Land of the Free, Home of the…Clueless

A few nights ago, my friend stopped by for a visit. He had been out to a sports bar for a couple of beers, and to see a cute bartender that he’s been enamored with for a while. He told me that they were showing one of those trivia games on one of their many TV monitors, since there just aren't enough sporting events happening on a Tuesday night in July. A question appeared asking who was the U.S. President during the American Civil War. He sarcastically joked to the bartender that they really picked a tough question. She looked up at it, read it, then told him that she didn't know the answer.

Initially, I laughed when he told me. I didn’t believe she was serious, or maybe my friend was setting up a joke. After all, you would have to be asleep in grammar school not to know about one of America’s most famous Presidents, and he’s told me the woman in question is around forty years old. Somewhere along the line, they made us memorize the Gettysburg Address. It’s a really short speech, but very memorable. It was a long time ago, but I mostly remember the speech, and certainly the reason behind it. But the bartender was serious, she didn’t know, and my friend was beside himself that she was that clueless. Unfortunately, after I realized he was serious, I didn’t have much trouble believing it.

I recently had the opportunity to work with some local high school students and recent graduates. I recall one young lady, I considered her reasonably bright, knew she was doing well in school, and we were talking about a recent trip she had taken with a school group to France and Spain. It seems that they were trying to find out something fairly simple from a guy in France, but he spoke no English. I don’t remember the exact problem, but I asked her if no one in the group could ask the question, which I then asked in French. It was something simple like: “Where’s the bathroom?” Now it had been around forty years since I took French in the seventh and eighth grade, but I’m pretty sure I phrased it correctly. It was a really basic question.

She looked at me and asked what I just said. She knew it was in French, but didn’t understand. I repeated it, slowly (my French teacher told me I had a terrible French accent-go figure, I’m from Ohio, she was Belgian by birth). She shook her head, and told me she didn’t speak French that well. “Wait a minute,” I protested, “didn’t you tell me you had four years of high school French, and you were in the French Club, and your group visited France last summer?”

She sadly nodded, but then explained that her French teacher had been a huge NASCAR fan, and all they had to do was to get him off on a tangent, discussing his favorite sport, and he would forget about teaching the subject that they were there to learn. Apparently it worked for four years straight. I was beside myself. That was just wrong.

Our economy used to be the best in the world. Our public education system was the envy of most countries. Opportunities abounded for our citizens. That is no longer the case, and if you’re wondering why, start with the basics. A country that does so little to prepare its young people for the future is bound to fail. History has shown us that all major societies, all of the world’s great empires, from Ancient Egypt through Alexander’s Greece, Imperial Rome, Portugal, Spain, the Dutch, and the United Kingdom, all of them, have fallen. The United States is on its way down.

The shortsighted way that we choose to educate the majority of our young people has to be a contributing factor. Of course, the argument has to be made that we cannot afford to spend more money on public education, and in some respects it is a valid argument. Especially considering that we have instructors more interested in pit stops and checkered flags than teaching what they are paid to teach.

So what is the answer? I have lots of opinions on a vast array of subjects, developed through careful reading, and listening, and devoting time to thinking about various issues. And I haven’t got the slightest idea what will work. What do you think?

I know we need to get rid of teachers that aren’t effective, but I’m generally opposed to firing teachers. I know we need to find a way to fund public schools better. Our current property tax basis has resulted in school districts that are vastly different in quality, and that bothers me. But I used to be comfortable with the idea that if you wanted better schools, you voted for higher property taxes to fund them, but now I feel that there’s a problem with that rationale. It breaks down over time. In a poor economy, no one feels compelled to vote for higher taxes. The children suffer, and no one cares.

There are those groups out there who would be happy to scrap the public education system altogether. Just do away with it. If you have kids, you pay to educate them as best you can, and that’s it. Of course these are the same folks who want to do away with Social Security and Medicare, too. I guess we could use all the extra tax money to fight a few more wars, and for sure there would be lots of kids who couldn’t afford an education looking for a job in the military. I think it might just create an ugly world.

