coffee.mill

Drones

I don’t often think about drones.  I do think it’s likely most Americans don’t.  The word pops up in news feeds from time to time, or we can relate to a speech droning on.  A word that denotes monotony, tedium.

Until now.

I had heard about soldiers in trailers in Nevada or Utah or some vague somewhere manning drones from computer terminals, blowing up buildings, killing suspected al-Qaeda terrorists.

Mostly I heard about it in the abstract, more like a video game than anything in real life.  We’re somewhat immune to the whole idea here in the US, other than a brief flurry of stories about the legality of We the People using drones against We the People.  But that moved off the front page, as a footnote to old news.

But for people outside these borders, drones are far from abstract.

And I do think we ought to give the idea of killing from a video monitor some thought.

I was listening to parts of an interview with a young man named Brandon who operated a drone from a trailer out in the US desert southwest.  He was a low rank non-com, doing the work of droning, flying his missions from a comfortable chair in an air-condition office, blowing up buildings 8 or 9 thousand miles away, blowing up people, when he had a personal epiphany.

He said he had fired off a missile at some suspected terrorists, made the hit and was monitoring the site via infrared cameras on the drone.  He noted the bodies of the dead, because they showed up as brighter spots on his computer image.  And slowly, as the bodies cooled, the lights winked out. 

He watched them die, electronically.

And it brought him to the realization that he was actually killing live people. 

And I would add, he had no real idea who these people were.  They were just human beings who showed up at particular geographic coordinates on his computer, and he killed them.  Coordinates provided by the same people who assured We the People that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, the same people who couldn’t find Osama bin Laden for 10 years or so.

He was locking on and killing at their behest.

Finally he had an assignment to blow up a house where intelligence suggested three terrorists were hiding.  He was assured that it was the three terrorists, no more.  He locked in, released the missile, and in the six seconds it took for it to reach the target, he saw a small figure run around the corner just as the missile impacted.  He said the small figure was a biped, too small to be an adult.  He asked for a review of the tape.  His superior reviewed the tape and said it was a dog.

He said he knows what he saw; it had two legs, and was too small to be an adult.

Interesting to me was he would not use the word “child,” although that’s all it could have been.  Throughout the interview, he said, “biped,” or “too small to be an adult.”

Never “child.”

But he quit soon after.  Mustered out of the service.  He doesn’t say he’s homeless, rather that he’s “couch-surfing” his friends.  But he doesn’t have a home.  He has been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress.

Though the drone strikes are one-sided bloodless warfare, they are not without cost.

And the idea that from a clear blue sky or on a cloudless night comes death from a distant droning sound, from a more distant disinterested 19 or 20-year-old computer geek, that idea seems more chilling than even the barbarity of war.

But Roger, I hear you say, isn’t that better than “boots on the ground,” isn’t it a better way to prosecute the “war on terror?” 

I won’t even get into all that is wrong with this on-going, never-ending declared “war on terror.”  That is another whole discussion.

Just remember well what path we are taking.  Just remember what happened when Pandora’s box was opened.

If THEY can do it there, THEY can also do it here.

Listen for the drone.  Sleep well.

Two businesses diverged in a yellow wood...

Two business experiences in less than an hour, two similar business models diverging from one system.  Remarkable in how much they are the same and how radically different.

I was parked in front of my bank here in Jupiter, Florida, making out a deposit slip so I wouldn’t have to take up a lot of time in the teller line, but in no particular hurry.  I bank at Enterprise Bank, a local business with three offices in the surrounding communities.  Small, but exactly what I was looking for when I moved down here.

I know that Lindsey is off on maternity leave with her first child, a girl, and Stephanie is pregnant with her first.  Jason helped me sort out a credit card problem a while back when I was wrestling with Visa and a car rental company.  I could see him at his desk from where I sat in the parking lot.  They know I’m rather fond of the cookies they bake up fresh each morning.

So I got out of my car, walked to the door and they buzzed me in…part of their security, the front door is always locked but they are quick on the release.  I had noticed that the lot was a bit empty and no one was in the lobby, but didn’t give it any thought.

As I was making my transaction with Stephanie, I joked about how I was in a bit earlier than usual, and I didn’t see any cookies ready.  She told me they really don’t open till nine, another 20 minutes from now, but they saw me come up and buzzed me in anyhow, but the cookies were actually out of the oven and did I want one?

I apologized for not noticing the hours (posted rather prominently on the door) and she just laughed and said “no problem.” 

Jason came out with the tray of warm chocolate chip cookies, and I ate one on the way out.  As I got in my car, the branch manger Aphrodite (she goes by “Aph”) pulled in, and I thanked her for the service her employees show, and she said she really likes working here at a community bank.  She said she started her career at a small local bank, then it was bought out by one of the big banks, and she left as soon as she could get back to this type of environment.  (As an aside, I went with Tracy to her name-brand bank one morning, and they had cookies too, Chips Ahoy, dry, hard and brittle as the service there).

Before coming to Enterprise to make the deposit, I had stopped by a local major-chain quick-oil-change company.  I had been emailed a $10 Off coupon, was due for the work and the shop was on my way, so I chose the convenience over driving to my local mechanic.

