Prairie Pondering

What's Wrong with this Picture?

2012-01-24T20:21:00.006-06:00

This is not another blog about photography, but does arise from disturbing images.

I just watched President Obama deliver his State of the Union address. As he was speaking, I was making note of certain parts of the speech. Here's a pop quiz. What do the following excerpts from the SOTU have in common?

In the last 22 months, we’ve added 3 million jobs.
GM is once again the number one car manufacturer in the world.
No American company should be able to avoid taxes by moving its money and profits overseas.
It is time to stop rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas and reward companies that create jobs in America.
Women should earn equal pay for equal work.
America's production of oil is the highest it's been in 8 years.
Last year America relied less on foreign oil than at any time in last 16 years.
I believe what Abraham Lincoln believed: the government should only do for people what they cannot do for themselves and no more.

If you guessed that they were all applause lines, you're half right. They were all applause lines for everyone in the House Chamber except for the Republicans. Speaker John Boehner sat on his hands in response to each of these pronouncements by the President and his colleagues followed suit. In another instance, when the President called for comprehensive immigration reform after touting his administration's success in reducing illegal border crossings, John McCain appeared to be nodding in agreement. But, unlike those who stood and applauded around him, he did not put his hands together.

I cannot get the image of stone-faced Republicans out of my mind and find it incredibly disturbing.

Take a look at the list again. Who could possibly be against, or not appreciate, any of the items highlighted by the President? The coordinated refusal by Republicans to show any support for the efforts of our president is another in a long series of examples of the implementation of obstructionist policies designed to denigrate and politically destroy President Obama.

I am not naive. I know how the game is played. But with everyone acknowledging that the economic crisis we face as a nation requires our leaders to demonstrate actual leadership and put aside political squabbling, the Republicans' strategy is particularly disappointing.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Minority Leader in the Senate, had a soundbite bouncing around the media today. He said something to the effect that if a CEO of a company had the same dismal performance as President Obama over the past three years, he'd be shown the door. The observation was succinct, contentious and guaranteed to become a talking point among the non-discerning and contentedly under-informed elements of the electorate. It was also nonsense.

What Senator McConnell leaves out is that if a CEO's efforts to carry out the will of the shareholders (technically, board of directors) who elected him was thwarted time and again by a few contrarians in the company's management team, obstructionists who demanded that their co-workers follow their leave on threat of termination, it's the contrarians who would be shown the door in order to give the CEO a chance to perform.

Unfortunately, American CEO Obama lacked the authority to fire Congressional Republicans who bragged from the start that they would oppose any proposal by the President in order to paint him as ineffective and limit him to one term. It is the height of arrogance for Senator McConnell, having spent the past three years blocking the President's initiatives, to criticize President Obama for not following through on all his aspirations.

It is to the same degree depressing to reflect that our democracy has devolved to the point where, as part of a coordinated plan to embarrass the President, Republicans cannot bring themselves to applaud achieving a reduction of America's dependence on foreign oil or the idea that our daughters should receive the same pay as our sons for doing the same work. In what universe would Congressional representatives, elected to serve their constituents while guiding the country to peace and prosperity, take issue with General Motors' return to prominence on the world stage or disapprove of limiting the role of government to undertaking no more than what citizens cannot do for themselves.

We have another eight months or so until the election in November. Join me in challenging our candidates, of whatever political bent, to stay focused on legitimate issues and to offer concrete solutions as the test of their competence for public service. When you see, instead, candidates relying on factually inaccurate character assassination to promote themselves by contrast, ask yourself how we are better served by allowing such intellectually empty pretenders to ascend to leadership. Use your social networks to share relevant, thoughtful analysis with your peers and followers.

One final thought, a final rule of the challenge just made. Do not be dissuaded from declaring the Emperor naked because his more popular predecessor was similarly unclothed. So, for example, Speaker Gingrich's moral lapses in his first two marriages are not excused because President Clinton also broke his vows. If the hypocrisy of having a serial adulterer serve as standard bearer of the Republican Party, which seeks to impose its version of family values on all of us, is objectionable, say so. President Clinton's personal misconduct in 1995 offers no relevance to our weighing the integrity of candidates in 2012.

Respite from Heavy Pondering

2012-01-22T20:29:00.013-06:00

When I'm not working at my day job, practicing law, I pursue an decades long interest in photography. It is more than a hobby. I refer to myself as an enthusiast. For as long as I can remember, starting with family road trips to California and vacations in Florida in the '60's, I have carried a camera.

My brother and I shared a darkroom when he shot for the high school yearbook. I set up the first student darkroom at Carleton and was more than pleased to see that it was still around when I visited campus last Spring. I was the guy who memorialized college life and, later, law school for my classmates. Deb became irritated with me while in labor with our daughter because the obstetrician and I were discussing the camera equipment I brought into the delivery room instead of caring for her. I watched the kids grow up through my viewfinder. Today, my Facebook page has 124 photo albums associated with it, covering subjects ranging from friends' birthday parties to macro-photography of food. Last month, I decided it was time to set up a formal site on which to post my work and set up galleries on www.photoesq.biz.

I built my system up over the years, sticking with Nikon products that were mostly backward compatible. I take odd jobs for pay, but mostly volunteer my photography, donating half-day photo sessions to charities holding silent auctions. I also serve as Senator Franken's campaign staff photographer when he's in town. For three years, I served as the event photographer for a steeplechase in Florida. Last night, for the fifth time, I photographed the award winners at the annual Central States Dressage & Eventing Association.

I offer this background to give credence to the advice I am about to share. My presence at events with intimidating looking camera gear frequently invites comments from other attendees with simpler equipment. Observing me lugging five pounds of camera, they worry that their photographs cannot compete with mine because my equipment is fancier.

The truth, cliché or not, is that the photographer, not the equipment is the key element in creating images. Lately, I have been getting amazing results with my iPhone. I encourage the observers to learn the craft by working with the camera they have, shooting whenever they can and making the end product as good as they can. I also usually throw in a gratuitous "fill the frame" as the best single piece of advice on photography I can offer.

There are, however, rewards to learning the basics and being able to make equipment work to its capacity in order to further develop as an artist. I offer this example in today's bi-partisan blog.

Experienced photographers know to bracket their exposures in order to assure capturing just the combination of light and darkness in their images. Recently, software known as HDR, High Dynamic Range, has made it possible to take the best exposed elements of various parts of an image and combine it into a finished product. One of the features of my digital camera, once the flagship in Nikon's stable, is its ability to auto-bracket up to 9 frames in increments of 1/3 of a stop at 5-8 frames per second.

With the "normal" exposure in the middle, this has the effect of bracketing 4 exposures on either side. The complete series ranges from an image that has about 42% of the light of a normal exposure to one that has 233% of the light needed for a normal exposure. By "normal", I am referring to the default setting a camera with a built-in light meter would choose for a particular scene assuming no special circumstances like bright light directly behind the subject.

Of course, it is possible to make the manual adjustments to exposures to get the same effect. But the professional camera equipment I use allows me to quickly compile the entire series of images I want to work with and to do so without the need for a tripod.

Here is an example of the most overexposed image in a series I shot in California in November. I was driving on two lane roads between San Diego and Palm Springs, winding through the San Bernadino Mountains on a rainy Sunday. I was disappointed at the weather because it kept me from stopping to capture more landscapes. When I came to a rest stop just outside San Bernadino National Forest after being on the road for several hours, I seized an opportunity (click on the images to enlarge for viewing).

Generally, the image is washed out, particularly the clouds in sky, which have basically disappeared. This results from the need to over expose the foreground to get detail otherwise darkened by the lack of sunlight. Here's the most underexposed image in the series.

Now I have detail in the clouds, but the high desert flora is too dark to be acceptable. Notice that the images are identical in composition. By shooting the series over the course of less than 2 seconds, I was able to avoid a lot of movement in the clouds or have any problems with aligning the 9 images that made up the series. Keep in mind that there were an additional 7 "in between" images that were eventually combined into the finished product.

By taking all 9 images and applying the HDR software I purchased to enhance the capabilities of Apple's Aperture, I ended up with a finished product that properly exposes all elements of the scene:

I have had universal praise for this last shot, particularly when I crop it to remove the trash bins. There are those who question whether such digital manipulation is really photography. I am in the camp that believes it is. I am merely using tools available to reproduce an image as I saw it in my mind's eye. Our brain does all the HDR adjustments for us. My software merely overcomes the limitations, reduced range, of the sensor in my camera as it deals with any one particular shot.

And now that I've touted the difference a very expensive piece of equipment can make, automatically, here's another HDR example that was captured more basically and attainable with any camera that allows either manual override of automatic exposures or the ability to spot meter various very small portions of a scene in multiple exposures.

This is a composite of six images I shot, handheld, one morning as I was leaving for the office. I had my recently acquired backup camera in the car and I was not as familiar with its controls as with the more expensive model. I manually adjusted the exposures, needing to underexpose from the camera's norm in order to capture the deep colors of the sunrise. That left the foreground black (it's a sunrise; there was no other light). By shooting a series and applying the HDR software, I obtained something special. Because each exposure was taken individually, and despite my best efforts to line up the exposures similarly by using reference points in the viewfinder, you can see some ghosting in the tree branches.

You can see more of my landscapes, and other work, on my photo website. Tomorrow, I'll get back to pondering about politics and matters of more import. Feel free to contact me with questions or for advice. My photography is the release from the pressures of needing to be right all the time when getting paid for giving legal advice. Some people garden, some people read, some people exert themselves physically. I capture images and, from time to time, I write.

When I was introduced to Garrison Keillor at Senator Franken's event last week, he looked at my camera and asked if I was with the press.

"No, sir, I'm an attorney", I replied.

"An attorney? I should have known by the bow tie."

"I'm a left-handed attorney," I elaborated.

"A left-handed attorney," Mr. Keillor repeated. When he smirked, I knew he understood.

Preferring the Chaff to the Wheat

2012-01-20T23:31:00.004-06:00

As I write this Saturday morning, news reports suggest that Newt Gingrich is surging in the South Carolina polls and now has a good chance to defeat Mitt Romney in today's primary. A win by Speaker Gingrich will delay what I expect will be the ultimate coronation of Governor Romney as the standard bearer for the GOP in November's general election.

That Governor Romney is having difficulty bringing closure to the process is not particularly surprising. He strikes me as a decent man who is likely more moderate in his views than he is allowed to acknowledge in Republican primary campaigns. However, despite all the time he has spent wooing various electorates for the past 20 years, he also strikes me as uncomfortable with retail politics and the necessity for personal interaction with voters in the early contests. As a result, he comes off as a bit insincere and too programmed. I suspect he's neither, but I am giving it more thought than the average South Carolina voter.

Speaker Gingrich's latest resurgence is similarly unremarkable. It is, however, disconcerting. As if he was running for debater-in-chief, Speaker Gingrich resuscitated his gasping campaign by attacking the "liberal media" in Thursday night's CNN-sponsored debate. The Speaker feigned righteous indigence when asked by the debate moderator if he wished to comment on his former wife's widely reported lurid descriptions of Mr. Gingrich's moral shortcomings. Effectively claiming attempted character assassination by the moderator for raising the issue at the outset of a Presidential debate, the Speaker used it as an example of how the media would do whatever it could to prevent conservatives from gaining widespread acceptance among the electorate.

First of all, I believe moderator John King's question was a fair one. The candidates were receiving free publicity by appearing on a debate hosted by the Cable News Network. Like it or not, the "open marriage request" story was news, replacing Rick Perry's withdrawal from the race as the big news of the day. Everyone in the debate audience, everyone watching CNN and everyone listening to the debate on the radio was wondering how Speaker would address his ex's condemnation.

South Carolina voters might not approve of multiple marriages spawned by serial mistresses, but they are even more concerned by the "liberal elite's" trashing of candidates who just want to return to those good old days in Mayberry when Opie was a boy and all was right with the world. Playing on this, Speaker Gingrich (watch his hands as they never leave his wrists) turned the fairly benign question (Do you want to comment on the allegations?) into an example of disrespect and evidence that the press was stacking the deck to assure President Obama's re-election.

For the most part, the Speaker just ignored the substance of his ex-wife's lurid allegations. Assuming that they are true (which the Speaker ultimately denied as part of his diatribe), they are indefensible when wooing the support of conservative evangelical Christian voters needed to succeed in South Carolina. As my grandfather advised me many years ago, when the law is against you, argue the facts. When the facts are against you, argue the law. And when the law and the facts are against you, argue like Hell. Speaker Gingrich argued like Hell.

What is disconcerting to me is I believe voters should be more concerned than they are when a politician avoids uncomfortable scrutiny, whatever the issue, by aggressively attacking the source and appealing to the audience's basest instincts.

For the record, in today's world, the railroading of cultural norms by a liberal media is a myth. There is so much information broadly distributed by every element of the political spectrum that it is nonsense to suggest that any one mindset can unaccountably and dishonestly hold sway. Would Mr. Gingrich have us believe that his friends at FOX News and the Wall Street Journal have lost their voice or their interest in challenging more moderate points of view? Of course not and the Speaker's complaints about being attacked on Thursday night were patently false.

Nonetheless, the voters like a fight and a feisty fighter. The substance and veracity of what is being said apparently matters less than the fact that it's being said at all. Scapegoating a "liberal elite" might play well in South Carolina, and the visceral reaction of the South Carolina electorate might be enough to win a primary election. I think our country is better served by earning support through cogent argument and persuasion and by avoiding the constant efforts to widen cultural chasms that form the basis for the gridlock killing our democracy.

Inspiration

2012-01-19T22:55:00.004-06:00

I am embarrassed that it has been nearly a year since I last posted on this site. Perhaps I was too angry, too tired, too frustrated, too lazy, too depressed, too medicated, too short of time, too selfish, too self-absorbed, too distracted to spend two minutes to ponder from the prairie. For a year?

I have decided I need to make time again for writing, apart from the volumes I generate at work.

Writing forces one to organize one's thoughts, exercising, training and strengthening the mind in ways that involuntarily lend themselves to enhancing every day's experience. Like a good liberal arts education, committing thoughts to paper (or pixels) demands critical thinking, a skill useful from time to time when away from the keyboard.

Writing serves as a release. The frustrations of being governed in response to Orwellian soundbites passing as political discourse fade with the self-satisfaction realized when publishing reasoned arguments to the contrary.

Writing assuages guilt. I spent this evening with Senator Al Franken. He works so hard to promote policies with which I generally agree, facing intense pressure from the GOP to institute policies I generally loath. I feel guilty that I have not been lending my voice in support of Senator Franken's efforts, apparently content to have others do all the heavy lifting. By writing, I feel like I'm doing my part to move readers in a direction I can support.

The occasion of my opportunity to share time with Senator Franken was a fundraiser at the home of Garrison Keillor, a local writer made good, with, coincidentally, his own history of prairie pondering. It is simply not possible to be in Mr. Keillor's presence, surrounded by his book collection, drawn to his office with its deliciously disheveled desk, awed by his ability to clearly, rationally and effectively communicate a point of view and not feel the urge to try to imitate art.

For me, for you, in appreciation for the public servants like Senator Franken and inspired by Mr. Keillor, our generation's Mark Twain, I am going to give in to the urge and try.

Garrison Keillor's Underwood

I'm Getting Old

2011-02-27T00:41:00.008-06:00

One of the things that I enjoy about Facebook is the ability to remember friends' birthdays as they are announced each day on the Home Page. Birthdays are still a cause for celebration; I look forward to mine as my "Once A Year Day" (cue in The Pajama Game). I also look forward to extending greetings, at least, with a virtual acknowledgment on the celebrant's Facebook Wall. In my experience, people like to be remembered. If they have taken the time to include their birthdays in their personal information utilized and distributed by Facebook, the odds are they share my enthusiasm for the annual festivities.

It is shortly after midnight on February 27th. I just noticed that four Facebook friends are celebrating their birthdays today. Robert Danielson, Stephen Berman, Nicholas Schaser and Terese Farr. While not unusual to have four Facebook friends sharing a birthday, a thought struck me as I reviewed these names, giving me pause, and generating some Prairie Pondering.

First of all, Happy Birthday, Bob, Steve, Nick and Terese! I hope you have a wonderful day and that you think of tonight's Oscar Awards as your very own birthday party thrown in your honor by Hollywood's elite. Don't worry about not being in attendance. Traffic is murder in Los Angeles. You're better off enjoying your party from the comfort of your home.

Moving on, I realized when I saw the names that each celebrant represents a different phase of my own life and, as I approach 59, there aren't a lot of phases left. I'm not being maudlin; I find it ironic that the every day routine of checking on the day's birthdays resulted in a mortality reality check.

Bob Danielson and I went to college together. We lived well. We were both street smart at a young age and enjoyed the anticipation of an endlessly unfolding future.

Steve Berman is one of my closest friends from law school and, later, Washington, D.C. He's been married the entire time I've known him. Holidays during law school were always celebrated at the Berman household because his spouse, Judy, was an early example of a full-time employee who somehow managed to also be a homemaker. We were still young, striving to reap the rewards, material and otherwise, that we were sure would follow once we successfully entered the legal profession.

Nick Schaser represents the era of my early parenting. His mother and my wife became best of friends attending parenting classes at the community center shortly after the arrivals of our respective first born sons. Nick and Phillip were best friends as toddlers. It was a time of life when I became acquainted with the concept of having a social circle that revolved around relationships in existence because of my children.

Terese Farr is the mother of a client. I met her only a couple of years ago when she accompanied her daughter to our initial meeting. Terese was there to take measure of me on behalf of her daughter, who was hiring an attorney for the first time. I knew I was connecting with the daughter. However, I wasn't sure I'd be representing her because I couldn't read Terese's reaction to how I was handling the meeting, particularly the parts about not speaking openly in front of her so as not to waive attorney-client privilege. Ultimately, I was retained and obtained a good result for the client.

Forty years have transpired since Bob Danielson and I first celebrated birthdays together. That's a lot of birthdays. It's as many as my mother celebrated during her entire visit to the planet. I can't imagine that I'll have another 40.

I'm no longer the youngster eager to meet the unknown. I've long ago given up fawning over the majesty of the law and all it offers. These days, I'm more likely to pine for a baseball bat to resolve conflict; the fighting that passes for legal wrangling is tiresome. Phillip is no longer a toddler. He'll be 28 in a couple of months. He and Nick have taken my place on the temporal merry-go-round, entitled to enjoy the ride on horses of their own choosing. My days as an attorney are waning. I can't imagine ever retiring but nor can I imagine maintaining the same pace of practice for another 10 years. In the scheme of things, 10 years is the blink of an eye. W was a month into his presidency 10 years ago.

The self-absorbed bottom line: Read the title of today's blog. I'm getting old. 60 may be the new 40, but that's just a reflection on how old we used to consider it to hit 40 (or 30 for that matter).

I'll still enjoy celebrating my birthday and the birthdays of my friends. But I expect that more and more experiences, like the simple reading of birthday announcements, will reflect the length and breadth of my worldly experience and, to be honest, a bittersweet tinge at the realization that the proverbial fat lady is gargling in anticipation.

The REAL bottom line: enjoy it while you can and don't forget to extend birthday wishes to those whose presence who have contributed to the memories that sustain you.

Dedicated to Richard Diamond, Mensch

(Nov 21, 1947 - Feb 14, 2011)

Time to Own Up and Admit a Mistake

2011-02-25T11:41:00.004-06:00

Why aren't the neo-cons, who MUST now admit that Saddam had neither WMD nor ties to Al-Qaida, either (a.) apologizing for jumping the gun and invading Iraq, or (b.) clamoring for an invasion of Libya to overthrow a deranged dictator who has oppressed his people for decades, is murdering his opponents in the streets and is culpable in one of the largest terrorist attacks on Americans in history (i.e., PanAm/Lockerbie) prior to 2001? It just seems to me that their chest-thumping defense of the Iraq war is irreconcilable with their silence on Libya. Could it be that they were wrong in 2003?

If you watch the recent 60 Minutes interview of Donald Rumsfeld, you'll see that the former Secretary of Defense still cannot bring himself to admit that, knowing what he knows now, it was a mistake to invade Iraq on the pretext of preventing Saddam Hussein from using weapons of mass destruction. According to Rumsfeld, the world and the Iraqi people are better off without Hussein, justifying the U.S. invasion leading to his overthrow.

All things being equal, Rumsfeld may be right. The world may very well be better off without Saddam Hussein. I just believe this view misses the point. There are many evil-doers (President Bush's term, not mine) whose demise would shift the cosmic balance towards love and harmony. That, in and of itself, does not give the United States the legal or moral authority to act unilaterally to bring about such a shift. If Rumsfeld and his supporters believe otherwise, they should be pressing for U.S. intervention in Libya to remove the murderous Khadaffi from power.

If, in the alternatve, they recognize that the 2003 invasion was ill-conceived, relying on questionable intelligence from uncredible sources, and not justified in light of the absence of WMD, they should have the decency to admit it. They have an affirmative moral obligation to use the mistakes of President George W. Bush's administration to persuade those they blinded with patriotic rhetoric that the consensus building approaches of President George H.W. Bush and President Obama make more sense in the short term and in the long run.

Diplomacy, not pre-emptive war-mongering, needs to be the standard by which we exist in the community of nations.

Got Shorty

2011-02-01T20:00:00.000-06:00

This past couple of weeks have been rough ones at Meadow Breeze Farm. Our 6-1/2 year old Bassett/Terrier cross, Shorty, spent last week in the Metropolitan Veterinary Referral Services clinic, fighting for his life. He came home last Friday, brightening everyone's mood, including that of his brother, a 6-1/2 year old Bassett/German Shepard cross, CJ. And while it will be some weeks before Shorty recovers fully, the panic, fear, helplessness, depression and emotional roller coaster experienced since January 25th, will make those weeks, and all the weeks beyond, all the more precious.

The threat of losing Shorty brought several life lessons into sharp focus. Besides the usual "hug your kids", "hug your spouse/significant other", "call Mom and Dad while you can", and "live each day as if it were your last", I was again reminded of how blessed I am to have an extensive network of friends and family who took the time to offer emotional and spiritual support when the need arouse. The comfort garnered from reading comments posted on Facebook (where I chronicled Shorty's struggles) wishing Shorty well is indescribable.

I've also come to realize the truth of another life lesson. Taking responsibility for the well-being of another of God's creatures puts you all in. All the times that I longed for no more than to be home with my dogs, trading their unconditional love for the stress of the real world, came home to roost. Since he was asymptomatic, it took us a week too long to bring Shorty to the vet. But once we realized that his condition was life-threatening and the odds were against our little guy, there was no turning back. Treatment was expensive; medical miracles always are. We were fortunate to have actual miracle workers, Dr. Goullaud and Dr. Reinker, applying all of their considerable training and skills to keep Shorty around for us.

Today, Shorty seems to have beaten the odds. His jaundice is dissipating. He's starting to eat more regularly. The days of roaming the countryside on his own are a thing of the past. There's no sense letting him find another meal on one of those sojourns that will shut down what's left of his liver. I am less inclined to take Shorty for granted. The spectre of losing him shut me down for a week. In the end, his unconditional love comes with a condition. "Love me back".

Deal.

Love and Politics

2011-01-11T21:40:00.012-06:00

I thought I would take a break from the rancor our politics seems to invite these days. I find the level of harsh rhetoric engaged in along the entire political spectrum bemusing insofar as it consists mostly of shouting at one another to "turn down the rhetoric".

We need a break.

I had a marvelous dinner of seared ahi tuna and San Francisco-style cioppino last week at the Blue Point restaurant in tony Wayzata. Charlie Leck (my blog mentor and host for the evening) and I were joined by our friend Steve Eckman to discuss the upcoming municipal elections in our corner of Lake Wobegon: Independence, Minnesota.

We gathered early enough to take advantage of happy hour, but sat in the restaurant rather than in the bar, so Charlie paid retail. Steve and Charlie have lived in Independence long enough to know all the players, alive and otherwise, all the alliances, all the blood feuds, most of the dirt, who can be relied on and who needs to be politically neutralized. It's a small town; the players take on caricature-like personas. As a relative newcomer to Independence with only one election under my belt, I mostly listened and offered up forest-from-the-trees strategies. It was a wonderful accompaniment to my Grey Goose.

The evening became even more enjoyable when John and Mary Beattie arrived at the Blue Point to celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary. "You're the reason we're here!" proclaimed Mary to me as she stopped to greet us. Curiosity piqued, Charlie and Steve insisted I explain Mary's comment. Once explained, Charlie insisted I share it with my reader(s).

By way of disclaimer, I am a romantic. I am also a huge fan of Humphrey Bogart and, particularly, Casablanca. Whenever I revisit that masterpiece, I am struck by the amount of colloquialisms that have made the jump from the screen into my vocabulary. They are second nature to me now, like breathing out and breathing in (to borrow from another masterpiece). A little more than 32 years ago, my romanticism and admiration for Richard Blaine collided, resulting in the Beatties' visit to the Blue Point last week.

In November, 1978, I was getting ready to leave Washington, D.C., where I had been working for Senator Wendell R. Anderson as his legislative counsel. The Senator had lost his election in November and the office was in a transition mode. I was returning to Minneapolis to start a job in private practice. Mary Hartigan worked as the secretary to Peter Gove, Senator Anderson's legislative director. She had developed a crush on John Beattie, who grew up with Peter in St. Louis Park and was then working as an attorney at the Department of the Interior. Although Mary was convinced there was a mutual attraction, John was too shy to respond to any signals she was sending.

