THE LEGACY OF CHARLEST

         

         Of all the tragic events that have occurred in my lifetime, I can think of none that is more surreal or that has carried the symbolism or power to change the status quo as has the recent mass killings in Charleston, South Carolina.  The juxtaposition of a young man, boiling with racial hatred sitting with peaceful churchgoers, at a mid week bible study in one the oldest African American Churches in our country is a powerful vision of much that is good and terrible in America.  But the killings did not take place in just any community; Charleston is a small town with the nation’s greatest example of institutional oppression, the old slave market, a few blocks away from the church. A few more blocks brings one to the location of the cannon battery that demolished the Federal Fort Sumter, started the Civil War and tore the country apart, all to preserve slavery.

         While the smiles and good nature of the parishioners almost swayed the killer from his act of indiscriminate carnage, in the end, no kindness could stay his “assassin’s veto”, an attempt to reverse our progress in civil rights and racial equality. This modern day Charles Manson, both who sought to ignite a race war through the murder of innocents, has accomplished just the opposite. No riots, no righteous anger, no lame justifications.  Instead, forgiveness, soul searching and a ground swell of bi-partisan, color blind support.

          Today, African Americans are more empowered than ever to demand unconditional acceptance after yet another unimaginable sacrifice. Following this horror, Caucasian Americans are more likely to give minorities the no strings attached, equal seat at the table that will finally start a new chapter in our history.  The slow march continues: gender equality, sexual equality and now a step closer to racial equality.

         No American should believe that removing the rebel flags and statutory of segregation and suppression from public grounds will be the end of it.  The election of Barack Obama was transformative from the pinnacle of government.  Our youngest Americans and future leaders have grown up knowing only a black President.  The killings in Charleston will be transformative through the nation’s town councils, churches, classrooms and family discussions. The JFK assassination changed our parents, the Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy and Kent State killings changed my generation and Charleston will have a similar impact on this youngest generation as they shape their own version of the American dream.

WHY DO WE TRUST THE TECHNICIANS TO DO THE RIGHT THING?

         Some time ago, the then President Judge of Washington County scheduled a seminar to introduce the new digital electronic system, designed to replace stenographers in the courtroom, to the lawyers.  To explain the bells and whistles of the installation she invited a technician from Beaver County, where the same system was in use, to discuss the Beaver County experience.  It was discovered during the presentation that technicians sitting in the control room to monitor the system could overhear conversations in the courtrooms even when the system was not recording, an operational detail not known by the lawyers or even the judges.  When the Beaver technician was asked about this, his incredulous response was: “well when it comes to protecting privileged information we are not permitted to hear, obviously you have to trust us to do the right thing.”

         I keep thinking of this response from a technician, operating under little legal or administrative oversight, as our country continues its post 9/11 journey into the new age of high tech surveillance.  When it comes to  reviewing constitutionally protected personal data, who do we trust to do the right thing?  What are the actual parameters of the surveillance that would differentiate between legal civil disobedience and illegal terrorism?  What is the screening process and when are the hits on innocent citizens deleted? Are the nuts and bolts of American national security policy kept secret from us for protection, or to keep illegal conduct from coming to light? If neither the so called war on terror nor the Patriot Act affects most of us, should we even care, as long as security concerns are limited to information and do not take away our right to bear arms.

         Surveillance technology is expanding at breakneck speed.   Constructing a real time representation of the world, no doubt the ultimate goal of the NSA and other security organizations, requires a large and growing amount of data (big data) and a system to give meaning to the data (algorithms).  Big data has involved the universal collection of phone and computer records for some time. As reported in a recent Foreign Affairs article, The Violence of Algorithms, Taylor Owen, 5/25/15, data collection is now also enhanced by:  “a network of 100 toaster sized satellites that will take daily high resolution images of everywhere on earth. The goal is to launch thousands- a persistent real time surveillance tool.” Regarding algorithms the author points out: “If they (algorithms) are biased, flawed, or based on incorrect data, then the human will be just as wrong as the machine.”

         So even the technician who means well may make bad choices and come down on the wrong side of our civil liberties if an algorithm exposes an innocent individual. Consider the farmer in Iowa who plugs the word “Isis” into Google (another algorithm) to learn more about the organization because his son is doing humanitarian work in the Mid East.  The same day, big data picks up an e-mail conversation with his son; “we need to eliminate all the weeds and buy a half ton of nitrates for next year’s crops.”  This pattern matches a well thought out terrorist algorithm and all of the farmer’s conversations, bank statements and travel plans are monitored and read by a young technician in Alexandria Virginia.  Should the farmer just “trust him” to do the right thing?

         How about the technician who is working for an executive who does not mean well?  It was not that long ago that Richard Nixon and J Edgar Hoover sought to gain as much information as possible about their perceived enemies through any means possible.  Would anyone feel comfortable with these new technologies in their hands?

