The Bald Guy

Bruuuuuuuuce!

2009-01-31T17:41:00.009-05:00

The most dominant defensive end of his era was just elected to the hall of fame. Fortunately, most of his career was here in Buffalo where he anchored the defense that carried the Bills to four Super Bowls. My image of his patented spin move is one of the great memories from that run.

Mr. Wilson was finally elected. He is 90 now and he too deserves the honor. Everything will stop in Buffalo during the induction ceremony just as it did when Marv, Jim and Thurman went in.

I have three more nominees from that great team. André Reed did not make it today, but he should and he will. There are only seven centers from the modern era in the hall; there should be at least one more, Kent Hull from that team. Hull anchored the line that ran the "K-Gun" no huddle, called the line signals and moved the pile so Thurman could run to the next level. Kent Hull should be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

So should the little guy who never started a football game until very late in his career. Steve Tasker defined the modern special teamer and there will never be anyone like him again. They put two guys on the gunner and he still would make a crunching tackle almost the instant the returner caught the ball. He also blocked punts and field goal attempts; driving the All Stars at the 1993 Pro Bowl so crazy he was named MVP. Steve Tasker should also be in Canton.

I Wish You Could Have Been There

2009-01-21T21:46:00.014-05:00

I thought about being one of more than one million people yesterday at the inauguration of President Barack Obama. We thought about taking the Buffalo LeaderShape AmeriCorps members to DC to be present for history.

But, I was not there in the cold, I was in the next best place.

My daughter Karen texted me from her school. She was watching with her students. She said we will never forget where we were yesterday. She's right, it is one of history's defining moments, just like when Kennedy was assassinated, when the Challenger blew up, or when the planes struck the World Trade Center. This time the history was a fulfillment of dreams of many fathers and many mothers, dreams of a time when we would elect a President based on the ability to think, the ability to lead and the ability to inspire a nation rather than based on his or her skin color.

My children say that I begin my stories in the middle, so let me go back to the beginning.

We talked about putting the Corps on a bus to witness history. We lacked the funds, so we looked for an alternative.

I had an idea. Why not give our young members a chance to see this moment through the eyes of our seniors? Seniors come to the center for fellowship and lunch. We have been trying to develop some intergenerational relationships anyhow.

What if we held an essay contest? What if we asked the Corps members, who are ages 17 - 24 to interview a senior? Could they find out what yesterday meant to just one senior? I thought writing an essay would be good for our Corps members. Some are taking GED instruction. What about those who express themselves better in other ways? What if I offered an incentive both for writing and for an artistic expression? Better yet, what if I also offered a category for a Web 2.0 presentation, say Facebook?

So that's the risk I took. Would 17 - 24 year old Corps members respond? Yes they did!

I wish you could have seen the maybe 75 people crowded into our senior center where we set up 3 TV monitors. Before I knew it there were seniors, Buffalo LeaderShape AmeriCorps members, English Language Learners from at least 2 of the classes in our building, Buffalo Public School staff and Belle staff. Corps members were talking to seniors. They found out that one of our seniors is a daughter of Selma, Alabama. I witnessed her tears as she talked to the young Corps member, a refugee from Africa. I saw her tears as Aretha Franklin sang and as President Obama took the oath of office.

I can't wait to see the results of my challenge. We have a panel of judges. We set a deadline of Tuesday, February 3rd. We will provide a way for the Corps to present to the seniors. And, in an unexpected benefit, many of the English Language Learners wrote essays. Their teachers will work with them and we will have some kind of incentive for them too.

The faces in the crowd in that room? We had African Americans and Hispanics. We also had refugees from Sudan and Somalia, from Sri Lanka, from Burma and from Iraq. Oh, and there were a couple Caucasians in the room too. All of them witnesses to history.

Now to mobilize all of them to make the Lower West Side of Buffalo, the United States of America and the world better for it.

A Question

2009-01-12T20:50:00.002-05:00

If the President gave a farewell address and nobody listened would there be a sound?

The Streets of Harlem

2008-11-05T23:55:00.005-05:00

Apparently this has been making the rounds and has several antecedents, for example Jesse Jackson used some of the language at Rosa Parks' funeral. One of my colleagues told me today that it showed up several weeks ago as a text message on his cell.

But the man in the middle of this interview delivers the lines with perfect pitch and rythym. Let me know what you think. (Click on the title of this post.)

I am Not a Poet

2008-11-05T22:55:00.007-05:00

Frederick Douglass is quoted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as saying that times like the last two days require poetry not prose. I am not a poet, but familiar only with prose. Therefore I share a link for your reflection on history.

One Historical Night

2008-11-05T00:53:00.001-05:00

Funny. In the last eight years almost everything I have given my life to has been reversed.

Now, with one historical night, hope returns.

The Fifty Chevy

2007-12-27T18:11:00.000-05:00

It is now four years later. I have written about our return from the Philippines after about four years. There are other stories to be told about the trip back by freighter with stops in Hong Kong, Yokohama and Tokyo, but those are for another time.

My grandfather, Grandpa Dave, was superintendent of 1100 Union Street in San Francisco, so he had great contacts and access to some classy Cadillacs and Lincolns for tooling around town.

We spent a month in San Francisco. My grandmother cooked food unavailable in the Philippines. It was here that I got my first taste of artichokes and my first and last taste of beef heart. After four years of lean, I experienced plenty, first on the ship, then in the basement of 1100 Union.

The family planned to drive across country again, this time from West to East, stopping to see sights along the way. We would take the "southern route" because it would be late spring and we were not equipped to weather a spring snow storm in one of the passes of the Rockies.

First problem, find a car. As I mentioned previously this would be the first car Mom and Dad would buy. The car had to be reliable enough to get us across country and have room enough for five, since the family had grown to include a third brother. Paul was born in Manila and was less than five months old when we boarded ship for our return to the states.

With the help of Grandpa Dave's contacts, Dad found a used green 50 Chevrolet with a truck engine and transmission and an outline on the door where a California State Seal had been. The car proved to be a find, because it lasted the family for several years. I learned to drive in it.

Second problem, make enough room for all our earthly belongings. Take that literally because all that my Mom and Dad owned were with them. Dishes and silverware had been stored in barrels in Manila and would eventually be given away as we did not return. Even as I write this it seems strange that all of our material possessions would fit in that car. The trunk held a fair amount, but the back seat had to hold three boys. So Dad built a roof rack/box out of 3/4 inch plywood. My Dad was a cabinet maker, among other things, so this was an elegant box that could probably withstand blowing off the car at 50 mph. He found someone who could sew a canvas cover for the box. I have no idea where that car roof box is today, but I would not be surprised to find it in some one's garage still usable. It probably made our gas mileage worse, but it got our belongings across country with us.

Third problem, make a bed for the infant Paul. Dad took some of that plywood and crafted it into a bed for the driver's side back seat. He covered that bed with foam rubber and a sheet. Paul slept peacefully in that bed for much of the trip, even though middle brother Len was sitting right beside him. Remember that there were no seat belts in those days, so a bed in a car was a convenience for all.

So, in a green 50 Chevy we set out across country; family of five including an infant. I looked forward to seeing the rest of my family and whatever wonders we had time to include.

A Proper Forum

2007-12-18T22:26:00.000-05:00

Let me state that I have been a fan of Roger Clemens for a long time.

I always thought he was destined to be a first ballot inductee into Cooperstown.

I also urged him to stay home last year and I don' t think a 6-6 record and a 4.18 ERA proved me wrong.

He has just issued a statement denying that he used steroids.

Let me also state that I have always admired Senator George Mitchell who is after all from a state that is as close to "home" as I have. He has made many truly great contributions to his state, to his country and to the world.

Maybe he was put into an impossible situation. Here again everyone in professional baseball has to share some blame. The steroid era existed because Baseball turned a blind eye. From a commissioner who was an owner to greedy owners and equally greedy players, the game that I love was tarnished and will forever have asterisks and footnotes. To try to cover for intentional blindness the commish turned to a highly respected former Senator, but gave him no power. He had no standing with the union and he had no subpoena powers.

I read his report, not all of it, but the nine or so pages that mention Clemens and Pettitte and others. In no other forum would such hearsay be permissable. At least not in our society.

The report cannot be the end of it. There must be a legal setting where Clemens, Pettitte and others can defend themselves.

That's the American way and Baseball deserves nothing less.

Petrified Forest and Figs

2007-12-17T20:17:00.000-05:00

Occasionally we stopped to see something interesting during our trip west in 1952. I remember the Petrified Forest best.

Historic Route 66 passed right through what was then a National Monument, one of Teddy Roosevelt's gifts to our nation. I was fascinated with those old quartz tree trunks. I had never seen anything like them and, like much of the west, I was learning something new everywhere I looked. We stayed long enough for Len and me to get a good look, then we drove on.

We stopped for a few days in Pasadena. Again, I had never seen anything like that place. There were palm trees in people's back yards! We stayed with the Roddy's. Clarence Roddy, then a homiletics professor at Fuller Seminary, had been Mom and Dad's pastor in Portland, Maine and his wife was a significant mentor to my Mom. They had a lemon tree and a fig tree in their backyard. I had my first fig. An acquired taste, they are good when they are ripe right from the tree.

