The piece of paper on the floor

I was recently invited to participate in a program at work, a 'change agent' development program.  I won’t go into a lot of gory details about the program, (which I fully support) but I'II still have some confusion on what exactly it is that a change agent does.

At a meeting this week, I asked the question, "do we tell our fellow employees we’re here and offer assistance, or are we supposed to just sort of exude changiness?"  One of the HR mentors at the meeting equated being a change agent to walking down the hall or the street and seeing a piece of paper on the ground…do we leave it there or pick it up? I pondered that response a bit, I’ll admit, trying to apply it to situations at work.

But the piece of paper analogy got me thinking about politics, and change, and how some of the local candidates would do with the whole paper on the floor thing.  Here’s what I came up with:  

• John DeFrancisco, the ‘pit pull’ of the NYS Senate. He’s an entrenched incumbent Republican, been in office way too long, and sadly sees his primary responsibility as regaining control of the Senate for the Reps. DeFrancisco was a player in the disastrous coup of 2009.  He would only pick up the piece of paper if it would give him the majority of the paper, otherwise he’d simply ignore it. 
• David Valesky, a Dem, is actually my Senator, for a couple more days, at least.  He’s had some challenges in the past couple of years as a high-ranking member of the majority party leadership, and is facing a tough battle.  He wouldn’t pick up the paper unless he thought it would be good for residents of his district (if you listen to him), or unless he was ordered to by the Downstate party bosses (if you listen to the Reps).  
• His opponent is classical pianist Andrew Russo, a ‘citizen politician’ with strong support from the Republican party, which can practically taste victory on Tuesday.  But he’s got some unorthodox ideas for a Rep, including supporting term limits (good luck with getting that done here in NY).  I think he’d pick up the paper, but only a limited number of times.  
• Andrew Cuomo, Dem for Governor, of course would pick up the paper, then find some Wall Streeter or industry bigwigs to whip into compliance so there’d be no more paper on the ground under his watch.
• Last, we have Carl Paladino the Rep-ish who miraculously won the primary to flail against Cuomo. I pity the paper if Carl found it first; he’d cut it by at least 20% and leave it in tatters, then email raunchy photos of it to his friends. 

Ironically, on the two days after the change agent meeting, I found a piece of paper on the floor; I picked it both times. There were no witnesses, so I'm not sure I shifted the culture dial. I wonder how far it's going to shift on Tuesday...

One last thing on Muslims wearing their garb

Our never-ending ‘news’ cycle aided and abetted Juan Williams in his desire to no longer be employed by NPR, and led to the ridiculous firings of former Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod and CNN’s Rick Sanchez, the ‘retirement’ of Helen Thomas, and the perpetual circling of countless other recitations of stupidity uttered by both the famous and the infamous, the well-known and the unknown. 

Imagine how hard it would have been for Howard Cosell (remember the ‘little monkey’? ) or Jesse Jackson (painfully realizing he’d be relieved if the people who were following him were white), if we’d had this heightened sense of urgency about everything -  good or bad, important or inconsequential -  back in the day when their comments were misunderstood, taken out of context and repeated without nuance. 

But one cool thing has come from the Juan Williams flap – and could only really have come in our current highly creative technological age - a great new blog on Tumblr, called Pictures of Muslims Wearing Things.  This website in only a few short days has amassed pages and pages of pictures of Muslims wearing all kinds of garb, from athletic uniforms and tutus to kilts and tuxedos.  Some of the folks pictured are well-known Muslims; some are famous people you may not have known are Muslim; and some are just your everyday, garden variety Muslims. And yes, Muslims, like the rest of us, come in all sizes, shapes, colors, and varying degrees of sartorial splendor.  Some are even wearing ‘traditional garb’ such as the kind that occasionally make Juan Williams nervous. 

So thanks, Juan Williams - had you not said what you did, we wouldn't be seeing these great pictures. I encourage you to check them out!

What if Juan Williams had said this?

