Hullabaloo

Sunday, July 11, 2010

 
Old Parasites

by digby

Dave Johnson has written an interesting post about some of those lazy folks who allegedly refuse to take work at minimum wage as they should:

Here is a fact: There. Are. No. Jobs. I'm in Silicon Valley where the official unemployment rate dipped in May to 11.2%. This dip was, of course, because of so many people just giving up trying to get a job, certainly not because of some wave of hiring. The underemployed figure, known as “U-6,” is 21.7% in California, 16.7% nationally.

You have to know someone to get a humiliating job standing on a corner waving a sign. And if you are over 40, things are even worse than that. Don't give me any conservative Rush Limbaugh-Ayn Rand dehumanizing nonsense about parasitic lazy people who won't look—there are no jobs.

I know so many people here who are over 40, were laid off in the 2000-era dot com crash, still haven't found a regular job and aren't going to. They have had occasional “contract” positions—which means no benefits, no security, a 15% “self-employment” tax and no unemployment check when the job ends. And now, 10 years later they're a lot over 40 and are not going to find a job because so many employers here won't hire people over 40.

And now there are so many more who lost their jobs in the mass layoffs of 2008-2009 and can't find a job. So many of them are also over 40. In fact, many were laid off in obvious purges of over-40 workers, offered a small severance that they could only receive if they promised to take no age-discrimination action against the employer. (I don't say “company” because some of these worked at nonprofits.)

Most of these people will not find another job, but are too young for Medicare and Social Security.

Age discrimination is a thing with me because it is so blatant here. It's the culture here, some even say that for programmers it is “35 and out.” At various times looking for work I've been told I “seemed tired” and things like that. I was even told once that I wouldn't be able to market some software because I “wouldn't be able to get my mind around” how it worked—when I had designed and written part of it in a previous life. One company here is said to have only 200 over-40 employees out of 20,000.

What are people supposed to do? You can't get Medicare until you are 65, and Social Security until 67. But it's near-impossible to get a job or health insurance if you are over 50.

They are supposed to do all those jobs that are currently being done by undocumented immigrants — like picking strawberries or working as dishwashers. At least that's the plan according to Republicans who insist that the unemployed are either too lazy to work or too high falutin' to take work they think is beneath them. Rand Paul calls it “tough love.”

And when they raise the retirement age, folks who lose their jobs at 65 or 66 can pull a chair up on the median of the highway and sell oranges. See? Not a problem at all.

*Oh and health insurance is available to people over 50 if they're healthy and unemployed — and rich. Also not a problem. Unless you are an old parasite.

Update: This post is by digby — I had to use Dennis Hartley's account for technical reasons.
Dennis Hartley 7/11/2010 10:00:00 AM

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Agreed. Nice post.

It is frustrating when the very existence of a challenge becomes the reason for NOT doing something (or to argue against doing it).

Hey Child, guess what? Developing new stuff is hard. Educating people unwilling to accept change is hard. LEARNING something new is hard. So, either man up and accept the work or take your marbles home and sulk. As an automotive columnist, do you want to simply promote and perpetuate 1 motive technology (the piston-driven ICE) and demonstrate your utter unwillingness (laziness) to venture beyond your own technological comfort zone?

It's way easier to criticize something than it is to create it. I send my Kudos out to all the creative people out there, especially the engineers and scientists pushing the boundaries for the benefit of us all, be it the engineers who develop fuel cells or battery technology or gasoline direct injection. You guys rock. And Kudos to the managers and companies with the foresight to support such innovation!

Child, this ain't your father's Oldsmobile. Deal with it.

Reply

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root@ipcop:~ # cd ipcop-urlfilter
root@ipcop:~ # ./install
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Enable the web proxy
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Sitting the middle of it all, sporting a five o’clock shadow at twelve o’clock, Big Earl Sorrell lounged, looking very much at home and a splendid deal like I had pictured he would. Growing up I had heard many times about this man and the contrivance he ruled Lafayette’s business and politics with an iron fist. Sitting in his easy chair, with a drink in one hand and the big cigar in the other, he certainly seemed everything I had been led to believe. Even in his housecoat at noon he radiated authority.

“You wanna Jack n’ coke boy? ” he asked as I sat down opposite him beside the roaring fire.

“Sure,” I said smiling. He called for his servant, a black lady in a white uniform, to bring it to me. Outside of the house I could hear the winter wind as it blew among the barren oak trees in the large front yard. It was December 1976, our country’s bicentennial year. Mabel had been dead eleven months, Carlos and I were high school seniors, and my first lesson in Lafayette politics was about to begin.

“How old are you anyway? ” he asked as I took my drink.

“Seventeen,” I answered. The legal age to consume alcohol was eighteen, but I had been knocking back shots on Saturday nights with Carlos for years. Big Earl watched me with a little smile as I gulped the drink.

“Seventeen. Hell, I remember when I was seventeen. Graduated from Troy High right here in town that year. Went off to school after that. You goin off to school next year, boy? “

“No,” I said shaking my head, “I don’t think so. Tully needs my help round the club. I’ll be able to do a lot more when I’m of age.”

At the mention of the club he seemed to draw intensity. The heavy brows came together, and he knocked the ashes from his cigar while laying his drink on the nearby table. With his free hand he made a gesture for the woman to leave us.

“That’s sort of what I wanted to talk to you about, Milton. I’ve been watching y’alls progress down there. We were all sorry to hear ’bout Mabel’s death last year. She was a nice lady. Nobody notion a woman could run that place, but she did a fine job. Now, as I understand it, she left everything to you.”

“Yeah, that’s right Mr. Sorrell. All of Paradise Alley at least, and the apartments we live in. But I don’t really lift over until I get to be twenty-one. Tully’s the manager for now. Mr. Giovelli, I mean. He’s got what’s called power of attorney. But he pretty much lets me have a say in all the decisions. Carlos, Mr. Giovelli’s kid who goes to school with me, he’s been helpin run the situation since he turned eighteen last summer. Victor Carter, Mabel’s stock guy, is the head bartender now.”

“Call me Earl, Milton. So Carter runs the bar. Black fella, right? “

“Yeah. He does the schedules for the dance floor bar and the side room. Tully hires the people and orders the booze, though. Katie Conroy does the books.”

“Oh, I see. What about the dancers? “

“The girls all come out of an agency. It’s called Night Dreams. The club’s been with them since before we changed names. Linda Stone runs their office here, she does all the bookings. We got mostly local girls, but they all go through Linda anyway.”

“I know Linda Stone,” he said. “She books most of the dance clubs in Lafayette. I know you get your booze from Bob Lane at Eastway Spirits. Mabel built a good little operation, better than that no-account husband of hers did when he ran the place. Now it’s all yours. Not dreadful for someone who ain’t even drafting age yet. Lot of benefits for a young boy, owning a strip club. Tell me, you get laid a lot, Milt? “

I didn’t answer. Big Earl’s grin was the smile of a hawk.

“And I understand your sister still lives with you. She’s younger than you are right? It’s a wonder the public services people ain’t looked into your situation. You should’ve both been moved to foster care by now.”

I looked at the carpet, then the paintings, not meeting his glance. After ten seconds he changed the subject.
“Milton, do you know what I do? “

“Yes sir. You’re the city manager.”

“That’s right, son. For thirty-one years now. And do you know what a city manager does? “

“Mabel told me that you’re like an overseer who reports to the city council. You help out the mayor. I see in the paper where you work with the coliseum people.”

“You read the Lafayette Herald? “

“Almost every day. My teachers were always on me to read, years past I mean. They didn’t like the way I talked.”
I swallowed the last of my drink. I hadn’t wanted to come here alone, but Tremendous Earl had insisted. I could feel the sweat on my back as I leaned forward to put my glass on the coffee table.

“The things I do for the council and the mayor, they’re just part of my job, Milton. I also function as sort of a liaison between Market Hall and the business community. It’s my responsibility to keep all our civic leaders on the same page. And to keep ‘em happy. That means I spread the bullshit around pretty good. One big thing I do is keep a watch over all you fellas down on Lee Street, what we like to call the city’s red light district.”

He pointed a stubby index finger at me.

“Contemplate now, y’all bring in a lot of money to the site, but you also warrant a lot of looking after. I’m fifty-seven, I’ve been doing this most of my life, and I know how to spot a potential problem. Boy, let me come to the point. I think Paradise Alley is going to become a plight for me. And that means, you being the de-facto owner, I’m going to become a problem for you. Unless we can solve it all moral here and now.”

My heart did a little dance in my chest.

“What do you mean Mr. Sor…Earl? “

“What I mean boy is this. This fella who’s running your club, this Giovelli, I don’t much like the look of him. He’s Italian, half his people are Yankees, and you can’t never tell with such. When Mabel was around I didn’t care really, she was local and everybody knew she was okay. But now with this Tully, he’s making changes to the club I don’t like. He brings this boy in, his cousin or whatever, to help run the place. He hires a black fella to manage the bar. He lets his girlfriend run the books.”

“They’re all genuine responsible people, Mr. Sorrell. They…”

He waved his hands.

“I know you won’t raised in worthy of household boy, but you seem like you know a thing or two. You’ve got to understand a little about this shit. Appearances matter. The whole Lee Street operation is always coming under fire from somewhere. I work pretty finish with Sheriff Baxter, and he’s been asking questions about your club. I know you’re aware of all the illicit activity that goes on down Lee Street. Don’t give me no high school kid shit, that place is your home. The sheriff is worried. The booze, the broads, none of that bugs him. That’s been going on for years, it always will as long as the army stays parked on the base. He don’t mind it as long as he thinks it can be kept under control. Now, Paradise Alley, that’s a big slash of it all right there. It’s got prime region just in the middle of the strip. But that also means it’s a likely candidate for a lot of things that make the sheriff nervous. Gang activity, traffic in hard drugs, weapons selling, you name it. We all knew we could count on Mabel to keep that stuff out of the club. Now, with y’alls original management, we ain’t so sure.”

This was ridiculous. I had been ready for him to say that we served underage patrons or sold wholesale liquor on the side, things we were obviously guilty of, but these charges were wild. Only a fool would spend a highly visible, always crowded nightclub for the things he was talking about. Not when there were fifty pawn shops and shaded, sleepy pool halls nearby all providing better cover than Paradise Alley. I wondered if Big Earl, sitting high up here among the dazzling homes and the shiny town-cars, knew anything about the streets.

“That’s nothin to worry about, Mr. Sorrell. Nobody down at Paradise would have anything to do with stuff like that. It’s bad for business. Besides, with the hassle we’ve been through runnin the place without Mabel, we sure don’t want that kinda trouble.”

He blew out smoke and leaned back in his chair.

“Well now, it’s good and fine to hear you say that boy. I told the sheriff myself he was jumping at shadows. But he don’t think noteworthy of your man Tully. He said if you were old enough, and running the status, being a local boy, he might feel better about you. But Baxter ain’t tall on Yankees, and he’s always saying how all these Italian restaurant and club owners are crooked up with the Mafia. And you did have a shooting down there not so long ago.”

“That guy was just some redneck who’d had too many.”

Big Earl smiled.

“I’m just some redneck who’s had too many. Can I go shooting off guns in your club? “

“The fella thought some other cowboy was carryin on with his wife and he knew he was at Paradise. He ran right past the people at the door and he was firing before the bouncers could come by to him. One guy got nicked, that’s all. The cops interviewed Tully. They said those things happen.”

“Pretty shoddy security, Milton.”

“Well, you obviously know Lee Street, Mr. Sorrell. You can’t frisk everybody who comes in a bar.”

