학위논문(석사)--서울대학교 대학원 :행정대학원 행정학과(정책학전공),2019. 8. 권혁주. ; Korea's official development assistance (ODA) budget has been steadily expanding since its accession to the OECD in 2010. Meanwhile, Korea's ODA has been diversified by various implementing agencies. There have been many previous researches on effective implementation system to improve the effectiveness of ODA projects. In 2010, through the establishment of the Act on International Development Cooperation, the function of organizing and coordinating policies in ODA of the International Development Cooperation Committee has been strengthened. However, little case-based research has been done on what adjustments are actually made in the committee. The purpose of this study is to analyze the policy coordination cases of the International Development Cooperation Committee and to examine the factors influencing policy coordination in international development cooperation. The target of the analysis is the case of the integration of the overseas volunteer dispatch project into the WFK(World Friends Korea), which started in 2009 and has been in progress until 2019. In 2008, the Lee Myung-bak government set up a national policy task to dispatch 20,000 volunteer overseas. In this regard, discussions have begun on the need to integrate the overseas volunteer dispatch projects being promoted by all ministries into WFK program, which is being promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and primary integration by the leadership of the President in 2009 ~ 2010 was achieved. In the meantime, since 2016, the International Cooperation Committee has been discussing the integration of volunteer dispatch projects that have not been integrated yet. As a result, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has promoted discussions on integrated promotion. The related projects were programs of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, Korea Meteorological Administration, Fair Trade Commission, Ministry of Education. The research methodology first outlines the theories and researches on the influencing factors of policy coordination and selected the factors that might influence the policy coordination of international development cooperation. Based on the selected factors, the analysis framework was established and hypotheses were established. The analysis was conducted based on the analysis framework and the hypothesis was verified for the eight projects of six ministries in the case. In this study, the concept of policy coordination was focused on the integrated promotion aspect of inter-ministerial policies for enhancing synergy rather than solving policy conflicts among ministries considering the characteristics of international development cooperation issues. According to the theoretical discussion, the policy coordination is based on the hierarchical system, the network system, and the market system, and the International Development Cooperation Committee is considered as a coordinating mechanism for interactions among various participants in network system. In the previous researches on the factors influencing the general policy adjustment, it was pointed out that attributes of the issue and participant, leadership are important in policy coordination. On the other hand, previous researches in the field of international development cooperation have been studied mainly in terms of improvement of the institutional aspects, and prior studies on the factors influencing the adjustment are rare. Based on the previous research and theoretical discussions of network view on policy coordination, three factors were identified as factors influencing the policy coordination of international development cooperation. Those are the degree of internalization of the unique policy viewpoint of the network participants, disposition tendency of the participants on the policy, and the leadership level of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For each factor, detailed sub-indicators were set up. First, we considered the existence of dedicated implementation agencies, the use of specific policy resources, and the presence of interest groups as criteria for the degree of internalization of the unique policy view. In case of domain dispute tendency, the absolute amount and proportion of budget and the key policy areas. Third, in the case of leadership, the level of leadership of the president and the policy coordination institute (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) was considered. Eight projects from the six ministries had different degrees for each of the three factors, which affected the results of the strategies and adjustments chosen by the individual ministries in the policy coordination network. First, the Ministry of Health and Welfare carries out its own voluntary work by a non-profit corporation called the Korean Oriental Medical Service Group, but its degree of internalization of the policy perspective is not so high due to the small grant amount and the existence of multiple sponsors in the corps. In addition, and the number of stakeholders in Korea was not so high. However, the MHW restructured its business due to the President 's overseas trip, and the MHW stopped the business. The project is now integrated into the WFK platform. In the case of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, there is a high level of internalization of the policy perspective. The program is implemented by the traditional performing arts promotion foundation, which is a nonprofit foundation under MCST. In addition, it utilizes related majored students and its Korean Culture Center abroad. Moreover, the program is closely related to the main policy areas of MCST such as the operation of overseas Korea Cultural Center. As a conclusion, MCST decided to leave the network and converted the program into non-ODA domain to continue the program. In the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, there were two projects: the medical service project of the 6.25 participating countries and the medical service project in Vietnam. First, the medical service project of 6.25 participating countries, which had relatively low importance in MPVA, and which did not have any interest groups, was abandoned. However, the Vietnamese medical service project, which has a dedicated agency and strong interest group, and was chosen to be remained by being moved into non-ODA domain. The Korea Meteorological Administration utilizes unique policy resources and the KMA also adopted the non-ODA method to continue the project. In the case of the Fair Trade Commission, the proram is about dispatching FTC's internal employees overseas. Therefore, both the degree of internalization of the viewpoint and the tendency to dispute the domain were high. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not promote the integration of the FTC project, and it seems that mutual recognition is made that the project is not subject to integration between the two ministries. In the case of the Ministry of Education, there is a high degree of internalization of the policy perspective due to the fact that the responsible administration agency is in operation, utilizes its own policy resources, and there is a strong teacher interest group. In addition, the amount of the program's budget is very large, and the tendency to dispute the policy region is also high. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has shown a strong commitment to coordinate with the MOE's program since 2019, but the MOE is keep refusing it. We analyzed the cases of 8 projects of these 6 departments through analysis framework. The different factors that existed on each department triggered different strategies within the network for each department, and we observed that the result of the policy adjustment was different. In addition, the original hypothesis was verified. First, the greater the discrepancy in the viewpoint of the policy, the more unfavorable the policy coordination. Second, the larger the ministry's domain dispute tendency, the more disadvantageous the policy coordination. Third, the greater the leadership of the president and the policy coordination institute, the more favorable the policy coordination. Although this study was intended to detail the processes and achievements of policy coordination in the international development cooperation of Korea through actual cases, it was difficult to access the every minutes of the network participants' meetings, and inference was used to deduce the behavior of individual participants (ministries) through the review of official document. Therefore, it was only a rough explanation. However, the purpose of this study is to suggest that the main variables that actually affect the results of policy coordination in the International Development Cooperation Committee in Korea, the understanding of the process of policy coordination through committee among participants from a network perspective, and the microstatement of the behavior of the representatives of individual ministries in the course of the policy coordination. In the future, we look forward to expanding the scope of the research, including another example of policy coordination through the International Development Cooperation Committee, so that the results of the study can be generalized. ; 우리나라의 공적개발원조(ODA) 예산은 2010년 OECD 가입 이후로 지속적으로 확대되어 왔다. 한편 우리나라의 ODA는 다양한 시행기관에서 분산적으로 추진하고 있는 상황으로, ODA 사업의 효과성 제고를 위하여 그간 효과적 추진체계에 대한 선행연구가 다수 이뤄져 왔다. 이와 궤를 같이하여 2010년에는 국제개발협력기본법의 제정을 통해 국제개발협력위원회에 ODA의 총괄적 추진을 위한 정책의 총괄 및 조정 기능이 강화되었다. 그러나 본 위원회에서 실제로 어떤 조정이 이루어지는지에 대한 사례 기반의 연구는 거의 이루어지지 않은 상황이다. 본 연구의 목적은 국제개발협력위원회의 정책 조정 사례를 분석하여 국제개발협력에서 정책 조정에 영향을 미치는 요인이 무엇인지 알아보는 것이다. 분석 대상은 2009년에 시작되어 2019년 현재까지 진행되고 있는 이다. 2008년 이명박 정부에서는 글로벌리더 10만 양성을 국정과제로 정하고 해외 봉사단 2만명 육성 사업을 추진하였다. 이와 관련하여 전 부처에서 개별 추진 중인 해외 봉사단 파견 사업의 KOICA의 WFK로의 통합에 대한 논의가 시작되었고, 2009~2010년 경 대통령 리더십에 의한 1차적 통합이 이루어졌다. 한편 2016년 경 부터는 아직 통합되지 않은 봉사단 파견 사업들에 대하여 국제개발협력위원회에서 2차적 통합 논의가 시작된 바, 외교부가 주관부처로서 통합 추진 논의를 추진하였으며 통합 대상이 되었던 사업 들은 총 6개의 부처(보건복지부, 문화체육관광부, 국가보훈처, 기상청, 공정거래위원회, 교육부)의 8개 사업이었다. 연구의 진행 방식은 먼저 정책 조정의 영향 요인에 대한 이론과 연구를 개관하고, 국제개발협력의 정책 조정에서 주요한 영향을 미치리라 생각되는 요인들을 선별하였다. 선별된 요인을 바탕으로 분석 틀을 설정하고 가설을 수립하였으며 사례에 존재하는 6개의 부처의 8개 사업에 대하여 분석틀에 기반하여 분석을 수행하였고 가설을 검증하였다. 이를 위해 2014년부터 2020년까지의 국제개발협력위원회 조정 과정에서 생산된 문건인 무상원조 관계기관 협의회 및 국제개발협력위원회 의결 종합시행계획 등을 분석하였다. 본 연구에서는 정책 조정의 개념에 대하여 국제개발협력 이슈의 특성을 고려하여 부처 간 정책 갈등 해결 측면 보다는 시너지 제고를 위한 부처 간 정책의 통합적 추진 측면을 중시하였다. 이론적 논의에 따르면 정책 조정은 위계에 의한 방식, 네트워크에 의한 방식, 시장에 의한 방식 등이 존재하는 바, 국제개발협력위원회제도는 다양한 참여자 간 협의체를 통한 상호 작용의 조정 기제로 보아 네트워크적 관점에서 분석하고자 하였다. 한편 일반적인 정책 조정 영향 요인에 대한 선행연구에서는 이슈 및 참여자의 속성, 조정 환경, 조정 주체 요인 등이 주요 영향 요인으로 지적되어 왔다. 한편 국제개발협력 분야의 선행연구는 주로 제도적 측면의 개선점에 주안을 두고 그간 연구되어온 바, 조정 영향 요인에 대한 선행 연구가 드물었다. 결국 분석모형틀로서 이론적 논의의 네트워크 관점의 정책 조정 영향 요인과, 일반 정책 조정 선행 연구에서 논의된 영향 요인을 종합하여 국제개발협력의 정책 조정 영향 요인으로서 세 가지를 도출하였다. 이는 네트워크 참여자의 고유한 정책 관점 내재화의 정도, 참여자의 정책에 대한 영역권 다툼 성향, 대통령 및 주관부처(외교부)의 리더십의 수준 이다. 각 요인에 대하여는 세부 하부 지표를 설정하였는바, 먼저 고유한 정책 관점 내재화의 정도의 판단 기준으로 전담 사업 수행기관의 존부, 고유 정책 자원의 활용 여부, 이익집단의 존부를 고려하였다. 영역권 다툼 성향의 경우 예산의 절대 액수 및 비중, 사업 관련 기성사실의 발생 정도를 고려하였다. 셋째로 리더십의 경우 대통령 및 정책 조정 촉발 기관(외교부)의 리더십의 수준을 고려하였다. 통합 대상이 되었던 6개 부처 8개의 사업들은 이 세 요인에 대하여 각각 다른 정도를 가지고 있었으며 이는 개별 부처가 정책 조정 네트워크에서 택한 전략 및 조정의 결과에 영향을 미쳤다. 먼저 보건복지부의 사업은 대한한방해외의료봉사단이라는 비영리사단법인이 전담 수행하며 고유 자원을 활용하나 소규모의 보조금 교부 액수 및 봉사단에 복수 후원처의 존재 등으로 정책 관점 내재화 정도는 그리 높지 않다고 보인다. 또한 사업 수행이 오래되었으나 국내 이해관계자의 수는 많지 않아 영역권 다툼 성향도 높지 않다고 볼 것이다. 그러나 결정적으로 대통령의 해외 순방에 따른 보건복지부의 자체 사업 구조조정이 조정 결과에 영향을 미쳤다고 보이며, 보건복지부는 2018년부터 사업을 중단하였고 해당 사업은 현재 WFK 플랫폼에 통합된 상태이다. 문화체육관광부의 경우 전통공연예술진흥재단 등 소관 비영리재단법인이 사업을 전담하고 전통문화 전공 학생 및 재외 한국문화원을 활용하는 등 고유 정책 자원을 활용하며 이익집단도 존재하는 등 정책 관점 내재화 정도가 높다. 또한 예산은 소규모이나 한국문화원 등 연관 정책이 문화체육관광부의 중점 정책 영역에 해당한다. 이에 외교부가 해당 사업에 대한 강경한 검토 의견을 제시하였을 때, 문화체육관광부는 WFK와 통합하거나 사업을 중단하는 대신, 사업을 비ODA사업으로 전환하여 국제개발협력 조정네트워크에서 이탈한 후 지속 추진하는 전략을 택하였다. 국가보훈처에서는 6.25참전국 의료봉사 사업 및 베트남 의료봉사 사업의 두 사업을 논의하였다. 국가보훈처에서는 상대적으로 중요도가 낮고 전담 수행기관과의 밀착도가 낮으며 이익단체가 없었던 6.25 참전국 의료봉사 사업은 수행을 포기하였다. 그러나 국가보훈처는 베트남 의료봉사 사업의 경우 상이군경회라는 고유 정책 자원을 전담 기관으로 활용하는 점, 강력한 이익단체가 존재하는 점, 한-베 민간협력은 부처 차원의 주요 정책 영역에 해당하는 점 등으로 인해 사업을 포기하지 않고 비ODA방식으로 전환하여 지속 추진하는 방식을 택하였다. 기상청의 사업도 한국기상산업기술원이 전담하며 고유한 정책 자원을 활용하는 형태이나 이익단체가 특별히 없고 예산 비중이 낮았다. 한편 기상청도 본 사업을 비ODA방식으로 전환하여 지속 추진하는 방식을 택하였다. 공정거래위원회의 경우 부처가 직접 내부 직원을 파견하는 사업으로 고유 관점 내재화 정도와 영역권 다툼 성향이 모두 높았다. 그러나 외교부는 공정거래위원회 사업에 대해 통합을 추진하지 않은 바, 양 부처 간에 본 사업은 통합이 가능한 유형의 사업이 아님에 대한 상호간의 인지가 이뤄진 것으로 보인다. 교육부의 경우 소속 책임운영기관이 사업을 실시 중이며, 고유 정책 자원을 활용하고 있고 강력한 교원 이익단체가 존재하여 정책 관점 내재화 정도가 크다. 또한 사업의 액수가 매우 크고 부처의 중점 정책 영역에 해당하는 등 영역권 다툼 성향도 크다. 외교부는 2019년 시행계획부터 교육부 사업에 대하여 강력한 조정 의지를 보이고 있으나 교육부는 네트워크에 참여하여 협의를 통해 이를 지속적으로 반대하는 모습을 보이고 있다. 이러한 6개 부처 8개 사업의 사례를 분석모형틀을 통해 분석하였다. 영향 요인에 대하여 부처 별로 상이한 여건은 개별 부처가 네트워크 내에서 다른 전략을 취하도록 촉발하였고 이에 따라 정책 조정의 결과가 다르게 나타나는 것을 관찰하였다. 또한 당초 설정한 가설을 검증하였다. 첫째, 정책의 관점 단절의 차이가 클수록 정책 조정(통합)에 불리하였다. 둘째, 소관 부처의 영역 다툼 성향이 클수록 정책 조정(통합)에 불리하였다. 셋째, 주관부처 및 대통령의 리더십이 클수록 정책 조정(통합)에 유리하였다. 본 연구는 우리나라의 국제개발협력에서 정책 조정의 과정 및 성과를 실제 사례를 통해 세밀하게 기술하고자 하였으나, 실질적으로 네트워크 참여자들의 세부적인 회의록에는 접근하기 어려워, 단계 별로 조정에 대한 검토 결과를 통해 개별 참여자(부처들)의 행태를 추론하는 방법을 사용하여 대략적인 설명에 그친 한계점이 있다. 그러나 우리나라의 국제개발협력에서 실제로 국제개발협력위원회라는 정책조정의 수단, 즉 네트워크적 관점에서 참여자들 간의 회의체 운영을 통한 정책 조정의 과정을 파악한 점, 이 과정에서 개별 부처의 사업 담당자들이 보이는 행태들을 미시적으로 기술하였고, 우리나라의 정책 조정에서 실질적으로 정책 조정 결과에 영향을 미치는 주요 변인이 무엇인지 원형을 제시하였다는 점에서 연구의 의의가 있다. 향후에는 국제개발협력위원회를 통한 정책 조정의 또 다른 사례 등 연구 대상을 확장하여 연구 결과가 일반화 될 수 있기를 기대하여 본다. ; 제 1 장 서 론 1 제 1 절 연구의 배경과 목적 1 제 2 절 연구의 범위 4 제 3 절 연구의 방법 7 제 2 장 이론적 논의 및 연구 설계 9 제 1 절 정책 조정의 개념 9 1. 정책 조정의 개념 및 유형 9 2. 정책 조정의 수단 11 제 2 절 국제 개발 협력 이론 18 1. 국제개발협력 추진체계 18 2. ODA 분절화 19 3. 해외의 국제개발협력 추진 체계 21 제 3 절 정책 조정 영향 요인에 대한 연구 24 1. 일반적 정책 조정 영향 요인 연구 24 2. 국제개발협력 정책 조정 영향 요인 연구 25 제 4 절 연구분석틀 30 제 3 장 봉사단 파견 사업 WFK 통합 추진 사례 36 제 1 절 WFK 통합 추진 배경 36 제 2 절 2008~2013년도 추진 과정 37 1. 2009~2010년도 추진 과정 37 2. 2011~2013년도 추진 과정 40 제 3 절 2014~2020년도 추진 과정 43 1. 쟁점 사업 43 2. 2014년도 종합시행계획 46 3. 2015년도 종합시행계획 47 4. 2016년도 종합시행계획 48 5. 2017년도 종합시행계획 49 6. 2018년도 종합시행계획 50 7. 2019년도 종합시행계획 51 8. 2020년도 종합시행계획 51 제 4 장 분석 결과 및 논의 52 제 1 절 보건복지부의 정책 조정 참여 활동 52 제 2 절 문화체육관광부의 정책 조정 참여 활동 60 제 3 절 국가보훈처의 정책 조정 참여 활동 68 제 4 절 기상청의 정책 조정 참여 활동 80 제 5 절 공정거래위원회의 정책 조정 참여 활동 86 제 6 절 교육부의 정책 조정 참여 활동 92 제 7 절 외교부(주관기관)의 정책 조정 참여 활동 102 제 8 절 분석 결과 요약 104 제 5 장 결론 112 제 1 절 연구의 시사점 112 제 2 절 연구의 한계점 및 향후 연구 114 참고문헌 116 Abstract 119 ; Master
So, who from Louisiana's political left is right about the morass of the state's Democrats? The veteran political analyst who foresees the light at the end of the tunnel as very distant? Or the academician who thinks the party's political fortunes can improve dramatically?
As part of his television gig, longtime editor of the shopper New Orleans Gambit – no longer a shopper since The Advocate chain gulped it up a few years ago – Clancy DuBos doesn't see much hope for the party that ruled the state uncontested starting over a century ago for six decades, and still was in the majority until about 15 years. He declared the party on "life support" and, boldly asserting perhaps the surest thing in state political history, foresaw a major shakeup in state party leadership within the next few months.
That's axiomatic for a state party with a single out of eight members of Congress, without a single statewide executive, standing on the wrong sides of supermajorities in each legislative chamber, soon to be down 9-2 on the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, and in three years likely to lose ground on the one elected body where it isn't in a steep minority, the Public Service Commission. Having no candidate come within 25 points of Republican winners in any statewide race and ceding even more supermajority ground to the GOP in the Legislature as a result of this year's election makes leadership change a question not of if, but of when.
Possibly the party's state central committee will act sooner, at its next quarterly meeting, to dump current Chairwoman Katie Bernhardt and others. Being that they are the ones that put her there originally, they may not and concentrate instead on winning reelection next spring and then have the new group make the change.
Regardless of when, expect its happening to eject from leadership the final vestiges of the rent-seeking/trail lawyer/courthouse liberal populist gang of whites lording over the party. The facts are that of all the 48 state office elected Democrats – two on the PSC, two on BESE, 11 in the Senate, and 33 in the House – all but seven are black, and blacks comprise 61 percent of the party registrants. Black political elites must take primary control of the party to help shape candidacies that will attract a majority black base that will inspire a turnout that among that base which likely was below 20 percent in the general election runoff.
On the point that new, if unspecified other than it needs to raise more money, leadership is needed, Dillard University professor Robert Collins agrees. Yet he thinks, with that in hand, there's a way forward for Democrats, based upon observations of other odd-year state election results. Specifically, he views the success of an amendment to Ohio's constitution to make abortion less restricted, of Virginia Democrats' ability to stave off further Republican gains there in legislative elections, and Kentucky Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear to win narrowly reelection as object lessons towards reinvigorating Louisiana Democrats.
However, there's much less to the eye here than he argues. First, Louisiana is not a swing state like Ohio – slightly red – or Viriginia – slightly blue. It's a solidly center-right state slowly becoming less of the former and more of the latter. So, among the three states, only Kentucky is comparable.
That doesn't mean the issue of state regulations on abortion can't be used as a wedge to pry some voters away from Republicans. Except that Collins misreads the inherent power of that issue not just in Louisiana, but nationally. Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court (rightfully through one of the most erudite decisions in its history) disabused the notion that the Constitution contained a right to snuff the unborn, the degree to which only constrained by state action within the bounds of an incoherent Court decision made a half-century ago, now with states empowered to decide abortion's boundaries they have engaged in an equilibrium exercise to align their laws with their people's prevailing moral beliefs as enunciated through their elected representatives or through instruments of direct democracy.
Since the decision, states have wandered their ways towards their individual median preferences. Soon, that will resolve and the issue will cease to grant either political party more than a miniscule advantage or disadvantage, which will include Louisiana because it pretty much rested at equilibrium from the moment the decision came down.
Collins mistakenly doesn't think so, citing a recent poll (and he could have gone with another a bit older) showing slightly more Louisianans oppose the current law that allows for abortions only in the case of a threat to the mother's physical health or is unviable than support it, using this factoid to argue that a Democrat running hard on the issue to loosen restrictions could gain major traction.
The problem with this is abortion for decades among Louisianans (and nationally) has been far down the list of voter concerns. Most recently, issues towards the top (from the poll Collins cited) swing very much against Democrats, and in Louisiana in particular because the negative outcomes the state experiences on these come precisely from decades of governance by liberal Democrat populists – and voters increasingly are acknowledging that role in the state's economic destruction.
Running hard on liberalizing abortion in Louisiana – often described as the most pro-life state in America and with the oldest and deepest Catholic roots of any – is a fool's errand. It will hardly move the needle in a state suffering depopulation, economic development running behind almost all others, and educational quality still lagging just about any other. (As shown in the Senate District 12 race last month where an avowedly pro-abortion candidate lost 78-13 percent.)
Nor can the lesson in the one state Collins mentioned with a similar political environment to Louisiana, Kentucky and the Democrat Beshear win, translate to Louisiana Democrats. What Collins doesn't know or disregards is Beshear won only because his last name is Beshear. His father having been governor from 2007-15 and the last name on state ballots 15 times in the last 44 years, the dynastic familiarity with the name made him an extreme outlier in a system that in every other way mirrors Louisiana – supermajorities in the state legislature and Republicans controlling every other statewide office.
There's no such Democrat in Louisiana now or for the foreseeable future. And almost certainly in Kentucky in 2027, when Beshear is term-limited, we'll see a Jeff Landry-like Republican seize the office to give the Kentucky GOP a clean sweep. In essence – in one of the few instances where Louisiana isn't behind the times now – Kentucky is four years behind Louisiana.
DuBos, running against type over the past couple of decades, is right: Louisiana Democrats have no immediate hope of becoming a relevant party again. But he does miss the caveat: unless they make a concerted effort to move closer to the median voter. Since the election of Democrat Pres. Barack Obama, the party has emulated its national level, becoming shriller as its leadership sprinted to the far left, embracing tighter identity politics and conspiratorial economics.
The ensuing trickle down to its candidates gushes precisely against the prescriptions of its waning Great Society base who argue any platform that doesn't put first and foremost, beyond any other issue such as climate alarmism, defunding police, gender affirmation, etc., economic policy to address working class concerns will not win elections. That goes triple in Louisiana, where the irony is the population already is sensitized to the folly of the economic policies these liberals have stumped for since the Great Society.
Moving towards the Louisiana median voter will be a hard thing for the party to do with all the pressure coming from the national party that predicates its issue preferences on what New York, Illinois, and California Democrats want. But pulling rabbit candidates out of hats, pinning hopes on insignificant single issues, or pining for leadership that is just old wine in new bottles won't make it; shedding radicalism is the only hope for Louisiana Democrats to gain anything but episodic and rarely consequential influence over policy-making in the state.