Personally, I like the idea of a strong public education system, where even the less fortunate children at least have the opportunity to show the world that they have something special. I would hate to think that the next Steve Jobs, or Thomas Edison, or Dr. Christiaan Barnard, would just be sitting on the corner, wishing they could get a break. But a strong public education system requires a strong middle class of informed citizens. Ay, there’s the rub, as Shakespeare would say, because right now our middle class is deteriorating, and our electorate is not well informed.

So what’s it going to be? Shall we have a race to the bottom and may those who shoot straighter and faster win? I hope not. So, if you have an idea, share it. I know there’s at least a few people reading this, so share what you think. The situation demands a response. Don’t be just another clueless American.

Remembering Andy (And Advice From Fathers)

Andy Griffith died yesterday. He’s been called “everybody’s favorite sheriff” and was considered to have been an American icon. Andy was an actor and an entertainer. He had two very successful TV series, The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock, as well as several unsuccessful series, and various movie roles. He was never honored with an Emmy award for his acting (his co-star, Don Knotts playing Deputy Barney Fife, won five) probably because we all got the feeling that mostly Andy was playing himself and therefore not working that hard. He seemed like just a nice, honest guy. But if you’ve seen him playing some of his darker, bad guy roles, such as his first film, A Face in the Crowd, you realize that he could act. Perhaps even that it might not be a good idea to piss him off. Or, like most people, he may be a bit more complex than what you would suppose at first glance.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to bash him. I like Andy. I was never a big fan of Matlock, since it appealed to an older demographic, but growing up, we watched his show about the tranquil town of Mayberry all of the time. There were only three channels of TV shows back then, and we were just kids, so there wasn’t much alternative. Also, I’m not a huge fan of slapstick humor, and people being stupid generally bother me, whether they’re acting or not, and the show had lots of both. But it was also done very well, and that matters. Ron Howard, who played Opie, and went on to more fame and fortune as an actor, director and producer with an excellent grasp of our popular culture, attributed much of the show’s success to Andy’s grasp of how to do things well. He learned from Andy’s example and it taught him how to do things well.

For me, the things that made the show so good were the scenes with Andy and Opie together as father and son. Andy had such good advice, and he could deliver it without beating you over the head with it, more like making you realize it for yourself. I don’t think anyone I’ve ever known had a father like that. Mine is not the homey advice kind of guy, although I love him dearly and wouldn’t trade him for another. But the best piece of advice he gave me (that I can remember-and that might be the biggest problem) was this: Never bet the Three-B’s, the [Cleveland] Browns, the [Ohio State] Buckeyes and the [Canton McKinley High School] Bulldogs. It is very sound advice if you’re from the Canton area of Northeastern Ohio, since all three football teams have demonstrated a way of letting their fans down, especially when they’re supposed to win. But I never bet on football games, and it’s not really that useful of advice. Oh yeah, he did tell me another thing that’s really useful advice this time of year: be really careful with fireworks and don’t try to pick up a dud firecracker right away if it doesn’t go off. They’re words to live by.

The wisdom that Andy imparted to Opie, however, was the life changing kind, taught in the gentlest of ways, and we all knew that it would stick with the youngster forever. Probably it would be passed on to his own children, and even grandchildren, in a similarly kind and intelligent way. Very much unlike real life. I don’t know anyone who had a father like that. Some fathers did offer more advice to their children than mine offered to me, some gave even less. The problem is that when it comes time to give advice, we’re probably at an age when we are not inclined to listen, much less remember.

Andy’s real life son apparently had lots of issues, and died years ago from his problems with alcohol. On the other hand, Ron Howard has stated that he enjoyed a very helpful quasi-father-son relationship with Andy Griffith throughout his life, and went on to a hugely successful career. So in this case, art didn’t imitate life, it outdid life by a long shot.

