American Amnesia Is Fatal

The chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities descries rampant historical ignorance in the United States. Of course, Amarillo College—my academic home for the past 32 years—has insisted on lumping history into a department called Social Sciences to differentiate it from the K-12 misnomer of Social Studies. History is one of the humanities. One of the nine Muses of Greek mythology was Clio, goddess of history. The ancient Greeks knew nothing of the Social Sciences, much less the Social Studies. Clio was not a Social Scientist nor a Social Student. Names and words are powerful. No wonder most of my students at Amarillo College have thought they were in Grade 13; Amarillo College doesn't use college language. There is enough ignorance to go around and then some. If this be (fair & balanced) elitism, so be it.

How to Combat 'American Amnesia'
The humanities are vital to our country's defense.

BY BRUCE COLE

In his Inaugural Address, President Bush called on all Americans to be citizens, not spectators; to serve our nation, beginning with our neighbors; to speak for the values that gave our nation birth. That call took on new meaning after the attacks of September 11. We witnessed the true measure of what it is to be a good citizen--when evil is countered with acts of courage and compassion.

As chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, my duty is to share the wisdom of the humanities with all Americans. The humanities are, in short, the study of what makes us human: the legacy of our past, the ideas and principles that motivate us, and the eternal questions that we still ponder. The classics and archeology show us whence our civilization came. The study of literature and art shape our sense of beauty. The knowledge of philosophy and religion give meaning to our concepts of justice and goodness.

The NEH was founded in the belief that cultivating the best of the humanities has real, tangible benefits for civic life. Our founding legislation declares that "democracy demands wisdom." America must have educated and thoughtful citizens who can fully and intelligently participate in our government of, by and for the people. The NEH exists to foster the wisdom and knowledge essential to our national identity and survival.

Indeed, the state of the humanities has real implications for the state of our union. Our nation is in a conflict driven by religion, philosophy, political ideology and views of history--all humanities subjects. Our tolerance, our principles, our wealth and our liberties have made us targets. To understand this conflict, we need the humanities.

The values implicit in the study of the humanities are part of why we were attacked. The free and fearless exchange of ideas, respect for individual conscience, belief in the power of education--all these things are anathema to our country's enemies. Understanding and affirming these principles is part of the battle.

The attack on September 11 targeted not only innocent civilians, but also the very fabric of our culture. The terrorists struck the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and aimed at either the White House or Capitol dome--all structures rich in meaning and bearing witness to the United States' free commerce, military strength and democratic government. As such, they also housed many of the artifacts--the manuscripts, art and archives--that form our history and heritage.

In the weeks following the attack, the NEH awarded a grant to an organization that conducted a survey of the damage to our cultural holdings. They found that the attack obliterated numerous art collections of great worth. Cantor Fitzgerald's renowned "museum in the sky" is lost, as well as priceless works by Rodin, Picasso, Hockney, Lichtenstein, Corbusier, Miro and others.

Archaeological artifacts from the African Burial Ground and other Manhattan sites are gone forever, as are irreplaceable records from the Helen Keller archives. Artists perished alongside their artifacts. Sculptor Michael Richards died as he worked in his studio on the 92nd floor of Tower One. His last work, now lost, was a statue commemorating the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II.

Of course, the loss of artifacts and art, no matter how priceless and precious, is dwarfed by the loss of life. Yet preserving and protecting our cultural holdings is of immense importance to civic life. Our cultural artifacts carry important messages about who we are and what we are defending. These irreplaceable objects are among our enemies' targets.

The Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn and Bay Bridges, our skyscrapers, the Liberty Bell, our libraries and our schools are all potential targets--precisely because they stand as symbols of America's defining principles.

In light of that fact, today it is all the more urgent that we study American institutions, culture and history. Defending our democracy demands more than successful military campaigns. It also requires an understanding of the ideals, ideas and institutions that have shaped our country.

This is not a new concept. America's founders recognized the importance of an informed and educated citizenry as necessary for the survival of our participatory democracy. James Madison famously said, "The diffusion of knowledge is the only true guardian of liberty." Such knowledge tells us who we are as a people and why our country is worth fighting for. Such knowledge is part of our homeland defense.

Our values, ideas and collective memories are not self-sustaining. Just as free peoples must take responsibility for their own defense, they also must pass on to future generations the knowledge that sustains democracy.

It has been said that the erosion of freedom comes from three sources: from without, from within and from the passing of time. Though not as visible as marching armies, the injuries of time lead to the same outcome: a surrender of American ideals. Abraham Lincoln warned of this "silent artillery"--the fading memory of what we believe as Americans and why. And this loss of American memory has profound implications on our national security.

All great principles and institutions face challenges, and the wisdom of the humanities, and the pillars of democratic self-government, are not immune. We face a serious challenge to our country that lies within our borders--and even within our schools: the threat of American amnesia.

