Re: Levy Institute & the forces of evil

[John Gelles <jjgelles@xxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 28 Sep 1995, Doug Henwood wrote:

  [A story of the Levy Institute and its liberal concerns
  coupled with a story of the origins of its endowment and the
  behavior of one of its founders up to the current day; behavior
  which in the absence of a defense based on fact, appears to be
  selfish beyond necessity and certainly not in accord with what
  the Institute preaches.]
>
> One of the Levy fils, Leon, co-runs an investment firm called
> Odyssey Partners with Jack Nash.
> ...  ________________________________________________________

	You know when you see a movie or read a book that
	is set in your own home town and may cover people
	and places you know for real, the experience is
	special.

	Leon and I are the same age. We were neighbors,
	classmates and casual friends.  He wore rather thick
	glasses and was an "earnest" type. He must have been
	much richer than I was, but I never knew it. We did
	not visit each other's homes.

	What was very interesting is that at around the
	age of 14 he used to say his Dad had proved that
	capitalism could work.

	My Dad, who had been through insolvency, disappear-
	ance, return to try again, repeated failure, and
	at the time was making yet another temporary comeback
	in a savings and loan, was not sure his Dad, (whom mine
	never met), was right.

	My Dad had read a great deal of history, voted once for
	Norman Thomas, and was an ardent New Dealer.  Leon's
	conviction the depression would pass was alien to my
	thought. I thought only government could cure it.

	I used to argue with Leon over this. But the arguments
	lacked detail.

	Now Leon is rich and I'm content with a modest pension
	and home.  The coherence which my Dad and I knew was
	lacking before government contracts provided it, is
	still not achieved. The destructive part of our system
	of constructive-destruction has ruined the places I
	knew in my young teens.

	The issues involved with Leon's restaurant may be very
	complicated.  I do not judge him on any of the story,
	although he may be at fault.

	I do judge the Congress and myself.  We have not done
	our job.  I was trained to be an accountant from the
	largesse of the people of the State and City of New York
	at City College. (The years CCNY won both the NIT and
	the NCAA basketball tournaments.)  I was trained to be
	a lawyer from the largesse of the people of the United
	States under the GI Bill at Columbia University.

	Althouhg since 1984 I have waged an unsuccessful campaign
	to make the system coherent, before that time all I did
	to make things better was to vote the Democratic ticket
	and agree with Jamie Galbraith's father's every word.
	The vote was often futile.  The agreement never.

	Leon endowed a liberal institute that employs PHD's whose
	profession is to do that at which my amateur efforts have
	failed.

	Another memory of New York:  Colin Powell's book tells
	the story of his (and my) ROTC unit at City College.
	Because of my feeling for that unit, (which Powell brings
	to life in his remarkable book), I was once a captain of
	cadets and a ship's commanding officer. It was said that
	the Navy in which I served was government well managed.
	Tragically, the coherence imposed by the exigencies of
	war was lost in 1946, as men made rich at the time
	later lost the will and skill to do their duty.

	[But what's a familiar name or place you see in a story,
	movie or book. It may prompt childish feelings that you too
	are part of the cast:  I kissed Judy Garland (once on the
	cheek). I talked alone for an hour with Robert Oppenheimer.
	But if you really want to feel what it's like to know a name
	or a place, read Gore Vidal in this week's New Yorker. He's
	been there. He's done that. And he writes well.]
	
	----------------signed:----------------------------------
	John Gelles                     email:  jjgelles@xxxxxxxx
	(805) 642-6675                 http://rain.org/~jjgelles/
	5706 Loma Vista                         Ventura, CA 93003
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