A lifetime ago in 1975-76, I was interning in the Michigan House of Representatives. During that time I became acquainted with a person running for Congress in the 1976 election. I helped out a bit during the campaign and got to know his staff. This landed me a job in Washington on Capitol Hill in the second Congress after Watergate; it was as charged atmosphere in an effort to make a difference in how Washington conducted itself.
One of my very first tasks in DC was to write testimony for a congressman who wanted to get out in front of support for mandatory air bags in all cars sold in the US. I buried myself in the reading room at the Library of Congress, interviewed some automotive safety experts and wrote testimony blasting the auto companies for their poor safety record and their prior opposition to shatterproof glass and seat belts- and their abysmal attitude toward air bags.
Taking on The Big Three in their heyday, and John Dingell in his, was difficult enough, but when you were writing statements for a member of Congress, who happened to be a representative from Michigan, it was a different story altogether. To make a long story short, air bags are now standard in all makes of cars and if you examined auto advertising today, one would think it was the idea of the automotive manufacturers from the beginning.
This episode was a life lesson for me in that Washington, DC could be a fun place to live- if the only reason you were there was to do the work of the highest bidder, and you had low enough self-esteem to become a mere a parrot for corporate spokespersons. However, when you are there for public service, and want to make tough decisions, it is immeasurably more rewarding and spine stiffening.
As such, I should make this piece about the recent bag vote where some members of the council joined the Mayor in a brave vote for the future of their children and grandchildren rather than acceding to the roars of hateful head cases who think they are doing the will of the people by making the fields and streams of Kent County safe for plastic bags. Just as the Big Three spokespeople screamed that jobs would be lost if they had to install seat belts, safety glass, and later on air bags, they later learned that argument went up in smoke when car execs realized that people would rather be alive after a car accident. Those opinions, strangely enough, were held by their own spouses and children. So the next time you see a car ad that features safety; remember the executive suite did not come to the table on their own volition. But when they learned safety features would sell cars and increase employment (which fell anyway with robotics, cheap labor in the poor south and finally Mexico), they made the issue their own.
I tell this story because for some people such as me, being involved in the issues of the day is as fresh in my mind now as they were then. For me, being engaged was what life was all about. I was reminded that I was not alone with this feeling when I went to a lecture given by Sherwin Markman, former staff aide to Lyndon Baines Johnson and resident of Chestertown. Markman was a young man when he found himself employed at the White House as a staffer to Johnson in 1964. Working on legislation, being tasked with specific in-the-field assignments or just doing what the boss wanted, whatever that may be and at whatever time that request may come; that was the life of the young man in Washington when leadership existed and officials spent more time working on the commonweal rather than preparing for lobbyhood in the financial services sector. Markman recalls his lively tenure at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with all the enthusiasm and detail as if it were yesterday. As well he should. When one is involved directly in the drafting and passage of such historic and nation-changing legislation as the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act and other lesser-known but equally as important legislation pertaining to education, human rights and foreign affairs, those memories will be as indelibly marked in one’s memories as the lightning bolt is engraved on Harry Potter’s forehead. In addition, if you are working in the White House between 1963 and 1967 with the Vietnam War raging at full blaze the place becomes an even hotter cauldron in which to make a living. And when Markman is not involved in directly influencing the dance of legislation, his reminisces from his front row seat is as engaging as any good history should be. Markman’s tangential involvement in smoothing over diplomatic relations between the US and the Soviet Union in the days following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War that culminated in the Glassboro summit between Johnson and Gromyko is worth the price of admission.
Just as fascinating as his recall of drama of foreign affairs are his observations of Johnson the man and Johnson the boss. As a president not the least bit reluctant to express his feelings to absolutely anyone in the most demonstrative fashion he deemed appropriate, Markman describes Johnson’s methods of expressing pleasure and displeasure, the impact of Lady Bird’s calming demeanor and the warm feeling he held toward another first lady, Jackie Kennedy. Markman played snippets of tape recordings between Johnson and figures as diverse as Jackie Kennedy and Richard Russell, the influential conservative senator from Georgia, and embellished those up-close exchanges with his observations bringing the listener even closer to the ear of LBJ in the Oval Office or Presidential limousine. As a young man in Washington, Sherwin Markman was able to play the fly-on-the-wall in the LBJ White House and his infectious delivery takes us back
to those trying times in an effervescent way. Markman was barely able to scratch the surface of his experiences before time was up at last week’s lecture. My understanding is that he hope to teach a class at Washington College’s Continuing Education program. That decision is a no-brainer. My hope is that he would become a lecturer in American history at the undergraduate level. The students of today would be well-served to hear from someone who worked at the core of American history at a turbulent time and can speak eloquently and informed about it. It may be the first time students of today’s age might hear from someone who played a role in American government who tried to create jobs rather than send them overseas or sell them out in a self-enriching merger and acquisition scheme. History made refreshing from a honest source. How unique.