I was also in a transition mode. I had spent a few months of quality time with a lobbyist for the rural telecommunications industry, convincing her to make an exception to her self-imposed "no dating Senate staff" rule. The relationship had had a bittersweet ending some months before and my lobbyist and I shared one last lunch at the Monocle on Capitol Hill before my permanent departure from D.C. It being 1978, three martini lunches were not atypical. It was a great lunch. I had the chance to emulate Mr. Blaine and say all things you want to say to let someone know you'll remember them always and that you know that they know that they'll remember you, too. Fortified by vodka, we spent a couple of hours reminiscing, laughing until we cried and crying until we laughed. At the end, she might as well have boarded a plane to Lisbon. I had achieved my storybook ending to what had been an intense romance.

And I was in a mood. I knew of Mary's pining for John. I thought they'd be perfect for one another. And, having just closed the book on one doomed romance, I was determined not to allow Mary and John's story end without so much as a prologue.

I walked to the Capitol from the restaurant and went into the dome to the Senate Library. This was, of course, pre-cell phones so I needed to find a phone somewhere that allowed a private conversation. I called John at his office at Interior, still fortified by the three martinis. When John answered, without any introduction, I said something like, "John, I am at the Capitol and I am on my way to the Russell Senate Office Building. By the time I get there, I expect you to have called Mary and to have asked her out. She's nuts about you and if you don't follow up before heading back to Minnesota, you'll regret it, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But soon and for the rest of your life." And I hung up.

When I walked into the office ten minutes later, Mary came over to me. "What did you do?!!" she asked.

"Why?" I responded.

"JB called and said you told him he had to call me. We're going out tomorrow night."

I had forgotten this, but if last week was Mary and John's 32nd wedding anniversary, they were married two months after my intervention. I returned to Minneapolis in December, 1978 and, three months later, went on my own blind date with my bride of 30 years. John and Mary also moved back to Minnesota and raised a family of three sons.

Of all the gin joints in all towns in all the world, they walked into the Blue Point and, thanks to Charlie, I get to share this beautiful relationship.

Palin's "Oops"

2011-01-10T12:26:00.001-06:00

I was going to write about the disgust I felt over Sarah Palin's refusal thus far to acknowledge that putting rifle scope cross hairs on the map of a Congressional District "has consequences" (quoting Rep. Gabriel Giffords, D-AZ, in a March, 2010 interview on MSNBC). To suggest that the absence of known ties between the shooter and Palin or the Tea Party negates culpability on the part of all hate-mongers (Conservative or Liberal) is ridiculous. You and I might not react to Palin's map by taking matters into our own hands. But you and I are sane.

In any event, I refrained from writing because Tucson's Sheriff made my case, bemoaning Arizona's status as the center of hate and bigotry in politics today and warning, again, of the consequences of such inappropriate pandering to basest instincts.

I AM writing today to share a link sent to me by a Facebook friend from Canada. Here's the link to paste into your browser:

http://obamalondon.blogspot.com/2011/01/inexplicable-edits-on-sarah-palins.html

I am not posting it to engage in a debate about whether Sarah Palin has the right to cleanse comments to her FB page. She does. I am posting it to make sure everyone reads to the point of the post on the killing of 9-year old Christina Green:

"It's ok. Christina Taylor Green was probably going to end up a left wing bleeding heart liberal anyway. Hey, as 'they' say, what would you do if you had the chance to kill Hitler as a kid? Exactly."

While comments suggesting the Palin had blood on her hands were removed within a minute or so, whoever was editing the comments on behalf of Palin felt that the "okay to kill Christina Green" comment was appropriately retained.

It seems to me that once you start sanitizing comments to your posts on Facebook, your true colors are shown by (a) what you believe needs to be removed because it is offensive to your point of view and (b) what you allow to continue to be posted because it is not offensive to your point of view.

Voice of Reason Discusses Madness

2011-01-09T13:06:00.000-06:00

Another Gem on ExtraNormal

2011-01-06T06:12:00.001-06:00

A Thanksgiving Blog

2010-11-24T21:18:00.010-06:00

Now that Jennifer Grey is the champion on Dancing with the Stars and I don't have to rant and rave about the Palins, I thought I'd try pondering something a little lighter than usual.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

Thanksgiving retains its majestic ability to unite family and friends while enjoying the chance to break bread (and wishbones) together. Thanksgiving causes us to pause and take measure of the blessings we share and the people in our lives we share the blessings with. Religious dogma and overbearing commercialism are largely absent from the Thanksgiving celebration. For an entire day, I am in a wonderful, reflective, contented mood, eager to share my high spirits with my loved ones and my liked ones.

This year, the celebration started a day early. Peter Porta and I had lunch together and I'm still giggling 8 hours later.

I am thankful that I met Peter in February, 1979. I was a new associate at the Larkin, Hoffman law firm working in the corporate department. Peter and his partner, Gene Morescki, operated an Olivetti dealership, selling and maintaining office equipment. In 1979, "office equipment" consisted primarily of typewriters. I was sent by my boss to meet Peter and Geno at their company, Calc-Type Office Equipment, Inc., to review an important contract they had called about. The encounter, taking place merely 6 weeks after commencing my career in private practice, launched a relationship that, despite current geographic separation, has remained steadfast for nearly 32 years.

I know that there was some concern on the part of my clients when we first met. They had been in business together since 1973 and had prospered. Peter was in charge of the service department; Geno was in charge of sales. Peter is Danish, having immigrated to the U.S. in 1965 to work for Control Data. He barely spoke English at the time. Geno is Italian, from Springfield, Illinois. A suburb of Chicago as Geno tells it. I was not yet 27. And I was there to tell them how to run their business.

Peter set the ground rules early on. When an "uhm" creeped into my vocabulary, he interrupted me. "No 'uhms'. I'm not paying for 'uhms'." He did it in 1979. He did it at lunch today. To make sure I did not take myself too seriously, Peter let me know that he was sure I had acquired my law license from an offer on a matchbook cover. Today, I made the same observation about his Coast Guard certification to pilot watercraft for hire. It was a memory thread that took us back to the beginning.

Peter is very proud of his Danish heritage and loved the fact that he had a Jewish lawyer. He grew up in Copenhagen during World War II and often related the story of the Danes standing up to the German occupiers, refusing to turn over Danish Jews to the Nazis. When I brought Peter to a friend's shop to purchase a new camera, Peter started haggling over price. A bit of an embarrassment, I pulled Peter aside. "I'm trying to chew him down on the price," Peter explained to me. He was horrified when I explained to him that the expression was actually "Jew him down" and was a slur related to a common stereotype of Jewish business practices. He had no idea. English was a second (or third) language; religious tolerance was part of his core.

Besides his liberal religious views, Peter acquired other skills on the streets of Copenhagen as a child. He is a master at sleight of hand and would often entertain me, other bar comrades and good-looking waitresses with tricks he learned as a coping mechanism during the Occupation. Quarters magically disappeared no matter how closely you watched what you knew was coming. Cigarettes rolled across high tops ahead of Peter's extended fingers despite the lack of contact. I was reminded of his remarkable talent today at lunch when he asked me to guess which outstretched fist held the Viagra he now needs to keep his girlfriend happy. One fist was clenched completely; one fist had a thumb pointing straight up.

Peter has always been an incurable flirt. I am not sure if it was/is the heavy Danish accent, the Viking physique, the infectious smile or the irresistible combination of bravado and self-deprecation, but he ALWAYS could have gotten the girl. I watched the master as countless beauties were asked if they were looking for a husband (or Sugar Daddy). If "yes", perfect. "I'm a husband (or Sugar Daddy)!" Peter would proclaim. If he noticed a guy hanging out in a restaurant/bar with more than a couple of women, Peter would interrupt the festivities to advise him that he wasn't being fair. "Some guys don't have any women and you have (fill in the number). You need to learn to share."

There are many Peter Porta stories that bring a smile to my face. Perhaps the most legendary are his encounters with the police involving his driving. Peter loved fast, European cars. He typically drove a big Mercedes sedan. And he drove it regularly to his boat moored in Superior, Wisconsin, a few hours north of Minneapolis.

Examples of Peter's bravado with the police:

1. Peter gets pulled over as he's leaving Duluth on Interstate 35W. "Mr. Porta," explained the officer, "the 55 mile an hour speed limit is designed to save lives." Peter responded, "why don't you just make people walk, then nobody would die?" "And right there", Peter explains to anyone hearing the story, "I knew I was in trouble."

2. Peter gets pulled over for speeding. The officer notices the radar detector mounted on the windshield. "Why do you need that?", asks the officer. Peter (I'll try to do the transliteration of his English): "Waall, I'm a faux'n'er in your country 'n' I'm always gettin' lost. 'N' you guys ah always hiding behind billbods 'n' I cahn't find you. So I use dis detectah to find da police 'n' get help." The officer let him go without a ticket.

3. Peter gets pulled over for speeding. Officer: "Mr. Porta, do you know how fast you were going?" Peter: "This is a $40,000 Mercedes. They come with speedometers."

4. And my favorite. Peter was driving north on the freeway to Superior after work on a Friday evening. Cars were zooming by him but, nonetheless, Peter is pulled over for speeding. "Why are you picking on me?" Peter asked the officer. "Everyone is passing me!" The officer, who clearly had heard this question before, responded "Have you ever been fishing? You don't catch them all, do you?" Without missing a beat, Peter looked at the patrolman and told him, "No, but I throw back some of the ones I catch." The officer broke out in laughter and let Peter go without a ticket.

Peter lives in Johnson City, Tennessee now. He moved there from his first retirement home on Florida's Gulf Coast to get away from the hurricanes. At 78, he rides BMW motorcycles, touring the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Appalachian Trail. He averages 4-5 years with each girlfriend before moving on to a new relationship that offers the physical passion his Viking blood needs to survive. It is likely significant that he remains friends with his old loves.

We sealed our own relationship permanently in 1982 when he watched his young Jewish attorney beat up on Olivetti Corporation during a business trip to Westchester County. After that, in Peter's mind, there was nothing I could not do. Olivetti no longer exists as an independent entity. Calc-Type is now C-T Technologies and continues to office out of the building Peter and Geno purchased along the forthcoming Interstate 394 in the early 1980's.

I'm not 27 anymore. I'm nearly 59. As I've expressed several times in earlier Prairie Pondering writings, I cherish the relationships I've been fortunate enough to establish over the years in so many different circumstances. The pure joy of reconnecting with Peter today reminds me of how lucky I am to have such a vibrant tapestry of friendships, experiences and opportunities.

Let's all enjoy Thanksgiving, 2010, and, for at least the day, focus on the wonders that abound in our lives, drawing well-being from all we have to be thankful for.

Broken: From Watergate to yellowcake

2010-11-13T17:56:00.000-06:00

Emperor Bush was naked, folks. It's about time we admitted it and just dealt with it and its consequences.

Broken: From Watergate to yellowcake

For Special Friends of Rick

2010-11-09T21:44:00.006-06:00

If you are not an animal person, don't read this. You would not understand.

We lost a member of the family tonight. Rick, our 27 year old Arabian gelding had to be euthanized. He was suffering from an intestinal blockage. After two days it was clear that it was not going to get better. He had developed several melanomas, not uncommon for white horses, and with no assurance that he would ever recover, it was time to relieve him of his pain and say "goodbye".

I have never written a eulogy to a horse before. But, as noted, Rick was a member of the family. We acquired him in 1990, just after Deb's first horse was kicked by another and was put down. Rick was 7, a spirited young gelding, with personality to spare and the ability to lift Deb from the emotional devastation of losing Aladdin's Glory.

Rick soon became Ellie's regular ride as she began her Pony Club career. The photos of Rick nuzzling Ellie when she was 4 and again when she was 13 are among my favorites.

In sixth grade, Ellie's best friend Laura Sedgwick was killed when her horse fell back on her during a weekly riding lesson. Ellie was not in the arena with Laura that Saturday morning; we were in South Dakota with Deb's parents for Easter weekend. After the incident, I asked Rick to take care of my baby and keep her safe. He agreed. I thanked him tonight for keeping his word.

Rick was everyone's favorite. He was so well-tempered and forgiving, novice riders and lifelong equestrians alike were comfortable with Rick. Jon Weiss' granddaughter makes an annual pilgrimage from Atlanta each summer to see and ride Ricky. When I put her on another horse in August, she'd have none of it. One of Deb's friends loved coming to Meadow Breeze Farm to saddle up Rick and take him trail riding with one of the boarders. She viewed it as part of her physical therapy. Rick was the horse visitors to the farm were given to ride. On the rare occasion when I partake, Rick was my mount.

20 years is a long time to spend with an animal. As I mourn the loss of Meadow Breeze Farm's senior resident, I take comfort from knowing that he was well cared for and greatly loved, which is all he ever asked for in return for his gentle demeanor and nurturing disposition.

Hi, I'm a Tea-Partier

2010-11-07T08:15:00.000-06:00

I am sorry I didn't post this a week ago. This is what we're dealing with.

We Had it Coming

2010-11-04T20:08:00.004-05:00

The 2010 mid-term elections are pretty much over. As a Minnesotan, I am reminded of a joke I first heard 48 years ago, when I was 10 years old:

Knock, knock.
Who's there?
Governor.
"Governor", who?
I don't know. I'm from Minnesota.

The race for governor will work itself out, although not before the Republicans drag out the recount in order to run the table in January when they control both houses of the Legislature and Governor Pawlenty remains in office as part of the State Constitution's mandate.

In the meantime, I thought I'd do a quick post-mortem on the mid-term results. A fraction of the voters who elected Barack Obama in 2008, expressed their frustration with the Chosen One's inability to snap his fingers and return America to the days of Bill Clinton and their record surpluses. In retrospect, I should have seen it coming. We elected a community organizer with no executive experience to the highest office of the land in 2008 and failed to protest when he sat around the White House playing with his admittedly adorable children and his foreign-bred puppy.

Perhaps if he had at least tried to accomplish something in the first two years of his term, the electorate, which pays attention to such things and is prone to reward politicians who make an effort to address our challenges, would have rewarded him by supporting the Democrats who make up his team.

I searched and searched on the Internet, looking for anything that demonstrated that the President was not spending his days golfing. The results were pretty sad. This is all I could find:

1. Issued executive order to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

2. Ended Bush administration’s CIA program of ‘enhanced interrogation methods’ by requiring that the Army field manual be used as the guide for terrorism interrogations.

3. Increased minority access to capital.

4. Established Credit Card Bill of Rights, preventing credit card companies from imposing arbitrary rate increases on customers.

5. Health Care Reform Bill, preventing insurance companies from denying insurance because of a pre-existing condition.

6. Health Care Reform Bill, allowing children to remain covered by their parents’ insurance until the age of 26.

7. Tax cuts for up to 3.5 million small businesses to help pay for employee health care coverage.

8. Tax credits for up to 29 million individuals to help pay for health insurance.

9. Expansion of Medicaid to all individuals under age 65 with incomes up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level.

10. Require health insurance plans to disclose how much of the premium actually goes to patient care.

11. Added $4.6 billion to the Veterans Administration budget to recruit and retain more mental health professionals.

12. Significantly increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act.

13. Lifted restrictions granting Cuban Americans unrestricted rights to visit family and send remittances to the island.

14. Eliminated subsidies to private lender middlemen of student loans and protect student borrowers.

15. Increased funding for national parks and forests by 10%.

16. Significantly expanded Pell grants, which help low-income students pay for college.

17. Expanded hate crime law in the US to include sexual orientation through the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

18. Provided stimulus funding to boost private sector spaceflight programs.

19. Appointed nation’s first Chief Technology Officer.

20. Signed financial reform law establishing a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to look out for the interests of everyday Americans.

21. Signed financial reform law requiring lenders to verify applicants’ credit history, income, and employment status.

22. Signed financial reform law prohibiting banks from engaging in proprietary trading (trading the bank’s own money to turn a profit, often in conflict with their customers’ interests).

23. Signed financial reform law allowing shareholders of publicly traded companies to vote on executive pay.

24. Cut prescription drug cost for Medicare recipients by 50%.

25. Provided $12.2 Billion in new funding for Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

26. Extended Benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.

27. Appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in U.S. history.

28.The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009: a $789 billion economic stimulus plan.

29. Created more private sector jobs in 2010 than during entire Bush years.

30. Voluntary disclosure of White House visitors for the first time in U.S. history.

31. Appointed first Latina to the US Supreme Court.

32. Promoted social responsibility through creation of serve.gov, a national database of volunteer opportunities.

33. Reversed ‘global gag rule’, allowing US aid to go to organizations regardless of whether they provide abortions.

34. Signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, giving the FDA the authority to regulate the manufacturing, marketing, and sale of tobacco for the first time.

35. Signed New START Treaty - nuclear arms reduction pact with Russia.

36. Increased average fuel economy standards from 27.5mpg to 35.5mpg, starting in 2016.

37. Signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, restoring basic protections against pay discrimination for women and other workers.

38. Provided travel expenses to families of fallen soldiers to be on hand when the body arrives at Dover Air Force Base.

39. Reversed the policy of barring media coverage during the return of fallen soldiers to Dover Air Force Base.

40.Launched recovery.gov to track spending from the Recovery Act, providing transparency and allowing the public to report fraud, waste, or abuse.

41. Provided the Department of Veterans Affairs with more than $1.4 billion to improve services to America’s Veterans.

42. Signed the Children’s Health Insurance Reauthorization Act, which provides health care to 11 million kids -- 4 million of whom were previously uninsured.

43. Repealed Bush era restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

44. Signed the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act, the first piece of comprehensive legislation aimed at improving the lives of Americans living with paralysis.

45. Developed stimulus package, which includes approx. $18 billion for non-defense scientific research and development.

46. Signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act to stop fraud and wasteful spending in the defense procurement and contracting system.

It's too bad. I had such high hopes in November, 2008, that we had elected someone who could do more than spend 33% of his time away from the White House relaxing at Camp David or on a ranch in Texas. Maybe things will get better when Governor Palin gets elected to the presidency in 2012.

Time's Up

2010-11-01T22:25:00.002-05:00

I have been absent from Prairie Pondering for far too long. I apologize to any who care. I have not been silent for lack of opinions to express. Rather, I have been too demoralized by the hijacking of the democratic process since January, 2009 to find the will to express myself publicly.

I have sat mostly in silence while the GOP adopted a strategy of stonewalling any effort by the Obama Administration and its supporters in Congress to carry out the policies approved by an overwhelming majority of the American electorate in 2008.

I have stewed mutely while, for example, Commandant McConnell led the opposition to the President's announced plan to close the prison at Guantanamo, then belittled the Commander in Chief for his inability to get things done.

I have exercised my eyebrows and neck muscles, but not my typing fingers, listening to FAUX News and its anointed cadre of self-promoting political charlatans repeat one big lie after another with its intended effect.

Not tonight. Time's up. There's an election tomorrow and I cannot allow it to occur without encouraging my like-minded progressives to make the modicum of effort necessary to vote. I cannot allow the election to occur without expressing my sympathy to those drinking the FAUX-Bachmann-Palin-Hannity-Huckabee-Emmer (FBPHHE) Kook-Aid over the tragic loss of their common sense and their abandonment of logic in search of the quick fix.

To the progressives: Get off your butts and vote. He may have been ridiculed for saying it publicly, but Vice President Biden was right. Quit whining. Real life is not a one-hour television drama where the problem presented in the opening is resolved before the final credits roll. This country faces serious social and financial challenges that existed long before President Obama took office. There is no magic fix and, thank God, we elected a president in 2008 who makes it a habit to take the time, and has the mental capacity, to analyze a problem before pursuing a solution. When FBPHHE mock you for blaming President Bush and the Republicans after Democrats have been in office for so long, do not flinch. Blame away. With no meaningful defense for the way Bush/Cheney ran the country into the ground, FBPHHE has no choice but to ridicule those of us who continue to hold Bush/Cheney, and those who would return to their policies, accountable for the mess we are in.

To FBPHHE: Your mindless pursuit of derailing the Obama Administration and steadfast determination to oppose for the sake of opposition is traitorous.

You might hide behind your "America First" rhetoric. You might decry a declining labor market and long for a solution through good old American entrepreneurship. You might gloat over the effectiveness of scaring the electorate with the Big Lies of widespread voter fraud, workable alternatives to health care reform or the possibility of meaningfully smaller government. But the bottom line is that once you've succeeded in winning elections on the strength of inaccurate sound bites, corporate financed attack ads and frightening voters into mindless submission, you have an obligation to actually govern. To date, you have offered no viable solutions to the problems facing our nation.

As you've shown, you don't need a majority to control the flow of legislation. Democrats have NOT been in charge these past four years and if predictions about GOP success tomorrow prove true, FBPHHE will have taken on the moral obligation to participate in the process of solving what ails us. If instead, FBPHHE views the 2010 election as merely a stepping stone to the national elections in 2012 and continues to impede a functioning government, it will create a far greater danger to our children's and grandchildren's well-being than any downside resulting from President Obama trying to keep the economy and financial system from imploding. Hence, traitors.

Here's a link to a op-ed expression by someone making the same point, but who put more time into actually researching the threats we face.

Please vote on November 2nd.

Remember?

2010-11-01T08:28:00.001-05:00

Sometimes

2010-05-30T13:37:00.005-05:00

Sometimes things work out the way they should.

I was driving eastward this morning on Interstate 394. I was in the middle lane, traveling at about 60 m.p.h. in a 55 m.p.h. zone. I noticed an unmarked police car stopped on the shoulder ahead on the right, signaling to return to adjacent the traffic lane. An SUV in the right lane ahead of me signaled to move into my lane to give the police car room to maneuver. I responded by moving to my left, entering the "Sane Lane" reserved for car poolers and transponder renters during the week. As I switched lanes, I arrived at the end of the access point and two double white line appeared on my right, together with the corresponding traffic sign admonishing me not to cross the double white line. The police car pulled out and remained about 4 cars back. I was relieved that he was not interested in me driving 5 m.p.h. over the speed limit.

Almost immediately thereafter, I noticed a black Cadillac CTS approaching me in the Sane Lane. It looked like one of the cars movie stars drive in commercials, fast, to convey how fulfilled you'd be if you were driving one, too. The driver behind me must have seen the commercials because, from the rate of his approach, he was traveling at more than 70 m.p.h. I make it a point not to cross the double white line or exceed 61 m.p.h. when I don't know if law enforcement is in the area. This morning, I DID know and maintained my speed and lane position as the CTS came up on my tail, probably frustrating him as he mocked my waste of of my sports coupe. Rather than ram me or slow down, the CTS switched into the lane to our right and passed me. I checked my mirror again and confirmed that the unmarked police car was still four cars back. :-)

Like a closer at Canterbury, the police officer sped up, gave me a look as he passed me on the right, positioned his car behind the CTS, turned on his lights and guided the CTS to a stop on the freeway's right shoulder. I assume the CTS received a speeding ticket. I hope that he was also, at least, warned about crossing the double white line. If you're in or next to the Sane Lane, having someone dart across when you aren't expecting it is like having folks running red lights as you approach on the green. In this case, the scenario played out like I thought it would as soon as I noticed the CTS coming up behind me. Sometimes things work out the way they should.

Sometimes things don't work out the way they should.

The drive this morning was to a cemetery in Edina to attend the unveiling of the gravestone of my departed friend, Tom Silver. Jewish tradition is to wait about a year after burial before putting up a gravestone. Although more than a year has passed since Tom's death, I haven't accepted the fact that he's gone. He and Rabbi Cohen and I celebrated our birthdays together each year. Tom's last steak and last scotch was at one such celebratory dinner a few days before he died at 67 years of age.

Tom was one of the smartest people I knew. We served on the new synagogue construction steering committee together; Tom was the chair. I covered for him at one meeting of the synagogue's construction contractors and was completely bewildered by all the complexity of the decisions that he regularly dispatched at the weekly gatherings.

Every year Tom raced a souped up Mustang in the PanAmerica Race up the length of Mexico. He always did well. In his last year of life, he won the race for the first time. It occurred to many of us that Tom figured he had nothing to lose by taking extra risks in that final race. Racing a road race in the Third World in his mid-sixties, he was already a legend on the circuit. Winning that last race gave him permanent legendary status.

The service at the cemetery was brief but touching. Brunch at the Silver household was bittersweet. On the surface, Tom's wife, son and three daughters appear to be doing well. But I couldn't help thinking that it was a gathering that was happening 20 years too soon. Sometimes things don't work out the way they should.

Say No to Socialism

2010-03-26T12:57:00.003-05:00

Prairie Pondering blogs are automatically posted as Notes on my Facebook page and, particularly when politics are being pondered, generate quite a bit of discussion. This week's post of the "Yes We Can/Hell No You Can't" video generated quite a bit of discussion.

The following was submitted from the digg.com website by one of my more liberal friends, responding to concerns expressed by opponents of health care reform. It appeared on digg.com's site last August and, most likely, elsewhere beforehand. I think it is worth sharing as it reminds us that one of the reasons we like to believe we live in the greatest country in the world is that we receive, and take for granted, so many benefits only possible through the work of our local, state and Federal governments.

NO to Socialism!

"This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provded by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.

At the approrpiate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by the local, state, and federal departments of transporation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency. On my way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After work, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to a house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it's valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right."

No You Can't (Featuring John Boehner)

2010-03-25T15:46:00.001-05:00

This YouTube video expresses in a most succinct and eloquent fashion why we must rise to overcome the challenges of the mindless opposition to the will of the people proffered by Republicans in Congress.

Pick Two

2010-03-22T23:04:00.005-05:00

Sunday night I was privileged to attend a function at Bet Shalom Synagogue where NPR's Scott Simon was the featured speaker. Listening to Mr. Simon wax poetic about his experiences as a journalist, the people he has met, the places he has covered, and the success he has humbly achieved as a story-teller made me feel a little nostalgic for the days 40 years ago when I considered a career in journalism.