Seems folks continue to be up in arms about NPR’s firing of Juan Williams. In some cases, the sense is he was fired for saying what ‘everyone’ thinks. Other folks are upset that he was fired un-nicely, instead of in some nice way. Although, If you’ve ever been fired (I was, once) there really aren’t a lot of nice ways for it to go down. 

My post yesterday, which prompted a few comments from folks, took the position that the guy had an employment contract, he’d had issues in the past, and the company with whom he had a contract had a Code of Ethics which he appeared to have violated. I didn’t get into whether what he said was true or right or wrong, but simply that he should have known better based on his prior experience with NPR over the years, including a shift from anchor to ‘analyst’, NPR’s request that his appearances on Fox do not make reference to his alternate reality on public radio, and the NPR ombudsman's published support of his work but not so much his actions.

There are a couple of things about the whole situation that bug me, and it’s not that Williams got fired. First and foremost was the almost immediate call for pulling public financing for NPR by current and former nitwits of the Republican variety --and by Juan Williams himself. No slowpoke, this guy - nope - immediately starts earning his new $2 million contract with Fox News. 

But here’s the bigger thing that gets me -- what if Williams had said something really scary? What if he had said this, instead: “…when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in clerical collars and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as priests, I get worried. I get nervous.”

After all, Catholic priests molested considerably more children than there were people killed on 9/11. And there are many more priests accused of molestation than there were extremists who attacked us on 9/11.   The ramifications of the priest sex abuse scandal are worldwide, and the scariest thing is that they were (and perhaps still are) hiding in plain sight, under the protection of their collars.  

What kind of outrage would be expressed if someone - anyone - put this kind of opinion out there on Fox News?

Firing Juan Williams

So, Bill O’Reilly, one of the main Fox gasbags, had a hard time on ABC's The View when he announced  that Muslims attacked us on 9/11.  In the ensuing flap, two of the hosts, Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar, walked off the set in a huff, but later returned.  Since then, O’Reilly has been talking about his View appearance, ostensibly looking for support, and last Monday, he got into a conversation on this with Juan Williams, a news analyst under contract with NPR who also has a contract with Fox News and appears regularly on O’Reilly.  

Here’s what Williams said, after professing that he was not a bigot: “…when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you  know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.” 

Now, Williams is probably not a bigot, based on most reports, but what he said was foolish for someone who walks both sides of the line.  Williams has long been a ‘lightning rod’ (to use NPR’s own words) because of the opinions he expresses during his other appearances.  In this February 2009 post by NPR’s ombudsman, we learn that Williams himself appreciates the difference between what he says (or how he says it) on Fox and what he says (or how he says it) on NPR after some comments he made about First Lady Michelle Obama.  He was even asked to remove his NPR affiliation from his appearances on Fox.  

And in this latest instance, it at least appears that Williams has violated the NPR Code of Ethics which (when this post was originally published)  said in part: "10. In appearing on TV or other media including electronic Web-based forums, NPR journalists should not express views they would not air in their role as an NPR journalist. They should not participate in shows in electronic forums, or blogs that encourage punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis." And while the ombudsman feels that the firing was handled poorly, she agrees with NPR for doing it. 

Juan Williams exercised his freedom of speech, and NPR exercised their freedom to employ independent contractors who act in accordance with their employer's rules. The bottom line is that sometimes expressing your own opinion can get you in hot water -- not because you're not allowed to have an opinion, or voice one, but because sometimes there are consequences. 

Should everyone who expresses an opinion that differs from their employer's face termination? Nope.

But should someone who has to know he's crossing the line - since this is not the first time it's happened - be surprised when he does get fired?

Nope. 

Poll Watch: 10/21/10

In a Fox News poll taken last week, we continue to disapprove of President Obama’s performance, but by a lesser percent than in September; last month his disapproval number was 52%, and now it’s down to 47%, among registered voters.  Likely voters are likely to like the President less – 52% disapprove.  Turning to Congress, both Dems (57%) and Reps (60%) are letting us down, with higher disapproval numbers than the President.  Fortunately, while 55% of  respondents think that ‘an everyday American’ can do a better job than most current members of Congress, only 43% of them think they can do a better job, so we might be OK for a while longer. 

