Fixing Social Security

Dear editor:

Assume, although the opposite is obvious, that President Bush is really interested in helping out young Americans when they retire, and that putting billions more into play into the stock market is not his true aim. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt that he truly believes that he needs to fix a Social Security system that is not broken.

Examine his idea of privatizing a portion of Social Security payments so that people can have a hand in saving money for their retirement, or for their family, if they should die before they retire and start drawing on their account. The upside of this idea is no where the benefit that would overcome the downside if the market did not pay as well as regular Social Security payments. After all, people lose money in the market all the time. But in Social Security accounts you are guaranteed to have that soft landing for a minimal retirement as originally planned during the depression of the 1930s when older people went hungry with no income at all.

Is the return on Social Security good? I retired at age sixty-two and a half after having paid the maximum throughout my working life, as I did not want to wait until age 65 for a slightly higher amount. After only four years of benefits (December 2004) I have already surpassed all my payments into the system by $6,000. If I live to the average life expectancy of 83 the next sixteen years is pure profit. Not a bad return, and it was guaranteed by the U.S. Government, not by an up and down stock market that couldn’t match that return under any conditions.

If the president and his party’s control of Congress insist on privatization, they should consider a second idea that still isn’t as good as straight Social Security Accounts. Instead of using the stock market, why not force the money into U.S. Government savings bonds that at least have a guaranteed return for the holder and keep some of our national debt, which is running wild under Mr. Bush’s leadership, out of foreign hands. Helps to kill two birds with one stone.

Of course this still isn’t as good as the current system which needs some tweaking, but at least might bring some sanity to a bad idea.

Reaction to Preident's Inauguration Speech

Dear Editor:

Isn't it a shame that so many people from the White House, the president's father and members of the Republican Party in Congress are having to "explain" what the president meant in his inauguration speech? Isn't it a shame that so many foreign countries and commentators just didn't "understand" what Bush meant? Isn't it a shame that we have a president whose words are so distrusted and measured by others? No wonder we are so disliked around the world.

Timing is Everything

Dear Editor:

What an amazing coincidence of timing.

Up until this week, the administration, led by President Bush, have admitted no mistakes or miscalculations in the planning of the war in Iraq, for the recovery of that country, or for an exit plan that would allow our troops to come home. Even during the presidential campaign, Mr. Bush, during one of the debates, claimed he could not think of any mistakes he had made.

Now the election is over. Suddenly, Condoleeza Rice, in her appearance before the Senate committee looking into her nomination as Secretary of State, admits that there had been miscalculations and mistakes in the planning of the war and its aftermath. Today, January 20th, after he was sworn in as Vice President for a second term, Dick Cheney said that he had overestimated the pace of Iraq’s recovery from the U.S. led invasion because he didn’t realize the lasting devastation wrought by Saddam Hussein on his people after the first Gulf War. Not until after Saddam was ousted did the United States realize the extent of the Iraqi leader’s brutality in putting down revolt in 1991, Cheney said. On the Don Imus Show on radio he said, “I would chalk that one up as a miscalculation, where I thought things would have recovered more quickly.”

Isn’t that wonderful! Now after all the poor decisions, or out and out lies, and after the campaign, he suddenly realizes and admits to “miscalculations and mistakes.” After 1,365 American service deaths and tens of thousands of American service casualties, and untold Iraqi deaths and destruction, he calmly and innocently admits to mistakes. He’s free and clear.

According to Mr. Cheney’s own words, who is responsible? Not him. It’s the fault of Saddam Hussein. How’s that for taking responsibility? Even when he admits “mistakes and miscalculations” it’s someone else’s fault. Even my three year old grandson wouldn’t try that.

A Damn Yankee In King Cotton's Court

(Written in August 2001)

I’m what you would call a “Damn Yankee”. For those of you who don’t understand Southernese, a Damn Yankee is one who migrates South, especially from New York, recognizes heaven, and doesn’t move back. Most of them spend their first five years living in the Southland complaining bitterly about the humidity, the lack of good bagels, the need for a delicatessen equal to those up north and the fact that Southerners don’t know how to drive on snow and ice. Of course they seem to overlook the fact that this “skill” isn’t necessary because these road conditions exist only once every 5 or 6 years, and disappear in a day or two. In other words, who cares?

If snow and ice, and the ability to drive in it are so important, how come all the northern colleges fight like crazy to get away from the winter weather and be invited to the New Year’s Day bowl games that are all held in the South. Never heard of a “Yankee Bowl”. Northerners don’t even know that on New Year’s Day you are supposed to eat collard greens and black-eyed peas for good luck. Such an empty upbringing.

I’ve converted heart and soul and to me a good meal now is fried chicken, rice and gravy, fried okra, turnip greens cooked with fatback, corn meal muffins and a glass of iced tea, even in the winter. Please don’t tell my cardiologist this because it might explain why my cholesterol is so high. However, my three grown children, all University of Georgia Bulldogs, still refer to me as the family “Yankee”. I guess my 47 years of living in the South just don’t count enough with them. Well, at least their mother is a native Southerner, and also a UGA Bulldog. It isn’t easy for a Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket to live in a house with four bulldogs, but at least I have a real education. (I’ll hear from the kids about that one.)