Part two of an interview with Mrs. Anthony Safien of Westminster, Massachusetts. Topics include: How she became a U.S. citizen. What it was like for her children to visit their grandparents in Canada. How she has enjoyed her life in the U.S. and how it might have compared to a life in Canada. ; 1 SPEAKER 1: Did you ever become a citizen or…? SAFIEN: Yes, I became a citizen about, uh, three years after we got married. Usually they told me it's five years, but seeing that I married a veteran from the Second World War, they gave me two years. So after the third year, I went and I learned all the questions and everything. SPEAKER 1: Did your husband help with that? SAFIEN: Uh, well, not really because it's… well, he used to ask me the questions and I'd answer them. And I went through the whole book. And then finally I was called in to Fitchburg Court and I had myself fingerprinted. I had to go to the police station first time in my life. I had to be fingerprinted and then we went to court. No, first we went somewhere downstairs and the fellow – and I had to bring two witnesses, a man and a woman that would verify my character or something. And, uh, they asked me a lot of questions, why I was becoming a citizen and all that. And I gave them some foolish answers. I told them, "Well, I married an American fellow." And so they asked me, "Is that the only reason to come and become a citizen?" And after that, I think about a few weeks later, they called me. And I, we went… well, there were quite a few of us, other people becoming citizen, and we got sworn in and got a picture taken. Then now I got a paper to prove that I became a citizen of the United States. So, uh, it was kind of nice. It felt good. SPEAKER 1: Were you nervous a little bit too? SAFIEN: Oh, yes. I was really nervous because – I had to go home. You know, there was nobody… and even when they ask you those questions, even if my husband and my two witnesses were there, but they take you in a room and they asked you a certain question. It's almost something like a driver's license. SPEAKER 1: Yes. SAFIEN: You get seventy-five questions and they might ask you three questions but you still got to know… SPEAKER 1: Those three.2 SAFIEN: The whole book. SPEAKER 1: Yes. SAFIEN: You got to know the whole book because you don't know which questions they're going to ask you. And I came home, I remember, and my husband came home from work. I said, "I made it." So now I've been a citizen for 26 years. SPEAKER 1: How about politics? SAFIEN: Well, after my citizenship papers came through, we talked it over with my husband because I didn't know too much about it here. He was a Democrat, so he says, "Well, why don't you join his party?" SPEAKER 1: Yes. SAFIEN: So I became a Democrat. SPEAKER 1: And you still are? SAFIEN: Still are. SPEAKER 1: You're not really actively involved in the [unintelligible – 0:02:45]. SAFIEN: No. I vote for Democrats most of the time. SPEAKER 1: Yes, just an average. SAFIEN: That's right, because I don't understand that much about the politics and… so I just vote Democrats. SPEAKER 1: After you got here, you probably corresponded, like writing back home, right? SAFIEN: Yes, I used to write to my mother in Lithuanian. But then my mother had to have a friend read it to her. So finally she told me to write them in French. My sister-in-law, she used to read them and then translate them to her in English. Finally I wrote them in English. It was the same thing. My sister-in-law still had to translate them but she understood it better from English than from French into Lithuanian. SPEAKER 1: You had the advantage too. You probably called her on the telephone too, right, if you… SAFIEN: My mother never had a phone. SPEAKER 1: She never had a phone?3 SAFIEN: No. SPEAKER 1: No. SAFIEN: No. She never had a phone. But like I said, we used to go visit them every year for about a whole week, and letters mostly. She always wanted to get a letter every week no matter what I said as long as I said hello. If I didn't say hello one week, she'd worry. SPEAKER 1: Really? She's still worried about you? SAFIEN: Yes, well, for a few years. After that, I guess you get adjusted in life like anybody else so anything else. My kids used to enjoy going to see grandma and grandpa, especially the little grocery store, little candy store. They still have it even today. It's right next door to my mother's house. Give them a nickel and they'll come over with a bag of candy. SPEAKER 1: Not if you can do that now. SAFIEN: They still can do it there. SPEAKER 1: Really? SAFIEN: Yes. I was there a few months ago now and they still got that little store next door. The kids, I guess, they still get them. SPEAKER 1: They still can get a lot from a nickel. SAFIEN: Yes, for a nickel. SPEAKER 1: When you wrote back and forth, or when you even talked to them, did you ever try to encourage them to come to America, your brothers? Probably your parents were pretty stationary. SAFIEN: No. We never discussed that subject because, I don't know, it never occurred to us. I figured I've made my life. My life happened this way that I had to… I mean I didn't have to marry but it just happened. Like I said, I married an American fellow, and my brother married a Canadian girl. They settled there, and I settled here. There was no question. SPEAKER 1: No trying to – SAFIEN: No. They got adjusted to their lives. I still like it here---peace and quiet.4 SPEAKER 1: I was just going to say, when you consider everything, would you ever consider going back there, or this is your home? SAFIEN: No, I wouldn't. I thought of it after my husband passed away. I don't know if I got a little depressed or something. I told my kids a few times if they didn't behave, I'm going to take them to Canada and live with grandma and grandpa. They didn't like the big city either, because there was no backyard to play. They had to play in the alleys. When they grew up a little older, still they went. They sat on the front porch and back porch. In here, at least we got a big yard. You're not scared to let the kids out on your road to bicycle or roller skating. Up there – oh, God Almighty! SPEAKER 1: The traffic and everything. SAFIEN: Oh, traffic! I think Boston probably is getting worse and worse every year. When we first moved up to that house---that's our second house that I'm talking about and my father bought it, it wasn't bad. We thought we were out [unintelligible – 0:07:01]. I was out of the main drag. But as time went by, every year we went by to visit them, it seems… SPEAKER 1: To get worse? SAFIEN: Oh, yes, red lights on every corner. When we first started going back to visit them, we used to stay there a week. On the third day, we were ready to come home. SPEAKER 1: Really? SAFIEN: Yes. Where we live right now, it's peaceful and quiet. Up there, in the middle of the night, you can hear brakes screeching, fire trucks, sirens and police cars zooming by. But we toughed it out because we went to visit grandma and grandpa. SPEAKER 1: It still is an experience. SAFIEN: It is because you see the place grow. I think if you lived there, you wouldn't pay so much attention to it. Now I remember when we first moved there, there was three lots empty next to our house. Next year we 5 go, there's one house. The following year, there's another house. It looks like we're back in the city all over again. SPEAKER 1: Do you think, in general, things have worked out better for you? Do you think you had a better opportunity in America or about the same? Do you think you had more opportunity? SAFIEN: Well, I never really had to work since I got married and raised three children. SPEAKER 1: Since your husband really worked here all along, then that was not really a change in opportunity. Do you think your life was better maybe? SAFIEN: I liked it. I don't know. There were no headaches. SPEAKER 1: Even when you were first married, you really probably didn't have to struggle that much, did you? SAFIEN: No, not really. I wouldn't say no. No, not really struggling. I mean, we made ends meet, bills were always paid and we had a few dollars. Of course, in those days were better times. Anyway, that was 25 years ago. I never had to work. He didn't want me to go to work. We had three children. We raised them. SPEAKER 1: They went to school. SAFIEN: That's right. They went to school. SPEAKER 1: Do you think your children had a better chance here? You think the schools maybe were better? Would they have gone to college if you had lived in Canada and brought your children up there maybe? SAFIEN: That's hard to say because they never really liked it out there, especially when they got older. It seems the older they got, the less they wanted to go. The only thing they went because they wanted to see grandma and grandpa. As far as even visiting out there, we used to have a problem that they won't let the kids in the movies, so they didn't have much of a place to go. My nephews, they went to the pool room. SPEAKER 1: Yes, instead they allowed them in the pool rooms. SAFIEN: My son went once and he didn't like it. I often used to ask them if they'd like to live in Montreal, and they said no, probably because they 6 were born here. Maybe they'd go to Florida, but I don't think they'd go to Canada. As far as the weather, it's about the same as here. I used to write to my mother. I'd say, "Keep your cold air up in Canada." She'd write me back. She'd say, "Keep your cold air in the United States." I don't think there was much difference as far as the weather went. SPEAKER 1: Maybe some of the plans that you had when you came to this country, where there any that you might regret that you didn't achieve, anything that you specifically want to do that you never got to do? Maybe did you want to go to college or something like that? SAFIEN: No, I figured maybe when you're younger in those days. I just figured I got married, I had children. SPEAKER 1: That was what you wanted. SAFIEN: I figured out that was what life was and things went on pretty good, so I never thought about anything else. SPEAKER 1: You've been pretty satisfied with your life then. SAFIEN: Yes, until it lasted. SPEAKER 1: Yes. You got a happy life. SAFIEN: I can't say I was unhappy so far. I mean, I have my problems, like when my husband got sick and then passed away. After that, it was a little harder to live. After my husband passed away as a young man, I finally had to go out and work. I worked part-time first because the social security helped me until my kids became of age. The veterans helped me too so I could work part-time in those days. After the kids finished their education, then I had to go and find a full time job. SPEAKER 1: What was your part-time job, your first job? SAFIEN: I worked at the rest home, taking care of older people, citizens. It's just more like a home too, making beds and… SPEAKER 1: That was your full-time job? SAFIEN: After a while when my kids had their education, so they stopped all that help and I had to get the full-time job. They gave me the full-time job at the rest home. 7 SPEAKER 1: You don't really have that much trouble making ends meet. Do you get any compensation at all? SAFIEN: No, nothing from the government. SPEAKER 1: Not until you're on Social Security. SAFIEN: Until my own Social Security comes. After the kids reached their age and they finished their education, that's it, me and the children. SPEAKER 1: It's not that your life isn't that difficult to get along. You're not suffering. SAFIEN: No. SPEAKER 1: You've got a home. Is there any advantage you think that you have of being an American citizen? Do you think of an advantage you have over being, say, a Canadian citizen? Any privileges? Or was it not that different really? SAFIEN: I never had what I had here. Like I said, if I were to become a widow in Canada, I wouldn't know what they have. I know my father, when he reached 65, he got his Social Security and his pension from where he worked; same thing with my mother. But as far as young widows or widowers, I don't remember anybody talking about these things. I couldn't tell you whether they… SPEAKER 1: Do you think you had more freedom in the United States than you did in Canada? Not just political freedom. They all say it's the land of the free. Do you think of the freedom of speech or anything? SAFIEN: I think it's about the same. To me, it seems you just cross the street into Canada. SPEAKER 1: It's not all that different. SAFIEN: The only thing – the money maybe a penny more on a dollar or a dollar less. Some things are more expensive there. Electrical things are more expensive here in the United States, after you find out. No, it's pretty close to the same as here. SPEAKER 1: Lots of times you hear people say that they long for the good old days and many years ago. How do you feel about that statement? Do you 8 think the times were better in the good old days? Do you prefer life now? SAFIEN: Right now I prefer my life the way it is now. SPEAKER 1: Even though you really never had that difficult as a child, still you've got a lot more advantages. SAFIEN: No, because I'm more free now with my life as I am today, more or less. Well, I got a few dollars and I got a full-time job. I still got my health. I can do what I want to do. SPEAKER 1: The children are well. SAFIEN: The children are all married off – so far, so good. I think I got nothing really to… no, the only thing is I wouldn't have lost him. It would be a little better in one way. Your children get married. You still got your man. That's about the only thing. Otherwise, I don't know. SPEAKER 1: That's cool. I want to thank you for your time. I know I took a little bit of your time. Thank you for helping me. SAIFEN: Well, I hope it means something, like I said. /AT/jf/kb/ee
Transcript of an oral history interview with Rollin Reiter, conducted by Jennifer Payne on 5 October 2013, as part of the Norwich Voices oral history project of the Sullivan Museum and History Center. Rollin S. Reiter graduated from Norwich University in 1950 and earned earned his master's in business administration from the Harvard Business School in 1952. In his interview, he discusses his experiences running his family's business, Reiter Dairy, as well as his military service in the Korean War and with the Army Reserve and Coast Guard Auxiliary. ; 1 Rollin Reiter, NU '50, Oral History Interview October 5, 2013 Sullivan Museum and History Center Interviewed by Jennifer Payne JENNIFER PAYNE: This is Jennifer Payne with the Norwich Voices Oral History Project. Today's date is October 5th, 2013 and I am here with Rollin—Did I say it right? ROLLIN REITER: Um-hm. JP: Good. Reiter, Class of '50. So, Mr. Reiter, thank you for being here so early this morning. RR: Okay. JP: Where are you from? RR: Born in Akron, Ohio and we live in Canton, Ohio, except eight months a years, we're in Florida. We're Florida residents now in Key Largo, Florida. JP: Nice area. RR: That's where we live. JP: And your age is? RR: I'm eighty-five. JP: Eighty five. And you attended Norwich in 19— RR: Yeah. I came here in 1946 out of high school, graduated high school at Copley, Ohio and, on the farm, and came to Norwich. I didn't know anybody here—know anything about it, but was right after the War. The War was really a defining event in my life and most people of this age. And I got a postcard in the mail that talked about Norwich University. I admired uniforms and I missed, just missed the military. I was—had my physical and was ready to go but then the bomb dropped and everything was postponed. So, I did come to—applied to Norwich and was accepted and came here. My mom and dad brought me up, dropped me off and that was it. There was another student here from Akron area named Crile. I think it was Gary Crile. In Cabot Hall, where we lived, in the basement, there were two Ohio people. So, it wasn't unusual for Ohio students to be here, but that's how I got here was very, very simple. JP: When you were—when you were here, what activities did you do? RR: I was company commander, eventually, of Troop B and I was president of SAE when they had fraternities then. And I was Russ Todd's roommate and the two of us had a lot 2 of fun. Life at Norwich for us was really interesting and fun. And then, I had very good friends here, as most people do that come to Norwich. You develop some great friendships. It was Russ Todd and Jim Ricker and the others in Troop B and SAE. Other than that, I didn't—I wasn't an athlete or any. I did ski a little bit across the hill, across the road. JP: That's great. RR: Yeah. JP: What was it like with Russ Todd as a roommate? Did you guys get in—did you do many tours? RR: I never walked a tour, never walked a tour. Never exceeded ten demerits apparently. I'm just sort of a conformist. I like the military and I like military discipline so I got along okay. Russ was—he's more aggressive. He's a different kind of guy but the two of us hit is off really well. JP: Did you have a nickname? RR: Yeah. I had a couple. My middle initial is Steese and a couple people, like Russ, used to call me Steese. And then, because of my adventures on the range at Fort Meade when we went for our summer training, I was pretty good and some of them called me Alvin. JP: Alvin? RR: For Alvin Yorke, you know? "Oh, Alvin!" JP: Oh, Alvin! RR: Yeah. JP: What was Fort Meade like? RR: That was fun. That was our junior year and we all went to Fort Meade and then we were shipped—we took buses down to A. P. Hill for tank firing because there's no range at at Meade. So we went to A. P. Hill and that was fun. We lived in tents down there for the training and the weekend off, the three of us, Ricker, Todd, and myself went down to Williamsburg and travelled that area and had a lot of fun. Russ had a car so that was an advantage. JP: What kind of car was it? RR: It was a '37 Ford. Yeah. JP: Fun.3 RR: Is that right? Yeah. That's right. Yeah. JP: How big were the tents? RR: Oh, they were two or three man, I think, down there. Most rain I've ever seen in my life occurred at A. P. Hill while we were there. JP: Really? RR: Um-hm. JP: Did you guys get washed out? RR: That's—the Boy Scouts use A. P. Hill even. That's a great place for outdoor gatherings and maneuvers and things and large groups of people. JP: So when you left Norwich, what did you do? RR: Let's see. I graduated in June and Russ took his regular commission. I was offered a regular commission. Didn't take it. I took my reserve commission and went back to Akron and worked at the company dairy—at the dairy company, milk and ice cream processing. Applied at Harvard Business School and was accepted and went to Harvard Business School that fall and graduated there in 1952. It's a two year course, MBA. That was very interesting. That was a whole other life at Harvard Business School. That was—having been at Norwich, Harvard Business School was clear the other opposite. It was Ivy League and my roommate was from Yale. He taught me what it was like to be an Ivy Leaguer. We had a lot of fun. He and I had a lot of fun like Russ and I had and we probably had more fun than we really should have but we passed. That was the business school. I was in the Reserve, the Army Reserves, and attended Reserve meetings, out at Boston Army Base during that period. Every week, I would show up and the guys in the unit would say, "You still here? You should be in Korea. How come you're still here?" That's when Korea was on. Everybody was excited about Korea. I attended there and the summer camp there was at Fort Drum, New York. Went to that. Then, I went back to Ohio after business school. Worked at the dairy. Because I had no obligation coming out of Norwich with a commission, like they do, later they had two year, one year, six year. I had no obligation, so I was in the draft. I was ready to be drafted even though I had a commission. So, the only way I could avoid going in as a private was to volunteer. I volunteered for active duty as a reservist and took a three year active duty stint. That was kind of a funny thing that you could be drafted and yet you had a commission and were ready to serve at any time you were really asked to, as an officer, reserve officer. I liked the Army. It was fun. I had—when I was at Norwich, in my senior year, somebody came up from somewhere to talk to us about the Counter Intelligence Corps and going in to Intelligence and that we could go down to Dartmouth and take a lesson or have a lecture or something 4 down there on the Counter Intelligence Corps. I went and I applied. When I went on active duty, I was sent to Fort Holabird in Maryland for the Counter Intelligence school. That had to do with security and all those sorts of things. And then, before you could go overseas, you had to go through your basic armor or arm course which would be armor and I was sent to Fort Knox for the Basic Officer's Armor Course Number One. That was their first one of a certain type of basic course from for armored officers. Because I'd been in about six months, I was the senior guy in the class and all the Class of '51 from Norwich, part of that time—he happened to be aide to General, not Taylor, but anyway, he was an aide to a general there. Shorty somebody. Yeah. Russ and I were, again, together and all these guys from Norwich and I had a car and we had a good time. Then, while we were there, the truce was declared in Korea. That was nice to hear. I was out of there in October and was shipped to Seoul, Korea. Well, to Tokyo, and then assigned to the 308 CIC in Seoul, Korea. I went over there for a year. That was interesting work. Was Counter Intelligence Corps attached to the Eighth Army Forward in Seoul and I worked with the Intelligence people at G3, so Eighth Army there. We had the detachments up on the line at all the online divisions. Then, they had an offer. If you would agree to stay in the Far East for another year, you could transfer back to Japan. So, I did that. After a year in Korea, transferred to Japan. Spent a year there with the 441 st CIC which was out of Tokyo. We were located right downtown in the former Kanpai Thai headquarters along the moat. This place we had was where a couple of Jimmy Doolittle flyers were executed in the garden there. It was a pretty little place. But that's where some of his flyers that had been shot down or captured were imprisoned and killed there in that garden. Then, that tour was up. In '56, I came back to San Francisco on E.D. Patrick Troop Ship. We flew over but we came back on a troop ship. It was full of Japanese and Korean war brides mostly. JP: Really? RR: Just full of them and that was one of the things after the truce that the CIC did a lot of was clear these people. They had to have clearances. When they married a Japanese or Korean, they had—those brides had to be cleared before they could come back to the great PX, like they called it. We had a troop full of war brides and so forth. Up in the prow of the ship, we had a lot of army prisoners, criminal types that were being shipped back to the states. Not war prisoners but criminal prisoners, including one guy had butchered his chef, his mess sergeant or something like that. We, the three of us, officers were coming back in a state room, probably the only three in the whole boat that didn't get sick all the time. It was eleven days in rough weather in December. We were supposedly in charge of these prisoners up in the prow of the ship. It got out of hand. We didn't know anything about guarding prisoners and all like that. Halfway over, we had to call on the Marine detachment that was on board and they took over the prisoners and straightened things out. I'll never forget that. That was fun. We never got above the deck, up on the deck, the whole eleven days. It was so rough. JP: What happened?5 RR: Everything slid off all the tables and it was a mess. The luggage in our state room—we had—three of us were in a little state room. The luggage would keep going back and forth across the floor all the time. Anyway, that was the trip back to Oakland and it was a great experience. I like the Army a lot. I stayed in the Reserve in Akron, was in a Reserve, military intelligence unit in Akron. Taught there in the local command and general staff school. Then, it came time to go to Fort Leavenworth, to command and general staff school and so forth. It was becoming difficult because the business that I was in—I was running the business now myself. It was hard for me to get away as much as was required. Unfortunately, I made the decision to retire from the Reserve. With eighteen years, I retired as a major from the Army Reserve. That's where that stands. I'm retired. That went on and I was very deeply involved in the milk and ice cream processing business in Ohio. We bought—I bought another plant in Springfield, Ohio and we bought branches all around the state. We grew like crazy. We were doing, oh, maybe a hundred million dollars worth of sales when, toward the end there—when I sold the business in 1986 to Dean Foods in Chicago. Then, I went to work for Dean Foods in Chicago. Meanwhile, we had built a really nice business in Ohio. We had some stores. We had a little adventure into the restaurant food business distribution. It was a good—we had a bout five hundred employees at the top. It had grown quite a bit. It was an interesting dairy for Dean Foods to acquire. I went to Franklin Park, the Dean headquarters, and I was responsible for about twenty dairies, mostly in Texas and the South and Miami and Athens, Tennessee and so forth. I had almost three billion dollars worth of sales under me there. I did a lot of travelling. But I was there for a short period because the understanding was, at Dean, when you're 65, you retire. So, on my sixty-fifth—near my sixty-fifth birthday, I was allowed to finish out the fiscal year, walked out, and that was it. That was a great experience because I was there with no obligation beyond doing what I'd been brought in to do. I wasn't concerned about my future or anything like most of the people in the company. I was sort of a free spirit. I enjoyed that a lot. Dean was a great company to work for. They have since sold out. They have been bought by a company in Dallas. It's still called Dean and it's still on the New York Stock Exchange and so forth. That was basically my business experience. I retired and we moved straight to Florida to a place called the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Florida. We knew of that because my sister had married a fellow that had property there and was important in the Ocean Reef Club functioning and so forth. We used to visit them. After a few years, they said, "That's it. If you're going to keep coming down here, you've got to get a place." That was good advice. We should have gotten several places. That was 1993, I think. We moved to Ocean Reef, bought a house, became Florida residents. We spend eight months down there and four months back in Ohio, where we kept our home, which is really a nice place too because it's on a golf course and very green. It's stood empty the whole time we were in Chicago. So, that's where we are today. We're living at Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Florida. It's sort of a development but there's, around it, there's nothing but state and federal parks. It's not spreading out a lot. You can't go down the road and buy something cheaper like you can up, further up in the state. I became active there with the Coast Guard Auxiliary. I guess I have a thing about uniforms. We joined. My wife and I joined the Coast Guard Auxiliary. This December, we will have been in that for twenty years. I wound up commander of 6 a— the Keys, the units in the Keys, from Key Largo on down to Key West. I had five units and about four hundred volunteers in that, that division. I was the division commander. But that, of course, was all volunteer work. It was very close with the Coast Guard. It was very interesting. They—I was in on their meetings at Key West with Sector Key West. They trained with us and we trained with them. Our people even sat and ran their radio communication sections at their Coast Guard stations. It was really an interesting relationship that we had with the Coast Guard. That was twenty years of that kind of activity too. JP: All those hurricanes! RR: Yeah. I put in eighteen years with the Army Reserve and twenty with the Coast Guard. I never got any retirement because I didn't quite make it the last two years. That's what I've been doing down there, playing some golf. My wife plays tennis and golf. We belong to the local racket club. That really is our life there. They have a unique unit called OR Cat, Ocean Reef Cat. It has a, we have three hundred feral cats on the property, running around. JP: Three hundred? RR: Three hundred. There used to be more but there's three hundred. They're all neutered and spayed. There's eighty feeding stations that are serviced every day for these cats. You see them. You go down the street at Ocean Reef and you see OR Cats, walking around or hanging around the feeding station or fighting off the raccoons who also eat in the feeding station. We build a really nice room or a building to service these cats. It's a beautiful, air-conditioned building with lots of couches and every cat tree you've ever seen or heard of. There's about a hundred cats in there who can't quite make it on their own outside. We have a veterinarian. We have a groomer and five or six veterinary assistants, running this installation with these cats in there. It's like the Green Briar for cats. It's wonderful! You go in there and these cats come from all directions and climb all over you because a lot of them were probably dropped off. When somebody that mows the lawn, or paints or something has a cat they don't want, they come into Ocean Reef to work. They just drop it off and they know OR Cat will grab it and take care of it. So, there's these wonderful cats and we adopted two of them. They're part of our family. When we go to Florida, there's always the four of us. Dory and I in the front and the two cats sitting in the back, sleeping or walking around or sitting beside us on the armrest. They sort of determine how we do things. We smuggle them into motels where we're not supposed to. Dory won't stay in any place that takes pets. She wouldn't want to stay there. We smuggle our two in in a piece of luggage that looks like a nice suitcase. That's one of our activities down there. We had a boat but we sold that. We're on the water. We have a fifty foot dock. I let my neighbor use it because he's got a seventy-two foot boat and a thirty foot boat. The deal is he can use our dock but he must keep us in fish, all the fish we can eat, when he's always bringing us fresh fish when he goes out. That's the deal there.7 JP: The cats must like that too. RR: Huh? JP: The cats must like that too. RR: Yeah. Yeah. They like that. They're not allowed to go outside. That's the deal when you adopt a cat. You sign that you will not—they can't—they've got to stay in the house. They're all spayed and neutered and well-behaved. JP: That's wonderful. RR: Yeah. They spend their time chasing lizards around the pool. We have a nice pool that's all screened in. There's these lizards that get in the hole somehow. The cats chase them all day and have fun with them. JP: Catch their tails and— RR: Yeah. Yeah. They take their tails off and then they play with them, you know. They never actually kill them. We have to do that. Last—two years ago, they discovered two snakes in our house. They weren't big ones but we knew by their activity that there was something under that chair. We had a little—what they call a corn snake. The kitties discovered that and a week later was another one. You never know down there. It's a funny area for animals and things. Right now, we have a big problem with invasive species of animals in Florida, especially Burmese pythons. Oh. They're taking over the Everglades. They really have. You used to be able to go into the Everglades and see pretty birds and animals and alligators and baby alligators. Now, the pythons have just about cleaned all that out. They claim there may be a hundred thousand pythons in the Everglades. They found they've really acclimated to the Everglades. They're full of pythons now. It's a shame. They've tried to kill them or hunt them out or put bounties on them but it hasn't been very successful. We have those and we have iguanas. They're starting to spread over the area and a couple of other invasive species. It's interesting from a wildlife standpoint. They aren't in Ocean Reef yet but, well there was one python found in Ocean Reef, a big one. They get up to fifteen feet or so. They're big. JP: That's a big snake. RR: Um-hm. Yeah. That's where I am right now. JP: Wow. This business that you sold, your family dairy, this was called? RR: Reiter Dairy. JP: Reiter Dairy and—8 RR: Yeah. My grandfather had started it way back in the Depression. I used to go to work with my dad there back in the thirties. That developed. They were in the butter business and got into the bottled milk business. It was never really very big. It was home delivery in those days. That sort of fizzled out. Then, we became really big in trailer load of deliveries of milk to supermarkets, big stuff, all over the state of Ohio and a lot of private label milk in other people's names, you know, for a supermarket. Then, we got in the ice cream business. We made about five million gallons of ice cream a year, which is not a big operation but it was—it was well-equipped and a good product. We covered most of Ohio out of there. That—they have since moved most of our Akron operations to the plant I bought in Springfield, Ohio. It's still Reiter Dairy down there in a pretty big way. But I haven't been down there to look at that since they've expanded it. In back of all this, I think the basic foundation that was laid, that I achieved at Norwich University was very important in all of this, maybe more so than my MBA training at Harvard. Like Sevie said the other night, there's a secret ingredient here at Norwich University, or a special ingredient that provides, imbues the graduates with a leadership ability through a discipline achieved by military-type life. I think that's a unique thing that is so valuable to Norwich graduates. It's a unique way of life here that they never forget. It just molds the way they approach life with discipline, discipline learned through the military culture. I didn't come here to be a professional military man and I was—I was attracted by the concept of the citizen soldier. I wanted to be able to be a soldier if I was needed and when I was needed but I didn't want to be a professional soldier as opposed to Russ Todd, who went on to be a major general and a division commander. That was—it was so important, I think. Norwich was little when we came here in '46, it was—compare today— today, it was nothing. It was really pretty rough around the edges and the veterans were coming back during that period. We were, for a while, kind of mixed in with the veterans. Then the class, my class, was one of the first really Cadet Corps classes after the War. The veterans, if they were going to be there, had to be in the Cadet Corps, for the most part. That was important for that to happen, I think. They've dropped the fraternities. I don't think the fraternities were very complimentary to the military way of life. There was always a little underlying conflict there, your interests and your loyalties. They did do away with fraternities which I think was a good move. General Harmon did that. That kind of life was very important and I had some great friends. Some of whom have passed on, you know, already. Not too many of us left in our class. We've been treated real nice as old guard. I mean, they—we've been introduced. It's been a—they've taken good care of their old-timers. Yeah. Do you have other questions? JP: I would like to ask, what did advice would you give a rook on how to survive and thrive? RR: Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the questions that you asked me and that's an important question, especially today. I just read a book by Tom Friedlander. He wrote "The Earth is Flat" concept about how we're part of the world economy, which we are. A young man going out into the world today has got a real serious decision to make as to how he's going to approach his job, what he's going to do to sustain his job and not be part of the, part of the economy that doesn't make it. I'd say that to remain in their—retain their integrity and retain their interest in doing a little more than is required in your job and looking for ways to do jobs better. It's the givers who are going to succeed, not the 9 takers. I think it's important for them, going into whatever they do, to be a part for progress and for improvement in order for them to survive. To be one of the survivors, they've got to be one of the people that knows how to improve things and do things in a better way even though it may be threatening, eventually, to their own job but people that can contribute in some way with innovation is what going to be important. Of course, the peak of that would be an entrepreneur that knows how to start his own business and has that determination. That is really great too, I think. It's going to be a tough world out there, a different kind of world, but I think Norwich has prepared them for that in a much better way than a lot of other civilian universities or concepts, especially some of the academic paths that they could choose that—it's got to be pertinent, these days, if they're going to survive and be successful. I think they learn that here. I think that the sciences are going to be extremely important. Be it engineering and that sort of thing, would be a great field to follow. I was reading somewhere, I think it was Harvard Business School, about some of their graduates and where they were going. Some of the more successful have done things like join railroads, Union Pacific or something like that, positive type jobs that have room for innovation and improvement in the economy. JP: Is there anything else you'd like to add? RR: Well, I've been really lucky. I really have. Health has been, I've had some health problems but they've all been fixable. I have two new knees. I had a hip repair. I broke this knee a couple years ago on a rug, slipped on a rug and the doctor in Key Largo said it was the worst break he ever fixed. It was right where the artificial knee is. He put in a steel plate and a cadaver bone and seventeen screws and I've got a, he gave me a copy of the X-ray. It's suitable for framing. I mean, it's really neat. All these screws and wires are in there. He said he couldn't believe it when I got up and walked across the room. He said, "I didn't think you would ever walk on that leg again." JP: You're moving it like nothing's wrong with it. RR: Yeah. As I said, everything that has happened to me, I broke my arm. I broke my shoulder. They've all been fixable. Go to the garage and get it repaired. It's nothing internal that's eating away at you, at least, yet. So, I've been really lucky in that respect. My wife has been so good to put up with nursing me and pushing me around in a wheelchair or whatever has to be done. We've had a great marriage. We have two sons. One's at Arizona State. He's a vice president of Arizona State and his wife is also a vice president in development for their new school of sustainability, whatever that is. Sustainability is a big deal down there. She's set up schools in Amsterdam and Hong Kong and everything with this sustainability concept. The other one, my other son, younger son, is in Chicago at the McCormick Estate, which is called Cantigny. He's in charge of publications and speech writing and all that kind of thing at Cantigny. Cantigny's about a four hundred acre property where Colonel McCormick lived. He was one of the founders of the Chicago Tribune. Colonel McCormick was in the first division, the big red one, in the First World War, an artillery officer. The first battle they fought in France was at a town called Cantigny. So, his home in Chicago was 10 called Cantigny. There's this beautiful estate home, big mansion, home and then the property. He put a museum dedicated to the First Infantry Division on that property. It is first class. It is a beautiful museum. The First Division has meetings there sometimes. Outside, around the museum is a copy of just about every tank that the United States has ever used. They're sitting there, in the grass. Kids can climb all over them. There's an Easy Eight and all kinds of tanks, modern ones and really old ones, sitting around the museum. There's beautiful gardens. There's two eighteen hole golf courses, which are first class courses. It's all open to the public. They've had ten thousand scouts there for a Scout-A-Rama and all kinds of things and weddings. That's where he is. He loves it there, close to his home in the Glen Ellyn area. It's in Wheaton, Illinois is where Cantigny is. Anybody in the Chicago area should visit there. They'll never forget it. That's where they are. I have four grandchildren, two in each place. One of them just got his—in Arizona—one just got his master's in environmental engineering from Stanford. The other is in a discipline, a school for entrepreneurs at Arizona State, in an honors type course, doing really well. That's what they're all doing. I can't think of any other highlights to talk to you about. At Norwich, we did a lot of pranks. We probably got away with much more than we should have, Russ and I. We really did. JP: Care to talk about any of those? RR: We hid behind our authority and that was— that's not really fair. That's not nice. I remember we would take a cigarette and put it, we had M80s, a lot of M80s from having been at summer camp. We had put an M80 and a cigarette, light it, take it down the hall and put it underneath the hall door. The fire door's at the end of the hall. Then, go back in the room. Pretty soon, it be just, "Boom!" You'd dash out into the hall, "Who did that?" And get everybody all excited. Russ told about—I don't remember—when we went around at the summer camp and collected all the guidons from the various units over there with the, telling them they were needed for a wedding that was going to be held. We got away with everybody's guidon and brought them home, I guess. We did a lot of stuff like that. I was surprised. I remember when this time of year, we always had a jug of cider hanging out the window on a string. I mean, that was how you keep it cool. We always had ours hanging up. I didn't see any hanging under the barrel. I think they've straightened that out. They don't allow stuff like that anymore. JP: I've heard about those jugs. RR: Yeah. JP: You'd have a glass jug. RR: Yeah, or a plastic, milk-type jug full of cider, hanging out the window. JP: To keep it cold. RR: Yeah.11 JP: And it would ferment because it wasn't pasteurized. RR: It might. Yeah. It might. But we didn't—there wasn't any drinking problem. I don't even remember a smoking problem. Maybe there was, but I don't remember that. A lot of the things they worry about today, we didn't have those problems that we knew of. Yeah. I remember when we were rooks and the first year, in '46, and once in a while, things would get out of hand. Discipline would break down. The ultimate threat was, "If you guys don't straighten out, we'll call Jackman. Jackman would send the veterans down and straighten you guys out." They did. There were a couple veterans that were really tough and they'd come in and crack down. It was always cracking down. They'd get us out in the hall at night and dress us down and straighten us out and then go back to Jackman. Those were tough days. Discipline wasn't like it should be, like it is now. We did have horses. We had forty horses. RR: Oh, you did. JP: Yeah, my freshman year and the old, grisly cavalry sergeants to go with them. They were really old cavalry guys. The officers brought their own polo ponies with them. Some of the ROTC instructor officers had their polo ponies here. They'd play polo. Then, sophomore year, I think they took all those horses out to Fort Leavenworth or somewhere. Auctioned them off or did something. That was all gone. All the horses were gone and they brought in little tanks. I forget the name of those small tanks, Sheridan Tanks. From then on, it was tanks. The horses were fun. Some guys were better at that than others. They'd take us out there and we'd go up and down those sand hills where the National Guard thing is up here now. We'd go down those hills on our horses. JP: That's pretty hard. RR: Everybody had boots and jodhpurs. It was great. That was more the old cavalry. JP: Well, you turned out all right. RR: Yeah. I had a horse at home in Ohio. When I was at Fort Knox, I chummed around with the guys at the stables and I bought a horse down there. They helped me build a trailer and I trailed the horse home, when I was done at Fort Knox. JP: What kind of horse was it? RR: It was just a riding horse. There's lots of horses down there around Fort Knox so it wasn't hard to find one. The guys at the stables I think helped me find a horse. Meanwhile, I had gone into Louisville and bought a truck. I must have been loaded with money because I paid cash for a nice, brand new Ford pickup. That's what I trailed the horse back home with. That was fun. That's about it. JP: Okay. 12 RR: I thought you might be interested in. JP: Thank you very much for your time. RR: Oh. You're welcome. JP: Really appreciate it. RR: Okay. Track 1 ends. Track 2 begins. JP: We're back with Mr. Reiter, talking about the board of trustees. RR: Yeah. JP: Tell me about the board of trustees. RR: Addendum. When Russ came back from Europe and accepted the presidency of Norwich University. That was really an important thing. He called me and asked me if I would be on the board of trustees, which I agreed to do. I forget who the chairman was. Phil Marsilius was chairman. I was on the board for a while and then Phil resigned, retired from the board chairmanship. I became the chairman of the board of trustees for, I think, about fifteen years. JP: When was this? RR: I don't know. It was in the seventies. JP: We can check after. RR: During Russ's period of the presidency, he's the twenty second president. Twenty second or twenty third, I forget. Twenty second, I think. That was a trying time. Russ had some—was difficult to—for him, in some ways, to adjust from the military discipline for getting things done to the academic way of getting things done where everything has to be staffed around a lot and researched. Russ was used to issuing an order and it didn't always work that way. But things worked out for the better. Charlie Adamson then took over as chairman when I left that job. The biggest thing we did, I think, was search for a new president and get Rich Schneider on board. That was a big job. The board worked really hard on that. I was involved but I had people on the board that were very good at doing that search. That turned out great. I remember that, interviewing Rich and others and so forth. That was a good move and it's turned out to be a really great move. Rich has done a marvelous job. He's brought the university into a more modern time. You can see it when you walk around. It's just amazing what's been done as a result. But that was interesting work on the board. There were a lot of great people on that board. I don't 13 think there's very many of them still on there that I recognize but it's been onward and upward and hugely successful, really great. End of addendum. JP: End of addendum. Thank you.
