Hugh Murray

I have taught at universities in the US, the UK, Germany and China and I have published in numerous academic journals. I was active in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s demanding equal rights for Blacks. NOW I SUPPORT CIVIL RIGHTS AND DEMAND EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL CITIZENS, INCLUDING WHITES AND MEN. (For some of my more formal writing, go to http://www.anthonyflood.com/murray.htm you can find photos, etc.) For most of my writing, see Tulane University's Library, Special Collections.

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

THE MOST IMPORTANT DEED IN MY LIFE?? A LETTER TO THE EDITOR??

HUGH MURRAY

On a personal note, I admit, sometimes I do the unusual. For example, some years ago I worked at the World Trade Center in New York, #2 WTC, on the 38th floor. On wintry days near closing time, it was a joy to look out the window down NY harbor atthe Statue of Liberty as the sun began to set. A beautiful scene.

I was a minor bureaucrat working for a government agency. One day. probably in 1982; our department decided to have a fire drill. We walked down the steps from the 38th to the 33rd floor (these were the floors rented by our agency). There we all gathered and asked what next. We were told, in case of emergency, someone would give us further directions at that time. We were told one most important fact - as this was a new building, new improvements in the elevator had been added. For example, in most elevators, you must press a button once inside the cabin to direct the devise to the floor to which you wish to go. With the updated device, you no longer had to press the button, just place your finger on the desired number floor, and the heat of your digit was sufficient to tell the elevator which floor you wanted to go to. No need to push the buttons, just place your finger over the number. There was a drawback, however; he informed us.. In case of a fire, the heat of the fire would heat the buttons too and call the elevators to the burning floor. In case of a fire, we were urged not to use the elevators.

Some time later in 1983, I was then living in nearby Brooklyn, and if I woke early and the weather was nice, instead of the packed subway, I would walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. The tall WTC in the foreground had sufficient glass to reflect the sky and it sometimes appeared a light purple. At the end of the bridge, I could go north to China Town, or south toward the Wall St. area. I walked to the WTC, but when I reached the lobby of #2, it was packed. The elevators were not working. and ever more people were coming up from the subway below to join the crowd. Unlike most, I had an alternative. Sometimes, I would walk up to work, the 38 flights. The stairways were well hidden, but I knew where they were. Should I wait for an elevator - none were then running, or walk. My walk was no fast run. I might be late for work. I chose to walk up.

All went well until the 9th floor, for I looked up and it was dark. I kept going, but slower. By the 11th floor, I placed my hand in front of my face and could see nothing. That is dark. I went very slowly, because from past experience I knew some would eat lunch on the stairs, and leave trash and even bottles. I did not want to fall in this perpendicular cave of night. There was an eerie sound in this "cave" however - a metalic one. The building was constructed to sway with the wind. The 110 stories moved. One did not notice this when working in the outer sections where folks worked. But in the stairwells, you could hear the metal crunch of the wind's power on the massive building. Now and then I would open a door to check the floor I had reached, then back to the cave. At 38 I opened the door and was shocked. The lights were on, the early shift was working as usual; all was normal. But now I was convinced something important was wrong. The lights in the stairwell were out at the same time the elevators were not working.

I informed my union representative that we should write the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about this problem. I was about to leave the job, and wrote the agency 23 May 1983. I do not know it the union representative also wrote the agency.

A decade later, 26 February 1993, I was living in Milwaukee, watching the national news on tv, and learned that terrorists had attempted to blow up the WTC. A bomb had been planted in a vehicle in the WTC parking garage below the building. It damaged the buildings. Workers tried to escape, but there were no lights in the stairs. It took some 6 hours to get people out of the building that day.

I decided I would write to urge changes in the stairwells. I wrote the same letter to the then big 4 newspapers in NYC - the New York Times, the New York Post, the Daily News, and Long Island Newsday. Three of the four published my letter, the Post, Daily News, and Newsday. I quote below from my letter of 18 March 1993 in the Daily News:

Let there be . . . .