I wondered where this conversation was going. I knew that if the police really wanted to they could get us on any of a hundred violations. Mabel had told me that when the club became mine I would probably have to pay off some city officials to make sure this didn’t happen. They let her operate, she said, because she had done certain favors for a number of important people. They would not have the same charity towards me. But Mabel had died suddenly. She never went to the doctor and we only found out she had cancer when we found out it was going to kill her fast. There had been no time for her to instruct me the way she had planned. Tully, who was not born in Lafayette and had none of Mabel’s connections, knew nothing about these matters. For eleven months we had just gone on like before, and I had been worried that in all innocence we might be pissing somebody off. Now it appeared we had. For a county sheriff, closing down Paradise Alley would be as simple as nailing up a sign.

Not knowing what else to do, I decided to plead ignorance.

“Mr. Sorrell. Earl. I really don’t know great about this stuff. We’ve sort of been running the club together, Tully and me and the staff. I could call Mabel’s lawyer, the one that handled the will. Maybe he could talk to the sheriff for me.”

Big Earl shook his head no in two tremendous sweeps.

“That’s the last thing you want to do, boy. Nothing the law hates more than some legal smart-ass telling them their business. You’d just win the sheriff really pissed then. We need to settle this between ourselves. I think I can help you out. The sheriff’s only thinkin about roustin y’all because legal now he can’t witness what benefit you are to him. I know a plan to gain the sheriff want to let your club go on just like before. In fact, I can show you how to make the sheriff want you to be even more successful. I’m going to tell you about a puny deal I’ve arrange with several of the other places on Lee Street. When you hear about it, I think you’ll see it’s the only map to protect your investment.”

Sudden understanding flooded me. As Big Earl spun out the particulars of his deal I could almost see a large blue-gloved fist closing around me to apply the squeeze. For the first time I began to realize that eventually taking over the club would require more on my part than learning how to judge and order stock, or setting up shifts and payroll schedules. I was going to have to learn how to deal with people like Big Earl, and how to protect myself from much stronger forces that could alter the fate of my little business with a wave of their hand. More importantly, I was going to have to learn how these people worked, and understand the heart and soul of the city I called home. I knew then that the walls of Paradise Alley, walls that had sheltered my youth, existed for me no more. To claim my inheritance, I would have to do more than come to grips with the volatile culture of Lafayette’s streets. I would have to understand the past of the city itself.

And learn some hard lessons that my high school did not teach.

……….

Any North Carolina history book will tell you that Lafayette was founded by colonial settlers in the early years of English inland exploration. Two days fade from the flee, it was begun as an after-thought built by merchants coming west from the Atlantic Ocean and conducting business along the Good Cape river. The river flowed southeast across the colony, a natural waterway that ran from the mountain ranges of the Appalachians into the ocean just shy of the port of Wilmington. Situated at a fork on the Good Cape, the merchant settlement became a colonial plan station and trading post. Using the unimaginative flair with which they had named the river the locals called their village Cape Town.

The coming of the Highland Scots signaled the area’s arrival as a colonial city. Seeking to carve out a place of their own, while maintaining access to needed goods and supplies, several families of this immigrant group chose the river forest for their home. Cape Town merchants responded by opening their markets to the fledgling community. After the revolution, in which many Scots initially sided with the Crown, the Highlanders renamed their town Lafayette, hoping to show unquestionable loyalty to the winning side.

Lafayette would always be a city that thrived on commerce. In early days the trade was cotton, sap, and tobacco going north and east. It soon came to be slaves going west and south. The city catered to transaction along the river, and as a result many people saw the town. Its population soon became more diverse than most in the South, a trait that would increase with growth. Even then it had a hint of baseness. Due in enormous part to the absence of strong church influences along the river, Lafayette supplied booze to four states and became known as the whoring capital of the Carolinas.

The Civil War ended the slave trade, but replaced it with an even stronger market. Lafayette had become a minute armory for the Confederacy during the war and General Sherman rewarded the city by burning most of it to the ground on his intention benefit from Atlanta. He spared some assets the government desired, however, including the armory. That became a federal outpost, and its seizure would affect the future of Lafayette mightily. During World War I the post became a full-fledged army base, named Fort Greene after yet another Revolutionary War hero. The air force joined the mix in 1942 when Roosevelt Airfield was added to the base. Now known as ‘the reservation’ to local residents the military presence strongly influenced growth in the area. This was supplemented by the completion of East Skim superhighway I-95, which connected Maine to Florida and ran for three miles within the city’s limits. By 1960, the year I was born, Fort Greene was the home of the entire 93rd Airborne Division, and Lafayette was the state’s fifth largest city.

It is at this point that most of the history books finish giving an accurate account of the city’s progress. There are often only veiled references to the area’s continuing growth and diversity of population in the years that followed. Over time I have arrive to understand why state historians might want to overlook Lafayette’s more recent past. The city’s rapid expansion had some unforeseen side effects in the community.

Lafayette had a traditional mixture of rural whites and blacks living in the surrounding countryside as they had for decades. Also there was a growing urban population of mostly white families whose fathers worked in the city. These were the same dynamics other southern cities possessed. But the army gave Lafayette an unusual suburban population made up almost totally of young males who didn’t work in the city but went there to recognize entertainment off the base. Local businessmen hastily learned there was money to be made by catering to these largely captive patrons. Beer halls and dance clubs sprang up along the city’s downtown streets like haphazard weeds, started by retired GIs or restaurant owners looking to increase their profits. These places did exceedingly well and regional investors took notice. Some of the county’s richer families, many descended from the original Scottish settlers themselves, traded their cotton and tobacco interests to invest in these clubs. As the new decade dawned the boom was on, and Lafayette became known as a place of nightlife and varied distraction. Lee Street, downtown’s busiest, was sometimes called North Carolina’s own Bourbon.

Of course, local reaction to this was somewhat mixed, but the Baptist Church, the South’s main factual guidepost, was not firmly established in Lafayette and had less influence than it did in other places. And although local politics was, like most of the state, solidly controlled by conservative Democrats many of the elected officials were also businessmen with investments downtown, and some powerful party people had begun to depend on tourism for income. There were even those city fathers who believed that their only chance to compete with the growth of more established cities like Raleigh or Charlotte was to offer something a bit out of the ordinary.
All the while changes continued at a rapid pace.

The social upheavals of the unhurried sixties had a profound affect on Lafayette’s development. Many soldiers returned from the Vietnam War with a new passion: drugs. Pot and heroin blew into the city as if on hurricane winds, aided by hastily constructed little airports hidden in the North Carolina countryside. Prostitution flourished, mainly due to a current infusion of young Asian girls, many not even fifteen, who seemed to spring from the many cracks on the sidewalks to ply their trade for the lonely and demoralized servicemen. They were supplemented by poor girls from the surrounding county who came to the city as used small-town jobs dried up. Gambling, illegal in the area but condoned by the local police, became commonplace and bright neon signs went up to declare the South’s newest vice: topless dancing.

Lafayette itself became uniquely diverse. No longer a land of just black and white it could claim many subgroups: the well-off white business front living in the stylish neighborhood of Vanglory Hills, working families who drove in from the suburbs, poor urban blacks housed in the projects of the unfortunately named Pleasant Boulevard, rednecks transplanted from the surrounding country, Asian and Mexican immigrants staffing cheap restaurants and beer joints, two-bit hustlers of all races. Then there were the GIs themselves, one for every three residents of the city. And as the interstate became more traveled outsiders turned to Lafayette as a region of stopovers and weeknight tourism. The college kids came, making road trips down from Raleigh or Greensboro or Chapel Hill. Motorcycle gangs embraced Lafayette as a convenient gathering place on their way to Atlantic or Myrtle Beach during the summer. Motels flourished beside the bars and clubs, massage parlors outnumbered clothing stores, and the pawnshops became too many to count. As the years went by Lee Street became a haven of vice unmatched in the Southeast.

In the middle of it all was the little club that was eventually handed down to me. Located very close to the exact center of Lee Street it had started out as the Lafayette Beer Garden in the late forties and, through many changes in name and ownership, had retained a reputation as the city’s most happening night spot. It was a good starting point for a night out on Lee Street, and a convenient place to end up when your night was over. The club was known as a trendsetter. It had been first in the city with liquor by the drink, first with closed circuit TV, the first with topless dancing. Harry had continued the tradition by introducing his own twist to the place, adding on several private rooms where the strippers could get much more intimate with those men whose wallets went deep enough. When Mabel took over she added her own innovation: a sound stage where local rock and disco bands could play for the home folks once or twice a week. No matter the floor plan or music the one constant was nudity. Only ever-shifting city laws, rarely heeded, governed what the dancers wore, when they wore anything at all.

Although the new owner in name only, several longtime customers already wanted to know what changes I had in mind for Lee Street’s champion of saloons. In Lafayette, the saying went, the wind shifts direction every other minute. You have to learn to change with it, or to spit into it, to withhold from getting blown away. The more I grew into my city, the more I began to realize that I had been born in the center of a whirlwind of opportunities far exceeding those any college could offer.

……….

I told them all about Big Earl’s deal later that night. We had gathered together in the apartment, my apartment now, at half past three in the morning. Everyone was tired and drained, as Paradise Alley had just closed down. The mop-up crew was downstairs at work They would be cleaning until after five. There was a frigid, light rain falling against the window. Even in bitter December snow rarely came this far south.

“He was comely slick about it,” I told them, resting my head against the wall. I was sitting on the dining table, a favorite area since I was a child. I was less tired than most of them; although I worked hard after hours at the club, I usually left once the doors opened to the public. A minor drinking alcohol was a misdemeanor, but a minor selling alcohol was a felony. A few months away from the legal age, I could not risk a bust that might inhibit the state granting me a liquor license for years.

“Dey all are,” wheezed Tully, a mountain of sweat and grime. He pulled fifteen-hour shifts everyday we were inaugurate. His energy was huge but so was his appetite. Lying back on our couch he had a towel draped over his head and a hunk of hot garlic bread in each hand. Katie, his chubby girlfriend, was sitting behind him massaging his big neck gently. “Guys like dat, they know howda be serene with ya,” he added, tearing into the bread.

“Aw, that wouldn’t fool Milt here,” Carlos said. His own massive frame was stretched out on the floor as most of our chairs being too minute for him. He had taken his tie off, but still wore the dress clothes in which he had worked.
“Don’t be so distinct,” I cautioned. Carlos had absolute faith in my judgment, more than I did. “Right now this guy’s sorta out of our league. He’s big money and power in town, like Mabel always said he was.”

“So what’s the deal, Milt? Are they really looking to be crusaders, or do they just want a payoff? ” This was Victor, the head bartender, sprawled into an easy chair by the window and drinking a cold beer. As I looked at him I thought about Big Earl scolding us for letting a gloomy guy run the bar. I wondered if this was why Mabel had never promoted Victor herself. He had been forced to wait until Tully became manager to bewitch over a job that we all knew he had earned. The state had been open for over a year after the old head bartender, a part-time military trainer, had been relocated. I had consented to Victor’s promotion, but now I wondered about our wisdom, torn between my fondness for Victor, whom I considered a friend, and my desire to keep up appearances.

“Milt? ” he asked. I had to cessation my thoughts repeat his expect in my head. The long day was catching up to me.

“It’s just a payoff,” I told them. Tully and Victor looked relieved. “They wanna make it a permanent thing. See, first he gave me all of this bullshit about how the sheriff thinks gangs might take over the club.” Victor snorted at this; Tully chuckled. “He said the law might close us down. He had me scared for a minute, but later I could see it was all a gimmick to prime the pump. Not that I don’t think the sheriff couldn’t give us real trouble if he wanted.”

