Roots of America’s Collapse

I refer again to an article written by Umir Haque. In that article Haque states America is in a state of collapse. And in a state of chaos. The two are interwoven in his view. But what he says in more detail is uncomfortable. Perhaps because his statements reverberate with some truth?  Whether all truth or not I am unwilling to state at this point. But come along with me and examine a few of his statements.

“The roots of American collapse run deep into the soil of hate. What was ‘neglected’? America neglected to invest in itself. while the rest of the rich world built public healthcare, transport, education, and so on, in the 1950s and 60s, America was still segregated by race. So American collapse isn’t just about what is going wrong today. It is about why everything is going wrong today. In the simplest analysis, Americans today, unlike nearly any other country in the world, deny one another basically good lives. You may think that is new, but it is not. They always have – that is what slavery and segregation were, weren’t they? The deep antipathy to public goods, healthcare, education, and so on, in America is the result of a legacy of hate. And that legacy is what stopped America from investing in itself, ever, and still does today – hence collapse.”

Well, I must say he has a point here. I had never thought of it this broadly before. In my own life, disgust over racism came early. As a child our home discussed inequity and discrimination as wrong. We then focused on racial injustice, not broader injustices; there were many but we remained focused on racial discrimination.

That posture never left me. Even in the era of Viet Nam war protests, I was focused on the civil rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I marched in those protests, not Viet Nam War protests. So it comes as a surprise that the rest of America did not then, and still doesn’t, get the importance of racism and discrimination. It poisons the body politic. It poisons our history. It constricts our growth and warps us in our values.

This warping is subtle and accumulative. Decades later we are still distorted and we don’t see it. That’s Haque’s point, after all. If we are distorted and do not see our own bias, then we make public policy and program not fully cognizant of their effects.

Thus we do not invest in public education through which each person gains what they need to compete successfully with everyone else and the world’s societies as well. We crimp our own abilities. We also fail to invest fully in research, science and expanding the base of knowledge. Instead we commit a disproportionate share of our ‘investment dollars’ into war, military science and armaments. The Space Program alone saved us from totally giving in to the military-industrial complex in the 1960s and 70s.

And then there is the entire question of our investment in infrastructure: dams, roads, bridges, storm water management, smart electrical grid, global warming, air pollution and water pollution and soil pollution. Have we done enough in those arenas? Mostly; but even today arguments and actions are proposed to do away with much of the public administration guaranteeing progress in those arenas. For God’s sake, we are talking about eliminating the departments of Education, Energy, EPA and many others!

If those arguments are even spoken, aren’t we proving the point that we are unwilling to invest in our public good? Haque is probably correct, then.

If you feel otherwise, then explain why the discussion in Washington is unfolding as it is. Why is the Congress contemplating its agenda that pretty much parallels what Haque charges?

And this stems from slavery and segregation? Probably true. After all if we think some people are not worth supporting and nurturing, then we can move farther down the spiral of discrimination and even unwittingly discriminate against ourselves!

Interesting thought. Possibly true.

Perhaps we all ought to spend some time pondering who we are and what exactly it is that we are proud of our nation. And why!

June 2, 2017

Collapse and Chaos?

I read an article the other day that predicts that because America is broken, collapse and chaos will consume the nation. I understand the author’s point of view, and I also have fear that what he says in the article is fairly accurate and possible.

But I hesitate to adopt his argument. Here’s why.

America is a creature of the world. It is that way because our citizens are either new immigrants, or related to immigrants somewhere in their family history. We are not European or South African; nor are we Asian, Australian or Indonesian. We are not South Pacific Islanders, either. Nor are we natives of either the North or South Pole.

We are everyman from everywhere. The roots may be near or far in time, but the roots are definitely not from North America. Well, maybe from North America if your roots are American Native Indian. They are the truer natives of this land. The rest of us came much later in waves of immigration from all over the global community.

We have always lived with chaos due to this melting pot action. It is a constant of our history. And the culture we share is made up of everyone’s. Like it or not, comfortable or not, this is who we are and what we are.

Furthermore, we are a democracy. We all vote for our leaders. We also vote on constitutional changes and other referenda locally that help define how this nation operates. We do this nationally, regionally, statewide, and in counties, townships and towns, villages and cities. We have a voice in how things are done.

Chaos is much more with us these days because citizens have become sloppy in fulfilling their duties. Too many don’t vote at all. Others vote but don’t understand the issues or people they are voting for because they simply haven’t studied the issues or read more deeply of the background of candidates.

