L'Shanah Tovah

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

L'Shanah Tovah, everyone!

Trying to Make Sense of It All!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Slow Death

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drill Baby Drill???

A Memorial Day Surprise!

One of the biggest fears we all have as parents is that our kids grow up somehow deficient and with no moral compass.  I am blessed in that both my girls have turned into grownups with empathy and a strong sense of right and wrong.

I wish I could say the same for my sons!

This morning, as is my wont, I arose at 7:30pm on another beautiful day here in South Florida, and sleepily put on my shorts and T-shirt.  My wife was silently dozing as I closed the bedroom door and was being led by my "son" Cody (100lb Labrador Retriever), toward the back door and outside for his morning constitutional.

He has always been a pretty regular guy, albeit with some rather strange bowel preferences for a dog.  He really doesn't like the grass very much, so as we amble down the brick paver driveway, when the urge hits him, he gingerly puts his front paws only as far onto the grass as necessary to delude himself into thinking that he is completely off the driveway.  Then he assumes the position, and lo and behold,  50% of the time, his morning deliverance winds up on the bricks.  This was one of those mornings.

I had passed him by on my way to the end of the driveway to retrieve the morning paper.  I bent down to pick it up and when I turned around, I noticed that he was still giving it all he had, and finally after some extra effort to expell what looked like something foreign trapped in the deposit, which is not by any means unusual, he completed the task.  I realized that I had come all the way down the driveway without my trusty pooper rake, and needed to go back to the garage to get it.  Starting back up the drive, as I glanced over at the 'challenge' waiting for me on the side of the drive I noticed something unusual sticking up out of the 'bowels' of the pile, so to speak.  Upon closer examination I was shocked to realize that I was seeing the number 10 sticking up on a green piece of paper!  As I gaped in horror, I saw that there was yet another piece of paper with a 5 on it at another spot in the pile, and also what looked like a picture of the father of our county peeping at me from beneath a rather brown smudge.

I stared at it for a moment or two not able to believe what was before my eyes!  It suddenly dawned on me that my concern, only yesterday, for the sudden disappearance of several bills that were laid out on the kitchen counter to dry after they got soaked when I jumped into the water with my wallet was now justified and explained!

What a cruel epiphany to discover that your dog has eaten your money!  I tried to imagine how he would have been able to a) know the money was there, and b) get at it by snatching it off the five foot counter.  Even for a Labrador, the amount of effort to get it was beyond his physical capability.  That's when I was horrified to realize that he must have had a co-conspirator in this fiendish plot.  Meese the cat!

Now it all made sense!  I knew that Meese had been pissed off at me for the last three weeks  since I forbade him to go outside because of his allergy to fleas.  His constant mewling was driving us crazy!  Understanding how his resentment had finally devolved into the pursuit of revenge and escape, it was clear that he had jumped onto the counter top and pushed the bills to the floor.  Maybe his devilish plan was to use the money to get a bus ticket to Immokalee or points north, and he had undoubtedly talked Cody into going with him, but whatever the plan, the fact that the two of them had turned against me was greatly discouraging.

I can only surmise that when the bills hit the floor, Cody, who is actually a goat in disguise, and has no short term memory, lost all pretense of cooperation with Meese and just couldn't resist the salty taste of a $16 treat that had just come out of the ocean (who knew he liked seafood!).  He gobbled them down--

Ergo, what I was seeing in front of me was the unfortunate but inevitable result of his greedy penchant to eat anything.  As he trotted beside me back to the house, he didn't seem the least bit concerned that he had just been revealed as 'just another son who steals from his Dad's wallet'.

After donning bright yellow rubber gloves, I faced the task of extracting the money from the organic clutches of Cody's indescretion.  Imagine my dismay when my first attempt to parse the pile resulted in only shreds of paper, not the whole bill!  Apparently the acid bitterness of the Cody's gastric channel had left the bills in tatters!

So, after I thought I had seen the last days of money disappearing mysteriously from my billfold during the years when the kids were younger, I guess I can still claim the dubious honor of being the world's smelliest human wallet! 

When I got back into the house I thought I could hear the Meese saying under his breath, "Foiled again!!"

Our Horizon Looks Darker and Darker---

I have emerged from my self imposed blackout to offer my thoughts about the unfolding ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. All my life, I have seemingly been on the periphery of major catastrophes, never experiencing first hand the traumas that all of us watch on the daily news broadcasts. They always seem to happen to others.

