Summer Reading List

     

Summer Reading List:

I recently came across a very pretentious recommended summer reading list of ponderous classics in the op-ed pages of the Wall St. Journal. It prompted me to recommend my own list of personal favorites. All are easy to read and not of great length, but sometimes great things come in small packages.

C.S. Lewis: Out of the Silent Planet.

Most readers are very familiar with the Narnia stories of this famous author. However, In addition to being a great scholar, Christian apologist, and author of so-called children’s stories, Lewis was also a big fan of science fiction. Out of the Silent Planet is the first in his great sci-fi trilogy. It was followed by Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength. When I was in college many years ago, I picked up this slim paperback by chance. It was a great read but also my introduction to Lewis. The sci-fi technology may be dated but his knowledge of human nature was not.

 

J.R.R. Tolkien: Tree and Leaf.

Because of film adaptations Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are even more popular than the Narnia stories of his friend, C.S. Lewis. Like Lewis, Tolkien was a great scholar and Christian apologist. Tree and Leaf contains a brilliant essay on fairy stories as well as Tolkien’s own little creation, “Leaf by Niggle.” Of all the stories I have ever read, “Leaf by Niggle” has made the greatest impression.

Eric Hoffer: The True Believer.

Eric Hoffer made his living as a longshoreman working in California seaport towns during the nineteen forties and fifties. As a result of early childhood blindness he never attended elementary school. Miraculously, he recovered his sight in his teens but too late for any formal schooling. Nevertheless, he became a voracious reader and was a constant patron at the libraries in the towns where he worked as a longshoreman. His reading combined with his life experience on the docks made him a skeptic about ideologists who were far removed from actual experience. I first came across this little wisdom-packed paperback in college. I was a history major but few historians had the political acumen of Hoffer. I still remember this one of his many aphorisms: "when your own business is not worth minding, you’ll mind someone else’s."

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Solzhenitsyn had spent years in a Soviet concentration camp (GULAG) before this little book came to light. Its publication in the West preceded all the great works that would come later and make him the greatest writer of the twentieth century. But “One Day…” introduced me to the horrors of Communism in Russia. It also marked the beginning of the end of the rotten Soviet Empire.

Maud Hart Lovelace: Emily of Deep Valley.

On one level this is a light novel for teen-age girls. On another level it provides and insight into the life of a small mid-western town that few histories can match. On a third level it explores the psychology of an individual whose life seems to be going nowhere until she finds a way to pull herself up with her own bootstraps. One Amazon reviewer put it this way.

"This book was my introduction to Maud Hart Lovelace around 20 years ago, and although I loved reading about Betsy and Tacy, Emily is the character I always identified with most. Shy, intellectual, hindered socially by her dignity and her inability to banter, yet full of fun and lightning quick in a debate, she went straight to my heart as a character I could relate to and love."

I love this book not because I have a wife, four daughters and six granddaughters but because it is a book that every man should read if he wants to learn how to be a man.

All of these books are still available on places like amazon and ebay.

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Kill the Goose

     

On April 17 I put up a post entitled "Minimum Wage Madness" that claimed  that an attempt to penalize large corporations in Connecticut which did not increase their minimum wage to $15 an hour might drive some large employers like General Electric out of Connecticut. Sure enough, headlines this week in the local newspaper, "The Connecticut Post," indicated that GE and others had warned legislators who were considering a huge increase in corporate taxes, as well as the minimum wage increase, that they might actually leave.

GE was joined by huge insurance companies headquartered in Hartford, the State’s Capitol once known as the Insurance Capitol of the country. The minimum wage proposal seems to have been put aside but in a last minute rush to deal with a huge budget shortfall, the Democrat majority in the legislature decided to go ahead and create a levy on corporations domiciled in Connecticut by about $62 million.

Inevitably, such soak the rich schemes are popular but there is a risk that people will find that they have killed the proverbial goose that laid the golden egg. One legislator claimed that GE paid no Federal or State taxes, and argued that it was only fair to make the fat cats pay.

Putting aside for the moment whether GE as a corporation pays Federal or State taxes, can anyone be so dense as not to realize the enormous amount of tax revenues that GE and other large corporations generate. GE has almost 6000 employees in Connecticut alone. All of these employees from the CEO on down pay Federal and State income taxes. All of them pay sales tax on most of what they purchase in the state. All of them pay personal property tax on their automobiles and other possessions. All of them pay real estate taxes based on the value of their homes. These real estate taxes pay for the salaries and benefit packages of local police officers, firefighters, and teachers.