The consideration never rose to the level of a definite plan. But I was a vociferous reader and loved to write. I had spent three years under the tutelage of Hattie Steinberg, St. Louis Park High School's legendary journalism teacher who Tom Friedman of the New York Times eulogized as the only journalism teacher he ever had, "she was that good." I won a National Council of Teachers of English award, thereby cementing my acceptance at Carleton College. While, ultimately, I pursued a career where writing skills are important, there are times when I cannot help but reflect on the life I would have led if I had stuck to answering the who, what, why, where and when mysteries Miss Steinberg trained us to solve.

Prairie Pondering is a release for my writing. Few days pass where I don't think about writing another installment. Unfortunately, few days end where thoughts are committed to my Mac's hard-drive. Typically, the disconnect results from being overwhelmed by the choice of subjects and the desire to say something meaningful and defensible. Fluff pieces are easy, but a little too self-centered. If readers are going to take the time to allow me to share my thoughts, the takeback ought to include some modicum of enlightenment or, at least, a thoughtful discussion of an issue that matters. Writer's block ensues and my blog guilt blossoms.

Tonight is no exception. It is now after midnight and I should be sleeping. In fact, I am sleeping, from time to time as I write this. But the inspiration of Scott Simon, the historic nature of the passage of health care reform Sunday night, the addresses of Secretary of State Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to the American Israeli Political Action Committee, the passage of the jobs bill, yesterday's observation of a Facebook friend that Michele Bachmann is "a black eye for Minnesota", the flooding down the road, and the pending return of outdoor Major League Baseball to Minnesota leads me to force myself to generate another blog installment.

Since twenty minutes has passed since I started writing the last paragraph, I will be efficient with the remaining hours of consciousness this evening (morning) and offer some thoughts that apply to nearly every challenge facing us today. I offer the lesson of "Pick Two."

More than one business client, either engaged in manufacturing, in sales or in providing a service, has applied the lesson of Pick Two to their commercial practices. It is a rather straight forward concept. When shopping for a product or a service, consider (a) high quality, (b) low price and (c) quick delivery. Pick two.

Invariably, one of the three options suffers at the expense of the other two. Let's apply it to health care. If I want to see my highly qualified primary care physician for the low price of my c0-pay, I'll have to wait to get an appointment. If I merely need a quick flu shot, at a subsidized price, I can go to a clinic at the local Walmart and receive the services of a less experienced medical practitioner who will, hopefully, have some knowledge in the use of a syringe. Finally, if I need an immediate consult with a physician specializing in what ails me, I may have to go outside my insurer's network and pay retail.

On a broader scale, we ALL want high quality, affordable health care. Under the rule of Pick Two, and as a matter of common sense, we cannot expect everyone to have instant gratification in their health care needs if quality and reasonable pricing are to be maintained. If our society continues to insist that every major hospital make the latest high quality technology available for every conceivable medical contingency (e.g., burn units and brain injuries) in order to facilitate quicker treatments and notwithstanding the competition operating similar facilities at 50% of capacity, it is going to be expensive. Hopefully, newly passed reform legislation will address such wastefulness. If so it will not be a "government takeover of health care" as much as a reallocation of limited resources and imposing brakes on the medical equivalent of an arms race.

The lesson of Pick Two applies to government services as well. When my barn starts on fire, I want a fire truck and personnel capable of handling the emergency at Meadow Breeze Farm as quickly as possible. That being said, it is going to be expensive. Someone has to pay for the purchase and maintenance of the latest equipment. Someone has to pay to support emergency service personnel. We can save money by scrimping on replacing equipment and/or cutting back on the size of the fire and police departments. That will reduce costs and leave me with either a prompt inadequate response (and a smoldering barn) or a slow comprehensive response (and a smoldering barn).

In the days, weeks and months ahead, when friends who do not share my admiration for the president and his administration challenge me on the wisdom of his policies, I will fall back on the lesson of Pick Two. This country voted for a new direction in 20008. Loudly. We were promised a change in the way government serves its citizens. Absent the political vitriol, we should be smart enough to realize that quick fixes are the antithesis of well-reasoned, high quality approaches to problem solving.

We should remember that difficulties that have developed over decades cannot be quickly and magically made to disappear. That means, under the lesson of Pick Two, we are going to have to spend some money. Not coincidentally, Republicans have been focusing exclusively on the cost of health care reform and the cost of the economic stimulus and the cost of repairing our infrastructure and the cost of converting to renewable energy sources. What they forget, and what I will remind my more conservative friends, is that if you take your time and purchase a high quality solution, you save money over the long run. And, most importantly, there can be a long run.

Health Care Reform

2010-03-20T11:50:00.003-05:00

A friend posted this link to a Salon.com slide show on the current health care reform proposal expected to come to a vote in the House of Representatives. It's a good starting point for discussion. It ignores arguing for (or against) the reform by relying on derisiveness which, for me, is a nice change of pace.

There's been a lot of frenzy whipping going on, by both sides of the aisle, but, as always, I tend to support the arguments that don't rely on emotional flash points (e.g., "death panels", "Obamacare") to convince me of the merits of the argument.

Thoughtful persons and others, especially persons bent out of shape over the perceived lack of transparency in the process and the willingness of Congress to vote on a bill they have not read, should click here and read the bill pending before the House. With respect to transparency, as I explained to a very close friend, long-time client and conservative businessman this week, there's never been a more transparent process. The very fact that the whole country is in a position to offer their opinion on how the process has worked, which constituencies received special consideration in return for their representatives' support, who is and who is not supporting the reform (and why or why not) demonstrates that absolute transparent manner in which the legislation has evolved. You want more transparency? Win an election and attend the meetings yourself.

Birthday Pondering

2010-03-15T23:57:00.006-05:00

The clock is about to strike 12, at which point I will have reached 58 years of age. The congratulations have been pouring in from family and friends all over the world since last weekend when I posted a photograph online of my close friend Greg Kellenberger and me holding candlelit desserts at the end of our annual celebratory dinner.

I've heard from Nathaniel Davis in Beijing and from Bob Levine off the coast of Brazil on a cruise ship. I've heard from cousins in California, a former girlfriend in Denver, law school classmates in Washington, D.C., family in the Twin Cities, Connecticut and Arizona. Rabbi Cohen sent me an e-card, saying nice things about me that I don't deserve. Jessica Applebaum called today because she'll be out of town tomorrow. My "brother" Bruce Mandel and I will exchange greetings on Tuesday as we have on every March 16th, our mutual birthday, since we were 3 years old.

I am one lucky S.O.B.

I'm on the backside of the mountain and, like everyone else, have no idea how steep the descent that lays before me. Yet, strangely, the contentment I feel at having had the privilege of being part of so many disparate lives, and making enough of an impression to warrant a gesture of goodwill each year, overcomes any anxiousness inherent in the realization that there's a fairly large mound of sand at the bottom of the clock.

I picked the wrong Powerball number, again, on Saturday so I have no plans of early retirement. But as I hear from so many dear, dear friends and loving family members, I realize that a more robust bank account hardly matters. Each phone call, e-mail, text message and Facebook posting is a trip down memory lane and an opportunity to reflect on the extraordinary times I've shared all over the world.

Thanks to all for the gift of sharing yourselves with me. Thank you for making me more tolerant by showing me the good in you I might otherwise miss during our fervent political debates. Thank you for indulging my delusions of artistry as I impose my writing and my photography on you. Thank you for trusting me to find solutions to your challenges, whether on a pro bono basis or at my regular obscene hourly rate. Thank you for caring enough to touch base and help me appreciate the magnificence of our connections and the shiny bow of memories yet to be made.

Here's an appropriate image for today's pondering. I was going to post it in my "Photo of the Day" Facebook album, but it seems better placed here. It's entitled "The Home Stretch" and was taken at the Little Everglades Steeplechase in Dade City, Florida two years ago. Significantly, they're not letting up.

Marketing 2010

2010-02-06T13:07:00.003-06:00

I had a thought that I wanted to preserve and claim credit for. Here it is as a quick and non-controversial blog posting:

Words Are Important

2010-02-01T10:26:00.003-06:00

I still have not listened to or read the president's State of the Union address. I have, as discussed in my last posting, been listening to the commentators on FOX. As a result, I understand from former NYC mayor Rudy Gulliani that the president is soft on terrorism because he barely mentioned the subject in the address. I understand that the president has failed at everything he has attempted to do in the last year, including closing Guantanamo, passing comprehensive health care, and bringing our troops home. Significantly, I am now aware that the president did not learn the lesson from the recent Senate election in Massachusetts and accept the referendum on his policies from the electorate in that great Commonwealth.

My last posting drew a lot of comments from my more conservative friends. I am grateful to them for their efforts to enlighten me. From them, I now realize that the president's middle name is indicative of his secret anti-American sympathies, that he is working above his pay grade because he said so when asked a question about bio-science with a quip while campaigning for office, that he is out of touch with the American people, that he excludes the GOP from participating in the legislative process and that he is responsible for a host of other ills plaguing our country.

I am not buying it. I was going to argue about the demagoguery coming from the right but, after the president's visit to the conference of Republican House members in Baltimore last week, I don't need to. If you take the time to click here and watch the unscripted, televised live exchange between the president and members of the GOP House caucus, and you're being honest, you cannot help but come away admiring the president. You don't have to agree with his policies; he acknowledges that there will be differences. However, if you think of the political risk the president took by taking on questions from the caucus on live television, working without notes, you realize it's a far cry from having a president who would not admit to making a single mistake and who would only appear at town hall meetings that were filled with his pre-screened supporters. Add in the obvious intelligence and command of the facts with which the president responded to each and every question and challenge, and the provocative smears and half-truths used to attack the administration (and win elections in Massachusetts) ring particularly hollow.

Please watch the linked video. It really is amazing and demonstrates why I am so much more comfortable with Barack Hussein Obama sitting in the Oval Office while he takes the necessary time to address our challenges than with any of the alternatives.

Finally, I used to think the definition of "chutzpah" was the story of the son who murdered his parents and asked the court for mercy because he was an orphan. I now think it's the story of Republicans who railed incessantly against allowing prisoners from Guantanamo to be moved to secure prisons in the United States, delaying the president's plan to close the prison, and then belittled the president because he did not keep his promise to close Guantanamo within the year.

Similar examples abound and, as a result, I find the vitriol spewed on FOX to be the height of hypocrisy. Guess which network cut from the president has he responded to questions from the GOP caucus last week to take comments from the president's critics? It's one thing to merely call yourself "fair and balanced". It's another to allow both sides of the debate to be aired before directing your viewers to agree with your agenda.

While My Head is Clear

2010-01-27T23:45:00.002-06:00

I will try to soon share my pondering on the President's State of the Union speech, delivered earlier tonight. It's a little early to do so; I didn't see it and I haven't read the text I downloaded for later review.

That being the case, it's a certainty that I will hear critics of the President and his administration attack the speech and his efforts to reach out to the nation to offer assurances that this generation's nattering nabobs of negativism are self-serving, misguided political opportunists.

For a change of pace, I think I will try reading the criticism before familiarizing myself with the actual speech. Perhaps if I can put myself in the mindset of those who did not bother to watch the President or read the speech but who nonetheless will take cues from Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly and Beck when sharing their opinions about the substance of the State of the Union, I can begin to understand how it is that intellectual laziness and news by soundbites has so effectively undermined our democracy.

My last blog, written just prior to the first anniversary of the President's inauguration, generated a number of comments. I thank my readers for all of them. None made me feel as good as the decision by my son to post a link to the blog as his Facebook status, suggesting that his friends "(c)heck this out if you're interested in some smart political commentary." Some of the comments that came in second to Phil's validation of his father disagreed with my observation that the President should be given time to accomplish his goals.

One of my readers, a good friend despite her conservative leanings, commented, "Obama was an outstanding campaigner. The presidency is above his pay grade." Clearly, he was an outstanding campaigner. He won the presidency of the United States. I had a hell of a time just helping elect a couple of qualified candidates to the Independence city council in November.

However, the second part of my friend's comment is more telling. Characterizing the President's performance in relation to a pay grade is the kind of meaningless rhetoric passing for political discourse that I lamented in my last blog. Moreover, the statement, on its face, is untrue. This president is taking a pay cut working out of the Oval Office instead of pursuing his career as an author and public speaker. As has been the case since his graduation from Harvard Law School, he continues to trade a more financially rewarding career path for public service.

Of course, the issue is not really about the President's salary. My friend's comment was shorthand for "the President is incompetent." My friend chose not to back it up with specifics or suggestions on how things might have been handled better in response to the gauntlet I threw down in the blog. Rather, my friend made my point by regurgitating a catch phrase likely picked up from my friend's favorite "news" source, the FOX Network, which, if repeated often enough by like minded sheep in the Limbaugh pasture, becomes accepted as reality.

Another comment I found interesting was from another friend and former colleague who expressed disagreement with my chastisement of the Republicans. "I wish we could offer alternatives, but the Dems don't listen and don't allow anyone into their closed door meetings. There's something seriously not right about that. So I say: Term limits. They're all so disengaged from the American people. Repubs or dems, they've forsaken us all and need to go."

Again, I'm afraid the comment merely parrots empty political rhetoric. First, the Democrats went out of their way to listen and invite Republican participation at the outset of the President's administration. Once it became clear that the Republicans were adopting a strategy of opposing all Democratic initiatives as a political tool, the White House and the leadership in Congress were understandably reluctant to continue to be played for chumps.

Second, Democrats DO let some into their closed door meetings – other Democrats. That's the way the system works. The caucuses meet with their members in private. The Republicans do the same thing. The Vikings and Saints did the same thing last Sunday. Opposing teams were not invited into the huddle, even when the Vikings thought there was room for one more.

However, these closed caucus meetings are not the only meetings taking place and what's "seriously" wrong is Republican claims that they have been trying to work in a bi-partisan fashion. There was an election in November, 2008. The electorate sent a fairly strong message that the Republicans' policies of the previous 8 years were no longer acceptable to the majority of the voters. Accordingly, it is a serious misrepresentation of the facts to claim a willingness to engage in bi-partisanship if your efforts are limited to insisting that these same rejected policies be incorporated into new legislation.

Third, term limits are not appropriate in our day and age. I did some quick research and found an on-line article from 2006, 12 years after the 1994 Contract with America championed by Newt Gingerich and the Republicans running for office that year. Term limits were a cornerstone of the Contract with America. However, according to the blog I found (here), 25 Congressman and 5 Senators who had pledged in 1994 to retire after 12 years in office were running for re-election in 2006. My guess is that reality set in for these Republican contractors.

Speaking practically, few people worth having in office would trade private life for public office if they knew that, after devoting 8 to 12 years away from their career in the private sector, they would be forced to return and, at best, compete with folks 8-12 years their junior who are better informed about the needs and status of the employer. Rather than being able to excel at either career, both avenues would be short circuited. For example, my Congressman is a Republican who gave up a promising career as an executive at Target Corporation. How can anyone expect him to give up a lucrative future with Target in order to devote himself to public service if in a dozen years when he is in his mid-50's he is expected to return to the private workplace and try to continue a private sector career? Would those concerned about entrenchment have all the legislators become lobbyists at the end of their dirty dozen?

The solution is not term limits. The solution is reform of campaign finance so legislators, once elected, can exercise the independent judgment they campaigned on. More on that when I discuss the Supreme Court's recent evisceration of our democracy.

"Term limits", "pay grade", "exclusionary" are all expressions of passion but not of substance. Although their repetition provides the speakers solace in numbers with fellow ditto-heads, they offer no roadmap on how to create jobs, reform health care or bring peace to the world. As of now, I'm not buying any suggestions to the contrary. Perhaps after I take in the criticism of the State of the Union address before viewing it and without reading it I'll come to understand the crises we face as a result of electing Barack Obama to the presidency. Or perhaps I'll follow through with my commitment made in my last blog and call a fraud a fraud. Make a bet and stay tuned.

One Year Later

2010-01-18T23:49:00.002-06:00

As the holiday celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. draws to a close, I thought I'd take a few moments to reflect on the first anniversary of our president's inauguration. Last year at this time, the juxtaposition of the holiday with the pending transition of power to America's first African-American president was the subject of much reflection, national self-congratulatory musing and fervent hope by the 68% of Americans who approved of the president-elect that, finally, longed for "change" would come to fruition.

A year later, the mood of the country has changed dramatically. The president's approval ratings now hover around 50%, diminished by a growing perception that (i.) the ongoing high unemployment rate, (ii.) the uncertainties about the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, (iii.) the challenges, tinged by images of nuclear holocaust, posed by Iran and North Korea, (iv.) the unresolved conflicts in the Middle East, (v.) the government's inability to prevent terrorist attacks in the homeland, (vi.) the continued depression in the residential housing market, (vii.) the looming collapse of the commercial real estate market, (viii.) the inability to pass meaningful health care reform, (ix.) the unfettered greed of Wall Street and (x.) the affront to the United States by the rejection of Chicago as the site of the 2016 Olympics all could and should have been dealt with more successfully by President Obama and his administration.

It is utterly depressing. I am overwhelmed by the hopelessness that results from living in a society that is so naive, short-sighted and malleable under the kneading of hypocritical conservative punditry.

As you may imagine, I am firmly ensconced among the president's supporters. Has he pitched a perfect game? Of course not. Have there been missteps in attempting to implement certain policies? Of course. Has 20% of the American public lost sight of the fact that running the country is not a scripted docu-drama in which all loose ends are tied up quickly neatly in response to the skill and wisdom of the chief executive as we head to the refrigerator for a late night snack? Apparently.

We are so, so much better off with a president who takes the time to think before acting and refuses to be bullied into knee-jerk reactions by impatient opponents. I am comforted by the thought that while the Fox network's talking heads were verbally eviscerating President Obama for not addressing the nation immediately after the attempt to blow up Northwest Flight 253, the president was quietly directing his underlings to identify the causes of the breach of security and recommend fixes. Frankly, THAT is what he was elected to do. When he had something to say, he said it. Until then, he was focused on doing his job.

In the last year,

the Obama Administration has brought the country, and, by extension, the world from the brink of another Great Depression;
the Obama Administration made the decision that the ramifications of allowing GM and Chrysler to fail were too significant and potentially detrimental to the economy to allow that to happen. I believe that the auto makers are entitled to a chance to reorganize. Given the scope of the endeavor, the assistance of the Federal Government is required to make that possible. The dearth of manufacturing jobs in this country is enough of a problem without further reductions resulting from the shuttering of even more domestic auto plants;
the Obama Administration pushed through programs designed to jump start the housing industry and the auto industry;
the Obama Administration sent a message to the world community that the United States was done behaving like a self-righteous bully, dictating policy to everyone else and fabricating "coalitions of the willing" as if the Emperor were fully dressed;
the Obama Administration implemented a policy in Afghanistan, in a timely fashion when measured by relevant deadlines, that did not surrender to domestic politics and that made appropriate demands on our allies;
the Obama Administration attempted to work in a bi-partisan manner to formulate legislative solutions to problems demanded by the electorate in November, 2008. When frustrated by a united Republican Party that has traded the exercise of independent judgment for partisan purity in order to undermine the president, the Obama Administration continued its efforts to serve the will of the People and proceeded unilaterally.

Many of us are concerned about the costs of financing the solutions offered for the challenges we face as a nation. Those of us who are honest acknowledge that the tab for addressing these challenges has been a long time coming. We did not have a robust auto industry, real estate industry, banking industry or manufacturing base on January 19, 2009. We were not on the verge of peace in and/or with Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Yemen, Israel or Gaza as Barack Obama took the oath of office a day later. The health care system was not providing adequate, affordable care for all Americans a year ago.

In my view, President Obama got stuck with the tab and has spent the last year figuring out just how much each of us is going to have to chip in. I'm not happy about it, but there are no good alternatives. As a nation, we spent beyond our means. We chastised former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan for spoiling the party fueled by a run-up of stock prices when he prophetically warned of an "irrational exuberance" taking place. We financed our misguided military forays and low tax rates by borrowing unfathomable amounts of money from foreign investors, leaving us particularly exposed should we allow a failure of our domestic banks and industrial engines.

In reality, President Obama's popularity has dropped because he hasn't been able to magically make our problems disappear in an unrealistically short time frame given their scope and depth. The propaganda proffered by the president's detractors has succeeded in convincing enough of our citizenry with "inquiring minds" otherwise focused Tiger Woods' marital status that the president has failed to deliver on the vision he offered a year ago. Given the incessant efforts of the same detractors to derail the vision's delivery, and given too many voters' confusion of partisan sniping for thoughtful analysis, the result is to be expected, yet disconcerting.

It's time to call a fraud a fraud. For example, if you think Secretary Napolitano defended the Department of Homeland Security by proclaiming that "the system worked" notwithstanding the Christmas Day terror attack, you've been defrauded. I heard her initially and verified it by listening to my podcast of the December 27, 2009 edition of "This Week with George Stephanopolous" (at about 6:40 into the podcast). She clearly stated that "once the incident occurred", everyone did their job and "the system worked". She was not referring to efforts to keep terrorists off of airplanes. She was referring to the agencies' and airlines' reactions to the news that an attempted terror attack had taken place. The difference is important and the right wing nut jobs who take the Secretary's statement out of context in order to attack the president should not be given credence on account of any resulting drop in popularity.

It's time to demand accountability from those intent on undermining the will of the electorate. If you're going to complain about the programs proposed and implemented by President Obama to address our national crises, offer specific alternatives. If you're going to whine about the state of the economy, start by disclosing whether you were part of the problem and, if so, have the decency that admit that the president is trying to clean up after your mess. If you think it's a mistake to close Guantanamo, explain why we shouldn't just execute all the prisoners there to assure that they won't be a problem in the future and to allow the eventual dissipation from our enemies' psyche the fact that America preaches due process but holds hundreds incognito without charge year after year after year.

As I said, the situation is utterly depressing. I had thought that enough of us had learned valuable lessons from the Bush/Cheney fascista that we were intent on taking back our democracy and using the government to serve the common good. Instead, we've retreated in silence and let the fear-mongers once again inject their self-serving poison into the public conscience. I intend to do my part to shed light on this mockery of the democratic process. I need to write more often as a cure for my depression. If you agree with me, pass on my prairie ponderings. If you disagree, refer to the paragraph immediately above and give it your best shot. Finally, if you disagree with me and think Sarah Palin should be president, leave me alone. You're an idiot.

I leave you with an example of pushback that I hope to see more of. Click here.

Convergences

2010-01-11T21:06:00.006-06:00

I had a "what are the odds?" experience the other day and it made me think about strange coincidences I've been involved in over the years. I decided it is time to reduce some of these to writing. Otherwise, over time, if left untold, the incidents take on mythic elements and seem too fantastic to have actually happened. Feel free to leave comments with your own coincidental experiences.

In 1986-7, I was flying to Los Angeles at least once a month to work with a client who was developing a customized vitamin business. To some extent, I made the trips to get out of being in Minnesota in the winter and out of the apartment my family was living in while our home was being constructed. To a greater extent, I made the trips because the client, a Persian expat, gave me the keys to his Ferrari Testarossa to drive while I was in town. The price of the plane ticket ($240) was worth it just to be able to drive up the Coast Highway in a car that was an upgrade from Tom Selleck's ride in Magnum, P.I.

One day, I boarded a Northwest flight to LAX. The flight attendant asked me to switch seats so a family could sit together. I obliged and moved back over the wing to an aisle seat. There was a woman of similar age in the middle seat next to me who had started her travels in Detroit. While waiting to depart we struck up a conversation. She had graduated from the University of Michigan a decade or so earlier with a theater major and was flying to Los Angeles to follow her dreams and break into the entertainment business.

I went into my facilitator mode and suggested she contact my former roommate from law school who was working as an attorney for ABC Entertainment in Los Angeles. I remember writing Bob's name and work phone number on the back of one of my cards and handing it to her. Bob and I had the kind of relationship where I knew he would help the woman if she called on a referral from me. It seemed appropriate, a logical follow-up to the twist of fate that had me sitting next to this woman after initially being assigned elsewhere.

I will never forget the look on the woman's face as I handed her the card. She stared at me in disbelief. It wasn't just the random act of kindness that stunned her. She had graduated with, and performed under, Bob, who had directed the University production of "Hello, Dolly" their senior year. Someone in Ann Arbor, who had Bob's home phone, had told her to look up Bob when she arrived in Los Angeles. Making that connection had been a major part of her plan to establish herself. But she had lost his number, had no idea where he worked and did not plan on calling every "Robert Cohen" in Los Angeles to try to track him down. She told me how upset she had been, thinking she had lost a golden opportunity to get a leg up in an extremely competitive endeavor. And then I appeared, randomly, an out of the blue second chance. "What are the odds?" Incalculable.

Life is full of these wondrous moments if we are receptive to the possibility of their occurrence. If I had not introduced myself to Bob at the student housing office before the start of law school in St. Louis in 1974 and suggested rooming together and/or if I had not engaged my neighbor on the plane to Los Angeles, there would have been no magical connection.

In these troubled times, we need to make positive things happen. We need to demonstrate the benefits of community and support. We need to network wisely. We need to reach out. Interact. Make our 1 in a million shots happen. We need to share our stories and pass on the hope of possibilities. Our lives have more meaning when we rely on the kindness of strangers – especially when WE are the strangers.

Robert Cohen and Nathaniel Davis, Hong Kong, October, 2000

Georgia On My Mind 2.0

2009-12-16T22:12:00.008-06:00

In March, I posted a blog describing the scourge of Alzheimer's and the way it was taking control of my mother-in-law, Georgia Kolb. Having then recently dropped my crystal ball, I had no way of knowing what the future held for my bride's mother.