A review of races this fall in Bossier Parish government shows an expected electoral quietude among executives, but perhaps having the chickens coming home to roost for many of the incumbents on the Police Jury.
Parishes have four elective executive offices up for grabs, but there will be next to no drama in Bossier for these. The incumbent assessor, clerk of court, and coroner drew no challengers, letting all three cruise to reelection. Republican Sheriff Julian Whittington did receive a challenge from political unknown Republican Chris Green, a former deputy who would seem to have little chance for the upset.
The Jury contests are another matter. In 2019, eight incumbents walked back into office, with District 2 Republican Glenn Benton being the only incumbent to receive a challenge. This time he avoided one, along with Democrat Jimmy Cochran (unchallenged in District 7 since 1999) and Republicans Doug Rimmer (unchallenged since 2011 in District 8) and Tom Salzer (never challenged since being the only one to qualify for a special election for District 11 in 2017) while the other eight incumbents all filed for reelection against opposition.
Make that seven. District 10's independent Jerome Darby, the longest serving juror in the state in his tenth term, shortly after qualifying withdrew, perhaps because there still will be a Darby on the ballot. Democrat former School Board member Julian Darby, his younger brother, signed up, along with a pair retired military veterans Democrats James Carley and Mary Giles. The Darby family machine, whose Samm Darby as a Democrat represents the district Julian once did, despite having Jerome facing just one election in 2007 since 1987, should get cranked up enough to keep the seat in the family.
As for the other seven incumbents with a fight on their hands – the most since 1987 – from the rhetoric of the challengers it seems that has come at the expense of Jury actions over the past several years. Since 2016 jurors have served illegally on the parish Library Board of Control, currently Benton, Republican Bob Brotherton from District 1, Democrat Charles Gray from District 9, Republican Julianna Parks from District 5, and Rimmer. Jurors also tolerated inserting themselves into another dual officeholding controversy when their appointee to the Cypress Black Bayou Recreation and Water Conservation District Robert Berry also became its executive director, which changed only last month when jurors didn't reappoint Berry. Even so, three jurors – Gray, Parks, and District 12 Republican Mac Plummer – didn't go along with that.
Incumbent jurors also have courted controversy with their management of its Consolidated Waterworks/Sewerage District #1, its growing attempt to provide centralized water and sewerage provision to areas outside of municipalities. Deliberate lowballing on rates that taxpayers had to subsidize that may mushroom costs to all in the future and problems in absorbing new systems have raised the ire of some parish residents.
The Jury and parish government also have done little to make their dealings transparent, in contrast to every other major northwest Louisiana local government. Meetings are narrowcast on a hard-to-view and nearly impossible-to-hear Facebook Live channel, years after a statement that it would move to a professional setup (last year's meeting dealing with the budget wasn't delivered or archived at all). Online agendas carry the barest of information so citizens prior to meetings have no idea about the items being discussed and voted upon. Meeting minutes habitually are posted well past their meeting dates.
Perhaps worst of all, incumbent jurors have stuck by Parish Administrator Butch Ford as he continues apparently to violate state law that says a parish chief executive must be a registered voter in that parish, which means he must have his primary residence that would qualify for a homestead exemption in that parish. Over the past 19 months – the first 10 of which jurors ignored Ford's full-time residence at a Caddo Parish property with a homestead exemption and his registration to vote in Caddo, a property he still maintains – Ford has been unable to establish with certainty that he qualifies to register to vote in Bossier Parish, yet the Jury reappointed him without dissent earlier this year (and originally hired him the year before without a job search).
This pattern of obscurantism, questionable fiscal administration of the water utility, and lawlessness likely provoked many, if not all challengers. The most vulnerable perhaps is Brotherton, whose health problems have prevented him from attending most Jury meetings this year and will make it difficult for him to campaign. In a solidly Republican district, Republican small businessman Mike Farris has a distinct chance to replace him, much likelier to do so than the two Democrats running, retiree Mary Odom and trucking executive Andre Wilson.
District 3 Republican Philip Rodgers, who in 2019 ran on addressing problems with the Berry-run CBB, even as Berry's ouster – which also means by state law he must give up his executive directorship – has occurred, created some more problems for himself when in the process of criticizing District actions at one of its recent meetings opened himself to charges that he sought and obtained with its Board's knowledge favorable treatment from Berry. He is opposed by Republican Andy Modica, a District critic, parish constable, and recent applicant to fill a vacant School Board slot, who complained at the meeting where the Jury didn't reappoint Berry – at which Rodgers' campaign supporter Rodney Madden received the nod – that the fix was in against him and other applicants for the post that went to Madden. It wouldn't be hard for Modica to campaign contrasting the sweet deals political insiders get with the reception others encounter.
If that seems at all vengeful, forget it when compared to the fate suffered by District 6 Republican Chris Marsiglia. He drew as a challenger none other than Berry, running as a Republican. There's no fury like a scorned former CBB executive director/ex-commissioner, who lost both gigs because the Jury didn't reappoint him – with good reason, of course, since the judiciary declared a situation like his in violation of the law and the District was footing legal bills in his defense equivalent to about an eighth of its total revenues in a losing cause.
Marsiglia was one of three first-time electees (although he had run for a seat unsuccessfully years ago) who faced opposition then and now. District 4 Republican John Ed Jorden (who also ran years ago) turned out to be another, and worse off since in 2019 he had just opponent and now faces two. While district demographics suggest Democrat Donald Stephens can't win, he might make a runoff against either Jorden or Republican appraiser Jack Harvill.
And one of the most polarizing figures on the Jury, Parks who won a special election for the post in 2021, faces perhaps the most quality challenger running, Republican Barry Butler who formerly served in her spot from 2008-12. In his term, Butler distinguished himself by challenging orthodoxy and refusing to get along and go along as so often happens among jurors, often serving as the only voice willing to take up topics and bring out information that didn't portray parish policies in only rosy hues. Parks, who through her husband Republican Bossier City Judge Santi Parks has a considerable parish political establishment network to fall back upon, can bring a lot of resources to bear to retain office, but Butler, who suffered defeat through the efforts of that network, has the capacity to knock her off.
At the other end of the parish, after three straight elections without an opponent, Plummer will be forced to work for his job against Republican small businessman Keith Sutton. Also a critic of business-as-usual on the Jury with a desire for greater Jury fiscal responsibility, transparency, and term limits, he hosts a podcast with former School Board member Shane Cheatham that in part discussed politics of the day.
Republicans dropped the ball in the Darbys' District 10, which has been a plurality white district that has 41 percent black registration that should give them a decent chance to win with relatively fewer black Democrats, by not running a candidate there. They also blew it in 2019 in District 9, then with a narrow white plurality, when the only Republican who qualified subsequently was disqualified over not being a district resident, handing the victory to Gray. Since then, the district has moved to a black plurality of around 47 percent.
This time, the GOP challenger should stick, and a quality one at that – former Bossier City chief administrative officer Pam Glorioso, who might well have run for and possibly won the mayoralty had her boss Lo Walker not ran for a fifth term. She doesn't have the reform potential that challengers in other districts have (in Berry's case, perhaps more out of spite), having been a longtime part of the parish political establishment, and she may not have the numbers on her side to knock off Gray in a district that has become more secure for him.
If everything goes right for reformers, known quantities such as Farris, Modica, Butler, and Sutton could form a solid bloc on the Jury. If Berry and Glorioso also make it, matters become more interesting still. Throw in Harvill and a Darby opponent and some real change could be on the way. Even if turnover ends up minimal, clearly the challengers who have stepped up means there's more of the grassroots upset at sitting jurors that there has been for decades.
10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 1/7 Features | Around Campus | Events | Recognition | Service | SEARCH ARCHIVES January 2016 - Vol. 19, No. 5 P' M Welcome back to campus! I hope all of you had an enjoyable holiday break and are ready for a new year ofserving our students. We have some exciting events, projects and staff additions ahead, including: The annual Spring Assembly for Faculty and Staff is Thursday, Jan. 14, with a continental breakfastat 8:30 and program beginning at 9 a.m. I hope you'll come to the Save Mart Center for a brief recapof the fall semester. What's even more important, I have exciting news about the future. The Strategic Plan Committee worked throughout the fall to refine our plan based on the excellentinput received in our campus and community forums. Stay tuned for a final version of our StrategicPlan this spring. A new Cabinet member soon will be joining us. I've appointed Lawrence Salinas as executive directorof Government Relations, effective Feb. 1. He will develop and manage strategies to inform andinfluence public policy at the local, state and federal levels on issues and in areas of interest toFresno State and to advise the campus on legislative matters that may affect us. Lawrence, a FresnoState alumnus, has held leadership positions in governmental relations at UC Merced and the UCOffice of the President. I am thrilled that we again recruited our #1 choice in a Cabinet search! As we begin 2016, I am more convinced than ever that Fresno State's future is very bright. Let's go boldlyinto this new year! 10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 2/7 F Red Wave honors faculty, staff Fresno State staff and faculty were honored Dec. 3 at a special men's basketball game appreciation night. Meet some ofthe player's favorite professors: Thea Fabian (Economics), Leonard Olson (Philosophy), Aric Min (Earth andEnvironmental Sciences) and Jonathan Hernandez (Communication). See more . EOP: Making a difference |The Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) at Fresno State continues to"make a difference" in helping first generation and historically low-incomestudents attain their goal of graduating from college. EOP recently announcedthat students in the fall 2009 cohort achieved a 6-year graduation rate of 59.7percent, which is higher than the campus rate of 58.4 percent. See more . FresnoStateNews.com is all new Stay current on the latest news, information and events happening at FresnoState by visiting the redesigned www.FresnoStateNews.com . This one-stop-shop for campus news features University produced videos, press releases,magazine and newsletter articles. FresnoStateNews.com is an easy way to follow the latest posts on the University'sofficial Facebook and Twitter accounts, and the live calendar is always up-to-date with the latest events on campus. Andif you have a question about a past event or issue facing the University, simply search the archives to access past newsarticles, videos and photos. The new FresnoStateNews.com is also the place to sign up for Fresno State's CommunityNewsletter. Created to showcase how Fresno State is making a bold difference in our region, this monthly newsletter isfilled with videos and features about all aspects of Fresno State. It's never been easier to stay in the know about allthings Fresno State. Bookmark www.FresnoStateNews.com today! Campus colors of fall The campus presents a beautiful show of color during the seasons, and this fall is a showstopper. Photos by CaryEdmondson. See slideshow . A look back at 2015 Revisit key moments from the past year. Photos by Cary Edmondson. See slideshow . A C New Warmerdam Field track project begins Warmerdam Field is undergoing a facelift as of December. The $2.6 million project is expected to continue through June2016. The project includes an eight-lane, all-weather track; a high-jump area; long- and triple-jump runways; two polevault runways; and shot put, discuss, hammer cage and javelin improvements. Also included are updates in utilities,landscaping and fencing. The current nine-lane, 400-meter track was constructed in 1976 and is named in honor ofCornelius "Dutch" Warmerdam, the former Fresno State head coach and former world-record holder in the pole vault.The track was last resurfaced in 1989. See more . Proposed Hmong minor option would be a first in western U.S. The University is developing a new minor program in Hmong Studies that will be the fifth such program in the nation andfirst in the western United States. The minor, which would be offered through the Linguistics Department in the College ofArts and Humanities, is in the final stages of the approval process with a decision due in the spring. The target date tolaunch is the fall 2016 semester. See more . Student Cupboard receives $25,000 endowment A Bay Area family joined together to establish an endowment that will help Fresno State students facing food insecurity.Michael Treviño, University of California director of undergraduate admissions, has established a $25,000 charitable giftannuity in honor of his aunt, Ermelinda Treviño. The annuity will provide lasting support of the Student Cupboard, whichprovides free food and hygiene products for Fresno State students in need. See more .10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 3/7 Global wireless connectivity is here On Jan. 14, Fresno State will launch eduroam(education roaming), a global wireless connectivityservice that enables students, faculty, staff, andguests to obtain secure internet connectivity. Theeduroam federation is a group of thousands ofuniversities and higher-education institutions across54 countries. These institutions have the eduroamnetwork at their locations and will grant you secureaccess to their network without having to go throughthe long process of setting up a guest login andpassword. Your device will work on their campusesthe same as if it were on Fresno State's. Additionalinformation about eduroam is available here . Benefits: Simplicity - Fresno State students, faculty and staff can log in to eduroam with their own Fresno State credentialsat any participating institution. Security - Eduroam' uses WPA2-enterprise authentication and encryption to prevent eavesdropping when usinginsecure applications on the network. The most significant change to the Fresno State network is that the process for logging in will require an email addressand corresponding email password instead of using computer login credentials. Contact the Help Desk at 278.5000 formore information. Salinas named director of governmental relations For Lawrence Salinas, a Fresno State alumnus with 30 years of political and public affairsexperience, coming home to serve as the University's new executive director of governmentalrelations is an opportunity to advocate for his alma mater. His primary role will be to develop andmanage strategies to inform and influence public policy at the local, state and federal levels inareas of interest to Fresno State. He will report directly to the president and advise the campuson legislative matters that may affect the University. See more . Philanthropist and supporter Dee Jordan dies Mrs. Dee Jordan, who, along with her husband and brother-in-law, was responsible for the largest cash gift in FresnoState's history, passed away on Nov. 17 in San Francisco at age 87. Her connection to Fresno State started at a socialgathering more than three decades ago when a retired Fresno State agriculture professor shared his enthusiasm for hiscollege's programs. That meeting led to a lasting relationship between the Jordans and Fresno State that ultimatelyresulted in a $29.5 million gift to Fresno State's Ag One Foundation in 2009. See more . Former psych professor, chair, Merry West, dies Dr. Merry West, professor emerita and former chair of the Psychology Department, died Nov. 20. She earned a Ph.D. inPsychology from Iowa State University in 1972 and joined the University soon after, then received emeritus status in1993. While at the University, she helped to initiate re-entry programs for students and to develop Women Studiesprograms. Dr. West loved traveling, but her favorite places were in California. See more . E Keyboard Concerts presents Yefim Bronfman on Jan. 22 Yefim Bronfman performs at 3 p.m., Jan. 22, in the Concert Hall. Bronfman, a Russian-Israeli-American artist, regularly collaborates with the world's foremost conductors, including SirSimon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit,Valery Gergiev, Christoph Eschenbach, Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and David Zinman.General admission is $25, seniors $18 and students $5. For reservations and otherinformation, call 278.2337.10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 4/7 Comedian Drew Lynch performs Feb. 9 Student Involvement is hosting a special performance from comedian Drew Lynch on Feb. 9 at7 p.m. in the Satellite Student Union. This event is free to students with a valid Fresno StateI.D. and open to public for $5 per person. Drew Lynch starred on season 10 of America's GotTalent and advanced all the way to the finale. During his first audition, he shared his story ofhow a softball accident resulted in a permanent, severe stutter and how his life changedimmediately. Drew Lynch's comedy performance is being sponsored by Student Involvement,Services for Students with Disabilities, and Advocates for Students with Disabilities. For moreinformation, contact Shawna Blair at 559.278.2741. Library hosts Saleri exhibition Feb. 6-May 31; gala dinner is Feb. 5 During the spring 2016 semester, the Henry Madden Library presents a retrospective exhibition of artwork by KristinSaleri (1915 to 1987), a pioneering 20th century artist of Armenian heritage who lived and painted in Istanbul. Discovering Kristin Saleri runs Feb. 6 through May 31 in the Leon S. Peters Ellipse Gallery and Pete P. Peters BalconyGallery. The Gala Donors Opening Dinner is Feb. 5 at 6 p.m. in Henry Madden Library, second floor outside Leon S.Peters Ellipse Gallery. The exhibition is curated by Fresno natives Joyce Kierejczyk and Carol Tikijian, who also curateda spring exhibition at the Fresno Art Museum of works by artists of Armenian descent in commemoration of thecentennial of the Armenian genocide. The artworks exhibited are on loan from the family of the artist, who reside inHouston. For more information on the artist, visit www.kristinsaleri.com . For more information on the exhibit, visit the website . Save the date: Jan. 14 - International Fun Night, University Student Union Pavilion, 4 p.m. Jan. 16 - Men's basketball, Save Mart Center, 4 p.m. Meet members of the team . Jan. 20 - Women's basketball, Save Mart Center, 7 p.m. Jan. 21 - The Harlem Globetrotters, Save Mart Center, 7 p.m. Jan. 21 - Visual Arts Seminar, Satellite Student Union, 8 a.m. Jan. 22 - Women's basketball, Save Mart Center, 2 p.m. Jan. 27 - Club Sports Expo and Greek Day, University Student Union Balcony, starting at 7 a.m. Jan. 30 - SATAM Tai Chi group practice, South Gym 134, 7:30 a.m. R Emmanuel Alcala (Central Valley Health Policy Institute) presented on air pollution in the Valley and its effects on children at the NationalInstitute of Environmental Health Sciences/Environmental Protection Agency Children's Centers Annual Meeting inWashington, D.C. See more . Nancy Delich and Stephen Roberts (Social Work and Communicative Disorders and Deaf Studies) are featured in the latest issue of Central California LifeMagazine, in which they discuss their underwater sign language course, which they teach at their dive shop, CentralValley Scuba Center. See more . Ethan Kytle and Blain Roberts (History) had their op-ed article advocating for a national slavery memorial published in the New York Times. See more .Roberts' book, "Pageants, Parlors, and Pretty Women: Race and Beauty in the Twentieth Century South" (University ofNorth Carolina Press, 2014) was recently awarded the 2105 Willie Lee Rose Prize by the Southern Association forWomen Historians. This award recognizes the best book in southern history published by a woman during the previouscalendar year. The book was also a finalist (among the top three, out of 70 submissions) for the 2015 BerkshireConference of Women Historians First Book Prize. Annette Levi (Agricultural Business) was named to the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 5/7 Board by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The board advises Vilsack and land-grant colleges and universities. Bradley Myers (Theatre Arts) received recognition from the Region VIII Governing Board of the Kennedy Center/American CollegeTheatre Festival for the production of the play, "Really, Really ." A scene from the play will be included at the regionalfestival at the University of Hawaii Honolulu, Hawaii, held this February. Barlow Der Mugrdechian (Armenian Studies) had a book chapter published, "The Theme of Genocide in Armenian Literature," (pp. 273-286) in thenewly released book, The Armenian Genocide Legac y (Palgrave, 2015). The book was the product of a conference, "TheArmenian Genocide's Legacy, 100 Years On," held in The Hague, Netherlands, March 5-7, 2015. Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval (Arts and Humanities) was named dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, effective Jan. 1. He is a Fresno Stateprofessor of Spanish and Portuguese and served as interim associate dean of the college. Jiménez-Sandoval willsucceed Interim Dean José A. Díaz, who was not a candidate for the position. Díaz will be on special assignment in thespring semester. See more . Samendra Sherchan (Public Health) received the 2015-16 WRPI Faculty Research Incentive Award (from the Office of the Chancellor, WaterResources and Policy Initiatives) for his project, Understanding Public Perception to Direct Potable Reuse of MunicipalTreated Waste-water in the Central Valley. S Reading and Beyond at Fresno State celebrates asuccessful semester The Reading and Beyond at Fresno State program (a partnershipbetween Fresno State's Richter Center and Reading and Beyond )recently took time to celebrate a successful semester. Over the courseof fall 2015, 60 work-study students served as tutors with the program,providing tutoring and mentoring services to children throughoutFresno County. Tutors worked directly with 183 elementary studentsproviding literacy and homework support. In addition, the tutors servedmore than 800 children intermittently. Reading and Beyond at FresnoState program also took part in several additional community serviceprojects, including school carnivals, local revitalization projects,educational community events, and a special letter-writing campaign benefiting military members and veterans. Save the Date: Spring Community Service Opportunities Fair The 13th annual Spring Community Service Opportunities Fair takes place Wednesday, Jan. 27, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.in the Satellite Student Union. The event is sponsored by The Jan and Bud Richter Center for Community Engagementand Service-Learning. During the Community Service Opportunities Fair students will have the opportunity to learn aboutvolunteer, service-learning, internship, and career opportunities offered through local community benefit organizations. Faculty and staff are encouraged to attend this event and send students who are interested in community service or whoare required to do service as part of a class assignment. For more information, please contact Trisha Studt in the RichterCenter at 559.278.7079. Registration open for Kids Day 2016 Kids Day is one the Valley's largest and most visible special events benefitting Valley Children's Hospital . Last year over1,400 Fresno State students participated in Kids Day and raised over $41,000! Kids Day will be held on March 8, 2016and is a great way for students, faculty, and staff to engage in a community-wide philanthropy project and can help inthree ways: (1) volunteer to sell papers, (2) help recruit other volunteers by sharing information on this event with friends,students and colleagues and (3) buy a paper on Kids Day from those around campus. Each year the Richter Centerhosts a friendly competition recognizing the top-selling student clubs and organizations. Register your club ororganization today by completing the online form . Individuals can also sign-up to volunteer using the same form . Formore information about participating, please contact Madison Dakovich in the Jan and Bud Richter Center for CommunityEngagement and Service-Learning at 559.278.7079 or send an email to fresnostatekidsday@gmail.com.10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 6/7 Fresno State for Summer Campaign a success This fall, Fresno State students Nancy Mohamed and Kelli Lowe, coordinated a campus-wide fundraising campaign builtaround the annual Giving Tuesday . This project raised money to support the wish of a Make-A-Wish CentralCalifornia child, Summer, whose wish is to visit to Walt Disney World with her family and meet Elsa from the movie Frozen . The campaign, "Fresno State for Summer" ran from November 1 - December 1, 2015. Over $1,400 was raisedto support Summer's wish. Mohamed and Lowe hope that this project will inspire future students to continue organizingfundraising efforts around Giving Tuesday and establishing a new philanthropic tradition at Fresno State. Richter Center student leaders provide nearly 3,000 hours of service In December, the Richter Center Student Leaders (RCSL) celebrated a successful fall semester. RCSL is made-up ofthree distinct teams including the Richter Center Ambassadors, Reflection Facilitators, and SERVE Committee. Theteam of 27 students provided a combined 2,734 hours of service to the campus and community. This service includedcoordinating and hosting two one-day service events (Make a Difference Day and Serving Fresno Day), conductingservice-related presentations and workshops for fellow Fresno State students, and promoting service through variousdigital and in-person campaigns. The team will return in the spring semester to continue these efforts including planningand hosting Spring into Service – a one-day service event – and National Volunteer Week activities. For more informationon RCSL, contact Mellissa Jessen-Hiser . Send us your photos! Campus News wants to share your most whimsical or memorable photo as a photo of the month . Faculty and staff, please submit your photo to campusnews@csufresno.edu . In case you missed it: Fresno State vs. San Francisco Catch some highlights from the Fresno State basketball win against San Francisco on Nov. 19. See slideshow . Fresno State vs. Colorado State Miss the Fresno State Bulldogs football game against Colorado State Rams, Nov. 28? See slideshow . International Cultural Night Enjoy the colors and vibrancy of International Cultural Night. See slideshow . ROTC Presentation Fresno State's ROTC made a presentation at the Oakland Raiders game, Dec. 6. See slideshow. Marching Band Moments A look back at some key Fresno State Marching Band moments. See slideshow . Happy Holidays Enjoy a glimpse of some of the seasonal decorations on campus, including displays in the Kennel Bookstore. Seeslideshow . Or enjoy holiday greetings from Victor E. Bulldog III. See slideshow . Slideshow photos by Cary Edmondson and courtesy of University Communications.10/28/2020 Campus News - January 2016 www.fresnostatejournal.com/vol19no5/index.html 7/7 Still looking for more news? For the latest university press releases, visit FresnoStateNews.com. For sports news, visit GoBulldogs.com . Find announcements, events, and more on BulletinBoard . For the academic calendar, see the catalog . Find additional calendars through Academic Affairs . A listing of season stage performances is available through Theatre Arts and music performances through the Music Department . Campus News is the Fresno State employee newsletter published online the first day of each month – or the weekday closest to the first – fromSeptember through May. The deadline for submissions to the newsletter is 10 days prior to the first of each month. Please e-mail submissions to campusnews@csufresno.edu ; include digital photos, video clips or audio clips that are publishable online. Phone messages, PDFs, faxes, and printedhard copies will not be accepted. President , Joseph I. Castro Vice President for University Advancement , Paula Castadio . Campus News is published by the Office of University Communications. Archives | Academic Calendar | FresnoStateNews | Campus News Deadlines | University Communications Print this Page
