YEAR END REFLECTIONS

December 23, 2011

This holiday season has been a sad and reflective one for this resident of East Washington.  Like Happy Valley, events proved that our idyllic community is not immune from the under belly of social dysfunction.  Earlier this year our community was surprised and angered when one public servant that we trusted with our children and safety apparently abused that trust.  Last week, like The City of Pittsburgh and several other Southwestern Pennsylvania communities, we lost one of our own police officers, in a senseless act of gun violence.

I will make two resolutions for the coming year.  The first is to offer all the financial and volunteer support I can to the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.  This group is a composite of 48 National Organizations dedicated to pushing back against the NRA and developing rational gun laws. 

The second is to express my admiration and support for our local East Washington Counsel and Mayor.  These individuals perform an exhausting and thankless function in the best of times.  These have not been the best of times.

THE FORGOTTEN 13%

The Occupy Wall Street movement has achieved two important goals by compelling us to confront both growing economic inequality and decreasing participatory democracy.  The two are linked because as wealth becomes more concentrated in fewer institutions and individuals, the capacity for the middle class (not to mention those of even lesser means) to participate in the political process becomes problematic.  This problem was exasperated when the Supreme Court saw fit to classify corporations as individuals when making campaign contributions.  Now there is no limit to wealth influencing political decision making.  There is also little opportunity for the poor to have their voices heard.

            Occupy Wall Street needs to add another category to its “99% vs. 1% slogan.  This would be the 13%.  Just over 39 million Americans live in poverty in this country.  These citizens are struggling so hard to provide food and shelter that participating in our democratic process becomes an afterthought. While the recession has widened the gap between the 99% and the 1%, the 13% are in crisis mode.  My fear is that the 99% will forget about the 13% while they protest against the 1%.

            Recently I received an e mail solicitation from Michelle Obama asking for a campaign contribution in return for the chance to dine with the Obama’s at the White House.  I sent a check.  I also gave the name of the Washington City Mission and suggested that if I won the invite, that two residents attend in my place.  The mission residents need a good meal and some participatory democracy more than me.

WATCHING OUR FUTURE UNFOLD ACROSS THE POND

The financial crisis in Europe does matter.  It is much more important to each American than the Arab fight for freedom or our own daily political theatrics.  While the media churns out stories on guns, freedom fighters and political buffoonery, our economic future is being played out across the Atlantic.  Mark Twain once noted that while history does not always repeat itself, it does rhyme.

 The financial markets often make judgments on corporations.  It is a given in a capitalist economic system.  When performance is good, corporations flourish. When performance is sub standard, the stock goes down, products go unsold, bankruptcies are filed and executives fired. 

In normal times, sovereign countries do not undergo the same scrutiny as corporations.  However, 2011 will be remembered as the year when financial markets judged countries as often as corporations. Established western nations, are no longer too big to fail. Questions on the liquidity and the credit worthiness of sovereign countries have come into play.  Market forces have eclipsed elections, international organizations and parliamentary debate.  It is now the determining factor on what the political economic and social future of the oldest, most revered European nations will hold. 

Italy and Greece have lost political leaders to failed governments and replaced them with economic technocrats.  The same has happened in Spain through an election.  All of this to please the financial markets and to stop the run on each country’s debt.  The slightest hint of good or bad news from Europe, sends the markets up or down by hundreds of points.

What was once only a whisper in European capitals is now a given. Political and fiscal power will be relinquished at the national level so that the Euro Zone can survive.  Polish leaders, in a country where fear of Germany is legendary, are practically begging the Germans to seize the moment and direct Europe away from the precipice.  Legal and economic scholars are seeking shortcuts around laws, treaties, constitutional provisions and parliamentary procedures in order to impose stop gap measures.  Preserving a credit rating trumps the slow business of democratic process.  This top down decision making feels more like China than that of a western democracy. 

The United States does not have the problems of Europe.  We make our own through partisan brinksmanship.  Our inability to reach a compromise between raising revenue and cutting the deficit has permitted the idiosyncrasies of financial markets to run the country in the absence of rational decision making.  Our credit rating is lower, our President is stone walled and our Congress is a laughing stock.

            A lesson to be learned from Europe’s dilemma is that there is very little time to spare between a plan of  “just in time-just enough” and the inevitable “too little- too late.”  As policy makers get further from the former and closer to the latter, the only course of action left becomes: “too much- right now.”   This first lesson is exasperated by a second, that helps explain the escalating crisis in Europe.  In global economics, changes take longer than anyone expected and then happen faster than anyone thought they could.

            If the United States is to avoid Europe’s fate, we must act quickly.  Policy makers that continue to take the minimal commitment to avoid immediate disaster will soon be behind the curve and forced into “too much- right now.”  Whether the cause is lack of political will or an overriding political partisanship does not really matter. Without a decisive plan things will get worse, much worse. Finally, we will act from self preservation and possibly be forced to sacrifice democratic principles. The shame will be that only a short time earlier, action would have been clearer, more effective, not as expensive and less of a hardship on our citizens.

           

OPEN INSTITUTIONS ARE TO BE ENCOURAGED

GARY E. STOUT

ATTORNEY AT LAW

78 South Wade Avenue

Washington, PA  15301

TELEPHONE (724) 228-3871

FAX (724) 228-3871

Geslaw381@gmail.com

In the middle of a week of horrendous Penn State allegations, which challenged our views on trust and the importance of open, pliable, institutions, another public enterprise stood out for me on a positive note.  Two of the Washington County election results were too close to call on election night.  The final tally, based on absentee ballots was not completed until Thursday afternoon.  The Election’s Bureau opened the final counting process to the candidates and the public. By doing so, any appearance of impropriety was avoided and the messy business of democracy upheld without rancor or accusation.