Sadly, Georgia passed away, suddenly and unexpectedly on Tuesday morning, the day after the 29th anniversary of my biological mother's passing. Georgia died in her sleep, succumbing to a stomach flu bug that a healthier incubator might have outlasted. We were blessed that Mom maintained a level of cognizance with family and friends that enabled us all to avoid the anguish of losing our close personal connections. She never suffered. She merely left us much too soon.

I thought I would publish the obituary I just wrote as a tribute to Mom. She was a part of my life for more than 30 years, 12 years longer than my biological mother, especially significant when one considers that I could walk and talk from the day of our initial meeting.

The obituary does not go into much detail about my personal relationship with this remarkable woman. She welcomed me into her family, and gave me her daughter, notwithstanding the differences in our faiths and notwithstanding the importance of faith in her own life. She respected the fact that her grandchildren would be raised in a non-Christian home; she made a commitment not to interfere with their religious upbringing and she was true to her word. As a result, Phillip and Ellie have a deeper respect for their grandparents' faith, grew up without being conflicted and understand that there is room in the world for many traffic lanes to God.

The obituary does not go into much detail about the mischievous times we shared. When her health allowed, we made regular trips to Mystic Lake casino during her visits to the Twin Cities. She loved the fact that she could sneak away with her son-in-law, smoke her Virginia Slims without getting busted, and brag to the doorman that she was the kind of mother-in-law that I wanted to spend time with. During a family trip to Cancun, we over-sampled jumbo margaritas one night, much to the chagrin of my bride and my father-in-law and much to the amazement of Phil and Ellie, who had never seen Dad and Grandma so "happy".

I know that at nearly 58 it's my turn to start saying "goodbye". I just don't want to get good at writing obituaries. I tried to avoid responsibility for this one. It was too difficult to write and do sufficient justice to its subject. The draft received from the well-meaning scribe from the funeral home, and the look in Deb's eyes when she read it, made avoidance impossible.

Many thanks to my Facebook friends who discerned from my status and the resulting comments what had transpired and expressed their condolences. We've lost another great lady and it is comforting to see how universally that truth is accepted. Here's what I came up with:

Georgia Marie Kolb died Tuesday, December 15, succumbing peacefully to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. With her passing, Big Stone Lake-area residents have lost their Grand Doyenne, a woman with an unbridled passion for life and commitment to serving her family, her church and her community.

Born to Elmer and Ruby (Gagnon) Hamm in Odessa, South Dakota on November 19, 1936, Georgia lived nearly her entire life within a 10 mile radius of her beloved Big Stone Lake. A graduate of Ortonville High School, she and sweetheart Kenny Kolb were married on January 8, 1954.

She and Kenny raised their three children, Kim, Deb and Mark, while Georgia held down various jobs, including positions at the Hilltop Café, the restaurant at the Big Stone Canning Factory and Auchstetter’s Drug Store. Georgia’s warm, embracing personality made her a natural retailer. For nearly 20 years, she operated Georgia’s Apparel in Ortonville, bringing the latest styles personally selected from Fashion Market in Minneapolis to her neighbors on the prairie. For more than 50 years she and Kenny ran Ken’s Fireworks in Big Stone City, becoming one of the largest independently owned fireworks merchants in the State. Customers drive for hundreds of miles each year to reconnect with Georgia and the relationship she established with all of her customers.

Georgia was also a devoted and energetic volunteer on behalf of a number of causes. Not surprisingly, she was a real “firecracker” in her work with the Big Stone Lake Area Tourism, promoting the hosting of the MS Society’s TRAM and professional walleye fishing tournaments on Big Stone Lake. She and Kenny served as Grand Marshalls of the Ortonville Corn Fest Parade. Her efforts were memorialized in a granite monument offering thanks permanently installed at the foot of Big Stone Lake. Her love and support of Tabor United Methodist Church, where she and Kenny were married, resulted in years of devotion to the church’s choir and Fall Harvest, Flower Show and Christmas celebrations. Active in Eastern Star, Georgia rose to serve as Worthy Grand Matron of the Minnesota Chapter.

Of all Georgia’s loves, none were more important than her friends and family. Whether holding court at her weekly Friday Lunch Bunch or warmly embracing her lifelong friends from church, business and the community, all who knew Georgia were blessed with her special sparkle and camaraderie. Luckiest of all to have shared her presence was Georgia’s loving family. Georgia gave unselfishly of herself, showering her children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, brothers, sisters and in-laws with love and devotion throughout their lives. Georgia set an example for her family by walking the walk of selflessness, a strong work ethic, dedication to the community and a spiritual moral compass.

Georgia is survived by her husband Ken of Ortonville, MN; children, Kim of Big Stone City, SD, Deb (Sam) of Independence, MN, Mark (Karen) of Rockford, MN; grandchildren, Kyle and Shawn Kolb, Phillip and Ellie Stern, Kelly and Kristi Kolb; brothers and sisters in-law, Bob and Marge Kolb and Arlyss and Luane Welde; many nieces and nephews, and special friend, Mary Ann Ulrich. Georgia is preceded in death by her parents, her brother, Robert Hamm, and her sister, Ruth Hamm Wollschlager.

The family wishes to express its thanks to the caregivers at the Golden Living residence in Millbank, South Dakota, and to Golden Living’s resident cuddler, Boots the Cat, for the loving care extended to Georgia over the past months. Memorials are preferred to the Department of Neurology at the University of Minnesota for the support of Alzheimer’s research. Donations may be sent to the Minnesota Medical Foundation, P.O. Box 64001, St. Paul, MN 55164-001.

A celebration of Georgia’s life will take place at Tabor United Methodist Church in Big Stone City, South Dakota at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, January 2, 2010. Visitation will be held at 12:30 p.m. prior to the celebration.

Election Night 2009

2009-11-03T22:20:00.005-06:00

It's morning in Independence.

Local elections were held in Independence today. I had spent the past few months working diligently for two of the four candidates vying for two open seats on the Independence City Council. My blog mentor, Charlie Leck, a long time resident of Independence had recruited me and I relished the opportunity to work with him to achieve some good for our community.

The election should have been a cakewalk. My primary focus of support was a long time member and former chair of the planning commission, a cub scout leader, a financial advisor, and a neighborhood community leader. The other candidate we worked for was an incumbent with a thoughtful voting record and a long history of community service. This being a small town in Garrison Keillor's back yard, she is also the choir director at church and teaches piano.

Our two opponents, on the other hand, were not of the Jimmy Stewart genre. One was an incumbent who was prone to throwing temper tantrums at City Council meetings, accusing the mayor and the police department of various conspiracies to undermine his libertarian rights. Through the magic of videos of Council meetings posted on the Independence website, you could actually watch this public servant use language in public forums that, to quote Professor H. Higgins, "would make a sailor blush."

The incumbent's running mate is a free spirit, with a history of engaging in whatever behavior suited his purpose without regard to the laws and regulations that most of us choose to observe. When he owned a lawn service company, he saved a buck by disposing of hazardous chemicals in the wetlands on his property, not caring that they were flowing into the adjacent stream that served as the source of drinking water for his neighbor's livestock, killing them. He moved and asked the City for a conditional use permit to build a barn on his property for the private use of his family. Upon acquiring the permit, he immediately built a large commercial facility and advertised for boarders. When the City tried to stop him from violating the terms of the C.U.P. he applied for, he sued the City. The matter was settled out of court and sealed.

Unfortunately, the election contest was not a cakewalk. My candidates' opponents refused to attend a candidates forum hosted by the League of Women voters, resulting in its cancellation. The opponents spread falsehoods about my candidates, accusing them of everything from wanting to take property without compensation in order to build nature trails throughout the City to wanting to ban all hunting in Independence. As a Jewish kid, I wouldn't really care about the latter but, apparently, it is a big deal to many Independence residents.

Neither of the accusations were true, but truth was not an obstacle to my candidates' opponents.

They circulated an old map developed by an Open Spaces Commission that had looked at ways of preserving the rural nature of Independence notwithstanding its proximity to Minneapolis. The map showed trails which the opponents pointed to as proof of the intent to engage in uncompensated taking. The truth was that the trails were labeled "natural", not "nature", trails and identified existing wildlife migratory patterns.

The cow killer, consistently with his "I'll do what I want" mentality, put out lawn signs and circulated postcards that bore the logo of the Republican Party, even though the race was non-partisan and even though he had neither an endorsement nor permission to utilize the GOP trademark.

Both opponent candidates also promoted reducing the City's budget by disbanding our local police force and contracting with the County Sheriff for police services. Although couched as a demonstration of fiscal conservative-ism, it was really payback for perceived slights. And it turned out to be the opponents' Achilles' Heel.

Without a vigorous local press to shed a light on the nonsense being foisted upon the Independence electorate, we needed to find an issue that energized our supporters, swelled our ranks and got out the vote. The proposed replacement of the police force provided us with that issue.

These days, every candidate running has to promise lower taxes, an improved quality of life and responsiveness to the electorate. Most voters in an off-year election don't give a rat's patootie which candidate prevails on those issues. They've heard it all before. But mess with their public safety and it's a different story.

During the last few days of the campaign, I instructed volunteers who were out knocking on doors asking for support or telephoning to get out the vote to focus on one issue: If we don't elect our candidates, the City Council will vote next year to contract with the Hennepin County Sheriff and close down the local police department. Not voting for our candidates or not voting at all was a vote to dismantle our police force.

THAT threat did the job. The election judges told me this morning that they had been told to expect 250 voters in today's election, representing about 10% of eligible voters. In fact, there were more than 1,030. When the counting was done, my primary candidate had received 698 votes and the incumbent I was supporting received 630. The paranoid libertarian incumbent received about 350 votes. The cow killer received 303 votes.

Folks in the community, once informed of the threats to their public safety that would result from failing to elect my candidates, came out in force and gave us a landslide. In so doing, I believe the electorate also sent a message about what kind of campaign is acceptable in Independence.

So, fortified by large quantities of adrenalin and celebratory rum at the local tavern, I thought it was time to return to my prairie pondering and share the lesson of persistence and reliance on the common sense of voters that manifested itself in God's country today. It feels good to be back.

Sorbet

2009-07-05T22:48:00.025-05:00

If you read the "About Me" blurb in the right-hand column, you will see the revelation that "I like to take photographs". This blog was intended originally to allow me to showcase some of my work from time to time. Today seemed like a good time to put the intention to practice while working on the Franken Recount missive promised this morning.

My cousin Kevin and I visited the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Museum before Kevin returned home to southern Minnesota after his holiday weekend visit. I happened to have my camera along and was blown away by the photographic opportunities. Not the sculptures, necessarily, magnificent as they are. I was mesmerized by the site as a public gathering place. Tourists, a wedding party, a professional photographer shooting professional musicians, a grandmother comforting a crying infant, a magnificent flower garden teeming with tiny life.

I plan on returning soon with my tripod and macro lens. In the meantime, here's a little sample to cleanse my blogging palate. Click on an image to view a larger version. Feel free to download any you wish. The color in the original images is better than reflected on this blog and can be further tweaked in any photo-editing software.

Senator Franken! (Watch This Space)

2009-07-05T10:41:00.005-05:00

Now that Al Franken has finally been declared the winner of Minnesota's U.S. Senate election contest and Norm Coleman has conceded, the embargo on blogging imposed by the Franken Campaign has been lifted. When I volunteered to assist, I agreed not to write about anything I saw or did in connection with the election contest until the election was resolved. Since I served as a volunteer attorney for the campaign during the recount process, I took the directive as a matter of attorney-client privilege until waived.

It was an honor to have assisted ever so slightly with the campaign and a real eye-opener on the machinations of high stakes campaigns, both Democratic and Republican. I'm looking forward to sharing my experiences that helped reaffirm my belief that Minnesota will be well-served by its new junior Senator.

I have to deal with some prior commitments but will be pondering the experience from the prairie soon.

Bad Posture and Bad Posturing: Stooped and Stupid

2009-07-02T21:34:00.004-05:00

posture |ˈpäs ch ər|
noun: a position of a person's body when standing or sitting
verb: [ intrans. ] [often as n. ] ( posturing) behave in a way that is intended to impress or mislead others

Jimmy Stewart had good posture. Tall and lanky, he always carried himself proudly and effortlessly. His posturing in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington remains an American classic, the tale of Everyman taking on corruption in Government.

My how times have changed. There has been much posturing coming out of Washington D.C. and Columbia, South Carolina over the past week or so. Senator John Ensign of Nevada and Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina, both stalwart proponents of family values and the sanctity of marriage (particularly when worrying about same sex couples wanting to join the sacred ranks), have been forced to admit to behavior that they publicly refused to tolerate in others.

It made me realize that when one’s posture begins to suffer, there is a tendency to looked stooped. When one’s posturing suffers the fate of public servants Ensign and Sanford, there is a tendency to look stupid.

Judging from press coverage driven by the perception that the public gives a rat’s patootie about the details, I am one of the few people in America that did not care to share the contents of Governor Sanford’s intimate e-mail exchange. When I started writing this, I was under the impression that the Governor had fallen for his Argentine paramour like a lovesick adolescent. Not wanting to be judgmental about affairs of the heart, and not being privy to the condition of his marital relationship, I refused to fault him for giving in to the emotional pull of newly found love. After all, when an irresistible force such as hers meets an old immovable object like him, you can bet, as sure as you live, something’s gotta give, something’s gotta give, something’s gotta give.

Then the SOB acknowledged that he had regularly “crossed the line” when on road trips with his buddies, immediately switching his image from being a hopeless romantic to a self-absorbed boor. And, as noted above, particularly in light of his past posturing about family values and the need for our public servants to set a proper example and his propensity for marching out his beautiful accomplished wife and four sons whenever it made sense for political purposes, he looks stupid.

His Republican colleague, Senator John Ensign looks even dumber. This paragon of virtue who, posturing, called on President Clinton to resign when his dalliances became public, was forced last week to confess that his marital vows were similarly modifiable when the Senator's hormones took control. Now that he, too, has traded civilized restraint and respect for his spouse for the carnal pleasures of the wife of one of his top aides, he’s adopted a different viewpoint on the propriety of resignation.

His pronouncements of trouble in his marriage that led to such behavior are besides the point. When you deem yourself worthy to stand tall and posture about the logical harsh consequences of immoral behavior by public officials, do not subsequently (?) stoop to entering into an adulterous affair with your close friend’s wife and wife’s close friend. You come across as stupid.

On the other hand, I suppose that if everyone experiencing strife in their marriage took that as a get out of “jail” free card and explored intimacy outside of the marital relationship it would, at least, demote the perceived threat posed by same sex couples to the one man/one woman contingent.

Certainly, this is not a partisan issue. But the hypocrisy of those who deem themselves worthy to preach and attempt to impose their alleged moral values on all of us, yet abandon their public principles at the batting of an eyelash (or the tapping of a shoe in a men’s restroom) is sickening and peculiar to social conservatives. You don’t see Barney Frank advocating for same-sex marriage and flying up to Nova Scotia to lose himself in the arms of a lobster heiress. More precisely, even when Barney Frank advocates for same-sex marriage, he adopts a live and let live posture, content to allow those who disagree to carry on in their own lives as they see fit.

So, dear social conservative friends, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Practice what you preach. And if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with, NOT!

And, finally, Governor Sanford, show some respect for the mother of your children and quit pining in public. Your continued public apologies, couched in excuses, are making matters worse. Being a man means more than flying to Buenos Aires to service your mistress after your wife pleads with you not to see her again. It means owning up to the hurt you've caused and hopes and dreams you've discarded and making amends to your family, if possible, quietly, sincerely and earnestly.

A Thoughtful Analysis of the President's Challenges

2009-06-20T17:10:00.002-05:00

Time for a little levity. Click here and enjoy.

And, He's Left-handed (Part 2)

2009-06-16T19:31:00.012-05:00

I was right. The last Prairie Pondering blog generated some heat. But after a little more than a week, I'm still in the kitchen.

The response to the concept that President Obama's Cairo speech offered a new approach to the pursuit of peace in the Middle East brought two general reactions. Readers either applauded my observations and shared my yearning for an end to the insanity of U.S. policy (doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result) or they mocked my naiveté and proclaimed the impossibility of Israel's making peace with terrorists who refuse to acknowledge its right to exist.

Here's a couple of samples from the contrarians:

From my good friend, M, in Montreal (see the comments to the blog for her complete response):

Oy, oy, oy Sam. Well written and thoughtful as always, but I think you're putting too much faith into someone who is either genuinely naive (or personally doesn't really care) about Israel, and is only interested in pushing his own agenda without weighing the risks to the one country upon which he is trying to force his will.

BOTTOM LINE: until the Arabs of the Middle East (and the rest of the world) accept that Israel has the right to exist as an independent, democratic (small d ;-)), Jewish state there will never, ever be a hope for peace and stability in the Middle East. THAT is the clearest truth of all. Obama can give speeches and make proclamations until the next U.S. president replaces him, but the only change is that Israel's enemies now think they bear even less responsibility to seek peace or negotiate, and have the backing of the US president.

It saddens me, and in a way frightens me, that much of American Jewry seems willing to support a Middle East policy that offers no serious consequences to those that would seek Israel's destruction.
I love you, Sam, but I can't agree with you this time. Nor can I understand why anyone would think that Obama is a friend of Israel. He's not. His advisors are, for the most part, not. And because they're not, the security and continued existence of the Israel that I and many others love is now at greater risk than ever before.

!עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי (Long live the nation of Israel!)

An anonymous poster also commented:

There is a two state solution and the other state is called Jordan. The only justification for the state of Israel is the G-d gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people. This was the reason Harry Truman used in l948 for ratification of the existence of the State of Israel. Israel's neighbors refuse to recognize the existence of the state of Israel, and one cannot make peace with someone who does not even recognize your right to exist.

And, finally, there's my close friend, Chanan, a Russian Israeli, who had prophetically warned me about the consequences of a U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and who believes that President Obama is a closet Muslim, has no concern for Israel and will abandon and destroy the Jewish State because he does not understand that the Arabs will never recognize Israel's right to exist.

You should know that I respond with some trepidation. What I fear most is the possibility that I will suffer the same fate, the same ridicule that befell German Jews who defended the National Socialists in the early 1930's. If my analysis of what is transpiring, and what needs to occur, is in error, the consequences for my people are horrific. And so I ask myself repeatedly, "am I listening for what I want to hear from the Obama Administration or am I listening to what it is saying?"

I am listening to what President Obama is saying and, significantly, words matter with this president. I heard him stand up before his audience in Cairo and proclaim that peace was not achievable without the Arab nations' recognition of Israel and it's right to exist. I heard him admonish his hosts that they cannot hope to achieve the stability of the two-state solution without renouncing terrorism, controlling terrorists and cease the fomenting of hatred against the Jewish State. In effect, he spoke M's "clearest truth". This president is not an idiot. Words matter. He was not relieving the Arab states of responsibility. He was imposing responsibility as a condition of cooperation from the United States.

There were a couple of developments this past week that increased my comfort with my analysis. Vice President Biden was interviewed on Meet the Press on Sunday. The concerns of M and the anonymous commenter were addressed head on. Here's the transcript from the conversation David Gregory had with Vice President Biden on the subject of Israel and President Obama's position (thanks to RealClearPolitics for posting the transcript):

MR. GREGORY: Let me return to a couple of foreign policy notes...

VICE PRES. BIDEN: Sure.

MR. GREGORY: ...in our remaining moments. Israel. Is the president trying to distance himself from Israel in order to assuage the Arabs?

VICE PRES. BIDEN: Absolutely not. Look, here...

MR. GREGORY: If that's the case, then, why is this administration only making unconditional demands over settlements on Israel and on no other parties?

VICE PRES. BIDEN: Well, they are make--we are making demands. We're making demands both today...

MR. GREGORY: Unconditional demands.

VICE PRES. BIDEN: Look, look. The president of the United States, in his speech to the Islamic world and the Islamic communities, stood there and said--and it's a paraphrase, I don't know the exact quote--we are unconditionally tied to Israel. Israel's security is our security was in essence of what he said. So he made it clear we're not distancing ourself from Israel. What we say is that, look, what happened was all the parties signed onto a thing called the road map. It was the thing that everybody said that would bring, result in a two-state solution. The Israeli government signed onto that, the Palestinian Authority signed onto that, the Arab states blessed that. That's what we want to see happen. So we are moving all the parties as best we can toward keeping their part of the bargain.

MR. GREGORY: Yeah. But wait a minute, you were making an unconditional demand only on Israel and no other parties...

VICE PRES. BIDEN: No. No, we're not.

MR. GREGORY: ...over settlements. That's not the case?

VICE PRES. BIDEN: No, we're not. No, that's not the case. We are making...

MR. GREGORY: What unconditional demand has this president made on the Arabs?

VICE PRES. BIDEN: The unconditional demands we're making on the Palestinians that they have to provide security for Israel. They have to stop this, this, this, this baiting of their populations. They have to stop incitement. We've made it clear to the, to the Arab states, they have to do something more than just talk about normalizing relation with Israel.

MR. GREGORY: Is there moral equivalency in the fight between Israelis and Palestinians, in your view?

VICE PRES. BIDEN: No. No, there's not moral equivalency in...

MR. GREGORY: Did the president suggest there was in his speech?

VICE PRES. BIDEN: I don't believe the president did suggest that. What the, the president suggested is for the well-being of innocent Palestinians and Israelis, that what you need to do is you need a two-state solution along the lines that all the parties had heretofore agreed to, and we're going to use all of our diplomatic capability to move the parties toward actually implementing what they committed to.

Before you dismiss this as the unscripted musings of "Foot-in-Mouth" Biden (as some of my debate opponents have been doing this week), let me explain how things work. A lot of very intelligent, highly paid staffers at the White House, and the president himself, decide whether, where and with whom to put forth the Administration's positions on the Sunday news shows like Meet the Press. Anticipated subjects are reviewed. Answers are carefully crafted. Sometimes instructions are given not to make any statements contrary to the official position of the Administration. Sometimes, the interviewee is coached on how to address outstanding issues in order to make sure that a subject of controversy is covered in the manner POTUS wishes it to be covered. There is no way in Hell that the White House did not anticipate a question about the Administration's commitment to Israel after the Cairo speech. And, accordingly, there is no way in Hell that the Vice President's description of the "unconditional" demands being made on the Arabs was off the cuff rhetoric. He was delivering a message as instructed. Words matter.

The second event was Israeli's Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech in response to President Obama. For the first time, he acknowledged that, with conditions, he would accept the two-state solution he has long campaigned against. The conditions, appropriately, dealt with security issues. The conditions also dealt with the status of Jerusalem, not an insignificant obstacle. M, Chanan and others who challenged my views this week reminded me that, under Israeli jurisdiction since 1967, Jerusalem has been open to all faiths. Previously, while under Jordanian control, Jews were not allowed in the Old City. They fear a return to those exclusionary policies if the Israelis give up control and their concerns are understandable.

However, again, a fresh approach can bring about a compromise. President Obama welcomed Prime Minister Netanyahu's response as a good start. As with the need to control terrorists before there can be any hope of peace, the president recognizes that Jerusalem has to remain open to all faiths. He believes however, and I cannot imagine that he is wrong, that there are ways to assure such access even if the city is not under the exclusive control of the Israelis.

We have no choice but to try. Spare me the commentaries on the intolerance of Islam and the destruction of Jewish and Christian communities in Arab lands. I do not need to read more accounts of the subjugation of women in Arab communities or the seemingly barbaric imposition of Shariah law. I understand that these injustices have occurred and continue to occur. And, unfortunately from my point of view, it will be a long time, if ever, before those cultures change.

The tragedy would be to allow ourselves to be blinded by our abhorrence of such barbarism as we try to fashion peace with Israel. Our desire to establish peace and stability in the region is precisely for the purpose of allowing Israel to thrive as a democratic Jewish State without concern over the imposition of Islamic law in its territory. How Muslims treat one another in their own countries is besides the point as long as they recognize Israel's independence. As I noted last time, that is the starting block for the discussion imposed on the Islamic world by President Obama in Cairo.

Allow me a final comment on the anonymous commentator's observation about the Source of Israel's entitlement. My faith (philosophy, not religion) leads me to believe that God did give Israel to the Jewish people. My multi-cultural awareness puts me on notice that my faith is not universally shared. I am not willing to trust resolution of the conflict to hoping that (paraphrasing Yasser Arafat of all people) my imaginary Friend is more powerful than their imaginary Friend. Rather, I prefer to believe that God left a few untied ribbons dangling when he presented the package of Israel to the Jewish people and, as with so many other grants of free will, He is leaving it up to us to figure out how to tie up the loose ends.

!עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי

And, He's Left-Handed

2009-06-06T23:10:00.000-05:00

I know I am going to take some heat for some of what I am about to write. However, a theme in President Obama's speech in Cairo this week refuses to fade from consciousness and gives me the courage to proceed:

It is time to discuss in public what everyone acknowledges in private.

President Obama was referring to the inevitability of a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, requiring Arab nations to accept Israel's right to exist as an independent Jewish State and requiring the Israelis and their supporters to accept the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian State. The president was stating the obvious. There can be no peace in the Middle East without such bilateral acceptances.

Unfortunately, until now, no would-be mediator has been successful in pursuing the obvious. By voting for change, we elected a president who is willing to shout to the world that the Emperor wears no clothes and to force all parties to the debate to move on to a level of negotiations that is not based on unrealistic underlying assumptions used as if they were legitimate bargaining chips. The Arabs cannot extract concessions from the Israelis by agreeing to recognize Israel. The Israelis cannot take credit for agreeing to an independent Palestine on their border. After President Obama's speech in Cairo, those entitlements became the starting blocks of the negotiations, not interim goals to be achieved. In effect, President Obama was telling the parties, if we cannot move on from those starting blocks, we can't move on. No starting blocks, no race.

