ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE MAYOR

In my view, there has not been a great deal of press coverage concerning Washington Mayor, Brenda Davis during the past year.  This would, no doubt, be considered good news for the Mayor because the public is most interested in missteps and gaffes and not the day to day administration of city government.  On the other hand, Ms. Davis deserves hardy congratulations for her body of work and public encouragement for the difficult decisions yet to come during her tenure as Mayor.

          Recently I had the opportunity to attend a meeting with the Mayor, in my role as a representative for Wash Arts.  We were seeking help and advice as we worked to get back on our feet.  Mayor Davis struck me as living and breathing her position as Mayor.  She has grown from “a lady in the room” to a presence, sure of herself and her role in the community.  Her knowledge of municipal law and suggestions on how to improve the relationship between Wash Arts and the City were impressive.

          Of the four stages that a new public official must pass through: getting elected; learning the bureaucracy; performing her daily functions; and planning for the future, Mayor Davis has clearly accomplished the first three.  How she handles the fourth will determine whether she will be remembered as a good Mayor or a great one.

City-County cooperation on cost sharing (municipal services) and cost saving (procurement of supplies) must be pushed by the City.  Municipal contracts must be negotiated that are reasonable and respect the new realities of pensions and health insurance.  The unique features of the City of Washington in terms of location, history, and opportunity must be marketed.  Last of all Washington County is undergoing rapid and significant change.  The City must demand its fair share of the economic expansion and not be left behind.

All of us living in or near the City can help the Mayor achieve these goals.  We must understand the issues and offer our support. Mayor Davis is the right official for the job and will succeed if we have her back.

THE CHALLENGE OF INEQUALITY

 

The presenter at the Peters Town Hall Speaker Series, Ms. Zanny Minton Beddoes, gave an over the moon talk on Tuesday, December 3.  As an editor for the Economist, she took her audience around the world, in explaining the state and interconnectivity of the international economy.  Being British and working for a British publication, she could step back from the myopic view of the American press and place world economic events in context.  If a transcript of her talk is available I would urge anyone interested in world events to read it.

Ms. Minton Beddoes ended her lecture by explaining the social forces she believes will shape the future and gave us her acronym: “dead drunk under the influence”.  She uses this ominous phrase to help remember her four horseman of social change: debt, demographics, unemployment and inequality.

She believes that debt is not an immediate problem for the large western nations, including the United States, but remains the scourge of Southern Europe.  On demographics and aging populations, she reminded the audience that more elderly Asians are in diapers than are infants.  On unemployment, she believes the number of young unemployed in Southern Europe and the Mid East could easily lead to political instability.

It was Ms. Minton Beddoes comments on inequality that most interested me.  She believes this may be the greatest problem facing our country.  She presented statistical evidence that the United States has regressed back to the gilded age of the robber barons when it comes to income inequality.  She is concerned that America’s urban areas will be divide between the “haves” in walled off splendor and the “have nots” with substandard housing, education and social programs.

Ironically, the day after the above lecture was given President Obama made inequality a major focal point for the remainder of his term in office.  He gave a speech, agreeing with Ms. Minton Beddoes, that the rapidly growing deficit of opportunity is a bigger threat than the fiscal deficit.  The President stated: “The basic bargain at the heart of our economy has frayed” and that Americans should be offended that a child born into poverty has such a hard time escaping it. 

Hopefully the Republican Party will not seize on this policy initiative to call the President a socialist (or worse). His words echo the recent views of Pope Francis and other world leaders and could form the basis for political resolve on both sides of the political aisle.  In this holiday season, how could anyone disagree that each child who goes to bed hungry or is denied a good education or the elderly homeless person who dies from exposure is a more important story than the stock market results?  But the daily news cycle shows the opposite to be the case. 

The President has placed inequality at the front of the news cycle.  Now is the time to press ahead and to propose positive policy initiatives.  People’s frustrations with the “do nothing Congress” could quickly be reversed by attacking head on the frustrations that many citizens encounter in not being able to make ends meet, no matter how hard they work.  He can begin by vetoing any reduction in food stamp allotment and working to replace reductions in important social programs cut by the automatic sequester last year.

SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE POLICE DEBATE

I found the public meeting on Monday evening involving the future of the East Washington police force to be a fascinating display of town hall democracy in action, with a rousing debate on both sides of the issue.  The citizens who attended on this blustery night were overwhelmingly in favor of maintaining the police force.  The mayor and several council members supported the citizenry.  Other council members believed that a study recommending the outsourcing of the police function to the City of Washington deserved consideration.

The discussion centered on the tradeoff between keeping a more visible police presence that is manned by part time, underpaid police officers with minimal supervision versus replacing it with a less visible police presence manned by a full time, better paid and better equipped police force. While I really do not have a dog in this fight, and see merits to both positions, I came away from the meeting with several thoughts I would like to share. 

First, I think it is important to remember that the part time, underpaid and less supervised model is arguably what led to the serious problems which necessitated the study in the first place. Changes are clearly in order to avoid similar occurrences.  These changes could certainly include keeping the police department in place.  One need look no further than Pittsburgh for an example of a large police department with inadequate accountability.  Size alone is not the issue.