I pulled around back and the local manager came out with his clipboard and showed me the levels of service available and rattled off all they would do for me for the various options.

I said no thanks, just an oil change and moseyed on in to the waiting room.

Since they also check all the fluid levels, tire pressure and other possible mechanical maladies, he soon came back to help me with my maintenance.  He said my coolant was bad and I should have my radiator flushed and I had a valve cover leak.  He showed me right on his computer screen that I should also have my tires rotated.  The radiator flush would only be an additional $139.99 and the tires could easily be rotated for $24.99.  He then added that my wiper blades were dry and brittle and needed changing.

The thing was, my regular mechanic had noticed a crack in my radiator about two months ago, and had replaced the radiator then, and flushed the system, putting in new coolant.  I had my tires rotated last month because I had noticed some uneven wear.  I had just replaced the timing belt, and in doing that my mechanic had replaced and reseated the valve cover gaskets.   And about three months ago, I was tired of the spider design my wiper blades were spreading across my windshield, and as I had stopped by the Toyota dealership for something else, I had replaced those with factory spec wiper blades.

I mentioned this to Mr. Manager, and he was visibly miffed, so we checked out for exactly what I had asked for, an oil change with $10 off.

After I left, I looked over the computer-generated service list he handed me.  Changed Oil – completed.  Change Oil Filter – Changed.  Check Air Filter – OK.  Check Wiper Blades – OK.  Vacuum Floors – Completed...and it went on from there, but I paused.

I looked down at my floor mats, the ones I realized needed vacuuming just yesterday and didn’t have time to vacuum.  Still not vacuumed. Bits of the ditritus of life scattered about.

So I had to wonder just a little bit…Oil Change?  Filter change?

I’m sure that Enterprise Bank runs ads in the local paper, maybe even on the radio or TV; I don’t know, I’ve never seen one.  But I sure do know the quick oil change company does; I had one of their coupons.

The folks at Enterprise Bank don’t tell me how much they want my business, they don’t invest a lot of money in telling me how friendly they are, or how much they care about me.  They just do it.  A small, local business, built on a capitalist model, in touch with this one person, Roger German.

The other national company spends enormous sums of money telling me how much they care about me, while in fact doing their best to separate me from as much of my money in as short amount of time as is corporately possible.  Which is what seems to happen to the capitalist model when it reaches some corporate tipping point.

I love the way the capitalist system works on the local level; I owned a small business, as did my father and his father, my grandpa Ed.  When grampa started his grocery store, he lived in the community where he worked and had ties that embraced his neighbors.   The distant corporations are like octopuses feeding remotely from tentacles inserted into communities pulling cash from strangers.

It seems when corporate board rooms fill with suits and egos disconnected from anything that has to do with what the corporation does but create cash flow, cash flow and profits become the “raison d’être”, the reason for their existence. 

And that is my problem with the model grown large.

For all the problems that come with Big Government, and those are myriad, equally egregious are the problems stemming from Big Business.  They really, really do not care about Roger German.

And though I am only a very small cog in the business wheel of Enterprise Bank, I know that they know who I am, and in my own small way am important enough to notice as a person.

That is capitalism that builds communities.

Unexpected Common Ground

I’ve enjoyed some months of physical therapy, working to regain range of motion in my shoulder after surgery.  Besides excelling in the assisted stretching, which could easily be included as an “enhanced interrogation” technique, one of the principles in the business dispenses an entertaining monologue of sports, guns and his political worldview.

He’s a smart guy, fit, well-traveled, former Special Forces, and we don’t agree on too much politically, so I was surprised this morning when we found some common ground.

As he was grinding his thumb into the back of my shoulder, producing a kaleidoscope of colorful explosions in the pain sensors in my brain, he said he was tired of people blaming ALL gun owners for a few crazies.  Especially, he said, those who want us to believe that it’s not ALL Muslims who are terrorist, but just a few crazies.

I thought perhaps I’d heard wrong, as I might have shut down most of my senses in trying to shut out the delightful antics of his thumb.

“You mean that people should see gun owners in general as a respectable bunch of folks, just like people should see Muslims in general as a respectable bunch of folks, and they shouldn’t be judged by a small number of nuts?” I said.

Exactly, he said.

The thumb pressure remained constant while another therapist pulled my arm up over my head, but there was no sudden increase in the level of color dancing in my pain sensors, so felt confident he was serious.

He said when he registered any of his several guns here in Florida, he had to have a background check for felonies, but they didn’t look into his mental health at all.  “People with mental health problems shouldn’t be able to buy guns,” he said.  “Look at Newton, at Aurora and at Virginia Tech…those people were crazy, and they knew they were crazy before they bought guns.”

Now, I don’t know exactly how much of a psychological paper trail there is for any of those shooters, but he seemed convinced of it.

So you’re for background checks?

Dam right, he said.

Which puts him at odds with the leadership of his party and the NRA, as they managed to get just such legislation stopped in the Senate.