Such chaos is normal for a true democracy. And so it is in America.

This chaos creates dislocations in the public’s discussion. We tend to get hotheaded and sometimes physical about disagreements. But that is all part of the messy democracy we have in America.

I would like it to be more orderly. I think better when facts are clearly laid out. Also if optional points of view are viable, I want to fully understand them so I can amend my thinking and point of view. This is an orderly process. It is also more logical and sticks with the facts. Knowing history and understanding it are best practiced using this type of process.

When talk is cheap, emotional and illogical, understanding comes in a poor fourth. Feelings become more important than facts. Yet the facts are what they are and need to be presented clearly and adhered to. Not liking them is not grounds for ignoring them. Use them and move on.

Frank open discussion helps us all understand what we are dealing with. Science is a tool not an end. Economic data is just that – data; analyzing the data will help understand economic cause/effect/result but only if you keep an eye clearly on the facts. Politics, too, are best served with a fresh dose of facts and clear headed logic. If it is emotional, violent or inanely silly, then we should know that facts are missing. Someone is selling fear in place of facts.

Calm civil discussion will clear the air. We must do more of this and avoid the other.

Leaders lead; they don’t push misinformation and propaganda. Putin does this. So does Trump. So do a lot of White House staffers. If you don’t accept this, go back and get the facts before you emotionally react to my words here.

Truth will out in America. Sometimes it takes time but it will come forward. I rather hope it arrives sooner than later before we twist and warp our democracy any more than it has been so far.

We have work to do people. We live with chaos. But collapse? No; not ever.

Help make this statement true. For my peace of mind and yours, too. This is our land and we make it what we will. That takes nerve, work and sharp thinking.

The time is now.

June 1, 2017

America Headed Where?

There are those who say they think America is doomed to a bad future. In some ways that can be said of any nation or society state. It is especially said by those who think the current trend of political ideology is all wrong and is certain to destroy what we identify as our nation or society at the time.

I suppose some of this gloomy thinking could be true. Certainly what is happening now in Washington DC is not a positive from my perspective. We have a congress that is inept and gridlocked. We have a president in the White House who pretends to be a leader but is rather a bully and clumsy thinker on the world stage. We have an economy that grows in some sectors but not in all, especially in those sectors that will promise good growth for the long haul.

The same gloomy thinking can apply to Illinois, a state that has political gridlock in its capitol. Illinois is a state that shut its eyes when legislators balanced the budget year after year by not properly funding state-owned pensions – school teachers, university employees, state workers, and municipal workers throughout the state. Thus the investment pool guaranteeing pension payouts were short and now the state is behind at least $50 billion. This is technical bankruptcy for the state of Illinois. And both parties let this happen, indeed, gladly used the ruse to pretend the budget was balanced.

Did they do this with unseeing eyes?  No, the pensioners in the system lobbied the legislature to stop this practice. I know; I’m a retiree of the University of Illinois and thus a beneficiary of the State University Retirement System (SURS). All of the pension plans are molded from the same plan. All were shorted current payments into the investment fund that endowed each plan. We university staff analyzed what the legislature was doing back in the 1970’s and 1980’s and every year before and after. But the legislature blithely continued the practice.

So we can label Illinois a broken state. And we can label America a broken nation, at least in terms of finances. The federal debt is enormous and growing. And the annual budgets are deficit in plan, and actually in deficit when the books are closed at the end of the fiscal year. Both political parties blame the other but in truth they are both to blame for not managing this aspect of American life better.

Yes, America is broken and much demonstrates the truth of this statement.

But I am essentially an optimist. I believe it can be fixed. When is the open question. But the fix will occur when the electorate demands action to mend broken methods and processes. Getting the electorate to that position is the gaping hole that is difficult to estimate the timeline. 

Once the fix is made of course, it will take many years to actually mend the broken promises and budgets. But we will hope that the elected leaders will continue to mend this problem and many other issues that feed off of the core of why we allowed ourselves to become broken in the first place.

Optimism is the hope that right things will get done.

I came across a quote from Foucault, a French philosopher, who said: “The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field, to re-examine evidence and assumptions, to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate conventional familiarity, to re-evaluate rules and institutions and to participate in the formation of a political will (where he has his role as citizen to play).”