What a difference an administration makes! The eight years that ended on January 20, 2009 were marked by public policies, or a lack thereof, that were first vetted with an eye towards the political implications. Politically untenable positions were generally discarded. Worse, the politics pursued were those of a right-wing ideology. The right-wing base that financially supported, and vociferously shored up, the last administration had effective veto power over any proposal that did not fit within their view of America.

Consider the debate over immigration policy. President Bush's rare practical position that recognized that we were not going to be able to return 11 million "illegal" residents from Mexico as a starting point of immigration reform was shouted down by the Far Right, accusing the president of promoting a general amnesty for Mexican scufflaws and their nursing children. The president's proposal to initiate immigration reforms was merely stating publicly what everyone acknowledged privately. Eleven million illegals were staying put. But W lacked the independence, credibility and leadership capability to dismiss his opposition.

Not so with the new president as he addressed the world. He signaled that from now on, there would be honest discussions exploring peace in the Middle East. Not "easy", "honest". He did so without clearing his remarks with other members of his political party. He proclaimed the obvious regardless of the political consequences he knew would follow from the response of the American-Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC). He insisted that Hamas relinquish its policies of hatred and violence against Israel that the organization has so effectively utilized to maintain political control and distract its constituency from demanding a government that addresses basic societal needs.

The implications of such forthrightness are striking. I am not naive enough to think that political considerations are ignored in the Obama Administration. But the willingness to do the right thing in spite of anticipated political fallout, and the demonstration of faith that the American public has the maturity and intelligence to respond to an honest discussion of the challenges facing us, gives me much hope for the future of our country with President Obama at the helm.

Our new president personifies leadership, not gamesmanship. He relies on thoughtfulness and pragmatism, not demagoguery. He has taken some very tough positions.

Witness the shockwaves resulting from the paradigm shift in the American auto industry implemented by President Obama. There is a lot of short term collateral damage to working class families all across the country as a result of the Obama Administration's gameplan for "saving" General Motors. In fact, I am not sure I agree with everything that has been done. But, and it is an important "but", I am willing to be proven wrong because I have a sense that the Obama Administration is addressing a very difficult situation with the best of intentions and not as a means of furthering a political viewpoint.

Nothing comparable to The Patriot Act has been generated in response to the threats to our national security posed by imminent financial collapse. Public debate has not been muzzled. Government decision-making has been significantly more transparent than ever before.

We finally have a president who, faced with unprecedented challenges on every front, realizes he does not have the luxury of either time or multiple chances at success to allow himself to squander opportunities to find solutions. He will not engage in doublespeak; he will not ignore in public what "the deciders" acknowledge in private. The president's resulting popularity, even in these difficult times, shows just how hungry Americans are for such rare candor.

In terms of Middle East peace, it will take many more speeches. It will take international acceptance of President Obama's pragmatic, wise, no nonsense approach. There are parties at the negotiating table whose personal agenda is enhanced by the continuation of the hostilities. But, by continuing to discuss in public what everyone acknowledges in private, the larger Israeli and Arab communities can now bring pressure to bear on the peace process and use the growing weight of public opinion to fashion a more selfless resolution.

To be continued . . .

Taking Out the Trash

2009-04-30T22:09:00.008-05:00

Shortly after I left the full time practice of law to run a chemical dependency treatment center in 2001, a friend asked me if treatment works. I observed that it seemed like 20% of the patients who went through treatment succeeded in staying in recovery after a single rehab experience. 20% of the patients would never recover from their chemical dependencies no matter how many times they went through a treatment program (the so-called "Lost"). The remaining 60% were an unknown. Their likelihood of success depended on the treatment experience, the appropriateness of the program, the skill of their counselors, the support of their families and their ability to deal with their unique personal struggles and willingness to give sobriety a try. For the entire six years I worked in the field as an administrator, the 20/40/20 ratio continued to ring true.

I've been thinking a lot about the lost 20% lately because if we accept the premise as true, i.e., the Lost are never going to benefit from chemical dependency treatment and learn to live normal, productive lives, then we have to acknowledge in this era of hope with increasingly limited resources that the costs of supporting the Lost are expensive, long term propositions. We also need to acknowledge that it may not be appropriate to allocate resources as we have historically to care, and coddle, the Lost, while so many members of society are, as a result, denied access to remedial resources.

I am mindful of, and have long admired, Hubert Humphrey's observation that the true measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable citizens. To be clear, I am not speaking of persons with mental or physical infirmities that make successful chemical dependency treatment or to otherwise function productively in society impossible.

Rather, I am talking about the segment of society that consciously chooses to play the "treatment game", bouncing from program to program as an alternative to accepting the responsibilities of employment, parenting, self-betterment and other indicia of adulthood. Too often, these Lost fly below the radar of societal scrutiny, relying on commonly held perceptions of the challenges of chemical dependency to avoid being held accountable.

In the past, taxpayers just paid for the Lost to attend one treatment program after another, often with a short hiatus between episodes of shelter in well-intentioned licensed facilities. The financial impact was enormous, but it was a price society quietly paid to warehouse the Lost. Three years ago, my employer received about $2,500 a month for counseling services rendered to each client. Using my 20% rule, at any one time, the treatment center was home to 15 clients who I'd consider part of the Lost. On an annual basis, that amounts to providing treatment for 180 of the Lost. At $2,500 apiece, it cost taxpayers $450,000 a year, effectively wasted, to treat the Lost. $450,000. One treatment center in the "Land of 10,000 Treatment Centers". Wasted.

So, what do we do as a society? How do we justify wasting such vast sums of taxpayer money with minimal likelihood of success when so many programs are being cut or eliminated and so many of the vulnerable adults championed by Vice President Humphrey are going wanting?

I recently posed this question over lunch to a friend who is a former officer of the local N.A.A.C.P. I'll call him "Jeff". His answer was startling, probably because it was not the usual "society cannot give up on those who struggle". Jeff responded that it was like clearing garbage from one's home when its accumulation impairs the living environment: "We have to take out the trash".

The scope of the topic of our concern went beyond the chemically dependent who were incapable of sobriety. It included generations of what are typically thought of as underprivileged residents of the community who are perpetually un- or under educated, employed and/or engaged in self-betterment. Focusing on the Black community, my friend observed that the election of our new president offers a positive role model for today's youth and that the ongoing race card blame game used as an excuse by many of their elders lacks credibility. Jeff suggested that it is time to move on from the chronically chemically dependent Lost and from those unwilling to make any effort to reside in society as lawful, productive members.

But, of course, moving on has its consequences. To use Jeff's analogy, you still have to deal with the trash left behind. From Jeff's point of view, this requires establishing residential campuses where persons otherwise intent on disrupting society are required by court order to live. Residents would be responsible for maintaining their living quarters, assuring a drug-free environment and not tolerating lawlessness. Residents unable to abide by these guidelines would face jail time as a consequence of whatever conduct landed them in the residential campus in the first place. Eventually, the scufflaws would age to the point that they are not a threat to society as a whole or to themselves, and society will have survived to a clean start.

I cannot conceive of any cooperative effort by law enforcement, the judiciary, civil libertarians, social services and willing taxpayers that would allow the creation of such a system. The liberal in me fights the idea that we've sunk so far that intelligent men like Jeff, long involved in the Black community, see no viable alternative to the current situation or to the residential campus concept besides building more jails.

I am back to my original dilemma. I believe that we have a responsibility as a society to help those who cannot help themselves. But, what do we do with those who choose not to seek to partake in economic recovery? What do we do with those who have given up on themselves and choose the comfort of an artificial high to making the effort to live drug-free? As with the classic philosophical debate about the lifeboat carrying 7 people that can only sustain 6, we have some choices to make.

Government and philanthropic financial resources are increasingly precious at the same time they are in increasing demand. It simply makes no sense to deny services and support to persons with legitimate needs because we continue to throw money at others who are making a conscious decision to be wards of the state. Maybe cutting the latter group from support is a form of "tough love". But what then?

I have no answers today. I merely pose the question and ask that we keep in mind the billions of dollars that are wasted as governments and charities are being played for chumps. There are so many worthwhile programs that have done so much good for so many people. I witnessed the successes repeatedly during my six year stint in the social service community. The dilemma is not with the program participants who strive to achieve success. The problem is with the faux participants who park themselves at the public and philanthropic trough with no real desire to use the opportunity to make a difference in their lives.

What do we do? I welcome your comments.

Answer the Damn Question!

2009-04-23T22:23:00.008-05:00

I spend most Sunday mornings catching up on the week’s issues and events by watching several news shows that I’ve recorded on the satellite’s digital video recorder. I usually start with TPT 2’s Almanac and Washington Week and move on to ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopolous and NBC’s Meet the Press. I ignore Fox. If I skip the music and matters that don’t interest me on Almanac and skip the commercials on This Week, I can be up to date in a little over 90 minutes.

This past Sunday was no exception, except (sorry) it gave me an idea for this blog: Politicians do not like to answer direct questions. This Week started out with two interviews. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was first up. He was brilliant in his portrayal of the work of the Obama Administration and successfully defended its efforts from partisan attacks. He was necessarily vague about some aspects of the President’s policies. I accepted everything he said without pause or concern. ;-)

George Stephanopolous’ next guest was Republican Congressman John Boehner from Ohio. Congressman Boehner serves as the House Minority Leader in Congress and often serves as the spokesperson for the Republican Party. I was so startled by his exchange with Mr. Stephanopolous on the subject of carbon emissions and climate change that I had to watch the interview again to make sure I had heard it right over my hamburger/onion omelet (cooking is another part of my Sunday morning ritual).

Here’s the transcript of the exchange (with my comments in parentheses):

George Stephanopolous: Describing Congressman Boehner’s reaction to the decision to allow the E.P.A. to regulate carbon dioxide as means of controlling greenhouse gasses.

Congressman John Boehner: This decision is nothing more than a backdoor attempt to enact a national energy tax that will have a crushing impact on consumers, jobs and our economy. The Administration is abusing the regulatory process to establish this tax because it knows there are not enough votes in Congress to force Americans to pay it. (In 2006, more than 2 years before the election of Barack Obama, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Congress had given the E.P.A. authority to regulate carbon dioxide in the Clean Air Act. The economic consequences of regulating carbon dioxide emissions are not a “national energy tax”. They are the wages of our sinful ignoring of the problem for decades and now being forced to implement extraordinary measures to try to save the planet. Repeat for effect: to try to save the planet.).

GS: Let me ask you then about energy. You’ve come out against the president’s plan to cap and trade emissions. So what is the Republican answer to climate change? Is it a problem? Do you have a plan to address it? (N.B. THESE are the "pending questions" referred to throughout below.)

JB: George, we believe in our “all of the above” energy strategy from last year continues to be the right approach on energy. We’ve got to make sure we have resources of energy, green energy, but we need nuclear energy. We need other types of alternatives and, yes, we need American made oil and gas. (Technically, Congressman Boehner did not answer the question. It comes close only if we parse the answer to assume that Congressman Boehner believes that reduced reliance on fossil fuels will reduce overall carbon dioxide emissions.)

GS: But that doesn’t do anything when it comes to emissions, Sir – (Interrupted)

JB: When it comes to the issue of climate change, George, it's pretty clear that if we don’t work with other industrial nations around the world, what’s gonna happen is that we’re going to ship millions of jobs overseas. We have to deal with this in a responsible way. (Still not answering the pending question, Congressman Boehner deflects the inquiry and moves to the politically expedient soundbite of focusing on American jobs.)

GS: What is the responsible way? That’s my question. What is the Republican plan to deal with carbon emissions, which every major scientific organization has said is contributing to climate change?

JB: George, the idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment is almost comical. Every time we exhale, we exhale carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know when they do what they do, you’ve got more carbon dioxide. And so I think it’s clear . . .[Interrupted] (This was the response that triggered this pondering. “Carcinogen”? Breathing? Blame the cows? Again, Congressman Boehner does not answer the pending questions. The House Minority Leader, prominent spokesperson for the national Republican party, is more comfortable belittling the threat of climate change from excessive carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere by human endeavors than he is admitting there is a problem and offering a specific alternative to the E.P.A.’s regulation of carbon dioxide emissions.)

GS: So you don’t believe greenhouse gasses are a problem in creating climate change?

JB:... we've had climate change over the last 100 years -- listen, The question is, how much does Man have to do with it and what is the proper way to deal with this? We can’t do it alone as one nation. If we got India, China and other industrial countries not working with us, all we’re going to do is ship millions of American jobs overseas. (Still no answer to the pending questions. Rather, Congressman Boehner again deflects by rewording and posing the same question back to Stephanopolous and, again, wrapping himself in the American flag.)

GS: But it sounds like what you’re saying is that you don’t believe the Republicans need to come up with a plan to control carbon emissions. You’re suggesting it’s not that big of a problem even though the scientific consensus is that it is contributing to climate change.

JB: I think it is, I think it is an issue. The question is, what is the proper answer and the responsible answer? (Ditto, absent the American flag.)

GS: And what is the answer? That’s what I’m trying to get at. (Thank you Mr. S.)

JB: George, I think everyone in America is looking for the proper answer. (At least since the beginning of this interview.) They don’t want to raise taxes one and a half to two trillion dollars like the Administration is proposing and they don’t want to ship millions of American jobs overseas. (Deflection. God Bless America.) And so, we’ve got to find ways to work towards the solution to this problem without risking the future of our kids and grandkids. (Think about this. Most folks lacking the intelligence to serve in Congress [I’m making a BIG leap of faith here] discovered sometime before Al Gore’s 2006 An Inconvenient Truth that man-made carbon dioxide emissions contribute to the problem of global warming. So why, on April 19, 2009, is the House Minority Leader still in the “we’ve got to find ways to work towards the solution” stage? Because, of course, the House Minority Leader would rather play politics with the issue and use it to attack the Obama administration by engaging in economic fear-mongering than get on board a meaningful plan to save the planet and the future of his kids and grandkids.)

GS: So you are committed to coming up with a plan?

JB: I think you’ll see a plan from us, just like you’ve seen a plan from us on the stimulus bill and a better plan on the budget. (If you say it enough times, people will believe anything. And, by the way, Congressman Boehner never answered the pending questions.).

The bad news is that many politicians, including Congressman Boehner, cannot get past party politics to do the right thing for our society. The good news is that Americans seem more willing to publicly disapprove of such recalcitrance. We learned something during the eight years of the Bush Administration. We learned that when the pronouncements of our elected officials defy common sense, it is okay to say so and to react as we would to any other idiotic verbal diarrhea.

If the Republican party is unwilling to distinguish its environmental viewpoint from that of the coal lobby in a meaningful way, so be it. The party’s adherents are entitled to their opinions. But they ought to have enough respect for our democratic way of life to openly proclaim their position, by answering the questions, and let the electorate decide whether they belong in positions of leadership. Absent such respect, the Republicans are just a bunch of clowns trying to fool all of the people all of the time.

A New Beginning (No Ewoks)

2009-04-18T13:31:00.006-05:00

What a day! Spring has finally arrived on the prairie and I celebrated by getting out my bike, dusting it off, putting on my helmet (as promised) and riding on the adjacent bike trail for nearly an hour at about an 8 m.p.h. average clip.

I went further west on the Luce Line than ever before, making it a mile or so past Charlie Leck's farm, and plan on pushing the envelope a little further each time. The bike trail runs for 63 miles from start to finish. Meadow Breeze Farm is just off Mile 12, giving me 51 miles to explore under Horace Mann's directive.

I feel great, having accomplished something I've been merely yakking about for two long, i.e., getting off my fat butt and enjoying the outdoors. Frankly, it's a nice change of pace. I've felt rather paralyzed emotionally lately and forcing myself to get out may prove to be the breakthrough I've needed. Haven't we all been there?

The forest of anxieties constricting my ability to function normally consisted of the final illness and death of my good friend Tom Silver, the need to forumlate a defense for another good friend and client and file my first pleadings on his behalf using a confusing electronic filing system in Federal Court, the need to respond to a pile of discovery requests in another matter, organizing 2008's financial information to meet the government's April 15th deadline, keeping abreast of details in Minnesota's U.S. Senate election contest, deal with client issues as they get called in, handle new files with gratefulness and enthusiasm, and, as always, internalize all emotions and stresses.

Haven't we all been there? It is not the first time the volume of demands has seemed overwhelming. We know, intellectually, that we will eventually push forward, perform the necessary tasks, and feel the pressure relieved. The hard part is believing that the relief will come to pass when in the middle of that forest of anxieties.

Some people rely on faith to get them through these emotional roadblocks. Whatever works. I rely on the lessons of James Clavell. In Noble House, Clavell wrote of the trials and tribulations of Ian Dunross, the 20th Century taipan of the House of Struan. Having previously read Tai-Pan, Clavell's brilliant portrayals of the same Scottish trading family in the 19th Centuries, I closely identified with the Tai-Pan's struggles when I read Noble House in the early 1980's.

Ian Dunross probably did not worry about the electronic filing system instituted and mandated by the Federal Courts. Rather, according to the Wikipedia entry on Noble House: "(I)n 1963, the tai-pan, Ian Dunross, struggles to rescue Struan's from the precarious financial position left over from his predecessor. To do this, he seeks partnership with an American millionaire, while trying to ward off his arch-rival Quillan Gornt, who seeks to destroy Struan's once and for all. Meanwhile, Chinese communists, Taiwanese nationalists, and Soviet spies illegally vie for influence in Hong Kong while the British government seeks to prevent this. And nobody, it seems, can get anything done without enlisting the aid of Hong Kong's criminal underworld. Other obstacles include water shortages, landslides, bank runs and stock market crashes."

Clavell's books are worth reading and I won't give away the ending of Noble House. Suffice it to say that Dunross addresses his challenges aggressively and individually, rather than allow the number and scope of the problems he faces overwhelm him. That is the lesson I regularly take from Noble House and that is the manner in which I can achieve my emotional freedom, break the shackles of anxiety-induced depression and, not incidentally, return to blogging.

By tackling each tree individually, you find yourself in a clearing. The forest that seemed impossible to deal with becomes separate piles of stacked firewood. My discovery responses are complete, I picked up two major new clients this week, the Federal court Answer and Counterclaim are filed, taxes were paid, Al Franken will be seated before Independence Day, Tommy lives on as a stellar example of what it means to be a mensch in the collective memories of all who knew and loved him and I went further west on the Luce Line than ever before, making it a mile or so past Charlie Leck's farm, and plan on pushing the envelope a little further each time.

The Lessons of Natasha

2009-03-26T14:10:00.013-05:00

The tragic death of Natasha Richardson last week gave us all much to think about. In sitting down to write this installment of Prairie Pondering (again), I am (again) hit with a stream of consciousness of subject matter: the fragility of life, bad things happening to good people, privacy rights of celebrities, cherishing the time we have with friends and loved ones, sweating the small stuff, "if only ____", karma, taking advice, refusing advice, health care, the irrelevance of social status in matters of fate, etc., etc., etc.

No doubt I will revisit the event from time to time to make a point or two, but today I intend to focus on just a couple of the things I have been pondering.

My first reaction to hearing the news was that I would need no further urging from my bride to wear a helmet when bike riding. A few years ago, I spent one summer as an avid cyclist and, supported by a client in the business, loaded up with fancy riding equipment, including a tear-drop shaped helmet that I was instructed never to ride without. Once we moved to the country one farm over from a bike trail I used to drive a half hour to get to, I decided that it was more important to look "cool" than ride safe. I believed that since I was limiting my cycling to carefree jaunts down car-free gravel paths, I could leave the helmet behind and rely only on a baseball cap to shield my balding head from the sun. Deb protested; I chose vanity over safety.

That will not be the case in the future. The fluke of Ms. Richardson's death made me realize that it was stupid to unnecessarily risk my life on the hope that my baseball cap and enclosed head would not suddenly hit the gravel roadway (less forgiving than snow) as a result of a blown bike tire, unleashed dog, unnoticed rear-approaching cyclist or inability to timely remove my feet from toe clips.

Undoubtedly, many cyclists, skiers, snowboarders and other outdoor enthusiasts will similarly take the lesson of Ms. Richardson's death to heart and head. Her senseless sacrifice will save lives. That is not much of a silver lining, but it satisfies our collective desire to find something positive come from a shared horrific experience.

The second item I keep returning to is the lesson to be taken from Ms. Richardson's death with respect to the allocation of health care. Allow me the assumption that an identical fall and resulting injury sustained by any other visitor to that ski resort last week would not have made front page news all over the world.

After the event, I suggested to my wife, an R.N. with 30+ years of experience, that the public's awareness of the dangers of subdural hematomas publicized by Ms. Richardson's death would result in more accident victims obtaining treatment, as Ms. Richardson had been encouraged to to, and, correspondingly, many lives being saved.

Deb's response illustrated the stark realities of health care today. She explained, accurately, that medical facilities lack the hardware and staff resources, and insurance companies lack the funds, to allow everyone who takes a tumble on a ski hill to obtain an M.R.I. or a CAT Scan. For the most part, the wounded will be advised to watch for symptoms of head trauma and seek medical attention only in the event symptoms develop.*

I can imagine some contentious debates over course of treatment while the Richardson tragedy is fresh in our minds. The forthcoming demands for expensive procedures to rule out undetected, potentially fatal trauma, are consistent with the level of care we have come to expect and which have resulted in health care costs that have created the current health care crisis. In reality, entitlement to basic health care, including access to preventive medicine, must be distinguished from universal entitlement to the best possible health care that science can deliver.

This reality constitutes the flash point in any discussion about what kind of universal health care system we can and should adopt. Accepting it means that we acknowledge that some people will suffer health consequences medically avoidable. On the other hand, accepting it means we also acknowledge that the greater good, i.e., the ability to deliver affordable basic health care services to the largest number of recipients, trumps the alternative of spending the same finite amount of funds on premium levels of care for far fewer recipients.

Whoever is funding universal health care, be it insurance companies or the government, absent an increase in premiums or taxes, there will always be a limited amount of money to spend on all the medical services that will be delivered to all the beneficiaries of the funding entity. Therefore, as a matter of fundamental fairness, the pool of shared available funds should not be depleted by the purchase of extraordinary services by the most demanding. Rather, it must be left to individuals to purchase extraordinary services, like an immediate M.R.I. in response to a seemingly innocuous bump on the head, either directly, or with supplemental insurance coverage priced accordingly.

Again, this approach means that patients with better financial resources will receive "better" health care. There is no viable alternative. The hope, of course, is that by bringing costs down through the implementation of universal coverage, everyone's basic health needs will be met and higher levels of care will become more affordable and therefore available to more and more patients. In the mean time, we have to accept the fact that we are not, and will likely never be, a prosperous enough society to offer unlimited, on demand, state of the art, high technology medical services to everyone regardless of their ability to pay.

The Natasha Richardsons of the world will, of course, always have the offer of such services available to them. Hopefully, when needed, they will take advantage of the privileges they enjoy, continue to thrive and, use their privileged status to support philanthropic endeavors, as did Ms. Richardson, that care for the rest of us. I'll be thinking about that while riding down the neighborhood bike path wearing my geeky helmet.

*P.S. The morning after I posted this blog, there was a related story on ABC's Good Morning America. Here's a link to the news coverage of the story. May God bless you, Natasha.

The Mom Song. [Lyrics on Screen+Download]

2009-03-21T13:10:00.001-05:00

While I'm pondering my blog on Natasha Richardson and the lives she saved, I offer you this video which sums up the relationship between all mothers and their children. Enjoy!

The Ides of March (Plus One)

2009-03-15T19:39:00.016-05:00

Spoiler Alert: I admit to fallibility in this edition of Prairie Pondering. Stop reading now if that is a problem.

Tomorrow is my 57th birthday. I've been joking that these are the last of my pre-Heinz days. I started celebrating a couple of days ago when I hit two downtown bars during happy hour with friends from work. I continued on Saturday at a wonderful dinner with Dana and Greg (b. March 15) Kellenberger. This morning, I was joined by three dozen friends and family members at Jun Bo, the town's best dim sum restuarant, for brunch. The owners' presented me with the frozen whipped cream cake pictured here in appreciation for my business generation on their behalf.

I am always grateful to reach another birthday. I never feel as old as the calendar makes me out to be. 57 used to seem ancient. Now it must be the new 37. I certainly do not feel close to retirement age, either chronologically or financially. I have survived on Earth nearly twice as long without my mother as I was blessed to live on it with her. But, as usual, my father contrasts her early passing with his youthful exuberance at 80. It was fun to watch him hold court at brunch this morning as long time friends discussed their parents settling into the local Jewish assisted living facility. He reminded me, again, that he was never going to "end up" there, too.

There are a few indications that the new 37 is not exactly the same as the old 37. Last year, my dentist fitted me with a mouth guard so I would not grind my teeth at night. When she asked me if I was self conscious about how I looked wearing it, I just laughed. As I told her, I'm 30 pounds overweight, I'm balding, I sleep with a CPAP so I look like a scuba diver in bed, and when my sciatica acts up, I walk with a cane. No, I assured her, I was okay with a mouth guard.

My memory is probably not what it was when I hit 37 for the first time. I'm not worried about it, yet, but there are times when I'm an idiot. Last Wednesday I left the office in Minneapolis at about 4 p.m. to drive 120 miles to Brainerd. I had a meeting Thursday morning as a member of an advisory group to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and didn't want to have to drive up at 6:30 a.m. to make it on time. I made plans to have an early evening dinner with some clients to prepare for Thursday's meeting.

