Rejoice!

As a retired professional fund raiser, I can attest to how hard it is to raise zillions from some of America's wealthiest people. But, I'm not Warren Buffet or Bill Gates. When these guys come calling, all bets are off. Even so, when I read back in June, that Warren and Bill were out to convince 30 fellow billionaires to agree to giving half of their fortunes away, I couldn't help but think "Good luck!" I just didn't appreciate the power of one mogul asking another to do something grand. Regardless the fact that they have succeeded is fantastic news that can't receive too much applause. It's nothing less than a ray (gold, of course) of pure sunlight in a very cloudy sky. Now, if each of those 30 will go after just one more over achiever, just imagine the possibilities. Bravo Warren and Bill!

Rejoice!

Bullying in schools is as old as the Devil. And not just in hazardous duty schools. Nor is it just a boy thing. We've all heard just how nasty young "ladies" can be. The suicide of a Massachusetts girl after months of email brutality made it clear that cyber bullying and sexting were new threats to civility and decency in our schools. Bullying is also a factor in our offices and factories that predates Ebineezer Scrooge. Overbearing bosses abound as they rant and rave to harrass and humiliate subordinates into achieving production goals no matter what. Now, at last, this wretched behavior has been targeted for elimination from the US Dept. of Education on down through most of our states and school districts. Huge progress has also been made in business, too, though many employees may still feel trappped by the scarcity of jobs. No matter how long it takes to eliminate bullies wherever they may be, these unfortunate people now have scarlet "B's" on their foreheads for all to see. That's progress, folks.

Rejoice Greatly

Civilization has been on a roll recently, it would seem, and now the decency that is one of it's halllmark is being extended to animals! Finally! Thank you, Humane Society of the United States, Professor Peter Singer of Princeton and many others for your tireless work and leadership. Chickens and veal calves are the major beneficiaries of this particular break through in which leadership states like California and Ohio have agreed to ease up on tight caging of chickens over the next 15 years. By 2017 veal calves will be unchained! The European Union is quite a bit ahead of us, but this too, is significant progress to balance the ledger a bit These are all God's creatures, over which He gave us dominion, and I am certain He is pleased. Again, I say, rejoice.

What's Up at the Chemical Plant?

Everyone knows that we humans are walking chemical plants. As children, we recognize that our bodies are growing and as teenagers we can tell really fascinating things are happening. Lost in the beauty of our new bodies, we pay little attention to our heads and the different ways we deal with others. The changes keep right on going until even the most casual observer has to be aware of different management at the factory.

I mention these stunning insights because I have been thinking recently about the roots of partisanship that are afflicting our body politic as probably never before. For years, men whispered that women could never lead well and consistently becasuse of regular problems Mother Nature gave them. The difficulties men experienced were, of course, perfectly acceptable and unworthy of comment. So what if some guys became querulous, predatory and didn't play well with others?

I know what drives Reps. Bachmann, Boehner and Cantor and the assorted people seeking office (though the crop this season includes some of the most absolute nut cases ever seen). It's naked ambition. But what about rich, old men like Sens. Cornyn, McCain, McConnell, etc.? (I literally can't think of Democratic senators who are as repugnant and outspoken.) What hormones are driving them to lie, misinform, bluster and block any move that runs counter to their political beliefs this year? It can't be conviction, surely, no sudden recognition that we're spending a lot of money. Is it possible they're on steroids or is the politics bug like malaria, once bitten it can hide in your bodyand return occasionally forever? I know the power, fawning and perks are fantastic for members of congress, but enough to put party over country and pandering over serious legislation on vital issues? I just can't buy it. Maybe it's the same spotlight fever that keeps performers on stage when they should have retired; I could understand that. Maybe some of them think they really are defending something they personnally believe in deeply, like traditional marriage or anti-abortion laws. That, too, would make sense to me. And maybe it's racism! Now there's a possible resentment buried deep that needs to be camouflaged lest it bite back. I wonder how many Americans just don't want to see a black man in the White House, let alone a handsome, young and fit black man with a beautiful family, good manners, a fine education and intellect who represents the USA well and has an ambitious agenda to move the country forward? Eureka! I've got it!

Hello, Plant? Find a cure and make it snappy!

Where Angels Fear to Tread

I am writing today first to all my friends and aquaintances who are Roman Catholics, and secondly, without any authority whatsoever, to all Catholics on behalf of all Protestants. In both cases, I want only to express my sorrow for what I believe has been a period of terrible suffering and embarrassment for both groups and the way they have responded to these problems with renewed faith and courage. From what I can tell, nothing will ever stop Catholics from practising their ancient and marvelous faith, not priests or bishops or blundering senior clergy, nothing.

