2024 January Newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you think things are bad now, some perspective

Kevin Drum

October 20, 2023

https://jabberwocking.com/

Here is the story of my grandfather (on my mother's side). Yes, it has a point:

My grandfather was born in 1900. He was 14 when World War I broke out and 17 when America entered the fighting. He was 18 when the Spanish flu pandemic swept the world. He was 20 when the Palmer Raids and the associated red scare broke out. He was 25 during the Scopes trial and 29 during the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. He was 32 when the Great Depression got into full swing and the US banking system came within days of collapsing. He was 33 when famine killed millions in Ukraine and 34 when he lost his job as an electrician for Western Union and had to spend the rest of the decade as an elevator operator. He was 39 at the start of World War II—the biggest, most destructive war in human history.

He was 45 when, in the Pacific, the US detonated two atomic bombs over Japan. On the other side of the world the full horror of the Holocaust became public and the Soviet Union swallowed Eastern Europe. He was 47 when the Cold War started. He was 49 when communists took over China and the Soviet Union detonated an atomic bomb. The country would live under the specter of nuclear annihilation forever after that.

He was 50 when McCarthyism took over the country—the second red scare of his lifetime. He was 57 when Sputnik was launched and 59 when famine killed upwards of 50 million people in China. He was 62 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, 63 when a president was assassinated, 64 when Tonkin Gulf ignited the Vietnam War in earnest, and 65 when the Watts Riots broke out a few miles from his home. He was 68 when both a presidential candidate and the country's preeminent civil rights leader were assassinated. He was 74 when Richard Nixon resigned over Watergate. He was 78 when Three Mile Island melted down and 79 when hostages were taken in Iran. He was 80 when gasoline prices doubled and inflation hit 15%. He was 86 when Chernobyl melted down.

A few years later he died.

I promised you a point. Here it is: stop whining. Young adults today have lived through 9/11, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a severe recession, and then Donald Trump. Currently Ukraine and Israel are at war.

Has this been a traumatic era? A time of polycrisis and the decline of democracy? Please. Today's problems are pinpricks compared to the 20th century. The Spanish Flu killed 50 million people globally—nearly 3% of the total population. During the Great Depression unemployment peaked at about 25% and wages fell by nearly half. In 1942 the world was down to nine democracies—and 80 million people had to die before democracy finally won the day. The Holocaust killed two-thirds of the Jews in Europe. The Cold War lasted 45 years and immiserated hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Sure, we have problems. But even taken altogether they're just not that big. The Great Recession peaked at 10% unemployment and stayed above 5% for seven years—compared to 11% and 27 years between 1970 and 1997. Wages for blue-collar workers went up during the Great Recession compared to a 7% decline during the Volcker Recession and a 40% decline during the Great Depression. The combination of 9/11 and both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars killed about 10,000 Americans over a decade—the toll from a single year of Vietnam or a single month of WWII. COVID was half as deadly as the Spanish Flu in the US and a thirtieth as deadly worldwide. There are ten times as many democracies in the world as there were 80 years ago—and fears to the contrary notwithstanding, they're in pretty good shape. Racism may still be our original sin, but it's plummeted compared to the days of Jim Crow, redlining, literacy tests, and Bull Connor. Our standard of living is triple what it was at the start of the postwar era. Inflation recently rose above 5% for two years, but that compares to nine consecutive years from 1973-82. The murder rate spiked to 6.8 per 100,000 a couple of years ago but is still a third less than it was three decades ago.

Now tell me again about your polycrisis and your trauma. I'm listening.

2023 November Newsletter

 

2023 September Newsletter

 

Sorry, couldn't get this in order.

2023 July Newsletter

 

T-shirts and Picnic

 Last Call: T-Shirt Order

 

The order for SPARTA t-shirts will be called in on June 5.  They will be available at the July picnic.  There will be a few extra of the most ordered sizes.

 

Because we ordered less than anticipated, the price is a few dollars more.

