It’s a DP World, After All
Writing by treason on Friday, 24 of February , 2006 at 9:15 am
On Tuesday, I offered my opinion on the ports issue but wonder now if I was too subtle in making my point. The title affixed to that entry is “Controversy, Crap, and Confusion.” I’d thought it was clear that my reaction was pretty much: “Yeah, so?” In a world of free markets, we do business with foreign companies and foreigners do business with us. I also suggested that the Democratic response was misguided and that we shouldn’t dis an ally. Since mine appears to be the minority position, I’d like to take some time to spell out why I am for the transaction.
First, the Democratic response. They call Republicans fearmongers and profilers, but they’re starting to sound like they’re the ones who are ready to round up Arabs indiscriminately and put them in camps. They’re trying to demonstrate that they’re the party of national security, but to my ears it sounds like Isolationism. Also, they’re not telling the truth about the deal and that’s just irresponsible. Hillary came out against Dubai, and it only highlighted the fact that Bill has been there on several occasions to speak and accept payment for these engagements. So is it fair then to assume that Bill has no issue with accepting filthy terrorist lucre? Oh, so it isn’t filthy terrorist lucre. So why are we acting like the UAE is a bunch of criminals? Already Hillary has softened her position; I can only assume that Bill has pulled her aside to remind her that Dubai is subsidizing their mortgage. Since Democrats have long been in denial that we are engaged in a real war, it seems peculiar that they have now taken the opposite position by identifying an enemy. We should ask ourselves which special interests they’re representing when they fight to kill this deal. The unions? That right there is a reason to support the transaction.
Second, it’s simple economics. I always like a controversy in Washington because it’s an opportunity to teach the voters something about how our world works. Like I said on Tuesday, in high school I had my money in a foreign bank. It was a few blocks from my parents’ house but it was not an American institution. Friends and family wondered why I would trust them to keep my money. Frankly, it never crossed my mind that because the bank was run by “furreners” they would abscond with my savings. We should appreciate that the UAE would even want to deal with us and our regulations and bureaucracy. They aren’t in charge of port security and it doesn’t behoove them to encourage any breaches. This is about making money, pure and simple. I’m amused by the people who are unnerved by foreign ownership. There are U.S. companies doing business outside our borders; how would these people feel if a country decided to nix a deal with us? After spending the majority of my years in California, I can tell you that there are plenty of Arab owned businesses within our borders. Are we prepared to seize these businesses and deport the owners? Puh-leeze. Our borders are wide open and there’s nothing to prevent homegrown terrorists to build bombs right here on American soil. Terrorists of any origin. The argument against Dubai is just weak.
Third, the Republican response is embarrassing. It’s very clear to me that they are less concerned with national security and more concerned about their own insecurity. Allow me to illustrate. A few years ago I interviewed a person for a position and rejected him even though I felt he was bright and had an interesting sense of humor. I just had an instinct about these things; I knew he wasn’t going to work out. Yet another supervisor did hire him and a few months later I was forced to take over her shift. My shift was a well-oiled machine, hers was just kamikaze. I inherited him and there was friction. Every time I looked at him cross-eyed he’d run to management to complain. Ironically, as much as we despised each other as coworkers, we appreciated one another’s opinions. He’d wander into my office on breaks and we’d chat about issues of the day and politics. He was smart and wickedly funny. We would have been friends, I think, if work hadn’t been part of the picture. We were on different sides of every issue, but we enjoyed debating. He even ran for mayor and was quoted in the local paper. I can’t remember the exact comment, but it had something to do with Canadians and it was derogatory. We worked for a Japanese company and our new president and plant manager, unbeknownst to this employee, was Canadian. (I’m certain he still remembers the remark.) Anyway, what I liked best about him was that he could sum things up in such a way that even if I disagreed with his position, I had to give him points for style and execution. We had two local Republicans running for office. One was male - good looking, rich, and well-connected. But he was an empty suit and dumb as a stump. The other was female, but to some voters that wasn’t too obvious. The line that I will never forget was when he analyzed the two candidates and said:
“One has the mind of a twelve year-old boy, and the other has the body of a twelve year-old boy.”
