The Ides of April, Edison and PCs

Legend tells us that a soothsayer warned Julius Caesar to “beware the ides of March,” which signified the middle of the month. This was before the invention of basketball, so I doubt that he was being warned of the danger of having his college hoops bracket busted. As it turns out, assassins were Caesar’s problem. But as history has shown us time and again, it’s the ides of April that have been a bigger problem for the rest of us.

I’ve always been more attuned to April 15th for a more personal reason: it’s my birthday. But many bad things have happened around April’s midpoint, and it has always bothered me. Lincoln was shot on the 14th, but died on the 15th. The Titanic struck the fatal iceberg late on the 14th, but took several hours, until the 15th to sink. April 15th is also the day that income tax returns are due here in America, which is no big deal now that I’m paid wages subject to withholding taxes, but was much uglier when I was paid only commissions or was a “self-employed” contract worker. That’s when real procrastinators find out just how much money they owe the government. Lots of people hate my birthday, thankfully most of them do so not because of me.

There are a host of other tragedies that have happened around the middle of April, and most of them are instantly recognizable by the word or two that denote the nearest city. Names like Columbine, Waco and Oklahoma City come to mind. This year as I sat in North Canton’s newest watering hole with my good friend and sipped a celebratory birthday cocktail, we watched the news feed on the big screen monitors above the bar as the name “Boston” was added to that infamous list. My thoughts and prayers go out to those people who found themselves in harm’s way.

Following closely on the heels of the Boston Bombing, another mid-April act of violence was committed against the American people. This one occurred in our nation’s capital and we know exactly where to find the perpetrators, although it’s doubtful that they will ever face any consequences to their act. The U.S. Senate voted to block legislation to expand background checks for purchasing guns. Recent polls taken by reputable organizations have shown that the majority of Americans in our supposedly representative democracy agree that at least this modest measure should be undertaken in an effort to keep mentally disturbed people from obtaining weapons designed to kill dozens of people quickly. However, the NRA, which now represents the interests of gun makers, not average gun owners, want no restrictions at all on gun sales. They’re willing to gamble with the lives of their children and ours that all such restrictions are bad for the sake of boosting sales. I think it’s a bet that most people don’t want to take, but our government responds best to bribery by lobbyists rather than to the wishes of their constituents.

As I was looking over a news service on my computer’s Internet server last week, I was reminded of another mid-April milestone. April 16th marked the 36th anniversary of the introduction of the Apple II, the world’s first easy to use personal computer. It’s nice to remember that some good things can happen in the middle of April. I wanted an Apple as soon as I heard about them, but I was a college student at the time, and couldn’t afford one. I worked on computers throughout my college years, but they were massive room-sized IBM units. It wasn’t until I started selling real estate in the mid-1980’s that I got a chance to work on a PC, but since then I have tried my best to make the PC a useful tool throughout my career. The personal computer has had a transformative impact on our world, and I’ve been around to see it happen.

Lately, I’ve been reading a book entitled The Age of Edison: The Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America by Ernest Freeberg. The title pretty much spells out the book’s content. Although we had candles, oil lights, and gaslight for many years, it wasn’t until electric light was perfected for mass consumption that the world was transformed into modern times. Of course Edison didn’t invent electric lighting. He didn’t even invent the incandescent bulb, but he did perfect it for mass-market consumption. We tend to think of Thomas Edison as a lone genius that toiled until he found the right filament to make his bulb practical. But his real genius came from directing the efforts of a group of highly skilled and intelligent workers to achieve his goals. In his Menlo Park and Orange, New Jersey laboratories, Edison pioneered the concept of organized research and development facilities.

It is difficult for us to imagine the world that existed before electric lights or the changes that occurred because of the rapid, widespread adoption of them. When the lights came on, factories could now work around the clock. Our entertainment, including theaters, sporting events and amusement parks, could now be enjoyed far into the night instead of being confined to daylight hours, allowing more people to enjoy them. Law enforcement initially praised electric street lights for casting its glow on the seedier elements of society and forcing them further into the shadows, but they also allowed for more late night carousing and the attendant social problems. The successful harnessing of electricity also gave rise to hundreds of other laborsaving devices, although in the process we often replaced beautiful artisan-produced items with cheaper factory-made goods. At the end of the nineteenth century America faced a shortage of workers. Electrical devices made up for that at the time, and became so successful that now we don’t have enough jobs to go around.

