Congressional Guts

It is hard to believe, but it looks like the Congress will actually deliver a health care reform bill to the  President’s desk in January, and we can all sing ‘Hallelujah’ that finally we have struck one for the un-lobbied interests and the common folk of America.  All you have to do is look at all the self righteous Republicans, who to a man (or woman) voted against the reform in lock-step with some ideological premise that had them by genitals, issued forth by the health care and pharmaceutical lobby, to recognize the bald face of self interest and immorality.

This action has been a long time coming.  Ted Kennedy and all the other Democrats have been working on this for decades and finally.... finally!, have been able to beat back the naysayers and “Chicken Littles” to the advantage of all Americans.  It ain’t perfect, but it is at least a beginning.  For the first time, we will all have equal treatment by the insurance companies, and the Federal Government will have the ability to control the most egregious abuses.

Finally the Republicans have been rebuffed, and stopped in their two-decade old jihad to create a more fractious and self interested society.  Just look at the vote in the Senate and House.  Not one Republican could find it in their cold, tightly squeezed little hearts to find something good in this effort worth voting for.  Instead their leaders are warning of horrible budget deficits and higher premiums and higher taxes.  How does the party that brought us unregulated banking and the worst economic crisis in 70 years know with such certainty that all that bad stuff is going to sink the ship of state?  They don’t.  Just like they didn’t know in 1993 that Bill Clinton’s tax hike on the richest sliver of American society and tax cut on the poorest and smallest businesses would leave America with a  $559 Billion surplus, and yet they all voted in lock-step against that action too.  In fact that was the beginning of the current vitriolic partisanship that has epitomized this era of Republican self interest and self righteousness, complete with screaming, frothing talk show conservative loudmouths.

Expect the absolute worst from them over the near term, too!

I have a different hope.   I think that this is a good thing for our country if, for no other reason, than we have a chance to see if ‘change we can believe in’ , personified by this action of moral courage by the Democratic Party, can actually be realized.  Let’s give this a chance.  It certainly could not be any worse than what we are living with now!  As Timothy Egan of the New York Times says in an editorial today, “As people get a chance to see what’s actually in the bill, sentiment will shift. Over time, it closes the dreaded doughnut hole, which makes cash-strapped seniors pay for their meds at the point when they are most in hock to Big Pharma. It forces insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions. By creating an exchange where people can shop for coverage, the bill seeks to bring care to 31 million additional Americans. And it does all this, according to the independent Congressional Budget Office, by reducing the deficit $132 billion over 10 years.”

What is so terrible about those things?  Just ask a Republican and they will tell you all the things it MIGHT cause.  Like I said before, why should we believe anything they say?  Look where they have led us……

Obama may have bitten off more than he should have with all the difficult issues he is trying to deal with, but let’s give the guy some kudos for having the balls to push on this so that at least we can say we tried to make things better.  And let’s at least give the Democrats the benefit of the doubt for the present, and our admiration for trying to do something in the people’s best interest for a change. 

Let time tell us whether this is a better path.  It is certainly better than no path at all!

Playing the American Taxpayers as Fools!

I swear I think I need to ‘up’ my blood pressure medication!  I read in today’s paper that all the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against the bill that just passed yesterday in the House concerning new regulation of the banking industry!  And last week during the debate, they were urging over 100 lobbyists of the financial industries to work harder to defeat the bill!  What are they smoking?

After all we have been through over the last 18 months, which is a direct result of the banks playing fast and loose with money with virtually no regulatory oversight, you would think that at least some of these idiots would agree that there should be some reform in the nation’s banking system.  No!   Instead they fight tooth and nail to preserve a system which could turn on a dime and bring us back to the brink of economic disaster all over again.

Now these morons are telling us that this legislation would limit consumer choices and stunt financial market innovation.  Give me a break!

Financial market innovation and acrobatic financial instruments nearly brought down the banking system, and as far as consumer choices, well excuse me, but do any of you have lots of financial choices now when it comes to mortgages or car loans or credit cards?

As a result of the banking industry’s careless practices and absolute disregard for regulatory controls, we came about as close to a depression as you can get without falling into the abyss.  And now the banks are fighting any kind of reform, maybe because they really liked the billions of dollars they got from taxpayers to bail out their sorry asses, and don’t want us to meddle with that gravy train should they need it again!

I say, “Screw them!”  Put as much control over those greedy bastards as we can.  I want legislation in place that allows the government to split up companies that threaten the economy or just to let them fail if they play loose with our money again, and I want an agency that will oversee consumer banking transactions as well as alert us to shadowy financial practices that risk all our stability and savings.  Aren’t you a little tired of 30% interest rates and vanishing credit lines on your credit cards?

And as far as those imbecile Republican puppets who are working overtime to defeat reform and regulation in our legislative branch of government, remember their names and vote them the hell out of office next November!  In the meantime, yell long and hard at those selfish bastards NOW to back off opposing reform, and start thinking of us instead of themselves!

A Hidden Agenda

I attended a memorial service last night for an acquaintance that I have known for the past several years.  He was a very smart and savvy businessman here in Southwest Florida who was one of those rare people who reads constantly, traveled widely and was a member of a ‘critical thinking’ group here in Naples.  The group would meet once a week and discuss world and national issues and possible solutions to problems we have all been thinking about over the last several years.  I was not a member, but at the service last night I met several of the people who were, and they were people who were not afraid to engage in conversation about anything of import.

I started talking with a man who was perhaps in his mid eighties, and as we remembered my friend, this gentleman revealed that he was very much ‘left’ of center while our friend was clearly ‘right’ of center, but they were good friends nonetheless and could argue energetically without malice.  The reason I relate this to all of you is that we spent the better part of 30 minutes discussing President Obama (who he had strongly supported in last years election) and the speech he was about to make last night.

This man, who I will call Hal, was very concerned that the President was not fulfilling the promise of ‘people mandated‘ change in the country.  Hal said that Obama was having to sacrifice the mandate he had won just to get anything done, which speaks volumes about the process in Washington of getting consensus on anything. 

Now with this moment of decision about troop commitment in Afghanistan, Hal was fearful that we would be drawn into a commitment that no one wanted, but that Obama felt compelled to pursue because of the security issues that demanded continued vigilance against the terrorist threat from abroad.

I started thinking about that, and frankly, I am not as concerned about our ‘security’ as so many on the right seem to be.  Hal agreed.  Then he asked a question that was chilling, “Do you think that perhaps there is a threat that none of us really knows about that has compelled Obama to adjust his thinking?”  I asked him what he meant (already knowing what he was going to say!)
“What do you suppose happened to the 50 or so nuclear warheads that the Russians ‘misplaced’ when the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s?  No one knows where they are.  Suppose there are people who do know where they are and are afraid to let any of us know.”

That is a scary thought.  We have all been told repeatedly that there are controls on those devices and ‘as far as we can tell’ all are still secure. 

Do I really believe that?  Do you? 

Is it possible we feel compelled to pursue this band of rag tag Al Qaeda terrorists because there is a threat out there that no one is talking about publicly?  Hal just looked at me and his face took on a kind of pitiful smirk.  “There are many people who think we are not being told the entire truth about the threat.”

Suddenly, Obama’s position makes a little more sense. 

My own personal view is that we are on a fool’s errand in Afghanistan.  There is no way the  President can guarantee that we will start withdrawing troops in 2011.  Too many variables can disrupt that timetable.  But if there is a hidden agenda that we don’t know about, it might explain his compulsion to pursue this course of action, rather than to be strong enough to disengage and start focusing on nation building in the United States.

Hal looked at me, shook my hand and said, “Nice to meet you!”,  and I was suddenly more concerned than before we had met.

Down Time

I have had no agenda for the past week.  What a relief!  Life is so complicated these days that when you finally get a short spell where you don’t have any responsibility other than to exist and observe the world around you, it presents you with an opportunity to be open and observant.

We drove to Savannah last Sunday, with a stop overnight in Gainesville to see my youngest daughter for dinner.  Just the act of driving away from life’s circumstances releases the heaviness of the present.  I felt unencumbered and light.  All we had to do was talk and plan our week with no real schedule facing us.  We visited Caitlin and I marveled at how she has suddenly grown up!  She is enjoying her independence and is fully engaged in her life at school.  I think I saw her through unencumbered eyes for the first time because all I needed to do was to be with her without an agenda.

