The Potholes will come.

Soon the beauty of fall leaves will shift to winter in PA. Already we are watching the wooly bear caterpillar seeking predictions about the winter to come. Will it be a mild winter? When will the worst be?  Then OH those terrible roads. We NEED SOMEONE to get out there NOW and clear them!!

Then with cabin fever, we will be seeking signs of spring. Who sees the first robin?

Potholes! The Pennsylvania tradition will happen. SOMEONE needs to FIX those potholes! It's a PA tradition to complain about the potholes and often demand the worst be fixed fast. Magically, they slowly disappear and we shift into summer pleasures.

We travel to the state parks. We travel to the national parks and forests. We LOVE summers here in PA! We camp. We fish. We boat the waterways. 

Who cleared those roads for us? How did that happen? Who fixed those potholes? Who maintained those state and national parks? 

These are just a small example of things our taxes - state and federal - contribute to maintain. It's sometimes painful to pay taxes but taxes are our collective way of maintaining a better place for us to live. We can and should be involved in how our taxes are spent but NOT paying taxes is not a way to make us a better country. 

We all need to do our fair share. We all need to have a voice in how our share is used. Give a voice to your dollars. Make your dollars and your voice count! We need someone to clear our roads. We need our potholes fixed. We need public entities funded. We need to voice what we want funded! NOT funding these things is ludicrous. That is our social responsibility and in our individual self interest. It's simple common sense. 

 

What have we become as a nation?

 Are we the nation we once were? Or were we never that nation?

A revered gift from France, the statue of Liberty, reflected how that nation saw us. It symbolizes compassion; "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!" Obviously, we are not the symbol of light reflected in those words. We are not that nation within our own shores for our own citizens. Perhaps we never were but it seemed we once aspired to be.

We were once champions of democracy. We built strong alliances with other democratic nations and those working to be more democratic. NATO was viewed as a sacred bond that was created by common pain and spilled blood from WWI and WWII. We treated these nations as friends and shared a seat at the table where common interests were central. Our leadership has pulled away from initiatives like the Paris Climate accord, and insulted our friends in NATO. Instead, the focus has been to develop friendships with totalitarian leaders around the world. Perhaps under the surface we have lusted power and our love of democracy was too fragile. 

Once we were champions of humanitarian causes throughout the world. This, even while we struggled within our borders to be more humane to those in need. We respected leaders who called for us to keep working to better ourselves and our nation as well as reaching beyond our shores to voice a call for equality and justice. Perhaps we are more tribal and selfish and no longer aspire to be a humane force.

Once we were united in tackling diseases and helping lead infectious disease control. When Jonus Salk developed the polio vaccine, he didn't seek personal financial gain. It was an altruistic effort. There were no calls for "herd immunity". The disease affected about 35,000 people a year in the late 40's. That was enough to cause the science community to actively work on a remedy and the nation was unified behind it. Now with more than 200,000 dead from contracting COVID-19 in less than 6 months, we have a divided nation. We hear questions about the reported numbers, "pre-existing conditions", refusal to wear masks, and let there be "herd immunity". Is this who we are now? 

There is a cruel and crass undertone across the nation. It's dramatically reflected in our leadership with outrageous rhetoric and the policies supported by those who follow it. Every one of our institutions is under attack - the postal service, CIA, FBI, Justice system, journalists, public school system, Center for Infectious Disease, NIH, and even the National Weather Service. It's about unbridled control of information to silence calls for addressing and solving problems. It's fanning a lust for greed and violent impulses. 

Truth is no longer truth and facts are no longer facts. We have learned to distrust each other, question motives and fight one another. It seems we are not united in a solution to anything. There is no effort that we champion as a nation. We are a nation adrift and pulling ourselves apart at the seams. 

My heart aches as the destruction seems to be growing beyond repair. The only thing I know to do is NOT become part of the cruelty and crass behavior. AND VOTE!!!!

 

RNC made it very clear indeed....

Lawlessness! Violence and looting! Shootings! Police killing! 

Casinos opened and churches cannot! 

Small businesses devastated! Mass unemployment!

Civil Liberties violated! Pandemic out of control!