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union With Candy Crowly” Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa) said, “"This bill, basically if you're a criminal and if you've been mentally adjudicated, you might not like it, and that's all we're saying," Manchin told Crowley. "At gun shows, and Internet sales, commercial transactions, is that you should not be able to buy a gun if you've been one of those two categories."

Toomey said he and Manchin "are not interested and not willing to support infringing the legitimate rights of law-abiding citizens." He repeated that their bill is about "trying to make sure that criminals and dangerously mentally ill people have a harder time getting guns."

It’s interesting to note that back in 1999, the NRA supported background checks, and NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre testified to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in the wake of the Columbine High School Shooting that he saw background checks as “reasonable.”  What changed?

According to the Huffington Post, 4/18/2013, one former lifetime NRA member has an opinion: “WASHINGTON -- Adolphus Busch IV, heir to the Busch family brewing fortune, resigned his lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association on Thursday, writing in a letter to NRA President David Keene, "I fail to see how the NRA can disregard the overwhelming will of its members who see background checks as reasonable."

"The NRA I see today has undermined the values upon which it was established," wrote Busch. "Your current strategic focus clearly places priority on the needs of gun and ammunition manufacturers while disregarding the opinions of your 4 million individual members…One only has to look at the makeup of the 75-member board of directors, dominated by manufacturing interests, to confirm my point. The NRA appears to have evolved into the lobby for gun and ammunition manufacturers rather than gun owners."

Guns are big business.  Wouldn’t want to let a few massacres get in the way of the bottom line.  Don’t want to infringe on the 2^nd Amendment right of…well…anyone, as long as he or she keep the cash registers ringing.

suspect #2

In our country, we are fortunate to live under a rule of law.  It’s not perfect, but it gives some structure to the knocks we take, navigating through life.

So Suspect #2 in the Boston bombings will have his day in court, and should.  And I will want the press to follow that trial, and report the result.

But I don’t want to hear his name, and I don’t want to see his face.  Suspect #2 works just fine for me, and if the press feels compelled to use a photo, blot out the face.

Oscar Wilde said, “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”

Whatever else Suspect #2 had on his mind when he and Suspect #1 were plotting such a cowardly and senseless crime, you can be assured they wanted publicity, they wanted their names spelled right (PT Barnum said “I don’t care what you say about me, just spell my name right”), and they want to reach as many people as they can with whatever twisted message they have.

I would respectfully request CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The Times, The Wall Street Journal and any and all other media outlets to agree to no longer giving Suspect #2 free publicity.

We, the American public, know the names.  We’ve seen the faces, and those faces belie the evil resident within.  Why that evil is there, how it came to be planted, nurtured and grown, I don’t really care right now. 

There are many just causes out there, many wrongs that need to be righted.  Killing innocent people and injuring 170 more is not a just way to do it.

And we are complicit in that as we give voice to those who would use such violence to further their cause,  we give license and motivation to more of the same.

I don’t want banner headlines, 24-hour wall-to-wall coverage.  I don’t want to know what Suspect #2 had for breakfast or that his mother thinks he’s innocent, or that he was some sort of wrestler or good student or friend.

I want him tried, and if convicted, sentenced.

That’s it.

I don’t want to see that face one more time, nor hear the name.

Suspect #2 has no message I care to hear.

I have compassion for those so terribly injured by him, those killed, their families, and even for the family of Suspect #2. 

I also have compassion for Suspect #2, because it is what makes me human, and what seems so terribly lost on him.

XL Pipeline; Key(gall)stone

Just a visual aid to illustrate for Nebraskans what an oil spill would look like if it happened in your back yard, brought to you by the good folks at Exxon Mobil.  Backyard provided by a homeowner in the town of Mayflower, Arkansas, population 2,234.

“MAYFLOWER (KATV) - Crews worked through the night to clean up an oil spill after more than 40 residents spent a third night outside of their homes.”

Crews have been working around the clock since the March 29, scrubbing the streets and driveways of the Northwood subdivision in Mayflower, which is where the pipe burst.

Officials with Exxon Mobil said they do not know what caused the rupture or how long the cleanup will take. They did announce in a press release Monday afternoon that an excavation and removal plan was being developed by the US Department of Transportation. They also set up a claims and information hotline for residents.

All this should be very reassuring for Nebraskans, as the proposed Keystone pipeline is about 10 times larger than the one that burst in Aransas.  But officials at Exxon Mobil are just gushing about how sorry they are, and how they will make it all right.

"First of all, we are very sorry that this has happened," said spokesperson Allen Jeffers. "This should not happen so it is our responsibility to make it right and that's what we're doing. We're paying out claims that come forward from the pipeline. We're paying the costs of the cleanup and no taxpayer money goes into this cleanup."

That cleanup process is fairly intensive. Fifteen vacuum trucks and 33 storage tanks were deployed to help clean up and temporarily store the oil. Crews used steam cleaners and pressure washers to get the oil off of homeowners' property.

Much of the work Monday morning was focused on cleaning out the creeks that feed Lake Conway. The lake has not been contaminated and workers hope to keep it that way.  At least that’s what Exxon Mobil officials said.  And they are the only ones allowed to notice.  Isn’t that interesting?  Because they have effectively blocked any press or outside independent observers from seeing what has happened and what’s going on.

