Syria Choices- Root Canal or Slam your Hand in the Car Door?

Deciding what to do in Syria is like choosing between having a root canal and slamming your hand in the car door. Why, in heavens name, would we want to do either?  OK, Assad is a ruthless dictator.  Yet, for many years we have supported ruthless dictators all over the world- but mostly in the Arab countries. For a brief period, it looked as though the Arab Spring would save us from this mess we are confronted with today. If only Assad could’ve kept his chemical weapons in the depot- we’d still be on the sidelines. But damn, he had to call us out, and now we’re on the verge another war. Like Obama said, “... our military doesn’t do pin pricks...” and once the shooting starts all the plans go out the window.

I’m reminded of Lincoln’s advisors who insisted that our Civil War would be over in a matter of weeks. Well-to-do aristocrats picnicked on the hillside to watch the battle of Bull Run, hoping to catch a glimpse of the war before it was all over. They had no idea it was only the beginning and a half a million lives would be lost.

Johnson used a trumped up, fake crisis, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, to get Congress to authorize unlimited military force in Vietnam. Prior to that, Kennedy had only sent “advisors” - no boots on the ground. What one president promises doesn’t mean anything to another president.

America was exhausted from fighting WWII with every man in the country in uniform and every woman in a factory making the equipment of war. Peace had just begun to settle in; GIs were going to college, getting married, buying that dream house and making families. Neither Congress or the President had the stomach to go to war, so Korea became a “conflict”, so as to lessen the pain and win support for action. America hated Korea. Ike ran for president on a platform of getting us out, which he did ( although we still have 50,000 troops in Korea today, 60 years later!) . So weary of war was our greatest twentieth century general, he  managed to avoid it for  all eight years of his presidency. He knew hell, he had been there, and he did everything to avoid it.

If we do help the rebels overthrow the Assad regime, what are left with? Militant, Al-Qaeda sympathizers are sprinkled throughout the rebel organization. We could be just trading one bad dictator for another equally bad outcome.

Which all leads me back to my question. Why do we really want to get involved at all?  If Eisenhower could avoid war, Obama should be able to too. He should check his “red line” ego at the door and get on with a peaceful solution.

Syrian Crisis- Brinkmanship or Accidental Diplomacy?

Every president makes off the cuff remarks they regret.  Every once in a while these remarks  shape our history.  They reveal both the humanity and the conscience  of presidents. Can every statement a president says instantly and accurately pass through the filter of being consistent with policy, partisan platform, popular opinion, constitutional and international law,  personal judgement and morally right? Hardly.  

In the old days, presidents would meet with reporters and declare statements to be “off the record and not attributable”. Roosevelt was famous for confiding in the press and at the same time controlling what they reported. Those old days of presidents controlling the press  are long gone (thankfully). Yet, Obama’s “red line” comment was off the cuff, not a prepared policy statement.  The civilized world abhors indiscriminate killing with chemical weapons.

The President said what he believed to be the morally right thing to deter their use. The problem, of course is obvious; his comment instantly became policy of a world power with all the trimmings of honor, commitment, and worldly expectations;   the proverbial chip on the shoulder of a school yard bully flicked off before the eyes of the world. 

Presidents are usually pretty good at sticking to the script (they’re all politicians, that’s what they do), and they avoid letting policy statements  be trumped by personal conscience. When they do, it’s usually news!   They’re human.  And sometimes it shapes history. 

 Now another off the cuff remark, this time from Kerry, may have opened the door to avert a calamity. Kerry’s remark sounded more like a personal response of  moral conscience than policy, and he quickly caught himself in real-time as he was speaking by ending his sentence with the  political proviso that “of course it can’t be done”. 

Yet now a diplomatic solution (stalled  for years) appears to be feasible-- probably only because we are on the brink of military action ......... 24 hours after Kerry’s remark most politicians who were in favor of taking military action are now falling all over themselves in support of a diplomatic solution.  

But the real force in this crisis was the voice of America, screaming for a diplomatic solution. Obama even admitted, “the American people aren’t with me on this”.... and now he’s hopeful of a diplomatic solution. The conservative newspaper, Union Leader’s own poll (at last count) shows 81% of respondents do not support military action.  Military action is dead. 

