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Once upon a time in Israel

Posted: October 10, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

It’s incredibly ironic and sad that the best chance for peace between Israel and the Palestinians happened almost 30 years ago.

I remember watching in the Rose Garden at the White House as Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin shook hands and signed the so-called “Oslo Accords” on September 13, 1993.

For many years, I reported on the Palestinians for Newsweek and ABC News. I spent a lot of time with Arafat and later met Peres. Both saw the accords as the best chance for peace. One U.S. expert wrote recently: “In many respects, the early years of Oslo were a U.S. negotiator’s dream. Israelis and Palestinians had finally done what we had been encouraging them to do for years: get together and work through their own problems themselves.”

What went wrong? The accords were an interim plan. Territory would be transferred gradually to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for its assumption of security responsibilities.

Essentially, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization had different interpretations of the final outcome. For Palestinians, that outcome was an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital. For Israel, the government was unwilling to commit to two states. 

Both sides had complex constituencies. Arafat led an organization with so many factions that it was difficult to keep them going in the same direction. These groups include Fatah, Arafat’s group and the largest of the PLO. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was the second-largest faction, mainly because it launched the most effective terrorist operations. But there were groups allied with Iraq, Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood, and others. 

Israeli leaders had to govern a country with just as many factions as the PLO. These groups ranged from far-left socialists to conservative religious factions. 

As a result, both sides had to compromise with their constituencies before they could compromise with one another.

For example, Rabin had also locked himself into a public commitment not to dismantle any settlements during the interim period. The settlement issue came to a head when, just after the accords were signed, an Israeli settler killed 29 Palestinians in Hebron, and he did virtually nothing about it because of his promise.

Nevertheless, Rabin was one of Israel’s most sensible and influential leaders. His death in 1995 at the hands of an assassin who opposed any deal with the Palestinians finally put the final nail in the coffin of the agreement. 

The hopes and dreams on that sunny September day 30 years ago came crashing down, leading almost inevitably to the chaos and war that exists now. 

Philadelphia: A city on the brink of chaos

Posted: October 3, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

I spent nearly 16 years in Philadelphia. I enjoyed an occasional trip to watch the Phillies or the Eagles. The museums are excellent, notably the Barnes and the Constitution Center.

Although I’m not partial to cheese steaks, the restaurants are terrific. I particularly enjoyed a Brazilian restaurant in Center City.

I could put away my car and take rapid transit to most places I needed to go, although I’ve seen better systems in other cities like New York and Chicago.

The people of Philadelphia can be a bit hard-edged, chip-on-the-shoulder types, but I’ve seen that in many other cities where I lived.

So it angers and saddens me that the city that saw the creation of the nation and served as its capital for a while is being torn apart.

About five years ago, I realized that the city was in trouble. It happened on the Temple campus, where I taught. I stopped by the local Chinese takeout to find a group of young teenage women stealing soft drinks from the shelves. The women weren’t old enough to be college students and probably came from a nearby high school.

As 20 customers stood by, I grabbed one of the girls and asked the owner to call the campus police. He declined and told me to let her go.

As I stepped outside, five girls surrounded me and started to spit and harass me. No one stopped to help me, even though the harassment and taunting were obvious to the dozens of people passing by. No one wanted to get involved.

Fortunately, I hold two black belts in martial arts and easily frightened the girls with two quick demonstrations of my abilities without hurting anyone.

Before the girls fled, they threatened to bring their fathers back for a beatdown.

When I wrote about the incident on this website, I was ostracized by several fellow faculty members because I was a racist.

I also got a call from the campus police. I expected questions about the incident or an apology. Instead, I got a threat that I could be fired if I followed through on my suggestion that people on campus should be allowed to arm themselves.

When the looting came in 2020 after the death of George Floyd, it was apparent that it was time to leave Philadelphia, especially when the rioters got away with their actions and paid $9.25 million because the cops used tear gas!

The recent looting happened when a judge dismissed charges against a cop who killed a Black man wielding a knife.

Even though the interim police chief correctly described the looters as “criminals,” I doubt many will be held responsible for their actions.

It’s worth noting that Philadelphia, like many other cities I’ve lived in and won’t visit again, like New York, Chicago, Washington, and San Francisco, is run by Democrats. As Philadelphia elects a new mayor this year, I hope at least some of the voters realize that something has gone wrong in their city and won’t be fixed by the current crew that runs the place.

When the music’s over…

Posted: September 26, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

Two longtime friends—who helped me in my celebrated but short career as a rock ‘n’ roll singer—died this past week, causing me to recall the fine times we had with the band.

Ken Mills, who died at 75 in Minneapolis, served as the manager and booker of my band, The Trippers. Steve Ettles, who died at 72 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was the first roadie for the band.

