Odds and ends, 11/2/07

Most of you probably heard two related news items this week.

First, that Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the man who flew the Enola Gay and dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died. To his dying day, he was unrepentant for having done that. And he did not want a tombstone, because he did not want to provide protestors a place to gather.

Second, the Japanese Supreme Court ruled that the Japanese government must pay medical benefits of Koreans who were in Hiroshima that day. The Koreans were there as forced laborers.

I have visited Hiroshima. I walked past the usual protest signs branding Americans as war criminals for dropping the bomb. I also know Japanese nationals can be uncomfortable when you mention Pearl Harbor. I have asked two. One said he did not know how to talk to Americans about Pearl Harbor. The other said she had visited Pearl Harbor.

Inside the Peace Museum, you will see the stone steps with a permanent shadow cast on it. The shadow was where a person was sitting, waiting for the bank to open, when the bomb went off. You will see a tricycle mangled by the bomb. You will see photos of the injuries of people who survived the blast. And you will see a model of Hiroshima before the bomb and Hiroshima after the bomb.

And you can see copies of messages sent by Hiroshima's mayors to various national leaders following nuclear weapons tests.

If you want to a different experience, go to the Air Force museum in Dayton. When I was there a few years ago, the exhibit focuses on the Allied military lives saved by the quick end brought by the A-bomb's use.

There are various theories that bombing Hiroshima had political reasons, too. The Soviet Union had just entered the war against Japan, and President Truman wanted to secure Japan before the USSR could invade from the north and take Hokaido and perhaps part of the main island of Honshu.

To me, the real tragedy of Hiroshima was that Nagasaki had to be bombed, too, before Japan surrendered.

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I did something unusual the other night. I actually watched more than five minutes of "The O'Reilly Factor." I was only watching because Dennis Kucinich was on to talk with O'Reilly about the Democratic debate the night before. One thing that O'Reilly said made me really said. He said he likes Kucinich.

That saddened me because I like Kucinich, too. Not because of his politics. I disagree with a lot of what Kucinich stands for. But I like Kucinich because he at least seems to be genuine and not a prepackaged product.

Kucinich was in Huntington late in the 2004 primary season. By then, John Kerry had the nomination sewed up. I have no idea why Kucinich was running then or now unless there was a degree of ego involved. But Kucinich visited a couple of places here -- the Java Joint and Ebenezer Medical Outreach. I could talk to him as much as I wanted. No handlers, nobody to keep me in a roped-off area. Just the candidate walking around, talking with people.

I wonder if that's how things work in Iowa and New Hampshire. I wish it could work more often. When John Edwards was here in the summer of 2004, there was absolutely no media availability. I can understand some of that. From his point of view, he didn't want all his work to be ruined by being misquoted in some dinky newspaper in a dinky town he wouldn't think of visiting if he weren't running for office. But it still burns me.

As far as I know, what you see with Kucinich is what you get. You can dislike him for his ideas, but at least they seem to be his ideas.

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This is where I want to go sometime on vacation:





Too bad it's on Mars.


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Okay, I've stayed away from the bash-the-ACLU, praise-the-ACLU arguments people get into. But I couldn't let this one go by.

This is from an AP story about the textbook controversy in Kanawha County:

“Parents may have a fundamental right to send their child to a public school, but they don’t have a fundamental right to direct the way public schools teach their child,” said Terri Baur, interim director of the state ACLU chapter. “Think about the implications of this. Are they going to pull a math textbook because a parent doesn’t like the way multiplication is being taught?”

When the smart people tell me I have no business wanting my wishes known on how my child is educated, oh how I want vouchers. I want back some of the money I'm spending on property taxes so I can use it to have my child educated properly.

I've given my opinion before on the particular fight in Kanawha County. But attitudes like the one above is why so many parents pull their kids from public schools.

As far as math instruction, I am very disappointed with at least one high school geometry text I have seen. It is so far dumbed down from the one I used in the 1970s, you wonder if they're teaching the same subject.