The corporate headquarters of GE is in the town of Fairfield, and GE is the largest taxpayer in the town. It would be a disaster for the town if this good neighbor were to leave the state. If GE left, a huge gap in the tax rolls would have to be filled. Homeowners, rich and poor, would see an increase in their real estate taxes. Even rentals would go up as landlords factor increased property taxes into rents.

Why in this country have we come to consider corporate profits as a bad thing? Why would most college graduates today prefer to work for a non-profit entity? What is wrong with making a profit, especially when it is these profits that pay for most of the things we value.

If GE leaves Connecticut, there will be no profits to tax. If GE left the State, the results would be disastrous not so much for GE stockholders, executives and other fat cats, but mainly for the thousands of ordinary people whose incomes are dependent on GE. In his two terms Governor Malloy has not been able to attract new business to Connecticut unless he doles out huge tax subsidies and credits. Why are he and the legislature creating a huge disincentive for companies currently domiciled here to leave?

The Governor and the Democrat leadership in the legislature that waited, as always, to the last minute to patch together this so-called budget should be prepared to take the blame if their strategies backfire. At the start of his first term the Governor pushed through a huge tax increase that was supposed to solve the State’s fiscal woes. In his recent campaign he pledged no new taxes but then left it to the legislature to create a number of new ones.

Congratulations to Fairfield representative Kristin McCarthy Vahey, a Democrat from Fairfield who voted against this budget. It will be interesting to see how the party leadership treats her in the future.

 PS. On an unrelated note, June 4 is the anniversary of the famous naval battle of Midway that was one of the turning points of WW II. I posted on it last year, the seventieth anniversary. If you missed it here is a link.

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Memorial Day: U.S.S. Halibut

U.S.S. Halibut

Today in the United States of America we celebrate Memorial Day, a day devoted to honor and remember America’s veterans, especially those who gave their lives in the call of duty. 

Coincidentally, I just finished reading Admiral I. J. Galantin’s “Take Her Deep! A Submarine against Japan in World War II.” *The book is primarily an account of the exploits of U.S.S. Halibut from 1942 to the end of 1944. I was drawn to the book because Silvio Gardella, my wife’s uncle, served on the Halibut throughout those three years.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, twenty five year old Silvio decided to enlist in the Navy because he did not want to be drafted into the Army. He wound up in the submarine service because one day an officer told him and some others to “volunteer.” Silvio protested that he didn’t know how to swim, but was told that swimming would not be necessary in the submarine service.

He first served on U.S.S. Sculpin under then Captain Galantin who was making his final test run before getting his own ship. The Captain must have taken a liking to Silvio because at the completion of that training mission, he chose fireman second class Silvio and another seaman to join him on his new sub, the Halibut. Silvio was an extremely lucky man because on its next voyage, the Sculpin was lost.

There might have been times during his tour of duty that Silvio thought that his luck had run out. Admiral Galantin’s account of the Halibut’s missions off the coast of Japan shows how difficult and dangerous those missions were. Contrary to popular perceptions, the Halibut and other WWII submarines had to spend most of their time on the surface where their powerful diesel engines could attain 20 knots. But below the surface they normally could only reach two or three knots. On occasion, they could reach six knots but at that speed they would quickly drain their batteries.

To avoid detection from enemy ships and planes the Halibut would usually go at periscope depth during the day looking for Japanese shipping to destroy. But practically every night it would have to resurface to recharge its batteries. Even at night the moon could betray their location to enemy lookouts. Still, much of its hunting was done at night when its greater surface speed gave it an advantage.

These long night watches when the Halibut’s lookouts strained their eyes to detect enemy shipping and their dangerous escorts were a constant source of strain on the crew. In a very poignant passage Admiral Galantin describes how the different seamen dealt with the constant threat of danger.

Often as their eyes adjusted to the blackness, the torpedoman’s mate, machinist’s mate, or electrician’s mate—men like Perkins, Kelly, Black, Gardella—would find me already pacing the short space abaft the periscope shears. Five thousand miles from our own shores, talking in hushed voices as though the enemy coast had ears, how rewarding were the frank, midnight conferences, as the gulf between captain and crewman disappeared in the night. 

