Shocking News!!

Only 28% of Americans view Walmart unfavorably. I was shocked when I read this statistic. Holy Kattootie, I thought to myself. Why would anyone not be critical of the largest employer in America when the low wages it pays costs taxpayers $900,000 each year in subsidies for the employees at each Walmart superstore? The average “associate” at Walmart makes $8.81 an hour — poverty wage — according to the market-research firm IBISWorld, as of 2011. These poverty-level wages force thousands of employees to look to food stamps, Medicaid and other forms of welfare. The various subsidies cost taxpayers more than five thousand dollars ($5000) per employee. The huge total cost to taxpayers is staggering as the 1.4 million hard-working employees of Walmart look for help from the government just to get by. Walmart made $17 billion in profits last year. Executive compensation for one man at the top of the food chain was more than $20 million a year, and the six heirs of the founding Walton family are now worth at least $150 billion.

The up-shot; Working at Walmart may not make one poor, but it certainly keeps one poor — at the expense of the rest of us. Unless your last name is Walton! 

Just saying . . .

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

There is a common thread that runs through various national tragedies such as the massacre of innocent six year olds at Newtown (Yes, it was a tragedy and not the expression of a demented citizen simply exercising his second amendment right to carry assault weapons into an elementary school that the N.R.A.’s lobbying wing, the Institute for Legislative Action, would have us think). This common thread is that most sane, intelligent, sensitive, and rational people think that certain limits should be in place to protect innocent people (defined as men, women and children attempting to go about the day-to-day of living life free from the fear that some a—hole is going walk into a church, school, hospital to shoot them because the shooter is mad at his mother, father, former girl friend, ex-employer, or even worse, no one at all) from being shot to death.

In a perfect example of the inmates running the institution, the Institute did have a lucid moment recently of demonstrating and supporting the rational thinking that must be brought to bear on dealing with these increasingly frequent incidents. Recent insane open-carry demonstrations in Texas, led by the organization Open Carry Texas, provoked a statement on the Institute's website calling the taking of assault weapons to lunch at public venues “downright weird” and “downright scary.” That is to say, we (nearly all of us) took one giant step forward.  Think ‘moon landing’ in the realm of public safety.

But, after the “downright scary and weird” crowd screamed and frothed at the mouth, the Institute removed the offending statement. Chris W. Cox, the N.R.A.’s chief lobbyist, explained that the organization “unequivocally” supports open carry and insisting that it’s “been the leader of open carry efforts across the country.” The state of Michigan is a good example of these “efforts” which includes attempts to allow open carry in churches and bars, havens where it is obviously necessary to demonstrate the size of one’s penis, oops, I mean gun.

Two steps back.   Just saying . . .

A Purpose On Purpose

When I was a kid one of the most often-used expressions we used was the phrase “on purpose.” If I broke a window in the neighborhood with a baseball, the real issue broke down to whether or not I did it “on purpose.” If I emptied the cookie jar and did it ‘on purpose’ (how else does one eat more than their share of cookies?) I would get punished. As a result, we learned to say “I didn’t do it on purpose” right upfront when the issue of our behavior in any situation was likely to be raised.

Let me switch topics briefly. I have the continuous privilege of being associated with a wide variety of remarkable people who, as the younger set likes to say, are “really into music.” As a prime example, in the Suncoast Concert Band in Sarasota, Florida I sit next to Bill Millner in the tuba section. From mid-October to the end of April, the band rehearses three times every two weeks and plays sixteen concerts each season to sold-out audiences. By way of an additional example, there’s a guy, Jim something, in the clarinet section of the band who will be 100 years olds in the near future. Then there's Joe Bruno, an outstanding trumpet player, in his late eighties, leads an active and fabulous Dixie-land band and has played for years with the nation’s finest singers and bands. I could go on-and-on about others as well. In Venice, Millner, 86 years of age, also leads and conducts the Venice Concert Band through a similar season of rehearsals and sold-out performances. More than a thousand people flock to monthly concerts and 800 season tickets for next year's concerts sold out in less than a day earlier this spring.  In addition, Bill gets huge laughs for telling some really bad jokes during these concerts. I know they’re bad jokes because when I repeat them to my friends, I just get blank stares, and I know it can’t be how I tell them. I do think it is important, however, to always give the punch line of a joke right up front. But I digress. Notwithstanding the jokes, Bill is a shining example of a man with a purpose whose age is only an after thought. I should mention that he also plays frequent gigs professionally. The word ‘ageless’ comes to mind. Bill and the others represent the kind of people found in both bands, around sixty really fine musicians whose lives, in part, are centered around performing good music to appreciative audiences. And good music it is, for these are pretty darn good musicians. Most of these band members are retired musicians, or teachers of music: All with the sense of purpose of maintaining their substantial musical skills for the pleasure and enjoyment of others.