From the Arkansas Times, April 11, “At this early stage of the game, real answers to what's going on in Mayflower would be hard to come by, even if a mega-corporation wasn't on the ground in full damage control mode, and local and county officials hadn't largely ceded jurisdiction to them, with workers and Faulkner County deputies barring the public and media from the scene. The emerging picture, though — a picture that includes wildlife coated in oil, devastated ecosystems in ExxonMobil's "restricted areas," residents who say they are sick, and the still-ticking time bomb on the shores of Central Arkansas's primary water source, Lake Maumelle, where the Pegasus Pipeline comes within 600 feet of the shoreline — might be even uglier than a neighborhood coated in crude.”  Just to clarify, Lake Maumelle supplies approximately 60 percent of the water used by residents of Central Arkansas.

In the audio segment, a voice (KUAR reporter Michael Hibblen) identified as that of Faulkner County Judge Allen Dodson directs media members to stand near a yellow pole. Thirty seconds later, however, another voice says: "You all have to go. Sorry. Exxon media, uh, Mobil has changed their minds. You have to leave.  The Faulkner County deputies started telling us 'ExxonMobil doesn't want you here and you have to leave.' "

So apparently the local police and justice department work for Exxon Mobil rather than the people of Central Arkansas.  Just noting that.  As a journalist who might be interested in what is going on there.

Initial estimates put the spill at more than 12,000 barrels of oil. That's about 500,000 gallons.  The Mayflower Incident Unified Command Joint Information Center estimates about 28,000 barrels of oily water have been recovered. In addition, about 2,000 cubic yards of oiled soil and debris has been recovered. The Unified Command estimates approximately 5,000 barrels of oil were spilled.

But whatever information comes out of the Mayflower spill will be carefully vetted by Exxon Mobil; that can be guaranteed.

So a lot of work going into cleaning up this spill it would seem, and Exxon Mobil is careful to say that this is NOT tar sands oil, just to help relieve whatever fears the local yocals might be getting excited about.  Just regular ol’ crude.

However, what TransCanada wants to push through the much larger Keystone XL pipe is exactly that…tar sands oil.

According to a story in US News & World Reports by Meg Handley, “Conventional oil spill responses are largely ineffective" when it comes to addressing tar sands oil spills says Danielle Droitsch, director of the Canada project at the Natural Resource Defense Council. "The spill in Arkansas illustrates the key point that we are not ready for a massive tar sands pipeline to go through America. The risk is much greater than any reward."

“Droitsch also cited an incident in 2010 when more than 800,000 barrels of oil sands oil spilled near Marshall, Mich., thanks to a pipeline break, ultimately pooling into the nearby Kalamazoo River. Clean-up efforts are still ongoing almost three years after the incident, but experts and the EPA expect traces of the petroleum product to remain in the river environment forever.

"It will never be cleaned up," Droitsch adds.” 

Just to clarify a wee bit.  What that means is that if the stuff bursts onto the sand in Nebraska, it will be even harder to clean up than the regular ol’ crude.  Just a point of clarification.

Supporters of the pipeline say comparing recent spills with a Keystone XL accident isn't comparing apples to apples, especially since the trans-border pipeline is being outfitted with what they say are state-of-the-art safety features 

"No one has a stronger interest than TransCanada does in making sure that Keystone XL is designed, constructed and operated safely and reliably," TransCanada spokesman Shawn Howard wrote in an email.

In the blog Climateprogress by Stephen Lacey, Aug. 17, 2011, he writes that TransCanada CEO Hal Kvisle said in commissioning the Keystone pipeline in June, 2010, “Construction and operation of the Keystone Pipeline system will continue to meet or exceed world-class safety and environmental standards.”  Lacey writes, “One year later, the company has seen twelve oil spills from its brand new, state-of-the art pipeline — with one "six-story geyser" dumping 21,000 gallons of oil in North Dakota.  Today, TransCanada is looking to build another pipeline, Keystone XL, to bring tar sands crude all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. The company is again selling it as “the safest pipeline in the U.S.””

This 36-inch Keystone XL pipeline would run more than 2,000 miles from Alberta, Canada, to refineries near the Texas/Louisiana border, pushing 800,000 barrels per day of heavy diluted bitumen from Canada's "tar sands" region to the Gulf of Mexico. Tar sands oil, which the National Wildlife Federation calls "one of the most polluting and carbon-intensive fuels in the world."

Now, about that geyser in North Dakota…Forbes Magazine had a short piece on it, where a local county commissioner “praised TransCanada’s quick response to the spill, but also told the press “I have to confess: I did not anticipate the we would have a problem this soon.”

“That’s because the pipeline is less than a year old. And a risk analysis submitted by the company had predicted that a 50 barrel leak was anticipated once in a seven-year period.  Asked about the seeming conflict between the risk analysis and real-world experience, (TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha) had an answer — one that only raised more doubts about TransCanada.

“The risk analysis, said Cunha, only included leaks from the pipe itself — not from the pump houses that dot the route. The valve that failed last Saturday was in a pump house, Cunha explained, so the seven-year risk analysis is still good.” 