Against the background of a new Labor Day weekend job report that found zero job net growth for the month of August, Republican candidates held another debate, this time under the auspices of MSNBC, not Fox. It took place in the Reagan library, in Simi Valley, California, with the 1980s Air Force One plane used by Reagan looming behind them as a powerful yet incongruent décor. Texas Governor Rick Perry, who entered the race three weeks ago and has already managed to reshape it, made it a contest between himself and Mitt Romney. Jon Huntsman is now a distant third in the polls, and the rest have been consigned to the back bench. Perry has consolidated support across a large swath of the Republican base, including Tea Partiers and the Evangelical right and already has amassed a war chest of campaign funds from contributors from Texas and across the country. Interestingly enough, Karl Rove, the self appointed kingmaker of the GOP and former GW Bush closest advisor, has come out against Perry, calling some of his views "toxic".As the first fundamental tests of the Republican primary approach, the campaign clearly entered a new stage last Wednesday during a debate that was mainly a duel between two protagonists, while the rest, acting as a Greek chorus reinforcing or challenging their responses, were given very little time by hosts Brian Williams (NBC) and John Harris (Politico). The primary field as first constituted was lackluster and therefore demanded new candidates. Perry seems to have satisfied that demand for the time being. Nevertheless, after the debate there was still some discontent among establishment Republicans, so the race is still fluid and new candidates may jump in before the first deadline in October.Governor Perry, as the front-runner in the latest polls, was not surprisingly the target of most of the others throughout the night. He has executive experience, a commanding demeanor, and a record to run on. Although not completely articulate, and lacking Romney's polished eloquence, he is tough and quick in his retorts, and his rhetoric resounded with the audience, drawing the strongest applause every time. His claim that he has created more jobs in Texas than Obama has managed to create nationally may be a winner with voters, but Texas' record on almost every other issue is unflattering and thus, main ammunition for his opponents. He was reminded, for example, that of all fifty states, Texas is last on education, to which he responded that Texas' problems stem from its long border with Mexico. That probably did not go well with the Hispanic voters watching on Univisión and Telemundo, but Perry doesn't seem to care, since he is riding the wave of anti-Latino feelings around the country. Confronted with the claim that Texas has the largest number of people without health insurance than all other 49 states , he did not give a direct answer but chose instead to mumble something about how "all Texans want is to get the federal government out of their lives". Both Michelle Bachman and Rick Santorum questioned Perry's social conservatism given his policy as governor, for example, to inoculate adolescent girls against HPV, which they portrayed as a government intrusion into the family realm and a license to practice pre-marital sex. And Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas, was a constant goad on the Governor's side, reminding the public that Perry used to be a Democrat and wholeheartedly supported Al Gore on his presidential bid in 1988. Perry defended himself well as he dismissed all the charges against him with one-liners and a disdainful smile. A shrewd politician and experience campaigner, he took the initiative at every turn and was able to steer the conversation to his own record of job creation as governor of Texas, contrasting it mockingly with Romney's as governor of Massachusetts. But Romney appeared unfazed as he joked that Perry could not take credit for everything that has gone well in the State of Texas, including its wealth of oil and gas, its zero state income tax and the (related) fact that main corporations made their headquarters there long before Perry was governor. Massachusetts is a much smaller state and has none of those advantages, he added. There were several quick exchanges like this: both candidates were well prepared to respond with facts and statistics, and the perception was that they both did well, with Perry defending himself aggressively at times and Romney maintaining his smooth and relaxed demeanor, even as he waited for the opportunity to deliver a blow to his new challenger.Host Brian Williams soon gave him that opportunity by asking Perry a question about Social Security, the government pension fund that experts say, will become insolvent in the year 2036 if it is not reformed. Perry's answer, which confirmed similar statements in his recently published book, made all the headlines the next day. He called it a "Ponzi scheme' (implying a criminal enterprise) and added that it was a "monstrous lie" to tell young people under thirty that they would get their Social Security when their time comes for them to retire: they won't. This statement has been reported by the Romney campaign as Perry's Waterloo: no candidate will win an election by making this kind of claim against the "third rail" of politics, a cherished and untouchable public trust; to do so is pure political suicide. Similar claims had prompted Karl Rove's comment about Perry's toxicity and spurred doubts about his electability. Ironically, it is the rhetoric and not the substance that separates the two candidates on this issue: as presidents, both would likely propose some privatization of Social Security, perhaps in the form of personal retirement accounts that can be managed by the workers themselves and would allow them to invest in the stock market. Another of Brian William's questions brought an unexpected burst of applause by the all- Republican audience even before Perry had had a chance to answer it. Williams asked how he could sleep at night knowing his state had applied the death penalty to 234 convicts, the highest rate in the nation, and some of whom were perhaps innocent. Perry said the crimes they had perpetrated deserved it, and that yes, he slept fine at night knowing that the appeals process was thorough and fair. Of course, people are entitled to their views on the death penalty, and quotes from the Bible have been used to justify it. But it is sad and even incongruous to see a purportedly well educated middle class audience of a purportedly Christian nation cheer the notion. Patti Davis, President Reagan's daughter, later said to an interviewer it was almost" blasphemous" to celebrate the death penalty at the Reagan library, given the fact that her father had approached the issue with a heavy heart and burden to his conscience, albeit accepting it as a necessary evil. Mitt Romney appeared poised, fluent on the economy and self confident. It may help him knowing that he has 250 billion dollars in his own personal account, and that he has outpaced all other candidates so far in fundraising. He seems to be the choice of the business elite and of urban and suburban Republicans (60% of his donors come from big cities and their surroundings). On the other hand, Perry's supporters say that through his ten years as governor of Texas, Perry has laid the groundwork to raise all the money he might need for a national election. He has a donor network that can "bundle" millions. Texas places no limits on how much donors can give to political campaigns, even as federal law limits donations to the derisory amount of $2,500 per person. Still, some critics say Perry would need to capture a broader donor base to compete in a national election. Michelle Bachman's adventure into the Republican primary may be coming to an end as her star fades and Tea Partiers and Evangelicals transfer their support to Rick Perry. Her campaign is in disarray over fundraising and strategy. Ed Rollins, a veteran GOP operative who managed Reagan's 1984 campaign, resigned as her advisor after Bachman could not be persuaded to focus on campaigning in Iowa only (where the first primary caucus will take place and where she won a straw poll a few weeks ago), instead of trying to run a national campaign. She hasn't been able to raise enough money outside Iowa and that limits her campaign's choices. Perry has taken her thunder. It doesn't help that the Congress woman keeps repeating her Manichean views on every single issue, insisting for example again during this debate, that it was wrong for the US to intervene in Libya because there was no national interest involved in the region, a position that nobody in the GOP establishment shares, especially now that Qaddafi is all but defeated.On Thursday, after two changes in schedule were forced on the White House (one due to the GOP debate on Wednesday, the other due to the opening of the NFL season shown at prime time on Thursday night), President Obama delivered his much awaited jobs creation speech. He unveiled a $ 447 billion plan, a mixture of tax cuts and new spending programs. It includes extending cuts in payroll taxes to individuals and employers, new infrastructure spending, a new mortgage refinancing program, retraining for the unemployed and tax credits to businesses that employ those who have been out of a job for over six moths. He also talked about a private-public infrastructure bank and emphasized that all this new spending would be coupled with more cuts in the deficit later. This was an attempt at a new marketing of the President's measures to stimulate the economy: he was more specific, more conciliatory and avoided using the word "stimulus" that has gotten so much bad press since most people think the initial package did not help the economy one bit.The President spoke with new confidence and conviction; he sounded re-energized and optimistic, and evoked in the public memories of "Obama the candidate". The next morning he was on the road to sell his plan to voters first in Virginia, speaking to 9,000 people gathered at the University of Richmond. Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina are the three states the President strategically chose to visit. Obama won all three in the 2008 election but they each voted Republicans to their legislatures in last year's mid-term elections. The Republican response in Congress was cautiously positive. Indeed, even as Obama's numbers in the polls continue to drop (44% approval rate of his person, with 59% disapproving of his handling of the economy, is the latest), approval of Congress is at an all time low of 13%. A change is tone has registered as Republicans realize that their do-nothing strategy has gone too far and it is time to stop playing the political game and address economic recovery in earnest. It is indeed refreshing, after the acerbic debt ceiling fights, to hear House majority leader Eric Cantor say it's time to build consensus and work together. Their brinkmanship has infuriated their constituents and put at risk all the gains made in last year's mid-term elections.It remains to be seen whether the electorate's disgust with excessive conflict and confrontation within the DC belt also extends to the presidential primary. Will voters choose the bold and aggressive governor from Texas who better reflects their anger with his provocative language (he wants to cut the "head off the snake" (meaning the federal government's interference with states policies), or the cooler, more cerebral, more conciliatory (indeed, in some ways, more Obama-like) candidate from Massachusetts that wants moderation and speaks to the middle class? In this head-to-head contest between Perry and Romney, one can assume people will ultimately choose the one they see can solve their problems, end the paralysis and get the country moving again. But the country's social fabric is torn by unemployment, anger and frustration with government and hopelessness about the future. As the more aggressive candidate, Perry may well be the one that embodies the spirit of the times.In his first national appearance, the Texan did not make any major mistakes. He has dislodged Romney from top in national polls, but not in New Hampshire, where Romney still leads by a wide margin. From now on, the calendar will drive the candidates' strategies. If Perry wins Iowa and Romney New Hampshire, it will definitely become a two person race going forward into South Carolina, where Baptists most likely will choose a Texan Evangelist over a New Englander Mormon. That might interrupt Romney's momentum. Then comes Florida, where there is a big number of Tea Partiers and an even larger number of retirees. The vote of these two groups will be decisive. Perry could lose the retirees on his Social Security attacks, which were mainly addressed to young voters who don't vote in primaries. But there is plenty of time to adjust his views and rectify his blunders so as to become more electable.Cocky, dark and handsome, a cross between Johnny Cash and John Wayne, Perry has a formidable presence that makes a good impression on voters. Blunt and direct in his speech, with a distinct Southern accent, his peculiar kind of charisma compensates for his lack of polish. He is tough and rugged, doesn't back down, and appeared solid in his philosophy of "detax, deregulate and delitigate". He is clearly the candidate that can win the Mid-West and the Deep South. The question is whether he will withstand the deeper scrutiny of a presidential race he entered late, and whether he can refine his arguments and still be reassuring. Romney still appears as the more electable candidate in a national election and the one that can more easily confront Obama. But he has two main weak points: his religion (he is a Mormon, a religion that has a bad name among other Christian denominations) and the Massachusetts health care law he signed when he was governor, that his rivals claim is a replica of what they disdainfully call "Obamacare", which all candidates, including Romney, have avowed to repeal as soon as they get to the White House. Will the race become a two-man contest from this point on? Americans should not hold their breath; there is still talk about new candidates entering the race: Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani seem to be waiting on the sidelines, ready to jump into the race at any time if prompted to do so by the polls or by the GOP establishment. The current survivors may still be challenged by others with more staying power and reality show experience.Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Geography Director, ODU Model United Nations Program Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia
At less than three weeks away from the national election, an Obama victory, even if not inevitable, seems today quite likely. Political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia, in his on-line publication Crystal Ball, has now put Obama over the magic number of 270 electoral votes (50% plus 1 of all electoral votes), with potentially many more votes to be added from close races in several states. Barack Obama leads John McCain in the polls by ten points, and the McCain campaign is in disarray. It has stopped campaigning in some states (i.e. Michigan) and is trying to hold on to other states that traditionally vote Republican but are about to be lost for the first time in decades (Virginia, North Carolina). Barring a huge end-of-October surprise, this trend will firm up and determine the result in favor of Obama. Democrats are also poised to win a majority of seats in the Senate and House of Representatives. The so-called "coattails effect" of the presidential race on the congressional election is starting to worry Republicans, who are becoming very critical of John McCain's campaign. Considering that the electoral race was at a continuous dead heat in the last two months, it is worth discussing what has determined the steady rise of Obama in the polls. First and foremost, of course, was the financial crisis. The astounding institutional banking crisis that originated from the meltdown of the real estate market, the resulting credit crunch, have created an anxiety not seen since the Great Depression of 1930. Historically, the Democratic Party has a better reputation for salvaging the economy in times of crisis. In addition to the historical record, several political scientists, Alan Abramowitz from Emory and Larry Bartels from Princeton among others, have developed models based on the correlation between economic growth and presidential election results, and have found that when the economy is not growing in the second quarter of the election year, the party in power almost without exception loses the election. But just as important as the economic disarray has been the reaction of each candidate to that crisis, and the style of leadership that emerged from it. One week before the Wall Street debacle, McCain had said that" the fundamentals of the economy were strong". That unfortunate statement immediately gave an unequivocal ring of truth to Obama's claim that his opponent was "out of touch" with the realities of the country, and it will probably be remembered in history books as the critical turning point of this election. In the first debate, both candidates were cautious about the rescue plan (which had not yet been fully developed by the Treasury) and answered the questions on the economy as if little had changed. However, two days earlier, McCain had suspended his campaign and announced he was needed in Washington to "help solve the crisis". He had also demanded that the debate be cancelled because "times were too serious for that type of exchange". This was a gamble taken by his campaign and it backfired badly, as Obama (who also flew to Washington and attended the same meeting at the invitation of Bush) insisted that because times were difficult, the debate had become even more important and should take place: Americans were now paying attention to who should be the one to lead them out of this mess. Ultimately, McCain backed down and attended the debate, after no agreement on the Rescue Plan came out of that White House meeting. Although he did very well, was energetic and on message, his erratic pre-debate behavior worked against him by providing ammunition to the opposition, who were thereby able to portray him as unpredictable and over excitable, not the steady hand you would want at the helm of a nation in turmoil. Still, most experts and observers considered the first debate a draw, with both candidates passing their respective tests: Obama proving he was presidential enough to hold the office, and McCain reminding the public of his experience and dedication to the country. However, the polls showed most voters had chosen Obama as the winner. The second debate was in a town-hall meeting format, but with strict control of time and of the questioning. Veteran journalist Tom Brockaw moderated it with a strong hand, but the questions were lame and it was a lackluster performance on the part of everybody involved. However, the body language proved an asset to Obama, who listened respectfully, did not take any notes, and when needed, moved comfortably around the set to approach the public. On the other hand, McCain had a nervous restlessness about him that put him at a disadvantage; he kept going back to his corner to make notes on his opponent's comments and at a certain point referred to Obama as "that one" in what was perceived by many to be an expression of slight contempt. This was compounded by his aimless wondering around the set, at times having to be called on by Brockaw for blocking the moderator's teleprompter. In comparison, Obama looked very relaxed and cool, exuding that kind of calm and self-confidence that most people seem to be yearning for during these difficult times. It paid off, and his numbers started mounting dramatically on the next day. Even before that debate, the McCain campaign had thrown all self-restraint overboard and was using every trick in the book of negative campaigning. Thus, the name of William Ayres has become very widely known across the country, as a "domestic terrorist" who organized a bombing campaign of the Pentagon in the 60s, and as a "close associate to Barack Obama". Ayres was the founder of the Weather Underground movement, which protested against the Vietnam War four decades ago. Today he is a university professor and an educational reformer who has worked with many politicians (both Republican and Democrat) to change the educational system in Chicago. The more McCain slips in the poll numbers, the more we hear allusions to Obama's radical "associate", even if their contacts have been sporadic, that they met only a few years ago, and that Obama was eight years old when Ayres was a radical anti-war activist. McCain, however, did not bring this up in the face-to-face debate, perhaps for fear of opening the door to his own connection to Charles Keating, the convicted Savings and Loan scandal figure of the 1980s, whose investigation by regulators McCain had tried to suppress. McCain's vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, on the other hand, has at every opportunity mentioned Ayres' name at her rallies, working her base up to frenzy to the point of violent threats, with some yelling "off with his (Obama's) head". For good measure, she added underhanded allusions to his "foreignness" (read: race) by saying for example: "He is not a man who sees America the way you and I see it." This decision to play the "guilt by association" game and to associate Obama with terrorism (of any kind) has led to a violent escalation in the rhetoric and has roused the base, but does not seem to be working with the independent voters, as poll after poll continues to show. On the contrary, it seems to have hurt McCain: at last weekend rallies he had to "correct" several of his own supporters who in their questions to him claimed Obama was an "Arab", a terrorist, a criminal. After one of such claims, McCain very determinedly took the microphone away from a woman and told her: "No, Ma'm, that is not true. He is a decent family man with whom I just happen to have disagreements on policy." Surely this disappointed the base, which has been led to believe differently. In all fairness to Senator McCain, he is not a racist; in fact, he is a very moderate, middle of the road Republican who has taken on his own party on matters of campaign finance reform and immigration. Why, then, is he playing this self-destructive game? The only logical answer is: out of desperation, as his numbers slip and several senior Republicans have turned against him. The constant chasing of the headlines, the constant spewing of "rapid responses and frantic emails" has resulted in an incoherent message to the detriment of his own personal appeal. Yesterday Bill Kristol, political analyst and commentator of impeccable conservative credentials, and editor of the Weekly Standard, in an op-ed column in the New York Times, called for McCain to fire his campaign staff, "set himself free" and run as the "cheerful, open and accessible candidate" he was in the past. He said it is the "strategic incoherence and operational incompetence of his staff that has made his campaign dysfunctional…and toxic." To this, McCain retorted that "even Bill Kristol had bought into the Obama line" and that he himself was "exactly where he wanted to be, with the whole media establishment against him." However, Republicans are starting to distance themselves from McCain, who they think is dragging the whole party down and will be responsible for loss of Senate and House Republican races, too. To compound his plight even more, yesterday a bipartisan ethics report by the state legislature of Alaska found Sarah Palin abused her power when she fired the Police Commissioner over a family vendetta against a state trooper (an affair already nicknamed "Troopergate" by the media). Voters seem to have tuned McCain out; it is no longer a question of message. It is a question of leadership, of calm amid the turmoil, of whom Americans want to answer the proverbial three-in-the-morning phone call that rings in the White House. Confronted with the angst and fury of John McCain, his impulsive change of course and mixed messages at a time of enormous economic uncertainty, voters are turning in larger numbers to Obama, who has remained unflustered in the face of nasty accusations. Composed, focused on the economy, he dismisses the violent rhetoric of his opponents, and prefers to focus on the difficulty of the times and on the specifics of his policy solutions. He has sharpened his message, spoken directly to the issues and remained a sea of calm amidst the turmoil, a source of optimism amidst the gloom and doom of the headlines. In the meantime, his campaign has registered hundreds of thousands of voters in many states that have traditionally voted Republican, and that today are surprisingly in play for the Democrats (namely Virginia, North Carolina). The McCain campaign is financially weaker and had to pull out of Michigan, where he was down eight points, in order to concentrate more resources in Florida, where the race is still tight, but where the economy has been severely hit by the real estate bust and by the reduction in tourism due to the credit crunch, all of which may favor Obama. In spite of the 270 electoral votes that put him over the top, with potentially many more votes to be added from close races in several states, an Obama win is still not assured. McCain is defending states that went for Bush in the last two elections and which he absolutely must win in order to have a slim chance at the whole, and therefore he can't be on the offense as much in other states. If Obama wins Indiana, Virginia and North Carolina, he will be the first non-Southerner Democrat to carry these states since John F. Kennedy. That explains the frustration of Republican Party stalwarts with McCain, his irresponsible choice of running mate and the unraveling of his campaign. Ironically, in the first debate McCain accused Obama of not knowing the difference between a tactic and a strategy. It actually seems it is McCain who has confused the two. Populism as a political tactic is common, but as the main strategy it is ineffective and harmful for the country. At times like this, when people are worried about their jobs, their pensions and their health care, the populist message of anger and division is not what the average voter is looking for. They are looking instead for some measure of optimism and reassurance. That is why they have turned to Obama. To win, the McCain campaign should stop playing the race–and-terrorism card, and instead bring up a concept which surprisingly has been all but ignored in this election: that of Washington being swept up by a "one-party rule", with Democrats controlling not only the White House but also Congress. No checks and balances, no limits on government in this country of Lockean traditions? That is a scenario that few Americans would look forward too, even in difficult times. It may win McCain more votes than destructive insinuations about his opponent. Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Geography Director, ODU Model United Nations Program Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia
2023 was a year marked by devastating conflicts from Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine to Hamas's horrific terror attacks on Israel, from that country's indiscriminate mass slaughter in Gaza to a devastating civil war in Sudan. And there's a distinct risk of even worse to come this year. Still, there was one clear winner in this avalanche of violence, suffering, and war: the U.S. military-industrial complex.In December, President Biden signed a record authorization of $886 billion in "national defense" spending for 2024, including funds for the Pentagon proper and work on nuclear weapons at the Department of Energy. Add to that tens of billions of dollars more in likely emergency military aid for Ukraine and Israel, and such spending could well top $900 billion for the first time this year.Meanwhile, the administration's $100-billion-plus emergency military aid package that failed to pass Congress last month is likely to slip by in some form this year, while the House and Senate are almost guaranteed to add tens of billions more for "national defense" projects in specific states and districts, as happened in two of the last three years.Of course, before the money actually starts flowing, Congress needs to pass an appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2024, clearing the way for that money to be spent. As of this writing, the House and Senate had indeed agreed to a tentative deal to sign onto the $886 billion that was authorized in December. A trillion-dollar version of such funding could be just around the corner. (If past practice is any guide, more than half of that sum could go directly to corporations, large and small.)A trillion dollars is a hard figure to process. In the 1960s, when the federal budget was a fraction of what it is now, Republican Senator Everett Dirksen allegedly said, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money." Whether he did or not, that quote neatly captures how congressional attitudes toward federal spending have changed. After all, today, a billion dollars is less than a rounding error at the Pentagon. The department's budget is now hundreds of billions of dollars more than at the height of the Vietnam War and over twice what it was when President Eisenhower warned of the "unwarranted influence" wielded by what he called "the military-industrial complex."To offer just a few comparisons: annual spending on the costly, dysfunctional F-35 combat aircraft alone is greater than the entire budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2020, Lockheed Martin's contracts with the Pentagon were worth more than the budgets of the State Department and the Agency for International Development combined, and its arms-related revenues continue to rival the government's entire investment in diplomacy. One $13 billion aircraft carrier costs more than the annual budget of the Environmental Protection Agency. Overall, more than half of the discretionary budget Congress approves every year — basically everything the federal government spends other than on mandatory programs like Medicare and Social Security — goes to the Pentagon.It would, I suppose, be one thing if such huge expenditures were truly needed to protect the country or make the world a safer place. However, they have more to do with pork-barrel politics and a misguided "cover the globe" military strategy than a careful consideration of what might be needed for actual "defense."Congressional FolliesThe road to an $886-billion military budget authorization began early last year with a debt-ceiling deal negotiated by President Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. That rolled back domestic spending levels, while preserving the administration's proposal for the Pentagon intact. McCarthy, since ousted as speaker, had been pressed by members of the right-wing "Freedom Caucus" and their fellow travelers for just such spending cuts. (He had little choice but to agree, since that group proved to be his margin of victory in a speaker's race that ran to 15 ballots.)There was a brief glimmer of hope that the budget cutters in the Freedom Caucus might also go after the bloated Pentagon budget rather than inflict all the fiscal pain on domestic programs. Prominent right-wing Republicans like Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) pledged to put Pentagon spending reductions "on the table," but then only went after the military's alleged "woke agenda," which boiled down to cutting a few billion dollars slated for fighting racism and sexual harassment while supporting reproductive freedom within the armed forces. Oh wait, Jordan also went after spending on the development of alternative energy sources as "woke." In any case, he focused on just a minuscule share of the department's overall budget.Prominent Republicans outside Congress expressed stronger views about bringing the Pentagon to heel, but their perspectives got no traction on Capitol Hill. For instance, Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation, perhaps America's most influential conservative think tank, made the case for reining in the Pentagon at American Conservative magazine:"In the past, Congress accepted the D.C. canard that a bigger budget alone equals a stronger military. But now, facing down a record debt to the tune of $242,000 per household, conservatives are ready to tackle an entrenched problem and confront the political establishment, unaccountable federal bureaucrats, and well-connected defense contractors all at once in order to keep the nation both solvent and secure."Even more surprising, former Trump Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller released a memoir in which he called for a dramatic slashing of the Pentagon budget. "We could," he argued, "cut our defense budget in half and it would still be twice as big as China's."Ultimately, however, such critiques had zero influence over the Pentagon budget debate in the House, which quickly degenerated into a fight about a series of toxic amendments attacking reproductive freedom and LGTBQ and transgender rights in the military. Representative Colin Allred (D-TX) rightly denounced such amendments as a "shameful display of extremism" and across-the-board opposition by Democrats ensured that the first iteration of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024 would be defeated and some of the most egregious Republican proposals eliminated later in the year. In the meantime, virtually all mainstream press coverage and most congressional debate focused