In 1776, 2.5 million people lived in the 13 colonies of what is now the eastern United States. On 4 July, the colonies “in Congress assembled,” told King George III that they were “dissolving the political bands” which bound them to Great Britain.
The declaration cited grounds for abuse and neglect by Great Britain. The Americans had enough with being treated like a child in an adult conversation.
Great Britain resisted. Americans were then and are now convinced that Great Britain was wrong, arrogant and selfish.
Puerto Rico has long had a separatist movement. When we bother to think of Puerto Rico, Americans are convinced that they are wrong, arrogant and selfish. Otherwise, we ignore separatists as extremist nuts.
But I wonder - Could we blame a Puerto Rican Congress from declaring their own independence?
Puerto Ricans are American citizens - sort of. They can get American passports. There are no immigration regulations from them traveling to and living in the continental U.S. They can participate in the Social Security system.
On the other hand, they cannot vote for president and have no congressional representation. Certain other federal benefits (e.g., Supplemental Security Income from the Social Security Administration) are not available to Puerto Ricans.
Under current conditions, statehood for Puerto Rico is unlikely. A majority of both houses of Congress would have to pass a joint resolution, and the President would have to sign it. Were this to occur, Puerto Rico would send two senators and about five representatives to Congress. The odds are that all would be either Democrats or aligned with the Puerto Rican Progressive Party and vote in the Democratic caucus. Puerto Rico hasn’t seen statehood when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the Presidency, and so they are unlikely to get statehood now. Fair? Unfair? Beats me. But it's reality.
If PR were granted statehood, it would rank around 30th in population. So it’s not as if we’re talking admitting Guam or American Samoa.
Lots of Puerto Rico citizens probably curse the rest of us, the 50-state Americans, because of how the country has handled the Hurricanes of 2017.
First, Hurricane Irma hit. About 12 people were killed and a quarter of the population had a moderately long-term loss of electricity. (The death toll isn’t very much - but tell that to the families of the people killed.)
Then, Hurricane Maria plastered the island. The “official” death toll is 51, but the island found 900 bodies to cremate.
Puerto Rico is an island. Therefore, it doesn’t have access to the mainland electrical grid, rickety though it is. All electric used on the island has to be made on the island and transmitted through wires on the island. The square pasting dealt by Hurricane Maria dealt minimal damage to power generation stations, but wiped out the island’s transmission grid. The hurricane also wiped out a lot of those businesses which would have been able to fix the grid.
It’s now four weeks after Maria. 3+ million people are still without power. This affects not just electronic toys, but the water supply, the food supply and health care. In short, Maria transformed Puerto Rico temporarily back a hundred years.
Puerto Rico has roughly the same population as Chicago, Iowa, Utah, Mississippi, Arkansas and Kansas.
Please don't tell me that they need to suck it up and wait. If Chicago were without power, Raum Emanuel would be going crazy and we’d be listening to him. If the Heartland of America - Iowa or Kansas - were turned off, do you really think we’d leave them mostly alone? Very few of us are prepared to endure four weeks without power.
In a time of increased hyphenated-Americans, I still believe in this one-nation-indivisible thing. Were Kansas turned off, were they drinking dirty water, had sewage problems, had food shortages or had limited access to healthcare, what would we be doing? Pigs would fly before we’d screw Kansas.
When is the last time you thought about Puerto Rico?
Folks around here are used to the idea of secession. Barbour County was split evenly between Union support and Confederate support, so there was ample underpining for both seceding from the U.S. and then from seceding back from Virginia. All it took was a good reason.
If I were a Puerto Rican today, I’d be thinking about this whole American thing.
If we’re going to kiss them off, at least let’s be honest about it.
Mizpah!
29 October 2017
15 October 2017
Admiring Ebenezer Scrooge
There’s something we can admire about Ebenezer Scrooge. No, not the post-third ghost Scrooge, but the original Scrooge, the miserly Scrooge. He’s had lots of faults, but one thing is sure: He didn’t let people push him around to donate.
Somewhere, there is a law of human behavior that says Everybody thinks whatever they can wheedle out of you, by hook or by crook, they can do much better things with it than you can. That’s not even a criticism (much). You’re working for a good cause, you need money, you don’t have it, so you wheedle for it.