Now that’s a spokesperson heading for a job in politics.

Rueters reported that “Last July, the EPA rolled up its sleeves and called a time out. The agency deemed the State Department's environmental review of the Keystone project as "inadequate," the lowest possible ranking. EPA raised concerns over a potential oil spill over the Ogallala aquifer.

“The agency also asked the State Department to consider the national security implications of expanding the nation's commitment to a relatively high-carbon source of oil, which EPA says has a well-to-tank carbon footprint 82 percent greater than conventional oil.”

The question comes to mind, why build the pipeline?  Who benefits?

Not Nebraska, not the US…studies have shown we have plenty of oil here now, and if not now, will soon be exporting oil.  But from where?   Hmmmmm…Texas.  From what refineries?  Well, hummmmm…those that would be getting Keystone tar sands oil.  Those that aren’t operating right now at full capacity, generating the profits desired by the owners.  And since the oil won’t be for American consumers, where will it be going?

Shipped to China.  At a tidy little profit.

Just an interesting coincidence, but a lobbying group named Koch Industries Public Sector spent $10, 540,00 in 2012 lobbying Congress.  Yup, that's $10.5 million.  The industry they were lobbying for was Oil & Gas.  Their client was Koch Industries.  (Senate Office of Public Records).

What is Koch Industries?  Actually, it’s who…Charles and David Koch.  Charles Koch, “A man who by Forbes’ careful measure, is one of the 50 most powerful people in the world, one of the 20 wealthiest…” (Forbes Magazine, Dec. 24, 2012) …Koch Industries being the 2^nd largest private company in America, according to the same Forbes article.

According to Rueters, Feb. 10, 2011, “A Koch Industries operation in Calgary, Alberta, called Flint Hills Resources Canada LP, supplies about 250,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day to a heavy oil refinery in Minnesota, also owned by the Koch brothers.

“Flint Hills Resources Canada also operates a crude oil terminal in Hardisty, Alberta, the starting point of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. The company's website says it is "among Canada's largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters." Koch Industries also owns Koch Exploration Canada, L.P., an oil sands-focused exploration company also based in Calgary that acquires, develops and trades petroleum properties.”

Charles’ father Fred founded the company back in the 40s, and in 1958 was one of the 12 founding members of the John Birch Society.  It seems Charles and David haven’t strayed too far from their father’s legacy.  They are virulently anti-government, anti-regulation, anti- really anything that might stand in the way of doing business however they want to do business.

Charles, talking about power, told Forbes Magazine that “Most power is power to coerce somebody,” says Charles, in a voice that sounds like Jimmy Stewart with a Kansas twang. “We don’t have the power to coerce anybody.”

But boy, do they have the money.  And here in the US, that counts for just about everything.

(From Forbes, Dec. 24, 2012)  “…their revolution has been an evolution, with roots going back half a century to Koch’s first contributions to libertarian causes and Republican candidates. In the mid-1970s their business of changing minds got more formal when Charles cofounded what became the Cato Institute, the first major libertarian think tank. Based in Washington, it has 120 employees devoted to promoting property rights, educational choice and economic freedom. In 1978 the brothers helped found–and still fund–George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, the go-to academy for deregulation; they have funded the Federalist Society, which shapes conservative judicial thinking; the pro-market Heritage Foundation; a California-based center skeptical of human-driven climate change; and many other institutions.

“All of these organizations, unknown to 99% of the population, and their common source of support, unknown to most of the rest, have provided the grist for conservative thinking since Reagan. It’s a measure of Koch’s success that 40 years after Richard Nixon was stumping for national health insurance, Paul Ryan’s Ayn Rand-tinged economics are just a little right of center. That the Supreme Court’s conservative majority led by Chief Justice John Roberts has issued a number of pro-property rights, anti-government decisions in recent years that read like they came straight out of a Federalist Society position paper. That when George W. Bush sought a watchdog on regulation costs, he appointed a top Mercatus executive. And none of this was accidental–it just took millions of dollars over decades of time.” 

Since the Koch brothers don’t have much use for government, nor for regulations, nor for bothersome environmentalists, maaaybe the whole idea of leaking pipelines is just, well, bothersome.

According to desmogblog.com, Koch Industries profile: “Koch Industries was sued by the government in 1995 and 1997 as a result of a reported 300 oil spills from pipelines that they owned and operated.  It is estimated that during this time, three million gallons of oil were dumped into lakes and streams in six different states.  The Environmental Protection Agency's lawsuits ranged from $71 million to $214 million.  In 2000, the EPA settled the case for $35 million in fines.  Also, during the 1990s Koch was fined $8 million for discharging oil into streams in Minnesota.”

Folks, these are the people who are bringing you Keystone XL.  They promise they will be careful.

Waiting Room

            Under the quiet hum of commercial air handlers and the low murmur of voices from the attached office, a man emerged from some back room into the waiting room, working his way on one crutch past the nurse holding the door.

            For no specific reason, I watched him work his way across the front of the room, looking to me to be a bit lost, unsure.  The ubiquitous plasma TV on the wall vomited drivel into the air, florescent lights buzzed just above some subliminal range of hearing in a waiting room half full of people, waiting.

