War is perhaps the greatest creator of change, good and bad. If not for war, we would not have come out of WW2 with electronic computers, first developed to quickly calculate artillery trajectories.
Many daughters of Rosie the Riveter never left the workforce when women were fired en masse after WW2 so the surviving men could take their jobs. Congress passed the G.I. Bill to stash returning male veterans in college and avoid a perceived glut in the labor market. (Female veterans didn’t need no education.)
Today’s interstate freeway system was sold to Congress in the 1950s as the DEFENSE Interstate Highway System, a way to “quickly” evacuate cities if those dirty commies were launching nukes. This resulted in the largely segregated suburbs that still plague us today.
Declaring genocidal war on the subhumans who preceded Europeans to this continent made the United States an empire. Additional subhumans were imported from Africa to exploit for their labor after the aboriginal heathen were largely exterminated intentionally or by disease.
Today, Europe is getting turned upside down by wars rooted in centuries of European colonialism. The phony borders in the sands of Araby were drawn up by Winston Churchill and the Brits after WW1.
Two decades ago, a Microsoft executive termed the Middle East a “black hole” for high tech. Some thought that bringing the Internet to the banana republic dictatorships of Africa and south Asia would ignite democracy.
War lit the fire instead. The thousands fleeing to Europe from all points south and southeast act not only from fear but from hope in search of better lives. Much as TV fueled the 1960’s U.S. civil rights movement, these largely Moslem people have seen that life can be better if they shed the chains of strongman rule.
Germany has welcomed the wanderers with open arms. Hungary has greeted them with military arms.
While the displacement of millions exacts heavy human costs, the churning and intermingling of populations may bring peace and thus prosperity in the medium term (five to 10 years).
Only masses of people acting in their own self-interest can defeat the twin causes of war in our times: religion and oil.
The Mahatma has just premiered a new movie entitled “Where to Invade Next.” Academy Award winner Michael Moore posits that it’s time to let women lead.
No, it’s long past time. Let life imitate art.
The Sixties slogan of “make love, not war” may yet come back into fashion – British Petroleum, Exxon and various gods willing.
ODDITIES AND ENTITIES. That complex under construction near Sparks City Hall had non-union workers pounding nails on Labor Day. Hope they got overtime…The 70th Annual Reno-Sparks NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet happens Oct. 24. See RenoSparksNAACP.org/ All presidential candidates welcome…Latest census data: Nevada’s poverty and uninsured rates are identical at 15.2 percent. Surprise, surprise.
Be well. Raise hell. Esté bien. Haga infierno.
Andrew Barbano is a 46-year Nevadan and editor of NevadaLabor.com. E-mail <barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us>. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Tribune since 1988.
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