Hurricane relief? Gimme. Stocking a new school library? Gimme. Coffee for the troops? Gimme. The Children’s Hospital? Gimme. That’s the story for every charitable organization. Well, maybe not American Pedophiles Support, until they change there name to “Love the Children Society,” at which time a few ignorant morons will donate. [1]
I’ve been pitched for the first four recently. In one, I happily forked over some money. In the first two, I admit I acted like a bit of a jerk.
Each of these were variations on a point-of-sale donation, in other words, getting hit up at the cash register.
The way the scam - let’s be honest about this - works is that you go to the cash register. The clerk scans your items. Then comes the pitch. Speaking in a normal tone of voice, the clerk asks you to donate to XYZ. So there, you can publically show a pre-Ghost Scrooge or a post-Ghost Scrooge. Either let them die and decrease the surplus population or pay the doctor to fix Tiny Tim’s legs. Surprise! And that’s the whole idea.
My worst experiences with point-of-sale donating has come at Books-A-Million®. [2] I prefer Waldenbooks®, but there are some things I can get a Books-A-Million a little cheaper and it’s also on the way to places I go frequently.
So the last two times at Books-A-Million:
1 - “We’re trying to stock the library at the new Cheat Lake Elemetary. Will you donate a book?”
2 - “Would you like to donate Coffee for the Troops?”
There are several choices.
One is to grimace, say “Oh, my, yes,” and get out of there. [Hint: That ain’t me.]
Another - the one which is seldom used - is to ask logical questions. For the library: How much do you want? Are we talking Dr. Seuss or a first edition Dickens? Is this at your cost or at retail? Have you already made the donation? If I donate, does that REALLY add one more book to the library? Tell me those things and I’ll consider it. Coffee for the Troops - Huh? What the hell are you talking about? Do you plan to give the money to the Department of Defense and tell them to put it down on coffee? Do you plan to prepare something piping hot and send it in a Thermos® in a real fast plane? Are you bearing any of the cost of this? Is this a gimmick to obtain future good will from educated people who may become future customers? Or are you just taking advantage of the public’s patriotism and the fact that we pay troops poorly?
Understand, I don’t act like a jerk with the clerks. They may hate to ask as much as I hate to hear them ask. But they’ve been ordered to. Managers? That’s a different subject. Sure, they were told to do it, but part of their duties is to report customers’ reactions and complaints. When I ask for the manager, I’ll politely tell him or her that this approach really ticks some customers off and that I’m one of them.
Sorry, school kids and troops. Nada from me today.
Walmart does it differently, which is decidedly less intrusive and less likely to annoy me. At the self-check-out-stations, you scan your items and before the payment screen comes up, you see a “Will you donate to the Children’s Hospital?,” with a yes/no option. I don’t feel particularly bad about hitting no, because owning a hospital is the nearest thing to being able to print money. But even I’ve been known to bite on that one.
Then there was my experience today at Sheetz. Sheetz is a regional company that operated convenience stores - you know, gas, groceries, coffee, food, a bathroom. This morning, I pulled into Sheetz to top up the Batmobile. I did not intend to go inside. Sheetz has music and ads playing inside the store and on speakers at the gas pumps. Today, I heard “We’re collecting for relief from Hurricane Harvey.” Well, OK. And then, “We’ll match your donation.” I went in the store, got coffee and a paper, and chipped a 5 into the box. You see, they had answered the question of whether this hurt them a little. A problem shared is a problem halved, so I was in.
There are others who do point-of-sale donation with a little dignity. Every McDonald’s has a slot beneath the drive-up for donations for the “Ronald McDonald House,” which are places for families to stay near children’s hospitals. We know that they actually operate them and that they are expensive, so change goes in the box. A Morgantown restaurant just advertised a “Scout night,” where 30% of the gross goes to the Boy Scout council. It’s good for the council. [3] It’s good for the restaurant, because some people who haven’t been there will come and hopefully come back in the future.