Except for being smooshed in the Plymouth, the whole trip was an adventure of discovery.

West of St. Louis

2007-12-17T11:26:00.000-05:00

I had been to Chicago by train, so getting to Chicago was no big deal. We stayed with an older woman who was a supporter of the mission. I think we had stayed with her before. I don't know how long we stayed in Chicago, but it was for a few days, kind of a respite from being smooshed in that Plymouth.

We got back into the Plymouth and headed for St. Louis. Route 66! Chicago to LA on one romantic road. When the TV series Route 66 came on many years later, I would watch and could say, "I've been there, I remember that." Route 66 was everything they say it was and more. I have great memories and horrible memories of that road, but I am glad that I experienced what is really a bygone era.

I don't have too many memories of the route between Chicago and St. Louis. At the time Chicago was as far west as I had been, but when we left St. Louis we were going into the unknown, we were going into the wild west. I had read about the homesteaders leaving St. Louis to stake a claim and begin a new life. So, I was full of anticipation as the man or my Dad headed the car west.

Just the high spots. The road took a 90 degree turn in Oklahoma City right in front of the state's capital. And, yes there were oil wells right there on the capital grounds! Lots of them.

Texas is far from my favorite state. I'll tell you why. Route 66 cuts across the Texas panhandle, and at the time it was truly God forsaken country. We stopped at some small town for some of that bologna and bread, but there was no place to have a picnic lunch. So the adults decided to keep driving west; we certainly could find somewhere to stop. After what seemed like hours there was one tree by the side of the road. As the car slowed to a stop, you could plainly see a curled rattlesnake under that tree. Hours (or so it seemed to a ten year old) later we found another tree, this time with a picnic table and no rattlesnake.

I remember Albuquerque, New Mexico and Flagstaff, Arizona. The Plymouth broke down in one of those towns and we spent a pretty long day there while the car was on a lift.

Dry. Texas, New Mexico and Arizona were all dry. Two things stick out. Since the desert was dry and hot, and since cars in those days could be expected to break down, you hung a canvas bag or two of water from the hood ornament. The bag was not waterproof, so the bag would sweat and as you drove along at 50 or 60, the water cooled and was at least somewhat tolerable for drinking. More importantly, you could top off your radiator when necessary.

Dry. Somewhere along the way in the desert we stopped at a gas station. We were thirsty, so Mom or Dad paid 10 cents for a glass of water for us. The water was nasty, so I could only take about 2/3 of the glass. I threw the rest on the ground. This was before CPR, but the guy who sold us the water almost had a heart attack! I learned something about how precious water can be that day. Maybe that's one of the reasons that I don't drink a lot of the stuff. That's another story.

When we got past the desert we were pretty deep in California. Suddenly there was more of that water stuff (never mind that they got it from Colorado) and it was green again. I remember that the carrots in the trucks were as long as my forearm. I swear!

Remember that I was only 10 years old. I stand by my story.

Driving Down Memory Lane

2007-12-16T10:47:00.000-05:00

Got a call from my brothers yesterday.

"What kind of car did you drive across country in?"

"'49 Plymouth (or was it a '47?), black." "Which way?"

"Both."

"Chevy, '50 Chevy (or was it a '52?), green."

"Were they 2 door or 4 door?"

"4 Door."

But wait, the Plymouth may have been 2 door, the Chevy was definitely 4 door, green and it was a '50. The Plymouth was definitely black, I didn't think they made any other color, although subsequent research shows that they apparently did.

Memories. That was a long time ago, and I became so distrusting of my memory that I called my children's mother to check to make sure that I had correctly remembered another fact, unconnected to the above.

Later, in the evening my nephew Peter sent me some "This is Your Life" links to the cars my parents owned during my youth. I say youth, because the first car Mom and Dad bought (Mom would not drive until years later) was that '50 Chevy, green." More about that later.

So, I have been thinking about those memories for the last 24 plus hours.

An aside. Its snowing here in Tonawanda, NY. Coming down pretty well right now, though they tell me it is to get worse. Nothing else to do until the Bills game is on, so I find myself remembering and writing. Up here in Buffalo when they talk about snow they talk about the blizzard of '77. I moved here after that storm, so when I think of a blizzard, I think of the blizzard of '52. We were living above the Sunday School building of The First Baptist Church in Portland, Maine. Portland got so snowed in that they had to borrow plows from Scarborough. Congress Street was piled high with snow. My Dad and I walked miles through the storm to make sure Aunt Ruth and Uncle Clarence were OK. They lived off of Back Bay. To get there you had to pass the B&M Bean plant, which always smelled great to me.

So, here's the story:

The blizzard comes into play because it was 1952. Most of the family belongings were shipped in crates and barrels through New York, the Panama Canal and then to the Philippines by ship.

Our ship was to leave from San Francisco in the fall of '52, but my family had no car and the train was too expensive for a family of four living on missionary salaries.

I can't remember the guy's name, or even much about him, just that he was heading west from Portland and was willing to share the ride with family of four. Must have been some kind of hero.

I remember it was a Plymouth. It was also black. It certainly was the shape of the '47 - '49 model, but when I look at the pictures of the 4 door it looks too long. Funny, you would think that I would remember crawling past the front seat of a 2 door. What I remember is that Len and I had about 1/3 of that back seat to share. He was smaller, so he was smooshed against the stuff that filled the other 2/3's of the seat while I was smooshed against the side of the car.

Neither the Mass Pike or the NY Thruway were finished in 1952, so we took Route 20 through western Massachusetts and upstate New York. I remember when we moved here to the Buffalo area that Route 20 through Geneva, Batavia and Pembroke had a kind of eerie familiarity to me 26 years later. I still drive on Route 20, especially when I am out with my camera and it still looks familiar.

I don't remember Buffalo, but I do remember that it was a long trip and we made slow time, when it came time to stop to sleep we would find some "cabins" and for a few dollars we would spend the night. Mom was in charge of food, so we had a lot of bologna sandwiches!

To Chicago and west another time.

Since 1979

2007-10-30T23:23:00.000-04:00

After a year of visiting Hamburg High School's computer lab, I brought home an Apple II,

First the lab. Not exactly what you would expect today with rows of computers facing front and wired into a network. With a smart board or a projector or large monitors so that the students can follow the instructor as she demonstrates how to write a macro.

None of that, it was maybe six Apples on the edges of what may have once been a large closet or storage room. There were usually two or three geeks to a computer. The great thing is that the teachers were self appointed and interested in this new phenomenon called a personal computer. The IBM or what we now know as a PC (can you say Windows?) was a year or two away. So, since I visited the school in my role as a youth worker, I also stopped in to see the lab where Bob, a teacher and church member hung out with the students after school hours.

Bob beat me to buying one, but I was not far behind. I brought it home so that I could use it for my dissertation, kind of a glorified word processor, at least that was the excuse. Really I was fascinated by this new technology.

Sure, I wrote my dissertation on software called Magic Window. At first it only had 40 columns, something like half a page, then you had to toggle to the other half. But, my Masters thesis had six drafts, all typed on a Smith Corona (I hope that is in Wikipedia for those who have no idea), all typed by my wife. The last time she touched the Smith Corona was probably when she typed the dissertation proposal on it. I took over from there using the Apple. My dissertation had ten drafts. Of course, the spell checker was pretty bad. It did not know how to spell sex. Don't ask me why I used that as the test, but I hired a proof reader after I found that out.

But the Apple II was more than a word processor. I will never forget when my son and I opened the case and put a memory card in. We now had one meg of memory! We thought we had died and gone to heaven. You no longer had to swap disks (that's another post, those big disks) when you were using AppleWorks. That had become our word processor by that time.

We had fun with that computer playing games like Choplifter (that is in Wikipedia). Not exactly graphics as we now know them, kind of dotted lines moving across the screen. I played with BASIC; wrote a grading program that I used for several semesters in my teaching.

My son got into it a bit more. I had to kick my nine year old off the computer around ten at night so I could work on my teaching or on my dissertation. It gave him a foundation that launched a career (http://www.heynorton.org/).

Why these musings today? We got some new computers at work. My boss and I desperately needed upgrades and I spent most of the day working on the change over. I gave him frequent blow by blow reports and he said, "You really enjoy this stuff don't you?"

I do.

2 Outs? No Problem!

2007-10-28T21:48:00.000-04:00

The Red Sox have won the World Series!

A championship team peaks at the right time. Before the All Star break, the Red Sox were clearly the best team in baseball. Then the team seemed to slow down; a slow down that could not entirely be blamed on injuries.

But, after letting the Indians back into the ALCS, the Sox hit their peak, with players who had mediocre years such as J.D. Drew stepping up.

One of the best indicators of their fight up and down the lineup was their tendency to score after there were 2 outs. I got so that I yelled at the TV, "There are two outs, let's go!"

They won without a lot of home runs (3 I think) and they won with smart baseball, stringing singles and doubles together to keep the pressure on their opponent. They also had good pitching when they needed it.

