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State of the Union: the future and the past 

This week the President delivered the annual State of the Union address.  I did not listen to the address but I have seen outtakes from the speech and what stands out in particular is the phrase, “this nation is addicted to oil.”  Hearing our leader express this sentiment suggests that perhaps Mr. Bush has been listening to comedian Bill Maher, a critic of the Bush energy policies which call Global Warming an exaggeration.  Bush went on to mention ethanol as a potential substitute for oil citing advances in technology which would allow other sources of refinement such as corn husks and straw….Interestingly enough, the current issue of Fortune magazine is on the same page as the President it would seem with an extended article on the very same subject: ethanol.  Billionaire Richard Branson, owner of Virgin Airlines, is interested in exploring ethanol, especially cellulose ethanol which can be produced with a variety of sources   Branson has even set up a company for this purpose, Virgin Fuel.

Willie Nelson is also interested in the environment, setting up his road bus with ethanol. Is it possible that we can finally have different segments of our society working cooperatively or at least thinking cooperatively to solve energy problems? 

Coincidently this week also is the beginning of the long-awaited trials of Enron ‘s top executives CEO Kenneth Lay who stood before his employees in October 2001, one month before the company declared bankruptcy assuring  all that the company was solvent. Workers with twenty years on the job who had bought company stock lost everything, yet Lay walked away virtually untouched, as did Jeffrey Skilling, former CFO, whose lawyer asked to have charges dismissed against his client. By the way Kenneth Lay, a good friend of Mr. Bush, gave the then-Governor his private jet for use in campaigning for the Presidency.

For a more complete view of the history of Enron, check out last year’s documentary, “Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room”. 

What will become the state of our union in 2006?  Will our government actually take practical action for a more sustainable environmental policy and will rule of law apply to Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling? 

www.itsmypartytoo.com is Christine Todd Whitman’s website for responsible/moderate Republicans, who believe that there is room for all the full spectrum of political views within the party.  Whitman is pro-choice and pro-environment, and she is not alone, citing the Bush victory in 2004 as the lowest plurality of any incumbent.  

America, whatever

On a recent episode of West Wing an international situation develops which involves the apparently conflicting interests of Russia, China, Europe and the U.S.  Chief of Staff CJ. Craig decides to play the economic interests of one nation off against another in order to solve a humanitarian crisis in the Sudan.  How are these supposedly disparate interests tied together, one might well ask.

For the answer we can turn to another politician from another time period: Dwight David Eisenhower, Republican President and Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces in WWII. Upon leaving office the former Chief Executive addressed the country with a speech which included the famous line, “beware of the influence of the military-industrial complex.” 

In a new documentary “Why We Fight” to be released this week filmmaker Eugene Jarecki (The Hunting of the President) Senator John McCain paraphrases Eisenhower’s statement, “the priorities that have been set, benefit corporations rather than the country.” 

According to Jarecki we live in a system which is tilted toward war; our economy is based on war, many jobs are directly or indirectly connected to war.  We are all part of this insulated bubble; we are distracted by our busy lives, hence, most of the time we do not notice how militarized our society is.

When the resources which could be used for the infrastructure (the health of the country) are diverted into defense, the tail is wagging the dog, everything seems to have a military solution.    

Jarecki traveled to thirty states asking our citizens,” why do we fight”. Unanimously people on both sides of the political fence answered, “freedom”; yet when further questioned, many said, in effect, “I hope we are fighting for freedom, but we are not sure.”

Back to the West Wing episode in question, the North Korean diplomat is in conversation with Chief of Staff C.J. Craig, who is negotiating the details of a crisis. The Korean diplomat states that, “capitalism vanquished communism yet capitalism is trying to restrict the market. The U.S. taught us that liberty was equal to capitalism; however, your American dream is financial not ethical.”

Something to think about, don’t you think?

The Best of the Best: Concerts Part 1

 U2 has been widely considered to be a great band, the best of the best, for the last thirty years.  Currently on their Vertigo tour they stopped off in Miami this past weekend and played to sold- out audiences who were wildly enthusiastic.  The band combines the best of the musical world with its socially conscious position on third world debt and poverty, so what’s not to like? 

Having not purchased a ticket ahead of time we drove down to the arena on Sunday only to observe that there was virtually no parking available within the immediate vicinity of the venue which was thick with fans.  I decided to try again on the Monday arriving earlier in the day with the idea of scouting a single ticket. 

Three hours later the ticket line I was waiting in was closed and I was forced to wander the plaza in front of the arena in search of a single ticket.  After hanging out for nearly an hour it was 9 pm, the designated start time for U2 to play, and I was alone outside under the glow of a full moon which nicely highlighted the Miami skyline. 

Suddenly a voice from somewhere said, “are you looking for a single ticket?” and after a brief interchange I was in.  The band had just taken to the stage and there was pandemonium in the house.  The crowd was standing twenty thousand strong singing in unison, cheering and dancing; the atmosphere was intense. 

I was thrilled to be there, so many did not get tickets who were waiting in line with me.

I have been a fan since The Joshua Tree.  I love the whole concert atmosphere.  I even like waiting in line and getting to meet new people and share stories about the band and what experiences other fans have had. 

Yet, I was disappointed.  The sound was just terrible; the base was so distorted that it just covered all the other members contributions and made the songs nearly unintelligible musically. Bono’s voice, though strong, could not compete nor could The Edge’s  delicate guitar work  

Also, the band was set up back to front and was actually facing away from the bulk of the audience towards a mosh pit which the band played exclusively to most of the night. A large screen which faced us was split into four parts so that we could view all four band members at once which seems like a good idea but it was not. Most of the camera work showed each member from a distance or at a strange angle thus giving none of the immediacy with any one member at any one time which a steady close up gives. 

The ramp which encircled the band could have been used much more to allow all parts of the audience to interact with and the band yet its members only came out of their “mosh pit trance” occasionally for a few minutes at a time to briefly acknowledge the bulk of the audience which was actually behind them.  . .  

This was all strangely unsatisfying; all the ingredients were there but the mix was wrong.

The Best of the Best: Concerts Part 11 

As a long time fan of Cream I was excited to hear that the band had reformed and had played a week of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London which was made into a boxed CD set.  Recently I had the opportunity to watch these concerts and it was a stellar musical experience.  In their heyday Cream was referenced by famed composer Leonard Bernstein as “the best of the best”, hence the name of the band. 

Not only is the sound excellent on this band, crystal clear, and the musicianship top of the line, and the band in perfect harmony, but its members are as good or better than ever, as Ginger Baker, drummer, states “ we have matured as musicians”. 

The band considered using their original gear but soon realized they would need to upgrade; however, the music today is as pure as it ever was, nothing added and nothing taken away.  They got it right thirty seven years ago and it is still great now. 

The band needed several weeks to practice as they were going to be stretched, as lead guitarist  Eric Clapton stated.  All three members had doubts about their interest in rejoining this legendary group as they were so revered at the time of their departure; yet once together again they played like they had just taken a vacation remarked drummer Ginger Baker, “ it was just another bloody gig.” Bassist Jack Bruce said that he  experienced “the shivers when Baker played his infamous ditty Pressed Rat and Warthog, a first live performance requested by family members.” 

Clapton who originated the idea of this get together with the band said that he knew the only way it would work was if they were relaxed and confident and maintained “a healthy disregard for the audience.” The music was always the most important thing and they were never the type to be leaping about the stage according to Baker. Hence, the reunion was about the music, so after a few weeks of long rehearsals building up their stamina the group was ready to take to the stage. 

The DVD is a compilation of a week of concerts in May 2005 and features two versions of Sleepy Time Time and We’re Going Wrong which are simply spine tingling along with other favorites such as Sunshine of Your Love. 

These guys are the real deal and their music just soars.  It also helps that the delivery is clean, the camera work is steady and focused, and the technical backup is undistorted and minimal so that the true genius of each band member is on show for us to appreciate. This concert film is very satisfying.; it is absolutely brilliant; the best of the best preserved for all time.

The Right to Torture

 As the super power of the world, the United States is able to do pretty much whatever it wants and get away with it. After all, who is going to tell us what to do - the French?  Senator John McCain has put forward a bill in Congress which would re-iterate America’s intention to follow the basic tenets of the Geneva Convention against torture. Evidently the U.S. lobbied for those tenets to be installed twenty years ago.   

Jon Steward just recently asked John McCain on Comedy Centrals "The Daily Show;" “Is Dick Cheney insane?

Where does he get the balls to challenge John McCain; “torture only works on TV.”

McCain states that the military is on board with it as well as Colin Powell. In Israel psychological techniques are used as their Supreme Court over ruled torture.  

McCain says that there is an image problem in the world since the photos of Abu Graib were released. It is important that we tell the world that we are against torture. Ninety Senators have voted for this bill to disavow torture and nine Senators are voting against it. Evidently Mr. Cheney is busy lobbying against the passage of the bill with his usual aggressive techniques. 

According to MSN Slate Cheney was one of the chief architects of the War in Iraq insisting, in spite of evidence to the contrary, that Saddam Hussein was connected with 9/11 and that pre-emptive force was therefore necessary. He intimidated and harassed members of the State Department and Defense. 

There are eight Black Spots all over the world set up by the U.S. Government where torture is routinely carried out to elicit “intel” from “terrorists”.  One of the spots is located in Eastern Europe, a part of the world famous for the Berlin Wall and secret police.  How ironic: we are now using them to subvert our own democracy.

Paris is Burning 

“We cannot defend freedom abroad by defeating it at home”, according to Edward R. Morrow.  With the riots in France and the terrorism in Iraq and other parts of the world law and order is a prime consideration in any discussion of politics.  President Bush has had some stunning reversals of late with his staff being indicted  and his policies being challenged.  His approval ratings have tanked and  Republican strategists are promising that this period is just a rough patch in an otherwise stalwart agenda involving security, the nation’s top concern and the main reason why this President was “re-elected” with a “mandate.” 

Chaos is indeed a problem for everyone and law and order are a necessary part of civilization; however, there is a difference between repression and law and order

Reports of the U.S. government torturing   prisoners held in secret locations around the world in defiance of Geneva Convention rules is a violation of the fundamental principle of the United States.  Bill O’Reilly argued that some torture is a good thing when Senator John McCain, former POW, stated that torture does not work. 

How can the United States embrace the policy that the end justifies the means when presumably this philosophy was unacceptable when Saddam Hussein used it to torture people in his own country?   Similarly why is it okay for the Western powers and their allies to have nuclear weapons but not okay for the Arab countries, especially Iran, which some experts believe is the real linchpin in the Middle East. 

There is a difference between self-defense and pre-emptive strikes.  The United States wants to simply declare a country to be a potential enemy and then have the right to invade the sovereign space of that other country, just because of their "potential enemy" status. 

Ironically, as a country we need to be more discriminating in the area of values and how we promote these to the rest of the world.  Are the values of the current administration actually consistent with our history as a republic and our Constitution. 

It seems that a lot of our foreign policy is based on resentment; getting back at the terrorists.  When Abraham Lincoln was conducting the Civil War he always stressed the importance of the unity of the country and that the defeated South should be allowed to keep its guns and horses for the North was not about punishing its former foes. 

Jimmy Carter has written a new book, Our Endangered Values, in which he states that the current administration has redefined the basis on which this country was founded, reflected in aggressive actions which actually undermine these values.  According to Carter, America spent more money on foreign aid during the Cold War in order to compete with the former USSR for the allegiance of certain populations than it does now. Carter also works with ABC, the Aids project in Uganda, where the use of condoms dramatically reduced the incidence of Aids until the current administration tied US foreign aid to the non-use of condoms.  Carter believes that this lack of assistance based on the religious behavior rather than the health needs of the population is counter productive to the best interests of the people of that country and also the people of our country. 

Thomas Jefferson sated that there should be a wall between the church and the state yet fundamentalists in this country think that it is their duty to dominate others as they are superior and that they are always right so, there is never any need to admit mistakes.  Taxpayer money has been given primarily to Christian organizations as “faith based initiatives” from this Bush/ Cheney government.

“Never Confuse Dissent with Disloyalty” 

Edward R. Morrow, the famous newscaster who investigated the McCarthy communist “witch hunts” during the fifties once stated that it was important to…”never confuse dissent with disloyalty”.  During the Vietnam War many protested and some even left the country so as to make their views against the occupation  of that country public.

Now we are living through the War in Iraq and it has been stated many times by those on power who are responsible for our country’s involvement in that incursion that it is unpatriotic to dissent during wartime; hence, the voice of the opposition has been silenced to a large degree, until recently when it has suddenly come alive, finally.

Cindy Sheehan started the ball rolling in August by camping out near Prez Bush’s ranch to protest the death of her son last year  in “a  noble cause”.  Then this week thirty U.S. Senators sent a letter to our Prez asking for clarification on the timetable  regarding our involvement in Iraq.  Then last night the prime time program “Boston Legal” opened up the  previously forbidden subject of dissent over this war wide enough to drive a tuck through.

The two senior partners in the law firm featured on this show disagreed over the war and over a case that was brought to the firm concerning a National Guardsman who had died in Iraq although he had been assured by his enlisting officer that there was no chance he would ever see active duty there.

James Spader’s character went into court and delivered a blistering attack on the dishonesty of the military’s enlistment procedures with regard to the National Guard.

He remarked that they are overextended, under-equipped and untrained for the job that they are being forced to do.

He continued with the statement that the people and the government are in denial.

This war was sold to America on false ideas and false data.  There is no timetable for this war and the current tour of duty that many Guardsmen sign up for which is referred to as Try-One which translates try one year and leave  at the end if you wish is being used as a way to fill up the troop levels which the military has always stated are inadequate to fight this war such as it is. 

“As a country we need to be thinking about this war”.  

Wilma: A Storm to Remember

Having lived in South Florida since 1979 I have become complacent about hurricanes; it just goes with the territory.  Natives would talk about the great storm of 1932 or 1955,  but it all seemed very long ago and not relevant to modern life.  After all, with planes flying in the middle of the storm and reporting back important details, we should all be safe or at least forewarned, so no need to take the storm tracking system too seriously.  When a person moves to Florida voluntarily it is for fun, the beach, the frivolous lifestyle, the stress-free atmosphere; who wants to think about something that could spoil all that?

 In 1992 Hurricane Andrew blasted through Miami and Homestead but left Broward County largely untouched.  We heard horror stories from the refugees lining up for supplies in Home Depot which stayed open for twenty four hours to accommodate customers and we noticed how many people migrated to our area from Miami to live permanently, but still an air of protection permeated this area, until last Monday when Hurricane Wilma roared through at seven in the morning as a category two with winds of up to one hundred twenty miles per hour.    

Many trees were ripped out of the ground and landed on cars and roofs of homes; streets were littered with their debris; fences were flattened; pools were clogged with detritus and the illusion of a safe harbor was forever destroyed.  We now belong to the same world, weather-wise, as everyone else; what has happened to people in Asia and the Gulf States can happen here.  We are officially vulnerable.

 Our house escaped with relatively little damage compared to what people in the Northern parts of Florida suffered as a result of the four hurricanes in the 2004 season; however, any damage inflicted by an outside source is a big deal if it happens to your property.  After the storm had subsided people walked through the neighborhood to survey the collective damage nature had wrought.  One woman stopped next to our house, which is located on a main street, looked over our downed fence, ripped- apart pool enclosure frame and missing screens strewn everywhere and commented; “You’ re really exposed, aren’t you; there is just no other way to put it; you are exposed.”

 That’s the truth of it.  We are all really potentially exposed all of the time, but we just don’t want to admit it; and we don’t want to scare our children either.  We would like to think that we have got “it” under control; or if we don’t then the government or our family or our religion has got our back; but that is just not the way it really is. When you sit in your house, the symbol of stability and safety for most people and listen to the wind relentlessly lash at this place you call Home you realize that we are always at the mercy of the elements, human or not, and that it is just an act of faith on our part that allows us to go about our business in life with any degree of aplomb at all.

One of the saving graces of the whole experience, that of  having your world as you know it upended,  is that people change their attitude, if only for awhile.  After 9/11 America was a much nicer place to live for about three weeks.  People were grateful and courteous; it was great!  At the moment here in South Florida people are helpful and cooperative mostly, and it is similarly great!   

The traffic lights are not working and so everyone must come to a four way stop at each intersection; they actually have to stop and pay attention to the other drivers.  This is just wonderful.  Usually at least one person runs every red light so you can never be certain that  going forward in your car on a green light is really safe.   Also, free ice and water is being handed our  for those of us still without power, which I understand is well over fifty percent of our population  so we have the experience of other people coming here to serve us.  Neighbors have been helping each other cut away branches of trees that have landed on roofs and in pools; we all have the storm in common.  A new couple has just moved into our neighborhood and the day of the storm the wife commented on how friendly our street is.  Another neighbor replied: ‘Usually we are too busy to talk to each other.”

 I wish this feeling of unity could last forever, In the book “Finding Flow” the author states that the feeling of flow, which is optimal functioning of the organism, is caused when a person finds a suitably difficult challenge and is able to meet it with the required level of  skill,  This produces a feeling of deep satisfaction  which some might call joy.    Joy to the World

No Direction Home: the Odyssey of Bob Dylan and the American Culture

 The great American poet Bob Dylan is the subject of the two part PBS documentary by Martin Scorsese  shown on television last week as part of a retrospective of the Sixties which also included Get Up Stand Up, a history of the role of music in the protest movement, and a separate documentary titled The Sixties which commented on the shattering of the ideals of a very hopeful generation, the Baby Boomers. 

When Dylan appeared on the folk music scene in Greenwich Village in New York City in 1961 virtually unknown he immersed himself in the beatnik culture meeting many of the well-known poets and musicians of that generation who had much to protest about during the McCarthy-ite fifties.  After introducing himself to Woody Guthrie, recovering in hospital at the time, Dylan developed his style as a critical voice for social justice.  Through some lucky breaks he then  managed to connect with executives at Capital Records and was signed as their artist, a first for a folk artist.. At that point poet Alan Ginsberg noted that”…the torch has been passed to a new generation”, to quote President John F. Kennedy in his inaugural speech to the nation.   Dylan became the unwitting spokesperson for the Baby Boomers and the dreams that were part of that decade.

So much has changed and yet it seems that nothing has changed at all.

 "The Sixties: the Years that Shaped a Generation"

some comments on this fascinating documentary

It is interesting to watch this documentary about the choices that are the result of the difference between hope and rage and apathy.  In order to understand what is happening in this country at the moment it is important to look at what went before…

During the march in Memphis Federal investigators, on the FBI payroll, started a riot, infiltrating the garbage workers strike

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident which expanded the Vietnam War: LBJ lied about it but Congress believed him

According to the US Ambassador to the UN Arthur Goldberg the purpose of US involvement in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War was  to help South Vietnam build a democracy and to secure their right to independence

By 1967 Robert McNamara as Attorney General recommended to President Johnson (LBJ) that the Vietnam War could not be won, and that the US should withdraw; however, McNamara was not willing to take a public stand choosing instead to stay with the administration and try to influence policy from the inside.

By 1968 15,000 U.S. soldiers had died in Vietnam

1968 year of uprising in the US, Paris, Prague, Mexico City

People see the sixties differently…what happened is in some ways the beginning of the current division in America between the conservatives and the liberals….for conservatives the drug problem began in earnest at that time and for the liberals the conscience of the world as youth, spoke up for values that have matured from the movements that began at that time, such as  civil rights, anti-war, women’s rights and gay rights all of which are controversial to this day

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity…values from the  French revolution:   In the book "Slouching Toward Gomorrah" Robert Bork comments that the liberal's embrace of these ideals during the sixties are the root of the evils that we face in today's society: the need to please oneself at all costs and the need to give freely to those who have not earned their spoils.  Bork's assessment is only partially correct; sloth and greed are included in the list of the seven deadly sins I believe, and that list predates the sixties.  The real problem is probably closer to the failure of the so-called left and the so-called right to communicate their ideas in a civil manner to one another and then to forge a better country from that dissent. 

After all, dissent is American!

 What’s the Matter with America? 

Watching Senator Chuck Hagel  on the Sunday morning television show Face the Nation  discuss the War in Iraq  was a real awakening.  In response to the question by the monitor What are we doing wrong in Iraq? Hegel said that we do not know enough to know what we are doing wrong.   Bob Schieffer could not resist responding with…How interesting, considering  that   two years ago President Bush stood on an aircraft carrier and declared victory and “mission completed.”  We now count officially 1500 dead Americans in that war.    

Hagel went on to say that the military leaders who publicly stated before the invasion that double the force of 150,000 troops assembled would be needed for a country the size of Iraq were roundly chastised by those in charge of the operation.  Has Secretary Rumsfeld been held accountable for this mistake?    

Bob Schieffer commented, The main problem here in the United States is not the cultural division that is capturing so much attention in  the press, but the idea that we have nothing more to learn, as espoused by  the great Egyptian civilization that produced the pyramids.  Egypt faltered when their people decided that they knew enough;  eventually their society was over- run by other countries who kept on learning..   

Entrepreneur Bill Gates recently stated that the U.S. school system is too far behind while the educational systems in India and China  have moved ahead; therefore, in the future Gates doubted that he would be able to find workers for his projects here in this country.

What is the message here?

The World is Flat 

In a new book entitled “The World is Flat” the author outlines the economic future of the United States as part of a global world in which all its members have an equal opportunity to succeed.  No longer will a good education provide a secure future for Americans; the internet has level the playing field and America is not  really preparing its citizens for the future. 

The best opportunities for success are in the field of energy renewal according to the author;  if the President chose to lead our country into energy independence just like former President John F. Kennedy set the goal of reaching the moon by the end of the decade which was accomplished in 1969.  By setting the goal which seemed impossible le at the time Kennedy set in motion a national challenge which energized and focused the country. 

The United States needs an official goal that is positive something that the country did not get after 9/11 from this administration.  When you have a leader that is consumed by fear   the only response they can offer is one that is negative.  During the Battle of Britain in World War II  Winston Churchill was able to inspire the British people by giving them a goal that was achievable.  After the United States was attacked in 1941 at Pearl Harbor then President  Franklin Delano  Roosevelt appeared on television to encourage the shocked American public that “…We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”. 

Innovative and creative leadership are absolutely essential at this point in the history of this country.  We  need a leader who knows how to visualize a new goal of Energy Independence and how to state it as official policy so that a new generation will be able to participate in a national agenda that is worthy and worthwhile.

“The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself” 

HBO produced the docudrama “Warm Springs”, which aired on television this past week, the subject being the period of time immediately after Franklin Delano Roosevelt contracted polio.  Roosevelt, the former Assistant Secretary of the Navy, was a formidable political personality having grown up the only son of a wealthy New England family.  Infantile Paralysis as it was also known took away Roosevelt’s ability to walk so he decided to try out a place in Georgia known for its warm waters infused with the mineral magnesium.  Rumors of a child learning to walk in their pool inspired Roosevelt to begin his rehabilitation.  He arrived at the run-down spa in 1924 and proceeded to spend the next few years paddling around the pool reputed to have healing qualities.  Eventually he bought the place outright and turned it into the first major center for the treatment of polio, a disease that carried the same stigma as Aids does now.

Guests were originally made to eat in a separate dining room and allowed to use the pool only in the off-hours. 

When Roosevelt subsequently re-entered public life in 1928 he was only able to walk to the stage at the Democratic National Convention with the aid of his son on whom he leaned heavily while walking with a small cane.  The truth at that point was that Franklin was still unable to stand unsupported; a fact that would have ended his political carrier had anyone photographed  him being carried up the back stairs to that ;pivotal appearance. 

