William Calley (pictured left in 1971) made history -- for all the wrong reasons. Calley is the former U.S. Army lieutenant who was convicted on 22 counts of murder in the 1968 My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.
William Calley (pictured left in 1971) made history -- for all the wrong reasons. Calley is the former U.S. Army lieutenant who was convicted on 22 counts of murder in the 1968 My Lai Massacre in Vietnam.
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Long before the current debate over health care in the United States took centre stage, my stepmother used to forward me these disturbing mass emails she received about the Canadian medical system. My stepmother is liberal in her views. The emails she forwarded to me were written by right-wing foes of socialized medicine and sent by friends of hers who opposed government-run health care. These friends knew she supported health care reform and hoped to win her over. She forwarded the emails to me — hoping I’d set the record straight about the Canadian medical system. That way, she could go back to her friends and refute the information about Canada. The emails were over the top, to say the least. They discussed the “horrors” of the Canadian medical system: long waits, people with no access to family doctors, patients dying as a result of not getting routine surgeries. They made Canada sound like a Third World country. Many of these claims came from anonymous sources – “friends of a friend of mine,” that sort of thing. Sometimes, the emails named the names of unfortunate people who had been through medical ordeals in Canada. I was honest with my stepmother. The Canadian system isn’t perfect, I said. And there are undoubtedly some true stories about long wait times, problems finding family physicians and so forth. But even with its flaws, the system still enjoys widespread support in Canada. Unfortunately, there are powerful institutions and individuals in America who have a vested interest in pushing these negative portrayals of the Canadian health care system. These zealots will take whatever negative stories they hear about our system and toss them into their propaganda stew. They add fuel to the fire by financing websites, advertisements, and so-called “citizens” organizations like Patients United Now. Patients United Now is the group behind the Shona Holmes television advertisements in the United States. These ads were part of a larger propaganda war against President Barack Obama’s health care reform efforts. Holmes, a resident of Waterdown, Ont., went to the Mayo Clinic in the U.S. to get treatment for a growth near her pituitary gland. She became the face of the U.S. lobby against Canadian-style health care when she claimed in the advertisement that she “survived a brain tumour, but if I’d relied on my government for health care, I’d be dead.” The Holmes ad fit neatly into the agenda of this powerful lobby, which just wants to leave the U.S. medical system alone. And they’ll use any and every little bit of negative information about the Canadian health care system—such as the Holmes case—to their advantage. Keep in mind: Not all Americans feel this way. Our neighbours to the south are deeply divided about health care reform. The battle lines have been drawn. In most cases, conservative Republicans and their supporters are one side of the divide; President Barack Obama, the Democrats, and a growing number of doctors’ associations are on the other. Both camps are seeking to win ordinary Americans to their side. Opponents of reform are often fanatical in their views. You can’t reason with them or calmly explain the complexities of the Canadian system. If you cite the latest Angus Reid poll — showing that 65 per cent of Canadians have a “very positive” or “moderately positive” view of their single-payer health care system — it won’t have much of an impact on those resisting change. Their minds are made up. But it is useful to remember that these zealots do not represent the entire country. Andrew Hunt is an associate professor of history at the University of Waterloo.
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Filmmaker John Hughes -- whose 1980s' youth films (Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off) often captured the essence of what it was like to grow up in Reagan's America -- has sadly passed away. He was 59.
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The battle over health care reform has reached absurd heights -- or should I say depths?
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California in Decline
by Andrew Hunt (The Waterloo Region Record)
July 25, 2009
California – once the mightiest state in the United States – is in the worst shape it has ever been since the Great Depression.
Throughout its history, California has been a symbol of the American dream. It’s where movies are made. Its beaches are breathtaking. The temperature hovers somewhere between warm and hot all year long. Suburbs sprawl outward for as far as the eye can see.
But the “Golden State” is in the midst of a terrible crisis, facing a $26.3 billion budget deficit for the 2009-2010 budget year.
