Their Entitlement To America, Part Six

Moving Through The Neighborhood

In 1960, a traumatic event occurred in my life…we moved! Tired of the floods and the associated rats they brought,* my parents decided to move several blocks further north to an area not so prone to flooding or to rats…ah, at least not the four-legged kind. My maternal grandparents lived just a little over a block away, and the school I attended was just one street over to the east. My mother actually had spent a good deal of time living just one block west, as that’s where my grandparents lived for quite some time prior to my mother’s marriage in November 1937. My paternal grandmother was their neighbor at some point in those times.** The friends I’d grown up with were now several blocks away, which was quite a distance for a kid. Gradually I made new friends, but I’ve still not forgotten my old playmates from all those years ago.

Our new part of the overall neighborhood still had lots of folks of German descent, but we also had a bar and rental apartments across the street owned by Italian immigrants. The husband was much, much older than the wife. From all the stories I heard, it had been an “arranged” marriage, perhaps to get her over here where things were better. She was from Taranto in southern Italy, and I’m not sure where he was from over there originally, but he had been in America for quite some time. It was just a few years after World War Two ended that she came over to America. She was a little woman, and the couple had two daughters, unfortunately one had a type of leukemia that later claimed her life. Whatever the marriage arrangement, she eventually learned the ropes, filed for divorce and got just about everything the man had, including all that property!!! Later, she remarried another Italian immigrant (from northern Italy), who must have been in America from youth, as he had just a bit of an accent. They had a son.

A few years later we moved again, a couple of more blocks northward and one street over. By this time, the state was preparing a major, multi-year highway project that would cut through much of the neighborhood, taking a large part of the newer homes along the hillside, which I had mentioned in an earlier segment. Some folks literally had their homes moved to new locations, but a chunk of the neighborhood was gone.


* I’m not an expert on rats (the four legged kind), but we always called them “river rats,” as they liked water and they could swim better than Johnny Weissmuller, the former Olympic swimmer of Tarzan fame. Most times, these large rats roamed the banks of the Ohio River, but when the floods came, they moved right along with the water, bringing them to basements all over the neighborhood as they searched for food. This search often led them to enter the actual living quarters of many homes, scaring the hell out of the human inhabitants. Rattraps were a common site in all homes in the area, especially the lower lying, flood-prone sections.

** My dad lived with is father in Baltimore from 1932 until early 1937. My grandparents had divorced in 1930.

WORD HISTORY:
Soon-This goes back to West Germanic "saeno," but I cannot find its Old Germanic predecessor, but Gothic, had "suns." The West Germanic form gave Old English "sona," with a long "o" sound, and it meant "right now, immediately." Other West Germanic forms from Old English times were Old Frisian "son" (long "o"), Old Saxon "sana," and Old High German "san." Apparently these forms all died out, as I can find no forms in the other modern Germanic languages. Gradually the meaning shifted to "in a short time."

Will The Democrats Get With The Program?

The November 3rd elections were relatively minor, as elections go, but the pundits have always looked at such elections to see if they can glean some insight into what Americans are thinking about on a national basis. Let's not forget, in this era of 24/7 news and punditry, "news" has to be made to sound very important, even if it really isn't. After all, the television channels need ad revenue, as do newspapers, magazines and websites. That being said, the three main races that were highlighted nationally were the races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey, and the race for an open congressional seat in upstate New York. The election for New York City mayor wasn't really considered to be all that significant, but the much closer than expected outcome did perhaps give some insight into the public's mood.

In Virginia, a pretty reliable Republican state over the past forty years, a Republican trounced a pretty feeble Democratic candidate for the governor's post. Virginia has been more reliable for the Republicans on a presidential basis, as Democrats have been able to win the governorship numerous times, including just recently, as the current governor is a Democrat.

In New Jersey, a pretty reliable Democratic state, a moderately conservative Republican defeated the current Democratic governor, Jon Corzine. While New Jersey certainly tends to vote Democratic in presidential elections, and often for governor, Republicans can and do win the governorship on occasion.

In upstate New York, a Democrat won a congressional seat that had been held by Republicans for over one hundred years. Does it mean anything? Not necessarily, although the Republicans had more of a fight among themselves than with the Democrats. Much of the rightwing of the Republican Party chose not to support the Republican candidate, who incidentally, was not chosen in a primary by the Republican electorate in the district, but rather was picked by a committee of, I believe it was eleven, Republicans. The Republican rightwing chose to support a conservative; thus making this a three-way race for the seat, until, in the waning days of the campaign, the actual Republican candidate dropped out and endorsed the Democrat for election! The Democrat won with just shy of 50% of the vote.