We were on our way the next morning to visit my wife’s cousin and watch him do some business in Savannah.  He created and manages a business that shows tour videos in hotels in major vacation cities.  He invited us to tag along with him for a few days while he shot some video, and since we have never explored Savannah, we combined that with a visit to some friends on Hilton Head Island, just a short drive further up the coast.

During our time in Savannah, my wife and I decided to take a city tour on one of the many open-air trolleys in Savannah.  In thirty years of marriage we had never done that.  Having been in the television production business for all those years, we had been to thousands of places working, but never as tourists.  What a new experience!  So for an hour and a half I was just a human blob absorbing everything without having to really concentrate.  As I listened to the tour guide droning on in the background, I dozed on and off and really didn’t care about what I was seeing or hearing.  It was divine!

Having no agenda frees your mind to dream and create possibilities.  That happens too rarely for most of us.  For the idle rich and comfortably retired, I imagine that being in the flow of no real pressure constantly might be boring after a while, but for me, it was a balm for my soul.  I have found myself actually dreaming up solutions to problems I face without concentrating on solving them!  How novel!

Our friends on Hilton Head took us to a Jazz Club last night for dinner and a show and I had the best time I have had in years just because I was unburdened by worries.  My spirit was able to soar with the music and I found myself getting lost in the pure joy of the moment.  I need more of this!  During the day, I had tagged along with my friend as he handled some responsibilities and errands, but I had no obligation to do anything but observe and comment while I closed my eyes and let the sun warm my face as we drove around.  He was dealing with real estate problems and other responsibilities and I knew that none of it concerned me.  How liberating!

Now I sit here on Saturday morning, a week later, wondering how the time evaporated so quickly!  When you have no agenda, everything just flows so easily that you lose track of time completely.  Tomorrow we start the long drive home, and while I long for the comfort of my own bed and the balmy breezes of Naples evenings, I also know that I have a long ‘list’ waiting for me when I get there.

So what do I learn from this, and what message of value can I pass along to you?   Take more vacations!!  It is easy to underestimate their value. 

And if you can’t take more vacations, live your life a little easier. Don’t take it all too seriously.   Remember that we are only here for a short while, and if you don’t find the opportunity to observe the beauty of the world and the loving people around you, none of the rest of your life is worth it!  Even short spells of 'no agenda' re-charge you with new energy, and make facing life's daily challenges somehow less daunting.

Can We Find More Cheese?

I read a wonderful book about 8 years ago called “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Dr. Spencer Johnson.  It is a short book that is a parable, and an amazing way to look at change in your work and in your life.  It is the story of two mice who find their cheese at the same place every day until one day they don’t!  It just stops appearing outside the mousehole door.

One mouse eventually decides that the cheese has left for good and successfully goes out to discover another source of cheese.  The other mouse insists that if he waits long enough, the cheese will reappear.  Well, guess what?  He patiently waits for the cheese to reappear (which it never does) and he ultimately dies because he cannot bring himself to believe that his cheese is really gone for good.

In life, when your cheese is moved, you have to accept that someone has moved it, and you must search for new cheese.  That is what is happening in our American society today.  Our cheese, (the way we derive our economic sustenance has moved).  Yet many of us believe that if we just wait long enough it will come back.  Sorry folks, not gonna happen!

If we continue to wait for the economic climate to change back to what we had for the last 25 years we are going to ultimately 'starve'.   Change is needed.  Our leaders must look for cheese in another place since it is they who have the power to regulate and change conditions.  And herein lies the biggest problem we face.

The opposition party in today’s political universe is a party that really has no interest in change (looking for more cheese) or actually governing.  The Republican party has been co-opted by extremist voices like Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Glen Beck.  They feed the party base’s frenzy instead of trying to curb or channel it.  They turn obstructionist rather than bi-partisan, so they prevent the administration from actually dealing with the crises that face us.  They oppose regulation of Wall Street; they want to preserve the culture of lobbyist privilege and influence; they preach fear and the paranoia of Socialism, Naziism, and Communism hiding behind the curtains of the Oval Office. 

Elections, as agents of change,  tend to be determined by events and economic conditions rather than rationality. So the possibility of Tea Bagger Republicans winning big in the elections next fall because of the slow pace of change, the rising level of unemployment and the administration’s difficulty dealing with problems that require creative bi-partisan solutions is real.  What will that mean?

"The result would be that the United States would essentially become ungovernable in the middle of an ongoing economic disaster.  The point of all this is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter" says Paul Krugman of the New York Times.  When Rush Limbaugh and his ilk made their appearance on the front lines of ‘talk radio’ back in the early 90’s I instinctively knew that they would be bad news for America.  I could never have imagined their present prominence, however, or their twisted arguments trying to stop positive change in its tracks.

The mice who believe the cheese will reappear if they just wait long enough may succeed in shackling the mice who are trying to find the new cheese to the front door of the mousehole!

What's So Bad About Universal Health Care?

Last night I happened to be channel cruising on my cable system and dropped into Michael Moore’s documentary “SICKO”, examining America's health care crisis.  I had heard a lot about it over the past year or two but never had the opportunity to view it.

RENT IT OR SEE IT SOMEHOW!!

It is classic Michael Moore in terms of his hyperbolic yet understated reaction to what he finds when he explores the health care systems of Canada, the UK, and France, and then compares those systems to what we have here in the US, but the people he meets and the stories they tell will give you a sense of shame and anger that will remain with you for a long time.

God Bless him, he goes to all these countries and walks the halls of the hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices, and actually talks (in more than 30 second sound bites) to real people who participate in these systems—both health care workers and patients.  He holds round-table discussions with expatriated Americans who live in these countries and who have experienced both systems as well as native born citizens in each country.

The picture that emerges is shocking, really.  All the myths that health industry lobbyists would have you believe regarding long waits and citizen dissatisfaction are just that – myths.  I am sure that some people are unhappy with some things, no system is perfect.  That is endemic to any bureaucracy.  But the picture that emerges of the lives of people who are not always thinking about being bankrupted by medical costs will give you pause……they seem so…..relaxed!   They all seem content with the health care systems in their own countries, and are amused and sympathetic with our preoccupation with cost; and horrified with the lack of readily available care, both critical and preventative, that  we experience here in America.  I guess you would expect as much from a Michael Moore documentary.

But, if you listen closely and really ponder the difference between what you see on the screen and how we all feel about the care we get here in the US, you will be so disgusted and shamed by what you see and hear that you will want to call your representatives in Congress and tell them to get off their fat asses and just change the system!  The tales of despair and downright neglect for our people are ….overwhelming!

I am left with the images of desperate economically underprivileged people  remaining sick and  no one caring about them.  I see case after case of middle class and working class citizens bankrupt or unable to get needed treatment because insurance companies deny them coverage or benefits.

And by the way, how come anyone over 65 in our country is not desperate when it comes to things medical?  Could it be that Medicare takes the worry out of getting care?  Omigod, does that mean we are socialists at heart??  A universal health care system for old people?  What about the rest of us???

I am not preaching socialism here, I am preaching humanism and morality for God’s sake!  Look at the statistics!  Our rankings in the international community for life expectancy, mortality, infant mortality and illness among the population fall lower than 30th place in all cases!

These are facts!  We don’t care about our population!  Money is the driving force behind health care in this country.  Private hospitals deny care to people who can’t pay, and are content to see people die in their emergency rooms waiting for transport to public hospitals!  Insurance companies are only concerned with how much money they can squeeze out of their enrollees and not what care they actually need.  There is no focus on preventative care here in America, while in other societies there is a constant preoccupation with preventative measures.

Wake up everyone!  We don’t have it so good here!  Our priorities are not right!  Watch this documentary and you decide, but watch it you must!  And then, for all our sakes, take some kind of action!  Before it is too late......

Read this editorial

A Question of Conviction

I read an editorial by David Brooks in the New York Times this morning that is one of the best pieces he has written lately.  It asks the question whether the President has the determination and tenacity to win if he commits more troops to the war effort in Afghanistan.  While all of us listen to the arguments about troop levels and counter-insurgency and Taliban attacks, Brooks asks a simple question: If Obama commits troops, is he committing himself?  Is he going to have the determination to follow through and make this his war;  his own priority ahead of things he clearly is more passionate about like health care and energy independence? 


