Season 3 Episode 3

S3E3

Hello! Welcome to season 3, episode 3, and thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube! I’m your host, Bob Woodley. On this edition, we’ll hear about the origin of the US Constitution, and when the second amendment first came under attack, the Emperor of the United States, and California’s misguided energy policies….but first (not the headlines)

Many parts of the world are experiencing record droughts this year. Asia, Europe, America are all drier than we would hope. Even where I live, there’s plenty of water right now, but there has been a decline in rainfall this summer, as my wife’s flower gardens would demonstrate. Fallen river levels in Europe have exposed sunken ships from World War Two, and low water levels in Nevada’s Lake Mead has revealed 55-gallon drums with dead bodies in them. I could go off on a tangent here about the wisdom of storing a large body of water in a desert, but I won’t. A lot of the world’s seasonal water supply comes from melting snow that flows down the mountains to where humans can put it to good use. But the bulk of it is supplied by rain. The simple yet complex cycle of evaporation and regeneration in our atmosphere brings water to most parts of the world, some more than others. There’s so much water in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that one of the hotels there doesn’t care that their sprinkler system sprays water out onto the sidewalk and street, rather than on the grass and shrubbery it was designed to hydrate. When I lived in California around 1990, you could get fined for that, and for washing your car or actually watering your lawn. It’s even more critical there now. Neither the snow pack nor the rainfall have met expectations for years. Other than the folks in Jackson, Mississippi, just about everybody is hoping for more rain. We’ll get back to Jackson in a bit. But according to a recent report published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, even if is does rain, your not supposed to drink it. Wait ‘til my dog finds out! I don’t know what she’ll say, but I’m sure she’ll say it with her eyes. The research, done by the University of Stockholm, says there is now no place in the world where it is safe to drink rainwater. It’s all because of man-made chemicals called per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. There are thousands of them, and they’re used in all kinds of consumer products like non-stick coatings and rain-proof clothing to furniture and cosmetics. Because of these chemicals, it is no longer advisable to tilt your head back and stick out your tongue when it rains. I’m guessing the same would be advisable when it comes to snowflakes, where applicable. Even the South Pole is contaminated because of the process of evaporation and replenishment carried on by our atmosphere. Obviously, you’re not going to die because you drank the water that accumulated in your rain gauge, but the long-term effects have been amplified recently, and the cumulative effect has increased in a short period of time. Several countries have updated their recommendations for the absorption of these man-made substances, and now the amounts we find in our environment exceed the allowable levels, which are based on long-term effects. 

Mother Nature has done a really good job of protecting us from our own mistakes when it comes to pollution. But PFAS are referred to as “forever chemicals” which don’t disintegrate like most of our garbage. The study recommends that because of the poor reversibility of the effects of these chemicals, it is vitally important to rapidly restrict their use. They didn’t say how rapidly, but here’s how I see it: Right now, the James Webb space telescope is out there making new discoveries about the universe. Part of it’s mission is to analyze, as best it can, the atmospheres of exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. We want to know if there is another place out there that has an atmosphere that can support life. Even better, one that can support our life. If we were able to find an oasis out there in the vastness of space, we would have a global goal to someday get there. But first we need to find out as much as we can about the environment and it’s oxygen supply and what resources might be there. We have to determine if that atmosphere can poison us if we try to breath it in. We also need to know if anything living there already might eat us for lunch, but that’s another subject. The fact is, if we were on another planet right now, and we had the James Webb space telescope looking at us as a place for our species to carry on, we would say, “Nah.” All because of the man-made forever chemicals in our atmosphere. In fact, the study even uses the term, “separate planetary boundary.” We are literally living on a world that our standards would not allow us to accept as a gift. We only have ourselves to thank.

That’s the same thing a civic leader in Jackson, Mississippi said about the flooding there, and how it’s disrupted their water supply, but she didn’t use those exact words. In an interview with HLN’s Susan Hendricks, the Executive Director of the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, Cassandra Welchlin, blames the water woes in Jackson on structural racism. When she said it, I thought, “Well, it is Mississippi. It’s probably true.” For a moment I began to imagine how a white hierarchy in local government may have taken measures to keep the water working in white neighborhoods while maybe neglecting the black neighborhoods. But then she went on to explain exactly what she meant. Take a listen for yourself... 