“Freakin-a right he could,” said Tully. “We got violations outta our ass and back again. Dem cops, they’re always in here buyin drinks and sittin around for free. Lookin round. But not one of ‘em ever says nothin bout all the laws we’re already breakin, which is plenty. Dey don’t care. But if they was told to, dey could hurt us righteous.”

“That’s what I figured,” I said. “Better just to go along.”

Victor was thinking. Presently he looked up. “So what exactly is the deal Milt? “

“One payment a year. He called it a lump sum. We give it to them in May, after tax season. That seemed important to him, I don’t know why. It ain’t like the sheriff’s gonna report this as income. I make the plunge, I can’t tell where, to a guy whose name he gave me. Out of town, I gotta drive there. We never talk to Big Earl again. No paperwork, no nothing. And it’s all in cash. The way he had it down pat, I bet they do this all the time. Half Lee Street’s probably payin these guys off.”

“Donnie Cox down at da Pussycat Theater does,” said Tully.

“So does Willie Jackson over at Blue Sky Lounge,” added Victor.

“Dey don’t say how much,” said Tully, “or what all he does for dem. Nobody likes to talk ’bout Big Earl.”

“We don’t either,” I said, “not one bit. Don’t even say we’re payin. He was real serious about that. Nothing goes out of this room. Not that any of you talk anyway, I know that. But if you bag loaded one night don’t let somethin slip. This is strictly in-house stuff.”

“So,” said Carlos, with an air of finality and a sigh of boredom, “that’s that. How remarkable do we pay them? “

I hesitated a second too long, still uncomfortable with my newfound authority over these people, my friends.

“Fifteen percent,” I said. I tried to sound like it was nothing to me.

“Jeeesus Christ!” said Carlos.

“Highway robbery,” Victor said, sounding genuinely disgusted.

“Coulda been worse,” said Tully. “Dat is profit, right? “

“Yes. He told me he wants to hold us successful. Nice guy. And he said it really wasn’t much money cause he had to split it between the county and the city law.”

“What a bunch of bullshit,” said Victor, almost to himself. “City law only writes traffic tickets in this town.”

Katie stopped rubbing Tully’s neck and looked up. She had been our bookkeeper since Mabel’s death. “How’s he gonna know what our profit is Milt? We don’t know half the time ourselves. We got to reveal this guy our taxes? “

“He said he trusted me. Elephantine chance, he’s probably got some IRS buddy who mails him copies of the forms. When the time comes we’ll go through it, Katie. It’ll be a lot of money, but we got no choice. All right everybody? “

My only retort was a soft, almost musical voice that purred from across the room.

“Did you at least bargain with him, Milt? ”

As she asked the question, Elizabeth looked up from the thick original she was reading, having given no previous indication that she was even listening to us. Curled up on the very top of our tall bookcase she was five feet over our heads. Thirteen now, my sister had matured rapidly in the past three years. Taller than me by at least an inch, she was still razor thin and lovely. Mabel had left Liz with more than enough money for four years of college, but she was given no part of Paradise Alley. Mabel had always discouraged her from associating with the women who worked at the club and never let her near the men who were patrons there. Growing up in our neighborhood, she told me, was bad enough for a young girl without spending time around a strip bar. Still, I planned on my own to offer her some sort of partnership in the club when she got older. I thought this was only fair, since I had renowned plans to do the same for Carlos, who was not my blood relation. Because of that, she liked to sit in on all of our business meetings, although she rarely said anything.

“Bargain? ” I said, as I looked up at her. “Liz, you don’t bargain with a guy like Tremendous Earl. You do what he says. This man holds all the cards. If I’d been bright with him he might’ve gotten pissed, and then where would we be? “

“Oh Milt, really. Why do you think he had your unimportant exiguous ass all the way up to Vanglory Hills? ” Katie frowned at Liz, but I noticed Carlos smiled. “If he just wanted to name a percentage he could have done that with some old lackey.”

“Lackey? ”

“Sure,” she answered. “Ma was always saying how these politicians on the take stay away from the cash themselves. Why do you think he risked seeing you in person? He probably figured you would try to screw with his deal, maybe get him to settle for less.”

I wondered how she reasoned all of this out. I didn’t remember being this wise at thirteen. And she didn’t talk like a girl raised downtown anymore, she had adopted the speech of her higher-class friends. Her voice had gotten softer, her vocabulary a step up from mine. She sounded like she came from Vanglory Hills herself. Liz was growing up fast, beyond my capacity to keep up with the changes in her.

“Now Lizzie,” Tully said, “your broder’s right. You can’t screw round wid des people. Ya gotta pay ‘em respect so dell look de odder diagram.”

Liz closed her book and climbed down the bookshelf. Her jeans, although bell-bottomed underneath, were tight on her waist, and I was slightly annoyed to notice Victor watching her ass. Jesus, I notion, she’s thirteen. Robbed, first of my parents then Mabel, I felt all the more protective of Liz.

As she walked across the room Liz spoke to Tully but looked at me.

“Spacious Earl isn’t the mob. He’s a politician like Congressman Simmons or President Ford. He’ll expect some negotiation, I’ll bet. He probably wanted Milt down there personal so he could see what type of guy he was, so he knew how far he could push him. Negotiation. Except there wasn’t any negotiating.”

She reached the table and stood in front of me. She was in a white half-shirt, tied in a knot at the navel, and I was confronted by the uncomfortable fact that my little sister had done a good job growing, of all things, tits. Thankfully, she didn’t wear make-up yet, and her hair was not styled but pulled tight in a long ponytail, which ran all the way down her back. Even so, she aloof looked too grown up for my taste.

“Liz,” I said patiently, “you didn’t meet the guy, I did. He had it all planned out ahead of time. The man could close us down with a phone call. Don’t you think I’d have avoided this if I could? “

“Don’t get inflamed, love, but I mediate this big shot charmed the pants off you. Next time you should take some time to think it over. Don’t give in so easy. I know it’s tough making the decisions but you’re in charge now. People like this are going to try and take advantage of you because of your age and because you’re…well, you don’t look like a tough guy. So you’re going to have to learn to be hard with them, like Ma. I know how smart you are, but you have to make them see some of that. Otherwise they’ll just walk over us whenever they want.”

She said it so top-notch it was hard to be angry. In truth, she was only saying what I had already told myself. The fact that, at her age, she could grasp this all so well was impressive in itself. My sister, I plan with a sign of bitterness, was going to be smarter than I was.

“Maybe we should have sent Liz to negotiate with Huge Earl,” Carlos said smiling. “She would’ve had him paying us.”

He was trying to lighten the mood, but his smile died when I turned toward him with a hard look. His own eyes dropped to the floor.

“Don’t get mad,” Liz said again, taking my hand. “You’ll show us all one day. Ma wouldn’t have left you the business if she didn’t think you could hurry it. But remember, we’re all in this together. We have to look out for each other. That means telling the truth even if it hurts a little bit. And the truth, hon, is that you didn’t try hard enough this time. But you’ll get better at it, I know you will.”

I said nothing, and I didn’t look at her. I was torn between anger at her for disputing me in front of everybody and the sinking suspicion that she was probably right on target. Maybe Big Earl had been expecting me to push for a better deal and was amazed when I simply lapped up his first offer. I wondered if he was, even now, laughing at how naïve I had been.

The silence of the room became dismal.

“I need to go check on the clean up crew,” Katie said suddenly, sliding off the couch and giving Tully a kiss. “Liz, you should’ve been in bed a long time ago. You’ve got school tomorrow. You too guys.” She unchained the front door and walked out. Liz looked at me for a second, then turned and walked to her own room. It seemed to me that Victor raised his head just to watch her go.

“Well,” Victor said, trying to lift the tension, “at least it’s all handled for now. We can get back to business. Did this guy say anything about the city people? You know, taxes and zoning and what not? “

I blinked, trying to shake my thoughts free. Victor was moral, for better or worse I had cast our lot. Despite what Liz had said, there was no sense in second guessing myself now. I lifted my head to answer him.

“If we have a problem with the city, a real big problem, he said maybe he could help us out. But we can’t call him. He said he’d know if he needed to acquire in touch. If it had something to do with city law it might mean extra money. The stuff we bag for our payoff is strictly help with the cops. He also said he couldn’t do anything if the SBI or the feds landed on us for something. He said that doesn’t happen too much around here. And he thought it might pay us to contribute to the Democratic Party. All of the important politicians, the council members and the judges, they’re all Democrats. When they run for office they draw money from a general fund. Colossal Earl said we could give to that, it might pay us to be in their good graces. We could each give as individuals and the club’s name wouldn’t be involved.”

“Deese guys, day are like da mob!” Tully said. “He say anythin else? “

“Yeah. He said he hates Italians.”

Tully laughed heartily. As a gesture of peace I smiled down at Carlos, who was looking at me.

“Dumbass redneck,” Carlos said, smiling himself now. “Did he say anything about Italian-Indians? “

“Nope. I don’t think he knows they exist. Maybe you should go scalp him with a pizza cutter.”

“No way,” Carlos said, “not Big Earl Sorrell. Milton Howard, on the other hand…”

He was off the floor and had both hands on me before I could even move. Far stronger than I was, he lifted me off the table and directly into an airplane trek.

“Ahhh! Put me down you Redskin! Victor, help!”

“Can’t,” Victor said. “Might spill my beer. Plus he’s way bigger than me.”

“Tully!” I yelled as the room spun. “Cessation him!”

“After you cracked on Italians? Notta chance.”

Carlos was still twirling me around, something very easy for him to do considering that I weighed no more than one-fifteen. Despite my dizziness I felt grateful that he was this playful after the cold way I had looked at him before.

“Redskin, huh? Little pipsqueak. Now, where did I leave my tomahawk? You could use a haircut. Hey, I got an notion. Let’s see if puny honky club owners can wrassle with Redskins.”

Throwing me across his shoulders, he started toward my open bedroom door.

“Wait!” I protested, “We’re still in a meeting!”

“Meeting adjourned,” Carlos said, and he carried me out laughing.

……….

I look back on that winter as the beginning of my growth from a boy to a man. Mabel’s decision to leave the club to me, the load of responsibility I suddenly felt toward both my sister and my friends, the transition from worrying about such things as math assignments to worrying about such things as estate taxes, all conspired to rob me of the traditional fun I had anticipated for my senior year and high school graduation. For me there was no homecoming game, no week long trip with friends to Myrtle Beach. I turned eighteen in February and afterwards spent all of my nights at the club. I began skipping school regularly and neglected my classes, passing my final year on skill alone. I didn’t even bewitch the SAT. I had no thoughts of college. Prom night found me behind a bar. While my classmates walked the aisle at graduation, I walked the floor of Paradise Alley.

I did, however, experience one rite of passage usually associated with high school. I got laid that year.
Some might find it appealing that I had retained my virginity so long, especially after I had lived above, and finally inherited, of all things, a strip club. But after many disturbing lectures from Mabel about the evil fates of bar owners who hire and pay girls based on sex I was never tempted to use my business to that advantage. Meanwhile, in the world of real teenage romance, I had problems.

As a result of both my size and my youthful looks most girls my age, who were looking for older guys to date, didn’t go for me. They would flirt with me, form friends, but I never got anywhere with them. I actually had one date tell me that I was too cute and cuddly for serious making out. No one, she said bluntly, wants to screw a teddy bear. She had no idea, of course, how shattering words like that could be to the ego of a teenage boy.