When I was working [at the WTC] . . . I wrote to the Occupational Safety and Health agency to complain that the lights in the stairways of the WTC had been out during a minor emergency. . . .Watching CNN [the other night], it seems the lights were still out on some of the stairways. The managers of the buildings have had 10 years to rectify a dangerous situation. Did they do so? No one could predict that fanatics might place a bomb in the garage. But everyone could have predicted that at some point there might be an emergency. And during an emergency, the stairways, the only highways out of the citylike buildings, should be lit.

The New York Post published a slightly longer version of the same letter, earlier on 8 March 1993. Newsday also published it, though I no longer have a copy of that, and the date was about the same as the other two. The circulation of these 3 newspapers was then about 2.5 million. Did my letters have any effect?

Shortly after 9/11/2001 Investor's Business Daily commented on changes in the building AFTER the 1993 bombing. "After the [earlier garage] bombing, however, batteries were added to every other light fixture in stairwells in case power went out. Handrails were painted with glow-in-the-dark paint, which also was used to mark a continuous stripe down the middle of the staircases. A public address system was added." Did this make a difference? The same paper notes - "In 1993, it took six hours to evacuate most of the Trade Center after terrorists detonated a bomb in an underground garage, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000. This time [9/11] despite missteps, evacuation was cut by several hours." In 2001 they did not have 6 hours, but many did escape in the 2 hours before the crumbling.

I do not think that my letter alone caused the changes. But it surely put pressure to make changes. 3 NY papers with 2-3 million circulation meant the issue could not be hidden under a rug.

I think that my letter may well have helped to force the changes that saved lives on 9/11. It may well be the most important act in my life. A letter of complaint! And yet, a justification for everyone who complains when they observe something wrong. My most important deed.

If you wish to see a few more of my writings, and some old photos, a friend, Tony Flood made a portal for me on one of his sites. http://anthonyflood.com/murray.htm

Saturday, September 9, 2023

IS SOMETHING HAPPENING IN HONG KONG???

I am not Chinese, I do not speak the language, and I have never been to Hong Kong. But something unexpected may be occurring. Beginning in 2019 there were protests about a proposed law that would return mainlanders to the mainland to face trial. After the Opium War in the 19th century, the British took Hong Kong and under the British it flourished into a major financial center, and a prosperous city state. In the 1990s, the treaty that provided separation for HK, came to an end, and Britain and the People's Republic of China (PRC) negotiated a turn-over of the colony to the PRC; however, for 50 more years the city would be under the PRC, but maintain most of the rights that they had obtained under the British, like free speech, a free press, alternative radio, etc. For about 2 decades, things went well. Hong Kong, and Macao (formerly Portuguese) continued under the umbrela: one country, two systems.

The opposition to the new law in HK increased, with increased demands for even more democratic control in the city. Some demos grew larger, AND MORE VIOLENT. Meanwhile, the opposition now had new demands complaining about the violence of the police and the authorities. Supporters of the mainland alleged that the CIA and MI6 were behind the protests. On one video I saw a protestor pour gas (petrol) on to a pro-Beijing counter protestor and set the man ablaze. Major damage was done to business whose homes offices were on the mainland. The HK government cracked down hard, and with Covid virus madness sweeping the world, protests were harder to maintain. By the end of 2020, it seemed that anti-Beijing newspapers, bookstores, organizations were closed by the new, hard-nose policy of HK. Was there any significant difference between HK and the mainland any more? One country, 2 systems, had seemed to evolve into one country, one system.

Then I noticed that the 2023 Gay Games (a sports event begun in San Francisco in 1982) will hold there competitive events in 2 cities - Guadalajara. Mexico, and Hong Kong. It will be the first split games event, and the first time the games are scheduled in Asia or in Central America, The Games are usually held every 4 years, with track and field, football (soccer), volley ball, swimming, etc. I notice that 2 events scheduled for HK are new - dragon boat racing and ma jong. The HK GG are set for 3 November 2023.