Concerning the Tea Party, an ABC News/Yahoo News poll shows that 31% want to see it become its own party; 28% want to see it become part of the Republican party, and 25% want to see it simply fade away.  Dems and Independents, more than Reps, want to see it become a separate party. 

The Kaiser Family Foundation has released their latest poll regarding our impressions of health care reform legislation; 42% express generally favorable opinions, (more Dems than Reps), with 44% generally unfavorable.   When asked to describe their emotional response to HCR, disappointed (48%) and confused (47%) led, followed by pleased (41%), enthusiastic (30%), and angry (28%). Of the angry people, most (75%) are not angry about health care reform specifically, but about Washington in general.  Go figure.

A New Reality Show for NY?

My head is still spinning from Monday’s prime time political extravaganza, the alleged debate between the seven candidates for Governor of NY. Broadcast live from Hofstra University on TV and on NPR, it was more of a reality show or infotainment than debate. Of course, around here we never get ‘debates’, we typically get smarmy sound-bites from major party candidates only, with no air time at all for any of the lesser-party representatives.  

All that changed on Monday.  

On the stage, in addition to Dem front-runner Andrew Cuomo and Tea Partier-pseudo-Republican Carl Paladino were: Kristin Davis, a former madam representing the Anti-Prohibition party; Warren Redlich, a Libertarian attorney/entrepreneur; Howie Hawkins, a hometown Syracuse guy who is always offered up by the Green Party; Charles Barron, a former Black Panther and now NYC politician from the Freedom Party, and Jimmy McMillan, the larger-than-life representative of the Rent is Too Damn High party. Seriously.   

There was a lot of silliness, and gentle ribbing, and posturing, and fun-having by the minor parties, with digs aimed at both Cuomo and Paladino from pretty much everyone on the stage. McMillan tied everything to ‘the rent is too damn high’, at one point causing Cuomo to laugh out loud, something the audience did regularly. Somehow, for the most part, the moderators stayed reasonably in control, and for that they have my admiration.   

Davis wants to legalize marijuana and casino gambling, to bring in about $4 billion in new revenue, 50,000 new jobs….and countless other problems, which she didn’t get into, naturally. She is a former madam, however, and has a track record of delivering services on time. Former Governor Steamroller Spitzer can allegedly attest to her business acumen.   

Redlich wants smaller government, and he was true to that throughout. Barron and Hawkins had many similar positions, including their union support. They favor progressive taxation as did most of the other minor party candidates, and everyone thinks we need to do more about education – although there were some differences on how best to effect change.  

Paladino and Cuomo tried hard not to make a mess of things; Cuomo was successful, Paladino seemed less so, stumbling over his speaking points and frequently running out of time. They tried to stick to their scripts without controversy, and I think folks can forgive Paladino his hasty trip to the men’s room during the closing statement round.   

In the end, we didn’t learn much about the folks most likely to win – but we learned that there are lots of other voices out there, and somehow, someone found them and invited them to the show. I loved the pilot for "The Real Gubernatorial Candidates of NY" -- it’s too bad we are never likely to see Episode Two.

Shots Fired: 10/17/10

“Power mongers such as Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who controls the Democratic majority in his chamber, must go. At the least, voters must send a message to Silver and his minions that New Yorkers are no longer willing to allow them to continue ruining a once great state.

The best way to communicate that sentiment is to refuse to return all incumbent Democrats who control both the Assembly and Senate.

Minority Senate Republicans deserve the boot, too, because they have shown more interest in regaining power than real reform. Remember their ill-fated coup attempt last year and their willingness to broker a deal with Sen. Pedro Espada, the disgraceful Bronx Democrat ?” --Rochester Democrat & Chronicle


“We do not despair for the State of New York.

But we do despair for the State of New York's Legislature, deemed the most dysfunctional in the nation well before this session's budgetary incompetence and political debacles, including the mess Democrats made of the Senate.