on those culture war battles rather than why this country was poised to shove so much money at the Pentagon in the first place.Threat Inflation and the "Arsenal of Democracy"Perhaps you won't be surprised to learn that the strategic rationales put forward for the flood of new Pentagon outlays don't faintly hold up to scrutiny. First and foremost in the Pentagon's argument for virtually unlimited access to the Treasury is the alleged military threat posed by China. But as Dan Grazier of the Project on Government Oversight has pointed out, that country's military strategy is "inherently defensive":"[T]he investments being made [by China] are not suited for foreign adventurism but are instead designed to use relatively low-cost weapons to defend against massively expensive American weapons. The nation's primary military strategy is to keep foreign powers, and especially the United States, as far away from its shores as possible in a policy the Chinese government calls 'active defense.'"The greatest point of potential conflict between the U.S. and China is, of course, Taiwan. But a war over that island would come at a staggering cost for all concerned and might even escalate into a nuclear confrontation. A series of war games conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found that, while the United States could indeed "win" a war defending Taiwan from a Chinese amphibious assault, it would be a Pyrrhic victory. "The United States and its allies lost dozens of ships, hundreds of aircraft, and tens of thousands of servicemembers," it reported. "Taiwan saw its economy devastated. Further, the high losses damaged the U.S. global position for many years." And a nuclear confrontation between China and the United States, which CSIS didn't include in its assessment, would be a first-class catastrophe of almost unimaginable proportions.The best route to preventing a future Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be to revive Washington's "One China" policy that calls for China to commit itself to a peaceful resolution of Taiwan's status and for the U.S. to forswear support for that island's formal independence. In other words, diplomacy, rather than increasing the Pentagon budget to "win" such a war, would be the way to go.The second major driver of higher Pentagon budgets is allegedly the strain on this country's arms manufacturing base caused by supplying tens of billions of dollars of weaponry to Ukraine, including artillery shells and missiles that are running short in American stockpiles. The answer, according to the Pentagon and the arms industry, is to further supersize this country's already humongous military-industrial complex to produce enough weaponry to supply Ukraine (and now Israel, too), while acquiring sufficient weapons systems for a future war with China.There are two problems with such arguments. First, supplying Ukraine doesn't justify a permanent expansion of the U.S. arms industry. In fact, such aid to Kyiv needs to be accompanied by a now-missing diplomatic strategy designed to head off an even longer, ever more grinding war.Second, the kinds of weapons needed for a war with China would, for the most part, be different from those relevant to a land war in Ukraine, so weaponry sent to Ukraine would have little relevance to readiness for a potential war with China (which Washington should, in any case, be working to prevent, not preparing for). The Disastrous Costs of a Militarized Foreign PolicyBefore investing ever more tax dollars in building an ever-expanding garrison state, the military strategy of the United States in the current global environment should be seriously debated. Just buying ever more bombs, missiles, drones, and next-generation artificial intelligence-driven weaponry is not, in fact, a strategy, though it is a boon to the military-industrial complex and an invitation to a destabilizing new arms race.Unfortunately, neither Congress nor the Biden administration seems inclined to seriously consider an approach that would emphasize investing in diplomatic and economic tools over force or the threat of force. Given this country's staggeringly expensive failures in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in this century (which cost trillions of dollars), resulting in hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties, and leaving staggering numbers of American veterans with physical and psychological injuries (as extensively documented by the Costs of War Project at Brown University), you might think a different approach to the use of your tax dollars was in order, but no such luck.There are indeed a few voices in Congress advocating restraint at the Pentagon, including Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Barbara Lee (D-CA), who have proposed a $100 billion reduction in that department's budget as a first step toward a more balanced national security policy. Such efforts, however, must overcome an inhospitable political environment created by the endlessly exaggerated military threats facing this country and the political power of the arms industry, as well as its allies in Washington. Those allies, of course, include President Biden, who has labeled the U.S. an "arsenal of democracy" in his efforts to promote a new round of weapons aid to Ukraine. Not unlike his predecessor, he is touting the potential benefits of arms-production investments in companies in electoral swing states.Sadly, throwing more money at the arms industry sacrifices future needs for short-term economic gains that are modest indeed. Were that money going into producing green jobs, a more resilient infrastructure, improved scientific and technical education, and a more robust public health system, we would find ourselves in a different world. Those should be the pillars of any American economic revival rather than the all-too-modest side effects of weapons development in fueling economic growth. Despite huge increases in funding since the 1980s, actual jobs in the arms manufacturing industry have, in fact, plummeted from three million to 1.1 million — and, mind you, those figures come from the arms industry's largest trade association. The United Auto Workers, one of the unions with the most members working in the arms industry, has recognized this reality and formed a Just Transition Committee. As noted by Spencer Ackerman at the Nation, it's designed to "examine the size, scope, and impact of the U.S. military-industrial complex that employs thousands of UAW members and dominates the global arms trade." According to Brandon Mancilla, director of the UAW's Region 9A, which represents 50,000 active and retired workers in New York, New England, and Puerto Rico, the committee will "think about what it would mean to actually have a just transition, what used to be called a 'peace conversion,' of folks who work in the weapons and defense industry into something else."The UAW initiative parallels a sharp drop in unionization rates at major weapons makers (as documented by journalist Taylor Barnes). To cite two examples: in 1971, 69% of Lockheed Martin workers were unionized, while in 2022 that number was 19%; at Northrop Grumman today, a mere 4% of its employees are unionized, a dip that reflects a conscious strategy of the big weapons-making firms to outsource work to non-union subcontractors and states with anti-union "right to work" laws, while exporting tens of thousands of jobs overseas as part of multinational projects like the F-35 program. So much for the myth that defense industry jobs are more secure or have better pay and benefits than jobs in other parts of the economy.A serious national conversation is needed on what a genuine defense strategy would look like, rather than one based on fantasies of global military dominance. Otherwise, the overly militarized approach to foreign and economic policy that has become the essence of Washington budget-making could be extended endlessly and disastrously into the future, something this country literally can't afford to let happen.This story was republished, with permission, from Tom Dispatch
"This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning…I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal…"And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true."Martin Luther King Jr." I have a dream speech" (March on Washington, August 28, 1963)On Wednesday August 27th, at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, before a crowd of 20,000, Barack Obama became the first biracial man to be officially nominated as presidential candidate by a major party. When the turn came for the delegates from the state of New York to vote, Obama had received 1,549 and Hillary Rodham-Clinton 231. Hillary then made a motion to suspend the roll call vote and select him by acclamation:"With eyes firmly fixed on the future in the spirit of unity, with the goal of victory, with faith in our party and country, let's declare together in one voice, right here and right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president."The night before, Hillary had made a gracious and persuasive speech in support of Obama, calling on her supporters to vote for the man that would bring health care to all Americans and restore the country's standing in the world, thus tacitly acknowledging that their platforms are one and the same. She had also reminded the audience that the (presidential) "glass ceiling now had 18 million cracks", a reference at the number of votes she received and a reminder of how close women had come this time around to win the Presidency, a white male domain until now. That was her way to give comfort to her female supporters, some of which have avowed to vote for McCain in the Fall. Then on Wednesday night it came up to Bill Clinton to put the proverbial final nail in the coffin of the bitter conflict that had bitterly divided the party up to then. He did it with a masterful, authoritative speech, in which he reassured the audience that Obama was just as ready for the Presidency as he himself had been in 1992. The clarity of his ideas and the perfect delivery reminded us all of why he will go down as one of the greatest Presidents in this country's History.Already by Wednesday night there was a sense of fulfillment and relief, since the unification of the Democratic Party was perceived by most Democrats as the Convention's main objective. The party had been divided since the 1970s, when the moderate, blue collar workers and Southerners became disgruntled with McGovern's socially liberal platform and voted for Nixon. Ten years later they would become known as the Reagan democrats, and the label would stick. Bill Clinton was able to bring them all back to the fold by focused policies and his ability to connect both with white and black blue-collar workers. But in the last eight years the divisions have reappeared, as it became plain during the primary: Obama appeals strongly to the black community and to white college educated youth but has been unable to extend that appeal to older women and white workers. That is why Hillary got 18 million votes. That is also why Obama's choice of Vice President is a solid one. Senator Joseph Biden, with his Catholic, blue-collar background, his toughness and his 30 years of experience in the Senate, and his wisdom and knowledge of foreign affairs, has added weight and credibility to the ticket. The expectation is that this formula will reunite the fractured party once again.This has been a historic Convention in more ways than one: the first African-American to win the nomination, the first woman to come so close to winning it, the passing of the torch to a new generation of Americans by Ted Kennedy, the brilliant speech by Bill Clinton which by all measures restores his stature within the party. But more than anything else, this Convention is historic because, as Clinton said, Barack Obama is "the twenty first century incarnation of the American Dream", and a reaffirmation of Ted Kennedy's proclamation on the first day of the Convention, that "the Dream Lives on" in Obama.The climax came on Thursday night with Obama's long awaited acceptance speech at the closing of the Convention. It was a carefully choreographed affair, overlaid with symbolism. Delivered before a crowd of 75,000 at the INVESCO open-air stadium at Mile High, against a background evoking the pillars of the Lincoln Memorial, it was watched by a TV audience of around 40 million and ended with fireworks across the Colorado sky. Barack Obama is also the first candidate since John F Kennedy to choose an open-to-the public venue to deliver his acceptance speech. There were some risks to this venue, from security to climactic. But more than anything else, his greatest challenge on this historic night was to communicate to his huge audience and the American nation at large, that he is not just a great orator but that he understands their woes and has the fortitude to fight for them; that he is ready to battle ahead and bring about the change he so brilliantly articulates in his speeches, and that this young man standing before them, half preacher, half professor, is also a practical politician, able to back his ideas with concrete and feasible plans. As Richard Haas says in his latest article on the Foreign Affairs Journal, the next president must confront "the reality of the country's expectations" and he must do so by "identifying meaningful yet achievable goals and lay them out before the nation…and then achieve them through leadership skills that will be tested by pressures unimaginable to anyone who has not held he job." Obama passed this difficult test on the first two requirements. The third is awaiting him, if elected in November.By most accounts, the speech was an overwhelming success. Obama presented a complete blueprint on how he will govern if elected. He first listed all the issues Americans are dissatisfied with, starting with the economy and ending with Iraq. He then outlined his specific policies to solve these problems. He subsequently gave examples of how McCain is closely aligned with George W. Bush's failed policies, thus demolishing his opponent's claims of independence from the incumbent. Finally, he presented himself as open-minded and pragmatic, willing to find middle ground on the so-called culture wars issues (gays, guns, abortion) that are frequently framed as false choices to elicit emotions, not rationality, from the part of the voters. He re-introduced himself to the public as a common man, with personal accounts of his childhood as son of a single mother, who raised him with the help of her parents and at times had to use food stamps to take care of him; of his admiration for his grandfather, a WWII veteran who went to college on the GI bill and taught him hard work, pride and love of country. Looking straight into the cameras, he humanized his message and connected with people. He was able to turn the tables on John McCain, who he presented as elitist, out of touch and thus, less trustworthy. His move to the middle ground on cultural issues ("We can withhold the Second Amendment and still get AK 47s out of the hands of criminals") and his calls for greater civic and parental responsibility ("Government cannot replace parents in educating their children…") gave consistency to his claim of post-partisanship.By asserting that America is the best hope for the world, he rejected the notion that only Republicans are patriotic ("Democrats can own that, too."). He also defied the fallacy that Democrats are weak on foreign policy ("We are the party of FDR and JFK, so don't tell us Democrats that we cannot defend the country…and restore the moral standing for all who fight for freedom."). And he did all this not so much with the soaring rhetoric of his earlier speeches, but with a tone of strength and defiance. He took the fight to John Mc Cain, promising to debate him not on petty issues but on who has the "judgment and the temperament" to be Commander-in-Chief. He thereby injected the question of McCain's short temper into the Fall campaign. The speech ended with an evocation of Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech delivered on this same day forty-five years ago at the Lincoln Memorial, and a pledge to once more "March forward together."Memories of the Democratic National Conventions and the momentum created by this brilliant speech were not, however, destined to linger for long in the American psyche. They were shattered by two events, one man-made, one natural. On Friday, August 29th, John McCain made an announcement that caused quite a stir in the media and public alike. He chose as his Vice president Mrs. Sarah Palin, the little-known first-term female governor of Alaska, a no exceptions pro-lifer who believes that Creationism should be taught in the schools alongside Evolution, and whose thin political résumé is startling to most observers. After they recovered from the initial shock, some pundits were able to articulate the intriguing yet-to be-answered question: was this the brilliant decision of a crafty tactician or the insane choice of an impulsive, overly ambitious politician? Is this a masterful stroke or a risky gamble? Only time will tell.That same day, Mrs. Palin had to share the limelight with Gustav, an impervious hurricane that was making its way toward the Gulf Coast at vertiginous speed and strength. Plans for the Republican National Convention to start on Monday had to be scrapped, while McCain and Palin made their way to Mississippi, turning this into an opportunity to distance themselves early on from Bush's fiasco during hurricane Katrina two years ago. Most Convention events were suspended for Monday and Tuesday and replaced by a bare-bones schedule of committee meetings, while the crucial events (vice-presidential speech and nomination vote) start this Wednesday and culminate Thursday with McCain's acceptance speech. This could turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Republicans. Courtesy of Gustav, now downgraded to a grade one hurricane, speeches by Bush and Cheney were cancelled. The President, who hastily made his way to New Orleans, may still speak for a short time via satellite on Wednesday, which will give him an opportunity to amend the terrible legacy of Katrina by replacing those images in the minds of the public with a much improved disaster relief response to Gustav.Palin is expected to give a good speech at the Convention. As a young political reformer who has fought corruption in her home state, she has energized the campaign. As a social conservative with deep convictions against abortion she has galvanized the conservative Evangelical base of the party. She is attractive and warm, and connects easily with the public, one of the few advantages of her political experience in Alaska, a sparsely populated state that requires extensive face-to-face contact with voters. An active hunter and life-long member of the NRA, she may be able to connect with the kind of independent blue-collar and rural voters that Obama has not been able to appeal to. But Palin has never been under the extreme national scrutiny that the next few months will bring, nor has she had to answer any unscripted questions about a wide variety of topics from the often vicious national press. Mc Cain picked her over men with extensive experience in economic matters (Mitt Romney) and in homeland security (Tom Ridge), both of whom had been extensively vetted. His choice of Palin as running mate is even more surprising if we consider that his main campaign theme against Obama was the latter's lack of executive experience. In contrast with Palin, Obama has had his trial-by-fire in the primary debates and through 18 months of campaigning. He has run against formidable candidates in the Primary, has been repeatedly tested by the media, and has emerged as the choice of Democratic voters. Palin, on the other hand, has one year of executive experience and a gaping lack of foreign policy knowledge. She is the choice of one man, John McCain, who has only met her twice. What will be the public's perception of Palin's credibility and readiness to step in as President should something happen to McCain? Did McCain, always the maverick, abdicate in his duty to the people by not choosing someone manifestly ready for the presidency? We may have some answers to these questions in a week or two.For those that expect Hillary's women to flock to the Republican side just because of McCain's Vice-presidential pick, think again. If there is one principle those women activists care about is the protection of the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision, so they would be loath to vote for a strongly anti-abortion candidate such as Palin. Nevertheless, Obama does need to worry about the white blue-collar workers' vote. He has been consistently ahead in the polls but the margin has narrowed somewhat. He is now 6 percentage points ahead in the polls (47% to 41%) but so far has been unable to break the 50% barrier. Given the byzantine workings of the Electoral College in a presidential election, even a sliver of independents and Reagan democrats here and there (especially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan) can win this election for McCain. The long-awaited Autumn of Freedom would then become for many, the Winter of Discontent.Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Geography Director, ODU Model United Nations Program Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia
Abstract Aim: This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Methods: This was an international cohort study of patients undergoing elective resection of colon or rectal cancer without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Centres entered data from their first recorded case of COVID-19 until 19 April 2020. The primary outcome was 30-day mortality. Secondary outcomes included anastomotic leak, postoperative SARS-CoV-2 and a comparison with prepandemic European Society of Coloproctology cohort data. Results: From 2073 patients in 40 countries, 1.3% (27/2073) had a defunctioning stoma and 3.0% (63/2073) had an end stoma instead of an anastomosis only. Thirty-day mortality was 1.8% (38/2073), the incidence of postoperative SARS-CoV-2 was 3.8% (78/2073) and the anastomotic leak rate was 4.9% (86/1738). Mortality was lowest in patients without a leak or SARS-CoV-2 (14/1601, 0.9%) and highest in patients with both a leak and SARS-CoV-2 (5/13, 38.5%). Mortality was independently associated with anastomotic leak (adjusted odds ratio 6.01, 95% confidence interval 2.58–14.06), postoperative SARS-CoV-2 (16.90, 7.86–36.38), male sex (2.46, 1.01–5.93), age >70 years (2.87, 1.32–6.20) and advanced cancer stage (3.43, 1.16–10.21). Compared with prepandemic data, there were fewer anastomotic leaks (4.9% versus 7.7%) and an overall shorter length of stay (6 versus 7 days) but higher mortality (1.7% versus 1.1%). Conclusion: Surgeons need to further mitigate against both SARS-CoV-2 and anastomotic leak when offering surgery during current and future COVID-19 waves based on patient, operative and organizational risks. ; Appendix 1 Writing group (*denotes joint first authors) Elizabeth Li*, James C. Glasbey*, Dmitri Nepogodiev*, Joana F. F. Simoes*, Omar M. Omar, Mary L. Venn, Jonathan P. Evans, Kaori Futaba, Charles H. Knowles, Ana Minaya-Bravo, Helen Mohan, Manish Chand, Peter Pockney, Salomone Di Saverio, Neil Smart, Abigail Vallance, Dale Vimalachandran, Richard J. W. Wilkin, Aneel Bhangu (Overall guarantor). 2 Statistical analysis Omar M. Omar (Lead statistician), Elizabeth Li, James C. Glasbey, Aneel Bhangu. 3 CovidSurg Operations Committee Kwabena Siaw-Acheampong, Ruth A. Benson, Edward Bywater, Daoud Chaudhry, Brett E. Dawson, Jonathan P. Evans, James C. Glasbey, Rohan R. Gujjuri, Emily Heritage, Conor S. Jones, Sivesh K. Kamarajah, Chetan Khatri, Rachel A. Khaw, James M. Keatley, Andrew Knight, Samuel Lawday, Elizabeth Li, Harvinder S. Mann, Ella J. Marson, Kenneth A. McLean, Siobhan C. Mckay, Emily C. Mills, Dmitri Nepogodiev, Gianluca Pellino, Maria Picciochi, Elliott H. Taylor, Abhinav Tiwari, Joana F. F. Simoes, Isobel M. Trout, Mary L. Venn, Richard J. W. Wilkin, Aneel Bhangu. 4 International Cancer Leads (*denotes specialty principal Investigator) James C. Glasbey (Chair); Colorectal: Neil J. Smart*, Ana Minaya-Bravo*, Jonathan P. Evans, Gaetano Gallo, Susan Moug, Francesco Pata, Peter Pockney, Salomone Di Saverio, Abigail Vallance, Dale Vimalchandran. 5 Dissemination Committee Joana F. F. Simoes (Chair); Tom E. F. Abbott, Sadi Abukhalaf, Michel Adamina, Adesoji O. Ademuyiwa, Arnav Agarwal, Murat Akkulak, Ehab Alameer, Derek Alderson, Felix Alakaloko, Markus Albertsmeiers, Osaid Alser, Muhammad Alshaar, Sattar Alshryda, Alexis P. Arnaud, Knut Magne Augestad, Faris Ayasra, José Azevedo, Brittany K. Bankhead-Kendall, Emma Barlow, David Beard, Ruth A. Benson, Ruth Blanco-Colino, Amanpreet Brar, Ana Minaya-Bravo, Kerry A. Breen, Chris Bretherton, Igor Lima Buarque, Joshua Burke, Edward J. Caruana, Mohammad Chaar, Sohini Chakrabortee, Peter Christensen, Daniel Cox, Moises Cukier, Miguel F. Cunha, Giana H. Davidson, Anant Desai, Salomone Di Saverio, Thomas M. Drake, John G. Edwards, Muhammed Elhadi, Sameh Emile, Shebani Farik, Marco Fiore, J. Edward Fitzgerald, Samuel Ford, Tatiana Garmanova, Gaetano Gallo, Dhruv Ghosh, Gustavo Mendonça Ataíde Gomes, Gustavo Grecinos, Ewen A. Griffiths, Madalegna Gründl, Constantine Halkias, Ewen M. Harrison, Intisar Hisham, Peter J. Hutchinson, Shelley Hwang, Arda Isik, Michael D. Jenkinson, Pascal Jonker, Haytham M. A. Kaafarani, Debby Keller, Angelos Kolias, Schelto Kruijff, Ismail Lawani, Hans Lederhuber, Sezai Leventoglu, Andrey Litvin, Andrew Loehrer, Markus W. Löffler, Maria Aguilera Lorena, Maria Marta Madolo, Piotr Major, Janet Martin, Hassan N. Mashbari, Dennis Mazingi, Symeon Metallidis, Ana Minaya-Bravo, Helen M. Mohan, Rachel Moore, David Moszkowicz, Susan Moug, Joshua S. Ng-Kamstra, Mayaba Maimbo, Ionut Negoi, Milagros Niquen, Faustin Ntirenganya, Maricarmen Olivos, Kacimi Oussama, Oumaima Outani, Marie Dione Parreno-Sacdalanm, Francesco Pata, Carlos Jose Perez Rivera, Thomas D. Pinkney, Willemijn van der Plas, Peter Pockney, Ahmad Qureshi, Dejan Radenkovic, Antonio Ramos-De la Medina, Keith Roberts, April C. Roslani, Martin Rutegård, Irène Santos, Sohei Satoi, Raza Sayyed, Andrew Schache, Andreas A Schnitzbauer, Justina O. Seyi-Olajide, Neil Sharma, Richard Shaw, Sebastian Shu, Kjetil Soreide, Antonino Spinelli, Grant D Stewart, Malin Sund, Sudha Sundar, Stephen Tabiri, Philip Townend, Georgios Tsoulfas, Gabrielle H. van Ramshorst, Raghavan Vidya, Dale Vimalachandran, Oliver J. Warren, Duane Wedderburn, Naomi Wright, EuroSurg, European Society of Coloproctology (ESCP), Global Initiative for Children's Surgery (GICS), GlobalSurg, GlobalPaedSurg, ItSURG, PTSurg, SpainSurg, Italian Society of Colorectal Surgery (SICCR), Association of Surgeons in Training (ASiT), Irish Surgical Research Collaborative (ISRC), Transatlantic Australasian Retroperitoneal Sarcoma Working Group (TARPSWG), Italian Society of Surgical Oncology (SICO). 6 Collaboratoring authors (*denotes site principal investigators) Argentina: Alurralde C., Caram E. L., Eskinazi D* (Sanatorio 9 De Julio Sa); Badra R., García J.S., Lucchini S.M.* (Sanatorio Allende). Australia: Cecire J., Salindera S.*, Sutherland A. (Coffs Harbour Health Campus); Ahn J.H., Chen S., Gauri N., Jang S., Jia F., Mulligan C., Yang W., Ye G., Zhang H. (Concord Repatriation General Hospital); Moss J.*, Richards T., Thian A., Vo U. G. (Fiona Stanley Hospital); Bagraith K., Chan E., Ho D., Jeyarajan E., Jordan S., Nolan G. J., Von Papen M., Wullschleger M. (Gold Coast University Hospital); Egoroff N., Gani J., Lott N., Pockney P.* (John Hunter Hospital); Phan D., Townend D.* (Lismore Base Hospital); Bong C., Gundara J.* (Logan Hospital); Bowman S.*, Guerra G. R. (Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Hospital); Dudi-Venkata N. N., Kroon H. M.*, Sammour T. (Royal Adelaide Hospital); Mitchell D.*, Swinson B. (Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital). Austria: Messner F., Öfner D.* (Medical University of Innsbruck); Emmanuel K., Grechenig M., Gruber R., Harald M., Öhlberger L., Presl J.*, Wimmer A. (Paracelsus Medical University Salzburg). Barbados: Barker D., Boyce R., Doyle A., Eastmond A., Gill R., O'Shea M., Padmore G.*, Paquette N., Phillips E., St John S., Walkes K. (Queen Elizabeth Hospital). Belgium: Flamey N., Pattyn P.* (Az Delta); Oosterlinck W.*, Van den Eynde J., Van den Eynde R. (Uz Leuven). Bulgaria: Sokolov M.* (University Hospital Alexandrovska). Canada: Boutros M.*, Caminsky N. G., Ghitulescu G. (Jewish General Hospital); Boutros M.*, Demyttenaere S.*, Garfinkle R. (St Mary's Hospital); Nessim C.*, Stevenson J. (The Ottawa Hospital). Croatia: Bačić G., Karlović D., Kršul D., Zelić M.* (University Hospital Center Rijeka); Bakmaz B., Ćoza I., Dijan E., Katusic Z., Mihanovic J.*, Rakvin I. (Zadar General Hospital). Cyprus: Frantzeskou K., Gouvas N.*, Kokkinos G., Papatheodorou P., Pozotou I., Stavrinidou O., Yiallourou A.* (Nicosia General Hospital). Czechia: Martinek L., Skrovina M.*, Szubota I. (Hospital and Oncological Centre Novy Jicin). Denmark: Ebbehøj A. L., Krarup P., Schlesinger N., Smith H.* (Bispebjerg Hospital). Egypt: Al Sayed M., Ashoush F.*, Elazzazy E., Essam E., Eweda M., Hassan E., Metwalli M., Mourad M., Qatora M. S., Sabry A.*, Samih A., Samir Abdelaal A., Shehata S.*, Shenit K. (Alexandria Main University Hospital); Attia D., Kamal N., Osman N.* (Alexandria Medical Research Institute); Alaa S., Hamza H. M., M. elghazaly S., Mohammed M. M.*, Nageh M. A., Saad M. M.*, Yousof E. A. (Assiut University Hospital); Eldaly A. S.* (El-Menshawy Hospital); Amira G., Sallam I.*, Sherief M., Sherif A. (Misr Cancer Center); Ghaly G.*, Hamdy R., Morsi A., Salem H.*, Sherif G. (National Cancer Institute); Abdeldayem H., Abdelkader Salama I.*, Balabel M., Fayed Y., Sherif A. E.* (National Liver Institute, Menoufia University). Finland: Kauppila J. H.*, Sarjanoja E. (Länsi-Pohja Central Hospital); Helminen O., Huhta H., Kauppila J. H.* (Oulu University Hospital). France: Beyrne C., Jouffret L.*, Marie-Macron L. (Centre Hospitalier Avignon); Lakkis Z.*, Manfredelli S. (CHU Besançon); Chebaro A.*, El Amrani M., Lecolle K., Piessen G.*, Pruvot F. R., Zerbib P. (CHU Lille); Ballouhey Q.*, Barrat B., Taibi A. (Chu Limoges); Bergeat D., Merdrignac A. (CHU Rennes – General Surgery); Le Roy B., Perotto L. O., Scalabre A.* (Chu Saint Etienne); Aimé A., Ezanno A.*, Malgras B. (Hia Begin); Bouche P. A.*, Tzedakis S.* (Hôpital Cochin – APHP); Cotte E., Glehen O., Kepenekian V., Passot G. (Hopital Lyon Sud); D'Urso A., Mutter D., Seeliger B.* (Strasbourg University Hospitals/IHU-Strasbourg); Bonnet S., Denet C., Fuks D., Laforest A., Pourcher G., Seguin-Givelet A.*, Tribillon E. (Institut Mutualiste Montsouris); Duchalais E.* (Nantes University Hospital). Germany: Bork U.*, Fritzmann J., Praetorius C., Weitz J., Welsch T. (Carl-Gustav-Carus University Hospital, TU Dresden); Beyer K., Kamphues C.*, Lauscher J. C., Loch F. N., Schineis C. (Charité University Medicine, Campus Benjamin Franklin); Becker R.*, Jonescheit J. (Heilig-Geist Hospital Bensheim); Pergolini I., Reim D.* (Klinikum Rechts der Isar TUM School of Medicine); Boeker C., Hakami I.*, Mall J.* (KRH Nordstadt-Siloah Hospitals); Albertsmeier M.*, Kappenberger A., Schiergens T., Werner J. (LMU Klinikum Campus Innenstadt); Nowak K.*, Reinhard T.* (Romed Klinikum Rosenheim); Kleeff J., Michalski C., Ronellenfitsch U.* (University Hospital Halle (Saale)); Bertolani E., Königsrainer A.*, Löffler M. W., Quante M.*, Steidle C., Überrück L., Yurttas C. (University Hospital Tuebingen); Izbicki J., Nitschke C., Perez D., Uzunoglu F. G.* (University Medical Center Hamburg–Eppendorf). Greece: Antonakis P., Contis I., Dellaportas D., Gklavas A., Konstadoulakis M., Memos N.*, Papaconstantinou I.*, Polydorou A., Theodosopoulos T., Vezakis A. (Aretaieion Hospital); Antonopoulou M. I., Manatakis D. K.