I learned several lessons from the above two tax payer supported enterprises, one large (the University), one small (the Election’s Bureau), both organized for the sole purpose of serving the public. First, transparency is always preferable to shielding a public institution or function.  Second, when an institution or function becomes so insulated that it views itself as more important than the public it serves, whatever higher purpose may have existed, becomes an afterthought.  Third, the election process and the adulation of public universities are not larger than the voice and needs of each and every citizen.  Lastly, every vote and every act of reporting suspected child abuse matters.  In both cases, the individual does make a difference.  Close elections and child predators are more the norm than the exception in our society.

 Public institutions and offices from the Presidency to the local animal control bureau exist to serve each of us.  We should admire and support only those that let the sun shine in all the cracks and crevices and that encourage the individual citizen to look under the rug and to take part in as many operations as possible.  Public venues and offices that insist on isolation and secrecy should not receive public tax dollars or our vote of confidence.

OBSERVATIONS AT THE LAST STOP ON THE RED LINE, NEW YORK CITY

When I go to New York City, it always feels like the center of the universe. Last Friday, at the end of the red line, near Trinity Church, it felt like the soul of America.  The subway stop is still called the “World Trade Center.”  Leaving the dark tunnel for the bright afternoon sunshine, the new Freedom Tower looms overhead.  Three thousand construction workers raising steel around the clock to bring the phoenix back from the ashes.

Two blocks away is Zuccotti Park.  The Occupy Wall Street festivities are in full swing.  Media, tourists, and police outnumber the protestors.  There is more talk about the coming snow storm than taking over the stock exchange.  Surprisingly, the topic of the day appears to be gas drilling in New York State, not stopping the banks. I suddenly realize the park is privately owned by Brookfield Properties and that I own the stock, subtracting from my protest credentials. Nonetheless there is the energy of a mystical vortex, as the drums beat, the video feed goes out to the world and letters, food packages and clothing pour in from around the country.

We walk another block and around the corner to the 9/11 memorial. Admission is by free ticket, downloaded from the memorial website.  My spouse tracks down the name of her classmate, former East Washington resident and 9/11 victim, Angela Reed Kyte, takes a photo and says a prayer.  I simply feel the power of the size and splendor of the twin waterfalls and infinity pools.  I hope that the newly planted swamp oaks will survive the snow storm that will ravish the city over the weekend.

As the sun begins to set, we take the short walk to the Stock Exchange.  The large bull statute is heavily guarded by police.  Every Asian tourist wants a photograph.  Somehow this symbol of power and finance, highlighting the one industry in which we still excel, feels like the source of everything that is right and wrong with America.

GREED AND FEAR IN THE GAS RUSH

With the possible exception of quantum physics and ice cream, I have come to believe that most of our world can be explained through the application of greed and fear.  There are many euphemisms that attempt to soften this reality.  The American social contract is based on the greed of economic success balanced by the fear of obeying the law.  Religions substitute gratitude for greed and the wrath of higher powers for fear.  Conservatives use capitalism for greed and socialism for fear; liberals: social leveling and the industrial, financial complex.  In the end, when the onion is peeled, it all comes down to wanting more and avoiding the taking away of what we, as individuals, find valuable.

 Stock market sages understand the dynamic.  If you study how greed and fear motivate people, you can always buy low and sell high.  It is also the basic principle of every totalitarian regime that has ever established a dictatorship.  Promise a majority of the people economic prosperity and have them fear the tribe or religion or country across the river.  The truth is that understanding greed and fear gives you power over others.

Nothing highlights human nature’s reliance on greed and fear like a good old fashion gold rush.  Make no mistake Washington County and the Marcellus shale belt, are in the middle of such an event. Here, the greed is simple to define.  Fortunes are made at the stroke of a pen. Drillers provide jobs, revenue and instant cash for access to public parks and recreation areas.  Economic booms are good for business and guarantee reelections

Fear is also everywhere, once we look behind the drillers’ billboards and commercials, telling us they are our benevolent friends:  “Sign now or be left behind.”  “Pass that regulation and we will sue and/or take our business to the next county or the next State.”  On the other side of the equation: “The science on fracking is incomplete.”  “Our water table is in danger.”  “The drillers will be gone and our beautiful County a wasteland.”

The greed and fear associated with whether to drill, is pitting individuals against families, families against towns, municipalities against counties, counties against the State, and State against State.  The drilling industry loves Pennsylvania.  To use a bad pun, a fractured political system is good for fracking.  The industry is running into reasonable checks and balances in smaller homogeneous States like New Jersey and Maryland. These Sates are more than happy to let Pennsylvania be the guinea pig so that all the problems are not repeated in their own backyards.

The present system in Pennsylvania favors the drillers.  They understand greed and fear.  The business model is to divide and conquer.  Like any good stock trader or dictator, this gives them power to achieve their goals. Exxon used the same formulae when fear and greed ran the oil industry.  Desert Bedouins understood the fear and greed game better than the oil men.  They have been playing it for centuries.  They formed OPEC and made the oil companies their employees, not their masters.

With all the recent talk about regionalization of economic, social and political concerns (the Power of 32 initiative among others) you would think that forming a Marcellus Shale Cartel that cuts across state lines would be a no brainer.  It would be the only game in town for the drillers.  They would have to come to the Cartel with hat in hand.  All environmental, tax and regulatory concerns could be vetted before the action starts. Public trust funds could be set up to repair infrastructure and address unforeseen pollution issues.

Such a plan would undoubtedly bring to the surface the greed and fear that public officials have in relinquishing local power.  My bet is that if Bedouin Chiefs that have fought each other for centuries could do it, so could our own political leaders.

