Primary Day is Finally Here!

Over the past several weeks I've been bombarded by political phone calls, the majority of them encouraging me to vote for one of the many Dems running for Attorney General.  I say 'many Dems' because I'm really not sure how many there are, I think five, which is typical of our party.  Why not put up a whole mess o folks, spend a whole mess o money, do a whole mess of character assassination, and then rally round the standard-bearer after the primary and on into November. Fortunately tomorrow is Primary Day, I can vote, and move on.

It's interesting to see when they were calling, and what it may mean about their momentum, their money, or their chances. Sean Coffey I heard from early and often, at least seven calls in the last week of August and into the first week of September, but basically nothing since about September 4th. Kathleen Rice left me a few phone messages, and she's had the most ads on TV, but it's been a few days since I heard from her last. Eric Schneiderman has been the big bell-ringer of late, with a call a day for the past four days. To his credit, his supporters at least seem human; they do more than mumble their candidate's name and ask if I'm going to vote for him. Today's caller mentioned the new voting machines with the giant paper ballots we get to slide into the scanners, and she was the second one to ask me if I had any questions about her guy. That's much more than any of the others have done. Some of Sean Coffey's supporters I couldn't even understand, and had to ask them to repeat his name a couple of times.

Until today, I had not received a single call asking for my support for Richard Brodsky - but today my mayor called me and asked me to support him.  And I also received my first and likely only call from Eric Dinallo, former head of the NYS Insurance Department. While I'm not likely to vote for him, he gets my vote for the most original campaign call: Hi, this is Eric Dinallo-- WAIT, Don't Hang Up! -- and then goes into his speech. 

I question how much impact the AG can or should have on 'reforming Albany' or 'reforming Wall Street' -- that's Steamroller Spitzer's old line (emphasis on old) and it may be time for us to move on -- but that's about all the candidates talk about. There must be something for NY's AG to focus on, something that has meaning for the average New Yorker -- after all, there are five of them running...

In the overall scheme of things, I don't think this will be the most important vote I'll cast this year.  Mostly I'm just looking forward to some peace and quiet during the dinner hour.

Point/Counterpoint: Two Congregations

Dateline Syracuse NY: Trinity Assembly of God, located in one of Syracuse’s northern suburbs, donated their collections for two weeks to purchase cleats for the players on an inner-city football team. Members of the congregation, some of whom struggle themselves to make ends meet, dug deep to help out the kids from the wrong side of the tracks. The church’s pastor shopped locally and online to find the best deal to get the shoes for the 31 players on the team, and the congregation seems, if this is any indication, to strive to live up to this quote on their website: “For a community to be whole and healthy, it must be based on people’s love and concern for each other.”


Dateline Gainesville FL: The Dove World Outreach Center is planning on going ahead with its self-declared ‘International Burn A Koran (Quran) Day’ on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The pastor, Terry Jones, was pressed to admit in an interview with Chris Matthews that he respects George W Bush but even Dubya would not be able to dissuade the pastor from burning the some 200 Korans that have been sent to his church since his intentions were announced several weeks ago. The pastor believes his church, with a congregation of about 50, has to send a strong as a warning for everyone “before it’s too late for America” just like it’s “too late for Europe.”

You Lie Like a Rug?

As part of the recent redecoration of the Oval Office, a new carpet was installed; the rug includes inspirational quotes the President is fond of sewn into the border. The quotes (and their attributions):

 • "The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself," President Franklin D. Roosevelt 

• "The Arc of the Moral Universe is Long, But it Bends Towards Justice," Martin Luther King Jr. 

• "Government of the People, By the People, For the People," President Abraham Lincoln

• "No Problem of Human Destiny is Beyond Human Beings," President John F. Kennedy

 • "The Welfare of Each of Us is Dependent Fundamentally Upon the Welfare of All of Us," President Theodore Roosevelt


There’s been a bit of a stink that the quote attributed to King is really not his – when he used it back in the 1950s, he was paraphrasing Theodore Parker, a minister, abolitionist, and all around good guy of the 1800s, who used similar but less concise language in talking about the abolition of slavery.

Interestingly, I can’t find much uproar surrounding the Lincoln attribution, which is another of Parker’s quotes, from a speech he gave in 1850. Parker himself took the line from John Wycliffe, who used it this way: “This bible is for the government of the people, by the people, and for the people” sometime in the late 1300’s. Even righteous entertainer Glenn Beck quoted Lincoln’s use of the “…of the…by the…for the…” at his Sermon by the Reflecting Pool, and failed to mention either Theodore Parker or John Wycliffe. Must be it’s OK for Beck and Lincoln to paraphrase, without attribution, but not OK for Martin Luther King.

In the overall scheme of things, the new décor is pretty far down on the list of things we need to be worrying about, but you gotta love it when something as inconsequential as a new color scheme in the Oval Office can generate this much half-baked controversy. 

Poll Watch: 9/5/10

This morning, I’m introducing a new feature – Poll Watch – a sampling of information from recent public opinion polls. To maintain my current unbalanced fairness, or fair imbalance, the feature will include polls from different outlets. I’ll set em up, and you can knock them down.

First, the Iraq War:
Seven years ago, according to a report in USA Today, close to 70% of Americans believed that Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 attacks. That thinking was spread across party lines, with majorities of Dems, Reps, and Independents responding to the Washington Post poll sharing the thinking, even though, of course, there was no connection. The same article referenced a NY Times/CNN poll which included the fact that 71% of Americans believed that the US “has done a good job in Iraq since the end of major fighting”... Must be referring to that Mission Accomplished stuff we all remember. Last of note, even though at that time we supported the war, 49% of us thought that the military action was not worth the price in lives lost and money spent.

Compare those findings with a more current poll taken after we withdrew our last combat troops from Iraq. According to a new poll, in early August 69% of us opposed the war; a month later, that number had slipped to 65%....one of those things that makes you go hmm? 62% think that the war was not worth it, and 80% think that the war is not over.

Gay Marriage:
When asked by CNN Opinion Research Corp whether gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to get married and have their marriage recognized by law as valid, 49% said yes and 51% said no, compared to 45% and 53% respectively in 2009.