*, Tasis N. (Athens Naval and Veterans Hospital); Arkadopoulos N., Danias N., Economopoulou P., Frountzas M., Kokoropoulos P., Larentzakis A., Michalopoulos N.*, Parasyris S., Selmani J., Sidiropoulos T., Vassiliu P. (Attikon University General Hospital); Bouchagier K.*, Klimopoulos S., Paspaliari D., Stylianidis G. (Evaggelismos General Hospital); Baxevanidou K., Bouliaris K., Chatzikomnitsa P., Efthimiou M., Giaglaras A., Kalfountzos C.*, Koukoulis G., Ntziovara A. M., Petropoulos K., Soulikia K., Tsiamalou I., Zervas K., Zourntou S. (General Hospital of Larissa 'Koutlimpaneio and Triantafylleio'); Baloyiannis I., Diamantis A., Perivoliotis K., Tzovaras G.* (General University Hospital of Larissa); Christidis P., Ioannidis O.*, Loutzidou L. (George Papanikolaou General Hospital of Thessaloniki); Karaitianos I.*, Tsirlis T. (Henry Dunant Hospital Center); Charalabopoulos A., Liakakos T., Baili E., Schizas D.*, Spartalis E., Syllaios A., Zografos C. (Laiko University Hospital); Athanasakis E., Chrysos E., Tsiaoussis I., Xenaki S.*, Xynos E.* (University Hospital of Heraklion Crete and Interclinic Hospital of Crete). Hong Kong: Futaba K.*, Ho M. F., Hon S. F., Mak T. W. C., Ng S. S. M. (Prince of Wales Hospital); Foo C. C.* (Queen Mary Hospital). Hungary: Banky B.*, Suszták N. (Szent Borbála Kórház). India: Bhat G. A., Chowdri N. A., Mehraj A.*, Parray F., Shah Z. A., Wani R. (Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences); Ahmed Z., Bali R., Bhat M. A., Laharwal A., Mahmood M., Mir I., Mohammad Z., Muzamil J., Rashid A.* (SMHS Hospital, Government Medical College). Ireland: Aremu M.*, Canas-Martinez A., Cullivan O., Murphy C., Owens P., Pickett L. (Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown); Corrigan M.*, Daly A., Fleming C.*, Jordan P., Killeen S., Lynch N., O'Brien S., Syed W. A. S., Vernon L. (Cork University Hospital); Fahey B. A., Larkin J. O.*, McCormick P., Mehigan B. J., Mohan H., Shokuhi P., Smith. J (St James's Hospital); Bashir Y., Bass G. A., Connelly T. M., Creavin B., Earley H., Elliott J. A.*, Gillis A. E., Kavanagh D. O., Neary P. C., O'Riordan J. M., Reynolds I. S., Rice D., Ridgway P. F., Umair M., Whelan M. (Tallaght University Hospital); Corless K., Finnegan L., Fowler A., Hogan A., Lowery A.*, McKevitt K.*, Ryan É. (University Hospital Galway); Coffey J. C., Cunningham R. M., Devine M., Nally D.*, Peirce C. (University Hospital Limerick); Hardy N. P., Neary P. M., O'Malley S.*, Ryan M. (University Hospital Waterford/University College Cork). Italy: Macina S.* (ASST Mantua); Mariani N. M.*, Opocher E., Pisani Ceretti A. (ASST Santi Paolo E. Carlo); Bianco F.* (ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII – Bergamo); Marino M. V.*, Mirabella A., Vaccarella G. (Azienda Ospedaliera Ospedali Riuniti Villa Sofia-Cervello); Agostini C., Alemanno G., Bartolini I., Bergamini C., Bruscino A., De Vincenti R., Di Bella A., Fortuna L., Maltinti G., Muiesan P.*, Prosperi P.*, Ringressi M. N., Risaliti M., Taddei A.*, Tucci R. (Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Careggi); Campagnaro T.*, Guglielmi A., Pedrazzani C., Rattizzato S., Ruzzenente A., Turri G. (Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Integrata di Verona); Bellora P., D'Aloisio G., Ferrari M., Francone E., Gentilli S.*, Nikaj H. (Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Maggiore della Carità); Bianchini M., Chiarugi M., Coccolini F., Di Franco G., Furbetta N., Gianardi D., Guadagni S., Morelli L.*, Palmeri M., Tartaglia D.* (Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Pisana); Anania G.*, Carcoforo P.*, Chiozza M., De Troia A., Koleva Radica M., Portinari M., Sibilla M. G., Urbani A. (Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria San'anna); Fabbri N., Feo C. V.*, Gennari S., Parini S., Righini E. (Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale di Ferrara, Università di Ferrara); Annessi V., Castro Ruiz C., Montella M. T., Zizzo M.* (Azienda Unità Sanitaria Locale – IRCCS di Reggio Emilia); Grossi U., Novello S., Romano M., Rossi S., Zanus G.* (Ca' Foncello Treviso – DISCOG – Università di Padova); Esposito G., Frongia F., Pisanu A., Podda M.* (Cagliari University Hospital); Belluco C., Lauretta A.*, Montori G., Moras L., Olivieri M.; Feo C. F., Perra T.*, Porcu A.*, Scanu A. M. (Cliniche San Pietro, Aou Sassari); Aversano A., Carbone F., Delrio P.*, Di Lauro K., Fares Bucci A., Rega D.*, Spiezio G. (Colorectal Surgical Oncology Unit – Istituto Nazionale Tumori Fondazione, Pascale IRCCS); Calabrò M.*, Farnesi F., Lunghi E. G., Muratore A.*, Pipitone Federico N. S. (Edoardo Agnelli); De Palma G. D., Luglio G.*, Pagano G., Tropeano F. P. (Federico II University Hospital); Baldari L.*, Boni L.*, Cassinotti E.* (Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda – Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico di Milano); Cosimelli M., Fiore M.*, Guaglio M.*, Sorrentino L. (Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milano); Agnes A., Alfieri S., Belia F., Biondi A., Cozza V., D'Ugo D., De Simone V., Litta F., Lorenzon L., Marra A. A., Marzi F., Parello A., Persiani R., Ratto C., Rosa F., Scrima O., Sganga G. (Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS); Belli A.*, Izzo F., Patrone R. (HPB Surgical Oncology Unit – Istituto Nazionale Tumori Fondazione, Pascale IRCCS); Carrano F. M., Carvello M. M., Di Candido F., Maroli A., Spinelli A.* (Humanitas Clinical and Research Center IRCCS, Rozzano (Mi) and Humanitas University, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Pieve Emanuele (Mi)); Aprile A., Batistotti P., Massobrio A., Pertile D., Scabini S.*, Soriero D. (IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino); De Manzoni Garberini A.* (Ospedale Civile Spirito Santo); Federico P., Maida P., Marra E., Marte G., Petrillo A., Tammaro P., Tufo A.* (Ospedale del Mare); Berselli M.*, Borroni G.*, Cocozza E., Conti L., Desio M., Rizzi A. (ASST Sette Laghi-Varese); Baldi C.*, Corbellini C., Sampietro G. M. (Ospedale di Rho – ASST Rhodense); Baldini E.*, Capelli P., Conti L., Isolani S. M., Ribolla M. (Ospedale Guglielmo da Saliceto Piacenza); Bondurri A., Colombo F.*, Ferrario L., Guerci C., Maffioli A. (Ospedale Luigi Sacco Milano); Armao T., Ballabio M.*, Bisagni P., Gagliano A., Longhi M., Madonini M., Pizzini P. (Ospedale Maggiore di Lodi); Mochet S.*, Usai A. (Ospedale Regionale Umberto Parini); Bianco F.*, Incollingo P. (Ospedale S. Leonardo – Asl Napoli 3 Sud, Castellammare di Stabia); Mancini S., Marino Cosentino L.*, Sagnotta A.* (Ospedale San Filippo Neri); Nespoli L. C., Tamini N.* (Ospedale San Gerardo); Anastasi A., Bartalucci B., Bellacci A., Canonico G.*, Capezzuoli L., Di Martino C., Ipponi P., Linari C., Montelatici M., Nelli T., Spagni G., Tirloni L., Vitali A. (Ospedale San Giovanni di Dio); Abate E., Casati M.*, Casiraghi T., Laface L., Schiavo M. (Ospedale Vittorio Emanuele III – Carate Brianza); Arminio A., Cotoia A., Lizzi V.*, Vovola F. (Ospedali Riuniti Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Foggia); Vergari R.* (Ospedali Riuniti di Ancona); D'Ugo S.*, Depalma N., Spampinato M. G. (Vito Fazzi, Leece); Brachini G., Chiappini A., Cicerchia P. M., Cirillo B., De Toma G., Fiori E., Fonsi G. B., Iannone I., La Torre F., Lapolla P.*, Meneghini S., Mingoli A., Sapienza P., Zambon M. (Policlinico Umberto I Sapienza University of Rome); Capolupo G. T.*, Mazzotta E. (Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio Medico of Rome); Gattolin A., Migliore M., Rimonda R., Sasia D.*, Travaglio E. (Regina Montis Regalis Hospital, Mondovì); Cervellera M., Gori A., Sartarelli L., Tonini V.* (S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital); Chessa A.*, Fiorini A., Norcini C. (San Giovanni di Dio); Colletti G., Confalonieri M., Costanzi A.*, Frattaruolo C., Mari G., Monteleone M. (San Leopoldo Mandic); De Nardi P.*, Parise P., Vignali A. (San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan); Belvedere A., Bernante P., Jovine E., Neri J., Parlanti D., Pezzuto A. P., Poggioli G., Rottoli M.*, Tanzanu M., Violante T. (IRCCS Azienda Ospedaliero – Universitaria di Bologna; Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna); Borghi F., Cianflocca D., Di Maria Grimaldi S., Donati D., Gelarda E., Giraudo G., Giuffrida M. C., Marano A.*, Palagi S., Pellegrino L., Peluso C., Testa V.* (Santa Croce E. Carle Hospital, Cuneo); Agresta F.*, Prando D.*, Zese M.* (Santa Maria degli Angeli Hospital ULSS 5 – Adria); Armatura G.*, Frena A., Scotton G.* (St Moritz Hospital); Gallo G.*, Sammarco G., Vescio G. (University 'Magna Graecia' of Catanzaro); Di Marzo F.* (Valtiberina); Fontana T.* ('Vittorio Emanuele' – Gela). Japan: Kanemitsu Y.*, Moritani K. (National Cancer Center Hospital). Jordan: Al Abdallah M.*, Ayasra F., Ayasra Y., Qasem A. (Al-Basheer Hospital); Fahmawee T., Hmedat A., Obeidat K.* (King Abdullah University Hospital); Abou Chaar M. K., Al-Masri M.*, Al-Najjar H., Alawneh F. (King Hussein Cancer Center). Libya: Alkadeeki G.*, Al Maadany F. S. (Al-Jalaa Hospital); Aldokali N., Senossi O., Subhi M. T. (Alkhadra Hospital); Burgan D.*, Kamoka E., Kilani A. I. (National Cancer Institute, Sabratha); Ellojli I.*, Kredan A. (Tripoli University Hospital). Lithuania: Bradulskis S., Dainius E., Kubiliute E., Kutkevičius J., Parseliunas A., Subocius A., Venskutonis D.* (Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kaunas Clinical Hospital). Madagascar: Rasoaherinomenjanahary F.*, Razafindrahita J. B., Samison L. H. (Joseph Ravoahangy Andrianavalona Hospital). Malaysia: Hamdan K. H., Ibrahim M. R., Tan J. A., Thanapal M. R.* (Hospital Kuala Lumpur); Amin Sahid N., Hayati F.*, Jayasilan J., Sriram R. K.*, Subramaniam S. (Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah); Che Jusoh M. A., Hussain A. H., Mohamed Sidek A. S., Mohd Yunus M. F., Soh J. Y., Wong M., Zakaria A. D.*, Zakaria Z. (School of Medical Sciences and Hospital, Universiti Sains Malaysia); Fathi N. Q., Xavier R. G., Roslani A. C.* (University Malaya Medical Centre). Mexico: Buerba G. A., Mercado M. Á.*, Posadas-Trujillo O. E., Salgado-Nesme N., Sarre C. (Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición 'Salvador Zubirán'). Morocco: Amrani L., El Ahmadi B., El Bouazizi Y., Majbar A. M., Benkabbou A., Mohsine R., Souadka A.* (Institut National d'Oncologie, Université Mohammed V Rabat). Netherlands: Hompes R.*, Meima-van Praag E. M., Pronk A. J. M., Sharabiany S. (Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam); Grotenhuis B.*, Hartveld L. (Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek Ziekenhuis); Posma-Bouman L.* (Slingeland Ziekenhuis); Derksen T., Franken J., Oosterling S.* (Spaarne Gasthuis); Konsten J.*, Van Heinsbergen M. (Viecuri Medisch Centrum). Nigeria: Olaogun J.* (Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital); Abdur-Rahman L.*, Adeyeye A.*, Bello J., Olasehinde O., Popoola A. (University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital). Pakistan: Jamal A., Kerawala A. A.* (Cancer Foundation Hospital); Memon A. S.*, Nafees Ahmed R., Rai .L* (Dr Ruth K. M. Pfau Civil Hospital); Ayub B., Ramesh P., Sayyed R.* (Patel Hospital); Butt U. I.*, Kashif M., Qureshi A.*, Farooka M. W.*, Ayyaz M.* (Services Hospital Lahore); Ayubi A., Waqar S. H.* (Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences). Poland: Major P. (Jagiellonian University Medical College). Portugal: Azevedo C., Machado D., Mendes F.* (Centro Hospitalar Cova da Beira); De Sousa X.* (Centro Hospitalar de Setúbal); Fernandes U., Ferreira C.*, Guidi G., Marçal A., Marques R., Martins D., Vaz Pereira R., Vieira B. (Centro Hospitalar de Trás-Os-Montes e Alto Douro, EPE); Afonso J., Almeida J. I., Almeida-Reis R.*, Correia de Sá T., Costa M. J. M. A., Fernandes V., Ferraz I., Lima da Silva C., Lopes L., Machado N., Marialva J., Nunes Coelho M., Pereira C., Ribeiro A., Ribeiro C. G., Santos R., Saraiva P., Silva R., Tavares F., Teixeira M. (Centro Hospitalar do Tamega e Sousa); Almeida A. C., Amaral M. J., Andrade R., Camacho C., Costa M., Lázaro A.*, Nogueira O., Oliveira A., Ruivo A., Silva M., Simões J. (Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra); Devezas V., Jácome F., Nogueiro J., Pereira A., Santos-Sousa H.*, Vaz S. (Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de São João); Pinto J., Tojal A.* (Centro Hospitalar Tondela-Viseu); Cardoso P.*, Cardoso N., Domingos J. C., Henriques P., Manso M. I., Martins dos Santos G., Martins R., Morais H.*, Pereira R., Revez T., Ribeiro R., Ribeiro V. I., Soares A. P., Sousa S., Teixeira J. (Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve – Unidade de Faro); Amorim E., Baptista V. H., Cunha M. F.*, Sampaio da Nóvoa Gomes Miguel I. I. (Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Algarve – Unidade de Portimão); Bandovas J. P., Borges N.*, Chumbinho B., Figueiredo de Barros I., Frade S., Gomes J., Kam da Silva Andrade A., Pereira Rodrigues A., Pina S., Silva N.*, Silveira Nunes I., Sousa R. (Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Central); Azevedo P., Costeira B., Cunha C., Garrido R.*, Miranda P., Peralta Ferreira M., Sousa Fernandes M. (Hospital Beatriz Angelo); Galvão D., Vieira A.* (Hospital de Santo Espirito da Ilha Terceira); Patrício B., Santos P. M. D. D.*, Vieira Paiva Lopes A. C. (Hospital de Torres Vedras – Centro Hospitalar do Oeste); Cunha R., Faustino A., Freitas A., Mendes J. R.*, Parreira R. (Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo); Abreu da Silva A.*, Claro M., Costa Santos D., Deus A. C., Grilo J. V. (Hospital do Litoral Alentejano); Borges F.*, Corte Real J., Henriques S., Lima M. J., Matos Costa P. (Hospital Garcia de Orta); Brito da Silva F., Caiado A.*, Fonseca F. (Instituto Português de Oncologia de Lisboa Francisco Gentil); Ângelo M., Baiao J. M., Martins Jordão D.*, Vieira Caroço T. (IPO Coimbra); Baía C., Canotilho R., Correia A. M., Ferreira Pinto A. P., Peyroteo M., Videira J. F.* (IPO Porto). Réunion: Kassir R.*, Sauvat F. (CHU Réunion). Romania: Bezede C., Chitul A., Ciofic E., Cristian D., Grama F.* (Coltea Clinical Hospital); Bonci E.*, Gata V.*, Titu S.* (Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuta Institute of Oncology). Russia: Garmanova T., Kazachenko E., Markaryan D., Rodimov S., Tsarkov P.*, Tulina I. (Clinic of Coloproctology and Minimally Invasive Surgery, Sechenov Medical State University); Litvina Y., Provozina A. (Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Regional Clinical Hospital); Agapov M.*, Galliamov E., Kakotkin V., Kubyshkin V., Kamalov A., Semina E. (Moscow Research and Educational Center, Lomonosov Moscow State University). Saudi Arabia: Alshahrani M.*, Alsharif F., Eskander M. (Aseer Central Hospital); Alharthi M., Aljiffry M., Basendowah M., Malibary N.*, Nassif M., Saleem A., Samkari A., Trabulsi N.* (King Abdulaziz University Hospital); Al Awwad S.*, Alghamdi M.*, Alnumani T.* (King Fahad General Hospital); Al Habes H., Alqannas M.*, Alyami M.*, Alzamanan M., Cortés Guiral D.*, Elawad A. (King Khalid Hospital); AlAamer O., Alselaim N.* (King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Ministry of National Guard, Health Affairs, General Surgery Department); Al-Khayal K., Alhassan N., Alobeed O., Alshammari S., Bin Nasser A.*, Bin Traiki T., Nouh T.*, Zubaidi A. M. (King Saud University). Serbia: Aleksić L., Antic A., Barisic G.*, Ceranic M., Grubač Ž., Jelenkovic J., Kecmanović D., Kmezić S., Knezevic D.*, Krivokapic Z.*, Latinčić S., Markovic V.*, Matić S.*, Miladinov M., Pavlov M.*, Pejovic I., Tadic B., Vasljević J., Velickovic D. (Clinic for Digestive Surgery, Clinical Centre of Serbia); Buta M., Cvetkovic A., Gacic S., Goran M., Jeftic N., Markovic I.*, Milanović M., Nikolic S., Pejnovic L., Savković N., Stevic D., Vucic N., Zegarac M. (Institute for Oncology and Radiology of Serbia); Karamarkovic A., Kenic M., Kovacevic B., Krdzic I.* (Zvezdara University Medical Center). Singapore: Lieske B.* (National University Hospital). South Africa: Almgla N.*, Boutall A., Herman A., Kloppers C.*, Nel D., Rayamajhi S. (Groote Schuur Hospital). Spain: Paniagua García Señorans M.*, Vigorita V. (Álvaro Cunqueiro Hospital); Acrich E., Baena Sanfeliu E., Barrios O., Golda T.*, Santanach C., Serrano-Navidad M., Sorribas Grifell M., Vives R. V. (Bellvitge University Hospital); Escolà D., Jiménez A.* (Comarcal Alt Penedés); Cayetano Paniagua L., Gómez Fernández L.* (Consorci Sanitari de Terrassa); Collera P., Diaz Del Gobbo R., Farre Font R., Flores Clotet R., Gómez Díaz C. J.*, Guàrdia N., Guariglia C. A., Osorio A., Sanchez Jimenez R., Sanchon L., Soto Montesinos C. (Fundació Althaia – Xarxa Assistencial Universitària de Manresa); Alonso-Lamberti L., García-Quijada J., Jimenez Miramón J., Jimenez V.*, Jover J. M., Leon R., Rodriguez J. L., Salazar A., Valle Rubio A. (Getafe University Hospital); Aguado H.* (Hellín Hospital); Bravo Infante R., De Lacy F. B., Lacy A. M.*, Otero A., Turrado-Rodriguez V.*, Valverde S. (Hospital Clinic Barcelona); Anula R., Cano-Valderrama O., Del Campo Martín M., Díez-Valladares L., Domínguez I., Dziakova J., García Alonso M., García Romero E., Gómez Latorre L., Muguerza J.M.*, Pizarro M. J., Saez Carlin P., Sánchez del Pueblo C., Sánchez-Pernaute A., Sanz Ortega G., Sanz-Lopez R., Torres A. (Hospital Clínico de Madrid); Garcés-Albir M.*, Lopez F.*, Martín-Arévalo J., Moro-Valdezate D.*, Pla Marti V. (Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia); Beltrán de Heredia J., De Andrés Asenjo B.*, Gómez Sanz T., Jezieniecki C., Nuñez del Barrio H., Ortiz de Solórzano Aurusa F. J., Romero de Diego A., Ruiz Soriano M., Trujillo Díaz J., Vázquez Fernández A. (Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid); Lora-Cumplido P., Sosa M. V.* (Hospital de Cabueñes); Gonzalez-Gonzalez E., Minaya Bravo A. M.* (Hospital del Henares); Alonso de la Fuente N., Jimenez Toscano M.* (Hospital del Mar); Grau-Talens E. J., Martin-Perez B.* (Hospital Don Benito-Villanueva); Benavides Buleje J. A., Carrasco Prats M.*, Giménez Francés C.*, Muñoz Camarena J. M., Parra Baños P. A., Peña Ros E., Ramirez Faraco M., Ruiz-Marín M.*, Valero Soriano M. (Hospital General Reina Sofía); Estaire Gómez M.*, Fernández Camuñas Á., Garcia Santos E. P., Jimenez Higuera E., Martínez-Pinedo C., Muñoz-Atienza V., Padilla-Valverde D.*, Picón Rodríguez R., Sánchez-García S., Sanchez-Pelaez D. (Hospital General Universitario de Ciudad Real); Colombari R. C., del Valle E., Fernández M., Lozano Lominchar P.*, Martín L., Rey Valcarcel C., Zorrilla Ortúzar J. (Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón); Alcaide Matas F., García Pérez J. M., Troncoso Pereira P.* (Hospital Mateu Orfila); Mora-Guzmán I.* (Hospital Santa Bárbara); Achalandabaso Boira M.*, Sales Mallafré R. (Hospital Universitari de Tarragona Joan XXIII); Marín H., Prieto Calvo M., Villalabeitia Ateca I.* (Hospital Universitario Cruces); De Andres Olabarria U., Durán Ballesteros M., Fernández Pablos F. J., Ibáñez-Aguirre F. J., Sanz Larrainzar A., Ugarte-Sierra B.* (Hospital Universitario de Galdakao); Correa Bonito A., Delgado Búrdalo L., Di Martino M.*, García Septiem J.*, Maqueda González R., Martin-Perez E. (Hospital Universitario de la Princesa); Calvo Espino P.*, Guillamot Ruano P. (Hospital Universitario de Móstoles); Colao García L., Díaz Pérez D.*, Esteban Agustí E., Galindo Jara P., Gutierrez Samaniego M.*, Hernandez Bartolome M. A.*, Serrano González J. (Hospital Universitario de Torrejón de Ardoz); Alonso Poza A., Diéguez B., García-Conde M., Hernández-García M., Losada M.* (Hospital Universitario del Sureste); Alvarez E., Chavarrias N., Gegúndez Simón A., Gortázar S., Guevara J., Prieto Nieto M. I., Ramos-Martín P., Rubio-Perez I.*, Saavedra J., Urbieta A. (Hospital Universitario la Paz); Cantalejo Diaz M., De Miguel Ardevines M. D. C., Duque-Mallén V.*, Gascon Ferrer I., González-Nicolás Trébol M. T., Gracia-Roche C., Herrero Lopez M., Martinez German A., Matute M., Sánchez Fuentes N., Sánchez-Rubio M., Santero-Ramirez M. S., Saudí S. (Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet); Blazquez Martin A., Diez Alonso M.*, Hernandez P., Mendoza-Moreno F., Ovejero Merino E., Vera Mansilla C. (Hospital Universitario Principe de Asturias); Acebes García F., Bailón M., Bueno Cañones A. D., Choolani Bhojwani E., Marcos-Santos P., Miguel T., Pacheco Sánchez D., Pérez-Saborido B., Sanchez Gonzalez J., Tejero-Pintor F. J.* (Hospital Universitario Río Hortega); Cano A., Capitan-Morales L., Cintas Catena J., Gomez-Rosado J.*, Oliva Mompean F., Pérez Sánchez M. A., Río Lafuente F. D., Torres Arcos C., Valdes-Hernandez J. (Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena); Cholewa H., Frasson M., Martínez Chicote C., Sancho-Muriel J.* (Hospital Universitario Y Politécnico la Fe); Abad Gurumeta A., Abad-Motos A., Martínez-Hurtado E., Ripollés-Melchor J.*, Ruiz Escobar A. (Infanta Leonor University Hospital); Cuadrado-García A.*, Garcia-Sancho Tellez L.*, Heras Aznar J.*, Maté P., Ortega Vázquez I.*, Picardo A. L., Rojo López J. A., Sanchez Cabezudo Noguera F.*, Serralta de Colsa D.* (Infanta Sofía University Hospital); Cagigas Fernandez C., Caiña Ruiz R., Gomez Ruiz M., Martínez-Pérez P., Poch C., Santarrufina Martinez S.*, Valbuena Jabares V. (Marqués de Valdecilla University Hospital); Blas Laina J. L., Cros B., Escartin J.*, Garcia Egea J., Nogués A., Talal El-Abur I., Yánez C. (Royo Villanova); Cagigal Ortega E. P., Cervera I., Díaz Peña P., Gonzalez J., Marqueta De Salas M., Perez Gonzalez M.*, Ramos Bonilla A., Rodríguez Gómez L. (Severo Ochoa University Hospital); Blanco-Colino R., Espin-Basany E.*, Pellino G. (Vall d'Hebron University Hospital). Sri Lanka: Arulanantham A., Bandara G. B. K. D., Jayarajah U.*, Ravindrakumar S., Rodrigo V. S. D. (District General Hospital Chilaw); Srishankar S.* (Teaching Hospital Anuradhapura). Sudan Ali Adil A. K. (Al-Rajhi). Sweden: Älgå A.*, Heinius G., Nordberg M., Pieniowski E. (Stockholm South General Hospital); Löfgren N., Rutegård M.* (Umea University Hospital). Switzerland: Arigoni M., Bernasconi M., Christoforidis D.*, Di Giuseppe M., La Regina D., Mongelli F. (Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale); Chevallay M., Dwidar O., Gialamas E., Sauvain M. (Pourtales Neuchatel Hospital); Adamina M.*, Crugnale A. S., Guglielmetti L., Peros G. (Kantonsspital Winterthur). Turkey: Aghayeva A.*, Hamzaoglu I., Sahin I. (Acibadem Altunizade Hospital); Akaydin E., Aliyeva Z., Aytac E., Baca B., Ozben V.*, Ozmen B. B. (Acibadem Atakent Hospital); Arikan A. E.*, Bilgin I. A.*, Kara H., Karahasanoğlu T., Uras C. (Acibadem Maslak Hospital); Dincer H. A., Erol T. (Hacettepe University Hospital); Alhamed A., Ergün S.*, Özçelık M. F., Sanli A. N., Uludağ S. S.*, Velidedeoglu M.*, Zengin A. K. (Istanbul Universty – Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty); Bozkurt M. A., Kara Y.*, Kocataş A. (Kanuni Sultan Suleyman Training and Research Hospital); Azamat İ. F., Balik E.*, Buğra D., Kulle C. B. (Koç University Medical School); Gözal K., Güler S. A., Köken H., Tatar O. C.*, Utkan N. Z., Yıldırım A., Yüksel E. (Kocaeli University Teaching Hospital); Akin E., Altintoprak F.*, Cakmak G., Çelebi F., Demir H., Dikicier E., Firat N., Gönüllü E., Kamburoğlu M. B., Küçük I. F., Mantoglu B. (Sakarya University Faculty of Medicine); Çolak E.*, Kucuk G. O., Uyanik M. S. (Samsun Training and Research Hospital); Göksoy B.* (Sehit Prof. Dr. İlhan Varank Training and Research Hospital); Bozkurt E., Mihmanli M., Tanal M.*, Yetkin S. G. (Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital); Akalin M., Arican C., Avci E. K., Aydin C., Demirli Atıcı S.*, Emiroglu M., Kaya T.*, Kebabçı E., Kilinc G., Kirmizi Y., Öğücü H., Salimoğlu S., Sert İ., Tugmen C., Tuncer K., Uslu G., Yeşilyurt D. (University of Health Sciences Tepecik Training and Research Hospital); Yildiz A.* (Yildirim Beyazit University Yenimahalle Training and Research Hospital). Uganda: Lule H.*, Oguttu B.* (Kampala International University Teaching Hospital). UK: Agilinko J., Ahmeidat A., Bekheit M.*, Cheung L. K., Kamera B. S., Mignot G., Shaikh S.*, Sharma P. (Aberdeen Royal Infirmary); Al-Mohammad A., Ali S., Ashcroft J., Baker O., Coughlin P., Davies R. J.*, Kyriacou H., Mitrofan C. G., Morris A., Raby-Smith W., Rooney S., Singh A., Tan X. S., Townson A., Tweedle E. (Addenbrooke's Hospital); Angelou D., Choynowski M., McAree B.*, McCanny A., Neely D. (Antrim Area Hospital – Northern Health and Social Care Trust); Mosley F.* (Bradford Royal Infirmary); Arrowsmith L.*, Campbell W.* (Causeway Hospital); Grove T., Kontovounisios C., Warren O.* (Chelsea and Westminster Hospital); Clifford R., Eardley N., Krishnan E., Manu N., Martin E., Roy Mahapatra S., Serevina O. L., Smith C., Vimalachandran D.* (Countess of Chester Hospital); Emslie K.*, Labib P.*, Minto G., Natale J., Panahi P., Rogers L.* (Derriford Hospital); Abubakar A.*, Akhter Rahman M. M., Chan E., O'Brien H., Sasapu K.* (Diana Princess of Wales Hospital Grimsby); Ng H. J.* (Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary); Day A.* (East Surrey Hospital); Hunt A., Laskar N.* (East Sussex Healthcare (Conquest Hospital and Eastbourne District General Hospital)); Gupta A.*, Steinke J., Thrumurthy S. (Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust); Massie E., McGivern K., Rutherford D., Wilson M.* (Forth Valley Royal Hospital); Handa S., Kaushal M., Kler A., Patel P.*, Redfern J., Tezas S. (Furness General Hospital); Aawsaj Y., Barry C., Blackwell L., Emerson H., Fisher A.*, Katory M., Mustafa A. (Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust); Kretzmer L.*, Lalou L., Manku B., Parwaiz I., Stafford J. (George Eliot Hospital); Abdelkarim M., Asqalan A., Gala T., Ibrahim S., Maw A.*, Mithany R., Morgan R.*, Sundaram Venkatesan G. (Glan Clwyd Hospital); Boulton A. J. (Good Hope Hospital); Hardie C., McNaught C.* (Harrogate District Hospital); Karandikar S.*, Naumann D. (Heartlands Hospital); Ayorinde J., Chase T., Cuming T., Ghanbari A., Humphreys L., Tayeh S.* (Homerton University Hospital); Aboelkassem Ibrahim A., Evans C., Ikram H., Loubani M.*, Nazir S., Robinson A., Sehgal T., Wilkins A. (Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust); Dixon J.*, Jha M., Thulasiraman S. V., Viswanath Y. K. S.* (James Cook University Hospital); Curl-Roper T., Delimpalta C., Liao C. C. L.*, Velchuru V., Westwood E. (James Paget University NHS Foundation Trust Hospital); Bond-Smith G.*, Mastoridis S., Tebala G. D., Verberne C. (John Radcliffe Hospital); Bhatti M. I., Boyd-Carson H., Elsey E., Gemmill E., Herrod P.*, Jibreel M., Lenzi E., Saafan T., Sapre D., Sian T., Watson N. (King's Mill Hospital); Athanasiou A.*, Burke J., Costigan F., Elkadi H., Johnstone J., Nahm C. (Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust); Annamalai S., Ashmore C., Kourdouli A. (Leicester Royal Infirmary); Askari A., Cirocchi N., Kudchadkar S., Patel K., Sagar J.*, Talwar R.* (Luton and Dunstable University Hospital); Abdalla M., Ismail O., Newton K., Stylianides N.* (Manchester Royal Infirmary); Aderombi A., Bajomo O., Beatson K., Garrett W.*, Ng V. (Medway Hospital); Al-Habsi R., Divya G S., Keeler B.* (Milton Keynes University Hospital); Egan R., Fabre I., Harries R.*, Li Z., Parkins K., Spencer N., Thompson D. (Morriston Hospital Swansea); Gemmell C., Grieco C., Hunt L.* (Musgrove Park Hospital); Mahmoud Ali F. (Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.); Seebah K., Shaikh I.*, Sreedharan L., Youssef M.* (Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital); Shah J.* (North Manchester General Hospital); McLarty N., Mills S.*, Shenfine A. (Northumbria NHS Hospital Trust); Sahnan K. (Northwick Park Hospital); Michel M., Patil S., Ravindran S., Sarveswaran J.*, Scott L. (Pinderfields Hospital); Bhangu A.*, Cato L. D., Kamal M., Kulkarni R., Parente A., Saeed S., Vijayan D. (Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham); Kaul S., Khan A. H., Khan F., Mukherjee S.*, Patel M., Sarigul M., Singh S. (Queen's Hospital Romford); Adiamah A., Brewer H., Chowdhury A.*, Evans J., Humes D.*, Jackman J., Koh A., Lewis-Lloyd C., Oyende O., Reilly J., Worku D. (Queens Medical Centre); Bisset C., Moug S. J.* (Royal Alexandra Hospital); Math S., Sarantitis I., Timbrell S., Vitone L.* (Royal Blackburn Hospital); Faulkner G.* (Royal Bolton Hospital); Brixton G., Findlay L., Majkowska A., Manson J.*, Potter R. (Royal Bournemouth Hospital); Bhalla A.*, Chia Z., Daliya P., Grimley E., Malcolm F. L., Theophilidou E. (Royal Derby Hospital); Daniels I. R., Fowler G., Massey L., McDermott F.*, Rajaretnam N. (Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital); Beamish A., Magowan D., Nassa H., Price C., Smith L., Solari F., Tang A. M., Williams G.* (Royal Gwent Hospital); Davies E.*, Hawkin P., Raymond T., Ryska O. (Royal Lancaster Infirmary); Baron R. D.*, Gahunia S., McNicol F.*, Russ J., Szatmary P., Thomas A. (Royal Liverpool University Hospital); Jayasinghe J. D., Knowles C., Ledesma F. S., Minicozzi A.*, Navaratne L., Ramamoorthy R., Sohrabi C., Thaha M.*, Venn M. (Royal London Hospital); Atherton R.*, Brocklehurst M., McAleer J., Parkin E.* (Royal Preston Hospital); Aladeojebi A., Ali M., Gaunt A.* (Royal Stoke University Hospital); Hammer C., Stebbing J. (Royal Surrey County Hospital); Bhasin S., Bodla A. S., Burahee A., Crichton A., Fossett R., Yassin N.* (Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust); Brown S.*, Lee M., Newman T., Steele C. (Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust); Baker A., Konstantinou C., Ramcharan S.*, Wilkin R. J. W. (South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust); Lawday S., Lyons A.* (Southmead Hospital); Chung E., Hagger R., Hainsworth A., Karim A., Owen H., Ramwell A., Williams K.* (St George's Hospital); Hall J. (Stepping Hill Hospital); Harris G., Royle T.*, Watson L. J. (Sunderland Royal Hospital); Asaad P., Brown B., Duff S.*, Khan A., Moura F., Wadham B. (The University Hospital of South Manchester); McCluney S., Parmar C.*, Shah S. (The Whittington Hospital); Babar M. S., Goodrum S., Whitmore H. (Torbay and South Devon NHS Trust); Balasubramaniam D.*, Jayasankar B.*, Kapoor S., Ramachandran A. (Tunbridge Wells Hospital); Beech N., Chand M.*, Green L., Kiconco H., McEwen R. (University College London Hospital); Pereca J.* (University Hospital Ayr); Gash K.*, Gourbault L., MacCabe T., Newton C.* (University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust); Baig M., Bates H., Dunne N., Khajuria A., Ng V., Sarma D. R., Shortland T., Tewari N.* (University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trusts); Akhtar M. A.*, Brunt A., McIntyre J., Milne K., Rashid M. M., Sgrò A., Stewart K. E., Turnbull A. (Victoria Hospital Kirkcaldy); Aguilar Gonzalez M.*, Talukder S.* (West Suffolk Hospital); Eskander P., Hanna M., Olivier J.* (Weston General Hospital); Magee C.*, Powell S.* (Wirral University Teaching Hospital); Flindall I., Hanson A., Mahendran V. (Worcestershire Royal Hospital); Green S., Lim M., MacDonald L., Miu V., Onos L., Sheridan K., Young R.* (York Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust); Alam F., Griffiths O., Houlden C., Kolli V. S., Lala A. K., Seymour Z.* (Ysbyty Gwynedd). USA: Haynes A.*, Hill C., Leede E., McElhinney K., Olson K. A., Riley C., Thornhill M. (Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas); Etchill E., Gabre-Kidan A.*, Jenny H., Kent A., Ladd M. R., Long C., Malapati H., Margalit A., Rapaport S., Rose J., Stevens K., Tsai L., Vervoort D., Yesantharao P., Bigelow B. (Johns Hopkins Hospital); Klaristenfeld D.* (Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center); Huynh K. (Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles); Azam M., Choudhry A.*, Marx W. (SUNY Upstate University Hospital); Abel M. K., Boeck M., Chern H., Kornblith L.*, Nunez-Garcia B., Ozgediz D., Glencer A., Sarin A., Varma M. (University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)); Abbott D., Acher A., Aiken T., Barrett J., Foley E., Schwartz P., Zafar S. N.* (University of Wisconsin); Hawkins A.*, Maiga A. (Vanderbilt University Medical Center).