A SNAPSHOT OF SKEWED VALUES

When I stand back and take stock of our political culture it often appears counter intuitive and irrational.  Let’s start with conservative Americans who need accessible education, healthcare and employment. Why would they support the tea party and rant against taxes and government programs which seek to provide these needed benefits?  On the other end of the spectrum, unionists,  members of academe and the children of our elite, sprinkled with old sixties protesters and young anarchists, camp out on Wall Street to protest the bailing out of banks.  In effect the “occupy wall street” crowd is supporting the very same tea party members who have suffered the most from the non recovery. Yet these conservatives want to leave the bankers unregulated and unscathed. 

Billionaires ask to have their taxes raised and are finding ways to give away their wealth.    Conservatives of modest means ask to have the taxes of the wealthy remain the same or lowered.  The tea party middle class have become our Herbert Hover libertarians.  The wealthy and the children of the last “me generation” are the new social democrats.

President Obama is a liberal democrat compelled to conduct his presidency as a fiscal moderate because of the state of the economy and the perceived need to move to the right for his reelection.  This is to capture more of the ground vacated by moderate republican candidates.  Mitt Romney is a moderate republican candidate who has made a Faustian bargain to become president. He has disavowed his long held policy positions.  This permits him to make a primary run as a conservative tea party libertarian in order to win his party’s nomination.  At another time and place Mr. Romney could easily serve on the President’s cabinet.

As an example of our social culture also gone whacky, we have the Steve Jobs phenomena.  Mr. Jobs was a genius at producing consumer products that by his own admission, no one knew they needed until he produced them.  His consumer consumption company is bigger than Exxon but employs very few Americans.  He was not a particularly nice man, but knew how to design and market millions of computers, music players, mobile phones and tablets.

Following his death, more media has been dedicated to Mr. Jobs life and times than any individual I can remember.  My entire issue of Business Week and much of Time magazine was dedicated to Mr. Jobs.  I learned nothing about the euro crisis and a lot about his volatile temper and that he considered taking LSD one of the most important decisions of his life.

Unfortunately lives well lived that I do care about receive almost no attention from the media.  Tony Judt was such an individual.  When he died in his early sixties from Lou Gehrig’s disease in August of 2010, the world blinked and carried on.  A politically engaged but independent and critical intellectual, Mr. Judt cared about people and about learning from history to make the world a better place. My bet is that years from now, his writings will carry more weight than the iphone.

Our political and social culture says a great deal about who we are as a people. When did our political leaders stop caring about what they believe and only about getting elected?  What’s wrong with Obama being a one term “progressive values” president or Romney running in the moderate republican tradition?   When did we stop caring about educating our children so they could compete on a level playing field as an essential part of the American dream?  How did our empathy for the less fortunate shift to the prevailing need to accumulate things, including the newest electronic toys?  Why should our culture worship Steven Jobs?

 Sometimes I cannot tell whether it is simply the media tail wagging the public dog, deciding what we think and read, or whether our values really are skewed.  Maybe it’s a bit of both.

REPUBLICANS ARE TOO CLEVER FOR THEIR OWN (AND OUR) GOOD

Over the next year, meaningful job creation does not lie within the power of Washington to fix. On the other hand, stemming the tide of additional job destruction does. Through the next presidential election, Obama’s jobs proposals, if passed, would have minimal effect on the unemployment rate.  This economy and its financial system are too large and too sick.  Time takes time, to unwind the credit and housing bubbles and heal the massive disruptions that have taken place.  

Conversely, the President’s proposals would provide a backstop against further job destruction, mostly in the state and local public sectors.  It would keep us from a double-dip recession.  It would permit those who remain employed to unwind their debt and provide some level of spending and demand for goods and services.

Conservatives may revel in the fact that their elected representatives are giving the President no rope to implement his jobs plan.  My view is that if conservatives were sure of their fiscal and monetary policy positions they would give Obama at least half the rope he is asking for, kicking and screaming to be sure, and let him hang his presidency.  If a second recession is avoided they can continue to hammer Obama with the high unemployment rate.  If the plan fails and we re-enter recession the Obama reelection would be dead on arrival.

This “I told you so” and “win-win” scenario for republicans will not happen because they want the economy to get worse and will take no bi-partisan action of any kind.  Apparently they believe if millions more must lose their jobs, so be it.  The irony is that without permitting a jobs plan republicans have bought responsibility for the inevitable job destruction and probable recession that will follow.

MY TAKE ON WASHINGTON PROTHONOTARY, DA & JUDICIAL ELECTIONS

The upcoming Washington County general election has a profound effect on my profession as an attorney.  The Prothonotary’s office because of its obscure name is the stuff of bad jokes and funny political cartoons.  Perhaps one out of 25 voters can tell you where to find the office or explain what it does.  Yet, in the legal community, this office is the procedural hub for every civil document we prepare and file.  Lawyers need a Prothonotary’s Office that is accessible, informative, friendly and professional.  In my experience, Washington County has one of the best in Southwestern Pennsylvania, under the auspices of Phyllis Matheny.  The office certainly does not require new leadership from a career politician looking to upgrade his take from the public watering hole or to advance his political standing.

            The District Attorney’s office, on the other hand, does require the proverbial “rearranging of the furniture.”  The office needs a stable long term professional DA, with extensive knowledge of criminal law and administration, who is not part of the existing regime.  The new DA must look under every rock (and desk) to determine the most effective and efficient way to run the office.  The candidate who deserves your support must keep the office transparent, free from political decision making and provide the public with dedication to “best practices” not “doing it the old way.”  I believe that David Dicarlo is the candidate who will bring sunlight and a broom to the office of District Attorney.

Lastly, is the race for Judge, Court of Common Pleas. Much of my practice is in family law.  My bias is for the candidate with a strong background in domestic relations law.  More citizens come into contact with the court through family and juvenile cases than any other area.  As the former Administrator of the Allegheny County Family Court, I would like to see a newly elected judge willing to make a career managing family law cases.  I believe that Gary Gillman is such a candidate.  He has the knowledge and energy to put programs in place in family court that will be well received by lawyers and the public.  He has the commitment to stay in family court to make sure there is consistency and longevity.