Based in Sioux Falls, the Trippers played gigs throughout the Midwest, first as a cover band for rhythm and blues and later as an emerging acid rock group in the 1960s. We weren’t good enough to make it beyond the Midwest, but we earned spots in the Rock Halls of Fame in South Dakota and Iowa. Our one hit reached No. 99 on the Billboard’s Top Tunes.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh2r3G7a1Tg&list=PL48ywZUEnrB7ZhkJPP5VfwPw3nHIze2Kb

I’d kept in touch with Ken and Steve over the past 50-odd years and seen them both a few years ago.

In the 1960s, Ken fell in love with rock ‘n’ roll. He began managing, booking, and promoting bands as a junior in high school. After promoting bands, Ken started working in radio as a disc jockey and worked at KISD, KLOH, KELO, KXRB, and KLYX in the Sioux Falls area, as well as developing and launching his own station, KSKY, in the Black Hills. Ken was inducted into the South Dakota Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. As he got older, Ken developed a problem with his vision and became an advocate for those with severe eye disorders and blindness, using his voice to communicate with his audience.

Steve had a tougher life. His engaging smile earned him friends throughout his life. Unfortunately, his smile also got him entangled in a savings and loan association scandal. He spent a year in federal prison for doing what he thought was a favor for a friend. It turned out the friend was embezzling money unbeknownst to Steve. I told his story and those of others in a book I wrote a few years ago, Flyover Country. The book focuses on the 1969 high school graduating class from Lincoln High School in Sioux Falls.

As the introduction states: “Flyover Country focuses on a group of baby boomers who graduated from high school in 1969 in the Midwest before setting off into the world in a time of turbulence to fight in Vietnam, to protest against that war, to find jobs, to have families, and to live lives throughout the United States and overseas. Many of these people have made significant contributions to their communities as business owners, doctors, lawyers, ministers, politicians, and teachers. Many have suffered through tough times, losing their way due to alcohol or drugs or facing family crises from divorce to the death of a spouse or a child.”

Steve’s story was one of those lessons. Over time, he managed to regroup and rebrand, never losing that smile. See https://www.amazon.com/Flyover-Country-Boomers-Their-Stories/dp/0761853324

Already, two band members are gone: Mike Ward, a prominent news executive, and Terry Park, a psychiatrist. Only four of us remain.

Together, we played until the music was over. Long live rock ‘n’ roll!

ICYMI, here is my swan song at the Iowa Rock ‘n’ Roll Music Association Hall of Fame. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6xwsQzygtA&list=PL48ywZUEnrB7ZhkJPP5VfwPw3nHIze2Kb

Small towns face a serious shortage of cops

Posted: September 19, 2023 by chrisharper in Uncategorized

By Christopher Harper

Just a few miles west of my home in Muncy, Pennsylvania, the town of Montgomery had to shut down its police force.

The decision for the town of just under 2,000 people wasn’t because of anti-police riots; it happened because Montgomery couldn’t afford a full-time force anymore.

What happened in Montgomery is unfortunate but not uncommon to what’s unfolding in smaller municipalities nationwide.

“A lot of municipalities are going to face this as tax bases decline and costs increase exponentially,” Montgomery Mayor Rocky Sanguedolce said. “Nobody wanted to do this.”

America also faces a police officer shortage. From Minnesota to Maine, Ohio to Texas, small towns unable to fill jobs are eliminating their police departments and turning over crime fighting to their county sheriff, a neighboring town, or state police.

Officer resignations were up 47% last year compared to 2019 — the year before the pandemic and George Floyd’s killing — and retirements are up 19%. That’s all according to a survey of nearly 200 police agencies by the Police Executive Research Forum. Though the survey represents only agencies affiliated with the think tank, a fraction of the more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, it’s one of the few efforts to examine police hiring and retention and compare it with the time before Floyd’s killing.

“Fewer people are applying to be police officers, and more officers are retiring or resigning at a tremendous rate,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum. “There’s a shortage of police officers across the country.” Compounding the exodus of veteran officers, young people are increasingly unwilling to undergo the months of training to become a police officer, Wexler added.

More than 500 U.S. towns and cities with populations of 1,000 to 200,000 disbanded policing between 1972 and 2017, according to a study by Rice University economics professor Richard Boylan.

With the massive amounts of money spent at the state and national levels on fighting crime, it would seem essential that governments come up with some way to provide funds to communities that cannot afford a police department.

With a dependence on the Pennsylvania Highway Patrol in the case of Montgomery, it’s unlikely that the response time to any serious crime would be good.

Fortunately, my home in Muncy has amassed enough funds to keep its police force and raised money to build a new fire and emergency services facility. I wish other communities could say the same.

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