Chinatown Requiem

When I was attending the University of Houston I used to frequently go into the area near the George R. Brown Convention Center (where Houston's Second and third wards meet) known as "old Chinatown". There was (and still is) a store from which I could buy different spices for a fraction of what I'd pay at other stores and there were at least a dozen restaurants.
We called it Old Chinatown, because in the 1950s Houston's Chinese community flocked to the area and opened scores of businesses. In the 1980s there was an influx of South east Asian immigrants who settled in the area between the med center, 3rd ward and The Montrose area. This became little Saigon and it catered to the many Vietnamese who initially lived in the fourth ward and Allen Parkway village. In the Late 80s and early 90s Houston's Asian communities began to buy up cheap land in Bellaire and opened several thriving shopping centers and restaurants and the area became "new Chinatown".
Last night as I drove home I glanced to my right and saw the Signs for The Silver House Restaurant, Yit Ing Ho, the Old Chinese Businessman's Association, and the parking lot where in my childhood stood the Borden Creamery. All that remains of my college haunt are a handful of "all you can eat" buffets, two shops that sell martial arts supplies and various other things, the Supermarket where I still buy spices and a landscape that seems to spout either a new taqueria or over priced loft every other day.
Gone are the places where I used to buy small pieces of jade. Gone are the shops where I could find strange little curiosities. The city evolves and all happens in cycles. As much as I hate to admit it, old Chinatown is dead and the handful of smiling elderly shop keepers to whom I give my patronage and I seem to be the only ones disturbed by it.
I occasionally sojourn to Bellaire to where Chinatown now resides, but in it I feel like an old man who lives in his child's guest room. You know you're welcome, but it feels as if you're imposing.

Good Nazis?

 In the minds of simple men history often paints with broad strokes in a series of absolutes. There are good guys and bad guys and all is effectively black and white. Were one to mention the German Army of the 1930's and 40's the general consensus would be of mindless zealots following Hitler's ever order as if it were the infallible word of God himself.

           Adolph Hitler was a vile cancer born of German political apathy which almost killed the entire world. In Valkyrie, his latest and most important film role to date,  Tom Cruise brings to life a hero of the second world war who sadly most Americans have never heard of. His name was Colonel Claus von Staffenberg. Staffenberg lead a group of feild grade officers and generals in a failed assasination/coup which attempted to overthrow Hitlers government and dismantle the SS. 

         Staffenberg and his coconspirators attempted to place a bomb in a briefcase in one of Hitler's staff meetings and while the bomb did go off Hitler's wounds were superficial. Stafflenberg and his cohorts were tried for treason (which they openly admitted) and said that they would rather be remembered by history for having proven that not all Germans agreed with the Austrian despot who forever cast an ugly shadow and the fine people of Germany.

         While I'm not in the habit of writing film reviews I think anyone who does not take the fate of his country or world seriously should sit through this film. As it was once said: "Injustice occurs when good men do nothing."

A True Christmas

Ten years ago I stumbled into a Catholic church on the edge of downtown Houston for midnight mass and loved the place so much that I went back the following Sunday and have been doing so ever since. Ten years ago I measured Christmases based on what gifts I received, but as more time passes I come to realize that the ONE gift at Christmas that actually matters is the one which we celebrate.

       Christmas initially started because the early church wanted distraction from the pagan celebration of the winter solstice. The best way to do this they felt at the time was a mass commemorating the birth of Jesus. It would be called a "Christ Mass". The Christ Mass became a great time in the middle ages, because feudal lords would only give serfs Sundays, Easter and Christmas (as the Christ mass later came to be known) off. 

     Saint Nicolas of Byzantium (on whom Santa Claus is based) started the practice of giving toys to children and noting how mankind should treat one another with dignity and respect all year round and NOT simply at the time of Christmas. Somewhere along the line Christmas ceased to be about Jesus' birth and became a season of rampant commercialism. It became a time to get a new television, toys for the kids and diamonds for the wife. Many who never attend church put up trees and sing carols oblivious to why they do so.

     The Japanese celebrate Christmas. Yes there are Christians in Japan, but the celebration of Christmas has more to do with big department stores than with them. It's merely an excuse to give gifts. As Wednesday December 24th turned into Thursday Christmas morning I found myself celebrating my 10th anniversary at the church I initially wandered into out of sheer curiosity. As I stood there listening to the choir as they embraced me with a Christmas song I felt at one with the true spirit of Christmas.  As long as I can be in the presence of men and women who acknowledge the birth of one whose mission was to sacrifice for the greatest love we can ever know my Christmases shall forever be merry.

