Riding On The F

The world sure is a strange place. One can be friend or foe, hero or demon, depending on where one happens to be at the moment. I was thinking about that yesterday as I was sitting on the F train riding into Manhattan. With nothing else to do than to observe my fellow riders, I had to marvel, as I do so often, at the fact that there are more religions, cultures and ethnicities (peacefully) represented in a New York City subway car at any given time than anywhere in the world. Yet, if some of these riders were to go back to their native lands, they would be mortal enemies.
Most of the world's conflicts seem to be non-issues here in my hometown. Christians, Muslims and Jews ride side by side as the train rattles along. Indian and Pakistani, Sunni and Shi'ite, Serbian and Croatian, Hutu and Tutsi, all are thrown together here. In this big city, they all seem to put their differences aside to merge peacefully, even if, back in the old country, their relatives are killing each other.
Which brings me to today's arrival of Pope Benedict the XVI's to Istanbul, Turkey. A man revered by about 1.2 billion Roman Catholics is going to set foot into a country where most of the predominantly Muslim population hates his guts. I can't decide if this trip is super courageous or if it will inflame Arab tempers more. Back in September, the Pope made a rather indelicate speech quoting a Byzantine emperor, who said that Islam was violent and irrational. Bad move. The Pope unleashed days of protest in the Islamic world. In the style of Hollywood film stars and Washington politicians who shoot off their mouth, he apologized, saying that his speech was misunderstood. That he is truly, truly sorry.
So today, despite all the protests against his visit, he is landing in Istanbul. I guess I admire his guts. If anything, he is opening the way for dialogue. Dialogue is always good. And if the visit does not go well, I invite him and the other leaders of the world's major religions to come to New York. Catch a show, visit a few museums and ride the subway. All these seemingly insurmountable differences will disappear instantly. Because as every New Yorker knows, in the subway at least, we are all the same. Read more

Here Comes Santa Claus!

The house is empty again after the four-day week-end. I wish I could say the same about the fridge. There are still all kinds of leftovers safely stored in Tupperware containers. Enough to squeeze one more meal out of....Anyone still hungry?
Now for the next phase. The Christmas season has officially begun. My neighbor D. across the street has put out her decorations. Each year, she is finished decorating the front of her house by Friday 9 Am the day after Thanksgiving. Big red velvet bows adorn each window, littler ones hang from every branch of the holly bush, gigantic ones frame the front door. This year she has added an illuminated nativity scene she got at J.C.Penney's. Yes, Christmas is upon us!
The shopping season has also officially begun. However, at the risk of forgoing some terrific bargains, I did not line up out at 5 Am on Friday to buy electronics at Sears. Who does that anyway? Who are these freaks they showed on the news trampling each other to get into Wal-mart at midnight? After turkey dinner, no less. All I was good for was watching another 3 episodes of the highly addictive " Deadwood."
And today is Cyber Monday, the day on which millions of people in this country place their online Christmas gift orders from their office computers. And employers know this? They should just add one more day to the Thanksgiving week-end, I say.
I love Christmas. Like every year at this time, I am trying to get myself motivated and into the holiday spirit. I received the Christmas lists from the youngest members of our family. Lists are always helpful. But now I am struggling with some important questions. Do I give in and buy my son the $150 butterfly knife he wants so badly? Do I purchase the $80 J.Crew sweater for my niece even though I have not bought myself an item that expensive in a long time? Should I just recklessly spend and make everyone happy or do I try to stay real? Do I have an obligation to buy things for Christmas that I would not buy under any circumstance during the rest of the year? More importantly, do we really need all this crap? So, on my own list this year? Absolutely nothing. And I mean it.
However, shop we must. So I am going to get ready, grab my Metrocard and take the subway into Manhattan. I will try to find the right balance between fulfilling wishes and watching my spending. And hope that come Christmas day, everyone is happy with their loot. Read more