So where does that leave us with Andy? He was talented, very good at what he did when it all came together, less than stellar when it didn’t. He was human, just like the rest of us, capable of making mistakes, and probably got it wrong more than once. But in the end, when it’s late at night and I can’t get to sleep, I’ll find a rerun of The Andy Griffith Show and hope it’s an episode where Andy teaches Opie about life. It isn’t a bad way to fall asleep, and beats most other reruns, old movies and infomercials every time. Also, it isn’t difficult to find a rerun of the show, since it has aired continuously since the original went off the air. So, in conclusion, I would say that we’ll miss you, Andy, but that’s not really right. What I should say is that we’ll be seeing you later, Andy. Rest in peace sir, a job well done.

 

Stop Sending Me Emails...You Big Baby!

One of my state’s U.S. Senators sent me an email the other day, after the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act. Among other things, the message said:

“Regardless of the legal decision handed down yesterday, the fact remains that Washington-run health care is bad for patients and bad for the economic and fiscal health of our country.”

There are several things that bothered me about the email. For starters, I don’t think that the law in question will have our government running the health care system of the United States. The law requires that everyone have health insurance. Medicaid may subsidize low-income people who cannot afford to purchase private insurance, but for the most part private sector health insurance companies are involved. Perhaps the gentleman in question doesn’t have a firm grasp on the laws of our land. Makes one wonder how he got his current job (you know…making laws).

I am a student of history. I love reading about the past, of how and why things were done. I firmly believe that there is a tremendous amount of information about the past that we can use to better shape our future. Here’s a favorite quote (it’s more than 100 years old):

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted, it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience.
 George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905

History tells us that health care reform in this country has been championed by Presidents that include Teddy Roosevelt and Richard Nixon. I’m fairly certain the men in question were Republicans, although I doubt that today’s party would elect either one (TR was a reformer, apparently a dirty word now, and Nixon gave us the EPA…who can afford clean water and air?) The idea for the current health care reform law was proposed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. A former state governor named Willard M. Romney used it as the basis for a health care reform law passed in his home state.  As a candidate for U.S. President, this same man now wants to abolish the federal version of the law. I don’t believe a coherent explanation has ever been given for this discrepancy.

The law was designed to alleviate the inherent inefficiency of our current system, because, among other things, the uninsured people of this country are using the hospital emergency room as their primary care physician. This, and related factors, leads to an unnecessary increase in health care costs.

Here’s a crazy thought (I’m full of them, having grown up in the ‘60’s): The ACA was a law passed by Congress, signed by the President, and upheld by the Supreme Court. Why doesn’t everyone sit back, take a deep breath, and see if maybe the law works? If it doesn’t, we can always change it, or get rid of it, later.

Now there was something else in this email that bothered me (Why this dude even bothers writing me boggles my mind. Sure as heck I’m not sending him any money). The sender implied that instead of supporting this unpopular law (proposed by his own party’s respected conservative think tank and passed by a majority vote in Congress) the President should be focusing on creating jobs. Um…maybe he forgot that the President’s Job Bill has been languishing before Congress (you know, where he works), held up by the sender’s party, because…why? Are they afraid it might work to create jobs and get the guy reelected…and keep them out of power for a little longer?

After all, we (thankfully) elect a President and a Congress to run our republic. Our President isn’t an omnipotent ruler who can snap his fingers and get things done. We have checks and balances. He’s done what he could, and now is waiting for Congress to act. Too bad they’re acting like idiots, or as Santayana would say…infants.

Divide and Conquer

This morning, my hometown newspaper’s lead story was about a rally downtown run by the Catholic Church in opposition to the Health-care Reform Law, known more commonly and derisively as “ObamaCare”. Upon glancing at the story, I was initially confused why a staunchly middle class group would be so upset about a law that would be a tremendous boon to the rank-and-file members of their congregation. The answer was obvious.  It seems they are strongly opposed to a law that forces them to offer health insurance that would pay for such forbidden items as contraception and abortion. Oh, there’s something else, too. The Catholic Church is the world’s first Big Business, and it seems Big Business has a major bug up its bum about health insurance reform.

As I was browsing the Internet a little while later (I really was doing important research, I swear), an ad popped up on the top of the screen. It showed a picture of a nice friendly lady doctor talking to a little girl. The headline was: “Don’t let government come between you and your doctor.” It was sponsored by the family-friendly sounding “Concerned Women for American Legislative Action Committee”. I scanned the webpage thoroughly, but couldn’t find a list of names for this concerned group of women. I thought this odd, since in my years of experience I have yet to encounter a concerned woman who was afraid of mentioning her own name in connection with her cause. The group did provide its Washington, DC, address.