 Unfortunately while there was discussion and individual testimonials, at the meeting, to support the premise that “more boots on the ground” on East Washington’s streets have lowered the crime rate compared to comparable communities that have outsourced this function, no data was presented to validate this view.  It would also be helpful to know how many Pennsylvania communities, similar to East Washington, maintain their own police departments.

Second is the notion that East Washington would lose its identity if it no longer has a dedicated police department.  In my experience this is not a foregone conclusion.  I have lived in Blackridge, in eastern Allegheny County which takes great pride in not being Churchill, Penn Hills and certainly not Wilkinsburg (even though the area is made up of all three).  Blackridge maintains its identity through a thriving Civic Association which holds activities all year long to build a sense of community.

 Another example is Buena Vista, a community in Elizabeth Township, Allegheny County.  The residents here keep their separate identity and are not known as residents from Elizabeth and certainly not from McKeesport.  Neither of these communities, nor many others across the State, sacrifice their uniqueness in the absence of a dedicated police force.

With our without a police department, municipal services will continue to get more expensive over time.  If East Washington is compelled to hire full time police officers in order to address administrative shortfalls and problems from the past, then salary, pension and medical insurance costs will grow quickly and consume more of the budget.

I believe that in the near future, increased municipal cost sharing between all Pennsylvania counties and their urban centers and between cities and their smaller neighbors will be unavoidable.  For the present, East Washington should carefully consider the options in balancing cost, efficiency and safety.  Monday’s meeting was a transparent step in that direction.

 

 

 

WHY BUY INSURANCE YOU DON’T NEED?

How do you convince young people to buy medical insurance that they do not need?  Aside from a faulty roll out of the automated system, this appears to be the conundrum of health care reform.  Young adults are not enthusiastic to save universal health care which offers no immediate advantage, when the powers that be are doing nothing to save them. 

The truth is that baby boomers entering retirement have already left their children an economy that cannot provide meaningful employment and saddled them with national debt beyond comprehension.  Now young people are being asked to be the first in line to prop up the health care system for the benefit of older and poorer Americans.  It seems like a case of adding insult to injury.

I believe there is a realistic solution to this dilemma that will quickly convince our young healthy citizens to buy into and come to embrace this needed reform.  My view is that young people do not object to the goals of universal health care, they object to the perception of unequal sacrifice and cost sharing. We need to demonstrate that progressive social and economic advances work both ways.  We must develop new programs to relieve young Americans of their educational loans, make it easier to obtain a first mortgage and subsidize jobs programs with additional training for the new economy.  In the health care area, offer young adults subsidized memberships to health clubs and wellness centers as an immediate benefit for their participation in the Affordable Care Act.  

 Lastly, we must raise taxes on older Americans so that boomers are part of the solution.  In short, make our young adults relevant again as the economy springs back to life.  Make it clear that we are all in this experiment of democratic socialism together.

 Once it is established that the goal is to help prepare young Americans for their generation to take over and not simply to drain them of resources to support their elders, the cost of universal health care will not seem so oppressive.  Looking backward, a few years from now, every young person will know someone who got sick unexpectedly and was helped by the insurance.  Eventually the young will get older and realize that to perpetuate lower cost medical care they need their children to participate in the program.  Healthcare reform will be viewed in the same vein as other entitlement programs, like social security.

In this age of social media our young people understand the concept that the more people that participate in an activity, the better the outcome.  Think of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  This culture of social inclusion and expansion must be exploited in explaining universal healthcare to our young.  After all, it was Steve Jobs and other tech entrepreneurs who convinced so many young Americans to buy products and services that they really did not need and changed the world.  In a short time our youth could not live without their smart phones and social networking.

The same result is possible with health insurance. Young adults will come to appreciate regular medical checkups and targeted programs to keep them healthy.  All Americans will be better off at a lower cost as a result.

TOO CLEAN FOR OUR OWN HEALTH ?

 

At lunch with my Wife and a few of her friends, the topic turned to the need for vigilant hand washing and latex glove changing when dealing with the outside world.  Since they were all retired elementary school teachers who spent decades with snotty nosed and coughing young children, this was not such a surprise.  Still, I could not stop thinking of a recent photograph I had seen of a healthy and chubby toddler from Mongolia, sitting on the dirt floor of his parent’s Yurt. Raised on unpasteurized milk and eating flecks of dirt and an occasional bug off the floor, there is an excellent chance this happy child will have a strong immune system and live well past 100, like many others in his country.

          Are we becoming too clean for our own health?  As a nation that spends billions on personal hygiene products, are we doing more harm than good?  What steps should we be taking to boost the immune systems of our young children?

          A recent study from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests we do indeed have a problem.  The study found that among our children there is a 50% increase in food allergies and a 69% increase in skin allergies since the late 1990’s.  The most popular theory is the “hygiene hypothesis” which believes that exposure to germs and parasites in early childhood may prevent the body from developing certain allergies.