As a member of the Red Sox Nation I see a young team with potential to be great for several years. You never know what The Boss, his sons and son-in-law will do to make the Yankees competitive, but the Sox should hold their own for the near future.

Another thing strikes me. Prior to 2004 the Sox had not won a Series since 1918. Dad was 2 years old that year. He certainly did not remember it. He did not live to see another championship for the Red Sox. He always followed baseball, and since he lived near Philadelphia, he enjoyed the Mike Schmidt years, including a championship.

But, I have lived to see 2 Red Sox championships, twice what he enjoyed.

Go Sox!

Good Bye DJ

2007-02-22T21:33:00.000-05:00

Dennis Johnson died today.

No Celtic ever wanted to win more than DJ.

I will never forget the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals game where he scored the winning basket off a feed from Larry Bird. Bird had stolen an inbounds pass from the great Isaiah Thomas. I can see that play like it was yesterday, and when I read he had died, that play flashed into my memory.

Sorry to see you go so soon DJ. My condolences to your family.

Tag in the Slow Lane

2007-02-03T16:14:00.001-05:00

Tag! You're It! So I have been told.

Five things people don't know about me?

I have been thinking long and hard about that. Like my Mom, I usually wear things on my sleeve, and those around me pretty much know what there is to know about me. I guess you could say I am not really a private person. So, I may not come up with five, but here is what I have been thinking.

1. I am a "Third Culture Kid," (I am far from a kid anymore, but I was). Among other dysfunctions, third culture kids have close friends, but they expect to lose them when they move. So, I have had a lot of friends in the past, but when I moved on I failed to keep in touch. Only one college friend keeps in touch with me, and he has to work at it.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why I am stubbornly staying in Buffalo and am committed to trying to make a difference here.

2. Who's Body is This? Now I know that I have had more than one body during my life. There was the body of the football player, that of the young swimmer who swam across the lake everyday (and back), and the body of the construction worker who lugged 250 gallons of water a day. There was the body of the runner. I had that body for about 15 years, you could have practically cut paper on my shins. Then a toboggan accident ruined my knees and made me look for another form of exercise, so I took up cycling. There were also in between times, like when I drove buses to finance family and grad school. That body was a bit bottom heavy.

But today? Today I hardly recognize my body. Not because I can't see it because I only have one eye. Certainly not because I can't hear it because I only have one ear. Of course, if you first meet me you won't notice either of those, since both eye and ear look relatively normal. Crazy thing is that neither of the events that took my sight and hearing are really age related. Today my body is pretty heavy with a stomach the likes of which I have never seen. And there is the arthritis; usually 600 mg of Ibuprofen in the morning takes care of that. Oh, and you don't want to know about the prostate!

So, here I am with a body that I don't recognize. I don't really feel old, but this body doesn't do what it used to!

3. How did I get to be a writer? I know, I don't blog as much as I thought I would. A big reason for that is that I sit in front of a computer everyday and write professionally. It is not a career I aspired to in my youth. I write grant proposals, it is my way of seeking to make a difference for at risk children, youth and families in Buffalo.

Not that I think I am a great writer, I just work at it. I like staring at the screen (sometimes at the page) and tweaking my prose to turn a phrase that will engage the reader and get them to see the need. It seems to me that even a grant proposal can be literary and elegant. At my stage in life I care less about getting out and schmoozing and more about using words and language to inform and convince.

As I think back there are at least two influences on my life that I have to thank for guiding me in this direction. Miss Evelyn Hayden was my English teacher in High School. I was far from her star student, but she taught me to love narrative. She signed my High School Yearbook, The Initium (Latin for The Beginning), remarking about the strange questions I asked in class. It was years later that I realized that she had made such an impact on me.

I also owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. J. Edward Hakes, my grad school professor and the second reader of my Masters Thesis. He insisted that I had earned an A-, not because my work lacked intellectual heft, but because my grammar was lacking. It motivated me to work hard at writing, especially to make sure that my dissertation and articles that I wrote for publication were more finely crafted.

Thank you Ms. Hayden and Dr. Hakes.

Probably I should also thank my reading teacher from elementary school. I was placed in remedial reading because I was supposedly not reading at grade level. I have no idea what her name was and Mom is gone, so I have no one to ask.

In that class I discovered stories. My reading texts until then were about Dick and Jane and some dog named Spot. Whose dog was Spot anyway? I had absolutely no interest in seeing Dick run. Nor did I care to see Jane run! And Spot? Spot was running too! Who cares? But this teacher gave me real stories! When I "graduated" from remedial reading she gave me a beautiful edition of The Wizard of Oz.

So, I love narrative, not that I read much fiction. But, I read. I read. And, I write.

4. I have gotten back into the water. We have a great pool where I work and I have been doing laps. Not that I get in everyday. Colds have come and gone for me this winter, so I missed some days because of those. I also get concentrating on my work and forget I wanted to take a break at 1:30 or so and swim a few laps. But I am back in the water and it feels good. Won't take the weight off by itself, but it is good for my heart and my body. It's good for my mind too. I am up to 14 laps (round trip). Marcus, the lifeguard tells me that 20 will be a mile. I'll let you know when I swim a mile.

5. When you get to my age, not that I am that old, you begin to have thoughts about the end and your legacy. Of course, your health insurance company encourages those thoughts because they want to know if you have a Health Care Proxy. I don't right now, but I plan to get that done too.

I guess I will be satisfied if at the end people say that I cared for people and that I helped a few.

Now how do I go about tagging the next person?

Thurman Going to Canton!

2007-02-03T15:32:00.000-05:00

ESPN leads their story with Michael Irvin, but for those of us from Buffalo, NY the big story is that the little running back who made the Bills go during the glory years is going to Canton.

OK, so they did not win a Super Bowl, do you know any other team that got there four years in a row? Do you think any team ever will?

Thurman Thomas richly deserves this honor and I will be watching his speech this summer. He makes four members of the Super Bowl Bills in the Hall. Marv Levy, Jim Kelly and James Lofton preceded Thurman.

There will be more. Bruce Smith should make it his first year (he retired in 2003 with 200 sacks). Andre Reed missed today, but he deserves to be there too.

I have two candidates that will need some luck and some lobbying. I think that Kent Hull was the nucleus of the offensive line that opened the holes for Thurman, Kent belongs in the Hall as one of the greatest centers to play the game. I also think that everyman, Steve Tasker, probably the greatest special teamer to ever play, deserves his space at Canton.

Congratulations Thurman! Thanks for the memories.

Idiocy

2006-11-10T20:16:00.000-05:00

I was yelling and screaming in my car today.

It was a good thing I was alone.

Listening to the news I heard President Bush say this:

"And years from now, when America looks out on a democratic Middle East growing in freedom and prosperity, Americans will speak of the battles like Fallujah with the same awe and reverence that we now give to Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima."

I could not believe my ears. Our President does not understand history, and he certainly does not understand what a mess he has made of Iraq. How could any thinking person make that comparison? What an insult to the Marines of The Greatest Generation! What a cavalier attitude regarding the Marines who have lost their lives or been maimed in the totally needless and frightfully mismanaged war in Iraq!

His continuous obnoxious attempts to compare World War II with his War on Terror are downright maddening. His immoral preemptive war in Iraq has made not only the Marines less safe, it has put the world and all Americans at risk.

November Surprise?

2006-11-08T14:04:00.000-05:00

No, Rumsfeld's leaving the Defence Department is not a surprise. The surprise is that Bush saved it until the day after.

It is a good start. Now we will see if Bush can govern without majorities in Congress. Can you see the realities in front of you instead of stubbornly sticking to ideology and adapt Mr. President?

Memo to Democrats

2006-11-08T11:15:00.000-05:00

Pulitzer prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts had some good things to say in his most recent column (also published in The Buffalo News).

We have suffered through a very divisive time in politics and we need some real change. Here are a few of my thoughts:

The changes in the House of Representatives, Governors' Mansions and possibly in the Senate are a repudiation of Bush's disaster in Iraq. Get us out.
Enough of the Red States, Blue States. How about some purple (or as Pitts writes, red, white and blue)? We need a sense of national destiny again. I never much agreed with Reagan, but he got "the vision thing."
We don't want too many hearings. Don't waste time on the trivial. Keep it simple, find out who broke the law by lying to us about WMD in Iraq. Otherwise, move on and focus on healing our country.
We need to repair our image overseas. We are the world's only super power, but can we please stop the arrogance?
Close the gap between the rich and the poor that has grown so large during the Bush years.
And, Health Care. Do something to fix our broken system. That would require political bravery.
Social Security needs attention not partisanship.

Real leadership will require compromise. Compromise, but keep your principals with humility not hubris.

Family Values

2006-11-08T10:37:00.000-05:00

That was Tom Reynolds wife Donna behind him and to his right at his acceptance speech last night. It was a brief speech and I think he thanked her.

But when he finished he turned around and walked right by her to shake hands with people on his right, turned and walked by her again to greet people on his left. It was as if she was invisible. She looked uncomfortable, slowly fading away off camera.

It was a remarkable moment to this observer. In the pursuit of power we can get caught up in the busyness of our lives and we can ignore the people who should be foremost. Remember, he had a plane to catch because he is the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Things were not going well for him across the country.

