Thanks for Coming, Thaddeus!

Thaddeus is sitting patiently in the refrigerator in the garage waiting for eager hands to deliver him to the oven this afternoon.  He came to us from Amish country.  I guess that makes him Amish, but it doesn't really matter.  After dinner tonight he will be remembered as a tasty symbol of all we have to be thankful for. 

Many of my friends berate me for anthropomorphizing our holiday main courses...I on the other hand like the personalization.  It makes the eating of them somehow closer to the heart.  I always like to name the hogs that my brother-in-law Jeremy or my nephew Richard cooked for family gatherings.  So much effort and care goes into the proper preparation.  When you put morsels of them in your mouth, it helps to think of it as a personal gift from a sentient idealized soul.  We had been blessed with Ted last Thanksgiving.  At family reunions we have been fed with the presence of Horace (the hog) and Beulah (the beast).  My kids used to think it was corny, but they got a chuckle out of it.  It also gives us a mirthful moment when we say the blessing before we eat to especially thank "whomever" for gracing us with his/her presence (albeit posthumously).


Anyway, the family has gathered and it is still quiet in the house while they sleep in their beds that lie in wait for them so infrequently now that they are grown.  My daughters are home, the older one with her fiance and dog; my younger one just brought her dog.  Our empty nest has been descended upon by the boundless energy of young people and their frantic animals, trying to figure out the pecking order between them for the next couple of days.  Before the fray becomes overwhelming, I am just taking a few minutes to savor the anticipation of the experience of today with my family and some close friends.

For me, Thanksgiving is all about family and enjoying the presence of people that I love....and taking a moment to give thanks for all that I have that I don't think about except on days like this.   When we sit around the table tonight with our smiling faces beaming at each other, and our friends sharing our home and our love for each other I am always amazed at my good fortune.

My children are both healthy.  They are basically happy individuals, each with their own 'mishugaas' to be sure, but they are making their way in the world.  They have found love and independence.  What else could make us more grateful as parents than that.  I think about all the people I know who are going through divorce, separation, medical crises, emotional crises, and I look at the people gathered around me and am thankful that these faces have not been ground down by those experiences. To be sure we have had our share of difficult times, but at this moment they are memories and not present in our lives.

I look at my wife of 30 years and think about all we have shared --in good health and love.  We have raised these children.  We have a commonality of vision for their happiness and our own.  We have shared love and family through all these years.  We have had 30 Thanksgivings together and each one has been a good time--a time to take stock and really be thankful.  We are blessed.

So I think about Thaddeus and how he will add to our pleasure today, and about all those who will gather at bountiful tables tonight.  We are all angry about our politics and all the things that are wrong with our society and our lives, but this night, we need to take a deep breath and be thankful for all that we do have that is so rare in this world.  We have relative peace in a place that is not a locus of war and death like so many other places on this planet.  We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but we can live at this moment and savor the sweet time of family and smiles that this day and souls like Thaddeus bring us once a year.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Can I Uncover My Eyes Now?

So the deed is done and the Republicans have made huge gains as a result of this election.  The adage that the people will receive the government they deserve holds true.  We will see what they will do now that they have the keys to the car.  My guess is that our governmental machinery will grind to a halt.  In the past two years what indications do we have that Republicans have better ideas about how to handle this country's gargantuan problems?  All we have seen is the near uniform lockstep effort to thwart any program or initiative that the Democratic majority has attempted.  For whatever reasons, the opposition party was intent on stopping Obama cold on all fronts from day one.  Mitch McConnell says that the new Republican agenda is to make Obama a one term president.  Why can't these people use the energy to express such petty vitriol in the service of new ideas to solve our problems?

So now we will see if they actually have any innovative ideas.

My guess is that they will continue to do all they can to unravel any progress we have made over the last two years in service of a return to the conditions that led us to an economic precipice.....only this time they won't be happy until we go over it.  In the meantime, I fully expect all progress toward solution of some of the more pressing issues like almost 10% unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, rising health care costs, corporate shenanigans, mortgage foreclosures, the increasing pain of the unemployed to grind to a halt as the Republicans deflect our attention to repealing the new health care legislation and making the Bush tax cuts permanent for all the wealthy people, etc. etc.