Added to my troubles was Carlos, whom the girls adored. He had been sleeping around regularly since he was fourteen and always had girlfriends to spare. Anyone could see that he was an extraordinarily handsome young man, with a combination of strong physical stature and detached sensitivity that drove girls wild. There were days in the high school parking lot when so many girls wanted to talk to him that we just about had to fight our contrivance to the car. Even the strippers at the club, jaded veterans who knew men at their worst, couldn’t get enough of him.

To my shameful annoyance, Carlos tended to be downright indifferent to all this attention. He treated his girls as though they were casual diversions, something to do when he wasn’t too busy. He was always polite and always ready to move on. I never let my feelings be known, but there were times when my jealousy made me wish we were not such good friends.

Finally, my commitments to the club made it hard for me to get dates on a regular basis. Even before I could work during prime time there was plenty to do away from the floor itself. I often went to bed before eight, in order to wake up at three in the morning and work on the clean-up crew. Although I had the money for a social life, I rarely had the energy. I had basically given up trying by my eighteenth birthday, and sometimes wondered if I was destined to live out my life as the only virgin on Lee Street.

Of course, I eventually did have sex. I’d love to relate a story about the tender-eyed teen sweetheart who brought me bursting forth into manhood and left me with the sweet memories only first love innocence brings. Unfortunately, when the long awaited event finally occurred it was nothing so respectable. It’s not nearly as satisfying to admit that I made it with a drunken slut, more than twice my age, in the closet of my strip bar. It did, however, turn out to be quite memorable, for altogether unexpected reasons.

……….

She had come into the club alone, and stayed that way throughout the night. She was at least forty, and quite possibly tipping toward fifty, wearing a loud sequined purple dress. It was four in the morning on a Sunday and we were the only ones left downstairs on the main floor of Paradise Alley. She had been drinking since before midnight, mostly tequila shots, and somehow she had convinced Victor to let her stay on after closing. He had even left her with a bottle and a shot glass. She was sitting at the bar while I was polishing its surface. The rest of the clean-up crew had already gone home. I was almost done myself, thinking about bed and skipping school. I was on the other side of the bar from her, three feet away, when she spoke.

“Hey, kid.”

Breaking the silence her voice startled me so badly that I reared up and my left hand knocked her bottle away. Luckily it didn’t break, but simply rolled on the floor quite empty.

“Shit! Sorry lady, I’ll go round and get that. Did you say something? “

I had seen her around before but I really looked at her for the first time now. She had dyed yellow hair, a lot of it styled up high, and bright red lipstick. Too much eye shadow. From a distance I had notion she was a nice looking lady but up close I could see the wrinkles and bags through the heavy make-up on her face. She looked like she had led a hard life.

“How old are you kid? “

“Me? I’m eighteen, my birthday was last month.”

“Eighteen? ” She reared attend her head and laughed. It was a shrill, reedy sound. “Eighteen, kid? Christ, you gape fifteen if you’re a day. You work here? “

“Yeah. Sort of.”

“Yeah, sorta.” Her words were slurred and slow. Her eyes drooped. I view she was ready to pass out. “Whatta you mean sorta? “

“Well, I guess I own the place. I mean, that is to say, it’s mine. I inherited it from my mom’s godmother.”

“Ohhh, you’re the owner!” She sounded really drunk. “How’s about that. That’s the best line I heard all night kid. That’s a gracious one. Don’t waste time on the third-rate shit, objective say you’re the fucking owner. What’s your name Mr. Big? “

“Milton. Look, I’ll go obtain that bottle up, I’ve got to finish my work.”

“Milton? Parents musta been really drunk. Or nerds. I’m Ginny. Say, since you own this space why don’t you forget that bottle and find us some good stuff? I’m ready to get this party started.”

“Party, ma’am? It’s after four…”

“Oh la! Ma’am is it? Whatta ya contemplate I am, your mama? Say, come closer over here, I can barely see you over the bar. Huh, you’re just a little thing, aren’t ya? Hey, where you going? “

I walked around to the swinging bar entrance and opened it, vowing in my head to interrogate Victor, asking why in the world he would leave some drunk bitch at the bar for me to deal with alone. I knew I’d have to catch her a way home, and the taxi services, with a few brave exceptions, would be closed. Plus, drinking in a bar after two in the morning on a Sunday was a blatant violation of state blue laws. I thought about Big Earl mentioning the SBI, and decided that Victor had quite a bit of explaining to do.

I picked up the bottle and placed in abet on the bar. She had swung around to watch me, and as I came close she grabbed me by the collar and pulled my face within inches of her. She was surprisingly strong for a lady.

“Hey!” I protested. “What the hell are you doing? ”

“Say, Mr. Astronomical Shot bar owner.” The odor of tequila was overwhelming when she spoke. “Didn’t anyone ever lisp you not to drawl lies to peculiar women in bars late at night. It’s past your bedtime, ain’t it? “

“I ain’t lyin and I ain’t got no bedtime. I gotta gain back to work, lady.”

She suddenly let me go and stood up beside me. She was a good deal taller than me. There was a strange glint in her watery eyes.

“Ya know kid, you’re kinda cute. Eighteen, huh? What the hell. Wanna make it? “

For a second my confusion was such that I said: “Make what? “

She burst out laughing again, even louder and more shrill this time.

“Oh, you’re a sweetheart! And you’re eighteen? Make it, baby, make it. Don’t you like girls? You ain’t a faggot are ya? Let’s do it, I’m horny.”

I finally got the message, and I’m sure my eyes were round quarters.

“Uh, but I, um…look, you see…”

“Let’s go,” she said, cutting me off and grabbing my right wrist. We were heading for the hallway with the private rooms in benefit. My mind was a whirl, torn between panic, repulsion, and a sudden terribly strong curiosity.
“Here,” she said, opening the first door she came across, “in we go, behind door number one.”

She plunged in, level-headed holding my wrist, and I followed, having no breath to command her that behind door number one was our broom closet. She stumbled into the darkness and I almost fell on top of her. Then she slammed the door shut behind us and was quickly against me, her lips smashing into mine.

“Ow!” I yelped. Her right hand flew unceremoniously, and somewhat painfully, up against my crotch.
“Ow!” I yelped again, a little louder, though her mouth muffled mine. Suddenly her knees gave way and she fell heavily into me, both of us falling to the floor. I heard and felt buckets, mops, and brooms falling around, under, and on top of us. She took no peep.

I don’t know how long we grappled on the floor of that closet but it seemed like forever. At some point in time her dress and my jeans were ripped off of our bodies, and I believe she was responsible in both cases. She kept moaning many varied and often disturbing things which I did not altogether understand, but sounded to me like instructions to ‘twist the rope,’ ‘pull the chain’ and do something involving around the world flight. She called me by at least three different names, none of them mine. She had tremendously long fingernails, several of which I became quite sure she had left in my back. Worst of all, while I was trying to grab for leverage in the dark melee, her mass of hair came off in my hand, prompting an unreasonable momentary fear in me that I had somehow pulled her head off.

Eventually she seemed to become aware that I was not as aroused as she would have liked. In this matter I was then given such unwanted assistance that a horrible suspicion began to form in my head, suggesting that if I didn’t execute something happen very soon she might attempt to squeeze an erection out of me.

Somehow, I was able to pull it off. I have always worked best under pressure. I didn’t really enjoy the experience and I could only guess at her feelings, since she simply carried on considerable as before. I couldn’t see a thing. On top of it all, her constant screaming was giving me an poor headache. I was quickly coming to the opinion that, maybe, I hadn’t been missing as much joy as I had thought. Finally, she rolled off of me and commenced panting and muttering ‘oh, oh, oh’ to herself. A predatory hand flew once again to my nether-regions, causing me to bite down hard on my tongue.

“Hey!” she said. “You didn’t get off. That’s no good. Probably had too much liquor.”

“But I didn’t drink any liq…”

“I know what to do, honey, don’t ya danger.”

She suddenly grabbed at my shirt, which I still wore, and stood up, pulling me along with her. I was pushed back against the far wall of the closet.

“You just stay still honey, and Ginny will pick care of everything.”

She collapsed again, this time to her knees in front of me. I knew enough to guess what she was doing, but it seemed to me that the process should have been a more delicate operation. I was unaware so many teeth were supposed to be involved. Leaning up against the wall, I wondered how the hell I had gotten into this.

That’s when the door opened, the closet became bathed with light, and my little sister looked in at us.

Liz stared at me in total surprise. Then her eyes fell to the figure at my knees, who was absorbed in her work and unaware that anything was amiss.

“Ohhh, that’s marvelous honey, fair marvelous,” Ginny hissed between action.

“Oh, wow!” Liz half whispered, half screamed. After looking for another second she slammed the door shut.

I suppose there are times in almost every person’s life when the unreality of a residence is too much to handle. Standing up against that wall, I tried to convince myself that what had just happened hadn’t. It was simply not possible that my slight sister, the girl whose sole source of guidance and upbringing I was, had just witnessed some tramp giving her older brother a blowjob in the broom closet. It was not, I told myself, the kind of thing that could have happened. In the strain of this unexpected experience, I decided, my guilty conscience was triggering hallucinations.

That’s when Liz opened the door again, this time with my best friend Carlos behind her.

“See,” she said, “I told you! I was not making it all up!”

“Holy shit!” Carlos exclaimed, his own dark eyes suddenly wide. Reaching over Liz he slammed the door shut once again. Just as it closed I felt the woman beneath me drop away, collapsing this time into a heap against the wall.

“Ohhh,” she said one last time. After a exiguous, I could hear her snoring. Walking gingerly around her I vainly felt for my pants in the darkness. The thought came to me then that I was a virgin no longer. It didn’t seem to matter. What mattered was finding my pants. For all I knew, there would be an audience lined up outside when I opened that damned closet door.

……….

Liz told me later that when she had heard the exclusive noises she had thought somebody might be trapped in the closet. She did apologize for coming back the second time. It was unprejudiced, she told me in mock innocence, that she so hated to be disbelieved. I never really lived it down. In all honesty, it was too big an embarrassment for my sister and my best friend not to give me hell.

I felt even worse when we found out that Ginny was a part-time pro who had once worked for a pimp Victor knew in the projects. At least she never came back into the club, so I never had to see her again. For weeks after it happened Liz was laughing every time she saw me, and Carlos kept a big smile on his face. But as far as I know, neither of them ever told the story to anyone else. To tease me, though, Liz started calling me ‘Marvelous’ Milton around other people. Unhappily, the novel nickname stuck.

In all my embarrassment, I never even thought to ask Liz or Carlos what they were doing together, down in the club, alone, at five o’clock in the morning.

……….

To read the rest of Lafayette for free go to Jeffrey’s blog Lafayette.

While the Toyota Sienna is not involved in the ongoing recall for unintended acceleration malfunctions among Toyotas, the Honda Odyssey is the superior choice.

The top five cars for unusual parents are:

1. 2010 Honda Odyssey

One of the best cars for new parents is a minivan. Respect the van. The Honda Odyssey has five-star crash ratings all around from the NHTSA, but its ratings from CarSeatData.com are mixed. The site reviews how easy it is to put in a car seat. The Honda Odyssey gets on this list of the five best cars for recent parents because of its high crash ratings, effective stowing capabilities and its all-around performance as a family hauler. Safety features include standard side airbags in all three rows, electronic stability control and standard ABS. Higher trim levels of the Honda Odyssey also have sliding power doors and a power tailgate, which are lifesavers when your hands are full. Like most cars, the Honda Odyssey also comes with child-proof rear door locks for when your shrimp one becomes a toddler. A DVD rear entertainment center is optional on higher trim levels as well.

The Odyssey also has higher front crash ratings than its key competitor, the Toyota Sienna.