Turns out this “group of concerned women” are opposed to the Health-care Reform Law. What a surprise! They were pretty vague on just how this law would inject the government between you and your doctor, but they swear it is so, despite their complete lack of specific references (trust us, we know?). I looked up the address, and it belongs to a female doctor. But the doctor’s office, for her medical practice that is, was located in nearby Virginia. Not sure why she had an office in DC where all the insurance industry lobbyists have offices, maybe it’s just a coincidence.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if Big Business would just come out and say that they are opposed to health care reform because it will cost them money? Well, that’s not true, because businesses always pass along any increases in costs to consumers, or they soon go out of business. The law would, however, increase costs to the people who OWN Big Businesses. Yep, someone has to pay. In this case, it’s the people who can afford to pay.

I also came across the following article in the Christian Science Monitor. Now I’m generally skeptical about anything published anywhere, especially if there is some group with an ax to grind behind it, but the CSM is generally noted for its journalistic integrity, and is viewed as a fairly unbiased publication. This article details some important aspects of the health-care reform law:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2010/0321/Health-care-reform-bill-101-Who-will-pay-for-reform

So, wealthy people are opposed to paying more taxes…yes, everyone is opposed to paying more taxes. However, if one is a wealthy American, one must remember the reason that they are wealthy: America makes becoming wealthy, and staying wealthy, easier than in many other parts of the world. Perhaps they should be more willing to accept some additional costs to offset their massive blessings. Just a thought.

What I find truly insidious is this tactic of Divide-and-Conquer. Let’s get the Catholics to oppose health-care reform because of contraceptives (By the way, if you are a devout Catholic, it really shouldn’t matter if contraception is available, you can always follow the Church doctrine and refuse to use it). Let’s get mothers worried (without justification) that health-care reform will somehow put the government in-between you and your doctor. The list goes on. The tactic is downright sneaky, and sneaky bothers me.

Facts, however, delight me. The fact that the United States of America is the only major industrialized country without mandatory universal health care also bothers me. The fact that millions of uninsured Americans have to use hospital emergency rooms as their primary care physician bothers me, because it increases health care costs for everyone else, and doesn’t begin to provide the kind of health care that is really necessary for good health.

What really bothers me most of all is greed. Now maximizing your own personal wealth is basically a sound idea. I have no real problem with it, unless you have to make someone else truly suffer in order for you to be well off. But if you think that making everyone else worse off will make you better off, then that’s greed, and it is wrong. It is wrong morally (not that many people care about morality these days), and it is wrong economically. American prosperity was based on the rising wealth of the middle class. Good jobs, providing a living wage for working people, led to vast economic expansion in the last half of the 20th century. It even allowed rich people to get richer. Apparently, they don’t think they’re rich enough.

I could go on about greed, and the excesses that the truly greedy will use to protect their wealth. But I need to step off my soapbox and get some work done. Sorry if I offended anyone, unless you’re greedy, or sneaky, or both. Then you should really do some self-examination and try to figure out if what you are doing is right for you, and for the rest of the world.

Could I Get a Scoop of Hope With That?

Outside, it is a beautiful early summer morning. Birds singing, flowers in bloom, vegetables growing and ripening on the vines. The sun shines in a clear blue sky. On the surface, everything is fine.

However, the headline of the morning paper hints at a darkness that yet remains in the world. A former football coach has been convicted of terrible crimes committed against the children he was supposedly helping. Well, at least parts of our justice system are still functioning; the monster will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Unfortunately, the victims that testified against him are now, for the most part, adults. Why did it take so long?

This being an election year here in the states, if one were to turn on the television ( I can hardly stand to do so anymore) you would see ad after ad from opposing candidates, each telling lies, half-truths and even facts to convince us that we should not vote for the other guy, and by default, vote for them. It is a sad commentary on how our system works, or rather, doesn’t work.

