Miep Gies, 100 Years

Miep Gies died Monday at age 100. Most people may not know her name but she is mentioned frequently in one of the best-selling books of the 20th century, Anne Frank: The Diary of A Young Girl. Miep was an employee of Otto Frank in his Amsterdam business and for two years, 1942-44, she helped hide the Frank family from the Nazi occupiers. She brought them food, kept the secret, and went into the hidden rooms where they had lived after they were taken away. Anne's diary was lying on the floor after the Nazis had ransacked the place. Miep Gies put it in her desk and kept it there until Otto Frank, the only member of the family to survive the concentration camps, returned in 1945. The diary was published in 1947.

A noble life has ended and the good that rippled from it is incalculable.

Two Close Calls

The kind of Christmas we almost had this year should have all of our security people back at work imagining the worst possible tragedies in order to prevent them. On Christmas Eve, as he was entering St. Peter's for Midnight Mass, the pope was assaulted and dragged to the floor. If the assailant had had a weapon the world would today be dealing with a murder that would be considered one of the most shocking in history. Who would believe that one "unbalanced" woman could have done this alone?

About twenty-four hours later a terrorist was able to set off a highly destructive powder on a plane near Detroit with almost 300 on board. If his plan had been completely successful, and with an assassinated pope lying in Rome, Christmas 2009 would be the start of another, and much darker, New Reality. No thanks to bodyguards and airport police two disasters were averted--this time; this kind of luck will not hold.

The security systems we rely on to stay alive and keep our world stable have been proven, in the past few days, to be Wizard of Oz trickery full of special effects and authoritative voices that do not deter the ones determined to hit us. The little dog has pulled back the curtain and we now can see how very vulnerable our sense of daily order and safety is.

Sit Down and Shut Up

It was a treat today to see Sen. Al Franken in the presiding chair in the Senate tell Sen. Lieberman that his time had expired and he would not get another minute's extension. "Oh really?," laughed the Traitor Joe. Yes, really; the senator from Minnesota informed the senator from John McCain's backyard that enough was quite enough and that he should return to his seat as any other coddled brat would be told to do.

There is justice in this world and not far away is the day when Democrats will settle the score with Sen. Lieberman. He has much to answer for and he deserves as much mercy as that smirk on his face affords the party that nominated him for vice-president not so long ago.

May We See Your Invitation?

The two NWA pilots who overshot Minnesota recently seem to have found new positions--working security at the White House for State Dinners. Two people without invitations or places on the guest list are allowed in by the pilots--sorry, Secret Service--shake hands with Obama, write about it that night on their website and are still--one week later--not in jail. Is there no law against this? Illegal entry at the White House?

That picture of the pretty,uninvited and unknown blonde shaking hands with President Obama in his house should be freeze-frozen into the mind of every Secret Service agent. If there had been a tragedy, who would believe it was not an inside conspiracy? Very important people would now be under suspicion of assassinating the president and the trust between the people and their government that our Republic rests on would be ruined. Why are these two interlopers not in jail? And why have no heads rolled at the Secret Service?

Live Man Walking

Russia--Russia!--has just permanently banned the death penalty. The country that gave the world the gulag archipelago, Stalinist purges, planned famines, mass slaughter of those deemed to be politically inconvenient, and God knows what other ways of killing people, has decided, as the first decade of the 21st Century winds down, that there has been quite enough killing in Mother Russia and it simply has to stop.
(Tell that to the journalists and truth-tellers who continue to be assassinated there.)

But maybe this is a sign of something truly new and good in Europe. They must all be exhausted into the ground by war, secret police, extermination policies, and violence as official policy. Even the Russians are now backing away from legally sanctioned killing--is a new spirit arising in Europe that will infect the world for good this time?

Representative Cao

Joseph Cao is a congressman representing a district in New Orleans that is mostly black, Democratic, and that was hit hard by Katrina. He is a Republican, a Vietnamese immigrant, and a former Catholic seminarian. Last Saturday he was the only member of his party to vote for the Democrats' health care bill in the House. He says he had to vote his conscience and vote for what the people of his district need and want.

Cao won his seat in a special election to replace the old Democratic black representative who was convicted of corruption after $90,000 in cash was discovered in his freezer by the FBI. Can Mr. Cao keep his seat in next year's election? Can he remain a Republican? Stay tuned, but right now Joseph Cao is the face of conscience in the U.S. Congress.

New York--27 & New York--23

The Yankees just won their 27th World Championship, beating the Phillies 7-3 in the new stadium. Of the seven Yankee runs six were driven in or scored by the Series MVP Hideki Matsui. The Core Four--players who all joined the Yanks together in 1995--Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera were vital to this win and are part of the great Yankee Hall of Fame that Yankee fans carry with them at all times, especially in the winter when things freeze up. Well done, boys, and, as I look at my calendar, I see that April is not that far off. Hurry back.

New York's 23rd Congressional District has been held by Republicans since just after the Civil War. Yesterday a Democrat won the seat beating a Conservative Party candidate endorsed by Sarah Palin (no laughing!), Tim Pawlenty, and the usual miscreants on the Right gasosphere. These geniuses didn't like the Republican nominee and went for the third party guy, the Republican withdrew last weekend and endorsed the Democrat, and last night was the result. It takes some spectacular lack of political street smarts to lose a seat your party has held for about 140 years, but trust today's nut-Right to do it. If this goes on for a few more years the GOP will be a minor party confined to the South and rural midwest and will have no chance of a return to power.

I believe this country needs two political parties, each run by intelligent and rational people, a progressive party and a conservative party. They should each be a brake on the excesses of the other and at the same time mange to move the ball downfield on the issues that make life safer and more humane for the American people. If the Republican Party is to soon remove itself from the national scene serious people will have to get busy creating something better to take its place.