            Waiting.

            Waiting to hear what news was available past the gatekeepers in the office.  Waiting to meet with some learned professional to see if perhaps they will yet be able to walk, or lift an arm, or get out of bed unassisted.

            At least it was orthopedics rather than oncology, but all the same, we all emerge pretty much like the man now past my limited field of vision, a bit lost.  Here’s the truth of where health care and Health Care diverges.  Here, in the waiting room. 

            No one is here by choice, as much as Health Care advocates want you to believe that.  People in health care understand that.   We’re here because of accident or injury or illness.  Our choice is to live in pain, or live crippled, or possibly die, or seek help from what is now an understandably incredibly profitable business.

            That is no choice, despite the millions the Health Care industry spends to sell us another story, benefiting from the billions the Health Care industry spends to lobby congress.

            The simple truth is health care should not be in the business of profiting from individual pain and suffering.  The free market capitalist system is a tremendous engine for the economy in manufacturing and selling all manner of widgets and elective services.  But it has no place in health care, in those service areas where consumers are at the mercy of the providers.  Where there is no real choice.

            We figured that out early on with the military, with fire departments and police.  When my grandfather was first with the Pierce Fire Department, people paid for the service.  If you were signed up for fire protection and had a fire, they put it out.  It not, well, tough luck.  But that somehow just didn’t sit right with the good people of Pierce, and the USA in general.  Fire protection was something that was expensive, rarely needed by individual families, but when it was needed, it was needed right now, no matter the cost.  And it seemed the best way to provide that was for everyone to chip in to buy the equipment and the manpower, and hope you never needed it.

            Health care is like that.  Just think about it for a spell, politics aside.  Think about it.  Health care is something none of us can afford save the very wealthy.  None of us.  Unless we all help each other out.  If we all pool our resources to help those in need, when our turn comes, we will then also receive help.

            That’s the basis for universal health care.

            Most other industrial societies provide that service for their citizens.  We can too.  Most studies show that it would save money over the present system.  And it’s in keeping with the basic principle most Americans believe in, that is to help those in need. 

            It would also provide for some balance to the enormous power of the vast sums of money slushing through the existing system. 

            I had some minor surgery on my shoulder recently.  Bone spurs removed, cleaned up some arthritis resultant from 30-some years of swinging a hammer.  The doctor did an excellent job in about a 1-hour procedure, I was in the clinic at 7 a.m. and ready to leave at 10:30 a.m., back home before lunch.

            The paperwork is still flying around between doctors’ offices, my insurance and myself.  And it will be for months.  Under a universal care plan, I would go in, leave and be done with it.  I know from experience that I will be dealing with this system for a long, long time.  And yes, it would take time to be seen and operated on under a universal system, but it took about 6 months for me to assemble the necessary approvals and paperwork under the existing system. 

            The costs are out of control, and not only does no one seems able to contain them, they are not based on any real costs or expenses.  The one bill that has come through so far is $11,000 for the surgical center.  I was there from 7 to 10:30.  The procedure was simple, straightforward, no surprises according to my surgeon. 

            $11,000????

            I am, of course asking for an itemized bill, just to see what could possible be included in this $11,000 for 4 ½ hours of service.  I understand business, overhead, expenses.  But that does not include my surgeon, or my anesthesiologist, blood work, MRI…it’s just the operating room.

            We’re so used to seeing these huge numbers from our Health Care that we too easily buy into the “Well, you just don’t understand…” argument.  No, the truth is, I DO understand.  It has nothing to do with research, or paying for indigent patients, or illegal immigrants.  Those are straw men.  The fact is I am being overcharged by enormous sums.

            In Steven Brill’s in-depth piece on health care in the March 4, Time Magazine, he dives into several patients’ bills, and in one case as he goes through it, writes:

“When I asked MD Anderson (Cancer Center in Houston) to comment on the charges on (Sean) Recchi's bill, the cancer center released a written statement that said in part, "The issues related to health care finance are complex for patients, health care providers, payers and government entities alike ... MD Anderson's clinical billing and collection practices are similar to those of other major hospitals and academic medical centers."”

“The hospital's hard-nosed approach pays off. Although it is officially a nonprofit unit of the University of Texas, MD Anderson has revenue that exceeds the cost of the world-class care it provides by so much that its operating profit for the fiscal year 2010, the most recent annual report it filed with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, was $531 million. That's a profit margin of 26% on revenue of $2.05 billion, an astounding result for such a service-intensive enterprise.”

“The president of MD Anderson is paid like someone running a prosperous business. Ronald DePinho's total compensation last year was $1,845,000. That does not count outside earnings derived from a much publicized waiver he received from the university that, according to the Houston Chronicle, allows him to maintain unspecified "financial ties with his three principal pharmaceutical companies."  (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2136864,00.html#ixzz2PbM9ybD7 )

            So the hospital administrators just pat us on the head and tell us, “Well, you just don’t understand.”  No, the truth is, I DO understand, and though it is profitable, it is not right.