I now live in Louisiana, the northernmost banana republic in the hemisphere, which in itself is another story. Living here you are presented with unusual problems, one of which was posed to me recently. It goes: If a man and a woman get married in Louisiana, move to Arkansas for 10 years, get a divorce, and both move back to Louisiana, are they still brother and sister? Hmmmmm.

While I know that my everyday language, after all these years, is peppered with words such as ya’ll and ma’am, my accent has changed very little. Either my speech pattern was already established when I came south to Atlanta or I am very stubborn. Take your pick. Whenever a true son or daughter of the south meets me and hears me speak, they always ask, “Where in the East are you from?” God forbid they should let the word North escape their lips. At least I don’t speak in Brooklynese.

Southerners love football. Yes, their hog-jowls, heritage and hunting dogs are important to them, but not like football. In the south football is a religion. All over the country professional and college football crowds the fall weekend, but below the Mason-Dixon Line Friday night is the Sabbath and the high school football stadium is the altar of their love and affection. From the Carolinas and Georgia, to Alabama and Louisiana*, and all the way to Texas, when the school year starts (or sometimes even before) all eyes turn to Friday night and the hunt for the coveted state championship, high school All-American listings, TV coverage and visitations from college scouts. This is aided by the fact that there isn’t any ice or snow to drive through and the worst we have to negotiate is a hurricane, which of course doesn’t stop the game even if there is an evacuation ordered due to the storm. Until you have been to a Friday night high school game in the south, you truly haven’t experienced football worship.

Southern high schools draw crowds for football games that their northern counterparts only dream of. Most of these secondary schools, even in small towns, have seating capacities of twenty to twenty-five thousand and fill every single seat. In Louisiana the state AAA football championship game is held in the Superdome in New Orleans and the casual observer would think that the NFL was playing the Super Bowl. Needless to say this follows on up into college games. The perfect example of this is Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, LA, home of Louisiana State University (LSU). The seating capacity of the football stadium is greater than the population of the city and on every football evening (they always play the games there at night) every seat is filled. For a member of the visiting team or an opposing fan the noise level of the LSU fans is a frightening thing the first time you hear it. It lives up to its “Death Valley” nickname. In Atlanta, home of Georgia Tech, the Tech vs. Univ. of Georgia freshman game at Grant Field, on Thanksgiving Day, used to sell out 50,000 seats, until the NCAA discontinued freshman teams. No longer is cotton king in the south. Football is.

To many a southerner, Gone With the Wind is more than just a book and movie, and Tara’s Theme is more than a piece of music. They are the living images and sounds of the War Between the States*. There are some in the south who believe that the present is only a lull in the fighting and next time the confederacy will win. But, we all have our nut cases.

I have always maintained that southerners have better work habits and more efficiency than office personnel up north. This I based upon my observations of the garment industry both in the south and in New York, the recognized garment center of the country. Thanks to 35 years of working in this field of manufacturing, merchandising and selling, which took me on a regular basis to the Big Apple, I feel I can speak with authority, without fear of contradiction on the subject. Also, for two years, midway through my career, my family and I lived (you will excuse the expression) in New Jersey and I commuted to Manhattan and the company offices.

People work in New York and live in New Jersey basically for two reasons. First, with some finagling, you can file state taxes in the Garden State rather than in the Empire State, which saves a ton of money. Secondly, you want to get out of the big city and move to the “country” where your children can have a normal life. But, your problems are also two fold. First, you are still surrounded by New Yorkers, and secondly, you now become a commuter. Not all commuters arrive each day from New Jersey, as there is also a great number coming from Connecticut and Long Island. The location of these former New York City commuters follows a very set pattern of emigration. Brooklynites tend to move to New Jersey, Manhattanites go to Connecticut and the New York State area just north of New Jersey, and Bronxites move to Long Island. I think this plan was set down when the Dutch bought Manhattan Island from the natives for $24 in beads.

Commuting from these locations is an adventure all unto itself and has a grave effect on the work habits and efficiency of those who make this daily trek. To a native New Yorker living on these fringes of the city, there is no such thing as a “bad commute”. Even those who leave their homes at 6:00AM to be at work by 9:00AM insist they have a “good commute”. There are people who live way out on Long Island and get up at 5:30AM to travel two to two and a half hours to their office. By doing so, they claim to get an opportunity to catch up on their reading, while on the bus or train, and have good, quiet time at the office to accomplish many tasks. Of course not much work is really done, as their buddies do the same and they all wind up in the coffee shop having breakfast, reading the morning paper and discussing last night’s ball game.

While my Amtrack train line was fairly dependable I couldn’t help but notice that some traveled in railroad cars without benefit of air conditioning or heating. These cars sometimes were so old that you could observe Indian arrows embedded on the outside.

Those who traveled by bus from these outer reaches would reach the city at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on Eighth Avenue, the garden spot of New York. From here they would walk to their offices, take another bus or avail themselves of the subway.

For those who drove into the city, a crawling, bumper-to-bumper, slow death of sorts awaited. Quite often there would be a time killing accident or tie-up at the tunnel pay booths. Backed-up tunnels and bridges are a must, for after all, Manhattan is an island. Driving into the garment district brings with it the pleasure of public parking lots, which have monthly parking rates greater than the average mortgage payment. For daily rates, it would be cheaper to buy the parking lot.