          Some are not happy with this new reality.  It has been reported that in Germany, as troublesome as the East German Stasi and Soviet KGB were during the cold war, the German government felt more secure from spying in the past than during the recent surveillance intrusions from their allies, the Americans.

                  Our own citizens do not seem to have the same doubts or concerns as new and more invasive spy techniques are revealed. Why are we willing to give up protected information concerning our private lives to technicians in secret control rooms on the slim chance of avoiding an Islamist plot?

          I believe several factors are in play. First, many buy into the claim that we are at war and believe it is patriotic to cooperate since we have  “nothing to hide”.  Second, the pervasive use of social media has degraded privacy concerns and surveillance is often viewed as harmless national data sharing.  Third, everyone gets to keep their firearms, no matter how onerous the data collection.

         There is great irony in the fact that in dangerous times to the homeland, gun ownership is not restricted. We insist that we be permitted to keep unfettered, the one instrumentality that causes a thousand times more carnage than terrorism. Even knowing that a bad guy is more likely to use a gun against an innocent rather than blown him/her up, firearms get a pass.  It remains an open question whether more gun restriction and less surveillance would lower the number of attacks inspired by radical ideologies.

         In the United States, the right to bear arms is sacrosanct and this is not about to change until fiscal conservatives realize that curtailing guns will save millions in social welfare and make us safer. In the mean time, If big brother gets out of hand with this surveillance stuff, we can always shoot him.

SECOND POT OF COFFEE THOUGHTS

·      How did the comic books we hid from our parents warp into an 8 billion dollar (and counting) business at the movie theaters and toy stores?

·      It seems that the empty store fronts are growing in Washington and that the new businesses that do open are marginal.  Why not give a developer whatever incentives it takes to start a renovation project in the City.

·      With the recent social acceptance of expanded health care, gay rights and the apparent death knell of capital punishment, can meaningful gun control laws be far behind?

·      Why do I still prefer a hard cover book at twice the price to the same new read on my kindle?

·      Wash Arts is a remarkable community resource.  If you can teach a class in the creative arts, call the office.  When your program is set up, enthusiastic students will follow.

·      The millennial generation is finally approaching the age of home buying, marriage and child rearing.  Adjust your stock portfolio accordingly.

·      The enhanced schedule and funding for the Whiskey Rebellion Festival and the farmers market will continue to bring seasonal foot traffic to the City of Washington. This is not enough for capital intensive business owners to set up shop.  They need a year round commitment from the County to sell the City.

·      A Joe Sestak victory to replace Senator Pat Toomey in 2016 would not only be of great importance to those who want to elect a thoughtful liberal in Pennsylvania, it would also be a crucial win for the democrats to retake the Senate.

·       What do members of Congress, hedge fund operators and foreign dictators have in common?  All three are held in low esteem, do little for the common good and use their positions to accumulate undeserved wealth.

DIVERSITY IS A REGIONAL ISSUE

         When I discuss the need for diversity in Washington County, there are typically three responses.  The average resident on the street places diversity near the bottom of any community wide wish list.  Some old timers even suggest that the shale/gas industry has ruptured Washington County’s economic structure and the last thing we need is a diversity campaign, encouraging minorities to live and work here, to rupture our social structure.  The second response comes from community leaders who have the power to initiate diversity programs.  Their position is often that there is no reason to take action because the County is thriving. They point out that Washington County is an open community and anyone can choose to live here or apply for employment.  Lastly are minorities who are already residents of the County.  These citizens often feel there are “bigger fish to fry” than diversity, including education, crime, racism and economic inequality.

         Before I give my reasons why I believe these views are misplaced, some facts concerning diversity and economics in Southwestern Pennsylvania are in order. First, population growth throughout the Pittsburgh region is nonexistent.  According to the US census, between 2011 and 2012, the region had a net increase of only 619, with a total regional population of 2.3 million.  Second, as reported in the May 14, 2015 Pittsburgh Post Gazette: “Pittsburgh is one the of least diverse places in the U.S., according to a new study of 200-plus cities  that consider factors such as types of jobs and industries as well as race and ethnicity.”  The study conducted by WalletHub, a Web-based Washington DC firm, ranked Pittsburgh 227 out of 230 regions.

         Many specialists in urban and community planning believe there is a strong correlation between a growing, younger population and a commitment to both economic and population diversity.  The above Post Gazette article interviewed Melanie Harrington, chief executive of Vibrant Pittsburgh, a nonprofit dedicated to diversity issues.  She found the report troubling.  Ms. Harrington believes: “Our long term future economic growth goals are dependent in part on our ability to attract and retain a diversity of people in the region.”