Four years later Roosevelt was elected to the Presidency in the midst of the Great Depression.  On the day he took office there was a run on the banks and he was forced to close them all for four days while he summoned the bankers and the politicians to Washington to find a way to keep the U.S. solvent.

Roosevelt is best remembered for his inaugural speech in which he stated: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself; nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”  Roosevelt was a man who conquered his private fears of inadequacy and humiliation and was therefore eminently qualified to speak to the country about fear and resolve and to inspire a generation to face their anxiety and move forward...

Where are our leaders now who can do the same?

The Pope and the President: A Culture of Life? 

This is the week that the Pope is lying in state in Vatican City having passed away recently. This Pope was in power for twenty six years  Not to miss any opportunity to weigh in on an important issue Senator Pete Dominici, Republican Senator from New Mexico  had this to say:  The Pope and the President were basically in agreement  both supporting  a “culture of  life”  When challenged about the difference in their views on the death penalty which Bush supports and the Pope did not, Dominici replied that he  did not really want to go into that.   

 The White House Press Secretary also promoted the idea that like that President the Pope also supported a “culture of life”.  When challenged by an outspoken reporter who mentioned that the Pope had categorically stated that the War in Iraq represented “a defeat for humanity”, the W.H. spokesperson refused to answer the query.  

On the program Crossfire this week a host just decided “not to argue” with a guest who brought forward the same contradiction: a culture of life that originated this -war in Iraq and also supports the death penalty…hmmmm 

The Christian Conservative movement which elected George Bush twice on so-called moral issues, gay marriage and abortion being top of the list, evidently  believes it has the authority to tell the rest of us what to do and how to think, yet when confronted with inconsistencies in this “culture of life” doctrine its proponents decline to answer.  This reluctance to carry on a dialogue with the American public and the other two branches of government, designed by the framers of the U.S.Constitution to function independently of the Executive Branch, has damaged the fabric of democracy, a method of governing requiring large doses of accountability and open debate.  Some would say that we citizens are currently not living in a democracy, but instead under a dictatorship, the difference being that the former encourages minority opinions while the latter does not. 

If this is so, then what must we do?

True Lies

So many things have happened in the past week that have illuminated the issue of what is truly heroic and noteworthy in our society.  Living in this media dominated world that often programs its audience how to think it is positively refreshing to view the best of what a person can do in the face of difficult even impossible life situations.

In 1980 John Walsh was  a father living in South Florida when a terrible incident occurred.  His wife Reve was shopping in Sears Department Store in Hollywood, Florida.  Mom stepped away for a few minutes leaving her six year old son with a group of other young boys  in the video game section.  When she returned several minutes later her son had disappeared.  She immediately alerted the staff in the store who apparently did nothing deciding that she was over-reacting.  Reve immediately called her husband John who rushed to the store expecting to find legions of police assembled to help find his son; however, the police, as it turns out, had not even been called.  Being a pro-active individual Walsh called his boss at the Hollywood Diplomat Hotel and together they got the press involved which was a revolutionary move at the time   They also assembled a team of volunteers to comb the area looking for young Walsh.  Days passed and there were no leads.  Walsh then contacted Good Morning America and fly with his wife to New York to appear on the program asking for help in finding his son.  A short time before he and Reve were scheduled to appear on TV his son’s decapitated head was found by fishermen floating in a canal just off the Florida turnpike.  Walsh was alerted that something had been found yet he still elected to go on the morning program reusing to believe that it was his son.  Shortly after appearing on the program he was told that it had been confirmed that the body part was indeed his son. 

What followed from that moment on is truly a story of heroic proportions; in fact, John Walsh is a true American hero.  Throughout the years Walsh continued to pursue every lead getting the FBI involved and setting up the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  Walsh also appeared on the Fox television show America’s Most Wanted which has captured an impressive number of abductors over the years by featuring the photos and  abduction details of missing children in America.  Walsh has had to live a very secluded life with his wife and three other children all these years due to death threats but he maintains that he is willing to make this sacrifice because the work that he does is so important.  This man is an example of what is best about this country and what its citizens are capable of when confronted with a challenge. 

There is another example that we are also faced with which demonstrates exactly the opposite and that is the heinous behavior of President George W. Bush and others in his cabinet who lie to send our children to war in Iraq, who grandstand over an issue of state’s rights through the shameless exploitation of the Terry Schiavo case, and who pretend to care about the welfare of American citizens while bankrupting our treasury through ponzi schemes such as the latest recommendation for the privatization of social security.  Hint: the British tried that several years ago and are now retiring that plan as it did not produce the results they intended; in fact, it was a colossal failure. 

It is sometimes  hard to remember who we are as a country but our heritage belongs to your and me and no one has the right to take that away, not even our  so-called elected .leaders

Martha Stewart, Michael Jackson and More 

The media in the U.S. is really something else.  It is so “bought and sold” that it insults the intelligence of even the average viewer.  The latest “barbarian invasion” into our collective sanity is the circus that passes for coverage of the trials and incarceration of Michael Jackson and Martha Stewart.  Give me a break, please! 

Starting with Stewart, it is not really clear exactly what she is supposed to have done, but I heard that a government witness was caught lying on the stand during her trial, but it seems that nothing happened with that, or at least it was not covered in the regular press, big surprise!  Next we have the situation with close Bush friend Kenneth Lay, the former CEO of Enron, you remember, the energy management company that cooked its books and bilked thousands of its loyal employees out of millions of dollars in stock dividends.  It is fairly well documented that Lay lied to his employee-investors during a stock meeting while he secretly sold his stock to avoid personal losses.  Now you would think that of the two “criminals” Lay would be more aggressively pursued, both in the media and in the courtroom, but this is twenty first century America where law and order is a negotiable concept if you have enough money, remember OJ Simpson?  Simpson now lives in a swank house in Miami, Florida where the homestead rule allows an individual to pour all his assets into his home and thereby avoid paying bills owed; hence, he has not paid the family of murder victim Ron Goldman anything in spite of losing a civil suit which required him to pay damages. 

Back to Lay, have you seen any coverage in the media about the fate of this guy?  Several years ago I heard a little something about a Grand Jury indictment, but nothing more; however, Martha Stewart is big news.   She was tried, convicted and sent to prison where she did her time.  Where is Kenneth Lay these days; why isn’t the media following u8p on that story which affected so many hard working citizens whose life savings were wiped out by his actions? 

The life of Michael Jackson is very sad actually; his father formed the Jackson Five and booked the children into night clubs when they were quite young and did not always supervise them it seems.  So it seems reasonable to assume that bad things may have happened to young Michael, a cute kid which may explain some of his adult behavior with little boys. Even though he is now technically an adult, it is so obvious that something is terribly wrong with him; the media hype surrounding his life and trial is really awful, like buzzards to the kill. 

Why didn’t someone in charge, close to Jackson, know that this guy was doing something weird with little boys and stop him years ago?  You never saw him with adult women or even little girls, only lots of little boys.  What kind of parent would allow their little boys to spend unsupervised time with a boy-man who looks as strange as Jackson does?  I think that this whole situation with Jackson will end badly and it seems that the entire world is just waiting for the grisly details.

What’s going on? 

While reading the local paper I read an article about Plantation High School having a special event called Battle of the Bands during which students from the high school performed to raise money for VH1 Save the Music, a campaign designed to put music back into the public school system.  While noteworthy in itself one feels the need to ask why this is necessary? 

This week the PBS program “Now” featured a news item stating that ninety per cent of the billions in new U.S. debt is owned by foreign investors with Japan investing heavily in U.S. Treasury Bonds.  There is concern that if any particular country decided to dump the dollar it could start a run on our currency. 

There was also a story on the real background of U.S. foreign aid which suggested that the real purpose in “helping” other countries is to set up a debtor program which will forever lock that nation into debt repayment to the U.S.  Remember former President John F. Kennedy creating the Peace Corps for the sole purpose of sending volunteers to countries in need who would live in the country for two years and observe local customs while training locals how to practically improve their life. 

It seems that the last forty years, with a few exceptions, have just been a backlash  against the freedoms and advancements in domestic and foreign relations that were brought about by the inspiring leaders who were mysteriously disappeared such as Senator Robert  F. Kennedy, President John Kennedy, Reverend Martin Luther King, the Black Panther leadership and others. 

Then we have the whole dance that this administration is engaging in with other countries in the “axis of evil” particularly the tango with  Iraq, the two step with Iran, and the cha cha with Syria. 

What happened to a government of the people and for the people where the taxes collected are used for music programs in the public school system, where the national budget is balanced each year, and where foreign entanglements are virtually non-existent?  What has happened to this country?   American citizens need to start asking this question before it is too late.

Seeing Things as They Are 

“Some people see things as they are and ask, Why?  Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not?  Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that crap.”  -George Carlin

In the midst of the economic, social and political meltdown that is America these days a ray of sunshine appears on the horizon, or should I say Verizon, namely a new product that will connect diverse yet important services in one place.  It is a cell phone that contains games, email, video in addition to the usual functions of  a phone.  This is probably an idea whose time ahs come since people seem to have their cell phone semi-[permanently attached to the side of their head…I was in a restaurant once and observed a diner talking on his phone throughout his entire dinner, and mine as well.  Not that I actually wanted to hear his conversation, yet it was loud enough for me to. 

So what are people actually doing with all these forms of communication?  Are people better informed, more actualized, happier?  Do they have more information that is useful at their fingertips?  Is life better as a result of this increased opportunity to “reach out and touch someone”? 

I remember when phones were all what was called “party line”; that is, you shared your land line with other people, and they would often be on “your” line when you picked up your phone, thus, conversations were short and to the point.  As far as long distance was concerned, that was a rarity.  When we received a long distance call,  it was of major importance and all parties involved were aware of its value. 

I wonder if more is necessarily better; if people really have anything of value to say with all the phone usage that is happening, if we are really valuing the opportunity or just wasting it, driving poorly and losing our manners in the process.

A Question of Ethics 

It seems that Jesse Helms is upset about Bill Clinton, former President of the U.S. during its period of prosperity and positive influence in the world.  Ever since Bush 11 appointed Mr. Clinton to oversee the Tsunami Relief along with Bush 1 Helms has suspected a conspiracy; and has stated in letters he mailed out for donations to his own personal library that “…putting a left wing, undisciplined and ethically challenged…former President of the United States into any position of power would be a tragic mistake”.  

Hmmmm. 

If ethics is defined as what serves the greatest good for the greatest number of people, then I am wondering about the ethics of the current architects of the Iraq War.  I am referring to the Bush team including Wolfowitz, Pearl, Rumsfeld, Cheney and Rice, not to mention Bush 11.  Given that this War was based on total falsehoods, is this War not a .”…tragic mistake”? 

How about the falsehoods that our new Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice perpetrated about the numerous specific warnings received in the nine months prior to 9/11 as reported in the classified version of The 9/11 Commission Report; are these also  “…a tragic mistake’? 

What about the strangely shaped box outlined on the back of the suit jacket of Bush 11 during the first Presidential debate in 2004, clearly identified by experts as a system of communication used by broadcaste3rs who need to stay in touch with their copy desk?

Was this another “…tragic mistake”? 

The proposed privatization of social security  which would cost trillions of dollars just to implement as will as providing those well-healed backers of the Bush agenda to reap the financial rewards of such investments at tax payers expense; a system that other countries such as Great Britain have tried and failed with.  Would this not be a “…tragic mistake”? 

The real question here is whether or not the American public sees a pattern emerging here; or is iit too late to do anything about this rogue administration which does not seek to behave ethically, to do the greatest good for the greatest number of its own citizens but rather to advance their Project for a New American Century as laid out in their manifesto published in the j1990’s when Clinton was President and they stated that”…implementation of our program will take a long time unless an incident like Pearl Harbor can galvanize the American public….”

“Won’t Get Fooled Again” 

In the midst of the government’s “War on Clarity” one’s wits are tested again and again.  Just this past week we have had to endure Condi Rice’s “Oliver North-like” testimony in front of Congress during the confirmation hearings for her potential new job as Secretary of State.   

Having won the “high school popularity contest” that passes for a Presidential Election, our “fearless leader” GW is marching ahead using his “mandate” with new appointments such as Alberto Gonzalez?, nominated for National Security Advisor    This is the White House  lawyer who crafted the new definition of torture that has allowed the abuses of Abu Ghraib and Gauntanamo to be excused by this administration. 

Interestingly when GW was interviewed by Barbara Walters  last week on 20/20 she opened up the discussion by saying: “So let’s begin the torture”.  Is this a “slip of the tongue”; the truth breaking through in spite of efforts by all concerned to the contrary? 

PBS presented a program recently celebrating the life of Jacqueline Bauvier Kennedy Onassis.  Jackie was the First Lady from 1961-1963.  She spoke several languages and was educated at Vassar.  During her tenure she brought culture to the White House:  musicians, poets, authors, entertainers from all walks of life and countries were welcomed at White House soirees. On a very famous visit to France, President John F. Kennedy was heard to remark: “I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris.”  French President Charles de Gaulle, a notoriously difficult leader, was charmed by the couple and America was able to maintain rapport with an important ally. 

It was interesting to note the explanation by White House Press Security in response to the government ‘s official statement that after two years of  US occupation in Iraq there are in fact, no WMD's, no poisonous gasses, no atomic weapons and no mysterious diseases, all reasons for this war which were given by Bush and Cheney. “The War in Iraq is justified still because of the Oil For Food controversy with the UN”, maintain our leaders. 

I want to ask the Red States, the Congress, and the American media: how much will it take before we don’t get fooled again?

We owe future generations and the rest of the world an answer.

As John Stossel Would Say: “Give Me A Break!”

Watching the news is almost funny these days, if you have a dark sense of humor and can detach yourself from the realization that what we see is what we are getting, if it smells like ---- that it probably is ----, know what I mean? 

First, there is the under/over reaction of the White House to the disaster in Southeast Asia.  The US pledges fifteen million, no wait it’s three hundred fifteen million, wait, GW is pledging ten thousand of his own money, and the “piece de resistance”, a photo op with brother Jeb, currently Governor of Florida, but obviously being groomed for 2008, don’t you think? Then there were the pitches to “ordinary” Americans, those not in the bottom percentile (who may qualify for a social program or two from the Bush government) or not in the top percentile (who regularly get tax relief from the Bush government), those who work several jobs just to be able to pay their credit card debt, unprecedented in the history of America.  Seeing Bush Senior sitting next to Bill Clinton asking us to all send money to people on the other side of the world when most people in this country have not recovered from the many disasters which happened here in 2004, remember the four hurricanes within six weeks in Florida, is just ridiculous. 

Then there is the continuing revamping of the messaged on the “War on Terrorism” and how well it is actually going;  it is just that nasty “liberal” press that spoils it all by mentioning all those negative things, like the lack of armor for the tanks in Iraq, the abuse of detainees in Iraq, Guantanamo, and Afghanistan, and the total lack of preparation for the invasion of Iraq, little things like that. 

Yesterday I was watching a program on MSNBC which featured both military and governmental experts on both sides of the fence in which several pundits concurred that recycling the National Guard and the Reserve several times by extending their agreed-upon tours of duty was not the way to run the “war”.  Yet GW persists in defending the outrageous behavior of this Secretary of Defense by stating, with a straight face, that  “Donald Rumsfeld is a bit tough on the outside, but really a nice guy  on the inside.”  Rumsfeld is the guy who asked to speak to the troops on a recent visit to Kuwait and when a soldier asked him why there were no armor for the tanks replied that  “…it is really a matter of physics…and by the way you can get blown up in a tank even if you have armor….”

The government released a report on WMDs……… 

The Loyal Opposition 

In the UK the political system allows for the party in power to be challenged by the party that is not in power; in fact, it is expected that a vigorous debate will be the order of the day on all matters pertaining to the business of governing.  If you have ever watched the weekly sessions televised on PBS from the House of Commons, where the Prime Minister is virtually grilled by MP’s on all matters relevant to the people, you will notice that nothing is held back by the questioners and that the PM rises to answer each and every query in detail.  Actually Mr. Blair frequently refers to his notes when answering the very specific, blunt questions that are lobbed at him for upwards of an hour by “The Loyal Opposition”. 

Since Britain is a Constitutional Monarchy, the ruling Monarch is the titular head of the government and as such has the duty of opening Parliament each session and “appointing” the head of the government.  During WWII the King decided to form what is called a “coalition government” and appointed Winston Churchill to lead that government for the duration of the war; thus assuring that all political parties in Britain would be forced to work as a team during the war. 

After the war ended it was back to business as usual in the UK; Winston Churchill was not elected, and once again, the Loyal Opposition, the party not in power, publicly posed a different point of view on all policy matters.  Since the election process is much shorter in Britain, six weeks; and as the party that is elected with the most seats to the House of Commons, similar to our House of Representatives, presents the leader of the party to the Monarch to be recognized as the Prime Minister; the Loyal Opposition has all its “shadow” cabinet members in place, as well as its policies that are publicly known through debate as the Loyal Opposition; so the transfer of power occurs the next day after the election. 

Watching the discussion in the houses of Congress this week about the electoral college votes being officially registered for the next government here in the US was very interesting in this “free” society where the people are charged to govern themselves.  Many of our elected representatives appeared outraged that anyone would challenge the results of the 2004 election at all.  Voting irregularities have been occurring for many years and the 2000 election certainly brought these to the fore; however, in spite of efforts by Representative Maxine Walters to correct these inconsistencies, the 2005 election was similarly marred, especially in Ohio, New Mexico, and possibly Florida. Yet to listen to the rhetoric of some members, mostly Republican, in our Congress, it would appear that any discussion of voting procedures is unseemly, though the newspapers in the rest of the world were carrying this discussion as front page news, presumably because they deemed it part of our political process.   The real question is why don’t all Americans see debate as an indication of strength of our “democracy”?  Surely the cornerstone of a free society is its willingness to openly discuss all aspects of its process of government likewise one would expect the national press to dutifully report this discussion, in a free and open society….

We can choose to be peaceful 

The intense nature of this holiday season makes you wonder what is the point?  Today I was standing in the not-moving line at the library window for video pickup, when I realized that I had a choice to make as to how to handle the situation.  My schedule is overfull, just like most people, and the last thing that I wanted to do was wait to be served.  My first response was to be pissed off and just leave in a huff without my reserved CD.  My second response was to stay in line and be obviously annoyed, muttering, not quietly, to no one in particular, and also pace back and forth. All very predictable reactions to a situation that I could not control but wanted to. 

Then, after consulting with myself, I came upon a third option, which was to engage the person in line ahead of me in conversation about the predicament that we both shared, feeling impatient.  The resulting interaction was both entertaining and enlightening, after which another librarian appeared to help out with the line; something that both of us actually wanted. 

What I learned from this small miracle is that we always have a choice with regard to how we react to a situation; we don’t have to be victims.   We are adults; we can always make a different choice. 

Tis the Season to be Frantic 

There is something different about this year’s holiday season, probably because there is something different about the whole year could it be the four hurricanes we sustained in Florida, the  abrasive Presidential “selection” process, the contentious and never- ending war in Iraq, the declining value of the dollar in the world market, the fictitious, rosy  reports from the media about the State of the Union, the drumbeat of interruptions from myriad technological devices that never allow any moment of potential stillness  to go undisturbed? 

Driving in traffic in South Florida is never a pleasant experience even though we have near- perfect weather and wide roads, which should ensure the best road conditions.  The problem is the drivers who are really unable to handle talking on their cell phone while turning a corner, in spite of having passed the Florida “driving test” with flying colors.  

Most people I have talked to .are totally overwhelmed with the need to shop for presents, food and decorations which has been thrust upon them by the impending holiday, on top of their already tight schedule. It is all just another chore since we don’t have enough time in this country to vacation or relax anyway.   

So what is the answer? 

Perhaps we should take a page out of the President’s book?  Just walk around, wave and smile a lot, reiterate your support for the positive view of anything and everything and above all, never answer any direct questions that involve unpleasant facts.  Just today the President was featured on Fox News explaining that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is just a bit abrasive sometimes on the outside, but on the inside he is really a great person.     Never mind the lack of planning, the lack of equipment, and the lack of international support for the War in Iraq that Rumsfeld supervised.  According to our Commander in Chief we should all just trust him and stop worrying about minor details such as the lack of armour for US tanks that one of our troops mentioned to Rumsfeld recently.  After all, as the Secretary said, even if the tank had armour it could still be blown up anyway…. 

Cheers! 

The Unmet Promise of America 

To many people around the world America is a promise, an idea, an ideal that captures the imagination in a way nothing else has in recent history.  Freedom, equality of opportunity, a government of the people, by the people, for the people-what’s not to like?

In the movie “Control Room”, a documentary filmed in Iraq during the American invasion, a reporter for the news station Al Jazeera expressed faith in the American constitution and way of life even though American military forces had apparently purposely just bombed its Baghdad headquarters.  

Abbie Hoffman, great American political activist, once stated that the response to political activism is first to trivialize, then to demonize, then to ignore. 

Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American to be elected to the U.S. Congress, stated “I don’t measure America by its achievement, but by its potential.” Wish that were so, but I believe that the time is past where a country that is over two hundred years old can still make this claim.  This statement is similar to parents trying to explain why their twenty- something child is still living at home deciding he wants to do with his life. America is a force in the world; a superpower whose voice and actions carry weight. So there is no room for excuses.

I received an email from a friend who was commenting on the recent Presidential election summarizing it up as a polarizing event that went smoothly on Election Day whose results we will all learn to live with.  All I can say is that I will never learn to live with mediocrity, deceit, and stupidity.  I would hope that all thinking Americans would not either because the rest of the world expects more from this country at this critical juncture in world history; we must be the light of the world that John Kennedy referred to in his speeches.  Selecting f or the second time an individual whose very physical presence suggest arrogance and pride, who adopts a bullying attitude toward the United Nations and who announced “bring it on” as a foreign policy is the antithesis of what this country is supposed to stand for: liberty and justice for all.

America: The Divided States 

In 1992 I voted for Ross Perot along with twenty percent of voters; Perot was registered in fifty states and was supported by an informed and energized base of senior citizens.  Another twenty percent of the voting population claimed to want to vote for Perot, but were quoted by pollsters as saying, “They did not think that he could win”, so they decided not to “waste their vote”. 

In 2000 I voted for Ralph Nader along with about five percent of the voting population, and then, of course, through a contested election G.W. Bush was selected by the Supreme Court as the forty-third President of these Divided States.  Subsequently the last four years have been just awful due in large part to the Bush Team’s predilection for violence as a foreign policy.  Of course, it is popular to justify the disregard for human rights as a “necessary evil” in the War on Terror.  As my Dad said, we do have to defend ourselves in the face of the threats posed “pre” and “post” 9/11; however, the way in which our government has chosen to acquit itself in the presence of this danger is an abomination and an affront to all sensitive people everywhere. 

In 2004 I voted for John Kerry, partly because he is “not Bush”, and partly because I believe that he can be a good leader, if he is able to stay focused on his core values: environmental stewardship, political activism, international cooperation, corporate regulation.  I have an election button which features a double photo of the young John Lennon and the equally young John Kerry, both with long hair, with the inscription “Imagine.”  For those who know the song penned by Lennon, its lyrics entice the world of humanity to “Imagine there’s no country, imagine there’s no…………, in other words we could imagine peace and see what happens.  Lennon spent the later part of his short life having “Peace Ins” and asking people to consider peace as an option.  While President, Richard Nixon attempted to have him deported from t he U.S. primarily because Lennon was very visibly against the Vietnam War; how dare he, a foreigner meddle in the business of war! 

