responsive to Judiciary's request. Thus far it has delivered 3,000 documents, Prior publicly conceded. He claimed two dozen FBI agents were assisting on the document search.
The House Intelligence Committee has experienced the same government stiff arm. It has asked for 1.2 million documents related to its probe on the government's actions with regard to charges of spying on the Trump campaign. To date, the FBI has handed over a few thousand documents.
The government's behavior raises troubling questions about why they have not been forthcoming. What are they hiding? Have documents been destroyed? Are the two agencies complicit in a cover up? Who are they protecting? Only full disclosure can resolve those issues and restore credibility.
The two high-ranking government officials gumming the document discovery process are FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They have unambiguous authority to order their departments to fully comply with document requests in a timely manner.
After blistering Congressional condemnations, director Wray has lifted the embargo, if only slightly. He announced plans last week to double the FBI agents to 54 on the document search. In a rare moment of contrition, he said the current pace was "too slow." A tortoise is speedier than the FBI.
If these agencies continue to frustrate the investigations, the House should vote to impeach Wray and Rosenstein. It is time to hold them accountable for the action of their employees. The underlings (aka Deep State) in their agencies cannot be allowed to obstruct Congress without facing consequences.
Imagine for a moment if the FBI or DOJ had requested documents of a business firm as part of a government investigation. What do you think would happen if the business decided to dribble a tiny portion of the documents? The CEO would face an obstruction of justice charge and jail time.
The FBI and DOJ cannot be allowed to skirt the same laws they are duty bound to enforce. The two agencies are behaving as anarchists who are unaccountable to Congress. Both are losing the trust of Americans who are convinced the agencies have been corrupted by politically partisanship.
There is a way to restore confidence. The House should vote to appoint a special counsel to get to the bottom of the FBI's handling of Hillary Clinton's email server investigation and the DOJ involvement in authorizing FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign, including alleged FISA court abuses.
If the DOJ and FBI have nothing to conceal, they should welcome an opportunity to clear the air. However, they obviously don't want anyone snooping in their business. Otherwise they would have long ago surrendered the documents sought by Congress. So what are they hiding? And why?
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