          If there is in fact a downside to America’s culture of disinfection and overuse of antibiotics, there is also a no brainer response.  Let kids be kids and permit common sense exposure to our “dirty environment.” A visit down to the farm stepping in manure and hugging goats would not hurt. Every surface in the home does not need to be as sterile as an operating room.  The occasional cold does not require massive medical intervention.  In short, moderation is much healthier than an all out assault on the germs that share our world.  And a lot more fun.

         

ELECTED OFFICIALS ARE USING GREED AND FEAR TO STAY IN OFFICE

 

The degree to which our elected officials will avoid change and use greed and fear to manipulate the electorate has never been so obvious or so egregious.  What is most unfortunate is that these tactics can only work when citizens do not take the time to understand the issues in play or when they permit their desire for short term gratification to overcome any long term gain.

 Elected officials know what the morally correct and/or better long term solutions are but they still continually chose to encourage the misinformation that will keep things as they always were.  There is simply no easier path to reelection than to support and encourage the greed and fear of the electorate.  Greed and Fear are much easier to promote than the politics of long term change for the better.  I will give three examples of this unsettling trend, all of which are in the news and on our minds.

          My first example is the reassessment debate which has finally come to a forced legal resolution in Washington County.  Never have I seen elected officials play on the greed and fear of the electorate with more success.  It is an easy game when such officials have unpopular school districts and the Courts as their foil.  Taxpayers (who are also voters) hate property taxes to begin with.  They see their younger neighbors, with children and in smaller homes getting all the benefits from property taxes while they pay the larger tax burden.  They see new schools or old ones with enhanced facilities being built with little pay back for them.  They know that their assessments are too low but are unwilling to consider that they may not be paying their fair share.  Most of all, they fear a large increase in their property tax bill and believe that taking no action is in their best interest.

On the other hand, our elected officials know the truth about reassessments but will never admit it in public.  They know that a higher assessment does not necessarily mean a higher tax bill until the new median is calculated and the appropriate millage set by each school district.  They know that under existing law and with further actions officals can take, reassessment will not produce unjustified windfalls for school districts. They know that the poorer residents of Washington County living in over assessed communities are paying more than their fair share.  They know that property owners who end up paying higher taxes after reassessment should thank their officials for unfairly saving them money over the last two decades while those with reassessed lower tax bills should be mad as hell for incurring years of unwarranted expense.  They know that most property owners will end up paying the same in property taxes once all the post assessment calculations and adjustments are completed.

Of course, the real issue that should be debated is the use of property taxes to fund public education, when other alternatives are available.  But here again, the public officials know that replacing property taxes is a non starter at the State level.  Better to pander to the greed and fear of your misinformed voters and make a bad system even worse and more expensive to rectify.  Better to fight reassessment until forced to take action under threat of legal contempt and sanctions.  The thankful voters will be sure to pull the lever of the politician who supports greed and fear at the next election.

The second example is the much maligned Affordable care Act also known as Obamacare.  The Republican scare tactics feeding on the greed and fear of the electorate has been ramped up as the start date approached on October first.  Socialism!  Death Panels! A jobs killer!  Americans do not want it!

Again, our elected Republican officials know the truth, but will not share it with the voters.  They know that most of the ideas for the Health Care Bill came from conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation.  They know that the law passed muster in the conservative leaning Supreme Court.  They know that no program of this size can be perfect and that there will be revisions as the roll out continues.  They know that republican obstructionism at the state level only makes it harder to implement the law and to save money.

Unfortunately, getting elected trumps responsible leadership.  Stubbornly fighting the new law while invoking greed and fear will get republicans reelected.  Working on how to improve healthcare will not.

Lastly, let us consider the stock market (where greed and fear have always been the order of the day) and self directed retirement funds.  In this case it is the liberals who have promulgated the greed and fear. 

The wise investor, who follows the advice of Warren Buffet and others who have made their mark, knows that the time to buy financial products is when fear is prevalent and the time to sell is when run away greed has created valuation bubbles, as in 2000 and 2007.  The average middle class investor, who directs his own retirement account, tends to do exactly the opposite.

 Progressive pundits are wrong in blaming financial policy, implemented to save the banks and corporate America from the 2007 crash, for degrading the working middle class in America.  In essence they argue that the common man must fear the greedy capitalists who are building empires on top of their own broken dreams.  In fact, the working middle class have harmed themselves, by greedily buying up financial instruments at the top of financial bubbles and selling their ravaged holdings, out of abject fear, at the bottom.  Those individuals who did not sell at the bottom and who simply rode out the sell-off and maintained diversified, rebalanced index funds since the crash would be well ahead on their retirement accounts.  While this approach requires discipline, it is not difficult to perform.

           Ignoring the much needed debate on the “lack of investment skill” among middle class Americans and replacing it with the more flamboyant greed and fear based argument that present economic policy is: “saving the big guys at the expense of the little guy” is doing the middle class a grave disservice. With the financial markets, the game is fear and greed and either the middle class must learn to play by the rules, or retirement savings must be governed by a safer passive annuity based system.  The markets are what they are.  Maybe Uncle Joe is never going to be able to invest like Goldman Sacks, but he can certainly buy stock in Goldman Sacks.

