THE VOTER ID LAW IS A CONSERVATIVE HYPOCRACY

The Pennsylvania voter’s ID controversy is getting more ironic by the day.  The conservative establishment who thought up this affront to our most basic of liberties must now explain the economic burden of this unfunded new legislation.  Not only is the cost born by county taxpayers, it is significant.

An action filed in Allegheny County, not by representatives of the elderly, poor, or minorities, was brought by the fiscal watchdog, the County Controller. It turns out that the unfunded mandate for the state’s new voter ID law will cost Pennsylvania’s local governments about $11 million to implement. New procedures must be drawn up, poll workers must be trained, and those impossible to comprehend provisional ballots brought out of the dusty closets.

Only the most jaded of conservatives could justify this additional financial burden on the counties, when education and social services are being slashed to the bone.  No sane elected official can possibly believe that protecting our citizens from phantom voter fraud is more pressing than education, mental health or the environment.  I am waiting to see how the Corbett gang and its followers will philosophically explain deregulating our air, water, and ground resources to save money on the one hand while regulating our poorest citizen’s right to vote and mandating local government to spend tax payer dollars on the other.

POLITICAL THOUGHTS

Does Governor Corbett really believe that no one will notice (or care) when he places his ineffective crony on the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas, a position that court administrators agree should be left open to save public dollars, at the same time that he is cutting education and social services to the bone?

Donald Trump will use his “birther” expertise during the Miss Pennsylvania controversy and determine she was born in New Jersey.

When the majority of Americans come to understand that social democracy looks like

Roosevelt’s “New Deal” and Johnson’s “Great Society” and not a communist five year plan, the political discourse will gain a more rational footing.

Governor Walker’s victory in Wisconsin was more a vote against the misuse of recall elections than an affirmation for tea party positions.

Why do the newscasters on Fox News remind me of the Orie sisters?  Is there an ongoing natural evolution of obnoxious blond conservative women, perhaps nurtured by too much Rush Limbaugh during their impressionable youth?

Over the months leading up to the election independent voters will come to understand that Barack Obama has been a mainstream President with positions a little bit right of John Kerry and a little bit left of Bill Clinton.

Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton have been great assets to the President and the American People.  Try and name two republican primary contenders who could offer the same support to a President Romney.

John Edwards will remain a stain on the Democratic Party until a women is nominated by the party for the presidency, hopefully in 2016.  Nothing else will wash away the horror of this narcissistic cad who fooled so many people for so long and let his libido almost destroy the election process.

If one or two Washington County Commissioners are elected to higher office in November, the deliberations of the Board of Judges to name their replacements will be the local political story of the year, maybe of the decade.

 THE MUSIC ROOM

My wife’s younger sister lives in a typical suburban home in Murrysville, PA, with her Husband and two teenage sons.   What is not typical in this middle class home is the “music room”.  Several years ago, the family added a large addition to the existing house.  For most growing families it would have been the opportunity to spread out with a family room, large screen TV, lounging furniture and maybe a pool table.  In this house, the new room is captivated by a large piano and musical instruments of various shapes and sizes.  Music lessons are given, new pieces are rehearsed and impromptu jams are known to break out.

What I have come to realize is that the music room defines this family.  Options and priorities were discussed and music won.  The eldest son is tall, athletic and outgoing.   He is the perfect candidate for various high school varsity sports.  Instead, he is an accomplished cellist and has won awards throughout his high school years.  I have heard him play at Heinz Hall with the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra and most recently solo, with his Mother accompanying on piano, prior to the spring school band program.  His younger brother holds out promise of being an exemplary musician on the saxophone.

While the mother teaches piano, there is no evidence that any member of the family will have a symphonic career.  The high school graduate would like to be a pharmacist. The father, an accomplished musician in his own right, is a manager in a utility company.  This is simply a family that values lives well lived, enriched by music.

Two thoughts strike me about the music room.  First, in the Victorian era, music rooms were common, as were libraries.  These rooms were places to enrich the soul and sooth the spirit, apart from the drudgery of day to day labor.  In the absence of organized sports, around the clock social media, fixed media and the internet, the music room was a welcome respite.

