A Titanic Commemoration
By Sander A. Diamond, professor of history
On April 10, 1912, tugboats gently pushed the R.M.S. Titanic into deeper water as it began the first leg of its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City.
The Titanic was a sight to behold with its graceful lines; black hull with a graceful red trim just above the waterline and its camel-colored stacks. From bow to stern it was 882.9 feet long with four smoke stacks, one a dummy for appearance sake. From its keel to the top of the bridge, it was 104 feet or nearly seven and a half stories high and weighed 46,328 tons. It burned 600 tons of coal per day and was rumored to be unsinkable, a claim not made by the owners, banker J.P.Morgan’s White Star Line, nor the builders, Harland and Wolff of Belfast. (more…)
David vs. Goliath: Modern Israel and the Philistines 3,000 Years Later
An opinion piece by Sander A. Diamond, professor of history
The story of David slaying Goliath has echoed over the ages. David organized the ancient Israelites into an army and with amazing swiftness dealt a fatal blow to the Philistines, going on to create a dynasty that lasted four centuries. In the ages that followed, which witnessed the rise and fall of the Israelites and their progeny, he was hailed by posterity as the greatest ofIsrael’s rulers, “a man after God’s own heart.”
Modern Israeli history is also dotted with David vs. Goliath-like victories. During the War for Independence in 1948, the small Israeli army defeated well-organized Goliaths that tried to stamp out the new Jewish State. In 1956, the Israelis fought another war, with Egypt, during the Suez Crisis, siding with the British. But it was in 1967 when Israel had its greatest David-like victory. When it was over, the ancient boundaries of Israel were nearly fully restored, giving Israel control over non-Jewish populations. Today, there are 2.6 million Arabs or Palestinians on the West Bank, a handful of Druze in the Golan Heights, and 1.6 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza. As the world knows, what was considered a victory has turned into an international problem and, for the Israelis, a military challenge. (more…)
Is War with Iran Inevitable?
Oil-rich and with a population of 67 million spread over an area the size of Alaska, Iran aspires to be an atomic power and the leader of the Islamic world, a goal that Washington and Israel have promised to block, with force if necessary. Washington and Tel-Aviv have told Iran that it cannot cross two red lines. First, if Tehran closes the Straits of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil flows, we will use our military to keep the sea lanes open. The fleet is already in place. Second, if Iran fabricates an atomic bomb, we have threatened to employ “bunker busting,” deep penetration bombs to destroy its underground reactors.
While the exact timetable may still be up in the air, it has been reported that Israel is planning a spring attack, since it believes that Iran is just months away from realizing its goal. What we do know is that Israel has acquired four of the most advanced conventional submarines armed with cruise missiles from Germany and has drone aircraft the size of Boeing 737s. Israel’s prime minister has said over and over that Iran poses an “existential threat.” Steeled by a post-Holocaust mentality and an obsession for security, Tel-Aviv is not going to wait for the missiles to arrive. Israel has little faith in sanctions and far less in appeasement, believing Hitler could have been stopped at Munich in 1938 through timely action. (more…)
The Seasons of the Year in the Middle East
By Sander A. Diamond, professor of history
The seasons of the year have long been used to describe our passage through life, our alternating moods of joy and despair, and the state of affairs in which individuals, nations, and civilizations find themselves.
Somehow we often pass over summer and fall, using spring and winter as metaphors. One of Shakespeare’s most memorable lines says much about winter: “Now is the winter of our discontent.” In the Mel Brooks film and Broadway hit The Producers, “Springtime for Hitler and Germany….” said much about how the Germans applauded the arrival of the man from Austria.
Whoever coined the phrase “Arab Spring” surely had the seasons in mind after the long winter of repression in the Islamic world. Today, each of the states in the Middle East are moving through the seasons. Libya is somewhere between spring and summer. In Egypt, no one can say if spring is still with them and which seasons will be used to describe this ancient land if the Muslim Brotherhood comes to power. In Syria, the long winter is still extant under the rule of Dr. Bashar Al-Assid. In this crossroads of the Middle East, where a nation of 22 million appears to be descending into chaos, spring is very far off. (more…)
USPS: Return to Sender?
