Cheer Them in the Middle East, Arrest Them in America

All of the recent publicity and rhetoric about the Occupy Wall Street movement just begs a comparison with the Arab Spring protests of several months ago when most western democracies including ours were cheering the courage and bold action of thousands of citizens in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Libya.  Besides risking beatings, imprisonment and torture they were also placing their very lives in jeopardy to achieve the same democratic liberties we enjoy here in America, among them the freedom of peaceful assembly and expression which Occupy Wall Street exemplifies.  Setting aside for the moment whether you agree with the OWS message, do you not find the police reaction of forced removal and arrests in some cities (most notably Oakland, Denver and Nashville) to be similar to the police conduct in the Middle East?  It's as if we are becoming them instead of the other way around.  I thought riot gear, tear gas and over-whelming police force were part of our past, not our present.  And for Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain to label the demonstrators as "un-American," "anti-capitalism" and "anti-free market" just shows a total ignorance of history, as well as what this initiative is all about.      

So, exactly what is driving this Occupy Wall Street movement?  Well, you can start with the huge income and wealth disparity between the top one percent of our population which has grown by 275% over the past generation while the remaining ninety-nine percent has grown only 18% during that same period.  One of the reasons cited for this disparity by the Congressional Budget Office is the lack of college degrees among our young people who, in this climate of ever-changing globalization, are simply unable to compete with the more educated Chinese and Indians who will work for much less.  Compounding the problem of those diminished job opportunities for our youth, which robs them of their dreams for the future, is the mountain of student loan debt incurred by those who do seek to achieve that very college education that is being sold as the key to one's economic success. Then there is the loss of existing jobs which has caused financial devastation among millions of adult Americans who are unable to pay the mortgages on their homes, as well as just meet day-to-day living expenses for their families.  And, finally, there are the ethical lapses and criminal activities within the financial community that almost brought down the major economies of the industrialized world which have gone largely unpunished.  Conversely, our masters of the universe seem to have gone right back to the same questionable practices and exorbitant personal enrichment of the past that are further widening that income gap and creating an elite economic imbalance which Alexander Stille of the New York Times calls "....one of the most unequal democracies in the world".  Frame all of these concerns within the context of a feckless and paralyzed congress that seems either unable or unwilling to address these systemic problems in a bold and meaningful way and you've got yourself the platform for all of the dissatisfaction, frustration and anger now being expressed by Occupy Wall Street.  

One of the main criticisms being leveled at this movement is its lack of common theme or central voice.  Those of us old enough to have lived through the Vietnam War and the anti-war demonstrations that raged across America in the late 60's and early 70's will recall a somewhat similar critique in the early stages of that initiative, but it did not take very long for those disparate anti-war actions to meld into the central message of  "End that war".  We all know what happened as a result - it ended.  The same thing happened with civil rights abuses.  It's all about raising the national consciousness and public debate to the point where corrective action is forced on our policy makers.  I suspect that as the Occupy Wall Street movement spreads and gains support, both moral and financial, we will see a more effective organization that may well play a significant role in the 2012 elections not unlike that of the Tea Party in 2010.  In fact, Elizabeth Warren's senatorial race in Massachusetts may well be the bell-weather test of this possibility, as evidenced by the outpouring of support from OWS sympathizers at one of her recent rallies.  Surely, these impassioned citizens will at least be allowed to exercise their lawful right to peaceful protest and expression without fear of intimidation and arrest at these legal assemblies, if not public parks and spaces.     