          These three examples, and there are many others, highlight how politicians from all levels and both parties stay in office by encouraging the greed and fear of the electorate, rather than acting as leaders and seeking long term solutions.  Of the many possible explanations for this trend, short term election cycles are certainly high on the list.  If election cycles were twice as long and limited to one term, our elected officials might actually get down to solving problems rather than seeking reelection.

CELEBRATIONS BRING US CLOSER TOGETHER

 

With great satisfaction the eminent elder statesman at our lunch table pulled out the program from the wedding reception he had attended the previous weekend.  The affair was held in upstate Erie and featured two gay women tying the knot.  Unfortunately, because of Pennsylvania’s draconian laws on gay marriage, the happy couple was forced to perform the formalities of marriage in New York State.  They then returned to Pennsylvania for the celebration: our ancient land from the dark ages, proud of its state owned liquor stores; Prothonotary offices; duplicitous mayors, tax collectors and police officers in every hamlet; and a bastion of preserving heterosexual marriage.

          Our friend, the elder statesman, just turned 90, has the vim and vigor of a young 70 year old, but he is certainly not a progressive. He is renowned in republican politics and as a lifelong conservative in these parts.  What struck me was how his initial hesitation in attending the event turned into pure joy on seeing two families support their respective daughters (also known as the Dick Cheney-gay daughter effect). He was truly moved as the couple began a new life together with all the rights, benefits and responsibilities of any other married couple.

          As gay marriage becomes a common event and more heterosexuals take part in such festivities, the stigma of gay unions as well as legal and religious objections will quickly fade.  Gay married couples will become passé at the grocery store, our community events, dinner parties and houses of worship.

          I have been thinking how my attendance at “out of orbit” family occasions and religious ceremonies over the years have played an important role in my assimilation into our diverse American culture.  My first Passover meal and High Holiday service at a Jewish Temple; listening to the liturgy of a Catholic mass; enjoying a Hindu temple with my sister-in-law; and attending a special service at an African American Baptist Church all come to mind.

          Celebrations are a tremendous opportunity to get to understand one another.  An entree to appreciate the uniqueness of other ethnic groups, religions and sexual orientations, while marveling at the things we have in common.  After all, everyone is in a festive mood and social and political differences are left at the door.  At the wedding reception the elder statesman got to dance with the bride and the groom.

 Lately I have been reading a great deal of history on Islamic culture.  The overlap with Jewish and Christian traditions is quite extraordinary.  I recently added attendance at a Muslim service and seeking an invitation to break the fast at Ramadan to my bucket list.  Maybe the elder statesman has a free afternoon and will want to come along.

THE WASHINGTON COUNTY RENAISSANCE

 

I am having a strong case of déjà vu.  In the mid 60s I was a teenager living in a small town in Hunterdon County New Jersey.  Life was idyllic, no one locked their doors and dairy farms filled the landscape. In 1967 a New York City television station started a Candid Camera knock-off show and came “out to the country” to interview some of our established families, including my father, the local postmaster.  There was an attempt at “Green Acres” humor with references to hicks and hayseeds, to entertain the big city folks.

Several years later a major interstate was completed through the middle of Hunterdon County and our New Jersey farm lands became a NYC bedroom community.  Within a decade it was difficult to find a cow or hick among the plots of large suburban homes and the campuses of fortune 500 companies. In 2012, Hunterdon County N.J. was listed as having the sixth highest per capita income in the United States.

I can sense the same tensions and energy in Washington County that my family talked about during the transition of my childhood home.  There are the same regrets and sadness from older residents and excitement among the young.  There is a similar outpouring of new construction, both residential and commercial. As in my hometown, farmers are selling out to become overnight millionaires. One can sense a shift from a laid back style of living to a more hurry-up, frantic pace.

The economic boom we are experiencing will involve major changes in population, politics and standard of living.  Washington County will become more Hispanic, following the trend in Eastern Pennsylvania.  It will become more Republican as the population becomes wealthier.  It will become more gentrified as the farms, small businesses and hamlets disappear.

My hope is that the established local families of Washington County, those whom trace their roots back over centuries, will hold their own in the fabric of the new Washington renaissance.  This was not the case in my hometown, where outside interests quickly eclipsed the locals and took over the reins of government and community life.  Something valuable will be lost if our residents who know best where Washington County came from are not an integral part in where it is going.

A second concern is that our leadership is able to manage the transition with vision and empathy for all of our citizens.  Washington County must not be permitted to grow like a sprawling Wild West oil town that quickly explodes and later fizzles out after the shale rock is fracked dry.  Responsible planning is the key, with the drillers working with us for the long term and not in their own interests.

 Lastly, our most disenfranchised citizens must be permitted to proportionately share in the economic growth through education, jobs programs and social services.  A renaissance need not be window dressing.  If managed with care, it can make our community a national model for renewal.

