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.
,
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.
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
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
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
Monday, September 14, 2009
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………
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………
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
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?
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?
Thursday, September 3, 2009
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?
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?
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
"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.
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.
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