In the strange, unnatural life we led, in the tensions of submarine warfare deep within enemy waters, each man sought his private, personal assurance of safety and survival. What differing faith the voices in the night revealed. Some put their trust in materiel—in the fantastic equipment we had, or in the stoutness of our hull….

Bob Black, from Brooklyn, was certain that our fine crew, our careful training, were more than equal to every challenge.

Still others sought assurance in the negative, in damning the enemy and denying his capabilities….

Silvio Gardella, from White Plains, New York, he of a family of sixteen children, was convinced that I knew all the tricks of our trade and would certainly outwit any Jap C. O. “Skipper, a good Italian boy like me don’t have to like it, but I can take it.”

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Captain Galantin must have been moved by Silvio’s trust but he was aware of his own limitations. He concluded his nighttime reflection with these words.

I could give confidence in our ship and in each other, but my own support came from the Ninety-first Psalm….From frequent readings I knew it by heart.

I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in whom I trust. For he will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler And from the deadly pestilence He will cover thee with his pinions. And under his wings shalt thou take refuge: His truth is a shield and a buckler.

Obviously, the Halibut completed all of its missions including a final one where the ship was almost destroyed as victory in the Pacific seemed imminent. It was detected by new Japanese equipment and subjected to a massive depth charge attack that almost ripped the ship apart 400 feet below water. Miraculously, the Halibut survived although it was so damaged that it could only limp back home with the help of another sub. When it finally got back to Pearl Harbor, the damage was so great that the ship would never dive again.

The end of the Halibut was not the end for Captain Galantin who went on to a distinguished career in the Navy. But it was the end for Silvio Gardella. His tour of duty was over and he was discharged from the Navy when he returned to New York. Within days he married his sweetheart, Iole. They raised a family and he went on to be a successful businessman. But he never forgot Captain Galatin, the Halibut, and his years in the submarine service. Like many others who served with their comrades in war, it would not be far from the truth to say that those years were the best of their lives.

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Admiral Galantin's book is still available on amazon or ebay

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition

                                            

“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition” is one of the most famous lines from one of the most well known Monty Python skits. Today, it might be better to say that no one understands the Spanish Inquisition but everyone talks about it. Just in the past week I read two opinion pieces that used the Inquisition as a kind of code word for human cruelty and injustice. Earlier this year even President Obama equated the Inquisition with the atrocities perpetrated by ISIS Moslem fanatics. The President had to go back 500 years in time to find a kind of moral equivalence of what is going on today in Iraq and other Moslem countries.

It is a sad fact that once misinformation has become so ingrained in the popular imagination, it takes on the quality of myth so that even the most careful and balanced research is not able to overcome it. It’s not that the Spanish Inquisition did not happen but rather that that it has been almost totally misunderstood in both its origins and in its actual practices. 

 

I remember poring through a massive study of the Spanish Inquisition by renowned Jewish scholar Benzion Netanyahu back in 1995. If the name sounds familiar, it is because the author was the father of Bibi Netanyahu, the current prime minister of Israel. Although Benzion Netanyahu took a leading role in the founding of the State of Israeli, he will perhaps be best remembered as a great scholar. His field of study was the Spanish Inquisition and his masterpiece, The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain, revolutionized the study of the subject. ***

Few people understand that the Inquisition in Spain was not directed against Jews in Spain but against Christians. The Inquisition had no authority to persecute or even investigate the Jewish population. It was specifically chartered to deal with popular charges leveled against Christians of Jewish ancestry and their families who had converted to Christianity. These converts were known as “conversos” and there were elements in all levels of Spanish society who suspected that the conversos were not sincere Christians even if their families had converted more than a century before.

Periodically charges were made that the conversos had only converted to gain political or financial advantage. Indeed, they were often suspected of adhering to their Jewish beliefs in secret, and even working to undermine Christian society. Some regarded them as a kind of “fifth” column in the struggle against the Moslems in Granada.

It is true that many of the conversos had prospered during the century before the creation of the Spanish Inquisition. Some had risen to high places in the administrations of the various Kings of Castile. Aristocratic grandees who regarded themselves as pure-blooded Christians without any trace of Judaism in their veins were often jealous and contemptuous of these conversos in high places. Among the lower classes it didn’t help the reputation of the conversos that some of them had become tax collectors or tax farmers for the Royal government.