Demographically, more women than men were in favor, and more folks under 50 than over 50 approved. Not surprisingly, Republicans and Conservatives (at 27% each) were less in favor than Dems (56%) and Moderates (55%).

Repealing the 14th Amendment:
From the same poll, 49% would favor a constitutional amendment to prevent children born here from becoming American citizens unless their parents are also American citizens, with men (53%) and whites (51%) leading the demographics. Republicans and Conservatives are heavily in favor, not surprisingly.

Last, politics and politicians:
Large majorities of Dems (74%), Reps (84%), and Independents (74%) favor term limits on Congress – overwhelmingly, 78% of all surveyed were in favor, according to a FoxNews poll. Only 22% approve of the job Congress is doing. They also asked about specific people or groups; more folks think favorably of Barack Obama than George Bush, the Democratic Party than the Tea Party, and Nancy Pelosi than John Boehner, but more than half had never heard of the man who is expecting to be the next Speaker of the House.

Interestingly, 52% think that President Obama has truly made an effort to reach across the aisle, compared with 58% who think that the Republican leadership has not really tried to work with the President. Overall, 51% are looking for more compromise and less partisan nonsense, but among Republicans, only 36% feel compromise is the right thing to do.

If that stays consistent, we’re going to be in this mess for a while.

Defining Patriotism by the Flag You Fly

So this guy in Arizona hung up a Gadsden Flag, the ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag made famous back in the 1770’s as a symbol of our determination not to be stepped on by the British. While the flag has been historically significant since then, it’s been flying at his house only for a few months; the homeowner say’s he not a member of the Tea Party, who has adopted the flag as a symbol, but only appreciates the historical significance of the flag and the idea for which it stands. 

Enter the Homeowner’s Association, who has cited the homeowner for having ‘debris’ on his roof in violation of the Association's rules, based on an Arizona statute  that defines what flags a homeowner’s association cannot prohibit, and of course by omission defines what flags can be prohibited as pretty much ‘everything not listed above.’  The homeowner vows to fight and (by some accounts) is asking for donations for his legal bills.

Naturally, the ACLU has gotten involved, because they can and I guess they should – if you think it's OK for them to advocate for one man's rights over the rights of the other members of the homeowner's association, who are abiding by the rules they accepted when they either moved to the neighborhood, or by staying there. But that's a whole nother issue entirely.  

Want to know what the biggest problem is, though? It’s not the homeowner himself, who for whatever reason decided to put up a flag that he knows is against the rules (after all, he's a former director of the association) and it’s not even the homeowner’s association, which by design has to enforce all of the rules on their books lest they run into accusations of selective enforcement, and we all know where those go…

To me, the real problem is the politicians who, in a knee-jerk definition of patriotism, decided to craft a law on this issue, and narrowly defined the acceptable flags as “the American flag or an official or replica of a flag of the United States army, navy, air force, marine corps or coast guard, The POW/MIA flag, the Arizona State Flag, or an Arizona Indian nation flag.” That’s it – nothing else. 

Some say the Gadsden flag is a ‘replica’ of a military flag and should therefore be allowed, but that’s really just splitting hairs, and frankly to officially identify (within confines that will hold up in court) all of the flags ever used formally or informally, officially or unofficially, by any branch of the military would be asinine. And, in reality, we have many more significant things to worry about, and to legislate about, than what flags can fly over someone’s house.

Ironically, the Gadsden flag design was lifted from this Ben Franklin illustration of a severed snake, with the message Join, or Die.   If only we’d pay attention to Franklin’s message of unity, rather than this other nonsense of trying to define patriotism, and trying to make one person's rights more 'right' than everyone else's, we’d be much better off.

Restoring Honor?

Entertainer Glenn Beck’s Restoring Honor rally in Washington last Saturday was billed as a non-political event – no signs, no rallying cries, none of the Tea Party trappings we’ve come to expect when Beck gets together with his friends. Of course, folks were asked specifically NOT to bring their signs, so I guess it’s a testament to Beck’s command of his forces that they listened to him. Saturday being August 28th, note there was a callout in the closing prayer (delivered by a war veteran, natch) to Romans 8:28. Here’s the reference: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Beck’s keynote address was not specifically political, it was more a revival speech, complete with his trademark on-the-verge-of-tears moments, such as when he talked about ‘looking for the next George Washington’ in the audience. The speech seemed to be nothing more than an hour’s worth of motivation on a nice day in the nation’s capital, complete with flags, historical references, revered monuments, and even a guy in a tri-cornered hat popping up on the big screen every now and then.

So if it wasn’t political, what was the rally all about? I’ve listened to his keynote address a couple of times, my first heavy indoctrination of Beck-speak. Given that 8/28 is already a special day in our history, the anniversary of Martin Luther King 's I Have a Dream speech, there were some doubters about the supposed ‘divine intervention’ that led him to have his rally, where he had it, when he had it. Not surprisingly, Beck echoed several of King’s themes, especially as the self-professed reclaimer of the civil rights movement. Here’re a few examples:

• King: We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy.
• Beck: This day is a day that we can start the heart of America again… We have a choice today… We can either look at our scars, look at the scars of our nation… we have a choice today to either let those scars crush us, or redeem us… We are gathered here today, in a hallowed spot. 
• King: But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
• Beck: There is growing hatred in the country – we must be better than what we have allowed ourselves to become. We must get the poison of hatred out of us – no matter what anyone may say or do, no matter what anyone smears or lies or throws our way, or any American’s way…we must look to God and look to love, we must defend those we disagree with, but are honest and have integrity.
• King: And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.
• Beck: It matters not where we are, it matters not where we have been, it matters what we are doing today that makes a difference.

He spoke of Washington, and Lincoln, and sounded like a Kennedy or two:

• Ted Kennedy: For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
• Beck: It does not end here, it shall not end now, not in my generation or your generation, it is up to us…
• John Kennedy: Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own.
• Beck: Look forward, look west, look to the heavens, look to God… Make your choice… We as individuals must be good so America can be great… One man can change the world… That man or woman is you – you make the difference… Do not look to someone else, look to yourself... Pick up your stick and stand!