In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg, one of the wealthiest people in the country, won a surprisingly close election against a relative unknown. According to reports, Bloomberg spent in excess of 100 million dollars to win the election. (It must be nice!) Bloomberg was a lifelong Democrat until 2001 when he changed registration to Republican. Then in 2007, he became an independent.

So again, what does all of this mean? Well, for one thing, exit polls may tell more of the story than the actual balloting, at least to some extent. From what I saw of these polls, overwhelming majorities named the economy as the most important issue facing the country. Governors and mayors of both parties are on the front lines of the near depression in which the country finds itself. They are forced to make tough decisions to cut spending on programs that have popular support, thus making these budget-cutters highly unpopular. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for instance, was once very popular in California, but his numbers are now in the tank.

At times the national media over analyse elections, and I don't want to do that, but I do want to make note that Corzine in New Jersey was once the head of Goldman-Sachs, one of the top Wall Street firms, and the place he earned much of his wealth (he too is one of the richest people in the country). He lost. In New York City, Bloomberg, also a former Wall Streeter, damned near lost. I hope Americans are waking up to all of the wealthy interests who have come to dominate our lives so much, and who have given us a near depression for all of their greed. Trust me folks, they won't have to worry about paying their electric bill or buying basic foods for their families.

Now, the President and his administration seem NOT to have paid much attention to the old "Clinton dictum," that "It's the economy stupid!!!" After a meltdown on Wall Street, have Democrats done anything to rein in the greed and nuttiness? Hell no!!! The Wall Street banks are now even BIGGER than when they were called "too big to fail." Have the Wall Streeters shown any remorse for the terrible destruction they've brought to the country? Hell no!!! They're scheduled to give themselves ten of billions of dollars in bonuses again! Have the Democrats done anything to separate the casino atmosphere of Wall Street banks and get them back to two separate entities; traditional banking and investments. Hell no!!!

The President chose to push for health care reform, an admirable goal, but not what the country is looking for at this time. This has gone so far, they can't draw back either! The administration and Congress are bogged down in a seemingly endless battle over how to reform the health care system, and neither the President nor Democratic leaders in Congress can even get enough Democrats on board to pass anything. All the while, millions of Americans are out of work. The priorities have gotten misplaced. If the recent elections say anything, it is that Americans are worried for themselves and for the country, and it might not be that Americans are distressed so much by what Democrats have done, but rather more about what they HAVEN'T done! I've noted here many times that the three decade march to the tune of big business and the wealthy interests might just be what dooms the country. I hope that doesn't come true, but we're far from being out of this mess.

Word History:
Whet-This word, more commonly used in the compound "whetstone," and in the expression "whet one's appetite," goes back to the Indo European root "qwed," which had the notion of "sharpening." The Old Proto Germanic offshoot was "khwatjanan," also with the notion of "sharpening," including in the more figurative sense, "sharpen people's feelings; that is, incite or encourage." In Old English it was "hwettan," and the "h" sound eventually died out, or was transposed; after all, we do spell it "wh," although we don't really pronounce the "h" in modern English, choosing to pronounce it like "wet." Old Saxon, the Low German dialect that remained on the Continent after the departure of some Saxons to Britain, and thus was very close to Old English, had "hwat," which meant "sharp." Modern German also still has a form of the word, which is "wetzen," and it too means "to sharpen." So our expression, "to whet one's appetite," means "to sharpen or incite one's appetite."

Belated Halloween Words

This took longer to complete than I intended, but here are a few word histories for some words we might think of as being associated with Halloween:

Witch-Old English had "wicca," which meant "a wizard, a man of magic." From that was derived the feminine form, "wicce," for "a sorceress, priestess of magic." It seems the male form was derived from a verb, "wiccian," which meant "to practice sorcery or magic." Low German has "wicken," a verb meaning "to use witchcraft or sorcery." Various forms of the word have died out in the other Germanic languages. Where the above forms in English and Low German came from is subject to much speculation, but one "theory" gives Old Proto Germanic "wikkjaz," for "someone who awakens the dead." There is also speculation that it is possibly related to German "weihen," which means "to consecrate," as witchcraft had/has the notion of religion attached to it.

Wicked-This word is very closely related to "witch." It was from Old English "wick," an adjective which meant "wicked," which was derived from "wicca" (see "Witch" above). The "ed" suffix was added at some point, and it seems the word came into usage during the latter 1200s.

Monster-This word traces back to Latin "monstrum," which meant "a warning sign, omen, portent of evil," itself derived from the Latin verb "monere," with the meaning "to warn." Old French, a Latin-based language, continued with its own form of the word as "monstre." It seems that in times past, malformed creatures (by birth) were seen as signs of impending evil; thus the word eventually came to be applied to any misshapen creature or being. Sources vary a bit on when the word entered English, but it seems English usage started in the 1200s/1300s. The notion of "abnormality" gave the additional meaning in English of "large in size" during the 1500s. "Monstrous" was also from the same base, and continued with the same essential meaning, "something unnatural, uncommon;" so we have "monstrous cruelty" meaning "unnatural cruelty." Further, "monstrosity" is from the same base, and relates to the "abnormal size" meaning that developed in the 1500s.