So, Cassandra isn’t blaming the racism on the white people who are still there, she’s blaming the white people who left. Because they did, the city was left with no tax base. She made it sound like only white people pay taxes. And because the white people left, the city of Jackson can no longer afford to maintain city services, and the federal government hasn’t replaced the funds. That’s not racism, and it’s a shame Susan Hendricks didn’t push back on it at all, and even agreed with Ms. Welchlin when she said it was “racism at its best.” That’s the sad part. Our news media is frightened to call out false claims of racism. That leaves anyone other than a white person able to claim racism and instantly bring attention to an issue by the press, without having to answer as to why they’re claiming it’s racism. She’s literally blaming white people who don’t even live there anymore, who haven’t lived there in years, for the city’s problems. And not anybody who moved out, but only the white people. And it’s the governments responsibility to replace the local tax revenue that’s been lost with federal tax money from the rest of us. Now, I certainly have sympathy for the people of Jackson Mississippi for the hardships they’re going through right now. It’s clear that the city hasn’t kept it promise to maintain services necessary for their safety and health. But to blame the white people who moved away and the federal government not replacing lost tax revenue for the current situation there is both racist and socialist. For somebody to claim racism because the white people moved away is just a sad way to try to draw attention to a catastrophe that already had as much attention as it could get. Sadder still is using a catastrophe to try to draw attention to herself by claiming the catastrophe was caused by racism. The city of Jackson, Mississippi has an overwhelming Black majority. Over 80 percent of residents are Black. The population has fallen by 26 percent since 1980. Every other similarly -sized city in America is growing. Just over 12 percent of residents are over retirement age, and just over 20 percent work for the government, plus the unemployment rate is a little over 11 percent. That means about 44 percent of the residents of Jackson, Mississippi rely on the government for their income. I know that government employees pay taxes, but they earn much more than they contribute. All of us who work do. Is it any wonder there isn’t a tax base to maintain city services? Just a little over half of the population there contributes more than they receive. Still, Cassandra doesn’t blame the people who live there for the problems facing the city. She blames the white people who don’t live there anymore. This isn’t the result of structural racism. It’s the result of mismanagement and a reliance on federal assistance to overcome it. 

Let’s Go Back liner... 

This week in 1620, The Mayflower starts her voyage to North America. Not a lot happened in what is now America between the time Columbus arrived in 1492 and the establishment of Jamestown in 1607. The Mayflower is celebrated because it was symbolic of the freedom found in America by people seeking an escape from religious persecution. The fact that the native Americans helped them survive by teaching them about food gathering and other means of surviving the harsh winter added to the legend. The American holiday of Thanksgiving traces it roots all the way back to the pilgrims who landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts.

So while the pilgrims and native Americans worked together in 1620, it wasn’t until this week in 1778 that the Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed. It is the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware Indians). I recently had the privilege of touring the Fort Pitt museum. My wife and I were in Pittsburgh and actually looking for a museum to visit. We were in the Market area, and even used her phone to see if there were any museums nearby. We couldn’t find one, so I suggested we walk down to the point where the three rivers converge. Lo and behold, we came across the Fort Pitt Museum. It was a welcome sight, as my wife and I enjoy visiting museums when we travel, and it was a very hot June day, so an air-conditioned museum was a perfect respite from the heat. We learned about the fort, saw tools and muskets and other memorabilia from the early days of it history. We also learned about the vital role native Americans played in the formation of a young country. I have one souvenir from my visit there. A small, hardcover book containing the Constitution of the United States, as well as all of the Amendments. 

Speaking of the Constitution, it was this week in 1787 that The United States Constitution is signed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It had many influential signatures on it when it was sent to the 13 States for ratification. Once the ninth State did so, it was granted legal power. James Madison contributed the most to the document, and is considered by may the father of the Constitution. George Washington signed it, as did Benjamin Franklin, who is among only six people to sign both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The Constitution is a living document, subject to Amendments as seen fit by enough states. The length of time the Constitution has been guiding American society is impressive. The 27th Amendment is the last, added in 1992. It covers the salaries paid to members of congress. It was sent to the states for ratification on September 25th, 1789. It took a mere 202 years to be ratified. Most people would consider the week of July 4th as the most patriotic week on the calendar of American holidays, and they’d be right. But this week in American history certainly stands out, as it was this week in... 