Beck also quoted several of our "American scriptures" - The Gettysburg Address, Lincoln’s second inaugural, the Constitution among them - which he indicted were "living scriptures as are all scriptures." These included ‘all men are created equal’ and ‘government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth.”  He spoke of  “the American Experiment, the idea that man can rule himself, rather than being ruled by someone” as the reason for which Lincoln, and Washington, and WWII vets and Korean War vets and Vietnam War veterans gave their lives; he reminded us to teach someone to fish, rather than simply giving them fish to eat. 

He also reminded attendees or visitors to his website to donate to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, to help the families of veterans. While he was happy to report that $5.5 million was raised for the Foundation, note this generous disclaimer on the rally website: 

The purchase of Restoring Honor Rally merchandise is not a donation to SOWF, but all net proceeds from the sale of Restoring Honor Rally merchandise is being donated to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. All contributions made to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation (SOWF) will first be applied to the costs of the Restoring Honor Rally taking place on August 28, 2010. All contributions in excess of these costs will then be retained by the SOWF.

He also told us that “there’s a lot we can disagree on, but our values and our principles can unite us” and that we must discover them again.  Pretty benign stuff, right?

But does his public persona live up to the standards he’s asking us to take forward from the rally? Some would say no, based on the information found here, just one of several places where Beck’s statements are debunked or exposed. He’s on occasion a racist, revisionist, elitist, anti-woman, anti-poor, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, communist exposer… oh, and on the political side, a Constitutionalist, big-government-hating gun-rights-supporting conservative.

At the same time he urges us to return to the America we were right after 9/11 – “politics didn’t matter, color didn’t matter, didn’t matter if we were poor or rich, we were Americans standing together”, he encourages us via his 9/12 project to ask ourselves a few questions:

• Do you watch the direction that America is being taken in and feel powerless to stop it?
• Do you believe that your voice isn’t loud enough to be heard above the noise anymore?
• Do you read the headlines everyday and feel an empty pit in your stomach… as if you’re completely alone?

If you’ve answered YES, then you’ve fallen for the Wizard of Oz lie. While the voices you hear in the distance may sound intimidating, as if they surround us from all sides—the reality is very different. Once you pull back the curtain, you realize that there are only a few people pressing the buttons, and their voices are weak. The truth is that they don’t surround us at all. We surround them.

Yep. Turn to God. All men are created equal. Government of the people, by the people, for the people. Our principles will unite us. I only hope that folks who buy into the 8/28 speech – particularly the uninitiated - are aware of this other side of Beck, the real side, and find the right path to take as they travel with their stick.

The 'Ground Zero' Mosque

I can’t speak to what it must feel like to have lost someone in the 9/11 attacks, and I don’t mean to imply that the folks who did lose family members or close associates nine years ago and who oppose the Cordoba cultural center and mosque in Lower Manhattan are wrong to feel strongly about it - I'd be surprised if they didn't have strong opinions one way or the other.

If you ask me, they're the only ones - not broadcasters, not politicians - who are entitled to expressing concern, disappointment or even anger at the thought of this moving forward.  But I disagree with them, and with the rest of the folks who think such a project shouldn’t even be considered.

• Some say they could build it somewhere else in the area, but where? How far away is far enough away?

• Some say that it won’t be long before there’s a ‘monument to the attackers’ in the mosque, but there’s no indication that’s ever going to happen.

• Some say that it’s disrespectful of Muslims to even think of praying near the former site of the WTC, but at the same time, Muslims worship daily at the Pentagon chapel, as do folks of other faiths – is that not also ‘sacred ground’?

• Some say that its disrespectful to put anything on the ‘hallowed ground’ of the WTC, but we had a competition, for heaven’s sake, to decide who gets to rebuild there, and as currently planned the former WTC area will include millions of square feet of office space, as well as parking, shopping, broadcast facilities, and so on, all folded into the tallest building in the US, a 1776 foot tower (oh the symbolism!). Is the Cordoba project in the neighborhood really more offensive than folks going shopping for a pair of Jimmy Choos or a Gucci bag where the WTC Complex was?

• The site will also include the 9/11 memorial, with the names of the victims displayed. I’m assuming (hoping?) we’re not going to edit that list to exclude the many Muslims who were employed at the WTC, passengers on the plane(s), or first responders who lost their lives alongside the other victims. Because all Muslims are bad/terrorists/anti-American. Right?

There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, over 20% of the world’s population – second only to Christianity, with around 33%. There are around 1000 members of Al Qaeda (some estimate only a few hundred), and that’s who attacked us on 9/11.

To me, fighting intolerance with intolerance lessens what we stand for, and equates us with those we wish most to be unlike. Even George W. Bush, not one of my favorites, realized back in 2001 that “the face of terror is not the real face of Islam.”

We should build the Cordoba Center.

And now, back to our regular programming.

It’s been about two months since my last post. My overly long hiatus was in part accidental. For example, My Sweet Baboo developed a taste for reading his email more frequently than he used to. His time on the computer, which I welcome and encourage, takes away from my time on the computer. And of course, April and May are peak gardening times, as we move out of winter dormancy into the rebirth of spring. We’re both out in the yard, working through our separate lists of chores until we physically can’t do any more, or we run out of daylight. 

After a while, it got to be a sort of a game – how long could I stay out? Could I last until New York officially had a budget, for example? The budget was due on 4/1 by the way… and is still not done. Could I stay out until I had everything done in the garden? I think if I were done in the garden, I’d be pushing up daisies, instead of planting them. Could I enforce some kind of rule on who uses the computer when, so that MSB and I could happily co-exist in the techno-world? Ha! Neither of us is good at sticking to that type of schedule.  