This is New York commuting. Ask anyone. They all have a “good commute.”

How does this effect work? That's easy. Many people arrive late, order for delivery their breakfast from the downstairs coffee shop (or at least coffee) and then spend the next half hour complaining about their trip into the city, followed by a fifteen minute discussion of the previous night’s activities. By now it is 10:00AM.

At 11:30AM it is time to start planning lunch, or leave early to do some absolutely necessary shopping before eating. In many instances shopping takes up so much time that it becomes necessary to bring lunch back to the office at 1:15PM, which shows concern for your company time.

At 3:00PM it’s time for an afternoon break and someone runs down to the coffee shop to pick up something cold to drink for everyone in the office. This is followed by leaving at 4:50PM, so you can catch the 5:10 train out of Penn Station. After all, there isn’t another one until 5:22, which will get you home much later. Of course falling asleep on the train home doesn’t help. I did one night and went all the way to Philadelphia.

Does this effect productivity? You better believe it. Does it compare to the southern garment office worker who arrives at 8:00AM, takes a 15 minute coffee break at 10:00, has a half hour for lunch, a short afternoon break and then doesn’t leave before 5:00PM? They don’t even come close. And all this without the ridiculous commute, which I figure gives the southerner an extra month a year at home.

Am I exaggerating? Well, maybe a little. But, I’m a Damn Yankee, who saw the true light and took the pledge. I just hope I never have to make a decision as to what I should do if there was ever another “War of Northern Aggression”.

* You will notice that Florida is not shown here. That is because it is not recognized as a true Southern state and in actuality is the sixth borough of New York.
** Southern schools never taught the term “Civil War”. The proper term was the War Between the States or the War of Northern Agression.

Condoleza Rice-Sect. of State?

Dear Editor:

National Security Advisor, Condi Rice, in her testimony before the Senate committee that is questioning her on her nomination as Secretary of State, continuously says she feels badly about the faulty information on Iraq’s WMDs that she passed on to the president. In answer to Senator Barbara Boxer’s questioning about her honesty on the matter, she snapped back that she did not appreciate the senator questioning her honesty. I can understand that.

But then of course, if she was not dishonest about the information she must have been incapable of knowing truth from fiction. She can’t have it both ways. Was she dishonest or incapable? Did she make the intelligence fit the needs of the president or just not up to the position she was in? This is an important question for there are over 1,300 American service people dead and tens of thousands maimed, partly because of her advice to the president.

And now she wants to be Secretary of State?

Arrogance

Dear Editor:

In an interview aboard Air Force One last week, Mr. Bush stated that the public’s decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath. “We had an accountability moment, and that’s called the 2004 elections. The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me.”

What unmitigated, bald faced arrogance and gall. Is that what he tells the families of the over 1,300 American members of the armed forces that were killed in Iraq? Or what about the tens of thousands of Americans maimed in the war’s hostilities? Or what about the billions of dollars that have been, and will continue to be, spent because of those mistakes and misjudgments? All this is not accountable because the American people “chose me?”

Does this mean that Adolph Hitler was not guilty for the atrocities of the Second World War because he was legally elected (chosen) by the German people? Does this mean that the murderer, who watches a wrongly convicted man go to the electric chair, is now innocent because the people “chose” the wrong person?

What ever happened to the difference between right and wrong? Is this “moral leadership”? Is this truly a religious man? Does he really believe that God, who he refers to all the time, does not hold him accountable? How are we now to trust his judgment and word on anything?

Warped Responsibility

Dear Editor:

President Bush has responded to the firings at CBS News, caused by the sloppy journalism that questioned his National Guard service, by stating, ”CBS said they would act. They did. And I hope their actions are such that this doesn’t happen again.” Well said. But strange coming from a man who got everything wrong about going to war with Iraq and did nothing about getting rid of the people who were just as sloppy and responsible for that farce.

Look at the record: George Tenet, head of the CIA, who assured the president that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Fired? No, he received a graceful retirement and the Presidential Medal of Freedom; Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, who approved a battle plan for a war that shows no sign of ending. Fired? No, he stays in the Cabinet; Condi Rice, National Security Advisor, who advised the president to tell the world of Iraq’s nuclear weapons program when it had none. Fired? No, she is nominated to be Secretary of State; Vice President Cheney, who to this day has insisted that sooner or later WMD would be found and that there was a link between Saddam Husssein and Osama bin Laden. Fired? No, he stayed on the ticket and is a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Mr. Bush’s view on the firings at CBS once again proves that others should do what he will not. Responsibility is evidently not his responsibility.

What amazes me is the ability of the majority of Americans who voted in the last election to accept this poor performance and warped view of responsibility, and allow more and more of our youth to be killed and maimed in a pre-emptive war that never should have been. All this just because a man’s undefined “moral values”, suddenly found religiosity, and phony aw-shucks down home appearance is the act they want to see and hear.