The president will speak tonight. Yet, he's caught in a Twitter world where events move as quickly as tweets, and world opinion and policy is shaped in hours- not days or weeks! The President is no doubt re-writing his speech today. Originally  scheduled to win public approval for military action, rather than cancel the time slot, he will now most likely make an international policy statement of the diplomatic process to handover Syria’s chemical weapons to international control.  Let's hope the speech he writes this afternoon is still relevant tonight. These are interesting times!

My First Paying Job

My first paying job was as a newspaper delivery boy for the Washington Post when I was 13. It was 1958.  I lived in Kensington, Md. The Post was a morning edition. I had to get up at 4am and walk to the  newspaper drop point about six blocks from my house. I can’t remember how many customers I had, but I had to deliver the papers in two loads because my newspaper bag wouldn’t hold all of them. I’d get back home about 6:30 or 7 in the morning, eat breakfast and walk to school.  

This was a seven day a week job, (Sundays were brutal!) and once a month I had to go out to every single house in the evening  to collect the paper money from the customers. Sometimes I had to go back to a person’s house several times before I could get them to pay up. (That was my first experience with poor credit risks.) I found that if I went back often enough I could shame them into paying what they owed me. I figured the job was about 65 hours a month, for which I netted about $15-$20.  

I will say the man who dropped off the papers, and for whom I was a subcontractor of sorts, was a life long inspiration. I was always at the drop point waiting for him, most kids weren’t.  He really appreciated that, because papers left laying around can and did get stolen. He was always cheerful and and he had nice things to say. I didn't know if he was married, or if had any kids, or if this was a temp  job  or if this was his life's career job, but he seemed to enjoy his work. His enthusiasm was contagious and I enjoyed working for him. People like to work for people they like. 

 One day, it was snowing and he didn’t show up at the usual time. I ran home, got a couple of hot dogs, ran back to the drop corner, made a stick fire and roasted hotdogs waiting for him. When he finally pulled up, he couldn’t believe his eyes! I gave him a hot dog. 

Later he gave me a set of cuff links as a tip for my diligent work.  I was beside myself! They were only costume jewelry, but it was the first bonus I ever received!  A fancy little box contained two sets of cuff links, one silver and one gold. When my dress called for cuff links, I have always worn those inexpensive cuff links all my life (and still do) as a reminder of my first job and my first boss. I keep them in my  Dopp kit bag. They have a nice patina now, where the gold plating has worn off and exposed the brass. They don't have any value, but for me they are a treasure. Funny how a little thing like that can shape a person’s work ethic.

Detroit- "We built it, We Abandoned it"

Any community that depends on a single form of manufacturing can not survive if those companies pull up stakes and leave.  NH is a great example of corporate desertion with many “mill towns” that suffered after a manufacturing exodus.  Sure, after a very long period of adjustment, some towns like Manchester and Nashua have recovered, but others never did.  

After fifty years the mill buildings in Manchester  have clawed their way back to near full occupancy. (Yet some are still vacant today.) Detroit was once the  “Motor City” and the center of auto production. Today it produces fewer cars than any auto plant in America.  The auto giants gradually motored out of town in search of  lower paying, non-union assembly plants in the south, Mexico and Canada.  

The people who depended on those jobs, and the city itself, was a blur in the “Big Three’s” rear view mirror. I realize our “free enterprise” system is under no legal obligation for the welfare of a community, even if they built the community. But it stinks- both morally and ethically-  to benefit from a community and then abandon the city they built  in search of maximizing profit. The free enterprise system will endlessly seek the lowest possible labor cost, wherever it may be, in what ever country it may be.  

Maybe the Republican big business motto should be, “We built it, we abandoned it.”

Zimmerman Verdict: Justice Aborted in an Anti-Abortion State

This is what bothers me about the Zimmerman verdict: If a twenty something black guy, armed with a gun, stalked a 15 year old white kid returning from the store with a box Skittles, and the little white kid had the nerve to try to defend himself, and was shot and killed in the process, what would’ve happened to the black dude with gun? He’d be on death row now,  that’s what.