Sacramento, the state capital, is a terrible place to be now. Morale has bottomed out in the legislature. Republicans and Democrats are blaming each other for the crisis. Vital programs are facing deep cu ts, with some even facing extinction. “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gets a big knife and cuts California budget crisis,” cried a recent headline in the New York Daily News.
The movie star governor of California, once hailed as a fiscally responsible replacement for former Governor Gray Davis, is overseeing the greatest dismantling of social programs in the state’s history. The new budget negotiated between Schwarzenegger and key legislators will likely include $6 billion dollars in cuts to public education (K through 12) and $3 billion in cuts to higher education.
In the Los Angeles Unified School District, a $530 million shortfall has led to layoffs of 2,000 teachers. The state’s two main university systems – the University of California and California State University systems – face 20 per cent cuts. Tuition has skyrocketed. Student fees are exorbitant. Universities across the state have established furlough plans for faculty and staff.
It gets worse. The new budget will close at least 30 – and maybe up to 50 – of the state’s parks. This is an improvement over Schwarzenegger’s original plan to close all of the state’s 220 parks. But there will still be numerous park closures, a wor risome prospect for Californians.
Not surprisingly, the poor are suffering the worst under California’s budget-cutting orgy. Welfare, health and education programs are experiencing the deepest slashes. In California, there is a low-cost medical insurance program to help the working poor called Healthy Families. It could lose 40 per cent of its $1 billion budget.
Gov. Schwarzenegger hasn’t been very reassuring through this crisis. Sounding a lot like his movie persona Conan the Barbarian, the so-called “Governator” recently remarked, “Not that I have fun with making the cuts — they sadden me — but… that doesn’t mean that you cannot wave a knife around, or to wave your sword around, to get the message across that certain cuts have to be made because it’s budget time.”
Without question, the causes of the current crisis are complicated and numerous. California’s economic implosion has been years in the making.
Yet it is important to pinpoint some of the main culprits here. California has been the victim of excessive greed, too much deregulation, and too many policies that have enriched the wealthy while lowering the standard of living for the poor and middle class. California is unraveling due to too many irresponsible tax cuts and policies that have emphasized short-term financial gains for a tiny handful of the state’s most powerful citizens over prudent planning for the future.
These policies, largely the creation of Republicans (who enjoyed support from weak and vacillating Democrats in the legislature), have crippled California. They were in place long before Arnold Schwarzenegger led a recall campaign that booted ex-governor Gray Davis out of the governor’s office in 2003. And unless the state’s political establishment considers new directions and adopts different priorities, California’s future prospects appear grim.
Andrew Hunt is an associate professor of history at the University of Waterloo
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I am Blogging less these days. I've been doing some traveling, visiting family and friends in Salt Lake City, Utah (where the temperature has hovered in the high 90s). I've been doing a lot of reading these days. There are some wonderful summer books out there that are worthy of a spot in your library. Here are a few of the more interesting books that I've been reading over the summer:
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This is my latest column from The Waterloo Region Record on the crisis in Honduras. I'm posting it here because visitors to the Tiki Lounge don't always see my columns in the Record. And this issue is particularly important at this time. I hope you enjoy it. -- A.H.