While I do not serve on the committees of any of the above candidates, I have contributed to their campaigns. No need to take my word on any of the above.  Simply ask any lawyer who practices in Washington County.  After all, the court house is where we work and we really do want the best for all of us.

THE POST LABOR DAY ECONOMY

Labor Day is behind us, the President’s employment speech is Thursday and electioneering is everywhere.  For anyone who has followed the excellent political and economic commentary over the long holiday weekend, three infallible points have emerged.

            First, the path for Obama to reelection is to improve the economy by lowering unemployment and returning the limping middle class to some semblance of health, in a world where easy credit and inflated housing no longer exist.  Conversely, those republicans focused only on politics rather than recovery, believe they cannot win in 2012 unless the President’s rescue mission is defeated and the middle class is placed on life support over the next 12 months.

            The second point is that, in the short run, the country cannot pursue immediate federal austerity measures through deficit reduction and expect to achieve any job creation.  Cutting off the limping unemployed worker’s leg is the quickest path to life support rather than full employment. Moreover, deficit surgery now, will guarantee that the middle class remains disabled and a ward of the government for years to come.

            The last point is that there is a middle road, where both political parties can act responsibly in the face of economic crisis and take the health of the middle class off the operating table.  The President and democrats must agree to long term deficit reduction efforts that are not smoke and mirrors.  Further, to kick start the economy, business, industrial and environmental regulations must be muted or deferred until we are running on all cylinders.  Any business activity that is likely to create jobs must be offered a tax break.

            For their part, Republicans must agree to short term federal spending for any program that will allow the middle class to keep buying goods and services on the one hand while creating jobs on the other.  They must agree to an immediate tax on the income, capital gains and inheritances of the wealthy.  Republicans will find that the sick and suffering 95% of Americans will thank them for calling on the 5% who hold most of the wealth, to contribute their fair share.  Moreover, the wealthy realize more than anyone that a rising tide lifts all boats and that this economy is threatening to beach their yachts.

            In this economic crisis, the United States has advantages and paths to recovery not available to other developed countries.  All we need is the political will to use them.

THE STATE OF THE UNION

In the coming months, a number of our citizens who are not ideologues will take the time to reflect on their body politic over the past 2 ½ years.  These reflective voters, also known as rational readers, practical thinkers, centralists and Independents, will cancel out the political noise from progressives who expect more socialism from their President and tea party conservatives who want more individual liberty.  Those who do their homework and examine the record with an open mind will discover something encouraging about the state of the union.

They will find that since president Obama took office, our nation has made significant progress on domestic issues.  The Supreme Court has welcomed two new constitutional scholars who will hold the high ground against the Court’s conservative cabal for the next half century. The President’s economic policy has permitted the credit bubble to unwind in a measured fashion, while avoiding a second great depression. (As a stark contrast, austerity measures and bank band aids are crumbling the EU, and causing riots in Britain) The military, industrial and financial complex has been reined in by responsible cabinet members, regulation and legislation. Notwithstanding lagging revenue and high unemployment, our social obligations to students, the disabled, and the elderly have not been thrown under the bus and universal health care is a reality.

On the political front, Obama’s move from transformative candidate to transactional president has been marked by negotiation and compromise rather than ideological rants.  In this regard he reminds me of Regan and Clinton, who each in their own way knew it was their duty to serve all the people, not their ideological base.  This is not to say that the President’s election has not been transformative.  The pride of Afro Americans and other minorities is palatable.  Recognition of gay rights has exploded.  The youth of the world view the United States with its urbane President in a new and positive light.

On International policy, Obama’s approach differs from the previous neo cons in significant respects.  The President is carefully moving the country away from the war on terror, toward a domestic terror policy, where it belongs.  His administration knows that the Muslim kinship cultures of Southeast Asia and North Africa are not prepared to follow a western model to modernity and democracy.  Better to euthanize Al Qaeda, prepare a level playing field and get out of the way.  The president has treated other western nations with respect, while insisting that they contribute their fair share in policing the world’s trouble spots.

One could easily argue that most of the past 2 ½ years have centered on unwinding the mistakes of the previous administration in the wake of tumultuous new problems.  Unfortunately the former Bush mistakes have exasperated the new problems.  A careful analysis will show that the question to ask ourselves is not “how much worse off are we” but rather “where would we be, but for the actions taken.”  In the face of such an economic and international political tsunami, a defensive step backward is always better than drowning in the backwater.

ALASKA

But for a cheerful displaced cousin who urged us to visit, our vacation plans would never have included an overland trip through Anchorage, Seward and Denali Alaska.  After all, this is the State that elected Sarah Palin and all I could envision was a right wing gun culture that would make my trip unpalatable.  

My perception was wrong.  Alaskans are as diverse and outgoing as any place I have visited. This is the mysterious land of the June midnight sun, which only a few weeks later in August, is struck with the first “termination dust”, signaling a short fall and long winter.  This is a vast land where planes (big & small), trains, boats, buses and automobiles all come into play to transport natives and travelers into various venues, spread far apart. 

Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage provided our starting point and the first view of snow capped peaks.  A friendly place with a small town feel, Anchorage is just perfect for adjusting to the four hour time difference.  We took in two wonderful museums and a large weekend farmer’s and native craft market with even a booth supporting the Alaskan comic strip “Tundra”.  We began immediately to feast on “just off the boat” salmon and haddock, along with caribou. Occasional taxi and foot power are all you need for this easy to navigate town. 