In the end, I came back of my own accord, and without any new rules or constraints. What brought me back was simply that I missed writing, connecting, and venting. Before I go off on tangents (oil spills, politics, Helen Thomas, and the like) here’s the gist of what’s happened in my world in the past two months, in no particular order:

• We got a new kitten, Mookenzie Earl, who’s officially a boy and is now 10 weeks old. We discovered in a very scary way that our oldest cat Michael T suffers from congestive heart failure, which in cats is treated much like it is in humans – diuretics, blood thinners, heart medicine, and aspirin. He may not be with us a whole lot longer, but we’re going to make what time he has left as good as we can. 
• We visited our local Regional Market four times, seven local garden centers a total of 11 times, and made literally countless trips to Lowe’s and The Home Depot.  Fortunately, I'm getting 5% cash back on every purchase. 
• We removed and recycled five pine trees which were not expected to live when received, but eventually outgrew their area near the driveway, and replaced them with more manageable climbing vines.
• We moved two dogwoods from my garden in the front to MSB’s garden in the back after they too outgrew their original home.  
• We received seventeen plant shipments from our mail-order nurseries. With only two exceptions, everything we ordered lived to be planted – we each lost only one this year, which is really outstanding.  
• The gazebo is finished and landscaped (Michael T couldn’t be happier), the new fence is in, and the landscaping there will be done this weekend if all goes well.

Overall, we’re in really good shape for mid-June. We’re not sure whether we’ll still have anything blooming in August and September, since so much has come early, but we’ve done what we can to make a beautiful garden possible.

And now that we’ve got the gardens under control, I’ll be better able to keep the writing under control. The venting, well, that’s a story for another day.

 

Thoughts on Education, Part Three

Let’s go back and check in again with my grandfather, RWD, and his presentation to the Eastern Public Speaking Conference (EPSC) back in April 1939. 

One of his key points was that the taxpayer demands that pupils must pass. This was one of the things he learned being president of his local School Board, and from his perspective this was the fundamental job of public schools – ensuring that pupils must pass. So, why was this the cornerstone of what the schools were supposed to be doing?

Because, according to my grandfather, if students didn’t pass, then there must be something wrong with the school, and if there’s something wrong with the school, then the taxpayer’s not getting his money’s worth.

For his day job, RWD was employed by Oneida Ltd, the company that grew out of the Oneida Community. He was able to make a clear connection for the EPSC between silverware made in the factory to students ‘made’ in the schools. Here’s how he put it:

“In our factory, we know that if the silver spoon does not pass inspection, then one of three things must happen:
(1) either the spoon must be refinished at considerable expense
(2) or else it must be classed as a ‘second’
(3) or it may be so bad that it must be scrapped.”

And, when speaking of students: “The taxpayer’s instinct, if you will, tells him that, just like the spoon in our factory, the pupil who does not pass:
(1) either must be refinished – emotionally
(2) or else he is likely to become a ‘second’ – of less value to himself and to society than he might have been
(3) or he may even become ‘scrap’ – only you cannot throw a human being into the scrap barrel and forget him.”

So, what do you think? Can we make a correlation between a spoon that doesn’t pass inspection and a student that doesn’t pass inspection?

We know that a set of silverware seconds, or clothing seconds, or china seconds, cost less – in fact are worth less – even if the reason for having been deemed a ‘second’ is not visible to the untrained eye.

The difference with a human ‘second’, however is that we generally can tell who they are: the under-employed and under-motivated; the on again/off again unemployed and unmotivated; and the ones who are always in the wrong place at the wrong time, the ‘scrap’ who are perpetually engaged in the system: the public assistance system, the drug rehab system, the criminal justice system… all of the systems except the educational system, which might have saved them from being cast aside, if only everyone understood the rules.  And that was RWD’s second contention.

People must know the ‘why’ of school.  Just like in the factory, where the rules had to be known and understood by everyone if they were to be successful, he made the point that teachers needed to be able to explain the ‘why’ of what they were teaching, in ways that everyone, particularly the students, could understand.

But if you ask me, the ‘why’ part goes beyond the teachers - more on that next time.

Thoughts on Education, Part 2

On April 15, 1939 as the country began emerging from the Great Depression, my grandfather (we’ll call him RWD) delivered a paper at the Eastern Public Speaking Conference (EPSC), held here in Syracuse. The title of his paper was ‘The Taxpayer Looks at Our Public Schools.’

My grandfather, whom I never knew, was president of the School Board, and also worked at Oneida Ltd. I’m not sure what specifically led to him appearing before the EPSC. His paper, typed on now-faded paper, without a single typo or correction, mentions that he was invited to speak before the group, but doesn’t provide any reasons for the invitation.

His opening line? “It is not easy for a business man to talk to a group of teachers about education. I find that we don’t always talk the same language. And even when we use the same words, I find that we do not always mean the same thing.”

I get the sense he was there to speak in support of public speaking classes in schools, although even he admitted at the end that “…this is not the sort of paper that will inspire teachers to go on to do bigger and better things.” So, maybe he didn’t quite hit the mark he was aiming for 71 years ago; he might not have fully made the case for public speaking, but he did raise some interesting concepts about the state of education back then; here are some of his key points:

• “The taxpayer demands that pupils must pass.”
• “How many teachers today can describe ‘the why’ of the courses they are teaching?”
• “It is the kids that are important, not educational formulae and traditions.”
• “Educators must accept the social responsibility for seeing to it that kids (and their parents) see ‘the sense’ of the courses, and that pupils are motivated to creditable work.”
• “It has been (his) experience that so-called ‘educated’ people do plenty of talking about education, but do very little hard thinking about the fundamental problems.”
• And last: “… (You) who are carrying the torch should not always hold it on high. You should occasionally wave it lower down, so as to attract attention to the value you bring.”

Interesting, don’t you think, how little things have changed in all these years?

In upcoming posts, I’ll delve into what was behind the points RWD was trying to make back then, and how he pulled everything together at the end.  I think we'll find that what we as taxpayers want today from our educational system is really pretty much the same as what we would have looked for in my grandfather’s time.

Thoughts on Education, Part One

Used to be that the local newspaper would print exorbitant teacher salaries (emphasis added) in the paper…you know, a list of all teachers making $20,000 (heaven forbid) or all teachers making say $40,000… (Gasp!) I remember when my Dad made the $20,000 list – how embarrassing it was, not that he made so much money, but how little it was in comparison with the wages of other folks in the area, such as those at the local air conditioning and auto factories.