Southerners  hate to see the race card waived in their face, but damn, wake up!  Zimmerman could’ve defended himself with his fists.  That’s  what Martin was trying to do. If Martin had the upper hand on him, Zimmerman would’ve been a very sore and beat up guy, but he’d still be alive!  Shooting an unarmed man, even in a scuffle, has always been considered excessive use of force, that is, unless you’re a white guy pulling the trigger and a black guy receiving the bullet.

Republicans keep whining about Obamacare- Now the delay, Why?

Republicans will never stop whining about Obamacare, but they should just get over it. It’s the law of the land.  No one ever said reforming our healthcare system would be easy. The law was passed in 2010, with a plan to phase in various aspects of the program so as not to create chaos, and allow a smooth transition. 

Delaying the employer mandate a year should be a welcome relief to businesses(many whom are Republicans), but Republicans  don't want healthcare reform. They want chaos and dissension. They want Obamacare to fail.  Giving the Government another year to phase in mandates helps, not hurts, the implementation. That’s why Republicans are whining about the delay.  They want healthcare to be denied to millions of Americans.  Obamacare is far from perfect, but it's way better than the Republicans -“Nocare”.  

Despite their constant opposition, Obamacare is a major compromise to the  Republicans. Other than expanding healthcare to people who don't have it and taking on all comers, keeping healthcare reform in the hands of for-profit health insurance companies does little to improve care or reduce costs. True healthcare reform will come by lowering the Medicare eligibility age to zero,  and have one single payor system for everybody. Then healthcare will be fixed. 

Is Third World Worker Safety 100 Years Behind the US??

Sadly, 112 garment workers in Bangladesh died today because there were not adequate emergency exits. Many large companies, including Wal-Mart and Ikea purchase garments from the ill-fated factory owned by Tazreen Fashions Ltd.  This tragedy brings to mind a similar disaster in New York City back on March 25, 1911-- a 101 years ago!  

That infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire killed 146 garment workers. The managers had locked the exits to prevent the workers from leaving during working hours. Laws were written to prevent future disasters of this type, and yet a 101 years later, in another country, it happens again!

The Bangladesh  factory was routinely inspected for safety on behalf of Wal-Mart. While Wal-Mart gets a little slack for at least attempting to ensure worker safety, they seem to have set the bar very low. The factory had been given a high risk rating back in May 2011.  Rather than force safety measures, Wal-Mart has a loose policy of  three strikes and you’re on probation for a year.  Wal-Mart can and should do more to ensure worker safety.  Just because the products are not made in the US, that should not be a license to operate factories irresponsibly in foreign countries.

  This is the dark side of cost driven capitalism. They are seeking out the lowest possible cost for their products, and that means finding the lowest possible wages to pay workers. It also means that factories like the one in  Bangladesh  are doing everything they can to keep their costs low, which results in substandard facilities, and blatant safety risks for their workers. 

Next time you purchase an inexpensive garment from Wal-Mart remember the hardship these people endure. Think about them when you wear the garment. Try to bring your shame  up to the surface of your consciousness  for falling into the “cost-is-king” ethic, and for knowingly supporting such deplorable working conditions.  Then go out and pay more money for an American made garment, and wear it with honor and dignity. You’ll feel better.

When Fresh Food Meant Hunting/Gathering

My Grandfather was likely one of the last of his generation of hunter/gatherers from old New England.  He grew up hunting and fishing in Bedford. He’d hunt anything that was edible.  And he believed that almost everything was edible too. That was his instinctive  driving force- to eat, not to kill, and certainly not to display trophies in some smoky dark paneled den with a billiard table and a fireplace. 

For him, food from the wild was a gift to be sought out and savored. I can remember my Grandfather saying that anything can be made into a tasty stew, rabbit, porcupine, snake, even turtle.  He was a true believer in gastronomic diversity.  Imagine roast pigeon,  tripe, cow’s tongue, chicken feet, and of course-- brains,  to name a few.