An article in today’s New York Times talks about how important a sense of purpose is in senior citizens. The article reports:  Patricia Boyle, is a neuropsychologist at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago. She and her colleagues have been tracking two cohorts of older people living independently in greater Chicago, assessing them regularly on a variety of physical, psychological and cognitive measures. What have the scientists learned? Following almost 1,000 people (age 80, on average) for up to seven years, Dr. Boyle’s team found that the ones with high purpose scores were 2.4 times more likely to remain free of Alzheimer’s than those with low scores; they were also less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, often a precursor. “It also slowed the rate of cognitive decline by about 30 percent, which is a lot,” Dr. Boyle added. “Purposeful people were less likely to develop disabilities . . . those with high purpose had roughly half the mortality rate of those with low purpose. This protective effect holds through the years. Those with a sense of purpose “want to feel part of something that extends beyond themselves.” People with purpose “have a sense of their role in the community and the broader world.”

To tie this all together, these band members all accomplish this “purpose on purpose.” To me, it’s as much fun as being a kid again. Yes, I admit it. I do it "on purpose."

Just saying . . .

My Death Panel

My Death Panel

This blog entry is respectfully dedicated to Sarah Palin who was for ‘Death Panels’ before she was against them.  In the rush to criticize the efforts of President Obama in his push toward the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Ms. Palin raged against the inclusion of coverage of physician-patient contacts for the discussion of how one wanted his/her death circumstances to be handled.   In an article in this morning’s New York Times, this very topic is discussed in detail.  What follows is an excerpt from that article by John Wasik; 

“Do your most important planning early,” said Laurie Siebert, a certified financial planner with Valley National Financial Advisors in Bethlehem, Pa. “Complete your estate planning documents, including a will, power of attorney, advance directives and a living will. There’s not a lot of control from the grave, but a trust may help, if needed. Do your planning today.” In the written directions you provide your family, you may also want to include grave site or mortuary information, funeral directions and provisions on how you want to pay for your memorial. Do you want specific music played or pictures displayed? Are there past events or accomplishments you want your survivors to remember?  Most important, Ms. Carlson noted, is to discuss with your family what you don’t want in your final moments and beyond. Many severely disabled people do not want to be kept alive if they have experienced extensive loss of control over their bodies. Death with dignity is also a subject to be aired in family meetings.  “If I’m totally dependent upon someone else,” Ms. Carlson said, “my sense of self will evaporate. My time is up at that point. I will be looking forward to the other side — and coming back.”  Although death planning may be one of the most difficult things you will do, it is one final act of self-determination. You may not have control over your last minutes on earth or how you will be remembered, but you can certainly guide your survivors on how you want to be treated and memorialized.”

So this is how I want it to be for me.  I want the world around me to stop for one minute’s silence while everyone reflects on all I did or didn’t do.  In case one wonders what I did, the answer is ‘not much and certainly not as much as I wanted to do’  but I always tried to do my best.  I also want each of my eight grandchildren to stand up at my celebration of my life and tell one of my eight best jokes.  (A respected friend has said that if that is done, the room will be empty by the time the second joke was over, but I want it done anyway.)   Note that I am not giving any guidance on what particular jokes are to be told, because there are so many of them it is hard to choose.  If any tears are to be shed at this time, they will be tears of laughter.  I want my funeral service to be a celebration of my life.  I want my wife, Mary Ellen, to be given a standing ovation for her love and devotion to me, and have her know that, despite my many faults, I loved her (and continue to love her dearly) with all my heart.  I want my three daughters, Rebecca, Mandy, and Sarah to receive a standing ovation for their love and understanding that, while I was not a perfect father, I respected and admired each of them for who they are and the fine and admirable people they have become and that I have appreciated their support and understanding as I lived out my imperfect life.  I want my grandchildren to know how much I loved them and how much fun it was to watch them grow and become the fine people they are.  Just as a small reminder to each of them, please read and not to try to memorize the joke that you each tell this group because many of my jokes are so complicated, I would not want you to forget to tell the punch line (like someone else you may have know might have done!).   About that life (i.e. my life), at times I have played in the wrong key, much as I have actually done in playing my tuba.  In fact, in my life, like my tuba playing, I have rarely got the music right the first time.  Over and over again I have made the same mistakes only to finally make the adjustments necessary to move on.  The exception, of course, is my game of golf.  Life is definitely not a game of perfect.  Finally, I would like to have a Dixieland band play at my celebration of life.  Two songs are mandatory; Amazing Grace and Just a Closer Walk with Thee.  With the latter song, it would be nice if the words were provided to everyone so they could stand up and sing along.   That will be really nice.  Thanks for doing that, and thanks to all of you for being a part of my life. 