Every Christian prays that through God's Grace he will be strong and faithful when the pressure points in life descend upon him. Last week may have represented such an event for many Catholics when the Vatican announced new rules for the handling of priests charged with sexual deviancy. Not only were the new rules the bare minimum that might have been expected, the Church's leadership gratuitously inserted into the mix the assertion that seeking the ordination of women is a sin equivalent to pedophilia! What a needless insult to 50% of the Church's membership! What an arrogant and clueless response to terrible problems that have been gnawing at Roman Catholicism. The next pope will need the skills and charisma of two John 23rd's.

We in the Protestant Church have long been plagued with scandal, but our more democratic forms of government make it much easier to deal with. In addition, Protestant churches that disapprove of the work of their governing bodies have ways to fight back. They can withold money, join another church or even go independent without fear of excommunication, eternal damnation and the like.

Many years ago, I spoke quietly and sincerely to a friend whose wife I had known forever. They were experiencing severe problems. I said only that I knew he was suffering and that I was sorry. He was courteous but denied that there was any discomfort in his life. I mention this only because I decided a long time ago, it was probably better to risk being indelicate than to appear indifferent. And so, dear Catholic friends, if I have displeased you with these words, please forgive me. Fools step in ...

Tea and Sympathy

On NPR this morning, a Michigan Teapartier was criticizing the groundbreaking for a new plant that in 18 months or so will be manufacturing Chevy Volt batteries and employing about 400 people. What was bothering him was the fact that the government had been involved in selecting the site and had provided some of the startup money. In his view government shouldn't be doing such things, even now when so many are unemployed.

To me his criticism meant several things. First is the fundamental weakness of the Tea Party movement: members seem to want doctrinal purity that is terribly impractical and won't work in a crisis. Give 'em sympathy, but let the system work out unemployment problems. Then came the realization that this country is impossible to run, particularly in this day of continuous news, opinion and bitter partisanship. There are probably 50 people for every Teapartier who think the government should be doing something much bigger and doing it faster. The hell with doctrinal purity, just give me a job. In the same vein, this guy was no one of importance; what was he doing on NPR? These thoughts were followed by the realization that Americans are very ignorant of how our system really works, despite all the talk about sausage being made.They don't like the fact that both Republican and Democratic parties bailed out the big banks, even if the government gets most of the money back. Have they been so focused on welfare queens all these years not to know that corporate welfare has always dwarfed human welfare, disability payments, food stamps, etc.? Forget about the trillions of dollars given recently to AIG, GM, Chrysler, the big banks and brokerage houses, corporate welfare goes back forever. Just as a reference point, start with the Mining Act of 1872 whereby big mining and oil companies can use government land for $5.00 and acre, take oil and minerals and pay no royalties! Think aid to tobacco and sugar companies, just to name a couple of biggies. I won't even mention companies involved in defense work, or broadcasting, but the Savings and Loan bailout of 30 years ago caused a little kerfufel coming in around $500 billion and might have been an indicator of things to come. Is it possible, what we're seeing today is also an indicator of something even bigger? If the reform bill about to pass congress is only the beginning, I'll be happy. There's much more to be done and huge hurdles to be overcome from the usual suspects who will be fighting for their special interests with their last breathes.

Gracies

Having established unilaterally, in a recent blog, that what most people want in life is Peace, it's time to be more specific.
God will do what He pleases, of course, but in most cases I don't think the arrival of Peace comes with trumpets blaring. One knows he has Peace when he has received enough Gracies to know that Father is communicating.

What's a Gracie? It's a monogrammed favor from the Maker of Heaven and Earth. It's a hint, an act of Grace, but it is so subjective a thing that it has a little signature attached to it that clearly identifies it as being only for you. An example for me, for instance, would be a gift of music whereby I heard something I didn't know and fell instantly in love with it. That happened once with Mozart's Zaida and more recently as I was recovering from a miserable eye opertation and suddenly found much, much more than I had ever known was in Faure's Requiem.

What would a Gracie be for you? The interesting thing here is that we see everything so differently than the common stereotypes indicate, be they male and female or ectomorph, endomorph, mesomorph, Type A or B and so on. People love each other for the most absurd reasons the mind can imagine. They worry about issues no on could guess. So a Gracie for one person might be a reference to a lock of hair or a pair of size 15 sneakers. What it means is that the Lord God loves you and knows you individually as his own and is telling you gently so as not to scare the living daylights out of you with horns and burning bushes. I'll trade you all the Presidential cufflinks in DC plus all the Papal blessings at the Vatican for one little Gracie, thank you.

Rotten in DC

To even the most obtuse observer of the Washington, DC scene, it's clear there is something rotten there that we've been trying to overlook far too long. Our government is struggling with monumental issues with one hand tied behind its back, and more.