The debate is really about the man and what is important to him, since he ultimately will decide.  The most important meeting will be “the one with the mirror, in which he looks for some firm conviction about whether Afghanistan is worthy of his full and unshakable commitment.”, says Brooks.

That is a very perceptive take on this whole issue and is really one that all of us can relate to.  When was the last time any of us really succeeded without that firm conviction that we were following the right course of action?  I doubt we had the weighty implications that Obama has with this commitment, but we all understand that moment when we must affirm to ourselves that we have the conviction we need to succeed.  It is the point of no return.

Until that tenacity is visible to those surrounding you, everyone will hedge their bets as to what direction they each will take in the event you don’t show the conviction necessary to complete the task. 

As for me, I think we have had enough war and bloodshed in Afghanistan.  We don’t have a partner there.  We instead have a corrupt government that is only concerned about perpetuating it’s poppy crop and marketing opium worldwide!  We have a situation that will continue to devour our young men and provide us no additional security against attack.  We are spending more than 10 times the amount of our tax money in Afghanistan than we spend in Pakistan, and that is where the Taliban are actually hiding!  Not to mention the fact that Pakistan has nuclear weapons that are certainly less secure than we would like!  For eight years we have been pouring our treasure and blood into an effort that has showered only death and grief on our people.  We can’t save the world.  We can only be an example to the world.  Let us come back to that conviction!

Are our priorities backwards?  If we are going to ‘nation build’ why not do it here in the good ole' US of A?  We could sure use some of that cash!!  Let’s show some tenacity and commitment to helping our countrymen at home.

Is it time for all of us have a meeting with the person in the mirror and ask ourselves whether we have the tenacity and conviction to fix our problems here …..  starting with our own families and ending with our country’s desperate need for new thinking on race, greed, humanity and compassion, not to mention health care, energy, taxes, and the economy?

Distant Thunder Getting Closer......

I am so thrilled that the current recession is over!  Listen to the Wall Street pundits, the banking gurus, our government experts and it seems like prosperity is just around the corner.  Just this nagging little thing called unemployment is standing in the way of our getting back to ‘normal’.

Wake up folks!

We are in for a long haul, and it is going to get worse before it gets better.  ‘Normal’ ain’t coming back for a loooong time.  I don’t have to read all the reports and projections.  Neither do you.  Just ask your friends! 

How many of you have stories to relate about your friends or acquaintances having difficulty?  Either they are out of a job, having trouble getting a modification for their mortgage (Hey, why do they need one in the first place?), having to get part time work tutoring, or at the diner, or doing childcare.  How many of your kids can’t afford nannies or baby sitters and leave the kids off with you for the day while they go to work or look for work?

If you have a small business, are your credit cards maxed out?  What if you needed $10,000 for an emergency to buy inventory or make payroll?  How many times could you meet that need compared to a year ago?  Thank God gasoline has been steady—what would happen to your budget if it went back up to $4/gallon?  Can you afford to make that health insurance payment since it doubled when you turned 61?  How many of your friends have increasing medical bills and needs and no insurance at all?

How many of you have lost 50%+ in your retirement accounts?  And the stock market is back to 10,000+!  (Has your retirement account recovered?)  How many of you have basically tapped out your home equity lines?  How many of you are burdened by credit card debt where the banks are charging you anywhere from 15-30% interest, and you can’t reduce the balance enough to make the payments less every month?  How many of you are worried where the money is going to come from for all four years of your kid’s college education?

How about real estate?  Anyone freaked out about mortgage payments you are making on real estate investments that have declined in value by almost 50%?  No one is buying anything except the lowest bracket buyers, and they are buying foreclosures, short sales and auction properties.  How many homes in your neighborhoods are up for sale or foreclosed already?

My point is that the signs are all around us.  When you look at them one at a time it is daunting but psychologically manageable.  But when you collectively take stock of the state of the nation and its people, it is very discouraging.  You hear the employment projections every night on the news—after a while your mind is desensitized to it. 

The biggest segment of the population right now is the Baby Boomer generation—people born in the late 40’s and early 50’s.   76 Million babies were born in this post WWII generation.  They are all reaching retirement age now.  How many of them can afford to retire?  What happens when Social Security craters?  In a society where information industries have eclipsed service industries, how many of these people are equipped to be out searching for jobs in the new information environment?  By the way, who is going to hire a 60 year old?

I am a Boomer.  I can’t think of one friend I have in my demographic that has told me what a grand time this is to be living in, and how they are so glad they provided adequately for these years.  The stories I hear are about the fact that they are running out of money, or they are broke already.  Business has dried up.  Those that are entrepreneurs are struggling, with declining revenues for their businesses.  Their credit lines have disappeared.  One friend whose husband is a lawyer said that they don’t know how long they can continue to live on their savings before exhausting it.  What will they do then?

How does a 60 year old person who has been successful all their lives and has had a career, and who expected to be able to ‘take their foot off the accelerator’ at this point in their lives, compete with people hungry for jobs who are twenty and thirty years younger?  They don’t.

Of the 76 million Boomers born, only a small percentage of those are entrepreneurs.  The vast majority are wage earners with limited or fixed incomes.  When those people lose their jobs or their savings, what will they do?  Who will take care of them as their medical needs become greater and all their savings run out?

These are penetrating questions with no answers.  But it is clear to me that as we pass into 2010, the condition of all working class and middle income people is going to get worse.  The dollar is going to continue to lose value and there will be much more unemployment, human suffering, hunger and possibly civil unrest.  One thing we can count on is little or no help from our lawmakers.  They are all living in a bubble in Washington.

What can we do?   We can be kinder to each other.  We are going to have to find new ways of living in our communities that are more about sharing and not so much about consuming.    Pull your families and friends closer to you.  There is strength and comfort in compassion and empathy.  We are all truly in this together and I hope we ultimately see the rise of new kinds of leaders to usher us in to a new kind of era.

I don't want to be completely negative here, but I can't help remembering the words of the old Dylan song:

“Come senators, congressmen
 Please heed the call
 Don't stand in the doorway
 Don't block up the hall
 For he that gets hurt
 Will be he who has stalled
 The battle outside ragin'
 Will soon shake your windows *)
 And rattle your walls
 For the times they are a-changin'..”

Sleep Study II

Sleep Study II

I never thought I would be able to sleep with a hose connected to my nose.  I looked like an elephant to myself!  And yet, there I was Wednesday night with all the wires on my body again, only this time with the CPAP attached to my nose.  I have to tell you….it was the best night of sleep I have had in a very long time!  I slept all through the night without waking up and felt more rested than I have in months!  I walked in the door the next morning and my wife sat up and said I sounded ‘different’.  My voice was stronger and more vibrant than she had heard it in months.

Sleep science has made incredible gains over the last 20 years.  Doctors have discovered that sleep apnea can have hugely deleterious effects on your health.  People who snore are at risk.  When you snore it is symptomatic of airway blockage. 

Blockage can be anything from oversize tonsils to lack of muscle tone in your throat.  Whatever the reason, the result is that as your body relaxes during sleep, the blockage starts to occur and you eventually can’t get enough air--you can’t breathe!  The deeper and more restful sleep your body seeks, the more it relaxes.  Unfortunately your body’s desire for oxygen trumps the ability to get to the deepest level of sleep where you get the most restorative rest. The result is that you never get to the ‘REM’ state of sleep where you get the most benefit. 

If you think about it, there are lots of resultant problems:  You never feel truly rested, you fall asleep during the day, you have less energy and therefore exercise less, you are probably overweight because of it.  Overweight people have a cascade of other problems that result from that: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney problems,etc. 

I asked the technician the other night what age groups of people does she see the most.  Her answer was disconcerting to say the least!  She said in the beginning 15-20 years ago she was seeing mostly people 50 and above.  Now she says that 25% of her patients are in their 20s and 30s!  She said that most of those patients are big or overweight.   That is congruent with the national problem we are having with obesity in children and young adults.

Does that mean we are destined to be a nation of sleep deprived, unhealthy people?  People who don’t get enough rest tend to be overweight, have decreased short-term memory and a level of alertness that is below what is needed for us as a nation to be competitive on the world stage.  

Didn’t mean to go so ‘global’ on that jag, but it is kind of scary.  Sleep is still a part of life that is a mystery to most of us.  We spend a third of our lives in that state and aren’t really aware of what is going on during those times….