The promise of endless war by the Bush Team is not only unappealing, but it is also stupid.  Read “Imperial Hubris” by Anonymous, a high ranking Intelligence Officer in the U.S. government in which Anon argues that we will not win peace with the Middle East until we make an effort to understand why they are so pissed off.  Reason number one: the Black Ops part of  our government is busy causing chaos in other countries, unbeknownst to most of us ordinary citizens, that is not in the best interest of the citizens of those nations, and Reason number two, the U.S. State Department usually sides with the Jewish part of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and has equipped that nation with nuclear weapons while waging war to control the acquisition of such by any Arab country, in other we are playing favorites and it is not going unnoticed by Muslims. 

 In his latest videotape Bin Laden tells the American people that their safety lies in their own hands, not with any political leader.  He also describes how wealthy and corrupt leaders have disregarded the needs of the people in Saudi Arabia and also in the United States.  Hmmm, what an interesting parallel he draws.  Evidently Bin Laden has been writing letters to the American people for years telling them exactly what he is doing and why he is doing it.  Perhaps actually having access to this info and reading it with a more open mind might allow a more flexible approach to this “problem”.  In the aftermath of 9/11 the government contacted writers in Hollywood and asked them to write scenarios that a terrorist might consider vis-à-vis the U.S. since some report said that its cause was a “failure of the imagination”.   Could that also be a failure of imagining positive outcomes and positive solutions? 

Bin Laden: Safety is Up to You

Our current political arena is flooded with issues on the local, state, federal and international level that a responsible citizen really must understand and deal with; this is one of the many requirements for living in a democracy. As it has been said, eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. We are the generation that is now being asked to take on the responsibility of our society  in the midst of a  very confusing and contradictory environment. 

The cable channel C-Span2 featured author Corey Robin whose new book Fear: The History of a Political Idea discusses the idea that with the fall of the Soviet Union and the disappearance of the Cold War between the US and the USSR, our country no longer had the identifiable bad guy that we could define our national character against, and in the vacuum that ensued, the clarification of value in the new paradigm did not come to fruition through national debate as it could have.  Instead the politics of undefined fear took hold and was inflamed with the attack of 9/11.  The American public went into shock at the sight of the destruction of the Twin Towers being repeatedly shown in the aftermath with the possible effect that many are still in PTSS, thus unable to think and reason, only to emote.  This might explain the venal nature of this year’s elections. 

Kevin Costner said as much on this week’s edition of the HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher. Costner is neither Republican nor Democrat; he would like to hear more debate on the numerous domestic issues that face this country thus Ralph Nader should be included in all debates so that other opinions can be heard by all. Nader has been demonized by the Democrats and blamed for the Gore loss in 2000, and this time around he is being courted and financially supported by Republicans in key battleground states with the intention of taking votes away from John Kerry. Costner appeared sad and confused that our democracy is not allowing its citizens to hear any politician’s views in the face of the difficulties facing our country. How can any citizen decide what is best and how to vote if the information is not readily available in the midst of a campaign? 

In Britain, candidates have six weeks in which to campaign; any candidate may put forward a small deposit that entitles them to equal time on television, which will allow the voters to make an informed decision.  Money is not an issue; neither is party affiliation.  In fact, there are currently four parties in Britain; the conservative, The Liberals, the Labor and the Social Democrats; hence there are more choices and more coalition building within the country. 

A pollster was asked who he thought would win the election if it were held imminently and he said that if “Not Bush” was the only other choice, “Not Bush” would win. It seems that a majority of the people of America want a change, but they also want more choice as well. Isn’t this the American way’s freedom of choice? 

Bin Laden sent a new tape to Al Jazeera this week which has been roundly condemned, but in the book Imperial Hubris the author, who is a high ranking intelligence expert, states that Bin Laden has been trying to communicate with the American people for years about his views of America and the reasons for his threats and attacks, but we have not really been able to hear those messages, possibly for the same reason as we don’t get to hear Ralph Nader and other third party candidates: our paternalistic government is deciding for us what is important and useful and what is not. Bin Laden stated quite clearly in his latest message that it is the actions of the American government, not the American people, that he objects to. Unfortunately, most Americans have no idea what the Black Ops part of our government has been up to; the rest of the world knows only too well that the CIA and other shadowy figures have been busy interfering in the business of other governments for years (Allende in Chile, Diem in South Vietnam, Noreiga in Panama, and other dealings between the Bush family, Don Rumsfeld and the Saudi Royal Family). We Americans do not really possess all the information that we would need on a national or international level to make informed decisions about what direction we want our country to go in and who we want to lead us. We are in the dark, so to speak, and yet the rest of the world has such faith in our ability to govern ourselves. In the film Control Room, one of the Al Jazeera reporters says that even though Bush has misled the world over the war in Iraq, he believes in the American constitution and the ability of the American election process to correct this mistake. 

America is an ideal of freedom that has excited the world; it is now time for the American people to live up to that promise first made in 1776 by demanding, installing and supervising a government of the people, by the people and for the people, so help us all. As the folk group Relatively Yours states in their song I Pledge Allegiance: “I pledge allegiance to the people of this country and of all the world, and to the republic, which lends a hand, one planet under peace, with liberty and just for all.” 

  BBC Question Time: An Opportunity for Civil Debate 

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the taping of the popular television show Question Time, hosted by David Dimbleby in Miami this week. The show is live and is televised directly to Great Britain and to the world on the same day.  The reason for the taping in Miami was the importance of the upcoming Presidential election and also the role that the state of Florida played in the 2000 election. 

The show was presented in a town meeting format with five guest panelists: Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 9/11 filmmaker; Sydney Blumenthal, former advisor to President Clinton; Richard Littlejohn, Sun reporter; Lida Rodriguez-Tasseff, Chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Electoral Reform Coalition; and David Frum, the Bush assistant responsible for the phrase “Axis of Evil.” 

The audience filled out question forms beforehand, and a number of people were selected to ask their questions during the show. The audience was strongly encouraged to respond to the discussions of the guest panelists and also to the opinions stated by other audience members. 

The audience was quite diverse, comprised of various backgrounds and political views. As a result, the discussion was lively and informative, yet courteous and civil. The moderator David Dimbleby skillfully negotiated the repartee between the panelists and the audience making sure that all had a chance to voice a question or opinion. At one point a gentleman at the back of the room started shouting over the commentary of one of the panelists and Dimbleby lightly intervened explaining that if the man continued on his rampage, no one would be heard. The man became quiet, the panelists finished his thought, and Dimbleby then invited the protestor to continue with his point, allowing a civilized debate to occur. 

At the end of the show, David Dimbleby asked for a “generosity of Spirit” among the panelists, at which point Michael Moore reached over and shook hands with Bush associate David Frum. After all the acrimony displayed in America between the different political groups, it would be useful to learn something here from the British – that the civil discourse, not hateful rhetoric, is the foundation of a democratic society. 

Voting in the US in 2004: A Lesson in Civics

It seems that all Americans are being given an in depth civics lesson, whether they want it or not, due in part to the fact that voting in this upcoming Presidential election is proving increasingly difficult.  Reports of voting problems are rampant, and not just in Florida this time, although Florida is having its fair share of issues in t hat department. My “favorite” is the missing 55,000 absentee ballots that were supposedly mailed by the office of the new Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes; the “old” one Miriam Oliphant was removed last year by Governor Jeb Bush for incompetence and cronyism.  The Post Office says that they don’t know why these ballots were not received by voters who requested them Michael Mayo, local columnist for the Sun-Sentinel wrote in a recent column that stamps required to mail the ballot was 80 cents yet amount indicated on the envelope from the Elections office is only 60 cents so there was concern that these ballots would not be returned with correct postage, and thus, not be received in time for the November 2 election. 

Early voting has been available to voters in Broward County seven days a week since October 18th, yet   I have been unable to actually vote, due to long lines at my chosen location.  Since citizens are able to vote at any number of locations at this point prior to November 2nd, we are not even talking about having to go to your exact precinct on the specific day of the election.  This greater latitude should provide for greater freedom in voting, however, it seems that with 1.5 million new voters here in Florida, the system is struggling to adapt to a galvanized citizenry.  International observers from fifteen countries will be in Florida for this election; pundits are calling this a “world election” due to the immense interest in its outcome. 

My father who lives in Ohio mentioned to me on Friday October 29^th that he expects that Ohio will be the “Florida” of the 2004 election due to paper ballots, controversy over the proper weight of the ballot, the use of a butterfly ballot which once again does not line up names of the candidates properly, According to Bill Moyer's Now, a news magazine on PBS, half a million more poll workers are still needed for this election nationwide. 

Our democracy needs the attention of all of us for it to work properly, and for some reason, this is news to many of us.  Wouldn’t you think that during the twelve years many children are held hostage in the public school system, information on voting procedures and how our government works would be included?  I met a young woman this week in a local store who espoused an interest in voting in this election, but who realized too late that she needed to be registered one month before the actual election. I encouraged her to register now anyway, so that in the future, she would be able to vote.

It has been suggested that voting was originally designed by the framers of the Constitution to include only white property owners, as it was assumed that they would definitely take the time and trouble to be informed of issues that affected their welfare whereas other segments of our society would not.  With twenty-two million single women not voting in the last Presidential election, and a less than fifty per cent voter turnout in previous elections, perhaps they were right?

George Carlin and the Politics of Disenchantment

The Sixties comedian George Carlin recently visited the South Florida area for several gigs. Carlin was famous for his seven words you cannot say on television and other skits having to do with the futility of life.  Carlin is disillusioned with politics in this country believing that democracy has been sold out, so why bother voting because it is all the same, no matter who you vote for.

This election has so many ifs and buts attached to it that voters may well decide that the chances of a fair election are slim to none; however, as much as it is the right of any American to abstain from voting, it is noteworthy that the election of 1800 between Jefferson and Burr was so close that it went into the House where it was voted on thirty times before Jefferson won by one vote.

My great concern is not that Americans won’t vote, or even that their vote won’t be counted, but that the media will somehow influence this election by their predictions the day of the election, much like they did in 2000.  They should be prohibited from announcing any winners or losers until the following day, and then only with a caveat that this is their opinion, and not a fact. 

What with the Sinclair Network, a media consolidation with sixty nine stations nationwide, intending to show an anti Kerry film as a directive from the Head Office, anyone remember Clear Channel influencing its station to drop the Dixie Chicks after lead singer Natalie Mains criticized Bush while visiting London; so much for free speech.  Actually what is free about speech on the networks in this country when both candidates combined have spent over a billion dollars during this campaign advertising, mostly on television?

We need to have the airwaves freely carry all candidates for a Presidential election so that the voters truly have a choice.  Then the networks will not have so much power over the American people.

A free country needs to have a free media with free elections made possible by free access to information by free political speech.  Let’s get the corporations out of the government.  There is a documentary movie just out called “The Corporation” which addresses this issue.  I hope that people go to see it.  As Nader and Perot so rightly point out, corporate ownership and interference in government is a threat to the proper working of the free enterprise system, and as we can all see by the barrage of paid political advertisements on television. 

As he left office, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower commented that America needed to beware of the influence and power of the “military-industrial” complex, and in private he was reported to have added “congress,"

“Breaking News” 

This week I was watching one of my favorite morning shows on tape only to find out that Channel 6 had decided to interrupt it with something they refer to as “breaking news”, actually a story of a yacht burning in the Fort Lauderdale river.   Unfortunate as it probably is to the owner, this event is not something that I need to see, let alone watch for several minutes. 

I remember several years ago when the Elian Gonzalez incident was front page news in Florida, all the television channels chose to interrupt all programs at a whim; one time it was the Grandmothers arriving at the airport in Atlanta from Cuba, a full five minutes several times during the same hour.  When I called to complain the television station responded that many people were interested in their arrival. 

Back in the “old days” when news was actually reserved for the News Hour, twice a day, it would have been unthinkable for any program to be interrupted, except in extreme situations, such as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the murder of John Lennon.  Otherwise, we could wait a few hours to find out what happened that day. 

Since we now live in Short Attention Span Theater, as they say, it seems that nothing can wait, even if that something is really not that important, it still remains urgent in the minds of the media.  No wonder more and more kids are diagnosed with ADD, Attention Deficit Disorder; gee, I wonder why. 

The First Debate: So What’s New Here? 

The highly anticipated first 2004 Presidential Debate took place last week.  I must confess that I have only watched about one half hour of my taped version so far; however, I have heard many comments about how each candidate performed, from co-workers, friends, family and news analysis. The overwhelming consensus seems to be that President Bush was out-pointed and out-debated by Senator Kerry, a former Captain of the Yale Debate Team. 

I was watching The Daily Show last week which featured an important Republican strategist who stated that since Kerry was known as a debate champion he would be expected to do well in the upcoming debates, but that Bush was a leader and not necessarily a debater.  Upon reflection it seems that this Republican knew that Bush would not do well the following week so he pre-framed the result.  

I am amazed at how many people have said that they feel sorry for Bush since he seemed so disoriented, so confused, so tired, so ill at ease.  I am equally surprised that anyone is surprised at how much this President does not know and makes excuses for his mistakes, There is a political ad running recently which said how can you correct your mistakes if you won’t admit to making them? 

Bush says,” it is hard work to change from a tyranny to a democracy”.  This is a problem of our foreign policy that the New Conservatives have put forward front and center since the Bush administration came to power:  American will solve the problems of the world. 

Kerry: “Bush’s father said he did not go into the Iraq in 1991 because there was no viable exit strategy; our troops would be occupiers in a hostile land, which is where we find ourselves today.” 

For those who watched “Fahrenheit 9/11” and saw the “deer in the headlight look” on the face of Bush Jr. when he was told that the country was under attack.  Actually he was told that a plane hit the World Trade Center before he even left his hotel for the elementary school, but he got in his limo and proceeded onto a photo op regardless. 

So, what is the news here-that Bush is a liar, that he misled the American public, that he did not think ahead, that he sticks to the “same old same old”? 

I say, give me a break, and a new leader, soon.

Andy Rooney’s Great Idea: 

A One-Hour Nightly News Broadcast for Americans! 

Since CBS news anchor Dan Rather committed the great faux pas of falsely reporting the badly researched article on the military record of President Bush a few weeks ago, there has been a storm of protest from the Republicans about, once again, the “liberal bias of the news in this country”.  Unfortunately, this time they may be right!  It seems that Rather may have rushed to judgment on the preferred recruitment of young Bush for the Texas Air National Guard, partly because he wants it to be true, rather than proving it is true through documentation and careful research, the hallmarks of good journalism, something that we should be able to count on from Dan Rather and “60 Minutes”! 

On last night’s program resident commentator Andy Rooney, who ahs worked for CBS news for fifty-five years, offered a challenge to Sumner Redstone, President of Viacom, owner of this program.  Put together one-hour nightly news broadcast, which includes international news so that people in this country can start to learn about the rest of the world.  Rooney commented that there is too little international news on American television; most nightly news is allotted only twenty minutes, not enough time to actually cover any story in depth, in this age of twenty four hour entertainment, I remember watching the nightly news with Huntley and Brinkley and Walter Cronkite, not necessarily entertaining but certainly informative. In the UK the news is read and so you have a News Reader, hence, the purpose of their news is more educational and less entertaining.

All this need to entertain, as opposed to educated, seems to go along with the computer age, where children first learn to play video games, and then go to school where the teacher is put in the position of competing with the latest Madison avenue character, most of whom are fairly stupid-look at Barney! 

Rooney says that he wants to have a segment on this newly proposed nightly news hour called “Wait a Damn Minute, with Andy Rooney” where he can respond to the news, as it is read. 

I hope that Mr. Redstone listens to Rooney and incorporates this great idea immediately.  Americans are in dire need of some real news reporting as many people do not have cable television where C-Span (covers the U.S. House and Senate, BBC News, and other more international news sources are available to the viewer.

Hooker Clothes for Young Girls 

John Stossel has a segment on the program 20/20 called Give Me a Break every week on Friday night.  This week he opined about the trend in clothing and such for young girls which more and more dresses younger and younger girls in clothing that would have been suitable for prostitutes twenty years ago.  Such is the transformation of our society that skimpy midriffs, crotch hugging jeans, see through tops, and suggestive inscribed messages are all commonplace clothing for the tween and teen age groups. 

One young girl who was interviewed by Stossel commented that shops did not even sell shorts long enough to meet her school’s length requirements.  Another girl stated that the shorter the skirt the more cool it was to wear.  One eight-year-old when asked why shops only sold this type of risqué clothing responded by saying, “I guess that they just want to make money.” 

A few month’s ago a popular magazine featured photos of Madonna’s seven-year-old daughter playing at the park with her Mom on a slide.   A charming family portrait except that this young girl was dressed in a tight fitting skimpy top and figure hugging skirt and wearing thick soled high rise shoes with her hair pulled back in a bun; the ensemble was not only unsuitable for playing in the park, but also made the child look about fifteen, not seven. 

When my daughter was about this age MTV was just getting started; it was aired in primetime and much of the material was not really “G” rated.  The influence of the sexualization of children had begun and continues unabated today. 

The problem is that no one seems to be that concerned.  A parent of two girls remarked that she would not let her daughters hang out at the mall just because other parents had caved in, yet only a few years into the teens she relented and was allowing her fourteen year old to go off unsupervised and dressed up looking much older, so much older that a forty-something man asked her out. 

The internet has not helped the situation what with older guys and pedophiles surfing the net looking for “fresh meat” and finding it in spite of parent’s best efforts.  One forty something guy, a coach for the local softball team, pursued a thirteen-year-old girl on his team.  The parents found out and had the guy arrested.  They checked their daughter’s computer, located in the living room, continuously, even the email; yet, the perp was able to “IM” the girl,  convince her to take up jogging, and meet her for secret trysts. 

The commercialization of our children is yet another sign of a dysfunctional society.  Parents seem unwilling or unable to take control of corporate America’s calculated communication with their children.  Bill O’Reilly stated many years ago that parents need to get in the middle of this manipulation or Madison Avenue will become the parent instead, and who knows where this will all end up?

The Twenty-Eighth Olympiad: a way for individuals and nations to compete in peace

Watching the lush panoramic views of Greece which open up each day’s events at this 2004 Summer Olympics brings to mind a legacy of physical culture which has survived 3600 years of human history.  In a time when most of the news of the world is negative,

 it is positively refreshing to be absorbed in the culture of  hard work, enthusiasm, accomplishment, pride in performance, skills perfected.  It is stress- relieving to get into the world of focused sport, disciplined effort, stated goals.

As the head of the Olympic Committee stated at the impressive and graceful Opening Ceremonies the purpose of the Games is to allow the nations of the world to compete in an atmosphere of peace.  

On the other hand here at home we have the controversy over the 9/11 report which has generated yet another level of debate about national security and who did what when. A family member of one of the victims was commenting on C-Span this week about the Commission’s Report. .  Her recommendations include the following: giving everyone in charge the benefit of the doubt, getting away from finger pointing, supporting the men and women of the intelligence agencies who work 24/7.  This woman recounted the poisonous atmosphere that imbued Washington DC during the Clinton administration  saying  “let us not to return to this now”. 

All good points; however, David Brock discusses the continuous poisonous attitude on the part of the Republican Party in his book “Blinded by the Right”.  As a closeted gay man Brock carried out aggressive attack actions for the Party for years until he realized that it was wrong.  Unfortunately, the Party seems to be continuing its negative approach to politics with its current million-dollar budget of Kerry attack ads. 

Speaking of bad attitudes what is the story with the billion-dollar American basketball team which was beaten this week by a poorer Puerto Rican team?  Seems that “money can’t buy me love” after all.  Isn’t that the whole point of the Olympics?  Aren’t amateurs supposed to be the ones competing, not highly paid professionals? 

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference”.  I am glad that we have an Olympics to remind us of what is really important: hard work, discipline, personal best, skills development, pride in diversity.  All values that would help this nation and the world to live together in harmony.                               

“Attack Ads are a Cheap Way to Advertise” 

Former President Bill Clinton was a guest on the Daily Show this week promoting his new book and talking about the election.  Host Jon Stewart asked Clinton about the attack ads that the Republican National Committee is currently running about Kerry’s service record.  This is the same group that attacked John McCain’s military record as a POW in Vietnam, when he was running in 2000 against George Bush.  The Republicans also attacked Max Cleland, a disabled Vietnam Veteran, who was running for Congress a few years ago. How absurd is it when Bush and Cheney never even served in the military and yet their “re-election team” thinks that it is somehow legitimate to attack the military records of other candidates who have?  Could this be a projection of their obvious inadequacies? 

July 2004 is the thirty- fifth anniversary of Woodstock.  Life magazine celebrates this seminal event with a special edition.  Half a million people camped out for three days of love and music and nothing else, as Max Yasgur stated in the movie “Woodstock”.  It rained several times, two people were born and two people died, which according to the Chief Medical Officer in charge, was really amazing for a “city” that size; normally one would expect twenty to twenty- five deaths. Fifty thousand people were expected to attend yet ten times that showed up so the toilets, the food, the medical backup were all inadequate f or the crowd; it could have easily turned into a disaster, yet everyone cooperated to make the festival a success. New York State Thruway was closed.  Early on the fences keeping out those without tickets were trampled and it became a free event; the organizers were only “twenty-somethings” and they did not actually make their money back for thirteen years, yet the vibe at the festival was “groovy”.  Early on the organizers told the crowd, …”the only way we are going to make it through is if you all see everyone as your brother”, and they did. 

Those of us who lived through the sixties really believed that the world was changing for the better; that individual compassion and international cooperation was the roadmap for the future.  John Kennedy asked Americans to…” ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  Thousands joined the Peace Corps traveling to foreign countries for a two- year stint, basically helping natives improve life on their own terms. There was an undeclared war-Vietnam:  students on campuses all over the country protested, many who registered for the draft were called up and either left the United States for Canada or a applied for “CO status” here at home.  There was a sense of injustice and the need to do something about American hegemony; debate was everywhere. 

Bill Clinton, the first Baby Boomer President, told Jon Stewart that the only way to handle the Republican attacks is to “not let them get away with it”, to respond to what has been said, to set the record straight.  He remarked that McCain should have fought back because…”they will do this as long as it works, and they can get away with it.” During the Vietnam War people who protested against the war were told to “love it or leave it”, meaning get out of the country if you disagree with government policy. It is about time that the Baby Boomers, who are the largest group in the country right now, remember the promise of the sixties: peace and love.  It is our heritage; but the direction that this country is taking currently is the polar opposite.  Those of us who want something better need to speak up loud and clear; it is our right as American citizens.

 Cell Phone: Life Extension Cord

Cell phones have become yet one more essential part of our culture that we once survived without, not too long ago.  How  did so many people get through the day without answering their own private, portable phone?  Children managed to grow up, business was conducted, emergencies were handled, life went on.  These days, everyone seems to have a cell phone, glued to their ear, much of the day,  especially in public, where other people can see them.  I wonder if this close attachment to technology helps some people actually feel more connected, or is it an excuse to ignore the real people who are in their actual environment?

I have watched patrons in restaurants go through a whole meal while talking on their cell phones.  I have interacted with tellers in banks who serve customers while on their phones.  I have observed customers in line at the supermarket chatting on their phones oblivious to employees trying to ask them whether they wanted paper or plastic.

Last week while entering my favorite grocery store I noticed that every single person grabbing a shopping cart  was wheeling it in with one hand because their was a cell phone in the other one. 

Cell phones help people avoid the worst case scenario in our status conscious society: being seen to be alone.