Goblin-This word came to English in the first half of the 1300s from Old French "gobelin." Where French got the word is the question. During the 1100s in northwestern France, there was a "spirit" said to haunt the area, and that spirit had the name "Gobelinus." It is uncertain whether that name came from German "Kobold," which was the name of a spirit which haunted caves in Germanic mythology. Just a guess here, the Franks, the large Germanic tribe that conquered much of what became France (France was named after the Franks), may well have brought the mythical spirit's name with them (notice, I said "may"). Or, the name could have come from Latin "cabalus," itself derived from Greek "kobalos," which meant "a mischievous, rogue spirit." Again, just an interesting observation: the Greek, Latin, and Germanic words all have similarities in pronunciation, as well as meaning. Could this word go back to some Indo European base with notions of "spirits?"

Ghost-This word goes back to Indo European "gheis/ghois," which seems to have had the notion of "something frightening," but also, "anger, rage." The Old Proto Germanic offshoot was "ghoizodz," and this gave Old English "gast," with a long "a" sound, and simply with the meaning, "spirit or soul." This basic meaning seems only to be present in the West Germanic languages (English, German, both High and Low, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian). Old English religious writings gave us "Holy Ghost," a term still used today. It wasn't until the late 1300s that the word began to mean what we typically think of today, "the spirit of a dead person appearing to living beings." By the 1400s, the word began to take on the spelling with the "gh," which linguists speculate may have been due to the influence of the Flemish spelling "gheest," but this spelling didn't completely triumph until about a hundred years later.

Ghoul-This word, which came to English in the late 1700s, goes back to Arabic "gul/ghul" (found two spellings, both indicating long "u" sound), with the meaning "an evil spirit that robs graves to feed on the corpses." Supposedly, the word is derived from an Arabic word meaning "seize." Not much else on this word, but, if you're a ghoul, how would you like your corpse? Well done, or with a little red meat still on the bones?

Their Entitlement To America, Part Five

"Pigs, Cows, Tobacco & Water"

When I was growing up in the neighborhood, the streetcar tracks were still present on our street, but there were no streetcars to use them. Those tracks passed right by our house and made the big turn at the end of the street as they continued over to the next street, which was a mix of commercial and residential. The red brick street, with many a cracked and uneven brick, was eventually paved over, just as was many another such street all over the country. There were railroad tracks only about a block east from where we lived, and more tracks a couple of blocks west, right along the top of the banks of the Ohio River. I saw the changing of the guard, as the old smoke-belching locomotives gave way to the newer model engines, and we kids would stand and wave to the engineers on the old locomotives, just to get them to blow the whistle and toot the horn as they passed by. Then they were gone, forever.

We kids spent a good deal of time watching the trucks pull into the slaughterhouse to unload their doomed cargo of cattle and pigs. The cattle were unloaded on the west side of the slaughterhouse, but the pigs were unloaded just down at the end of our street. The squealing pigs went down a ramp into pens inside the building. Any hog that decided to procrastinate was given a shock by a prod that was hooked up to a battery. We would climb up to the windows of the building to see the pigs enter the pens. They went in as “pigs,” but came out as “pork.” (The meat went right across an alleyway to their packing plant) We knew almost all of the people who worked at the slaughterhouse, and, on occasion, they would hand us some real pork rinds, made right inside. Old Walter was one of the guys who helped unload the animals. We’d go to Walter to find out when the next shipment of animals was due. He wore a cap like a railroad engineer and he had a watch on a chain, which he would pull out, flip open, and say in his own way (Walter had a speech impediment), “Well, the next hogs are due in about an hour.” We kept Walter company on many a day, although as I got older, I realized that he didn’t always see us as “company.” People in the neighborhood didn’t like the smell that emanated from the animals, but eventually the smell was gone, as the slaughterhouse closed. I don’t remember exactly what happened to our old buddy Walter, but I’m sure he’s somewhere at this very moment opening his watch to see how long of a wait he has until the next truckload of pigs or cattle arrives.

In the morning and again twice in the afternoon (five minutes apart) a whistle could be heard all over the entire area. That whistle came from the nearby tobacco plant, just a few blocks away, and it was the sound that work was starting in the morning, and that it was ending in the afternoon. (They made chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco) A lot of people from the neighborhood worked there, and it was common to see people just walking to work with their lunchboxes in hand and a newspaper under their arm. The plant had this huge whistle way atop the building, like on an ocean liner, and the steam that made it sound shrouded the big metal whistle, until the vapor slowly joined the sky. The whistle itself didn’t really bother the people in the area, as everyone was accustomed to it, but the dogs, oh my! Their sensitive ears must have been aching, as every dog in the neighborhood would sit on its hind legs, look skyward, and howwwwwwwwwllllll!!!