After driving for about 45 minutes and 40 miles, it occurred to me that I did not remember putting my overnight bag in the car when I left the house Wednesday morning. I pulled over on the freeway, looked in the back of the car, and spoke sailor. Taking the next exit, I returned to the farm on snowy, icy back roads, trusting my GPS rather than my memory, picked up my bag and headed out towards a planned shortcut to get me to my destination in a reasonable time. I forgot about the detour around the road construction on U.S. 12.

By the time I arrived in Brainerd with an extra 50 miles on the odometer, I was 80 minutes late. The clients were waiting for me in the hotel bar and we had a nice dinner. But it was not an early evening. It would have been nice to relax in the hotel's indoor pool as I did before last month's meeting, except I forgot to bring a bathing suit or shorts. Anxious to get a decent night's sleep, I plugged in the CPAP and grabbed my iPod, which I fall asleep to each night. Except that I had forgotten a component of the CPAP that I had removed to dry out, rendering it useless, and I had forgotten my headphones to use with the iPod. Without my mechanical aids, I did not get much sleep.

In the morning, I dragged myself out of bed to get ready for my meeting. I wanted to look my best, but I had forgotten my razor. I went out to the car, which, of course, had been parked outside all night. It had warmed up to -12 F by 9 a.m. The windshield was covered in frost. I needed to scrape it because I was running out of time waiting for the vehicle to heat up. I had my scraper but I had forgotten my gloves in the office.

The good news is that I have acquired wisdom from aging and don't sweat the small stuff. The world did not end by being 80 minutes late or by having to spend an extra $5 on gasoline. My hands warmed up once inside for my meeting. I slept well the next night. I'll be more careful when leaving home next time. Until I drop some weight, it's probably best that I don't go out in public in a swimsuit. My stubble while meeting with the D.N.R. was notable only in its inadequacy. And not having headphones for the iPod Wednesday night just meant I had more podcasts to listen to on the drive home.

March 16th. A birthday I've shared for 57 years with James Madison, our similarly short 4th President, and with Jerry Lewis, our similarly bloated cultural ambassador to France. Tomorrow I turn 57 and, as I've often noted to others fretting about their age, it beats the alternative. "Thank you" to all my well-wishers. I do love celebrating birthdays, whether mine or yours, in large part because it reunites me annually with so many great friends.

From memory (mostly):

Fairy tales can come true,
It can happen to you, if you're young at heart;
For it's hard, you will find
To be narrow of mind, if you're young at heart;

You can go to extremes with impossible schemes,
You can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams;
And life gets more exciting with each passing day;
And love is either in your heart or on the way;

Don't you know that it's worth
Every treasure on earth to be young at heart;
For as rich as you are,
It's much better by far to be young at heart

And if you should survive to a hundred and five,
Look at all you'll derive out of being alive;
And here is the best part, you have a head start,
If you are among the very young at heart!

Georgia's Mind on my Mind

2009-03-04T21:21:00.008-06:00

Last weekend was rough. I know I have to write about it, but it has taken some time to compose my thoughts and start writing.

Deb and I drove to the South Dakota/Minnesota border to visit her parents. My father-in-law Ken is in a nursing home in Ortonville, Minnesota, where his Parkinson's disease and Myasthenia Gravis can be properly dealt with. Dad still spends most of his days at the family home overlooking Big Stone Lake a few miles north of Big Stone City, South Dakota, where Georgia, his bride of 55 years, still resides. Dad returns to the nursing home each evening; Mom is under the care of various family members, including her son, daughter-in-law and grandson. Mom is only 72 years old. But she has Alzheimer's.

Dad's Parkinson's has been getting gradually worse over the past 20 some years. Dad still insists on doing yard work around the house. The fact that the "yard" encompasses several acres does not slow him, or his Hover-round. Joking about how well he'd be able to jig for fish seemed funny when he was diagnosed. Not so much today. Although his tremors are fairly well under control through medications, it's heartbreaking watching the deterioration of the body of the former high school basketball star and all around athlete who loved recalling his swims across Big Stone Lake. Dad's mind is still sharp, probably exacerbating his frustration with his inability to live independently and certainly exacerbating the helplessness he feels as he watches Mom slip away.

When we arrived home on Saturday morning, I was a bit taken aback to see my nephew Shawn coloring in a children's coloring book. Shawn has taken on the responsibility of caring for his grandmother. I took the coloring to be a form of relaxation on the weekend since he had other family members around to relieve him of the constant obligation. Nonetheless, it struck me that, at 18, he should be spending time reading, not coloring pictures of kittens and bunnies.

Unfortunately, the coloring books were not for Shawn. As if a pointed demonstration of Mom's mental decline just since Christmas, the coloring books serve as a way for her to pass time. Shawn was not coloring for his own account. He was starting a page as a guide for his grandmother. During the 30 hours or so that we shared with Mom and Dad last weekend, I experienced a number of such doses of reality and realized, sadly, that an important era in my life as all but over.

The two parental in-laws presented a stark contrast to one another. Dad is healthy of mind; weak of body. Mom is physically fit but slipping away mentally. Both strive to overcome the lousy cards they've been dealt. Dad insists on staying active beyond the dictates of common sense. Mom repeats snippets of conversation as exchanged in order to appear as if she is fully following and participating in the discussion. She still seems to recognize everyone around her. But she makes allusions to events that never happened and places that don't exist.

Dad, Ken, has an amazing spirit and he will continue to fight against the physical limits his illnesses impose. I expect him to dance at MY funeral. Today, I find myself pondering Georgia's transformation from the doyenne of Big Stone Lake, whose accomplishments are memorialized in granite tributes on the Minnesota/South Dakota border, to the vulnerable and frightened recluse facing a loss of all she has known.

I remember being told 26 years ago that there was no experience like becoming a parent, that no amount of detailed, image evoking description beforehand could prepare you for the emotional tsunami that arrives with the birth of your first child. I believe it is the same way with watching a loved one succumb to Alzheimer's disease. There is simply no way to prepare for having someone with whom you've shared your entire life carry on in front of you as if you had never met and without any memory of everything that went into weaving a family fabric.

Mom is not yet at the point where she cannot relate to her family members. In some ways, living three hours away is a blessing. We are not confronted daily with the face to face evidence that Mom is slipping away. On the other hand, there is a desire to spend as much time as possible before we are strangers to her.

As I hugged her last weekend and, even more sadly, as I watched Deb hug her, I had to wonder if this would be the last time where there would be mutuality in the recognition. Given the progression in just the past two months, I have no assurance that Mom will continue to know us in the months ahead.

The scourge of memory loss disease runs in Mom's family. She conveyed a blessing on my wife some years ago while visiting Mom's ailing sister when she directed Deb not to take anything personally once Mom faced her own challenges with Alzheimer's. Her past thoughtfulness has helped. There have been instances when Deb has had to take charge of financial matters, business matters and health care matters for her parents. Dad understands; Mom pushed back, unsuccessfully, wanting to maintain her independence as a badge of competency.

But now, after a few months have passed, there seems to be an emotional surrender and a willingness to let others care for Mom's needs. She has transitioned from hiding her smoking, to smoking openly (including, very temporarily, in the family fireworks store), to not caring about smoking. Her days of exercising her mind with crossword puzzles are long gone. Now, she struggles to follow Shawn's lead and color in the line drawings of cute little animals.

I know we are not alone in this. I am blessed that my father seems abundantly healthy in mind and body. But I have so many contemporaries going through the same struggles that Deb and I face with Mom. Modern Medicine has bestowed the blessing of long life; Mother Nature taketh away some of that blessing for some of us. Years ago, we would joke about grandma or grandpa "getting senile". Now that our lifespans have increased, we are forced to deal with the progression of senility over an additional ten years or so.

Like the newborn that filled us with wonder, and as with the responsibilities that we gladly accepted when we joined the ranks of parenthood, we now begin to cope with equally dependent loved ones at the other end of the life cycle and, like it or not, must again take on responsibilities of care and nurturing as we would wish to be cared for and nurtured.

Republicans Say the Darndest Things

2009-02-24T22:07:00.006-06:00

I missed the president's speech tonight. After a long delay, I was finally able to meet with my personal Geek Squad alum to install additional memory in my computer and had promised to take him out for dinner as payment for his services. The installation was completed at 8 p.m. and we left for dinner so I'll be watching the speech on YouTube.

As we left the restaurant, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal was delivering the Republicans' response to the president's speech. He had, of course, drafted the response well before he heard the speech. For all I know, he also left for dinner at 8 p.m. and returned the to the governor's mansion in Baton Rouge in time to deliver the prepared remarks. Since it wasn't really a "response", Governor Jindal used his time to paint Democrats as evil proponents of big government intent on telling Americans what to do as they spend the nation into generational poverty. The Republicans, of course, offered the better alternative of cutting taxes so workers could keep more of their hard earned dollars and small businesses would receive incentives to create more jobs.

It made me sick.

I don't know if Vice President Biden was high (no pun intended) or low when he estimated that there was a 30% chance that the economic stimulus package just passed might not work. I do know that the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats have the sense to realize that something different than the failed policies of the past eight years has to be tried.

I don't know where Governor Jindal was when the Bush Administration was running up trillions of dollars of deficits with the assistance of Republican lapdogs in Congress. I do know that his concern over the legacy of debt we are leaving for our children and grandchildren rings hollow and, as I've noted here before, has a Captain Renault air of genuineness about it.

I am so tired of Republicans, clearly engaged in a strategy of distancing themselves from any meaningful bi-partisan efforts to address our country's problems in its time of crisis, posing as reasonable, sensible alternatives to Democrats, primarily by relying on half-truths and red herrings. So what if money from the economic stimulus package is going to be used to buy the government new vehicles? It seems to me that Detroit could use the business and the government will not have to spend as much on repairing aging vehicles. I even supported the plan to spend money to repair the National Mall. If you make an investment to beautify an attraction, you encourage more tourism and the dollars it brings. Ask the folks in Time Square in New York.

Listening to Governor Jindal tonight, you would think that we are on the verge of an unplanned wild spending spree with no accountability and no concern for the burden taxpayers face as they foot the bill. Republicans must be worried that Halliburton is in charge of the stimulus package. If only they had expressed an iota of concern about spending taxpayer dollars when they held the purse strings.

What really got me going tonight was the governor's criticism of the health care reform contemplated by the Obama Administration. I think he said, "Republicans believe that health care decisions should be made between a patient and their doctor, not by some government bureaucrat." It took a split second before I had my "wait a minute" moment. Does that mean, I asked myself, that Governor Jindal and the Republican Party have become supporters of the pro-choice movement? His concern, which, in his context, was mere pandering to deeply rooted anxiety over the well-being of ourselves and our families, is exactly the same concern reproductive rights activists have been expressing about keeping the government out of the doctors' offices. The hypocrisy is absolutely galling.

We need to continue to hold Republicans accountable for their failed policies and not allow soothing rhetoric to substitute for difficult policy implementation. It is heartening, as noted by White House Chief of Staff Raum Emanuel after Governor Jindal's response, that a significant number of Republican governors and local officials have endorsed the strategy contemplated by the economic stimulus plan. Removed from Washington, and experiencing the very real problems facing us all in this economy, these public servants recognize that partisan politics have to give way to a unified effort to address our challenges. Similarly, the bi-partisan consensus of economists that a massive program of government spending is necessary to take us out of our downward spiral provides substantive reassurance rather than hollow fear-mongering.

I am looking forward to listening to President Obama's speech. He still brings tears to my eyes, so I'll do so with a box of tissues by my side. From a personal point of view, my uneasiness over the uncertainty of what lies ahead is mitigated by having someone I trust at the helm of the Ship of State. I refuse to allow the mutineers ganging up to challenge President Obama's judgment and leadership rule the day. Please join me in that focus.

The Senate Recount in Minnesota: Are We There Yet?

2009-02-22T15:45:00.003-06:00

My good friend and blogging mentor, Charlie Leck, sent me an e-mail today. While it was likely a nudge to post something, I took the bait.

Charlie wrote:

I'm trying to follow these stories in Strib about the vote counting, but it gets pretty crazy sometimes... with Coleman people saying some unflattering things about our boy.

Will Franken really be our Senator?

Second question: When?
Chas

Here is my response. For much better political analysis, when you're done reading this, click here for Charlie's take on the idiot Minnesota's Sixth District re-elected to Congress, Michelle Bachman.

Dear Charlie:

Everyone looking at the situation that I've read about, listened to in the media or talked to directly, including Coleman supporters speaking off the record, believe that Franken's 225 vote lead at the end of the recount will hold up.

Assume that Coleman gets the panel to review 3500 rejected absentee ballots. Assume that 20%, or 700, of the ballots are ultimately counted, notwithstanding the fact that election judges from both parties have already reviewed them 2 or 3 times and deemed them non-compliant with Minnesota law (this is key as noted below). 700 would be an extraordinarily high number.

Of the 700 ballots being counted, figure 15% would go to Barkley or no vote. That leaves 595 votes cast for Coleman or Franken. In order for Coleman to erase Franken's 225 vote lead, 411 of the votes would have to be for Coleman and 184 for Franken, a 69-31% margin. That is highly doubtful, no matter where the votes are from. Moreover, Franken has votes he wants added back in on the same theory used by Coleman, ostensibly from sympathetic districts which would take the margin adjustment in the other direction. Finally, the other challenges Coleman has been asserting, regarding duplicates or counting missing ballots from the church in Dinkytown, probably won't prevail and there are not any other large sources of uncounted votes.

This leaves Coleman without sufficient votes to overtake Franken. And it's been apparent for some time, especially after this week's rulings generally viewed as setbacks for the Coleman campaign.

Here's what's really going on: In Bush v. Gore, the U.S. Supreme Court held that it was a violation of the U.S. Constitution's assurance of equal protection to have different standards used to determine the validity of ballots in different jurisdictions. As a result, they refused to allow the recount to continue in Florida since the extensive scrutiny of the contested ballots was different than everywhere else (n.b., this is from memory; I haven't reread the case).

Coleman is setting up for a similar argument to take up on appeal from the Minnesota election contest. He is already suggesting that the panel's refusal to allow all 12,000 rejected absentee ballots to be examined, or allow the 993 formerly rejected absentee ballots to be reviewed, is a violation of the same Equal Protection clause. Why? Because various county election officials have been testifying as to the varying ways they chose to determine which absentee ballots would be rejected and which allowed. Each of them felt they were acting fairly and just doing their job. However, there were variations in how the job was undertaken. Therefore, Coleman argues, the fact that there have been several reviews of the absentee ballots by local election officials is less relevant than the fact that there were no uniform guidelines applied when the reviews took place.

As I opined in my last Prairie Pondering blog, Coleman's game plan has less to do with winning than with delaying the seating of the 59th Democratic U.S. Senator. While he may believe that his Equal Protection challenge will provide a shred of hope that he'll return to the seat, the odds of that happening are diminimus, especially with the Democrats in control of the Senate and the perception that will follow that an election was stolen by Republicans (again) if it comes down to the legal argument of violation of Equal Protection.

I believe Franken will be seated. The "when" is harder to pin. It really depends on how far Coleman will take his appeals, how long it takes the appeals to be heard, and what the U.S. Senate does in the meantime. I don't see how Coleman says "never mind" at this point. The best hope for a "quick" resolution is an expedited decision by an appellate court (if Coleman pursues that route) that rejects Coleman's legal theory. Otherwise, I can see this dragging on into the summer.

Frankly, it's a disgrace and an incredible disservice to the best interests of Minnesotans.

Whose Idea Was It to Put an "S" in "Lisp"?

2009-02-14T21:01:00.007-06:00

The question in the title of today's blog was included in an e-mail I received (again) this week. The e-mail poses a number of questions, for which there are no good answers, but which nonetheless leave you scratching your head and, often, giggling. My favorite question in this week's version is "Why do kamikaze pilots wear helmets?" I've included the entire e-mail at the end of the blog, but you have to get through the more serious pondering to enjoy it.

It struck me that the concept of asking whimsical questions that illustrate human foibles can be applied to our current political situation. Both with respect to the emergence of radical Republicans opposition to bipartisanship on a national level and the U.S. Senate recount in Minnesota, a whimsical "why" keeps getting asked. As is the case with this week's humorous e-mail, there are no good answers.

When Barack Obama received 53% of the popular vote and a landslide of electoral votes on November 4th last, the American people were signaling that they wanted a change in direction of the management of this country. Certainly, Republicans, who treated the squeakers of 2000 and 2004 as a mandate to impose their will without regard for dissent, should understand that the majority is entitled to have its elected representatives pursue policies reflecting the will of the electorate. This does not suggest that the party in the minority should capitulate on every issue of dispute that arises. However, the minority party should be prepared to compromise and, ultimately, put aside the partisan bickering in order to support efforts to save the Republic.

The fact that nary a Republican voted for final passage of the economic stimulus plan in the House of Representatives this week illustrates a lockstep approach to participating in governing that is disturbing in its resemblance to German goosesteps. Clearly, the stimulus plan is not so toxic that not one independently thinking Republican congressman was able in good conscience to support it. The support for the legislation from professional economic analysts, always with the caveat of no certain success, is widespread across the partisan playing field. The general perception is that something has to be tried; failing to act because of partisan gridlock will only cause a steeper economic downturn, more lost jobs, more suffering and a more difficult recovery.

Getting back to the election, it is unreasonable for Republicans to expect that the Democratic majority in Congress will relinquish to the Republicans the majority's ability to direct the tenor of critical legislation. Republicans should continue to engage the White House and the Congressional leadership and fight for concessions in pending legislation. However, at the point where the compromising has concluded, Republicans, patriots, should cast their votes for or against the legislation solely on the basis of whether, on balance, the legislation is in the best interests of the United States of America.

To the extent that some truly believe that doing nothing or, at least, substantially less than the Democrats' economic stimulus plan is better for the country and its citizenry, so be it. There is no way, however, that each and every House Republican came to that conclusion. Rather, the conventional wisdom goes, the Republicans shirked their responsibility to help solve the country's economic challenges in order to better position themselves for the 2010 mid-term elections. Since, by all educated guesstimates, the country will still be in a recession in 2010, Republicans feel that by voting against the legislation this week, they can take an "it's not my fault" attitude when things are still bad in two years.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about that in two years. In the meantime, I have another whimsical question for the circulating e-mail: "I wonder if Republicans who voted against the economic stimulus package for political reasons are as concerned with the suffering of their constituents as they are with the posturing of their leadership?"

The second "why" question that comes to mind is "Why is Norm Coleman so determined to undermine the credibility of the U.S. Senate election?" I do not begrudge Mr. Coleman the right to pursue his legal remedies in a legitimate challenge of the State Canvassing Board's determination that Al Franken received more votes in last year's election. However, the combination of his constantly changing his position on the propriety of counting certain ballots and his regular proclamation that if every vote is counted he will emerge the winner has the dual effect of unnecessarily dragging out the process and de-legitimizing the outcome among Mr. Coleman's supporters should he not prevail.

When the recount process started, Mr. Coleman was adamant that no absentee ballot not counted on election night be included in the results. 180 degrees later, Mr. Coleman is looking for votes wherever he can find them and the pile of 12,000 or so rejected absentee ballots, net of the ones already determined to have been wrongfully rejected, appeals to Mr. Coleman like a bunch of rotten bananas appeals to drosophila melanogaster.

Senator-elect Franken, on the other hand, has consistently called for the counting of all legally cast ballots. The Franken campaign has never argued that all rejected ballots should be counted. They recognized that in a country where the rule of law prevails, persons who failed to follow instructions for properly casting absentee ballots effectively disenfranchised themselves. Senator-elect Franken took that position even when it was not convenient and lessened his margin of victory.

It appears that the Coleman gameplan has nothing to do with trying to prevail. Rather, it smacks of purposely delaying the arrival at an outcome for purely partisan purposes. By keeping Senator-elect Franken out of the U.S. Senate, Mr. Coleman and his Republican benefactors are able to maintain a tighter grip on the business of Congress, notwithstanding a clear mandate from the national electorate to the contrary. Mr. Coleman's fight is incredibly expensive and, I believe, is being funded primarily out of the national GOP coffers in order to achieve a hidden agenda as the new Obama adminstration attempts to pass legislation with the support of a strong Democratic majority in Congress.

Mr. Coleman's unprincipaled positions in his election contest and his constant insinuation that the election is being stolen from him by the refusal to count every ballot cast, whatever infirmity renders it void as a matter of law, is offensive and, again for purely political purposes, jeopardizes the ability of the country to unite at this critical time and pull together to face our challenges.

Now that you've managed to wallow through the serious ponderings, enjoy some lighter musings:

Why do we press harder on a remote control when we know the batteries are almost dead?

Why do banks charge a fee on 'insufficient funds' when they already know there is not enough money?

Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars; but have to check when you say the paint is still wet?

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

Why does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you throw a revolver at him?

Why do Kamikaze pilots wear helmets?

Whose idea was it to put an 'S' in the word 'lisp'?

If people evolved from apes, why are there still apes?

Why is it that no matter what color bubble bath you use the bubbles are always white?

Is there ever a day that mattresses are not on sale?

Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized?

Why do people keep running over a string a dozen times with their vacuum cleaner, then reach down, pick it up, examine it, then put it down to give the vacuum one more chance?

Why is it that no plastic bag will open from the end on your first try?

How do those dead bugs get into those enclosed light fixtures?

When we are in the supermarket and someone rams our ankle with a shopping cart then apologizes for doing so, why do we say, 'It's all right?' Well, it isn't all right, so why don't we say, 'That really hurt, why don't you watch where you're going?'

Why is it that whenever you attempt to catch something that's falling off the table you always manage to knock something else over?

In winter why do we try to keep the house as warm as it was in summer when we complained about the heat?

How come you never hear father-in-law jokes?

The statistics on sanity is that one out of every four persons is suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

Welcome to Reality

2009-02-10T20:26:00.012-06:00

After the November 4th election, I was filled with hope for the future of our country. I recognized the challenges we faced cleaning up after eight years of "winner takes all" politics and a no-accountability executive branch. However, the overwhelming message of the electorate, and the promise of an ethical, articulate president, made me believe that our country could return to a culture of greatness, self-respect and problem solving.

Today, the Dow Jones dropped 382 points and the few remaining Republicans in Congress seem determined to maintain legislative gridlock. What happened?

Nothing, yet.

One of the problems with living in an "instant gratification" society is that we expect all conflicts to be resolved in short order and grow impatient when our expectations are not met. As a nation, we are paying the consequences for bad behavior and when President Obama tells us that there will be no quick fix, he isn't kidding.

As a nation, we spent well beyond our means during the past eight years, wiping out the significant surplus that the Clinton Administration accumulated and betting our financial future on the ongoing cooperation of our Chinese and Arabian lenders. We embarked on a military campaign in Iraq with complete disregard for the concept of patience and caution and meaningful coalitions willing to share the cost. Rather, we chose to nearly bankrupt our military capabilities. In 2004, when we had a chance to change direction, we did not. We allowed President Bush's supporters to swift boat his Democratic opponent and, like lemmings, followed the president to the edge of a cliff marking the outer limits of national pride and international support.

At the bottom of the cliff lie the remnants of former great empires: Visigoth, Persian, Roman, Viking, Mongol, Spanish, Ottoman, Japanese, German, Soviet and British. We're still on the edge but, in November, we decided as a nation to change course. We directed President Obama to back us away from the edge of the abyss and return us to the values that made us a "super power" in the first place.

Like it or not, we are not in the middle of a Hollywood script in which redemption is readily available at the end of a 90 minute screenplay. We were warned by many as we blindly mortgaged our future. Recall Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's December 5, 1996 caution about "irrational exuberance" inflating stock prices. Rather than accept the sobering assessment and modifying our collective behavior, we chastised the messenger for throwing a damper on the party and returned to our irrationally exuberant ways.

We spent a collective fortune we did not have, justifying our rejection of time worn concepts like living within our means, by relying on the paper wealth accumulated through the artificial inflation of real estate values. When the dominoes started to fall with no real substance in millions of individual economies to keep them propped up, the devastation presented the new administration in Washington with a cleanup job of unprecedented proportions. I have not bothered to research the adult population of the United States in 1931. However, I am willing to bet that our current 8% unemployment rate today approaches or exceeds the double digit unemployment rate during the Great Depression in terms of raw numbers of individuals.

Now what?

According to some, we are unable to move forward because we elected a new president who needs on the job training. Nonsense. That is nothing more than partisan sniping for partisan gain. Under the circumstances, it borders on treason.

According to some, Republicans are not being given enough say in how to fashion a massive government response to the current crises. Perhaps. But they have been given, in the first three weeks of the Obama Administration, more input and sincere consideration of their competing views with respect to the stimulus package than the Bush Administration considered from Democrats in its entire eight years in office. President Obama's reminder that he won the election is not mere boastful rhetoric. It is a reminder to those formerly in control of the government that the electorate, ultimately responsible for guiding the direction of its public servants, demanded a new direction in Congress.

According to some, we are damning our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren to indentured servitude, committing their tax dollars generations in advance to pay off the obligations we are about to incur as we attempt to right the listing economy. Again, perhaps. However, we had already mortgaged their future with our reckless buildup of the national debt under President Bush. Now that he is no longer in office, we are free to admit that the cost of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, carried off the books in W's administration, must also be factored into the economic challenges we face.

The only hope we, our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren have for the future, with, frighteningly, no assurance of success, is that the massive investment in jobs, schools, infrastructure, and 21st century energy projects will be enough to rejuvenate our stalled economy on all levels and provide opportunities for Americans with the will to return to work and start anew a cycle of responsible spending.