Unfortunately, cell phones did not help the victims of 9-11.  One intrepid passenger on a flight called her husband where he worked, at the Pentagon, mid-hijack to ask him what to do   He did not know what to tell her.  Minutes later the plane crashed.

Would that cell phones could protect us from all the difficulties of life, but they don’t; however, one gets the impression that many users would like to think that their cell phone connects them to some kind of solution, much like the British drinking endless cups of tea during the Battle for Britain in WWII.  

Following the Rules: why bother?

In Western society we live in a world that encourages freedom of expression and self-reliance often to the point of selfishness.  Post-Sixties life has brought the challenges of adulthood to baby boomers who grew into reluctant adults not eager to leave behind their rebellious, critical adolescence that helped to shape the way we live and how we see things.  Many changes occurred that were positive such as the Birth Control Pill, Women’s Liberation, the Peace Movement, the Environmental Movement, Children’s Rights, Civil Rights, etc; however, the Peter Pan Syndrome is also part of this transformation of society which speaks to be reluctance of this generation to become the Authority figures that they are now required to be.

Recently I watched an Oprah show in which an obese single Mother made continuous excuses for her four-year-old son who weighs 155 pounds.  She insisted that he had a medical problem even though repeated tests did not verify her claim.  Both Mother and Grandmother, the daytime caretaker, professed complete nutrition in the home.

Dr. Phil, the moderator, challenged their self-righteous disclaimers of any responsibility in raising this obese child suggesting instead that they “do the right thing”, provide a healthy lifestyle.  He told them, “Your job as a parent (guardian) is to tell him what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear. Your unwillingness to step up and do what’s required, instead of what feels good to you at the time, is resulting in your child paying too high a price for your guilt   In your desire to not be a source of pain to your child, to not do to him what done to you in your life, you contribute to his overweight condition. To prepare him for life he needs ego strength, self-mastery, self-image, to be proud of who he is.”

It seems that as a society we have evolved to the point where saying “No”, setting and maintaining boundaries, observing rules and regulations, are all somewhat outdated.

“Do what feels good” is the order of the day for many people.  Children are allowed free reign over the rights of adults in public places, in school, and in the home; yet we still expect that order will prevail even though discipline, the foundation of a civil society, is largely absent.  Adults also misbehave frequently through road rage, air rage, domestic abuse, etc.  What is wrong with this picture?

Last week I personally experienced three separate instances of selfish behavior by adults, which resulted in disorder in my day.  In one instance, while driving on a road that had a speed limit of 50 miles per hour, I was forced to stop suddenly when a car pulled out part way into the lane I was traveling in.  The driver of the car then continued to pull out in my lane, as she held up her hand in an obscene gesture.

The second instance involved a female driver who virtually turned into me as I was crossing the road in the pedestrian section in front of a grocery store.  She opened her window and hurled verbal epithets at me.

The third instance occurred when I was working at the Front Desk in our office during the hours we are closed during the day. In spite of a sign on the front door that said “No Solicitation”, two salesmen marched into the office with flyers to distribute. I was speaking on the phone and they proceeded to thrust their papers at me even though I told them I was not interested.  When asked if they had noticed the sign on the door, they replied that they had indeed, but that they were just “here to help”.  On the way out, after having their overtures rejected several times, they exclaimed loudly in a caustic voice, “Have a Nice Day”.

As a society, we have to have it both ways. We want to be independent and self-reliant and take all our problems to a lawyer to solve; we want to profess peace and fight each other at every opportunity; we want clean air and water yet we have a President who has gutted the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency); we want to be healthy and at the same time eat what we want whenever; we want intelligent children yet our school system still teaches by rote; we want law and order yet we want to flout rules and regulations whenever it suits us.

Is it possible that Baby Boomers who are now the authority figures that they so vigorously rejected many years ago, remember “Don’t trust anyone over thirty”, are in a state of contradiction of values which they have been unable or unwilling to resolve? The resulting mixed messages leave a gap in generational ethics that has yet to bridged.  “Back in Control” is a handbook for parents and other authority figures which was written by a former Los Angeles probation officer in which he states that there are three prerequisites for effective “parenting” or guardianship: clear guidelines, consistent enforcement, effective follow through. 

In terms of our society, our government, our schools, our homes, we might well ask:

Crime and Punishment Redux

Former Governor Ryan of Illinois chose to commute the sentences of inmates on Death Row before he left office recently.  Based on three years of research in which Ryan spoke with prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges who revealed statistics illustrating the total failure of our current justice system, It seems that six out of ten inmates on Death Row are innocent.

Ryan pardoned four inmates, three of whom were released immediately from prison after being incarcerated for ten, fifteen and twenty years. It seems that their confessions were coerced by police in order to “solve the crime”.  Ryan advocated videotaped confessions, as well as other improvements, for the justice system in the state of Illinois; however, his recommendations have not been put into effect; hence, he believes that the only way to address the inequities and inconsistencies inherent in the system was to eliminate Death Row.

The families of the victims were outraged by this turn of events and were vocal in their disagreement with the Governor.  Ryan pointed out that the needs of the families are really not part of the current system, which is not supposed to be an enforcer of retaliation so that the families can “have closure”.

Most people would agree that offenses against society need to be addressed by segregating the perpetrators from the law-abiding public; however, the next step is controversial.   Should we as a society take the short view and simply punish the offender or should we take the long view and rehabilitate them?

A recent Oprah show addressed the issue of domestic violence and how to handle the perpetrator in those situations.  The panel recommended that these crimes catalogued as “misdemeanors”, involving arrest, prosecution, and probation with redemption. The batterers are sent to special programs where they learn to deal with the long-standing issues that led to the violence, thereby addressing the root of the problem.  As one panel member observed, “If we do not get there we will not solve this problem… we need to design a system that has the kind of approach where “he” is not all to blame and “she” is not only the victim”.

Pledging Allegiance….for what and to whom?

A few months back a huge controversy erupted over a father’s statement that his daughter should not have to pledge allegiance in school with the words “under God” as he asserted that in our free country the Founding Fathers intended there be separation of church and state.  Actually the “offending” words were only added in 1955 under the Eisenhower administration.

The history of the United States is rife with battles over individual liberty versus public morality as we have seen in other arenas such as abortion, vaccination and home schooling.  There seem to be opposing lines of thought; one which promotes individual freedom which does not injure another and a second which has often been referred to as the “Moral Majority” which seeks to dictate morality for all citizens based on its assertion that our country was founded on Christian principles.

With the current imbroglio concerning the role that the U.S. should play in the “War on Terrorism”  we again see the different approaches to democracy battling it out on talk shows and in the streets where demonstrations have been occurring all over the world.  Should the U.S. assume the role of protector of freedom for all countries becoming some would say “the world’s policeman” or should the U.S. stick to a more moderate role of defense only in the face of immediate threats to our sovereignty?

Of course, if national defense was truly a priority then our government would be a little more concerned with the huge numbers of illegal aliens that regularly come ashore in Florida and many other states.  I watched on live television two hundred Haitians virtually walk ashore in Miami several months ago unimpeded by the Coast Guard and now they are petitioning for “their rights”…?  On the one hand our borders are so porous that Mexicans regularly cross over into Texas to have their babies for free using phony social security numbers and yet we are being asked to support a war in a country thousands of miles away because their leader might  attempt to cross our borders uninvited?

Evidently there is disagreement within the Bush cabinet on the proper way to handle these situations; as there apparently has been in other administrations, and the result is that our government appears inconsistent.  I think that the reason for this lies in the basic inconsistency within our country over basic philosophy of governing.

Thus, I propose a new pledge of allegiance written by “Relatively Yours”, a folk group.

“I pledge allegiance to the people of this country and of all the world and to the republic which lends a hand, one planet under peace, with liberty and justice for all.” 

Cell Phones: convenience versus courtesy 

Like most objects of convenience, cell phones are great when they are really needed, emergencies and the like. Parents can keep in touch with their children and vice versa. Business persons can conduct business while away from their office.  When running late, one person can advise the other of impending arrival time.  All sorts of legitimate reasons exist for cell phone use; however, there is a “dark side” to this tiny piece of technology. 

Cell phone conversations tend to be loud, long and fractious. The arguments that happen between people are now public, whether onlookers want to hear them or not. 

Since cell phones are so commonplace, many people are on “continuous feed” with their phone semi-permanently attached to their ear.    “Real person” interactions are sandwiched in between lapses in cell phone conversations, resulting in a stilted, confused communication with the “physically present” individual. 

Driving with a cell phone in one hand is just plain dangerous, and yet more popular than fifteen years ago when they first appeared.  Once again, common sense dictates that driving requires one’s full concentration, so why are so many drivers obliviously indulging their penchant for phone conversations when their driving at the best of times is not that great? 

Frontier House:  What people living in 2002 can learn from the Montana homesteaders of 1883 

Watching the PBS documentary Frontier House where three families volunteered to live as 1880 homesteaders in Montana was a like viewing a piece of living history. 

The families were not allowed access to any luxuries from 2002, the one exception being the video diary on which they recorded their thoughts during their five month stay in the wilderness. 

The children of the families generally were initially unhappy leaving their twenty- first century habits behind and wondered how they would fare without television, movies, videos and fast food. 

After the first few weeks of complaining, most of the children were well seated in their new jobs which involved household chores and farming chores.  Some were in charge of the family business, chickens or livestock, and others chopped wood and carried water, dug irrigation ditches and the like. 

One of the interesting facts about frontier life was that all children, even those as young as three, were put to work as everyone’s survival was dependent upon teamwork within each family. 

The children in this series adapted well to life outside of contemporary America, and were generally happier and more productively occupied as responsible members of the society that they lived in.  They had important duties to perform which required focus and skill.  

There is a saying that “idle hands are the devil’s workshop”; I think that hands which are not productively occupied are what cause children to be bored and uninspired.  Although life in the 1880’s may have been difficult; it was certainly interesting in a realistic way. One of the children told the “video diary” …”I’ve discovered imagination”.

America: Drug Store, USA 

Drugs have been an integral part of the American scene for many years; yet there seems to be no end to the constant squabbling about which drugs are acceptable and which aren’t. 

The government gets in the middle of most of these debates; but one wonders if it is for the good of the citizen or for the pharmaceutical industry or some religious group that believes the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness should be decided according to their particular brand of morality. 

All in all, the big point that seems to be missing in all this discussion is that prohibition did not work in the Roaring Twenties; in fact, it increased the level of crime to a grand  scale, and caused Americans to sneak around behind the back of “Big Daddy” government in order to continue to enjoy libation as they had always done. 

How about the idea that what drugs an adult citizen of this country chooses to indulge in is no one else’s business but theirs, providing no deliberate harm is done to anyone else in the process. Children, of course, are exempt from this principle, as they are from driving a car, getting married, voting, or buying cigarettes or alcohol. 

What is the big deal anyway?  It is so ridiculous that people are in prison because they chose the “wrong” drug for their personal imbibing.  Since when has it ever been the job of the government to tell us the citizens of our country what to do?  When you grow up, becoming an adult is supposed to be when you get to make your own decisions about what is right for you, barring an untoward behavior toward your fellow citizens.

Thomas Jefferson said that each generation would need to “have a revolution” in order to claim its part in the process of government, and we are long overdue for some revolting against these revolting “laws” which do nothing to preserve our life, liberty or pursuit of happiness.

The Patriot Act:  is it really necessary? 

Congress has recently approved this bill which presumably gives greater powers to the Federal Government and allows it to conduct more of its business in secret according to Senator Feingold from Wisconsin, the one member of Congress who voted against the  bill. 

It is difficult to know exactly what powers this bill gives our government in its pursuit of terrorists.  It would seem that the powers of the INS should be sufficient detain or deport illegal aliens and others who are here illegitimately.  Wasn’t that part of the problem with 9-11; illegal aliens or aliens who had overstayed their visas.  I thought that we were going to enforce already existing laws. 

What’s next?  A redo of the Bill of Rights? 

Probably it would be a good idea if all U.S. citizens obtained copies of the basic documents of our country: the Constitution and such, so that we really know what our rights are, before they are taken away in the pursuit of national defense. 

It is sort of like the debate on the gun laws here.  The cops say that we already have enough laws; they just need to be enforced, rather than have a whole new set of laws drawn up each time there is a gun tragedy. 

One Language Indivisible….. 

United by a common language in these United States we should be, yet when I traveled recently from South Florida, where English is still spoken on occasion, I noticed that another language is creeping into many places, as if it belonged in our national consciousness. 

On the plane from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta, the in-flight instructions were in English and also, the other language of the day,  as well as the  in-flight magazines   I attended a national traveling exhibit of Sue, the seventy million year old T Rex Dinosaur, and the information on “her” was also in two languages, as was a children’s  traveling exhibit on large books at the local library.  Why? 

This country is composed of ethnic groups from all over the world who speak well over one hundred different languages which if brought into the public arena for the purpose of communication could be very confusing, so English is our country’s language and we choose to use it for all public discourse, in order to unite the country, yet Spanish is being promulgated in many public arenas these days….why? 

All other immigrants who have come to this country have voluntarily learned English, yet this group seems to want to dominate the national scene with its particular language, above or at least equal with English.  This will not work for the greater good of all of the citizens of these United States, so why is this happening? 

The Tower of Babel is around the corner if other groups speaking any of the hundreds of languages on the planet decide they need equal time on the national scene.  One language, English, one country, America.

Guns in Cockpits?....Are you kidding me? 

It seems that the House has passed a bill, backed by the NRA,  that would arm pilots and the bill is now being sent to the Senate for approval   You really have to wonder what people are thinking when this sort of legislation is brought before the American public. 

Let’s see…small space, potentially out of control gun battle with many spectators locked into their positions at their seats, amateur gun owners up against possible terrorists who may  be firearm experts….hmmm, is this really a good idea? What if the bullets puncture the aircraft, what if they hit an innocent passenger, what if they hit a child, what if the pilot does not hit his mark on the first shot, what if the pilot is busy flying the plane, what about the FBI who are supposedly trained to handle these sorts of extreme situations getting outgunned in Miami by criminals a few years back?  Hello, this idea is nuts, right? 

What about reinforced cockpit doors, what about never opening the door no matter what, what about air marshals, what about training the crew in self-defense maneuvers using real martial arts experts who train people every day as part of their job to handle “extreme situations”. 

Since when is the NRA the expert on self-defense?  What about the stats that tell us that many people are injured or killed by gun owners who are not up at speed on their marksmanship? 

Several years ago I was talking to a veteran cop who worked in NYC and in South Florida who related a story from his job about working with the FBI.  A couple had been kidnapped and were being held for ransom.  They were driven to their local bank by the “terrorists…those who inflict terror to get what they want…one criminal took the husband into the bank at gunpoint to get the ransom money and the other criminal stayed in their car holding the wife at gunpoint in the back seat.  This cop was undercover in disguise and radioed into the FBI requesting permission to “take out the bad guy” in the back seat…he had a “clear shot”.  The FBI said “no, too risky, it might go wrong, other people might get hurt”, so the cop carried on walking. 

If a trained cop is not trusted to take a shot, then who are we to assume that pilots can do a better job of protecting us with firearms under similarly threatening circumstances? 

Living as an American: U.S. vs. Mexico and the World Cup   

The United States is a country composed of immigrants as we all know. Many cultures are represented here which is all well and good until the question of loyalty arises, which happens to be particularly evident with regard to the thirty-five percent of the population which is Hispanic. 

For those of us who live in South Florida we experience the immigration situation up close and personal.  The United States is a cross-cultural weave of many people’s backgrounds held together be a common language, English.  E Pluribus Unum: out of many, one.  Hence, the idea is that we have something in common living here in the U.S. from which a viable country is created. 

The problem we have at the moment is that when an immigrant population arrives which does not want to assimilate itself, but wants to take over, then we no longer have a united country; instead we have a divided country, not America as it was created to be. 

Examples:  a check written in Spanish was presented to our American business, and when questioned the author of the check proudly announced that his bank, an American bank, always accepted  checks from him  written in his native language ; most information calls to business in our area start with the query,  press one for  English, two for Spanish; Elian Gonzalez was brought to Florida by his Cuban mother who illegally removed him from joint custody in Cuba and when his Cuban father traveled to America to retrieve his son, his Cuban-American relatives threatened the father and the U.S. Government rather than cooperate with them in the rightful return of the boy; and most recently, the  soccer national eliminations for the World Cup were moved from Los Angeles to Columbus, Ohio because the U.S. team would not have been supported by a pro-Mexico fan base in Hispanic dominated LA. 

Abbie Hoffman: American Patriot 

Chicago Seven Defendant Abbott Hoffman, now deceased-under mysterious circumstances, may seem an unlikely hero for our times; but he once told a military personnel guarding the Pentagon against the Flower Power generation’s demonstration designed to levitate the building in the name of peace during the height of the Vietnam War, that he too would die for his country.  Ironically both ended up dying for their country, one in Vietnam and one in the U.S. 

The life and times of Abbie Hoffman, a very visible member of the  radical organization The SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), are depicted in a graphic manner in the film based on his book, Steal This Book.  Hoffman and his wife Anita believed in getting the root of a problem and solving it; in America in the sixties this involved advocating for   the rights of the citizens of America, also the name of their son.  Civil rights, women’s rights, minority rights, employee rights, military personnel rights, earth awareness, you name it, they tackled it. Hoffman was first and foremost a political activist. 

Then President Nixon and then head of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover decided to spy on one million Americans because of the opposition that existed in this country at that time to the undeclared, hence illegal war in Vietnam.   Hoffman was the had of their “wanted list” so his every move was recorded by agents for the government.  He was beaten up by the police along with a British Member of Parliament and many other innocent people, on camera during the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968, and thrown in jail many times.  His crime?  Advocating for citizens of this country to “stand up and be counted” on crucial issues which affected their welfare. 

At one point members of the SDS took copies of the U.S. Constitution and read it to New Yorkers on their way to work and asked them where did these statements originate; most said the remarks seemed Communist which just goes to prove that American school children do not really know the history of this country, hence, their rights as citizens.  Most would be shocked to see how far the government oversteps the boundaries of their legitimate responsibilities to us, the people.  Our government should be of the people, for the people and by the people, but is it these days? 

How about the pledge of allegiance….to the republic….one nation….but under God?  Since when does our government tell us what to believe in, outside of ourselves and the nation that we create?  As we celebrate this Fourth of July let us reflect on what America really stands for….freedom, liberty and justice for all.

US Soccer and the World Cup

Coach Bruce Arena said it all today after the U.S. soccer team beat Mexico 2-0, “I hope the people in the United States realize what we are doing out here and how well we are playing and what a great achievement it is for our team to have come this far.  It is not luck; it is talent and hard work."

Soccer, or football as it is referred to in the rest of the world, has been an international sport for quite awhile; hence, the World Cup is watched by billions of people.  Soccer in the U.S. has had its ups and downs; but mostly it has been ignored, for a variety of reasons. 

However, now is the time to get behind our national team; they play their next game against Germany this Friday at 7:25 a.m.  Several networks will probably show this game: ESPN, Unavision, and possibly ABC Sports.  Newspaper reporters have been writing about this great U.S. team and their magical ride through this World Cup: the U.S. games have been the most interesting in the Cup. 

Goal: It is the US who won today! 

Soccer has been a sport is search of support here is the United States while in the rest of the world it is the most popular sport.  While many children have grown up playing the game in America; other sports have tended to dominate, baseball, basketball and football, but no more. 

The U. S. team stunned the world today by scoring three goals in the first thirty-six minutes of play against heavily favored Portugal who fought back with two goals, but could not outplay the American team who won the game. 

I hope that the major networks pick up this spectacular success and allow people in America to view this fast paced sport uninterrupted by frequent commercial breaks.  I have been watching most games on the Spanish channels because they allow the run of play with commercials posted discreetly on the television screen. 

With childhood obesity becoming epidemic in this country, playing a sport like soccer could help these kids to shed a few pounds while developing endurance,  hand-eye coordination and a spirit of competitive cooperation.

Like martial arts, another under-rated sport in the U.S., soccer has been played for generations all over the world, and it is now time for it to be seen, played and noticed here in America.

My Country Tis of Thee; Sweet Land of Liberty 

I remember singing that patriotic song in elementary school and not really thinking about what it meant.  Since 9-11 being a citizen of the world’s oldest democracy is something that I contemplate daily.  It is so important in this time of crisis that we are all living through with daily warnings of impending doom by our government.  

I want to “do the right thing”; but what is that?  It seems that many people think that it is forbidden to criticize or debate while we are at war.  ‘Loose lips sink ships” is what the British people were told during World War II while engaged in their epic battle with the Third Reich; the cause was clear and the leadership was determined.  Here in America our cause has been dulled and our leadership is anything but clear. 

There are reports of strong clues preceding 9-11 that Arabs were attending flight schools in various parts of the U.S. stating that they did not want to know how to land the plane; FBI field agents were desperately trying to get suspicious info to the head honchos.  Even foreign governments were trying to alert our government with similar info about Arabs and flight schools in the U.S. 

This week I read an article in City Link about the pre 9-11 connection of Osama Bin Laden and the Bush government’s efforts to open up the Afghanistan arena to an oil pipeline sponsored by a U.S. corporation which seems to be going through the works as we speak. 

One might well ask: what is really going on here?   The answer is that we do not know; but we have the right to know.  We also have a duty as citizens in a free country to ask all those embarrassing questions about who knew what when. Interestingly former President Jimmy Carter recently visited our arch enemy Fidel Castro in Cuba.  When asked about free elections in Cuba Castro cleverly replied that he would be happy to have the same “free election” there as we here in America had in 2000 under the same conditions as existed in our fair state, Florida.

The Government, the Truth, and Bill Maher 

Gee, our ever-protective government, via the FBI Director, has decided to warn us citizens that we are in danger again:  the terrorists may strike soon.  Watch out; be on the alert for anything unusual; especially renters.  Thanks for nothing.

Everyone I talk to thinks that our government is just trying to cover its “you know what” in case something does happen. Even Vice President Dick Cheney is busy stating on national television that “we will definitely end up like Israel, in a state of constant upheaval….gee, how about if you can’t say something positive, just say nothing.  

Truly sad news, Bill Maher of Politically Incorrect, has been cancelled again by yet another network ABC.  I guess that we should be grateful that this network had the guts to keep the show on last September after Maher made some politically incorrect statements after 9-11.  Since that event it has been politically incorrect to criticize our government in a mistakenly crafted patriotism; even the Democrats have been quiet.  Maher’s show provides four guests with differing opinions each night discussing a variety of forbidden topics-a breath of fresh air in this politically correct climate. 

Thinking outside the box is rarely fostered in our culture through the education, multiple-choice FCAT testing atmosphere here in Florida where our Governor Jeb Bush is busy helping education get tested into improvement.  Shows like Politically Incorrect stimulate viewers beyond the fringe of mediocrity which is so prevalent these days. 

I look forward to seeing this show on yet another network.

Sir Paul 

Both shows were sold out at the National Car Rental Center but I still wanted to go and pay my respects to one of the great musicians of our time, Paul McCartney.  So  I went to the Box Office one hour before the Saturday night show was due to begin, and was lucky enough to buy a ticket near the stage, in the upper balcony. 

Interesting dancers filled the hall at 8:30 p.m. dressed in elaborate costumes and carrying large white globes while unusual music played.  Then, suddenly, the curtains on the stage were drawn back to reveal the man himself, the one, the only, Sir Paul singing You Say Hello. 