Anyway, I am looking forward to restful, healthy, positive pressure air clearing away the cobwebs of my mind……….

Shaune Lauren Lancit

My daughter, Shaune, has been pestering me to write a column about her.  I have hesitated because I don’t really know how to capture all the feelings I have about her in a short essay.  I have spent many hours considering how I would write about her and what I would say.

Being a parent is such a complicated experience.  We never ponder the length of service we sign on for when we father a child.  We don’t think about the fact that for the rest of our days we will have this person in our lives, for better or for worse.  We have no concept of the responsibility, the trials, the joys, the pain, the anxiety, the terror, the happiness, the anger, the pride, the love we are going to experience for the rest of our days because of this human being we have created.  When Cecily and I discovered that Shaune was coming, all we could think about was the ‘baby’ and the immediate future.  The rest of it was just a haze of possibility with no real thought as to the magnitude of the task that lay ahead of us.  We just knew we would do what everyone else did who had a child.

Shaune is 25 years old.  Those are my 25 years as well.  40% of my life has been about her.  I could never have imagined the journey—it is so overwhelming.  Any description of her; any column I could write about her is about me too.  She is a product of me, a result of me, a consequence of me.  We are told by all the psychiatrists that we are not responsible for the actions of our children; that their decisions in life are wholly their own, that we should not feel responsible for what they choose for themselves.  Do you parents out there really believe that?  Perhaps that is true on a functional level, but not on a metaphysical one—at least for me.

I could never have imagined what her life (or mine for that matter) has become thus far.  It has been a path with unbelievable twists and turns.   It is the quintessential adventure for both of us that we could never have planned.

The biggest surprise is that my daughter has become what every father at his core wants for his child.  He wants her to be healthy, happy, self-aware and fulfilled.  We both know that her success in reaching this state of being was incredibly difficult, and is by no means locked in forever.  It can all disappear in a heartbeat.  We know this because it was a struggle to get here.  We know this because we are both aware of the vagaries and fickleness of life.  But we also know that being here, now, in each other’s lives with each of ourselves basically intact is the most joyous thing.  We share our lives, our love, our family.  We don’t know what tomorrow may bring, but we are thankful for today and the journey we have made together so far.

We are the lucky ones.  I love you my darling Honeysuit!  You have given me one helluva ride, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!

The Politics of Spite

I was terribly disheartened by the response of many of our conservative Republican citizens to the loss of the Olympics for the City of Chicago and America.  Can it really be that we have citizens who are gleeful and thrilled that our country lost,  simply because they wished and hoped for embarrassment and failure for Barak Obama and the administration? 

Now we suddenly see these people for what they really are:  immature 12 year-old children who are motivated by spite!  We knew it subconsciously, but now it is blatantly obvious.

Do any of these selfish, malicious malcontents acknowledge the people that have lost a desperately needed opportunity to work or benefit from hosting the games?  Limbaugh and Beck were positively giddy that Obama had been thwarted and failed.  What kind of human beings are these?


This cabal of people are pissed simply because they cannot govern any more.  If they can’t be in control of things, then no one should!  Their view: better that the country have hardship; better that they can thwart any positive action at all that might make living in today’s world better for all Americans than for those damn liberal ‘socialists’ to succeed at running the country!  Their mission is to de-legitimize our President and his administration.  Republicans lost an election, but that is not enough.  They want to make sure that whoever is running things (since it is not them) fails!  It defies reason.

Suddenly the whole Health Care debate takes on a new perspective.  The Republicans, who have traditionally been the enemies of Medicare, are now howling that Obama’s push for a Public Option in the Health Care Reform Bill will somehow destroy Medicare.  Weren’t these the same people that fought tooth and nail to neuter Medicare during the Reagan and Clinton Administrations?   Morality be damned!---let’s make sure those Democrats just don’t succeed at anything!

Conservatives are so twisted in their abhorrence of anything that smacks of success at the hands of Barak Obama that they will stonewall issues even though they KNOW they are morally on the wrong side of an argument. 

Why is America the only developed country in the world where a major portion of its citizens don’t feel the moral obligation to care for one another?  In European countries that have successfully instituted universal health coverage, the citizens understand the need to make sure, from a moral perspective, that all members of society should have a basic right to be healthy, and are therefore willing to share resources to make that possible.  Here in the United States, we seem to have people who would rather focus on whether someone’s right to health care means they are somehow getting more than their fair share of resources, and therefore not deserve it! 

That is really twisted.  Being healthy is not about the quest for individual achievement and profit, and whether someone is getting something more than they deserve!  Being healthy is a basic right that is a moral imperative in a compassionate and caring society.

But now that we see the real motivation behind the obstructionist conservatives, we understand their true hearts.  The issue is only incidental!  The only important thing to these people is that whoever opposes them fail.  Their mantra is “let’s embarrass and obstruct anyone who is not us.  If we can’t govern, no one should be able to!  Any argument, even though it makes no sense and might be a lie, is okay in this quest!”

Unless we can somehow re-define the word “WE” in a way that is morally inclusive, or in a way that is productively positive for our society, then I fear we are lost as a country.

Sleep Study

So, you might ask, why the hell are you wearing all that spaghetti?

Yes, friends, this is a look at a man who is about to bed down for the night in a small windowless room with a little camera mounted on the ceiling--its unblinking red light a constant reminder of the nurse/technician watching me from the adjacent room.  All those wires get plugged into an outlet in the wall, meaning that when I lay my head on the pillow, it will be a constant battle all night with all the wires wrapped around my neck and finding their way into my mouth.

I may be suffering from sleep apnea, actually a very common problem among extremely virile middle aged men!  Apparently as we age (gracefully of course!) our throats become blighted with unneeded excess tissue which blocks our airways when we sleep.   The result is what my wife likes to call my 'tuba symphony at 3am'.

What the medical community has discovered is that people who suffer from snoring and sleep apnea are at greater risk for high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes because of the stress that snoring and not being able to breathe puts on your circulatory system.  Your airway becomes blocked and you literally wake yourself up trying to get a breath.  Of course you're not aware of it and it may happen as many as hundreds of times a night.   Then there is the fatigue and napping that are a result of this condition as well.

Well, I am definitely not interested in having any of the above, so I am submitting to a sleep study to see if I am a candidate for the treatment---something called CPAP (Controlled Positive Air Pressure).  Basically it is a mask that pumps air down your throat and keeps your airway open at night.  My brother-in-law has been using one for years and he says it is the best sleep he has ever had.  What fun!
I don't think I can think of anything more sensuous then cuddling with a mask on!  Ah well, better to be alive I guess.

Anyway, "now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord to let me sleep.  If I should choke before I wake, I pray the Lord will pay my bill!"

Report from the next morning:

Probably one of the most irritating experiences I have ever had!  All those wires and the doo-dads up my nose did not make it a particularly restful night.  I usually fall asleep within seconds of putting my head down, but last night after 45 minutes of trying without success to disregard all the wires and the camera,  the tech gave me an Ambien to push me into the arms of Morpheus.  I drifted off for three hours, then woke up once and went back to sleep for another couple of hours, but at about 6:00 am I was done... there was no way I was going to give them any more data.  I apparently suffered from what is known in the sleep trade as 'the lab effect'.  No Kidding!

Cindy the smiling tech told me that I had given them enough data to study, and I had actually snored during the night---oh yes they have microphones recording all your sleeping noises too!  I wonder what other personal sounds they captured while I was unconscious??

Can you imagine being a sleep study technician and doing this job several times a week?  Cindy had to stay awake all night and watch me sleeping!  She loves her job, although I can't imagine what the excitement is.

Well, dear readers, I will keep you up to date on my sleep adventures.  I find out next week whether I get to wear the CPAP, and if the answer is yes, I have to go back to Cindy and the sleep lab and do this all again---this time wearing the mask!

I guess it is better than having my teeth drilled or heart bypass surgery!

The Rain

It’s raining today.  Not the typical kind of Florida rainstorm that rises up with relentless convection from the sun beating on the land to form thunderstorms that energetically blow through in a matter of an hour or two.  This is the kind of rain that is steady…..and comforting.

