Which Superpredator?

Firstly, I’d like to order a pair of Joe Biden flip-flops. From abortion to crime policy to death penalty, it’s impossible to tell where he stands today. But thanks to YouTube, we know where he and his allies stood 25 years ago.

 That was the era of The Superpredator, juvenile delinquents who lacked remorse as they committed strings of heinous crimes, with no fear of authority. The Superpredator died by 2000 in face of falling crime rates. Some say he was terminated by electric chair or lethal injection, others say he was starved by elimination of lead paint and gasoline. Another explanation was that he lived off the anger created by an unjust society.

During his gangbanging heyday, he was one of the “predators on the streets...beyond the pale”, in Joe Biden’s words. Hillary Clinton specifies, “ they are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are...super predators. No conscience. No empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel”. How does one bring them to heel? I’d love to know.

As I read more into the criminal sociology behind the now-proclaimed-dead Superpredator, a news flash came across my phone: “Mass Shooting at WalMart in El Paso, Texas; 20 dead”.

Immigrants Took America to the Moon

Some Americans believe that the 1950s and 1960s represent a great and golden age. They believe that low crime rates and an unprecedented standard of living was achieved through a homogeneous society bonded by decades of assimilation and the shared sacrifice of the Second World War.  

This homogeneous society represented a record-low of foreign born residents; a result of restricted immigration after 1924. This was when an immigration quota based arbitrarily and prejudicially on the 1890 Census was implemented, and the gates were shut to new-coming groups.

Law, order, and prosperity supposedly disappeared when the “floodgates” opened up with the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965. These reactionaries lament the end of a “liberal consensus”, if there ever was one, and a new realpolitik which prefers a “mosaic” of cultures in lieu of the proverbial “melting pot”. They say: “Go back to where they came from”. We heard this crude phrase last week.

 That is not what America stands for. Not since 1945, when Tokyo and Berlin stood in shouldering ruins. Two decades of American isolationism, following the Great War, ended in an even bloodier global war. In Europe, America embraced the Marshall Plan to rebuild European social and economic institutions. At home, America began to turn a new leaf, allowing much greater immigration; first with piecemeal programs, then through a new immigration act in 1952.  

The White House’s horrible comment against four Congresswomen, and the silent approval of the President’s defenders, was overshadowed by more aspirational news: the 50^th Anniversary of the First Lunar Landing in July 1969. It was certainly an American accomplishment, but only possible with the knowledge and great assistance of then-recent immigrants:

·      -   Albert Einstein, renowned physicist who escaped the rabid antisemitism of post-World War One Europe.

·     -    German scientists and Nazi defectors who gave the United States invaluable information on rocket technology.

·    -     An Wang, computer hardware expert and pioneer of the CPU, who came to America from war-torn China in 1945.

·    -     Countless Russians and Eastern Europeans who escaped through the Iron Curtain and flourished in America, freed from the yoke of communism.

As Elon Musk and venture capitalists dream a near-future return to the Moon, America again faces a simple choice: Shoot for the stars, or “Send them back”.  

Fragile Paradise

“Remember the ‘90’s?”, a gas station sign on Guam opines. Those were Guam’s glory days, when the Japan economic boom fueled construction projects and tourism; and sailors from Ronald Reagan’s 600-ship US Navy spent their paychecks on trinkets and entertainment.

Light and stylish, suitable for a wide range of activities, tropical shirts are ubiquitous in Guam. Designs range from floral, prints, to abstract designs, and shirts bearing the legendary DC-3 propeller plane of the 1930s and 1940s.  I have not yet seen a vintage propeller plane fly over Guam’s Apra Harbor into Won Pat International airport; just modern jets bearing the names of United Airlines, FedEx, Cathay Pacific and Korean Air.

The end results of consumerism is quickly evident on a small island. Gas stations and a six-lane arterial, Marine Corps Drive, line the waterfront of Hagatna, Guam’s capital city. Even industrialized and militarized Norfolk, Virginia keeps gas stations on the inland side of Ocean View Avenue. British-owned Diego Garcia, an atoll in the Indian Ocean, sends its “retrograde” garbage to mainland Asia for disposal. In American Guam, household waste too often ends up dumped in priceless and scenic parks. Brochures advertise weekend trips to "unspoiled" islands like Saipan, Chuuk and Palau.

Telling of the harried times of today’s military, coffee shops line the approach road to Guam Naval Base. Locals treat the speed limit- never exceeding 35 miles per hour- as a speed limit. Sailors often regard those signs as mere road decoration, as they whip and zag to work or home. Though our local contractors live on island time, we’re busy; we’ve made Guam just like home.