The place was packed with people sitting wherever they could, even behind the stage.  One man had bought two hundred dollar seats for Saturday, or so he thought, come to find out his friend had mistakenly purchased tickets for Friday, a show that he missed.  He  and his friends sat behind me, in the fifty three dollar seats, grateful to have the opportunity to see McCartney. 

It seems that many people bought tickets for both nights, such was their fervor for this rock legend and his music.  One man brought his two little boys with him and they discussed which songs McCartney would sing while waiting for the show to start. 

Another man three seats down from me was so excited that he repeatedly telephoned friends during the concert so that they could hear the same  music wherever they were that  he was hearing inside the concert hall. 

Paul is a funny guy; he jokes and mimes with his audience.  He plainly loves performing and his audience plainly loves watching him and participating when asked to sing along, which they did even when not asked to. 

Paul sang a new song that he wrote to John Lennon and introduced it by saying that the lyrics expressed how he felt about that important friendship.  So much was written in The Melody Maker in London at the time that the Beatles broke up, much of it nasty letters between John and Paul; however, it is clear that Paul values his association with his famous band mate and misses him. 

Saturday was the last stop on the current tour.  Paul asked the audience to sing Freedom with him…”we will fight for the right to live in freedom”.  With the current state of affairs in the world, and the recent announcement by the FBI director concerning violence in our land, the song and the man of peace are more relevant than ever.  Thank you Sir Paul!

The Osbourne's 

MTV has just renewed the highest rated series in cable history, The Osbourne's, for the tidy sum of twenty million dollars.  Heavy metal rock musician Ozzy (John David) Osbourne and his colorful family, including wife/manager Sharon and children Jack and Kelly, are the subject of this weekly “real life” series. 

What is so interesting about this show is the co-mingling by this family of their rock lifestyle and family lifestyle: the Osbourne's live in a spacious mansion in Beverly Hills where their teenage children attend the local school while their father travels the world as a famous rock musician. 

Ozzy and his crew are a curious mix of the ordinary with the extraordinary; Ozzy is shown taking out the garbage in one scene and in another arriving in Hollywood in a limousine surrounded by screaming fans to receive his star on the “walk of fame”. 

In one episode as Ozzy is sitting at his grand dinner table being served gourmet food he laments his former rebellious lifestyle in which he covered his arms with tattoos.  Daughter Kelly arrives home later in the week to show Dad her newly-imprinted heart tattoo on her hip. 

Ozzy confides to his audience that he is honest with his children unlike his own childhood in Birmingham where all issues were swept under the carpet.  In one kitchen scene Ozzy is seen to be counseling daughter Kelly to take condoms with her on her upcoming date, in case she plans to have sex. 

It is fun to watch this family navigate their complex lifestyle in the midst of plenty of drugs, sex and rock and roll.

Professor John Nash-

Princeton’s great mathematician, Nobel Prize winner, schizophrenic 

The Russell Crowe film “A Beautiful Mind” is based on the true story of John Mash, a brilliant mathematician who developed the concept of Game Theory to such a degree that his work is used today in virtually all areas of life to explain how conflict and cooperation work in fields as diverse as economics, card games, dating and corporate management. 

Nash was a substantially different person even as a child, shy but determined in his eccentricities. His college entrance recommendation simply stated, “Nash is a genius”.  At Princeton he was a standout from day one, inventing a mathematical game aptly named “Nash” which was played by most of his peers.  

While at college Nash fathered an illegitimate son, John Stier, whom he refused to even acknowledge let alone financially support; hence, the cash-stripped Mother was forced to place the child in foster care for several years.  Eventually Nash moved on to MIT where he was offered a teaching job. There he met his future wife Alicia, also a brilliant mathematician.  They married and she produced a son, John, a schizophrenic who became a mathematician like his parents. 

Subsequently Nash’s behavior began to deteriorate to the point where even his closest friends were alarmed when he turned up at a costume party dressed as a baby and sat in his wife’s lap for the duration of the party sucking on a pacifier. Alicia turned to psychiatrists for help which manifested as extended stays on hospital wards where he was given insulin therapy, daily injections of insulin which produced comas in the patients.  Nash realized that he would have to “act normal” if he ever wanted to be released. 

Nash and his wife went to Europe after his release from the hospital where he promptly disappeared.  She spent nine months looking for him.  Eventually she divorced him; but later, seeing his deteriorated state and with no medical cure in sight, she took him back into her home to care for him. 

Later he was reinstated at Princeton where his colleagues tolerated his strange behavior and he learned to just “put aside his delusions”.  Eventually he was able to resume his teaching career.  In his Noble Prize speech he acknowledged the compassion of his wife, whom he remarried, and his colleagues as a pivotal factor in his return to functionality as a human being.   

Ralph Nader and the American Dream 

I watched the ABC show Politically Incorrect recently with its  infamous and controversial host Bill Maher who invites four guests with different points of view to debate current topics  week nights.  Ralph Nader, former Third Party Presidential candidate, was one of his guests this week,  Interestingly, the other three guests seemed to indicate that they really wanted to vote outside the increasingly twinned Democrat/Republican “two party” system, but could not for a variety of reasons, the same that were promulgated in 1992 when Third Party candidate Ross Perot secured a whopping twenty percent of the national vote, with another twenty percent saying to pollsters that they almost voted for him. 

Here is this free country one could assume that there would be no excuses for not voting your conscience, but alas there are many: I didn’t think “he” could win, my vote does not count anyway, corporations own America and there is nothing we can do, gee, was there an election?, I’m not registered to vote, I voted for the lesser of two evils.  In spite of this “sorry excuse for the state of the nation”, immigrants from all over the world still seek asylum here, in the land of liberty, even people from the so-called hostile Arab countries.  They all want to “come to America”.  Is it possible that they believe  in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights more than we, the actual citizens of this great country, do? 

We talk a good game, but how many people in this country actually vote, and how many of those registered voters actually vote the candidate that they really want to elect?  Whatever happened to the Citizen Politician who goes into government, leaving his occupation for a few years, and who returns back to “his” community having completed his “public service requirement”? 

Going to see CSNY 

On Saturday night I joined thousands of other CSNY fans at the local high tech replacement for the recently demised Sunrise Musical Theatre, the National Car Rental Center  Needless to say, visiting the NCR arena is a challenging experience: long lines for security checks preclude easy entry into the building, walking or driving into the venue is complicated- especially when “assisted” by police officers who choose to disregard the system of traffic lights and rely on their non-existent skills as traffic cops, once inside navigating the huge facility and actually finding your seat is a further obstacle which  sometimes requires “running through the halls” (remember school?) in order to get to your seat in time for the start of the music. The seats are precarious, with precious little space allocated for climbing stairs and negotiating potentially dangerous balcony edges. We actually sat behind the huge screens that magnify the performers on stage; however, having a side view of the stage allowed us to use our opera glasses to zone in on the interplay between the four musicians: David Crosby-in fine form as usual, especially on guitar, Graham Nash-the most interactive with the audience, especially the front rows, Stephen Stills-a real standout this time, especially on guitar, and the ever-changing Neil Young whose relaxed commentary made him unofficially   the “front man” for the group  as he volunteered that  his daughter Amber is  leaving home and going off to college. 

Currently on their “Tour of America” CSNY is as talented and versatile as ever.  The fifteen-thousand-plus seat arena was packed with noisy, appreciative fans that applauded loudly for every song and for every individual display of musical expertise.  People were really happy to be there and the artists all told the audience at different times during the evening that they were happy to be in South Florida.  Stills, who lives in Florida, specifically mentioned Miami and then, Fort Lauderdale, which is gratifying as some of our politicians make mistakes when they mention the city that they think they are in while campaigning.  Didn’t Bush make that error in the last election?  Crosby thanked us for coming to see them as the group left the stage for the final time.  While others in the group were busy playing their music Nash frequently stood and simply viewed the crowd which eagerly responded to the attention he gave.  Young was very talkative compared to earlier days when he would play his songs, Dylan-like, sans commentary.  He was actually at Woodstock, but not featured on camera with the rest of the group, per his request.  Stills patrolled the stage like a contented bear often dancing while performing many of his famous songs.

Considering the current popularity of a recently published book by Michael Moore, “Stupid White Men” (and other sorry excuses for the state of the nation), which tackles the questionable practices involved in the election of G.W. Bush. the collapse of Enron and implementation of destructive environmental policies under the current administration, witnessing four intelligent, socially conscious, environmentally aware gentle men “still crazy after all these years” is pure pleasure.  Thank you CSNY for “being there”!

“Be Ye Men of Valour” 

In 1940 as British troops, sent to help an embattled France, were facing the overwhelming forces of a triumphant German army which threatened to drive them to the sea, Winston Churchill addressed the British people for the first time as Prime Minister on May 19^th and told them to “…be ye men of valour” and to “…never to surrender ourselves to servitude or shame, whatever the cost or agony.” 

Recently the Queen Mother passed on at the age of 101 years, a historical figure whose life spanned the whole of the twentieth century, perhaps the most challenging in the entire history of humankind.  She and her husband King George VI presided over Great Britain during the pivotal war years when Hitler threatened the existence of Western civilization, as we know it.  She elected to stay in England with her children during the bombing of London, declining to move to Canada for the duration of the conflict.  Their residence, Buckingham Palace, was hit by a bomb while they were “at home”, but the family emerged unscathed, and the indomitable Queen remarked, “Now I can see the East End.” She and the rest of the Royal Family often visited the victims of Hitler’s bombs whose homes were frequently reduced to rubble while their inhabitants slept nightly in the halls of the Underground (subway).  These were people of valour. 

Lauren Manning worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and was walking into the World Trade Center on 9-11 when a fireball came down the elevator shaft and blew through the lobby of the First Tower.  She ran out of the building but her hands were burned and over 80% of her body as well.  She looked up and saw a plane sticking out of the side of the building where she had worked for years and asked someone who was helping douse the flames of the fire that was consuming her clothing to move her as she thought the building was about to collapse. 

Six months later she is still in rehabilitation, but on the mend.  Her husband Greg has written a book about their experience containing the emails that he wrote daily to advise friends of his wife’s progress entitled “Love, Greg and Lauren”. Lauren was not expected to survive her injuries, but she told Oprah that she wanted to live so that she could return to her husband and her one-year-old son. She is indeed, a person of valour. As we fight our “war on terrorism” it is interesting to reflect on what has gone before, and so seek to understand that war requires much sacrifice, and that “eternal vigilance is the price of freedom”. 

Rude in America

I moved to South Florida in 1972 after living in England for many years. Needless to say, the culture shock was enormous: the police wear large guns on their hips whereas in England “bobbies” carry night sticks, the roads here are very wide and the cars are larger whereas in England roads were formerly badger trails, hence they are more winding and narrower allowing only small cars generally to navigate.  However, the “cruelest cut of all” was the near universal lack of courtesy.  

In England people are generally nice and helpful, and above all, courteous.  It would not occur to an English person to omit please or thank you and you hear “sorry” on a regular basis.  If you bump into someone on the street THEY will usually apologize to you.  One of the worst things a person could do in Great Britain is to be offensive in any way, verbal or physical; hence, Americans are often viewed with disdain for their aggressive approach for even the smallest interactions.  

I remember when an American friend of mine came to England to visit and she called me in an agitated state saying that people in London did not answer her when she charged up to them and demanded in a loud voice to be told where the town was located that I was residing in.  I carefully explained to her that such an intense approach on the street in London would be viewed by a British citizen as threatening and that they would be probably in shock and unable to answer the question. 

I am still in shock when someone is rude here in South Florida.  This lack of courtesy seems to be still so common here.  People seem to think that it is perfectly okay to demand instead of request.  We have a business, which serves the public, and I am constantly amazed at what people, especially parents, think is acceptable behavior. 

There are times when I absolutely dread being around people because I just never know what to expect.  I certainly can not rely on parents to control their children who often careen through store aisles shouting and pushing each other into carts, into other people, into each other.  It is sort of like being at a football game, only on the field with other players, not in the stands as a spectator. 

Since parents and churches no longer teach respect…defined as regard for the rights of others…I think that the school system should include a Miss Manners course along with reading and writing, starting from Kindergarten and continuing right through high school. 

After all, we know that puppies and other young animals need to be trained if they are to be domesticated, and children are no different.  They need the same consistent, clear, constant messages that are taught when an owner goes to Dog Obedience school with their animal.  Maybe we should send parents to a similar place with their young children so both can learn how to behave.  We could call it Family Obedience.

The Legacy of  9-11 

We have just "celebrated" the six-month anniversary of the worst attack, on American soil, in this country's history. As former President Roosevelt remarked after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in 1941,..."December 7 is a day of infamy.... that will live on for the American people..."  September 11th is our nation's second  "Day of Infamy".  It is the kind of event that will prompt the question: "Where were you when you heard what happened?"  I clearly remember it being an ordinary Tuesday, sitting and working at my desk, and receiving that "world-changing" phone call from my daughter in which she said quite simply, "Have you heard what happened?"  My mind raced through all sorts of potential scenarios, some more dramatic and dire than others; but I did not for one moment consider or even conceive of the possibility of a terrorist attack on our financial center and our governmental center and our military center in broad daylight with illegal aliens flying our own commercial jetliners full of American citizens into the side of significant landmarks.  Never. 

Since that day, I like many other Americans, have pondered the significance of it all, and what we as a country, and I as an individual, need to be doing in response to this "wake-up call", as Oprah puts it.  I have read many articles on the topic, watched many television shows, and been a party to many personal discussions.  I think about its importance to our country and to the world regularly.  I watch our President and his team respond to the continuing question that 9-11 brings to the table every single day: why did this happen to us and what do we need to do about it? "It is the gift that keeps on taking", as Michael J. Fox said when talking about his disease, Parkinson's. 

In a strange way, 9-11 teaches us many excellent lessons "up close and personal": that we are always vulnerable, and that we do not know what is around the next corner, that the veneer of civilization that we all depend on to function together in society is paper thin and can be broken in a split second, and that we are all individually fragile, but that in unity there is strength The acts of heroism by firemen, police, emt, and ordinary citizens that we witnessed continue to inspire us revealing a sense of sacrifice and duty under the most extreme of situations. 

In December 2001 I watched a documentary in which Erin Brockovitch was asked by then New York City Mayor Guiliani, that great American hero, to clean up a dilapidated park in Lower Manhattan using only volunteers in six days.  She was also given no funds with which to do this and yet in the great  "can do "spirit that is America, the job was completed.  Many firemen who lost colleagues on 9-11 participated in the project noting that it was the first new construction in the city since the attack. 

I also watched the CBS special which recently aired entitled "9/11" which was filmed by two French brothers who in June 2001 coincidently had picked the firehouse just down the street from the World Trade Center to film a story about the job of being a fireman.  On the morning of 9-11 the younger brother was trying out filming for the first time and happened to be on the street when the first plane struck the first WTC tower. Following the men of the firehouse as they all streamed into the World Trade Center to attempt to deal with the resulting fires, he caught on camera all of the dismay, disbelief, carnage and chaos that occurred in its aftermath. 

This past week I read the special edition of Newsweek that covered 9-11 and was riveted to the twenty some page story of the unfolding of events from the government's perspective on that fateful day.  Vice President Cheney was in the White House with National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice at 8:46 a.m. and President Bush was in Sarasota, Florida in an elementary school reading to a classroom full of young children.  He was told of the first attack mid-sentence, but continued on to finish in order to avoid frightening the children.  He then went to the school cafeteria and from a makeshift podium made the first official acknowledgement of the attack. Meanwhile, Cheney and Rice were taken to a secure location having evacuated the White House- believed to be the designated target for the fourth hijacked plane.  It was Cheney who told Bush on a secure phone line immediately after the first attack to delay his return to Washington until the country was "secured".  In an unprecedented move all planes flying in the continental United States were in the process of being grounded and it was uncertain which of them might be carrying other terrorist intent on destroying unknown targets. 

The continuing legacy of 9-11 is multifold:  we as citizens and as a government need to be much more aware of other countries and what their true needs and priorities are; we also need to understand much more clearly who our friends are and who are enemies are and to reward and restrain appropriately; we need to get back to the idea of the Peace Corps, founded by then President John f. Kennedy, which sent volunteer "peace" activists into local areas around the world who worked alongside the native population to practically improve their living conditions. 

"Ask not what your country can do for you; but what you can do for your country."  This challenging rhetoric was part of Kennedy's Inaugural Day address to the nation, and was also part of his promise to "get the country moving again."  That is the rightful legacy of 9-11.  We all need to help to get this great country moving again, in the right direction, living up to its highest ideals as the world's oldest democracy, founded on the belief in a person's "... inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Cell Phones and Other Diversions

It was announced on the news this week that the small town of Weston, located in the Fort Lauderdale suburban belt, has voted to ban cell phones in school areas.  I presume they are thinking of how impossible it is to pay attention to driving while holding the steering wheel with one hand and jabbering on your cell phone.  Bravo!  It is about time municipalities took a stand on this dangerous practice.  Years ago the Mayor of Boca Raton tried to ban the use of cell phones, while driving in the city and in the state, but received little support.  

Like most other technology, cell phones are a blessing and a curse.  Of course, it is handy to have a cell phone handy for keeping in contact with your children, with your spouse, with business connections, and in emergencies; however, when those same phones are used during movies, in the line at supermarket checkouts, and in reception areas, they are nothing less than a giant nuisance.    

Now that earpieces have been discovered, cell phone users talk on their phones nonstop. I was in a store the other day and thought someone was talking to me, but in fact, they were on their cell phone, via their partially hidden earpiece.  Of course, the conversation they were having was very loud, I could hear them shouting from thirty feet.  I would prefer not to know other people's business, it generally is not that interesting and frequently is negative in tone, yet I have no choice when their conversations take place in the public arena via what used to be considered a private interaction: the phone.  

This principle of public display of previously private actions could be applied to many other activities such as car stereos, which are frequently loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood in the middle of the night, and personal internet web sites, which now include individual nudity and sexual display.  We live in a time culturally where the norms of acceptable behavior have changed dramatically.  It is considered reasonable entertainment for couples to go on a TV show whose sole purpose is to tempt them to behave unfaithfully in front of millions: ever check out Temptation Island?  

I say enough is enough: but this is not the American way where more is seen as better. Have you noticed that the portions of food at most restaurants have gotten larger, with the increasing size of the serving plate?  Where else would you find a TV show whose theme is eating more faster?  Childhood obesity is the number one health problem in this country; and adult diabetes is its result in those kids today. 

America is considered the home of democracy and freedom is its calling card; yet, freedom without responsibility is simply libertine.  Responsibility equals the ability to respond.  Can the people of this country respond appropriately to the challenges of increasing options; in the areas of entertainment, of food, of technology, of international affairs? 

We live in interesting times that challenge us. The power of our response lies within us.

Ice Skating, The Olympics and America

 It was with eager anticipation that I watched the Long Form Women's Ice Skating on Thursday evening.  There had been such controversy surrounding ice skating in the Olympics. There was the shoving incident with Sasha Cohen in the Nationals, a precursor to the Olympics.  Then there was the French judge who evidently traded favors with the Russian judges and the awarding of the second Gold Medal to the Canadian couple.  Last, but not least, there was the critical and popular favorite for a Gold Medal in Women's Figure Skating, American Michelle Kwan, who narrowly missed winning at Nagano in the last Winter Olympics.  American Sasha Cohen was deemed to be either a Silver or Bronze medallist.  Yet this is not what happened Thursday evening.

Instead sixteen-year-old American Sarah Hughes surprised everyone, including herself and her coach, by turning in a bravura performance, which earned her a standing ovation.  She skated with obvious confidence, but also with elan and vigor.  She seemed to glide effortlessly through difficult techniques and her joy at being on the ice of front of billions of spectators was infectious.  It was a joy to watch her skate.  One forgot about the meaner aspects of this highly competitive sport, and the constant counting of national medals, and simply sat back and marveled at the grace and beauty, which Hughes exuded on the ice. It was one of those rare moments where we were all caught up in the flow of skating at its best, where time stood still, and the perfection of the athletic performance took over.  This experience is what the Olympics are all about.   

Afterwards Hughes said simply; "I did not skate for a Gold Medal.  I just wanted to have a good time."  Yet win a Gold Medal she did, against all odds, and the predictions of sports experts who said things like;” Hughes simply looks too young and inexperienced.  She skates with an almost oblivious ease, as if she were by herself on a country skating pond, not trying to impress anyone but herself."

The Peace Corp, the Post Office and Philosophy 

When I was in the Post Office this week I noticed a sign next to the envelopes and note pads that are for sale, which read "Do Not Take Unless Buying".  Gosh, isn't that obvious? 

Also, recently a new Director of the Peace Corps was named and President Bush spoke at the ceremony noting the history of that organization first started in 1961 by former President John f. Kennedy in his desire to send foreign aid from America in the form of Peace Corps volunteers who worked alongside natives in each country using native materials.  A great idea: give people the skills to help themselves.

It seems as if this country is going through some sort of moral crisis for the past several years, maybe the last forty, where there is the "good" (Peace Corps) America and the "bad" America (Enron).  Citizens in this country are faced with a decision: which way to go?

Watch your thoughts; they become words,

Watch your words, they become actions,

Watch your actions, they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become character,

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.

The Dilemma of Enron

Most Americans are familiar with the dilemma of Enron, which is basically a clash of cultural values I believe.  On the one hand, we like to say that competition at all costs is the American way.  Wasn't there a cheerleader mother in Texas who arranged for the murder of the other girl who was competing for the same spot on the team as her daughter?  And how many times have you heard a compatriot brag about "cheating the government", or cleverly rearranging their tax return, so as to get above the maximum on their yearly return? 

I once knew a successful small business entrepreneur from New York who boasted that he picked his accountant on the basis that this person would do whatever it took to get him back the maximum on his tax return.  When he decided to sell his business (cash flow problems), he told me that he had to "disappear for awhile" since some of his actions in that regard were less than legal. For him, I guess the end justified the means. 

As a business we have participated in yearly martial arts tournaments in which several parents were repeatedly caught red-handed cheating for their children by lying about their age, belt rank, etc.  When confronted on this issue their reply was something like:"...gee, we just wanted to kids to win so they would feel good about themselves." 

Another time, a parent of a high-ranking student came to one of our instructors and stated"...I don't want you to correct my child because that might damage his self-esteem, which is the most important thing to us."  This young student eventually worked in the office of our business where one critical week he "forgot" to turn up to work on a particular Sunday (we are open seven days a week).  Our students were left standing outside the door, unable to take class.  The response of the parent when a phone call was subsequently made to enquire as to this teenager's non-appearance at the job was something like"...well, these things happen." 

Later in that same week I received a phone call from the guilty party in which they took umbrage with my suggestion that they foot the bill for the free T shirts which we were obliged to give out to our understandably aggravated students and parents.  This person also stated to me that they did not see what the big deal was.

So, the clash of cultural values to which I referred at the first part of this article has to do with the selfish/unselfish approach that this country takes to just about everything.  It seems that on the one hand we tell people that win at all costs and being on top (have you been watching the current Olympics?) is the way to go.  On the other hand, the message is to give, give, give.  Look at the bloated budget of the Federal Government whose entitlement provisions put us over the top year after year.  And what about all those bailouts: the Airline Industry, the Farmers, the families of 9-11. etc, and of course, foreign aid- the biggest do-good bonanza of all (where does all that money come from anyway?). 

Possibly it is because, contrary to our Constitution, separation of church and state is not a reality in this country.  Considering that there are so many religions to choose from, the dominance of the Judeo-Christian influence in this country is overwhelming.   And it seems that these two "religious" influences (or cultural approaches to living, if you will) are subtly battling one another for dominance.  Hence, we do not have a unified national attitude, but rather a schizophrenic one, with regard to business, politics, or lifestyle. 

