Back in Philadelphia, where there are tons of Italians and almost zero Native Americans, Columbus Day is a big deal. School is out, banks and government offices are closed, there's even a parade. Here in Seattle, not so much.

It's a weird holiday, jam-packed with cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, America! On the other hand, genocide. As a descendent of Eastern European Jews who escaped a subsequent genocide in the Old World by seeking refuge in the lebensraum made available by the post-Columbus genocide in the New World, I've got mixed feelings about this day to say the least.

You gotta at least give Columbus credit for having the balls to do what he did, but it was helluva lot easier to celebrate Columbus Day before we started teaching American history truthfully.

Crepuscular 80s

The 80s were the end of a world. Its hours and days detailed the sunset of the 20th century, which opened in 1917. The 19th century, which ran from 1789 (the French Revolution) and closed with the end of the First
World War and the birth of the Soviet Union, was the platform from which the dreams and nightmares of the 20th century were launched. These dreams and nightmares, rocketed by the militarized and mobilized super powers, each imagining itself to be “the legitimate heir”(4) of the 19th century, came to end in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin wall—an event that was accompanied by other great events of that astonishing year: after 27 years of imprisonment, the releasing of Nelson Mandela; the burst of the Japanese bubble; the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan; the Tiananmen Square massacre; the assassination of King Tubby in Kingston, Jamaica; and much, much more.

When people say that we entered the 21st century on September 11, they are gravely mistaken. Despite the scale of the destruction, 9/11. was just that: massive destruction. It was the collapse of two massive structures but not the collapse of the prevailing ideological edifice of our new times.(5) The buildings went down but the ruling ideology remained erect.(6) 9/11 was the deepening and intensification of what was already there—the 21st century—in all of its significant attributes, which Deleuze succinctly describes in his “brief and enigmatic essay, ‘Postscript on the Societies of Control’”7.

Published at the dawn of the 21st century, 1990, “Postscript on the Societies of Control” outlines the primary shifts and new directions that were to shape what President George Bush, Sr. famously called The New World Order: the “breakdown of all sites of confinement” that defined “disciplinary society” (prisons, schools, barracks, and so on); the diminishing role of the nation state in managing internal and international affairs (the Japanese management guru Kenichi Ohmae aggressively championed this as “The Borderless World” in his bestseller The Borderless World—Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy, which was also published in 1990); the merging of Third and First worlds within the same geographic space (characterized by the
growing similarities between cities like Los Angeles and Mexico City or, more physically, San Diego and Tijuana—as noted in Mike Davis’ Magical Urbanism, 2000); the end of real national politics—meaning, the end of a distinct right and left positions and the arrival of tough-love democrats and compassionate republicans.

In the way that Hiroshima accelerated the 20th century, 9-11 accelerated the 21st century. The parts that were casually coming together to give the era its shape and destiny were rushed closer to their defining center when the second hijacked jet plane opened and entered the gates of hell.8 This is why the term “new war” so easily
replaced the term “new economy”—they were, as Hal Foster says in another context, “expressions of a particular period”; meaning, concepts conditioned/fashioned by the same historical moment/materials. We
must turn to the 80s to see the end. Objects in the 90s are exposed to the strange light of dawn; objects in 80s are rounded and confirmed in the diminishing light of dusk.

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And Washington Senator Patty Murray has something to say:

I was proud to vote to repeal this law that did a tremendous disservice to so many men and women who wanted nothing more than to defend their country and the freedoms America stands for. While today is a day of celebration, as Chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, I remain committed to ensuring the Department of Veterans Affairs is a welcoming environment for LGBT veterans and their families, and that all servicemembers—regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity—receive quality health care and services

As I wrote earlier this year, that's no small task.

• Washington State Archives

It was yesterday! But, it's not too late. According to the Washington Secretary of State's Office:

Our State Archives in Olympia is putting on a free display of the 1889 Washington Constitution this Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in its front lobby. Also on display will be the 1878 Washington Constitution that was ratified by Washington voters but not approved by Congress.

The location of both the renegade Constitution and the approved Constitution: 1129 Washington St. SE in Olympia, one block east of Capitol Way. Go. You'll be able to yell "It's in the Constitution!" with so much more confidence.

Today's the day gay-haters across America are supposed to enjoy a delicious Chik-Fil-A sandwich. To celebrate, two videos.

First, here's Sarah Palin decrying the unconstitutional "crucifixion" of Chik-Fil-A:

Second, here's Conan O'Brien poking fun at the brouhaha with a puppet.

Thank you, Towleroad.