A Happy Brooklyn Thanksgiving

As a foreigner, I never quite got the hang of Thanksgiving. It seems that on this holiday, you either spend countless hours cooking an elaborate dinner or you sit in the car stuck in traffic on your way to eat said dinner. Nice!
I am the one who does the cooking in my family. I put dinner on the table most nights. I am a good cook, too. But there is something about Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe it is the fact that the main purpose for the day is for me to stand in the kitchen cooking vast quantities of starchy food. Could it be the fact that I am a vegetarian and that the thought of all this meat is frankly a bit unsettling?
I never celebrated Thanksgiving as a child in Europe, so I don't have those fond Norman Rockwell memories that my American friends have. For the sake of my American husband and children however, I am willing to slave the day away. No turkey in this house, though. My husband opted for the ham instead. His choice not mine!
There is something more to Thanksgiving, of course. It is about having your family around the dinner table. And I like that.
So, tomorrow morning, like a good pilgrim, I will let everyone sleep, go down into the kitchen and start cooking the ham.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL Read more

Uncle Sam Wants Your Children

I often wonder why young people in this country are not more vocal against the war in Iraq. My friends tell me it's because there is no draft.
The United States had a draft in place between 1948 and 1973. It grew to become the center of controversy during the Vietnam War, 1964-1975, an undeclared war that was the most unpopular conflict America had fought until Iraq. But because there is no more draft and because we have a professional army now, maybe there is less of an incentive for young people to protest as they did during the Vietnam years.
Yesterday, incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, N.Y. Democratic Representative Charles Rangel proposed a military draft covering all men and women age 18. He sees his idea as a way to increase U.S. troop levels which he thinks are currently inadequate to continue the fight in Iraq and potential conflicts with Iran and North Korea. He also believes that politicians would be less ready to deploy troops if there was a draft in place.
Already in 2003, Rangel introduced such a bill. "I truly believe that those who make the decision and those who support the United States going into war would feel more readily the pain that's involved, the sacrifice that's involved, if they thought that the fighting force would include the affluent and those who historically have avoided this great responsibility," Rangel said. "For those who say the poor fight better, I say give the rich a chance."
Rangel is right of course. Our armed forces are strained to the breaking point. We cannot even envisage entering into a new conflict. He is also right when he states that politicians would face more opposition from the general public if there was a draft. And everyone knows that young well-to-do Americans have more options and therefore do not join the army in quite the same numbers as poorer ones. It is great that he is opening this overdue debate. He is mistaken however, in believing that this country is willing to reinstate a draft. If Vietnam was a waste of young American lives, Iraq is probably even more so.
As a parent, I certainly would not allow my son or daughter to fight in a war that was based on lies. Contrary to many Americans, as a German, I don't believe that my children owe their country anything. Of course this deep non-nationalistic feeling is a reflection of my own country's bloody history. Would I be opposed to having 18-year-olds to do a year of community service for the good of others? Not at all. Would my children fight to protect themselves and their families if under attack? Yes, of course. But as long as politicians misinform the public about the real dangers from other countries instead of using diplomacy, I will try to keep my children alive.
What are your thoughts? Read more

Opa, Here Is To You

Nobody understands my son as well as my 74 year old father. " You are the best grand-son I ever had" he will say. " I am the ONLY grand-son you EVER had, Opa! " my son will reply.
That is true. My father had the good fortune to have a sensational wife and two pretty great daughters. In other words, he was surrounded by women. Even our dog was female. The first grandchildren were little girls. Of course, he loved them more than anything. He was resigned to the fact that he was the patriarch in a clan of strong (headed) women.
Until.....my son M. came along. I believe that my father's life truly changed the day M. was born. Here was the chance he had been waiting for to relive his own childhood. And reliving it he has. From M.'s first temper tantrums, to his first difficulties, to his first hobbies, my father understood them all. "He is just like his Opa, leave the kid alone" he tells me over the phone when I fill him in on the latest on M. " He has my genes."
My father sometimes spoils my son. Over my mother's objections, he was determined to buy a red scooter in the country for M. At first, the two would take off to roam the countryside together, M. sitting on the back, wrapping his little arms around Opa's belly. As M.'s legs became longer, he went off by himself. But the red moped is still my son's most prized possession. A gift from his Opa.
Intuitively, my father seems to know what my son needs: someone in his corner. "My boy, you have a one-person fan club" he told him just yesterday. He supports him in all of his dreams and aspirations. I hope that my son realizes that he has the BEST Opa in the world. Read more