Elected Leaders True Worries

Dear Editor:

As you read the daily newspapers across the country and listen to the news on TV and radio, you can’t help but be bombarded with all the plans and sales talk coming out of the White House and Congress for tax cuts, proposed changes in Social Security, proposed changes in Medicare, cutbacks in entitlement programs, the cost of the war in Iraq, and the mounting national deficit that grows and grows. While Americans agree or disagree with many of these programs, and whether they truly understand the results of this typical political banter and salesmanship on both sides of the aisle, does not seem to be the major concern of our elected representatives in both houses of Congress and in the White House. Listen and read what the news is saying:

Do our leaders (in the Senate, Congress and White House) truly worry about the overall effect to our growing deficit? No!

Do our leaders truly worry about the fact that the President says our Social Security is going bust even though the Congressional Budget Office is estimating that in 75 years the overall cost will be $2 trillion and not the $10 trillion that we are being sold as happening just around the corner? No!

Do our leaders truly worry about the fact that cutting future payments to Social Security benefits will leave the average American with less than enough to survive? No!

Do our leaders truly worry about how the cost of medication is bankrupting some elderly Americans? No!

Do our leaders truly worry about the fact that privatization of part of Social Security might well add to the growing deficit and have it exceed 8% of GDP? No!

Do our leaders truly worry about the fact that the only real winner of privatization will be Wall Street, as fees to manage millions of accounts will grow beyond belief? No!

What they do worry about, as reported in the news, is that some of this might cost them control of Congress in the next election. It is obvious that they are more worried about their own position and income, both now and in the future after they retire, than about their constituents who put them there. When do Americans wake up and realize that they are not represented by our elected officials, both Democrats and Republicans, but by selfish people who are only interested in their own rear ends?

Israel is the excuse for Arab terrorism

This letter was written just after the 9/11 destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001:

Dear Editor:

I am constantly hearing on the radio and TV and reading in the newspapers that the lever of terrorism that we are facing from Osama bin Laden and his associates would not be going on were it not for the Middle East policies of the United States, and the American view of and stand on the troubles between the state of Israel and the Palestinian people. This is absolute baloney and has nothing to do with the religious hypocrisy and power craze of this madman.

It is a known fact that he did not start his hatred of America, where he and his family invested and made millions, until the U.S. used Saudi Arabia (with that governmeent’s agreement) as a military jumping off place during the Gulf War. Now this hatred of America and Israel has become a phony rallying call of Middle Eastern masters and their downtrodden peoples. Maybe it would help if people would become aware of some of the real facts and history behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:
>>Israel became a nation in 1312 B.C., 2000 years before the rise of Islam.
>>King David founded the city of Jerusalem.
>>Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 B.C., Jews had dominion over the land for 1,000 years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.
>>The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 A.D. lasted no more than 22 years.
>>For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visity.
>>Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scripture. The city is never mentioned once in the Koran.
>>Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims face Mecca.
>>Many Arab leaders supported Hitler during the Second World War and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem spent most of the war in Berlin surrounded by German trained storm troopers.
>>When the U.N. partitioned the land into two separate states, Israel and Palestine, Arabs were encouraged to leave the new state of Israel, where they lived, by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left by choice without eveer seeing an Israeli soldier.
>>Arab refugees were intentionally not absorbed or integrated into other Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Araab territory in surrounding countries. Theirs is the only refugee group that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own people’s (Arab) lands. In fact, some Arab countries expelled them. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.
>>Arab refugees are represented by eight nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation that has successfully defended itself against these eight in five separate wars initiated by the Arab states.
>>Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and Jews denied access to places of worship in the old city. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.
>>The U.N. was silent while 58 Jerusalem synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians.
>>The U.N. record on Israel and the Arabs of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.

None of this has anything to do with bin Laden and his group or any other Arab leader. Let’s be real. The al-Qaida group is only interested in power and the denigration of anyone who does not agree with their warped view of the world and people.

WE'RE DIFFERENT

Let’s face it, we’re different. People have accused us of that since time began. Even Archie Bunker on “All In the Family” knew it. When a legal problem arose on the show Archie made that difference clear by telling his family that they needed, “One of those good Heb lawyers.” Or when someone was really sick his advice would be to call “One of them good Jew doctors.” Of course Archie thought anyone who wasn’t just like him was different. But, he wasn’t alone in his opinion. For thousands of years people, right or wrong, have professed it and “known it for sure.”

We’ve always been different. Go back in time to ancient Alexandria, Egypt before the common era (BCE) and you will find the first hints of anti-Judaism in that Jews were disliked because they kept to themselves, lived in their own neighborhoods, traded amongst themselves and would not break bread with their Gentile neighbors because of the dietary laws commanded in the Hebrew Bible. While Jews were more than 25% of the population, Greeks were in the majority in Alexandria and tried their best to Hellenize all who lived there. Some Jews did assimilate and merge their monotheistic belief with Greek polytheism, but most clung to their ancient belief of a single God and by doing so kept themselves separate. This did not endear them to the Greeks and a dislike for both their separate living and religion appeared. Basically it has been that way ever since.

Of course that small, beginning seed of anti-Judaism spread with the birth of Christianity and the Roman Church, which invented Ghettos (the first one was in Italy, as ordered by an early pope,) blame for the death of Jesus, restrictions on owning land, restrictions on professions, forced conversions (or death as in the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions,) banishment from countries, burning of Torahs, Talmuds and Synagogues (with the Jews inside,) extra taxation for just about anything you can name and that so-called religious march through Europe known as the Crusades, which killed every Jew and burned every synagogue that could be found along the route of march. Anything to punish these “different” people.