Living in Florida now for almost seven years, I have almost forgotten what it is like to be inside for a whole day because of the rain.  When we lived up North, there would be far too many days like this, but I never really minded.  There is something very cozy about being inside and hearing the rain on the roof steadily falling.  There is a sense that nothing is so demanding and pressing that it can’t wait until the earth takes a drink.  I loved that feeling of relief from responsibility, that sense that the universe would not mind if I took a day off to rest today since it was raining.  We all need that relief, especially in these times.

It seems like there is so much pressure thrust upon us from so many directions.  Our economy is a mess; people all around us are struggling to make ends meet or dealing with all manner of family crises; we are all trying to do too much with not enough time available.  We all have so much on our calendars, our agendas and our minds that we somehow can’t quite complete them day to day.  And then, suddenly we get a break…nature makes us slow down.  It rains.
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Nearly every morning when I get up, the sun is usually blasting away, especially in the summertime here in South Florida.  There is a part of me that hates that sun every day.  It implies that there is too much to do and I’d better get up and get to it—not a moment to waste!  But this morning, the sun wasn’t out when I opened my eyes.  There was this fuzzy grayness outside my windows and I could hear the rumble of far off thunder and the steady beating of the rain against the bedroom windows.  It seemed to say, “Relax!  There is no rush today, take a break, take a deep breath, lie there and enjoy the stillness and the sounds. “  And so I did.  The only thing missing from this scene was 40 degree weather and a fire going in the fireplace.  We don’t see much of that kind of temperature here, but if I don’t look out the window and see the palm trees, I can imagine it.

The change of seasons is more subtle here in Florida, but it is a definite change.  The arrival of this kind of rain signals the shift in seasons.  It means that weather fronts are the dominant pattern as opposed to localized thunderstorms. 

Looking out at the lake and seeing the rain making patterns on the surface of what is usually a  smooth glassy view amplifies the feeling.  The water steadily drips from the awning edge to the patio.  It’s OK to not do anything.  It's time to stop and take a deep breath.  It’s OK to just sit and watch the rain, and think about all the things that can wait until tomorrow.

Health Care Nightmare

I sat across the desk from Marlene and she said, “How about next Wednesday?”  That was fine with me and suddenly I had an appointment to do a sleep study all night in the sleep lab.  They will wire me up head to toe and record how I sleep all night in an effort to stop my snoring.  The older I get, apparently the worse my snoring gets, and the solution is something called CPAP which is positive pressure air treatment that is delivered with a mask while you are sleeping.  But before they prescribe that for you, they need to do a sleep study.  Sounds like a real adventure!

I looked at Marlene and she said, “Uh Oh, there seems to be a problem with your insurance…..”  Oh boy, now what? 

It seems that Blue Cross Blue Shield had decided to raise my rates by 100% because I was now 61, and even though there was no change in my health status, I was now one year older than last year and therefore my premium went from $1400/month to $2800/month for the family!  The only way I could keep the same premium as last year was to change the policy from a co-pay policy to a deductible policy where I suddenly was responsible for the first $6000 of expense.

So where I would have originally  paid a $50 co-pay for the sleep study, I was now forced to pay for the whole procedure.  I innocently asked, “How much will this cost me?”  (Are you ready?………)

“The study costs $2400 but the doctor has a negotiated rate with the insurance company for $850, and by the way, after you  have the first study, we prescribe the CPAP and then you have to do a second study, but that only costs $750,” she cooed! 

I looked at her in silence for a moment and since anger at her was pointless, I simply said, “My God, they’re screwing me!”

Marlene suddenly became my confidant and whispered, “This is nothing, you won’t believe what's happening to me!”.  She proceeded to tell me her story which is classic and horrifying at the same time.   Marlene is in her early 70s and her husband is in the later stages of dementia.  She managed to get him accepted for coverage by Medicaid for full time care, and she had only a few days to get him into a ‘rehab’ center now that he was accepted, since she still has to work.  The rehab center costs $330/day which fortunately the Medicaid covers, but she is having a real problem now.  Apparently her husband who has been in the rehab center for 7 days is having a medical problem, and the staff there is warning her that his condition might require them to admit him to the hospital.   Unfortunately, in order for Marlene to keep the space for her husband that is being covered by Medicaid, she is going to have to pay the rehab center $330 a day in cash to ‘hold’ his place there as long as he is in the hospital!  Medicaid will not cover any absentee time from the center and she can't hold the space without paying!


Think about that for a second.  Here is a 72 year old woman working at a doctor’s office as a receptionist/secretary.  How much do you think she earns in salary?……$24000/year??  With her and her husband's Social Security, how much does she have to live on after taxes?…..Maybe $4500 a month?  If she has to pay $330/day for 10 days while he is in the hospital, that is $3300 just to hold a room for him so Medicaid will cover him when he returns!!  What a bargain, huh?!  She started to tear up and said she didn’t know what she was going to do……

These are just two rather benign anecdotal incidents of inequities in the health care system that penalize us all.  Multiply these two stories by millions, and you get some sense of the size of the problem we face as a country with medical care, rising costs, unfair practices, insensitive insurance companies, and unsympathetic politicians.  What about the 40 million people who are uninsured, or the millions who are deathly ill and fighting just to receive the benefits they have been paying for, but being rejected by insurance companies who only are gaming us all to make as much money as possible.  Why are all those feckless legislators in Congress standing in the way of reform when there are so many citizens being literally beaten and abused to death by a system that has evolved into perhaps the most amoral health care system in the developed world?

Oh, by the way, I just got a letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield today that told me they were also not going to cover my daughter for any ADHD medication for the new policy because her taking of the meds since she was in 5th grade was for a ‘pre-existing condition’.  And for this they raised my rates???

The only way to put a face on this crisis is to seek out the stories one by one.  Only then do you get a sense of how desperately reform is needed.



PS: Enough Already

I did get an answer to my letter to the station manager concerning his loudmouthed talk show host.  He told me that "balance" would not be good for his station because his audience has come to expect a certain point of view when they tune in. He drew an analogy between a music format station that would be unsuccessful  playing a mix of classical, country and pop and his talk radio station that should not be a place for anything progressive or liberal mixed with the station's conservative viewpoints.  

He also reminded me that talk show hosts have first amendment rights as well, and isn't it grand that we can express our views without recriminations here in the USA.  He missed the point that character assassination doesn't really happen with music formats, but why am I not surprised that someone sanctioning that kind of broadcasting would try to equate the two.  I guess folks like that will try to rationalize any argument to support their own warped sense of fairness and civility.  He did, however, acknowledge that after he listened to a recording of the talk show host's language and behavior, he agreed that it was inappropriate and that the management did speak to her about it......and I am sure they had a good laugh!

Enough Already!

By now you all know how disgusted I am with what I hear on conservative Talk Radio from hatemongers, but last week was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.  A local talk show host on the this area's largest AM radio station spends 3 1/2 hours every morning during drive time denigrating the President of the United States in ways so numerous and relentless that I usually can only take a few minutes of it.  This past Wednesday she stepped over the line and I was so furious that I wrote a letter to the station's General Manager and President.  I have no idea whether they will even answer me, but I thought you all would be interested in what I sent them.   I feel like the biggest risk we all have from all this anger we hear and see from these people is the incitement of crazies to do violent things.  Nourishing a climate of violence is the only result this kind of rage can foster.

Mr. Wayne Simons
General Manager
WINK TV/RADIO
2824 Palm Beach Boulevard
Fort Myers, Florida 33916-1590


Dear  Mr. Simons:

You are the manager of a radio station that uses the airwaves that belong as a public trust to the people who listen to your programming.  I have to assume that you are a person of responsibility and moral integrity.  Can you therefore please take a few moments and explain why you permit Mandy Connell to abuse the privilege of using this public trust afforded to her and you.

Last Wednesday morning during the 7-8am hour when I was listening, she screamed at us that she was outraged that President Obama had decided not to be forced into taking some immediate action with regard to policy in Afghanistan.  He had received advice from his military and would in due course decide the way forward, after further consultation with his civilian advisors.

Not only did she vent her spleen in the most angry and malevolent manner, she proceeded to call President Obama an asshole and a coward.  I’m sorry, but when I wake up in the morning I don’t want the first thing I hear on the largest AM radio outlet in this DMA to be the screaming of a banshee that the President is an asshole and a coward!

I have had a number of written exchanges with her over the last year and have tried to remind her of her responsibility to exhibit fair minded journalistic balance, but her response to me has been that she is an ‘entertainer’, and as such she is not bound by journalistic ethics.