Part one of an interview with Settimio "Babe" Pellechia. Part of this interview has been redacted as per Mr. Pellechia's wishes. Topics include: Family history. How his parents came to the United States from Italy and settled in Leominster, MA. His father's work at the Leominster Button Company and then as an ash collector. Babe's memories of growing up in Leominster during the Depression. His father's construction work. The work his siblings did. What it was like for Babe working with his father on construction jobs. How his brothers turned the construction business into a concrete block manufacturing business. The different businesses Babe started and worked in. What the Lincoln Terrace neighborhood was like when Babe was growing up. His mother mainly spoke Italian and knew very little English. Speaking Italian in the home. What his mother was like. The types of food his mother would prepare. Babe's work in the motel business. What life was like when Babe was running an ice cream shop and a motel. His children's education. ; 1 BABE: And [DeMazzio]… [Icelano], and then after would actually be Joseph… Enrico. LINDA: Enrico? BABE: Enrico. LINDA: Enrico. BABE: Uh oh, we got caught. Enrico, and then myself, and then Olga. LINDA: Hi, I'm Linda. SPEAKER 3: Hi nice to meet you. BABE: Now there wasn't -- of course Dave passed four years ago. There was another DeMazzio [unintelligible - 00:00:53] Icelano. LINDA: Oh, there were two others that died? BABE: Well, they died at the age of three and one in the same weekend. LINDA: Okay. BABE: Before the others. That's why they renamed the others. LINDA: They renamed -- so. I'll put that in here there were two others. You want that in there? There was another one DeMazzio that died and they named it the next one DeMazzio. And Icelano was one that died, and they named the next one Icelano. SPEAKER 3: I would like that in there. LINDA: Okay. SPEAKER 3: [Unintelligible - 00:01:21] you should have hired her. LINDA: How are you, Tina? TINA: Oh good. I'm… LINDA: Now, your marriage. BABE: Now, there's a bad part. You had to spoil it. October 5, 1945. I'm sorry, October 6, 1945. LINDA: Uh-oh. SPEAKER 3: I was just waiting. I didn't want to say anything. LINDA: October 6, 1945 and you married Augustina, what? SPEAKER 3: Traini. BABE: T-R-A-I-N-I. 2 LINDA: Augustina Traini. BABE: This comes out of that because [unintelligible - 00:02:01] that's part of the book [unintelligible - 00:02:05]. SPEAKER 3: Babe, you're going to have to do this because -- I'm sorry, I have a class. I'm teaching down the college, so… BABE: What was that last one? LINDA: Your children, the names of your children. BABE: Okay, Linda… LINDA: Another Linda. BABE: And Barry David. LINDA: And Barry David. Residential history. Now, you lived on Grove Avenue. BABE: The different places we lived? Well, we started in Lincoln Terrace where I was born, and Miller Street, [Union] Street. After Union Street we went to Sterling, Westminster, to Grove Avenue, and then over here. LINDA: Norfolk, okay. BABE: I missed one, Litchfield Street. LINDA: Where was that at? BABE: That would before Union. LINDA: Litchfield? BABE: Litchfield. Is it recording now? LINDA: Yes. BABE: Then I can't joke as I go on. LINDA: Oh, you can joke. I just wanted to make sure that… BABE: Had I graduated it would've been the class of '40. LINDA: Okay. Work history. What did you do? Your father? BABE: What did I do? I started with contracting with my father. My father was a contractor, so I fit in that very good. And then I was self-employed in the following businesses: Babe's Ice Cream, Dennison Motel, West [unintelligible - 00:04:06] Motel, and Babe's Miniature Golf, subdivision of the real estate [unintelligible - 00:04:07] houses. LINDA: Subdivision of real estate? For housing? 3 BABE: Mm-hmm. That's all I did. LINDA: What about Blocks? BABE: Yes, true. That was another corporation. These were all my own. Blocks was a corporate… LINDA: That was with your father? SPEAKER 3: At least she remembered. LINDA: Contracting with father, Blocks -- was that the name of it? BABE: Well, Blocks was the name of the four brothers. SPEAKER 3: It's a great thing you guys are doing, you know. I'm so glad you got that older woman, that 100 year old lady, 106. Thank God you got her before she went. LINDA: We got a little bit. You didn't get to see her [unintelligible - 00:05:09]. SPEAKER 3: Not me. It was someone who was working before. BABE: To show that we're not always hiding. That first sheet down there, what's that say? SPEAKER 3: This one? BABE: Yeah. SPEAKER 3: The Joy of Growing Up Italian? BABE: No, no, the one above it. SPEAKER 3: American? BABE: No, what's the next one you have there? SPEAKER 3: This one, the Americans? BABE: Oh, that's what you had. [Unintelligible - 00:05:26] LINDA: Babe, my next question here is St. Anne the Church, and that's St. Anna. You always belonged to St. Anna Church? BABE: Off and on. LINDA: Off and on. SPEAKER 3: Yeah. BABE: And now it's off. SPEAKER 3: I'm just going to say bye. And I'll see you. LINDA: Good luck. Nice meeting you. [Unintelligible - 00:05:58] 4 BABE: It was a pleasure. SPEAKER 3: I got pineapples for my still life. LINDA: You're going to paint still life? SPEAKER 3: No, they're drawing. It's a drawing class that I'm taking [unintelligible - 00:06:05]. BABE: Before -- do you want to shut it for just a minute? SPEAKER 3: Not on there, so… LINDA: Thank you, Ann. I would have checked. Okay, we have to start again. I'm Linda Rosenblum with the Center for Italian Culture. It's Tuesday, October 30th at 1:20 p.m. We're with Babe Pellechia, and Rosa Farrell is with me, and we're at his home at 27 North Fourth Drive in Leominster. Hi, Babe. Thanks for letting us come and interview you. I thought that you could tell me a little bit about your parents first. Are they the ones that came to Leominster? BABE: Yes. My father came to Leominster in 1906, and… how far do you want me to expand on that? What he did? LINDA: Sure. Well, first of all, where did he immigrate from? BABE: From Rome. LINDA: Rome? Did he travel with your mother? BABE: No, she came in 1909. LINDA: Okay. Who did he travel with? BABE: He just came on his own, I believe, at that time or whatever, people were coming. He left from Roma and landed in New York then came to Leominster. LINDA: Do you know why he came to Leominster? BABE: You know, that's one of the questions we never asked him, and I'm still trying to find out why he came to Leominster. It must be because of friends; that's where most of them was. You know, there was quite a colony of the Santa Maria Del Combo, and that's from the section of Italy where they came from. So it could have been from other friends where he… 5 LINDA: What do you call that, Santa Maria? ROSA: Del Campo. Santa Maria Del Campo. BABE: It's an Italian organization. ROSA: The particular region in Italy. LINDA: So, close to Rome? BABE: It's south of Rome. It's actually -- El Vita, and [unintelligible - 00:08:00]… which is part of -- give me a minute. My notes over there, please, these little papers here. It's [unintelligible - 00:08:17] Costa Lata. C-O-S-T-A, L-A-T-A, I believe it is. And that's where most of them came from. LINDA: And I had just read in some of the papers over here that he studied industrial agriculture when he was in Rome? Did you know that? BABE: He was a farmer, whatever that may mean. You know, like I say, [unintelligible - 00:08:41]… authority, and that sometimes these things happen like a good friend of ours that was a garbage collector, and he did wonderful things. The city of New York gave him an award, and they said he is a sanitation engineer. And the guy got up and says I am a garbage collector. So I don't think he did much studying at that age because there was -- things were pretty rough there in Italy. LINDA: Did he ever tell you any stories of Italy? BABE: Oh yes. LINDA: Would you like to share some? BABE: Well, he would say the way they used to work and so forth, and their living conditions, which was pretty rough at that time. That was the reason why they came here. Of course, supposedly our roads were paved with gold, and that's out there. But he was always a very hard worker and always wanted to do more, learn more, do more, which he did do in his life. Like the first thing he did when he came in to Leominster was he headed down to Leominster Button Company, which is near, 305 Whitney Street, and they're called [unintelligible - 00:10:01] now. And he was a rubber of buttons and combs. They used ashes, and it's surprising that 6 they [unintelligible - 00:10:11] health in that year one of the filthiest jobs that -- the men worked, and this is outlined -- let's see, this is put out by the Board of Health of Massachusetts. LINDA: So he was called a rubber? BABE: Mm-hmm. LINDA: Did you remember him explaining what he did? BABE: Well, what it is, you take the buttons or the combs or whatever they're working on [unintelligible - 00:10:37] was turtle, made from turtle then [unintelligible - 00:10:39], and what the ashes and what the wheels going at the RPMs that it does go, and the water, that polishes up, really polish it. But of course if you got water and ashes and a wheel going you know what that does to the person, and that's what he did for a few years. Surprisingly though in 1914 he sold that fine ashes -- this was a business for him. LINDA: So he realized that there was a use for that ash. BABE: Mm-hmm, and they got him out of that filthy working conditions. LINDA: I'm wondering what does an ash dealer mean? What would he do with the ashes? BABE: You go around and pick up the ashes from people's home, 10 cents a barrel, bring them down and screen it through a screen that water won't go through, and that's what they used for rubbing. That's the compound that they used for rubbing these plastic -- not plastic but the horns or hooks or whatever they were doing. LINDA: Did he get that idea from someone else, to go and collect the ash? BABE: Well, he got the idea from being in business. He got some wagons to collect the ashes, which were -- and the rubber district was a good business at the time, and then he felt that he had that, why not screen the ashes and sell it to the industries, which he did. Another byproduct of that too that the -- when you screen the ashes you always get the coal that never burnt, and half of Lincoln Terrace was the Italian Colony. He used to go down and pick up the coal, and it kept a lot of people warm up there 7 at that time, so that they would go down -- it was on Middle Street where they did that. So [unintelligible - 00:12:33] he helped out a lot of people by letting them go and they go through these screenings and pick out all the little black diamond gold that heats the house, and that was it. LINDA: So this 75 Lincoln Terrace, was that where you lived, or … BABE: That's where I was born, and that's where we lived at the time. LINDA: So he actually -- I just want to make sure that we get this on tape, so sorry to keep asking you… BABE: That's all right. LINDA: It's an old art, and it's not easily explainable. So he would go around to people's homes, or… BABE: Yes. Because everybody burnt coal in those days. You'd call up and you'd go there and then take the barrels out where -- which as he said was very, very heavy, because you'd either have to go up the stairs if they didn't have an outside door or to the bulkhead or something like that, and he aggravated at some people to get more ashes in the barrel [unintelligible - 00:13:26]. And so that's more weight, and then you couldn't screen it. Other than that he had the horse and wagons, put them on, bring them down -- the screening plant was on Millet Street, which is just off of Lincoln Terrace, and there he would screen what he picked up from the people's homes and separate it and sell the extra fine screened ashes to industry. And he shipped it to a few places all over the United States at the time. LINDA: Where did he get the money to begin this type of a business? BABE: By what most foreigners other than Puerto Ricans, saved their money [unintelligible - 00:14:09] saved their money and do it that way. LINDA: So at this time was he married? BABE: Probably should strike that out. That isn't too nice to say, but it's already on tape. 8 LINDA: Well, it's going to be edited. BABE: Okay. LINDA: What did I ask -- was he married to your mother by this time? BABE: Oh yes, he married my mother in 19… I'll put my glasses on. It would help, wouldn't it? LINDA: Okay, but we can figure out the dates later. BABE: Hmm? LINDA: We can figure out the dates later. BABE: Okay. LINDA: So we'll figure it out. So can you tell me a little bit about growing up on Lincoln Terrace? BABE: It's a good thing that we didn't know better. We enjoyed ourselves. It was a happy life and so forth, but I just wonder what would happen today if children had to go through what we did. Our fun would be getting in a sandbank and digging holes and whatever we could find, cups and make objects out of it. We'd play baseball. Whoever had the baseball and the bat would be the one that would pick the teams and when we'd play and how we'd play. And it was -- on today's standard it was really very, very rough living at the time. We had no entertainment to speak of. We hardly go to movies only it was only a nickel to go to the Gem Theater; we didn't get there too often. And the main highlight, or one of them, was at Christmastime at the -- one thing my father would do, he did everything for Christmas. You know, for food and things like that. And one of the big games as I remember would be getting the table like this and putting sawdust on it, and he'd hide coins in the sawdust, and you each had a shape to pick out a shape where you'd want hoping to get more coins than your brothers and sisters and so forth. So that was one of the fun things that we did. 9 But myself as I grew up I always had a tendency to follow him and get involved with his work. By that time [unintelligible - 00:16:36] he was in the contracting. He was more doing contracting at that time, became a contractor. So I always followed him around on jobs and things like that. So I learned more. I think even for myself I think I grew up real fast as far as a youngster. LINDA: Is that partly because you were the seventh son? BABE: No, because that's what I wanted to do. LINDA: Explain to me though what your name means again. BABE: Settmio is seven in Italian, and that's what it means. It's just that the Sette is seven, and that's where the name comes from. LINDA: So I forgot now. You're the seventh son or seventh child? BABE: Seventh son in rotation. LINDA: And how many sisters? BABE: Out of eleven. There was three girls in the family. LINDA: So by the time you came around your family already had six boys? BABE: Yes. I was the seventh and the last boy in the family. LINDA: So how were your brothers' lives different than yours? Were they harder? Were they… BABE: Oh yes. Well, my oldest brother was quite active in the business and so forth. He did all that. But then my next brother was a -- he worked very, very hard, and entertainment was out as far as that got. No vacations and things like that. It was strictly, as I remember it, when -- don't forget I'm entering about the time, well, 8 years old and that was the beginning of the Great Depression. I remember that quite well. The families were living on $12 a week, quite a few of them, which is what the welfare would give you. LINDA: So during the Depression your father was working? BABE: Whenever [unintelligible - 00:18:44] work. Yeah, he was doing contracting, whatever work he could get. On one job he was a supervisor for doing some work at city hall, and this is choosy but you have to do it 10 by the WPA program at the time. And to do a [unintelligible - 00:19:02] for city hall you did it at the time but they send them 30 men. You know, other people that were on the WPA, and they were on top of one another so my father had to let them be -- he had them closing doors, open doors and sweeping, everything but working because they were all in one another's way. But he was a supervisor at that time. But he did work like that there and then we plowed snow in the wintertime—there was income from plowing the snow, keeping the truck busy. Then he did odd jobs as they came up, but nothing -- it was a tough time. To backtrack, my father was very, very successful up until 1929. He owned 33 houses, and one by one he lost them all because people didn't have money to pay the rent and the banks wanted their money and they would just keep taking the house. You know, the foreclosing, keep doing that. LINDA: So he owned 33 homes and he lost every single one? BABE: All but the one we were living in. LINDA: Oh. BABE: Yeah. LINDA: How did he afford to buy 33 houses? BABE: Because he got to be a good-sized contractor. Like he built – he had the contract for all the concrete work in the Leominster post office, which was quite a job in those days. In 1926 he built the Main Street garage down on -- he did the fence around St. [Lido's] cemetery, which is quite a sizeable job, and he built numerous homes. In those days the first homes he built, regular homes like on Lincoln Terrace, there's probably eight homes up there that he built and was sold for the big sum of $2,800. LINDA: Wow. BABE: That's what they were at that time. In fact, numerous times, her dad would work for my father on his trade. You know, blocks and bricks, plastering 11 so that he and [unintelligible - 00:21:22], whenever they had a job that required brickwork and plaster and so forth, they were the first two that he called to do the work. So you see we would all get things first class with first-class people. But he couldn't -- the Depression was too much for everybody at that time, not only him. LINDA: Before we go on, let's back up a little bit. He came to this country, he started -- he used ash to rub buttons et cetera, then he opened his own business selling ash. BABE: He started that, yeah. LINDA: Right. So what kind of time frame are we talking about? BABE: I beg your pardon? LINDA: What's the time frame that we're talking about? BABE: [Unintelligible - 00:22:05] LINDA: Where was it, 1914? BABE: Yeah. LINDA: So he was selling ash in 1914, and then he went into the construction business? BABE: I can give you year by year. Let me show you. See, this is the -- you know, all the concrete work on this job there's his -- do you see that there on the box [unintelligible - 00:22:27] and Company? LINDA: Mm-hmm. Oh that's interesting. That's in '29, so this was a bad time. BABE: No, that was the good time; the beginning of the bad started right after that. So that the -- well, he worked the button shop, at Leominster Button… then he -- let's see as we go along here. Okay, now in 1913 he put a grocery store in the house. LINDA: He put a grocery store in your house? BABE: Well, [unintelligible - 00:23:14] to sell groceries, yeah. LINDA: So at 75 Lincoln Terrace? BABE: Yeah, that's still 75 Lincoln Terrace. And then of course he got both here the ashes and the grocery that he did. LINDA: So who's running the grocery store? 12 BABE: My mother. LINDA: Oh, was it your mother? BABE: Yeah. It's just on Lincoln Terrace a small street though, there wasn't -- no store, like you think of stores today. And it keeps on changing. Now right now, then in 1916, he added trucking to that too. LINDA: Trucking? So that's when he's an ash dealer though? BABE: No, he started with regular trucking after that. Sand and gravel and so forth at that time. LINDA: So again, he'd buy the sand and gravel, and then… BABE: No, we had our own pit. LINDA: You had your own pit? BABE: Yeah. He owned the land down on Miller Street, which was back in there. LINDA: So at least we understand the chronological. BABE: Hmm? LINDA: At least we understand it a little bit more, I think. I was going from the ash business right to building. BABE: [Unintelligible - 00:24:43]. LINDA: That makes more sense. We get into trucking, gravel and sand, and then construction. And he would build these buildings himself? BABE: He did all kinds of construction work. He even built the 38 -- he had the contract for the bridge on [unintelligible - 00:25:05] Street in Pittsburgh, which was Route 2A at the time. ROSA: He put the sand and the gravel and the ashes. Didn't he make his own blocks, make blocks for construction? BABE: Started making blocks around 1920. That was part of the… LINDA: So he would use the materials that he was gathering or buying and selling? So who would he sell the blocks to? Or would he use the blocks for his own building? BABE: He would use the blocks or sell them to whoever needed them. LINDA: And how would he make the blocks? 13 BABE: From our own pit, with the sand and gravel we had there on North Smith. He would make the blocks at that time. LINDA: Was it a mold, or did people do them… BABE: It's a machine, the machine that the mold would take care of it. LINDA: What was the name of the construction company? BABE: Pellechia and Company. LINDA: Pellechia? Did they have many people working? BABE: At some times he had quite a few people. LINDA: You don't have to worry so much about those dates, because I can look through that after. I'm just trying to understand how someone comes here from nothing and owns 33 homes. BABE: It was 1925. LINDA: Sand and gravel, ashes and store. So he goes from his buggy to his truck. Now, who's Charles? BABE: That's my oldest brother. LINDA: Your oldest brother. Okay, so your brothers went into business with him? BABE: Yep. LINDA: All six of them? BABE: We all worked for him. We all worked for him. We built a lot of gas stations, too. We had quite a team. Because amongst the team there was my father, who strictly did supervisory work, figured the job and things like that. And then we had Charlie, who was [unintelligible - 00:27:09] equipment as well as piping and so forth; Red was a great laborer; Rico was a carpenter first class; I was a mason, but what I picked -- I went to trade school to be a mason, you know. So when we would get on a job we were pretty much able to do quite a bit of it ourselves. LINDA: Now, who's Red and Rico? Are those brothers? Red and Rico? BABE: Brothers. LINDA: So those are nicknames? BABE: Mm-hmm. LINDA: For who? 14 BABE: Well, DeMazzio and Enrico. LINDA: And where did you get your nickname? BABE: Babe? After 11 kids it's time to call somebody Babe. No, my sister Lena gave it to me as she said when I was a baby at that time. LINDA: So how did your brother Red learn how to build pipe for -- what did you say that he did? BABE: When you run a gas station there's a lot of pipings involved. You know, water and gasoline and so forth. That was how he -- my brother Red was a hard worker and the one that never asked for too much and always -- education-wise Red was very, very limited. In fact, one of the side stories on that is he couldn't learn his general orders in the Army, and as a result of it, on his record, they said he would never be anything other than a private, and he couldn't get any Class A pass. So they went overseas, and he had two companies that he was in that were completely all injured or so forth, and he became the top sergeant of the whole group. So he knew what to do when it was important. He had the smarts for that, but as far as the learning he just didn't have the ability to learn. LINDA: So, how did you all learn and know -- was it, were you apprenticed? Did you have any kind of… BABE: No, no you just learned from one another. That's how [unintelligible - 00:29:19] families just keep going, and it was just, you know, you started off -- and our father knew what was what and we picked it up real fast and just kept going on it. LINDA: Can you tell me or share with me an early experience of working with your father? BABE: Well, I just started, just jumped and started doing it. In fact, I was 15 years old and I built the gas station on the corner of Walnut and Main Street in Leominster. I was supervisor and so forth because they had other jobs, but it all came natural. I just enjoyed it and I just did it. In fact, 15 when I was with the trade school, at the end of the school year I was in the brick mason department, and the instructor told me, "Don't come back; you're wasting your time." LINDA: Wow. And is that why you didn't go back? BABE: Well, I had to go to work. LINDA: Well, bring me back though to a day when you're working with your father. What was it like? Did you all kind of disperse and go to different jobs? BABE: Go to different jobs. He never drove, so one of us had to drive him. One thing about him he was very honest, and he was very thorough. In fact whether we were doing a job contractor or day work he would even tell us, you do the same thing whether it's day work or contract, even if you lose money. So you know, with a bringing up like that, you can't go wrong. So of course when I was very young and we were doing a lawn on Berne Avenue, and we had the big roll that you use to roll with, and I was very young and the roll was banking, and I'll never forget I came close to the bank and I couldn't hold the roll, and it went down and right through a flower garden. That was one of the unpleasant days. [Unintelligible - 00:31:33] let me know that I did wrong. He never hit us or anything like that. But I was worried for a while on that score. But then I'd go figure jobs and then he'd take me with him, because I'm the one that probably liked it the most and did it the most. That was good days. I enjoyed it. I never resented -- I think he taught us an awful lot, so we couldn't lose with that combination. And with a mother that would watch us like we're all just a baby -- whether you're six years old or 40 years old, she wouldn't go to sleep until you were in the house. It was good times under the conditions. As I said though, we didn't know better. If I did that like -- I know that many a times on the job when things 16 were that the -- come time to eat and all we had the money for was probably a cheese sandwich or something like, that you know, just limited, which is -- my son now later on was putting in overhead doors, he had a business he did that, and he was developing by the South Shore there and he came home and he said, "Dad, you know I forgot my money today," he says, "I didn't eat." "What do you mean you didn't have no money at all?" He said "Well, I only had a dollar." I said, "You know, you still could have had a cheese sandwich." He said, "Dad, those days are gone." So that's the difference. LINDA: So, when you'd go with your father to figure jobs you said, did someone call him? Not call him probably, but contact him to build something? BABE: Yeah, people would call from his advertisement. He did advertise, and they'd call him too. You know, a lot of people wanted bids; you have to bid it. So I'd go with him a lot of times and do the bidding and help him do the bidding and so forth. As I grew older. LINDA: So would he write a contract out and then have a company sign it, or…? BABE: Most of the time you just did it with the individual, it was all by -- in those days everything was with a good shake hand, which they meant. Very rarely was there a contract drawn up. Unless it was a big job, and then they'd have that. LINDA: And who was his competitor? BABE: A lot of competitors. There was a lot of competitors. Must have been -- Leominster probably had about 15 to 20 contractors at the time when it got to contracting. LINDA: Were there any other Italians? BABE: Oh yeah. There was probably half a dozen or so I think Italians. LINDA: Did your father apprentice anyone? Did anyone begin working with him and then venture out on their own? BABE: Well, we wouldn't call it apprentice. They just did that, which is the American way to do things. You never met anybody better than 17 themselves, so that -- yeah, we had somebody. I mean, that never bothered him. LINDA: How long did your father do this kind of work? BABE: Until he retired at about age -- he stopped working I think at about age 60. LINDA: And did the company survive? Did the sons take it over? BABE: Well, what happened, we kept the thing going quite a while. Even by that time, the brothers, we went into the manufacturing of concrete blocks on a real production method. We used to manufacture quite a few a day, and that became our sole business then. LINDA: So tell me about that then. BABE: Well, we came back from the Army, and with the -- three of us were veterans, and we got a loan from the government on the G.I. Bill, and we bought this production machinery and put up a whole plant and went into manufacturing of concrete blocks all type on full production. We used to make at that time about 4,000 blocks a day and get out -- plus the building supplies that went with it. And my father first saw [unintelligible - 00:36:15] he gave us the land and he also would watch the building of it when we did that. That was in 1945. In 1946 we started selling the blocks from our new plant. LINDA: And what was the name of the company? BABE: Blocks Incorporated. LINDA: Blocks Incorporated. And you and your three brothers started… BABE: And myself yeah. [Unintelligible - 00:36:42] Well, there were three veterans, but then one wasn't there. One didn't go into the Army and he was part of the corporation. LINDA: So four brothers plus yourself? BABE: No, four brothers. LINDA: Oh, four brothers. Three [unintelligible - 00:36:55]. So you would make these blocks and then sell them to… BABE: To whoever wanted to buy them. LINDA: Do you have advertisement for that company too? 18 BABE: Yeah. LINDA: Good. And how long did you do this? BABE: We did it up until 1979. LINDA: Oh, so what happened to the business? BABE: Well, at the age of all of us at that time it was time to liquidate it, and we did. We just sold off the -- we had an auction for the equipment, we sold the real estate, and by that time we were all -- other than myself all my brothers were ready to retire. Well, one other brother, the one next older to me, he had passed away. So it was just the two oldest brothers, and it was too much at that time to run the business of that, because we built another plant after that. The original plant was at -- our second plant we were doing 8,000 a day, so -- but it's, it was competitive, and getting out to sell them and everything else, it was quite a job. So I decided -- well, what happened was actually while I was out doing all my things at the time, I left. I was still part owner, but I left to do my motels and everything else with it, and they did get in trouble financially. And I went in and helped them straighten it out again, and when we straightened it out. That's when I told them we're selling the business, and so that's what we did. So we sold it in good graces [unintelligible - 00:38:47]. LINDA: So did any of your sons -- well, you have one son, but you must have some nephews. They didn't want to take over the business? BABE: We tried and it didn't work out. My son actually went to college and so forth, so he didn't fit into that. Then my -- there weren't too many boys in the family [unintelligible - 00:39:12], and Red had two boys, and one didn't want nothing to do with it all, and the other tried and he didn't like it. So it really was limited as to who could run it after that. LINDA: Now, did you sell the blocks locally or out of state, too? BABE: Well, out of state, New Hampshire, we sell New Hampshire. And we made a special block that we did one delivery in New York City with a special block, but we also had -- my brother had invented a new face for the blocks, and the -- it was a glazed block, and we did manufacture them, 19 and there are three school in Leominster have them. The Army has it in Leominster, and we sold a school in Gill, Mass. and [unintelligible - 00:40:07] and in Worcester, so that we did do quite well with that glazed block, which did very, very good. But like I say, age probably got that business why we finally sold it. LINDA: So the blocks though were they pretty standard size? BABE: They were all standard. LINDA: And then it only changed when your brother invented the glaze? BABE: Well, they were a standard block; it was just something added to it. LINDA: Added. Did he patent that invention? BABE: We worked on patenting it, but surprisingly when you patent something, there's always something close to it. In other words they did a whole lot of research on it and we didn't think it was patentable at the end, because the concrete goes way back year and years and years, and there's always somebody that did something close to it that you -- it just wasn't patentable. LINDA: So how did he develop the glaze? Do you know? BABE: Just working at it. In other words he just -- that was Joe, and Joe was the one in the family that was probably ahead on thinking of doing things and so forth. He was the one that always experimented, in other words, come up with ideas of doing special things. LINDA: So during the time as you're part owner of this company, you did other things. Can you explain? BABE: Did he do other things? LINDA: Yes. BABE: Yes, I did all those things that you wrote down in the book there. There were a few of them. LINDA: Yeah, I know. But could you explain some of them? BABE: Okay. What do you want me to start off? Which one, the first one, the ice cream place? 