Probably it struck me because when I was younger the mother of my children, Grammy in Chief, used to say that she sometimes felt invisible in my milieu.

The Republicans bill themselves as the party of family values. Recent events have made it clear that includes a strong element of hypocrisy. But there is a real lesson too. Tom Reynolds' political legacy will be that he was a part of the power structure of the meanest most divisive administration in my lifetime. He is part of the clique that is the most incompetent in memory and gave us Iraq.

Hopefully Tom Reynolds can leave a more positive legacy with his four children.

Hindsight is 20/20

2006-11-08T00:47:00.001-05:00

Tom Reynolds just left Buffalo. He had a plane to catch. During his victory speech he said that tonight he would celebrate his personal victory with his supporters, but that tomorrow he would deal with results for Congress as a whole.

Jack Davis thanked just about everybody in his concession speech. He thanked the Working Families Party and their workers. He thanked Len Lenihan, the Erie County Democratic Chair. He said that Len enrolled him as a Democrat and encouraged him to run.

Not to speak for Len Lenihan, but when he and his party endorsed Jack Davis, it was for a losing cause. No one last spring would have ever expected a real race for the 26th District of New York. So, it made sense to endorse a candidate who could spend more than $2,000,000 of his own money. Hey, spending that kind of money would at least make Tom Reynolds take notice.

Then came the Foley affair. Tom Reynolds knew about those emails last spring, but Len Lenihan did not. What if there had been a real Democrat running, one who actually got out and met the voters? Sure such a candidate would still have had to face The October Surprise, our devastating snow storm, and Tom Reynolds' power in Washington. Reynolds immediately brought $5,000,000 to Western New York, and eventually persuaded Karl Rove that the President had to declare a disaster which will bring many more millions.

Back to hindsight. Right now Tom Reynolds has about an 8,000 vote plurality. "My district has seven counties," Reynolds said tonight. What he did not say is that there are 44,000 more Republicans than Democrats in his district, the one he constructed. If there had been a real Democrat (yes, no one seems to know what that is these days) this is a district that could have been won. Tom Reynolds is a key member of the clique that gave us Iraq and tax cuts for the very rich at the expense of the poor and the middle class. The good people of those seven counties are sending him back to Washington because of an October Surprise and because no one could predict that he would be part of a scandal.

Don't Come Back This Time Roger

2006-11-02T23:30:00.000-05:00

First Ballot Hall of Fame. No doubt about that.

But, it is time to hang up the spikes, Rocket. You have had a great career; been a dominating power pitcher even in your 40's. Many of your games are classics, including two with 20 strikeouts, still a record. Your place in the game is secure, don't sully it.

You are quoted today as saying, "Full season, half season or at all, I haven't even thought about it," "I just think it's too early to think about it. ... Right now, I don't have any thoughts of playing or not playing."

I have thoughts. The rules of free agency gave you an out this year. Houston failed to pick up your option and they could not talk to you until May. So, you came back in June and pitched well for mere mortals (7-6, ERA of 2.30). From what I saw you were good, but not great.

I have another reservation. The baseball season is long, 162 games, guys get dinged and play through pain. It is not good for the game to have a potential Hall of Famer get a pass for half the season. Play the whole season or retire. That is what everyone else did, it is time for you to live by those rules.

I have another more selfish thought. I want you to retire. I want to still be around to join you in Cooperstown at your Hall of Fame induction.

Can't Tell a Joke?

2006-11-01T21:08:00.000-05:00

Senator Kerry need not apologize to me. I got the joke. If you don't pay attention in school, even joke that you were a "C" student in a graduation address at your alma mater, then you get us stuck in Iraq.

Maybe the trouble is that the 2004 Democratic standard bearer can't tell a joke without messing up the punchline. His family says he's a very funny man but you cannot see that when he's campaigning. Not a bad guy, maybe a good senator, but not much of a campaigner, especially when giving a speech in public.

Kerry did the right thing when apologizing to the troops, their parents and the country. But Democrats should not back off. This is no time to be intimidated by a dummy in the White House who refuses to hold his people accountable or take responsibility for his stupidity

Red Auerbach

2006-10-29T11:25:00.000-05:00

It happened again; the death of a sports legend. Red Auerbach died at 89.

Was he a genius? Certainly he changed the game of basketball with his coaching and dealing. As a kid with deep roots in both New England and Philadelphia, I will never forget the epic battles between the great Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. With a gifted supporting cast that included Cousy, Heinsohn, two Joneses and Sanders, Red and Russell won most of the time.

As GM he brought Larry Bird to Boston at the same time that Magic Johnson arrived to play for the Lakers. Together with their teams they ushered in a golden age that fostered the NBA's growth and set the stage for the big money its current stars earn. The Celtics and the Lakers continued their phenomenal rivalry with great teams, classic games and unforgettable championship series.

Nine championships as a coach and seven as GM. He was a genius for his time and will be missed.

Thanks for the memories Red. Enjoy a cigar in his honor.

Who Was Marlin McKeever?

2006-10-28T13:13:00.000-04:00

Life after 60. When I started this blog I promised that I would make that one of my topics. I am sure that everything I have written is colored by that, but I have written little about it directly.

Yesterday Marlin McKeever fell in his home. I saw the notice online.

Marlin McKeever was a football player, one of the best of his time. He loved the game so much that he played several positions, and played them well. At USC his last two years he was their leading receiver. He had even been a punter. I guess I first took note of him because his twin brother Mike played for USC too. Both of them were good. Tragically both of them are now dead because of head injuries.

When you are younger you lose people around you who die untimely deaths. Foremost in my life have been Sandy and Bucky, my cousins and like me the oldest children in their families. I also remember the loss of heroes and public figures; chiefly two Kennedys, a King and a Lennon. But when you get into your sixties headlines with names from the past jump out at you.

Marlin McKeever was a linebacker in the NFL, one of the best of his time. When I watch football, I key in on linebackers and how they play. The best were among my heroes including Chuck Bednarik and Dick Butkus.

I always enjoyed watching Marlin McKeever play. Thanks for the memories Marlin McKeever!

My condolences go out to your family.

The Little Pest

2006-10-28T12:39:00.000-04:00

A true lead off hitter makes a pest of himself. He (she too, but not in the Major Leagues yet) fouls off pitches to frustrate the opposing pitcher, gets hit by a pitch occasionally and chokes up on the bat to slap a single. When he gets on, the lead off hitter motivates his team and makes something happen. Rickey Henderson was probably the best. No Red Sox fan will forget Wade Boggs, one of the two best contact hitters of his generation.

But the 2006 World Series MVP to a 5ft 7in lead off hitter? You bet! David Eckstein was the logical choice to anyone who knows baseball. In an era when the home run makes the highlights on Sport Center, he plays "small ball" with emotion and smarts, just the way the game should be played.

Is there any wonder that the kid has two championships? In the 2002 ALDS he drove the Yankee pitchers, especially Roger Clemens, crazy with his pesky approach to hitting.

Baseball needed an MVP who demonstrates that size, muscle and substances are not what makes an exciting national pastime.

More on Reynolds

2006-10-28T12:37:00.000-04:00

A couple hours after I posted on The October Surprise I got into my car and heard a report that Tom Reynolds has a slight lead over Jack Davis in the most recent poll.

The October Surprise

2006-10-26T12:35:00.000-04:00

There he is front and center on the front page of yesterday's The Buffalo News announcing that President Bush has declared Western New York a major disaster area. What does that mean? It means that Tom Reynolds, U.S. House of Representatives, Republican, 26th district New York State, has brought more federal dollars to our region hard hit by the "October Surprise" snow storm. (Really, that's what local media has been calling the storm that dumped two feet of wet heavy snow on Thursday and Friday, October 12 and 13.)

Clearly on the defensive just three weeks ago because of the Foley scandal, Tom Reynolds seems to be rebounding because of his swift response to the storm. Sure there has been criticism because he brought FEMA in for an extensive tour that included the wealthy suburb of Amherst (in his district) but not the city of Buffalo (not in his district). That criticism will fall on deaf ears for many of his constituents, the point is that he had the clout to make a difference where they live.

If you know Reynolds (full disclosure: I moved out of his district intentionally a couple years ago.) you know that he is a firm adherent to Tip O'Niell's mantra that, "All politics is local." He knows how to bring home the bacon.

When the Foley emails to a former congressional page surfaced, Reynolds was put on the defensive because all he did was report them to his boss, Speaker Dennis Hastert, Republican, Illinois. He seems to have known of the emails as early as last spring, reported them to Hastert, and done nothing more. As more of the scandal got out Reynolds felt the increasing heat. Initially he laid low, but eventually a downstate media expert put Reynolds in an ad for an apology to his constituents. The congressman looked very uncomfortable on camera. He spoke haltingly and seemed to be sweating as his face filled the screen.

Jack Davis, the Democratic Candidate aiming for Reynold's seat inched into a narrow lead. Now Mr. Davis may not really be a Democrat, and he certainly is not a politician. He is kind of a Johnny One Note; a businessman against free trade.