That’s a mouthful but it means – rethinking what is done in the name or citizens so that the actuality and factual truth is known and evaluated properly, is the proper means by which a political body or nation state if managed well. It takes citizens to make this truly implemented and effective.

Foucault would have each of us monitor, evaluate and think constructively about our nation state and insist our elected officials do their jobs properly. If this is so then Foucault believes the nation state will be healthy and fix what is broken, or even avoid the brokenness in the first place.

I think this works. I think this can work. But in our current situation, at least those of us living in Illinois, we have two main arenas in which to exercise our citizenship: in the state house and the governors mansion in Springfield; elect people who will do the people’s will, not pander to the lowest common denominator and fears; and in the US Capitol and White House elect people who will fix the broken and dishonest political gamesmanship, while governing with purpose and forethought for the ages.

It will take fortitude and work to study and monitor all of this. But it is our duty as citizens to do so.

So, to arms, folks! It’s time the elected understood the minds of the electors. If so the broken will be in repair mode and our hopes of the future will be made whole again.

May 31, 2017

Can we Talk?

Alert: this is not a rip off of Joan Rivers. I really do need to talk with you. I need you to listen, and hopefully you will respond so I have something to listen to as well.

Here’s the situation: I see my nation and society – and all of its subdivisions and subdivisions of those subdivisions – ignoring what’s happening. To all of us. Not just me. And I know you will say “its happening to me, too” so what’s the big deal.

Well, the big deal is…simply put…no don’t get angry or miffed…no one is doing anything about what is happening. Don’t say you are doing something about it; I’ve been on the front lines of this and I see far too many people ignoring the realities. So, please listen up!

Two things are happening that give me angst.  The first one you know about – Trump and his supporters and family. I think they are harming our nation, but I also know our nation has rules, laws and procedures to handle this problem. This is not political. It is not ideological. Although both of those are major issues involved with Trump-ism, I think what’s happening is quite basic. Control of our nation is the name of that basic issue. And we have tools at the ready to manage the situation.

Yes, the courts – both of oak paneled walls, and public opinion – are already in action. Soon enough the nasty business of impeachment will be placed into action.

So, although I’m upset with Trump and Trumpism, I think it is containable and manageable.

So on to the other happening that is riling my otherwise peaceful mind.

Change and adaptation to it.

All too many Americans are ignoring this. Yes, change is everywhere and 24/7/365. Always has been. The only difference between now and any other time is speed of change. The pace is rapid and unstoppable.

If we aren’t ready to change with the flow, or adapt quickly enough, we will be run over and spit out. Then rebuilding our lives will be much more difficult. I’m talking basics here.

Are you ready for keyless cars? They’ve been around now several years. But are you ready for keyless homes? Yes, that is coming very very soon. Are you ready to open your home via electronics, phone, eyeball reader, or fingerprint reader? And then, what do you do when you lose some of those things, or the power is out? [Yes, you can lose an eye and a finger along with the 'print' of same! So then what do you do as Plan B?]

I thought of this specific think and came up with back up battery power for my locks or power grid for my home. That may be too costly for me, so I’d better have yet another Plan B!

On an even more basic level, however, what are you going to do for a job, an income? If technological change upends your employer, what then do you do for a living? Are you prepared to help your employer adapt to the change and survive? Or is it too late for the employer’s business and it will be swept away entirely?

You should be keeping up on such changes. You should be reading about what’s happening in the world and keep an eye and ear attuned to what might be of special importance or threat to you personally.

Career change is a real issue. Just ask guidance counselors at high schools, and intake counselors at admission offices at colleges and universities? What does the student plan on doing for a career or life’s mission? Does such an activity exist in the world of commerce to snap up his offering to work? What will the student need to study to prepare for a career she loves and will adapt to all the changes that will undoubtedly occur to that career profile in time? Will such students – once employed after graduation – be alert to changes that may dislocate them from the activities and interests they love? How will they handle such intimations of change?

I think our community colleges, four-year colleges and universities, should be championing this entire arena. It is a major challenge now. It will continue to be one for the long term. How do we prepare and nurture students to survive and prevail through thick and thin?

Remember: we have millions of dislocated careerists this very moment. They lost their jobs in the past 9 years since the onset of the Greatest Recession. Those folks are not faring very well. Many are working at jobs well below their education and training. But that education and training is not appropriate for the new jobs popping up as a direct result of change.

Imagine that! My thesis is proven. So what do we do about it now?

Hmmmmm?