One of the common threads of great civilizations is the cultivation of memory. Many of the great works of antiquity are transliterated from oral traditions. From Homer to "Beowulf," such tales trained people to remember their heritage and history through story and song, and pass those stories and songs throughout generations. Old Testament stories repeatedly depict prophets and priests encouraging people to remember, to "write on their hearts" the events, circumstances and stories that make up their history.

We are in danger of forgetting this lesson. For years, even decades, polls, tests and studies have shown that Americans do not know their history and cannot remember even the most significant events of the 20th century.

Of course, Americans are a forward-looking people. We are more concerned with what happens tomorrow than what happened yesterday. But we are in peril of having our view of the future obscured by our ignorance of the past. We cannot see clearly ahead if we are blind to history. Unfortunately, most indicators point to a worsening of our case of American amnesia.

I'll give just a few examples. One study of university students found that 40% could not place the Civil War in the correct half-century. Only 37% knew that the Battle of the Bulge took place during World War II. A national test of high school seniors found that 57% performed "below basic" level in American history. What does that mean? Well, over half of those tested couldn't say whom we fought in World War II. Eighteen percent believed that the Germans were our allies!

Such collective amnesia is dangerous. Citizens kept ignorant of their history are robbed of the riches of their heritage, and handicapped in their ability to understand and appreciate other cultures.

If Americans cannot recall whom we fought, and whom we fought alongside, during World War II, it should not be assumed that they will long remember what happened on September 11 or why we must be prepared and vigilant today. And a nation that does not know why it exists, or what it stands for, cannot be expected to long endure. As columnist George Will wrote, "We cannot defend what we cannot define."

Our nation's future depends on how we meet these challenges. We all have a stake, and a role to play, in recovering America's memory. There are several things we can do to alleviate our serious case of American amnesia.

This is where the National Endowment for the Humanities is answering the President's call to service. Announced by President Bush last September, the We the People initiative marks a systematic effort at the NEH to promote the study and understanding of American history and culture.

The President has requested $100 million over the next three years to support the initiative. If you watched and enjoyed Ken Burns's "The Civil War," you have seen the kind of public program we are supporting. We are working on equally powerfully projects for museums, scholars, teachers and students. Young people will compete for $10,000 in prizes in the annual "Idea of America" essay contest. Other nationwide programs will reach students from kindergarten through college.

In the coming months and years, I want the NEH to help lead a renaissance in knowledge about our history and culture. We are the inheritors and guardians of a noble tradition, citizens of a democracy taking personal responsibility for our common defense. It is a heritage that extends back to the first democracies of Ancient Greece and runs through the whole history of our country.

Our values and traditions must be preserved and passed on. Without an active and informed citizenry, neither the toughest laws nor the strongest military can preserve our freedom. Knowing our nation's past, our founding ideas and our legacy of liberty is crucial to our homeland defense.

Our nation has faced many difficult challenges in the past, but, just as history teaches us to remain vigilant, it also shows us--with such vigilance--liberty and justice will prevail.

Bruce Cole is chairman of the National Endowment of the Humanities. This is adapted from a speech he gave at the National Citizen Corps Conference on July 29.

Copyright © 2003 The Wall Street Journal

Just In Time! The Rules Of Thanksgiving

Another bit of Thanksgiving wisdom, courtesy of Sapper's (Fair & Balanced) Rants & Raves. If this be (fair & balanced) generosity of spirit, so be it.

[x New Yorker]
THANKSGIVING RULES REVISED
by BRUCE McCALL

The Three Wise Men of Thanksgiving (Three men offering their holiday advice, ¹You don’t really want to deep-fry an entire turkey on a hot plate in a bitsy apartment. ²Nobody is forcing you to play touch football. ³There is no need to drink a lot of cranberry liqueur.’)

Copyright © 2003 The New Yorker

Post this document within ten feet of all liquor cabinets, TV sets, sofas, and any distant relations who are still sitting or standing upright.

Article XII of the 1663 Jamestown Convention has been amended as of this date to include the following:

1. Thanksgiving-dinner guests are no longer required to play Scrabble, Go Fish, or Monopoly with children under the age of ten. Withholding of liquor is coercion.

2. A shaker of Martinis no longer has official standing as Thanksgiving breakfast. Early risers: the Thanksgiving Day cocktail hour now begins only after you have arrived at the venue and parked your car, and never before sunrise.

3. You cannot decline the Kansas Riesling served with dinner out of professed adherence to the claim that “the official Thanksgiving mascot is the 101-proof Wild Turkey.” This is apocryphal.

4. The mandatory minimum number of guests related by blood to the host/hostess is increased to sixteen. Seating them on the sun porch, in the attic, or in the basement for the Thanksgiving meal is no longer permissible, nor is the requirement that they wear bags over their heads and/or name tags. Asking how they’re doing remains optional.