The one major point I recall from Netanyahu’s 1000 plus pages was that he demonstrated that the charges leveled against the conversos were wrong. He marshaled an enormous amount of evidence to show that the conversos were almost always sincere, even dedicated, converts to Christianity. Like many converts, before and after, these converts from Judaism to Christianity in medieval Spain could even be more zealous or committed than the cradle Catholics of the time.

Descendants of conversos often become theologians and clergymen. Some bishops and abbots of famed monasteries could trace their origins to converso forebears. Even Torquemada, the first head of the Inquisition in Castile and a favorite of Queen Isabella, had converso roots.

Nevertheless, in times of political turmoil, military defeat, or economic hardship the conversos were often blamed. Sometimes the charges erupted into mob violence and riots. It was to deal with these charges and riots in very difficult times, that Ferdinand and Isabella sought permission from the Pope to set up an Inquisition in Isabella’s Kingdom of Castile.

Isabella had inherited the throne under the most dangerous of circumstances. Castilian grandees or warlords disputed her right and authority. The King of Portugal put up a rival claimant to the throne and launched an invasion of Castile. Once these threats were somewhat subdued, she had to turn her attention to the constant border menace of the Moslem Kingdom of Granada.

Islam was a real threat. In 1480 an Islamic naval expedition had landed on the Adriatic coast of Italy and destroyed the city of Otranto. The invaders tortured and killed 12000 of the 22000 inhabitants of the city. Every priest was murdered and the Archbishop of Otranto was sawed in two. Those who were not killed were forced to convert or taken into slavery. In Spain there was constant border fighting and raids with the Moslem Kingdom of Granada.

It was a time of great peril from both within and without and fear led to the inevitable outcry of charges against the conversos. Isabella turned to the Church for permission to establish an Inquisition in Spain to deal with the charges directed against the conversos and unite her country in the war effort. One historian has called the Spanish Inquisition “a disciplinary body called into existence to meet a national emergency.”

The word “inquisition” has the same root as the word “inquiry.” The inquisitors were to look into the charges, call witnesses, and take testimony. In its origins the Inquisition resembles the way in which President Obama has ordered his Justice department to examine the causes of local unrest and riots in cities like Ferguson and Baltimore. An outside body is called in hopefully to fairly and impartially examine the charges and counter-charges in an emotionally charged situation.

The fact that the great, great majority of the conversos accused before the tribunal of the Inquisition were released is a testimony to Netanyahu’s thesis that they were innocent, sincere Christians and that the charges leveled against them were baseless. Since the publication of Netanyahu’s book, historians have had to alter their perspective on the Inquisition, its methods, and its results.

In many ways the Inquisition represented an enormous improvement in prevailing methods of justice throughout the European and Moslem worlds at the time.  The proceedings of the Inquisition were carried out in public and not in secrecy. Its prisons were only temporary detention centers with conditions much better than in local jails. There were no pits with giant swinging razor sharp pendulums. Torture was rarely used in contrast to the methods almost universally used in other European and Moslem countries. Even when torture was applied, there was little danger to life and limb.

Here are some quotes from a modern historian whose study followed upon Netanyahu’s groundbreaking work.

“The scenes of sadism conjured up by popular writers…have little basis in reality.”
“The tribunal had little interest in cruelty and often attempted to temper justice with mercy.”
“The proportionally small number of executions is an effective argument against the legend of a blood thirsty tribunal.”
“In reality the public execution of criminals in other countries was not very different from an auto de fe, and more frequently outdid the auto in savagery.”

Nevertheless, the Spanish Inquisition has become synonymous with barbaric cruelty and injustice. In the wars of religion that followed upon the Protestant Reformation, a “Black Legend” arose primarily in Protestant England, which found itself involved in a life and death struggle with Catholic Spain. The Black Legend has gained mythical status and is still used as a weapon to batter Spain and the Catholic Church. It was one of the factors behind the hatred engendered in modern history by the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.

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*** Netanyahu dedicated the book to his eldest son, an Israeli commando who died in the attempt to free hostages in an airplane on an airstrip at Entebbe in the 1970s.

Postscript: 

There were atrocities on both sides in the Spanish Civil War. Before anyone considers that there was a “correct” side in the conflict, they should consider the role of the Franco government during WWII.  Spain was a neutral during the war and it was almost alone in offering sanctuary to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. Moreover, it insisted that all Jews who could claim Spanish citizenship be given safe conduct back to Spain from Nazi occupied territories.  The Franco government even went so far as to offer Spanish citizenship to all Jews who could trace their ancestry back to the time of the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.