History shows that this anti-Judaism spread with the Diaspora and continued into the modern world culminating in the Holocaust of the Second World War. Hitler and Nazi Germany didn’t invent hating those “different” Jews, they just excelled in mass persecution and genocide. The groundwork was laid long before.

Most people in the United States have not run into any extreme form of anti-Judaism and have lived most of their lives putting up with subtleties and exclusions. But, if studied and questioned there is no doubt that they are very much aware of being “different” to their neighbors and friends, just because they are Jews. Growing up I always knew that something was different, but couldn’t put my finger on it. Now in my sixties and having lived away from the “traditional neighborhood” for many years, I can’t help but be aware of how we are perceived as different. I am also aware that due to history, religious belief, tradition, training and reverse discrimination, we are different.

Don’t think we’re different? In the book The Jewish Phenomenon by Steven Silbiger the following statistics are brough to light (as of 1964):

>Jews make up less than 2% of the total U.S. population, But:
>45% of the top 40 of the Forbes 400 richest Americans are Jewish, 23% of the entire 400, 24%of the billionaires.
>One third of all American multi-millionaires are Jewish.
>The percentage of Jewish households with income greater than $50,000 is double that of non-Jews.
>The percentage of Jewish households with income less tha $20,000 is half that of non-Jews.
>20% of professors at leading universities are Jewish.
>40% of partners in leading New York and Washington, D.C. law firms are Jewish
>25% of all American Nobel Prize winners are Jewish.
>30% of American Nobel Prize winners for science are Jewish.
>Jewish success in the early movie business:
Louis B. Mayer and Samuel Golden founded MGM Studios
Adolph Zukor founded Paramount Pictures
Carl Laemmle founded Universal Studios
Sam & Jack Warner founded Warner Brothers Studios
William Fox founded 20th Century Fox
Harry Cohen founded Columbia Pictures
Marcus Loew started Loew’s Theaater Chain
>Continued success in the movie business:
Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg founded Dreamworks SKG
Sumner Redstone owned Paramount Pictures
Michael Eisner runs Disney Corporation
Edgar Bronfman owned Universal Studios
>Successful movie producers and directors and only one of their films:
Erich von Stroheim (Greed, 1924)
David O. Selznick (Gone With the Wind, 1939)
Otto Preminger (Laura, 1944)
Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, 1950)
Stanley Kramer (The Caine Mutiny, 1954)
Stanley Kubrick (2001, A Space Odyssey, 1968)
Mike Nichols (The Graduate, 1968)
Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa, 1985)
Oliver Stone (Platoon, 1986)
Rob Reiner (Stand By Me, 1986)
Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle, 1993)
Steven Spielberg (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977)
(Note: Just a few Academy Awards in that group.)
>Successful Radio and Television pioneers:
William Paley founded CBS
David Sarnoff founded NBC
Leonard Goldenson founded ABC.
>Just a few successful performers:
Marv Albert, Mel Allen, Tim Allen, Woody Allen, June Allyson, Jason Alexander, Morey Amsterdam, Bea Arthur, Lauren Bacall, Rosanne Barr, Richard Belzer, Jack Benny, Irving Berlin, Sandra Bernhard, Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Karen Black, Elayne Boosler, Victor Borge, David Brenner, Fanny Brice, Mel Brooks, Albert Brooks, Dr. Joyce Brothers, Lenny Bruce, George Burns, Sid Caesar, Eddie Cantor, Jeff Chandler, Andrew “Dice” Clay, Lee J. Cobb, Howard Cosell, Norm Crosby, Billy Crystal, Tony Curtis, Rodney Dangerfield, Phyllis Diller, Kirk Douglas, Melvyn Douglas, Fran Drescher, Bob Dylan, Eddie Fisher, Al Franken, Paulette Godard, Benny Goodman, Gilbert Gotfried, Lee Grant, Shecky Greene, Elliott Gould, Buddy Hackett, Pee-Wee Herman, Judd Hirsch, Judy Holiday, Al Jolson, Marvin Kalb, Bernard Kalb, Gabe Kaplan, Andy Kaufman, Danny Kaye, Alan King, Larry King, Robert Klein, Werner Klemperer, Harvey Korman, Jack Klugman, Ted Koppel, Michael Landon, Matt Lauer, Steve Lawrence, Gypsy Rose Lee, Irving R. Levine, Al Lewis, Richard Lewis, Jerry Lewis, Hal Linden, Peter Lorre, John Lovitz, Julia Lewis-Dryfus, The Marx Brothers (Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Gummo), Leonard Matlin, Howie Mandel, Jackie Mason, Elaine May, Ethel Merman, Bette Midler, Yves Montand, Rick Mornis, Edwin Newman, Jerry Orbach, Molly Picon, Maury Povich, Stephanie Powers, Gilda Radner, Tony Randall, Carl Reiner, Rob Reiner, Paul Reiser, Don Rickles, The Ritz Brothers (Al, Harry, Jimmy), Geraldo Rivera, Joan Rivers, Edward G. Robinson, Morley Safer, Bob Saget, Mort Sahl, Soupy Sales, Peter Sellers, Jane Seymour, Artie Shaw, Phil Silvers, Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, Gene Shalit, Gary Shandling, Lynn Sher, Dinah Shore, Pauly Shore, Daniel Shorr, Joel Siegel, Simone Signoret, Beverly Sills, Bob Simon, Leslie Stahl, Ben Stein, Howard Stern, The Three Stooges, (Larry Fine, Curly Howard, Mo Howard and Shemp Howard), Barbra Streisand, Sophie Tucker, Mike Wallace, Barbara Walters, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Gene Wilder, Natalie Wood, Henny Youngman.
>Major Stores owned or founded by Jews:
Macy’s, Sears, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Filene’s, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, May Company, Kohl’s, Lazarus, Goldsmith’s, Rich’s, Stern’s, Loehman’s, I. Magnin, Gimble’s, Hecht’s, B. Altman, Abraham & Strauss, Garfinkle’s, Federated, The Limited, The Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Lane Bryant, Victoria Secret, Barney’s, Home Depot, Home Shopping Network, Zales, Herzberg Diamond.
Computer Industry Leaders:
Michael Dell-Dell Computers
Andrew Grove-Intel Corporation
Larry Ellison-Oracle Corporation