And we have been so critical of that performance, which made up in show what it lacked in substance, that we can recommend neither re-election this year of many of the Legislature's current members nor election of many challengers who seem to be running more on a show of anger than on a substance of policy knowledge, experience and expertise.” –The Buffalo News 

PPOD October 16, 2010: Politically correct, my eye...

My Sweet Baboo and I recently spent a week in Virginia, where we had the opportunity to visit the home of three early presidents: Jefferson (Monticello), Madison (Montpelier) and Monroe (Ashlawn-Highlands). While we enjoyed our tour of all three places, one thing really bugged me. 

Each of the presidents at one point owned slaves, and at each of their homes the guides, the materials, the signage all referred to the slaves as African-Americans. Seriously. African-American slaves.  Here's just an example, at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.

To pretend that the slaves, who were owned, bought and sold by whites (statesmen and non-statesmen alike), were ‘Americans’ doesn’t soften the blow of slavery, doesn’t make it any less a painful part of our history. And it doesn’t fool anyone. Frankly it’s ridiculous. And it’s my PPOD for today.

PPOD October 15, 2010: Who's paying for this election, anyway?

This being election season and all, or maybe that should be ‘heightened’ election season – around here they never seem to stop – I’m being bombarded with mail from the ins and the wanna-be ins from both parties. 

One thing that stands out in all of the mail I’ve received is that not one piece I’ve received says “paid for by the guy who wants your vote.” And that’s my Pet Peeve of the Day.

The ones for Andrew Russo, the concert pianist and music educator turned Republican NY senatorial hopeful, are all paid for by the New York Republican State Committee. Russo has some challenges to overcome, including the fact that he’s not been a regular voter. But for me, the biggest challenge is his claim that he’s running a ‘grass roots campaign’ that’s paid for by people 'rooted' outside the district. 

His opponent, incumbent Dave Valesky, is a member of the Dem leadership in Albany. One recent piece I received on his behalf is paid for by Education Reform Now, in Brooklyn NY. A second one is paid for by the NY State Democratic Committee or the NY State Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (both are listed on the mailing) in Albany. Valesky also has detractors outside the district – a ‘report card’ I received was paid for by Common Sense, a group out of Glen Allen, VA. 

A while back I complained about President Obama allegedly trying to talk our Accidental Governor out of running for reelection. Obama thought Paterson would hurt the party; I thought Obama was hurting New York by sticking his nose into our business.  Similarly, one day, I’d love to see an election where all of the candidate’s money is raised in their district, and where all of the ad money comes from within the district – because, again, who represents us should be up to us – the real constituents.

Shots Fired: 9/29/10

“…I think we don’t understand tenure.  I don’t see a need for it. I don’t need a piece of paper to tell me that I have to be hired each year. And I think as younger teachers we’re seeing a lot of things that we need. The union contract is getting in the way. I know that in the South Bronx, my kids who don’t speak English need an extra vocabulary block, They need an extra phonics block. I need extra time before the test to do extra test prep, but we have a union contract that says the school day is from 8:20 to 3:30. And that’s what so attractive about charter schools, is that they can do what their kids need. If they need an extra hour on Saturday, they bring those kids in on Saturday. I’m not allowed to do that. And the reality is, in my case, is that the union contract is in the way.”         An unidentified young teacher, speaking out at one of NBC's Education Nation sessions earlier this week.

Point/Counterpoint: Two Conservatives

Dateline New York, NY. Rick Lazio, the Republican Party choice for Governor of New York, lost the primary two weeks ago to Carl Paladino, a western NY businessman. Lazio remained on the ballot on the Conservative line, but today ended his candidacy.  "While my heart beckons me forward, my head tells me my continued presence on the Conservative line would simply lead to the election of Andrew Cuomo," he said, referring to Paladino’s Democratic opponent. 

