House of Immigrants Växjö, Sweden

So many things have changed.  The House of Immigrants is said to have closed.  For many years it was the destination for 10,000 Americans who came to Växjö to research their Swedish ancestry.  It is set among old structures of yesteryear like windmills and a cabin with a sod roof and levered pole which was designed to seal the chimney top.  Many American remember the move, The Imigrants with Liv Uhlman in the early 1970s depicting the Swedish migration to America and Minnesota.  (I can still remember the scene in the room and the ticking of the clock as Liv bemoans the passage of time.)   I saw one lady sobbing in the research room when I was there.  It’s hard not to get misty in a place like that.

There was a terrific park near the lake at Växjö with an all purpose amphitheater and zoo.  The curved amphitheater appears to be gone now, but the city retains its recreational attraction with a big sports center, tennis courts, and many foot and bicycle paths.  It’s an area perfect for school outings on sunny days in September before the winter sets in.  When I was there the Swedes were apparently a little confused where the zoo began and ended because I noticed a bear not too far from me which could easily step over a two foot hedge for a quick meal.  There was no chain or barbed wire and I didn’t like the idea of a bear greeting me on such an intimate level. 

 

Växjö’s two steepled cathedral is in the photo near the lake not far from the House of Immigrants.  Sooner or later along the shore line I began to think of my situation as tourists often do.  For someone in my station in life, it was truly a wonderful experience, something I cherish in my memories among Swedes in a picturesque little city with the right proportions of nature and modernism.   As promised, I will post shortly some pictures of Scandinavian houses and buildings that illustrate their sense of taste and high standard of living.

The Gospel of Affirmative Action

America’s Progressives have nothing to worry about.  The race baiters like Al Sharpton can stop their anguished cries of alarm.  The Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold Michigan’s ban on using Affirmative Action in college admissions is only a token gift to the Right.  In the bigger picture it means nothing and its chief victims, white men, having watched this drama unfold for decades, know it.  Joe Smuck cannot understand what all the fuss is about because he knows Affirmative Action is here to stay.  To him it’s always been the forced elevation of minorities and institutionalized reverse discrimination.  Millions of white proletarian men see it every day in the want ads: EO/AA employer – meaning no white men need apply. 

Opposition to Affirmative Action is divided at the most critical juncture – on the right.  There are millions of businesses that robustly sustain or are forced to preserve Affirmative Action outside of the college or university system and what’s more, they are either indifferent or don’t care because AA doesn’t affect them.  It only affects the livelihood of employees.  Only when Affirmative Action affected medical school admissions (Bakke Case) on the professions' peripheral of ownership was a ripple of opposition noted.  Business ownership is the livelihood of the Bourgeoisie and perhaps if there was a national moratorium on the issuing of business licenses until Blacks achieve a certain quota percentage, then AA would end in a heartbeat.

Until that happens Affirmative Action is as fashionable to that class of people as tummy tucks, face lifts, and Botox injections are.  It’s their way of assuaging their perceived white guilt and being PC with their peers.  Affirmative Action has become more than a cottage industry.  It’s a national institution from the top to the bottom of Joe Smuck’s everyday life.  Look at the makeup of the Supreme Court, the rush to elect America’s first woman President, and the celebrated efforts to have more Blacks and women in Congress.  It’s what the feminization of the military is all about.  It’s about how the Media staffs itself and wants to be perceived and the means by which another social gospel and religion of the Left, Diversity, is most flagrantly achieved. 

Like trains, the Left, backed by the Media, makes its social gospels run on schedule.  Americans know AA is mostly a black thing, but women have now piled on expanding its reach.  The Sexual Orientation crowd is lining up at the ticket booth. Soon, homosexuals will demand Affirmative Action (quotas) for their group.  Barring a Supreme Court decision that outlaws Affirmative Action in its entirety or the untimely end of the republic itself, this obscene relic of America’s race wars is here to stay.  Even so, Joe accepts his role of sacrificial lamb, but he is hard pressed to conceal his real and disturbing thoughts on the viability of the system that allowed Affirmative Action in the first place.

Sunday with President Ford

Who doesn't want to go to Washington, D.C. especially in April when the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin are in bloom?  It’s the nation’s capital, packed with granite and marble memorials and statues honoring our heritage and past heroes.  When I went in 1975 the Mall, the area between Capitol Hill and the Lincoln Memorial, was undergoing a total revamp.  I’d already seen the Archives, National Museum, and the Washington Monument at the top.  My plans for Gettysburg were dashed by a bus strike and my failure to qualify for a credit card.  The man at the car rental place said cash wasn't enough. He mentioned a priest who’d paid in cash and skipped out with the car.

The people of Washington were considerate and nice to me even though I was just from the hustings or fly-over area that they’d never visit themselves.  I remember the nice black lady with the short dress on the corner calling me slim: “Slim, hey slim!”  Then there was the Soul Brother on Fourteen Street who directed me to the back of the bus: “Hey white boy, white boy - Back of the bus!”  What a nice fellow, telling me where the empty seats were.  Then there was the seven foot stranger in the white trench coat outside St. John’s Church on Sunday.  He’s in the picture.

