Wednesday, September 23, 2020

We the People

 

Yesterday, I tuned into the daily podcast of sports talkers Tim & Sid on sportsnet.ca. After fastforwarding past a discussion of the Toronto Blue Jays, I settled in to listen to an interview with Harnarayan Singh. 


Born in Alberta, Canada, Singh was a hockey freak from his schoolyard days. His great desire wasn’t like many a Canadian youth to be a player but to become a hockey broadcaster. He has achieved his dream, but if you look at him, Singh doesn’t fit the image of a typical hockey announcer. Bearded, be-spectacled, and be-turbaned, Singh is a Sikh—and he broadcasts National Hockey League games in Punjabi.




In another interview today on sportsnet.ca,(1) Singh said of Canada, “We’re so lucky to be in a country where these opportunities are available to us.”


It should be noted that the podcast interview was conducted by Tim Micallef and Sid Seixeiro, the former of Maltese descent and the latter of Portuguese.


*


After listening to Tim & Sid, I clicked onto Yahoo News to get my daily ration of angst and agita. The president of the United States supplied it. In Pennsylvania (but not in the City of Brotherly Love), Trump railed (once again) against Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. “She’s telling us how to run our country,” Trump complained.(2) As if a naturalized American citizen is not a member of “our” country. I wonder if Trump, after the swearing-in of newly naturalized citizens which was shown during the Republican convention (another Trumpian precedent-breaking mixing of the governmental and political), bothered to inform them that they were not really going to be part of Trump’s country.(3) 


Who are the members of Trump’s country?


In another speech—this one in Bemidji, Minnesota—Trump told a fawning, nearly all-white crowd:

"You have good genes, you know that, right? . . .You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn't it, don't you believe? . . . You think we're so different? You have good genes in Minnesota."(4)

I must confess that for the first time in my life I have to congratulate Trump on his restraint; he did not utter the words that were crying out to be spoken: “Master Race.” Still, the words that were spoken sent a chill up my spine. As Carin Mrotz, the executive director of Jewish Community Action, stated:

"For Minnesota Jews, it's chilling to hear this language, which echoes the 'race science' used by the Nazis to justify the extermination of so many of our ancestors."

Trump is no stranger to direct anti-semitism. In a recent report, he is alleged to have complained that Jews “ ‘are only in it for themselves’ and ‘stick together’ in an ethnic allegiance that exceeds other loyalties.”(5) 


*


Trump has come for Latins generally and Mexicans specifically; for Africans generally and Somalians specifically; and now there’s a miasma of gas as he (together with the “good people” who are white Christian nationalists) comes for the Jews.(6)


Jared Jewboy, what would it take to rattle your gilded cage?


***


(1) https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/qa-harnarayan-singh-new-book-importance-representation-hockey2/  


(2) https://news.yahoo.com/where-came-trump-echoes-racist-001407470.html


(3) After a friend of mine, a native of South Africa, was sworn in as a naturalized American citizen, one of the first words out of his mouth was “we.”


(4) https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/22/politics/donald-trump-genes-historical-context-eugenics/index.html


(5) https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/trump-anti-semite-said-jews-are-only-in-it-for-themselves-racism.html


(6) One is reminded of the words of Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists?gclid=CjwKCAjw5Kv7BRBSEiwAXGDEleFRelFd5dVWZgwESugBXJCkTLthB93dtCi2GVFgcwPICOmSG2JdqBoC5w4QAvD_BwE






Sunday, September 13, 2020

Punishment and Crime


The title character of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado offers what seems to be an admirable theory of crime-and-punishment:

My object all sublime 
I shall achieve in time 
To let the punishment fit the crime – 
The punishment fit the crime.

Here are two examples of how his theory would work:

All prosy dull society sinners,
Who chatter and bleat and bore,
Are sent to hear sermons
From mystical Germans
Who preach from ten till four.

The billiard sharp whom any one catches, 
His doom’s extremely hard – 
He’s made to dwell – 
In a dungeon cell 
On a spot that’s always barred. 
And there he plays extravagant matches 
In fitless finger-stalls 
On a cloth untrue, 
With a twisted cue 
And elliptical billiard balls!

*


In all the talk and writing about Black Lives Matter and the rash of murders of Black American citizens by the police—choking and shooting the most prevalent methods of execution—one point has seemingly not been commented upon. That is, the offenses of the victims have been minor, or not even criminal offenses at all. The victims have allegedly violated criminal laws such as selling loose cigarettes or passing a counterfeit bill. Or have allegedly violated a motor vehicle law, such as driving with one’s bright beams on. Or have done nothing worse than sleeping in one’s own bed.

The point I wish to make here is that the police have exacted capital punishment on people who have not committed capital crimes. Whether you believe in capital punishment or not (we can discuss that another time), you must recognize that the state can exact capital punishment only after a legal trial. Being executed by a policeman on a city street doesn’t qualify as even a kangaroo court, much less a legal one. 

*

What the Mikado proposes might be called a Law of Commensurability. His comical example of being condemned to play billiards with a twisted cue and elliptical billiard balls may be hellish to the offender. It is, however, less lethal than being summarily executed for a minor offense. And unlike what is happening in America, a punishment that fits the crime.