I remember thinking then that what my parents did – Mom was a teacher as well – was more valuable and worth more than say, someone pushing a broom around a factory, and yet the janitor made only a couple thousand dollars less than Dad (and Mom hadn’t even made the published list). Perhaps that was when I stopped being an idealist.

And now, it seems like we can’t open a newspaper without seeing at least one article talking about education – whether it’s late state aid, the number of teachers, cutting teacher positions or raising property taxes, or cutting or freezing teacher pay.  And even when concessions are made, the comments flood in from both sides, some saying the concessions are not enough, others saying they’ll open the floodgates to our overall demise.

Clearly there are strong opinions on both sides of the education discussion – I have a few of my own, naturally – and there is need for discussion if we’re all to come out on the right side of getting a good education for students so that we can continue to compete in a very changing world. I’ll share my thoughts in the coming days, but first, I wanted to add some historical perspective.

My Dad worked for Goodyear for many years before going back to school and becoming a teacher. We lived in the school district where my Dad taught –and eventually Mom too, once we kids were old enough not to have her as a teacher - because it was critical to them that they had skin in the game, that they be part of the community that was paying their salaries.

We were looking at some old family stuff this past weekend, and found some old paperwork from the school. Dad’s salary in the 1966 – 1967 school year, with his Masters degree complete, was $6650. My Mom, who at that time had four years’ teaching credit, was paid $6900. Fast forward to the 2009 -2010 school year, where according to a study by the New York State School Boards Association, the average salary for a new teacher with a Masters is $45,876.

Math was never my best subject, but it’s not hard to do a quick calculation and see that, in the 43 years between my Dad’s early years and present day, the starting salary’s gone up less than $1000 per year in actual (not adjusted) dollars. Is that really so much?

Where Do You Stand, Senator Valesky?

So, let me get this straight.  If veritablepastiche was a business, and I had $25,000 laying around and could pass myself off as a business ‘leader’, I could participate in the ‘essential policy conversations’ and briefings that will help shape the Democrat’s 2010 re-election strategy?

Wow.

Apparently the Dems will be forming ‘advisory councils’ to help them figure out how to keep control of Albany – even while the same Senators are still in session, working on the people’s business.

According to published reports, donating or promising to raise the $25K allows participation in exclusive meetings with leadership, a policy briefing, free admission to campaign events in Albany and elsewhere, and a reception at the end of the legislative session.

Remarkably, the Dems defended their approach by citing prior, equally bad acts on the part of Republicans in Albany (and Washington), including efforts by the recently convicted, famously ethically challenged, former Senate Majority leader Joe Bruno, who similarly asked for $25,000 from donors in 2001. Even our Accidental Governor realizes how stinky this one is – he’s got his own challenges with smelly things – and condemned the actions, calling them “an outrage.” 

Back in January, my Senator David Valesky included these comments  in a press release regarding ethics reform legislation: “The public has the right to know who legislators are doing business with, and if those relationships are with people who also do business with the state,” Senator Valesky said. “As public officials, we need to encourage transparency, not hide from it.”

Senator Valesky, what’s your opinion on the ‘pay for access’ letter issued by your party and defended by your Conference Leader John Sampson as ‘just a fund-raising mechanism’?  Do you think it’s appropriate for a letter like this to be sent during the legislative session?  Will you and your counterparts be publishing a list of those who respond and contribute?  

I'd love a helping of that promised transparency now.

An Up-or-Down Vote on Health Insurance Reform

Today’s the big day, when the House of Representatives finally votes on health insurance reform. I’m not calling it health care reform, because it doesn’t really reform ‘health care’, it really provides only a way to pay for health insurance, which helps increase access to health care services.

The House has decided to not use a funky and not-well-understood parliamentary procedure of ‘deeming’ the Senate’s bill approved, but instead will have their own up-or-down vote, which is what we’re entitled to.

They will also be stripping the Senate bill of some of its more onerous language, including special deals that were made at the end to secure passage, and voting on amendments to the bill, as there are clearly differences between the two houses of Congress on what's good for us. Even with changes, arm-twisting by legislative leaders and the President himself, and after hundreds of thousands of calls and TV and newspaper ads, the vote is expected to be close but is predicted to be a win, according to one vote-tracker.

So what's in the health care bill that’s being debated today? I admit I haven't made it through the entire 2300 pages yet, and there's lots of gobblydegook and legalese and legislativese (which is harder to understand than legalese) but here's one recap:

• Coverage for most Americans (up to 95% of non-elderly folks);


• A requirement that everyone have insurance, or pay a penalty for not having it;


• A tax on businesses of 50 or more employees to help pay for covering their employees, if the business doesn’t offer coverage;


• A health exchange, or market place, where people can choose coverage;


• Options under the exchange for abortion, but it must be paid for with a separate check;


• Taxes on high cost ‘Cadillac’ health plans, and taxes on investment income for higher wager earners;


• Subsidies for low or middle income families to offset the cost of health insurance;


• Expansion of Medicaid and a larger share of the cost for new Medicaid patients to be paid by the Federal government; and


• Changes in Medicare-D drug coverage for seniors.

There are also changes to some other bills attached to this, as is typically the case with legislation at any level.

Because I have a job, I have great health insurance; my employer (a health insurance company) offers me a choice of plans, and I could have benefits even better than the ones I selected. I’ve been employed for decades beyond the limit for pre-existing conditions to matter to me; I can afford my copays; I can pick my doctors; I can get approval for medically necessary services; and there are clearly documented processes to follow if my doctor disagrees with my insurance company.

There are additional options available to me because I’m in New York, where the industry is highly regulated, where we have an aggressive State Insurance Department, and a history of active Attorneys General who have no qualms investigating health insurance carriers for real or perceived bad acts. If for some reason I feel I've been wronged by my carrier, I can readily find an advocate in Albany if I want one.

