Tom Lehrer’s song comes to mind when making observations about the central issue of this tawdry election which Congressional Quarterly estimates will cost $6 billion. Lehrer’s sardonic perspective concludes, “But during National Brotherhood Week, National Brotherhood Week,/ It's National Everyone-smile-at-one-another-hood Week./ Be nice to people who / Are inferior to you./ It's only for a week, so have no fear./ Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!”

The central lesson of this election is regardless of who wins, the fate of the Republic depends on our elected officials—indeed, on all of us,— figuring out how to solve, with people whose views we do not agree, problems. 

We will have the same problems as existed before the election. Indeed, even before the new Congress is sworn in and before Inauguration day, the current Congress will have to pass major economic legislation which President Obama will have to sign. If that does not occur, the Congressional Budget Office predicts DEPRESSION.

So, nearly all the same cast, vilifying each other for months, will have to work effectively with “people who / are inferior to you.” 

The outcome of two elections relevant to Voices readers is already clear. 

Even early in October, as I write, Obama will be re-elected because of his solid lock on the Electoral College. Rep. Glenn (“GT”) Thompson will be elected to his third term in Congress here in the Fifth Congressional District because—with the exception of 1976—a Republican has been elected to the Fifth Congressional District in every election since the Civil War. 

This District is 94 percent white; 87 percent of the voters have an education limited to high school. Two years ago, Thompson won re-election by 69 percent. Four years ago, when Obama won in Centre County, so did Thompson. Read more »

Lost in the current tragedy: Penn State is the world center of Hemingway scholarship

How Penn State came to be a center of Hemingway scholarship is a multiple tragedy in itself. The first tragic figure was Hemingway himself denying the validity of scholar Philip Young’s book. Hemingway tried to suppress the book because Young said to truly understand the author, the reader had to realize that Hemingway had been seriously injured during World War I. The consequence of his physical and emotional injuries, Young explained, was a therapeutic working out of his problems in Hemingway’s fiction.

Young explained Hemingway’s reaction to his book, “But then he really wondered if I really understood how damaging it could be to a practicing writer to tell him he has a neurosis. It damages him with all his readerss and could so injure the writer himself that he could no longer write.”

When Hemingway killed himself in July, 1961, Young received phone calls, telegrams, and letters at Penn State congratulating him. “You called it, Young! These messages belong to a rare species of the genus Congratulation, but the recipient was not gratified. Nor was the remark particularly accurate, as anyone who reads my book will see…” Read more »

 Note: The following is the text of my February, 2011 column at Voices where I announce the end of my From Where I Sit column. The hard copy text, complete with a phograph of me, is available at newstands in Centre County. I am reproducing it here for two reasons. First a reader insisted that I was required to explain my rationale more fully or, in her words, "face a grilling."  I therefore intend to call my next blog Grilling in which I not only explain but provide the reader with reassurance that the issues of the elderly and disabled will continue to be covered at Voices--only not from me. Not within the context of this From Where I Sit monthly column. Writers interested in covering such subjects are requested to get in touch with me at the email address below.] <?xml:namespace prefix = o />

 The handler applies the fully-charged cattle prod to the rear of a bull bred for ferocity. The cowboy—Slim really is his name—holds onto his hat with his left hand. Read more »

Invitation to Lady Gaga to Perform at the Bingo Parlor at Addison Court Plus Disability Suggestions for Paparazzi

Living in Central Pennsylvania has isolated me from the world’s realities. Until last month, I was unaware of Lady Gaga. This Lady shattered my consciousness. Not paying much attention to the fact that Lady Gaga was on the cover of September’s Vanity Fair, I bought the issue anyway. I buy Vanity Fair for the political reporting and because it is one of the best paying magazines for writers. I figure buying and reading a copy is like buying a lottery ticket. Read more »