Same Old, Same Old

I have just returned to Michigan having spent the winter in Florida.  What these two areas have in common for me is the constant razz-a-ma-tazz from my golf colleagues about how terrible Obama is and what a failure he has been as president.   Just yesterday, after my first round of golf in Michigan (where I took a few bucks from them), my friends predictably started the refrain.  I have discovered that the truth will bring these 'discussions' to a shuddering halt by declaring that Obama will go down in history as one of the best U.S. presidents ever.   McCain, Romney, Cheney, Bush (Jr.) or one of their ilk would now have our country at war in Iraq, Ukraine, Syria, some other God-forsaken place or even Detroit, (who knows?) but, insofar as the need for success in foreign policy goes, I am grateful for the careful reluctance of our president in resisting intervening in messes being created by others.  It is, indeed, hypocritical to suggest that the U.S. has an obligation to tell other countries how to live their lives when right here at home Republican folly has lowered the opportunities and expectations of citizens to realize the dream and the stated purpose of the Declaration of Independence.

A Quiz; Picking Up After Oneself

Picture a young couple walking down a street, hand-in–hand, eating sandwiches wrapped in a layer of paper and covered in tin foil.  As the couple finishes their snack, they discard the paper and the tin foil on someone's lawn adjacent to the side walk.  Then, they start to walk away and the homeowner comes out and tells the couple to pick up their discarded items.  The couple starts screaming at the homeowner.

Now the quiz:

Which of these persons is Marxist in the eyes of Republican conservatives?

Answer: The neighbor who makes the couple clean up their mess.

Question: What word is the couple screaming at the homeowner?

Answer:  "Marxist"

We are entering another election cycle where the makeup of the Senate is at stake.  One of the major issues will be the corporate (i.e., big, really big money) equivalent of this homely example.  Big money gas and oil companies, financed by the Koch brothers and other extremely wealthy Republican donors and their bribed politicians, will be trying to convince you that government attempts to hold mass polluters of our society responsible for cleaning up their own messes is Marxist-like socialism.  While some fanatics are still in denial about the warming trend of the world and the man-made contribution of pollutants accelerating that trend, many conservatives (in apparent realization that 97% of the scientists in the world can’t be wrong) have moved on to the second part of their plan; i.e., it is Marxism at its very worst in the government forcing these polluters to clean up after themselves.

In other words, they want to leave their own mess for someone else to clean up and it is Marxist to say otherwise.  Keep track of the 'M' word during this election  period.   Remember that the land and the air these companies are polluting is our land and air.

Just saying . . .

The Timing Of It All

In last Tuesday’s decision of the Supreme Court upholding Michigan’s constitutional ban on race-based affirmative action, Justice Sotomayor characterized the view of conservative members of the court as “out of touch with reality.”   She chastised the members of the court who “speak high-mindedly of racial equality even as they write off decades-old precedent meant to address the lingering effects of centuries of racial discrimination.” The reality, she wrote, is that “race matters.”

In 2006 Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendment banning affirmative action on the basis of race in admissions to public universities and colleges. Since then, the ban has already resulted in a 25 percent drop in minority representation in Michigan’s public universities and colleges, even as the proportion of college-age African-Americans in the state has gone up.

Part of the record before the Supreme Court ignored in rendering this decision was a finding of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in August 2007, that

”The record and the district court's factual findings indicate that the solicitation and procurement of signatures in support of placing Proposal 2 on the general election ballot was rife with fraud and deception. [Nothing has been ] submitted  . . . to rebut this. By all accounts, Proposal 2 found its way on the ballot through methods that undermine the integrity and fairness of our democratic processes.”

In a 2007 opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,” in a case striking down school integration efforts in Washington and Kentucky. “Things have changed dramatically” in the 50 years since the Voting Rights Act was passed, he wrote last year in another case which struck down a provision of that act.  Within months of that decision, various states throughout the south passed laws intended to limit the registration of black voters.

Robert’s quotes represent a distorted vision of racial justice. As Justice Sotomayor puts it, “we ought not sit back and wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our society.”

It is terrible irony that within days of the Michigan decision, the owner of a nearly all-black professional basketball team  asks a woman friend why she insists on parading her friendships with blacks, and at one point asks her not to bring “them” to Clippers games. The man chastises her for taking a photograph with Magic Johnson and asks her not to bring Johnson to any more games.

Then, in the same time period there is Cliven Bundy, a cattle rancher, complaining about blacks while at the same time receiving more than $1 million in public grazing time without paying a dime.  He claimed that African-Americans were ruined by government subsidies and might be “better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life.”  He then explained that his racist remarks were all the “freedom to say what we want. If I call — if I say ‘negro’ or ‘black boy’ or ‘slave,’ I’m — if those people cannot take those kind of words and not be offensive, then Martin Luther King hasn’t got his job done yet.”

I have written about my personal experiences with regard to hearing all-too-frequent racist comments from members of the elite country clubs to which I belong which make me sick.  The rhetoric has heated up in the past few days, however, as these various events have coalesced to create an “open season” on the disparagement of people of color, the descendants of slaves who were counted as less than 2/3 of personhood by our U.S. constitution less than 160 years ago.

Racism is alive and well, and we are a work in progress.  Unfortunately, the wheels have temporarily come off and the cart is moving backward.  That ignorant S.O.B. Cliven Bundy did get one thing right.  Martin Luther King hasn’t got [the] job done yet.”  Tell that to the Supreme Court.

Just saying . . .