The Great Compromise (or why we have all these idiots in Congress)

I have watched with great dismay the ugly battle in congress over he debt ceiling increase. I realize that issues are complicated, and solutions are elusive. The real losers in this debate is of course the American citizens who have lost almost $3 billion in interest and in taxes in the debt ceiling battle in the past three weeks, not to mention loss in stock value and other things such as prestige and mental health. Compromise has become a dirty word, as one side decided it was more important to remain faithful to a pledge kept in a vault and not give any ground than to remain faithful to their constituents and the voters' concerns.

It was the Great Compromise that allowed the USA to have so many representatives in the first place. Perhaps there never should have been a compromise in 1787 that allowed for a bicameral congress. Maybe there are not enough statesmen(women) available to have 535 people in the congress, so there is an opening for idiots. There has been a plethora of "leaders' who have tunnel vision, one issue, without regard for the broad issues that affect all Americans, and the real solutions to the problems.

Perhaps our founders had it wrong. One house in congress, only two representatives per state (the Senate) or maybe one house with the number of representatives based only on population may have been simpler. Of course, there had to be the three fifths compromise which allowed for the slave states to pad their population totals by counting slaves but not as equal to non-slaves. Then there was the compromise of 1850 which allowed California to enter the union as a free state, as long as fugitive slaves could be returned to their owners.

Compromise does have its difficult side, and brings about the general welfare at times;  but it has its rough edges that really hurt at other times. I guess the bottom line is  who gets screwed in the final analysis, the rich or the poor, or all of us.

Doomsday! I don't think so.

So this is doomsday. What rubbish! For years, centuries, religion has been hijacked by fringe elements in society. These elements use any "holy book" to justify the craziest and often the most deadly hateful actions. From crusades to jihad, Jonestown to polygamous slavery in the beautiful Rockies, bombing of health clinics to stoning women for adultery.

When will we realize that the "holy books" justify nothing but good behavior toward each other, that life is more important than death or inflicting such on others, and we ought to judge no one.

The books were written in a time and place for a people living in that time and place. Some of the items in the books present us with timeless truths in an easy to recall format: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for example. Usually, the more recent writings offer corrections on the older writings, and indeed, there are things written in the books which have been corrected by great teachers and society since then: refinements on marriage that have freed women from slavery to a husband, same sex relationships, and more. We are a living breathing society, ever striving to come to grips with the world in which we live. We take time honored truth and apply it to our times, with nuances that adapt to our time.

Most of all, it is not at all helpful for "prophets" or "clergy" to twist the truth contained in the "holy books" to manipulate people who depend on them for leadership.

Holy Saturday- get ready for tomorrow

Holy Saturday is always an odd day in the calendar. Sort of like, everything happened that could happen last week, and now we wait. Of course in this scenario, we know the happy ending of resurrection. Life is similar to Holy Saturday. We live it to the hilt, everything happens, and fortunately, there is resurrection in the form of relief, new challenges, and new life.

An easy example is the transition from one job to a new one in another city. What happens in between! There is relief that one phase is over. There is a feeling of accomplishment that one job has been done well. We will miss the close contacts and immediate support of friends made over the years. We also remember the pain of growing into that job and the battle to maintain ourselves in our position despite the machinations of those who would undo our successes.

Then the new job comes. It means severing ties and moving to a new venue. The job description seems okay and doable. The new digs are yet to be determined. Relationships have to be built. There is time for buyers remorse. Ghosts and chasms pop into our minds as we wait for the next phase, that of resurrection.

Resurrection takes the same grit and attitude that worked in maintaining ourselves at the previous job. It is not easy. There are boulders to be moved to escape the comfort of the tomb and get on with the readjustment  necessary to stand up and accomplish  great things. It gets done by doing.

The example of job transition is used here, but apply this to any transition phase of life, and see the similarities as we go from work to retirement, healthy unassisted living to disability, spouse to care giving spouse, life to death. Attitude, respite, reset make life liveable.

So, the Holy Saturday phase of life becomes the time of mental adjustment, a brief period to move on from the old ways, take care of ourselves, and get ready for the resurrected life of tomorrow.

Simply a magazine

It seems so simple. Pick up a Martha Stewart Living and start paging through it. feel the pages, caress them a bit, squeeze them to separate them, the aroma of ink, get a close up. Stop. That looks interesting. Maybe start at the back. Hard to find a table of contents or even page numbers. Neat ads. full page, lots of color. Spring flowers, "unhidden gems", chef's special, "tarts from the heart". The latest from Kitchen Aid, Coldwater Creek, Chase or Chanel. Just by turning the pages. Enjoying every moment.