Second, Federal Title IX has just celebrated 40 years of making sex discrimination in school athletics illegal.  This provision has made incredible progress in women’s sports throughout our country.  Women’s programs are often indistinguishable from men’s programs.   Some would argue that Title IX has touched much more than sports, by changing the role of women in society.

Perhaps we need a mirror Title IX program for equality in the creative arts.  The provision would outlaw discrimination against our young musicians, painters, writers, dancers and sculptures.  The finite resources available for activities would go toward sports and the arts, share and share alike.  We might see more music rooms spring up in suburban America and that would be a good thing.

AN AFTERNOON AT THE BARBECUE JOINT

            When the phone call came from the local Obama campaign office, I had already grabbed my calendar.  Another organizational meeting, I thought.  But the caller had a cryptic bit of news.  The next day Washington would be visited by an unnamed “administration official”.  Would my wife and I like to attend the meet and greet?

            On Thursday we were at the iconic Hog Fathers restaurant, along with a handful of older Obama volunteers and a contingent of the young people who help staff the Pittsburgh office.  We quickly learned that Vice President Biden was the attraction, his motorcade returning to the Airport from West Virginia and Ohio.  As is typical for these affairs, the VP would be late.  We were instructed to be discreet, have some barbecue and meet new friends.

            An hour later the pack of Chevy Suburbans rolled in.  A smiling Biden stepped out and greeted the owner.  The media in attendance was corralled behind the counter and the Vice President began what he came to do.  This was no photo op.  He wanted to talk issues and find out what was on the minds of South Western Pennsylvania voters.  While the secret service bought lunch for the ride to the Airport, Biden let each of us have our say.

            I brought up the Air Force Reserve Station at the Airport.  “Do not close it” I told him. “It will give us enough votes to make a difference”.  He listened and understood the dilemma.  There are national economic and strategic concerns he informed me.  Others spoke of education, health care and the upcoming election.

            With the exception of the Mayor, no elected officials were in attendance.  I am sure some egos got bruised.  The individuals who were invited had been with the Obama campaign 5 years ago when the politicians were not.  I guarantee that we will now work even harder to paint our small part of the country Obama/Biden blue on election night.

THE EQUALITY GLASS IS HALF FULL (the vintage is struggling, young & brown)

When I look beyond the 24/7 political noise, it is the best of times to be a social democrat in the United States of America.  In my lifetime there will be more positive gains in both civil rights and economic equality than at any time in our history.  As our country becomes younger and more diverse, further social change in both areas is inevitable.  

Moreover, it is no coincidence that the deprived generation coming out of the great depression readily adopted our first large wave of FDR social democracy.  Our younger generations most affected by the 2008 great recession will likewise adopt a second wave of personal and economic equality, with a flourish we should all see coming.  The equality glass is half full and the vintage is struggling, young and brown.

  Regarding civil rights, I proudly display in my office the Vernon Jordan quote: “After Years of disturbing the unjust peace- all men are finally created equal”, below a photograph of Barack Obama.  Within a few years, our changing social structure will guarantee that this quote also applies to our first female president and to a national affirmation on gay marriage.  Our founding fathers will finally be able to smile, roll over in their graves and sleep peacefully through eternity.

Regarding economic equality, it has become clear to me that modern western democracies will evolve toward universal economic opportunities and wealth leveling (both nationally and globally), in order to fulfill their potential.  Further, our next generation of leaders will adopt growth not austerity strategies during economic downturns and retain tax surpluses when the economy is vibrant, saving for the next inevitable rainy day.  In other words, the next generation will learn from our mistakes.

I have come to realize that within decades, Fox news and older Americans with deeply held prejudices will have no choir to preach to.  The moral majority is becoming the moral minority and the outcome of the cultural wars is becoming a foregone conclusion.  Like other flash points that have tried to hold up the equality train, the present brand of angry, homophobic social conservatism is losing its grip and will soon be an interesting footnote in American History.

Lastly, I have come to understand that this new landscape has little to do with the work of aging progressives like myself, or the constant political chatter.  Maybe my generation helped set the stage 30 or more years ago.  Sure, it would be nice if we could help win the next election.  But whatever the near term outcome, recession, youth and demographics will prevail in the long run.  My job is really to get out of the way and not muck it up before they take over and fulfill the destiny of this great country.