The Chosin Few

A Marine Corps field jacket is an interesting piece of clothing. It has a high collar much like the blouse on our dress blue uniform and a very warm liner. It can keep one toasty in relatively cold weather and is therefore indispensable. The problem is it's considered a uniform article and CAN NOT be worn with one's civilian clothes. Because of this while in the corps I bought an old olive drab field jacket which already had USMC on the left breast pocket and simply put patches with "U.S. Marines" Over one pocket and my name over the other.
The powers that be never said I couldn't use the LINER of the field jacket with non uniform articles so it all worked out. Wednesday December 12, 2008 I was in a bank and an older gent noticed my jacket and asked what my MOS was. I told him and he mentioned that he learned more than he ever wanted to know about carrying around a *mortar plate and firing a 50 calibre machine gun than he could ever use in "real life". I knew then and there he was an old school Jarhead and we exchanged handshakes and a *Semper Fi. He then told me that he was in the corps until 1952 and my jaw dropped. He was one of the men we call "The Chosin Few".
"The Chosin Few" (no that's not a misspelling) are the Marines who during the Korean war were ordered to stay put when the Chinese Army in a full on assault attacked the Army and Marines on the 38th parallel in human waves in numbers so large that the Americans LITERALLY ran out of bullets and melted machine gun barrels and did NOTHING to halt the Chinese onslaught. The Army retreated but MacArthur (who incidentally hated the Marine Corps and lobbied to have us disbanded on numerous occasions) ordered the Marines to say put. When all was said and done the Marines were stranded in the Chosin Reservoir (in present day North Korea) low on ammunition and supplies, with large numbers of wounded and surrounded on by North Korean and Chinese forces. One of the Marines in charge laughed and said of the situation "Poor bastards, they have us exactly where we want them."
In one of the FINEST moments in Marine Corps history the Marines fought their way out. Along the way they picked up wounded, supplies, vehicles, food and munitions which the army had abandoned in their hasty retreat and also were able to stop most of the casualties from bleeding to death because the low temperatures had allowed for hypothermia. The Marines made it back to U.N. forces with minimal losses.
There I was standing in front of one of the men who had MADE the Marine Corps history I had read about and was only the third such member of the "Chosin Few" that I've ever met and I can honestly say the experience was humbling. He left me with a smile and another handshake and one of the bank employees walked up to me and asked who the old get was who had impressed me. At that point I told this man of the Chosin reservoir and the expression of admiration on his face mirrored my own. I never got the old gentleman's name, but I'm proud to be part of his fraternity. From a dreadlocked s-bird of a younger jarhead I'm proud to wish you a Semper Fi sir... Where ever you are.

* Mortar is a grounded tube which fires small rockets at an arch to hit targets hundreds of yards away.

* Semper Fi is the shortened form of "Semper Fidelis" The U.S. Marine's moto which is Latin for "Always Faithful" i.e. to God, country and corps.

George Walker Bush...is a GENIUS!

As one analyzes politcal thought of the 21st century the name George W. Bush shall be part of the vernacular. While it can be argued that he shall go down as one of history's LEAST popular presidents his effectiveness CANNOT be over looked. Consider this. Prior to being elected governor of Texas Bush's only political experience came by watching his father run for congress and later the presidency. He ran for governor ADMITTEDLY out of SPITE ( "Ann Richards embarrassed my daddy." ) and was elected in an OVERWHELMING margin.

As a one term governor he used Karl Rove's Lee Atwater-esque tactics and smeared a venerable war hero named John Sidney McCain with liebelous half truths and outright lies in order to steal the GOP Nomination from him. He admitted that his favorite "Political Philospher" was Machiavellii. We're talking about the SAME Machiavelli whose treastie "The Prince" is in essence that the ends justifies the means when power (either it's aquistion or retention) is concerned.
Bush obviously forgot to mention the great Sun Tzu's "Art of War" in which he said: "When capable, feign incapacity." For the bulk of the past eight years, a man who graduated from Yale reveled in his detractors painting him the buffon as if he were Falstaff to Cheney's Henry or Claudius to his Caligula. One seldom views those whom thought to be stupid or the least bit slow witted as any sort of threat.
George W. Bush rather than proving his intellect directly played the fool and ignored the constitutiion, congress, the supreme court and the rule of law in general has he passed an agenda that circumvented all of the aforementioned. The credo of his administration? "To hell with you...I'm the president." Whenever called on "bad" or unpopular decisions he simply pretended to be a dullard. In the process he dismantled the framework of his own political party and reshaped American and geo-politics as a whole. To wit I say: well played Mr. President.! While I vehemently disagree with the BULK of your administrations agenda I must compliment you on a hand well played.

Government WITHOUT the consent of the governed. As you once said:
"I have no problem with a dictatorship...as long as I'm the dictator."
You sir after 8 long years of an economic and energy policy that looked as if it was written by chimps (which I NOW know was a brilliantly crafted doctrine that ruled people based on the premise that they are too ignorant & stupid to know what is in their best interest) have my respect.

The 2008 Presidential Election: Epilogue

 

A tall, lanky man stood before the statehouse in Springfield, Illinois and announced his intent to run for the office of the presidency of the United States. The bulk of his political experience had been in the very same Illinois statehouse. He wasn't born in Illinois, but had chosen to migrate to it. He had been sent to Washington but was seen by those who opposed him as an ignorant political novice.