The large tobacco plant had a natural spring beneath it. The company had spring water running throughout the plant for their workers, and outside, on the south side of the plant, they had like a big metal sink with running water for the public. People came from miles around with all sorts of bottles, pots and jugs to take water home with them. It was common to have to wait in line to get water there, and when we played baseball at a field just a few blocks away, we’d head over after our games to quench our thirst before heading home, as unlike regular tap water, this water was cool. I don’t know what, if anything, the company did to filter the water, but years later, I believe it was the local health department that made the company turn off the tap. At the moment I can’t recall if some people got sick, but for whatever reason, the water was shut off and the lines of thirsty people were no more. Even years after that, the locally owned company was bought out by a bigger company, and like the people waiting to fill their bottles with spring water, the jobs began to disappear. (A “Word History” is below)

WORD HISTORY:
As-(Just one "s"!) This common word developed in the 1300s from Old English "alswa," (one source spells it "eallswa") which had a long "a" sound at the end, and meant "just in this way or in the same way." The Old English word was actually a compound consisting of "all," which meant "exactly," and "swa," which meant "so." Eventually the "l" sound died out, although German, a close relative of English, still has "als," and another close relative, Dutch, also has "als."

What About Foreign Policy?

Regular readers probably wonder at times why I don’t write much about foreign policy. I guess it’s because, since the demise of the Soviet Union, the world is much more complex, or at least it seems to be. From the end of World War Two until circa 1990, there were two main players, superpowers, in world affairs, the Soviet Union and the United States. There were other players, but they essentially supported, or leaned toward, one of the two superpowers, although China began to wean itself from Soviet influence decades ago.* On the surface, like today’s Democrats and Republicans, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, then commonly referred to as “Russia” by most folks, often “seemed” to stake out positions based upon the other superpower’s position on any given issue. “If you like chocolate, then I like vanilla. If you like vanilla, then I like chocolate. If you like chocolate and vanilla, then I like strawberry.” In fact, just as with today’s Republicans and Democrats, there were deep philosophical divisions, but telling the “good guys” from the “bad guys” was not difficult. There were meetings between the superpowers over the decades, and there were even agreements between the two, which gradually reduced tensions; the key word being “gradually.”**

When I was a kid in grade school, there was a major confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States. It had to do with Russian missiles being deployed in Cuba, which is only about ninety miles from the U.S. President Kennedy challenged this Soviet deployment by sending American ships to essentially surround Cuba, and eventually the Soviets backed down. For days the world held its breath as the tension mounted, and it seemed that missiles would be flying in every direction at any moment. In the end, sanity prevailed, as both superpowers saw the tremendous downside to pushing “the button” to launch a nuclear attack on the other.

The two great nuclear powers had big differences, but neither side was stupid. Instead of using a major war to settle matters (probably for all time, if you get my drift), they used the world map as a kind of chessboard. Europe was at the center of most of the tension, as the Soviets had puppet governments running the countries of Eastern Europe, and the U.S. and its Western European allies kept forces at the ready to face any Soviet-led incursion into central Europe, most notably through West Germany.*** Further, each side tried to get “one up” on the other in technology. The point is, neither the Soviets nor the Americans wanted to end civilization by starting a nuclear war.

For years the two sides spent all sorts of money to build bigger bombs and bigger missiles to deliver those bombs. Many Americans, and I’m sure many “Russians,” as I’ll call them, wished that the other side would “see reason” and give in or just go away. In the end, the Soviets saw their Eastern European empire collapse, and then their very own rule over “Russia” go down for the count. Americans and “The West” rejoiced at the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. We had won!!! Or had we?

With only ONE superpower left, the rise of fundamentalist Islam presented itself to the world, including Western Europe, the United States and Russia**** (and more recently to China!) Unlike the Soviets and the Americans of “old,” these people were driven, not by a true political or economic ideology, but by religious zealousness (I’d say nuttiness!) and by an intense hatred of things “western” or “modern,” (I’d say they seem to see the two as the same), although nutcases as they are, they have no problem using modern technology, like computers or cell phones, to carry out their assault on the modern world.