He was was equally indiscriminate about fishing. He loved fresh water eel, and any fish really, including smelts. I remember my grandmother cooking up a a batch of sardine sized smelts dipped in cornmeal and fried crispy brown.  I never had any fish as good, and most people will never taste what I experienced.

The key to all these hunter/gatherer foods is freshness. The fish were swimming in the bucket when he cleaned them, and Gram’s frying pan was at the ready with hot oil. Today, we think fresh means, not frozen or canned, but foods that are grown or caught thousands of miles away, packed on ice and trucked or flown across country to a regional distributor, delivered to our local supermarket, then stored in a warehouse sized walk-in  cold storage unit, and finally brought out for display in small quantities to appear as though they were picked and saved just for us, is well, a big fake.  I’ve seen piles of limp, almost rotting Swiss Chard, grown 3000 miles away, drowned from over spritzing, and looking more like something I’d put in my compost pile, being sold as “fresh greens”. Yuk.

Gathering was even more exciting and surprising.  Exciting because it involved a hike or adventure, and surprising because food from the wild is a discovery. Following the seasons, he would relish whatever happened to be there for the taking at the moment. Dandelion greens and fiddlehead ferns in spring were a favorite, but later in the season, he’d find all types of mushrooms and wild carrots (Queen Anne's Lace),  and many other wild root vegetables. Fruits, melon rinds and rhubarb were canned and made into jams of incredible flavor and taste. Wild Blueberries were gathered by the bucket full.  Blueberry pies were made with a gallon of tiny pea sized berries. Summer also meant trips to the beach and buckets of periwinkles or muscles pulled from the rocks, and usually steamed, but often eaten live- - Yankee sushi.

This simple view of food being everything around us has pretty much become extinct in our way of life, and I admit, while I enjoy most of the food from the wild, some wild foods were an acquired taste, and I wouldn’t miss them.  Yet, as we drive to a Whole Foods and other fake replicas of freshness in search of something good to eat, I know my Grandfather would much rather be walking in the woods, or wading in tide pools,  and stumble onto something waiting for him to pluck and eat in a most primordial way, rather than pushing a cart down a crowded isle of busy shoppers-- pretending to be in search of fresh food.

Comments to the Mittersill Expansion

My Letter to the State opposing Mittersill Expansion:

9/28/2012

To DRED:

I would like to offer the following comments in opposition to the proposed Mittersill expansion.  Mittersill has a long history. After Mittersill closed ski operations in 1980 many devoted skiers anonymously volunteered to maintain the trails through unorganized, but dedicated attention.  For thirty years these skiers kept Mittersill from regrowing into forest.  An entire generation of skiers have enjoyed hiking up “the saddle” from the Taft Slalom Trail to gain access to trails that were more difficult to ski, but always worth the softer, natural snow surface that existed there, because the skier traffic was light and the terrain was special. Without this volunteer effort for over thirty years there would be no trails on the mountain today, and the state probably would not have been justified in returning it to operation.

When the state acquired access through the land swap with the National Forest, the sales pitch at that time was: Mittersill would remain a “backcountry like” experience, without grooming or snow making, and without widening the original trail footprint. I use the term “backcountry” loosely because true backcountry requires skiers to hike up  and this was a backcountry downhill experience without earning your turns. Unfortunately, the state has reneged on this promise. 

The first year was pretty good. The Mountain operated a bus shuttle from the Mittersill parking lot and transported skiers back to the main base area.  But after the double chairlift was installed the skier experience changed for the worse. The first year we had plenty of natural snow.  The ski lift operated for most of the winter. But the old narrow trails now had much more skier traffic and the ski conditions deteriorated, as the trails were unable to sustain the heavy traffic.   The very reason good skiers went to Mittersill was ruined. 

The second season the new chairlift  only spun a few days because we had a poor snow year. This alone makes me question the judgement of the state legislature for approving what became a $3 million expense  for a ski lift that doesn’t operate most of the time. As an aside, the shuttle bus could have continued to operate at almost no additional expense to the state, and in so doing, the state would’ve honored the pledge it advertised when they sought approval for the area in the first place-- to preserve a back country-like experience.