RACISM & TRIBALISM

 

 The longer that social and political issues are driven by ethnic or tribal concerns rather than by cross-tribal economic inequalities, the harder it will remain to move democratic institutions, including our own, to a higher plain.  This statement is certainly true for nations in the Mid East, South Asia and Africa, where kinship culture has lead to explosive violence and ethnic cleansing.   Interestingly, this observation is now front and center in connection with the debate over race relations stirred up by the Zimmerman acquittal.  Should we be debating racism, African-American urban culture, or both?  I submit we should take a look at the culture as well as the specific crime.

Let us imagine that St. Peter is not quite sure what to do with Trayvon Martin following his untimely death.  He decides to give Trayvon a choice:  “Son, do you want to be remembered as the victim of racial profiling and stand your ground laws and be assigned to the house with Mr. King, Rosa Parks and a few white freedom riders?  Or would you rather go to the house that Malcom X built.  It is a little on the loud side with all those rappers and angry intercity organizers.  You will be remembered as that proud young black man who got physical with an older, bigger and better armed dude who did not like you walking in his neighborhood.”  Which would be more attractive to Trayvon?  A symbol of racial injustice or a life cut short because he followed the rules of the tribe and did not back down? A victim or an urban legend?

           Political debate in this country has never been so fragmented, with the impossibility of reaching common ground.  One reason for this dilemma is that we are witnessing a “nova burst” of tribalism in America.  Wealthy white conservatives have encouraged and supported tribalism because once this era comes to a close, their political power base is gone forever.  They need the tribes to agree on anything but economic inequality.  They need the tribes to work at cross purposes.  They need the tribes to be afraid of each other and of their government.

 The wealthy conservatives must know, now that they have lost the Latino tribe, it is only a matter of time before the Evangelical tribe decides that pocket book issues are as important as the family value ones.  They need the conversation to be about race, immigration and sexual/birth preferences, not wealth distribution.  Now wealthy conservatives  are the ones who need to be afraid of losing their “trickle down” economy controlled by puppet masters at the top.

          The 1960s saw the consolidation of the African-American tribe that remains with us today.  Following the initial push for civil rights, we saw the emergence of black identity in our universities, in the jungles of Vietnam and in the inner cities.  This was followed by decades of a tough as nails urban culture encouraged by the entertainment industry, professional athletics, and the media.  Being black and supporting the tribe became more important than supporting all of the other folks facing economic inequalities, be they Asian, Appalachian or Latino.  To be fair, each of the other underprivileged groups has gathered around their own tribal leaders.  The Scots-Irish Appalachian tribe goes back hundreds of years.

          I believe that the evolution of the African American tribe was a necessary step in the history of black integration into the American cultural fabric.  I further believe some of the clichés, myths and negative characteristics of being part of the tribe are now hurting that integration. The glorification of urban culture and street justice were responsible, at least in part, for perceptions on both sides leading up to the Zimmerman episode and many others of a similar nature.  These isolating, self centered tribal tendencies are preventing the black community from taking its place at the vanguard of the push for social democracy for all Americans.

          Thankfully, several developments will hasten the decline of the negative characteristics of black tribalism.  First, the election and eight year leadership of Barack Obama, who has politically represented all Americans in need of social democracy, presents a none urban model of black identity; second, an influx of younger Americans who see past color barriers in their relationships and do not believe violent abd sexist urban culture is a positive force for change; and third the obvious need to replace racisim with economic inequality as the major impediment to social progress. Lastly, if “Country-Rap”, also known as “Hick-Hop” is really gaining in popularity, maybe the tribal walls are coming down faster than we imagine.  The music is always the first to know.

SECOND POT OF COFFEE THOUGHTS (2)

·        Most local mayors and state governments are actually doing the work of the people as opposed to federal senators and house representatives who are not.  How did Pennsylvania get stuck with this Governor and legislature which follow the dysfunctional federal model of hurry up and do nothing? Maybe Pennsylvania really is a miniature USA, with democratic east/west boarders, a republican interior and political grid-lock.

 

·       Thank goodness our non responsive federal government has the Sunday talk shows and cable news to vent the country’s build-up frustrations.  It sure beats tanks surrounding Washington’s corridors of power and a million people in the streets demanding a do-over.

 

·       The resent military takeover in Egypt offers an excellent example of why democracy does not equal freedom or pluralism.  A presidential election in a Christian country with a Mormon candidate facing off against the grandchild of an African Muslim, that’s pluralism.

 

·       The new thriller zombie movie World War Z inserts into the “give me liberty or give me death” debate a bit of humor and something to think about.  Apparently the North Korean leadership was able to defeat the zombie threat in its territory by pulling the teeth of all of its citizens so that no individual could infect another.  Ergo, no liberty from mandatory tooth extraction and no death. (I have heard it is impossible to find a good steak in North Korea anyway)

 

 

·       How much liberty would our citizens be willing to surrender in order to locate and disarm a terrorist with a suitcase bomb that had entered the country?

 

·       Knowing that 9/11 spawned the Patriot Act and that a couple of teenagers with pressure cookers have effectively silenced the recent NSA revelations on monitoring our communications, what controls would be accepted if a nuclear device or gas attack decimated an American city?

 

·       The same movie makes a great commentary on building walls to keep out undesirables. (in this case zombies)  The Israeli attempt to do so results in chaos theory prevailing, just like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Despite the tallest walls that special effects could create, the Holy Land is gobbled up faster than the last bagel on Sunday morning.

