As many probably heard, Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, died this week. Since it was founded in 1976, an auspicious year for America and punk rock, H4H has housed more than 1 and half million people in 3,000 locations (including Tallahassee, Florida where I worked on two houses in the late 80s) around the world. Families living in Habitat homes do not pay interest on their mortgages and the homes are built by volunteers with donated materials.
Fuller, like his most high-profile supporter Jimmy Carter, was an evangelical Christian. Unlike most of that ilk, he was not a hypocrite and put his beliefs into action . . . rather than spend his time say, bashing gay people.
But what he really was was a punk. What could be more punk rock, more do it yourself, than building someone a house who doesn't have one? He didn't wait for corporations or government to solve the problem of low income housing (though to be fair the U.S. government has probably built more low-income housing than any entity on earth), he did it himself. He didn't sit around lamenting the problem; he identified it and tried to solve it.
DItto Alcoholics Anonymous. A complete DIY operation - identify problem, identify solution - run by volunteers reaching out and helping their peers. And it works!
In addition to being punk rock operations, H4H and AA are excellent examples of American participatory democracy. Citizens organizing themselves to make their society and country better on their own. One of the things that makes American better than Europe (take your pick actually: baseball, Bill of Rights, better pizza, rock and jazz vs. opera and classical, etc.) is that we don't expect the state to fix everything. Here, democracy means more than voting. It means civic institutions and being involved in your community, and that's what these two organizations do (punk rock style).
Random Thoughts
- Good article on Bobby Frasor in today's N&O. With Graves out for the rest of the season I hope we'll soon see the 2006 Frasor reemerge for the Heels. Also worth checking out the N&O's midseason report on ACC basketball.
- You heard it here first: watch Maine moderate Senator Susan Collins. She knows the Dems don't get to 60 filibuster-proof votes without her and fellow Maine Republican - and Greek-American - Olympia Snowe. Collins just got reelected and is already asserting herself as a key power broker. Witness her deal making on the economic stimulus bill last night. Expect more of that to come.
- I was in Whole Foods last night; I'm always struck by how bad the music is in there. It's usually a mix of boomer-dreck: Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger, "Do You Like Pina Coladas . . ." . etc. Shouldn't we hear more Pete Seeger than Bob Seeger at a store like that? Anyway, last night they played "Lie to Me" by Chris Isaak. I came home and have been listening to his second (self titled - 1987!) and third (Heart Shaped World) records ever since. Both still sound great and unique twenty years later.
- Some Hellenic hoops news. Greece replaced coach Panagiotis Yannakis with Lithuanian and former Olympiacos coach Jonas Kazlauskas. Coincidentally, Yannakis is the current coach of Olympiacos. Kazlauskas recently coach his national squad at the Olympics. Yannakis is the Dean Smith of Greek hoops. He won a European championship as a player with Greece in 1987, defeating the USSR in the title game, and coached Greece to the 2005 European championship and a silver medal in the 2006 World championships (defeating the U.S. in the semi-finals). Kazlauskas takes over as Greece prepares for the 2009 European championships in Poland.
- One final final Hellenic hoops news. If you have NBA TV you can watch Olympiacos play today - Feb. 7th, live - in the Eurobasket tournament. American Josh Childress is hurt but you can still watch Theo Papaloukas hoop it up Hellenic style.
- In case anyone is wondering, 1976 was the U.S. Bicentennial and the year The Ramones released their first album.
6 comments:
Luxe Interior also passed this week - one of the great punk rockers. Apparently it was a pre-existing hear condition.
Wow - hard to believe he was 60 though.
Athan--for real, classical music has to be the greatest art ever, not just greatest music ever. Singularly, Beethoven's 9th/Ode to Joy beats anything else, hands down.
Nope; nothing beats Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, or Tears of a Clown by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.
Yes Athan, Whole Foods should play more Pete Seeger than Bob Seeger. The former will turn 90 this May and appears to be as activisty as ever. The ladder will continue to be best known for the song he sold to a certain American car company that failed miserably to evolve for the 21st century and instead spent most of their money lobbying the federal government against higher fuel efficiency standards. I do kinda like that 'Night Moves" song though...
Yes, "Like Iraq (favorite lyric: Standing arrow straight, like Iraq, invading Kuwait)."
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