Then came the October Surprise, a snow storm. The paid political ad apologizing was bad; the ad running now is effective. Jack Davis was on a local radio show in the spring. He seems to be against federal pork and was also quoted as having questions about member items by The Buffalo News. Reynold's ad makes the point that Davis would not even bring home dollars for a fire truck for the local "first responders."

Stepping out against federal pork barrel spending (the multimillion dollar bridge to nowhere in Ketchikan, Alaska is an example of federal pork) is admirable for a politician. But it won't get you elected, especially if the people in the district are trying to figure who is going to pay for getting rid of all those downed trees and tree limbs.

Prediction: Tip O'Niell was right. All politics are local and barring another October Surprise, Reynolds will retain his seat. He should thank Mother Nature.

August Blues

2006-09-10T00:54:00.000-04:00

Gone too long. Too blue to write.

Members of the Red Sox nation are all too familiar with the emotions of this past August. The Red Sox can be the hottest team in baseball in July, but reality returns in August. The hated Yankees spend more money (because The Boss and the team have more) at trade deadline. Injuries happen, and the team is not deep enough to bounce back. The bullpen fails. All these and cancer this year.

Then the Yankees came to town...

We'll be back next year!

50 Years Ago

2006-05-12T18:19:00.000-04:00

As I gazed out the seventh floor window at UCSF Children's Hospital I saw a ship coming into San Francisco Bay. Riley was doing better and I had stepped out of his room. I gradually realized that I had been where that cargo ship was - fifty years ago!

We sailed from Manila, through Hong Kong, Nagoya and Yokohama with a rail trip to Tokyo. We visited friends in Tokyo and saw the big Buddha in Kyoto. This time it was a larger cargo vessel of the Pacific Far East Line, the Golden Bear of the Mariner Class. The ship carried Copra, Mahogany and frozen Tuna. A bigger ship was a dream to a teenager who had made the voyage to Manila on the much smaller Liberty ship the California Bear. Sailing the Pacific on a freighter was great. You got to know many of the crew and most of the officers. Regular access to the radio room and bridge and freedom to walk the deck in all but the most severe weather kept us busy while on the open sea. We bought binoculars in Hong Kong so I spent a lot of time scanning the sea and Dad and I often observed constellations in the clear dark night sky.

There were five of us; Mom, Dad, Len my younger brother and Paul who was an infant born in Manila. The meals on the ship were like daily banquets. We were often on a very tight budget during the four years we spent in the Philippines. Steak twice a week and turkey on Thursdays seemed like heaven. There were lemons and pears in our stateroom.

I clearly remember the building excitement in the hours before we saw land that day in March of 1956. We were up early scanning the eastern horizon. The harbor pilot arrived in a beautiful sailboat, teak decks gleaming. Soon we could make out the bridge.

I will never forget sailing under the Golden Gate. I looked up at those giant golden cables. I was home.

Welcome Home Riley

2006-05-07T18:45:00.000-04:00

After Fontan surgery, three days of ECMO bypass therapy, maybe 25 chest X-Rays, two heart catherizations, a couple of echograms and being waked for vitals too many times to count, Riley Mackenzie Norton came home from the hospital. He was discharged from the University of California at San Francisco on April 27, 2006, after 37 days.

As I write he has been home 10 days. He is making steady progress regaining his strength. He is walking without stiffness, standing up by himself and eating better. At medicine time he struggles because some taste horrible and they upset his stomach. His medicines seem to affect his eating as does the lowfat diet he needs to be on until Thursday. Still, he continues to be brave and take his medicine.

Best of all he is increasingly himself with that beautiful smile, neat sense of humor and great personality. He plays with his cars and trains, spots every Prius on the road (his Grammy has one) and knows numbers and letters enough to startle people on elevators. In many ways he is a typical smart little 3 year old.

Fortunately he has little memory of when he was really sick.

We do, and I am so grateful to have him home and getting better. I am also incredibly grateful to friends, family and people I do not know for the prayers, gifts, meals and other support during a sometimes terrifying time. Thank you all.

A shout out and thank you to the heroes at the hospital who cared for Riley, intervened when he had a crisis, gave him one-on-one care in the Pediatric Cardiatric Intensive Care Unit and helped him regain the strength and health he needed to go home. I won't try to list the heroes because the names I might forget are the ones who were there during the most intense times.

Welcome home little man. You teach us so much each day. You make me a very rich Grampy.

Heart Surgery

2006-03-03T20:05:00.000-05:00

The Red Sox, Bills and even politics are not as important as my grandson Riley's hospitalization. He has just returned home from an exhausting day of heart catherization and will have surgery on March 9th. So, I will not be posting for awhile.

If you want to follow Riley's progress see Riley's Blog.

Just Like Mom

2006-02-26T15:50:00.000-05:00

Milk and Cookies. They served milk and warm chocolate chip cookies.

Yesterday I got upgraded to first class on a flight to the west coast. I had plenty of room for my legs and the service was great.

For desert they brought me a warm chocolate chip cookie and milk.

One of my foundest childhood memories is the smell of chocolate chip "Tollhouse" cookies fresh from the oven. Mom would pour us a glass of milk to chase them down.

Mom died a year ago today. We miss you Mom.

Matters of the Heart

2006-02-14T14:14:00.000-05:00

My grandson Riley is scheduled for heart surgery on March 9. He was born with only one pump or ventricle. I am so grateful that modern medicine has the capability they do today. Dr. Karl and the staff at USCF have given us a bright little boy who brings great joy to his grandfather.

Riley’s Dad tells you more in his blog.

Bono Preaches to Bush

2006-02-03T18:19:00.000-05:00

The entre of a socially engaged rock star is absolutely amazing.

Yesterday (February 2, 2006) Bono spoke at the national prayer breakfast.

You can read a transcript of his speech here (registration is required).

Does Bush Have a Tin Ear?

2006-02-02T22:18:00.000-05:00

Are you listening to yourself Mr. President?

Does he have any idea how his arrogance sounds to those he has sworn to govern? Or was he posturing for the very rich and his fellow oilmen?

Why would you allow yourself to be quoted defending $36.13 billion in windfall profits for ExxonMobil this past year? Without his hubris, wouldn’t you think the smart thing would be to keep your mouth shut?

So, he is out of the closet, he has admitted that he is the President of the very rich; the working stiff and the poor be damned.

State of the Union?

2006-02-01T23:36:00.000-05:00

“President Bush says, ‘America is addicted to oil.’” That was what I heard as I started my car this morning. I laughed outloud! I guess it was good that I was driving alone.

But it gave me an idea. What else did President Bush say in the State of the Union Address (SOTU)? What was true, what was spin and what hope, if any, can we take from his speech last night?

I am trained in biblical exegesis, so I know that you can take any quote out of context. I have supplied a link to the official version of the SOTU, see the context for yourself. What I would like to do is supply context to what he said, to give him props when I can, and to call him on things that make no sense.

“Today our nation lost a beloved, graceful, courageous woman who called America to its founding ideals and carried on a noble dream.”

Kind and well deserved words for Coretta Scott King who died on Monday.

“In a system of two parties, two chambers, and two elected branches, there will always be differences and debate. But even tough debates can be conducted in a civil tone, and our differences cannot be allowed to harden into anger. To confront the great issues before us, we must act in a spirit of goodwill and respect for one another -- and I will do my part.”

I hope that this signifies that the administration is turning the page. A truly civil, democratic dialogue would be refreshing and good for our country. Keeping Karl Rove around suggests that this is spin, but we shall see. Questioning Rep. Murtha’s patriotism is not exactly civil discourse, so there is need for change from the President, Vice President and others who work for him.

“In a complex and challenging time, the road of isolationism and protectionism may seem broad and inviting -- yet it ends in danger and decline.

“The United States will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil.”

Just who is the isolationist? The one who goes to war when most of the world is against it? And, why are there so few mentions of world affairs in SOTU? Aside from terrorism and countries that in the past he has labeled, “The Axis of Evil” he gives few concrete references. No mention of Latin America, where the Bush administration’s policies are failing. No specific mention of Africa? That sure cannot make Bono confident that Bush will keep his promises on debt and HIV.

Secretary Rice deserves credit for patching things up with Europe especially. She has made her mark and perhaps the last four years of Bush’s administration will be less isolationist. Of course, we could use a President who knew the world better and traveled a bit more.

“Along the way, we have benefitted from responsible criticism and counsel offered by members of Congress of both parties. In the coming year, I will continue to reach out and seek your good advice. Yet, there is a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success, and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure. (Applause.) Hindsight alone is not wisdom, and second-guessing is not a strategy. (Applause.)”

“Strategy?” Hello! Was there a strategy in going into Iraq? Did anyone plan for the predicted insurgency? Were our troops given the proper armor and equipment? I heard an interesting presentation from The Commonwealth Club this week. It was apparently taped in December and featured several service men and women who had returned from Iraq. One, a woman, was there at the beginning. All she had was a Kevlar vest. She had to buy her own body armor. Their Humvees, she said, were about 20 years old and pretty beaten up. They were also not well armored. Another, a man, had arrived about 18 months after her. He said they had good equipment including, “Up armored Humvees,” which were pretty, “Robust.” Did the public outcry about armor cause the Pentagon to correct bad planning?

