Classroom Battlegrounds: Super Tuesday turns to Ash Wednesday in America

When America's biggest presidential primary day in 2008 - known as Super Tuesday - began last week, I was situated well in Missouri, considered by many to be the "bellwether" state that might predict the overall election. But that presumption was proved wrong already by sunset. Many polls were wrong, again, and the fortunes of  Clinton, Huckabee, McCain, Obama and Romney did not seem important.

February 5, 2008 or  "Super Tuesday" - so called due to more than presidential 20 primary elections - will probably be remembered for a series of highly unusual natural disasters that swept across the middle and southern range of the United States: at least 90  powerful tornadoes that killed more than 50 people in five states. 

The full details of the destruction cannot yet be estimated, and 200 people are still missing. Amazingly, an 11-month old boy was found in the twisted debris and broken lumber of his town, several hundred feet from the body of his dead mother. He was barely scratched.

Part of the deadliness of tornadoes is that they throw even the most harmless objects at very high speeds - like the projectiles inside a terrorist's bomb.

Tornadoes are not unusual in the United States, and are, in fact, a particularly American phenomenon, something for which the citizens in the American heartland have adapted, building storm cellars and tornado sirens in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Here in St. Louis, they test the sirens the first Monday of every month.

Those who have been through a tornado - and I saw one in Kansas 30 years ago - witness the majesty and horror of pure nature: winds that reach 250-500 kilometers per hour, with a sound like a huge railway freight train. And if you can imagine what a freight train would do to your house or car, then you can imagine the destructive wake of  these tornadoes: 90 freight trains unloosed from the tracks.

But this time the freight trains were quite wide. One of them was said to be more than a mile wide: imagine a freight train that tracks a path of over a kilometer in width.

"Twisters" - as these cyclonic monsters are called - are usually local, warm-weather storms that form local funnel spouts that briefly "touch  down" in  a narrow path of destruction throwing houses and trucks for hundreds of feet, but the Super Tuesday Tornadoes were something much different. They also hit southern and south-eastern states like Arkansas and Tennesee, and some of the storms did not just "touch down" but actually stayed on the ground for 70 to 100 kilometers.

"Super Tuesday" was meant to follow "Super Sunday" - the day of the Super Bowl, America's big football game, but it led inexorably to "Ash Wednesday," the first day of the Christian  period of  Lent, when many Christians, particularly Catholics, abstain from meat or make some other mark of abstinence, leading up to the holiday of Easter, the date of Jesus's crucifixion.

"Ash Wednesday" is usually often marked by Catholics wearing a trace of ashes on the forehead, but this year, it was also a date when the taste of ashes and destruction was in everyone's mouth.

Perhaps this was, unconsciously, the reason that I took my wife to church the next day, Thursday, February 7. But more than a spirit of ecumenism moved me - a good Jewish boy - to go to church.

No, dear friends, my wife Sara is a great mosaic artist, and St. Louis is home to one of the great mosaic collections in the world, the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica, whose Byzantine-Romanesque interior  is completely covered by 41,000,000 (forty-one million) mosaic tiles in 7,000 hues and colors. This is said to be the greatest such collection outside of the Vatican.

The many arches - some 40 or fifty meters above the ground - depict famous scenes in Christian theology and scripture, but also historical events in the life of St. Louis and the American frontier, such as the arrival of missionary priests to the local Indian (native American) tribes, especially Father Jean Marquette and Pierre DeSmet.

We were shown around by lady named Maureen who pointed to one arch that showed a scene where a Catholic priest, two Protestant ministers and a rabbi in prayer shawl are in seen in joint prayer, symbolizing the common values and joint works of the local communities. And the people in the Basilica were very nice to us explaining the detailed workmanship and materials - from the mosaic center in Ravenna Italy, and some artisans from Germany, that were  brought to the heart of America.

The main artist, Paul Heudock, who was dying of a lingering illness, feared that he would not see the completion of his work, but his prayers were answered. He and his son Arno Heudock saw the completion of the mosaic work on the vestibule several days before the father's death

Sister Pat (a lively nun whose name I did not catch) brought Sara a souvenir. It was kind of funny, actually. She stuck out a fist to Sara, and Sara thought that she was getting one of those inner city salutes - the fist version of the "high five." And  Sara gave her the requisite fist in return.

But when Pat signaled Sara to open her hand, she deposited a couple of exquisite tesserae glass mosaic tiles that had fallen from one of the ceilings. It was a very nice gesture. She, Maureen and Development director Ann Richardson invited us back to see the Basilica museum, and perhaps this may be the beginning of a connection for me with the Catholic community so that I can give a few guest lectures on Middle Eastern topics, and not just the Jewish community.

Then, again, I am told that some Catholics are still angry at one of the Reform rabbis here because, a few months ago, she invited a set of Catholic women to use the Reform synagogue as a venue to consecrate women as priest: something the local Archdiocese - and quite a few Jews!!!!! - did  not appreciate.

By the way, last Shabbat, our Young Israel made me the "designated-pinch-hitter," filling in for Rabbi Moshe Shulman who went to Israel to visit St. Louis’s Jewish students in Israel. I used the opportunity to discuss two of my favorite subjects at the morning sermon and the afternoon Torah class: "Dogs, Watchdogs, Prophets, Priests and Politicians: The Foundations of Jewish Governance" and - "Corruption in the Middle East - Then and Now."

People who know me will be surprised but I did not use the Biblical injunction against bribery as an excuse to rip apart Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak, although I was sorely tempted. And I did not say that politicians were like dogs because they leave a mess which they do not clean up.

Actually, I used a variety of rabbinic and Talmudic sources, leaving no doubt that I am happy that I am not a politician and very proud that I was the owner of a dog - Snoopy of Blessed Memory - who stood on a higher level ethically than most politicians I have known. But if you want to hear the sermon or the class, you have to invite me to your synagogue or church. [Now we can return from our commercial message!]

Normally, I would end this column on that hopeful and somewhat venal note, but another serious event has intervened that shows that the local human condition often mirrors the local weather conditions that can become dangerously stormy in a fraction of a second.

Last night (Thursday February 7) an irate man entered a local municipal board meeting in Kirkwood - one of the many little towns that make up St. Louis. Sara and I have been there looking for art supplies or casting about for antiques. As the meeting wore on, the man’s upset turned into a dangerous storm.

Apparently, the man was an irate building contractor who had once served as an occasional town official, but he felt that he had become victimized by some other officials whose fines and tickets had basically forced him out of business. He had even taken to yelling at town meetings, only to be thrown out. He took his case to court, charging that his rights to free speech were infringed, but the courts ruled against him. Last night, instead of barking, he started biting, shooting and killing six people at a town hall meeting, including several officials, several police, and the mayor (who was in very critical condition at the time of this writing).

When the dust settles from the shooting and the tornadoes, I will get back to analyzing the electoral picture after the Democratic and Republican primaries of the Super Tuesday that turned into Ash Wednesday.

Professor Michael Widlanski is the Schusterman Visiting Scholar at Washington University in St. Louis for 2007-8. Dr. Widlanski teaches political communication and comparative politics at the Rothberg School of Hebrew University. He is a former reporter, correspondent and editor, respectively, at The New York Times ,The Cox Newspapers-Atlanta Constitution, The Boston Globe, IDF Radio, IBA Television, and The Jerusalem Post. Dr. Widlanski also served as a special advisor to Israeli delegations to peace talks in 1991-1992 and as Strategic Affairs Advisor to the Ministry of Public Security, editing secret PLO Archives captured in Jerusalem.