Bush Does Vietnam

Holy cow! Shortly after arriving in the one-time war capital, Hanoi, President Bush compared the Vietnam and Iraq conflicts.
"We'll succeed unless we quit" he stated about the war in Iraq.
Now maybe I am overly critical of the man, but I think this was a faux-pas. First of all, why bring any war up on this first visit to Vietnam? Was that really necessary? His statement almost sounds as though he is suggesting that if America had stayed in Vietnam a bit longer as well, our country would have won that conflict. Will the Vietnamese not interpret the statement as: "If only we would have stayed to finish the job...." That is a nice thing to tell your host.
Yes, there are too many similarities between the two conflicts. It is scary how much they are alike. And they are alike chiefly because both were/are unwinnable.
What is your comment?

Below is an article of great interest from the German Spiege lhttp://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,447763,00.html Read more

America's Favorite Mayor As President?

Rudy Giuliani has filed papers with the Federal Election commission to form an exploratory committee in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Funny, it seems as though he has been campaigning since 9/11. I once read that as a college kid he confided his presidential dream to his girlfriend and practiced future campaign speeches in front of her at home. The country, especially Republicans of course, are in love with him. Most New Yorkers don't have the same warm and fuzzy feelings for him. Here are just some troubling examples of his stint of Mayor:
The crime rate in the city went down dramatically on Giuliani's watch. That was his top career issue—first as Manhattan federal prosecutor and then as mayor. Crime was declining in the rest of the country as well but not as sharply as in New York. Always the showman, Giuliani took full credit for the drop in the media. Some of the credit should have gone to his first police commissioner, William Bratton, whom Giuliani fired when Bratton began receiving some credit in the press. Rudy's policy of ‘zero tolerance’ (tough penalties for minor offences) was criticised as racist and as concentrating on the visibility of the problem, rather than helping its victims.
His other signature policy was the drastic reduction of the city’s welfare rolls. However, he provided few jobs and little opportunity for job training for those he kicked out of the system. He instituted the biggest Workfare ( work for benefits) program in America, but it did little to move people into full employment. Giuliani's tough stand on welfare drastically increased the number of homeless people, whole families in particular. Soup kitchens and charity food pantries were overwhelmed.
Giuliani was one of the most divisive mayors of our multi-cultural city. He managed to alienate the city’s Black and Hispanic community with demeaning tactics. His cabinet only had a sprinkling of minorities in any positions of importance. He regularly refused to meet with senior elected black officials. In other words, he ignored a huge part of New York City's population.
Rudy was not this city's favorite mayor during his years in office. He was on his way out when 9/11 happened. All of a sudden, he became America's mayor. In just a few days he was elevated to television hero, crisis-manager and Consoler-in-Chief. Time Magazine made him the 2001 Man Of The Year. But really, how much better did he have to act during the nation's worst crisis than President Bush to receive such accolades.
So while most of America has been going gaga over Giuliani, New Yorkers are much more reserved in their judgment of him. And remember, a politician's past behavior is always an indicator of his future behavior.