VOTE ABOUT IT>>

• DEREK ERDMAN

This is a photograph of Cal Anderson (right), taken when he was running to represent the 43rd District in the late 1980s. It was taken at Capitol Hill's Lincoln Park, before Anderson won that election (making him the first openly gay person elected to the state legislature), before he was later elected to the state senate, before he passed away, and before that park was renamed Cal Anderson Park:

• Courtesy of Ed Murray

That handsome guy on the left? Ed Murray.

BBC:

The forecasts for the shape of the "global talent pool" in 2020 show China as rapidly expanding its graduate numbers - set to account for 29% of the world's graduates aged between 25 and 34.

The biggest faller is going to be the United States - down to 11% - and for the first time pushed into third place, behind India.

The US and the countries of the European Union combined are expected to account for little more than a quarter of young graduates.

The real new order of the world:

This changing world map will see Brazil having a bigger share of graduates than Germany, Turkey more than Spain, Indonesia three times more than France.

Meanwhile...

According to the Chicago Tribune, undergraduates will face about a $20 billion increase in the cost of these loans, while graduate students will have to pay an estimated $18 billion out-of-pocket within the next decade.

NYT:

[J]ust before dawn the last Sunday in May, one of the most elaborate rituals in immigrant New York reached its apogee. The man at the center was Nana Acheampong-Tieku of the Bronx, New York regional chief of the Ashanti people from Ghana in West Africa.

The inauguration was part of a quadrennial, two-day ceremony in the Bronx that is a high point in the Ashanti diaspora’s calendar, serving to strengthen traditions and community ties in New York. “This is gorgeous, this makes me happy,” said Kojo Ampah Sahara, a community leader who helped organize the event. “This is who we are.”

“They think we are stuck in the past,” Mr. Ampah Sahara said. “They think once we are here, we should move on.”

• Kelly O

In which Sherman Alexie arrogantly quotes himself.

While watching this video, I recalled this passage in Jared Diamond's book The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal:

To begin with, we do not discuss the Indian tragedy much - not nearly as much as the genocide of the Second World War in Europe, for instance. Our great national tragedy is instead viewed as the Civil War. Insofar as we stop to think about white versus Indian conflict, we consider it as belonging to the distant past, and we describe it in military language, such as the Pequod War,

Great Swamp Fight, Battle of Wounded Knee, Conquest of the West, and so on. Indians, in our view, were warlike and violent even towards other Indian tribes, masters of ambush and treachery. They were famous for their barbarity, notably for the distinctively Indian practices of torturing captives and scalping enemies. They were few in number and lived as nomadic hunters, especially bison hunters. The Indian population of the US as of 1492 is traditionally estimated at one million. This figure is so trivial, compared to the present US population of 250 million, that the inevitability of whites occupying this virtually empty continent becomes immediately apparent. Many Indians died from smallpox and other diseases. The aforementioned attitudes guided the Indian policy of the most admired US presidents and leaders from George Washington onwards (see quotations at the end of this chapter). These rationalizations rest on a transformation of historical facts. Military language implies declared warfare waged by adult male combatants. Actually, common white tactics were sneak attacks (often by civilians) on villages or encampments to kill Indians of any age and either sex.

When I read this piece of news...

Astronomer Jill Tarter, the inspiration for heroine Ellie Arroway in the novel and movie "Contact," is retiring after spending 35 years scanning the heavens for signals from intelligent aliens.

Tarter is stepping down as the director of the Center for SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Research at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., the organization's officials announced today (May 22).

What is it about America that insists on looking at the 1950s as the norm, as if it's the starting point of history, while ignoring the previous, oh, 14,000 years or so of human civilization?

Nearly 25 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds here live at home.

In fact, the share of Americans living in multigenerational households is the highest it's been since the 1950s, Pew found. The trend is being driven by "boomerang kids," so named because they moved out, then moved back in.

My mother grew up in a "multigenerational household." Her grandmother ran the house while her parents and uncle ran the family store. In fact, when my mother got married and moved out at the dawn of the 1960s, it was she who violated the cultural norms. My grandmother lived with my Bubbe from the day she was born until the day the old gefilte-fish-making matriarch died.

I don't mean to show a lack of empathy for the way the Great Recession has disproportionately impacted 20-somethings, but this not-since-the-1950s meme is annoyingly overplayed. In many, many, many ways, the societal norms established in 1950s America are historical and cultural anomalies made possible by unique, transient, and unsustainable economic circumstances.

Idealize it all you want, but historically, there is nothing normal about the past half century.