1788 that The Philadelphia Convention sets the date for the first presidential election in the United States, and New York City becomes the country’s temporary capital. If that’s not the icing on the cake, it was this week in...

1814 that the poem Defence of Fort McHenry is written by Francis Scott Key. The words if that poem will later become the lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner, America’s national anthem.

A can of worms were about to be opened this week in 1835, because that’s when the HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin aboard, reaches the Galápagos Islands. That would lead to his theory of evolution and the Scopes Monkey Trial. Which, as has been mentioned here before, became what was perhaps the biggest show-trial in American history. It all began with the length of bird beaks.

This week in 1848, Vermont railroad worker Phineas Gage survives a 3 ft-plus iron rod being driven through his head. Although the headline always mentions the length of the rod, that’s more or less irrelevant. The circumference of the rod is what matters. That was 1 and a quarter inches, or 3.2 centimeters. The rod entered his head just below the cheekbone on his left side, and came out the top of his head, landing about 80 feet behind him. He was tamping gunpowder with the rod when it struck a rock and sparked the gunpowder, causing the tool to become a projectile. Much to everyone’s surprise, he survived. Not only that, he he seemed perfectly normal. A little over a week later, he seemed to be suffering, and was barely conscious. His death seemed imminent. He lived another 12 years, returned to work, and his memory didn’t seem to be effected at all. Except for his personality. The people who knew him best claimed he was no longer the same guy. It was claimed that he became unreliable and disrespectful. The fact is, so little was known about the man before the incident, that we don’t really know if he was already unreliable and disrespectful. Nevertheless, the perceived effects on his behavior and personality stimulate thinking about the nature of the brain and its functions. Despite extensive research and discovery about the human brain, there has been nothing yet to dispute the theories of “Lame for Life” and “You can’t fix stupid.” 

1859

Joshua A. Norton declares himself “Emperor Norton I” of the United States. Wait, what?

Look that up liner…

When you think of the wackiness of the city of San Francisco, you might believe it started in the 1960’s with the counter-culture movement and the introduction of LSD, the hippies and flower power. You’d be wrong. In 1859, Joshua Norton not only declared himself Emperor Norton I of the United States, but also “protector of Mexico,” according to Wikipedia. He was born in England, raised in South Africa, spent some time in Boston before ending up in San Francisco. It didn’t take long for him to find a niche as commodities trader and land speculator. He became rich. He lost a fortune trying to corner the rice market caused by a famine in China. That was just a bump in the road. He reinvented himself, and declared himself Emperor. He even issued his own currency, which was accepted at establishments he frequented. He made proclamations that were celebrated by the citizens of San Francisco. He called for the end of the United States Congress, and was the first to envision a connecting bridge or tunnel connecting San Francisco to Oakland. The Bay Bridge does that now. Local merchants sold Emperor Norton souvenirs. He died after 21 years of being Norton I, Emperor of the United States. He certainly can’t compare himself to the late Queen Elizabeth II of the British Empire, but his biographer, William Drury, claimed that “San Francisco lived off the Emperor Norton, not Norton off San Francisco.”

1916

World War I: Tanks are used for the first time in battle, at the Battle of the Somme.

1920

The American Professional Football Association (later renamed National Football League) is organized in Canton, Ohio. Now the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it’s a destination for football fans from around the world. I’ve visited four times myself, the first of which was for the induction ceremonies in 1993. The last time was the week of the Super Bowl in 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic. I paid a little extra to get in a guided tour group. Much to my surprise, I was the only one who signed up that morning, so I ended up with a private tour of the place. Coach Kuz, as he’s known, was a gracious host, spending a large part of the morning with me, telling me the history of some of the exhibits, talking football, and just enjoying each others company. The highlight was when I got to accompany him down to the archives to return a crate of helmets from different era’s of the game that we explored. 

This week in 1935, Nazi Germany adopts a new national flag featuring the swastika. Prior to that, the swastika had a positive image as symbol of good luck in much of the western world. The swastika still holds that meaning in Hindu and Buddhist countries like Nepal, Thailand and Japan. It’s still a positive symbol among the Navajo people of America. The swastika symbol was found in Ukraine, and dates back to 10,000 years BC. For most of us, though, the swastika is now a symbol of Nazism, antisemitism and white supremacy. The swastika symbol is now illegal in Germany, as well as some other countries. In the United States, though, the first amendment to the constitution prohibits making a law against such symbols.