Then we sing “Old Maui”, an old sailor song. We’re singing about going to a tropical island, when we’re on a tropical island? Nostalgia for Paradise Lost was true even in 1890’s, when French painter Paul Gauguin encountered the Pacific island of Tahiti. As described in “The Art Wolf”: "Papeete -the Tahitian capital- was not the tropical paradise that it could have been in former times, the exotic and mysterious town found by great travelers like the legendary Captain Cook".

Today, Gauguin’s artwork is described as imaginative, even exploitative. So is Tiki Culture- that mesh of Chinese food, lush ambiance, and tropical drinks that once swept America- and is enjoying a comeback in the States. Nevertheless, Tiki Culture can be found in well-appointed Guam hotels. When the co-workers vent frustrations about the job, I recommend: Get on your motorcycle, ride past the waterfront gas stations, and within 15 minutes, find your paradise.

Reference:

http://www.theartwolf.com/gauguin_tropics.htm

Branded by Social Media

The month of June means time for Beach Week, an annual, mid-Atlantic tradition. Celebrating the end of an academic year, unchaperoned high school and college students rent houses, inhabit hotels, and populate the beaches. It is a tradition dating to 1982 or earlier, when the Honorable Brett Kavanaugh, now the most junior US Supreme Court Justice, infamously attended.  During his recent Senate Confirmation process, lawmakers perused fading photographs, yearbooks, a Mark Judge novel, and hazy memories; looking for evidence of unsuitability and lapses in personal judgement.

Times are different today for the young. Smartphones and social media eliminate the possibility of plausible deniability; instead indemnifying any young adult who made a juvenile decision. Such is the case of Kyle Kashuv, whose admissions to Harvard University in Boston was rescinded for social media posts made at age 16. 

Laden with casually-strewn racial slurs, the posts reflect on Kashuv’s maturity at the time, and on the society in which he was raised. That was in Parkland, Florida. Rachel Slade, author of Into the Raging Seas, noted the state’s proclivity to racial slurs and use of the n-word. Fittingly to this case, William Faulkner’s  The Sound and the Fury, set in the 1920’s, demonstrated the culture clash between Southern racial hierarchies and Boston’s progressive attitudes on racial equality.   Today’s Harvard talks the talk of promoting racial justice. Does it walk the walk?

  Since World War Two, the US Army has taken a proactive role in fighting this kind of ingrained racism. In an era that still had segregated lunch counters, Blacks were assigned as Sergeants in charge of turning Southern White recruits into soldiers, physically and morally. Fixing prejudice hands-on, as the US Army has done, is something Harvard has shown unwillingness to do, in rescinding a young man’s admission letter. A more important observation, though, is that the digitally-native Generation Z is coming of age in a zero-defect culture; while previous generations got a pass on their youthful indiscretions- even into the Ivy League.   

“We are sorry about the circumstances that have led us to withdraw your admission, and we wish you success in your future academic endeavors and beyond”, wrote Dr. Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions in a personal letter to Kashuv. 

(Source: Patricia Mazzei, NY Times, 6/17/19)

Tobacco 21 in the Tobacco Colony

It’s late at night in Arlington, Virginia, Fall of 2010. My friend, then a high school senior, walks into the local corner store with five dollars, and buys a pack of cigarettes to kick off his 18^th birthday celebration. A high school kid, a social influencer perhaps, with a legal pack of cigarettes in his backpack. He drew a cigarette out of his pocket, after class at the train station, with the suave of a 1950’s movie star. That is the problem, Dr. Northam, then a state senator, would argue. At the time, most Virginia restaurants had just gone smoke-free, at the insistence of Dr. Northam. He had a larger agenda in his sleeve. 

While negative effects of tobacco use have been known for 50 years, youth smoking as a pathology has only garnered attention for the past quarter-century. The smoking age in the greater DC area, and much of the South, was 16 into the 1990’s. For a few years that decade, there was a five-year gap between a smoking age of 16 and a drinking age of 21. Smoking just wasn’t a big deal.

Who would’ve thought that Virginia, with its four centuries of tobacco history, and continued influence of Big Tobacco, would be among the first to raise the smoking age to 21? It’s more surprising in light of a political culture that makes the Commonwealth “behind the times” on legislating social issues, from clean government reforms, to LGBT issues, boater education, semiautomatic rifles and handheld cell phones while driving. This new tobacco law, passed in February, will take effect in July. It is a very comprehensive law- on the proportions of Singapore or Sri Lanka: this change raises the age to both purchase and use of nicotine.

Neighboring Washington, DC raised its tobacco purchase age last year. Presumably, the many DC college kids interested in a tobacco fix would walk half a mile across the Key Bridge to Arlington, Virginia. Some of Georgetown University’s dormitories are actually in Virginia instead of DC. But this arbitrage in smoking age, a possible boon for small retailers, is nothing to be protected in what is an emergent science-driven economy. After all, Arlington, VA just snagged Amazon’s second headquarters. So legislation based on science (“smoking is bad for your health”), not superstition and presumptions (“protect tradition”) gets an upper hand in a New South state.    