In recent times, we have a Muslim nation, Pakistan, that developed nuclear weapons. We have a bunch of Islamic religious fanatics who would LOVE to get their hands on these weapons. We have another Muslim nation, Iran, led by a religious nutcase, that appears to be working toward developing nuclear weapons. If you thought the Soviets were a threat to the world, wait until one of these religious nuts gets a hold of nuclear weapons. To me it is only a matter of time. Any bunch of nutcases who would send suicide bombers into schools, businesses, crowded streets and plazas, will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons ANYWHERE. With their poisonous religious fanaticism, this will NOT be like the dealings between nuclear giants, America and the Soviet Union. Most Americans and Russians had rational thought processes, and both sides realized the potential consequences of a nuclear exchange. These nuts will most likely welcome the consequences of using nuclear weapons. LOOK OUT WORLD!

* From the time of the Communist takeover in the latter part of the 1940s until President Nixon’s major trip to China in the early 1970s, China was referred to in the United States as “Red China.” The U.S. and its allies viewed the legitimate government of China to be on the island of Formosa, now known as Taiwan, which lies just off the China coast.

** Here again it was Nixon who began serious talks with the Soviets on a wide range of issues, not the least of which was regarding nuclear weapons.

*** For those unaware, after the defeat of Hitler’s Germany in 1945, Germany was divided into occupation zones, with the Soviets in the eastern part of Germany, and with the U.S., Britain, and France with their own zones in western Germany. As the Germans were gradually given increasing amounts of self-rule, the western areas were commonly referred to in the western press as “West Germany,” although the Germans called the country, “Bundes Republik Deutschland,” or “BDR” (Federal Republic of Germany). See the “Word History” below) In contrast, the press referred to the eastern provinces as “East Germany,” although the Communist government called the country “Die Deutsche Demokratische Republik,” or “DDR” (The German Democratic Republic). The “West” eventually became totally self-governing, although with major military forces from the above listed countries being present, and in the “East,” the Communist government ruled that area on a day-to-day basis, but with the Soviets dominating foreign policy matters. That is not to say that the Western Powers didn’t have a big influence on West German foreign policy.

**** The Soviet Union was the inheritor of the “Old Russian Empire,” and as such assumed control over many Muslims, primarily in the far southeastern European part of their empire, and in the south Asian areas.

WORD HISTORY:
Bind-This word traces back to the Indo European root "bhendh," which had the notion of "tying up something." This passed into Old Proto Germanic as a stem "bind," with a short "i" sound. This in turn gave Old English "bindan," with the same short "i." Later, a long "i" sound developed in the pronunciation, supposedly in southern England, and that eventually came to be our modern version. A noun form developed during the 1300s, and is also represented by the form "bine," used for part of the name of some plants, like "Woodbine." Hopefully I'll remember to do the other forms of this word in future histories. The verb is quite common in the other Germanic languages, as, for example, German and Dutch have "binden," Swedish has "binda," and Danish has "binde." The German word "Bund(es)," used in the article above, is related, and is really our word "bound." A "Bund," in German, is a noun meaning "bound together for political purpose," and is ususally translated into English as "confederation or federation." In the above, it is adjectival in use, and is translated as "federal."

Their Entitlement To America, Part Four

“Depression, War & The Pope”

So, by the time of the Great Depression, the neighborhood consisted of many people of German heritage, but with far fewer actual German immigrants. Most of the remaining German immigrants were, by then, all getting on in years. I do remember a friend of mine, a child of German immigrants, * who was born in America, I’d say around 1912, and he told me that on his first day of school, the administrators sent him home with instructions to “teach this boy some English.” This guy later became a very successful businessman, and when I came to know him fairly well, circa 1975, I needed “to teach this guy some German,” as he had forgotten most of it. His success led to his leaving the neighborhood for a nice new house and a fancy car, but he never forgot where he came from, the southside of town, and he never looked down on any of the people still living there. He may have forgotten most of the language, but he never forgot his German beer drinking habits, and he frequented the neighborhood to “quench his thirst” right up until cancer prevented him from getting around, eventually permanently so.

And there was the southern portion of the neighborhood with a mainly Polish population, but with some Ukrainian folks. Of course, even in this area, “Polish Town,” a declining percentage of the people were actual immigrants, as many of their kids were American born, although the children grew up bilingual.

By 1930, there were still a good many of those professional type folks, I mentioned in an earlier part, living in the neighborhood. Keep in mind the difference in the money values from those days compared to now. So if someone had a worth of twenty or thirty thousand dollars, that was a hell of a lot of money in those times, equivalent to several hundred thousand of today’s dollars. Of course so many of the people in the neighborhood were dependent upon the mills in the area, and it had to be very difficult for them during the Depression, when the mills were closed for extensive periods of time. This in turn meant less money for the local merchants, as people didn’t have any money to spend. I certainly believe that it was during this era that the sense of economic populism exploded in the neighborhood. Politically, the neighborhood became very Democratic, but still contained a good many Republicans, my maternal grandfather being a Republican committeeman there for many years. My grandmother was also a Republican, but she voted for Franklin Roosevelt at least once, in 1936; something she never told my grandfather, but only divulged later in her life, and after his death.