 

Short-sleeved t-shirts:  S-XL $13

                                          2X-4X  $15

Long-sleeved t-shirts: S-XL  $17

                                           2X-4X $19

 

Please call Jan Langton at 715-340-2145 or email her at jlangton@charter.net before June 4 with your order.  Payment will be collected when your shirts are delivered at the July picnic. 

 

 

SPARTA Picnic: Reservations Required

Reservations are required for the general membership meeting on Monday, July 10 at 11:00.  The picnic will be at Heritage Village in Plover. 

•       Jimmy John’s box lunch: regular sandwich, chips, pickle spear, cookie

•       Choice:

•       Billy Club: roast beef, ham, provolone, lettuce, tomato

•       Country Club: turkey, ham, provolone, lettuce, tomato

•       Sandwiches will come dry, add your own condiments

•       Condiments: mustard, oil/vinegar, onion, mayo, cucumber

•       Cost: $12

•       Guest meals are free (but sign up!!)

•       Reservations due by July 7

Call or email Jan Langton at 715-340-2145 or jlangton@charter.net.

You Can't Win Against Mother Nature

 The book sale scheduled for Saturday, May 13 has been cancelled/postponed.  From J.K.:

Good morning SPARTA volunteers,

After much consideration of this weekend’s forecast, and the fact that it would be our higher priced books on sale, I have decided not to chance them getting ruined by rain(either in transport or during the sale). 

(Please help spread the word that there will NOT be a SPARTA book sale at the Park Ridge rummage sale. Thanks.)
Christine has graciously offered to host a book sale, of our expensive books, at her house in August. (Thanks, Christine!)  
 We can promote it(heavily!😉) at our July book sale,  and will, hopefully, have the beautiful weather that we had two years ago.
Thanks for offering to help and, hopefully, we can all have fun working together at the August sale(date yet to be determined…). 

            J.K. 

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Heads Up: the Book Sale is on the Horizon!

 

May Newsletter

 

On This Rock Was SPARTA Built

 

Elbert J. Rackow

April 12, 1927 - March 21, 2023

Elbert J. Rackow, 95, 512 W Cleveland St, Marshfield, Wisconsin, died on March 21, 2023, in Marshfield.

He was born on April 12, 1927, at Plymouth, Wisconsin, to Louis and Ruth (DeSmidt) Rackow.

Elbert and Hulda Diringer were married on October 15, 1948, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany. Elbert retired on June 9, 1990, from teaching Social Studies at Stevens Point Area Senior High (SPASH) for 22 years. Prior to teaching at SPASH Elbert served over 21 years on active duty in the U. S. Army. During that time he served two tours of duty in Germany and two tours of duty in Korea. He also served as an Alderperson in the City of Stevens Point for 14 years ending in 2005.

He is survived by his daughter, Helen C. Johannes (Richard), Marshfield; two grandchildren, Paul Johannes (Marie), Marshfield, and Andrea Johannes (Vincent), France; and two great-grandsons Job and Judah Johannes.

He was predeceased by his father Louis and his mother Ruth; Hulda, his wife of 71 years; his sister, Jane E. Bergemann (Gerald), Marion, Iowa; and his brother, Martin L. Rackow (Noreen), Janesville.

His hobbies included fishing, deer hunting, photography, and collecting books for the semi-annual SPARTA book sale. Elbert graduated from Merrill High School in 1945. At the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point he earned a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education in 1968 and a Master of Science in Teaching History in 1970. Elbert helped ensure that teachers, whether actively teaching or retired, were treated fairly in his work with the Stevens Point Area Teachers’ Association, the Uni-Serve Council, and the Stevens Point Area Retired Teachers’ Association.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Stevens Point Area Retired Teachers’ Association (SPARTA) Scholarship Fund and/or the UW-SP Foundation.

A public time of visitation will be held on Tuesday, March 28, 2023 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Boston Funeral Home. A private burial will be held in Forest Cemetery in Stevens Point.