Pedaling Across America

Yesterday's New York Times Travel section featured a wonderful article by Bruce Weber as he completes his second 4,000 mile cross-country bicycle trip which began this time from Astoria, Oregon on July 20th and is scheduled to end on the Isle of Manhattan, New York soon, if it hasn't already.  What grabbed my attention to his journey was not only the sheer physical accomplishment of the feat at age 57 versus eighteen years ago when he first made the trip at age 39, but the almost de Tocqueville quality of his observations of Americana along the way made from a middle-aged perspective of not being in a hurry.  Also, it was relevant to a couple of personal cycling experiences, which I will get to in a minute.   
Contrary to his first trip as a younger man, he admits that his current trans-continental trip has a much more contemplative quality, as this time one's mortality factors into the equation.  Gone is the drive to ride at break-neck speed from sun-up to sun-down with a fearless determination to cover as many miles as possible in the shortest period of time.  Also, there is now a deep appreciation of the risks involved in such an adventure in terms of traffic and road conditions that has triggered much more caution and awareness.  But the trade-off is a heightened consciousness and appreciation of this nation, generally the kindness of its people, which he terms "the default temperament of decency" and the spectacular beauty of the countryside.  From the River Gorge of Oregon, over the majestic Rockies, across the plains of Montana and North Dakota, to the headwaters of the Mississippi in Minnesota, through the heartland of Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio to the Great Allegheny Passage in Pennsylvania, 300 miles short of his final destination when his chronicle was written, one just cannot be anything but awed.  In his words "This was an American journey by a New Yorker who became more American as he went along". 
While he also confesses that the physical demands of this trip almost took its toll, his defining moment was on August 13th, the day he crossed the Continental Divide.  After seriously considering taking a lesser route to avoid a grueling 11-mile climb to the top, he was persuaded by a stranger in Whitefish, Montana that it would be "awfully silly to be so close to one of the justly celebrated rides in America and not taking advantage of it".  And I just loved his equating the exhilaration of the moment with that when as a 17-year old boy he got kissed by his 17-year old girlfriend - "It was exactly like that".  His journey is unquestionably a metaphor for life that can be summed up by his own conclusion to live in the present.  To learn more about it and see images from this amazing trip, go to http://nytimes.com/travel. 
Now, let me share those personal experiences.  On April 2, 2010, a friend and I were at the Toltec Mounds Museum between Scott and Keo, Arkansas when we crossed paths with a man from California who was in the seventh year of an on-going bicycle journey across America.  It happened to be his 64th birthday, so I persuaded him to let me take his picture and e-mail it to his wife just to let her know he was alive and well.  I filed that encounter away and had almost forgotten about it when out of the clear blue last December 14th I received an e-mail from Joel thanking me for that picture, and letting me know he made it to Memphis OK, but flew back to California.  However, he had resumed his trek last September riding from Rapid City, South Dakota to Sioux City, Iowa, thus completing the final leg of his "across-America" ride which he admitted his wife only allowed him to do in "little pieces each year".  Just like Bruce Weber's journey summarized above, what started out as just riding a bike soon morphed into weaving a quilt of personal encounters that became his main focus of interest, and just by happenstance my friend and I had become a part of that fabric, for which he again thanked me.  And then, once again out of the blue Joel e-mailed me on May 16th of this year voicing his concern about the recent storms and flooding that had occurred across the south last spring and wondering if we were OK.  I greatly appreciated and thanked him for his inquiry and concern, as our house had been a victim of a fallen tree the prior month.   Obviously, that "default temperament of decency" cuts both ways.
And, finally, within the past ten days it has been my true pleasure to take two mini bike rides, the first through the vineyards of Napa Valley, California with my wife, children and their respective spouses, and the latest this past Saturday, which was an individual ride through Two Rivers Park here in Little Rock, a place about which I first wrote on August 14, 2011.  While both were leisurely and soulful rides through pristine and beautiful places with little physical agony, I can only imagine what strength and commitment it must take to pedal across America, particularly during middle age, whether all at once like Mr. Weber or piecemeal like my new found friend, Joel.  Gentlemen, I applaud you both!   
      

History Comes Full Circle

Almost one year ago to the day, I included in my October 24th blog POTPOURRI III mention of meeting one of America's foremost artists, Will Barnet, at a screening of a documentary film on his life in New York the previous week.  That opportunity was a direct result of going to Maine two months prior and reconnecting with a dear high school friend who lives there (re: my RECONNECTIONS blog of August 29, 2010) and who, along with her husband, was involved with the production of that film.  Unbeknownst to me at the time, those two events helped plant the seeds for what has now blossomed into the current spectacular showing of a collection of Will Barnet's drawings at the Arkansas Arts Center which are on exhibit from now until January 15, 2012.   

For those like me who until last year were unfamiliar with Will Barnet, allow me to briefly acquaint you with this most remarkable man.  Born 100 years ago in Beverly, Massachusetts on May 25, 1911, where he began painting self-portraits in the basement of his parents' home, he then progressed to formally studying art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in his teens during which time he added seascapes and family cats to his portfolio.  In 1931 he left for New York and began his 50 year association with the very Art Students League where I was privileged to see the documentary film mentioned above, as well as meet his lovely wife of 59 years, Elena.  As revealed in Robin Finn's article in the New York Times last October, the city became his muse where he began "sketching the forlorn and angry faces he saw on every corner" developing his style of "stark, brooding social realism".  At the same time he focused on and mastered print techniques at the Art Students League where he taught Mark Rothko in that process.  In addition he has taught at Cornell University, Cooper Union, Yale University, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and Montclair State University in New Jersey where he was a visiting art professor from 1940 to 1945, and where his son, Peter, has taught art for forty years.  His body of work has been featured over the years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Gallery in Washington D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Whitney Museum of American Art, so the Arkansas Arts Center is in very good company. 