Now suddenly, my little slice of paradise is in the path of this sinister oil spill that won't stop growing. We have not seen any real physical impact yet, although two days after the explosion of the BP 'Deep Water Horizon' oil drilling platform in the Gulf, there was a whiff of petroleum odor over the city for a day or two....just a hint of anxiety in the air. As this disaster continues to grow, it is occupying more space in everyone's consciousness, and the cries of "Drill, baby, drill" seem like a laughable remnant of some bad nightmare.

As I start to think about the impact of this spill on our daily life here in SW Florida, I am fearful. I can visualize a slow death for the West Florida coastal communities as their beaches..the real draw for the billion dollar tourist industry here...are fouled with a sheen of oil that covers everything with an insidious creeping shroud that won't go away. The local paper here reports that hotel reservation desks are starting to get cancellations, just when the tourist business was beginning to revive after the long dark night of the recession gave tourism revenue a black eye last year. If the oil begins to wash up on our beaches a few weeks from now, I wonder if I will smell it all day in my back yard just a mile and a half from the beach. I wonder what will happen to all waterfront related businesses like shrimpers, crabbers, tour guides, fisherman, boat rentals, all marina services, wildlife refuges and sanctuaries, seafood restaurants, et al. What will happen to all the people who make their lives and a living here, not to mention the animals? It is almost too dramatic and horrific to consider how this life style will change. The local price of gasoline has already increased by 7% in the last week and is predicted to increase steadily. The impact of this promises to be so large that we haven't really gotten our heads wrapped around it yet....and the pollution continues to pour forth into the Gulf unabated.

The headline in the local paper this morning is "Does This Kill the Drive to Drill Baby Drill?" A Republican state representative actually proposed last year that we open drilling fields three miles from the Florida coastline. Now he is agreeing with Sen. Bill Nelson that we institute a moratorium on future drilling plans.

In the letters to the editor in the Naples Daily News, there was a terse piece from a man who equated this current spill with water-sprinkler damage in a high rise apartment: "After you replace the drywall, everything will be fine! Is a leaky water pipe a reason to move everyone out of the building? Leaks will happen-get used to it!" Another brilliant writer blamed the whole mess on President Obama:" After working 40 years in the industrial-maintenance field, I find it amazing that this oil platform failure was not backed up with shut-off valves. Isn’t it incredible that under President Barack Obama’s watch we have this huge environmental disaster.  Let’s see if his administration accepts full responsibility for this failure!"

What an idiot! I wonder if people like this know that the shutoff valves for this platform, and (tens of other by the way) were manufactured and installed, along with the cement support pilings by Halliburton--Dick Cheney's company--and that the cement pilings are failing because the standards pushed for and approved by Bush and Cheney were too lax to insure secure shut off valves on these platforms. In fact the inspection on the destroyed platform just prior to the explosion showed that the safety valves and pilings were insufficient in the event of an accident.

We are all waiting here with increasing anxiety as this catastrophe unfolds. I think Floridians are realizing that our lifestyle here is endangered and about to change. There is almost nothing we can do at this point to avoid the approaching storm clouds. All actions now are defensive against this encroaching horror.

This incident is a huge wake up call. The oil nuts need to be silenced. If ever there was a time to wean ourselves off petroleum, this is it. If we don't, you can expect more spills, more environmental catastrophe and more economic disaster. There is no fail-safe technology in oil drilling. All it takes is one mistake, or one greedy politician to eviscerate standards, and the lives of millions are affected.

Right now I am trying to breathe in as much fresh air as possible, before it all goes away!

Do It Now!

As I watch this Health Care reform drama unfold on our TV screens and listen to all the commentators and editorialists describe positions both pro and con, I am struck by the simple fact that if we do nothing, there will be an additional 10 million people who will not be insured over the next five years.  In addition, the abuses perpetrated on all of us by the insurance companies will continue unabated and we will all be paying more and getting less.

Dennis Kucinich, the representative from Ohio got it right when he said that even though this bill may have big problems, it is at least a beginning, and he couldn’t in good conscience vote against it.  It is a way to insure 30+million more Americans, as well as end some of the egregious practices of the insurance companies. 

Nicolas Kristoff writes in the New York Times today about the life expectancy of Americans and the periods in our history when life expectancy increased most.  It turns out that the period of the largest increase was during the War years in the 1940s when many more Americans had to have physicals when they entered the armed forces or were screened to do a variety of jobs for the war effort.  Diseases and problems were diagnosed early and treated, and lo and behold, we as a nation became healthier!