 

·       These fictional End Days in Israel are not what the evangelical community has predicted, presumably because no Heavenly Father in his right mind is going to rapture hungry zombies into his holy domain.

 

 

·       While walls on our southern boarders certainly have a psychological effect, it is important to remember that foreign nationals are more resourceful than zebra mussels, killer bees and Asian carp, which defeat manmade impediments to migration with amazing efficiency.  

 

·       A decade ago I thought my family was way ahead of the curve in naming children.  My sister and brother in law liked to combine his Italian last name, an Irish middle name and a mystical first name from India.  Today such names are as common as our heritages and worldviews are diverse.

 

·        This does not mean I understand Kayne West naming his new child “North”.

 

·        The mixing of gene pools produces the most beautiful and talented of children.  Barack Obama and Tiger Woods are great examples of a break out of thousands of others who are now at the top of their respective professions.  Somehow, when male gametes from one culture meet female gametes from another, the whole is greater than its parts.

 

·       Kayne West gametes meeting Kim Kardashian gametes to produce North West is not a good example of this phenomenon. Any couple, who would plan a wedding at the Egyptian pyramids in the middle of a “hot” civil war, should not qualify.

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NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING

 

I have a friend who has a habit of ending many of our discussions with the phrase “nobody knows anything.”  For a long time I simply thought he was a glass half empty kind of guy and too pessimistic when it came to many topics.  I now believe he may be a realist with much wisdom to offer.

          We often talk about the economy.  When I eagerly bring up a new investment scheme, he listens carefully before puncturing my premise and reminding me “nobody knows anything” when it comes to predicting future economic events.  He points out that we are in Star Trek territory with the Federal Reserve money printing, where no man has gone before.  He believes my hours of watching CNBC and reading Barron’s are a waste of time.  For every pundit I quote, he counters with a reliable source who claims the exact opposite will happen.

          I fare little better on world events.  When I make my case for democratic processes flowing from the Arab Spring my friend claims that the Biblical end times are just as likely.  If I point out a probable result because “history repeats itself”, he delivers another version of events with a different ending.

          Because my friend is a retired surgeon I thought I could pin him down on medicine and science.  No such luck. He knows by heart the multiple times the AMA has completed a study only to be refuted a short time later by a new study.  He knows the reversals and revisions in biology, chemistry and physics.  He points out that the brightest theoretical minds in the world cannot begin to offer empirical proof of the “big bang” or string theory.

 I even come up on the short end of our discussions on local sports.  When the penguins lose in the playoffs and the Pirates are playing like one of the best teams in baseball he smiles and says “nobody knows anything.”

          The implications of this view on life are far reaching.  I believe there are four observations that may be made.  Each of them can help us to accept our “humanism” and the fact we are more alike than we think.

          First is the realization that the information age we are experiencing makes it possible to learn more, from multiple sources, so that we can determine with greater rapidity, how much we do not know.  As our knowledge begins to double every few years we may finally make it out of the first inning on the scale of human evolution.  I have no doubt that today, when it comes to knowledge, we are closer to the Neanderthal than we are to our ancestors 100 years from now.

          Second, the commentator, scientist, politician or theist who claims to have the only/final answers should not command our attention.  If we all adopt the attitude that “nobody knows anything” it would bring us all a bit closer on the journey through life.  Put another way, the truth is like humility, when you say that you have it, you don’t.

          Third, the so-called winners in life and by this I mean the wealthy and powerful are by and large the products of being in the right place at the right time. They really didn’t know anything unique, they were lucky.  This is why reading the bios and theories of self made men to gain wealth and fame (many of which contradict each other) is about as helpful as going to the casino.

          Lastly, while it may be true that “nobody knows anything” access to and accumulation of knowledge does not equal wisdom. There are wise men among us who do not claim to know more than the average individual, but who do understand the path to a live well lived.  They are wise enough to know that they cannot predict how any story will end.  Their wisdom is in making good use of the journey.

 

 

SECOND POT OF COFFEE THOUGHTS

·       According to the President of the Washington County Bar Association, the Court is hoping that its two newest jurists can “robe up” by Labor Day and not be forced to wait until after the November Election. Given the backlog and strain on the local legal system, it cannot come too soon.

 

·       Washington’s Mayor, Brenda Davis is looking more credible by the day in her dust up and recent decisions concerning the police department.  It sure trumps the past “hands off” attitude of East Washington and “hands in the till” approach in Pittsburgh.

 

·       The Washington County legal community is facing its own privacy debate over the efficacy of digital recording in the courtrooms. The issue is technology and cost savings v. protecting privileged communications.  Not quite on par with the national debate over security v. privacy, but important just the same.

 

·       If one government building had been torched in Turkey during the recent demonstrations, the stock market would have come down to my very low buy target for Turkish stocks.  Unfortunately, “buy stocks when there is blood in the streets” is a truism.

 

·       Not so in Syria where that portion of the Mideast will be an economic dead zone for decades.