Gee, maybe we are a little different.

A Letter They Didn't Print

June 3, 2004

Dear Editor:

Recently, a friend of mine was describing the home which was purchased for the new “Black Bishop” here in Lake Charles. I thought for a moment and then asked him, if the bishop was Caucasian would he have described him as the “White Bishop?” He reflected for a moment and replied, “Of course not.” “Then why, I would like to know, do you find it necessary to use the adjective and point out the fact that he is black?” No answer.

Last week a parent who had attended their child’s high school graduation was describing the ceremony and remarked about the wonderful speech given by the “Chinese girl” who was class valedictorian. Once again I could not resist the temptation to ask if the young girl was Caucasian, would they have described her as being an “American girl?” I knew the answer would once again be “No.”

Just the other day a neighbor was describing a traffic accident he had seen and pointed out that the “Black driver of the second car…” was at fault. What, I wanted to know was, what did the fact that the driver was black have to do with the accident? Absolutely nothing.

We hear stories like this all the time. People use adjectives like these (black, Chinese, Mexican, Jewish, etc) to describe, differentiate, divide, and downgrade others without even thinking of the effect of what they are saying. Of course they say that it has nothing to do with bigotry (God forbid they should think of themselves as prejudiced), but rather just describes “others.” Who are they kidding? Maybe in polite society they no longer use the words nigger, kike, wetback or slanty eye, but they still mean the same thing, that they are different and not as good as “us.”

Prejudice takes many forms, some not as obvious as others. Until people start thinking of “others” as just people, and referring to them as such, bigotry will stay strong, and we as a community will suffer.

THE MULTI-CHURCH

Americans like convenience, and in today’s world it’s multi-convenience. What is multi-convenience? It is the ability to choose from multiple options being offered at one time or location. For instance, we no longer have to choose where to go to see a movie at a single screen theatre, as we now can go to a “multi-plex” 24 screen, coliseum style one, and see the movie or movies of our choice. No longer do we have to drive from car dealer to car dealer to find the Ford or Toyota that we might be interested in, as we now can go to the “multi-dealer” mega lot and choose from many brands being offered at the same location. Even food offerings have changed and we can eat at the “food court” in a shopping mall, with each member of our family or group having their individual taste satisfied by the variety of fast food stalls available.

Where this will all take us in the future is questionable, but probably one of the greatest possibilities will be “The Multi-Church.” Here you will find the ability to go to the religious facility/sanctuary of your choice, all at one location. It will be based upon the layout of the “multi-plex” theatre and will probably be found in the suburban community you live in. Picture this.

Driving into the huge parking lot at the Multi-Church one can’t help but notice the huge marquee type, lighted sign displaying the religions located there and the starting times of their services. Upon finding a parking place among the multitude of vehicles already there, and noting your location, you take one of the many shuttles that are constantly criss-crossing the parking lots taking worshippers to and from the main entrance of the building. Welcome to Disney Land-Religion. Of course members of the Jewish faith have the advantage of being able to park up close and get a good parking place. This has nothing to do with their being the “chosen people’ but rather because they have the good fortune of having their Sabbath on Saturday instead of Sunday, when the lots are filled with Christians. Of course Moslems have the same advantage with a Friday Sabbath.

Entering the building through one of the thirty automatic doors, the congregant finds himself in the lobby of this giant facility, which features multiple overhead TV screens exhibiting the advantages and beauties of the religions that are advertising on them. Each shows views of the pastor, the inside of their facility and the happy faces of its worshippers. Each is the “perfect place for you.” Ahead of you are the gift/book stores which offer items that will improve your life, lighten your load and make you a better person by attending the church that rents this space from the management. Filtering throughout the crowd in the lobby are members of the different churches, passing out leaflets explaining the beauty of their belief and proselytizing anyone who will listen.