We cannot have 4 more years of Biden - Trump - Biden - Trump? Who's president again?

The Impact of Service

 Sitting around the campfire on many summer nights, I stare into the sky and often ask why I feel different.

Why do I see this thing or that thing differently than someone next to me?

Of course, it is our experiences and how they have impacted us. I know this intuitively. But why? Why? Why?

Many years ago, I made a choice - a decision - that seemed so unlike me that most family thought was crazy. They were right. It was crazy and unlike me. And it was transformative. I joined the Air Force. I signed up and left as quickly as I could. It meant I had not formative plan for a career. I signed up under general mechanics because that is where I fit best in the ASFAB test.

An odd impulse from the universe told me I could be an AFRTS broadcaster, but the recruiter said that would take 6 months, and I could not wait so - sign me up for whatever so I can leave in 2 weeks. I could sign up under mechanic and he could send me in 2 weeks. Off I went to be a mechanic. I was on my way. It is the most stupid decision and the best investment I ever made in my life! The universe had plans.

That odd impulse came from someone who had been an AFRTS broadcaster and taught me to read news in the way he had learned. So, while in basic training, I learned that there was a shortage of broadcasters. I auditioned. The audition was to read news. I passed.

Through the years I have felt that I gained far more than many others because it launched a career for me. I suffered so very little compared to brothers and sisters who served in combat situations. And I heard the stories first hand. They stuck with me.

But I have recently been impacted by an understanding that many of my brothers and sisters HERE in the US have NEVER really felt the impact of life or death decisions. I will humbly submit that it changes you.

I have experienced knowing you may quickly need to choose life for duty. I have huddled in a space knowing that discovery could mean facing death - actually.

I do not wish that on you. But I do wish that you would listen and hear. I wish that you could see through another's eyes. I wish that it would drive you to humility in a way that allows broader understanding.

I have shied away from waving my flag of service. Maybe I need to wave it more. The best investment you can make is service. I know that and understand it more clearly as the years pass. Service brings a greater sense of humility for may of us. 

Serve others. Serve something bigger. It will be transformative. It will be the best investment you ever make.

We need to be talking Health Care, Education and Judicial Systems

 There are certain functions of society that should not be privately owned and operated. They are too important to risk being driven by a profit motive or a political motive, over the public good. These functions of society are integral to the health and well being of the nation as a whole. These should be free of a profit incentive and political incentive while strictly operated by specific mission. There should be strong oversight to ensure that corruption and waste are minimized. There should also be open policies for the contributions of those within the function to create continued improvement in meeting the mission. Their budgets, policies, and practices should be transparent and open to public scrutiny. These functions should be governed and managed ONLY by elected officials with NO political appointee anywhere in the system. Governing boards should be 4 year appointments and the top governing official (elected) would serve for 10 years, reporting to the governing board.

1) Education - Pre-school through 4 year College. We need a public education program that provides the opportunity for all of our citizens to obtain a solid education that includes a 4 year degree. Private schools of any kind, should not receive tax dollars. All tax dollars, local, state and federal, should be dedicated to public education institutions only. There should be an elected local board of education for each school district. Then a state board of education. To be eligible to serve on the state board, you must have served on a local board. Then a national board requiring local or state board experience. The Secretary of Education is then ELECTED to a 10 year appointment and reports to the national board. 

Private schools are free to operate outside the governance of the local, state or national boards of education. They are privately funded and privately operated. Pure and simple.

2) Judicial System - Our judicial system needs a huge overhaul. There's a mix of how judges get on the bench. Some are elected. Some are appointed by Governors. Some are appointed by Congress. https://ballotpedia.org/State_judicial_elections,_2018 These positions of great power, clear up to the Supreme Court, have become highly politicized and very centrally controlled. The position of Attorney General, the heads of the CIA and FBI, are increasingly politicized and centrally controlled. If the Judicial Branch of government is intended to be a separate and equal balance of power, we have a problem. And it's trickling down. The policies, rulings, and practices enacted are creating greater mistrust and unrest. As one of the pillars of a strong democracy, the judicial system cannot be allowed to crumble or fold into one of the other two branches of government - Executive OR Congressional. 