Charitable donations are good. I like to make them, but who I make them to and how much they are are none of your business. Years and years ago, at a particularly tough time in my life, I swore I would NEVER walk by a Salvation Army kettle without putting in a donation that hurt a little bit. And I’ve kept my promise. I don’t supposed I’d mind walking by the bell-ringers if I didn’t believe in them. Lots of people do, but they don’t annoy the non-givers. But that was MY decision and not forced on me.
I have to wonder. We have vague assurances that the Post-Ghost Scrooge became generous and showed the spirit of Christmas 24/365. But I wonder whether even the Post-Ghost Scrooge would be hornswoggled by surprise point-of-sale donation tactics. He became pleasant, considerate and reasonable, according to Dickens. But, so far as we know, he didn’t become stupid.
[1] That promises a blog post about misleading names for organizations.
[2] This is not a good time for bricks-and-mortar bookstores. Amazon is the unkillable giant. There are about 250,000 people who live within 30 miles of here. 10% of them may go into a bookstore once a year. The bookstores really depend on the 1 - 2% of people who are READERS. So my access to convenient bookstores is quite limited.
[3] A post on girls-in-Scouting will follow anon.
Somewhere, there is a law of human behavior that says Everybody thinks whatever they can wheedle out of you, by hook or by crook, they can do much better things with it than you can. That’s not even a criticism (much). You’re working for a good cause, you need money, you don’t have it, so you wheedle for it.
Hurricane relief? Gimme. Stocking a new school library? Gimme. Coffee for the troops? Gimme. The Children’s Hospital? Gimme. That’s the story for every charitable organization. Well, maybe not American Pedophiles Support, until they change there name to “Love the Children Society,” at which time a few ignorant morons will donate. [1]
I’ve been pitched for the first four recently. In one, I happily forked over some money. In the first two, I admit I acted like a bit of a jerk.
Each of these were variations on a point-of-sale donation, in other words, getting hit up at the cash register.
The way the scam - let’s be honest about this - works is that you go to the cash register. The clerk scans your items. Then comes the pitch. Speaking in a normal tone of voice, the clerk asks you to donate to XYZ. So there, you can publically show a pre-Ghost Scrooge or a post-Ghost Scrooge. Either let them die and decrease the surplus population or pay the doctor to fix Tiny Tim’s legs. Surprise! And that’s the whole idea.
My worst experiences with point-of-sale donating has come at Books-A-Million®. [2] I prefer Waldenbooks®, but there are some things I can get a Books-A-Million a little cheaper and it’s also on the way to places I go frequently.
So the last two times at Books-A-Million:
1 - “We’re trying to stock the library at the new Cheat Lake Elemetary. Will you donate a book?”
2 - “Would you like to donate Coffee for the Troops?”
There are several choices.
One is to grimace, say “Oh, my, yes,” and get out of there. [Hint: That ain’t me.]
Another - the one which is seldom used - is to ask logical questions. For the library: How much do you want? Are we talking Dr. Seuss or a first edition Dickens? Is this at your cost or at retail? Have you already made the donation? If I donate, does that REALLY add one more book to the library? Tell me those things and I’ll consider it. Coffee for the Troops - Huh? What the hell are you talking about? Do you plan to give the money to the Department of Defense and tell them to put it down on coffee? Do you plan to prepare something piping hot and send it in a Thermos® in a real fast plane? Are you bearing any of the cost of this? Is this a gimmick to obtain future good will from educated people who may become future customers? Or are you just taking advantage of the public’s patriotism and the fact that we pay troops poorly?
Understand, I don’t act like a jerk with the clerks. They may hate to ask as much as I hate to hear them ask. But they’ve been ordered to. Managers? That’s a different subject. Sure, they were told to do it, but part of their duties is to report customers’ reactions and complaints. When I ask for the manager, I’ll politely tell him or her that this approach really ticks some customers off and that I’m one of them.
Sorry, school kids and troops. Nada from me today.
Walmart does it differently, which is decidedly less intrusive and less likely to annoy me. At the self-check-out-stations, you scan your items and before the payment screen comes up, you see a “Will you donate to the Children’s Hospital?,” with a yes/no option. I don’t feel particularly bad about hitting no, because owning a hospital is the nearest thing to being able to print money. But even I’ve been known to bite on that one.
