This sums up everything that’s wrong with my Facebook feed today. Love him or hate him, I’m just tired of having my news feed clogged with stuff about Trump.
The Real Problem With Port Security
There is a very disturbing, yet very accurate piece in the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page this morning about Port Security. The article is titled On the Waterfront — Still after the 1950’s Marlon Brando movie which tells a story about corrupt union activity on the docks.
Now I am on and off various terminals here in the Southeast every day as I have been for over 10 years. My maritime related background goes back nearly 20 years. And the WSJ has hit a nerve. Go ahead and read the article if you want a better understanding of one of the biggest reasons our ports security is still so very lax.
It has been common knowledge that there are some very unsavory folks with felonious records filling out the Longshoremen ranks. Don’t get me wrong, there are a great many Longshore union members who are hard working, above board, contentious, ethical patriots. (Yes some of them actually do work hard.)
Over the years I’ve heard tons of stories about stabbings, shootings perpetrated by the labor force both on the docks and out in town. The most memorable was the story about the longshoremen who supposedly carried a duffel bag on the job that he wouldn’t let anyone look in. Finally it turned out that he’d been carrying around his ex-wife’s head in the bag for days. Don’t know if it was true or not, but at least that story ended with the guy getting escorted off the port by the police. And I could see it happening.
Some operations I’ve seen were notorious for their pilferage, which is a fancy word for stealing. Usually is it is rationalized with the phrase, “Well, everyone is doing it.” No everyone isn’t.
And it is not unusual for a regular worker to disappear for several months, or maybe a few years while he takes a break at the county or state facilities because of drugs, or an assault, or robbery, or shooting (whatever) only to be right back on the docks when he’s served his time.
Now some will argue that a man shouldn’t be double punished by losing his livelihood just because he made a mistake. I am not unsympathetic to their point. However when it comes to security, past behavior is a pretty strong indicator of future risk. And I’m not so sure the WSJ gets the risk exactly right. I don’t think that even a felonious Longshoreman would knowingly agree to turn a blind eye to a cargo of plutonium. However I could see one taking a cash payment to “not ask any questions” about the particular cargo being smuggled in and do it unknowingly as a result.
The WSJ article points to a huge problem with the security of our ports: the power of the unions. The unions are actively lobbying against common sense security measures because they know it would create problems for large portions of their membership keeping their jobs. These felonious members pay their union dues compliantly and therefore their union bosses lobby hard and effectively to protect their jobs.
It is unconscionable that, more than 5 years after 9-11 we still do not have a national transit worker ID card. The government truly has no idea who is really working at our ports. For all we know, someone on the terrorist watch list may be at one of our ports today. And the only reason we don’t have an ID card system in place is because the unions don’t want the government doing background checks on their membership and bringing to light how large a percentage of their membership, the people actually present in the daily handling of our nation’s cargo, are actually convicted felons.
Instead we have a bizarre system where every individual terminal is responsible for creating their own security system. Some terminals have decent security. But more often it is a joke with the protection of our country being assigned to a $7 an hour “security guard” who often times is either too old, or too obese to actually offer any protection more strenuous than writing a name on a list of paper.
As a result of the current non-system, those of us who routinely go to multiple terminals (and I can think of 11 different terminals off the top of my head on the Savannah River alone) are forced to carry a stack of different ID cards for each of the different terminals. And the problem is even worse for the truck drivers who haul the containers around the country. For them, it’s like shuffling through a deck of cards in their truck to find the right ID each time they pull a container up to a different terminal.
Meanwhile the politicians keep passing bills with fancy sounding names to pacify the uninformed public into believing that port security is actually being improved. It sounds like they are actually doing something to help keep our nation safe. But really they are trying to convince us that naked emperor is really wearing beautiful clothes while they handicap the very folks they are bringing into the Department of Homeland Security to protect us by caving to the pressure of the unions.
Unfortunately, absent of any political leadership with the fortitude to stand up to the unions on this issue, it is going to take a 9-11 level event at our ports to shake our government into any action to seriously protect our ports.
And when the big one finally happens they will respond in their typical close-the-barn-door-behind-the-horse fashion by shutting down all port activity for days while they scramble to figure out what to do. If you think there was a recession and it was hard on our economy after 9-11 when passenger airline traffic was halted for a few days I have something to tell you.
You ain’t seen nothing yet.
Update: Michelle Malkin also notes the problem of Felons in Our Ports and how the problem is damaging to Homeland Security.
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A Jesus Follower Encounters a Pro-Abortion Feminist
I had an interesting conversation with a feminist abortion advocate last night.
The thing that impressed me about her pro-abortion post that I landed on was that she expressed her views and opinions without all the rage and emotion that I’ve grown to expect when folks talk about the subject. I wasn’t going to leave a comment because I figured she didn’t really want to hear an opposing view and I wasn’t interested in a debate on the subject. But for some reason I decided to comment anyway and I tried to gently point out one aspect of her position that she might give more consideration.
She came back with a reasoned response that made it clear that she did give my idea genuine thought after she expressed a little surprise that someone of my persuasion didn’t simply just attempt tear her to shreds.
Normally when I have a noteworthy blog encounter I put up a link to the other person’s blog, even when we disagree. However in this case I don’t think she’d much appreciate me sending over a bunch of my pro-life friends. So you’ll have to forgive me for not posting a link to our conversation.
What’s my point?
My point is that even in a supremely emotionally charged issue such as abortion it is possible for folks with radically differing views to have a dialogue without attacking each other personally and the conversation devolving into rage.
Too often we seem to insist on proving that we are right and that those with differing views are wrong. We don’t respect other people enough to simply present information and give them the dignity to come to their own conclusions.
Where did we get that approach from?