Our economy continues to falter and fester, along with all other economies around the globe. Our political parties point and blame and do nothing to change the situation. One party proposes something that might help, but the other party, perhaps fearing even a modicum of success from the initiative, fail to take any action. Actually, they work against any action being taken at all. In their insane desire to make the world over to suit themselves, they are quite willing to allow it to disintegrate away to nothing.

It’s all too sad. It’s depressing. It makes me lose hope.

In the midst of my despair, this morning on a social media site I use to stay connected with old friends I have not had a chance to see face to face in too long of a time, I saw a picture. It was a picture of a baby. The child of the Swedish cousins of an old friend, who lives on the East Coast, adorned with a crown of wildflowers in celebration of the Midsummer holiday. Perhaps it’s a holiday we should import. Looks fun.

I don’t know the child or her parents personally, and will probably never meet them. But I would certainly like to get to know the people with the good sense to celebrate a season by offering beauty and hope to the world, instead of focusing on the negative that surrounds us. It makes me want to at least try to do something that will leave the world a better place for this sweet little girl, and all that will follow.

So for breakfast this morning, I would like a large scoop of hope. Plop it right on top of my plate of despair, and let it run down and cover everything. And after I have my breakfast, I think I’ll go out and tend to my garden. Something needs to start growing in this world. Maybe something that will change it for the better. Perhaps we should all start the day with a hat of wildflowers. What could it hurt?

A Tale of Three Businesses

Business One…A Success Story

Many years ago, a good friend of mine started his own business. He was a gifted mechanic, a veritable genius with screwdriver and wrench, with an ability to keep even the most finicky British roadster on the road (not an easy task to be sure). Like many successful entrepreneurs, he made a startling discovery.  As his business grew, he found himself spending more and more time in his office doing bookwork, instead of on the shop floor, where he could work his magic…and earn his money.

Now most small business owners feel that keeping their books and doing the office work is what being the boss is all about. It's not…maximizing wealth is the prime directive of any business activity. My friend did the most intelligent thing I have ever witnessed in the business world. He hired someone else to run the office so he could get back to doing what he did best. So simple, yet so effective. His business continues to thrive, and his lifestyle is the envy of many.

Business Two…Recipe For Failure

I once worked for a man, a very nice, well-intentioned guy, who had purchased a thriving going concern business where he had been second banana. The business had tons of potential, but it was a highly competitive retail operation, and problems loomed on the horizon. He was a firm believer that the boss belonged in the office overseeing his operation, although whenever problems arose, his familiar lament became “I need to spend more time down on the floor, where I can keep an eye on things.” It was spectacular insight, and he did nothing to make it happen.

Instead he invested money in technology that allowed him to remain seated behind his desk, monitoring his store through a series of cameras, and speaking to his department managers on the phone. His business decreased. In order to save money, he took on more of the tasks that kept him in his office, even if it took him longer to do them than specialists in the field would have taken. His business got worse. He couldn’t afford to keep enough inventory on hand because he had spent the money in areas that didn’t contribute to sales…or profits.

His business is closed now. His investors have lost their investment, and dozens of people are out of work. Worse, the community has lost a needed business, a former friendly business that supported its customers, the kind of place that is found along Main Street, not Wall Street.

Business Three…Know Your Strengths

Ben was a natural born salesman who formed friendships with his customers, proving himself to be a loyal and always helpful ally. After working successfully for several firms, he reasoned that the time was ripe for him to step out on his own. He had a strong grasp of the technical aspects of his business, and as I mentioned, he could sell. While he understood the financial aspects of his business, he didn’t want to waste time doing bookkeeping, which would only count the money, not contribute to making it. So he did a very smart thing. Ben enlisted the aid of his friend, a CPA, in order to take care of the aspects of his business that frankly left him bored.

Ben concentrated on his strengths and allowed his friend the CPA to concentrate on the money. His business flourished.

This isn’t a fable, but there is a moral to the story. I’m sure you can figure out what it is.