Then there was my experience today at Sheetz. Sheetz is a regional company that operated convenience stores - you know, gas, groceries, coffee, food, a bathroom. This morning, I pulled into Sheetz to top up the Batmobile. I did not intend to go inside. Sheetz has music and ads playing inside the store and on speakers at the gas pumps. Today, I heard “We’re collecting for relief from Hurricane Harvey.” Well, OK. And then, “We’ll match your donation.” I went in the store, got coffee and a paper, and chipped a 5 into the box. You see, they had answered the question of whether this hurt them a little. A problem shared is a problem halved, so I was in.
There are others who do point-of-sale donation with a little dignity. Every McDonald’s has a slot beneath the drive-up for donations for the “Ronald McDonald House,” which are places for families to stay near children’s hospitals. We know that they actually operate them and that they are expensive, so change goes in the box. A Morgantown restaurant just advertised a “Scout night,” where 30% of the gross goes to the Boy Scout council. It’s good for the council. [3] It’s good for the restaurant, because some people who haven’t been there will come and hopefully come back in the future.
Charitable donations are good. I like to make them, but who I make them to and how much they are are none of your business. Years and years ago, at a particularly tough time in my life, I swore I would NEVER walk by a Salvation Army kettle without putting in a donation that hurt a little bit. And I’ve kept my promise. I don’t supposed I’d mind walking by the bell-ringers if I didn’t believe in them. Lots of people do, but they don’t annoy the non-givers. But that was MY decision and not forced on me.
I have to wonder. We have vague assurances that the Post-Ghost Scrooge became generous and showed the spirit of Christmas 24/365. But I wonder whether even the Post-Ghost Scrooge would be hornswoggled by surprise point-of-sale donation tactics. He became pleasant, considerate and reasonable, according to Dickens. But, so far as we know, he didn’t become stupid.
[1] That promises a blog post about misleading names for organizations.
[2] This is not a good time for bricks-and-mortar bookstores. Amazon is the unkillable giant. There are about 250,000 people who live within 30 miles of here. 10% of them may go into a bookstore once a year. The bookstores really depend on the 1 - 2% of people who are READERS. So my access to convenient bookstores is quite limited.
[3] A post on girls-in-Scouting will follow anon.
05 October 2017
A Tiny Bit More About Human Rights . . .
I saw an ad in the Fairmont paper today urging people to sign a petition to put the
new Fairmont Human Rights Ordinance on the ballot. It was signed by Citizens for Public Safety
or some such lofty name. [1] (The person who paid for the ad identified
him/herself. Frankly, I don’t recall who
it was, and s/he is to be commended for not doing it anonymously. There are too many cases of “internet balls”
where people don’t identify themselves.)
I’ve heard that one reason for the uproar is the gender
identity thing and bathrooms. Let me
say, I don’t understand the gender
identity thing and it’s no higher than 58th on the list of stuff I
want to find out about.
But, let’s assume that the new members of the Human Rights
Commission are a bunch of gender identity freakazoids who have it as their sole
goal in life to eliminate separate bathrooms.
There is NOT ONE DAMN THING they can do to advance such a
plan. They can
talk. Period. There are so many things to be upset about in
government that it smacks of the ridiculous to get upset about something that
no one, however allegedly warped, can do anything about.
In the meantime, we
STILL have joblessness, we STILL have child hunger, we STILL are selling our
souls to the Chinese to buy shitty consumer products, we STILL have a health
care system where lots of people can’t get treated for treatable conditions, we
STILL have crimes and an armed citizenry (no matter what you think of it, we
still have them and have to talk about it) . . .
So if we are going to protest, at least let’s protest
something that matters.
Mizpah!
[1] I remember an opinion by my friend Justice Neely many years ago. He was talking about harmless sounding names of organizations and acts of the Legislature. He said that if the Legislature enacted a law to kill all women at age 60, they would call it the "Motherhood Improvement Act." I wonder if we could accurately call groups what they really stand for - The Let's-Arm-Everybody Committee; The Only-Anatomical-Females-Can-Go-in-Women's-Bathrooms League; The Let-The-Other-Guy-But-Not-Me-Pay-Taxes Coalition. Wouldn't that be refreshing?
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