I don’t see Jesus attacking people personally like we tend to. Sure there were some groups that he didn’t have very flattering things to say about. But even when they came at him trying to lay word traps for him he never directly attacked the person who attempted the trap. Instead he confronted some of their ideas and beliefs.
That’s a huge difference.
We would do much better if we listened to the words of Proverbs and put them into practice.
- A gentle answer turns away wrath, but harsh words stir up anger.
- The wise person makes learning a joy; fools spout only foolishness.
- The LORD is watching everywhere, keeping his eye on both the evil and the good.
- Gentle words bring life and health; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.
Too often instead, in our need to be right, we end up screaming in someone’s face like the picture above. It’s not working for us. Maybe then we should change our approach.
Declaration of Independence:
Great Men with Great Ideals
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
These are the words that close out the Declaration of Independence. The men who signed the document that paved the way for our nation knew the possible consequences of their actions.
John Hancock encouraged his fellow delegates to hang together in their task of signing. To which the Benjamin Franklin, in all his wit and wisdom gave his famous reply, “We must all hang together, or we will most assuredly hang separately.”
Years later Benjamin Rush remembered how incredibly serious the moment was, as well as the gallows humor these great men expressed in a letter to John Adams.
Do you recollect the pensive and awful silence which pervaded the house when we were called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress to subscribe what was believed by many at the time to be our death warrants? The silence and the gloom of the morning were interrupted, I well recollect, only for a moment by Colonel Harrison of Virginia, who said to Mr. Gerry at the table; “I shall have a great advantage over you, Mr. Gerry, when we are all hung for what we are now doing. From the size and weight of my body I shall die in a few minutes, but from the lightness of your body you will dance in the air for an hour or two before you are dead.” This speech produced a transient smile, but was soon succeeded by the solemnity with which the whole business was concluded.
There is some debate as to how much the signers actually suffered during the war with the British that resulted from their signing. There is no doubt, however that several of the men did endure hardships because of their convictions.
John Adams had a firm belief in the rightness of the cause and its ultimate victory. He also had an incredibly clear vision of the importance of the day. The very next day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted he wrote his wife and told her about the future of the day.
I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.
The bottom line is that the course of events was far from certain on that hot July day in Philadelphia. Yet these great men went forward anyway with the force of their convictions in spite of the risks.
And in what was perhaps one of the greatest coincidences of history on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, both Thomas Jefferson (its author) and John Adams (arguably its leading advocate) died on the same day. Adams was 91 when he died that evening. His last words were, “Jefferson still survives.” He was unaware that Jefferson himself was gravely ill and had passed away earlier that afternoon at 83 years old.
There is definitely a Divine Symmetry to the events surrounding this historic document. Folks can argue the place of the US in modern history and the pros and cons of current foreign policy. But few would dispute the revolutionary ideals put forth in the Declaration of Independence or the passion and determination of the men who signed that amazing document.
Enjoy today. Celebrate in the manner Adams envisioned. Honor those who sacrificed and went before.
For a short summary of the signers, what kind of people they were and what happened to them check out this article. And you can find short biographies of each of the signers here.
Avoiding Politics
The Slacker Manager has some good advice about avoiding office politics today. His condensed short version is “my plan basically boils down to being consistently authentic.â€
I’ve got to say I pretty much agree with what he has to say on that score. I’ve never really been one much to bother with the whole office politics thing myself.
Which I suppose could be a little weird considering that I have been known to be a bit opinionated on the whole politics front. But having weighty discussions about who might be best to lead our country is really not the same thing, is it? Besides, I’m even throttling back on my political interests these days.
For me the whole national politics thing grew out of a need I had to be “right†and to “win†the debate. I guess you could say I’m changing on that score. I’m less concerned with being right than I am with getting to know folks anymore. I guess I am growing more interested in what other people have to say and less worried about making myself heard.
But as far as the whole office politics thing goes, I never really got sucked into that whole scene although I do know how to windge when I see the corporate office making decisions that seem out of touch with the field.
My approach to the whole office politics thing is similar in that I use what I call the Popeye approach to life. You know, “I am what I am and that’s all that I am and I ain’t no more!†(Sometimes it helps if you follow up the statement with a hearty “Ya-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-kah.â€)
The Popeye approach has worked for me as a leadership principle too. Although it has created some conflict with from time to time with folks above me who wanted me to keep distant and maintain the dignity of my office, blah, blah, blah. I just take my beating from those kinds of bosses and keep on being me.
Like the Genie told Aladdin, “Beeee yourself.†It’s good advice. And not just where politics are concerned.
Enjoy!
Friday Free-For-All Manufacturing the News
Bruce Thornton wrote a good piece yesterday on Victor David Hanson’s web site called Sobriety Lost: How our newspapers create opinion and then report it.
In it he starts with an analogy.
Imagine that you started receiving letters in the mail accusing your neighbor of being a child molester. Occasionally you receive photographs or even a video showing the neighbor with a child on his lap or dressed up like a clown at a children’s party. After a couple of weeks of this, someone then phones you to ask if you think your neighbor is a pedophile. What percentage of us do you think would say yes?
His view is that this is exactly how the major news organizations manufacture news again and again. His point is not so much that the news outlets make up facts to report (although sometimes they do resort to that) but rather that they latch onto facts that support an opinion that they agree on and report them over and over.
Then, after people have been bombarded with these facts for a while, they take a poll, the results of which become the BIG STORY. Then they yell, “See, See, even the people agree with us!”
Because the news media so rarely explores the facts behind the events that make up the reported news, he proposes that they effectively manufacture the news.
It sounds like a twist on that quote that is usually attributed to Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels. Only today’s version is, if you repeat an opinion loud enough and often enough people will believe it is fact.
I think he makes an interesting point. But that’s just my opinion.