May 30, 2017

Fallen Loves

Today is Memorial Day. A day set aside for all of us to recall the personal sacrifice of life and limb of young people fighting for their country in battles all over the globe. Fighting for freedom and justice and future hopes for the rest of mankind. Yes, they believed this and fought for it and died. Or came home severely crippled and damaged.

They gave their all so we may hope and live in freedom to be ourselves. They cannot do this now; but we can. That’s why we remember them on Memorial Day each May.

And they were lovers of others, and loved by many others. They are our national loves lost in the struggle to remain uniquely American. That is a very important subtext I wish my readers to ponder.

They gave their futures so that we would have our futures. What are you doing about that? What have you done with that opportunity? Have you made the most of it? And what about the rest of you? How will you use this opportunity to be the best you can be? And earn and experience the rewards from same?

Futures are funny things. We say we prepare for them but we actually do very little of that. We get an education that hopefully prepares us for the future, but how can we know that from the perspective of today? What will the future hold? Will we recognize it as it is happening? Will we then prepare better at that point? Are we willing now to make that investment in ourselves? And later in life, will we be as willing and empowered to make a fresh investment in ourselves?

Education is actually a process that should be teaching students about themselves and their own identity. It should teach how to adapt to changing circumstances. It should teach how to learn so we can do much of this change business ourselves as it happens, not after when so many chips have been lost.

Yes, folks. We are responsible for our own education and life planning. No one else can do it for us. Others can help us, teach us, guide and mentor us; but only you and I can do this for ourselves. You know this fact of life. So do I. I mention it only because most of us don’t really live as though we understand this basic fact of life. I know you know this is true.

So what do we do about that?

I think there are several things we can do.

First, get the best and most education you can afford.

Second, invest time and concentration in keeping that education current throughout your life. Read and study important writers and speakers on matters that matter. Enroll in an occasional class in your trade association, community college or alma mater college or university. Feed the mind and the career and life plan will take care of itself; maybe.

Third, invest time and concentration in reading about current issues that may be hallmarks of changes pending. Our cars are more automated now than ever before. Talk is rampant about self-driving cars. Will this happen in our lifetime? Will it affect how we earn our living? How we drive? Will we buy a self-driving car? Or will we rent one, or time-share one? Now rethink how this change might affect the economy and thus your job and career!

Fourth, help education institutions keep up with these issues and challenges. Be prepared to fund them through our tax system for these good ends. Also prompt employers to prepare for career change among their own staff and labor pool. Perhaps they will train the next generation of employees?

Fifth, be involved with your community’s life. This is where your friends, family and neighbors are living lives similar to your own. What affects you affects them and vice versa. So speak up and engage in life’s process of change and adaptation. It is not all bad.

No; it is not all bad. This will provide excitement and intellectual challenge that will reward you for the remainder of your life. Such a good reward for doing the right thing in the first place.

Now wouldn’t our fighting men and women who didn’t return home be proud of what we did with their legacy? Think about that and remember them today.

May 29, 2017

Summing Up Donald

As the days go by the toll Trump has placed on American life keeps growing. The looming effect of all his machinations are becoming huge.

We can include here these items:

• Russian contacts during the election campaign by campaign leaders
• Russian contacts after inauguration by White House staff
• Gen. Flynn’s flawed appointment to White House Security staff
• Trump’s firing of Comey in an attempt to kill the FBI probe of White House wrong doings including contacts with Russia
• Trump pressuring his intel chiefs to push back against the FBI probe
• Selling strategic oil reserves to pressure gas prices down when they aren’t that high in the first place
• Mixed signals toward North Korea’s missile tests raising war threat unnecessarily
• White House attempting to block inquiry into ex-lobbyists appointed to White House staff
• Trump proposed budget slashes aid to poor, offers huge tax cuts to the wealthy
• Trump’s manipulation of relationship with Israel that blocks peace with Palestinians
• Trump’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia that inflames Middle East tensions further
• Trump’s business deals totaling $360 billion with Saudi Arabia may be in exchange for ending the 9/11 law suit waged by 9/11 victims’ families
• Trump’s misappropriation of the term Religious Freedom to return discrimination against currently protected classes of people often discriminated against
• Trump’s major military budget increase at the expense of social service programs for the elderly, handicapped and poor
• Appointments of cabinet chiefs with views directly opposed to their assignments: Energy, EPA, Education, etc.
• Cutting funding for alternative energy research
• Cutting funding for the National Institutes for Health
• Cutting funding for the National Endowment for the Arts
• Pressure on economic advisers to raise interest rates so investors can gain higher earnings; forget that trillions of surplus cash abound in savings accounts and corporate treasuries
• Cutting tax rates which will benefit the wealthy the most and create huge federal budget deficits AND a large increase in the national debt 

There is more to add to this list. But the direction and tenor of the actions are clear.