So many of the people in the neighborhood were affected by World War Two, as people were in every neighborhood, all over the country, and in much of the world. My dad went into the Army and was sent to the Pacific. His two brothers also served in the war, one in the Merchant Marine, and the other in the Navy. My dad was injured by the concussion from a Japanese artillery shell on the island of Saipan and he had to be sent back to Hawaii. He received a partial disability for the rest of his life. His one brother had his ship sunk by the Japanese, and he couldn’t swim, but he somehow survived.

When I was a kid in the 1950s and 1960s, some of the other kids’ fathers who had served in Europe, brought out their “souvenirs” from Germany; like German helmets, German daggers, a German pistol, and even a Nazi armband and medals. We were all fascinated by these things, especially what we considered “the neat German helmets,” with their odd shape. ** In those days, kids that we were, we had no concept of what these “souvenirs” had originally stood for, just a few short years before, and Hitler was just a funny looking guy with a toothbrush mustache to us.

The war brought full employment, although at a terrible cost, and when it ended, after some time of adjustment, the economy picked up again. The Depression had given rise to many new protections for workers, and the mills and plants hummed along, making various metal products for an increasingly prosperous American public. (That’s what happens when the money gets spread up and down the economic ladder, and it isn’t concentrated primarily at the top. Of course back then, our leaders didn’t spend much of their time concerned with the “plight of millionaires,” and how those “poor” millionaires could make more money off of money.)

Then came 1960. John F. Kennedy, a Roman Catholic and Irish-American, was elected President of the United States. This was a first. To many of those Americans who tried desperately to prove that they were somehow connected to Plymouth Rock, this was just too much. I remember hearing many a Protestant adult say, “Now we’re going to be run by the Pope!” Or even worse, “Now we’ve got a ‘fish eater’ running the country!” So many people love to spout slogans like, “America is a land of opportunity for everyone,” but that slogan had never really been intended for “certain groups,” like Catholics. It’s amazing how far we’ve come, since back in those days, religion was a very polarizing subject. And in my neighborhood, which was very much split between Protestants and Catholics (and some Ukrainian Catholics), religion was one hot subject that could cause tempers to flare and fists to fly. In the American South, the Ku Klux Klan was not just a group that hated people by race, but also by religion, and Catholics were prime targets. I’m sure such sentiments still linger in some people, but for the most part, the country has moved past religion being so divisive, and we’re a better country for it. It takes time, but ever so gradually Americans overcome the nonsense of bigotry. (A “Word History” is below the notes)

* His parents were not from Germany, but from the German community in what became a part of Yugoslavia, when it was established after World War One. These folks were collectively called “Donauschwaben” (Danube Swabians), as most of them migrated to that area along and near the Danube River from Swabia, the general area around Stuttgart, the modern home of the Mercedes auto company.

** Of course we no longer consider those helmets “odd,” as our own troops have had similar shaped helmets for a while now, copied from the German example.

“Word History:”
Else-This word goes back to the Indo European base "al," which had the notion of "other," and is also the source of "alias;" that is, "other name." The Germanic offshoot was "aljo," had a genitive adverbial form "aljaz," which also had the meaning of "other, different." This gave Old English "elles," with the same meaning. From what I gather, the forms of the word in the other Germanic languages have died out, although I did see a reference to Swedish "eljest," and Dutch had "els" a few hundred years ago.

Will The Dems Finally Act?

Regular readers know that I've been preaching here for quite some time about how the country has been taken over by the wealthy business interests in the country. There are many important issues in this country, war and peace certainly being one, but in my opinion, in the end, what will destroy the country is how we deal with the economy and the standard of living for all Americans, not just the rich. The philosophy that spawned the take over by the "interests" was put in place just shy of thirty years ago. In the early Reagan years, many Americans could not have foreseen how the mighty would truly become THE mighty in the country within just a couple of decades. We have two major political parties to help balance things out in how the country operates. During much of the last thirty years many Democrats in Congress supported a lot of conservative policies. I said "many Democrats," but certainly not all. Some of those Dems were so conservative, that they switched parties and became Republicans. Additionally, during his two terms, President Clinton, a Democrat, also signed into law a number of policies that were heavily supported by conservatives in the country, including the repeal of some significant regulation of the banking industry, proposed mainly by then Senator Phil Gramm, Republican of Texas.* So, I'm not just picking on Republicans, but it was their favored philosophy that prevailed for almost thirty years, and it was that philosophy that helped put the country into the predicament it is now in economically.** In essence, however, WE are to blame.