We rented a car for three days to enjoy the trip to Seward on one of the world’s most scenic routes.  This is an easy four hour drive that passes Alaska’s major ski resort, Alyeska, a great place for lunch. Another stop is the Conservation Center at Portage, featuring Alaska’s big five: wolves, brown bear, caribou, moose and dall sheep.  There are also wood buffalo and musk ox reclamation projects on view.

 Seward is a charming fishing town that houses an aquarium featuring local aquatic life.  It is also the departure for an all day boating adventure in the bay, viewing sea life and calving glaciers.  We saw humpback and orca whales, sea otter, seals, bald eagles, puffins, dauphins and other unique nesting birds.  Shopping and restaurants abound in Seward. On the way back to Anchorage, we spent several hours at the Exit Glacier, which requires a fifteen minute walk and a fully charged camera.  Black bear and moose are commonly seen on this easy trek.

 Many travelers like us return to their anchor hotel in Anchorage to reboot for another phase of the trip.  This is great for checking luggage and dirty laundry you don’t need.  Early the next morning we caught our tour operator’s express bus for Denali National Park.  We elected not to stay at the Gateway of the Park and transferred immediately into a second bus to head for our back country lodge.  The lodges are not supported by the National Park Service and are privately owned.  The lodges are not inexpensive at $400.00 per person per night, but offer an incredible wildlife and landscape viewing experience.  No internet, phone or television service is available in the middle of Denali National Park.

The buses run by the private lodges are more comfortable and less crowded than the public Park Service buses.  They provide the opportunity to meet your lodge mates, from around the world, and facilitate viewing space and photography.  The drivers double as spotters and guides.  The ninety mile six hour ride is not quite as eventful as the African Serengeti, but provides some of the best wildlife viewing in North America.  On our trip in and out, we saw many brown bear, dall sheep and caribou, one moose and no wolf.  We were treated to 15 minutes of a stalking lynx and a brown bear sleeping on a stone covered caribou carcass that provided some of our best photographs.

The highlight of Denali is of course Denali Mountain (Mt. McKinley) the “great one.”  The highest peak in North America sits at the end of the Alaskan Chain, thirty miles from the back country lodges.  If the timing and weather cooperate, the sight from base to peak is magnificent.  We saw the mountain in its full glory on two of our three days.  My wife took a small plane to photograph the peak on the third day, when clouds obscured the view.

Activities at the lodges are numerous including morning and afternoon hikes, fishing, panning for gold (not a bad choice in this economy) and nature and history talks.  One morning we shed all of our layers as the temperature reached 70.  The next we were in the alpine tundra on a ridge above the lodge in a snow storm.  The grub is family style and wholesome.

At the end of our lodge experience, we returned to the park Gateway and boarded the Alaskan Railway for the return trip to Anchorage. The first class excursion cars offer glass dome viewing, standing platforms for photography and dining cars.  We saw numerous bald eagles, tundra swan, sand hill cranes, and glimpses of moose.  Again, the scenery was breathtaking.

We talked to other travelers who planned quite different itineraries, including extended cruises, small plane trips to view brown bear catching salmon, and of course fishing trips into the interior.  Small children and families appeared to be having the time of their lives. 

The overriding social perspective I took away from our experience was the conservation mindset of the Alaskan people.  It reminded me that like Teddy Roosevelt, who started our National Park system, outdoorsmen, fisherman and hunters have often led the call for preservation in our country.  Many of the eco systems are unique and fragile.  Alaskans want the lower 48 to know that saving the tundra, glaciers and salmon runs are of utmost importance.

 One can only guess why Sarah Palin is leaving this beautiful State for Arizona. The locals did not seem to mind my Obama 2012 button or her departure one bit. Take my word for it.  Put Alaska on your short list.

CONSERVATIVE ATTACKS ON LIBERAL ARTS

I have never been comfortable with anyone who believes that all the answers to moral, spiritual, economic, or political questions, can be found in one book.  Whether the book is the Bible, the Koran, Das Kapital, Atlas Shrugged or Alcoholics Anonymous, one book fundamentalism has always struck me as narrow and dangerous to the social discourse.

 I am not saying that one book can’t change someone’s life for the better, or form the basis for a positive belief system.  My point is that a “one book fits all” view of the world, taken to the extreme, results in the Italian “bonfire of the vanities” or totalitarian book burnings.  At the less extreme, a “one book” outlook makes the world appear much less complex than it really is and encourages non yielding dogma rather than rational discussion.

With these dangers of narrow mindedness, my liberal antenna has been vibrating over recently published conservative attacks on the benefits of a liberal arts education.  John Stossel argues in an ob-ed piece:  “We don’t know if students learn anything during their college years.  Do kids learn anything at Harvard?”  These attacks use the economic recession as camouflage to suggest that a liberal arts education is too expensive, benefits only the liberal ivory towers and will not produce a job following graduation.  After all, Gates & Zuckerberg dropped out of college and made billions.  Why pay for expensive professors teaching obscure topics, when an internet degree can spew practical information at much lower cost?

 Dig deeper and you realize something more sinister is at work.  John Stossel graduated from Princeton with a BA in Physiology.   He knows that billionaire college dropouts are one in a billion.  Conservative commentators would much prefer a “one book fits all” technician or a Sarah Palin clone to a liberal arts graduate. The latter has developed strength of mind and an ordered intellect by being exposed to comparative classes in religion, economics, political systems and philosophy. Not a good candidate for Glenn Beck.

Among other benefits, a liberal arts education encourages students to think for themselves.  The diverse body of knowledge gained from a four year institution, together with the tools of examination and analysis, enables our youth to develop their own opinions, attitudes, values, and beliefs.  This system is based not upon ignorance, whim, or prejudice, but upon their own worthy apprehension, examination, and evaluation of argument and evidence.  Rather than the passive recipient of a hundred boring facts on the internet, a liberal arts education permits one to see the relationship between ideas and subject areas.