“The Palestinian people have voted in elections. And now the leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel, disarm, reject terrorism, and work for lasting peace. (Applause.)”

The results of the Palestinian election point to the failure of Bush administration policy, and bias toward Israel. We need a more balanced policy that calls for justice on both sides.

“Our work in Iraq is difficult because our enemy is brutal….Fellow citizens, we are in this fight to win, and we are winning. (Applause.)”

In some ways winning in Iraq is irrelevant. Are we winning the “War on Terrorism?” Iraq has been a diversion; have we caught Osama? Because we are in Iraq there are hundreds more terrorists, a decentralized command structure that will be harder to root out and we have provided a training ground in terrorist technology.

“It is said that prior to the attacks of September the 11th, our government failed to connect the dots of the conspiracy. We now know that two of the hijackers in the United States placed telephone calls to al Qaeda operatives overseas. But we did not know about their plans until it was too late. So to prevent another attack –- based on authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute -- I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program to aggressively pursue the international communications of suspected al Qaeda operatives and affiliates to and from America. Previous Presidents have used the same constitutional authority I have, and federal courts have approved the use of that authority. Appropriate members of Congress have been kept informed. The terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America. If there are people inside our country who are talking with al Qaeda, we want to know about it, because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again. (Applause.)”

The President came to Buffalo in April 2004. He lied to about 500 law enforcement officers. He said, “Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires _ a wiretap requires a court order. "Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so." Why did he need to lie if he had the constitutional and legal authority to order wiretaps?

“Our economy is healthy and vigorous, and growing faster than other major industrialized nations. In the last two-and-a-half years, America has created 4.6 million new jobs -- more than Japan and the European Union combined. (Applause.)”

The President conveniently fails to note that this 1.5% job growth is low for comparable stages of economic cycles. He also fails to tell you that only the top 5% of families experienced any real wage growth on his watch. Are his tax cuts working? They are only if you are among the very rich.

“Tonight I will set out a better path: an agenda for a nation that competes with confidence; an agenda that will raise standards of living and generate new jobs. Americans should not fear our economic future, because we intend to shape it.”

OK! I am waiting for him to shape the economy in this world of global competition in ways that are fair to American workers. How is he going to help American industry to compete? Is his healthcare reform going to help?

“We must also confront the larger challenge of mandatory spending, or entitlements. This year, the first of about 78 million baby boomers turn 60, including two of my Dad's favorite people -- me and President Clinton. (Laughter.) This milestone is more than a personal crisis -- (laughter) -- it is a national challenge. The retirement of the baby boom generation will put unprecedented strains on the federal government. By 2030, spending for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid alone will be almost 60 percent of the entire federal budget. And that will present future Congresses with impossible choices -- staggering tax increases, immense deficits, or deep cuts in every category of spending. ‘Congress did not act last year on my proposal to save Social Security -- (applause) -- yet the rising cost of entitlements is a problem that is not going away. (Applause.) And every year we fail to act, the situation gets worse.

“So tonight, I ask you to join me in creating a commission to examine the full impact of baby boom retirements on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This commission should include members of Congress of both parties, and offer bipartisan solutions. We need to put aside partisan politics and work together and get this problem solved. (Applause.)”

Thank God and some smart Congresspersons who saw that Bush’s plan to “personalize” Social Security did not solve the problem of solvency of the Social Security Trust. So, we need another commission? I hope it is truly bipartisan, has no one on it that is afraid of getting bounced from office, and has some guts. It is a good way to dodge the issue for a few more years. Forgive me if I don’t hold my breath.

“Keeping America competitive requires affordable health care. (Applause.) Our government has a responsibility to provide health care for the poor and the elderly,and we are meeting that responsibility. (Applause.) For all Americans -- for all Americans, we must confront the rising cost of care, strengthen the doctor-patient relationship, and help people afford the insurance coverage they need. (Applause.)

“We will make wider use of electronic records and other health information technology, to help control costs and reduce dangerous medical errors. We will strengthen health savings accounts -- making sure individuals and small business employees can buy insurance with the same advantages that people working for big businesses now get. (Applause.) We will do more to make this coverage portable, so workers can switch jobs without having to worry about losing their health insurance. (Applause.) And because lawsuits are driving many good doctors out of practice -- leaving women in nearly 1,500 American counties without a single OB/GYN -- I ask the Congress to pass medical liability reform this year. (Applause.)”

Well they cut Medicaid. Medicare prescription drug plan is a disaster, good thing he did not brag about it in the speech. Medical insurance accounts. Give me a break! Does he have any sense of decency and understanding about the poor, the working poor, and the average American who works from paycheck to paycheck? We need real healthcare reform, and yes the poor need real protection as does the middle class family that can be wiped out with one hospitalization. Oh, tort reform, like that for the gun manufacturers that takes away all responsibility and gives them a free ride?

“America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world.”

Who knew? How much are we paying this guy to tell us the obvious?

“To change how we power our homes and offices, we will invest more in zero-emission coal-fired plants, revolutionary solar and wind technologies, and clean, safe nuclear energy. (Applause.) “Breakthroughs on this and other new
technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. (Applause.) By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment,move beyond a petroleum-based economy, and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past. (Applause.)”

Let’s see if we get some real proposals and the money to back them up here. I am no expert, but so far there is no such thing as clean coal. If we can make zero emission coal happen, we may have something. Nuclear? You have got to be kidding!

“Tonight I announce an American Competitiveness Initiative, to encourage innovation throughout our economy, and to give our nation's children a firm grounding in math and science. (Applause.)”

“Every Child Left Behind” gives me absolutely no confidence that Bush will fund any of his educational mandates. They have it so convenient in Washington; you pass a law, then fail to authorize the funding. You then brag about it for four more years.

“A hopeful society expects elected officials to uphold the public trust. (Applause.) Honorable people in both parties are working on reforms to strengthen the ethical standards of Washington -- I support your efforts. Each of us has made a pledge to be worthy of public responsibility -- and that is a pledge we must never forget, never dismiss, and never betray. (Applause.)”

Both parties are sinners here. Let’s not talk about lobby reform, let’s talk about congressional ethic reform.

"In New Orleans and in other places, many of our fellow citizens have felt excluded from the promise of our country. The answer is not only temporary relief, but schools that teach every child, and job skills that bring upward mobility, and more opportunities to own a home and start a business. As we recover from a disaster, let us also work for the day when all Americans are protected by justice, equal in hope, and rich in opportunity. (Applause.)"

Mr. President, talking about this after the disaster and in the SOTU is not enough. Put the money on the table. Your current budget proposals leave out 140,000 homeowners.

Another Outrage

2006-01-27T20:16:00.000-05:00

Their neighbors knew. The New York Times knew. But it took four months for John David Allen’s parents to find out he was dead and to recover his ashes and those of his wife. They were about to be, “disposed of.”

Allen’s parents got no answers when they called the Red Cross; too busy with the living to list the dead. Worse yet, FEMA had, “no information,” for months. Finally Allen’s father asked, “Where do you take the bodies?” He was told to call the local coroner. He finally got an answer. The coroner’s office had known for two months. The bodies of John David Allen and Susan his wife had been cremated.

When questioned by the media about this shameful episode, FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney said it was the local medical examiner's job to call next of kin. If that does not work? They might have ''some discussion in the future of ensuring that the local coroner has the ability to do that.''

''We grieve with this family,'' he said.

Hello, is anyone home?

Why? With all the technology available today, why would the coroner and FEMA not have a central list? Why after being told that “Brownie” was, “doing a great job,” is there still so much incompetence in an agency that is integral to our response not only to natural disasters, but to terrorist attacks?

The Bush administration thought that FEMA was unimportant. Because of their radical ideology, they thought that disaster response was the work of faith-based (read churches) groups. Even after 9/11/2001, they downplayed FEMA’s work. They gutted the agency and replaced disaster professionals with political cronies. After all, Brown knew Arabian horses!

It is part of a pattern driven by the Bushies right wing ideology. Conservatives think that government is part of the problem giving us things like welfare fraud and lack of personal responsibility. To those who think I am a conspiracy theorist I offer a quote from a conservative guru, Grover Norquist. He says, “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." So FEMA became one of their targets. What they gave us was shameful incompetence in the face of tragedy.

There is something ironic about this administration. They are social conservatives, even fundamentalists, but they are not true conservatives in the classic sense. They have not made government smaller and leaner. They have created bloat and deficits for as far as the eye can see. Don’t take my word for it; read George Will the columnist, he is fed up. Now there is a smart conservative!

Although the conversation may never be resolved, I welcome a discussion of the proper role of government. I get frustrated and indignant when the Bush administration cuts away at vital programs without public debate. Not that we should expect dialogue! This administration excludes alternative viewpoints and cordons opponents behind distant barricades whenever Bush appears.

What are proper government roles?

Faith-based groups have been nothing short of heroic in the face of the Katrina tragedy. My own brother was in the Gulf Coast region for about a week with a church group. There is a place for disaster response by churches, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other charities.