Raising the smoking age in Virginia probably wouldn’t have happened if but for a perfect alignment of political power. A governor who is a pediatrician, a house majority leader who is a school teacher, and Big Tobacco (Altria of Richmond, VA) that approves the change. Dr. Northam, the Democratic governor, made changing the state’s tobacco culture a legislative priority. Kirk Cox, the Republican house majority leader, recalls the days when middle school students smoked in the school bathrooms, and is concerned about the current rise of the Juul e-cigarette. Other states are trying to pass similar bills to raise the smoking age, but they most often failed after passing one house of legislature: with apparent exception of Virginia, it is not a pressing priority outside of the Northeast and West Coast, places where “Nanny State” legislation is in vogue.

Virginia will allow active-duty military to continue purchasing tobacco at 18. With a carveout for military members, I predict loose enforcement of a higher smoking age in the military-heavy Tidewater region. It remains to be seen how this law will be enforced in college towns: the specific target of Tobacco 21 is high school smoking and vaping, while younger college students are merely “collateral impact” of the new laws. In the advent of Virginia's unique approach of a dual smoking age*, (18 for some, 21 for others), major retailers such as Walgreens and Wal-Mart have decided to stop selling nicotine products to young adults under 21, nationwide.

* California allows on-base sales at 18, while retaining minimum age of 21 "outside the gate". Maryland and Vermont will soon join Virginia with a dual smoking age

Alabama: Uncharted Territory

With passage of Alabama's new, strict abortion law; many are claiming that the Southern state is "turning back the clock" to the 1960's. Actually, Alabama is travelling into uncharted territory.

From 1919, Alabama, like other Southern states, led the way in racially-biased, pseudo-scientific eugenics programs, which often resulted in sterilizing poor woman of color deemed "mentally deficient". (University of Vermont)

In contrast to Midwestern and New England states, the South was more accepting of abortion, especially in cases of foul play. "Negrophobia", an unfounded fear of sexually-aggressive Black males, ensured that the strictest abortion laws belonged outside the south. 

Lee Atwater's 1988 Willie Horton ad, portraying an African-American rapist, played against Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign, "especially in the South". Perhaps the soft-on-crime message would've been as effective without Willie Horton's menacing mugshot. Or would it? 

Alabama formally legalized interracial marriage in 2000, through referendum with 59% approval, according to Ballotpedia.

Racial attitudes have developed much over the past 20 years. Alabama's flag still portrays Saint Andrew's cross. Yet a more visible reminder of the past, the Confederate Flag, was removed from state capitol grounds in June 2015.

In the 1960's, Spiro Agnew, then governor of Maryland, suggested that new-built neighborhoods be subject to equal housing laws. He surmised that prejudice was a learned behavior, and that new neighbors had no inherent bias. Verifying this statement, commentators today look to the racially integrated "New South" sunbelt suburbs of Atlanta, Houston and other Southern cities; in contrast to ethnic-heavy suburbs in the Northeast (Staten Island and Ocean County, NJ as two examples). 

And this past week, racial fears did not prevent Alabama from passing a strict abortion law.
Unless "a serious health risk" (confer the Alabama law) includes giving birth to a mixed-race child.

May Day for Who?

"Their wages had gone down by a full third in the past two years, and a storm of discontent was brewing that was likely to break any day. Only a month after Marija had become a beef-trimmer the canning factory that she had left posted a cut that would divide the girls’ earnings almost squarely in half; and so great was the indignation at this that they marched out without even a parley, and organized in the street outside. One of the girls had read somewhere that a red flag was the proper symbol for oppressed workers, and so they mounted one, and paraded all about the yards, yelling with rage."

 (Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906)

Today, working-class interests are back in the public sphere. New York State is clearly debating a progressive agenda, which covers the gamut from rent control, the minimum wage, transportation policy, and the gig economy. From what I've seen, the progressive approach is to put the agenda forward, and work the details later. I caution the zealous to tread steadily.

Rent control, for example, has populist appeal. But in New York City after World War Two, this led to disinvestment in older neighborhoods, ultimately ending in urban blight. (See a previous blog post on South Bronx decline and revival). Changes to rent control, beginning in 1974, provided a balanced approach that allowed new market development while preserving some affordable housing. Small, multifamily properties; found in places like Queens and Brooklyn; are the foundation of middle-class investment. Universal rent control, as proposed, would soak these working savers as much as it would "soak the rich". 

As we debate the path forward in the digital age, consider putting away the spite towards either side (owner and worker), and work towards creating upward mobility (which in many aspects has stalled) by "sharing the pie".