As you make your way thru the lobby, you come upon a wide row of turnstiles, each with a large overhead sign displaying the religion they service and in front of you a large, handsomely decorated container, into which you may leave your weekly donation or tithe for the church of your choice. This will save time during the service and do away with the awkward need for ushers to walk up and down aisles collecting envelopes and loose money. It also allows for a quicker count to see how collections are going and gives guidance to the pastor on what to say at the end of his or her sermon. An usher is standing at the turnstile, as you and your family enter, gives you the weekly church handout and helps direct you to the location of your chosen sanctuary. As you stand in this very long hallway you cannot help but see the many, many religions and their locations. For those who have to go a long way there are moving sidewalks in both directions with the usual signs, “Please stand on the right and walk on the left.” Wheelchair access onto this conveyance of course follows the guidelines of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Each of the many coliseum type sanctuaries are not only sized by the membership requirements of the church, but seating arrangements, altars, choir areas and decorations are custom fitted for the needs. For instance:

Many churches have fake, back lighted, stain glass windows.
The Catholic Church has kneeling railings that, due to the coliseum design, allows for the congregant to see over the person in front of them even when on their knees.
Holy Rollers have padded walls for sound control.
Southern Baptists have airlock entrances which filter out any new, reasonable ideas.
Atheists have an empty room with only a huge lighted question mark on the altar.
Jews have a sanctuary that converts into a catering hall that can be rented out for weddings and bar mitzvahs. A kosher kitchen is attached.
Mormons have sky boxes for men with more than five wives and their families.
The Amish have a back entrance for their horses and carriages to pull right up to the building.

All in all, the owners of the Multi-Church will build anything to suit your needs.

Where will all this take us? Will this spark a new revival in church/synagogue/mosque attendance? Will Lutheran sit down with Pentacostal? Will the Saints make it to the Super Bowl? Only time will tell.

Sam Schoolsky
January 29, 2002

Letter to editor printed 1/2/05

Printed in the Lake Charles American Press:

Dear Editor:

I must take exception to the letter of Meredith Wilson’s in your December 26th edition, in which she claims that Christian principles founded this country. Warped knowledge of history can only lead to warped conclusions.

While it is true that many of the founders of our country were Christians, it is also true that many were Deists. However, that being noted, it is also important to note that this group included many slave owners, proponents of limited voting rights and control based upon land holdings, and believers in second class citizenship for women. But, like their majority belief in Christianity, they did not force these beliefs into our Constitution, for they believed above all in the freedom of choice, including religion, which is not what Ms. Wilson would have us believe. They left these major subjects open to the future, caring, intelligent choices of America. That is why nowhere in the Declaration of Independence, written by a Deist (Jefferson), the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights, do they claim this to be “a Christian nation.” They knew better.

Ms. Wilson further claims that the Ten Commandments are a Christian heritage and belong in a courthouse in Alabama. Allow me to give a small religious education to her. The original, and only, Ten Commandments were given to the children of Israel after their flight from Egypt, as written in the Book of Exodus of the Hebrew Bible (not the misnomer given by Christianity, the Old Testament.) While this knowledge might offend or surprise some people, Christianity changed the wording to suit its own purposes. For instance the “original” first commandment states “I am the Lord thy God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Both Catholic and Protestant versions are different from that. The heritage of the Ten Commandments, as given by God to the children Israel, is Jewish, not Christian. I do not believe there were any Christians present at the mountain when these tablets were given.

I have great respect for the believers and followers of the Christian faith. There is much we could all learn from the teachings of Jesus. But the “Tyranny of the Majority” is not one of them.

Very truly yours,

Brooklyn Was Another Country

If you were a child living in the Bronx (of course New York) during the early war years (to us this meant what Archie Bunker referred to as “the big one, WW II”), there were some very definite ideologies that you could count on without fear of contradiction. First, there was only one president for the past 50 years, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and he would continue to occupy that office for the rest of your life. Secondly, the mayor of New York, Fierello H. LaGuardia, fit the same description. “The Little Flower”, as he was affectionately referred to, would always be in office and available to read the Sunday funnies to you over the radio whenever those “unpatriotic” newspaper people would go on strike. Thirdly, and most importantly, Germany and Japan didn’t stand a chance against our combined forces.

If you had any doubts about that, you needed to go to a movie theater on Saturday morning, where for only a quarter you could see a double feature that always included at least one John Wayne movie that showed the power and righteousness of the American cause. Ole John always won whether he was a pilot in Flying Tigers, a foot soldier in Back to Bataan, or a fighting engineer in Fighting Seabees. Of course the Duke proved our superiority and kept fighting the war against the Axis powers long into the 50’s and 60’s with such winners as Flying Leathernecks (1951), The Longest Day (1962) and In Harm’s Way (1968). Since his was such an extended war, he must have killed more enemy than the combined forces of Audie Murphy and Sgt. York. With heroes such as this we felt safe at home.

Life during the war progressed normally at home in the Bronx. Of course since I was born in 1937 and only 4 when Pearl Harbor was attacked, it was hard for me to have a comparison of what life was like before the war. Being born in ’37 I really didn’t fit into any of the recognized categories of “depression baby”, “war baby” or the later, all time famous “baby boomer”. I guess I just happened. Maybe my older brother, Bob, who was born in 1934 fit the depression description. He had all the breaks.

Our family was lucky that my father did not have to go into the service and he was home the whole time. I never did find out why he wasn’t drafted, as there wasn’t any medical reason that I knew of, and I don’t think he was too old. Once I heard that since he was an owner and operator of an essential industry for the war effort that he was excused. I’ve always looked for someone to explain to me why a processor of woolen rags was essential to the war effort.

