Pennywise and pound foolish

Shortcuts often lead to bigger problems. Something about the political scene from Madison to Washington these days reminds me of one of my Dad's old stories about being pennywise and pound foolish. In his case, the shortcut wasn't about easy money or political power, but a much more tantalizing goal: ice cream.

In the early 1930's pre-electricity Iowa, the only way to get to a tub of soft, cold ice cream was via a lengthy, hand-cranking workout. Wanting the ice cream without the work, Dad and his teenage brothers eyed the new Model T Ford, and wheels began to turn—literally.

Soon they had jacked up one back wheel and unbolted it from the hub. They cranked up the engine, and with Dad's little brother Willis holding down the clutch, they lashed the removable hand crank to the T's wheel hub, and then to the handle of the full ice cream bucket. Willis gently engaged the clutch and the idling engine easily turned the hub, which turned the engine crank, which turned the ice cream handle, which sent the boys into ecstatic cheers over their ingenuity.

Their cheers were premature. The carburetor began loading up and the motor chugged slower. It started missing, almost died, and Dad said to his little brother "Punch it!" They didn't want to unlash the hand crank from the hub to start it again—too much work.

The little brother dutifully punched the throttle and the hub suddenly accelerated. Sure enough, my Dad's grip on the ice cream mixer slipped and the mixer hit the ground, spilling the precious contents onto the dirt. The sisters erupted in laughter, and Grandpa watched, bemused, as Dad and his brothers slipped in the mess trying to rescue a few spoonfuls. Undaunted, the brothers coaxed their mother into making another gallon of mix, and were stubbornly about to try again when Grandpa stepped in, "Boys, you work harder to get out of work than you would have to work if you would just DO the work!"

Now that wasn't the end of the story. Other costly consequences of good technology applied to the wrong task were not foreseen. Repeated episodes of jacking up the model T rear wheel ultimately wore the spider gears in the differential. The axel broke loose inside the pumpkin and slipped out, the wheel rolled into the borrow pit, and the worn Model T smacked hard into the road giving occupants painful bruises. Saving a little work turned out to be harmful, wasteful and foolish.

We have a tradition in America of overcoming pound foolish mistakes. Fueled by a passion for justice and liberty, Americans rebelled against the British empire and won independence. Because of the courage of our most patriotic citizens, we abolished slavery, ended institutionalized racial oppression through the civil rights movement, and sent hundreds of corrupt bankers to prison after the Savings and Loans Wall Street scandal of the 80's.

The concept is enshrined in second verse of "America the Beautiful":

O beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern impassioned stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat across the wilderness!

America! America! God mend thine every flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law!

We must also remember that these visionaries faced firm opposition, even violent oppression and intimidation, from those threatened by the vision. To "mend thine every flaw" is an uncomfortable, even painful process. It certainly was uncomfortable for Bradley Manning, who valued American justice and liberty enough to serve in Iraq. His duties were sensitive: ferreting through the mass of war data accumulated in recordings of combat missions to determine targets to round up for questioning at Abu Ghraib prison. He did his job well. When obviously innocent people were mistreated, though, he pursued the errors. As his efforts to bring injustice to light were resisted, he began documenting his findings, and eventually released them to the public sphere.

Sadly, though, despite Obama's promises to offer protection to those who shed light on injustices, this whistleblower hasn't been protected. Like the Tories in 1776, slave marketers in 1880, and powerful politicians in the 60's-era South, our politicians today foment outrage against one who uncovers truth by labeling such actions unpatriotic. Manning's subsequent imprisonment on U.S. soil and possible execution now bear an uncanny resemblance to the way many at Abu Ghraib were treated, complete with solitary confinement, deprivation of clothing, and strip-searches. What a pitiful irony.

This tragedy is far beyond broken spider gears or spilled ice cream. The soul of our nation is at stake.

Note the following added sources and information links:

David House, 23, is an IT expert who works for the Bradley Manning Support Network. This excerpt is from his interview with the German newspaper, Spiegel On Line:

House: I cannot fathom living in a country that executes whistleblowers and I hope that many Americans and people in other countries see it in the same way. Apart from that, Bradley Manning deserves access to a speedy trial.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How realistic are the chances that those demands will be met?

House: The only way Bradley Manning is going to have a good outcome here is if there is growing international pressure on the US to take the option of executing a whistleblower off the table. We need the action of every citizen in the entire world who values the principles of government transparency.

For the full interview: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,750879,00.html

From The Guardian, of the UK, some 100 articles, this from yesterday, quoted here:

PJ Crowley, the official spokesman at the state department, has fallen on his sword after calling the treatment of Bradley Manning, the alleged source of the WikiLeaks files, "counterproductive and stupid".

The resignation followed Crowley's remarks to an MIT seminar last week about Manning's treatment in military prison.

Crowley had said: "What is being done to Bradley Manning is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid on the part of the department of defense."

For the complete article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/13/pj-crowley-resigns-bradley-manning-remarks

The International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) sent a notice to the Wisconsin Legislature, explaining that its attempt to strip collective bargaining rights from public workers is illegal.

Anyone who has watched the events unfolding in Wisconsin and other states that are trying to remove collective bargaining rights from public workers has heard people protesting the loss of their "rights." (For more on the record turnout, see this story.) The ICLR explained to the legislature exactly what these rights are and why trying to take them away is illegal.

The ICLR is a New York-based nongovernmental organization that coordinates a pro bono network of labor lawyers and experts throughout the world. It investigates labor rights violations and issues reports and amicus briefs on issues of labor law.

The ICLR identified the right of "freedom of association" as a fundamental right and affirmed that the right to collective bargaining is an essential element of freedom of association. These rights, which have been recognized worldwide, provide a brake on unchecked corporate or state power.

In 1935, when Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act (also known as the NLRA, or the Wagner Act), it recognized the direct relationship between the inequality of bargaining power of workers and corporations and the recurrent business depressions. That is, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners, the economy fell into depression. The law therefore recognized as policy of the United States the encouragement of collective bargaining.

While the NLRA covered US employees in private employment, the law protecting collective bargaining in both the public and private sectors has developed since 1935 to cover all workers "without distinction."

The above 6 paragraphs quoted from the complete article: http://messageboards.aol.com/aol/en_us/articles.php?boardId=38496&articleId=18599693&func=6&channel=News&filterRead=false&filterHidden=true&filterUnhidden=false

--
David Graber
Hardin, MT 59034

www.greenwoodfarmmt.org