Thus, Enron represents all of that contradiction, win at all costs, buy your way into power, lie about it, but look sincere as CEO Kenneth Lay did last October at a meeting with his employees in which he stated that they were all in it together and that they would get through the temporary problems the company was going through.  It seems that our government was giving or thinking about giving a "loan" to this company.  We know that VP Dick Cheney and President GW Bush are also "knee deep in the hoopla". 

Lastly, a local story that illustrates the pitfalls of ethics in business as a concept.  I have a particular diet (vegetarian=no meat, no fish, no chicken, no seafood or derivatives thereof) that I have observed for over thirty years, by personal choice.  This fact is mentioned to anyone I deal with who has anything to do with food, so as to avoid confusion.  I have shopped at a nearby health food store for many years whose owner is well known having taught at the local college and been a guest on local radio shows, as a nutritional expert.  My understanding is that this individual was also a Vegan for many years, a vegetarian minus dairy and eggs and honey.  

A few months ago I entered this person's store and they sold me several "vegetarian" vitamins, one of which, as it turned out, contained shellfish.  This store owner now claims that I asked for this product, even though they knew it was not vegetarian, otherwise, they would not have suggested it.  Never mind this person makes a living by regularly suggesting all manner of products that most citizens have never heard of, such as MGN-3.  Ever heard of that one?  Evidently it is the latest thing in the health food industry for use in boosting the immune system-a source of many health problems.  In fact, when the owner suggested this very product to me, I queried, as I always do, its components, and was told that I would have to call back in a week when the "veggie" version of the MGN-3 would arrive. Yet, this storeowner maintains his "innocence" in this situation. 

Too bad I say-for me, for that business, for our country, for the world- that we should expect so little from ourselves and from one another, that misrepresentation should be the norm and not the exception. 

On Being an Asshole: 

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find out What it Means to Me

 Respect: to hold in high esteem, to set high value upon, to prize, to have regard for the rights of, to consider worthy of high regard, to refrain from interfering with.

It seems that in our society respect is a foreign concept, something that other cultures such as Japan and England know about, but that we Americans have no clue of.  From the impatient salesperson on the cold call to your home at odd hours, to the indifferent food court worker, to the outlandish antics of many children, to the generally supercilious attitude of customers toward the businesses they deal with, lack of civility is commonplace.  I often wonder why this is so. 

Most recently I read an article on the warm-ups for the ice skating National Competition, used to qualify for the Olympic Games, in which competitor Sasha Cohen was observed to be skating aggressively near veteran Michelle Kwan for no other  reason than to unsettle her competition, ala Tonya Harding in an earlier Olympics. 

This "get your way at all costs" attitude does not help us all function better, in fact the opposite is true.  The other day someone from the Better Business Bureau in South Florida called our office and asked to speak to "the owner".  I called back and left a message on her voice mail.  When she me back, the first  "live" interaction that I shared with her involved her arguing with me over our correct phone number.  She also argued with me over whether I had left the "case number", per her request, on my voicemail message to her.  I hung up after telling her that I was not interested in arguing with her over what our business phone number has been for over twenty years.  She called me back to apologize when she realized that the number that she had been referring to was the information number in the Yellow Pages which can be called for those who are interested in a pre-recorded spiel on the business.  All this from a person who reason for calling was to solicit our membership in their organization for a mere three hundred and fifty dollars! 

Could this surly attitude, which prevails in so many situations, be partly responsible for the attitude that the rest of the world has toward America at times?  I've heard that Europe is unhappy with the recent State of the Union speech by our President in which he implies we will take eventually action against the countries of "The Evil Empire", for their terrorist attitudes and potential actions. Europe would prefer that the U.S. have a more diplomatic approach, "speak softly but carry a big stick" you could say. 

We need to teach children how to behave in a civil manner if our civilization is to thrive and prosper.  It is possible that we can guarantee survival with an aggressive attitude, but who wants to live like the Israelis, where everyday is full of threats and counter threats, where the "mo" is attack and defend, and where victory is measured in how much land you acquire and how many enemy you have killed?  I suppose it is possible to "get used" to that level of violence, but who wants to?   Better to seek to understand the position of the other person, as Werner Erhard said many years ago when he spoke in South Florida, and deal with that in mind.  Erhard was called in to consult with governments and also major corporations throughout the world.  He said that the number one problem in any negotiation was that each side thought the other was wrong, bad, mistaken, off track; thus, leading to an unwillingness to even consider the validity of the other point of view.  Interestingly, that ability to mirror back, empathizes, and contemplates other points of view are pivotal to couple counseling, ala well-known expert and best-selling author Harville Hendrix.

The Winter Olympics 

I watched the opening ceremonies last Friday night for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City with a mixture of pride, awe and apprehension.  After 9-11 when our world was in chaos and the U.S. was no longer untouchable; it seemed inconceivable that this country would even consider hosting the Olympics so soon after our national tragedy.  We seemed too vulnerable to attack and so unable to comprehend what had happened to our national security.  

It is a tremendous achievement that over one hundred countries, all of which sent their own security teams to vet the safety of these Olympics, have decided to come and compete here in America at this time. Seeing all those nations, some of whom carried the U.S. flag along with their national flags, marching triumphantly in unison with their teammates is a wonderful testament to the unity of purpose that sport can bring. 

President Bush spoke eloquently of the need for events of this nature to continue worldwide and of the example that the preparation for this international spectacle will provide for the future. When asked in a pre-program interview if he had ever considered canceling the Olympics in the wake of the terrorist attack, he replied with a definitive "no".  I wanted to shout, "Yeah, team!" as I witnessed our leader act and speak fearlessly for America's ability to recover and renew itself.  Whatever else I think about Bush and his policies, one thing is for sure, he knows how to stand tall in the face of the potential defeat of 9-11, and for that I am eternally grateful.

 The American flag that flew at Ground Zero was brought in at the beginning of the ceremonies and both Presidents, of the U.S. and of the IOC, noted its significance.  This was appropriate as we are the host country and we suffered a massive, unprovoked attack less than six months ago, which we as a people are still in the process of recovering from. 

The staging of the ceremonies was magnificent with the appearance of the five Indian tribes of Utah giving depth and meaning to their place in the history of the state and of this country. Their dances were incredible and each tribal leader received a gift from a participating athlete and in turn gave a blessing.  It is about time that the American Indian was given a proper place in the national life of this country, instead of being treated like second-class citizens. 

Thousands of participants were chosen from the State of Utah, which happens to have many performing arts programs in force.  Children wore white winter suits and carried lights into the stadium while singing throughout the ceremony.  They were not paid to participate and their parents were expected to buy their outfits and to pay to attend the ceremony themselves. A grant of several million dollars brought the price of a ticket down to under $800.00 each. 

The theme of the program, chosen before 9-11, was "Light the Fire Within"; there is a fire within all of us that needs to be ignited so that we can overcome the storms outside us. The Olympic Flame was lit by a key member of the 1980 U.S. hockey team that beat the Russians.  He called all of his teammates up to the base of the structure so that they could all light the flame together much as he had shared an earlier moment of glory when awarded the Gold Medal at the 1980 games and he also brought his teammates up to the podium then as well. 

Altogether a brilliantly inspirational and spiritual evening which broadcast all over the world: the best of America shining brightly in the international spotlight of sport. This experience reminded me of a beautiful and timely song, written and recorded by the folk group Relative Viewpoint, called "I Pledge Allegiance" which expresses my sentiments and probably those of many others who were able to be part of these opening ceremonies for the nineteenth Winter Olympics.  

"I pledge allegiance

To the people of this country and of all the world

And to the republic which lends a hand

One planet under peace

With liberty and justice for all"

 Namaste.

Crossing the Road 

There is something odd about how Americans cross the road, at least here in South Florida.  The other day a couple were coming out of the supermarket and simply walked right in the path of my vehicle which was passing in front of the same store as they were exiting it.  They did not bother to look right or left; in fact, their heads were down, looking at the ground, and they continued their stride off the sidewalk confidently into the path of my oncoming car.  Had I not been anticipating this lack of awareness of their part, they might be dead or injured today.

 Why are children not taught the proper way to cross the road?  Surely, this is an important lesson to learn.  When I lived in England, where they do teach children to look left, right, then left again (due to the convention of driving on the other side of the road), I recall being the passenger in a vehicle where a child miscalculated his bike ride near our car, and nearly collided with it.  The driver stopped, called the child over, and proceeded to lecture him on correct road safety.

When my child was three years old, I told her that it was her job to look out for cars and that even if she was with me, it was still her job, and that the road is a dangerous place, so she needed to check it out before entering it. A few weeks ago a teenager was killed on a busy road near our office when he unsuccessfully attempted to cross it.  I wonder why this accident happened and I wonder if it could have been prevented had proper road rules been observed.  It seems like "playing chicken" in traffic is a favorite pastime of some youth. 

Also recently, in my neighborhood, I turned a corner in my car and nearly ran over a pedestrian, adult male, who was crossing the road also looking straight ahead, not left or right, oblivious to cars in the road.  Once again, anticipation on my part saved the day. 

I resent having to look out for lazy pedestrians who can't be bothered to look where they are going.  Where are those handy neighborhood police who used to give tickets for jaywalking? We need some help here.  Driving is difficult enough without having to look out for "suicidal jaywalkers".

Interruptions 

Have you noticed how many times we are interrupted in the course of a day and how often it is nearly impossible to get back to the task at hand in a smooth way?  I was working at my office last week at an early hour in the day, before we were officially open, and I was interrupted, rudely, twice.  Once by an individual who was lost and asking me for directions to a place that she had neither the address nor the phone number for.  When I attempted to answer her query she continually interrupted me with her version of where the "lost" office was.  When I pointed this fact out to her, she stormed out of the building in a huff.

The next interruption happened when a "field rep" from Tire Kingdom burst into my office mumbling something unintelligible about a one year anniversary special with the admonition that "I presume that the people in your office drive cars, right?"  Without even introducing herself or asking if it was a good time for her to talk to me, I lost my place and my concentration on the computer work that I was quietly engaged in.

I phone the local Tire Kingdom office and they were very helpful and put me in contact with the Regional Coordinator who apologized, wrote me a letter, and offered free service.  He assured me that the publicity company that had been hired to do their promo work would improve their field training.

This week on Monday I received about ten phone calls from companies selling something. All the calls simply launched into their sales pitch without regard for my time or availability to listen.  Not one asked : "Is this a good time for you?".  I was forced to hang up, unceremoniously, rather than listen to their end spiel complete with phone number should I change my mind.

There is a movie in release at the moment called "Kate and Leopold" in which one of the main characters is a male romantic interest from a previous century in which chivalry was common and manners were normal, unlike the times we live in where courtesy is an practically an accident and self promotion the norm. 

Since we now live in a youth based culture where age is almost viewed as a disease to be avoided at all costs, children are not only seen and heard, but often "run the show".  They are usually not taught manners and their needs and wants are usually paramount in any situation. We adults are constantly being interrupted by the outpourings of children who are treated as equals in terms of bedtimes, conversations, opinions. 

Hence, it is common to find children talking to adults in their life as if the adults were their servants, and indeed they are to the extent that kids rule. There is generally  no respect for authority and no authority carries any weight.  Everything is optional. I live in a typical middle class neighborhood which is plagued, day and night, with cars, usually driven by teenagers, driving past our house with their car radios turned up so loud that the house shakes. I have discussed this problem with the local police who agree that this noise is a violation, "a disturbance of the peace; however, the burden is on me to collect all the license plate numbers of the offending cars and present this list to the police.  Why?  Isn't it their job to maintain law and order?  They seem to be able to set up speed traps with no problem and are willing to wait for hours to catch drivers who speed; yet, it seems to be just too difficult to catch drivers with loud car radios? 

All of the aforementioned are interruptions of our way of life, not to mention beepers and cell phones, which is a whole other issue, also involving courtesy.  Why do people on cell phones have to speak so loudly that the rest of us can hear the entire, boring conversation?  Again this behavior is interruptive and unnecessary.  When you are in the supermarket and thinking about what you want to purchase and somebody with a cell phone is patrolling those same aisles having an inane conversation at the top of their voice, it is difficult to concentrate on the task at hand. 

I believe that what is needed is a new Miss Manners course for everyone:  night classes for adults and special courses at every level of school (elementary, middle and high).  With all the changes inherent in modern society, we all need help on the proper procedure for call waiting, cell phones, and all manner of technological devices, not to mention the politics of blended families.  

Speaking English in America

 A technician visited our home today to install a digital box.  He was proficient and polite.  English was not his first language, yet he spoke it well enough that we understood one another.  He apologized "for his English" and told me that his company was sending him to night school to learn English.  I told him that his attitude was wonderful and that his English was passable.

 Living here in South Florida for the past twenty years, close to Latin American countries, you often encounter other languages being spoken, often with the persons involved not speaking a single word of English.  When asked when they intend to learn English, often the response is less than enthusiastic.

We all know that the United States is composed of immigrants and that the only true natives are the American Indians; however, English was voted in as the national language many years ago, and that is the only language that should be spoken in official, and public interactions.  It should be the only language that ballots are printed in, and it should be the only language that regular business is conducted in, within the borders of this country.

 Thus, it was refreshing to hear someone from another country living here actually express a sincere desire to learn the language of the country to which they presumably had chosen to live in.

Why there is any debate at all on this subject is a mystery.  Might be because the Governor of Florida and the President of the U.S. have ties to Hispanic culture that influences their ability to be objective about these United States.

If previous immigrants had the same attitude as some of our current "visitors", then the whole country would have the same dilemma as the state of California where ballots have been printed in 106 different languages to accommodate other cultures.  This entirely misses the point of this country where the phrase "melting pot" is supposed to mean a blending of different cultures, not a competition of.

 I believe that there are influences behind the scenes who would disrupt the ebb and flow of the immigrant population as it has historically been throughout the history of America, with each new wave of "foreigners" adding to the mix, but also blending into the overall scheme of things, i.e. learning the basic language=English.  I think that there are political and economic forces which would seek to dominate under the guise of the tenets of the Statue of Liberty and to confuse the basic structure that this country is organized around, the communication of a common language which was chosen by a vote in the 1800's to be English, not German, by one vote.

 It is interesting to observe that GW made great mention of the assistance supposedly given by Mexico after 9-11, and completely disregarded that of Canada and Great Britain, who actually sent troops into battle with the U.S.  Is there perhaps a hidden agenda here?  Like maybe nationalizing lots of Mexicans just in time for the next elections? 

Leaders in this country, including Bill Clinton, have used the Immigration and Naturalization process to their own ends before, and unfortunately the American public is so ill educated in its own history, most foreigners know more about our history than we do, that they are easily manipulated through emotional overtures to their ancestors, who were, for the most part, immigrants themselves. 

We need to speak a common language, English, to maintain the unity through diversity that has made this country so successful that people from all over the world want to come and live here, even our so-called enemies from the Arab world.

  Good Deeds?

An article that appeared in the local newspaper this week was entitled “Friends hope that good deed is rewarded”. One might guess that something positive had taken place, but alas, what happened was that a woman stopped her Ford Explorer in the middle of a busy road to pick up a small animal which had been injured, causing another car to plow into the back of her stationary car. Unfortunately this woman was injured and is in the hospital.

The article in question was written as an example of heroism in America. Actually it should be written as an example of negligence, but in these “politically correct” times it seems that no one except Bill Maher and a few other hardy souls wants to state the obvious. Too bad. I thought that the foundation of our democracy rested on rational debate and independent thinking.

When I attended Driver Ed we were always instructed to always maintain the flow of traffic no matter what; certainly in this case it would seem that the driver of the Explorer caused the accident in which she was injured and so, instead of glorifying this rather obvious driver error, the media representative would do better to empathize with the family, if that is what she needs to do, and then to point out tactfully that this injured motorist just got a lesson that is both logical and reasonable…..stopping a car in traffic is not safe. Competence, not incompetence, should be highlighted in our society. Heroism is different from negligence and that difference should be duly noted by all those who seek to extract a sympathetic response from the rest of society.

The "Mad" Madonna

Last night Deco Drive, the popular local news magazine here in South Florida, featured a history of the cultural phenomenon that is Madonna who is currently in town for a two-night stand at the National Car Rental Center as part of her "Drowned World" tour.  What does that title mean?  So much of what Madonna projects is confusing but very interesting.  She is a study in contrasts. 

Madonna burst on the music scene over twenty years ago and was considered a pudgy, lesser version of the reigning pop idol of the time, Cyndi Lauper.  No one expected her to last; no one thought she had any talent.  MTV was just getting started and her "Like a Virgin" video was considered outrageous and startling.

Over the years she has changed her image and her message, always surprising those who seek to categorize her. After she married Sean Penn, in the 1980's she lost weight, worked out strenuously and presented her sculpted body to the world in "Who's That Girl?” a very underrated comedy.

Subsequently Madonna took singing lessons to prepare for the role of Evita in the movie of the same name, which was a critical success. During its filming she announced that she was pregnant with her first child.  The father was her fitness trainer Carlos Leon. Her daughter Lourdes (what a strange name) is now four years old and has a little brother called Rocco born to Madonna and her current husband, British director Guy Ritchie. Madonna played cat and mouse with the press for months on the subject of her marriage to this guy until last December when she tied the knot in an exclusive, yet widely publicized wedding ceremony that overwhelmed the tiny Scottish town where it took place.

I have seen video clips of her performance on the "Drowned World" and am amazed at her versatility, athleticism, creativity and drive.  She changes costumes continually; each change reflects a new mood and a new theme.  She is energetic, moving constantly from one scene to another keeping pace with her troupe of talented dancers, many of who are probably much younger than she.  Madonna celebrated her forty-third birthday on Thursday August 16th, the first night of her Fort Lauderdale appearance.

Some of the patrons who were interviewed when the concert was over complained that she did not perform enough of her former tunes; however, Madonna, like Bob Dylan, is an evolving artist who does not rest on her laurels.  She has the temerity and the tenacity to try new things which is why she is so interesting.

I say Bravo Madonna!  For a forty-something mother of two who has been at the top of the very competitive music business for over twenty years, and who still has the guts and the stamina to tour with a totally new show, you are, once and again, ahead of the game.  In the tradition of Tina Turner you are a classic and an original that endures.  Go Madonna!

Three Mile Island

On Tuesday August 14th NBC’s Dateline featured Three Mile Island in its series this week entitled Catastrophe.  For those of us who remember watching the film The China Syndrome it was a bit of deja vu as it also turned out to be for the citizens of the small town in Pennsylvania who lived near the huge double reactors.  No one ever thought a meltdown, referred to as "The China Syndrome" in the scientific community, was possible since the plant had been specifically designed by the nuclear engineers to self-correct in case of emergency. The problem began at 4:00 a.m. on a routine Wednesday morning when the night shift in the control room of the reactors failed to notice a critical blinking light, mysteriously covered with a yellow piece of paper, which would have given them the correct information on the emergency status of the cooling systems.   Uranium needs to be under water continually in order to properly contain its heat energy.  The rods in the core had become exposed to the air because a small valve in the system had malfunctioned letting the water vapor escape as steam; hence, the system was not cooling adequately a very dangerous situation. 

It took the night shift several hours to figure out that they needed to call the plant supervisor.  The general manager of the local radio station found out that something was up when one of his reporters casually overheard a conversation on the police scanner about a "problem" at the plant.  The manager phoned in to the station and the frenzied operator put him through to the control room thinking he was an engineer calling to help.  The reporter realized that there was total chaos when one of the crew answered the phone, amidst shouting in the background, and stated that they did not know what was happening with the reactors.

 The Lieutenant Governor of the State of Pennsylvania heard about the problem on the local news since The Edison Company did not issue any statements at first on the situation, downplaying it as a minor malfunction. Unable to get through to the plant, which incredibly had only two phone lines, he alerted the Governor who was subsequently also unable to get through to the plant.  In desperation after days of misinformation and stalling by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission whose five member panel could not decide on the severity of the problem the Governor called then President Jimmy Carter for advice and support on whether to evacuate the surrounding area.  Carter's own advisors were divided on whether a meltdown could be stopped in time to avoid desecrating Eastern Pennsylvania.  No one in the field of nuclear energy had ever experienced a meltdown; hence, they had no real info to give.  The American public had always been told that nuclear energy was totally safe and that its systems were perfectly regulated by design.  Carter flew into the town where the reactors were in the process of melting down, drove down the main street in his limousine waving to the inhabitants and then proceeded to visit the control room of the reactor at Three Mile Island where scientists and engineers were frantically working around the clock to prevent a total meltdown which would have created a radioactive fissure in the earth a quarter of a mile in all directions.  The temperature in the building that housed the reactor was starting to disintegrate its structure making continued habitation questionable structurally.

Eventually the original engineers who created the reactor figured out what the problem was and phoned in to the crew at the site and told them to immediately turn the water back on in a desperate attempt to cool the uranium rods, whose temperature was 4300 degrees and climbing, before they reached 5000 degrees-meltdown.  Fortunately they succeeded.  After one month the reactor was totally shut down.  One hundred thousand people had been evacuated in the process.   When cameras were later lowered into the core they revealed that half of it had melted.  Subsequent investigation revealed that if the night crew had done nothing, the plant would have shut itself down.

Since that accident no nuclear plants have been built in this country.  Our current President George W. is an advocate of nuclear power and has proposed many new plants be built to solve our energy crisis, in addition to drilling for oil in our national wilderness areas.  Did this man ever hear of The China Syndrome?

The reporter from Rolling Stone Magazine, who was sent to cover the story years ago as the drama was unfolding in that small Pennsylvania town, was the guy who wrote the script for the movie The China Syndrome, which was playing in that town's local theater as the real scenario unfolded.  As the philosopher Santayana once said: "we are doomed to repeat history if we do not learn from it." 

Do Kids Have Too Much Power?

The August 6th edition of Time Magazine features a graphic of a child wearing a crown with the query "Do kids have too much power?" emblazoned across it.  The ensuing article attempts to answer this all-important question.  Many answers are preferred.  Let's start with the idea that the Baby Boom generation was spoiled.  Well, I know that I was definitely not; discipline was strongly administered in our household.  We did not watch television after dinner during the week.  We were sent to bed by 7 pm until the sixth grade; no questions asked.  My parents told us that they needed time alone, and time off from parenting, which they said, was exhausting.  We were never bought things on a whim.  In fact, outside of birthdays, holidays or other special occasions, unnecessary purchases did not occur.  As far as being listened to, no one particularly cared what we thought, inside or outside of school; we were never asked for our opinion on anything.  So mostly we did not give it, until the 1960's occurred as which point we voiced our thoughts on everything, loud and clear for all to hear. 

So why, then, has this generation apparently raised their children so differently, catering to their child's every demand, setting no limits, letting the kids make the decisions about bedtime, spending, scheduling, nearly everything?  I think that the changes in the social structure are more influential than we have previously realized.  Parenting happens in the context of the life and times of environment that we all inhabit and what is fashionable determines what rules are set or adhered to.

Television, gas stations and stores now operate twenty-four hours a day which was previously unheard of; videos and computer games, which did not exist when Boomers were growing up, are commonplace today; parents work long hours keeping them away from home which is in direct contrast to Boomers childhood which included Mom and Dad at the dinner table every night with the family; extended families are often geographically separated thus removing any help they might have given thirty years ago; the internet has given kids who grew up with it more power than the adults who are still struggling to learn it.  Advertising is non-stop wherever you go, ever been put on hold, and the economy revolves around the dollars that are spent by kids and on kids.  Also, the world appears to be a more dangerous, strange place, so letting the kids wander the neighborhood in search of playmates and places to play is no longer an option like it was when I was growing up on Rockridge Circle where we knew all our neighbors and they lived in the same house during the whole time their children were growing up.  Things were more stable then. 

