OFF THE WIRE
The culture war that’s boiled in America
the last three weeks, on top of the simmering Covid plague, might be
the end of the United States. It is almost certainly the end of the
America that was. It might also mark the beginning of an American
renaissance.
Among the radical ideas that are certain
to offend a plurality of us, like the desecration of monuments
portraying long dead and frequently romanticized Confederates, the
beheadings of statues of Christopher Columbus and undiminished hatred
toward a symbol the Confederacy called “The Blood-Stained Banner” there
is one small, radical idea that almost everyone should endorse.
Can’t Go For That
I understand those bad ideas. I don’t agree with them but I can see where they came from. You can too.
Most of the monuments to Confederate
heroes were erected well after the war. They were intended to be a
tribute to a dying generation from a younger one. But in most academic
conversations they are interpreted as excuses for the inexcusable – as a
way to “rewrite History,” as if there aren’t already dozens of
histories that get rewritten every day.
I personally dread the decades when they
will come for the monuments to men who fought in Vietnam. It has
already happened and it will happen again. Where is the America in that?
What is the America in that?
I understand why black Americans are
offended by the Confederate flag. It is often displayed to symbolize the
sentiment,”Fuck you. We white. You ain’t.” But that is hardly all it
means. It is also symbolizes a military tradition.
A disproportionate number of the men who
fought in Vietnam, for example, were what the Army and the Marine Corps
called “MAGS,’ which was shorthand for Mississippi, Alabama and
Georgia. While lesser men, particularly from the north, were pretending
to have bone spurs, or one leg slightly shorter than the other or to be
homosexual in order to avoid service in that last terrible war, the MAGs
practically never dodged the draft and often enlisted. For them the now
hated Confederate flag symbolized an honor bound, warrior culture that
wasn’t afraid to fight a lost cause.
One hardly knows what to say about the
vilification of Columbus. Any historian should know that Europe was
literally running out of trees and running out of fish in 1492. The
“discovery” of America was also the discovery of the Grand Banks and, as
Longfellow put it, ”the forest primeval.” Yes, everybody understands,
80 percent or more of native Americans died. But Columbus did not kill
them. Feral pigs, Small Pox and Influenza did.
Vote For This
But there is, I think, at least one idea
rising out of this quasi revolution that I sincerely endorse and I
think you should too: The so-called “Defunding the Police.” Parts of
that “Defunding,” are certain to fail: Like taking power back from the
police unions, reducing the proliferation of Bearcats and machine guns,
and at least accounting for Swat raids.Those reforms will be
propagandized by all sides. Be prepared. A year from now a Texas Ranger
will openly weep before Congress.
Nevertheless, there is one, small improvement we can make to America
on which we all should be able to agree and we can do it next week. We
can end traffic stops. Say it loud and say it proud. End traffic stops!
Traffic stops, everyone knows or should
know, epitomize what is wrong with American policing. When they aren’t
aimed at hurried mommies doing rolling stops on the way to school they
are used as a pretext to hang a gun or drug charge on otherwise innocent
outlaw bikers, hoodrats and whoever else the police think is an
“objective enemy of the state.”
Enemies Of The State
The political philosopher Hannah Arendt
coined the term “objective enemy.’ It describes a condition one step
short of criminality. It describes people who the police assume are
criminals because they belong to some other identifiable category:
Because they happen to belong to or associate with a motorcycle club, or
they are black, or they self-identify as a neo-nazi, or they are on
their way home from a mosque or a Jewish Shabbat.
I am astounded to discover that I am more in sympathy with Black Lives Matter than I ever would have thought.
I think that starting immediately all
traffic stops except when necessary to prevent a clear and imminent
danger to the public (like reckless driving) should be ended. Just no
more traffic stops.
All traffic violations should be
recorded and reported by unarmed meter maids with video cameras. If a
mommy does a rolling stop mail her her ticket and include a link to the
video where she can see the evidence. No more stopping rappers because
their cars are too nice. No more stopping bikers because their front
wheels touched a line. No more.
No more traffic stops ever. Period. No
more of men with guns sauntering up beside you, demanding your papers,
running your biography through the nearest fusion center, and then
demanding to know why you will not acquiesce to a warrantless search.
Search why? Because some cop thinks he
smells something? Or because, “based on his training and experience,” he
knows that somebody who looks like you is, at least, a potential
criminal.
No more traffic stops unless you are
doing something like fleeing from a bank robbery. Demand that. Tell the
police to stop fishing for offenses. No more traffic stops.
If America can accomplish that. then all
of this noise and chaos will have been worth it and this will be a
better country. Maybe the disintegration of America will even stop for a
week or so.