Frankly sir, I find her manner, her delivery, her vitriolic anger toward our President goes beyond criticism.  The snide and leering inflection in her voice whenever she quotes him and her rude personal disrespect reflects poorly on your station and WINK’s mission to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity.  WINK has an obligation to the public it serves to prevent people on its air from inciting to riot.  The kind of fear mongering paranoia Mandy Connell spews forth every morning makes me fear for the actions she will incite in those people who are unbalanced and capable of violent actions.

Her program and her opinions are certainly slanderous, possibly libelous and seditious.  She makes accusations about The President that are based on half-truths she concocts based on her own research.

I urge you to put a leash on this kind of reckless broadcasting.  It is one thing to criticize and be an instrument for loyal opposition.  It is another to make a clear effort to sow seeds of doubt, anger and revolt amongst the population.

Where is the conscience of the station in the interest of the people?  Have you no respect for the office, much less the man, that you would allow this use of the public airwaves for the type of character assassination that characterizes the President of the United States as an asshole and a coward during morning drive time?

It is clear that WINK’s  programming strategy is based on a conservative philosophy.  Your programming lineup says it all.  However there is still the need for balance….and there is still the need for civility, both of which seem to be in short supply at WINK NEWS RADIO.

Perhaps you would like to enlighten me as to why this kind of behavior on your part and on Ms. Connell’s part is something you find acceptable.
 
Yours truly,
Laurence A. Lancit

Escape?

My friend told me the other day that there was a two-word answer to all of the country’s hysteria and political frenzy:  New Zealand!   He said he was doing some long range planning for it now…..  At first I chuckled, and then as I thought about it, I was intrigued, so I asked him what he was going to do there.  He told me he was going to make cheese, and did I want to go with him and run a vineyard to make the wine!

Needless to say, the thought of a fresh start in a completely new place has its breathtaking allure, but is that the only solution?  As the days go by, I wonder more and more about that. 

This past weekend in Naples, there was a ‘rally’ at a major intersection in town with about 3500 people attending waving flags and placards with slogans like “Dump Obamacare” and “Get the Socialist/Nazi out of the White House!” or “Revolution Now!”
A similar rally happened in Washington this past weekend with tens of thousands of people marching and being egged on by such intellectual giants as Jim DeMint of South Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas.

There seems to be this tide of hysteria and stupidity that is rising in our country, fomented by the deteriorating economic condition of all the people who are doing the shouting and sign waving.  They all seem to believe that they are in this mess because of the new guy in the White House and all his Marxist ideas and policies.  They somehow believe that all their woes suddenly appeared last January 20, and gee, things sure were great before he got there.

What morons!  I see a bunch of idiots who are incited by neo-con ‘tea party’ fascists who can’t seem to stomach the fact that they have lost control.  They are intent on spreading lies to further their arguments and spread mistrust about the government. 

It seems to be getting worse too.  I listen to the interviews and sound bites from the people at these rallies and hear what they are saying and wonder if they ever read anything or have an independent thought in their heads.  How is it that a human being can just accept what someone else says as gospel without any personal thinking about whether it is right or wrong?  Are they just so emotionally overwrought that intelligent analysis is just not part of their toolbox?

Maybe it is just that I am living in a conservative bastion here in SW Florida, but I fear that what is happening is akin to a mob mentality that ultimately ends up spiraling out of control as the the level of civil discourse plummets.  So when my friend floats the trial balloon of a fresh start in a place less frenzied, there is a clear attraction that would not be there in calmer times.

I don’t want to live in fear of a mob psychology overtaking our society.  I want us to find accommodation and compromise with people with different points of view.  Is that possible in an atmosphere of fear and hysteria?  Listen to Talk Radio, my friends….ask yourself if this is civil discourse and honest criticism---- or paranoia, half truths and subtextual racial extremism. 

I think you know the answer already………

My Brother

I lost a fraternity brother this week.  Again, I came face to face with my own mortality.  I guess we all do from time to time the older we get.

My fraternity, Tau Epsilon Phi at the University of Florida, was a very special part of my life in college.  I am sure fraternities are special wherever you go, but at Florida, we were an unusually high achieving group—leading the Greek community in academics, service and sports.  We also partied better than anyone else I am proud to say.

My pledge class was 90 strong--the largest in TEP and U of F history!  52 of us were initiated as brothers, and over all these years we have kept that special relationship alive between all of us.   We became professional people, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, whatever. The advent of email made our ability to communicate and stay in touch incredibly easy, and during the last 10 years or so we have had many unique group discussions and interactions that historically were never possible.

After our large reunion in 2005 there were heated discussions about the state of the fraternity and what we should do, if anything, to assist and guide the chapter back to health.  It reminded me of those all night meetings when we were deciding the fate of prospective pledges, only it wasn't all night, it was all month!

Then there were the intermittent communications when one or another of us had a major success or disaster, and all of us came together to provide support.  Our brotherhood suddenly realized it had an electronic meeting place where we could all return and talk with the brothers who had been our dearest friends in college.  It was wonderful!

The downside is that we now are instantly aware when one of us passes, and as the accolades start rolling in from everyone, along with the stories and remembrances, we are together again to share the moment.

My brother, Peter Fryefield, was a judge in Jacksonville, Florida and as I started to read the tributes, it was clear he was universally loved by the community and all the TEP brothers who lived and worked there with him.  I remembered him as a slightly built dark-haired fellow who had a toothy grin, a great laugh and was a favorite of his pledge brothers.  Now I read about him as a man of great intelligence, compassion and passion for things like Bluegrass music and vintage guitars.  I regret that I didn’t get to know him better as an adult.  I guess we all had great potential in the early years of our maturity and it is a unique experience to learn about how we all have developed over the years into what we have become today, often far different from our memories of each other in college.    And then there is the comfort of discovering that in so many ways we have not changed at all!

I do know that I miss him for what I remember of him, and for what he became….and I am thankful that I now have the support of all those brothers who were a part of my life back then.  I know that they are all there for me when and if I need them, and that is a benefit that is unexpected and blessedly welcome.

In today’s impersonal electronic reality, I feel like my fraternity brothers and I have created a place where we can recapture a piece our emotional past.  A place where we can joke with each other, yell at each other and feel that sense of brotherhood that we all knew we wanted to feel throughout our lives.  Eternal friendship is no lie.

Does the President Have the Right to Address the Nation's Youth?

I am trying to keep my dismay at bay.  For the past two days I have been listening to the reasons why the President of the United States should not be allowed to address the students of the nation, and wondering what country I am living in!  Has anyone bothered to check out the content of this proposed speech before they accuse Obama of being a Marxist Communist who pals around with terrorists and wants to harm our children?  He wants to deliver a message to students next week emphasizing hard work, encouraging young people to do their best in school, for God’s sake!. The temper tantrum the right is throwing in response only helps to show how radical and maniacal conservatives have become.

I know the objection is that students are a captive audience, but to accuse the man of trying to create a slumbering mass of mind-numbed children in the service of the ‘Exalted Leader’ is ludicrous.  I guess promoting success, achievement and perseverance is somehow too radical for our children to assimilate into their brains without being brainwashed!

Where does this absolute visceral hatred for this man come from?  As Joan Walsh from Salon has expressed: “The hysteria Obama inspires in his far-right foes is primeval, primordial. From the Birthers’ obsession with the facts of his birth — which lets them obsess about his origins in miscegenation — to the paranoia that he’s coming for the children, there’s a deep strand of irrational paranoia that can’t be anything other than racial. These people don’t merely disagree with him, they distrust and dislike him viscerally. He’s not merely wrong, he’s scary; even terrifying.”  Or as Jim Shaw of the Huffington Post said yesterday, “Beyond all the ’state indoctrination’ and even Hitler Youth analogies being propagated by Obama’s school chat, I’m wondering how much there is (or is also) a racist meme at play. It’s something along the lines of: You can’t trust your children alone with this man … knowing how black men are. Wink, wink.”

When has this ever happened in this country?  I cannot remember ever feeling the pressure from this kind of opposition on the part of a large group of our countrymen.  Maybe during the McCarthy era in the early 50’s there was this kind of fear and paranoia, but not for the President and a major party in our political system.  McCarthy was paranoid about Communists.  Here we have a major political party paranoid about our leadership in a way that is destructive, seditious and maliciously false.  That seems new and frightening.