All the anger we have seen from the electorate is really so ridiculous.  Most of the angry people don't really know what they are angry about.  Here's an example:  Republicans and Tea Party people have been haranguing us about how the Democrats have raised taxes to unreasonable levels.  Excuse me, our taxes have actually gone down since Obama came to town.  How is it that millions of people just believe this lie?  Obama's appointed budget panel just came out with concrete ideas that show real intelligence albeit at the expense of significant sacrifice.  The metaphor is like weighing 300 pounds and suddenly realizing you need to lose 150 within a year.  Not going to be easy.  What is the response from both sides of the aisle:  Oh no, can't do it, too tough, (preserve our current bureacracy).

I just woke up this morning and realized that with all the sturm and drang of the past two years, my life has not really been impacted by anything that all these blowhards have been saying or doing.  I still struggle to pay all the bills and have to work my ass off to make ends meet.  Thanks to all the vested interests and powerful lobbies (fronted by all the politicians) my economy is in a shambles and no one is trying to work together to solve the problems.

Democrats are wussies and Republicans are insane.  What a combination!  Alfred E Neumann for President!

I promise to write about other things that mean something.

What Happened to Truth and Civility?

I don't know about all of you in other states, but here in Florida, watching television has become really entertaining!  The tube is being flooded with political ads at an increasing rate.  Usually I have enough time to only watch programs that I TIVO, but lately I have been watching TV in real time when I watch the local news programs.  What I am seeing is breathtaking.

About 50% of each break for commercials is now composed of political ads that are all negative.  It's hard to tell in most cases who is financing them because at the end of the spot it simply says, "this ad paid for by (insert some patriotic sounding foundation)".  We don't know who they are, but it couldn't be clearer who they support.  In the rest of the ads, the support message in 90% of the examples is the opponent to the person or issue they are advertising about.

I remember when I was in grammar school and junior high school, and had the opportunity to run for some class office, I would put posters on the wall or give a speech to the voters, and I would say what I planned to do.  I would talk about my qualifications and experience and why I would be the better choice.  Is there one ad on TV or radio that you have seen or heard over the last week that does that?

What has happened to civility?

These ads don't give me time to think.  In a 30 second ad, I see unflattering pictures of a candidate, covered by flying word graphics that zoom out at me calling them liars, liberals, right wingers, thieves, and worse.  They spout 'facts' in rapid fashion that are not supported by any evidence.  In almost all cases it is obvious that most statements and suppositions presented are taken out of context.  After I am assaulted (which is the only apt description of the effect of these things) with the message, I have to chuckle at the brazen effort to misinform....and yet... I wonder if most of the people who see these things are as critical of their impact as I am.  Judging from the poll results, I think not.

What has happened to veracity?

The truth simply holds no value any more.  People running for office, and more precisely their handlers and 'advisors' seem to be advocates of whatever means justify the end of getting them elected.  What does that say about us as a people and a civilized society?  I wonder if campaigns by the founders of our country back in the late 1700s and early 1800s had the same attitudes about truth?

My favorite ads are the ones that make conceptual leaps that are classic examples of bait and switch.  For example, we have several constitutional amendments on the ballot here in Florida this election cycle.  One of them mandates a citizen's right to review and vote on changes to a comprehensive development plan when changes are proposed.  Currently, changes to a comprehensive development plan are made by local politicians who are, in many cases, in the pockets of special interests and developers.  Proposition 4 amends the Florida constitution to mandate a referendum vote by the citizens if there are changes proposed to a comprehensive plan.  The idea is to provide a check and balance against developers who try to 'buy' changes that will benefit them, usually at the expense of local citizens.  There are good arguments pro and con, and there should be a reasoned and thorough debate before a change is made to a state constitution.

