03/08/2001

Town Meeting

Tuesday was town meeting day in Vermont. The first Tuesday of March is set aside for direct democracy. Citizens gather to conduct the town’s annual business, vote on school budgets and choose members for a selectboard which deals with mundane matters arising between now and the next town meeting. Issues decided at town meeting are as prosaic as zoning and whether this is the year to buy a new dump truck for the highway department, or as philosophical as whether our town should go on record as supporting nuclear disarmament. This year, many towns are voting on whether to urge the legislature to raise the state’s minimum wage.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
03/01/2001

The Bad Seed

In the past few weeks, the science sections of newspapers and magazines have been full of stories about the recently-sequenced map of the human genome. Most opened with a tone of theotechnic awe. Science writers, unlike sportswriters, don’t often get the opportunity to announce a new epoch in human history. We haven’t gotten this worked up over science since the Apollo program, and before that, nuclear energy, two boons that have enriched all our lives.

Now we know where all the genes are, but what do they mean and what do we do about them? Sequencing the genome makes us feel smart, and smart’s a good thing, but there are many ways to be smart. The genome map makes us more knowledgeable, which is only one way of being smart; knowing how to handle the information will require wisdom, the most important way of being smart.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
02/22/2001

The American Plan

Ever since the Supreme Court awarded the presidency to George W. Bush in December, two questions have been outstanding: to whom does Mr. Bush owe his victory and how will he repay them? Aside from the five pro-Bush Supreme Court justices themselves, we should look at the people who funded the Bush 2000 campaign, the most expensive in our nation’s history. Much of the campaign cash came from the oil industry, which has ties to George W. and his father and Dick Cheney. Beyond that, there are industries involved in resource extraction generally and manufacturing.

If we want to see the outlines of the Bush plan for benefiting his corporate masters, it would behoove us to meditate on last week’s meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
02/15/2001

Mexico, on $5 a Day

In the 1960s, a different kind of travel guide appeared in American bookstores, with titles like “Europe on $5 a day.” Overseas travel, which until then had been the province of the wealthy, was now within the grasp of working-class Americans. Hoi polloi fanned out in every direction, children and grandchildren of immigrants, going back for a look at the old country. Paying close attention to their guides, the travelers found a succession of discount this and cut-rate that, lumpy beds and bad food. Many came home thinking, “If this is what it was like, no wonder Grandpa left.”
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
02/08/2001

American Heritage

It’s been snowing off and on all week in northern New England, piling on top of the accumulated drifts and mounds. We shovel our way to the street, then the city plow comes along and pushes it all back in, heavier than before. Rooftop shoveling is a popular pastime for the anxious homeowner; the snowpack up there is getting deep, forecasters are predicting a thaw – if it all suddenly turns to slush, well, the roof might just start leaking. Better to get up there with a shovel now than to be running around with pots and pans and regret next week.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
02/01/2001

The Age of Unlightenment

Here’s how things worked in the bad old days: you flipped a switch on the wall and the lights came on. Between 1900 and 2000, electricity went from a luxury to a necessity upon which life as we know it depends. The same evolution will probably take place with the Internet in this century. Cable tee vee at a minimum.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
01/25/2001

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In the waning hours of the Clinton presidency, the ultimate news was about legal bargaining, which may be the true Clinton legacy. The soon-to-be ex-president cut a deal with special prosecutor Robert Ray. In his statement, Bill Clinton continued to dispense words carefully and the tone was petulant rather than penitent, evidence that personal morality remains an area of ignorance for an otherwise knowledgeable man.

On Inauguration Day, as Mr. Clinton rode to the capitol with his successor, the White House press office announced 140 pardons. Among them was absolution for the president’s brother Roger Clinton, Arkansas associate and perhaps accomplice Susan McDougal, a billionaire fugitive with close ties to the Democratic Party, Patty Hearst, Henry Cisneros and assorted other scoundrels
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)