While we’re on the subject, this week in 1935, The Nuremberg Laws deprive German Jews of citizenship. The concept of denying citizenship because of religious beliefs isn’t new, nor is it that old. The book Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard, which is the foundation of the Church of Scientology, also suggests that people who don’t adhere to the practice and become “clear” according to scientology methods, should also be deprived of citizenship. 

1959

The first successful photocopier, the Xerox 914, is introduced in a demonstration on live television from New York City. 

1961

The United States National Hurricane Research Project drops eight cylinders of silver iodide into the eyewall of Hurricane Esther. Wind speed reduces by 10%, giving rise to Project Stormfury. It was thought that the silver iodide would freeze the super-cooled water in the storm, changing the structure of the storm. It seemed to work at first, but later research showed that the effect was natural and not caused by the silver iodide. The experiments ended in 1971, but along the way, we learned a lot about hurricanes and got better at forecasting them and their characteristics.

1966

U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, responding to a sniper attack at the University of Texas at Austin, writes a letter to Congress urging the enactment of gun control legislation. Two years later, he got results that limited the interstate transfers of firearms to only licensed manufacturers, dealers and importers. Since then, gun control has been a hot-button issue, with the federal government, individual states, as well as many municipalities creating their own gun laws. Proponents of the second amendment to the US Constitution, guaranteeing the right of Americans to keep and bear arms, are in a constant battle with those who wish to strip away that right. Every mass shooting that happens reignites the fury of gun-control advocates. Nobody seems to have a solution to the problem of mass shootings that respects the second amendment. Our own president mocks the second amendment, theorizing that owning a gun won’t stop a tank or a jet-fighter available to the federal government. It’s threats like these that many believe reinforce the need for protection of gun ownership. 

And this week in 1981, The Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves Sandra Day O'Connor to become the first female justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Phone and email liner…