LAKE MOHAWK MEMORIES

     Several years back, more than I’d really like to think about, I came home from the office with a need to unwind. It was a splendid early summer evening, with a clear blue sky, and the water was nice and smooth. I quickly shed my business clothes and put on my shorts, a polo shirt, and some well-worn Topsiders. The mosquitoes had been a bother in the evening, so I sprayed myself all over with repellent, grabbed a beer, and selected a fishing rod with a surface lure from a group stacked in the corner of the deck.

     Walking the few short steps down to the dock, I reflected on the fact that despite all of my preparations, the truth was that I didn’t care whether or not I was going to catch a fish. True, I like to fish, but no one would ever say I’m really good at it. (I once landed a huge bass fishing with my friend Bob at his place in Orlando, and he still talks about every time we go out to fish. Unfortunately, neither of our cell phones had cameras at the time, and I had left my camera at his house, so there is no proof for a cynically disbelieving world where fish stories are all too common. But we were there, and we know, and that’s enough.) My mission that evening was simply relaxation. There is something Zen-like in the repetitive casting out and retrieval of the lure that clears the mind and refreshes the soul.

     It was early in the week, and despite how splendid the weather was, there were only a few boats on the lake, probably because most normal people were at home having supper. Mine could wait. I cast out my line with its Hula-Popper lure, slowly retrieving it with the occasional pause to jerk the rod and make the “pop” that gives the lure its name. It’s an “old school” kind of lure. I caught the first bass of my life on one back in the early ‘60’s, and I’ve used them ever since. Of course, they work best when the water surface was smooth, and just then it was perfect.

     After only a few casts the stress and cares of the day were melted away. As I began my next cast I heard the deep booming bass sounds from speakers mounted high on a wakeboarder’s tower. There was a boat coming my way and I was certain they were about to defile the tranquillity of my perfect evening.

     Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against water-skiers. My brother and I were both avid slalom skiers. At the time, I had a Ski Nautique boat, designed to smooth the wake and provide the best possible pull for the skier. But wakeboarding was a next generation thing. Just as in our youth we sought out stereo systems the reproduced the best high end sounds, the new generation was all about deep, throbbing bass notes. And just as we sought to smooth out the wake from our ski boat, wakeboarder’s boats were modified to produce more wake. They do need something to jump after all. I hold no animosity toward the younger generation. I can smile at their foibles because I still clearly remember my own, even after all these years. But I now know the truth of that old saying that youth is wasted on the young.

     To be totally honest, I could feel the Karmic forces of the universe coming back to haunt me when the guy on the wakeboard dropped off right out in front of where I was fishing. How many times had we taken an inside track on a poor guy fishing in the middle of cove just so we could ski the smoothest water along the shore? Far too many I assure you. I may have had a moment of remorse in disturbing the fisherman, but it passed far too quickly. Screw the poor bastard, we were young, and owned the damn world! And now it was my turn. The boat was coming right toward me, kicking up a wake and booming out some rap song. I cursed. My peaceful evening of fishing was about to be ruined.

     Something really remarkable happened then. The boat slowed. The volume of the booming rap song was lowered to a level nearly inaudible from the shore. The wakeboarder in the water was quickly recovered, and the boat motored slowly away until they were well out of range. I could faintly hear the bass notes again as I saw the driver hit the throttle and zoom off, well out of range for any of the huge waves that I had anticipated, but never received, to bother my fishing in the least. I was chastised for my past transgressions, and taught a lesson by some youths that should have been the students, but assumed the role of teacher that fine evening.

     I cast my line out onto the still smooth surface of the water. When I jerked my lure this time, it disappeared. The tip of the rod bent and I pulled back to set the hook, feeling that slight rush that always accompanies hooking a fish. A fine, shiny largemouth bass broke the surface and danced on the end of my line for my enjoyment.

     After reeling my fish in and gently returning it to its watery environment, a smile spread across my face. It didn’t matter if one was young or old. It didn’t matter if you were a skier, wakeboarder, or fisherman. Whether you prefer your sport accompanied by booming bass sounds, or fish for a swimming bass, the lesson is clear. Even our small little corner of paradise is large enough for everyone to enjoy. All it takes is a little consideration for the other guy.