However, what opponents to this proposition claim in their ad--in 30 seconds--is that supporters of Proposition 4  are 'the same people who supported Obamacare, raised taxes, plunged the country into debt and voted in lockstep with Obama, Reid and Pelosi'.  The ad doesn't mention anything about the pros and cons of the issue!  What kind of political advertising is this?  Does it attempt to educate the voter?  The ad has unflattering pictures of Obama, Pelosi, Harry Reid, graphics that have downward pointing arrows for the economy and upward accelerating arrows representing skyrocketing taxes. 

The problem is that Joe Citizen, sitting in front of his TV sipping a beer before dinner, is left only with the impression that Amendment 4 is another tax raising, debt increasing measure being forced through by those liberal, socialist Democrats.  That is just patently wrong, but no matter!  The average citizen will not take the time to study this issue and on election day will step into the voting booth and vote 'No' on this issue without understanding the pros and cons.

The question we have to ask as a democracy is what is our obligation to control the spread of rumor, misleading statement, character assassination, half truths and outright lies.  Maybe we should insist that they go back to grammar school and remember and re-learn how to run for office again!
  

The Perfect Storm of Incompetence

I am spending alot of time lately thinking about the state of the union and where we are headed.  There is something afoot in this land of ours that is darkly disturbing and I have been preoccupied with trying to  draw lines around it for months, so I can articulate what it is that is bothering me so.

It seems to me there are two reasons why we are in great danger of foundering as a country.  First, the mass of citizens is undereducated, not very intuitive or bright, and simply can't understand why they can't have what they want immediately.  Basically they are acting like 5 year olds.  Additionally, when it comes time to vote, they usually have no idea what anyone really stands for and have virtually no understanding of the issues that qualifies them to make any decisions concerning those issues.   Second, the people charged with running the county--legislators and industry leaders are preoccupied with making money at all costs, in spite of intelligent arguments to be forward looking and plan for the future.  The people writing and enacting legislation are consumed with making money from special interest groups, getting re-elected, and raising money for re-election.  Despite what they say, they are greedy, self serving, and many of them are just plain stupid.

I used to think that the body politic was intuitively smart and could discern bullshit from truth, but I think that is no longer the case.  What I see all around me are  people who actually believe that all of our ills are caused by the direction we have taken over the last 20 months.  I think that is ridiculous! 

We all know that changing the American economy is like trying to turn a battleship 180 degrees.  You can't do it fast.  Nothing can be done fast.  Somehow, Americans think that once Obama took the oath of office we should have had instant fixing and instant change.  People simply don't understand the nature of legislation... the time it takes to a) get it passed,  b) see it actually start to function, and finally c) see the effects of the legislation. 

Look at Obama's health plan as an example.  It was just passed 6 months ago, we just saw the first pieces become activated, and if you look at the rollout of the rest of the benefits, most of them don't have effect until 2014!  And  yet, all the Republicans and other empty headed braying mules that follow them scream long and hard about, is how it has ruined the economy and caused giant deficits.  In fact, every independent economic board looking at the effects of the plan predict that it will lower costs over the long run.    And yet, there are Republicans telling us that it's going to bankrupt the country and they are going to repeal it.  Excuse me, it passed!!  Give it a chance!  But no, all we hear is how the majority of Americans hate it.  What they hate is what they believe from all the half truths and lies that have been told about it for the last year, and somehow the Democrats are unable to defend it.  The people would rather believe the lies.  What happened to American's ability to perceive truth and reason?   Has our education system been such a consummate failure that the average citizen cannot think for himself and discern facts from lies?  Is it just too complicated for any of us to understand?

The stimulus is another red herring that Republicans keep smacking all of us in the face with.  It kept us from having a depression!  No one seems to want to acknowledge that fact.  Rather, those who claim it has been a failure, only want to return us to the conditions prior to the crisis so we can go through it again.  They refuse to acknowlege that we were headed for desperate straits during the Bush years because of his lies and mismanagement.  It is not part of their consciousness.  All we are told ad nauseum is that Obama is responsible for ruining the country.....and the masses all believe it, along with other drivel like, 'he's a Muslim', he's a socialist, he wasn't born here, blah, blah, blah. 