Jane Hukill says
What a refreshing reaction to the “bag” episode. And as a member of WC-ALL, I truly look forward to enrolling in a course led by Mr. Markman. We are lucky to have two such well-grounded citizens as Mr. Martin and Mr. Markman living in our county.
Cynthia McGinnes says
Government cannot create jobs, and government cannot legislate morality. Capitalism works through an unfettered free market, and an activist government,through its disruption of the free market, disables the functioning of capitalism,and enables the corruption,fraud, and abuse of human greed to flourish. Government cannot provide cradle to grave security for every citizen, and any attempt to do so will eventually lead to economic disaster. Our founding fathers tried to set up a republic that would emphasize personal responsibility,freedom, and an individual’s right to the fruits of his own labors. Our education systems would do well to promote studies of our original founding documents. Too many of our graduates look for ways in which they can change other people’s behaviors rather than taking responsibility for just their own.
jenifer says
What Jane Hukill said.
daniel Menefee says
Cynthia,
I remember when former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan testified before a Senate committee on what caused the bust of 2008, which sent our economy to the lowest since the Great Depression.
When asked about his worship of unfettered capitalism, as he learned it from his idle, Ayn Rand, a stalwart promoter of unrestricted capitalism, he simply said, “I was wrong, she was wrong.”
He then testified that capitalism needs umpires to call balls and strikes- to ensure a safe money supply and an adequate supply of credit.
To give the economy to a chosen few will return us to a Feudal system, where an aristocracy controls the supply of money and kills innovation and entrepreneurship as a means to protect their hold on power. Under deregulation we’ve seen an increase in the number of poor people and a further enriching of a 6000 bazillionaires.
Your absolutism would offend even TDR, a bedrock conservative who knew the abuses of capitalism needed to be kept in check. He feared correctly, that oppression can be dished out by corporations in more crueler ways than government could ever imagine.
Cynthia, You’re letting your “true believerism” ignore common sense. It’s like you’re reading from a script with your fingers in your ears- ignoring any reasonable solutions that may involve the passing of a law. And if this bag bill represents to you the undoing of America, then I believe your are short-sighted..
With your logic we can do away with police departments? If the human herd can filter out the bad guys, then there won’t be any problems. Better yet, let’s all be responsible for our own personal protection and do away with laws against murder and robbery. If you trust humans to flush out the bad apples- then you can certainly fend for yourself, correct? If you apply the laissez faire mantra to all aspects of human life, then may the best man win- and forget about roads, schools, or any notion of a civil society.
And while we’re at it, let’s eliminate programs for the indigent and mentally disabled. I’m sure you will step forward as a citizen to take personal responsibility for them? If you believe that individuals make better decisions than our government, please tell us what will happen to these folks, without a government referee? What is your plan?
And this education system that you want to bolster, requires funding and standards, mandated and enforced by law, which also requires taxes, which also requires making corporations accountable, which also requires a government referee that you detest.
I’m sorry sister, but you can’t get there from here.
Cynthia McGinnes says
Obviously I am not doing a proper job explaining my thoughts, as you seem to feel I do not want any government at all. I just want the government to stop removing the risk of failure from capitalism, because if entrepreneurs have no fear of failure, then human greed runs rampant…the government has to stop subsidizing losing businesses,bank bailouts, choosing winners and losers with loopholes and myriad tax laws. I believe that government and union workers and teachers need to be held accountable for poor performance, and not protected from losing their jobs for such.
There has to be a balance, with government serving the people,not providing them with cradle to grave security. I believe that people have to take responsibility for their own choices and their own work ethic. Ayn Rand taught that it wasn’t selfish to want to keep the rewards of your own labor…..she didn’t have all the answers but she certainly did describe what would happen to the world if the tenets of socialist/marxist/liberalism/progressivism based on redistribution of wealth were followed. It is uncanny how accurate a description of the current world she described writing more than 50 years ago.