Here is a related Village Voice article:
May 9, 2006 by Michael Atkinson
It's the Reagan paradigm in a teapot: Terrorize the citizenry with harmless bogeymen (the homeless, welfare moms, artists), claim credit for social change you did not create (crime was on a three-year decline before he took office, and dipped in most cities, regardless of policy), foster the illusion of order and control (where did the homeless go?), shout bootstrap ballyhoo about freeloaders (the "workfare" program was on its face a form of indentured servitude), and ignore all evidence to the contrary, civil rights, real poverty, and the First Amendment. Most of all, use publicity to lie so relentlessly that the populace and the media take the fiction of success (nearly all of Giuliani's triumphant stats were bloated, skewed, or untrue) as their starting point.
After 9-11, a sick, scandalized lame-duck mayor became a national hero for simply keeping his composure on TV. Keating's film is a comet out of the past, but it's focused, if only circumstantially, on the future. Faithful Republican thug, Giuliani may be our destiny in national politics—a man who's capable of boasting (during the last GOP convention) that upon seeing a body falling from the twin towers he turned to Bernard Kerik and said, "Thank God George Bush is our president!" Read more

The Brooklyn Stoop Sale

The "stoop" sale is a true Brownstone Brooklyn tradition. Basically, you drag every unwanted item out of your house, display it on the high steps or stoop leading to your front door and wait for passers-by to express an interest in an item. It is the Brooklyn version of the garage sale.
My friend Eunice and I have a sale on a regular basis, to " keep the shit moving" as her husband Joe likes to say. So two week-ends ago, we convened in front of her house and fused our sale items into a pleasing sales display. When I saw the content of our impromptu store, I really thought that we had some quality stuff. And the prices were great. Most of the items could be yours for a buck.
Since I am mother to a college-age daughter and a techie 15-year old son, there were lots of clothes and electronic gadgets. In addition, I was selling the never-ending supply of nice old tablecloths and napkins my mother had collected during her lifetime. Don't worry, I am keeping the nicest pieces from her linen collection (and her doll collection, her old leather glove collection, doll house miniature collection......you get the picture.) In other words, there was some great stuff stacked on that stoop. And did I mention that the prices were cheap?
Well, it was a hard sell. As Eunice and I sat there, many people walked by, stopped and picked up an item. Sometimes, they asked for the price, put the item back down and continued walking. Others tried to haggle over $1. Now I like to bargain as much as anyone else, but there are limits. My favorite bargain hunters were the 20-Somethings who came down the block with Razr cell phone in left hand, Starbucks paper cup in right hand and white I-pod earplugs dangling from their neck. By my estimation, they dragged a couple of hundred dollars worth of accessories around with them. I guess that set of linen napkins was too expensive for a dollar.
After about two hours, Eunice and I were frustrated. Joe mumbled something to the effect that these freaks don't mind spending a dollar for a bottle of water even though it comes out of the faucet for free. Frustrated and cold, we packed up by late afternoon. I had made about $25, but my house was a bit emptier and that was a good thing. Just as I dragged the last bag into the house, my daughter dropped in with two friends. They had made the trip expressly from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to go to "Beacon's Closet" the Williamsburg second-hand hipster shopping heaven. (Rumor has it that new Brooklynite Michelle Williams shops there). Proudly, the girls opened their plastic shopping bags and fished out some "gently worn" t-shirts. " Can you believe this was only $7, Mama?" my daughter said. I could have cried. I guess Eunice and I have the wrong idea. The next time I need to get rid of some extra stuff, I am hiring a publicist, create a celebrity buzz, and raise my prices. Read more

Fall In Washington

There is no denying it. Fall has come to Brooklyn. I woke up this morning, looked out at the newly bare trees and thought: how much things change in one week.
The same is true for this week in Washington. In our nation's capital, President Bush took a huge fall, and I wonder if he can be put together again. After six years of blundering, smugness and lying, he finally was punished by voters in this mid-term election. And it felt sooooo good.
Bush is often wrong but never in doubt. He claims that his God is watching over him and this country. So I wonder if he truly understands the significance of this week. During his first press conference after the defeat, he seemed more defiant than ever. His nervous twitches, his insanely infantile jokes and his smirk were still all in place. Does he even fully comprehend that the mood in this country has shifted back to the center? I doubt it. Just as I doubt that this stunning defeat will make him any humbler.
Tough this country faces the same major problems as before the election, I am confident that at last, we have more moderate representation in Washington. I have to say, this was a very, very good week, indeed. Read more

