See? I Told You So

by John Stevenson

My August 9 column discussed the renaming, removal, or downright destruction of symbols of the Confederate States of America and, by extension, “white supremacy.”  These actions had been sporadic and seemingly unconnected with each other until the June 2015 South Carolina church massacre by a white supremacist.  That terrible shooting galvanized public opinion, and the previously sporadic efforts became a nationwide movement to erase all traces of the Confederacy.

I described the primary target for historical erasure as being the Confederate leaders and generals, most notably General Robert E. Lee---who was typically depicted astride his horse, Traveller.  And although Traveller probably took no position on slavery or on secession, just as Lee’s statues are taken down so are Traveller’s.

Then I took the liberty of posing a fanciful extrapolation of the history-scrubbing movement.   I theorized that, once statues of Lee and Traveller had been removed from every public place in America, the movement would discover another Traveler worthy of their attention.

The University of Southern California’s mascot Traveler is a white horse with a rider in faux Trojan get-up.  I believe USC’s Traveler is named after Lee’s Traveller, but there are folks on both sides of that question.  Nevertheless, I warned that, once the statues were all gone, the streets, cities, and schools all renamed, the history scrubbers would demand that USC’s Traveler undergo a name change.  I did this in an effort to point out the absurdity of the purification movement, which knows no limits.

Well, what a difference three days makes.  I had of course failed to foresee the Nazis/KKK versus Antifa/BLM confrontation, slugfest, mayhem, and murder in Charlottesville on August 12.  This event had a profound effect on the movement, since the Nazi/KKK element had announced that their presence was to protest the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee.

This show of hate-group support for Confederate monuments gave the history-scrubbing movement an adrenalin rush which greatly accelerated their enthusiasm for destroying all things Confederate.  Some statues were assaulted and pulled down by movement vandals, while others were removed and relocated in the dead of night by local authorities.  The result of Charlottesville is that all Confederate symbols are now on the endangered species list. 

Which brings us back to USC’s horse, Traveler.  My somewhat tongue-in-cheek August 9 column predicted that Traveler (or at least his name) would be in danger---but I thought this would be in the future, when the statues had been eradicated and the history erasers sought new targets.  My mistake.

According to the USC website “The Black Student Assembly is the official umbrella organization and funding board that oversees recognized African-American student organizations at USC.”   (About three dozen such organizations are listed as being under that umbrella.)

Well, during the week following the Charlottesville tragedy, that Black Student Assembly held a protest rally in front of the Tommy Trojan statue on the USC campus.  According to the Daily Trojan, “Saphia Jackson, co-director of the USC Black Student Assembly, opened the rally encouraging students not to remain silent, and reminding those in attendance that white supremacy hits close to home, referring to the presence of Traveler, USC’s mascot…”  But “BSA co-directors Saphia Jackson and Ariana Seymore declined to comment on...(whether)…they would seek to remove Traveler’s statue from the campus.”   Nevertheless, that door appears to have now been opened.

As you read this, the Trojans are just a couple of days from playing their 2017 home opener.  Will Traveler take the field with the Trojans, as he and his forefathers have done each season since 1961?  Will he be required to gallop incognito---or under an assumed name?  Or will he simply be replaced by a non-white horse?  And, if Traveler is still on the Trojans’ roster, will he survive the season without being cut?

What started out in my imagination as an absurdity has come true.  See?  I told you so.

The Man-Tax

by John Stevenson

Alex O’Brien has opened a vegan restaurant named Handsome Her in Melbourne, Australia.  Here are “House Rules” she has posted:  Rule #1: Women have priority seating.  Rule #2: Men will be charged an 18% premium to reflect the gender pay gap….which is donated to a women’s service.  Rule #3: Respect goes both ways.

O’Brien’s “man-tax” has caused a media kerfuffle in Australia and in Old Blighty.  A headline on the website thesun.co.uk explained her intent: “Feminist vegan hopes the move will provoke people into discussing unfair treatment of women.”