The real problem is that it doesn’t matter what you think or what I think…what matters is the reality of where we are today and how does it get fixed. Atlas is shrugging..government cannot make people work if they dont get to keep their profits. If you raise taxes on everyone who makes more than $250,000,then people won’t work to make more, or will shelter their wealth in tax free investments.
I feel like Cassandra( for those who don’t know Greek mythology, she was cursed with the ability to foresee disasters coming, but no one would believe her.)
Gren Whitman says
Aha!
I suspected there was a piece of Ayn Rand hiding within Cynthia McGinnes!
Silly me, I didn’t realize it was such a large chunk!
Ms. McGinnes likes to ignore — or at least overlook — that inconvenient phrase in the Preamble to our Constitution, to wit: “Promote the General Welfare.”
What say, Ms. McG.? Why do you think the Founding Fathers put that in?
Steve Payne says
It could be argued that Johnson was the most effective president.
Major legislation signed
1963: Clean Air Act of 1963[98]
1963: Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963[99][100]
1963: Vocational Education Act of 1963[101]
1964: Civil Rights Act of 1964
1964: Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964
1964: Wilderness Act
1964: Nurse Training Act of 1964[102]
1964: Food Stamp Act of 1964
1964: Economic Opportunity Act
1964: Housing Act of 1964[103]
1965: Higher Education Act of 1965
1965: Older Americans Act
1965: Social Security Act of 1965
1965: Voting Rights Act
1965: Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965
1966: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
1967: Age Discrimination in Employment Act[104]
1967: Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
1968: Architectural Barriers Act of 1968
1968: Bilingual Education Act
1968: Civil Rights Act of 1968
1968: Gun Control Act of 1968
He also set up The National Endowment for the Arts
(above from Wikipedia)
He clearly knew how to get things done.
Perhaps Mr Obama could take Mr Markmans class.
Cynthia McGinnes says
How do we get out of today’s situation? Are you recommending more govt spending, more social programs, more bureaucracies? If counties like Kent cant even pay for their volunteer fire fighters, where is the money going to come from to pay for more of Johnson’s social engineering programs?
kevin walsh says
Lady Bird Johnson has visited Chestertown. She visited Godlington Manor, a land grant from 1650, located on Wilkins Lane. The first part of the house was built in 1659. There were additions made over time. The maze was laid out in 1750, in the shape of the British Flag. I rented that house when I first moved here 19 years ago.
I worked at stopping Wal-Mart, building a store in Kent County. It would have killed this town. A Wal-Mart needs $18,000,000 in sales to brake even. All of Kent County did $24,000,000 in sales that year. This would have killed off all the workers, jobs, and business here.
SuperFresh, in Chestertown, will closed on June 22. A&P is out firing Union Workers. Their Pathmark brand, has just fired 500 Union Workers, in Woodbridge, New Jersey.
A&P/Pathmark are shifting the jobs to non-union workers, in Gettysburg PA. The jobs go from $20-28.00 an hour rate to $8.00-8.50 jobs.
The real workers in Chestertown have never gotten any help from the Mayor.
In Germany, a company recycles plastic bags and made 300 miles of plastic railroad ties –that created 2 jobs, cashiers sell food in plastic bags, and another worker, who makes plastic rail ties.
Tourists in German, now ride on trains going 150 miles per hour.
Maryland tourists walk to the end of Cross Street and see missing steel rails and rotted wooden ties.
So for $200 a day to stop plastic bags used in Acme and Superfresh we do not have to worry.
The Mayor will tell people in Chestertown…do not work about just bread…..you can eat cake, on High Street too.
Cynthia McGinnes says
Daniel, I agree with you!……there is no need for the government to keep subsidizing obsolete weapons systems or airplanes just because they provide jobs and politicians representing those constituents won’t allow the programs to be cut. This is similar to when the railroad unions required trains to have workers to stoke the fires, when the trains were running on electricity. This is what I mean about the govt interfering in the free market. When we no longer need a weapon or an airplane, that money should be spent on something we do need. The defense industry should be a free market..if they build what the govt needs, then the govt will buy it…if it is not needed ,they should be forced to stop building i because they have no market. There should not be guaranteed govt defense contract for unneeded weapons just to protect jobs. This is what I mean about the govt removing the fear of failure from capitalism leading to waste,fraud, and corruption.