Today it is a vastly different world out there and also inside your house where stories of Internet abduction and child pornography are legion.  What's a parent to do?  Be overprotective in an effort to screen out all of the chaos of this Brave New World, or just let the kids find their own way, by giving way to the pressures of consumerism and constant change? 

I think that parents have so much to deal with that is in a state of constant flux that they are confused about what to do and how to do it.  The cult of individuality and free enterprise has overrun our society. Kids are growing up in an environment where our values are being reshaped on a weekly basis by the entertainment world and the manipulations of the mass media.   Parents look to their children to guide them through the "millennium maze" forgetting that their children are looking to them to set guidelines through this maze.

Genetically modified foods are banned in Europe; shops will not sell them and customers will not buy them.  My sister-in-law, a nurse of English decent, was horrified to notice the prevalence of unlabeled, "GM" foods common to the United States. Many years ago she remarked that Americans seem unaware of the problems of genetic modification.  She was right.  Not only are we generally ignorant of the ramifications of eating "GM" food; but we are also unaware that 70% of food that we eat is "GM" since our government does not require labeling as such.  This seems a bit odd since the FDA is always touting its vigilance over our food and drug; the safety of vitamins was once debated in the U.S. Congress.

"60 Minutes II" aired its GM program this week to explore this anomaly A spokesperson for the government stated that there was no question of jurisdiction since this was just food and everyone knows that food is safe.  Actually we do not know since we are not told what is happening to our food.  He cited the example of wheat, which is the product of cross-pollinated grasses; but that process took quite a lot of time.  Evidently genes from one species can be spliced into another; thus, tomatoes have been genetically altered by adding the DNA from a deep-water fish producing a tomato that can be frozen to prolong its life. 

One of the scientists interviewed stated that the world needs to produce more food since the population may double in the next fifty years.  So genetically altered salmon which are 400% larger than normal will be the first GM food to officially hit the market.  They grow faster and reach their adult size in half the usual time. This is being called a "miracle of science".  Cancer cells grow faster also.

Scientists who believe in GM state that the DNA is the same in all-living things and therefore, imply that it is perfectly reasonable to assume that human beings can simply rearrange and redistribute it from one species to another to produce more food faster.   For the past six years corn, cotton and potatoes have been produced in this way and 25% of the corn crop is currently GM.  Monsanto has produced cotton that pests will not bother because they die from ingesting the bacteria used to grow the GM cotton. 

This is the first time in human history that we have had the power to mix and match the entire genetic code of the entire living kingdom at will.   Our food is changing in ways that were not expected.  Three years ago the British Government commissioned a study of the long-term effects of GM foods that was published in The Lancet, the official journal of the medical profession, which raised serious questions about its safety. 

We need mandatory labeling of GM foods in this country. Like the British we also need to study the long-term effects of GM foods. We cannot assume that scientists understand all there is to know about the fabric of life just because they have isolated one part of its creation.  Personally I do not trust a scientist who does not question his/her findings.   That is not the scientific approach, which does involve intensive and extensive Q and A.

I would like to be a supportive American even though I did not vote for Mr. Bush Junior, and I have sincerely tried to maintain a positive outlook, in spite of evidence leading me in the opposite direction;  however, the cumulative effect of "dubya" is becoming undeniable. Just because I watch Bill Maher (Channel 10 Monday through Friday 12:05 midnight), who voted like I did for Ralph Nader, does not mean that I am incapable of keeping an open mind on this topic.

It is just that "our President" does not give us much to be hopeful about. He refuses to sign the Kyoto Accord for environmental sanctions that 168 other nations in the world have signed because he wants to protect the U.S. economy. Did I mention that Texas has one of the worst records on  the environment of any state in America? Also, being an oilman from Texas, along with his "buddy" Vice President Dick Cheney, Bush appears to have no qualms about drilling for yet more oil in pristine areas of our nation such as the Arctic Wildlife Preserve in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico near the coastline of his brother the Governor's state of Florida. What about promoting alternative methods of energy such as solar power, wind power, water power, and what about energy conservation?

What about family planning?  Bush has pulled back any aid to foreign countries that involves family planning methods and clinics abroad are not allowed to mention options such as abortion and the morning after pill.  The world's population may double in the next fifty years: what is GW's answer to that huge resource-threatening problem?

Missile defense is another of Bush's pet projects.  It seems that the Cold War is over and there are no major areas of the world that we are directly responsible for defending that require a massive show of  force, and yet we are being told that more expensive military hardware is needed.  Even former General Dwight D. Eisenhower believed that the military industrial complex was a danger to our country if not kept in check. So our President traveled to Europe with his typical "take charge" attitude and tried to tell the Nato countries that the United States was going to put a new missile defense system into effect, with or without their approval.  

On his recent European trip Bush was roundly attacked by just about everyone in every country that he visited.  His views on the environment and missile defense and family planning are about as unpopular abroad as they are here in the states.  By the way an article that appeared in the Miami Herald on Wednesday August 7th accuses Katherine Harris' office of misdeeds involved in the election of GW to office; he "won" Florida, the key state in the 2000 Presidential Election, by only 514 votes. Is that a mandate?  Is that even a proper election?

Prime Minister Tony Blair evidently told Bush that he would support the position of the United States on the "new plan" that GW referred to as an alternative to his rejection of the Kyoto treaty, but when Blair enquired as the to details Bush said he would have to get back to him on that. Also, the missile defense system. 

Our Mr. Bush never worked much as Governor of Texas; the legislature only met every two years.  He is the rich son of a rich man.  Evidently he and his brothers buy and sell-  dabbling in savings and loan institutions and the oil business.  Now we hear that he has spent approximately a quarter of the first few months of his office "on vacation" where he is currently golfing and running on his most recent purchase, a ranch near Waco, Texas.  Does that name ring a bell?

Attitude is a Little Thing that Makes a Big Difference

A few years ago, in the mall next door to our business, there was a cart whose only merchandise was shirts with the inscription “I’ve got an attitude”. Many shirts were sold; that cart was one of the more successful in the mall, with large numbers of customers crowded around it continually. Attitude was for sale, and advertising it was big business.

Attitude, the way in which someone approaches the world, seems to be even more noticeable these days. Whether it is Timothy McVeigh announcing to the world that even though he still believed in his bloody act of “civil disobedience” which killed 168 innocent citizens, he would not have put the bomb in the federal building in Oklahoma if he had realized it housed a day care facility; or it’s the Democrats still seeking to vindicate themselves in the 2000 Presidential election in Florida claiming that certain minorities did not have the ballot printed in their favorite, native language; or Eminem performing at one of the many awards shows claiming artistic freedom for his controversial song lyrics and then trashing his dressing room; attitude is the reason and the excuse for all types of behavior. “The end justifies the means” I presume.

The nineteen-year-old Bush twins seem to have the attitude that sneaking into a bar to order drinks twice with a fake ID is okay. Bill Clinton seems to think that lying under oath to a grand jury about his misadventures with various women who were involved with government business is no big deal. He also does not seem at all bothered by allegations of impropriety with regard to his last minute Presidential pardons which included drug dealers in prison for violent crimes and an expatriate who fled the country in the largest single tax evasion in history.

Is it any wonder that kids have an attitude when they are told what to do by any adult? They only do what they see. Since many of the so-called adults in our society play by their own set of rules, kids think that they can do the same thing. This might include such behaviors as bringing a loaded gun to school to get back at a teacher who sent you home earlier in the day, for your less-than-cooperative attitude in the classroom. It could include kids laying around the house like couch potatoes watching television while munching on snack foods to the point where one-third of all children in this country are officially over-weight. It could include kids staying up so late every night that they are perpetually sleep-deprived and unable to do well in any activity.

It is interesting that the senator from Vermont Mr. Jeffers recently decided that the attitude of his party, the GOP, was just not cutting it, so he did the unthinkable, he quit the party. He is now what is called an “independent’, though he sits on the Democratic side in Congress. I read in a Newsweek article that this senator is considered to be extremely diffident, unpretentious, quite unlike most politicians

who are full of braggadocio when they get to Washington. Even though he was a ranking member of powerful committees in the Senate, many put him on extended hold, sort of as a power play, and he never objected, did not play their games. However, one day he had had enough; GW had promised to fund some education mandates, but when the tax cut bill came through, they were missing. That is when Jeffers bolted from his party in protest. Enough is enough he said.

If we all want to live in a civil society without violence (verbal or physical) we need to adopt a more cooperative attitude with one another. We need to believe that things can change and that divergent opinions are consistent with the Constitution; conflict can be productive when we respect others as we respect ourselves. It’s supposed to be the American way: sovereign citizens in open dialogue with one another taking on the challenges of a free society.

It seems as if the world as we know it is steadily declining in terms of ethics-doing what is expected per agreement. Margaret Mead once said that civilization can only exist to the degree that its members are civil with one another. Manners are a must when we become civilized, or barbarianism can seep across the fragile bonds that form the boundaries that guard its tenets.

Thus said, I have just watched a really fantastic movie “Pay It Forward” with stellar performances by Haley Joel Osmont, Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey. It’s about an eleven-year-old boy who is in a social studies class taught by a maverick teacher, the kind that you always wanted to get in school who made everything challenging, interesting and fun, actually exciting.

I can remember a handful of teachers in public school who did that for me, and school suddenly came alive, learning became your raison d’etre and you looked forward to each day with anticipation.

On the first day of school the Kevin Spacey character, the teacher, tells the class that social studies is about our relationship to the world and its relationship to us. He also says that it is up to us to decide how that relationship is going to progress. On the blackboard he has written the assignment for the year: think of a way that you can change the world and put it into action.

The Haley Osmond character takes the teacher at his word and devises a plan whereby each person thinks of three people who they can help who really need that help. Something that they cannot do for themselves. Then the deed is done, without compensation of any kind, and the recipient pays the deed forward to three new candidates.

What a great idea-unconditional love in action.

Osmond’s character is eventually interviewed for a television spot in which he explains his “movement”, and why it is sometimes difficult for humans to accept kindness in action. “People are sometimes too scared to think that things can be different. It is hard or some people because they are so used to things the way they are, even if they’re bad, to change. They give up and everyone loses.”

Spike Jones directed a movie called “Do the Right Thing” which featured characters who were faced with ethical considerations in their daily life. I really loved the title-it’s what ethics is all about. Ethics is different from morality which various sectors of our society are always trying to legislate and dictate to the rest of us. Ethics requires the individual to contemplate the consequences of their actions, positive or negative, and to decide what is the best thing to do for the highest good of all concerned. Children are ethical by nature when properly nurtured. It has been said: “and a child shall lead them”.

Sleep-do we really miss it?

According to a recently published article most Americans get only seven hours of sleep per night instead of the recommended eight. Some who were polled said they tried to get as little as possible because they were concerned about missing out on something. Sleep deprivation seems to be the norm these days as our environment is now a global twenty-four hour place.

I remember years ago when the first store in our mid-western city decided to open on Sunday, a proclaimed “day of rest”. Then the next big step was the first twenty-four hour grocery store. At the time we all thought it was ludicrous: who would go shopping in the wee hours of the morning? That was a different world where one income could support a family, where forty hours was the normal work week, where the breadwinner worked five days a week, where television shut down at eleven at night, where parents stayed married and children obeyed adults, where the worst thing that happened in my public school career was students cutting class to hang out in the school lavatory and put makeup on or smoke cigarettes.

In 2001 we are swamped with stimuli from all sides; technology has taken over and there are few quiet moments in any twenty-four hour period. We feel compelled to respond to the insistent and constant demands of our environment whether it be human or mechanical. What is urgent has become important and what is important has become urgent and it seems that everyone thinks that everything is both all the time. Thus, we live in a hectic, over-stressed world, largely of our own choice.

I was speaking with a teacher this week whose subject matter is the martial arts, where people learn to relax under pressure. He told me that he was involved in a car accident the other night, ran into a parked car, because he feel asleep at the wheel of his truck, because he was too tired because he is so busy.

Children have so many activities these days that they too are over-scheduled what with hours of homework being the norm and multiple extra-curricular activities on their daily timetable. They too are not getting sufficient sleep. This condition disrupts their normal biological, psychological and emotional rhythms and may be the contributing factor in poor school performance which may be why so many are drugged-up at any early age with Ritalin.

Do we want to continue down this path of self-imposed bedlam becoming less effective and efficient and more driven and deluged? I think not. It is said in Europe that Americans live to work while Europeans work to live. We need to pace ourselves otherwise the next generation will be hopelessly hooked on downers and uppers, over-stimulated and under-developed as full and complete human beings, not human doings.

The motto of the University of Sussex in Brighton, England is “Be Still and Know”. Let us all do just that and see what happens.

Who Put the CON in Consciousness? 

It seems that McDonald’s, that friendly all-American eatery that most of us have grown up with, has tricked those of us who are vegetarians, i.e. no meat, fish, fowl or seafood.  Some people call themselves “veggies” while indulging in one of the above, but the Webster’s definition only covers fruits, nuts, vegetables, grains, and some dairy or eggs sometimes.  Now I know that we can split hairs on this one because there are Vegans who won’t touch any animal product or by-product, no honey, no leather goods, no dairy, no eggs, etc; but in the main vegetarian means no beef extract, which is what McDonald’s has been including in its so-called “vegetarian french fries”.  

Having brought my lifelong vegetarian daughter up on this food, parties and school outings not to mention the allure of “Playplace”, I was deeply shocked to hear that McDonald’s had been lying all along when they told us veggies that their fries were cooked in 100% vegetable oil.  You could say we had been “McTricked”.

Some may say that a little beef extract added for extra flavor and that distinctive McDonald’s fries taste is no big deal, after all, it was just a bit, for the customer; however, corporate America seems to have no problem justifying lying to its customers when it suits.  Firestone had no problem lying to Ford about its tires, and the tobacco companies had no problem adding that extra ingredient that helped make cigarettes so enticing.  And now we can add that most basic item, food, to the list of corporate deceit.

As most people know the number of small, family-owned farms in this country has dropped drastically in the last twenty years for a number of reasons, mainly the cost of doing business-government loans and the high cost of equipment, etc.  Check out the PBS documentary “The Farmer’s Wife” and also “Troublecreek”, which won an Academy Award in the documentary section. 

Small farmers in this country have been run out of business by the big guys, agribusiness,  and even a sold citizen like Willie Nelson could not help them out.  The Feds burst into his Texas ranch uninvited one day and took everything, including the guitar right out of his hands.  The charge was income tax evasion- that wonderful excuse our government has for treating its citizens like servants.  Could there possibly be a connection between that search and seizure and Nelson’s successful participation in Farm Aid, a not for profit organization that was raising awareness and funds for the threatened family farms of America?  And now we have genetically engineered foods, like corn and soy, with more on the horizon, that have been produced by these very same corporations.  In Britain and in Europe such foods must be labeled as such, but not here in our free country.  There has been no research on the effect of GE foods on humans so in effect our government is allowing companies to experiment on its citizens without our knowledge and without our consent.  Does anyone have a problem with this?

On the one hand we have senators like Orrin Hatch of Utah trying to make vitamins a prescription requirement and on the other hand we have GE foods proliferating with virtually no supervision by that very same government.  What’s up?

SUV: It’s the American Way 

With all of the recent hubbub over the energy crisis, the subject of the very popular transport vehicle, the suv, is on the table.  Our environmentally unfriendly  President GW and his sidekick Trick Cheney have clearly indicated their preference for capitalism instead of conservation.  They prefer to drill in wilderness areas rather than look at renewable energy sources and conservation of all resources, you know the drill: reduce, reuse, recycle.

So where does the suv fit into all this?    Right in the middle I would say.  The suv is being blamed as a symbol of the long- awaited and long-ago predicted energy crisis.  As a proud owner of a 1994 Ford Explorer XL and a committed environmentalist I have already been assailed for driving what is now called an over-sized, dangerous car by both friends and my parents who are all concerned for different reasons that I continue to drive this now “politically incorrect” symbol of unbridled consumption.

Evidently some Americans are unable to safely navigate these larger than average vehicles so Ford and other companies have invented the cuv, which is built on a car chassis, whereas the suv is built on a truck chassis.  I suppose this is intended to avoid the advantage that the larger suv has over smaller cars in the event of an accident: even the odds as they say.

As far as rolling the vehicle, my question is, what are the drivers in the process of doing with this car when they manage to roll it?

Taking the curve too quickly, trying to perform wheelies, pretending they are in a sports car or what?  Just because some people are unable to drive this vehicle does not mean, therefore, that all of us are bad drivers.  It is probably true that some people should not drive a vehicle this large; however, I do not believe that all of the suv owners should be punished just because some are inept.  

Lastly, on the subject of the Firestone tires, well, just change the tires; it is nothing to do with the car.  It appears that Ford is preparing to replace all Firestone tires on all Explorers,  Now we can all rest easy until the next inevitable crisis.

Blaming all of our woes on this utilitarian vehicle is ridiculous, but ignoring the real source of the current energy crisis is folly as well. What we need as Americans is what our founding fathers intended for us to have: a government of the people, by the people and for the people that is able to respond to the needs and wishes of its citizens.   Americans want to drive suv’s, but they also want responsible leadership where energy management is concerned.  That means that GW needs to leave all of the cards on the table (let all of our energy options be fully explored) and also to deal from the top of the deck (to be consistent in word and deed by giving equal power to the alternative energy options as he has repeatedly said he would).

 The News 

Remember when the news was on twice a day, six o’clock and ten o’clock, then regular people went to bed satisfied that they knew all that was required of an average citizen on an average day.

Oh yes, there was the occasional national emergency that required round-the-clock reporting.  Where were you when JFK was shot?

But that was an unusual occurrence necessitating unusual media coverage.  Most people were content with a twice daily opportunity to view “what’s up”, as they say nowadays.  What happened? 

I suppose that technology has made twenty-four hour news a possibility, but does it have to be a reality? Did I really need to have the Oprah show interrupted last year for one half hour with live coverage of the two grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez arriving at Dulles Airport?  The five o’clock news was just around the corner, time-wise.  When I phoned the television station to complain I was told that the story had national importance, people wanted to know.  Know what, I thought, that two older Cuban women had been hustled over to the States to protest the separation of father and son by the politics of the Cold War?  I already knew that.   

I resent the constant interruption of normal discourse by the news media.  Everything is grist for their mill since they have space to fill and advertisers to cater to.  They must sell, sell, sell.  Sell us on the state of the world.  I am not that interested.  I do not need to be notified of every crisis as it unfolds and I do not need to know every detail either. I want the news media to “read the news”, as they say in Great Britain.  I want the news, and nothing but the news; that is, “the facts, just the facts, Ma’am.” 

When Mr. Clinton left office recently the news media pointed out that he had made some questionable choices on who he pardoned, namely Marc Rich and the convicted drug dealers financially connected to brother-in-law Hugh Rodham.  Big expose, good job media.  Now where is the story?  Did they follow up?  Where IS Mr. Clinton these days and what is happening legally with the pardoning faux pas?

 It seems that the media wants to take us on a roller coaster ride, up one day with high intensity on a most important issue, and down the next, the issue is nowhere to be found, no reporting, nada.  If it was so important yesterday, what happened today?  Where is the consistency, the in-depth, investigative reporting that used to be the backbone of The News?  Where is The News?  I miss it!  

Earth Day is Important (especially this year)

In 1970 Gaylord Hauser established Earth Day.  Since that time the United States has been a world leader in environmental protection. Our air and water is some of the cleanest in the Western world, yet more needs to be done.   The current issue of the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) newsletter points out some problems that this country is experiencing with its use of energy.  Many experts believe that fuel efficiency is the answer to high gas prices, skyrocketing natural gas utility bills and electricity shortages such as those experienced in California.

For more information phone 212-727-2700 or check out www.nrdc.org 

To send your elected officials an email message go to www.savebiogems.org/arctic

Earthsave, the brainchild of Baskin Robbins heir John Robbins, has an office in Miami.

Florida is undergoing the worst drought in its history.  Rachel Carson discussed the challenges of conserving the water in the state’s delicate eco-system with the 1946 publication of her landmark book Silent Spring.  Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, a leader in the fight to save the Everglades, referred to our water system as a “river of grass” originating in central Florida with Lake Okeechobee and the Kissimmee River which flows into the Everglades creating a natural filtration system which fills and drains on its own. She also wrote many books on the subject, some even for children.

Wyland, the great environmental artist, internationally known for his more than sixty “whaling walls” depicting the plight of earth’s threatened marine life, was in town recently to highlight and demonstrate his work.  He presided over his gallery, one of many worldwide, on Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale, aptly named Wyland.  Sensei Joseph Winn was on hand as were his parents Keith and Ellen.  Ellen is an enthusiastic collector of the this prolific artist whose work is featured in many mediums.  Interested persons can visit his website, which includes information for establishing programs for schools, at www.wyland.com. 

Check your local cities for activities centered around Earth Day celebrated on Saturday April 21^st this year.  Read and become informed about conserving our natural resources.

Most cities now have a recycling program.  Teach your children how to reuse and recycle.   

While performing songs from his new CD at the Chocolate Moose café in Davie several months ago, Jim Billie (Chief of the Seminole Tribe) recounted a true story which illustrates the principles of native conservation..  He told his audience how the State of Florida and the U.S. Government sought to prevent him from hunting Florida panthers on his own land, as generations of his people had done previously.  Nonetheless he killed a panther, but explained that the Indians use the whole carcass; nothing is wasted- all parts are used to sustain life on the reservation.  Likewise if you go on one of the airboat tours at Holiday Park on US 27, which is reservation land,  the tour guide will tell you how and why the Indians preserve this area in its natural state as much as possible.

  Everywhere you go, the sound is just too loud

I read a letter recently in Dear Abby  lamenting the excessive level of sound used in movie theaters, restaurants, television shows-especially commercials, and of course, my favorite: car stereo systems. It seems that technology is a mixed blessing like everything else in life.  Digital technology has allowed everyone to turn up the sound wherever speakers are involved.  I have been to movies where I could not stay in the theater because the sound system was so loud it resonated inside my physical body, even with earplugs in, which I travel with at this point in time, just in case.

I am now considering buying those special “ear muffs” that lawn maintenance men wear when they are operating their weed-whackers.  When I attended a Jennifer Batten promo at Mars Music in Pompano  Beach last year her excellent guitar playing was so loud that I was forced to ask the employees at MM for the ear protectors that drummers use because my earplugs were not enough to block the level of sound that she was generating.  The staff agreed with me.

 We need to moderate this new technology.  We need to speak up.  We need to voice our discomfort.  In my neighborhood, like many others, cars with exploding sound systems that actually vibrate inside the house as they pass by, are becoming commonplace.  I was awakened recently at 3:30 a.m. by such a vehicle.  I have been working with the local police department on this topic. They agree that this type of noise is considered “disturbing the peace”. 

Pete Townsend has “rock and roll” hearing, that is, he is deaf, due to his proximity to high levels of sound while performing in his infamous band, The Who.  Not aspiring to that level of notoriety, I also do not wish to attain “rock and roll” hearing.  We need to ask others to “turn it down”, just like we fought to have clean indoor air by asking smokers to “take it outside”.  Noise pollution is a problem that is here to stay unless we “stand and be counted”, as David Crosby has suggested.  There are bigger issues out there, but our hearing is priceless and we are the ones who need to protect it.