We watched oil and gasoline prices spiral to heights never believed possible. We watched as higher energy prices drove the price of just about everything higher. We watched as the price of many other food products soared, because of "supposed scarcity." We watched the country's wealth dissipate in trade imbalances that boggled the mind. We watched as middle class Americans saw their collective incomes shrink. We watched as Wall Streeters and other wealthy Americans "cleaned up" on high prices for everything, transferring money from OUR pockets into THEIR bank accounts. We watched as Wall Streeters and other wealthy Americans used that money to drive prices even higher, thus perpetuating the transfer of wealth from low and middle income Americans to the very wealthy. We watched as these same greed mongers helped (unwittingly, I'm NOT saying this was a conspiracy) foreign nations, some of them openly hostile to America, reap the benefits of higher oil prices, "fueled," if you'll pardon the expression, by the obsessive greed of our own greediest people. We watched as home prices surged to absurd levels, driven higher by mortgages granted to anyone who had a heartbeat, and maybe even to some who didn't. We watched as people who hated the idea of government, be put in charge of the government! Then these same imbeciles charged that the government doesn't work right! If you ever wanted to know what the Wild West was like, this stuff was pretty much comparable; that is, no law and order, except for the wealthy, who were a law unto themselves.

Now we've had a new President since late January. We've had Democrats in control of the House of Representatives. We've had Democrats in charge of the U.S. Senate. So what's been done to change all of the absolute nonsense that had been going on? Ah...NOTHING! Well, I guess there is going to be a policy to cut back on Wall Street bonuses announced some time today, supposedly for one year, but that is insufficient for the magnitude of the problem. The whole system was taken over by wealthy interests. Corporate board members have been as cozy as cucumbers on a vine with CEOs and other corporate officers. These folks approved all of these bonuses and exorbitant salaries. The average shareholder is just like dust on the floor.

We have the greedy back to driving oil and gas higher. Let me tell you, how much do you want to bet that many a Wall Street business is behind that? They'll destroy the country, because they are so obsessed by greed and ego trips that they don't even see how they hurt the country by taking money from the pockets of average Americans AND helping transfer more of our wealth overseas to oil producing countries. I know many people don't agree with me on this at this time, but you watch, if nothing is done, many Americans will be screaming for Uncle Sam to nationalize the oil industry in this country, just to get a handle on the abuses that have gone on. Survival will outweigh all this "socialist" malarkey shouted by some people who don't even see their own self interest. And they are urged on by people who fully understand their own self interest. Can you guess who they are? All of the negative ads appearing on your television screen didn't get there by magic. They were funded by someone. Any attempts to change the system that now favors the "big boys," will face well funded opposition, and you can put that in a Wall Street bank account. (A "Word History" is below the notes)

* Gramm was one of those former Democrats who changed parties.

** Very concisely, but not all inclusive, that philosophy entailed big tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans, free trade policies with countries whose workers earned only a fraction of what American workers made, thus putting our own workers at a serious disadvantage, and the idea of "the best regulation is no regulation." That last notion was in place as the conditions mounted that would cause the economy to melt before the very eyes of those who opposed regulation so much, like Christopher Cox, George W. Bush's head of the Security & Exchange Commission, better known by its initials, SEC, but he was not alone!

WORD HISTORY:
Now-This very common word goes back to Indo European "nu," and meant "at the present time." This gave many of the Indo European dialects (later separate languages) a form of the word, as Sanskrit, an ancient relative of English, had "nu," and Latin had "nunc," and Greek had/has "nun/nyn/nu" (I found three different versions). The Germanic languages also kept a form of the word, and this gave Old English "nu." The other Germanic languages also still have forms: German has "nun," Dutch has "nu/nou," Norwegian has "na," Danish has "nu/na," and Swedish has "nu."

Their Entitlement To America, Part Three

Their Entitlement To America, Part Three”
“Guilt By Association Brings More Change”

Along came “The Great War,” later termed “World War One,” after an even greater war followed in two decades. I remember long ago talking with folks in the neighborhood who lived through that era; almost all either had German-sounding family names, or their mother’s side of the family did. There was even a bank in the neighborhood with “German” in the name, but I just can’t recall the proper title. There was also “Beethovian Hall” not far up the street from the “German” bank; at least, I think that was the proper name, and it was not only named after the famous German composer, it was the home of what I believe was called “The Beethoven Music Society.” At least a couple of German Protestant churches had “German” in their names, too. The butcher shops, even later when I was a kid, all had various types of German meats: sausages of all shapes and sizes in natural casings, head cheese, Schweitzer cheese*, Limburger cheese, Berliner ham**, Braunschweiger, blood sausage, Mettwurst, and more that I can’t even recall at this moment. Even the little “mom & pop” grocery stores that were all over the place, each had many of these German products for sale in their meat cases. ***