20 LINDA: Is that the first one that you started? BABE: Maybe I had a little of father in me that you do different things, you know. I went to an auction, and they had an ice cream machine, a brand new one, at the auction for sale, and I bought it for $1,000. And before I left, the salesman that sold it from the Mills Company came there and he found out that I bought it, and he offered me $1,500 for it. The minute he said that I immediately said if this thing is worth $1,500 to the salesman, I'm going to see what this machine will do. And I built an ice cream place around it. That was the beginning of Babe's Ice Cream at the time. LINDA: And where was that located? BABE: On Route 12. LINDA: Route 12. BABE: [Unintelligible - 00:42:44] started that, which is very interesting. We were going to open up on July 4th, and this was in 1950. On July 2nd it was one of those hot, miserable days, miserable, real miserable, [unintelligible - 00:42:56]. And this busload pulls in. There was 38 people on the bus, and one came out. They were monks from Rhode Island of the Vow of Silence, and one came in and he said could he please have 38 glasses of water. So my wife and I packed up 38 sandwiches, 38 ice creams, 38 cold drinks, and the bus leaves. And as the bus is going out of the circular driveway, there's a bus leaving, people just funneled in. And of course I knew most of them, and they said, "Babe, how can you be so lucky that you aren't even open and you get them by the busload?" not knowing what happened. And I said I hope I don't get too many busloads, I don't want to close before I get -- so that's how we started that there. But it growed real fast after that, just kept on growing and growing and growing. It meant nothing to sell a thousand ice cream cones on a Sunday afternoon. LINDA: So you knew nothing about ice cream? 21 BABE: I knew nothing about ice cream. I knew nothing about motels, and I built a motel and ran that. I bought another motel and ran that. But the -- I didn't know anything about subdivisions, but I did that. I think a lot of my father's in me. In other words, you just keep going. As long as you do what's right, work hard, you accomplish it. In other words I won't take no for an answer when it comes to trying to do business. Because I've had people, when I went into the [unintelligible - 00:44:41] and doing hardware, I didn't mention that one. When we were doing hardware, in other words it was on the wholesale level to sell to contractors. I did that, and that was very, very difficult because they felt that I should have went to school, you know, because you got to know what hardware's proper for certain jobs. You've got to know your fire codes and so forth. And a lot of people in the beginning wouldn't sell me. They said in other words we don't want to sell to you, you do things wrong and it could come back to us. So I made it clear to them if I got to go from here to California I'm going into the business and I'm going to buy the stuff. You're either going to sell it to me or somebody else is going to sell it to me. And what that did, I got them, built up that business, which was real good. So I just did it. I think maybe I was just blind. I just went into some of these things. We got kind of carried away. We're supposed to be talking on the Italian Colony, aren't we? ROSA: This is all part of that. LINDA: This is all part of it. But as far as getting the ice cream machine and maybe the motel, were you just in the right place at the right time? Just kind of… BABE: That's probably the story of my life, yeah. I think that -- I really believe the gift of the seventh son really played a part on me. Because everything always works out. 22 LINDA: So would you like to tell us a little more about Lincoln Terrace? You're the first person I've interviewed, I'm thinking, isn't it true that grew up on Lincoln Terrace? BABE: You read this book? LINDA: I've looked at it. I haven't finished it. BABE: You haven't finished it? LINDA: No. BABE: Our family's mentioned in that quite a few times. But first of all he just about hit it on the way it was, you know. It was close-knit, Lincoln Terrace, and it was different than what today is. If you did something wrong and somebody scolded you and you went back and told your parents that the neighbor or whoever it was did this to you, you would get a call down again from him. It isn't that knock at the door saying what -- like today, you got assault and battery like that. In other words, they all watched one another. It was really a family unit up there. So you couldn't do anything wrong, and if anybody came on the street that wasn't part of the street, everybody knew about it and they watched them. So it was quite a neighborhood, it really was. And like I say, we enjoyed the -- now, the early part of it is I can look the -- they all had gardens the way they all had pigs in the back of the house, and when the fall of the year come they would all slaughter and they'd all help one another. I got that on film by the way, 8 mm. LINDA: What, the slaughtering the pigs? BABE: Yeah. LINDA: Oh, that's interesting. Now, was there a smokehouse? BABE: No. They did things themselves. They take the hams and they make the prosciutto out of those. You know how they do that? LINDA: Nuh-uh. BABE: Actually, they take the hind of the pig, and they really salt it and pepper it, all that it will take, and then they put it in most cases in the cellar up 23 against some beam or another beam, and then with a hydraulic jack or whatever kind of a jack, they keep squeezing it until the ham starts this big until it [unintelligible - 00:48:37] that big, but the salt and the pepper is actually curing it out. You heard of that, did you? No? So they did that. They made the meat, they made the sausages. Very few people used to cook the blood. We never did that, but a few of them did and make the… use that. But the whole pork chops, the whole thing, they saved every bit of it. LINDA: Now, did most people have a pig? BABE: In Lincoln Terrace they did. LINDA: They did. BABE: Yep, in those days. LINDA: So they'd all get together on one day and … BABE: They always worked together. Helped one another do things. LINDA: Was that day called something in particular? BABE: No. LINDA: No. BABE: No, and then like the -- I got a large grapevine. See, the whole hill did [unintelligible - 00:49:37] grape used to make his own wine. Then they all had big gardens. And another thing the Italian women up on Lincoln Terrace, on tomato time they would actually make tomato paste. I don't know if you ever saw that. They would have all these boards of pine nice and clean, they spread all the tomato on it, and then put one of those nets on it that they used to cover babies in a carriage to keep the flies out and so forth. And just by working that they made their own tomato paste. And they'd do all different things like that, you know, which they don't do today. It's easier to go to the store today and buy it. 24 LINDA: So when they slaughtered the pig and they made the prosciutto and et cetera… BABE: [Unintelligible - 00:50:24]. LINDA: When they slaughtered the pig, how did they store the -- how did they store what they had made? BABE: Mostly in the cellar. The meats [unintelligible - 00:50:34] like they'd make the sausage and they'd hang them up to dry. They had them covered and they'd hang them up to dry, and they would dry until they dried out with the [unintelligible - 00:50:45] it was all ice boxes what they had then, you know. But they'd have a place in the cellar which was damp enough or so forth that would last -- none of it wasted; they certainly ate it all before anything got to be wasted. LINDA: Was there any trading between families? BABE: I wouldn't say so, no. They had it all. They would give it to somebody like that, but there wouldn't be any trading. If somebody needed something, they would give it to them. LINDA: For some reason I can't remember what you call this, but when you dig out, let's say, a little hill when you keep food in it, what is that called? BABE: They didn't do that. They had it all in the cellar. ROSA: They just used the cellar cold. They can't do it today -- you can't do it today with the heat in the houses, but in those days the cellars were damp and cold sausages could be strung up in the rafters. And prosciutto. They made their sausages with the tubing, I remember seeing them. LINDA: Was that a long process, making the sausage? BABE: Well you got a 300-pound pig; you got a little work to do. You've got quite a bit of meat there to… ROSA: They'd grind it … LINDA: Now, was that woman's work, men's work? BABE: Oh, they all worked. The women did the cooking. They did a lot of that there, and the women probably -- some of the women would put the 25 [rosin] in the hot water to clean the hair of the animals. Hot water and rosin [unintelligible - 00:52:29] take the hair all off. LINDA: Was the skin used for anything? BABE: Yeah, they cooked that up. ROSA: Salt pork. BABE: Yeah. LINDA: So that's really what salt pork is? BABE: There was no waste. Probably threw the hoof away, didn't use that. ROSA: The head. LINDA: Did they throw the head away, or did they use part of it? BABE: Some people ate the head. Yeah some did. We didn't. ROSA: The ears, too. BABE: They all had chickens. LINDA: [Unintelligible - 00:53:05] throw the head away! BABE: And they all had chickens. In fact, my mother had her own little hobby [unintelligible - 00:53:11] times she had chickens and the eggs, and you know, feed the family, and if there's any eggs over she would sell them to the neighbor. So she would do that. My mother never learned to speak English too well even though she did the answering for my father, but it was -- my father could interpret what she would say even though she was saying it wrong. Like there was a company called Bowen and Fuller in Leominster, and my father always said this to people that they called my mother and have your husband come, we've got some deliveries to make, and she asked what company they said Bowen and Fuller. She said "Damn Fool?" He said no, Bowen and Fuller. She asked two or three times and yes. So my father came home, and she said, "Damn Fool wants you to pick up." So he knew them when he went there. The guy says, [unintelligible - 00:54:09] your message and the guy says yes. But they did understand one another. Of course the guy knew that she wasn't doing it to insult him 26 or anything. She didn't know any different on that. But she never learned the -- very, very little English. My father, working with the French people, he learned to speak French, and he learned the English right away, and of course he had the Italian. LINDA: Well, what about you and your brothers and sisters? Did you speak Italian? BABE: We understood it and so forth. They can speak it, but very [unintelligible - 00:54:50], and I can understand quite a bit what happens. Incidentally the three oldest children went to a French school at that time, and they learned French also. LINDA: What school? St. Cecelia's? BABE: St. Cecelia's, yeah. They went three years and then the French people needed a school for themselves and they transferred to St. [unintelligible - 00:55:14] school. LINDA: Now, I heard some people tell me that they weren't allowed to speak Italian in their homes after they learned English at school. Was that true for your family? BABE: Nope. No, we always spoke it. But my wife now, when she came over -- she came from Italy, and I didn't -- and when she came home with the school -- she's not from here, she's from Pennsylvania. But she refused to learn English until the teachers got -- one friendly teacher, "But why don't you want to learn?" She says, "I won't be able to speak to my mother and father then." She thought she'd lose the English. And after that day she made all kinds of honors in school. So she -- but in our house, now, my children, two of them they didn't speak -- we never spoke in Italian, but -- so we [unintelligible - 00:56:12] secret family thing when you're in front of the children, we'd speak Italian, my wife and I, not to be heard, but that's all done now because my daughter went out and became a professor of Italian history, so that brought us out. We can't even… 27 LINDA: So was it important for your family, your father and mother, for their children to assimilate, to become more American? BABE: We never discussed that. I don't think that ever came a thing -- you do the best you can do. That was about the biggest teaching that my father ever gave. Do the best you can do, stay out of trouble. And the other thing he always was a stickler for was he said you always respect authority. He said if someone does something wrong you respect it, you do it when you come home, you tell me about it, and I will take care of it. Of course it was just [unintelligible - 00:57:06] he never did anything everything after it, but meanwhile he kept peace in the family. LINDA: So he didn't want you to confront an adult; he would. BABE: Nope, and you know, in most cases you don't win with authority. You listen to it, and that's it. LINDA: So tell me about your mother. What was she like? BABE: My mother was strictly a loving for her children. She'd do anything for us. To quote my wife, which we shouldn't put on tape… LINDA: You don't want to? BABE: No, I'll tell you what my wife says about my mother. If it's not on tape. LINDA: If it's not on tape, okay. BABE: One of the things that happened though before [unintelligible - 00:57:56] we got married, my wife would go with my sister shopping and so forth. And in our house everybody -- they're all married now, but everybody would end up at the kitchen table at nighttime after the day's work, and my mother would -- you know, there was just the two of them, my mother and father at home, but there was always two or three pounds of spaghetti made, and we'd all eat there and then go home and say we're not hungry. But there was this one day we're there and my wife and my sister went shopping. They were late when they came in, so my brother-in-law and I said so let's have some fun. So the minute they came in, I says "Tina, where have you been? You know I worked all hard all day. I come home 28 and I want to eat." And so she says, "Well, we shopped." And my mother spoke up, she says, "That's not right. You got to feed your husband when he comes…" Well, then my brother-in-law to my sister says the same thing, you know. And my mother spoke up, and maybe she had something important to do. Same conversation. So -– but she was [unintelligible - 00:59:07] she was sick for a while. She had lost one eye too, and so for a while she was a -- but she could find -- after that she could find things that we couldn't, with that one eye. We would lose something and she would find it, even a pin or something like that, but… LINDA: Did she come from -- she came from Italy but differently than your father? I mean … BABE: Three years later. 1909 she came. LINDA: Did she come directly to Leominster? BABE: Well, she landed in Boston. Now, how she got there from Italy I don't have any information on that. LINDA: Do you know how your parents met each other? BABE: Probably out in the farm someplace, I would guess, because that's all they did; they were farmers. Even the woman worked the farms out there and so forth. So, a lot of them out there worked in [unintelligible - 01:00:03] actually who worked for the people that owned the land. LINDA: Where? BABE: In Italy. LINDA: Oh, they knew each other in Italy? BABE: Oh yeah. LINDA: Oh. 29 BABE: When she came here she -- well, that picture there shows her when she came in 19 -- with her children there, that's the picture when she came in 1909. LINDA: Okay. BABE: One of those. LINDA: Okay, so they knew each other in Italy? BABE: Yeah, they got married in Italy. They got married in Italy. LINDA: Then came here separately. BABE: Yes. LINDA: Not at the same time? BABE: No. LINDA: Okay, I didn't understand that. Did they have children [unintelligible - 01:00:45]? BABE: Yeah, yeah. This one here it was 1910 when she came. There was three of them. There was the three. They would be 1, 2, 3 that she came back with. Of course she came here in 1909, 1910 there was another one added at that time. LINDA: So your father came without the family first and then brought them over? BABE: They all did that. They all boarded. If you will look at the directory, they all, the Italians all boarded someplace. They -- none of them had their own home or anything like that in the beginning, so their wives came over and then they would find a place. LINDA: So growing up and you're working with your father, did you work six days a week? BABE: Sometimes seven. Not too often, but sometimes we'd have things to do and we'd do it. So in other words you have to realize when I got to the working age, I was in the Depression, actually. So you took it as you could get it as far as work is concerned. LINDA: Did you work out during the daylight hours? 30 BABE: Oh yeah. We generally got home [unintelligible - 01:02:06] unless there was an emergency job you stayed later. We'd get home about five, five thirty from a job, start at eight o'clock in the morning. LINDA: And then you would eat dinner with your parents? BABE: Mm-hmm. LINDA: And who made the dinner? BABE: My mother. LINDA: What about your sisters? BABE: They were married by that time. Don't forget, they were completely -- they were much older than I was, so they were -- by the time that I started eating, you know, they were married. LINDA: So tell me what kind of things you ate. The types of things your mother made. BABE: All the good things that I like. LINDA: Which is what? BABE: She made spaghetti, pasta [la jour], even polenta. I know you know what that is. LINDA: Mm-hmm. BABE: In those days that was a poor man's meal. Today you go in restaurants you pay a fancy price for it. LINDA: I should have said no, I don't know what it is so you can explain to us on tape. I'll have to get that sometime. So what's polenta? BABE: Lentils, I like lentils. She used to make that, different soups. I'm sorry, what did you say? LINDA: What's polenta? What is it? BABE: Corn -- mush is what it is, actually. LINDA: How would she serve that? BABE: We'd put it on the board, on the table, you spread it all over a board, and then what we'd do, the fun we'd have is try to decide what we're going to carve, and everybody would just carve whatever shape we wanted. And another thing she'd do too at times would be so we would eat all of it, 31 she'd put meat in the middle, and you had to work your way. If you didn't work your way you wouldn't get to the meat. You know, whether it was a meatball a piece of pork chop something like that. LINDA: So it was kind of polite eating. You eat from the outside in? You don't just dig in. BABE: No, no you have to work your way in, clean the road as you go. But on holidays, surprisingly, my father would do the cooking. I know on Easter especially he would make the ham and fix it all up and put the garlic in it and so forth. He always did that. LINDA: Now, during the Depression, did you eat meat at all, or was that really a luxury? BABE: It was a luxury. LINDA: Were different foods prepared on a Sunday compared to the rest of the week? BABE: Yes, Sunday you would have a bigger meal. And during the height of the Depression, we'd probably get oranges at Christmastime, maybe a banana at Christmastime. The rest of the year you didn't need it, so you didn't get it. LINDA: Do you want to go back to your jobs then? BABE: My jobs? LINDA: Yeah, jobs. BABE: Such as? LINDA: Or your companies or your interests. Like the motels. How did you get involved in the motels? BABE: Well, we went out to get some materials. It was in New Jersey, picking up some pallets for the block plant at that time, and it was next door to a motel, the pallets and so forth, and I started talking to the fellow and so forth. And [unintelligible - 01:05:44] the business, and now I had the ice cream place, I had the tourist stopping, so the brain just clicked in it would be nice to have a motel in Leominster. We had none. That was the first one. So that's what I did. I built a motel. 32 LINDA: Where did you build it? BABE: On Route 12 right next to my ice cream place. So that -- I didn't have any money at that time, so that was a problem. I went to the bank, it was the first bank I went to, told them I wanted $25,000, to borrow $25,000, said what are you going to do and I explained. They said you can't do that for that price. I said oh yes, I can I buy all my materials wholesale, and I do all the work myself. And he said well, in that case you have to give me a list of what it's going to cost you because I can only loan you 80 percent of what you're going to pay. So my answer to him was you really don't want me to build the motel, do you? But I fought it. Like I say, I made up my mind I was going to fight it and I did, so I just kept going and we built it. LINDA: So did you end up borrowing the money from a bank? BABE: Oh yeah, I got money from a bank—not that bank though, another bank. But then I started with eight rooms and built another eight and built another eight, and then four more on that same site, and so that worked out good. That was a good business. LINDA: And you kept the ice cream business in addition? BABE: Yeah. LINDA: So who ran the motel? BABE: Hmm? LINDA: Who ran the motel? BABE: I did. There was nobody else to run it. My wife was busy with the children at that time. LINDA: I thought there were only 24 hours in a day! That's why I'm asking. BABE: Well, I still slept three hours. You get up in the morning at eight o'clock. About eight we'd go have some breakfast and then close about two o'clock. Three nights a week I'd make ice cream until about three or four o'clock in the morning. Then with the motel beside it, you get -- break up during the night, people checking in late, so that was the schedule for a number of years. 33 LINDA: Where were you living at this time? BABE: We built a house in back of the motel and ice cream place. LINDA: Okay. So did you advertise for the motel? BABE: Yeah, we did advertise on that. LINDA: So who was staying in the motel, people visiting? BABE: We had -- mostly it was a commercial motel and we had mostly salesmen, engineers, buyers. It was all very good class of business that we had, and tourists and so forth, but we had quite a reputation that we even had quite a few of the national companies that if they were within 50 miles of our place such as Gates Rubber from Colorado, Singer Sewing Machine, if any of their people were within 50 miles of our motel, we had direct billing with them, they'd stop with us. But we made it very, very comfortable for them, because we learned very early that a salesman or an engineer or anybody that's traveling alone is the most lonesome guy in the world. So the thing that we would do is if a guy comes in and he could be with the plastic industry, he's alone, somebody else we know is in the motel in the plastic business he's alone, we have them meet one another. They'd go out and from then on they'd come back, because they knew that it was always -- they were going to meet somebody there instead of just sitting in a room all night long. And we built up a wonderful business that way. In fact, even -- we had a regular customer of ours once got in an automobile accident, and he couldn't go back home and we were full, and we asked [unintelligible - 01:09:51] two people of other customers that one of our customers was in an accident and can't go home, would you mind packing up and leaving? They did. LINDA: Wow. BABE: You know, which is so unusual. We explained what it was, but even that was a family affair that they would. It was a lot of fun. We had a lot of 34 fun doing that. One of the regulars that came in would we would always be pulling jokes, stuff like -- one time he brought somebody in and my wife was in Florida with her mother at the time, so I don't know what made me do it, but this guy was saying I've got to meet your wife, I hear so much about it from the other guys. So I said, yeah, but you know, when you talk to her she's hard of hearing, so then I pick up my wife and I said this wonderful guy from Chicago is in room 9. Wonderful guy. He was doing management surveys for the [unintelligible - 01:10:58] on Adams Street. So I told Tina he's hard of hearing. So now when they come in, they're all there, because they always -- we had a lawn area that we sit at, and so I said, Tina there's the guy, so, "How are you," and they're hollering like two idiots back and forth, and everybody starts laughing. But it was good for a joke. But they all accepted it as such, and that's it. Now, the one I got to say on the ice cream place now, I'm going to take a [unintelligible - 01:11:30] had his favorite place. I gave ice cream to every church in Leominster but my own. We'll have to continue. LINDA: We were talking about you had a story about churches and giving ice cream. BABE: Yes, I gave ice cream to every church in Leominster but St. Anne's, my church. Because what would happen, even the synagogues, the Jewish would call up and they want ice cream, how much is it. And I'd say $5 a tub. When I'd bring it up I'd give them a receipted bill. My own people, when they'd call, they'd say, "Oh, we can buy it for $4.50," so I never had the opportunity to give it to them, right? LINDA: Really? BABE: That was in six years I think I gave to every church in Leominster but my own. Now, I never told them I was going to give it to them for nothing. They asked me what the price was. The price was $5 a tub. So I guess that's all right. We all still made it. 35 LINDA: How long did you keep the ice cream? BABE: From 1950 to 1958. LINDA: And what about the motel? BABE: Motel, sold that in '64. LINDA: You had two didn't you? BABE: Yep, sold the other one about the same time. The other one I bought. I didn't build the other one. LINDA: And what was that, West… BABE: West [unintelligible - 01:12:59] Motel. LINDA: Is that the one that's across from -- well, it's Sam's now -- I mean, not Sam's, Walmart. Is that the one? BABE: No, it's up further. It's at the junction of 110 and 12. LINDA: All right. So again, give me an idea of what a day was like for you when you owned both the ice cream shop and the motel. BABE: Hectic. Get up in the morning, help out at the place… you know, noon time was busy there and so forth. And then at night start checking in people at the motel, then come back and make the ice cream. Like I said, I did all my building in the wintertime, too. [Unintelligible - 01:13:48] like I built the motel myself, I did that all. And the other thing we did during that time again was one summer, which was really -- my wife got me involved, and we built -- with the people of Leominster now, they're very generous; we built a swimming pool for the Nazareth Home for Boys. So I'm the owner, I'm doing the blocks, and I'm doing all the rebuilding of it. And people always like to have fun, and I had fellows working for me, a police officer mowing my lawn at the motel and stuff. And I know that the day I laid blocks I was just about dead, and I come home and [unintelligible - 01:14:35] is really doing good you hired people to do work for you, you're getting lazy. 36 But that was all, it was a lot of work, just busy, busy. But I enjoyed it. I think someone said one time that work won't kill you, and it didn't. LINDA: It sounds like your wife was supportive. Very supportive. BABE: Yeah, she is. She did. She had to take care of the children, and she also, at the same time, she was taking care of her sister's. She was one of the waitress I had. She had to waitress, she took care of their two children too, then at night she would come up and help with serving customers. Although she was a troublemaker. She's the one that liked to joke with the customers. For example, we used to have -- a new product came out, the ketchup that you squeeze it, the pump it, they called it. On Saturday night we'd get those big gang of dancers come in, dress suits, ties. So this one guy was trying to get the ketchup on and it wouldn't work on a hamburger. We said, "Tina, why don't you throw these away? They don't work." So she says, "You don't mind if I squeeze it at you?" "Go ahead," he says, so of course, ketchup all the way down his face. She never worked on Saturdays, but one Saturday she's working and one of our good customers from Connecticut would come by every Saturday with his wife and family going to New Hampshire camping. I'm outside talking to the guys and he came out and said, "You know, I don't know who that new waitress you got, but you better fire her or you won't have no customers left." I said, "Which one?" I said, "I can't fire her, she owns it!" But it was always funny, and I think that's what kept it going. It wasn't -- we enjoyed it, and that's probably what kept us going. We didn't look at it as a job or as work. We looked at it as something to do, and we were happy while we did it. LINDA: Did you have many employees? 37 BABE: Well, probably on the weekends was the most. It was probably about eight or nine of us on a weekend working. LINDA: Working at the ice cream shop, or… BABE: As far as the motel, it only required -- two girls would work just in the morning. That was separate girls, you know. A few hours they would have the rooms all ready. Then my children, we had the miniature golf. LINDA: Oh, that's right did. You built the miniature golf next to the ice cream shop? BABE: Yeah. LINDA: Now, where did you get that idea? BABE: I saw one, and I thought it would be nice to have, so I built one. LINDA: So, again, would that be the first miniature golf place in Leominster? BABE: No, there had been one for years and years up on North Main Street behind the bowling alleys. The motel was the first one in Leominster. LINDA: Well, then tell me about building the miniature golf. You actually designed it and built it? BABE: No, I didn't design it. The people I bought the equipment from did the designing of it. But I built it, I put it in there. Everything was designed by them, and I bought all the fixtures and so forth from them. LINDA: And then your children worked there? BABE: Yeah. LINDA: So how did you and your wife feel about education for your children? BABE: We felt tops for education. We probably made a couple of mistakes educating our children. To be very honest, I think St. Ann's, my son went there, and I think that was a mistake because there was [unintelligible - 01:18:44] 60 kids in the first grade. And had he went to where I went to school, they had 11 children. It would have been almost like a private tutoring. So what we did with him to pick up, we sent him to Julie Country Day afterwards, which is a private school, and from there he went to Worcester Academy. LINDA: I guess I'm interested to know how something like that happens. 38 BABE: Like what? LINDA: Like that you went to the 9th grade, you said, and your father is an immigrant who came over here to work so hard, and you know, he may not have had much schooling, and then all of a sudden your son is going to Worcester Academy. BABE: Because I wanted him to go there. LINDA: Because you wanted him… BABE: Oh yeah. LINDA: And why did you want him… BABE: In fact, [unintelligible - 01:19:34] when people ask me what I did I say I'm a bum. And of course my son must have heard me two or three times and, I know when he was ready to go to college, he said, "Dad, I don't want to go to college. I want to be a bum." I said, "You're going to be an educated bum." And he went to college, which he did very, very good [unintelligible - 01:19:51]. But no, we felt that the he lacked the basic knowledge at the very beginning. /AT/pa/mlb/es