Of course the man-tax is not really a tax, because it isn’t levied by any government.  It’s really just a surcharge she applies to those of the male persuasion in order to make her point.  “I do want people to think about it, because we’ve had this (pay discrepancy) for decades and decades and we’re bringing it to the forefront of people’s minds.  I like that it is making men stop and question their privilege a little bit.”

O’Brien says the man-tax is only applied for one week per month, and it is unclear whether she will enforce it if someone objects.  There are other unanswered questions.  What if a man and woman come in together?  Does the man-tax apply only to what he orders?  What if the woman is picking up the check?  Is the man-tax waived?  What if the man is paying the entire check?  How much of it is subject to the man-tax?  As you can see, the complications rival the Internal Revenue Code.  O’Brien will need a tax advisor!

A sign posted in Handsome Her advises that the man-tax O’Brien collects is donated to Elizabeth Morgan House---a charity which supports Aboriginal women and children.  If Australian law provides for a tax deduction for charitable donations it would seem that the customers paying the man-tax should be entitled to take that deduction, since O’Brien is functioning as a conduit rather than as a philanthropist.

O’Brien did indeed provoke people, but not into “discussing unfair treatment of women.”  She says that customer response is all favorable.  “There has been nothing but positivity from everyone, males and females.”  But the comments appended to the article on thesun.co.uk show just the opposite.  They are overwhelmingly negative toward O’Brien and her man-tax, and many predict Handsome Her’s early demise---more on that in a moment.

Perhaps there’s a way of evading the man-tax.  It’s likely that a metrosexual chap sporting a man bun might be viewed as sufficiently sympathetic to feminism or even sufficiently gender-ambiguous that O’Brien might forgive the man-tax.

Which of course brings us to the gender dysphoric customer.  Assuming a male customer who claims to be transitioning to female, how will O’Brien rule on that one?  Will she celebrate her new sister and forgive the man-tax?  Or will she suspect a likely ruse?  Dangerous ground there.

Handsome Her will not fail---at least not because of the man-tax.  O’Brien is catering (forgive the pun) to a feminista clientele, and they are likely to be delighted with her politics and become loyal customers.  The publicity she has gained from her goofy man-tax will spur her business. 

The vegan café would not have attracted many male customers anyway.  But if she were serving up real food like cheese steak sandwiches, T-bone steaks, and Tooheys beer, her man-tax would have killed her business.

“Fire and Fury”

by John Stevenson

For starters, let me say that this is neither an endorsement nor a defense of President Trump’s public declarations on Kim Jong Un’s missile rattling.   Instead, it is a call for a bit more perspective and balanced view on the part of critics of those declarations.

The statements causing the critics to reach for the smelling salts are that North Korea would be met with “fire and fury” if they continue their provocations, and later that “military solutions are now fully in place…locked and loaded.”

Just for a bit of historical perspective, Trump’s immediate predecessor President Obama, in an April 2016 interview with CBS host Charlie Rose, called North Korea erratic and irresponsible.  He went on to say “We could obviously destroy North Korea with our arsenals” but that doing so would have negative consequences for our ally South Korea.  The North Koreans were none too pleased with Obama’s statement, but it drew no criticism from the American press or politicians. 

In addition, in 1993 then-President Clinton said that if North Korea were to develop and use an atomic weapon “we would quickly and overwhelmingly retaliate” and “it would mean the end of their country as they know it.”  The North Korean government was outraged, but for the American press and politicians, this declaration was a snoozer. 

So how have the critics responded to Trump’s statements?  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi offered that Trump’s words were “recklessly belligerent and demonstrate a grave lack of appreciation for the…nuclear situation.”  Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein called Trump’s statements “bombastic.”  Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer labeled Trump’s words “reckless rhetoric.”

Even Senator John McCain got in on the fun: “I take exception to the president’s comments because you got to be sure you can do what you say you’re going to do…in other words the old walk softly but carry a big stick…because all it’s going to do is bring us closer to some kind of serious confrontation.”  Perhaps McCain had forgotten that, in his 2008 presidential campaign, he had regaled a rally crowd by briefly singing the “Barbra Ann” knock-off---“Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran.” 