By the time I’d met him, I was on my way out of town towards National Airport shouldering my trusty K-Mart back pack.  I’m tall, but this guy was a giant especially in the crowd that had gathered outside the church.  I had no idea what was going on and I asked him.  He replied, “President Ford is coming out of church.”  There was a collective murmur and President Ford, my soon to be Commander in Chief, did come out with Betty and Susan out front.  It was nice for the tall fellow to have told me about the event because I would have skipped the crowd and gone directly for the subway and airport.  He didn’t seem to be much interested; he kept looking at the crowd.  Maybe he’d seen a President before.  At the time I’d only seen Harry Truman.  I took three pictures with my Instamatic and that was that.

I’ll never forget my trip to Washington even though it was unseasonably cold.  Lafayette Park was beautiful with new spring plantings and there weren't any trucker demonstrators around the White House like there were a few days before.  (I guess demonstrators rest on Sundays.)  Everything seemed more fresh and simple in those days and even the White House was free of fortifications and Secret Service men with shoulder anti-aircraft missiles.  Everyone I met was in his own little world and I in mine.  Soul Brother was quite a character.  He even offered to buy my Eisenhower jacket for a nickel, but perhaps I’ll remember the lady on the corner the most.  Yes, I was slim in those days and I had hair.

The Kaknäs TV Tower and ABBA

There is a tall needle tower restaurant in the middle of town where I looked out from all directions and beheld Stockholm’s immensity.  To the east was the Baltic Sea with gray waterways, overcast gloomy skies, and cold wind.  Ford had a facility near the docks.  Five hundred feet below was a clean city but the Stockholm waterfront with its imposing buildings and marinas made for a good picture.  My walking tour was on the Baltic side of the Old town.  To the west was Lake Malaren.

I’d heard about the big tower in Stockholm - the tallest structure in Sweden.  It’s like an adventurer hearing about a famous mountain; he just has to climb it, except the climb was by elevator.  When I reached the top my situation did not escape me.  I didn’t know anyone – no tour groups or guides, just me and a few other people swaying and forth back (or was it rotating?) in a slim tower above Stockholm.  Still, I managed to eat something and not get sick.  One should not eat in a place moving faster than the food.

Stockholm is an archipelago with small islands.   In fact, if you’re rich enough, you can own them.  ABBA, the rock groups, was at the height of their popularity and wealth in 1977 and bought one of those islands.  The group was made up of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad and became Sweden’s most famous rock group.  When I was in Stockholm the group was touring and I didn’t see them, but I’d seen posters, heard their music, and read about them in the papers.  I recall at one concert they were attacked by a swarm of moths attracted to their bright white costumes.   Critics say they looked outlandish in their get up, but I thought they looked great and had good taste - all except the high heels and capes on the guys.  You Tube is a great place to see them: Dancing Queen, Take a Chance on Me, Ring Ring, Voulez-Vous?, Honey Honey. They had class and became a national treasure.  The ABBA museum is east of the city at Djurgårdavägen 68.

The Quacking of the Lame Duck

Leftists haven’t had this much fun since the days of Jimmy Carter.   Socialized Medicine was pushed by him in 1978 and continued with Bill Clinton until it achieved legalization recently.  Carter supported pot legalization and decriminalization in March, 1977.   It seems inevitable now.  Carter rewarded leftist figureheads like Vietnam Moratorium Sam Brown to VISTA (a federal anti-poverty program) and nominated Ted Sorenson (arch enemy of the CIA) to direct the CIA.  President Carter pardoned Vietnam draft dodgers.  President Obama recently attempted to reward the NAACP attorney who defended a cop killer the directorship of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department.

Isn’t anything new?  Recently the Army bestowed the Congressional Medal of Honor on a rainbow of minorities who were supposed to have been discrimination against.  In June, 1977, civilian feminist Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor for her role as a contract surgeon during the Civil War because of sex discrimination.  President Obama “executive orders” the minimum wage to be increased to more than $10.00 per hour.  In 1977 Carter supported an increase to $2.65 an hour and proposed to Blacks a Full Employment Bill.  The President pussyfoots on the topic of immigration.  Today illegal aliens have to be called “Undocumented Immigrants” and you can’t build a physical or legal wall against them.  As a human rights gesture President Carter approved the Mariel Boat Lift which emptied Cuba’s prisons and mental health facilities and allowed Castro to get rid of his worst elements.   Democrats heartily approve of such demographic tidal waves affecting the ballot. 

President Obama repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and supports homosexual marriage euphemistically called “marriage equality.”  It’s logical to assume that he will upgrade homosexual military discharges like Carter did with unfavorable Vietnam War discharges.  Also, it’s not a leap of the imagination to anticipate that Obama might appoint the first Marine Corps homosexual general.

It’s not as bad as it could be – not yet.  (Forget the little stuff like the issuing of Susan B. Anthony coins or a Malcolm X stamp.)  Is President Obama a black Jimmy Carter?  In a future Fireside Chat President Obama could issue more executive orders and initiatives regarding the Equal Rights Amendment issue or the freeing all Blacks in a nation-wide pardon from all jails and prisons as political prisoners.  Could he propose a national holiday in honor of YIPPIE Abbie Hoffman?   Could Obama invite unrestricted immigration for all Central American Hispanic criminals?  Could he attempt to pack the courts like FDR and Jimmy Carter did with more leftist federal judgeships? Many measures that seem off the wall to us like those taken by this lame duck President are just repackaged Socialism with a new wish list gone wild.