GAME ON

It is time to brush off the armor and sharpen the swords.  While not quite as bloody as the War of the Roses (white vs. red) the coming election conflagration will be much more expensive and leave a larger mark on western civilization. Blue democrats will be jousting against red republicans across the countryside.  As was the case four years ago, the readers of this newspaper are living and working at the site of the projected major battlefield in 2012.  More advertising dollars, candidate appearances and news stories will be dedicated to South Western Pennsylvania and Ohio than anywhere else in our country during the coming months.  The 2012 Presidential campaign will be won or lost under our feet.

A recent editorial in the O-R was spot on.  The blue army under the Obama banner has changed.  A term in the white house has shifted its focus from vision, transformation and the giddy confidence of youth to governance, maturity and the hard issues and reality of middle age.  The former pink cloud campaign of hope is now the dark cloud campaign of preserving the heart and soul of everything that matters to me as a citizen.  No longer cast as feel good idealism, this campaign feels more like hand to hand combat in the trenches.

The blue foundations of the conflict remain the same.  To name a few:  there can be no personal liberty without systemic justice.  Practical wisdom must trump political ideology in decision making.  Our constitutional republic can only survive if all its citizens give equally till it hurts on the one hand and receive equal benefits and opportunities from their government and institutions on the other.  There can be no more trickledown economics with the few crumbs dispersed to the middle class and poor.  Religious freedom for all, starts with separation of church and state.  In foreign affairs, our country must be admired, not feared.

For letter writers like me and concerned citizens like many of you, it is time to join the fray.  It all starts with barackobama.com/pa.  Our contributions, our work, and our vote will make a difference.

In support of Renaissance men (and Women)

     

Not long ago, my friend Gordon, a Renaissance man in his own right, invited my wife and me to tour the Di Vinci exhibition at California University.  It was a marvel.  The film clip, full scale working models of Di Vinci’s drawings and other materials introduced us to a thinker far ahead of his time.  Local residents should make plans to view this world class exhibit before it departs, on May 6, 2012.

For Di Vinci, there were no walls between art, architecture, science, medicine, anatomy, aviation and industrial process.  His mind flowed freely from one discipline to the other.   This permitted him to connect the dots on matters that would not be revisited for a thousand years.   Unfortunately, unlike Di Vinci or Newton or even Einstein, the day when one can know everything there is to know about everything, or even a great deal about many things, is over.  Even my friend Gordon, who can jump from dry bulk shipping, to game theory, to Mediterranean history gets lost on quantum physics.  The modern era is mostly about knowing everything there is to know about one thing, and only one thing, extremely well.

We do not permit our personal physician to perform heart surgery.  The pastry chef cannot prepare our brace of quail.  The man who hangs dry wall cannot repair our roof.  The roofer cannot clean our chimney.  No one would hire a family lawyer for a murder trial.  My daughter, the avian veterinarian, will not examine a cat.  Most people feel safer in the hands of a specialist. The world is complicated and there is simply too much information.

  Having said this, in a world where everyone is specializing in something, the future may still belong to those who can connect the dots and cross over into several disciplines.  The renaissance of the Renaissance man is upon us.  After viewing the Di Vinci exhibit,   I thought about an orthopedic surgeon I know.  He has a Carnegie Mellon engineering degree and graduated from Harvard Medical School.  In his spare time he helps run the Carnegie Robotics lab.  Engineering and bone anatomy make him the ideal choice.   Another example is Obama’s choice for the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim:  Dartmouth President, medical doctor and anthropologist.  Polymaths like the best -selling authors, Jared-Diamond and Malcolm Gladwell also come to mind.  These roving scientist/ journalists explore many disciplines to give us new views of our past and future.

 Then there are the new and expanding fields of cross-over academic study.  For example: behavioral economics, environmental studies, emerging country developmental studies, evolutionary psychology and medical and legal philosophy come to mind.  These disciplines require our future professionals to dive into the hard sciences and the social sciences. To learn to think like a lawyer or physician, from a philosophical prospective.  In other words, to connect the dots.

 We will continue to need specialists to know everything about a narrow subject.  We will also need the new renaissance men to pave the way to the future.  Like my friend, Gordon, they are a lot more interesting at a dinner party.