If you don’t mind being pegged as a boring parent clad in beige, a Honda Odyssey will race you at least $26,805. To derive an optioned Odyssey, expect to employ upwards of $29,000. The price guide is here.

2. 2010 Ford Fusion and Ford Fusion Hybrid

The Ford Fusion is a top rated all-around car that received near-flawless NHTSA ratings. It received five stars for every rating except for a four-star rating for rear passengers. The Ford Fusion offers electronic stability control, satisfactory driving safety and airbags for both rows in a stylish ride. Winner of the 2010 Motor Trend Car of the Year, the Ford Fusion offers optional all-wheel-drive and standard child release handles in the trunk. It also functionally can put down all seats, including the front passenger seat, for solo drivers needing to carry a great load. Obviously, Ford is doing something apt and this is a top five pick for new parents.

Gas-conscious families may opt for the Ford Fusion Hybrid, which gets up to 41 MPG on the highway. Families looking for a larger car may opt for the Ford Taurus, which received 5-star fracture ratings all around.

The Ford Fusion starts at $19,000 but, optioned out, interrogate a standard Fusion to have a $23,000 to $25,000 pricetag.

3. 2010 Dodge Caliber

The Dodge Caliber, which I recently reviewed here, is a surprisingly effective compact wagon that may be the cheapest option on this list for new families. AAA recently rated the Dodge Caliber a top crossover for families. CarSeatData.com reviewers call the Caliber easy to install car seats in and the NHTSA gave the Caliber 5-star crash ratings all around. It also has an acceptable amount of rear space for the urban family. The Caliber comes standard with multistage airbags in the front and side airbags are an option. Electronic stability control is standard on higher trim levels. Most models come with cloth seats.

The 2010 Dodge Caliber starts at $17.090 and most model levels stay under the $24,000 mark when optioned out.

4. 2010 Chevrolet Malibu
A fresh-looking sedan for the new family. The NHTSA gave the Malibu 5-star ratings all around and it comes with side air bags for both rows. It also, like almost all GM models, it comes with an automatic crash alert system called OnStar. If you are badly injured but your child is not, your child will be freaking out but will not necessarily know where to find your cell phone.

For a bigger car with bigger crush panels to ensure the safety of your child, the Chevrolet Impala is rated highly by CarSeatData.com and the NHTSA. The 2008 Impala is largely unchanged from the 2010 Impala, and CarSeatData citizen reviewers state that great for many different car seat installations. For every car seat they’ve put in it, they’ve experienced surprising ease.

The Chevy Malibu starts at $21,845 but optioned out expect a $25,000 pricetag.

The Chevy Impala starts at $25,000 and can raise to around $29,000 with more options and higher trim levels.

5. 2010 Chevrolet Traverse

A limited SUV with a carlike ride, the Chevrolet Travese gives the safety and capability a growing family needs. With 5-star NHTSA crash ratings and six airbags around the cabin, the Traverse is a winner. The Traverse also comes with electronic stability control standard. The Traverse seats up to eight but also has the ability to set all rear seats down, giving it best-in-class space. The Chevrolet Traverse was named a Best Family Car of 2009 in the SUV category by Parents Magazine and Edmunds.com and the 2009 Traverse is largely unchanged. Like almost all GM models, it comes with an automatic crash alert system called OnStar.

The Chevrolet Traverse starts at $29,000.

References
http://www.carseatdata.org/search
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Justice Ginsburg is one of two Jewish justices on the current Supreme Court, the other being Justice Breyer. Justice Louis Brandeis was the first Jewish Justice, nominated and approved in 1916. It was not until far more recently that the idea that the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court should reflect the makeup of American society that brought a black- Thurgood Marshall and later Clarence Thomas- and women, first, Sandra Day O’Connor and later the current justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Of course, it was not just religion or gender that took precedence in Supreme Court nominations, but whether the nominee had a liberal or conservative leaning (depending on which political party was in power at the time of the nomination). As necessary as gender and religion may have been in the new look at Judge Ginsburg by White House officials, we will see that it was (and continuers to be) her work on behalf of discrimination of any sort, her efforts to bring Constitutional rights to those to whom such rights had been denied or overlooked, that made her a logical choice for the Supreme Court with mostly bi-partisan approval.

So, who was (and is) Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and how and why was she selected to be a member of America’s highest tribunal? More importantly, what were the political and Congressional sources that pushed her nomination and made it clear to President Clinton that she was the best qualified to carry out the upholding of Constitutional law that might support the Clinton Administration’s long-term goals. Having been confirmed, we will also look at a decision that was a keystone in her influence on the Court and Constitutional law.

BIOGRAPHY:
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born in 1933 in Brooklyn to a first-generation immigrant from Russia who worked in the garment industry. For many of her early years, she had to fight prejudice not merely against women but also against Jews. Her
devotion to equal rights for women is surely based on her own experience, upon graduating from Columbia University’s School of Law. One example of such prejudice is shown in the fact that “she ended up tied for first in her graduating class….A professor recommended her for a clerkship with his old friend Felix Frankfurter. However, Justice Frankfurter said he wasn’t ready to take a woman law clerk” (Tushnetg 195(. Her standing in her graduating class would have made it easy to obtain a residence in a prestigious law firm. That, however, seemed destined only for male graduates. “Unable to find a law firm in New York that would hire a female attorney, Ginsburg served for several years as a research associate at Columbia Law School and then joined Rutgers University School of Law where she rose to the infamous of full professor before becoming the first female law professor at Columbia Law School” (O’Brien 1592).

It surely was the atmosphere that kept her from successfully competing with her male peers, Ginsburg “began working as a cooperating attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, mostly on sex discrimination cases” (Tushnet 105). According to Tushnet (105) her law students asked Ginsburg to issue a course on sex discrimination. But there seemed to be little material available. So “Ginsburg joined with the Berkeley law professor, Herma Hill Kay and the Buffalo law Professor Kenneth Davidson to develop the first casebook on sex discrimination law, published in 1974″ (Tushnet 105). As a result, Ginsburg not only maintained her law professorship at Columbia but headed a new project of the ACLU, the Women’s Rights Project. Ginsburg’s goal was to change constitutional law regarding women’s rights- a goal she has achieved even before she joined the Court.

It was not easy, because most jurists believed that gender discrimination and race discrimination were totally different. One reason seemed to be that there were many precedents proving race discrimination, while women’s rights seemed to be the same as men (i.e., voting rights and college admissions). The mind-set of many judges at the time seemed to be that “women were protected by laws giving them benefits men didn’t have” (Tushnet 107Ginsburg’s first case to be argued before the Supreme Court was based on a case n Idaho, where state law gave men preferences over women as estate administrators. The ACLU was asked to assume responsibilities for appeal, and Ginsburg asked to write the brief. While the Supreme Court ruled in Ginsburg’s client’s favor, the ultimate predicament was still present: most people tended to believe that men were better suited to business matters than women.

Ginsburg herself made her first Court appearance to argue for a female Air Force officer trying to derive her husband declared a dependent (with all rights that most dependents, as women, earned from the government). She won her first case. Another interesting case she argued was against Virginia Military Institute’s continuing its male-only policy. Here, too, the Court decided in her client’s favor.

“Her work on women’s rights with the ACLU made her a national figure, the ‘Thurgood Marshall of gender equality law’. Like Marshall she got a federal appeals court appointment as a result of her law reform advocacy. In 1980 Jimmy Carter appointed her to the federal appeals court in Washington” (Tushnet 120-1).

Over the years she became more and more a women’s rights advocate, arguing- and being successful in some five out of six appearances before the Court. As a Court vacancy occurred during the Clinton Administration, the New York Times weighed in, tacitly supporting Ginsburg: The paper” published an editorial urging ‘Great Diversity on the Supreme Court’….The Times endorsed appointment of a Jewish woman to the high bench….A month earlier…the newspaper has included among those being given serious consideration….Ruth Bader Ginsburg” ((Yarbrough 29). Perhaps because another Jewish judge recommended for the Court, Stephen Breyer, was in difficulty for not paying social security taxes for his housekeeper, it may have occurred to Clinton and is advisors to move quickly to appoint a Jewish woman to the Court. “Two days after revelation of Breyer’s social security difficulties and a speedy arranged White House meeting, the president announced Judge Ginsburg’s nomination” (Yarbrough 29). It was not Ginsburg’s gender or religion that finally made up President Clinton’s mind: “Her reputation as a middle-of-the-road jurist on the court of appeals made her a logical nominee when President Clinton was faced with the opportunity to replace retiring Justice Byron White. Although Clinton initially considered several other jurists, Ginsburg’s husband and a host of her former clerks and colleagues lobbied Clinton to appoint her as the second woman to the Court. As the first Democratic appointee to the Court in over twenty-five years, her unanimous “Well Qualified” rating from the American Bar Association made her a welcome, non-controversial appointee” (Oxford 3).

THE APPOINTMENT, NOMINATION, AND APPROVAL PROCESS
“The Constitution creates the Supreme Court. Other federal courts may advance and go, in Congress’ discretion, but only the Supreme Court is ordained in the founding document itself” (Starr 3). Since justices are appointed for lifetime service, not a matter of years or electoral decisions, a presidential appointment is one of the most serious and long-ranging decision a President and his party may make. 

The appointment process is fairly straightforward. When a vacancy on the Court occurs, usually the President seeks advice from the judicial establishment, including (but not always followed) the rating of the American Bar Association, which may approve by “highly qualified” and merely “qualified” ratings. The majority and minority leaders of the Senate judiciary committee which has first hearings for approval are also often consulted. In the case of Judge Ginsburg, for example, the minority leader, Senator Hatch was instrumental in guiding her approval through the committee. There is an investigation period of the nominee even before the official nomination. Hearings then occur before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which may hear not only from the nominee but other witnesses, pro and con (Remember Anita Hill at the Clarence Thomas hearing). The committee votes in favor or against and then passes the nomination on to the Senate for a full Senate vote.
It is important to recognize the fact that all too often in recent years, political views, rather than solid judicial experience on the bench, has been a factor in making appointments. Congress, it seems, has recognized the shortcomings of some of these appointments and refused to approve them. “More than a sixth of the presidential choices for the Supreme Court have failed to win Senate approval. In recent years, the politics of appointments and confirmation seems to have become particularly bitter. The polarizing defeat of President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 nomination of Judge Robert Bork to the Supreme Court has been taken by some as emblematic of everything that is wrong with the current process” (Whittington 2). President Nixon had two of his appointees fail to secure Senate approval: Judge Clement Haynesworth and Judge G. Harrold Carswell in 1970. And, of coursed, President George W. Bush had to bite the bullet with his unexpected and unwelcome decision to appoint Harriet Miers

It is a valid question, however, whether the Supreme Court really represents the mainstream America. “Certainly the Supreme Court has never been ‘democratic’ in the sense that appointments are meant to represent a cross section of the nation” (Lerner 445). But, the nomination and quick approval (97-3) of Ruth Bader Ginsburg does seem to indicate that politicians and their constituents had become more aware of, and concerned, about equal rights, for which Ginsburg had become a well-known and decades-long advocate. While the Court does not “create” laws, according to Lerner (451) it does, or should serve as a national educator in its attempt to set standards of social control.

One concern some in the Senate and other critics had about Ruth Bader Ginsburg was her views on the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision.. “Ginsburg criticized Roe vs. Wade for going too far too fast and for treating the problem as one of privacy and autonomy rather than sex discrimination” (Tushnet 121). She was questioned on her views during her nomination hearing by Sen. Leahy and others. Yet, when questioned about some future decisions she might or might not make, she stated: “”. . . You are well aware that I came to this proceeding to be judged as a judge, not as an advocate. Because I am and hope to continue to be a judge, it would be wrong for me to say or preview in this legislative chamber how I would cast my vote on questions the Supreme Court may be called upon to decide. Were I to rehearse here what I would say and how I would reason on such questions, I would act injudiciously” (Ginmsburg 54).