Over the last eight decades he has constantly elected to travel the road less traveled artistically by opting to pursue that which was neither popular nor easy.  As noted in Finn's NYT article, his work "morphed from social realism to a nuanced abstraction that used flat planes of color to convey emotion and depth".   A clear example of this unusual technique is demonstrated in the lithograph "WAITING" depicting a group of women forlornly awaiting the return of their husbands from the sea, a recurring theme of Mr. Barnet's, which you can see at the Arts Center alongside his prototype pencil drawing of that very scene.  In fact color is so important to him in his paintings that he has been known to experiment for months if not years trying to blend the precise shade and hue of a particular color to achieve those artistic dimensions.  He also prides himself in saying that "I love moving on and finding fresh ways to use color and form.  That's been my excitement".  

Even though as a centenarian he still continues to engage in his passion of art by spending three to four hours a day creating it, albeit from a wheelchair, he is not oblivious to his mortality, as related in a story he told for the same NYT article about his grandfather's impending death at the age of 96.   At the age of six, Will was taken to say goodbye to his grandfather who said to him at that time:  "Do you think it's easy to die at the age of 96?"  Consequently, we in Central Arkansas are truly blessed to have this marvelous 85-piece collection of Will Barnet drawings at our doorstep which are beautifully arranged chronologically from 1928 to 1990 to show the evolution of the style and content of a truly amazing artisan who refuses to quit.  To get a glimpse of his remarkable range and talent please visit the Arkansas Arts Center between now and January 15, 2012.  You will not be disappointed.

As a late PS, there is a featured article on Will Barnet in the Arts and Leisure section of today's New York Times, so our exhibition here in Little Rock is very timely.

"Let Them Eat Cake"

Recent news stories and studies about the plight of the young, poor and hungry in America caused me to reflect on the French Revolution (1789-1799) which, essentially, was prompted by a growing disparity between the rich aristocracy and the peasantry who sought equality and rights as a result of a shortage of their main food staple, bread.  Whether you believe the famous quote of "let them eat cake" actually came from Marie Antoinette is irrelevant because it generally reflected the selfish attitude of the French upper class at the time, of which she was a most prominent member.  What is important to remember is that things did not turn out very well for her or the aristocracy in general, a historical lesson that may well apply today.
Fast forward two hundred years and we see alarming trends in our society which seem to mirror 18th century France.  Let's start with the growing inequality between the rich and poor in America and how it is infecting our national soul and purpose.  As reported last May in VANITY FAIR in an article by Joseph Stiglitz entitled Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%, the top one percent of Americans now earn 25% of all income and control 40% of all wealth, a situation he compares with Russia and Iran, as well as some countries in the Middle East where less than 1% of the population controls the majority of wealth.  He further contends that such income and wealth inequality shrinks opportunity, undermines efficiency and lessens investment in infrastructure, research and education out of reluctance of the wealthy "to spend money on the common needs" of society.  As the rich become richer, they lose their sensibilities toward government helping the less fortunate with things like parks, education, medical care and security because they (the rich) are able to pay for all those things themselves.  It's just the classic mindset of "I've got mine, now you get yours".  The main goals of many wealthy people always seem to be to lower taxes and reduce regulation.  But perhaps the greatest cost to our society in Mr. Stiglitz's view is "the erosion of our sense of identity, in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important".  In fact he notes that Alexis de Tocqueville even observed these qualities as being part of the American fabric and called them "self-interest properly understood".  However, in this context "properly understood" are the key words, as they refer to the self-interest of others, or the common welfare, which is a precondition for one's own ultimate well-being.  Put another way by the author, even though the rich can afford the best of everything, they do not seem to understand that "their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live".
Framing this message in current terms, consider the following facts as a confirmation of "shrunken opportunity":
1.  In 2010 the poverty rate of 15.1% (46.2 million people) was the highest since 1933.
2.  In 2010 the rate of those without health care insurance was 16.3% (49.9 million people).
3.  5.9 million (14.2%) young adults between age 25-34 now live back home with their parents in what could be termed "re-filling the empty nest".
4.  Over 14 million Americans (9.1%) are still unemployed.
5.  Only 55.3% of young adults between 16-29, which some now refer to as the "lost generation", are currently employed, the lowest level since WWII.
6.  The poverty level among those under 25 years of age is 37%.
7.  Anywhere between 700,000 and 2 million people are homeless in America on any given night, 36% of whom are families with children. 
Without laying blame for the dismal condition of our national economy, as there is plenty to go around, the question of what to do now looms large over the political horizon.  Currently, the administration's proposed American Jobs Act seems to address a wide spectrum of concerns on both sides of that landscape including tax relief for wage earners and small businesses, increased revenue from the rich, closed tax loopholes for large corporations and "spending money on the common needs" mentioned above (i.e. infrastructure, education and research).  As such, it would seem to be in the best interest of America to learn from history, pass this legislation and hopefully avoid the fate of the rich French and their disconnect with the poor as evidenced by their shouting "Let them eat cake"!