In our modern times, computers have had a similar life-changing effect on our world. It is also difficult for our younger people to imagine the world that existed before personal computers and cell phones, not to mention video games. In the businesses that I’ve been involved in throughout my career, we made huge increases in productivity primarily through the use of personal computers, and later, the Internet. Our bosses often resisted, hampered by the comfortable familiarity of doing things the way that they had learned them, as well as resisting the capital outlay required to purchase the latest technology. Things like fax machines and cell phones seemed like unnecessary extravagances at first, but quickly became requirements for doing business. Now, just as quickly, they are being replaced by newer technology. Hand held smart phones now handle most tasks done by several devices previously, and apparently modern workers much prefer text messaging and e-mails to actually talking with one another. Unlike electrical lighting, which allowed people to congregate outside of the home for longer hours, personal computing and its associated technologies tend to keep us physically separate from each other. At least that makes it tougher for potential bombers to do us harm, but I feel we have lost something in the process. The electrification of America has brought about constant change at an increasingly rapid pace, but change isn’t always good, it’s just different.

Edison’s beloved incandescent light bulb is now being replaced, although many seem to be reluctant to let it go. However, it will soon be illegal to sell one in this country. Modern LED bulbs are initially more expensive, but cost only a fraction to operate. The warm glow of incandescence is hard to replicate, but we have embraced change in the name of conserving our natural resources. At least that’s the story they’re feeding us. I think they want to sell more lamps and new lighting systems, but then I’m a bit of a skeptic. I have seen conclusive proof of the much lower electricity use of the modern bulbs, but I hope they can get the initial cost of the bulb down.

Although we give Edison much of the credit for the electrification of America, he was a supporter of the safer yet less efficient direct current (DC) system of distribution. He eventually lost out to George Westinghouse’s alternating current (AC) distribution system, which sends power across high voltage lines, then uses transformers to break down the current for home consumption. Edison worried about the dangers of AC, and went to great lengths to demonstrate the destructive power of his rival’s system, including a stunt that proposed the “Electric Chair” as a means of executing criminals (to his horror, the system became widely adopted by prisons for decades). He also filmed the electrocution of a rouge circus elephant. The film became quite popular; today we would describe it as a viral video sensation.

The Ohio-born Edison also has a local connection to my hometown area. His first wife died when Edison was in his late-30’s, leaving behind three young children. His friends quickly realized that a man like Edison, who often worked in his lab through lunch and dinner and then late into the night as he obsessed on his latest idea, would need help to raise his children. They introduced him to Mina Miller, the daughter of inventor/industrialist Lewis Miller, who is from Greentown, Ohio, just up the street from my hometown of North Canton. Edison and Miller married at the Miller home then returned to New Jersey and eventually had three more children. The old Miller home still stands near the square of Greentown, which isn’t really a city or even a village, but merely the name for a crossroads between Canton and Akron.

My mother and her family lived in the Greentown area for many years. Mom, her sister, and two brothers all attended Greentown High School. The school started at the time of the initial electrification of America, in the late-1800’s, and graduated its last class in 1957, in the midst of the Atomic Age (the school district was absorbed into the North Canton system). My Uncle Ralph graduated in the Class of 1941 (http://highschool.greentownohio.com/1941.pdf) and made the local papers when he was signing his enlistment papers on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. It wasn’t a knee-jerk response to the attack; he had actually signed up weeks before, and was just showing up according to schedule. Aunt Millie was one of sixteen members of the Class of 1944 (http://highschool.greentownohio.com/1944.pdf) while my mom graduated in 1949 (http://highschool.greentownohio.com/1949.pdf). My Uncle Robert (we only called him “Buck”) left school for the military before graduation, but his wife was a graduate in 1954.

The graduates of Greentown High organized an alumni association in 1908, and have held reunions for members of all of the classes every year since then. This summer will mark the 105th reunion. Several years back, the torch was passed to the “younger generation” of the association. Thus began my connection with the school when my mom became the treasurer of the alumni association. She received a card file with names and addresses of all of the alumni as part of her duties. Up until that year all correspondence had been addressed by hand. While handwritten addresses may be more aesthetically pleasing, arthritic hands demanded a change of procedures. I looked over what she had been given and told her that I could simplify her task. We set up a database for the graduates on the computer that could be used to print mailing labels and name tags. That year, we developed what has become known as “the list”.