U.S. stand on Honduran coup is a welcome change
Andrew Hunt Central America used to be one of the planet's hot spots, yet for the last 25 years the region has been relatively quiet. But the recent crisis in Honduras, triggered by the undemocratic ouster of President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, has brought the once-tumultuous region back into the spotlight. Zelaya's failed attempt on July 5 to fly back to Honduras to resume power proved the stuff of high drama. The world's response to the anti-Zelaya coup has been encouraging. Last weekend, the Organization of American States (OAS) -- the 34-member pan-American political body that monitors events in this hemisphere -- voted to expel Honduras in response to the coup. Most governments around the world, including Canada, have also condemned the overthrow of Zelaya. Peter Kent, minister of state for foreign affairs for Stephen Harper's government, issued a statement: "Canada condemns the coup d'etat that took place over the weekend in Honduras, and calls on all parties to show restraint and to seek a peaceful resolution to the present political crisis, which respects democratic norms and the rule of law, including the Honduran constitution." Hondurans are divided, with some supporting the coup. Outside of Honduras, the most outspoken backers of the coup have been American conservatives. Most of them are happy to see Zelaya go. In the past, Zelaya has built ties to leftist governments in Cuba and Venezuela. The American right sees him as an anti-democratic leader who leans too far to the left. Hans Bader, a legal expert with the right-wing Competitive Enterprise Institute, voiced the anti-Zelaya argument: "I don't think they needed to wait until he actually made himself into a dictator. I think they were entitled to take action against a budding dictator." But conservatives in America are no longer controlling the nation's foreign policy. Had John McCain been elected last year, the White House likely would've supported the coup, the same way so many past presidents in the 20th century backed undemocratic coups in Latin America. Conservatives are not in power, though. And President Barack Obama's administration opposed the coup. Immediately after Zelaya's ouster, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made the Obama administration's policy clear: "The United States has been working with our partners in the OAS to fashion a strong consensus condemning the detention and expulsion of President Zelaya, and calling for the full restoration of democratic order in Honduras." This is an encouraging position and a welcome break from Washington's long-standing tradition of interfering in Central American nations to protect American business and strategic interests. Over the past two decades, Central America has moved steadily away from the guerrilla wars that typically pitted Marxist insurgencies against undemocratic, pro-U.S. governments. To be certain, poverty and corruption still exist. Yet the old Cold War struggles in the region -- so destructive for so many years -- have become a thing of the past. Former Marxist revolutionaries have traded their radicalism in for pragmatism and have been elected to democratic governments. In Nicaragua and El Salvador, leftist parties that once fought against U.S.-backed forces now run the governments. Central America has come a long way. And thankfully, the Obama administration has reoriented American foreign policy in a more positive direction. Instead of subverting democracy in Central America (as earlier presidents have done in the past), the Obama administration has backed democratic forces in a nation with a long history of violence and turmoil. Whatever happens in Honduras, it is safe to say that, on the whole, Central America is far better off than it was 25 years ago. Andrew Hunt is an associate professor of history at the University of Waterloo.
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By the time the Academy Award-winning documentary The Fog of War was made in 2004, its subject matter -- former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara (who died yesterday) -- was already something of an anachronism. He was a Cold War Liberal, part of that generation of policy makers in the immediate postwar era who were liberal on domestic issues and fiercely anticommunist when it came to foreign policy. By 2004, Cold War Liberals like McNamara were a vanishing breed, largely replaced in Washington's foreign policy establishment by neoconservatives.
The original commitment in Vietnam was made by President Truman, a mainstream liberal. It was seconded by President Eisenhower, a moderate liberal. It was intensified by the late President Kennedy, a flaming liberal. Think of the men who now engineer that war — those who study the maps, give the commands, push the buttons, and tally the dead: Bundy, McNamara, Rusk, Lodge, Goldberg, the President himself. They are not moral monsters. They are all honorable men. They are all liberals.
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This past Wednesday, July 1, was Canada Day. It was a holiday, with fireworks and celebrations of this wonderful country. The local newspaper, The Waterloo Region Record, published thoughtful pieces in its editorial section on what it means to be a Canadian and the state of Canada today.
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Note: I wrote much of this entry on June 27, but this is my first opportunity to post it. I hope you enjoy it.
On Facebook, Blogs and a variety of Websites, I keep reading posts from irate people who are sick and tired of hearing about the death of Michael Jackson. A few of my Facebook friends have commented that the people who died in the pro-democracy protests in Iran are just as important as the famous King of Pop. Within hours of Michael Jackson's death, certain curmudgeons began suffering from JDF... Jackson Death Fatigue.
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