Whitcomb: North Country Jaunt; To Span the Sound? Irrational Iran Deal
Robert Whitcomb, Columnist
Whitcomb: North Country Jaunt; To Span the Sound? Irrational Iran Deal
O Thou who passest thro’ our vallies in
Thy strength, curb thy fierce steeds, allay the heat
That flames from their large nostrils! thou, O Summer,
Oft pitched’st here thy golden tent, and oft
Beneath our oaks hast slept, while we beheld
With joy, thy ruddy limbs and flourishing hair.
Beneath our thickest shades we oft have heard
Thy voice, when noon upon his fervid car
Rode o’er the deep of heaven; beside our springs
Sit down, and in our mossy vallies, on
Some bank beside a river clear, throw thy
Silk draperies off, and rush into the stream:
Our vallies love the Summer in his pride.
Our bards are fam’d who strike the silver wire:
Our youth are bolder than the southern swains:
Our maidens fairer in the sprightly dance:
We lack not songs, nor instruments of joy,
Nor echoes sweet, nor waters clear as heaven,
Nor laurel wreaths against the sultry heat.
“To Summer,’’ by William Blake (1757-1827), English poet and visual artist. Whew!
“It was one of those midsummer Sundays when everyone sits around saying, ‘I drank too much last night.”’
-- From “The Swimmer,’’ a short story by John Cheever (1912-1982)
“I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be a Catholic) how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote.’’
-- John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), U.S. president, Jan. 20, 1961-Nov. 22, 1963
“Slang is as old as speech and the congregating together of people in cities. It is the result of crowding and excitement and artificial life.’’
– John Camden Hotten (1832-1873), English bibliophile and publisher
“Man still is vile.”
-- Thaddeus Stevens (1792-1868), Pennsylvania congressman, abolitionist, lawyer, entrepreneur and a pioneer in promoting free public education, he was the primary driver in the enactment of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. He’s a giant figure in American history, though few Americans seem to know his name.
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Ah, summer, which officially starts today – meaning, sorry, that daylight is starting to get shorter again, and that many plants’ growth continues to slow. Speaking of light, fireflies start glimmering around now – great fun for kids with glass jars. Time seems to slow in the long twilights.
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We were in Vermont and New Hampshire last week and marveled at how many interesting and highly creative – and eccentric -- people live in the woods. One we encountered was a painter and sculptor called Kent Ignacio, a former logger originally from Rhode Island, samples of whose delightful work we encountered in a diner in Fairlee, Vt. (I particularly liked his tiny bird sculptures.) His house and studio are on the edge of a forest in the tiny town of Piermont, N.H.
Some people like a lot of isolation and quiet to make art.
Diners still serve as unofficial town halls in many North Country communities. Most just offer breakfast and lunch, and don’t expect a wine and cocktail list! And take your statins and baby aspirin.
It was encouraging to see all those FIFA soccer fans enjoying downtown Providence (and avoiding pricier downtown Boston). Maybe the many foreigners among them will tell their friends and family back home to hazard Trump’s xenophobia and come visit. Perhaps because I’m of partly Scottish background, I enjoyed the flamboyant remarks of some of the Scottish revelers, many of whom were not averse to having a few cool ones.
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A big test for Rhode Island state officials is how much they’re willing to take the political heat in forcing suburbs with many affluent people (who vote more than other groups), and long habituated to sprawl development and large lots, to allow more density in the form of multifamily housing for low-and-middle-income people. The Town of Lincoln is one such place where conflicts over density are ongoing. But more density is inevitable, at least until disease and/or birth control and/or outmigration reduce the population.
Here’s a useful report on Rhode Island’s not very effective housing policies: READ HERE
The Bridgeport, Conn., area has been fighting sprawl and improving the quality of life in the process. There are some lessons there for cities and suburbs around America.
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Progress is being made on getting a $200 million federal loan for fixing up Providence’s now empty and decaying Industrial Trust Building for various uses, but mostly for apartments, presumably with the fancier, more expensive ones, with better views, on the higher floors. And, I’d guess, stores, restaurants and event venues down below. I’d be curious to see what High Rock Development does with the grand first-floor banking hall. It looks like the setting for a state dinner. Anyway, creative reuse is essential for old buildings in dense cities.
Finally bringing the “Superman Building” back to something like its former grandeur would be good for morale and, in turn, for economic development in the city. But a recession could dash the new hopes to save the Art Deco skyscraper.
Every bit of new housing can help to moderate housing costs, but zoning changes, especially in suburbia, are key.
Kudos for Thinking Big
America has generally not had an enviable record of building or repairing big infrastructure projects in recent decades. (There is New York City’s Second Avenue Subway, but also such downers as the Washington Bridge over the Seekonk River.)