The nearly unanimous vote to seat Judge Ginsburg was due to the fact that the Senate Judiciary Committee and its Republican minority leader, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R. Utah) “pre-approved her nomination: “And why did the Republicans feel so comfortable with Judge Ginsburg? The acknowledge is that her judicial record shows her to be the most conservative Carter-appointed judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals here in the District of Columbia. She’s considered a centrist, a swing vote. And, in fact, a statistical analysis done in 1987 of that court’s voting patterns shows Judge Ginsburg voting substantially more often with the court’s conservative Republican bloc of judges led by then-Judge Robert Bork than with the liberal Democratic judges” 

(Anon 3). Justice Ginsburg may have been seen by some as a real left-winger. But, the media as well as the ACLU and other organizations for which she was an advocate rightly portrayed her as a centrist. This, then, made it possible for both the ABA and the Senate to give her a snappy approval. The only really strong vocal opposition to Judge Ginsburg’s nomination came from anti-abortionists who saw in her another vote in favor of retaining or even strengthening Roe vs. Wade.

There are many scholars who now seem to feel it is useless to try to appoint and approve someone to the Court in order to
“rein in” its activism. According to Robert F. Nagel, law professor at the University of Colorado, it has not worked in the past thirty-five years. “It is now accepted by the bulk of the legal profession, including many of its most influential scholars and successful practitioners, that there is no single correct method for interpreting the Constitution. As now-Chief Justice John Roberts said at his confirmation hearings, the correct sources of constitutional meaning vary depending on the nature of the case. Sometimes a justice should search for at the tiresome meaning of the text, but sometimes that can be overridden by historical information or by the overall logic of the document or by changes in social conditions or by evolving political practices or by philosophical considerations. This is what most sophisticated lawyers maintain, and it shapes the way they formulate their arguments” (Nagel 45).

PERSONAL IS POLITICAL
There are three primary factors in Justice Ginsburg’s progress to nomination and approval: First, her advocacy of now more well-known issues: gender as well as racial discrimination which have become far more obvious, and, from the time of Affirmative Action and Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s to the so-far failed ERA amendment to the Constitution as well as continued adversarial activities about abortion and equal pay for women headlines, Judge Ginsburg has been far more than a gadfly. Likewise, she has always been both an involved and creative force in defending or defeating challenges to equal rights for women, minorities, and even gays. Yet, she was never assessed in political terms as a “flaming liberal” but far more of a centrist who might not truly upset the delicate balance of the Supreme Court of the Nineties. In fact, “Ginsburg got a reputation as a cautious and careful assume on the circuit court” (Tushnet 121). And yet, she weighed in on Roe vs. Wade that would later be brought up as a potential negative in her nominating questioning before the Senate Judiciary committee. She wrote that “the heavy-handed judicial intervention’ in Roe was difficult to account for” (Tushnet 121).

Her interpretation of a woman’s right to choose, and the Court’s mountainous definition thereof may also have influenced some of the committee members’ concerns: “Conservative committee members naturally challenged Judge Ginsburg’s acceptance of any sort of abortion right” (Yarbrough 30). The line of questioning about abortion tended to bring a conflict between Senator Hatch and Illinois Democratic Senator, Carol Moseley-Braun. But, this conflict, as well as other lines of questioning were not really deep-=seated. Ginsburg’s approval by the Committee and the full Senate was already a foregone conclusion.

One has to refer back to the very beginnings of her long career to see how and why she felt encouraged, even duty-bound to take up the fight for equal rights and an end to gender discrimination. It began with her inability to gather a job with a prestigious law firm in New York, despite her Number One ranking as a graduate of the Columbia University School of Law, and her being a member of the Law Review both at Columbia as well as at Harvard. While these law firms seemed to dangle all sorts of career opportunities to male graduates, and while even Supreme Court Justices found clerkships for top graduates, Ruth Ginsburg was frozen out- no doubt due to her gender as well as to her Jewish religion. Even a rather liberal Jewish Supreme Court Justice, Felix Frankfurter, declined to hire her, believing that the time was not yet ripe for women as Supreme Court clerks.

Not that her career suffered, in the long run. She finally became the first female law professor at Columbia University School of Law. But this was not totally satisfying in her attempt to provide meaningful defense for, and advocacy of, equal rights and an end to gender discrimination. It was not only her involvement in the first casebook of sexual discrimination for law school courses, but also her work with the ACLU that made her an distinguished force to be reckoned with, and which, surely, led her to the Clinton nomination, even though she had not been his first choice.

DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE
Justice Ginsburg was (and is) an advocate of far more than equal rights for women. She has fought and argued for equal rights for males as well. “By 1994 the Court understood that the teach of gender discrimination almost always involved the use of stereotypes that helped perpetuate older practices…” (Tushnet 123).

She also sees a certain inequality in the way some defendants are represented. In fact, in 2001, in response to the argument that poor people have as fair representation as the wealthy, she wrote: “(I have) yet to leer a death case among the dozens coming to the Supreme Court…in which the defendant was well represented at trial. People who are well represented at trial do not get the death penalty” (Schwartz 88-9). In other words, Ginsburg continues to see inequality and discrimination not merely among genders and races, but social and financial status as well. And yet, as powerful an advocate as she continues to be, she is not a firebrand, spouting opinions to anyone and everyone who would listen (as the famed Justice William O. Douglas was wont to do).

There is no better example of a doctrtne by which to judge and remember the impact of Ruth Bader Ginsburg than in a key decision of the Supreme Court involving the Virginia Military institute’s refusal to admit female cadets. The case was not begun either by a female student denied admission or by VMI itself, but “when a lawyer in the Department of Justice read a news story. It ended by transforming the constitutional law of gender discrimination and vindicating the litigation strategy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg” (Tushnet 104).

VMI, with federal funding, was expected to observe non-discriminatory admissions policies. But, when faced with the challenge to admit female cadets, VMI considered going private, but the money simply was not available from private contributors. The case itself wqs never really in doubt, and “In 1997, 30 women and 430 men registered as rats” (Tushnet 127). Even though about a quarter of the women dropped out that first year, eventually female admissions grew, though proportionately far less than at the service academies. “Ginsburg’s opinions moved the bar up…Ginsburg’s opinion (in the VMI decision) reflected changing social values about the role of women. The Rehnquist Court, divided on many social issues, was entirely unified around women’s issues.

Justice Ginsburg also felt strongly about the poor being poorly represented in death penalty cases. She also felt strongly about gay rights, even though she was in the minority on a case involving the Boy Scouts of America excluding joyful scoutmasters. She was also in the minority ion the case of the Cleveland school vouchers, where she argued against them because some of the money was to go to religious schools, thus somewhat eliminating the church-state separation. She was also instrumental in a decision in favor of the disabled: “In a plurality opinion Justice Ginsburg held that the ADA may ‘require placement of persons with mental disability in community settings rather than in institutions when the State’s treatment professionals have positive that community placement is appropriate” (Schwartz 209).

Scholars, critics and commentators have found Justice Ginsburg to be, indeed, a centrist, with very strong and constitutionally proper views on discrimination and extremism, no matter where they occur. Her smooth demeanor seems to be in direct opposition to the haughty PC opinions and right wing views of her personal friend, Antonin Scalia. Justice Ginsburg’s doctrinaire approach really goes beyond what the general public might deem to be “fair.” Rather, it is to her credit that she advocates what is just, and what our Constitution. Where some have rationalized that all our Constitution calls for is equal opportunity (italics mine) for all, Justice Ginsburg goes beyond that to what is guaranteed both explicitly and implicitly in the document that guides our government and nation. My research therefore comes to the realization that Justice Ginsburg’s doctrine is equality for some is not to be sanctioned; equality for all must be protected and often reiterated by the highest Court in the land, given that lower courts may tend to rule otherwise.

LEGACY
Her strong views on gender discrimination, in particular, continue as she is now the only woman among eight male justices: This makes it obvious that her legacy as an advocate of women’s rights an essential allotment of the overall human rights agenda, trained on the equal dignity and ability to live in freedom all people should enjoy.

She realizes, of course, that her job of being an advocate for those discriminated against, and opponent to those individuals and organizations doing the discriminating, is far from complete. She feels, and many agree, that she has provided an activism when it comes to discrimination- gender, racist or otherwise, to unite the Court on many such issues.
Forbes Magazine, in a survey of what it called the 100 most powerful women in the world, called Justice Ginsburg #7:. Their reasoning was that she spent the court’s last session entertaining the Bush administration and voting against the majority in several important cases, including Cheney v. U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, the Guantanamo-detainee case in which the court allowed the president to declare an American citizen an enemy combatant
However, the spirit of her legacy is best defined and clarified by the Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States sums up her work and her legacy this way: “Justice Ginsburg has not been in the position to mold the Court’s jurisprudence, even if it was in her nature to do so. She is one of the two most liberal justices on the Court, but not a liberal in the sense of earlier justices such as William Brennan. Although her career as a civil rights lawyer paralleled somewhat that of Thurgood Marshall, the last Democrat before her appointed to the bench, Ginsburg’s judicial philosophy does not allow her to stake out truly liberal positions on the Court, even in dissent. Although liberal by Rehnquist Court standards, she is a judicial moderate in all areas except those involving gender discrimination, which she interprets to include reproductive rights for women” (Oxford 6).

Her legacy is really more than as a staunch defender of equal rights for all, as guaranteed by our Constitution. It is her devotion to the law, righting wrongs, correcting inequities, and making decisions that have changed or at least altered the way we look at what constitutes equality, in the home, in the workplace, and under the law. Unlike some others who advocate women’s rights, she is not a shouter nor one who appears on the talk shows to vow unpopular opinions, just to get a riser out of her opponents (much like Betty Friedan, Eleanor Smeal and Gloria Steinem, among others, have done). The quietness of her reasoning on difficult equal rights cases is, surely, at the vanguard of her legacy.

CONCLUSION
My research has brought me to the personal conclusion that, of all the currently-serving Justices of the Supreme Court, Justice Ginsburg had done the most, been the most successful, created more important victories on behalf of solving problems of discrimination- whether gender, sexual orientation, racial or religious. One can readily see why her advocacy work and her five successful personal victories in Supreme Court cases and her legal fight to encourage a closer study at the constitutionality of legislation that limits the progress of men, women as individuals, rather than as a class, had made her a bi-partisan choice for the Supreme Court.

“Ruth Bader Ginsburg would have been an appropriate honored guest for the “Great Lives in the Law” series even if she had never been appointed to the Supreme Court, Dean Katharine Bartlett observed in welcoming the Justice to the Law School on January 31. Bartlett cited the key role Justice Ginsburg played in shaping the law of sex discrimination, as an equal rights scholar and advocate, arguing-and winning-pivotal cases before the Court in the 1970s” (Bartlett 1). In an interview with Professor Walter Dellinger, former Solicitor-General of the US, Justice Ginsburg was quoted as saying: “”Every constitution written since the end of World War II includes a provision that men and women are citizens of equal stature. Ours does not. I have three granddaughters. I’d like them to be able to take out their Constitution and say ‘here is a basic premise of our system, that men and women are persons of equal citizenship stature.’ But it’s not in there. We just have the equal protection clause, which everyone knows was not meant in the 1860s to change anything with regard to women’s status. Women didn’t get to vote until 1920″ Dellinger 2)

She continues to be an indefatigable advocate for equal rights. It is worth ending this series of essays with her quote in the Duke Law interview with Prof. Dellinger: “Asked by a student about what she has found most personally satisfying, Justice Ginsburg responded that as a jurist and advocate “it’s the satisfaction you get when you are genuinely able to persuade other minds.” She went on to relate her delight in finding out, through the papers of the slow Justice Harry Blackmum, that a case she argued before the Court had been a ‘real cliffhanger,’ with an initial vote of five-four against her position, but ending up ‘five-four my procedure, with two flip-flops along the way.’ Justice Ginsburg advised lawyers at the nascent stages of their careers to do something other than the work they are paid for. Whatever community organization, whether it’s a women’s organization, or fighting for racial justice … you will get satisfaction out of doing something to give back to the community that you never get in any other way.” (Dellinger 6).