          His chief competition was a seasoned political veteran and their debates became the stuff of legend. When the smoke cleared and the election was over the tall, lanky man had been elected President of the United States of America.

         We all know that man's name, but for those who don't his name was Abraham Lincoln and he is on both your five dollar bill as well as every penny you've ever tossed into a fountain. 

      

        Two years ago another tall, lanky man who had immigrated to Illinois from Hawaii rather than Kentucky stood before the same statehouse in Springfield, Illinois and was given the same odds that a young lawyer and congressman named Abraham Lincoln had been given. His opponent was an experienced Stephen Douglas, Obama's was Senator John McCain. President elect Lincoln  had to face a fragile union destined to  fracture, Obama takes the helm with a nation in financial crisis and fighting two wars.

  

         Parallel between Lincoln and Obama aside, the longest political campaign in our history has finally ended. Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States and in victory thanked John McCain for his service to a grateful nation.

        John McCain like the American hero he is urged his followers to get behind president elect Obama as we as a nation face one of the most trying times in our history. The campaign was a long, hard and ugly one and passions ran high on both sides. Truly intelligent McCain supporters simply said that Obama didn't have enough experience. Truly evolved Obama supporters said while they had philosophical disagreements with Senator McCain, respected him as a great American.

        The ignorant called Obama a terrorist, questioned his citizenship and an elitist. The truly stupid attacked McCain's wife for once having had a drug problem, questioned McCain's sanity and called him a racist.

       The United States has survived the election of 2008 and hopefully the next four years will see the next president and the Senior Senator from Arizona working together to show us what we as Americans can achieve when we put aside our differences and place the greater good above petty politics.

Sins of the past can't always determine the future.

I write this blog on Sunday October 5th 2008. In a month voters across America will head to the polls and elect either Senator John McCain or Senator Barrack Obama our next president. Which ever man wins this election will inherit an abysmal economy from one George Walker Bush and a nation currently fight two wars. 

           The are many Americans who've stated publicly that they can't vote for Senator Obama simply because he's black (his father was black & his mother white) which leaves us to ask the question: how far has America truly come when it comes to acknowledging many of the racist facts of our history.

           Are we the same nation which stole land from it's natives by giving them blankets tainted with small pox and then later forced many to go on a death march from Florida to a reservation that later became the state of Oklahoma in the midst of a harsh winter which they named the "Trail of tears?" 

          Are we the same nation who openly traded with European countries for African slaves and passed laws insuring that they would be treated as perpetual second class subhuman citizens?

          Are we the same nation that allowed wealthy men to lure hundreds of thousands of Chinese here with the promise of mountains filled with gold (the great "Kim son")so that they would work for pennies to build our railroads only to pass the Chinese Exclusion act and to allow cities like San Francisco to pass anti Chinese laws by the dozen?

         Are we the same nation that took the Philippines from Spain and then condescendingly told the Filipino people that they weren't intelligent enough for self rule prior to engaging them in one of the bloodiest guerrilla wars in our history?

         Are we the same nation that allows men to pay immigrants pittances and then allowed cities like New York and Boston to put up signs which read "Irish need not apply" or "We don't hire Italians?"

        Are we the same nation that deported American born citizens with Spanish surnames in Arizona, Texas, California and New Mexico for organizing labor unions?

       Are we the same nation who confiscated the property of tens of thousands of American citizens of Japanese dissent and imprisoned them as threats to national security during the second world war?

        The truth is we are all these things, but we are also the nation that produced men like Ben Franklyn who started the first society for the abolition of slavery. We are the same nation where an immigrant named Andrew Carnegie offered to buy the nation of the Philippines from the  United States that he would GIVE to the Filipino people. We are the same nation that passed legislation in 1920 that allowed women to vote and passed civil rights legislation in the mid and late 1960s to give every American something to which we should all be entitled, an opportunity. 

        Our glorious republic is many things, but we are far from perfect. If Barrack Obama IS elected president, many self appointed "leaders" within minority communities will stand in utter silence. They can't argue that minorities can only aspire to so much because the majority of Americans would have asserted that it simply isn't true. Will it occur? Will we ever become the color blind society of which Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed and spoke to the world of so eloquently?  We don't know.

         Does Obama NOT being elected mean that we are still a nation with deeply rooted racial issues that will never be resolved in our life spans? Not necessarily. One American in five when asked said they couldn't vote for a black man. I'll wager 20 years ago that number was MUCH higher. We as a nation while we need to acknowledge that there are differences between us be they ethnic, religious or ideological and simply work together for the group of the nation as a whole despite them.

        We as a nation should own up to our past, both the shining moments and utter disgraces and then move forward. We shouldn't stew in the anger of past injustice, but at the same time we mustn't ignore them as if they never occurred. We are a great nation with the potential tp accomplish nearly anything. After all, we're all Americans.