Why don’t people use trains? Amtrak runs at a subsidized loss up and down the Eastern seaboard, and the govt has been subsidizing unprofitable rail service around the country. I don’t know enough about costs for railroads , but why can’t they run at a profit? Is it union labor costs? Does anyone know enough about railroads to comment here?
BILL PARKS says
Dear Cynthia:
Where do I start?
The biggest threat to capitalism is theft and dishonesty, not the government. Starting with the monetary system used in the US today, a system based on the seventeenth-century British banking and monetary model that has left a trail of economic chaos and poverty across the history of the world, and continues devastating western economies today.
Our nation’s money is created by a privately-owned, for-profit banking cartel creating bank credit by simply entering it in their books, and using it to originate the principal of loans. Ask yourself, “how can Government, corporations, institutions, and individuals all be in debt for such astronomical sums at the same time?” “How do banks have that much money to lend?” The answer is they don’t. With the exception of coins, every dollar in our economy is someone’s debt.
The interest payments on these loans transfer the value of real world goods and services to the abstract world of money that only represents their value, robbing working people who created the real wealth of the world of the value of their creativity and effort. In the United States the money supply (and debt) is about $55.8 trillion with an annual interest payment of $3.56 trillion. In fewer than sixteen years, the entire money supply will have been paid to the banking system as interest on their loans for purely nonproductive activities. The banking system does not provide materials or productive labor, or as Thomas Edison put it, “they do not supply a brick nor turn a shovel, but they double the cost of my project.” Every dollar in every checking account, savings account, wallet, trust fund or buried under a rock, will have been paid to the banking system as interest in less than the next two decades.
Sovereign nations can make their own laws, levy their own taxes and issue their own money.
The United States is a sovereign nation with full sovereign authority and power. Government issued currency, in all its forms, is our only hope for economic stability. It is the only institution that has the authority, power, and flexibility to create a stable currency necessary to generate a sustainable economy. It can create money by fiat, lend money like commercial banks with the profits flowing into the treasury as revenue, pass laws to regulate the value of our currency, and it can fine-tune the money supply with taxes. No privately owned institution can do that job.
Cynthia McGinnes says
Like right now when the government is devaluing the dollar by printing more,causing the price of oil to go up in dollar value, resulting in higher gas prices that are ruining the economy? The trouble with the scenario that you describe is that governments are run by human beings who make mistakes and have flawed priorities. The real answer is that there is no answer…..life is a risk, and we need to recognize that the fear of failure is the best way to insure that people will look to their own welfare. Waste,fraud, abuse, and corruption are all by-products of a controlling government because human beings run them.
Keith Thompson says
Definition of WELFARE
1: the state of doing well especially in respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity
Gren Whitman wrote, “Ms. McGinnes likes to ignore — or at least overlook — that inconvenient phrase in the Preamble to our Constitution, to wit: “Promote the General Welfare.”
What say, Ms. McG.? Why do you think the Founding Fathers put that in?”
From Webster’s the definition of WELFARE
1: the state of doing well especially in respect to good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity
2a : aid in the form of money or necessities for those in need b : an agency or program through which such aid is distributed
Given that the second definition of welfare is largely a 20th century creation as it pertains to the United States, I’d say the first definition is what the Founding Fathers had in mind. I’d read “promoting the general welfare” as we’re not going to get in the way of your good fortune, happiness, well-being, or prosperity.
Richard Wessel says
It seems that Ms. McGinnes has made the mistake of seeing the man behind the curtain. Perhaps she has read too much Austrian economics, the ones who predicted our present woes, and rightly predict much more to come. You can bankster on it. Wealth is not those little slips of paper doled out to cronies by the Fed, but those slips do siphon ours away. Empires never survive over regulation and the debasement of their currencies. They die the death of a thousand small cuts.
The tax eaters outnumber and outvote the taxpayers. The game is over. The revolution of 1776 was undone by the revolution of 1913. Government is instituted to protect our property, but it exists to enrich those who get control of it.
Ms. McGinnes’ detractors, authoritarians all, will consistently fail to demonstrate, to any thinking man’s satisfaction, how they expect a race of so called fallible, vicious, greedy and venal beings to provide the raw material to staff a government that is ostensibly created to offset those qualities. How one can have so much faith in government’s beneficence and yet have none in mankind’s capacity to self govern in a free market defies logic. Products of compulsory state education. The mind boggles.