WORKS CITED:

Dellinger, Prof. Walter: “Great Lives in the Law: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A “Lady” Who Led the Fight for Gender Equity” Duke University School of Law, Jan. 11, 2006 DukeLaw.com

Ginsburg, Justice Ruth Bader: Excerpted from “Nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States,” Hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 103rd Congress, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1994, pp. 53-56.

Lerner, Max: America as a Civilization New York: Simon & Schuster (1957)

Nagel, Robert F.: “Well, the justices being lawyers, think like them” Novel York: National Review, Nov 21, 2005. Vol. 57, Iss. 21

O’Brien, Donald M. Constitutional Law and Politics, Volume Two: Civil Rights and Civil Liberties New York: W.W. Norton & Co. (2005)

Schwartz, Herman (ed.) The Rehnquist Court: Judicial Activism on the Right Novel York: Hill & Wang (2002)

Starr, Kenneth W.: First Among Equals- The Supreme Court in American Life New York: Warner Books (2002)

Tushnet,. Mark: A Court Divided Unique York: W.W. Norton & Co (2005)

Whittington, Keith: “The Confirmation Process We Deserve: Review of Gerhardt, Michael J: The Federal Appointments Process: A Constitutional and Historical Analysis. Duke University Press. (2000)

Yarbrough, Tinsley E. The Rehnquist Court and the Constitution New York: Oxford University Press (2000)

No author listed: “SEN. HATCH AND REPUBLICAN LEADERS PRE-APPROVED GINSBURG NOMINATION” NPR, June 18, 1993

No author listed: “Ruth Bader Ginsburg” Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (2006)

1- Speaking French is simple. You unprejudiced have to invent the people understand you.

Most of people think French is a very hard language to learn, due to its complex tense and conjugation. It’s factual that the composition and pronunciation of each French verb could vary under different circumstances.

However, according to the French speakers, 80% of their daily conversation only happens in two tenses: Faded compose (compound past) and Indicatif Prove (indicative present). So as soon as you have learned these two tenses, you should be confident enough to express yourself in French.

You might be shy to open you mouth, because you worry you might produce some mistakes in French. However, REMEMBER that: language is just a tool for communication. As long as you can use it to communicate effectively with the people, you don’t have to difficulty too much about your grammar or pronunciation. Sometimes you can even use some body language and gestures to help the French-speaking people understand you better. It’s kind of fun to use a new language to communicate with others.

2- Create your French blog and update your blog every day.

As soon as you start to learn French, you should create your own French blog. As we know, in order to pronounce a foreign language well, we should also practice our brain to think in this language. Writing a French blog is exactly an effective contrivance to practice your brain to think in French.

And you can invite your French teachers, your French-learning buddy and some French-speaking friends to visit your blog. They might make some French comments on your blog and legal some grammar mistakes you create in your blog.

When you write your blog, you can spend the online dictionary to help you quickly find the vocabulary or grammar instruction you need, instead of turning the pages of dilapidated brick dictionary. The online dictionary can save your time and allows you to focus more on expressing your ideas.

3- Create a French immersion environment by yourself.

Don’t forget that our young children never try hard to learn any language. They learn the languages just because they are surrounded by these languages every day, no matter when they are playing, eating or sleeping. Obviously, in order to learn French, we should execute a French immersion environment for aspiring our eyes, ears and brain.

Each French learner must have some French cassettes at home. So please press the PLAY button of your cassette player as soon as you wake up in the morning. No matter while you are brushing your teeth or you are enjoying your breakfast, leave the French voice on, let your ears immerse into the French world since the moment you open your eyes.

If you love to listen to your iPod on the way to work, you might upload some French songs or French news into your iPod; if you use a computer, please consider to install your Window system in French version and read some French website online.

4- Search native French speakers to chat online.

Thanks to the advanced computer and network technology, now we have a lot of accesses to chat with people around world, while we are sitting comfortably at home. Skype is a free online chatting software. You just have to download it and install it on your computer. They offer a search engine which allows you to search for some native French speaker to chat with you. With your earphone and microphone, you can even make audio chat with the French speakers. Chatting with native French speaker is best scheme to improve your French vocabulary and pronunciation.

5- Keep contact with all the people who can communicate with you in French, even if they are not native French speakers.

As we mentioned above, you might keep contact with your French teachers, your French-learning buddy and some native French speakers. This intends to continuously stimulate your brain to communicate with the people in French. When you always write or speak to your friends in French, you would love to increase vocabulary and learn more sentence structures to express your ideas.

6- Participate in the online French translation and writing contests.

Sometimes, some websites organise some French translation and writing contests to attract more website visitors. You may participle in these contests to get more French experience. We know, at the beginning, it’s difficult to win some price, but normally at the end of each contest, the translation or writing work of the winners shall be published online. Then you can compare their work to yours as to learn from the winners. And the competition of the contests might stimulate you to work even harder on French.

Any person with even an elementary understanding of history is more than gracious of seeing through the sarcasm of this fairytale. To suggest that such a fable provides a just and correct account would invoke laughter and scorn from most. Despite this knowledge, there are aloof many who have succumbed to a fairytale of their own. They own that the New World was a land of freedom, opportunity, and wealth for European immigrants, who were blessed by the watchful hand of Providence. While their assertion is partially true, its bias is determined. Such a perspective fails to recognize what the Original World meant to the thousands of Africans, who instead of freedom, found themselves in chains in the New World. It also negates the opinions of millions of Natives, who had called this “Fresh World” home for centuries. Such a simple perspective also denies us the opportunity of understanding the numerous nations, cultures, religions, social classes and motivations of Europe, which all contributed to American colonization. In essence, the colonization of America was not a simple affair, but a complex series of events that changed the world forever. By studying the various European motivations for colonization, and how these motivations impacted both the Native Americans and the Africans, we can better understand the true nature of American colonization, and the impact it left on the world.

For years, the history of American colonization has been wrapped up in a counterfeit blanket of ignorance. This blanket has provided a warped sense of warmth and comfort, which has given many a cheerful but misled understanding of the past. Though the established myths of popular culture provide an uplifting account of American colonization, they neglect essential truths that help allotment the puzzle together. For example, to suggest that American colonization was a loving endeavor, brought to pass by God himself, is hard to prove conclusively when we take into account the actual motivations for colonization. From the English perspective, the elder Richard Hakluyt made it clear that the main motivations for colonization were, “To plant Christian religion, To trafficke, To conquer” (Mancall, 39). These three clear motivations inspired a wide range of settlers, all of whom were driven by different motivations.

There is no doubt that the establishment of Christianity was a strong motivation for American colonization. From the very beginning, many explorers were driven by religious convictions, which propelled them into the unknown. Alan Taylor, author of the book American Colonies: The Settlement of North America, claims that Columbus desired to convert those he encountered to Christianity and, “to recruit their bodies and their wealth to assist Europeans in a final crusade to crush Islam and reclaim Jerusalem. Such a victory would then invite Christ’s return to earth” (33). The Franciscan Friars of Spain were also motivated to migrate to America, in an effort to convert the Pueblo Indians. Upon their arrival, the Friars committed themselves to eradicating faded Indian traditions. They raided homes, confiscated ceremonial emblems, destroyed idols, and defiled native gods (Benjamin, 89). The Friars also sought to undermine the family traditions of the Pueblo Indians, by indoctrinating their youth, restricting their sexual activities, and emasculating the men (Benjamin, 92-93).

The Spanish were not the only European nation that sought for Indian conversion. The French Jesuits were also ambitiously active in converting Indians to their tag of Catholicism. With a full realization that the Protestant movement had arrived in the Fresh World, the Jesuits became ambitious missionaries. They hoped that by converting the Indians to Catholicism, the French would be able to make them more reliable allies (Taylor, 107). In many cases, the Jesuits were able to assert themselves as equally powerful with the tribal shamans. By using Catholic rituals, the Jesuits endeavored to call down the powers of heaven. As Alan Taylor puts it, “the Jesuit priests believed that their rituals…could induce God to provide immediate relief: needed rain, abundant game, or the destruction of a crop pest” (110). By establishing their “magical” abilities among the tribes, many French Jesuits gained substantial influence over the Native Americans.

With the Spanish and French pressing their Catholic agendas on the natives of the New World, England quickly realized that they too needed to get involved. For the English, the establishment of Christianity in the New World seems somewhat contradictory. In his list of goods and services needed to successfully keep a colony, the elder Richard Hakluyt makes no mention of missionaries, bibles, or any other service that would have been significant in establishing Christianity in the New World (Mancall, 41-44). The Younger Richard Hakluyt only mentions transporting missionaries and bibles at the end of his list, as almost a side notice (Mancall, 59). The majority of emphasis, when it came to provisions for colonization, was clearly placed on food commodities and defense.

This evidence however, is not indicative of a lack of interest in the expansion of Christianity in the New World. Through the efforts of King Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth I, England had broken its allegiance to the Roman Catholic church and embraced the new movement of Protestantism. This current Christian movement dramatically changed many relationships in Europe. Spain and France, who were already heavily involved in colonization, clearly supported Catholicism, and had already begun its preaching in the Current World. For England, this posed a serious threat that had to be put in check. As Karen Kupperman states in her book Roanoke, The Abandoned Colony:

“We should not underestimate the emotional force of this confrontation between Christians, which has been compared to the Cold War of the twentieth century. Each side believed the other was absolved by its religion of all normal moral and ethical behavior in dealing with the enemy, and capable of the most obnoxious plots” (4).

To the English, there was nothing worse than confronting the possibility of a New World ruled under the banner of the Pope.

Arguably the most famous immigration to the New World for religious purposes is the Puritans. During the early years of the 17^th century, the Puritans suffered from religious persecution in their home country. Under the reign of King Charles I, who tried to reconcile England with the Catholic Church (Taylor, 164), Puritans found themselves searching for a safe haven. America, being a complete ocean away, must have seemed like a reasonable option. In an effort to convince other Puritan faithful that America could be their sanctuary, John Winthrop wrote, “who knows but that god hath provided this place to be a refuge for many whom he meanes to establish out of the generall callamitie, and seeinge the Church hath no dwelling lefte to flie into but the wildernesse…” (Mancall, 135). After much deliberation, 102 brave Puritans boarded the now infamous Mayflower, and set skim to seek their asylum. As Nathaniel Philbrick, author of the book Mayflower states, “It was a stunningly audacious proposition. With the exception of Jamestown, all other attempts to establish a permanent English settlement in North America had so far failed. And Jamestown, founded in 1607, could hardly be counted a success” (5). It would be foolish for anyone to question the religious convictions of these Puritans. They left their homes, braved the seas, endured harsh winters, suffered sicknesses, and labored endlessly to create their Utopia. Despite their hardships and shortcomings, this group of immigrants established a successful colony, and their legacy is revered even to this day.