Dateline Watertown, NY. Doug Hoffman, who two years ago lost in an ugly three-way election for NY’s 23rd district, lost the Republican primary to Matt Doheny. Hoffman, also on the Conservative line, vowed to stay in the race, even though last time around, when he made the same choice, the Republicans lost a seat they had held since the 1800’s. "I have spoken with family, friends, supporters and staff as I have weighed my next step. So today, with new resolve and a strong commitment to conservative principles, I rededicate myself to this race and announce that I will actively campaign for Congress as the nominee of the Conservative Party." 

In response, a Tea Party leader told members not to vote for Hoffman, saying “Doug Hoffman doesn’t have an ice cube’s chance in hell of winning this election. A vote for him is a vote for Bill Owens.’’

Where do the leading economic indicators lead?

We regularly hear from various agencies, reporting on aspects of the economy and the recession, depression, or ‘Obamamession’ or whatever it is we’re in. What we buy, what we spend, what we save -  are all reported on, and commented on, and are supposed to foretell the future.  What  gets me about all this is how the numbers are ‘spun’ to show we’re in horrible straits, we’re not recovering, it’s getting worse by the day.

Take car sales. Last year we had Cash for Clunkers which ended in August, and sales were way up as people took advantage of the extra money taxpayers put up and traded in their gas guzzler for newer models. Then, we compare this year’s August sales to same month last year, and lo and behold, sales are down. Half the people who reported on this failed to mention the end of the incentive, but instead gave us a ‘woe is me’ reading of the figures.

Look at home sales, and you’ll get similar information. Sales in May were down considerably from April – 32% down - so that means that we’re stalled, the economy’s not moving, and the world’s coming to an end, right?  Nope – it just means that, without the $8000 taxpayer-funded incentives which ended in April, folks were not as interested in purchasing a new home.

The problem with these ‘economic indicators’ is, they become self-fulfilling prophecies. We hear, for example, that "banks aren’t lending money" and people think that all banks aren’t lending any money, so they don’t ask for a loan to expand a small business or kick off an entrepreneurial venture…then we don’t get any new jobs, so unemployment stays high. The truth of the matter is, lots of local banks are lending money to local businesses, just like they always have.

The indicators are also self-feeding. We hear complaints that credit card debt is out of control and people are in way over their heads with debt. Credit card companies begin to be more careful with rates and who can have how much credit, which should be a good thing. People start managing their credit card debt, paying off balances and being more careful with how they use credit, and that should be a good thing too. But it's really a bad thing, because some other indicator says that credit card use is a good thing. It’s all some crazy dog-chase-tail situation.

The best thing we can do is to understand our own economic situation as best we can, and act accordingly.  If you're comforable spending, go ahead and spend. If you'd rather save for a rainy day, go ahead and save. If you want a new fill-in-the-blank, buy it with your own money - don't wait for the government to help you pay for it.

If we listen to the experts, we’ll be too scared to sleep at night...and we need at least eight hours of sleep at night, or we’re all going to die… and if we all die, the economy will surely end up in the toilet… and...and...and...

Shots Fired: 9/22/10

"Regarding the policies of the current government, the governed do not consent" ... "An arrogant and out-of-touch government of self-appointed elites makes decisions, issues mandates, and enacts laws without accepting or requesting the input of the many." –“The Pledge to America”, the new Republican manifesto, being rolled out tomorrow at a Virginia hardware store.

“So Andrew, for the first time in your life be a man. Don't hide behind daddy's coattails even though he pulled strings to advance your career every step of your way. Come out and debate like a man.” – NY Gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino, ‘inviting’ opponent Andrew Cuomo to debate.

“We were big before we started adopting sophisticated procedures to be sure we met all of the government requirements,” he said. “While we were big, but still acting like we were small, we got into trouble with government requirements several times.” – Jack DeCoster, owner of Wright County Egg, one of two egg farms behind the salmonella outbreak this year which caused some 1600 people to become ill.

Poll Watch: 9/17/10

The US Census Bureau released a report showing the official poverty rate in America in 2009 was 14.3%,which equates to some 43.6 million of us, compared to 39.8 million in 2008.  

