fULly vApoRiZed: Obama, Euthanasia, and Jack Johnson

“Anybody that wants the presidency so much that he’ll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.

-- David Broder 1929-- : in “Washington Post” 18 July 1973

If he were alive, W. E. B. Dubois would say the idea of “getting beyond race” is a kind of cultural conceit meant to distract us from the root cause of social inequality: economic injustice. He had it right in seeing wealth as the marker of power. So it should come as no surprise that the new administration signals business as usual in Washington. Case in point: as it becomes more and more clear that Obama’s policy decisions have less to do with implementing real change (his buzzword) than getting re-elected, the specter of yet another pedestrian politician, ambitious for power, is inexorably shaping itself out of the public illusion. The same domestic and foreign policies that have ensured the position we’re in have simply been handed over to a new station manager. Dubois would say issues surrounding Obama’s shade and diction have much less to do with his agenda than the class and economic interests that maintain the status quo. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss; but we have been fooled again.

“Admirers of the president now embrace actions they once denounced as criminal, or rationalize and evade such questions, or attempt to explain away what cannot be excused….Let us grant that Barack Obama is as intelligent as his admirers insist. What evidence do we possess that he is also a moral virtuoso? What evidence do we possess that he is a good, wise, or even a decent man? Yes, he can be eloquent, yet eloquence is no guarantee of wisdom or of virtue. Yes, he has a nice family, but that evinces a private morality. Public morality requires public action, and all available public evidence points to a man with the character of a common politician, whose singular ambition in life was to attain power; nothing in Barack Obama’s political career suggests that he would ever willingly commit to a course of action that would cost him an election….Having embraced and professionalized the powers of force and fraud previously associated with the likes of John Yoo and Dick Cheney, Obama has embarked on a course of war that will certainly invite further abuses of power. His political survival now depends on martial success in a land that has defeated some of history’s most brutal strategies of conquest. Obama has set a trap for himself, but because he is such a clever politician, the spring is just as likely to fall on us instead. Such insidious governance demands serious, sustained opposition, not respectful disagreement or fanciful historical apologies or mournful lamentations about the tragedy of his presidency. Principles can be sacrificed to hopes as well as to fears.”

-- Roger D. Hodge, Harper’s Magazine, February 2010

---

January 26, 2010

Cases

An Ill Father, a Life-or-Death Decision

By ALICIA von

STAMWITZ

…One nurse grunts and rolls her eyes dramatically. The other mutters, “Oh, brother — here we go again,” and shoves a stainless steel instrument cart closer to the gurney. The doctor, more professional, remains impassive as he suggests I leave the room. “It is difficult to watch this procedure. Most patients struggle and flail, so we will have to use restraints.”

Yes, I know. I kiss my father on the cheek, tell him I will be back soon and head to the waiting room.

What the doctor and nurses do not know, what I hesitate to admit even to myself, is that I almost gave them the answer they wanted: the reasonable one. But I would have been terribly wrong.

My father never really recovered. He could never again breathe without a respirator, he never left the hospital bed, and he eventually needed dialysis and a feeding tube. Six months later he died of heart failure.

I suppose my father’s decision was a mistake. But it was his mistake to make, not mine. My role was to support my father, no matter what, and to tell the truth, no matter how hard.”

Given my interest in the Euthanasia issue, I thought I might comment on this excerpt from a piece in the NYT Science Times. Ms. Von Stamwitz writes, “…it was his mistake to make, not mine.” My advice for her would have been this: a mistake is a mistake, whether you make it, or he. Why not assume that acting on your better judgment -- which would, of course, include the emotional component of your deep love and respect for your father -- would have been the right call. Further, I suppose there will always be instances where reasonable answers are terribly wrong, but these cases are invariably the exception rather than the rule. Given von Stamwitz’s description of what came after her decision, I would argue this case would not qualify as one of these exceptions.

On Ice Hockey: Kings' Lombardi should rethink comments against Michigan

By Tim Rohan
Daily Sports Writer On January 24th, 2010

“This guy has never had any coaching (at the University of Michigan). Jack just did what he wanted.”

Michigan is the worst. For hockey people, if you’ve got a choice between a kid — all things being equal — one’s going to Michigan and one’s going to Boston University, you all want your player (going to Boston University). Michigan’s players — (head coach) Red (Berenson) doesn’t coach. It’s ‘do what you want.’ He gets the best players in the country.”

— Los Angeles Kings President and General Manager Dean Lombardi to blogger Gann Matsuda at Hockeytalk.biz, on Kings defenseman Jack Johnson and what Lombardi considers a lack of coaching at Michigan under Red Berenson.

You may recall that some years ago I editorialized on Jack Johnson’s commitment to finishing his education. Within the last two weeks of my class, he had to fly to L.A. for five days to negotiate a multi-million dollar contract with the Kings. Rather than simply withdraw from school, he investigated the end of semester work his professors expected of him, completed the assignments, and returned all course work on the last day. I was impressed. But not as impressed as I was when he showed up a year and a half later to take a spring class (Essay Writing 325.002) toward obtaining his degree. Over the time I had Jack in class, I can say this for sure, he’s not about money. And this is more than I can say about guys like Mr. Lombardi, who couldn’t give a whit about the academic component of an athlete’s character. Note that his advice on choosing a college sees a player’s university experience as being analogous to being on a farm team. I would ask Mr. Lombardi if the “best players in the country” that attend Michigan got there by, “doing what they wanted.” It also seems odd that all of the past and present players I’ve talked to, of which there are many, seem to agree on one thing: Berenson is himself disciplined, and expects the same out of his players. In fact, in my discussions with Lucas Glendening, Chris Brown, Kevin Porter, and Johnson, there was a common thread in their admiration for Red: This 71 year old dude skates so hard with them as to role model the idea of challenging themselves to work harder. More than one has said he stands in front of the goal (no mask) and goads them to try and get the puck past him; while all the while blocking any and every shot that comes his way. "Jack did what he wanted"? Yeah, right! The truth is L.A. wants Jack out, which will be their loss, and a huge gain for the team that gets him. Jack’s response to all this: “I’m a Michigan man.”

Best - Randy Tessier