And when she has exhausted that one, there's Time on "Why we're still fighting the Civil War" with a teary Abe Lincoln on the cover, an article in Style about the upcoming royal wedding, a hot ten questions to Robert Redford ; McDonald's, Pringle's, and Direct TV ads. Still the feel of the friendly page. No pressure, no buttons to go back or forward. A fanciful excursion into other worlds.

And then there's Bon Appetit- the Italian issue. This is another world. "Cook like a real Italian." "Text after marriage"- hmmm! what's that about?

 There was nothing to turn on. No reason to feel technologically challenged. No frustration. Just a normal brain pattern, learned in childhood. Then it was Collier's, Saturday Evening Post, Life and Look. It was          then and still is pure pleasure. 

Budget- part 2

I heard the republicans presenting the idea to cut the budget immensely over the next several years, and they pull at my heart strings when the claim is made to hand over a debt free situation to our grandchildren. They deserve to be debt free.

What will life be like for these grandchildren? First of all, they will have had an inferior education in overcrowded class rooms and deteriorating schools. Now that's something to leave them with. They will be able to grapple with how to rebuild schools, and reduce class loads for teachers. They will have the opportunity to determine how to afford a college education for their children. They will feel the sting of jobs moving abroad because that is where the industries have decided is the better trained and less expensive labor force is. It is cheaper to do business because of the favorable tax situation in those countries. The grand kids will have the chance to solve these problems.

Now how about the roads, bridges, cities, and parks. The infrastructure for all of these  is presently on the way to depletion. How will our grandchildren travel? How will goods and produce be shipped? There will be longer and round about ways of doing this, causing higher prices for everything. Fortunately, they will not have to visit the national parks, because they also will be in a state of disrepair. The grand kids will have the opportunity to decide how to rebuild everything for their grandchildren. Why  deprive them of these opportunities? At least they will not be saddled with our debt, some of which might have given them some decent roads, cities, parks and bridges.

And  we can reduce medicare and medicaid. This really helps the grandchildren. It guarantees that there will be plenty of sickness to go around. It assures them that they will have less of a chance of getting the health care they need. Well, maybe not all grandchildren. Just the ones who happen to need this kind of support because they cannot afford any other health insurance. This situation will give that generation the opportunity to do what the grandparents were too fainthearted to do, solve the health care issue.

America will indeed be the land of opportunity for our grandchildren because we have left them the problems instead of the debt. Now that's quite a gift!

I am in favor of the proposal made by Obama's non-.budget committee becoming the working document for reform.

Phone service, make that call!

Just a strange thing. Fairpoint, our phone and internet provider, had sent me and thousands of other customers a brochure offering to save me $20 a month for a year. I figured it was not worth my time because I was already getting one of their best deals. I could use up to 150 minutes a month long distance. No additional charge for local. There   was call waiting and voice mail. It was bundled with  internet access. What more could you ask from a provider that has no competition  in our area. They are in the driver's seat on this. No Verizon tower near enough for wireless, and no internet without Fairpoint either. I decided to waste my time and a call one more time. "Hey, ya never know!" as the lottery ad touts.
Come to find out, they don't even offer the plan I was on any more. I had what I had, yet they were not selling it any more. But surely, if I exceeded my 150 minutes, I would be nicked for .10 a minute over that. Yet, they were not going to simply change me to a new plan unless I called them first. Just keep paying the old price, and the old penalty.
So the new plan is $20 less, unlimited long distance (almost everything is long distance from here.) After a year, the price goes up $10. If I quit them, the only provider of service here, before the year is up, I have to pay them $99.
Funny, of all the useless calls I get from all sorts of nutty companies, one from Fairpoint would have been most welcome. And I urge all of you to check out the phone plans that were good five years ago to make sure they are still the deal they appeared to be then. No one is watching out for you except yourself. Caveat emptor!

March Madness: Notre Dame, what happened?

As "March Madness" envelopes the land, I try to rise above the fray. There are no teams or coaches that I particularly care about. Jimmer Freddette from Glens Falls, NY is one whom I like to keep an eye on. I sometimes look at the conferences to see how many teams from each make it into the sweet sixteen. There are two big east teams left, from a record number of eleven teams in the final 60 or so. Maybe that is the correct proportion. I would follow it more carefully for the first round if Siena made it to the big dance.
 