What is wrong with the average citizen in this country?  The Republicans are howling about all the terrible things that Obama is doing, and no one wants to get in their faces and howl back at them that they were the ones who got us here in the first place.  Change takes time and we must give the battleship a chance to turn into the wind so we can see the course we are finally on.  No one is willing to do that.  Everyone wants instant gratification.  That is the nature of our materialistic society. It is the reason we are in such desperate trouble.  What is clear to me is that we have been heading into this quagmire for over a decade and we can't simply fix all the ills in 15 minutes.  No one wants to acknowledge that fact.  People are not smart enough to see that for themselves.  They want to believe someone who says they can fix it by tomorrow.

Then there are the politicians who will say just about anything to anyone to get elected.  All they do, and I mean ALL they do is predicated on raising the most money for re-election.  They take money from powerful lobbying groups, they make decisions based on who has given them the most financial support, they lie unabashedly.  They are matched by those who run powerful companies and will do anything to keep the stock price up and the bottom line rosy.  I remember having lunch many years ago with a Wall street icon when our company was a public company.  He had been involved with the Milken scandals of Drexel Burnham Lambert, and when I asked him whether he had ever lied about something to his shareholders, his answer was " only when there was no other choice"!  I think that is the modus operandi for most congressmen and business decision makers.  It will ultimately be the downfall of our country.

So the biggest problem as I see it is that everyone has their own set of facts and those facts have nothing to do with what the actual facts are.  The public is left to try to choose which facts are the ones to believe and for the most part they are incapable of analytical thinking of any kind and simply agree with whomever is screaming the loudest.

Then there is Mr Obama and his minions who simply don't understand all of the above and are seemingly powerless to raise this issue with the people, and find a way to make a cogent argument that has enough gravity to be believed.  They don't have the words to make the masses understand what needs to be done and to get them to buy into enough time to see the changes through.   Strange that someone who rallied the country with his promises can't make them understand that he is keeping them.

It's all a perfect storm of incompetence.

L'Shanah Tovah

I watched a remarkable documentary series this past weekend.  It was called the Jewish Americans (of which, of course, I am one).  It was a look back at the history of Jews in America, starting with their arrival in the 1600s up through the present day.  It was a high quality story, for sure, but I didn't really appreciate the impact of it until the last 15 minutes of the final part of its three parts.

As you might expect from PBS, it was a well produced and in some ways a frightening story that spent much of it's time examining the nature of anti-semitism in this country--it's ebb and flow over the last 350 years.  There were no real surprises, except that for the first time in my life I was able to put the entire timeline in some kind of perspective.  I was able to place myself in the continuum for the time I have been alive and it was illuminating to  finally have a sense of place in the flow of Jewish life in America.

Over the years I have been what I now realize is a secular Jew.  Sure, I know the basic service at the synagogue and remember the songs and melodies that have been a part of me since childhood, but my family were not 'temple goers'.  My Mom and Dad were part of that massive migration of Jews to the suburbs in the 1950s and I grew up in a small town in New Jersey where most of my friends were Jewish and we all went to Hebrew School together.  The Temple was more of a social instrument than a religious one.   I was Bar Mitzvah-ed and then.... sort of cut loose from the bonds of higher learning at the Temple.  All my friends were Jewish. (although I was smitten with a shiksa goddess named Linda Scarlett in 1st Grade!)  But all through my post Bar MItzvah life, my attachment to the Temple was virtually non-existent.  I went to Temple on the High Holy Days, but never felt the draw of being a religious Jew who prayed every Saturday.  I never felt like I was missing anything specific, but I always had this nagging kind of anxiety that I was somehow not really being what I needed to be as a Jew.

I remember when I was studying for my Bar Mitzvah, my Uncle George, who was an imposing figure and very learned, kept reminding me that on my Bar Mitzvah day he was going to ask me why I was proud to be a Jew.  I lived in fear of that moment because I never could formulate an answer that I knew would satisfy him, or myself for that matter.  He passed away before my Bar Mitzvah, so I never had to answer the question, but the question still haunts me today.