I'll be honest, as an employee of an insurance company, I worry about this bill - there will almost certainly be changes for my company if the bill passes. Where do we fit in the new scheme of things? How do we operate in a world of health insurance exchanges? What else will change for us, in the details of this bill? For all I know, if this legislation does pass, I could lose my job, and become one of the beneficiaries of the new rules.

As a taxpayer, I fear the cost of the bill. At $940 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, it's a whopper. And because anything that’s passed on from Washington to the states will be passed eventually to the counties, our taxes are sure to rise to help pay for this. That’s going to be hard on us, here in New York where we already have a budget deficit in the billions, and in other states with large populations of uninsured; it'll be hard for us here in Onondaga County in a tough economy funded in part by diminishing sales tax dollars, and in the City of Syracuse, where our share of everything goes up, even while our higher income folks move to the 'burbs leaving fewer of us to pay for schools and services.

But at the same time, I can’t see not passing this, because I can’t see us continue to go forward the way we are now. Today, we all pay for the uninsured, because those costs are passed on to us in higher taxes, higher fees, higher insurance premiums. Tomorrow, eventually, maybe we’ll pay a little less under the new rules, when everyone who can afford insurance has to get it, or pay for the privilege of choosing to be uninsured. And if we really do get the deficit reductions that are projected - $138 billion over 10 years - that'll help us in the long run as well.

In the end, there’s no such thing as a perfect health insurance reform bill -- and we still need to look at reforming health care -- but doing nothing would be perfectly awful. Here's hoping they do the right thing.

Health Care Reform Bill - The Real Deal

At last, here's the actual Health Care Reform Bill.

Not threats...not scare tactics... just the bill. As promised by the House, the bill will be available for 72 hours before the vote, making Sunday the earliest we'll get an up-or-down vote.

And no, I haven't read it yet... but I'll give it my best shot. At over 2300 pages, I'm planning on looking for key words. You know, 'death panels', 'killing grandma', 'free healthcare for illegal aliens', and things like that.

I promise I'll let you know what I find.

The Update Desk: March 12, 2010

Progress has been made on the proposed demolition of the ancient building which partially collapsed, leading to the closing of Interstate 81. According to reports, demolition will begin soon, and I-81 will be open in time for the NCAA tournament which starts next week. One local radio show reported that a barrier will be erected, using telephone poles as the ‘fence posts’, and then demolition can begin after that. Bids have been received, and while the project poses some challenges, at least we’re closer to getting people moving again. The highway was closed on February 26th, and demolition costs have ranged as high as $2 million. Here’s the press release.

Meanwhile, back in Colorado where I-70 was closed this past Monday due to a massive rock slide, traffic is again moving, a single lane having been cleared in each direction on Thursday. A contractor has been chosen to finish the work, and repairs are expected to cost around $860,000 not including money already spent on temporary repairs and other costs associated with clearing the rock slide. “This happened on Monday, but we were able to get the work designed and out for competitive bidding by Tuesday, advertising the work to contractors on Wednesday,” CDOT Program Engineer Joe Elsen said in a statement. “We opened bids at 2 p.m. [Friday] and now, with an apparent low bidder identified, we are all very happy to begin the repairs.”

I think I have bulldozer envy.

I thought the Eric Massa story couldn’t get much worse, but I was wrong. Where we had cancer, retaliation, harassment, groping, tickling, texting, a representative living with his low paid staffers, and even worse, one who caused Glen Beck to ‘waste America’s time,’ I thought the Massa plate was pretty full -- but I hadn’t counted on Rush Limbaugh. He’s the one who somehow managed to get in a slavery-related dig at our Accidental Governor while discussing the Massa case with a caller.

Please, make him go away. And Massa too, of course -- make him go away too.

And on the Cutzilla front, with apologies to Blue Oyster Cult, I offer:

He walks up the street, he’s tearing things down,
While Albany runs our finances into the ground.

Shutting down nursing homes without missing a beat
And putting our patients out into the street.

Taking aim at the clinics, and hospitals too,
Oh, our employees what will they do?

Oh no, the budget’s got to go,
Go, Go, Cutzilla!
Oh me, what’s wrong in Albany,
Go, Go, Cutzilla!

You have to protect us, we’re in no mood to laugh
We paid for your elections, your cars and your staff.

We’re looking at the Leg, and the Governor too,
Damn it everyone, we’re looking at you!

Oh no, the budget’s got to go,
Go, Go, Cutzilla!
Oh me, what’s wrong in Albany,
Go, Go, Cutzilla!

History shows again and again
Special interests rule the interests of men
Go, Go, Cutzilla!

Here's to a newsworthy weekend.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Cutzilla!

These days, here in New York the Accidental Governor David Paterson is basically roaming the sidelines, having been pretty much marginalized by his own bad judgment; Andrew 'Honest I Just Want to Be Attorney General' Cuomo has just declared his intentions to seek the governorship, by way of finally recusing himself from investigations into Paterson's activities; and Lt Governor Ravitch has just announced a very radical approach to solving the budget crisis, which will likely go nowhere but boy, at least he's thinking.

With everything going on in Albany, now's a great time for special interests to be taking to the airwaves to make their case to save (our,their) (jobs, pensions, rights) and make sure all (children, families, seniors, schools, churches, businesses, unions) can get (sugared beverages, appliances, bailouts, health care, fresh air, pensions, tax breaks, free rides, much needed services) without intervention from (majority, minority, leaders, followers, squeaky clean, morally challenged) (democrats, republicans, independents, RINOs, DINOs or WINOs) and without any increased (spending, taxes, fees, contributions, sacrifices) or any decreased (benefits, services, rights, entitlements).

Clearly, you can see from the parenthetical options that there's much to be talking about, and I tripped over the one ad that I think best sums things up. It's young, it's fresh, it's promotes hysteria, and it's even hysterical -- it's Cutzilla, brought to you by the Health Association of New York State (HANYS). Here's what HANYS' President Daniel Sisto had to say:

ALBANY, NY — "With so much focus on recent political tribulations here in Albany, it has become increasingly difficult to focus attention on policy and budgetary issues that we believe are far more important to the lives and livelihood of everyday New Yorkers.