No new names are ever added to the list, but instead each year it becomes shorter as members pass away. This year, the oldest graduate passed away at the age of 106. There is a dark joke circulating among the committee that all too soon there will be no need to hire a caterer for the annual event. Instead the remaining graduates will be able to fit around a single table at an area restaurant. So it goes for the little group born in the age of electrification that will expire in the age of computers. Or will the progress of technology name a new age before the group’s light is finally extinguished? As the electric producing industry entered the twentieth century, even its founder, Thomas Edison, declared that he didn’t really comprehend it anymore, and focused his attention on motion pictures.

It was a combination of security cameras tied into computers that helped the authorities identify the Boston Marathon Bombers, and an infrared camera that helped locate one of them who was lying in a boat, bleeding. The progression of technology can be used for good, but can also be twisted for use by forces of evil. My hope is that the world will become more like the little group from Greentown High School, constantly seeking out the company and fellowship of their fellow graduates with an emphasis on their shared experiences. However, the cynic in me also realizes that most technological advances are eventually perverted for malevolent purposes. Let’s just hope that there is another “age” following along behind the computer age, and not the extinction of mankind.

      

   

Two Movies and a Book

I really like movies, especially the ones that surprise me unexpectedly. There are many things in life that surprise us. Some of them are good surprises, while others are not. I’ve been told that I was a “surprise” for my parents. Some of us are dismayed to find out that they were not born from the grand designs of their parents, but personally, I’m quite content to be a “love child.” Seems a bit more romantic than entering this world as a planned decision. Often, surprises occur because they run counter to our expectations. Many find great discomfort when reality runs afoul of their preconceived notions. Over the years, I have learned to just roll with the punches and take life as it comes. There are times when I get upset by having expectations that far exceed the reality of experience, but I mostly try to maintain an even keel.

Recent weeks have seen the release of many highly advertised films for home consumption on DVD (I’m not high tech enough to go Blu-Ray just yet). I like movies almost as much as I like books, and while I prefer the full cinema experience, there are various reasons why viewing movies at home makes more sense for me, so that’s where I usually watch them these days. Recent events at movie theaters are troubling, and I like to see movies without the fear that some nut job is going to open fire on everyone there. Last week, I got five movies that I really wanted to see, with Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln topping the list. I love learning about history; this film is filled with recreations of important events from our past and it’s supposed to be mainly accurate from an historical perspective.

Also included in my bounty of films was the Robert Zemeckis film Flight starring Denzel Washington. I knew the film had a great action sequence involving a plane crash, and I’ve enjoyed Denzel’s work since his days playing a doctor on TV’s “St. Elsewhere.” I watched this movie first and although I didn’t really expect too much from it in comparison with the others I had seen or were about to view, I really enjoyed it. In fact, I liked it better than Lincoln.

I learned how to fly an airplane while I was a student in college. One of the perks of going to a really big university like Ohio State is that they have their own airport and fleet of aircraft. Of course I also learned that in order to become a really good pilot one would have to invest more time and concentration into the endeavor than I was prepared to give. So I abandoned it to the experts. In the film, Washington’s character is an extremely talented pilot, sort of like the real-life pilot, “Sully” Sullenberger, who heroically landed his powerless jet on the Hudson River and saved everyone on board. But unlike the clean-cut Sully, Denzel’s character is an alcoholic who uses cocaine to keep him alert enough to fly. But because he is also an exceptionally talented flyer, he is able to pilot his damaged aircraft to a controlled crash landing and saves almost everyone on board.

If you’ve ever known an alcoholic or drug addict, watching Flight was all the more realistic, because you know that it is tough to overcome those demons, and backsliding occurs frequently in real life as it did in the film. But eventually goodness triumphs in the film, although at a great cost to the main character. Likewise in Lincoln, the goal of passing the 13th Amendment that permanently outlawed slavery in this country was achieved. Goodness triumphed, but the main character was lost shortly after his goal was achieved. But we all knew that was going to happen. Maybe that’s why the film was a bit of a disappointment; we all knew how it had to end.