In one sentence he nailed it perfectly. The twelve year-old body won and has been winning elections ever since. I know people on both sides who have worked with her and they feel that she’s effective. I’ve voted for her consistently and I’ve long suspected that she was being groomed for something bigger within the party. But lately she has begun to distance herself from the President. When he was in town recently, she was unable to meet him for dinner. She has called for congressional hearings concerning the NSA, and she isn’t comfortable with the ports deal. In short, she’s worried about November.
Republicans are backing away from Bush like he’s a stinking corpse. This is fun to watch because when they do this it always comes back and bites them. I hadn’t considered not voting for this particular Congresswoman, but now I’m going to have to take a hard look at the competition. Tsk.
Finally, there’s the DP factor. I hesitate to discuss this because it’s going to sound…well, nuts. Whenever I make a decision I go to logic and reason first. I analyze things to death and weigh the pros and cons. Then weigh them some more. Once I have an informed opinion I run it past the little voice in my head. It’s like car maintenance. I’ve always been consistent about it because I’m one of those people who would be happy to buy one car and have it last a lifetime. But lately I’ve put off routine maintenance and now I’m having car issues. I’m addressing each one now and rejuvenating my vehicle. With each decision - whether it’s a new battery, tires, or brakes - I do extensive research and comparison shopping. I know what I’m going to do, how I’m going to do it, and where I’m getting it done. And then at the last possible second I switch gears and do the opposite. That little voice again. Maybe you’d call it instinct or a gut feeling, but I’m not prepared to give myself that much credit. I tend to look for signs. Really obscure signs. When I try to explain this “reasoning” to T his eyes glaze over and he tells me he doesn’t want to hear it. I want to justify decisions that, on the surface, make little sense. Signs again.
So this will sound crazy, but when I heard the name of the company in the ports deal, I was immediately on board. DP World. I’m of a certain age and I grew up with a lot of colloquialisms that aren’t heard much today. Holy Hannah. Hell’s bells. Dollars to donuts. He’d give his eye teeth. Down the pike a piece. And some you just wouldn’t say in today’s PC world. One of those is the expression “DP.” I used to hear that all the time when I was a kid. That DP who lives on the second floor. The DP who runs the corner store. Those DPs who moved into the house down the block. Her DP relatives are coming to visit. That DP landlord.
I went to the dictionary to look it up but couldn’t find it. What is a DP? This was one of the first mysteries of my life and I just had to solve it. I started to analyze how it was used in sentences and made the connection to people who appeared to be foreign. They were here, but weren’t born here. Keep in mind that I was raised in a Jewish neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side and I went to school with kids who had grandparents who didn’t speak English. They came from countries that aren’t even on the map anymore. I started to put the puzzle pieces together. DPs are people who came here from other countries - ha! Like my mother’s dago family! So who’s callin’ who a DP?
Displaced persons. Something you don’t hear much these days. During Katrina, when people were being referred to as refugees, some didn’t take kindly to it. But in fact, hurricane victims truly are DPs. People who are forced to migrate, to leave their homes. But did anyone call them DPs? When did we stop using the term? When did it become offensive?
Well, I think we can figure that one out. But my grandparents were, technically, DPs. I went to Ellis Island just to experience what it was like for my relatives to come here from Italy and see what they saw when they got off that boat. Did they see that statue? Did they get the same reaction that I do when I see it? Were they frightened when they went into the buildings there and stood in lines, not knowing what would happen to them? Or were they excited to be in a new place with prospects of a new and better future? Were they happy that they didn’t have to change the family name?
DPs. They’re what makes America great. So how can we reject a company that will run the ports where DPs entered America when it is so perfectly named? DP World! That sounds pretty darned American to me.
Told you it would sound nuts, but sometimes liberty seems a little crazy. But in a good way. My hope is that President Bush stands by his decision to veto any opposition to the deal. And once he exercises that power he’ll be comfortable exercising it more often. I want him to stick to his guns on this and not back down.
Uh, perhaps he has learned a thing or two from the VP.
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