It’s always fascinating to hear or read about ancient artifacts that are revealed by the melting of ice sheets in the extreme latitudes, be they north or south. That’s why glacier archaeologists who are part of a team called Secrets of the Ice were excited to find almost perfectly preserved arrows from the iron age, including the pointed arrowhead made of iron, and the fletching made of feather. This area of Norway has been revealing more secrets as time goes by, because the ice sheet keeps retreating. It’s revealed more than 200 feet of earth since 2013, and arrows from different era’s have been found there by researchers. The Iron Age arrow is about 1500 years old, but that’s not the oldest. An arrow from about 4000 years ago, the Stone Age, was also found at the site, as well as one that dates back to about the year 600, which had an arrowhead made of antler. The explorers at the site feel confident that they’ll discover more ancient armaments as they continue to scour the exposed areas. The weather this autumn promises to be ideal for exploration. That’s great news for the archaeologists who choose to work there. It’s not great news for the ice sheet itself. It’s been retreating for years now, revealing artifacts deposited there over the millennia. Climate watchers see that as a sign that the planet is warming, and that it is the habits of mankind that are causing the earth to warm. I don’t doubt that our use of fossil fuels and the burning of wood in fireplaces and campsites, as well as the gas expelled from cows has a negative effect on our environment and atmosphere. Every little bit is another hurdle Mother Earth needs to overcome to keep us alive. She’s been doing a fantastic job of it for longer than we can remember, having sustained millions of life forms throughout the existence of our solar system. There are scientists and regular people who believe that melting ice sheets and other glaciers is a sign that we’re doing something wrong, and if we don’t change our ways, we’ll ruin the planet forever. Now, I’m not a scientist of any type, nor am I remotely qualified to form a theory of what might happen in the future. But these discoveries of ancient arrows from a vast period of time would seem to indicate that there was no ice there when these artifacts were dropped. These arrows weren’t found in various levels of an ice sheet, they were found on the ground. That would indicate that for thousands of years, there wasn’t any ice sheet there. People traveled there, by foot and later, some by ski, as ancient skis were also found by the Secrets of the Ice crew. Maybe people back then had to migrate south to avoid the growing ice sheet, gradually taking away the land they called home. There’s only so much moisture in our little bubble of an atmosphere, so as the ice sheets grew, did the ocean levels fall? Because right now, our concern is that as the ice sheets melt, ocean levels will rise. So the opposite must be true. For thousands of years, the earth that is now being exposed by dissolving ice had no ice at all, as has been demonstrated by the discovery of the arrows. Perhaps there was ice there before, and the ice melted, lowering the arrows to the surface, but ice began to accumulate again, and is again retreating. This would indicate, to me anyway, that the current melting may be part of a cycle that our history hasn’t yet witnessed. If it is, that would demonstrate that mankind has been able to overcome the changes to our environment, and so has our planet. Should we take measures to reduce or ideally, eliminate our negative impact on our atmosphere? Absolutely. We want the human race to exist on this planet for as long as possible. The fact is, we probably won’t last as long as the planet itself, and we’re probably a blip on the radar of a satellite of a star in a vast galaxy that’s part of a vast universe. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take care of it. Nor does it mean we shouldn’t take advantage of the resources our planet provides. There are responsible ways to do that. There are also ways we’re told will do that, but I’m not so sure. California is leading other states to mandate the sale of new cars be limited to electric cars, as a way to control climate change and the use of fossil fuels. At the same time, much of our electricity is generated by fossil fuel. As great as it would be to be able to power everything with wind and sunshine, we really haven’t mastered that yet. If we could just turn on a fan instead of an air conditioner, that would make a big difference. But it doesn’t work that way. We need to consume fuel to live. We’ve figured out how to create fuel in many different ways from many different sources. We’ve figured out how to use our sources of fuel more efficiently, and educated ourselves over decades of school children to be more aware of energy consumption and waste. We’ve done a great job at it as a society, and for some reason, we’re still not up to the standards we demand of ourselves. As a response, the United States Government takes it upon itself to regulate which types of our resources are more readily available to us. They minimize the supply of one energy source to promote another, claiming it’s the right thing to do for the environment. My question is, why does our government even have a say in what power sources we use? Why can’t we continue to use the power sources we have available to us? Are electric cars really the best course of action? They’re still powered by the fossil fuel it takes to generate the electricity. An of all the states to mandate electric cars, California should probably be the last. California can’t generate enough electricity to supply day to day needs as it is. The current heat wave there demonstrated as much. Citizens were told to not run their air conditioners between certain time of the day. They were told to not charge their electric cars during certain times of the day. California will force its citizens to buy an inferior product that’s less reliable while the infrastructure can’t support the number of electric cars already on the road. So where does California’s electricity come from? About 37 percent comes from natural gas-fired power plants in the state. The three that power Los Angeles are slated to be shut down by 2029. There’s only one coal-powered plant left in the state. What California is doing is shifting the negative environmental effects of fossil fuels to other states. Since California already uses more electricity than it produces. Eighteen percent of California’s electricity comes from a coal-burning power plant in Utah. Southern California Edison also owns a stake in another coal-fired power plant in New Mexico. California also gets more than half of the electricity from the Hoover Dam on the Nevada/Arizona border. After years of drought conditions, the water levels of the lake that feeds the dams turbines is dangerously low, posing a very real threat to that source of electricity. California doesn’t care about global warming, they only care about keeping the pollution out of California. Mandating electric cars won’t do anything to reduce global warming. It just shifts the blame away from California. It’s a token measure made to make themselves feel good. Until other industrial nations do more to reduce pollution, shifting the pollution from California to other states doesn’t accomplish anything. So while retreating ice sheets continue to reveal ancient weapons, showing that there was a time when there was no ice there, we may have to accept that the earth has its own warming and cooling cycles, and humans need to adjust to them, not try to stop them. We’d like to think we can control everything, but we can’t. Is reducing pollution a worthy goal? Of course it is. We’ve done a great job of decreasing the amount of pollution we create, and at the same time, have created new forms of pollution like PFAS. But thinking our token measures will somehow effect the long-term plans of our planet is a folly. State and Federal governments dictating which power sources we’re allowed to use is merely a way for politicians to pacify radical environmentalists. Restricting the availability of fossil fuels without having another dependable source is a measure that will result in hardship and suffering in the short-term, without any evidence that it will have a long-term benefit. We need to put all of our tools to good use, not just the ones certain people want to force on the rest or us. Restricting our power sources will have a negative effect on our economy, our security, and our comfort. Maybe someday the world will run on clean, renewable energy, and that’ll be a good thing. But that someday is not today, nor it is tomorrow. 

The Listening Tube is written and produced by yours truly. Copyright 2022. Thank you for putting your ear to the Listening Tube. I’m your host, Bob Woodley for thou ad infinitum.