5. In-laws must now be accorded full human status. Their chairs must face the dinner table, and they must be offered a choice of dark or white meat.

6. Native American guests must now be offered bourbon, Scotch, gin, or other alcoholic beverages by name. They must not be described as “heap strong firewater.”

7. When you are handed a family scrapbook or photo album, you must keep such article in your possession for at least a hundred and twenty seconds before passing it to the next person. You may not ask if your hundred and twenty seconds are up.

8. Precocious children under twelve years of age may now be fitted with muzzles by a non-parent after the first hour.

9. Reminiscences that touch upon parental favoritism, unpaid personal loans, and arrests of blood relations’ children are discouraged.

10. You are entitled to ten naps per twelve-hour Thanksgiving Day period. Moments after 4 p.m., when time itself seems to have stopped, do not count as naps. Do not commence a nap when a blood relation older than you is addressing you directly.

11. You will be videotaped by your most moronic relation. Failing to coöperate by smiling / making funny faces / rushing the lens carries the penalty of spending next Thanksgiving at this relation’s home.

12. Vacating the premises before Thanksgiving dinner is served in order to “get a breath of fresh air,” “check the pressure in the tires,” or “watch for shooting stars” will now be considered a desertion of familial responsibilities, punishable by talking college football with an in-law for thirty minutes without the aid of an alcoholic beverage.

13. The host / hostess cannot depart the house, for any reason, until one hour after the last guest has left, been expelled, or vanished. (Check corners, crawl spaces, and under the dinner table before lights-out.)

Happy Thanksgiving! *

* “Happy Thanksgiving!” is meant only as an encouraging phrase and will not necessarily insure a result like the one depicted in the Norman Rockwell painting.

Copyright © 2003 The New Yorker

Happy Days Are Here Again

How high can the bubble float? Who'd of thought that Rants & Raves would be passing along investment tips? If this be a (fair & balanced) sure thing, so be it.

[x Business Wire]
Fitch Assigns Amarillo Jr College Dist, TX GOs Initial 'AA' Rtg

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 25, 2003--Fitch Ratings assigns an initial 'AA' rating to $6.7 million of Amarillo Junior College District (AJC or the district), Texas' general obligation refunding bonds, series 2003, which are expected to price Dec. 1 via a syndicate led by Banc of America Securities LLC. Additionally, Fitch has assigned a 'AA' rating on the district's $12.6 million in outstanding general obligation bonds. The Rating Outlook is Stable.

Dated Dec. 15, 2003, the bonds mature serially beginning Feb. 15, 2004-2014 and are subject to optional redemption as prescribed in the offering statement. The bonds are direct and voted obligations of the district, payable from an ad valorem tax levy within the limits prescribed by law on all taxable property within the district. The maximum property tax rate for debt service is $0.50 per $100 taxable assessed valuation. Proceeds will be used to refund outstanding series 1994 bonds for interest savings.

Fitch's initial rating of 'AA' on the district's general obligation bonds reflects steady growth in its enrollment and tax base, low debt load, and satisfactory financial performance. While the combination of enrollment gains and reduced state appropriations present some financial challenge, comfort is provided by the availability of AJC's ample operating tax margin, low tuition rates, and competitive position in a large and modestly growing service area. The lack of a formal capital plan poses some risk. However, the district has historically taken a conservative approach to debt financing.

The district's taxing jurisdiction is coterminous with the City of Amarillo, which covers both Potter and Randall counties. The city's 2000 census grew by more than 10% since the last census and now totals over 179,000. Amarillo serves as the banking, distribution, and commercial center for the Texas panhandle. The district's entire service area, which includes 26 counties, is estimated to total about 400,000. Steady commercial and residential development, averaging over $200 million per year since fiscal 1999, has enabled the city to maintain steady and notably low unemployment rates. Health care and food production and distribution are the largest area employers.

Comprised of four campuses, the district's major capital programs were completed in the mid-1990's. The lack of additional debt financing since then has resulted in a very favorable debt profile and principal payout. Future debt plans are uncertain at this time given the recent appointment of the district's president. Deferred maintenance needs are reportedly modest and addressed through the ongoing use of current reserves.

Enrollment trends have been positive, with student headcount growing to more than 11,700 in fall 2003, a greater than 40% increase since fall 1998. A new branch campus has been proposed in Hereford by community residents; pending approval of a local maintenance tax, the district has agreed to begin operations in fall 2005.

Typically, public colleges and universities record break-even operating results. From fiscal 1998 to fiscal 2001, AJC has recorded essentially break-even or better operating margins. While a direct comparison with prior years' performance is difficult due to a change in reporting format, fiscal 2002 and preliminary fiscal 2003 results point to a continuation of prior year trends. Diversity of revenue sources lends to stability, with the district dependent on a combination of state appropriations, property taxes, and tuition and fees for operations.