The Trump White House is all about entrenched wealth and industry. Oil, military and banking are the favorite industries. The average US citizen will not benefit from such largesse. Only the white, Anglo-Saxon, wealthy will benefit. Last time I checked that accounted for a very small portion of our nation’s population.

Furthermore, those citizens who aspire to the upper 5%, let alone the top 1%, will have a more difficult time of it. If the top is favored by huge tax benefits, those who have will get more, and those who don’t have will get less. The challenge to move up is made more difficult, not easier.

I think the Trump voter pool may be seeing a view of their candidate that is now more clear. It is a perspective that does not favor their values. In fact it is just the opposite.

And those opposed to Trump knew this all along. What we feared during the campaign is now becoming a reality. Very few people benefit; most of us will lose.

It is up to the Congress to change this. Blocking a lot of Trump initiatives would help. But the best action would be to reverse the entire Trump era by impeaching him and removing him from office.

While they are at it, they should include the Vice President as well. This would place Paul Ryan in the unenviable position of rising to the presidency totally unprepared, but then we have been there before. We will endure.

But first, impeach; then remove.

Thank you for your kind attention!

May 26, 2017

Immigration Issues

I have to say one of my favorite and emotional pieces of literature is the poem inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty: 

      “Give me your tired, your poor, 
            Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 
            The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. 
            Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: 
            I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Emma Lazarus wrote those words. She was a high society New York woman who was a serious writer of poetry. Somehow she captured the meaning of the Statue of Liberty precisely.

Her poem has long stood as an open welcome and entreaty for foreign strangers to enter and adopt our land as theirs. We may have adopted limitations along the way to better manage the enormous flow of immigrants, but the intent has not changed.

America was built on immigrants coming to our shores and adopting us entirely. Their perspectives, cultures, histories and biographies not only merge with those already here, but have built and expanded the breadth and depth of who we are, who Americans are. Our talents are renewed and refreshed with each new immigrant. Our knowledge and genius is expanded as well. Who we are as a nation is defined by who lives, breeds, and aspires here.

The very notion that we would withdraw our welcome mat to newcomers chills my heart and soul. To the core.

Liberty is all-welcoming. It is the purest form of America I can think of. I know massive resettlement of immigrants taxes our communities and states. It is chaotic at times, especially for those towns and cities where the largest groups gather. In time, however, these new citizens spread to other parts of the country and blend in. They learn our culture and change it all at the same time. They bring new ideas to our well traveled past. They perk up our thinking and adaptation to change.

Throughout our history, however, blemishes on our handling of immigrants have happened. We have pushed people away when we weren’t sure of their loyalty to America. We have placed quotas on entry when the numbers were overwhelming. And once in our land immigrants often faced terrible discrimination. The Germans, Irish and Italians know of what I speak!

In time these embarrassments have ebbed for the most part. Their sting remains but fresh discrimination is now a trickle. Unless you are Hispanic and fresh over our southern border. They settled in as migrant agriculture workers and day laborers. And then the call of ‘illegals’ was shouted out in political circles. Another age of discrimination emerged and now our land is debating afresh what to do about the illegals.

Damn but this is short sighted. And cruel. Over 11 million immigrants may be illegal, that is, not conforming to the entrance procedures. Instead of attempting to correct this matter in a humane manner, rude demands of deportation are sounded. And acted upon. Families are divided making this even more cruel.

This is a political issue more than it is a procedural one. The political pose is still rude and uncaring. It is discrimination pure and simple. The illegal status of many current immigrants have survived decades of living in our nation and building a life, career and family. Uprooting this success is unconscionable. These good people have paid their dues and earned their entry to our nation.

Call it amnesty or call it hospitality, acceptance and correction of their status should be accepted and documented.

If the illegal immigrant is not invested in a career, education, or family, and if that same person has been found guilty of a serious crime (felony), then deportation may be considered. Otherwise, let them remain and add to our company. They should be welcomed.

Because they are welcome!

May 25, 2017