So regardless of how you view Trump’s tough talk, the inconsistency of his critics reeks of hypocrisy or at least of selective amnesia.

There’s even a move afoot in the Congress to pass a prohibition against Trump taking military action against North Korea.  I am not often given to quoting Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.  But I think his counsel in this case is worth consideration.  Dershowitz opposes any congressional effort to impede the President in his use of force against North Korea. 

Dershowitz says such a move “interferes with the President’s right as commander in chief to make decisions affecting the national security of the United States….I think we ought to take a deep breath and wait and see how it plays out.”

In this situation, the critics should not try to restrain the President---instead they should restrain themselves.  Less of the vapors.  Dershowitz has it right.

Traveller

by John Stevenson

For years, there have been occasional and seemingly unconnected efforts to erase symbols of the Confederate States of America---to tear down a statue, rename a school, or remove a Confederate flag.

Then came the June 2015 South Carolina church massacre by a white supremacist. That heinous act galvanized public opinion, and the previously sporadic efforts became a nationwide movement. 

A primary target for historical erasure is the plethora of statues of Confederate military leaders.  And most prominent among those are statues of General Robert E. Lee.

Like other Confederate generals, statues of Lee almost always depict him astride his horse Traveller.  Lore is that Traveller was fast, strong, and brave---a fitting horse for a renowned military commander of that era. 

Unlike Lee, Traveller was presumably not a slaveholder.  His heart likely was not even committed to the Confederate cause.  But, as Lee’s warhorse, in a sense he too was a Confederate hero.  And of course, as the statues are taken down, Traveller is being scrubbed from history as surely as his rider.

Barring some unforeseeable shift in public sentiment, the erasing of Confederate leaders will continue until there is no more Robert E. Lee astride Traveller in any public place in America.   

The historical expunging will be complete.  Or maybe not.

As it turns out, the University of Southern California has a horse named Traveler as its mascot.  Traveler attends home football games and, with his Trojan rider, gallops around the field whenever USC scores---which is far too often.

Traveler first appeared at USC in the 1961 football season.  Of course over the years USC has had a succession of Travelers.  The original one was, according to its owner Richard Saukko, named in honor of---you guessed it---General Lee’s Traveller.

So even after the removal of Confederate statues and flags, and even after the renaming of streets, schools, and buildings, a symbol of the Confederacy will endure in the name of USC’s mascot. 

The historical erasure enthusiasts should turn their attention to this living, breathing, galloping Confederate namesake.  USC’s Traveler and all of his successors will have to be renamed. 

Previous renaming efforts have often included a jujitsu component: the now-disfavored names would be replaced by those of prominent minorities or civil rights leaders.  For example, the renaming of San Francisco’s Army Street as Cesar Chavez Blvd.; the so-far-unsuccessful campaign to rename J.E.B. Stuart High School in Virginia after Thurgood Marshall; and the fizzled renaming of San Francisco’s Washington High in favor of Maya Angelou.  

In keeping with that spirit, USC could select the name of a prominent minority or civil rights leader to replace their Confederate namesake.  For consideration, here are a couple of distinguished figures with already-established connections to USC:  O.J. Simpson, “The Juice,” who galloped for record-setting yardage in the Coliseum in the 1960s.  And Snoop Dogg (nee Calvin Broadus, Jr.) who can often be found horsing around on the sidelines at USC games.

If they are willing to choose a replacement name without regard for minority status or civil rights involvement, here are a couple of USC grads to consider:  John Wayne, “The Duke,” who starred in several westerns as a cavalry officer.  And Charles Paddock (nicknamed “The Human Race Horse”), 1920 Olympic 100-meter gold medalist.

For now, the historical erasure folks are busy with removing the Confederate statues and flags and with the renaming of schools and such.  But once they are finished up with those more tangible targets, USC officials should expect a knock at the door.