         Another spokesman, Harold D. Miller, Adjunct professor of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz School of Public Policy and Management, believes that lack of racial and ethnic diversity in our region is one of the biggest factors in holding the population back.  He concludes in his 6/2/13 blog post that: “If Pittsburgh wants its population to grow, attracting and retaining more minority residents isn’t an option, it is a necessity.”

         While many regions are keeping and attracting minorities and growing for the future, the Pittsburgh region is not.  The new restaurants, the universities, the new sports venues will not stop this trend.  In order to compete, Southwestern Pennsylvania must take action by focusing on the issues and dedicating resources to encourage diversity and soon.   Mr. Miller is persuasive in his analysis that Minneapolis, another shrinking rust belt region, was able to reverse its Pittsburgh like results by putting into place diversity programs over the last three decades.  By taking steps that dramatically expanded the number of Asians, Hispanics and African Americans living in the area, jobs in the Minneapolis region grew four times as fast as they did in Pittsburgh over the same time frame.  This point made by Mr. Miller in 2013 is reinforced by the fact that the Minneapolis region placed forty third (43) in racial and ethnic diversity on the recent WalletHub report.   

         When it comes to employment and population growth, Washington County is the outlier in our region.  A new study recently concluded by our own Washington and Jefferson College found that the energy industry supports in the range of 10,000 jobs, the equivalent to 7-9 % of total county employment.  Moreover, shale/gas resources increased county economic output by15% to 20% in recent years and has consistently placed Washington near the top of those Pennsylvania counties with the lowest unemployment.

         So why should Washington County care that the rest of the region is shrinking in population?  Why should we seek diversity when we are growing without it?  The answer is simple. Washington County is too small and the Marcellus Shale industry too undiversified in its own right to carry the region on its back.  One dimensional economic growth has its limits in the same way that a one dimensional population has its limits.  Diversity in both is the proven, rational policy to ensure sustained generational expansion in both.

         In the short term Washington County does have the growth engine that may well be the sweetest incentive to jump start economic and population diversity in Southwestern Pennsylvania.  Let’s exploit this advantage within the County by recruiting minorities in both the public and private sector into our booming economy.   Let’s partner with Allegheny County to develop meaningful incentives.  Let’s advertise the incentives to bring in the best and the brightest, including the newest crop of minority professionals in all occupations, to live and work in Washington County and throughout the region.  Let’s use our excellent regional higher education system, state of the art medical complexes and new business and technological platforms at places like Southpointe to train and retain international and home grown minorities for generations to come.

         To summarize for the naysayers why we need to act, diversity is a regional concern and Washington County stands in a unique position to be in the vanguard to address the problem.  The Marcellus Shale explosion will not last forever.  Reshaping our community and making Washington County a magnet for minority entrepreneurs and professionals of all backgrounds will transform our region for the better.  Not only is supporting diversity the right thing to do, it is the only thing to do.

        

        

  

WHY THIS YEAR’S ELECTIONS DESERVE YOUR ATTENTION

         Off year elections like those in the coming months are notorious for little excitement and low voter turnout.  Most potential voters are more focused on the early stages of the 2016 presidential primary circus than the slim offerings on this year’s ballot.  This is a shame because circumstances have given Pennsylvania voters an unusual three openings on the critically important Supreme Court. 

         What happens in the May primary and November general election will shape our Supreme Court for decades to come.  Those who care about the rights of women, workers, patients and plaintiffs in civil law suits (among many others) should be completing their due diligence on the Supreme Court Candidates and urging their families, friends and associates to do the same and to show up on election day.

         What is to be done to vet those running for the Supreme Court? By my count there are thirteen candidates, all of whom are able to cross file on both ballets in the primary, running for the three openings.  Rules of judicial conduct prohibit candidates from discussing specific issues.  Commercials are often misleading and funded by interest groups seeking to elect a Justice or two sympathetic to their cause.  Clearly research is in order to uncover the most deserving candidates.

         My plan is to first check the Pennsylvania Bar Association and Allegheny County Bar Association recommendations, published earlier this year.  These evaluations are readily available on Goggle and pavotesmart.com. 

         The PBA evaluation process is conducted by highly qualified lawyers who: “seek to give voters guidance by only recommending potential candidates who have the legal ability, experience, integrity and temperament needed to provide satisfactory or outstanding performance as judges on our appellate courts.”  The PBA Evaluation Commission also publishes a summary of its findings on each candidate as well as the questionnaire submitted by each candidate, to give the voter more than just a rating.  This is most useful information you are likely to find in considering your choices.

         I also will review the Allegheny County evaluations because, all things being equal, I will vote for a jurist from Western Pennsylvania and these ratings shed further light on these candidates.  Once I have narrowed my list I will run each selection through Wikipedia and Google to make sure I have not missed any dirty laundry.  Lastly I will call my lawyer friends in Allegheny County who have interacted professionally with the individuals I have selected, to make sure my judgment is sound.