As I watched the program, I was especially moved by that final part of the episode that described what has happened to Judaism and our Jewish life experience here in America over the last 30 years.  As a student, the details of the holocaust and the role of American Jews in the creation of the State of Israel; in the Civil Rights struggle; in the effort to save Soviet Jews were all well learned during my school years, but the collection of film, photographs and narrative and the way they were presented gave me a deeper understanding of the role we Jews played in the unfolding American Story of the last half of the 20th Century and the beginning of the 21st.   I  was able to fine tune my place in the story.  The last segment of the program took the position that Judaism has changed and is always changing. 

The wonderful thing about Judaism is that it celebrates life.  It encourages questions and study.  It is not about sin, but rather about living a life according to the laws of Torah and seeking a connection with God by being joyful and celebrating life.  I was surprised to find out that the Orthodox movement has seen the largest resurgence of membership in literally hundreds of years.  Yet even the young Orthodox Jews had contemporized  Judaism by relating it constantly to our life experience now--what is happening to us as a culture now.

There was a segment about a young boy who had the same kind of upbringing I had.  He had the same questions I did about who he was and what his place was.  He was a musician, and had a rock band as a teenager (just like me), but his passion was reggae music.  His idol was Bob Marley.  He listened closely to the lyrics of Marley and heard stories and references to the Old Testament throughout all his music.  It was a touchpoint for him, and he started writing his own lyrics using the Old Testament as his inspiration.  Today, he is Matisyahu, an American Hasidic Jewish reggae musician.  He has transformed himself into an Orthodox Jew and his passion is to relate the teachings of Torah through the most unlikely of mediums--reggae music.  But he is incredibly popular, not only with non Jews, but with Jews as well!  To listen to him perform and describe his journey to the place he is now is to understand the meaning of Judaism for our time.  It gives me comfort to know that my own sense of my own Jewishness is valid.  I have become a Jew for my time.  And I am proud to be a Jew, Uncle George, because I finally have a sense of the value and intrinsic beauty of being a human being that is comfortable in his own skin.  I can be Jewish in my time.  There are all kinds of new ways we can express what it means to be Jewish.  We can all take a deep breath and feel free to create whatever comes out of the interaction between our inherited tradition and the culture we are living in.The words of one of the prayers that I remember so well says it all:

"Blessed are thou O Lord our God who has given me life, has sustained me in life and has brought me to this moment. "

I think the key is to realize that there is a preciousness to this moment.   Being a good Jew, and a proud Jew,  is to realize the preciousness of each moment that we have.  Judaism is not one size fits all.  However, the constant throughout our history is our celebration of life and all its blessings.

L'Shanah Tovah, everyone!

Trying to Make Sense of It All!

So now we rush headlong into the election season.  I am amazed at the mood of the country, and aghast at the ignorance of the population as a whole.  It is inconceivable to me (and I marvel at it every day) that a majority of Americans believe that by handing the government back to the Republicans we will be better off.  Notwithstanding the inability of the Democrats and the President to articulate a comprehensive plan for recovery to the people, the fact that the attention span of the majority of the populace is so short as to allow Republicans running for office to blame the condition of the economy and the high unemployment on the current administration is ludicrous.

How is it possible for intelligent people to be swept up in a kind of mass hysteria that nothing is happening fast enough; the stimulus package failed; Obama is a Muslim, Socialist, Communist, evil person; tax cuts without spending limits will solve everything; and on and on?

Listen to John Boehner, and Lindsay Graham and John McCain.  Do they really have a plan?  What about Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh?  Do they really have a plan?  Do all these fast talking smear experts of the Tea Party have a plan?  How about all the Republican congressman who, in lock step, have opposed every initiative of the administration from Day 1, and now blame all the  woes of the country on the folks who have at least tried to do what they believed is the right thing.  Do they have a plan?  None of them does.  All they know how to do is point fingers and blame.

I just don't see how electing these kinds of people is going to help us deal with our overwhelming structural and economic problems.  Has anyone actually studied the statistics?  I hate to be the bearer of unwanted news, but the country is actually in much better shape than it was on January 19, 2009.  At least we haven't fallen off a cliff, which is where we were back then.  In spite of united Republican opposition, more people have health care, there is new regulation in the banking industry, and the automotive industry was stopped from cratering.  And all we hear from all the media veragos is that we have lost all our freedoms!  I haven't lost any freedom!  I can still go where I want, work where I want, speak to whom I want, express my opinions where and when I want to.  What are they talking about?  Have you seen any 'death panels' lately?  Are they flying any Marxist flags over the White House?  Has anyone been thrown into jail for no reason?