It takes my breath away.  This is not the America I once knew as a boy.  This is not the country I idolized as a child when I raised my hand over my heart to pledge allegiance to the flag to One Nation Under God.  We are living in a strange and unwelcoming place where the voices of hate trumpet visceral, irrational innuendo and lies.  Where does our precious America go from here?

Leadership

I pushed pause on the TIVO and backed up my recording of the network news to hear again what I thought I had just heard….Yep!  There was Chuck Todd standing in front of the White House saying that President Obama was going to speak to a joint session of Congress next week on health care and his advisors were hoping it would help boost his poll ratings!   Good Grief!  Is that what this is all about??  Poll ratings?

We need to stop for a moment and get our bearings.  This whole question of health care reform is not about anything less than a central moral question.  It’s not about money, it’s not about politics, it’s not about polls.  It is simply a moral issue questioning whether we are a country where we take care of each other or not.  Many things we debate have clear policy issues that have several sides one may choose to be on, but with health care, there are no sides. 

Suppose you were in a hospital bed, just having come through a life saving operation while the fellow two floors up from you needs the exact same operation but doesn’t have the money or the insurance to have it.  Isn’t there something wrong there?  Shouldn’t we as a nation of liberty and justice for all find a way to care for each other in the most basic way of all, to deliver a healthy life to our citizens?

And yet here are the conservatives and Republicans with their holier than thou attitude spreading myths and lies to discredit the notion that we all have this  responsibility to each other.  You have heard all the garbage coming from them for the last month. 

Let me ask you something….why would they want to see any reform at all?  It is not in their best interest!  Most are receiving political donations from insurance companies or drug companies.  All of them have no desire to allow a progressive administration to have a success—that would discredit their handling of the country for the last 8 years.  If they can make this President and his administration fail on this signature issue, then their re-election chances improve next year and –glory be!—they will have crippled Obama so their chances in the next presidential election will be soooooo much better!  They have even had the unmitigated gaul to publicly proclaim that fact!

And where is President Obama?  He is behind the magic curtain trying to pull the strings and nudge Congress to come up with the plan.  That is a fool’s errand if I ever saw one.

Correct me if I am wrong here---last November 4th a substantial majority of the country voted for this man to do some things he said he would do: institute Universal Health Care, end the war in Iraq, end the war in Afghanistan, end the abuses and insults to our Constitution and our individual rights, have a transparent government that would wear the shiny patina of ‘change’.

We all were ecstatic that night as we watched the crowd in Grant Park and saw the hope, the relief and the pure joy of expectation in the eyes of the people there.  I know it was a reflection of the same elation I felt sitting in my den.  We were all one in that moment of great possibility.  Where are we now?

We expected Barak Obama to be the leader he said he was.  C’mon, Barry!  Grow a set and take the bull by the horns and LEAD!  Show us that this Health Care thing is a MORAL issue that we all must get behind.  Stop worrying about your polls and make all of us, and especially the jerks in Congress, realize that there is no alternative to doing the right thing.  Lay out what you want to do in specific terms and make us all believe we must do it.  Channel Harry Truman, for God’s sake!

That is the kind of leadership I voted for…..didn’t you?

"Wanna Buy a Watch, Sucker?"

How many unsolicited telephone calls do you get a week from hucksters trying to sell you warranties for the car you sold months ago, or try to sell you health insurance which you don’t need?  I am constantly plagued by these accursed companies and recordings which always seem to come right when I am on a conference call or deep into something that requires total concentration, which is completely destroyed with the ringing of the phone.  I remember a time when as a consumer I got to make a choice to buy.  If I needed something, I would choose to go shopping for it and I could choose where to shop.  Now, we are all bombarded by advertisements and intrusive people and machines that vye for out attention at all hours of the day from all directions.

Maybe I am more sensitive to it because I am involved in internet advertising now, and am acutely aware of the flow of spam into people’s email boxes.  (My junk mail folder is always the most full when I download my mail.)  I am really sick of it!  All these unwanted messages trying to get purchase in my head—there is no more room for it!

Then there is the constant flood of offers that pass before me for all this ‘free’ trial stuff.  What you don’t realize until you have been stung a few times is that they automatically start billing you a ridiculous amount of money for services you never wanted. 

I was stupid enough to sign up a few months ago for a free trial to get some teeth whitener, being told that I could try it for two weeks to see if it was working and then make a decision to get more of it.  Right!  After I signed up and gave them my credit card “for verification”, I just happened to read the terms and conditions page and discovered that I had just signed up to be charged $89.95 per month for teeth whitener until I cancelled.  $89.95!!!
When I immediately called to cancel, they told me it was too late to stop the order and that I would have to return the package before the end of the two week free trial in order to avoid the first monthly charge of $89.95.  When the package came 10 days later, I had to Fedex it back to them in Omaha before the deadline, so it cost me $25 just to do that!

Now there is Facebook.  I signed up and have been amazed at the contact with people from my past that suddenly occupy a part of my life.  I really like that, however this morning I got a spam message from one of my ‘friends’ on Facebook.  Actually I don’t think it was my friend, but rather one of his ‘friends’ that decided to poach his ‘friend’ list to send out a spam offer. 

Like a real schnook, I followed what I thought was trusted advice, and wound up having to spend an hour undoing a commitment I had somehow made to pay Ireel $35 a month for the right to watch movies on my computer.  Of course it was supposed to be ‘free’, but needless to say, it wasn’t.  Only this time, there was clearly deceptive advertising.  The charge was never even mentioned and was hidden so that you couldn’t see it until after you had signed up and given them your credit card for ‘verification’!  

I don’t know about you, but I am sick of this crap!  I am bombarded all the time by offers that I don’t even want to see or hear.  Vendors lie to me about what the real costs are and try to hide the obligations with deceptive advertising and outright twisted truth.

Is there a solution?  I can’t think of one, but add this constant annoyance to the credit card fees and usurious interest rates the banks are charging us, and you have the foundation for what could be a consumer revolt of monumental proportions.  I don’t know how it will manifest, but there are a lot of angry consumers out there who are tired of being beaten up by money grubbing snake oil salesmen and cigar chomping greedy bankers.

Time

On Saturday I spent a good part of the day watching the funeral of Ted Kennedy from the cathedral in Boston to Arlington National Cemetery.  What is it about watching these kinds of events that mesmerizes us, makes us stop and consider our own mortality?  I believe it is the mystery of ‘time’ that gives us pause.  What is time?  It’s definition is as elusive as the definition of gravity or love.  The only way to understand it is to metaphorically characterize it. 

Time is a stream that we are all floating in, going somewhere.  We don’t know where it is taking us, but there is no way to avoid its destination.  We have no control over where we got into the stream, and no idea where we will get out either.  We are just along for the ride, so to speak.  Since we can’t stop it, and we can’t control it, most of us are preoccupied and neurotic about where we have been,( since we can look behind us), and where we think we are going, (which is unknowable for the most part).  What we fail to take note of most of the time (no pun intended) is where we are at any given moment.

Except when something happens to knock us on the head and make us stop our incessant preoccupation with the past and the future, like the death of a major figure like Ted Kennedy, or  Princess Diana, or Tim Russert.  So it was for me on Saturday. 

If we put aside the amazing accomplishments of the man and simply think about him as a person who suddenly became aware that he had limited time, consider the way he chose to experience his remaining time.  We really didn’t know that until this weekend when we heard his family talk about what he did in his remaining months after his diagnosis.  I learned about the character of the man, how he viewed life, how he treasured his family, how he spent his time, what became important to him during these last months of his life….the singalongs, the family dinners, sitting quietly on his porch and smelling the salt air of Hyannisport, being out on the ocean in his sailboat.  What I heard was that the things that were important to him are the same things that are important to all of us in the end…..our families, the people we love, the simple things of beauty in the world around us that we all too often don’t take notice of.  I guess those are the lessons of life that perhaps are the most important ones to learn.

It sounds so cliché to say that we should make the most of every moment, but if we don’t we aren’t really living.  Living is the act of experiencing the moment we are in, whether it is good or bad.  That is life; that is what we are here to do.