The core problem is money, campaign finance reform, to be specific. Campaigns for high office should be financed by the government so that exceedingly wealthy people who want a new challenge or whatever, can't simply lay out $100 million and become a governor, senator or judge. (No judge should ever have to run for office.) In addition, campaigns for national office should be limited, as they are in many other western countries, to 3-6 months. No more continuous 24/7 campaigns that never end and require ever greater time devoted, not to governing or legislating , but to fundraising. It's going to be hard to make much progress on these matters until the Supreme Court is persuaded that corporations are not people. As it is, the High Court has just made it infinitely easier for corporations to influence legislation using stockholder money. This makes corporations super persons. Let's give them names like Watson for IBM, Jack for GE, Mickey for Disney, Uncle Dick for Halliburton, Jamie for JP Morgan Chase. These men will be able to spend whatever it takes to continue Wall Street's dominance of Washington, thanks to the Roberts Court.

Unfortunately, there is much more to be done to improve congressional effectiveness. I have always been for term limits that would force lawmakers to leave office after say two terms as a senator (12 years) and 3 as a congressman (9 years).
Election to office should not be a lifetime meal ticket. Term limits should be law and any expertise denied the nation because of shorter tenure can be easily overcome by an improved civil service and a steady supply of new talent.

Archaic rules should be changed, especially in the Senate where secret holds on nominations make it impossible for a new president to establish control over the government. Earmarks should be transparent and greatly reduced. Ethics Committees should be reconstituted and required to work in the open. Filibuster rules should be changed to prevent the tyranny of the minority that can immobilize a determined opposition.

And that's just for starters. The country has to break the grip of Special Interests before we can return to our ideals and the phenominal promise they hold. Business can't be rigged so that only a tiny percentage of people benefit and that will mean heavy, determined lifting for many years. The same goes for farming, mining, oil and coal. The subsidies have to go, the playing fields levelled. Until then, it's just going to be more of the same - "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire, burn and cauldron bubble."

Greed

Gordon Gekko notwhithstanding, greed is NOT good. Indeed, greed is quite rightly one of the Seven Deadly Sins, up there with Pride, Lust, Wrath, etc. It's symbol is a gross hog, not to be confused with the charming Wilbur of Charlotte's Web. Nor is greed to be confused with ambition or concentration. It is not an asset or attribute. Nothing wholesome comes from greed.


Greed is often expressed as a forceful effort to acquire or experience an absolute, controlling, or unhealthy amount of a commodity (gold, Renaissance paintings, real estate, stock, pork bellies (!) and/or certain experiences like sex, fame and so on. Like pornography, it's sometimes difficult to quantify, but we know it when we see it and it's not pretty. Greed is not an integral part of Capitalism or the American dream. It is not mentioned with our freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It's allowed along with bad table manners, but not prohibited like driving without a license. One may be deeply motivated to succeed by observing a neighbor imitating Al Capp's cartoon character, J. Roaringham Fatback and cruising to work in a chauferred Rolls Royce, but few are inspired by the billionaire Hunt Brothers trying to corner the silver market many years ago. They were out for more money, of course, but had they succeeded, they would have enjoyed the buzz when they walked into The Oilman's Club. Greed can be deliciously macho at any age.


What my friends who believe in the usefulness of greed are really thinking of is good ole "trickle down economics," that nostrum beloved by President Ronald Reagan. Give a zillionaire another zillion and, according to economist Reagan, he would open a plant in Nigeria, hire 5,000 locals and lift the entire region out of poverty. The altruistic mogul would use the money for the benefit of society, insist on high labor standards and pay fine dividends to stockholders at the same time. It was baloney, of course, but a wonderful fantasy all the same. Trickle down didn't work and never will, regardless of the guise in which it comes. Greed is fuel for the zillionaire, but there are no statues to it, now that it has finally been understood for what it is. My belief is that the average zillionaire would take a windfall and hide it in Switzerland, to avoid paying taxes on it, as so many have done in the past.

Greed is in the headlines today, because of the beyond incredible greedy behavior of leading business executives (think BP) politicians and wannabes worldwide in it's thrall over a period of many years. Indeed, what we are seeing today is little different than what we have seen seemingly forever. Even young people in America today know something of the sins of the Vanderbilts, the Morgans, the Harrimans, et al. who stopped at absolutely nothing to achieve their fortunes and then used charity to buy extensive redemption. The people at the very top seem to always want more. Ambition fanned by the media (Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous) becomes greed, power begets the need for more power and the beat goes on. As the gap between the classes widens, the potential increases again for unrest and violence. A single assasination triggered World War I; another today could represent a devastation unlike any other experienced in the United States. No possible benefit of greed, currently beyond my imagination, can justify so much evil, real and potential.


So where does this greed come from? Is it a virus? Not likely. My wife says it springs from fear, a deep concern about returning to poverty or seeming to be weak - whatever condition created the condition in the first place. That makes sense to me and she should know as a practicing LCSW and Addictions Counselor with many years experience in dealing with emotionally troubled people, to say nothing of 40 with me.


I wonder if Gordon would be as sure about greed today as he was years ago. My guess is "Yes." That's the way Masters of the Universe think and always will.