When President Eisenhower had the United States embark on the Interstate Freeway program of the 1950's, he did not merely shorten the time it took to drive from Minneapolis to Chicago. He put an infrastructure in place that encouraged shipping and interstate commerce, broadened markets, created jobs, encouraged development of businesses all along the modern arteries crisscrossing the United States and instilled a sense of accomplishment that Americans inhaled into the collective psyche, setting the tone for achieving grander goals in space in the decade after President Eisenhower.

We have that kind of opportunity before us again. We really do not have much of a choice. The empires at the bottom of the cliff await us. We need to put our faith in leaders who have the courage to be honest with us about the harshness of the road ahead and unite behind them, as we did in November. This allows them to expend their energy on solving our problems rather than on playing defense to the political hacks who have the audacity to hope for our collective failure.

As citizens, we must show some modicum of patience as alternatives are explored and solutions tried. No one has all the answers to our problems. Some have none of the answers to our problems. We should speak out against those who would surrender in despair to the perceived hopelessness of the situation or, worse, insist on returning us to policies that brought about our economic decline in the first place. We need to avoid being side tracked by sensationalists who make mountains out of cabinet nominees' tax problem molehills. We need to work hard and do our best to perform whatever tasks are expected of us in return for increasingly rare paychecks.

Finally, we need to admit that there are consequences to supporting government spending while opposing taxation and engaging in personal spending without the safety net of a realistic means of satisfying debts. Our new president is struggling to develop programs to address these consequences. Let's show some respect for the effort and, for once, not demand instant, false solutions for long term, real problems. Most importantly, let us not yearn for meaningless rhetoric designed to calm our fears or tolerate rhetoric designed to raise our fears. We tried that for eight years. It doesn't work.

25 Random Things About Me (Continued)

2009-02-02T00:05:00.005-06:00

I have become increasingly addicted to Facebook. I can sit for hours and play word games with folks from all over the world. In fact, prairie pondering has suffered since, at the end of the day, I am more likely to just unwind challenging my vocabulary skills by competing on the Internet than invest the substance over form that it takes to sound intelligent in this space.

By competing often, Facebook addicts like me are randomly paired in open games with the same people on several occasions. Facebook etiquette allows you to engage such frequent opponents in "conversation", carried on via the mechanism of instant messaging built into Facebook. Moreover, once you add the frequent opponents as formal "friends" on Facebook, they can view your homepage and learn as much about you as you have chosen to put out into cyberspace.

While I have not met most of my opponents personally, many of us have developed a chat relationship, keeping up on each other's activities, kids, jobs, etc., as if we were sitting down at a local Starbucks and catching up. For example, I seem to have acquired a number of friends among Canadian women who play Scrabble and various timed vocabulary games online. As a result, I am more up to date on Canadian politics than I have been in years. They, in turn, follow this blog since any posting is also posted on my Facebook page and I have become the "go to" person for a number of my nearly 300 Facebook friends for the latest information on the Minnesota Senate race.

The social networking basis for Facebook also results in a number of causes being supported by its members and, typically, invitations from Facebook friends to join in the support of a particular cause. The same can be said of participating in various role playing games, like something called "Mafia Wars" and personality quizzes in which one fills out surveys to determine how similar you are to others with respect to a wide range of subject matters.

For the most part, I ignore the invitations. I am in enough time management trouble just keeping up with my various word game competitions. Recently, however, I relented and agreed to participate in a survey as requested independently by at least six Facebook friends. The purpose of the survey, entitled "25 Random Things" is to share just that, 25 random things about yourself with the person making the request (and 24 others you choose to share the survey with). 25 Random Things must be gaining popularity as a Facebook icebreaker because in the last couple of weeks I ignored requests to participate from a number of different people. In a lot of ways, I am a fairly private person and am selective about what gets publicized. I finally decided that I might as well get it over with and complete my version of the survey so I would have something to send out to anyone making the request.

Here are the rules as explained as part of the invitation to participate:

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

Here is what I came up with, fully expecting that this would be the end of it and that I would just send these responses out whenever asked in the future to share 25 Random Things:

1. I HATE talking about myself outside of my blog (samthinkshecan.blogspot.com).

2. I love writing my blog.
3. I don't have enough time to write my blog.
4. I think I lived a block from the Coen brothers' family when I was young but I didn't know it.
5. Marrying Deb was the best thing I've ever done.
6. Practicing law would be a great career if it wasn't for clients.
7. I have always had a weight problem in my mind but can't understand why I thought so 40 pounds ago.
8. I wish I still had my convertible.
9. I am living Eddie Albert's Green Acres experience.
10. I am addicted to FB word games.
11. I cried during Sleepless in Seattle from the opening funeral scene on.
12. Humphrey Bogart and Frank Sinatra have given me my best lines.
13. I want to hang with George Clooney and this generation's Rat Pack.
14. I used to think calculus was cool because you could figure out the area of an ice rink but now I never go near one so I don't care.
15. I was into James Bond novels before the movies came out because I liked reading about sex. I was 8.
16. My grandmother instilled a love of language in me at a young (single digit) age by playing spelling games, having me read books like The Source and challenging me to play Scrabble.
17. My grandmother had second thoughts when I spent most of the drive home from Palm Springs to Chicago reading The Godfather instead of talking to her.
18. I don't like to be forced into preconceived structures.
19. I am only going to write 19 random things about me. Read the blog for the rest.

Then something funny happened. A few minutes after I posted this on my Facebook page and sent it out to the Facebook friends who asked me to participate, I thought of some additional "random things" about me that I wished I would have included. Some experiences are worth sharing and I decided to use Prairie Pondering to do so. In the future, I'll just direct Facebook friends to this blog in the event they wish to learn more about me. Think of this as the first in a series of personal experiences, randomly recalled, that I plan to post from time to time.

Random Thing No. 1 (it seems easier to start the counting over): I survived negotiations with the mob.

A client found itself doing business with individuals in New York City who were alleged to have connections to organized crime. I knew from comments made by Jimmy Hoffa when he visited my law school not long before he disappeared that there is no such thing as "organized crime". As explained by the missing Teamsters Union president, "It's like you got two guys who are plumbers in different cities. Sure, they might talk business, but that doesn't make them 'organized'." Nonetheless, the client was involved in government contracting and it became necessary to sever its ties with the New York business associates.

I flew to New York, looking forward to seeing friends once my business meeting was done. I had worked out a separation agreement while in Minneapolis and was meeting the other side to the tranaction as part of a closing. I cannot remember how much of a check I delivered to the closing, but it must have been substantial. I do remember that the other delivery was a message that my client was done doing business with the New York group and that we would not be having any future dealings or even communications.

The closing took place over lunch at Il Cortile, a restaurant in Little Italy where, apparently, familiarity with English was not a requirement for employment. My dining companions included the attorney for the New York group who had taken an equity position in the venture that was being terminated, his local partner in the venture, the partner's brother (who had acutally moved to Minnesota) and a local electrician who was also an equity participant and had separate agreements with both sides that also were being terminated.

My first clue that I was in for a "life experience" was when our preliminary conversations were constantly interrupted by locals reporting on the results of the days' numbers running and informing on the status of African American youngsters who had violated the peace of the neighborhood. Once I had witnessed that, the need for pretense disappeared.

Because the waiters did not speak English, my hosts insisted on ordering for me. They suggested I order a dish that was served with red and green peppers so that I "would look pretty when they pulled me out of the river and cut me open". I was pretty sure they were kidding but it was not a time to show any indication of fear.

Lunch actually went well. Because of the scrutiny that had been brought to my client's business by the New Yorkers involvement, they were relieved to be bought out and out of the spotlight. We had a straightforward closing. When it was over, I was escorted out by the electrician who wanted to show me something.

Among the things he showed me were the Federal agents sitting in vehicles on Mulberry Street with headphones listening to wiretaps. I had probably walked by them on the way to lunch but had not noticed them on my own. Only slightly further down Mulberry, we stopped at the non-descript door of a "social club" and went in. The electrician explained that he had recently completed the wiring of the club's remodeled facility and wanted to know what I thought.

The room we were in was tiny. There were not more than five tables and, although the new paneling, lighting and carpet were lovely, the electrician's enthusiasm struck me as a bit overboard given the apparent scope of the project. Under the circumstances, I commented on how beautiful everything was in the 15 x 20 foot room.

We went aroud a corner of the room to an interior door. The electrician knocked and a slide opened, allowing the person on the other side to see who wished entrance to whatever was on the other side.

We were admitted and there, in the middle of Little Italy, less than a block from the Feds with headphones, was a brand new casino, complete with craps tables and blackjack tables. I cannot remember if there were slot machines. The casino, of course, was the real reason for the electrician's excitement. The electrician informed me that the grand opening was that night and extended me an invitation to participate.

To this day, I wish I had said "yes". Instead, expressing concern over the absence of extra cash that I could afford to gamble with (true), I declined the invitation, insisting in addition that I had commitments to spend the evening with college friends I had not seen for far too long (also true, but easily modified).

The electrician took me back outside and down the street to where I could grab a cab to go uptown to my friends' apartment. I thanked him for his help in resolving our business situation and for the tour and told him he did not have to wait with me. "No," the electrician said, "I'm staying with you until you get into a cab. If anything happened to you, your client would think I had you hit and I don't want to have to deal with that."

Years later, during a subsequent visit to New York City, I attempted to find the electrician, hoping ot visit the casino in the social club. He had disappeared. His numbers were disconnected. Directory assistance had no record of a business bearing his former business' name. I was left to speculate on the why. But I realized that my "once in a lifetime" opportunity had proven to be once in a lifetime and it had passed.

Please keep visiting Prairie Pondering for additional Random Things About Me installments in the future and, as always, feel free to post your comments.

Marion Levine

2009-01-25T22:00:00.000-06:00

This was supposed to be the weekend when boyhood friends Michael Schoenberger, Joel Lavintman and Sam Stern got together over dim sum to celebrate the Chinese New Year. More accurately, it was to celebrate reconnecting in our digital age. After a much too long hiatus, the connectivity of Facebook brought us back together, ready to share memories of high school spring break trips to Acapulco and memorizing all the words to Robin and the Seven Hoods in college. Important stuff.

But, to quote Rabbie Burns on his 250th birthday, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.”

Marion Levine passed away this week and, rather than sharing chicken feet and sui mei with Schoeny and Yossel, I shared the weekend with Marion’s family, including her son Bob, who has served as best friend for 44 years or so. In doing so, I had the privilege of reconnecting with a different, important, formative part of my past and to share the memories of a woman who was extraordinary on so many levels.

Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman of Temple Israel did a beautiful job of eulogizing Marion. Listening to the recitation of Marion’s accomplishments, personality, love of family, selfless and quiet support of people in need, I realized that there had been an actual connection between Marion and Rabbi Zimmerman. The eulogy was not cobbled together from an hour’s worth of chit chat with the surviving family members. The connection was appropriate. Rabbi Zimmerman, herself a trend setter when she joined the pulpit of the area’s largest congregation, paid tribute to Marion as a pioneering business woman who worked side by side with her husband George to found Penny’s Supermarkets. At the time, June Cleaver was the popular role model for American housewives. Marion didn’t break the mold; she balanced a career as an executive with her responsibilities as a homemaker before any molds existed. As a result of her business acumen, the Levines were able to nurture the supermarket from a single store to a chain of 27.

From a personal point of view, Marion made a significant impact on my life. Bob and I have been there for each other since sixth grade. Marion was always a gracious hostess when I would visit, showing interest in whatever was going on in my life and extending various indicia that she approved of her son’s friend. When my mother was hospitalized during my first semester at Carleton, I hitchhiked home every week to see her. I also made it a point to visit Marion and George Levine at the Penny’s offices. George would give me a hard time about the length of my hair; Marion would sit and talk about how things were going at school and with my family. At a time in my life when nothing seemed fair or tethered, the stability of the relationship with the Levines helped me stay focused on pursuing goals set in less emotionally turbulent times.

After my mother died at the end of that first semester, Marion took on the role of surrogate mother. She was there for advice and other, less usual types of support. I had organized a social event at Carleton involving frying chicken wings using Dan Wright’s (c.f., Prairie Pondering, October 22, 2008) mother’s recipe. There was, however, a problem. There was a nationwide shortage of chicken for sale. Stores were rationing any inventory they had and there was no way I was going to be able to acquire enough chicken in Northfield, Minnesota to feed 50-100 students. So I called Marion. Problem solved. She arranged for the Penny’s grocery store in Apple Valley to supply me with a sufficient supply of chicken wings to meet my needs. We used the back door to avoid upsetting the store’s less connected customers but, nonetheless, she had my back.

A couple of years later, when I was backpacking across Europe on my way to London for a semester abroad, I used my Eurail pass to travel from Paris to Zurich to spend a day and evening with Marion and George. They were visiting Europe as part of a first-class tour and welcomed my joining them after a month and a half away from home as if it were a reunion with their son. Thinking back, I must have been a real fish out of water with my long hair and dirty jeans. But the Levines ignored the incongruity and included me in the day’s and evening’s events with the group, including the president of American Motors.

We spent the day shopping. Marion stocked me with Swiss chocolate. At one point I remember going into a camera store to see the new Leica M3 (?) that had just been released. Marion asked me if I wanted her to buy one for me so I’d have a good camera for the rest of my time abroad. I declined. As nice as it might have been, I did not need a $1,000 camera (1972 dollars) but loved the Levines for just assuming that I should have one for the trip. When it was time to leave, Marion offered me a $100 bill. Again I declined but accepted instead $20 that, net of the cost of one dinner in Paris, was all the money I had when I arrived in England two days later.

Marion’s influence continued through the years. She served as a role model of perseverance after George died suddenly in 1974 and she carried on the grocery business on her own. When Bob and I started a law firm in 1981 in the midst of a recession and while the prime lending rate from banks was in double digits, she financed us at much more reasonable rates. She always took an interest in the growth of our business and the growth of or families. After the sale of Penny’s Supermarkets, she worked with Bob to shrewdly invest in real estate and operating businesses that still thrive today. Throughout the years, Marion was devoted to her family and friends and was a quiet, generous philanthropist who shared her good fortune with those in need without seeking recognition for doing the right thing.

Looking at the crowd that gathered at synagogue tonight for Shiva, I was struck by the presence of this generation’s young princes, home from college and there to pay tribute to Marion. It was if peering through a time machine at Bob and me back in 1970. Except now we were the adults in the room, admiring the self-confidence exuded by the yet to be tried, jealous of their limitless horizons.

Of course, also present at the weekend’s events were many of Marion’s contemporaries and, on the other end of life’s cycle, Marion’s great-granddaughter. The breadth and depth of the crowds mourning the passing of Marion Levine is as good a testament as any to a life well lived. The memory of Marion, the memory of her principles, the memory of her selflessness, the memory of her determination to succeed as a businessperson who happened to be female and the memory of her love of family and friends, all packaged in one class act, will sustain us for years to come. Thanks, Ma!

President Obama's (!) Inaugural Address

2009-01-21T21:21:00.001-06:00

Text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address on Tuesday, as delivered.

OBAMA: My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because we the people have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. Those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control — and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our founding fathers ... our found fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all the other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it)."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-19T21:32:00.003-06:00

It's New Year's Eve as I write this. January 19, 2009. As noted in last week's blog, January Blahs (but Hope Springs Eternal), all of 2009 to date has just been marking time. This year, the ball doesn't drop in Times Square at the stroke of midnight on January 1st. It drops at noon, January 20th overlooking the National Mall. With apologies to the Ghermazian Brothers, tomorrow Washington, D.C. is the home of the real Mall of America.

The real Mall of America will be filled with an untold number of "consumers", lined up to be the first to invest in a renewed commitment to the ideals that made our nation great. The coin of the realm tomorrow is their mere presence, the unabashedly joyful volume of which is enough to swell the country with pride and make us all part of the buying experience.

The real Mall of America will be salted with believers whose unwavering pursuit of the ideal of inclusion in our political discourse and in our society as a whole succeeded in electing a new president with the intellect, demeanor and common sense required to unite, and thereby strengthen, a country on the verge of resorting to fearing fear itself.

The real Mall of America will be devoid of small-minded pessimists who choose to take refuge in a cocoon of fear and prejudice rather than embrace the challenges and resulting paradigm shifting possibilities eloquently detailed by our new president.

The real Mall of America will be imbued with the spirit of Abraham, Martin, Bobby and John and all who sacrificed so selflessly to prove that the ideals they preached could actually be achieved.

Forty-eight years ago to the day, because that is how traditions work, I missed the opportunity to watch JFK's inaugural address on television because I was carrying out my responsibilities as a street patrol, making the crosswalks safe for students going home for lunch. As an 8 year old, I did not really have a sense of how excited the country was to have a young, articulate Senator take the oath of office and lead us through an anxious era dominated by the threat of nuclear annihilation. It was years before I realized what I missed standing out on that corner in St. Louis Park while the new president was addressing the nation.

However, tomorrow, New Year's Day, I will gather with friends in front of a television accepting signals from a satellite envisioned before the rest of us by JFK. All sharing the experience with me are all fully apprised of the significance of the ascendancy of another young, articulate Senator to the presidency and his acceptance of the responsibility for leading us through a new era of anxious times. We will celebrate with laughter and tears and with the audacity to hope that the fresh, inclusive, reasoned, considered, welcoming, challenging, and ethical approach to government championed by President Barack Obama will right the Ship of State and return it to a course for greatness.

Happy New Year, everyone! Let us celebrate with the joy that the moment deserves. Let us remember that the optimism we share as a people, as we reflect on the possibilities that competence in our leadership offers, can be turned into a force powerful enough to achieve, with time and growing momentum, all of the daunting goals we dare set for ourselves.

January Blahs (but Hope Springs Eternal)

2009-01-14T22:21:00.008-06:00

It is hard to believe that a month has passed since I last wrote here. Frankly, it was a lousy month.

As noted in my last pondering, I've been dealing with some health issues. Thankfully, those are, for the most part, behind me (literally) and the persistent discomfort in my right rear cheek no longer hinders my efforts to assist in mucking stalls.

I have yet to complete the annual Stern Holiday Letter. When (not if) I do, it will appear in connection with the celebration of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday celebration or Valentine's Day or President's Day. "Holiday" has many convenient meanings.

The Israelis were forced, once again, to defend themselves by responding to incessant rocket attacks with a show of force at a level needed to make the point. The resulting loss of life is horrific. But the rush by some to blame Israel, and the media's focus on the human suffering in Gaza, is misplaced. A "government", Hamas, which uses mosques and schools as weapons depots and women and children has human shields, loses the right to invoke sympathy when its means of waging warfare results in intended consequences to its constituency. Were Israel to refrain from engaging the enemy when and where the enemy has established itself, there would be no point in any engagement at all; Israel would be left to hope and pray that the Qassam rockets flying into southern Israel do not kill too many Israeli citizens. Those quick to condemn Israel should consider how long the United States would stand by while Duluth was under rocket attack on a daily basis from terrorists in Winnipeg. Or, more on point, would we refrain from responding if Mexican nationalists operating out of Nogales and upset over the U.S. incorporation of the Arizona Territory, started sending missiles into Tucson? I fully expect some changes in U.S. policy towards Israel in the coming years because, unfortunately, Israel is losing the p.r. war to the warped concept of support for the underdog. However, I also have a sense that the new administration will condition any concessions demanded from Israel on a quid pro quo of peaceful co-existence from its neighbors.

My unbridled enthusiasm for the possibilities presented by an incoming Obama Administration, augmented by a Franken ascendancy to the seat formerly held by Paul Wellstone, has been tempered by the same old politics of those who rely on fear-mongering to quell the audacity of hope. Yesterday's mail brought a solicitation from a Republican legislative leader (I have no idea how I ended up on his list) urging me to support the Minnesota Republican Party to protect against "liberal Democrats determined to raise (my) taxes". While my first reaction was "That's it? That's your best shot? We face a $5-8 billion shortfall in the State's budget, 25% of the total budget, and you're worried about raising taxes?" Then I realized that, unfortunately, the pitch will ring true to too many GOP constituents and, as with efforts to fund basic infrastructure last year, the Legislature will enter gridlock and the resulting compromises will, like sausage, best be consumed without examining the components.

And, speaking of Senator-elect Al Franken (how I love typing that phrase), I have been muzzled by ethical considerations and have had to sit quietly while watching the Coleman political and legal apparatchiks hijack the democratic process by undermining the legitimacy of the work of hundreds of bi-partisan election officials and, by extension, the legitimacy of Al Franken's victory. One need only peruse the comments to the Star Tribune's online stories about the recount to see how well Norm Coleman's strategy has succeeded. If you choose not to take my word for it, and actually peruse, be prepared to feel some degree of alarm over the extent to which uninformed, small-minded (NOT a redundancy) masses can be swayed by rhetoric pandering to their insecurities. The Coleman strategy does us all a disservice in this time of national trauma. By undermining confidence in the legitimacy of our elected officials, the Republican Party, on both State and National levels, has diminished the ability to engage citizens in the process of finding solutions to the challenges we face. Because I agreed not to discuss or blog about specifics of what transpired in the recount process based on personal knowledge I acquired as a recount volunteer, and because as a recount volunteer attorney I view the issue to be one of attorney-client privilege, I cannot say much more on the subject for now. Once released, I will have plenty to say. Here's a teaser: The Republicans are engaging in such a level of hypocrisy that the Coleman legal team should be sanctioned by the Lawyers' Board of Professional Responsibility for pursuing frivolous claims.

As long as I am exorcising my funk, let me dwell on the economy for a minute. I am reminded of my reaction to predictions, before Hurricane Katrina, that New Orleans could be wiped off the map if it took a direct hit from a hurricane because of the peculiar topography of the area. I remember thinking that, outside of a Hollywood blockbuster, nothing of the sort could ever actually happen. Fast forward to economic pundits' observations in mid-2008 that the U.S. economy, left to spiral out of control or, pick your metaphor, left to pick up the dominoes of fallen sectors, would face the most serious crisis since the Great Depression. I remember thinking that, outside of a Hollywood blockbuster, nothing of the sort could ever actually happen (again). At the time, President W would not even use the word "recession" out of concern for the mental health of the citizenry. As W prepares to leave office, economists are openly discussing the fact that we are in a depression. At work, I hear one horror story after another about businesses, recently thriving, that are forced to significantly reduce production/expansion/workforce/etc. in response to an unprecedented lack of available financing and the constriction of consumer spending. Despite Republican efforts to dissuade me from doing so, I harbor a hope and a faith that the new President will be able to utilize the power of the Federal government to loosen up the credit markets, create jobs that will put cashflow back into the economy and give consumers a sense that solutions to our current malaise exist, are being applied, and justify a loosening of personal purse strings to, again, put cashflow back into the economy.

I do want a "do over" of the last Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's Holiday season. I know that can never happen in the literal sense. However, since everything in 2009 before January 20th amounts to nothing more than marking time, I am going to treat next Tuesday as my New Year celebration. I am going to celebrate the greatness of the occasion. I am going to make resolutions, committing myself to being part of the solution for what ails us. I am going to call friends all over the country, even my Republican friends, and exchange greetings and good tidings for what I hope will be a new era of political discourse, candor, common sense, and Chicago Cool.

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There'll be sun!

Just thinkin' about
Tomorrow
Clears away the cobwebs,
And the sorrow
'Til there's none!

When I'm stuck a day
That's gray,
And lonely,
I just stick out my chin
And Grin,
And Say,
Oh!

The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!

December Shivers

2008-12-15T20:56:00.005-06:00

Winter has arrived in Minnesota. The high temperature today, December 15, 2008, was negative something. Negative. Less than zero. Not even none. To make sure we got the point of the hopelessness we face for the next three months or so, the wind was gusting, creating a wind chill that felt like even less than zero, none, negative degrees.

I don’t know about you, but I NEED degrees. The older I get, the worse winter seems. I long ago observed that Venus is too hot for human habitation. Mars is too cold. Minnesota is right on the border, barely warm enough this time of year to sustain life.

Let’s not stop there. Let’s add guilt. For the last four weeks or so, I’ve been battling the worst case (in terms of uninterrupted duration) of sciatica I’ve ever had the displeasure to experience. For three weeks, I needed a cane to help me get around. I’ve been doing without the third leg for the past week, but the pain is constant, albeit subdued. As you may know from my Prairie Pondering profile, I live on a farm. With horses. Horses who suffer silently in the cold in exchange for being fed and watered regularly and, with respect to six of the 13 who call Meadow Breeze Farm their home, being let in and out of the barn on a daily basis.

Where’s the guilt? Because of my sciatica, I haven’t been able to help my wife with barn chores for four weeks. The last four weeks. The last freezing cold four weeks. Every morning and most every evening, she bundles up and becomes the guardian angel of equine dependents. She spends almost an hour in the morning, starting at 6 a.m., and half that in the evenings, tossing hay, filling heated water buckets, cleaning stalls, pouring grain, adjusting blankets just to care for the horses.

The farm is Deb’s dream come true. However, I have a hard time watching her work so hard in this weather as I sit incapacitated, shivering from just the thought of those missing degrees. The guilt is so encompassing that I am at the point where I’ve decided to pursue alternative medicine to get rid of the pain. I have managed to avoid chiropractors for the nearly 40 years since I hurt my working during a summer job while in college. I have dismissed the suggestion of acupuncture as a solution inconsistent with my aversion to needles. Similarly, one need only mention cortisone shots to me to abruptly end a conversation.

But enough is enough. My darling, thoughtful wife bought me a head-to-toe coverall and some Willie Sutton headwear last year with which to survive life on the prairie during the Minnesota winters. If I tough it up and visit one of the “intrusive pain” specialists friends admiring my cane suggested, I should be able to get back outside, carrying my own supply of 98.6 degrees, and shovel horse manure like the pro I aspire to be.

For those of you reading this in Arizona who refer to me as “Son” or “Dad”, I’m glad some of us made it out.