If you listen to the pundits on the radio and scan the print media, you may have concluded that when Santa arrives at the headquarters of the United States Postal Service (USPS) in Washington, he will find it sealed up like a tomb with a note affixed to the chimney:
Dear Santa and Your Helpers:
After 219 years of delivering the U.S. Mail to the American people, service personnel and friends and families overseas, this was our last Christmas season. What will become of our 574,000 employees and their grayish-blue woolen uniforms, their saddle leather carrying bags, countless buildings, and a fleet of 218,000 vehicles, I cannot say. All future mail will be stamped “Return to Sender” and after Jan. 1, 2012, please use UPS, Federal Express, e-mail, or other modern ways to deliver your mail, packages and gifts. I, as postmaster general and at one time the last in line in the Order of Succession, will move to New York City, where I will share an apartment with former Postal Worker Newman (of Seinfeld fame), who now works for Federal Express.
Santa, whose mail service has long been the envy of the USPS, would be the last person to be surprised by the news. After all, the U.S. Mail—as it used to be called—has been in trouble for years. New technologies and private delivery companies have eaten away at its reserves.
The news that USPS is on the verge of bankruptcy and will try to stave it off by closing half of its sorting centers, raising the price of first class stamps by a cent, and firing 100,000 people will have little impact on a generation that uses electronic devices to communicate and has never set foot in a post office. But when post offices are shuttered in rural areas and mail boxes in urban areas are removed, millions of Americans, especially the elderly, will find themselves confronted with a host of problems. Under the new plan, it will take three days for a first-class letter to arrive at its destination and a week for time-sensitive magazines. Late fees will be the order of the day.
But for all Americans, the very idea that the U.S. Mail will most likely declare bankruptcy is just another sign of the gradual decline of another American institution, less a victim of the Great Recession than the advent of a world no one could have imagined decades ago.
USPS may have to turn to Congress for a bailout, which is the last thing our representatives are inclined to do, all the more so in an election year with the bailouts of the Great Recession still questioned by millions. Technological advances in communication will only accelerate in coming years and fewer and fewer people will use stamps. In fact, revenue from postage stamps has declined 27 percent in just a few years. While stamps used to be the main source of revenue, today money is made in the shipping of parcels of all sizes.
Short of complete privatization, perhaps one solution to the ills of USPS is to use the massive fleets of military planes to carry the mail, since as a semi-governmental agency, Congress still has a major hand in the future of USPS. Some people have suggested that one way to raise revenues is to permit people to place their images on stamps for a price, but that would be akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the RMS Titanic. By the way, RMS (Royal Mail Ship) was a lucrative contract in its day.
A small and more efficient postal office may be at hand. We may see a very different institution that has caught up with the 21st century. A year from now, even Santa may be surprised.
A Third Party Candidate in 2012?
By Sander A. Diamond, professor of history
The 2012 presidential election is just one year away and the run-up to Election Day may be one of the most bitter in recent memory. Indeed, the venomous debate over health care reform and the raising of the debt ceiling were just a curtain-raiser to what is to come.
At the core of this acrimony are two visions of how best to restore the nation’s economic health. The president blames Republican inaction for making matters worse while the Republicans argue that Obama is a hollow person, an endless campaigner who never emerged as a national leader. They argue he is away from the Oval Office, trying to re-energize his base and merely issues executive orders that most economists believe will have little impact on the worst crisis since the 1930s. The president contends that Washington is dysfunctional, and for some observers he has washed his hands of them and is trying to effect compromises. (more…)
College Honors Veterans, Those Serving Now
Keuka College honored current military servicemen and women and those who served in past wars and foreign conflicts Friday in a ceremony marking Veterans Day.
Members of the Yates County VFW perform a Presentation of Arms during the Veteran's Day service Nov. 11.
“Today, we pay tribute to the veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam, including those nurses who were trained at Keuka College. The College’s nursing program was created in response to the need for nurses in World War II,” said President Jorge L. Díaz-Herrera in a welcome at Norton Chapel.
First known as Armistice Day, the nation marked the laying down of arms that took place on the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, following the signing of the armistice that ended World War I. President Woodrow Wilson, feeling the weight of his decision to send American “doughboys” into battle in Europe, asked citizens a year later to honor the sacrifice of their fellow countrymen with solemn pride, said Chris Leahy, associate professor of history.
“Wilson envisioned that every Nov. 11 from that point forward would see parades throughout the small towns and big cities of the United States, and a brief suspension of business at 11 a.m.,” Leahy said.