            Having universal health care has its own set of problems, and I’m very much aware of that.  But at least in that case I will have a small voice in voting people in or out of office who will be responsible for the system.  In this case, I have no voice.  I am at the mercy of those who will profit enormously from my pain.

            I am that same man, walking from the examining room on one crutch, a bit lost, unsure.  I no longer trust the system we have in place to have my best interest at heart, for it is not run on heart but on profitability.  

Allen West

My sister sent me an email with an attached video of Allen West, formerly Rep. for Florida’s 22^nd District, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference March 14th and asked if I'd watch it.

So I did.  (I did try to attach a link here, so you could see it yourself, but it seems my computer skills are not quite up to it…but it’s easy to find, Google Allen West at CPAC and you’ll find lots of links.)

I’ve been thinking about it for a time now, and it got me to thinking about perspective and perception.

Because I really think she thought (and I’m sure she will clarify this for me) that his speech was fair and balanced, and something that might help me sort out the differences in our political views.

Well, it did, but probably not in the way she would have liked.  And I went into the viewing knowing Mr. West was speaking to a home crowd, one where he could let down his hair and feel at home.

And he did.

He gave a rousing, thundering speech laying waste to anyone who would differ from his view, and the audience warmed to his rhetoric, breaking into applause many times as he recounted battles and victories of stalwart American military men on the field of valor.

Good stuff, gets the heart pumping.

And I know he wasn’t speaking to a general audience, but yet when he said “I’m tired of liberals dividing this country up into little groups, setting them upon each other, breeding spite and envy, and then having the nerve to say and accuse conservatives of hatred,” I was offended. 

Labels are always problematic, and yet in the political spectrum, I consider myself more liberal, and my sister more conservative, but I don’t agree with what he said.  I have worked most of my life trying to build bridges and bring people together, and I think my sister has too.  More to the point, it doesn’t seem Mr. West really believes much in bringing people together. 

At a town hall meeting in Jensen Beach, FL, in 2012, West said,

“I believe there's about 78 to 81 members of the Democrat Party who are members of the Communist Party. It's called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.”

Though I know name-calling and slurs are part and parcel of the politics of the day, calling other members of Congress communists is not one of the better ways of bringing people together, if he wants to be part of that process.

Caucus Co-Chairs Raul Grijalva and Keith Ellison said in a joint statement. "We hope the people of Florida's 22nd Congressional District will note that he repeatedly polarizes the American people instead of focusing on their interests."

West said later in his speech, “And out in the real world I see conservatives giving to more charities than liberals, even though their paychecks may be smaller.  In the real world I see conservatives volunteering at adoption agencies, at churches, at bake sales and the local American Legion Post while the only charity a progressive sends is a smug sermon on fair share and what fairness is.”

Excuse me.  Isn’t it funny that I see a lot of good people in general giving and volunteering, regardless of political stripe or paychecks, including both my sister and me.

So, though I do think there are conservative Republicans trying to bring the country together, West is not one of them.

Further on, West said, “We (conservatives) believe in humility and integrity.” 

That would be unless he disagreed with a directive from the President of the United States.  He would put his own humble judgment above that. 

In an interview with radio talk show host Mark Levin in 2012, West said,  “And you know I’ve had a lot of people ask me about that because the responsibility of our senior generals has to be to the men and women in uniform. They have to be very careful about blindly following a commander in chief that really does not have the best intent for our military.” 

Apparently, even after 22 years in the military, West believes generals are the ones in charge.  That was something President Truman had to explain to Gen. Douglas MacArthur by firing him. 

But West is no stranger to abusing his own authority, as he resigned from the military in 2004, charged with two violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, in his treatment of an Iraqi policeman.

The military has a code of justice and a chain of command, and Mr. West, then a Lt. Colonel, seemed to think it applied to others but not to himself.

Finally, in the speech Mr. West said, “I’m a conservative because I believe that real peace comes from the Marine Corps, not the Peace Corps.”

And there is where Mr. West and I fundamentally disagree.

The Marine Corps has its place.  It is very good at killing people and breaking things.  And as long as we need people killed and things broken, we will need a Marine Corps.  But the Marine Corps is NOT about building any sort of lasting peace.  It is about the failure of the rule of law and the idea of civilized society.

The leadership of Allen West would enshrine that failure.

It is likely we will always need some form of forceful response to evil in the world, I do understand that.  But the more we work to build lasting relationships, economic ties and partnerships with other countries, the less likely that those countries will be compelled to build massive military forces, and the less we will need massive military forces.  The more interconnected we become, and the more we learn to listen and understand different cultures and they learn to listen to and understand us, the less likely another Hitler or Saddam Hussein will be able to gain even a toe-hold on a country, much less build a coalition bent on world domination.

It's about seeing a future where Hitlers and Saddams and terrorists in general are treated as the criminals that they are, and brought to justice in a way that lessens the chance for war rather than ensuing that the seeds of the next war are planted in the current war, nourished with the blood of the dead.

Sophia

Sophia’s right hand grips my thumb as she sleeps in the crook of my left arm, my right hand resting on the rise and fall of her tiny chest.  Her left hand rests atop my left hand lying on her leg.  Her hand smooth and fair, mine weathered and brown.  