To put that number in perspective, it's roughly equal to the  the 2009 population of the 39 largest cities in the US: that would be everyone in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, Dallas, San Jose, Detroit, San Francisco, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Austin, Columbus, Fort Worth, Charlotte, Memphis, Boston, Baltimore, El Paso, Seattle, Nashville, Milwaukee, Washington DC, Las Vegas, Louisville, Portland OR, Oklahoma City, Tucson, Atlanta, Albuquerque, Kansas City MO, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach, and Mesa AZ.  

Also in the report: for the first time in 23 years, the number of people who have health insurance actually dropped – 1.5 million folks who had insurance in 2008 no longer have it today. There are also shifts in how we are insured - the number of people with private health insurance decreased by about 6.6 million people, and the number of people with government health insurance increased by about 5.8 million people. All of the gory details can be found here.  These numbers are at once fascinating and horrifying, embarrassing and frightening. America should be able to do better.

According to a new CBS/NY Times poll, more than three quarters of us (78%) feel that it’s time for most members of Congress to go, and more than half of us think it’s time for our own representatives to go. What’s interesting about the ‘most should go’ sentiment is that since 1994, the number feeling this way has never been lower than 64%. For Dubya’s midterms, the percentages were 76% in 2006 and 70% in 2002, not a whole lot better than President Obama’s.

Interestingly, folks are evenly split on the personal financial impact that will come from whether Dems or Reps have control of Congress. If Dems retain control, 16% feel they will be better off, 23% say they’ll be worse off, but 57% say there will be no difference. If the Reps gain control, 17% say they’ll be better off, 18% worse off, and 59% say no difference. 

Also noteworthy, 46% of respondents view Sarah Palin unfavorably, and both her favorable and unfavorable numbers are going south compared to last month. This is the part that CBS chose to highlight, and while I’m always happy when people don’t fall into the Palin Trap, it’s hardly the most important revelation in the survey. What will be most interesting is if we rise to the occasion in the voting booth, and actually get rid of the folks in Washington. You can read the full poll here.

Fox News highlights  a drop in President Obama’s approval rating in their latest poll – down four points to 42% since early September. On the other hand, 66% approve of the job Hillary Clinton is doing (even 42% of Reps approve).  And, while 70% feel nervous about the economy, 78% feel at least somewhat confident about their own economic situation.

Regarding health care, here’s a sample: Do you favor repealing the health care reform law to keep it from going into effect (44% yes), or would you oppose repealing it? 43% say don’t repeal. Back in April, the choices were: implement the bill as is (12%), make changes (47%), or repeal (36%). Without the ‘make changes’ choice, it’s hard to really tell whether or not opinions have really changed.  There’s lots of other fun stuff in the poll, which you can read here.

At Last - The Two Amigos Are Gone

(photo by Richard Drew/AP)

New York's Democrats accomplished at least two good things yesterday -- the Two Amigos, Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate, are finally done.

Espada, the hugely ethically challenged Dem-turned-Rep-turned-Dem who by many accounts doesn't even live in his district.  He was a key pawn in the coup perpetrated on New Yorkers by the ethically challenged Republicans in the senate, who offered him a leadership position to stumble across the aisle.  Dems, even more challenged than the Reps, offered him a bigger leadership role to return to the fold. Blissfully, he's been booted by folks who live in the district he represented.

(NY Daily News photo)

Monserrate, who was convicted of a domestic violence charge stemming from an incident in which his girlfriend's face was cut with a glass, and who was expelled by the Senate, sued  and lost, then tried to get voted back in. But the voters knew better.

Here's more on our friends Pedro and  Hiram, in case you'd put them out of your mind.

There's plenty of stench surrounding both of these guys, and I think an equal amount surrounding the Reps for enticing them over in the ill-fated coup, and even more so for the Dems for inviting them back in a sad game of Red Rover. Sadder still, all of this was ostensibly done for our benefit, so the right folks would be in power in Albany and would be doing things to benefit all New Yorkers.   Uh, right... 

Fortunately, in this case the voters didn't need the Albany 'leadership' to tell them the right thing to do -- they just plain knew.  Maybe there's hope after all.

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?