But having foolishly invested in a chairlift that never runs, the state is now doubling down to correct that mistake by making another one-- adding snow making. This is the final insult of the whole project. If the state wanted to develop the Mittersill area into an extension of the same skiing experience already abundantly available at Cannon, why didn’t they pursue it openly from the beginning? Has anyone in Concord ever heard of a Master Plan? Using Mittersill as a dedicated race course with snowmaking and a ski lift was never mentioned, not even once, during all the proceedings that led up to the seeking the initial approval to  acquire Mittersill.

While FSC may “gift” the improvements to the state, there remains a significant annual operating and maintenance cost. I would remind the state that the Tram (the jewel of the mountain) only operates 4 days a week during the high season because of operating costs. Additional ski lift attendants and additional snowmaking will add cost to an operation that doesn’t use the lifts already in place. Maybe the state should require an additional operating fee from FSC for the new facilities and at least make it revenue neutral.

So having expressed my opposition to this proposed expansion, I wish to convey a question to the legislature: What’s next after this? Is there any kind of Master Plan? Shouldn’t you require one? Why should the state and the people tolerate a surprise approach to the development of Cannon? While I don’t like the direction that Cannon is going today, I’d have no complaint if it came from a master plan, had been presented years ago, and followed through in a transparent and prudent manner, with people having been given the opportunity to provide input to the expansion, and see the broader picture. What could be next? I don't think you know. The state should develop a master plan, maintain it, and follow it.

Gary Way

91 Liberty Hill Rd

Bedford, NH 03110

Who are the 47% Romney doesn’t care about?

Mitt Romney has written off 47% of America citizens who don’t pay income taxes (ostensibly the poorest Americans) and he makes them sound like a bunch of government dependent freeloaders who only support Democrats because they all want more government, not less government.  He has written them all off as unreachable in the presidential race. He claims they’re all supporting Obama. He said, “...my job is not to worry about those people.  I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for for their lives...” .

 Let’s break down this group of government freeloaders and see who he’s really talking about. It’s actually closer to 46%, but you’ll get the gist of who he’s referring to:

6.9 % are non-elderly, low income earners making less than $20,000 a year. Yep, these are the poorest of the poor, and he’s right, they don’t see any value in lowering taxes on the rich, but he wants them to think that “tinkle-down” economics will be their life raft to the American dream.

10.3% are elderly retired workers.  Did I say workers? Yes, people who worked all their life and now are living out their golden years on their life savings and a modest Social Security check. It is so Republican that Mitt Romney isn’t concerned about this group of big government worshippers. In fact, he’s so uninterested in this group he and Paul Ryan would love to kill Social Security and give that responsibility to Wall St.  Yeah, those people really care about low income people.

27.3% are currently employed workers-- again, let me emphasize “workers”-- people not on welfare, who pay the payroll tax every week, but at the end of the year don’t earn enough to pay income tax. These are our waiters, maids, teachers, farm laborers, factory workers, healthcare workers, garbage collectors, janitors, secretaries, part-time students, day care providers, etc, etc, etc. These people are employed, not unemployed, not on welfare, not on food stamps, and not dependent of government handouts. They work. But if they don’t earn enough money to qualify for an income tax at the end of the year, I’m sure a Republican controlled Congress could fix that. They would love to increase the taxes on these people to fund even more tax cuts for the rich.

1% (the infamous 1%!) earn so much money they manage to avoid paying income tax through off-shore accounts and shady tax shelters only available to the super wealthy. Gee, I wonder if Mitt Romney  realizes he was talking about himself? This is one group of tax dodgers we really should  slam. This is the group who moves jobs to China, kills unions, want to kill Medicare, and destroyed the  lives of millions of Americans with their reckless gambling on Wall St. This is Mitt Romney’s core constituency.  

         These one-percenters need to start taking personal responsibility, instead of chasing unbridled greed and hoarding their wealth in the Cayman Islands, they should start fulfilling their social contract with humanity by contributing their fair share to the society that has enabled them to achieve their American dream.