Now you can ask whether the current administration and President has done everything perfectly and I think we would all agree that it hasn't been ideal by a long shot and there have been missteps.  Is Obama disappointing as an inspirational leader and a perfect communicator---yes, but is that a reason to throw all the progress away and put the people back in power who drove the car into the ditch in the first place?  Good Lord it has not yet been two years!  Give me one example where two years after a major recession, depression or panic, that things were back to normal.  Sorry to tell all you people with the attention span of gnats, but coming out of a recession this deep and pervasive that was 10 years in the making is going to take longer than 20 months.  It always has!

There is a part of me that really dislikes only commenting on the political health of the country all the time, but I really fear for this nation's intelligence.  I don't really think we are very smart as a people.  We have let a bunch of idiots run things for too many years and they have brainwashed us all.  Selfishness, greed and the seeking of power has triumphed over compassion, intelligence, and doing the right thing.

Am I thrilled with all that the Obama people have done?  No, but I will tell you this--I have listened to the man speak.  I have never heard him utter one phrase or word that is in contradiction of our Constitution or laws.  I have only heard him speak of the wisdom of the people and the need to be compassionate and supportive of one another.  I have seen him reach out to all segments of humanity and be accused of being a Muslim, a communist, and the personification of the AntiChrist.  (Have you seen the daily movie on Glenn Beck's website and the portrayal of Beck as the Savior of our country by driving the Devil out of the White House?)  How is that constructive?  I have only seen him try to do positive things for the future of our country and be harangued at every turn for motives he clearly does not possess. 

What I am having trouble understanding is why ordinarily smart people believe all the crap that is fed to them by the hatemongers and naysayers.  My own sense of all this is that these people just don't like a black man in the White House, and will do and say anything to try to preserve an ethics and morality that is twisted and outdated.

Wake up America and plug your brains back in before it is too late.....

A Slow Death

This oil catastrophe is a slow death.  It is also a particularly jarring wake-up call to us all.  For those of us who blithely go through our day with the expectation that someone will solve this problem, we can't fathom why a country that put a man on the moon can't throttle a 22 inch leak in a pipe at the bottom of the ocean!

This moment is an epiphany in other ways however.  What we are also seeing on display is something much more unnerving.  We are seeing the impotence of big government.  With all the conservative flailing about the growth of government and institutions taking over American life, now they scream loudly that the government isn't doing enough.  Sorry fellas, can't have it both ways!  Add to that the intrinsic inefficiency of bureaucracy and you have too little too late.

Also on display in the most pornographic way is the hijacking of our society by large corporations that have no interests other than their shareholders and the politicians that they are giving money to.  BP is slow to act in the cleanup, stingy in its doling out of monies to finance cleanup crews and is more concerned with reassuring its shareholders that it still intends to distribute over $10B in dividends!

Then there is the destruction of natural resources and the assassination of a way of life for literally millions of people.  Imagine living in New Orleans now, or coastal Mississippi and Alabama.  The smell of oil taints the very air you breathe.  Do you move?  Where do you go?  Is this whole area simply going to degenerate into poverty because no one can make a living?

Been watching TV lately?  The resignation of the pelicans is the most disturbing.  They are just sitting in the gooey mess waiting to die.  Our food chain is in mortal danger from this.  Think of what a hurricane would do by aerosoling this mess inland over a few hundred miles.  Health problems will spiral out of control, and people will die.  It's starting already.

Can it be any clearer why we need to break our dependence on oil?  The experts say that of the thousands of wells in the Gulf of Mexico, there are most probably at least 10% of them that have structural problems and are potential risks as bad or worse as the Deep Water Horizon. 

A new consciousness needs to arise.  Maybe this event will be the trigger.

Drill Baby Drill???