 

·       As an observer of recent political history, it seems that most state and international violence prior to the Berlin Wall coming done, was based on ideology. (western democracy v. fascism and communism) Since 1989 most state violence and acts of ethnic cleansing have been tribal, sectarian, and/or based on ancient kinship relationships.

 

·       It is entertaining to watch the conservatives and Wall Street Journal editorial page agree with the President’s policy of gathering mega data for national security reasons while attempting to attack him at the same time.

 

·       It is even more entertaining to watch progressive Obama supporters disagree with the Patriot Act, IRS debacle and drone policy while trying to remain loyal to the President.

 

·       When both ends of the political spectrum are unhappy, somewhere there is sound/moderate policy at work and the President is marching right down the middle of the road.

 

·       One important takeaway on the economy: "Fed money printing, which is how its bonds are paid for, has restored wealth for those fortunate to own financial assets. For those still seeking work, the payoff is nowhere in sight." Barron’s 6/8/13

 

·       Over the past several years it has become clear that we need a special rehabilitation program for politicians suffering from “egoism”, with special classes on how to control social media urges.  First step to recovery: “We admitted we were powerless over our egos/social media and that our lives have become unmanageable.” 

 

·       There is a scientific theory, gaining acceptance in energy circles, that recurring deep earth chemical reactions and not fossil fuels are responsible for natural gas deposits.  If this turns out to be true and Washington County is sitting on an inexhaustible supply of the stuff, our backyards will be as important as Texas, the North Slope and Saudi Arabia combined, for the next 100 years. WSJ, MIND AND MATTER, 6/8/13

 

·       The government will soon offer a “triple play special” on monitoring our communications. Those individuals who agree to the monitoring of their mail along with the already monitored phone and internet services will receive a revised edition of the novel 1984 and a prominent bumper sticker that proudly announces: “MY LIFE IS AN OPEN BOOK.  WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO HIDE?”

 

JESSIE WHITE AVATARS RUN AMUCK

 

I hope that Representative White does not interpret these remarks as a political attack from one of his enemies.  I believe that he can learn from the events of last week and see the experience as an exercise in humility and not as the culmination of his political opponents trying to humiliate him.

 I am a democrat and not one of his constituents.  I have adamantly disagreed with his position on the Washington County reassessment debate and believe it amounts to political show-boating.  The citizens of Washington County deserve to pay property taxes that are fair and equitable.  His repeated attacks against the lawyers and school districts who seek to achieve this goal have been misplaced, personal and vicious.

            Conversely, I have for the most part, supported Representative White’s efforts to look under the rug of the oil and gas industry in South Western Pennsylvania.  Unfortunately, because of the recent social media disclosures, his work on this important issue has been badly damaged and his actions have caused irreparable harm to the cause, for all of us.

            At the risk of making a point that goes without saying, there is a deep chasm separating the politician who seeks elective office to become a statesman, where there are two sides to every issue, and one who seeks elective office to advance an individual personality cult and/or to acquire a dedicated power base.  The latter type of politician seeks to make enemies in order to carve out a following and make a name for himself, without regard for good governance.

 Similar to the case before us, there are also lawyers who become emotionally attached to their client’s causes and journalists who are unable to stay unbiased when reporting on political events.  In all these cases, professionalism is forgotten; unwarranted blame is assessed against the perceived “enemy” and little of worth is accomplished.

            I would like to make a few observations on social media in this affair.  I have written in the past that those futurists who predict that these new methods of communication will soon become the vehicle for local news and replace newspapers are dead wrong.  Jesse White’s antics help prove my point. Facebook, twitter, hidden e-mail identities and the like are fraught with emotional knee jerk reactions and outright falsehoods that belie accurate reporting. (The O-R was correct in canceling impossible to verify comments to editorial letters on its online site)

On the other hand, there is nothing unique in what Representative White was attempting to do.  Since the invention of the printing press, writers have used false or hidden names to advance their agendas.  Heretical theologians did so to save their heads.  In Paris before the French Revolution, everyone tried to guess the authors of the hundreds of political pamphlets circulating on the streets.  What makes this episode more egregious is that it feels like an attack on our democratic principles when an elected official seeks to boost his political standing by secretly creating online fictitious supporters.  Jesse White avatars run amuck.  A little like science fiction and a little like a trip to the graveyard to manufacture votes on Election Day.

 It is difficult to believe that Representative White could have gained much political traction through these self serving and childish actions.  When his older constituents, who make up a majority of the voters, read about the allegations, they will have little idea what all the fuss is about.  Most of them have never been on facebook or read an e-mail response to an online letter.  They know Mr. White through the newspaper, the last township meeting or the local bingo.

 In other words, his game playing if left undetected, would have had little influence on Jesse White the candidate.  Somehow I think that Mr. White knew this.  His online actions were about “being right” and “getting the enemy” not about getting votes.

Initially lying and blaming the investigation on his political opponents and then changing his story to “my opponents made me do it” was not sound damage control.  He should have done a complete mea culpa and parked his ego in the closet.  Even a loose cannon like ex Congressman Anthony Weiner was able to be more contrite after his social networking exploits.