I doubt if this kind of event could be held in Beijing or on the mainland of the PRC. Does this NK schedule indicate a softening of HK policies toward minority voices??? If there is a last-minute cancellation of the HK games, we will know the answer. On the other hand, it might be a first step toward restoring a freer society. Hugh Murray

I should add something on a personal note. In spring 1980 a small ad appeared in the NYC Village Voice about forming a gay soccer team. A small number of us met for the first time and began the effort to form such a club. I was a charter member. We played in an area of New York's Central Park, the Rambles, and we voted to become the Ramblers. I was not among the best players, but I did ok. I also pushed to allow straights in our group, and then I pushed to have women too. A few did not like opening up, and there were never many women because they had women's teams where they might accomplish more. Overall, the open policy worked well.

Meanwhile in San Francisco, former Olympic athletes who were gay were starting the Gay Olympic Games. The US Olympic sued, so they could not use the word Olympic, and thus became the Gay Games. I suspect most of the original Olympic Games, especially those that were all male, nude, and pagan, may have been the original Gay Games. But when the Christians took over the Roman Empire, they eventually closed the ancient Olympics.

For GG I in summer 1982, the Ramblers were too new to organize, and I was the only NY soccer player to attend GG I. and fewer than a dozen from NYC in the other sports. I was lucky to be allowed to play for about 15 minutes with the Denver team in the huge Keezar Stadium, to about 20 spectators. For GG II in 1986 SF, the NY Ramblers had about 20 of us, and more than 100 from NY to participate. The SF Strikers defeated NY Ramblers and the other football teams to win gold. We won silver. For the closing ceremony, Tina Turner performed. A great time. From 1982 to 2023, about every 4 years, the GG will be 41 years old. I am proud to have been among the first, in the creation of the Ramblers and partaking in Gay Games.

Thursday, September 7, 2023

RT ON US DELAYS IN HYPERSONIC WEAPONS DEVELOPMENT

More bad news re US development of the hypersonic weapons. About 2 years ago China sent such a weapon on a long mission and it landed near the target. The Soviets have used some in Ukraine, but they have certainly not proven to be decisive. Amazingly, drones appear to be the surprise weapon of the Ukrainian conflict. Below is the RT story. Hugh Murray

7 Sep, 2023 10:47

Home World News

US cancels hypersonic missile test – Pentagon

The missile couldn’t pass pre-flight checks, the US Department of Defense claimed

A test flight on Wednesday of the US hypersonic weapon Dark Eagle, expected to become the first such missile in the country’s arsenal, was aborted at the last moment, the Pentagon has announced.

The launch of the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW) was scheduled to take place at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, in order “to inform our hypersonic technology development,” the US Department of Defense said, in a statement released to media outlets.

“But as a result of pre-flight checks the test did not occur,” it confirmed, without revealing the exact reasons for the cancellation of the LRHW firing.

The Pentagon is also claiming that, despite the setback, it “was able to successfully collect data on the performance of the ground hardware and software that will inform the continued progress toward fielding offensive hypersonic weapons.”

However, Bloomberg has pointed out that the last-minute halting of the missile test casts doubt on whether the US military will be able to meet its goal of declaring the Dark Eagle initially combat capable by September 30.

Russia now ‘mass producing’ hypersonic missiles – Rostec

A previous test of a LRHW surface-to-surface hypersonic weapon was canceled in March, also “a result of pre-flight checks.” Navy Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe told Congress later that month that the problem was that “a battery did not activate” in the system.

Dark Eagle, which the army is developing jointly with the navy, is expected to become the first hypersonic system fielded by the US.

In March, the Pentagon canceled its ARRW (Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon) hypersonic air-to-ground missile program after a series of failed tests.

Analysts, including some in the West, have noted America is lagging behind Russia and China when it comes to hypersonic weapons, which are believed to be beyond the reach of existing air defense systems due to their extreme speed and high maneuverability.

In recent years, Russia has developed several hypersonic systems, including the Avangard glider, which is fitted on silo-based ICBMs, the Zircon missile for use by the Navy, and the air-launched Kinzhal hypersonic missile.

Moscow has deployed Kinzhals on a number of occasions during the conflict in Ukraine. In May, Russia’s Defense Ministry said that the hypersonic missile was used to deliver significant damage to a US-supplied Patriot air defense system stationed in Kiev.