During this recession we may well end up with 80,000 bartenders with liberal arts degrees.  The recession will soon be over and these students will fan out over our enterprises to make us all proud.  They will be our best parents, physicians, poets, plumbers, lawyers, journalists, engineers, electricians and political philosophers, both liberal and conservative. We will be much better off than having 80,000 working technicians with internet degrees who believe the answer to the world’s problems can be found in one book.

           

REAL ESTATE REASSESSMENT

I must respectfully disagree with the O-R editorial of 7/3/11 which took the position that the recent legislative moratorium on property tax reassessment earned lawmakers applause for their action. I find their efforts not only unconstitutional, in applying only to Washington County (by violating the Uniformity Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution) but also patently unjust in that the law perpetuates the blatant unfairness of property taxes in our county and in our state.

Both Judge Wettick, in Allegheny County and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court have held that application of the base year assessment system (as employed in Washington County) results in such disparate treatment of the county’s taxpayers as to again, violate the Uniformity Clause. Accordingly, we have a constitutionally unsound law put in place to avoid coming to terms with a constitutionally unsound practice that happens to be one of the greatest tax inequities of our time.

I would be the first to admit that the finer points of tax assessment reform require some thought and research on the part of the average citizen.  The Judge Wettick and Supreme Court opinions are lengthy and difficult enough for a seasoned lawyer to follow.  In a nutshell, local Judges, like our own President Judge are compelled to follow the Supreme Court directive.  When a taxpayer or taxing body brings an action, the Judge must direct county government to begin reassessment. The Commissioners of numerous counties, including Washington, are waiting for legislative reform or for our Supreme Court to revisit and expand its opinion and establish a test for fair reassessments that will apply equally to all counties. The Supreme Court has hinted it might do so, but believes it is preferable for the general assembly to address fundamental matters of taxation. Our valiant lawmakers prefer to get reelected rather than have their voters receive a reassessment notice that justly values their property.  Unconstitutional moratoriums they can deal with, fixing property taxes they cannot.

In the middle of this game of political musical chairs the poor and elderly citizens of Washington County continue to pay property taxes that are too high.  Base Year Assessments always discriminate against owners of property in lower value neighborhoods. 

There are two well worn arguments against taking the just action of reforming property tax law.  Both inflame the public, attempt to throw cost in front of basic equality and are misunderstood.  The first is that taxes will go up and municipalities and school districts will receive a windfall.  It is true that many assessments will be higher.  It is also true, for many less fortunate citizens, assessments will be lower.  But before an actual tax increase, the higher assessment will have to be higher than the average county wide increase.  If the average County increase is 10% and a property owner’s assessment is only 8% higher, no tax increase.  Regarding revenue windfalls, there are already state laws in place to limit municipalities and school districts from unfairly raising taxes after a reassessment.  In some jurisdictions, like Allegheny County, the results of reassessment must be revenue neutral.  This means that the total amount of money school districts and municipalities collect at current tax rates cannot increase when new assessed values are assigned.

The second misunderstood issue is the cost of reassessment projects to the Counties.  We should first ask ourselves whether this expense should be assumed by state government.  This would assure uniformity and save money overall by not duplicating services.  If the state falls down and punts this responsibility to the counties, there will be significant upfront expenses to put a system in place. Assessment appeals will initially be high.  However, once the system is up and running, both costs and legal challenges will decrease.

Other states have bit the bullet and developed equitable taxing plans.  Pennsylvania can save time and expenses by studying these systems.  What Pennsylvania cannot afford to do is perpetuate an archaic, unjust taxing scheme that violates its own constitution.

IN DEFENSE OF LOCAL NEWSPAPERS

I have wanted to convey my thoughts on small town newspapers in general and the Observer Reporter (O-R) in particular for some time.  The topic didn’t percolate to the top of my list until the Facebook posts of a local politician and his cronies caught my eye.  The posts painted the O-R as biased, inaccurate and to coin a phrase: “not worth the paper it is printed on.”  This attitude struck me as immature and shortsighted at best.  At worst and by all appearances an accurate conclusion, this position smacks of another example of the misplaced conservative cultural revolution.  The self serving individual voice is more important and accurate than the journalistic voice, representing the community as a whole.

No one would argue that the O-R prints typos and occasional inaccuracies.  When I first came to Washington my wallet was stolen at the Cameron Wellness Center.  By the time the police report was documented in the paper, my twenty dollar loss had grown to a two thousand dollar theft.  Some of my new friends in Washington thought I was wealthy.  The others thought I must be a drug dealer.  In either case I had a new found notoriety.

Humor aside, what is amazing to me about the O-R is not the number of misprints, but rather the high quality of local journalism that is published, day in and day out, seven days a week, both in print and on the internet.  Fact checking and proof reading are expensive and time consuming endeavors which involve a cost benefit analysis.  Do we want all of the local news, published timely, or a mistake free publication that is shadow of the present newspaper. 

I do not believe the readers of the O-R are primarily seeking investigative reporting, in depth analysis of national and world events, or Pulitzer Prize winning journalism.  Although some of this material is available to O-R readers through the wire services, there are hundreds of news sources for this type of reporting.  O-R readers want to know what they can find nowhere else. They are interested in who died, who graduated, who got engaged and who was arrested, along with the other vicissitudes of life that reflect the character and personality of Washington and Greene Counties.  They want Editorials that impact them directly.  Leave it to other sources to scope the newest Lindsay Lohan crisis. O-R readers want to know the latest crisis facing Washington parking meters.

I have no idea what the business model of the Observer Reporter calls for in the long run.  I do know that small town and local newspapers are a dying breed because the cost structure of many publications is not sustainable.  Print advertising has plummeted.  Internet access is free of charge.  Young people do not purchase subscriptions.  I will go on record as saying that the O-R is important to my daily socialization, typos and all.  I would gladly pay an increased subscription rate or internet access fee to keep the paper viable.