"HANYS is deeply disturbed by the thousands of health care jobs that have already been lost in the wake of six recent rounds of budget cuts and taxes totaling more than $4 billion. We are troubled more so by the loss of critical health care services that are occurring in many communities throughout the state as a result of these actions.

"In the last decade alone, 29 hospitals and 51 nursing homes have been shuttered. This cannot continue; yet, we now face another $1 billion in additional provider taxes and cuts.

"Today we release a video called Cutzilla that intends to harness the power of YouTube to break through the media din being fueled by recent events. The video uses an unconventional approach to make our point about the dangers associated with the Governor's $1 billion in new health care taxes and cuts. The potential impacts of these actions are tremendously serious.

"The Legislature must act decisively to mitigate these troubling health care provider taxes and cuts."

Unconvential approach, indeed. I'm wondering if this is how Kathryn Bigelow got her start?

PPOD March 9, 2010: I-81N to Nowhere

This is not a picture of Interstate I-81 North just past the I-690 interchange in Syracuse NY.

There's a section of I-81 that's been closed for more than 10 days, traffic now plodding through downtown neighborhoods, turning rush hour into a slow-moving parking lot along the North Side and in other parts of town.

In the meantime, everyone's trying to figure out how to go about the demolition, and more importantly how to pay for it and make the highway safe for travel again...sometime...in the near future, we hope. And it's my Pet Peeve of the Day.

The closed section of I-81 doesn't look anything like this picture. It actually looks pretty serene; no maniacal merging, no spastic speeders, no paranoid passers -- just an empty stretch of highway. Nothing in the road -- no bricks, no building parts, no environmental disasters waiting to happen. No cranes or other symbols of pending demolition -- no nothing.

The problem, as I mentioned in my Dirty Snowpile Awards, is that a building that sits near the highway has had part of the back wall cave in. Well, that's the technical problem. The real problem is, of course, the back and forth between the interested parties -- building owner, City of Syracuse, State of New York, a couple of acronyms (DOT, DEC), the building owner, and a few lawyers trying to figure out who's responsible for fixing the problem.

The State has apparently offered to pay 70% of the costs, if the City will agree to pay the other 30%. Mayor Stephanie Miner is concerned about having to assume 30% of an unknown figure – unknown because what was initially a job expected to cost around half a million has ballooned up to around $2 million, so it’s really hard to say what it could cost now, since it’s been a few days since the last figure surfaced.

I think we all appreciate fiscal responsibility on the part of public servants - but there's also a need for a reality check. It's kind of sad to see us paralyzed by inaction when the highway just sits there...empty...as we inch ever closer to hosting the NCAAs and March Madness.

By the way, the picture above? It's from the Colorado DOT, who's dealing with a real reason to close an Interstate -- a massive rockslide. Their original guess was that they could get one lane of the highway cleared and reopened for traffic 'in a couple of days' however there are more rocks above the road that will delay the reopening.

But at least their road's a mess...

And the winner is...

Tonight Hollywood celebrates with the Academy Awards; locally, Syracuse leads in the annual race for the Golden Snowball, helped by the storm at the end of last month. And this year, for the first time, I present the Dirty Snowpile Awards.

I’ve mentioned before that it’s really quite pretty here in Central New York in the winter, particularly when there’s fresh snow on the ground. Alas, there’s another side of winter – the part where snow piles up at the end of our driveways, and on the side of the road, and gets dirty and then dirtier and then dirtier still, and finally it’s so ugly we just pray for more snow to cover it up or rain to wash the dirt away.

Sadly, these days at every level, we’re up to our eyeballs in dirt of another kind, the kind that sheds the worst possible light on all of us. To that end, here are the winners:

The Obstructionist Snowpile, to Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning.

Bunning single-handedly held up the jobs bill, which among other things would have continued unemployment benefits for millions of Americans. This blistering post pretty much sums things up. And, he's only the latest example of someone who thinks he's more important than the rest of us, it's not like he's the only one so misguided.

The It Doesn't Pay to be Qualified Snowpile.

Just ask Syracuse University professor Deborah Freund. She was selected to oversee a project created out of 'Honest, I Just Want to Be Attorney General' Andrew Cuomo’s investigation into health insurance reimbursement. She was also a paid member of the Board of Directors of a local health insurance company (which is my employer). While admittedly she’s handsomely paid for her BoD role, she’s an expert in her field and frankly, isn’t that the kind of person you want, rather than some flunky who will always go with the party line? Freund just resigned her Board position, because of a perceived conflict of interest. It's a shame, and indicative of how hard it is to get qualified people to participate.

The Hopelessly Filthy Snowpile, to Washington DC.
Capital of the Free World. Bickeringly bottlenecked. This is a great article on what’s wrong with the rules in the Senate, and how we’ve managed to twist the rules to not accomplish things. Doesn’t matter what the issue is: health care, jobs, tax increases, spending cuts -- it’s all about making the other side lose, rather than the helping the country win. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s the Dems or the Reps; neither is immune to the intoxication of power. Our elected officials have a responsibility to govern, even if it means identifying common ground and building on that, rather than fanning the flames of our differences. If not, it's our responsibility to get rid of them.

And speaking of building… The Demolition Snowpile - it's dirtier than it looked at first.

There’s more than enough to go around on this one. Here’s a guy who owns a property that has structural issues, and maybe he’s been working on solving them and then things accelerated when a portion of the building crumbled, maybe due to heavy snow, or maybe due to major highway construction near his property over the past year... Bottom line? We close the Interstate northbound out of Syracuse, and now a bunch of politicians are finding $2 million ways to solve the problem. Tear the building down, haul it away – and in the process strip the owner of any salvageable content, as well as the land the building sits on. And oh, don’t forget, he may get stuck with the bill. What a mess. In the meantime, can’t someone just put up a high mesh fence along the back side and reopen the darn highway?

These next are self explanatory; they are all ethically challenged winners of the Shoot Yourself in the Foot Category. And again, they're a only a handful out of many, but they're all ours:

Charles Rangel did it to himself...


and so did Eric Massa...