However, they cannot provide the overall management that must be the responsibility of government, specifically FEMA. Each level of government; municipality, state and federal have their roles. When a major disaster strikes, someone should have a plan and someone should know who is in charge. FEMA has to know what the plan is and FEMA bears the burden of coordination. Only the federal government can bring enough resources to bear, both on the eve of impending disaster, and in the aftermath.

It seems to me that there are two issues here. First, we need a public dialogue about government roles. We could use the help of Congress here. Second, we need competence in government, not cronyism. Maybe we should hire some of the professionals who run their churches better than this crowd runs our government.

Now, if we could get the other party to see the light and provide a vision for change.

Take That Wal Mart!

2006-01-13T23:02:00.000-05:00

Legislators in Maryland took a novel approach to Health Care reform yesterday. Both the Senate and the House voted (registration necessary) to require that an employer with more than 10,000 employees spend at least 8% of their payroll on health care for their workers. Absent the 8% the employer must make a contribution to the state’s Medicaid program.

Apparently Wal Mart is the only company known to meet the criteria of the bill. Legislators seem fed up with Wal Mart’s corporate policy to finance “Always Low Prices” on the back of low wage associates. As many as half must take Medicaid because their wages are too low to afford health insurance. “The taxpayers are giving a health-care subsidy to the largest retailer on earth,” according to Democratic Kumar Havre who voted for the bill. The vote on Thursday, January 12, 2006 provided an override of governor Robert Ehrlich’s May 2005 veto.

Certainly Wal Mart should be a better corporate citizen. Did they not once advertise that they sold “Made in America?” Now what they sell is made in China because they chase after the lowest possible price and they pay the lowest possible wage. One can hardly blame Maryland’s legislators for being tired of a giant who feeds off the public trough by forcing their workers to take Medicaid. Their shady employment practices have included denial of lunch breaks and mandatory overtime off the clock.

Is this law good public policy? Why should a person’s employer be responsible for her health insurance? True, union efforts led to health insurance coverage in many industries during the previous century. Union members are justifiably proud of contracts that include complete health care coverage and other benefits.

However, we live in a world of global competition and giants such as Delphi and their former parent General Motors are beginning to choke on the competitive burden of health care. Face it; health care in the U.S. is broken. Just this past week I visited a high-rise office building owned by a local health insurer. Each person in that building is part of our health care system, but not one of them is providing health care, either preventative or curative. Instead they are pushing papers and interfering in doctors’ lives:

"Above all, a large part of America's health care spending goes into paperwork. A 2003 study in The New England Journal of Medicine estimated that administrative costs took 31 cents out of every dollar the United States spent on health care, compared with only 17 cents in Canada." (Paul Krugman, NY Times Op Ed Columnist, April 15, 2005)

President George W. Bush believes that global competition is good, that it will engender jobs in the end. Low paying jobs, that is. No wonder he has admitted that he does not understand the struggles of the poor. He was born not only with a silver spoon, but also with a free pass to the oval office. It is time that our government did something to protect the American way of life and stop the shrinking of the middle class. Health Care must be one of the first priorities in this effort.

The American worker and her family don’t have time to wait for the federal government to fix health care. Krugman points to ideology and vested interests as the two barriers to real reform in the Washington of the Republicans. So, the Maryland approach to corporate leeches has one thing going for it. The fix must begin at the state level. Thirty other states are reportedly watching Maryland closely on this one. You could also look at Kansas where Democratic Governor Kathleen Sebelius recently unveiled CommunityRx Kansas, to make medications more affordable to lower income citizens. Like Maryland’s efforts these are just beginnings.

I am no expert on health care reform, but I am working on learning all I can. What I have learned so far follows.

First, we need to begin at the state level as Maryland has done. We may be able to bring change to Washington, DC but it will take too much time. I am a member of the Working Families Party of New York (see my links). The party has made health care reform in our state our focus for this year.

Second, and this pains, we will have to have some private sector involvement. My Aunt, who spent her life in health care and was married to a physician, would kill me if I called for single carrier coverage by the government. Nevertheless, I believe that the richest country in the world should not have 46 million uninsured, many of them children. So, given the current political climate, the pragmatic approach is to involve the private sector. One caveat, we have got to get the administrative costs down.

Third, there needs to be some incentive for individuals to control the costs of their own care. Choose generic drugs instead of pricey new pharmaceuticals and visit the doctor regularly but not too often. Such choices should be a personal responsibility and rewarded in some way to help keep costs down.

Fourth we can no longer put the burden of health insurance on the employer alone. Toyota is building a new plant in Canada at least partly because of the stability of health care there. Global competition is by nature an unlevel playing field. To protect the American middle class and care for those most in need, we need to view health care reform as a national priority.

We also need to be proactive and speak for the poor laborer in China to ensure human rights and equity in the global marketplace.

I owe some of these ideas, including the one about involving the private sector to the Progressive Policy Institute. If you are interested in further study, check out the link at the end of this post.

No Respect!

2006-01-10T21:03:00.000-05:00

Rodney Dangerfield said, “I don’t get no respect!”

Jim Rice could say the same thing and occasionally did in his younger days. With 382 home runs, 2,452 hits, 1,451 RBIs and a .298 lifetime average, Rice missed the Hall of Fame today. He played in 2,089 games from 1974 to 1989. According Boston Red Sox historian Dick Bresciani, Rice’s numbers exceed all players active in his time frame.

In his rookie year (1975) he hit 22 home runs and batted .309 with an on base percentage of .350. We need some perspective here. The steroid-fueled home run totals of the ‘90’s cannot be compared. On any other team that went to the series (I am not going there) Jim Rice would have been MVP. Trouble was he arrived the same year another young outfielder did. Freddy Lynn was both Rookie of the Year and MVP with numbers a bit better than his.

Fred Lynn had a good career, but not near as good a career as Rice, who stayed with the Red Sox for the duration.

Today he received 64.8 percent of the vote. Each year he has gained votes keeping him on the ballot. But, next year Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken will be on the ballot. They will go in their first year.

There will also be a guy named Mark McGwire on next year’s ballot. He will have to await his fate.

Jim Rice don’t get no respect. He belongs in the Hall!

We Don't Miss a Beat

2005-12-27T16:18:00.000-05:00

Riley and his parents are in town for the holidays. We have been having a wonderful time and he has been entertaining us with his humor and his love.

What strikes me about the last couple of visits is how we just take up where we left off. There is no need for reacquainting ourselves, he just says something like, “Hi Grampy,” and we dive right into being together.

Maybe I should explain that I am a third culture kid. I did not see my grandparents for sometimes years at a time, so I had to get their measure each time we got together. There was always a slow warming up period. Even before we traveled to the Philippines one set of grandparents lived on the west coast while we lived on the east coast. It was much more expensive to travel in those days, so I would see them only every three of years or so.

Riley knows his family. The night he arrived I was honored to read him his bedtime stories. Most of the time he works me for at least two books. At story time I have developed a pattern of talking about his adventures of the day. His plane trip was longer than scheduled and very tiring, but he was surprisingly fresh. We talked about his trip on the airplanes (he loves airplanes, cars and trains). I asked, “Who met you at the airport?” He said, “Grammy and Grampy." He thought a bit and said, "Did we see Auntie?” “No,” I said, “Auntie is coming in a couple days.” Just three days before Riley and I had talked by phone and his parents had reminded him that he would see Grammy, Grampy, Auntie, Grandma and Grandpa on this trip. He was looking for his family and making a mental inventory of them.

It makes me happy that we are such friends, Riley and I. I am sure that it is kind of amazing to me because it is so different from my experience as a child. I sure do like it and will keep it that way, making sure that I spend time with his parents and him whether he is scheduled for surgery or not.

Welcome Home Dan!

2005-12-15T13:12:00.000-05:00

Dan is home from Iraq I am told. He is the second close co-worker of mine sent for a year or more to Iraq. I doubt that there has been a day in more than a year that I have not thought and prayed about Dan being in harms way. I thought about his wife and daughter each of those days too.

Shortly after 9/11 I promised Dan that I would not march on the White House. He knew that I had protested there before. We both knew that as a soldier in the reserves, his life would change because of the attacks. I wanted him to know that I respected his choice to serve and that I supported him as a member of the military.

When the Bush administration sent our young men and women to invade Iraq for reasons they are still trying to articulate, Dan released me from my promise. They went with too few troops and not enough armored equipment into a land that had nothing to do with 9/11.

If a country must have a military, Dan is just the kind of guy you want to be a soldier. He’s smart, tough, strong and has a heart of gold. Of course, we are not supposed to know that he has that heart, but he does. If U.S. troops are going to occupy Iraq, then I want Dan and soldiers like him to represent us. In the mess of a war, perhaps they can show the Iraqi people that we are a decent caring culture that wishes them success building their nation.

For those of us against the war there is a constant tension between necessary protest and supporting men and women who have been ordered to Iraq. Democracy sometimes gets a little messy even here in the States.

I no longer work there. I will not get to welcome Dan when he returns to work the first of the year. But, I am very glad he is home safe.

Welcome home Dan!

Another Management Principle

2005-12-11T23:30:00.000-05:00

Recently I wrote about two principles from my management guru, Harry S. Truman.