There is no doubt that religion played a vital role in American colonization. As important as religious fervor was, it was not the exclusive motivation for settling the New World. The drive to save trade with the Indians, and to conquer new lands, was impartial as significant as the drive to spread Christianity. Contrary to popular opinion, European colonization was not an explosive and daring operation. Instead of seeking to further humanity’s knowledge of the unknown world, many explorers hoped to find lands and cultures that could be exploited for profit. As Alan Taylor states, “the adventurers did not pursue exploration for pure love of geographic knowledge…They proceeded incrementally…seeking the sources of known commodities” (29). Instead of being a benevolent voyage to chart the unknown, most European exploration was empowered “to exploit opportunity for immediate profits” (Benjamin, 24).

The conquest of the Aztecs by Hernando Cortes is a prime example of the profit-hungry intentions, which many explorers exhibited. Like many other conquistadores, Cortes came from the Spanish gentry. To turn a profit, men like Cortes depended on their ability to plunder, conquer, and enforce their will on others. Alan Taylor sums up the life of a conquistador perfectly when he writes, “Greed was the prerequisite for pursuing the hard life of a conquistador” (58). Upon discovering the riches of the Aztecs, Cortes held to the Spanish law of conquest, which demanded that all Indians were required to submit to Spanish rule, or receive the punishments of a “just war” (Taylor, 58). By gaining the allegiance of neighboring tribes, who detested the Aztecs, Cotes was able to conquer a literal treasure of wealth for himself and his nation.

The conquests of the Spanish in the New World provided an incredible amount of wealth for the home world. Between 1500 and 1650, Spanish settlers shipped home 181 tons of gold, and 16,000 tons of silver (Taylor, 63). With such a bountiful supply of riches, the Spanish government moved to monopolize on the market. They made it illegal for all foreigners to trade directly with the colonies, which forced them do deal directly with Spain (Benjamin 135). Such a policy protected Spain from losing this very lucrative market.

Spain was not the only European nation to seek economic gain in the New World. England quickly caught the fever of colonization, believing that the New World was an undiscovered Utopia, overflowing with untapped potential. In their planning, Europeans perceived the New World to be a bountiful paradise, which “bringeth forth all things in abundance, as in the first creation, without toil or labor” (Kupperman, 17). This Eden-like New World must have appealed to the hopes and imaginations of many English, especially considering all the poverty, disease and warfare that had plagued Europe over the years. There is small doubt that such hopes and dreams grew into unrealistic fantasies for many who longed for a better world. Speaking from his perspective, nevertheless lacking a elephantine understanding of global weather patterns, the elder Richard Hakluyt made the following assumption of what settlers could examine in the new world:

This land that we purpose to direct our course to, lying in part in the 40 degree of latitude, being in like heat as Lisbone in Portugall doth, and in the more Southerly part as the most Southerly coast of Spaine doth, may by our diligence yeeld unto us besides Wines and Oiles and Sugars, Orenges, Limons, Figs, Resings, Almonds, Rice…” (Mancall, 38)

Returning from his original explorations to the New World, Sir Richard Grenville stated that “we have discovered the main to be the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven” (Kupperman, 34-35). With such a Utopia awaiting them, Englishmen began gathering and making preparations for a stride that would ultimately make England even mightier than it already was. All of these men, “had an image of England’s future greatness and the exhilarating feeling that they were the people who would do it near true” (Kupperman, 30). From the English perspective, there was a clear expectation of a bountiful, fertile, and relatively easy to maintain oasis that awaited them, and that England would become even greater because of it.

All of these diverse motivations for colonizing the Modern World inevitably created a tremendous amount of tension between the rival European powers. Not only were these countries competing to control a distant continent, they were also sweltering in the heat of previous hostilities in their homelands. Many of these European nations had been at war for centuries, and their competition to control the New World became a new chapter in the hatred they shared for one another. For the countless number of French and English colonists who took the slither to the Current World, colonial life would design many of the same struggles they had left behind in the homeland. Old hostilities between rival nations came to the surface in America, as European wars raged back home. With the outbreak of King William’s War in 1689, the American colonies “began a cycle of imperial wars…that would be waged on American soil up through the American Revolution” (Haefeli, 28). Hostilities between England and France would continue for nearly a century, as both nations took to arms in both Europe and America.

Hostilities would rage in the colonies until 1761, when the Seven Years War finally settled the English/French feud in America. Like other wars, the Seven Years War irrupted over land rights. The English, determined to oust the French from the Ohio territories, sent a regiment of troops to evict the French trespassers (Taylor, 428). The English sent their prominent but unprepared General Braddock to America, to crush the French and take the land by force. Braddock’s plan was sound by European standards, but ineffective on the American frontier. As stated in Fred Anderson’s book Crucible of War, Braddock’s knowledge of the terrain was severely limited, due to the poor intelligence he had on the area (87-89). After seven years of bloody conflict, both the French and English agreed to peace. In the Treaty of Paris, France was required to give up its lands in North America. Even though the French lost their lands in North America, they were able to keep many of their most coveted colonies in the Indies. Despite this consolation, it is clear that “the Peace of Paris was a phenomenal diplomatic coup for Britain” (Anderson, 506).

Despite the multitude of afflictions suffered by the various European colonists, there is another group that suffered far more than England, Spain, and France combined: the Native Americans. It is often easy to forget the role that Native Americans played in American colonization. After all, history in modern America is often taught from an Anglo perspective. For the various tribes of the “New World,” the history of American colonization is a sunless tale of disease, deceit, and dependency. These tribes had developed unique cultures, religions, and beliefs, which took centuries to establish. In just a few years time, much of the Native American way of life would be lost forever.

The arrival of European explorers, onboard their massive wooden ships with large white sails, must have been a dramatic event for Native Americans. Some cultures may have even considered these European visitors as divine. When Cortes arrived at Tenochtilan, many accounts claim that Moctezuma considered him to be the returning god Quetzaquatl (Taylor, 53). Unfortunately for many natives, these alleged beliefs that Europeans were divine were quickly destroyed. Men like Cortes and others took advantage of their newfound fame, and quickly exploited it to their advantage. Columbus alluded to the true intentions of Europeans when he stated, “when they [the natives] have got rid of the cruel habits to which they have become accustomed, [they] will be better than any other kind of slave” (Benjamin, 43). In these native populations, most Europeans saw nothing more than an abundant work force. Rarely did they believe the religious or cultural beliefs of the “savages.”

To compound the problem even more for the natives was an invisible invasion that caused more horror than any conquistador was capable of. Foreign diseases and pathogens, which Europeans had adapted to and were able to overcome, killed about half the natives within the first decade of contact (Taylor, 39). It was the silent colonizers of the human body that nearly crippled the Native American world. The devastation of disease was so catastrophic that “nearly everyone in a village became ill at the same time,” and, “few could care for the sick” (Taylor, 42). Without an ocean’s distance to protect the natives from smallpox, measles, diphtheria, malaria, influenza, and others diseases, the mighty Indian nations quickly fell to their slight predators. Whatever the disease was, the only thing that matters is that “there was undeniably an avalanche of disease that decimated all Native American peoples” (Benjamin, 171).

The arrival of European settlers was a landmark event for Native Americans, whose lives would never again be the same. As the boats continued to arrive, Indians were quickly driven further away from their native lands. This migration caused feuding not only with the colonists, but with rival tribes, who were faced with the same difficulties as well. These Native American tribes, once powerful and thriving nations, were slowly reduced to a state of dependency. The afflictions of disease, deceit, and dependency ravaged the Indian way of life, and ushered in a new era known as colonial America.

Paralleling the conquest of the Native American tribes was the African migration to the New World as slave labor. Having lost a much number of native slaves to disease, European settlers turned elsewhere to fill the void, and Africa was a logical choice. Africans had already been exposed to the idea of slavery long before colonization of the New World. As Taylor points out, “West African societies had long enslaved war captives and convicted criminals for sale to Arab traders…” (31). For the most part, Africans had a stronger immunity to European diseases than did Native Americans. After losing so many Indians to disease, there is little doubt that colonizers viewed blacks as valuable “commodities” for that very reason.

Securing the human “property” was an entirely different matter, which caused Europeans a great deal of trouble. Most colonists were content to follow a system of raiding and plunder that had worked in the past (Benjamin, 24). Once in control of the plundered land, many colonizers converted the natives into slaves. Having achieved success in the past with this system, European colonizers saw no reason why they would have a different result in Africa. Africa however, would prove to be much different. Having established their presence, African peoples along the west coast of their continent proved to be a formidable opponent to the Europeans. John Thornton points out that “West Africans had well-developed specialized maritime culture that was fully gracious of protecting its own waters” (Benjamin, 26). Unable to conquer the Africans in the west, and in desperate need of slave labor, “the Europeans had to abandon the time-honored tradition of trading and raiding and substitute a relationship based more or less on still regulated trade” (Benjamin, 27). As a result, the African elites were more than willing to trade slaves with European colonizers, just as they had been doing with Arab nations. Hugh Thomas states that, “The large labor force would not have been available to the Europeans in the Americas without the cooperation of African kings, merchants, and noblemen” (Benjamin, 146). With a new slave force, both European colonizers and African slave traders stood to make a fortune in the revenue created by the hands of Negroes.

The story of colonial America is a complicated collection of various nations, events and motivations, which created a dynamic world full of conflict. Contrary to the beliefs of many Americans today, the settlement of the Fresh World was not as cut and dry as we wish it to be. For those who maintain that American colonization was an honorable, benevolent, and glorious event that promotes a sense of patriotism, the facts suggest that they are lying to themselves. Pointing out such truths is neither blasphemous nor un-American. It is simply the way things were. The different motivations that Europeans had for colonizing the New World directly impacted the lives of millions of Native Americans, who had considered this land their home for centuries. These motivations also impacted the lives of thousands of Africans, who were subjugated to the evils of slavery. It is unfortunate that many people are unwilling to embrace these truths, since they have some valuable lessons to teach. One wonders if history would have been different had the American settlers learned this valuable lesson as well.

Bibliography

Anderson, Fred. Crucible of War: The Seven Years War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766. New York: Random House Inc., 2000.

Benjamin, Thomas, Hall, Timothy, and Rutherford, David, eds. The Atlantic World in the Age of Empire. Original York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2001.

Haefeli, Evan and Sweeney, Kevin. Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield. University of Massachusetts Press, 2003.

Kupperman, Karen. Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1984.

Mancall, Peter, ed. Envisioning America: English Plans for the Colonization of North America. Boston: Bedford Books, 1995.

Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.

Taylor, Alan. American Colonies: The Settling of North America. New York: Penguin Books, 2001.

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To invest in any collection takes research and patience. But consider if you retract wisely and hold for the long term, your returns could be quite famous. Here are some basic rules for investing in any collectible.

1. Always buy from a reputable source. A private party might be selling, but you better be sure to check out their credentials. Many collectible items have papers of authenticity, and you should ask to watch them before purchasing. If there is any doubt, such as whether a painting was done by a certain artist, don’t be afraid to hire a professional to discern its authenticity. Collectible books, for example, should be looked over by an experienced bookseller. You might pay money for these services, but it would be better than buying worthless items.

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Every once in a while, you will run across an article on collectibles advising you to buy “collectibles” you really like, so you can at least enjoy it if the value of it drops Ridiculous. You are not investing to play games. Your goal is to buy something that you can sell in a decade or so for double the money or more. Therefore, this is not time to gamble by purchasing antiques or knick-knack items that some salesperson calls a collectible. This is the time you spend money on those items that traditionally have fetched a high auction value. Otherwise, you are throwing your retirement into the hands of chance.
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