I’ve also been trying to finish a book that I picked up at the library throughout all of this movie watching. I mentioned it in a previous post, Smuggler Nation by Peter Andreas. The book details the influence of smuggling on our country from Colonial times through the present. It’s a very interesting book that reveals a side of history we seem to have little desire to confront, but has had an enormous impact on us all. I usually race through most books, but lately I find this one difficult to pick up, even though I’m almost finished with it. The first part of the book was entertaining and informative. I learned aspects of history that I didn’t really know before. But as the book touches on more current problems, it becomes more and more frustrating as I read about how our government’s reaction to smuggling has caused more problems, and escalated other problems to the point where things seem totally out of proportion.

Perhaps that was the problem that I had watching Lincoln. Observing the political process that was required to pass the amendment was a sickening experience. There’s an old saying that the two things you should never watch being made are laws and sausages. They’re both messy procedures.

In our nation’s effort to control drug smuggling, we first attacked the problem by focusing on the drug user, and increased criminal penalties as we outlawed the drugs. Then we tried to go after the smugglers. But since the desired drugs were now illegal, it became much more profitable to smuggle. Every time our country has success in slowing one source of smuggling, or one route used by smugglers, another took its place. The smugglers also gained more power and more wealth as a result, causing an upward spiral that continues to this day. We’ve become the world’s biggest jailer, and expended billions of dollars to stop the flow of drugs. It hasn’t worked.

We would be much better off if we completely decriminalized drugs. We could then divert the resources used to fight smuggling to the treatment of the drug addicts. It would be much cheaper than the amount we spend to imprison everyone involved. But our politicians are too weak and our process too messy for this to ever happen. As we were shown in Spielberg’s film, our political process was an ugly thing. It’s probably even worse now than it was in 1865. No one has the intestinal fortitude to stand up in Congress and say that they want to decriminalize drugs because most of their constituents are too uneducated to understand why this should be done, and the truth is that most of our politicians are too stupid to understand the overall concept as well. It’s much easier to say that a drug addict is a criminal than to admit that they have an illness that is treatable.

One problem is that smuggling creates a lot of wealth for those with the balls to get involved. Some of our nation’s major family fortunes were started by the proceeds from smuggling. Wealth buys votes, now as it did in the past. Lots of people are profiting from the legal efforts to stop smuggling. However, they would profit much less if smuggling were actually ended. That’s the other problem. Despite the fact that voters think of stopping smuggling as a desirable outcome, those involved in the process actually want it to continue. That’s because they are making profits from the process, not the end result.

It’s a problem in other areas as well. As I write this, the gun lobby is paying, in one form or another but usually within the boundaries of the law, for amendments to be added to unrelated legislation that will make the enforcement of any future gun control legislation to be more difficult, or even impossible. This is happening as polls show that the majority of Americans favor gun control legislation, especially in areas of background checks and limits to magazine capacity. Several states have already passed their own gun control laws, and federal action of some sort may even pass someday. But is it going to have the desired result? Probably not. The rich people are inciting the uninformed to resist, not because it is in the people’s best interest to have assault rifles and handguns with high capacity magazines, but because it will allow the rich people to gain even greater wealth. They will then retreat behind the fortified walls of their gated communities while the rest of us dodge bullets.

Personally, I’d like to have a machine gun. Something that could fire several hundred rounds per minute would be just fine. While we’re at it, I would also like an F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighter, fully armed. After all, I have the constitutionally protected right to bear arms for my own personal protection, do I not? If having an extra 5 shots in the clip of my AR-15 is something that we should allow, why isn’t it possible for me to get my machine gun, or that jet? The fact is that someone wisely decided that it would be foolish for a civilian like me to have a fully armed military jet, or even a machine gun. In reality, I’m fine with those laws. I have no desire to get into a fire fight with my neighbors (although the idiot next door has tempted me at times) or to patrol the skies for enemy insurgents (I quit flying over 30 years ago, remember?). Those are actually reasonable constraints on my personal freedom designed for everyone’s safety. Just like having functional breaks on the car I drive is a reasonable law. Passing reasonable gun control laws is in the best interest of everyone, except the merchants of death that profit from gun sales. They’ll find other ways to make more money, they always do. As for me, maybe I’ll feel safe enough to go see a movie in a theater again. After all, I really like movies.