I read an article in the New York Times several weeks ago by a zen Buddhist priest named Norman Fischer (born Jewish in Wilkes-Barre, Pa in 1946) about the  meaning of time.  It gave me much to think about, and I offer it to you here..Norman Fischer

My daughter Caitlin said it best a couple of weeks ago when she was home during the summer break before going back to school at UF in Gainesville.  We were talking about this article and she said very matter of factly, “If you have one foot in the past and one foot in the future, you are shitting on the present!”.   How is that for a mental image? 

The fundamental truth of it, though, is inescapable.  We only have the moments that are before us to live our lives.  My biggest challenge is to stay aware of that during every moment I am alive and to live it as it is happening.  Don’t we all feel that way?

Remembering Reading Rainbow

My friend Judy H. sent me a note yesterday with a link(below) to a review of Reading Rainbow on AOL Shopping.  As most of you know, Reading Rainbow has been a life work for both me and Cecily.  PBS is not renewing the broadcast rights for the show effective this month, so for the first time in 26 years, Reading Rainbow will not be on the air somewhere.  I thought this would be a good time to share my personal thoughts about this wonderful experience we had.  Television production is a team sport, and location production, especially, requires the talents of so many people.  I can't say enough about the extraordinary staff we had at Lancit Media and how we all lived this dream together.  Hope you all enjoy--

Butterfly in the Sky……

Reading Rainbow is the essence of what I am as a person.  That’s a big statement, but one that really does sum up what my life has been about.  I am imbued with the “Reading Rainbow Karma”.  All of us on the production team of Reading Rainbow used to joke about it for all the years we worked on the show.  It always seemed like this idea, this series, was blessed by some force that would not let it fail.  No matter what production challenge (and there were many!) rose to meet us, we always prevailed.

But the ‘essence’ I speak of is more than just a feeling.  It is a way of looking at the world.  It is a method for approaching and living life.  I think that all the good fortune that blessed the series was a result of the way all of us who made this program gave to it unselfishly.  Money was not the issue—it was about doing something that really impacted children—that made a difference in their world.  We all somehow knew that to be the case.  We knew it was ‘big’,  which is why we accomplished remarkable things.

Back in 1982 when someone from Great Plains National ITV Library and WNED in Buffalo, NY approached Cecily Truett and me looking for producers to come up with a concept for a new show that would encourage kids to read over the summer months, we had no idea what our idea would become.  We frankly didn’t have a clue how we were going to do it!  (We were trying to pay the rent, and the fee we earned creating the pilot was enough for a few months rent on our New York apartment!)

But during the following 21 years we lived a dream.  What we created left an enduring imprint on the minds of children from several generations. 

As I read of the series’ passage into history, I just want to raise my hand and say that what this series has been for all that time is something appreciated most by it’s audience.  It is the children who watched, and learned, and learned to love to read that gave this idea its legs. 

Our audience, (including the parents of our audience) loved this program—unreservedly!  Reading Rainbow and Lancit Media won every award there was, both domestic and international!  During our tenure as producers of the show, we garnered 17 EMMY awards, 7 for Best Children’s Series.

But more important than any of the awards was what happened to children out there in TV Land.  They started to read!  We watched the sale of Reading Rainbow books rise over 1000% in some cases as kids and their parents rushed to the bookstores to get their hands on the books.

It was a simple concept really—we endeavored to provide a real world context for children from what they could read in a book.  In the process of analyzing every book we featured, we had to find ways to make the essence of what children were reading about real—in a way we could show them and they could see and understand.  It required all of us to think like a 6 year old.  We had to see the world through 6-year-old eyes.  Sounds easy and obvious, I know, but believe me it isn’t.  The wonderful thing was that the people who came together to make these programs were able to do that effortlessly.  That was what was so exciting about doing this work.  For 25 years, we lived the lyrics of our theme song: “I can go anywhere, I can do anything”.  That was the mantra that we always held above all else, and it was the overarching theme that we tried to imbue into our audience’s minds. 

I found as I directed these episodes that I needed to see the world as a 6 year old wanted to see it.  I was always fascinated by the fact that whatever wide shot we started with—an aerial view of the desert; a wide shot of the harbor, a wide shot of a marketplace—we could always zero in on the beauty and wonder of extreme close ups that would reveal the claws of the gila monster, or the way the coils of tugboat ropes were made, or the surface patterns on an onion.  Doing that kind of exercise with everything that I looked at in my life changed me.  I felt this tremendous responsibility to communicate these things to eyes that had never seen them before…to somehow reveal the world to these fresh minds that were so open to anything I wanted to show them.  It was exhilarating as a professional to have that opportunity.  It made me a more aware person.

The real payoff and treasure was in the joy of discovery!  We got to be 6 years old all over again.  For 25 years we got to take field trips everywhere and meet the most remarkable people.  It was a privilege to be able to reach our audience.  Just ask anyone today under the age of 40 if they know the Reading Rainbow theme and more than likely they will break into the simple melody that signaled the embarkation on a journey every day for them as kids as they watched the show.  That , my friends, is REAL media power!

Remembering Reading Rainbow

Journalism or Theatre?

What a pleasant surprise to hear from all of you! Your words of encouragement are much appreciated.

Well, the good news is that my doctor says I am good for another 10,000 miles and I can truthfully say I am feeling great today!! Nothing like a good report from the Doc.

I made mention in my last post that I am really tired of the incessant garbage spewing forth from right wing Talk Radio. You know I am living here in SW Florida which went Republican in the last election by a 2:1 margin, so it should come as no surprise that the airwaves here are filled with not only the nationally syndicated blowhards like Hannity, Levin, Beck, Limbaugh, Cunningham and Ingraham, but also locally by a 40 year old woman named Mandy Connell during morning drive time on the only real AM station here in Naples/Fort Myers. I like to listen to the radio at night, and also when I wake up to see what is going on in the world before I roll out of bed and have a cup of coffee and read the online NYT.

More often than not, as my consciousness materializes I find myself listening to the abrasive voice of this woman screeching and yammering about all the things in the world that are Obama's fault....everything from the economic collapse to ruination of the environment. Her delivery is so filled with vitriolic, snide, demeaning hatred that I assume that anyone listening is completely repulsed by her rantings. I am so wrong! Caller after caller comes on the air and agrees with her, while adding their own venomous comments to her conclusions about all the things that are being done wrong by our new President and the liberals, progressives, Democrats, etc. It is a scary thing to behold! These people are borderline seditionists, inciting all of the non thinking automatons in the listening audience to go to Tea Parties and show up at town meetings to scream at members of Congress or anyone else that disagrees with them.

Whatever happened to reasonable discourse?

I wonder how many of these people are really out there? The media would have us believe that it is an increasingly smaller group of core base conservatives, but I am not so sure. These are people with guns (oh by the way, I discovered that 85% of the population here in SW Florida has firearms!) who are buying more guns. Now they are starting to appear at Presidential rallies, national parks and other public places. What country is this? I find it all pretty scary.

I have had a few back and forth emails with this Connell character, accusing her of half truths, distortions, erroneous conclusions and the like, but she is undaunted. I tried to make her understand that good journalism requires that she present a balanced view. She said she was not a journalist, but rather an entertainer! I would call it Theatre of Absurd Journalism! She, like all the rest of these radio personalities, is willing to believe anything regardless of fact if it furthers her argument and can incite her audience, and bring ratings to the station. That means they can charge more for advertising of course! And to think I spent half my life in 'show business'!

Ah well, now that you know what I think about that, let me leave you with some thoughts about something that Kathy said in her comment. She told us that she has tried to write to Obama everyday to tell him how she feels about the non-punishment given to Wall Street perpetrators when compared with jail terms for people stealing food to live , and how the 'deck is stacked against us', the ordinary citizen. I hear this from lots of people... the average citizen has lost control.

We all hoped for a real change when Barak Obama assumed the Presidency, and what we are seeing is what many predicted---the slow erosion of our hopes as the realities of money and the real Washington game becomes visible to us all. Every day we read about some other concession that the administration is making that is the antithesis of the promised changes that we had all hoped would restore the tenets of truth, honesty, compassion and intelligence to the way the government is run and how we want it to consider the needs of real people. What we are discovering is what we have subliminally known all along: Money is the true driver of everything. It corrupts all of our best intentions.

I am an eternal optimist, however. I believe that the inherent goodness of the human heart is stronger than anything else. I will still hope for enlightenment on the part of those who wear the blinders of the profit motive. There is nothing wrong with making money as long as it is not at the expense of our humanity and our souls. Let us pray!.........