Category: Speaking Our Peace
by Paul Olson,
NFP President Emeritus
I write on Martin Luther King Day: a day we celebrate being nice to each other—no bad racist talk, no insults, diversity—and that’s about it. Ronald Reagan, an affable old man who never said nasty things to black people’s faces, declared the day. But Reagan’s White House, according to Secretary of Education Terrell Bell, was full of talk about “Martin Luther Coon,” and Reagan himself ran a racist campaign for president and destroyed the livelihoods of millions of members of our underclasses, both persons of color and white. In his Red-baiting days as the head of the movie actors’ union, in his union-busting days as the governor of California, and throughout his presidency, he deliberately destroyed unions and Affirmative Action, and shifted money to the military to destroy the social safety net.
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by Paul Olson
NFP President Emeritus
Understanding Washington would appear to require only understanding how money, bribery, political elites and pure meanness work. But understanding Washington, in these mean days, also requires understanding where people live and what they live for intellectually.
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PAUL OLSON
UNL EMERITUS PROFESSOR
First a couple of bits and pieces:
• Rep. Jeff Fortenberry has publicly rescinded his pledge to anti-government activist Grover Norquist to oppose any tax increases (see the last “Speaking our Peace”). He deserves our thanks for this gutsy act. May the other members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation soon follow his example.
• Four NFP State Board directors met with Sen. Mike Johanns about the need to cut military spending. The senator told us that the climate in Washington is ripe for reducing the military budget, but did not say he would do anything. With Congress looking to slash $1.2 trillion in federal spending over the next ten years, the annual $1.2 trillion we spend on national security should be the first item to be cut.
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PAUL OLSON
UNL EMERITUS PROFESSOR
Swedes are good. Norwegians and Danes are pretty good. I grew up speaking Swedish and English until my parents noticed I could understand their off-color jokes and theological musings. Then no more ‘Swede-talk.’ But Scandinavian is still good. I feel a twinge of pride when Sarah Palin attacks European socialism because I know that she is attacking Sweden, my people. I feel a certain adrenaline rush when Robin Soderling wins a match or Bjorn Borg appears in the tennis stands or Liv Ullmann makes a subtle philosophic point with the blink of a beautiful eye in a Bergman film. And when the Swedish-born Pia Sundhage plays Bob Dylan to her U.S. women’s soccer team, I am ready to get up and dance. So much for my cultural chauvinism.
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PAUL OLSON
UNL EMERITUS PROFESSOR
We now have a $14 trillion debt, over half of which derives from military expenditures. This year we have a budget proposal of over $1 trillion for military and military-related costs ($700 billion for the Pentagon itself). The U.S. together with our allies—Britain and the European Union, India, Israel, Egypt, South Korea and our cohorts in the war on al Qaida—account for 75 percent of the world’s military spending. Our closest ‘non-ally,’ China, spends barely a sixth of what we spend.
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