…and so did the Amigo Hiram Monserrate, who still won’t go away.


And so, ultimately, did our Accidental Governor do it to himself.

His actions surrounding his World Series tickets tempt a perjury charge, and he clearly has bad judgment, particularly when it comes to his closest advisor. The time has come for Paterson to step up and step down, giving us back some shred of dignity as New Yorkers. If he does, we're left with Richard Ravitch in the Statehouse, but that can't be worse than this.

And last, the Sometimes Technology Stinks Snowpile, a small one, to mark the end of the F16 fighter jets at Syracuse’s Hancock AFB.
Long a mainstay in the community, the jets were fixtures at Memorial Day parades and other celebrations across the region, the deafening flyovers among the greatest thrills for kids of all ages. I always went outside to look for them whenever I heard them, even as a kid in my 30s, 40’s and yes, 50s now, and I remember going to air shows and just being blown away by these things. They're being replaced by unmanned drones, our pilots becoming the ultimate video gamers. The skies over Onondaga County will never be the same, don’t you agree?

I'll leave you with a better taste in your mouth; here are a few more pleasant visions of winter, taken on a recent trip to taste a few highly-rated Seneca Lake wines. We loved the wines, and we loved the day.

The Update Desk: February 28, 2010

Fortunately (or sadly, depending on your point of view) time doesn’t stand still, certainly in the world of politics and nonsense. Here are a few updates to some relevant posts from the veritablepastiche archives.

Regarding my recent PPOD about the NYCLU filing an amicus brief in the case of the disgraced Amigo Hiram Monserrate, because in their opinion the New York Senate did not really have hard and fast rules surrounding expulsion, happily the arguments of Monserrate’s attorneys, and the NYCLU, were rejected by the judge in a rare victory for ethical activity in the Senate. What this means now, of course, is that the Amigo is hoping to get on the ballot for the special election and win back his seat. What’s making this race even more interesting is that the Republican candidate is a Democrat. Where else but here in New York?

Regarding another PPOD on the hyper-athleticism of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, we’re still in the middle of trying to figure out health care/health insurance reform. Last week President Obama hosted his summit, a bipartisan collection of people who would rather have been doing just about anything other than sitting in that room together, with results indicative of that fact. There was, however, eager anticipation for the summit; there were disagreements on how the room should be configured; and there were of course disagreements on which is the correct path to meaningful reform. And of course now the Dems, and Pelosi, have their work cut out for them. I suspect she’ll need more than just a pole and a parachute to force the Senate bill through the House.

My new nickname for NY’s senior senator, Charles ‘Touchdown’ Schumer, seemed prophetic as, coming on the heels of his work on behalf of TOPS Markets and their purchase of local Penn Traffic, he began rooting for the state to provide the New York Jets $200,000 so they'll return to SUNY Cortland for their preseason camp in the fall. Mind you, this is the same New York State that is proposing among other things cutting jobs, cutting benefits, raising fees and taxes, and closing state parks to save money, including a local one on Cazenovia Lake which costs taxpayers all of $2000 to maintain. And, this is the same New York State that previously provided billions in funding to the wealthy New York Mets and even wealthier New York Yankees to build their new stadiums. I don’t begrudge the Jets, necessarily, but c’mon – we’re broke, for heaven’s sake! Instead of taxpayers taking the hit, maybe Touchdown Schumer could pay it himself out of his campaign millions.

Making a Winter Wonderland

As we’ve seen the wacky winter unfold around the world, including 50+ degree days at the Winter Olympics, ‘snowmageddon’ hitting the nation’s capital, frigid temperatures in the deep south, and even a day this month when there was measurable snow in 49 of the 50 states, here in central New York it’s quietly been business as usual. We’re hovering right around our average snowfall, but I’d be hard-pressed to think of more than one storm that’s really caused any major impact. My Sweet Baboo’s only had to shovel a handful of times since the season began late last year, after we experienced our longest spell ever without snow on the ground – 288 days.

But even with our good fortune here, folks are complaining of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or grumbling that winter’s too long, too cold, too dark, or too something, and driving themselves back to that old CNY malaise that I wrote about a while back. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to make light of SAD or other any other type of depression. I’ve suffered from this type of illness in the past, in fact I still do – for me, it’s something I’ll never get rid of, but I’ve learned to live with it, to manage it, and do the best I can.

Sometimes my solution is to curl up with a cat, a blanket, a mug of hot coffee, and lose myself in a book. Other times, it may be striving to accomplish something, like a nagging household chore that I’ve been putting off; exercise is another option that sometimes helps me shake the blahs and get at least into the shallow end of down in the dumps. But what I’ve found is, when all else fails the only thing to do is to dive straight into it, and find a way to make peace with winter.

We had promised ourselves that we’d take a ride to get some snow pictures, and fortunately last Saturday was the perfect day for it. Other than the minor inconvenience of a flattening tire just out of the driveway which we took care of at the gas station (a buck’s worth of air) and local auto parts store (a can of Fix-a-flat), we had a great trip; we headed off to the southern hills, eventually ending up near Otisco Lake, and meandered home by crisscrossing our way up Onondaga Hill and then back down into The Valley.



For folks who’ve been more interested in sticking around Syracuse proper, we’ve had Winterfest, including the Syracuse Newspapers medallion hunt, and just yesterday, the first outdoor hockey game in the history of the AHL was hosted by (and won by!) our own Syracuse Crunch.

Looking ahead we’re in the middle of Downtown Dining week, the SU basketball team is 25 -2, with only a handful of games left… and the lacrosse season has already started. The arts continue to thrive, with great live performances from the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Syracuse Stage, and Famous Artists. The Everson Museum is just off a hugely successful showing of From Turner to Cezanne , and a host of local art galleries offer something for everyone. The Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park is also open for business.

The bottom line is we know we’re going to have winter – it’s inevitable – but letting it get the best of us doesn't have to be. We tend to forget about all of the things that this area has to offer, even at this time of year. Do yourself a favor; find a way to get out and enjoy some of it. You'll feel better, honest!