Lastly, I will return to our friends on Facebook.  I pray to the Gods of Journalism that there never comes a time when the O-R building becomes a tattoo parlor and I must rely on social networking for my local news. Politicians and other hyper active types on social media, who push their individual self serving agendas, with a chorus of believers, are a frightening proposition.  This is particularly so when they attack the local newspaper.  They forward the neo con agenda of individual rights and opinions at the expense of society as a whole. “Listen to my version of events because the media is biased.”

Consider a public meeting in Washington. No one would have the time or patience to review the tweeter feeds of the Mayor, the members of counsel, the speakers, the solicitor and all the involved family members to understand what happened.  That is why we have journalists.   A good newspaper, and the O-R is a good newspaper, presents fair reporting with opinion representing all points of view.  It represents all of us, every day.

UNEMPLOYMENT & DEFICIT REDUCTION

The Republican leadership is counting on unsophisticated citizens and those who dislike the President on any account, to swallow the tea party/conservative economic fantasy that somehow unemployment and deficit reduction spring from the same set of problems and require the same solutions.  Of course this is nonsense.  The dilemma has always been that lowering unemployment requires more borrowing, lending and spending to jump start the economy.  Attacking the deficit requires the opposite.

Jobs are created through economic growth and demand for goods.  Balancing the federal budget, without raising taxes on wealthier Americans, requires the draconian cutting of federal entitlement programs and employment initiatives to the middle class and poorest of Americans. This makes less money available to grow the economy and impossible to increase the demand for goods. 

One recent example of this  point is that without the payroll tax cuts to the working poor and middle class and the extension of unemployment insurance negotiated by Congress last autumn, we would likely be facing a double dip recession.  Without these deficit increasing policies in place over the last 10 months (agreed to by republicans) there would have been inadequate individual cash flow to keep the economy moving.  To grow jobs you must grow demand by putting disposable income in the pockets of the unwashed majority.

Accordingly, it is irresponsible if not ludicrous to talk about cutting the unemployment rate and reducing the deficit through cutting entitlement programs in the same breath.  Any politician who claims to “have a plan” to do both “with the same policies” is either uninformed or untruthful, or both.  If Grandma cannot get her medicine under Medicare, she will not be shopping at Wal-Mart or buying graduation gifts for her grandchildren.

My view is that the Republican agenda is to lower the deficit on the backs of our less fortunate citizens by giving lip service to unemployment and to blame Obama for both spending too much and keeping unemployment too high.  Hopefully, the well informed independent voters who will ultimately be called upon to reelect our President will see through this voodoo economic fallacy.

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TEA PARTY MEMBERS ARE SELECTIVE SOCIAL DEMOCRATS

I have a new definition for tea party members. One who uses this title: “is a selective social democrat who believes the individual and the family are paramount to society as a whole unless a certain public policy or program benefits them or their family.”  Under this definition, ethanol subsidies are wrong unless the tea party member is an Iowa farmer. Support for higher education is an affront unless there is a student who needs it.  Universal health care is an abomination unless the bread winner is out of work and without health care.  Medicaid is socialism for the poor unless a close relative suffers from a severe handicap.  We can do without the Post Office unless the family’s small business needs 6 days of postal service.  Extended benefits for veterans are a governmental handout, unless a son or daughter is returning from Afghanistan.

            Of course, it is laughable to believe that an individual can cherry pick their political and moral beliefs.  But it is also human nature.  Unless confronted with a threat to their security and well being, people chose the easier and softer way.  Nancy Regan was a strong opponent to stem cell research until her husband suffered from Alzheimer’s. Dick Cheney had no kind words for homosexuals until his daughter announced her sexual preference. Many an NRA member renounced their membership, only after a senseless act of gun violence close to home.

            Our country faces many tough decisions in the coming months.  The budget debate and the fate of our less fortunate citizens should not be a “show down at high noon”, but rather a rational discussion about priorities.  We must let our political leaders know that we reject the nihilistic individualism of the far right, which in the final analysis, very few citizens actually want or believe in.

I just finished "Ill Fares The Land" written by the historian and political philosopher Tony Judt, shortly before his death this year. A powerhouse polemic on social democracy. "Social democrats beleive that the state can play an enhanced role in our lives without threatening our liberties."  Highly recommended

SIXTY IS THE NEW EIGHTEEN

As I get ready to turn 60 in a few months, it is gratifying to read that this landmark is considered by some sociologists as the new adolescence. If 50 is the new 30, than 60 is the new 18.  We boomers have an added 30 years to our lives compared with our ancestors in 1900.  We don’t feel old and are ready for liberation and growth. Similar to our adolescence, we have cut the ties that bind us.  Free from children, jobs and the other socially constricting realities of middle age, we are ready to kick up our heels and make a difference. 

 Recently I have been reflecting on those events that were most transformative in my life.  The important ones seem to be centered on the time I was a young adult, moving away from my childhood toward career and family.  At 17 I graduated from high school.  That summer I attended Woodstock.  For better or worse, sex, drugs and rock and roll, shared by 500,000 kindred souls over 3 days was transformative. The power of youth to change the world was everywhere.  In college I would attend the DC marches, the Bobby Seale rally in New Haven, campaign for McGovern. The first time I was tear gassed by my government was transformative.  Seeing the father of my high school friends, David Dellinger, put on trial with the Chicago 7 was transformative.  Maybe I could live my life as a social activist.

 The parallels with the recent Arab Spring were overwhelming to me as the power of organized, idealistic youth took to the streets to begin the messy business of democracy.  Let us not forget that the Freedom Riders in Alabama and Mississippi, well before my time, and the students at Kent State, suffered more injuries and deaths than the young protestors on Tahrir Square.