To be sure I had my quotes right I looked again at some of Truman’s wisdom. I found enough to blog for a month.

Here is another management principle from our 33rd President:

"You can never get all the facts from just one newspaper, and unless you have all the facts, you cannot make proper judgments about what is going on."

A manager must resist the temptation to surround herself with “yes people.” It is easy to hear people toeing your line, but in any enterprise you need to look at all sides of an issue.

Getting all the facts, making sure that alternate or opposing views are heard is essential. A vital principle to remember when you are running a country, especially God forbid, if you are planning a war.

Everything that has happened on the ground in Iraq was predicted by voices that should have been heard.

By the way, if you are managing product development, you will be interested in a brilliant blog on getting facts by listening to customers. If I seem too biased, after you read it, come back and tell me.

Management Principles

2005-12-09T17:56:00.000-05:00

Most people know that President Harry S. Truman had a sign on his desk that said:

The buck stops here!

Many may not know that he is also quoted as saying:

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

Two principles of management. Managers sometimes forget one or both.

According to Newsweek online, President George W. Bush admires Truman.

Which one of the principles is Bush forgetting?

The Hardest Part

2005-12-08T17:09:00.000-05:00

I wish you could meet Riley. He’s the little guy that made me Grampy in Chief two and a half years ago. He is good looking (he gets that from his parents), smart, curious and funny. He loves cars, airplanes and baseball. Baseball is in his genes, so his mother has become a fan too. If you met him you would be impressed but think that he’s just a normal kid.

On Monday we were abruptly reminded that he is not just a normal kid. Riley was born with a heart defect. He has a single ventricle and no spleen. So, even though 2005 has been hospital free and Riley has been thriving, the clock has been ticking. The two open-heart surgeries of his past lead to a third. His cardiologist scheduled the surgery. We were all taken aback because he has been doing so well. We thought we had more time. (His Mom and Dad have written about their reactions.)

On March 2, 2006 Riley will have a heart catherization. They will map his heart and the major blood vessels in preparation for surgery. The Fontan operation will be a week later, March 9.

Riley has the best care in the world. The staff at UCSF is phenomenal. His surgeon, Dr. Karl is one of the very best pediatric heart surgeons. The nursing staff in the PICU is highly trained, focused and caring. They operate on infants and children on a daily basis so they are skilled and experienced.

We want to protect our children and grandchildren. Handing Riley over to the anesthesiologists, waiting for hours during surgery, looking at the little guy with all the wires and tubes, and worrying when his temp spikes, those are the hard parts.

I have only about three months to get prepared.

The Ball That Stopped My Heart

2005-12-01T22:37:00.000-05:00

86 years! My father was two when the Red Sox had last won the World Series.

86 years! The Sox were down 3-0 to the hated Yankees in the ALCS, the curse seemed still alive.

Wait, the Red Sox won the next four games. They won three more against a great St. Louis Cardinals team.

If you are a member of the Red Sox Nation, you were pumped during that fourth game, but there was always the curse…

Then, a soft underhand toss from Foulke to Mientkiewicz and the curse was dead!

I don’t know what the judge of Suffolk Superior Court will say about who’s ball that is. But, I do know to whom it belongs. It belongs to the Red Sox Nation and it belongs to history.

You have...Cancer

2005-11-30T10:52:00.000-05:00

Cancer Survivor.

Those words have been reverberating in my head for the past forty-eight hours. I used them in a phone conversation with Joe.

Is that who I am? Most days I think about it very little. I don’t wear a yellow wristband, a pink ribbon or other identifying symbol. I haven’t started a foundation or charity ride. Although I revel in riding my bike, I have ridden for a cure for other diseases but not for cancer.

It has been three and a half years since my urologist called and asked me to come to his office early. He said, “We have to talk.” Time stands still when you are told you have cancer, but I was not paralyzed with fear or indecision. I went right to work getting a second opinion. I did research on the internet. Most importantly, I talked with my family. My son said, “Dad, I want your grandchildren to know you.” I chose an aggressive treatment because of those talks with my children.

It has been more than three years since the surgery. I am not the man I used to be, but I am alive, active and enjoying life. In some ways I am still healing, I just got back on the bicycle this past spring. Nevertheless, I don’t think of myself as a “cancer survivor” very often. I cannot say that I get up every morning rejoicing that I am alive. Nor do I value life at some metaphysical level in a way different than before.

Right after the surgery I had this evangelistic zeal to convince men over fifty to get a regular PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) test. I told them they should do Kegel exercises everyday for the rest of their lives. Men don’t generally talk about those things, nor do they usually get regular checkups. We should because we can save lives. An estimated 30,350 men will die of prostate cancer in 2005. My son will need to be aware of all of this because both his father and grandfather had prostate cancer, increasing his risk.

Yet, I have quieted down about all of that since then. I worked with Joe for about four months. Only during a phone conversation about health insurance did I use the words “cancer survivor.” Now that I think about it, I am a month or two late for my follow-up PSA. I am supposed to have one every six months for five years. So far there has been no reoccurrence. Five-year survival rates for prostate cancer diagnosed and treated early approach 100%. Since the cancer was restricted to the prostate, I did not have any post surgical treatment such as radiation or additional hormones.

So, why don’t I wear my identity as a cancer survivor on my sleeve or wrist? I am not sure that I know all of the answer to that. But, when I reflect on it, I am glad to be here, to know my grandson and to hang out with my family when I can. Life is good and I hope to stay around a good bit longer.

End Gerrymandering

2005-11-25T14:38:00.000-05:00

There is one fundamental change that can return political power to voters in New York and several other states. We can change the process of redistricting.

After every census political boundaries are redrawn. In New York politicians control the process. The result is incumbent and/or partisan protection. Although my Congresswoman Louise Slaughter’s district does not look like a salamander, a look at the map will convince you that something other than pure logic is at work.

The net effect of the map of my district was the loss of one Democratic seat and the provision of a safe district for Congressman Tom Reynolds, Republican. Perhaps it was so he can give more of his time to enlarging the Republican majority in the House.

In Texas there was a different result. The money and influence of Tom Delay led to an increase of five new Republican House members in Washington, giving him even more power. Of course he is now under indictment for laundering some money in the process.

The redistricting for the 2002 elections here in New York frustrated me a good deal. At the time I lived in Tom Reynolds’ district. That made me even madder. At a banquet where Louise Slaughter was keynote speaker, I offered three draft choices and a player to be named later to swap Representatives. I eventually moved and am now in her district.

I have to credit Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for making me aware of an alternative. We can at least somewhat de-politicize the redistricting process with a nonpartisan commission. Pity the Governor got greedy and tried to change everything at once.

So I have been lobbying for a commission with my political friends and party leaders ever since. I suggested it in a meeting this fall with a party executive. He immediately let me know that this was a nonstarter in New York. Why would the Republicans and Democrats in Albany, “Give up their power?” Why, indeed?

Now there is a starter for the idea in my state. State Attorney General Elliot Spitzer has made it a part of his platform in his run for Governor. The Buffalo News beat me to the keyboard with an editorial supporting his call for reform the next day.

We have about five years to make this happen in New York. We can support Spitzer’s call for redistricting reform, make it a big part of the election for governor during this next year and put the pressure on party and legislative leadership. Let’s elect them rather than having them choosing us!

If you want more information about models for reform visit The United States Elections Project.

What Would Jeremiah Say?

2005-11-22T14:59:00.000-05:00

Maybe I need a support group.

I am fed up and angry. I am also a bit embarrassed. Why? Because the political conversation in our country seems more and more controlled by the so-called “people of faith” on the religious right. I know those people; in fact I come from the “Evangelical” tradition. I used to say that I was an evangelical with a small “e.” I guess I was wiser than I realized.

So, what really bothers me? First, is the tenor of the conversation. What we have now is polarizing hate. The leadership of the religious right has resorted to vindictive and manipulative language and methods to get their way.

Second, is how being a person of faith is defined. Religious people have always been selective of the scriptures they emphasize. People of the Christian right ignore the parts of the Bible that make them uncomfortable.

Their selective reading of their scriptures is most clearly illustrated in their call for a “culture of life.” Are you for life? Then you try to pack the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. You interfere in the private agony of end of life issues with Terri Schiavo. But you say nothing about the 2,100 military men and women killed in Iraq. And, the Iraqi deaths reliably estimated at more than 30,000? Silence.

Is it a culture of life to suggest that our government “take out” the president of a neighboring country? How about calling God’s wrath down on citizens who threw out a school board that interfered in the teaching of science?

Perhaps the opinion makers among the Christian right have become too comfortable in their middle class affluence. They fail to hear the voices of the poor and oppressed when Congress makes a dishonest show of reducing the deficit. Congressional leadership wants to cut Medicaid and food stamps; programs for our most vulnerable. On the other hand they plan to cut taxes for the very rich. Where are the voices of outrage?

Let me guess. Each Sunday more and more U.S. Christians gather in huge auditoriums at churches that cost millions. Then they return to their middle class homes. God forbid that they be discomforted.

God sent the prophet Jeremiah to a king with a building program. What he told the affluent king is in the Bible. Here is what he said:

Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him.
He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 22:15,16)