Privatizing any part of the Judicial system is equally alarming. We have the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world including China and Russia! Something is wrong. It's certainly not all caused by privatizing prisons but profit incentive for imprisoning our citizens cannot be a good thing. 

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2page1.stm

3) Health Care - We spend more per capita on healthcare than any developed nation. We spend a significantly greater percentage of our GDP on healthcare than any other developed nation AND most of them have a universal health care system. 

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/sites/default/files/documents/___media_files_publications_fund_report_2016_jan_1857_mossialos_intl_profiles_2015_v7.pdf

There was great resistance to the Affordable Care Act provision that penalized those without health care. Many felt they still could not afford or that they didn't need or want health insurance. Reality is that whether it's an accident or a sudden unexpected illness, nearly everyone is going to need health care at some point in their life. When someone without health care lands in the hospital and cannot pay, it increases health care costs for everyone else and can leave them financially devastated. 

We need to quit talking about it and do it. Look at the other developed nations and adopt the best solution. Just do it. The idea that we can't is ridiculous. This really is a matter of life or death.

Those are the three things that I believe are the most important issues in this election. The health of our nation and the health of our democracy are at stake. We cannot have a strong economy or a more united nation until we address these three things. And they are just the place to start. We need to get involved and get educated on the issues we believe are most important. We need to talk about those issues and our ideas for solutions. 

Weird and weirder

Things are getting really weird. Remember the pizza scandal associated with Hilary Clinton in the last election. Supposedly she was involved in some child sex ring and a pizza shop. 

Now it's back. But it's bigger. Walmart is in on it. The whole democratic party is in on it. There's a satanic fright added in the mix. When you see a meme on facebook, go to the associated source. I saw one recently and went to the "source". http://crime.awm.com/ The website looks like a digital version of the National Enquirer. Here are some of the headlines - "Chelsea Clinton Just Admitted Something That Everyone was Suspecting", "Inspiring Celebrity Weight Loss Transformations - Find Out How They Did it", "Farmer Spots Large Python Spitting Up His Meal, Devastated When He Realizes Who is Missing" and there is a video with that one!

A group called QAnon is saying Trump is saving the world from a satanic ring involving child sex trafficking and cannibalism. AND Trump is saying "Is that a bad thing?"

Watch for all this to get weirder. There are otherwise reasonable people that are believing these things. I'm not sure what we can do about it except encourage those we know to be careful about what you are taking in. Slow down and do some rational thinking. If it feels crazy, it probably is crazy. 

Get ready for it!

 This might be a handy link for those who want to start attacking Kamala Harris - https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kamala-Harris Hopefully Encyclopedia Britannica isn't too liberal a source to be credible. 

A political ad quickly began running as soon as the announcement was made that she would be VP pick to run with Biden. "Phony" and "Radical"? In actuality she is very authentic and tough. There's nothing "phony" about this woman! She's been known for years to be a centrist, able to balance a strong record on law and order with fighting for progressive policies to ensure that justice is balanced. 

A meme was floating around already claiming she wasn't born in the US. Sigh! How long before there are demands for copies of her birth certificate? And how long before her religion is questioned? And soon it will be "not really black" - resurrected from the primaries.

Already the president has called her "nasty", a term he loves to use for any tough woman. This from the nastiest president in our country's history. 

We could quickly make a checklist of every attack that will rise up. Anything that was used against Obama will be on the list - the one's above and more. Anything that has been used again women will be on the list. 

We will hear and see snarky comments about her hair and how she dresses. Someone will surface who says she was a mean boss. There will be accusations that she got certain things because she was a person of color.

But this woman is tough enough, smart enough and quick enough to handle it all. And as I see all these emerge, I will just shake my head. I'll say to myself 'I expected you to be one who would jump on this one". You'll look foolish to all but those who are fools too.

Let's talk actual policy. Let's talk about approaches to problems and who has the best plan. Do some homework before you jump on a bandwagon. 

Update: As I see new ones, I'd add them. If you see any, comment below. It will be interesting to see the list. I won't add ones that seem to actually address a policy or position question.

8/13 "Why does Kamala Harris identify as African American when she's Jamaican?

8/14 Fox news running story with BLM person saying Kamala is "not black enough."