"Military Action" Heroes

Today is Veterans Day. This day always makes me a bit sad. It always is about W.W. II veterans and not very much about Vietnam veterans. Don't get me wrong. My home country, Germany, would have had a very different history, had American soldiers not fought so bravely to liberate us from a dictator. I guess it is always easier to be proud of soldiers who actually affect the course of history so positively. The poor young men who were sent to Vietnam obviously did not accomlish any such tangible feat. America should not have been in Vietnam in the first place. A small "Military Action" got out of hand and politicians were too thick-headed to admit failure. So it dragged on and on.........
The "Military Action" in Iraq feels very much the same. So pardon me for asking: Will Iraq veterans get the same thanks as our WWII veterans or will their mission be noted in the history books as an exercise in futility?
And why do we even make a difference in how we treat veterans. After all, its not a soldier's fault which war he has to fight. So lets say thanks to all of them. Thanks, Danke, Merci


Some sad statistics about veterans.
"The Forgotten Americans-Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve" -- released Dec. 8, 1999, by the Interagency Council on the Homeless -- is the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients (NSHAPC), which was completed in 1996 and updated three years later. You can visit www.huduser.org and download the NSHAPC reports from there.
Veteran Specific Highlights:
23% of homeless population are veterans
33% of male homeless population are veterans
47% Vietnam Era
17% post Vietnam
15% pre Vietnam
67% served three or more years
33% stationed in war zone
25% have used VA Homeless Services
85% completed high school/GED compared to 56% of non-veterans
89% received Honorable Discharge
79% reside in central cities
16% reside in suburban areas
5% reside in rural areas
76% experience alcohol, drug, or mental health problems
46% white males compared to 34% non-veterans
46% age 45 or older compared to 20% non-veterans
Service needs:
45% help finding job
37% finding housin Read more

" I Won" she said.

My daughter went back to college yesterday after casting her vote. Last night, she was checking the election returns with her roommates and felt confident and proud about her vote. All her candidates won here in New York. Not a bad first voting experience.
This will not always be the case. In the future, she will taste the bitter defeat we, her parents felt six years ago, and even more depressingly two years ago. I hope that when this happens, she will not give up on voting. And I hope that she will not give up on making her voice heard because " it does not make a difference anyway".
Making sure that our daughter was registered to vote was as important to me and to my husband as having her get her driver's licence and her own bank account. Its all part of her education.
Having done it once, I hope she will continue doing it every year, even when her candidates have only a slim chance of winning. Because if she does not make the choices herself, someone else will make them for her. Read more

Stand For Something

My eighteen-year-old daughter is voting for the first time in her life today. I am so excited for her. Since she was a little girl, my husband would bring her to vote with him. Our polling place was also her elementary school, and there was always something mysterious about seeing the school gym transformed into an adult world for one day. Now she belongs to this adult world. And I feel proud that she is taking the time from her busy college life to come back home and to stand for something.
She knows the issues. Iraq, minimum wage, stem cell research, gay marriage and last but not least abortion. Believe me, she has lots to say about those subjects and would hold her own in any discussion.
Today, she is contributing her voice, helping to shape the world in which she would like to live in. A world in which we would once and for all put the abortion issue behind us, because it is a a woman's right to choose. A world in which gay marriage is as accepted as the union between her parents, because she has grown up knowing gay couples who live together in the same loving relationships. And most of all a world in which politicians do not use lies and deceit to start a war to profit big business.
Of course this cannot be achieved by voting once, but it is that first step towards claiming the future from the previous generation. When my daughter goes to the polls today, I will trust her decision and will be happy that we have taught her the importance of having a say. Read more

Hello, can you hear me?

Alright. Though the Verizon truck was standing in front of the door and two big fellows were working on the cables in the backyard, my internet service was slow as molasses. So that you don't think that I am exaggerating, the picture above was taken from my backyard window. I ask you: does this seem like state of the art equipment? How does America hope to get Iraq up to speed if a U.S. telephone company can not even provide New Yorkers with decent telephone service. What are your thoughts? Read more