         I have found that voting for judicial candidates is like stock picking. Do not listen to the guy at the bar and do your homework.  In a low turnout election your vote is more likely to make a difference.

THE REAL THING

         Something clicked in my aging memory banks while reading the recent O-R article on Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.  The word is that Justice Kennedy has been chosen by his colleagues to be the author of our highest court’s gay rights decision, soon to be released.  The article details Justice Kennedy’s friendship with Gordon Schaber, a gay man who mentored him through law school.  This relationship helped Justice Kennedy shape his progressive views on sexual equality and placed him years in front of the curve on this important subject.

         This charming story is not unlike so many others where life events shape important opinions. I have come to understand that there is “nothing like the real thing” in getting us to work for one cause or another.

         Nancy Reagan changed her views on gathering stem cells for research when her Husband developed Alzheimer’s. Dick Chaney altered his views on sexual orientation after his daughter came out as a lesbian.  Many average Americans become lifelong advocates for a social issue that was of little importance to them until a family member was afflicted with a rare disease, struck down by a bullet, or returned from battle as a wounded warrior or with mental health issues.

           I have found that meaningful opinions, ones that feel “right”, come into focus through actual experience as opposed to second hand reading, discussion, or talk show pundits.  For example, there are a multitude of books on the grieving process and dozens of memoirs written by cancer survivors.  Until we actually lose a loved one or receive a diagnosis of cancer, these written accounts give us information but no deep understanding of the crisis.

         No matter how many articles I previously read concerning the Tuscany region of Italy or how many wildlife shows I watched concerning the Serengeti in Africa, nothing prepared me for the real experience of traveling to these places.  The real thing changes your perception of what a place, or a social issue or a rare disease is all about.  August Wilson could never have written his ten play cycle about African American life in Homewood, without sitting in the cafes, barber shops and bars and listening to the stories.  His imagination and poetic sensibilities gave him the talent, but his experience of the real thing gave him the plays.

         There may be a lesson to be learned in all of this.  The further a politician, author, religious leader, or social commentator is from the real thing, the less credible he or she becomes.   The call to vote, worship, and think in a certain way deserves our consideration when the speaker or writer has life experience regarding the issue at hand.

         This is why Senator McCain gets my attention when he calls for zero tolerance for torture by Americans, when he suffered so greatly at the hands of the North Vietnamese.  Why Pope Francis gets my attention when he speaks about humility and the poor, given his work in the slums of Buenos Aires.  Why Nicholas Kristof, the award winning columnist, gets my attention when writing graphic commentary from the scene in faraway places, often at personal risk.

          The absence of the real thing is a major source of latent discrimination and intolerance.  Those who rage against Latino immigrants, welfare mothers and same sex marriage often have never met an individual who fits the profile they are ranting against.  Embedded prejudices and community norms replace actual experience in forming long held opinions.  As our country becomes younger, more urban minded and more diverse, the real thing will replace fabricated myths and move us forward.

                  

WASHINGTON COUNTY’S WOMEN LEADERS SHOULD BE IN THE VANGUARD OF THE DIVERSITY CHALLENGE

          I read with great interest the reporting on the recent panel discussion sponsored in part by the Washington County Chamber of Commerce concerning diversity and the lack of women voted into elective office in Pennsylvania. This is an important topic and there is certainly work to be done to topple the “old boy’s network” in the Commonwealth.

          Women running for elective office are bottom up affairs and require dedicated, knowledgeable and well funded candidates willing to get involved.  Most diversity issues involve hiring, training and recruitment and are top down issues where enlightened leadership makes all the difference.  My challenge to the panel participants:  Commissioner Irey Vaughan, State Sen. Bartolotta and President Judge Emery is to turn the diversity imbalance on its head and to use their positions to make meaningful diversity change in Washington County.  I would add Washington County Bar Association President, Dawn Haber Esq., to this triumvirate because the law community faces many of the same challenges.

          Minority employees and staffing in county government and the court system are embarrassingly underrepresented.  Recruitment of minority lawyers to live and work in Washington County appears nonexistent.  Women leaders who have had to battle the status quo to achieve positions of power can speak from experience in developing diversity programs and policies for the hiring and advancement practices under their respective domains.

          Diversity is not a luxury that Washington County can afford to leave to chance.  Diversity programs are proactive and seek out qualified minority candidates.  They build a multicultural workplace and community because it is the right thing to do.

           A diverse workforce is many times stronger than the sum of its parts.  This is particularly true in the public and legal sectors where minorities must believe their interests are fairly represented.  Our knowledgeable and compassionate female leaders are in the best position to make this a reality.