Other adolescent transformations for me were more mundane.  My first day at that small liberal arts college, where every freshman seemed smarter and more self assured, taught me that the world was not only a big place, but a tough place to make your way.  There was much to learn.  The basics of science, history, theology, economics, sociology, political science, philosophy, art history at first seemed so abstract.  Later these disciplines would become clear, overlap and give me transformative ways to see the world.  Lastly, travel as a young student was a transforming experience.  To interact with other cultures, where families sometimes survived on a dollar a day gave me a new prospective.  The American way was not the only way.  The world economy was out of whack.

I know now, that my own transformation was more assured than the transformation of society as a whole.  Liberal boomers in the late 60s and 70s got a lot of things wrong.  Our views on sexual liberation fed the Aids epidemic and encouraged the trend toward single mothers.  Our views on drug experimentation fed the crack epidemic among the poor families we were trying to help.  Our views on communism did not differentiate between the menace of totalitarianism and the promise of social democracy.

            Of course we also got some things right.  I believe that by scrambling some eggs in our youth, the Obama presidency was made possible.  I further believe liberal boomers set the stage for racial, social, gender and sexual equality.

By 1980, the transformation of many liberal boomers, were youthful memories.  The liberal arts educations gave way to focused professional careers in medicine, law, engineering and accounting.  We thought we could argue liberal issues at cocktail parties and vote our conscious to keep the flame alive.  In truth, families and careers became our concern, social climbing rather than social reform our responsibility.  There were few David Dellinger’s among us.

If the pundits are right and 60 is the new 18, bring it on. As long as we are willing to step back, consider the options and take some risks, our remaining years may be as individually transformative as our young adulthoods.  Now we actually have some knowledge and money to go with our exuberance.  We have time to read, learn and rediscover the world. We can live out every liberal boomer’s dream: to change the world a second time.

 Next year, Obama will need help getting reelected and I’ll be 61.  Just give me time to take a nap.

THE LIBRARY MAKES US A BETTER COMMUNITY

It is ironic that Citizens Library is in danger of closing its doors because the Washington and Trinity school districts may not provide their yearly stipend.  The school districts are already under water from the State budget.  This is like asking Social Security to save Medicare, or the City Mission to bail out public housing.

Whether the library closes or not, the fact we are having the discussion is pathetic.  Libraries are essential institutions in a democratic society because they play a non-partisan role in providing the information that allows all of our citizens, including the less fortunate, to make informed decisions.  Citizens Library is the heart of the sick entity known as the City of Washington.  Turn out the lights and the old lady sputters and maybe dies.

Washington County is experiencing an economic revival like few places in our country.  If the County government, private enterprise and our more affluent citizens cannot come up with $50,000.00, there is something wrong with our priorities.

JUSTICE FOR HEDGEHOGS

by Gary Stout

All of our elected officials (and most of the rest of us) should read JUSTICE FOR HEDGEHOGS by Ronald Dworkin. This philosophical essay starts from the premise that while the fox knows many things, the hedgehog knows one really big thing. In this remarkable book, the one big thing is what differentiates right from wrong. Dworkin develops a clear path, by explaining ethics, morality, freedom, liberty and equality. It is possible (actually it is mandatory) to live well and be good. One must know the rules.

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MARCELLUS SHALE, GAME THEORY & THE PUBLIC GOOD

Whenever an environmental issue captures the attention of the public, my thoughts always turn to game theory.  I have come to believe over the years that there is no outcome that will favor the environmentalists when there are politicians, industrialists, economists, emerging economies or farmers with gas in the south forty, on the other side.  No matter how dire the consequences, greed, self interest and simple short term gain always seems to win out over what is best for the long term collective good.

 The oldest principal in game theory “the tragedy of the commons” saw the conservation crowd come up short from the time of sheep herding in the Bible until this year, when the price of your tuna steak doubled.  It explains why every area of common land suffers from overgrazing and why every sea fishery suffers from overfishing.  Individual rational behavior, to take as much as you can as quickly as you can from a common area, deteriorates into collective ruin. Watch out arctic circle, you are the next commons.  Many countries have you in the crosshairs, polar bears and global warming be damned.

More recent game theories like “the prisoner’s dilemma” and “tit for tat” also make me pessimistic when applied to environment issues.  The game scenarios in the former theory, place two prisoners against each other.  If they both confess, they each get 3 years in prison.  If they both stay silent, they each get one year in prison. If one confesses, he goes free, only if the other stays silent.  The silent one now gets the shaft, 5 years in prison.  Over and over again the rational prisoner will chose to confess, because he does not want the other to go free and for himself to serve the longer term.  Once again, individually rational strategies result in a collectively irrational outcome.  Guess what, individual countries and farmers with gas rights think the same way.  Never chose an option where your neighbor may make out better than you.

The “tit for tat” game theory should offer me some consolation, but it doesn’t.  It was developed by social scientists to explain how it is possible for mankind to behave based on cooperation rather than self interest.  It uses examples from the animal world and primitive tribes.  The theory is that once there is conditioning and experience in giving something up to get something back, self interest can be overcome. A cautious exchange of favors enables trust to be built upon a foundation of individual reward.  Now, this line of thinking may work for vampire bats or the Ache people of Paraguay, but certainly not our State government, Congress, or our relations with Brazil, India and China.

So what has all this to do with Marcellus Shale? I suspect that the short term gain of an additional energy supply, given an energy crisis and the recession, not to mention powerful political and corporate interests, will far out match long term environmental concerns.  In the first place, the American people are much more adept at kicking the can down the road than developing strategies based on cooperation. (see the national debt, taxation etc.)  In the second place, unlike our socialist friends in Europe, given our peculiar Andrew Jackson DNA, we do not favor lifting the entire environmental boat, for the collective good, when there is money to be made.  The next drilling rig may be in our own backyard.