  Representative White can probably recover from this self inflicted wound by taking some of his boundless energy and directing it in a more statesmanlike manner to the issues at hand.  I hope that he does.  A lot less sniping and a lot more legislating and measured discourse would be good for his district and for his political future.

 

Put the New Judges to Work

 

The voters of Washington County are to be congratulated regarding the recent primary election of judges.  It is unfortunate that many Judicial elections are determined by politics, name recognition and/or ballot position.  In this primary, voters of both parties were able to sift through the white noise of eight candidates to elect two judges who will serve the County for many years to come with hard work and judicial acumen. Certainly the overwhelming vote total for our two new judges in both primaries is a testament to a consensus and good judgment over party affiliation.

Now the Governor and Supreme Court must show the same common sense and agree to immediately appoint both Ms. Costanza and Mr. Lucas to the bench.  There is no reason to deprive the citizens of Washington County of their newest judges who are assured a spot on the bench in November.  The court system is overworked and behind schedule.  These two primary winners should be permitted to put on their robes and dig in as soon as possible.

 

A WORD TO THE GRADUATES

 

"May you live in interesting times" often referred to as the Chinese curse and quoted to good effect by Robert Kennedy certainly has come true for our recent college graduates.  The class of 2013 has unlimited opportunity to fix what their parents have blown asunder.  I believe with a little help, they will be up for the task and do us all proud.

For the young political science graduate, there is a daily open classroom of American democracy to study and repair.  With gun violence, immigration reform, global warming and unemployment begging for congressional attention, one third of the committees in the House of Representatives are instead, investigating the White House administration.  The opportunity for meaningful legislation is slipping away as the political barricades go up.  The president’s second term is becoming an ongoing battle to defend his legacy from the first term.

It feels like my graduation in 1973, when I was still wondering what a newly minted political science major did for a living.  I spent the summer of 1973 traveling through Mexico and the West Coast, drinking beer and watching congressional hearings from another time and place. After the helicopter took the president away, I was not sure what kind of country my generation was inheriting and whether it was worth fixing.  Like so many of my peers, I shrugged my shoulders and entered law school.

In today’s world there are far too many lawyers out there cannibalizing each other.  I recommend sticking with political science as a career and studying how to make our democracy last another century or two. We boomers, for the most part, became lawyers and look how that turned out.

The graduate with a degree in journalism, who actually wants to report or write about national and world events beyond sound bites, facebook and twitter has some interesting choices to make.  First, where to work?  Print journalism is disappearing faster than the old journalists are hanging up their columns.  Second, do we really need another memoir by a member of the millennial generation or more books about vampires in love?

 I hope that those graduates who are debating whether to stick with the writing profession go see Lucky Guy with Tom Hanks and read the April 29, 2013 piece by NYT columnist David Brooks entitled Engaged or Detached?  I suggest the play, which recently opened in New York, because it shows that good old fashion investigative reporting can make a difference.  I recommend the David Brooks’ article because it struck a chord with me on how the journalist impacts the reader. 

Brooks maintains that the engaged journalist reminds his audience: “of the errors and villainy of the opposing side.”  In short, the engaged journalist aligns with a specific political team.  On the other hand, he suggests that the detached writer has a different worldview.  The goal here is to: “remain mentally independent because {the writer} sees politics as a competition between partial truths, and wants to find the proper balance between them, issue by issue.”  I have a hunch that our newest crop of journalists may make excellent detached writers and give us years of insight that: “spark conversation about underlying concepts, underlying reality and the underlying frame of debate.”

I will lump math and economics majors together because of their affinity for getting MBA’s and going into finance.  We need more math majors to teach math and economics majors to teach economics and go into research. We need to properly compensate them so that they will do so. Goldman Sacks should not be permitted to suck up all of our best and brightest in these fields to produce new algorithms that will hasten the next financial crash.    

You future engineers, teachers and physicians are easy to address.  Simply continue to learn your vocation and begin to practice your professions with all possible haste.  The need for new blood to build and fix infrastructure as well as to manage industrial concerns is paramount.  Government must give engineers the necessary funding to fix a crumbling America.  The same is true with teaching, where the Scandinavian model deserves a close look.  In Northern Europe teachers are paid and valued as top line professionals.  Our future physicians will need to learn the ever changing medical trade within the framework of the ever changing health care environment.

Those graduates who pursue the classics, drama, the fine arts and languages are to be encouraged and supported because our country is not simply a day to day concern, divorced from history.  We are also part of civilization and everything that being “civilized” entails.  A country without these career paths will wither on the vine.  We must remember that saving a place for the classics does not mean that every plumber must read Homer in the original text.

Lastly, a word of apology to all of our graduates. Your elders have saddled you with enormous debt, both personally and as a nation.  Many of us gave up our idealism and our parents’ role modeling to live beyond our means instead of saving and providing for you.  We are now scrambling for the exits with a larger piece of the national pie that we deserve.

Please forgive us and do not totally forsake us.  We have gained a bit of practical wisdom along the way that may be of some assistance. However, in the last analysis, it will be your own enthusiasm and instinct that will save the day.