In 1938, it became a federal holiday, but not until 1953 was a name change proposed, Leahy said. After Kansas shoe store owner Al King began a campaign to recognize all veterans, not just those from World War I, a Kansas Congressman introduced a federal bill, which was signed into law in 1954 by President Dwight Eisenhower. Thus, it officially became known as Veterans Day.
Professor of History Sander Diamond described the stately precision with which the 22 domestic and 24 overseas cemetery battlefields or memorials are kept in tribute of those who gave their lives. In 1921, one more tradition, that of placing a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, was begun when Sgt. Edward Younger first placed a spray of white roses on the third of four caskets of unidentified American soldiers placed in a row at a city hall not far from the Meuse-Argonne cemetery in France. The casket Younger chose was taken by ship for burial at Washington’s Arlington National Cemetery, where other unknown soldiers have been buried alongside it, he said.
Diamond noted that the last two World War I veterans, American Frank Buckles and England’s Harry Patch, both died at age 110 this year. Since America’s first war, the War for Independence, some 2,489,335 men and women have given their lives for their country, including 3,542 in Iraq and 1,425 in Afghanistan, where military conflicts are not yet resolved. And many who serve come back home with horrific wounds, both physical and psychological, from disfigurement to mental problems once called “shell-shock” but known today as PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), he added.
“It is now up to us and our government to see to it that our most recent veterans have their needs met, no matter what the cost, even in this era of cost-cutting,” Diamond said, drawing parallels between the Keuka mission, which stresses “service above self,” and the mindset of many veterans and family members who wait for their return home.
“We are mindful that American service men and women are still fighting and dying in Afghanistan. This gives Veterans Day more immediacy, more poignancy,” said Leahy, adding that it was important to honor and remember the brave women, as well as men, who have served.
The event closed with a prayer of remembrance, led by College Chaplain Rev. Eric Detar and a Presentation of Arms by an honor guard from the Yates County VFW, Post 745, at Keuka’s World War II monument, which stands near Lightner Library.
“We cannot fully repay those who gave up two lives, the life they were living and the life they would have lived,” said Detar.
Check out more photos from the service.
A Greek Tragedy: 2011 A.D.
By Professor of History Sander A. Diamond
Greece’s default on its sovereign debt now appears inevitable. What is happening in this little nation that hugs the eastern tip of Europe surrounded by the fabled Aegean and Ionian Seas is sending force 5 winds westward into Europe and beyond, to the United States.
Greece is a small nation, slightly smaller than Alabama and with a population of less than 11 million. With a total GDP of just $341 billion, it represents less than 2 percent of the total GDP of the euro zone. Why then, have all eyes turned to Greece and how can the fate of such a small nation send European markets and Wall Street into a tailspin?
First, a default by Greece would be another confidence-shattering economic event on top of so many others and cause the euro to go into a freefall. Second, many European banks hold Greece’s sovereign debt and there is the spreading fear that some banks could collapse. In a world where nearly all banks are in some way interconnected, a massive failure of some of Europe’s leading banks would cause an epic crisis in confidence at a time when confidence in our financial institutions and the ability of governments to help solve these problems is at its lowest level since the depths of the Great Depression. Making matters worse, Greece is hardly alone in its economic woes. Italy is in trouble and Portugal, Ireland, and Spain aren’t far behind. Moreover, some question if the Europeans have the cash on hand for a bailout of this proportion.
Another reason for fearing Greece’s default has more to do with the essence of Western Civilization than the ability to solve the problems. Ancient Greece was the seedbed of the Western world and its influence has translated over the past 2,500 years. It was the world of Homer, whose Odyssey is still read and the names of his characters are still in our common memory. It was Plato and Aristotle who set the foundations of Western philosophy and science. It was the Greeks who gave us the idea of tragedy; the plays of Sophocles and Euripides are still read and performed. It was the Greeks who gave us the first open-air theaters to watch these great plays and force us to contemplate the essence of life and death. It was in the small city-state of Athens where democracy was born in the 5th Century B.C. It was in Greece where the first Olympics were held. The Parthenon, with its slender columns, has been the model for nearly every major building in the West’s capitals, from the Supreme Court to the Lincoln Memorial.