I knew dad did business in a round-a-bout way with the government, as he was always getting “specials” for us. When my brother and I would go to summer camp in Vermont each year we would have brand new, off white, woolen blankets with the words “U.S. Navy” stamped in dark blue across the front. One year I remember having a Navy blanket and an Army blanket, which made me stand out as someone special up at camp. Everyone figured we had connections. On top of this, we were the only kids who were able to get all the Fleer’s Double Bubble Gum at a time that it was scarce. I never could understand why there would be a shortage of this popular item, but it sure helped to make me popular at grammar school and camp.

Probably the best “connection” my father seemed to have was the ability to get extra ration stamps. During the war many items were rationed so that the boys at the front could get all they needed. Gasoline, tires, shoes, meat and many other things were rationed. You would receive ration stamps based upon the number of adults and children in a family. By rationing, the government probably figured that not only did it make some needed supplies more plentiful for our troops, but it made people more aware of the war by having to make some form of a minor sacrifice. To me it appeared that people were very aware of the conflict since their loved ones were away fighting, getting wounded, and in many instances killed. Wasn’t that a sacrifice? Of course, what did a four or five year old know?

We lived in a section of the city known as Highbridge, which is in the West Bronx. While growing up I had always heard that this was the better part of the Bronx. I never did find out why. But, one of the many advantages of living there was that we were a matter of blocks from the “The House That Ruth Built”, Yankee Stadium. The stadium overlooked Jerome Avenue Park where we would play ball, roller skate or enjoy ourselves on the swings or monkey bars.

Baseball was always a topic of discussion for both young and old (TV wasn’t around yet to make pro football and basketball as popular as they are today.) After all, we lived in the shadow of the Stadium and “everybody” was a fan of the New York Yankees. Everybody that is except my brother and me. We were New York Giant fans. I never knew why my brother liked the Giants, but I knew I owed my allegiance to him as he was older and smarter than I was. After all, he was seven. Of course getting to the Polo Grounds, where the Giants played, was not hard to do. All you did was go to the elevated train station at Yankee Stadium and take the “special” train across the river to Manhattan and get off at the first and only stop. It wasn’t easy being a Giant fan amongst all those Bronxites, but I held true to my convictions even if I didn’t have a clue as to why. After all, who couldn’t worship Joe Dimaggio? Of course the Yankees and the Giants were in different leagues, so a problem would only arise if they played each other in the World Series, which didn’t happen too often. Most of the time if there was a “subway series” the Bronx champs would be playing the Brooklyn Dodgers.

We hated the Dodgers. After all, the Yankees and Giants both proudly wore baseball caps that said NY, and so did their uniform shirts. Dodger caps had a B on it, which of course stood for Brooklyn. That’s when I came to the realization that Brooklyn must be another country, let alone part of New York. They were a strange, outspoken people with a team that was even referred to as “Bums”. Of course they could play baseball pretty well and were in the World Series against the Yankees more often than my beloved Giants.

Brooklyn was a place we as a family visited fairly often, as my father’s parents lived there. It was a schlep to get there. Most of the time we didn’t take the family car but instead would go on public transportation, which today is referred to as “rapid transit”.

First we would take the bus from around the corner of our apartment house to the elevated subway station next to Yankee Stadium. Then we would take the subway train to some station in lower Manhattan where we would change to another train that would take us across the East River to Brooklyn. I wasn’t sure if we needed passports to do this. When we arrived at the Utica Avenue Station we would then board a trolley car for the rest of our journey. After arriving at our stop we would walk the three blocks to grandma and grandpa’s house. Believe me, it would have been a lot easier if my father would have taken the car from its “good” parking place and had driven us to Brooklyn.

Arriving at my grandparents’ house there would be kisses all around, which I didn’t exactly relish. Grandpa’s mustache always scratched and he could kiss louder and wetter than anyone I knew. And the pinch on the cheek I could have done without. I always thought it was a “Brooklyn” thing.

After our long trip from civilization we of course were thirsty. But, this always presented a problem for me. We were given a choice of water (which tasted funny), seltzer, Cel-ray tonic or Pepsi. Pepsi? Who drinks Pepsi? Everybody in the Bronx drinks Coke, or sometimes Dr. Brown’s cream soda. But Pepsi? Excuse me, I forgot that we were in another country. For snacks all they ever had was fruit, which to a chubby, Jewish boy from the Bronx was like offering matzah ball soup to the Pope. But, you love your grandparents and you please them by eating an apple or something. Needless to say I would look forward to the time to make our return trip to the land of my birth and get something to eat.

Of course, there was a redeeming part to Brooklyn……Coney Island. It was always a special day when we were taken, by car thank God, to ride the Steeplechase or the bumper cars and make that all important, almost religious trek to Nathan’s Famous. Where else in the world could you get such a wonderful, long, Kosher, grilled hot dog with dark brown mustard and warm sauerkraut that made you forget all other foods? This was heaven on a bun, with a side of fries. Food, such as this, had a way of forgiving Brooklyn all its shortcomings.

After a meal like this I didn’t mind going through customs on my way back to the Bronx and America.