When I was little, my dad worked his job and my mother worked a seasonal job for a toy manufacturer. Those of you old enough may well remember the name of that toy manufacturer, “Marx.” (Ah oh! The rightwing will say it was a Communist toy commune!) The company featured ads on many of the Saturday morning cartoon shows in those days. At some point, I believe another toy company bought them up, and to my knowledge, the brand name no longer exists. Of course, it could exist in China, since that’s where we seem to get our toys made anymore, lead and all! Hmm, I don’t remember many in the rightwing throwing a fit over trade deals with China, except Pat Buchanan. Do you suppose it has anything to do with their business allies who couldn’t wait for such trade? Anyway, my older brother was in school and I was frequently with my maternal grandparents. I so fondly remember my grandmother making Limburger cheese sandwiches with lots of onion on them. And of course, Grandpap would bring home a quart of beer to wash down the smelly cheese, made even smellier by the onion (then again, I’m not sure the onion could overcome the Limburger****). Unlike my older brother, who absolutely HATED Limburger cheese, and in fact refused to even stay in the same room with anyone who had a sandwich, I LOVED Limburger cheese, and still do! My grandmother would re-wrap the Limburger in the original packaging, put wax paper around it, then foil, then put it in an old, crockery-type, light blue butter dish, with a lid, and set it on the self of the refrigerator. That may seem like a lot of work for a piece of cheese, but trust me, she had to do it to keep the odor from penetrating anything or everything else in the frig, not to mention what fine smell would escape when the refrigerator door was opened.

My grandparents loved all of the German meat products I mentioned above, and it was common for Grandma to pack some Mettwurst or Berliner ham for my grandfather to take to work for his lunch.

When America entered the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary, the neighborhood seems to have gone through a patriotic frenzy, from what I remember hearing from “the old timers.” The name of the “German” bank was changed to something less…ah…well…GERMAN! “Dutch Cake,” the name for a type of sweet cake, was changed to “Coffee Cake.” There were other changes away from the name “German,” or products whose name was associated with Germans, but time has left me unable to recall them. The word “German” was even dropped from the church names. Most of the “Germans” in the neighborhood were children or grandchildren of immigrants, but that didn’t much matter, German was German. (A “Word History” is below the notes)

* Schweitzer is German for “Swiss,” and I swear I was well into my teens before I ever heard anyone call Schweitzer cheese, “Swiss cheese.” When I first heard that term, I had to ask what it was.

** I’ve got to be honest, that may have been our local name for this particular type of ham, because I could not find any info on anything termed “Berliner ham” in more recent times. When I was a kid, all the grocery stores in the neighborhood had it.

*** I already mentioned the Polish food additions in the far south of the neighborhood in “Part Two.” The Germans and the Poles actually share some of the same meat products, like blood sausage, although to be quite honest, I don’t know if the Polish version is somewhat different from the German, because, as a kid, I didn’t like blood sausage, aka “Blutwurst;” may my German ancestors not turn over too many times in their graves! A fair portion of German areas in Europe border on Polish areas, and there’s no doubt food stuffs were swapped over the centuries. I intend to cover much on the German-Polish relationship when I do some German history in the near future.

**** In those times, Limburger was pretty popular in many parts of America, and it was made by several companies, if I remember right. Limburger aficionados insisted that the worse the smell, the better the cheese, and I agree! All I can say is, some of the cheese companies back then made some VERY good Limburger, because the smell was enough to make your hair stand on end! There were some beer establishments in the neighborhood that actually sold Limburger cheese sandwiches. Some of you may remember an old episode of “The Three Stooges,” where Curly occasionally goes wild, and can only be soothed by a piece of cheese (“because his father was a rat,” according to the Stooges). He always asks for a different type of cheese, and at the end of the story, he wants Limburger. Upon getting a piece of “well made” Limburger, the trio passes out from the smell! Unfortunately, I saw a clip on television that said only one American company now still makes Limburger. I’ve tried it, and it’s pretty tame stuff.

WORD HISTORY:
Lox-This noun apparently traces back to some Indo European root for "fish," as several other Indo European languages have forms of the word, including Russian and Polish "losos," and Lithuanian "laszisza." "Apparently" at some point, many Indo European dialects applied it to a specific fish, salmon. Whether this was from some borrowing of that specific meaning from another related dialect, I couldn't find out. Old Proto Germanic had "lakhs," and Old English had "leax" (I could not find out if a form of this word died out). Yiddish, another Germanic language developed long ago by Jews to communicate throughout various parts of Europe, brought the spelling "lox" to America, and that's why we enjoy "lox and bagels." A form of the word is also still common in other Germanic languages, as German has "Lachs," pronounced pretty much like our word, and both Norwegian and Danish have "laks."