As in the case of all state agencies, state appropriations have been reduced, beginning in fiscal 2003. However, reductions have been offset by expenditure cuts, tuition rate and property tax increases, as well as enrollment and tax base growth. No programs have been eliminated. In addition, liquidity remains favorable, with available funds to expenses covering over five months of operations.

Contacts

Fitch Ratings
Jose Acosta 512-322-5324, Austin
Mark Campa, 512-322-5316, Austin
Matt Burkhard, 212-908-0540, New York (Media Relations)

###

Give Me Molly Ivins Any Day Of The Week!

Ann Coulter—darling of the Radical Right—went over the top recently by expressing regret that Timothy McVeigh didn't blow up The New York Times instead of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. At her worst, Molly Ivins has never spewed such disgusting rhetoric. Coulter is the traitor. In fact, I think I like Timothy McVeigh better than Ann Coulter. Ann Coulter belongs in a porn site. Look at one of her own publicity stills. She probably looks hot in black vinyl to the Radical Righties who need visual stimulation for their self-abuse. If this is (fair & balanced) disgust, so be it!

A CT native, Coulter graduated with honors from Cornell and received her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, where she was an editor of The Michigan Law Review.

The Uncivil War
By PAUL KRUGMAN

One of the problems with media coverage of this administration," wrote Eric Alterman in The Nation, "is that it requires bad manners."

He's right. There's no nice way to explain how the administration uses cooked numbers to sell its tax cuts, or how its arrogance and gullibility led to the current mess in Iraq.

So it was predictable that the administration and its allies, no longer very successful at claiming that questioning the president is unpatriotic, would use appeals to good manners as a way to silence critics. Not, mind you, that Emily Post has taken over the Republican Party: the same people who denounce liberal incivility continue to impugn the motives of their opponents.

Smart conservatives admit that their own side was a bit rude during the Clinton years. But now, they say, they've learned better, and it's those angry liberals who have a problem. The reality, however, is that they can only convince themselves that liberals have an anger problem by applying a double standard.

When Ann Coulter expresses regret that Timothy McVeigh didn't blow up The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal laughs it off as "tongue-in-cheek agitprop." But when Al Franken writes about lies and lying liars in a funny, but carefully researched book, he's degrading the discourse.

More important, the Bush administration — which likes to portray itself as the inheritor of Reagan-like optimism — actually has a Nixonian habit of demonizing its opponents.

For example, here's President Bush on critics of his economic policies: "Some say, well, maybe the recession should have been deeper. It bothers me when people say that." Because he used the word "some," he didn't literally lie — no doubt a careful search will find someone, somewhere, who says the recession should have been deeper. But he clearly intended to suggest that those who disagree with his policies don't care about helping the economy.

And that's nothing compared with the tactics now being used on foreign policy.

The campaign against "political hate speech" originates with the Republican National Committee. But last week the committee unveiled its first ad for the 2004 campaign, and it's as hateful as they come. "Some are now attacking the president for attacking the terrorists," it declares.

Again, there's that weasel word "some." No doubt someone doesn't believe that we should attack terrorists. But the serious criticism of the president, as the committee knows very well, is the reverse: that after an initial victory in Afghanistan he shifted his attention — and crucial resources — from fighting terrorism to other projects.

What the critics say is that this loss of focus seriously damaged the campaign against terrorism. Strategic assets in limited supply, like Special Forces soldiers and Predator drone aircraft, were shifted from Afghanistan to Iraq, while intelligence resources, including translators, were shifted from the pursuit of Al Qaeda to the coming invasion. This probably allowed Qaeda members, including Osama bin Laden, to get away, and definitely helped the Taliban stage its ominous comeback. And the Iraq war has, by all accounts, done wonders for Qaeda recruiting. Is saying all this attacking the president for attacking the terrorists?

The ad was clearly intended to insinuate once again — without saying anything falsifiable — that there was a link between Iraq and 9/11. (Now that the Iraq venture has turned sour, this claim is suddenly making the rounds again, even though no significant new evidence has surfaced.) But it was also designed to imply that critics are soft on terror.

All this fuss about civility, then, is an attempt to bully critics into unilaterally disarming — into being demure and respectful of the president, even while his campaign chairman declares that the 2004 election will be a choice "between victory in Iraq and insecurity in America."

And even aside from the double standard, how important is civility? I'm all for good manners, but this isn't a dinner party. The opposing sides in our national debate are far apart on fundamental issues, from fiscal and environmental policies to national security and civil liberties. It's the duty of pundits and politicians to make those differences clear, not to play them down for fear that someone will be offended.

Copyright © 2003 The New York Times Company