But the influence of little Greece did not end with the demise of Hellenic Greek and the rise of Alexander the Great, who built the West’s first great empire and brought Greek culture to the gates of India. It was in the Greek-speaking world where Christianity took root after St. Paul carried the message of Jesus to people outside of the Holy Land. Greece’s accomplishments are staggering, and if it defaults, it may be viewed as a metaphor for, and a harbinger of, the West’s decline, another shattering event which began with the implosion of the housing bubble and the Second Great Crash in 2008.
What we are witnessing unfold is a modern-day version of a Greek tragedy on a world stage and the audiences know how this will end. Tragedy is a distinctly Greek invention and as we know from the plays, such as Antigone, it is of your own making. It can be said with some certainty that the current economic mess is of our own making, not the will of the gods.
College will Mark Veteran’s Day with Presentations, Prayer of Remembrance
College Chaplain Rev. Eric Detar leads a prayer of remembrance at the World War II Monument during 2010's Veteran's Day commemorative service.
Keuka College will mark Veteran’s Day Friday, Nov. 11, with presentations by two faculty members and a prayer of remembrance by the College chaplain.
Beginning at noon in Norton Chapel, Professor of History Sander Diamond will discuss how our veterans have been memorialized at home and on former battlefields overseas while Chris Leahy, associate professor of history, “will provide an overview of this important and memorable day,” said Diamond.
After the chapel presentations, College Chaplain Rev. Eric Detar will offer a prayer of remembrance at the World War II memorial located near Lightner Library. Erected by members of the Political Science and History Club in 2005, the memorial commemorates the 60th anniversary of VE-Day and recognizes the College’s nursing program “that was created during the war years as our College’s major contribution to the war effort,” said Diamond.
The Bulls have Returned to Wall Street
When the first Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protesters arrived in Lower Manhattan along with the autumn winds, few people paid much attention to them, less those who were inconvenienced and some members of the media who sensed this could be a big story. But for most people, there was little new in what appeared to be just another protest in a city that has protests nearly every day. Not too many weeks later, OWS groups dotted the urban landscape of the United States much like mushrooms in the fall, a large patch here and a smaller one there. In time they may come together to create a Made in America movement.
As we know from the history of our nation, a movement is often another word for a highly politicized pressure group. Leaders, with the ability to distill an often disparate message into a common theme, do emerge. Sometimes it can take years, and other times less than a year, as we have learned from the rapid evolution of the Tea Party, which now commands the attention of Republican hopefuls and those they elected to office in the last election, all of whom are careful not to make a verbal misstep. The Occupy Wall Streeters and Tea Party have much in common, though one suspects there would be public denials. Both are disgusted with the direction of the nation, though for a host of different reasons, and remedies are worlds apart.
The ranks of the nascent OWS protesters may swell quicker than most believe, since they have hit a responsive cord among the armies of the unemployed as well as people with jobs, college graduates drowning in debt from education loans while looking for jobs, some of the major unions in New York City, returning veterans, and above all, those who believe that greedy Wall Street and corporate America were given the keys to the nation by our politicians and drove us into the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression. And this is hardly an American affair as we have seen with similar protests in Rome, Athens and London.
As we have witnessed, the protests in Rome and London became nasty and they could here. In every major economic downturn, civil unrest becomes commonplace and if things get out of hand on this side of the Atlantic, we can expect those charged with keeping the peace to intervene, which could give the movement greater momentum.
The level of nastiness could rise if the protestors focus on the individuals they believe should be held accountable: the heads of the great banking houses on Wall Street. When Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry accused the Fed chairman of treason, there was an outcry. In time, finger-pointing may become more commonplace. In good times, below the veneer of civility, hostile feelings are contained. In times such as these, they surface.
What we may be witnessing is the transformation of an initially disparate protest into a movement that may, in time, have greater clout than the Tea Party. While President Obama may try to align himself with OWS protestors, a move in this direction will be viewed as transparent, an opportunistic effort to harness their energy to his re-election campaign. With some of his base now fractured, someone else in the Democratic Party may try to capture the momentum as we witnessed in the anti-Vietnam movement era. While it may be a reach, we may even see someone in the Republican camp reach out to the OWS, cutting a diagonal and drawing in the energy of the Tea Party. They are angry about different things, but share a common agenda in their disgust over the state of the nation.
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