It is so patently obvious that preventive care will save us money and increase our productivity as a nation, that those who stand in the way of initiating this reform could easily be considered principled morons or in the most extreme, traitorous!  Where is our moral obligation to our fellow countrymen?  Why is it that when we are dealing with others in a one-on-one relationship our compassion and generosity comes forth with ease.  Yet when we are faced with relationships that are group-to-group, we become covetous, stingy, competitive and morally questionable.

I have always felt that the provision of health care and reform is our moral responsibility as human beings.  Our country’s success now depends on our finding a way to support our less fortunate countrymen so that we as a nation can rise to a new level of caring and productivity. 

My experience just since I have started writing this blog has shown me example after example of serious problems with the current system, both personally and anecdotally from friends and acquaintances.  This morning at the dermatologist’s office, for example, the receptionist asked me if I wanted to pay the whole bill for my last visit.  I said, “Didn’t my insurance cover most of it?”  She said they had covered $84 of a bill for $350 for exam and freezing removal of a variety of little lesions.  I am paying $23,000 a year for insurance, and the best they can do for this kind of procedure is $84?  Better yet, I went for lab work and a physical 6 weeks ago, and the bill was $169.  My insurance paid $.83 (yes, that’s 83 cents!). 

Something is wrong with this picture!

So I ask you again, can we not find it in our hearts, person to person, to reach out with some compassion and support for those who need the help.  Health care reform needs to be passed now, not later.  If we fail to do this now, it will be at least a decade before we will have another chance, and by then my friends, I fear it will be too late for all of us.

Make your voice be heard.  Can’t you take a minute to write an email to your congressman?

Feeling Good!

I am on a new mission.

About 3 months ago we started a new business called Paradise Coast TV. It’s an in-room hotel channel that provides visitors with options for shopping, restaurants and attractions in SW Florida. It’s part of a national service called the Visitors TV Network.

As anyone who has ever started a business knows, there is so much to do that it is impossible to do it all. What is so amazing about this process is that both my partner and I feel incredibly energized…..again! I am trying to analyze what has made the difference.

I have been in the workforce since I was 20, and that was 40 odd years ago. When we moved to Florida, I sort of expected to ‘retire’ after 30 years in the TV business and live a life of leisure. I was wrong. There is no retirement. In fact, I have discovered that the only way for me to feel productive and active is to be using my brain and creating something. For the past 7 years I have been involved in several enterprises that have been way stations along my path of life. They were interesting, modestly revenue producing, and exciting for very short periods of time. However I felt like I was trodding through life with no real direction for my talent. I kept having this internal dialog, “What am I supposed to be doing with myself?”

Don’t get me wrong, life is good! I am living in paradise, and there is something very soothing about being massaged with balmy winds in December and January while the rest of the country is shoveling snow. But the excitement was hiding. We were marking time.

For the last two years we have struggled with a business that was completely unrewarding. We tried everything we knew how to do to make it work, but it was just not happening. It was horribly depressing and enervating.

The good news is that just when things are the bleakest, a ray of light will appear and a path away from the darkness is suddenly visible.

That is what has happened to me and my partner with this new venture. For the past 40 years, that has been my pattern. As horrible as things may get, there is always a path. Circumstances change and if you are on the lookout, there is always a path. Some might say I am just lucky, but I think it is not about luck. It is about recognizing that change is a part of life in the most integral way. When you understand that, you are able to be alert for the opportunities that appear on your path. Then it is a matter of using your judgment and intuition to choose the right opportunity.

When we were on our vacation in Hilton Head last fall, I spent the day with a friend who had been very successful in the electrical contracting business. We were discussing why people succeed and fail at certain enterprises or ventures, and he told me about something he had done years earlier that had been a disaster. He made a very simple but obvious statement that I will never forget. He said, “I was doing something I knew very little about and that was the problem.”

If you think about it, we all have something (or many things!) that we know a lot about. When you get involved in those kinds of activities, you feel empowered, knowledgeable, and competent. Isn’t that the essence of success?   So, clearly, the secret of it all is to pursue those opportunities that you know something about. It all sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Well, we all know it isn’t, but nonetheless, choosing to pursue something that is familiar and well within your skill set does make it easier to succeed.

Anyway, that is what we are doing now, and I can tell you that I am excited, energized and productive. And I am learning new things at a rate that is dizzying. My industry has changed over the last 10 years so completely, that we have had to learn how to use a completely new set of tools. But the thing I know something about—the telling of stories in video and film---hasn’t really changed at all. There is my competency, and I am now exercising that muscle again.

It feels good!