The Election

Bill Maher, host of the television program Politically Incorrect, remarked recently that the post election process is far more revealing of the candidates than the entire period preceding the election where a popularity contest appeared to be the motivation behind most of the campaigning.  Both primary Presidential candidates appeared on popular talk shows replete with jokes that had been expressly written for their television appearance by select comedians.  At one point, in their efforts to win the ‘likeability’ factor, both contestants appeared at wearing the same suit and the same tie in the first debate.

The outcome of the election has reflected this desire of the two main candidates to say what they think the voters want to hear, so the voters are confused about what either of them really thinks, hence, the close election.  Where were the Third Party candidates when the so-called Presidential Debates were held?  In this supposedly free country, why are our options being restricted to only two choices?

The Nader Factor has had a major influence on this election causing the results to be very contested and very close.  No one has an overall majority or a clear mandate with which to lead the country, and I think that everyone knows it now.

Election irregularities have happened in the past and largely been ignored it seems. However, that old way of doing things is not going to work any more.  We need to make improvements and we need to standardize ballots and voting machines in line with the technology that is now available to us.

People in all parts of the country and those living abroad need to feel that their vote does count and that it will be properly counted, no matter what the outcome of the election.  Otherwise, it will be difficult to get the voter turnout that we need to run our republic properly.

I am proud to live in Florida, a state previously only famous for its weather and its retirement community and its status as the number one tourist destination in America.  Now it will be known as the state that caused the second American Revolution, the revamping of the Presidential election procedures. It seems that democracy is alive and well.     

Sleeping less

In 1900 Americans were sleeping more, up to ninety minutes more per night.  Watching the program “1900 House”, featured on the PBS station here in South Florida, in which a London family of five goes back in time to live in a specially fitted out home circa 1900, the viewer notices how very different life was back then.

Not only where they’re no luxuries to speak of, there was no outside entertainment.  The ladies of the house were thrilled to discover the joys of bicycle riding, a nearly forbidden pleasure for women who wore long skirts as their everyday wear.  Since electricity had not yet been invented gas lighting was the order of the day; hence, it was difficult to read at night due to the low level of lighting available.  Of course; there was no TV, no radio, no phone, no computer, no twenty-four hour shopping, and no game boys.  Hence, most people went to bed at a fairly early hour, just like the farmers, and rose at a fairly early hour.  The daylight hours defined people’s sleeping habits, so people actually got more sleep. 

We now live in 2000 and the hundred years that have just passed have brought the greatest amount of change in recorded history, especially in the entertainment industry.  We expect to be entertained 24/7 and as a result of these expectations we get less sleep.  We are so busy being entertained that we ignore the natural reminders of tiredness and overrun the requirements for rest with lots of coffee, thus ensuring that Starbuck’s has a bright future in our country.

I have heard stories of ordinary people staying up half the night in chat rooms and generally being absorbed with their computer and all its functions.  Even though computer programs include a clock in the corner of the screen, most people are probably oblivious to its presence, instead submitting to the hypnotic presence of “the screen”.

There is actually too much choice and we are being bombarded with more every day.  I think that the burden of it all is getting to us.

We become spoiled by it and apathetic, declining our own efforts in favor of media titillation.  Children are the most visible signs of this phenomenon with diabetes and obesity occurring in record numbers in this country.  And bedtimes for kids have become a thing of the past with many staying up nearly as late as their parents, at very young ages.  

What is going on here?  It is time to take a critical look at the Information Age and all that it brings with it instead of passively accepting whatever the marketplace offers up.  I remember the anxious discussions that took place years ago about computers taking over from humans and the question of the day was," who's in charge?"  The controversial movie “2001” was an early warning signal to us all about the possible dangers and problems of the impending computer revolution.  So what are we going to do about it now?  Ideas, suggestions, and comments are welcome. Who’s in control? 

The Ongoing Computer Nightmare

In this ago of technology we are all supposed to be eternally grateful for the presence of newness in our world.  We appear to live in an era of great change, of great possibilities for communication.  Much is promised and very little is actually delivered.  Computers have been presented as the answer to virtually every human problem and yet I believe that they have created more problems than they have solved, at least in my world.  My credo these days is; if there is something wrong, blame it on computers.

Being a novice in this area does not help.  I want simplicity and in general computers do not provide this.  Many people buy computers and many people are intimidated by them and end up not using them due to their lack of understanding.  Everything sounds very simple when you are buying the thing or when the expert is setting it all up and then when you are left alone with the beast it turns on you and suddenly nothing works the way it was supposed to.  Your computer is performing loads of illegal operations and can’t do’s and you find yourself stuck in the middle of screens that won’t move that you can’t close and sometimes nothing works and you have to just walk away and hope that it all fixes itself somehow without requiring your personal intervention.

All those movies like 1984 and 2001 were telling us something: that there is a trade off for convenience and that we can never afford to give up control to something that we really in our hearts do not understand.  Many users, note the word usage, like to think that they really know what’s going on and the talk is often about the latest doodad’s in the industry, but I think that it is all a sham, that we are being used and not the other way around.

I have been trying to get on the web for days now and somehow it is not simply the way it is supposed to be, in spite of all the “help” buttons that I have visited, I am no closer to actually successfully visiting a real web site.  Instead I feel very frustrated with the whole process and with the level of advertising and sales that a “user” is constantly being bombarded with while searching.  It is like being captured on line and not being able to find anything yet not being able to get away either. Promises, promises.

Getting with It

“Sometimes I feel like a motherless child”.  What I mean to say is that I do not feel comfortable in the fast paced, intense, ever-changing twenty-first century that we are all being propelled headlong into.  Not having a natural affinity for the technical or the mechanical, I feel overwhelmed and dumbfounded on a regular basis, not confident and upbeat like many others who are better equipped for this century, or so I thought until recently.  I must credit the motivational genius Anthony Robbins for re-igniting my willingness to participate in this new world of technology that is upon us, whether we like it or not.

Up to now I have sought out other tech-resistant citizens in the hopes of forming an unofficial underground of  those who wish to remain “non-computerized”.  I would commiserate constantly with anyone who would listen to my sad plight.  I belong in another century, I would complain.  My favorite mini-series was “1900”, the public television special that filmed a family of five living in London in a house that was furbished with only the accoutrements that were available circa 1900, one hundred years ago.

At that time there was no television, no radio, no telephone, no internet, no movies, no vcr, no electric lighting, no box spring mattresses, no commercial soap or shampoo, no electric razor, no proper vacuum cleaner.  I could go on but suffice it to say that when the women of the house, who wore long skirts as a regular outfit, discovered bicycles as a form of entertainment and transportation, it was the highlight of their seven-month stay in their hundred-year-old home.

Dad spent days honing the skills needed to shave daily with a straight razor, growing a mustache in the process.  The children generally faired less well than the adults.  Their sixteen-year-old daughter spent most of the time moaning about the austerity of this former lifestyle until she discovered the follies, the theater of the day, which only “loose women” generally participated in.  She, her sister, and her mother were captivated by the possibilities for entertainment that  vaudeville provided and were eager volunteers in local shows.

Days were shorter then with “early to bed and early to rise” the motto of a society which lacked electricity, the means to late night entertainment of all sorts.  Hence, citizens tended to sleep an extra ninety minutes each night.  Since daily living was so time-consuming, building a coal fire, washing dishes and clothes by hand, cleaning house top to bottom daily, making meals from scratch, entertainment was mostly limited to card playing, music making, sewing, and “visiting”.  So expectations were moderate with regard to free time. Nowadays, much is not only expected but required, demanded.

We must all be constantly entertained and everything must be easy. We have spoiled our children so much that they expect all of life to be as instantaneous and effortless as much of technology is for them. Video games and other computer-generated devices can rob us of our ability to entertain ourselves and “to do” for ourselves, unlike our 1900 ancestors  who learned self-reliance and independence.

In Getting with It, the twenty-first century, I want to take with me the values of 1900, which gave people the opportunity to develop other aspects of themselves such as patience and perseverance and self-reliance which are so lacking in today’s culture.

Heavy Book Bags and Other Oppressive Things About School

Now that our governor has decided that Florida must immediately improve its reputation nationwide as far as educational standards are concerned, he has instituted the FCAT test which all students are required to take.  I hear that everyone from school administrators to students to parents to teachers is upset about the time and energy that is used throughout the school year in preparing for this test.

Maybe their dissatisfaction, nearly unanimous, could unite the people of this state into a pro-active force that would actually change the face of education for the better.  Most people I talk to are happier when, as adults, they are “out of school” and working; hence, not required to return to the confines of the “educational community”.

Kids are being given up to five and six hours of homework per night and parents are allowing it.  They are also not objecting to heavy book bags, some weighing up to thirty pounds.  Much schoolwork is boring and repetitious, yet parents tell their children that it is preparation for their future.  In what way?  Are we preparing children to hate their jobs, yet to stay in them?  Just what is the purpose of education anyway? 

I think, and so did the ancient Greeks, to lead out, point the way, discover, uncover, open doors, open minds, foster creativity, encourage independent thinking, take risks, embolden and enlighten, to brainstorm, to enthusiastically support an experimental attitude with regard to the world of ideas and action, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

And if these goals were all being met within the system why is Tony Robbins, the master motivator, so important and so successful?

I think it’s because the educational system in this country is so debilitating that within a short time of entering it most individuals have given up or lost their desire and ability to learn.  We need to take the future back; and as former astronaut and teacher Krista McAuliffe once said, ‘I touch the future, I teach.”  that should be the truth for all of us all of the time.

We are all students of the life process and we are simultaneously teachers as well; we are all here on planet earth to learn and to the extent that we are able to accomplish that task on a regular and ongoing basis we will be truly successful, productive and harmonious, all of which is vitally required at this point in history, don’t you think?

 Yawning through the Primaries

The political process in this country is probably one of the most boring in the free world. This election is one of the worst. Last night news commentators were noting that more money and more time has been spent to date in this pre-election process than ever before. In an age where entertainment value is a real pre-requisite for political success, the major lesson of Bill Clinton, saxophone player and MTV celebrity, one wonders how the current crop of potential candidates hopes to succeed. They are all so dead boring, pardon the pun. Except for one, Alan Keyes. Keyes does not get much play on the regular news networks but on C-Span he is heavily featured as he travels around the country talking to high school audiences and other interested parties. He actually answers questions off the cuff and speaks intelligently on a variety of topics. Keyes believes that the major issue facing the country is one of morality. He defines morals as knowing the difference between right and wrong. Oops, is this guy for real? A graduate of Harvard Law School, a former Ambassador to the UN and consultant to various Presidents, this man can think on his feet. He is interesting to listen to and provocative in his answers to questions from the audience. He is unflinching in his criticism of the selling out that most politicians do. With the current two party system it is difficult for "third party" candidates to get heard since the major networks back the candidates nominated through this system. In the last Presidential election only the Republican and Democratic candidates were presented in debate. The official "reason" for the exclusion of "other" party candidates was that "only those who could win were invited to participate". Gee, does this mean that someone knew ahead of time who was going to win? Hmmm...So where is the spirit of real dialogue and true debate that fired the American Revolution? Let's hear ideas expressed by candidates from many parties in a public forum supported by our "news" media. After all, it's a free country, right?

Anywhere But Here

I just watched a movie last night that blew my socks off, as they say. It is called "Anywhere But Here" and stars Natalie Portman and Susan Sarandon as the daughter and mother who are the main protagonists in this story of the ups and downs of that infamous relationship. If you have been a daughter or a mother of a daughter or both, this is most definitely a "must see" film. From the opening scenes where the ever-optimistic Mom is happily driving through the endlessly spacious desert (somewhere in the Southwestern United States) with an unhappy, rebellious teenage daughter in tow, having left behind the confines of a small town in Wisconsin to move to the "bright lights, big city" world of Beverly Hills, California the scene is set for a multitude of parent/child, mother/daughter confrontations that many of us know all too well.

Portman is a standout in this comedy/drama exposing herself through a full range of emotions which etch themselves spontaneously across her classically beautiful face. Having seen this actress only once before, in the totally disappointing and forgettable fourth Star Wars movie (even the title is difficult to recall), I was pleasantly surprised to find her performance in this movie both enchanting and engrossing. Unlike her totally wooden acting in the previously mentioned film, even her monotone voice was annoying under the techno-wizard direction of George Lucas, this Natalie Portman character is believable and knowable. She is the focus of the film. Sarandon, veteran actress of so many excellent movies, did you catch her Oscar-winning performance in "Dead Man Walking"? is brilliant as the foil for Postman’s angry, ungrateful, persnickety daughter who challenges her wacky but devoted mother at every turn on every issue from boyfriends and failed romantic relationships to career choices and failed job situations. This is an ongoing conflict that just won't quit, but then we in the audience who can identify with the situation don't want it to.

I sat spellbound throughout the entire two hour plus movie eagerly awaiting each new interaction to see what resolution or revelation the interplay of these very interesting characters would reveal. Conflict is not all bad. In our society alarm bells frequently go off in our heads when we hear the word or see its results on the news or in our lives. And yet we all need to learn how to deal with conflict in a less emotionally or physically violent way. We need to learn how to "do tough love". This movie opens the door to another way of "doing the family thing". Go see this movie!

Ally McBeal

This show seems like a very upbeat, enlightened and contemporary program, well-written and funny. And for the most part, what you see is what you get. But the problem that I have with this show is the main character Ally McBeal. We know that she is flighty and quixotic and malleable, but there is something else there that is really annoying. While watching the program recently I was trying to put my finger on exactly what is so exasperating about watching this character do her stuff. For months I refused to watch the show because I could not tolerate the main character, I just could not get past my immense dislike for her persona.

So how can I watch the show? With great difficulty I must admit. Ally acts silly, she pretends to be innocent and inquisitive while bobbing up and down with a vacuous, playful look on her face. She asks leading questions and ponders thoughtfully when her query is answered, looking for all the world as if she is in deep contemplation of the significance of the response, as if she really cared about the other person and what they are saying. Ally looks like a thoughtful and possibly considerate person on the outside, she has all the external cues to help the observer believe that she is this exceptionally deep person. Wrong. Her inquiries are just a set up for the "deep-sixing" that she always gives her opponents, people who disagree with her, people who do not immediately serve her personal interests, people who are not on her wavelength and hence, do not immediately understand her complicated psychology, love me, love me not, understand me, understand me not, get close to me or not. Are you following me still, or did you get lost in the web that this program frequently weaves? It focuses too much at times on the main character, to the exclusion of the other far more interesting persons on the show, which incidentally is why I watch the show, to enjoy the other characters.

Sometimes it is difficult to watch the show as it centers around the main character whose every action is designed to attract attention to herself, rather like a small child who misbehaves when company comes to the house just so they can be part of the action. While social ineptness can be forgiven in a child, what is Ally's excuse? Anyway, I digress. My favorite character in the show is Fish. He is so frank, so unabashedly male chauvinist, so politically incorrect, it is positively refreshing. My next favorite is probably Ling, so cutting, so direct, so uncompromising. I love it. Someday, when I grow up, I want to be as confident and outspoken and unapologetic as she is. How liberating. Then there is Elaine, openly flirtatious, stating her wishes clearly, cleverly and unabashedly. Yes. That's the way to do it. Go Elaine. And those seductive looks and moves are to die for. No shame or blame there. Then there is Georgia. Pretty, independent and changeable. You thought you knew her when she first arrived at the firm, new wife of former Ally boyfriend Billy. Then she cut her hair the first time and you thought, this girl is an unknown quantity, good. Then she started to speak out at the firm's daily meetings as her own person, disagreeing with her "sought-after" husband. And then she openly challenged the "new Billy" when he turned over a new leaf, bleached his hair and became a "card-carrying chauvinist" demanding suitable wife-like behavior from her. After taking the bold initiative of leaving the "old" firm and joining a small new firm, she gave Billy his "walking papers". Then she sued the old firm for creating working conditions that led to the breakup of her marriage. You have to wonder why the unisex bathrooms.

So that's it. The reasons why I watch Ally McBeal in spite of totally disliking the main character. The sideshow is well worth the effort.

Running Red Lights

Here in sunny South Florida there is an unusual relationship between the police and the public. The police tend to disregard the rules of the road and so does the public. In particular I am referring to the high incidence of running red lights. In general the police here tend to speed and brag about it, to run red lights on a regular basis and turn without signaling. Running lights is dangerous to all concerned and there have been several serious accidents as a result of these infractions by police and by the public.

One of the other contributing factors vis a vis the traffic light situation is that none of the lights are timed properly so that a motorist can be forced to stop up to twenty-three times for lights on a nine mile trip. There is a preponderance of lights at condo entrances and side streets that makes traveling on a major road a nightmare of inconvenience. A trip that should take twenty minutes on a well-planned light system can take up to twice as long as expected. This interference of efficiency causes the driver to feel frustrated; hence, the disregard for red lights. In order to establish anything remotely resembling traffic flow drivers must cut corners and one very effective tactic is running red lights. Even though I myself disagree with this tactic it is one that I use because It works.

Civil disobedience occurs when the state does not respond to the needs of its citizens. While traffic needs are not quite the same as those of the Gay movement, the Feminist movement or the African American movement the principle is still the same. If injustice or inefficiency is not corrected, as required, then the people will take the law into their own hands and Administer as needed to themselves, which is actually what is talked about in our own Constitution and Bill of Rights. We were created Sovereign Citizens and as such are entitled to government of the people, by the people and for the people. It is up to us to create and maintain this condition. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

Tina

Tina Turner turned sixty years old at the Millennium. She is currently on a world tour with her new "album" 24/7 which is a sellout success, as is her tour. This woman defies every category of age, race, and social convention. With her upbeat attitude and philosophy of hard work, she overcame tremendous odds at every point in her difficult life. Turner is unique, original and totally herself.

And yet it was not always so, as she is the first to explain. At one point in her life, married to husband Ike and the mother of four boys, trapped in a band that did not play her kind of music, she tried to kill herself. When she did not succeed she decided there must be a better way. She did not immediately leave her abusive spouse even though she wanted to. She needed to find the internal fortitude to create a new life for herself.     A friend introduced her to chanting which she took up with great enthusiasm and devotion. It was the tool that she had been waiting for.

One evening, while on tour with the band, after yet another beating from her stoned husband, she waited until he passed out and then ran out the back door of the hotel they were staying in, crossed an interstate highway on foot and entered the Ramada Inn. The manager gave her a free night and that was the beginning of her road back to sanity, to her independence, to herself.

She was nearly forty years old with four teenage boys to support and no viable career as a solo artist, so she cleaned her friends’ homes and appeared on game shows . Rod Steward saw her on a TV show and then Mick Jagger. She subsequently met her current manager Roger Davies who was able to make all the right connections for her "comeback album" Private Dancer for which she won four Grammys. The rest is history. Tina Turner is a living legend whose courage, spirit and style continue to entertain and inspire us all.

Respect, find out what it means to me

Aretha Franklin was right. Respect is a very important component in our lives, yet we need to figure out what it means to each of us. Respect, regard for another person’s rights, is the very basis on which a civilization such as ours rests. However, its principles are not taught in our schools or in our homes. I believe that is because my generation, the Baby Boomers, staged one of the most publicized rebellions in history against rules, regulations and conventions. The advent of the birth control pill, television and an affluent economy all contributed to the liberal atmosphere that fostered the proliferation of liberation movements in the sixties and seventies.

Then we became parents and adult citizens of this very same society that we had so vigorously criticized. The economy soured and STD’s (sexually transmitted diseases) were rampant. The idealism of the sixties gave way to the difficult realities of a post-Vietnam world. Boomers were horrified but somewhat resigned as they were now "knee deep" in the daily demands of "Real Life", just like our parents were.

Trying very hard to be "modern parents" many Boomers smoked dope with their teenagers, encouraged "at home intercourse" with romantic partners and promoted freedom with no sense of responsibility. With both parents working, kids were given all the material goods that money could buy without having to work for any of it. Hence, the idea of work is a foreign concept to these "children". Also, many children were treated as equals and, having no prescribed bedtime, were allowed to stay up as late as their parents. They were encouraged to speak their mind, anytime and all the time and so, in response to being told what to do by an adult, simply responded in the negative. Adults were unsure what to do about this and so they usually ignored it or complained about it. Hence, we have the advent of Tough Love, which seeks to teach adults to take back the control that they have given up in an effort to gain kids’ approval.

You see, The Baby Boomers really, really want to be liked by their children. They absolutely did not want to go through what they put their parents through, total rejection. So they have always tried really hard to be very fair, very tolerant, very mellow. And the kids have learned to expect that attitude in all things; they have learned that they can do what they want without having to consider other people, especially adults. So they show no respect having never been taught what it is, because the adults in their environment did not respect themselves, so they could not teach their children. "Teach your children well" as CSNY said.

 Car Phones

For some reason here in America we have agreed that communication is so important that nothing must stand in the way of phoning.    Portable phones, cell phones, beepers and my favorite, car phones, are constantly evident everywhere. I have sat in restaurants where customers  spent their whole meal on the phone, loudly I might add.   I have been in line at the supermarket behind people with a phone pressed to their ear while conducting their transaction with the cashier. I have been to the movies when a phone has suddenly rung in the middle of a crucial scene and the moviegoer happily conducted their conversation while watching the silver screen, oblivious to the effect of their conversation on their environment. And isn't it annoying when a beeper goes off in the middle of a meeting or a class or a theater performance? 

However, the most irritating and dangerous use of this form of  "technological interruptus" is the car phone.  It is unbelievable that a State could require its drivers to pass a test, where both hands on the wheel at all times is the modus operandi, and then allow its duly licensed citizens to carelessly engage in one-handed operation of the same vehicle while under the influence of "phoneage".  In England a car driver must actually pull off  to the side of the road to use a phone in their car. The mayor of the city of Boca Raton recently proposed that car phones be banned, and is urging Floridians to lobby their state legislature on this option.  I think that the English model of car phone usage is the most reasonable for phone-happy Americans who feel compelled to "stay in touch" with one another twenty-four hours a day.  This is one argument in favor of that often criticized but highly useful tool of the twentieth century, the answering machine. After a short "please leave your message at the sound of the beep" you can communicate without disturbing or disrupting, all hours of the day and night  Sounds good to me..

The Summer Olympics

The Olympics are supposed to use sport to help humanity come to grips with itself or some such thing. Today while watching the coxless rowing a "light bulb moment" occurred, as Oprah would say. An American sportscaster was commenting on the Australian response to having the Olympics take place in their home country. It seems that the Australians are great sports fans with most children being very active in sports as well. The comment from the broadcaster, which was so interesting, was that in Australia they cheer for all the players, no matter if they win or lose. Australians apparently love to see the individual make an effort and were caught offering a round of warm applause to a pair of Pakistani rowing competitors who finished way last in their particular race of the day.

Evidently the Australians really practice what the Americans only espouse, it’s not whether you win or lose that matters, it’s how you play the game. Ninety percent of all venues have been sold out which is some sort of Olympic record in itself. It seems that all of Australia is caught up with Olympic fever and they are all watching the games wherever they are, in malls, in pubs, in the street, with great enthusiasm, for all the players. One of the great things about the Olympics is that the world gets to learn a lot about the people in the host country. When the Olympics were held in Japan the courtesy with which everyone was treated was legendary. I remember reading about a reporter who had left his wallet in a crowded restaurant, only to return hours later to find it in the same place that he had left it. This would be unheard of in America. I think that part of what makes the Olympics so interesting is what we can learn about people from other cultures and how they view the world and how we can be better as a result of our enhanced vision.

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