DOER
PROFILE
Flunking The Intelligence Test
I
ALSO A\
City: West Bloomfield
Passion: Benny Goodman
Why did you become interested in jazz clarinetist
Benny Goodman — "the king of swing" — when
you were growing up in Connecticut?
•
"I grew up in a tough neighborhood. When they
insulted me or my twin sister, Georgia, I flattened
them. But I still had an inferiority complex.
"I loved Benny
Goodman's music — I
also loved Hank
Greenberg, the Detroit
Tigers' first-baseman.
These two gave me a
desire to live.
"They made me
proud to be Jewish. In
the war, when I flew 35
missions over Germany,
I used to put a Jewish
star on one of the
bombs every time."
Did you ever hear Goodman in person?
"My older brother — he was 20 years old — took
me to the Paramount Theatre in New York in 1937
to see him. They had a stage below the level of the
seats. When the stage comes up, Goodman turns
around to the audience.
"Watching Benny Goodman was the highlight of
my life. When he died, I cried."
What do you have in the Benny Goodman collec-
tion that you bring to senior housing facilities to
share with the residents?
"I have a one-hour video about Benny Goodman's
life; a video of his being honored and everything he
ever recorded.
"I've been to the Evergreen Health and Living
Center and the Heatherwood in Southfield;
Fleischman Residence and West Bloomfield Nursing
Center in West Bloomfield; and the Farmington Hills
Inn. I play the music and I tell the folks there about
Goodman."
Rohan is available to bring his Goodman film and
memorabilia to seniors groups, (248) 661-4570.
- Diana Lieberman, staffwriter
REPORT A DOER-
Know a Doer -- someone of any age doing interest-
ing, meaningful things in their life outside of their
job? Share suggestions with Keri Guten Cohen, story
development editor, at (248) 351-5144 or e-mall:
kcohenethejewishnews.corn
2/20
2004
10
GEORGE
CANTOR
Reality Check
s it ever acceptable to do
the right thing for the
wrong reason?
In the realm of ethics,
that is a question that can be end-
lessly debated. But in the realm of
politics, it happens all the time.
For example, an American presi-
dent stands accused of deliberately
misusing intelligence, lying about
our entry into war and unneces-
sarily sacrificing lives.
I refer, of course, to Franklin D.
Roosevelt.
For years after Pearl Harbor, he was charged with
ignoring intelligence that indicated the Japanese
were preparing for just such an attack. Most of
these accusations came from the nutso right. But in
recent years, the declassification of documents from
that time has made the charges more credible and
they have been repeated.
During the elec-
tion campaign of
1940, FDR also
promised voters
repeatedly that he
had no intention of
leading the United
ranklin
States into the war
in Europe.
It can be argued that the president understood
the necessity of opposing the Axis before it had
acquired sufficient power. to threaten America's
security. He surely knew by December 1941 that
the country had to get into the war, although pub-
lic opinion was dead set against it. Maybe he did
what he needed to do.
There is no such thing as a good war. People die
no matter how noble the cause. Winning inde-
pendence, freeing slaves, defeating fascism. The
dead are just as dead as they were in the wars to
grab Canadian, Mexican or Spanish territory.
But not many people would claim now that the
United States should have stayed out of World War
II. I really don't know how history will judge the
present war in Iraq. It's much too soon to tell, no
matter what the New York Times may say.
I do know that Libya was taking notes and has
suddenly become nice as pie, and it certainly
caught the attention of Syria. It removed a danger-
ously unstable dictator from a dangerous part of
the world, and while the toll of American troops
rises agonizingly, the number is still less than one-
fifth of those who died on Sept. 11.
Also forgotten in the blanket criticism of
President Bush, is that every Western intelligence
service — every one of them — was convinced that
Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. So this was
not just a case of failure or misuse of American
intelligence. It was something far more disturbing
and dangerous: a universal breakdown of informa-
tion.
In his recent book Intelligence in War, British mil-
itary historian John Keegan says that only Israel has
successfully been able to penetrate Arab nations
with effective intelligence work. The Mossad uses
former residents of these countries, people who
know the customs .
and the dialects
and can work
invisibly.
America, appar-
ently, has no such
operatives.
Delano Roosevelt Me
If it is a daunt-
ing task to pene-
trate an Arab nation, how much more difficult it is
to deal with a religious movement such as radical
Islam? This is what we are at war with, although
the forces of political correctness have made that
the truth that dare not speak its name.
The loathing that many Democrats feel for Bush
does not strike me as the basis for an especially
effective campaign strategy. It didn't work against
Richard Nixon in 1972, a president who was hated
at least as much. Nor did it work for Republicans
against Harry Truman in 1948.
Surely there are excellent reasons to oppose Bush,
especially in the area of trade and fiscal policy.
But beating him up over the war is the wrong
issue. Because most Americans still feel it was the
right thing to do, however misguided the reasoning
may have been. [1]
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor@thejevvishnews.com
Shabbat Candlelighting
"I light up my home with light and love."
— Sallee Rosen Vainik, West Bloomfield, Yoga teacher
Candlelighting
Friday, Feb. 20, 5:52 p.
Candlelighting
Friday, Feb. 27, 6:01 p.m.
Shabbat Ends
Saturday, Feb. 21, 6:55 p.m.
Shabbat Ends.
Saturday, Feb. 28, 7:03 p.m.
To submit a candlelighting message, call Miriam Amzalak of the Lubavitch Women's Organization at (248) 548-6771 or e mail: mamzalakuno.com
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