But grand hopes still exist. Consider Connecticut developer Steve Shapiro, who is leading a campaign to build a bridge-tunnel complex (for trucks, cars and trains) connecting Bridgeport, Conn., and Kings Park, on Long Island. The $50 billion public-private project has put together a team that includes current and former elected officials from New York and Connecticut. The idea of connecting Long Island and southern New England is an old one; I remember folks talking about it a lot when I lived in The Nutmeg State, in the ‘60’s, but proposals for it go back at least as far back as the ‘30’s. Some proposals were to connect Rhode Island with eastern Long Island!
It would sure cut down on travel time for many, unless the new and scenic route drew too much new car traffic.
In any event, the ferries across Long Island Sound will stay in business for decades to come.
The very rich folks in The Hamptons might not like all the new people such a connection would bring in.
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Boston’s WBUR had a lovely piece on “ghost signs" – those fading identifiers on old brick walls of mostly long-departed companies and industries. They serve as a reminder of capitalism’s creative destruction, and of how New England was once a manufacturing marvel. Being of a certain age myself, I remember some of these sorts of old enterprises in their final years; indeed, I worked for a couple of them in summer jobs.
Proving How Stupid This War Was
Trump’s illegal war against Iran, waged for whatever reason – exhibitionist machismo, Epstein diversion, genuine fear of Iranian nukes? -- has made America weaker. That’s especially in comparison with where we were after Obama’s 2015 somewhat effective 2015 deal with the Islamo-Fascist dictatorship that was meant to monitor and curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The new contradictory accord, so far as anyone can figure it out, is a mess that contradicts Trump’s bombastic promises.
After thousands of deaths, mostly civilian, and heavy damage to the world economy, whatever the Iranian promises, there’s no guarantee that Iran will stop its nuclear work, and it won’t, especially after Trump’s war. That isn’t to say it wouldn’t hold off a nuclear test until 2029, when Trump leaves office, while rebuilding its non-nuclear defense – missiles, drones, etc. The U.S., for its part, has drawn down an alarming number of its missiles, drones, bombs and other materiel to attack Iran, leaving it less prepared to defend itself against Russia, China and other foes.
Trump wants to get out of the Iran mess he made, and so promises, in some strange fuzzy wording, to end sanctions and give reparations for the physical destruction he has caused, money perhaps to be laundered through the Gulf States – handy for rebuilding Iran’s military! Still, as of this writing much of the U.S.-Iran “deal” remain a mystery, but can be summed up with “the U.S. lost.’’ And who knows how much will actually happen, given Trumpian gyrations and disinclination to tell the truth.
Meanwhile, the conflict has proven how Iran can use strangling the Strait of Hormuz as a very powerful weapon, including in American politics, by driving up inflation. And while the Iranians may promise not to impose “tolls’’ on ships in the strait, they’re in the driver’s seat to impose (perhaps with the Omanis) “fees” to cover such things as safety and environmental costs.
Remember, the strait was open without charge before Trump’s war. Now it won’t be.
As for the Israelis, who encouraged Trump to attack Iran, the Orange Oligarch is leaving them in the lurch as they try to finish the cleansing of Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, killing many civilians in the process. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump’s former close pal, had wanted attacks on Iran to continue.
But U.S. mid-term elections are fast approaching, and Trump now wants to get out of the Mideast and to see gasoline prices fall ASAP. And his loyalty is always one-way.
One fine thing has come out of the war: It has accelerated the world’s move to renewable energy, which Trump hates, and doesn’t understand. And he has close financial ties with the fossil-fuel companies. He seems to adore coal -- the filthiest fossil fuel, whose mining does great environmental damage on land, in the water and in the air.
The New York Times reported that in April, wind and solar generated more electricity globally than natural gas for the first time. “This is a big turnaround,” Daan Walter, at Ember, an energy-research company, told the paper. “So what was five years ago maybe barely competitive, now is almost already clearly cheaper.”
Will Marco Rubio or J.D. Vance be chosen as the fall guy for Trump’s failed war on Iran?
It was surreal seeing the calm, polite and very disciplined French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the G7 summit last week, look like Trump’s babysitter as our leader wandered around spouting jibberish. Some in his presence looked the other way out of embarrassment.
Gordon Wood
Many people have commented on Gordon Wood’s brilliance as an American historian, best known for his work on the ideas and characters of the major personalities of the nation’s founding. The Brown emeritus professor died June 7 at age 92 after being hit by a driver as Mr. Wood stepped off a sidewalk in a Shaw’s supermarket parking lot in East Providence.
I had met Gordon a few times, in passing, over the years but didn’t really know him. Then he invited me to join a small “club” of older men who had led very interesting lives for a monthly lunch at a modest restaurant.
We enjoyed his enthusiasm for conversation, his unpretentious presentation of knowledge, his kindliness, and his humor, flavored with a sense of the absurd and whimsy. He could be very funny.
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Store parking lots can be very dangerous. Shoppers, both on foot and in their cars, are often distracted, and you don’t have to be driving very fast to do a lot of bodily damage in a lot’s tight spaces.