But I like Notre Dame, a big east competitor. Phyllis' Uncle Bart was a ND graduate in 1930 something. He watched and taped every game possible and often returned to his alma mater for a football game. He remembered the great ones, whom I have forgotten. The night he died, in his nineties, he watched ND win a close basketball game. I had  the pleasure  of watching the first half with him in the hospital. Phyllis and Pat were with me, and when it was time  to go home, Pat said to him "Do you mind if we leave/"  And he looked at them and then at me and said with a twinkle in his eye "He can stay." Of course that was not possible. So I guess I watch Notre Dame sports in his memory, knowing that where Bart is sitting now, he can do a lot more for his team, sometimes.

So I decided to watch Notre Dame enter the sweet sixteen for 2011. I think Bart fell asleep. I think the whole team did. The ball seemed to bounce into FSU players hands  whenever ND had it. The hoops seemed to elevate a foot or two whenever they attempted an inside shot, and beyond the circle.while the ball was in mid-air, magically, the hoop moved back a couple of feet producing an air ball. FSU jumped higher, shot way better, and outplayed the only team I was interested in (except Jimmer's team BYU). I lasted until one minute was left in the first half, and joined Bart in sleep. Maybe I was mad.

UN, Libya, US, quo vadis?

In the early 1960s, while I was living and going to school in Washington, DC, I happened to stumble into a Senate hearing at which Adlai Stevenson was testifying. It could have been a confirmation hearing for Stevenson to assume the ambassadorship to the United Nations. It was easy to get into hearings in those days. I was not fully aware of all the politics that were going on then. Some of those in the hearing included Senator Everett Dirksen and Senator Edward Kennedy. It was Stevenson who was in the lime light, and he relished it. He gave lots of reasons for maintaining membership in the UN and supporting the organization. Among the reasons were the police actions the UN had accomplished in many countries around the globe which were broadly supported by member nations, and which actions would have been impossible if the United States had attempted to do them alone. Participation in the organization made interventions possible because of the shared vision, workload and costs.

Today, the UN has endorsed an action in Libya to safeguard the citizenry there from the threatening vengeful ruler, Khaddafy. We can only hope that the benefits enunciated by Ambassador Stevenson many years ago hold true today. No one wants the USA involved in another war. People here and abroad are tired of America interfering in many other nations' affairs. Here, we ask, where does intervention stop? Why not march into other rebellions- Iran for instance? Do opposition leaders expect USA support and protection? Why Libya, and not another place? Who pays for it all? What guarantees a good outcome for the US?

I think I am glad for the UN to take up the cause of the Libyan people.I am sad that it comes down to arms as a method of solving the problem. I want the people to win, and live in freedom. I worry when bluster replaces real diplomacy. I believe in the latter. There are so many questions and concerns which result in confusion and uncertainty, and  I would like to see the US, the UN, and all parties get back on the right track.

Rah rah, St. Patrick!

Yesterday, I broke  open the box that contained decorations for "Holidays other than Christmas" and placed a few statues of leprechauns around the room, some candles with shamrocks and similarly enhanced napkins and paper plates on the table, and then began hanging some strings of shamrocks on the beams of the porch. It was a beautiful sunshiny March 16, and I began singing what amounted to St. Patrick's Day carols.

"Hail glorious St. Patrick, dear saint of our Isle,
on your dear sweet children bestow a sweet smile..."

Something like that. I looked around and Phyllis was laughing at my antics, and I realized that her experience in catholic schools was way different from mine. She went to Immaculate Conception School, whereas I was  privileged to go to the school named after the greatest saint of all, Patrick.

St. Patrick rocks. He drove the snakes out of Ireland, he tamed the heathen by picking a shamrock and explaining the inexplicable doctrine of the Trinity. But he probably did his share of tippling at the pub, might have tossed refrigerators or microwaves out the window to get rid of those evils. He was our hero, head and shoulders above others. He inspired raucous songs that bring people together and help us unite in the wearing of the green. What a guy!

What can you do with Immaculate Conception, or if you were unlucky enough to go to St. Peter's, or Paul's, or any of the others? Maybe look with wonder and envy as the real saint is honored, and his revelers rejoice!

Rah! Rah! St. Patrick!

