Davos Newbies

Three guys with skullcaps and graying beards driving to Hebron with a washing machine for a Palestinian stonecutter.

What sounds like the set-up for some joke – there were three orthodox Jews and a washing machine – is one of the most moving accounts of today’s Israel/Palestine conflict you’ll read. I can’t remember who first pointed me to Gershom Gorenberg’s blog, but it was a true mitzvah.

My family is fortunate enough to spend some time each year in the beautiful mountains near Lake Tahoe. Our particular spot is near Lake Donner, named after the group whose trek west in 1846 became tragically stuck near what was then called Truckee Lake. Most Americans know the Donner Party because of the cannibalism that enabled some of the group to survive the terrifying winter in the mountains.

But if that’s all you know, I couldn’t recommend more highly Desperate Passage, Ethan Rarick’s new history of the Donner Party. It’s an utterly mesmerizing account of the story, which makes vivid not only the harrowing months in the mammoth snows, but also the extraordinary travails all pioneers faced in the journey west.

As a relatively new westerner, I had no idea how strenuous and slow the trek from Missouri to California was before the railroad came. In the 1840s the 2,000 miles between Independence, Missouri and California was true wilderness. Pace many John Wayne movies, the danger wasn’t the native Americans, who were overwhelmingly friendly in the days before genocide really took hold. The danger was that unprepared and underequipped families were venturing into truly harsh, unforgiving, often unmapped terrain.

The first wagon train went west in 1841. When the Donner Party left Independence in May, 1846, there were probably about 700 wagons heading west. The Donner group was probably the last to set off. That was the first of many errors they made. You won’t read a more gripping book this year.

I slightly beat the rush by going to the post office yesterday to send my money to the IRS and the State of California. Although part of me was pained to write the checks, there was also a part of me that felt civic pride in paying my taxes. Of course I wish a smaller percentage went to our ridiculously bloated defense budget. But I want better public schools, better public transportation, roads without potholes and many other things that tax revenues can provide. In our vehemently anti-tax society, is this the most transgressive idea around?

I’m not alone. Rustbelt Intellectual feels the same (fantastic post on many levels) and there is a great tale on HP Phenom about David and Lucille Packard in 1963. It’s a contrast with Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who recently successfully appealed down his property tax assessment. Here’s what happened with the Packards 45 years ago:

Meanwhile, over at the Los Altos Museum, Lucile Packard’s scrapbook is on display, with a remarkable sequence of three letters from November and December 1963. The first, from HP’s attorney, said that the assessor had advised that they could probably qualify for a very large tax reduction with the Williamson Act agricultural exemption for their new 33 acre Los Altos Hills property. The second, from Dave Packard, said “we won’t file for that, since most of the taxes go to local schools, and we want to carry our fair share of the load”. The third, from the attorney, reported that when he talked to the county assessor, the response was “well, THAT makes my day!” thus beating Clint Eastwood to the words.