Que Será, Será Observed

2008-12-03T21:57:00.006-06:00

I had the occasion to share Irv Stern stories with Sean Rice on Election Night, November 4th. We ran into each other in the ballroom of the Democratic Campaign headquarters hotel at about 1:00 a.m. We had met before but hadn't seen each other in a few years. Sean, who used to work for Governor Rudy Perpich and had been appointed to the staff of the St. Paul World Trade Center at about the time its 36 story headquarters was built, had traveled the world in the 1990's with my dad. Dad had been appointed to serve as the chairman of the Executive Commitee of the St. Paul World Trade Center.

Sean laughingly recalled the time he, Dad and former Congressman Rick Nolan traveled to Bombay. They had checked into a fancy hotel. Dad and Rick had gone to sleep. Sean awoke to the sound of what he thought was gunfire. He thought the hotel was under attack. His terror resided only after he discovered that the explosions causing his distress came from a nightly fireworks display in the park across the street from the hotel. The levity in the story came from the fact that my dad slept through the entire incident, peacefully oblivious to the "threat" while Sean calculated an escape.

The story was relayed on November 5th. The hotel was the Oberoi in what is now known as Mumbai.

This is a strange world. Three weeks after laughing about Sean's needless concern for his safety, the Oberoi was attacked by terrorists targeting western visitors to the luxury hotel. It was as if Sean was describing being in the wrong place at the right time. If it turns out that the terrorists were Kashmiri separatists, their attacks could have just as well occurred while Father was sleeping peacefully. The dispute over Kashmir is not a 21st century concept.

The incident made me realize, again, just how tenuous our hold on life is. The senseless attacks last month in Mumbai, snuffing out the existence of fellow human beings who fully expected to return home from the café or from their business trips or from their mundane daily routine, underscores the preciousness of each moment we have to share with our loved ones.

Our lives are as precarious as a tree frog on a flower petal. There is beauty all around us but for one unlucky gust of wind.

One of the most remarkable stories coming out of Mumbai, is that of Jonathan Ehrlich, a business executive from Vancouver, British Columbia. Mr. Ehrlich was a guest at the sister hotel to the Oberai, preparing to return home to Canada, the night of the terrorist attacks. A friend forwarded an e-mail Mr. Ehrlich sent to family and friends. It was drafted on the trip home to Canada and expresses more eloquently than any words I can dream up, so far removed from the incident, the sense of fortune, sorrow, anger and joy felt by those who were not merely neighbors to a fireworks display.

I'm reprinting the letter as written. As Mr. Ehrlich indicates, it is "raw and unedited". If frank language distrubs you, suck it up. This is not a Mary Poppins travelogue. Rather, Mr. Ehrlich, in effect, relates his rebirth in accordance with Japanese proverb, made famous by Ian Fleming: "You only live twice: once when you are born and once when you look death in the face."

From: Jonathan
Sent: Thu Nov 27 02:26:51 2008
Subject: Hey

Hey guys.

Got all your notes. Thank you. I'm ok. A little shaky to be honest but really just happy to be here. I can't thank you enough for your notes. You have no idea what the mean to me. Hope to see and speak to you all soon.

I wrote the following on the plane.

It's 3.33 am Thursday Nov 27th. And I am writing this from Jet Airways flight 0227, First leg of the Mumbai – Brussels - Toronto – Vancouver journey . It is a stream of "adrenaline" piece. I apologize in advance for the grammatical errors. But I wanted it raw and unedited.

First, some context.

I have always been truly blessed. Lucky to be born to the most love a child could ever wish for. Luck to be born into a family that prided itself on teaching me how to be a man. Lucky to have been protected and sheltered by three strong, decent brothers. Lucky to have found and married the kindest heart on the face of the earth. Lucky to be blessed beyond blessed with four healthy, beautiful children. Lucky to have wonderful friends who tolerate my idiosyncrasies.

Tonight, these blessings, these gifts of love and life bestowed upon me, this incredible good fortune, saved my life. And I honestly don't know why.

The details.

I am in Mumbai on business. I'm staying at the Trident hotel. It's sister hotel, the Oberai, is right next-door and attached by a small walkway.

I had dinner by myself in the Oberai lobby after some late meetings.

I retired upstairs to my room. About 10min later my colleague, Alex Chamerlin, text-ed asking me to join him and his friend in the Oberai lounge for a drink. I started to make my way out the door but decided that I was really too tired. I had a 7am flight, and needed to be up at 5. Rest beckoned. I closed the light, got into bed and quickly fell asleep. Lucky life-saving decision number 1.

About 1hr later there was knock at my door. A few seconds later, the doorbell rang (they have doorbells for hotel rooms here – who'da thunk?). I thought – who the hell is knocking at my door? Turn down service? This late? Forget it. So I just lay there and hoped they would go away. Lucky life-saving decision number 2.

Five minutes later I heard and felt a huge bang. I got up and went to look out the window. A huge cloud of grey smoke billowed up from the road below. I thought, “Fireworks?” I didn't see anyone milling about so knew something wasn't right. I started to walk to the light switch when - BANG – another huge explosion shook the entire hotel.

Oh fuck, I thought. Is that what I think this is? I opened the door to the hallway. A few people were already outside.

I heard the word "bomb".

Oh shit. Oh shit I thought.

I'd like to tell you that I calmly collected my myself and my things and proceeded to the exits.

I didn't. An adrenaline explosion erupted inside me and almost lifted me off the floor. And I began to move. Really move.

I went back inside, quickly packed my stuff and went back into the hall.

I ran to the emergency exit and started making my way down the stairs (I was on the 18th floor).

There were a few people in the stairwell. I was flying by them. I swear I could have run a marathon in 2hrs. I felt like pure energy.

About halfway down, I called my friend Mark, told him what had happened and asked him to get me a flight – any flight – the hell out of Mumbai.

I got to the lobby level. There was a crowd of people in the corridor. No one moving. No one doing anything. No hotel staff. No security people.

Shit. I thought. We are sitting ducks.

I decided to get out of there. First, into the lobby.

I stepped through the door into the silent lobby. My first sight was a blood soaked plastic bag and bloody footsteps leading into the reception area. I proceeded forward. The windows were shattered and glass was everywhere. There wasn't a soul around.

Bad decision, I thought. I quickly retreated to the corridor. The crowd of people had grown.

We've got to get out of here I yelled. Let's go.

I looked around for the emergency exit and started running towards it.

I made my way through the bowels of the hotel and out into a dark alley. It was empty and silent. I looked to my left and about 100m away saw a few security guards milling about.

Run they screamed. I began to move toward them.

I reached the main street and was immediately swept up into the Indian throngs (for those who have been to Mumbai, you know what I mean). People everywhere. But they were all eerily quiet. No one was talking. No car horns. Nothing.

I started yelling "airport airport".

Some one (a hotel cook I believe) grabbed me and my bag and threw me in a rusty mini-cab.

As I sped away, I didn't see a single police car nor hear a single siren. Just the sound of this shit-box car speeding down the deserted road.

Traffic was stop and go. I made it to the airport in about 1hr, cleared customs and buried myself in a corner of a packed departure lounge, called my wife, called my parents and brothers and started emailing those friends who knew I was in Mumbai.

Sadly, Alex - my colleague who texted me for a drink – and his friend were not so lucky. The terrorists stormed into the lobby bar and killed several people. They took Alex and his friend hostage and started to march them up to the roof of the hotel.

About half way up, Alex managed to escape (he ducked through an open door and hid) but his friend was caught. And as I write this, that poor man is still on the roof of the Oberai.

Alex is safe but as expected, extremely worried about his friend.

I'm telling you right now. If I decided to meet Alex for that drink tonight I'd either be dead, a hostage on the roof of a building 30 hours away from everyone I love or - if I had the balls of Alex – a stupid-but-lucky-to-be-alive jerk.

And remember that knock/ring at my door? Well, I subsequently learned that the first thing the terrorists did was get the names and room numbers of western guests. They then went to the rooms to find them. Ehrlich, with an E, room 1820. I'll bet my entire life savings that they were the knock at my door.

Thank god for jet lag. Thank god for "cranky tired Jonny" (as many of my friends and family know so well) that compelled to get into and stay in bed. Thank god for being on the 18th floor. Thank god for the kind kind people of Mumbai of helped me tonight. The wonderfully kind hotel staff. That cook. My cab driver who constantly said "relaxation" "relaxation" "I help" and who kept me in the cab when we hit a particularly gnarly traffic jam and i wanted to get out and walk. And for other people in traffic who, upon hearing from my own cab driver that I was at the Oberai, literally risked life and limb to stop traffic to let us get by (as again, only those who have been to Mumbai can truly appreciate).

Mumbai is a tragically beautiful place. Incredibly sad. But I am convinced that its inhabitants are definitely children of some troubled but immensely soulfully god.

I'm sitting on plane (upgraded to first class….see, told you I'm lucky ☺). Just had the best tasting bowl of corn flakes I've ever had in my life. Hennessey coursing through my veins. Concentration starting to loosen and sleep beginning to creep onto my horizon.

I still feel a bit numb. But mostly I feel like I've just watched a really really bad movie staring me. Because right now, it all doesn't feel real. Maybe a few hours of CNN will knock me into reality. But the truth is numb is fine with me for a while. If I do end up thinking about the what if's, I don't really want to do that until I'm much much closer to home. And I have 30 more hours of travel time to go.

But before I sign off, let me say this.

The people who did this have no souls. They have no hearts. They are simply the living manifestation of evil and they only know killing and murder. We – all of us - need to understand that. Their target tonight was first and foremost Americans. Why? Because they fear everything that America stands for. They fear hope and change and freedom and peace. Let's make no mistake; they would have shot me and my children point blank tonight with out a moment's hesitation. Most of us sorta know that but sometimes we equivocate. We can't equivocate. Not ever.

I know that I want to go back. Lay some flowers. Wrap my arms around these people. Say thank you. Spend some money on overpriced hotel gifts and tip well. And generally give the bastards who did this the big fuck you and show them that I am not – I repeat not – afraid of them.

But first I need to go squeeze my wife. Dry her tears. Then have her dry mine as I hold my beautiful beautiful babies who will be (thankfully) oblivious to all of this. Because isn't that what life is really about?

I appreciate you taking the time to listen.

With much much love.

Jonathan

Postscript: According to news reports, Mr. Ehrlich's friend Alex Chamberlin survived the attack. Mr. Chamberlin's friend who accompanied him to the bar at the Oberoi did not.

For more on this story, click here.

Giving Thanks

2008-11-27T08:21:00.010-06:00

Today is Thanksgiving Day. It is my favorite holiday of the year. It is all-inclusive without regard to religious preference. It remains relatively non-commercialized. Most importantly, it allows us to reflect on the blessings we enjoy and sometimes take for granted. Even in these difficult and anxiety-provoking times, there is a sense of peace that comes with being able to take inventory of the pieces and parts of our lives that provide contentment throughout the year.

We tend to realize how much we each have to be grateful for by comparing our own circumstances with those of others. As I write this, the morning newscaster just lead a story with "One in ten Minnesotans have no idea where their next meal is coming from . . ." A "one in ten" statistic should bring pause to all of us and certainly instill thanks in the lucky 90%. We spend billions of dollars a year on lottery tickets where the chance of winning is 1 in 146,107,962. Statistically, we are significantly closer to living in hunger than living in lottery riches. I am thankful that my family and I are hunger free and grateful that my children recognize their good fortune by supporting programs designed to eradicate hunger.

I am thankful that I live in a country that retains its faith in our Founding Fathers' vision of serial executives designed to allow new leadership to address the problems arising during the term of predecessors. Acting on this faith, we allow our system to work; we resist the temptation to panic; we do not resort to military solutions to redirect the policies of our government. This phenomenon manifests itself in the relative calm that our nation embraces as we await the commencement of the Obama Administration. The President-elect's steady, self-assured, focused and honest demeanor has proven to be a source of comfort strong enough to overcome the seemingly hopeless economic circumstances we face today. I am personally thankful that we have elected a leader who understands that his ability to deliver the promise behind "hope" requires a willingness to acknowledge the challenges we face instead of relying on empty slogans and jingoism.

We understandably count our thanks by measuring the well-being of our children. My children are now two young adults. I am proud of their values. I am proud of their ability to set long term goals for themselves and work diligently to achieve those goals. For six years, I ran a chemical dependency treatment center. On many occasions, I would meet a young man or woman whose bad decisions led to the need for treatment at our facility and think "There, but for the grace of God, goes my child." I am thankful that both children have escaped the personal devastation and replacement of dreams with nightmares that results from chemical dependency. My heart goes out to my friends and family, and to parents I have not yet met, who, tragically, are facing struggles with their own children.

My children give me other reasons to be thankful. As a preview to the 2008 Stern Family Holiday letter, I will share that Phil has moved from working with troubled youth in an Americorps program to teaching in a local school district and, consistent with his commitment to the less fortunate, has signed up to participate in the Big Brothers program. Ellie's inner compassion is evidenced by her dedication to continuing her education at the University of Arizona's accelerated R.N. program and the extra effort she makes on behalf of her patients, both in Tucson and previously at the nursing home in Minnesota where she worked after graduating college.

I am incredibly thankful for my wife, Deb. There is universal consensus that I do not deserve her. That's probably true. But until death us do part, I am thankful for her love, support, role modeling, compassion, industriousness and appreciation of a simple lifestyle.

I have the blessings of friends and family, many of which have been discussed in this blog over the past year. I have the the blessings of a career in which I can take pride in assisting others face challenges and pursue opportunities and I am thankful for the many clients and colleagues who continue to support me after my six-year hiatus from the full-time practice of law. I am thankful that I can make subjects happy with whatever skills I bring to a photo session. Their delight with the results encourages me to continue to pursue my artistic avocation. I am thankful for the strokes to my ego when one of my tens of readers comments favorably on my pondering. I am grateful that my blog mentor, Charlie Leck, continued to encourage me to write when I doubted I had anything to say. I am thankful for the relaxation I find when I take the time to write.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Find your own blessings in your life and recognize how they provide a platform from which to address life's challenges. Let the people you care about know that you care. Doing so sends a signal to the recipients that they have something additional to be thankful for.

My New Tool

2008-11-24T11:22:00.004-06:00

I am often accused of loving my "toys". I often respond, "it's not a toy, it's a tool". I had a phone in my car before cell phones. When I purchased my first cell phone, shortly after they were available, my law partners could not understand why I needed to talk on the phone while driving. "It's a toy!" was the mantra. That was the early '80's.

I am probably more tech-savvy than many of my same-aged colleagues; it's part of being an Apple geek for the past 24 years. However, contrary to some public opinion, I am not one to rush out and purchase the latest, greatest computer/television/PDA/camera/_________ (fill in the blank) on the market. I realized a long time ago that there is no "latest, greatest" because the market is always bringing out later and greater. I tend to shop for something that will satisfy my needs and stick with it for an extended period of time.

Friday was the exception. For months, I had been bombarded by e-mails, snail mails, video clips, television ads, flyers, and word of mouth ad nauseum about Verizon's new BlackBerry Storm, "The World's First Touch Screen BlackBerry". It went on sale Friday.

At about 3 p.m. Friday, I received a call from a friend asking if I had my new Storm. "I'm customizing it now," I replied. "You're !#$%ing me!" was the response. "I tried to buy one today and they were sold out", my friend said. "I was just kidding when I asked the question."

Unlike my friend, I had been to the Verizon store at 7:45 a.m. and received voucher #26 to earn the right to purchase a Storm. I thought I was going to buy one in the morning. But that store only received a shipment of 25. I was told to come back in the afternoon when the second shipment would arrive.

I had made the decision to upgrade because if I am going to pay for Smartphone technology, and an extra $30/month to have e-mail and Internet access on my phone, I want a system that works well. I cannot use an iPhone because they do not work on Verizon's system. The BlackBerry I acquired from my darling daughter when she upgraded to the then latest, greatest version before leaving for school in May left much to be desired. E-mails referencing the Internet were gobbledy-gook and scrolling to find the "news" in the Star Tribune's "news alert" meant trying to decipher paragraphs of html code to get to "Vikings lose again". I'm too impatient to spend a lot of time figuring out I've received junk e-mail. The Storm was advertised as an alternative with a legitmate smart phone Internet browser.

I think BlackBerry hit a home run. It took me the weekend to figure some things out. By Sunday night I posted a new status on my Facebook page: Sam is thinking that the Storm is the first purchase in a long time that lives up to its hype- a Verizon iPhone!

I've been receiving inquiries all morning asking what I think about my new tool. Apparently, Verizon's marketing has reached a lot of people all over the country. In response, I prepared the following memo and decided to post it here as well as on Facebook. That way, I can just refer folks to Prairie Pondering and get back to work and/or playing with my new toy. ;-)

To my friends/family asking about my new BlackBerry Storm:

I decided to try to put some quick thoughts down on paper because I’m getting a lot of questions about my experience.

First impression: I love it. I now have a BBerry that meets the expectations I had about being able to access the Internet. The browser it uses is miles above the earlier version on my 8830. E-mails that come with html code are intelligible, not meaningless code.

Navigation: If you have used a touch screen device, like an iPhone or iPod Touch, it doesn’t take much getting used to and makes moving around menus and applications pretty fast. It incorporates the same menus as my old BBerry so the learning curve was not too steep.

Typing: BBerry uses three different means of typing. Standard QWERTY in landscape mode and, in portrait mode, either the old multi-tapping to get the letter you want on a phone keyboard or a “smart” typing system (like on the iPod Touch) that figures out which word you want from the sequence of tapping. For example, it knows that tapping the AS-TY-ER-ER-BN keys on the combined QWERTY keyboard, means “Stern”. It’s a little counterintuitive at first until you just let yourself go. Then it seems to work and there’s mechanisms for correcting as you go (although they require clicking on options and slow you down).

Screen: Bright and easy to read. No “pinching” like the iPod or iPhone to increase/decrease screen magnification; there’s a menu work around for that. I am using a screen protector and I’m constantly wiping off finger prints.

I haven’t used the music capabilities or loaded photos on the device. Verizon has a roll out special where they are packaging the device with an 8 gb Micro SD card so I didn’t need to buy one. There’s a lot to learn.

I use a MacBook Pro and I had some problems with my initial synchs. The Verizon store where I bought it could only transfer 3,000 of my 5,500 contacts. I could not get the calendar to synch until I went on the Missing Synch website (I already used the software) and followed instructions for clearing out my Apple iSynch software. It’s worked fine since. If you are using a PC, it should be more seamless. The CD’s I received with my device are not for use on a Mac so there are features I guess I won’t be able to access.

Recommendation: I wouldn’t get any other BBerry. I already sent in my rebate form, not worrying about whether I’d want to return this one.

All God's Children

2008-11-17T22:01:00.006-06:00

It is easy for me to use this blog to lecture readers on the evils of racism and preach tolerance of one another, regardless of skin color. I suppose I could really go out on a limb and write about how having a daughter made me truly understand the evils of sexism. But, dear readers, this is approximately the one year anniversary of Prairie Pondering and it is time to get in your face about another civil rights issue, the issue of gay rights.

My children are fond of making fun of their father because over the course of seven years of college and law school, I had four different gay roommates who did not identify themselves as such until after we had lived together for a year or more. My children, who have been raised in an atmosphere of tolerance and for whom homosexuality is a non-issue, cannot fathom how I was too blind and/or naive not to realize that my various roommates did not share my sexual preference. Fortunately, or unfortunately, my children have not had to consider how tightly one can hold onto a secret when one believes that its disclosure will destroy every shred of self esteem and every relationship established in its shadow. Tolerance of same-sex relationships was not rampant in the Seventies and early Eighties and my friends, my fellow students, struggled with "coming out" and the ramifications that followed with family and less liberal-minded friends.

It seems like it should be easier today. Depictions of gay lifestyles in the media are not limited to the Some Like It Hot antics of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon or the faux homosexuality of John Ritter in Three's Company. On the other hand, it is not the straight community, even though more desensitized to the concept than thirty years ago, that is "coming out". I can imagine the internal struggle that persists for members of the gay community who consider the still prevalent homophobia in America before mustering the courage to live their lives as normal human beings, i.e., sexual beings not forced to feign attraction where none exists.

In August, 1973, I drove with a friend from Carleton from Minneapolis to Los Angeles where I was going to spend my senior year of college. We shared many mutual friends and many of them were gay. As we were driving across Nebraska's endless plain, I was asked "Why aren't you gay?" That was shorthand for "Sam, you have so many gay friends with whom you hang out, travel, party, confide in, rely upon, etc., so why aren't you gay?" I explained to my travel companion that I had no interest in physical intimacy, on any level, with another male but, as long as we all practiced "live and let live", I did not care what anybody else did. I knew, before being so informed, that my gay friends were hardwired that way, much as I was hardwired to stare at female cleavage. There was never a point in my life when I had to stop and consider which team my raging hormones would have me bat for. If I may mix a metaphor, I always assumed that my friends batting for the other team were similarly on auto-pilot.

That, dear readers, is the heart of the matter. If we can readily agree that there is no justification for discriminating against someone because of the color of their skin, or their gender, or their place of birth, then how do we justify discrimination on the basis of sexual preference? Like skin color, gender or national origin, sexual preference just is what it is. I believe that even persons with multiple preferences, bi-sexuals, were born that way and that claims of "curing" homosexuality reflect nothing more than successful exercises in repressing part of the victim's bi-sexuality.

All this pondering results, of course, from my reaction to the passage of Proposition 8 in California two weeks ago. Prop 8 overturned the California Supreme Court's decision that banning gay marriage was unconstitutional in California. It amended the California constitution to make it clear that marriage was allowed only between one man and one woman. In so doing, the majority of the California electorate, much like the Alabama electorate would have done in 1962 given the chance, trampled on the civil rights of a class of its citizens. Besides demonstrating why, in our system of checks and balances, an independent judiciary is needed to protect against the oppression of the majority, the passage of Prop 8 serves as a reminder of why so many gay men and women dare not live their lifestyle openly.

I am frankly outraged that discrimination on such a grand scale is still defended today in America. What are we so afraid of? Hordes of marauding interior designers? Leagues of women bowlers? Proselytizing dance instructors? It's ridiculous. We ought to be promoting loving, committed relationships as role models for our children and for ourselves. Live and let live! To believe that we are somehow threatened by the sexual preference of those who were born to be gay is idiotic and should not serve as a basis for minimizing the civil rights and citizenry of otherwise fully entitled children of God.

How to Help with the Recount

2008-11-12T13:20:00.008-06:00

I just got off a conference call with Al Franken, his campaign staff and the attorneys they've hired to oversee Al's recount efforts. The good news first: Al will likely prevail in the recount (more later). The bad news: It will take $3 million in the next 30 days to finance the effort underway.

Unfortunately, Federal Election laws limit individuals to a $12,300 contribution, made payable to the Franken Recount Fund. So, rather than just writing out a $3 million check myself, and asking the campaign to hold it until it is good, I need 244 of my loyal readers to send a check for $12,300, made payable to the Franken Recount Fund, to 2575 University Avenue W, Suite 100, St. Paul, MN 55114.

In addition to sending the Franken Recount Fund $12,300 (or any portion of the limit that you can afford; now's the time to step up), you can send an e-mail to recount@alfranken.com and offer to volunteer and/or to provide housing to some of the 1,000 volunteers being recruited who need housing.

To expedite your show of support, click here and follow directions.

Thank you for reading the really important section of this blog entry. For the rest, here is what is going on:

Without even reading my November 9th installment of Prairie Pondering, the Franken campaign believes that the votes thus far not counted by the optical scanning machines will, for the most part, end up being counted as votes for Al. I think the analysis of whose vote were not counted offered in my last edition of Prarie Pondering will turn out to be accurate with the possible exception of its blindness to the fact that young, new voters have been filling in ovals all their lives and probably did so on November 4th. On the other hand, one reader observed that young, new, liberal voters do not like being told what to do and may have marked the ballots as they saw fit.

Currently, Norm Coleman is ahead in the count by 206 votes. Based on an audit of precincts selected at random this week, the Secretary of State's office expects that there will be about 1,600 ballots containing votes that were not counted by mechanical means. If that is true, and if anything more than 56.5% of the untallied ballots reflect an intent to vote for Al, Al wins the election.

The recount will start on November 19th. There will be about 120 counting sites statewide. The Franken campaign will have 1 volunteer attorney and 2 observers at every counting table at each of the 120 sites. The campaign is hiring 125 staff to work around the state overseeing counting locations. In addition to hiring staff, the campaign is recruiting 1,000 volunteers and 100's of volunteer attorneys. This will be a massive, expensive effort to make sure that every ballot is counted and that the voice of the electorate is heard.

There is some thought that the Coleman campaign expects a recount to end badly, explaining the negative tone of its communications and its proclivity to rush into court to keep ballots from being counted. There is nothing untoward going on at Al's campaign. Even the 32 ballots which were the subject of Coleman's failed restraining order have been acknowledged as legitimate by the Senator Coleman's attorney.

The Franken campaign needs your support to get it through the recount process. If you have been wondering how you can help, you have your answer. Donate money to the Franken Recount Fund. Offer to volunteer. Offer to provide housing. Ask your friends to do the same.

As an incentive and a demonstration of my appreciation for your support and readership, I will send a 5x7 of the photo shown above, autographed by the photographer (or not, your call) to anyone who donates $50 or more (preferably more) to the Franken Recount Fund and tells me they did so.

Do not allow what happened to one Al in 2000 happen to another Al in 2008. If for no other reason than to protest the theft of the presidency by the Republicans eight years ago, support the recount effort!

Thank you for your help. And don't forget to cyberjump.