Thoughts on Memorial Day, 2017

Originally published in The Post-Journal on Monday, May 29th, 2017.

I am a fortunate person. For nearly 15 years I have been privileged to serve as a Commissioner of the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC.) During that time, the agency was given the responsibility of finding a site, developing a design, raising the money and then building the National World War II Memorial. However, its primary mission has never changed–maintaining the overseas cemeteries for America’s war dead.

The North African American Cemetery near Tunis, Tunisia

When an American visits one of these cemeteries, the most-visited being Normandy, their outlook on the world gains a new perspective. The row-on-row of Crosses and Stars of David are a testament to what America has invested in making the world a freer and better place. They are reminders that being the leader of the free world has required a costly investment in American lives. We can’t walk that back. Those lives are gone.

When I hear people talk about isolation or withdrawal from the world, I want to take them to these places. We have invested too much in blood (and treasure) to pull back into some kind of cocoon and pretend that what happens in the rest of the world doesn’t matter. Our current status as a vibrant democracy has come at a great price. Whether we like it or not, what happens in the rest of the world affects us.

Recently, I received a copy of a quarterly newsletter which is sent world-wide to ABMC employees who work in these cemeteries. Most of them are not American though they are cutting grass, cleaning headstones and maintaining these sacred grounds so important to Americans. The United States has entered into agreements in these foreign countries which guarantee, in perpetuity, our rights to these lands where our war dead are buried. We also depend upon their citizens to maintain these places to our highest standard.

We have invested too much to pull back into some kind of cocoon and pretend that what happens in the rest of the world doesn’t matter. 

Though located in various countries, the mission of caring and supporting these cemeteries is common. The newsletter is printed in six languages: English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Arabic. Did I say “Arabic?” Yes, one of our cemeteries, where 2,841 of our war dead are buried, is located in Tunisia. In our efforts to defeat Germany in the Second World War, we first had to defeat them in North Africa.

We have very dedicated employees working at the North African American Cemetery near Tunis. It is located on a historically important plot of land, right next to the ruins of ancient Carthage. A few years ago, during the “Arab Spring,” Americans, for their safety, were ordered out of Tunisia. During their absence, work and maintenance at the cemetery continued unabated by Tunisians. These employees, citizens of Tunisia and Muslim by faith, continued their daily work in mowing the grass, polishing the stones and providing security for the cemetery where our war dead are buried. They are proud of the work they do, and the high standard of care at the cemetery continued without interruption.

So if people preach to you that our country should abandon contact with the Arab world and with the Islamic community or with other foreign lands–please remind them that too many Americans lie buried in these places for us to pull out now. American cemeteries around the world remind us on this Memorial Day that American values of freedom and democracy are still real and worth fighting for. The grave stones, memorials and markers tell the story.

Rolland Kidder
Stow

A Tough Vote

Whatever you think about the “Repeal and Replacement of Obamacare” which recently passed in the House of Representatives, most observers would agree that it was a tough vote. It just passed the House with one extra vote (217 “yeas”), 216 was the needed threshold.

I recall some “tough votes” when I was in the New York Legislature. In 1975, when New York City was going bankrupt, there were a lot of them. Usually, they occurred in the middle of the night after hours of floor debate… after members had been worn to a frazzle. Often the legislation had been negotiated only hours before and opponents would allege that “the ink is still wet on this bill!” The goal was always to have at least one more vote in favor than the bare minimum to pass. You didn’t want members voting “yes” on a controversial piece of legislation who would then have to go out and defend themselves in the next election with an accusation that “without your vote, it wouldn’t have passed!”

“If you’ve got the votes, call the roll!”

There was also another axiom on tough voting that, I believe, was coined by former Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn: “If you’ve got the votes, call the roll!” Another way to state that would be: “Don’t call the roll until you have the votes!” You don’t want to put members on the spot where they may end up making a tough vote only to have it fail to pass. (That is why a similar bill on Obamacare had been pulled from the floor in March.) So by all counts, the recent vote to “repeal and replace” met the criteria of being a “tough vote.” It also qualified for the “ink not being dry” on the bill, since the Congressional Budget Office did not have the time to estimate the financial and human impact of the legislation prior to its passage.

There is one aspect of the vote which might make the recent action in the House even tougher. If someone goes on the line to cast a difficult vote, it is usually best, politically, if the bill becomes law. Perhaps the worst situation in voting in a legislative body occurs when you go on the line in support of a controversial “one-house” bill. That is, it might pass one house of the legislature but not the other.

I remember a lot of walks I made during those days in 1975 from the Assembly chamber over to the State Senate floor to discuss legislation with my counterpart in the State Senate, Jess Present. Jess and I both subscribed to the position that it was best that bills which were difficult to pass should “end up on the Governor’s desk” and signed into law. We weren’t much interested in passing “one-house” bills.

The matter of whether the “Repeal of Obamacare” actually makes it to the President’s desk is something that still seems unclear in Washington. The Republican Party controls both houses of the federal legislature and also the Presidency. Yet, the U.S. Senate has made it clear they will not be putting a “rubber stamp” on what was passed in the House. They want to hear what the Congressional Budget Office and health care providers have to say about the legislation.

If the Senate makes substantive changes to the legislation, it is questionable whether the “Freedom Caucus” in the House would accept those changes. If that happens, there could be a stalemate and no legislation would go to the President. (For those interested in maintaining coverage for the uninsured, this might be a good result.) We have been debating health care politics for the past 8 years. It would be nice if we could finally settle on a national health policy and move on to other issues… like rebuilding our infrastructure and investing in public works such as sewers around Chautauqua Lake!

Rolland Kidder
Stow, NY