Teacher, Unions, and Budget

With all the hubbub about breaking unions as the way to fiscal balance, and teacher unions in particular; with notions that these unions are protecting the weaker members; movement to eliminate the last in first out protection for long term employees;  I am glad that there are teachers' unions.
Good teachers are also protected by unions, and I would say there are more good ones than bad ones. Many good teachers stay for years in the same school district   because they were rightly evaluated and found to be competent and effective and granted tenure. They continue to grow and improve with age. They have built up a wealth of understanding about what makes kids tick. They have developed and continue to develop methods that help students learn. These teachers are often in the middle or near the top of the pay scale.
Without protection, they could be eliminated, replaced with new teachers, and the cost of education plummets, until these new teachers get up onto the pay scale in a couple of years, and they in turn could also be fired. The students would have been denied the expertise of the seasoned teachers, and would be in the hands of the untested, inexperienced group.
Administrators seem to indicate that tenure is unbreakable, and so incompetent teachers cannot be fired. That is not true. It can be done if the administrators make the case and follow the procedures. Is it easy, no. Is it possible yes. Perhaps instead of berating teachers and their unions, it would behoove the people in charge of education to do their jobs as they evaluate, grant tenure, set standards, and exercise other responsibilities in helping our students to learn. 
Add to the list on which everyone is evaluated, administrators, board members, teachers, students- did he or she encourage and support or try new ways to teach and to learn. That is the bottom line we should be looking for in our schools.

Budget reduction beginning at the top- Part one

I believe that people should be compensated justly for what they do, however in these difficult times, sacrifices must be made. Congress should put everything on the table, including their own salaries and other officials who eventually get rich doing whatever they do. According to my calculations, simply by paying 80% of salary to our senators, representative, and federal judges, we would cut the federal budget by  $120,000,000. The congressional part includes all 535 senators and congress persons base salaries. The judicial part include approximately 3000 federal judge positions. Include the supreme court justices and another $400,000 can be added. I looked at the 182 ambassador positions, but their compensation at between $130-170,000 may be okay. Perhaps we don't need an ambassador to Fiji, since we seem to do without them in countries like Iran.

Maybe this could be looked upon as nickel and dimeing a budget that is way out of control, but that seems to be an approach that some would like to take, so let's go for it.

Letter to Senator Gillibrand

We have been retired from public school teaching for about 12 years now. We  have pensions from the NYSTRS and Social Security. This year we filed our 2010 tax return, and holy cow, our taxes actually went up $288. Our return indicates substantially the same income figures as last year. We had ordered with held the correct amount to cover the taxes. What changed? The standard deduction was lowered by $1000. (Our itemization indicated that this was the best deduction to take.) Our taxes went up, contrary to what had been loudly proclaimed over the past couple of months. There is an injustice here. And it probably extends to all who must take the standard deduction. Perhaps the richer among us should not be able to itemize deductions, but  take only the standard deduction.
And a final note... there was no social security cost of living increase nor lump sum rebate as was given in previous years.
We old folks are paying for the tax cut to the rich. Please share this with your colleagues on all sides of the aisle, and the president.

Guns and snow

About five feet of snow has fallen so far this winter around here. It seems like a lot, but nothing can prevent the vicissitudes of mother nature. Our second major snow fall is winding down with blustery winds, and about 2 feet od snow overall. The snow is beautiful but could be dangerous if a person combines that with a trip to the store, as one exercises a privilege to drive.
As for guns, I do not think that tragedies associated with guns only happen at a distance from these hills. Several times in my lifetime around here, I have been touched by gun violence, at Chatham High and at Simon's Rock to name two.
I have heard much about second amendment rights. I wonder if it is not time to look at the second amendment and repeal it. It is outdated. We have changed the Constitution many times to allow for the direct election of senators, ensure equal rights for all, provide for income tax to be assessed, limit the terms of our presidents, allow for succession in the event of the medical incapacity of a president, and many others. There have been proposals to amend the constitution to prohibit flag burning and gay marriage and other things.
It seems to me that the Constitution deals with God-given rights, which come to us with birth, and provisions for governance.
The second amendment is an aberration, suited to a particular time period after the war of revolution. It has no relevance in today's society. Repeal it.   The feds can then regulate what is necessary to secure the overall public safety. Further gun regulation would then become within the power of the states as a power not assigned to the federal government. Treat gun ownership as a privilege, as we do driving (in the snow?).
I have not fully worked this through, but why not look at this?