It’s early morning and her mom has fed her; my job is to rock her back to sleep, a job I relish, and one that I’ve already accomplished but still I rock, listening to her breathing, less labored now than it has been.

Sophia is my granddaughter, daughter to my son Erik and his wife Solana, living in New York City, and I have not seen nearly enough of this fresh life of five months.  I think I might have frightened her some at first, appearing in three dimensions rather than the two-dimensional head and shoulders of Skype grampa.

When first I arrived it was to Brooklyn Hospital Center, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, and Sophia still had three monitors taped to her chest, an IV tap stuck in her foot, but she was on the mend and smiling.  Lot of hardware on a 15-pound baby.

Her parents had made the first of the many vigils they will make raising a child, and though they were happy to be leaving the hospital, their eyes showed the fatigue and strain from too many days and nights of little sleep in uncharted territory.

Sophia had caught RVS, a common flue-like virus, of which I had never heard.  Seems most kids get it one time or another, and unless the child is very young, it’s generally not serious.  Sophia is very young, and it became serious quickly, constricting her bronchial tubes, filling her lungs with phlegm, hence the trip to Brooklyn Hospital ICU.

So, I’m rocking Sophia as morning comes to Brooklyn, an ancient rhythm, and I could lay her down, but I don’t. 

I find the rise and fall of her breathing, adjusting the rocker to half of that rapid, private beat.  I have been Grampa G only too recently to give her up easily to her bed.

Like all those generations before me, I look again at the commonplace miracle of a granddaughter, and it is too much to consider without tears, and they brim over my eyes.  Neither joy, nor sadness, just tears being present to this moment, rare and common, one and the same the world over.

And that is what gives me hope, despite the toxicity of the news, the rancor of those who wrangle at the various tops of the various businesses, and countries and congresses.  There must be something in the air up there, some drug that inflates the ego and erases the memory.

Rocking Sophia I am connected to a rhythm universal and timeless and I wonder at our ability to forget that. 

I understand parents and the busyness of being parent and making a living and being caught up in the rush of that.  But now more than ever we are interconnected with the world and should be beginning to see that all the maps with the lines and divisions and boundaries are just so much foolishness.

I am a grandfather to Sophia no different than those grandfathers to granddaughters in Belize, or Pakistan, or Argentina.  What we teach them is what matters and the more we teach them to look at what is common to us all, the more the world will begin to look like a place I would like for Sophia and her grandchildren.

Rocking Sophia, I thought about that some.

Mostly though, I rocked and dozed, and watched her sleep.

dying

Dr. Eben Alexander wrote “Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife” as a skeptic converted to belief after a near-death experience.   He has a unique perspective as a scientist, a student of the scientific method and practical experience, a man who spent hours probing into what he thought made people who they were.

            Before dropping into a coma induced by bacteria eating away at his cerebellum, his faith was firmly rooted in science and any thought or discussion outside the narrow limits of science were dismissed out of hand as useless chatter.  Now he sees his old self mirrored in his colleagues as he spreads his new gospel.

            It’s a good read, and revealing in the myopia it uncovers, myopia seen as truth by even the most brilliant of minds.  His focus on his truth was as absolute as any sectarian believer.  He was so blinded to any possibilities outside of his own truth that he wouldn’t even consider exploring the literature extent to those possibilities until he experienced it for himself. 

            No easy lesson, that.

            And he comes away from his experience with the knowledge that we are all inter-connected and that what is really important in living is, well…love. 

            It’s not a new message, but well stated and perhaps more accessible to a specific audience.

            I didn’t need to read the book to know that truth.  I was lucky enough to grow up in a home where that lesson was lived.  And it had nothing to do with religion.  It had to do with how my parents treated others and each other.  That’s the lesson that seeped into my own soul early on, the lesson I see reflected in my brother and sisters.  It’s what I see in Tracy and what I try to pass on to my own children.

            It wasn’t in the fire and damnation preaching or the schisms or –isms.  It was in being present to the misfortune of others, in service to community, in taking a loaf of fresh-baked bread to a neighbor.  Is that over-simplified?  Yes it is.  Does it need to become more complicated than that?  No it does not.  At the core most religions strive for that basic truth and that is where they do good in the world.

            Dr. Alexander’s descriptions of his experience in the afterlife are exuberant, and effusive and ultimately incoherent, as anyone who has struggled with the limits of language would understand.  But his explorations into the confluence of physics and philosophic thought are fascinating, the world of sub-atomic particles where particles really aren’t particles at all.  A world of energy alone, where there is order but not yet the language necessary to describe it.

            And it was a place of incredible beauty, instant acquisition of knowledge, unconditional love, a place he really did not want to leave.

            Which got me to thinking about dying, and faith and living.

            …and why we bother going on living.

            Perhaps the extremist suicide bombers have it right…?

            Things can get a little rough around the edges down here… cancer, guns, wars, politicians…why bother?

            But I really do like living.  Walking the beach of a warm day, spending time with my children, my granddaughter, with Tracy, writing, just sitting and smoking a cigar (which may help getting me “there” sooner anyhow, so maybe it doesn’t count).  I can’t really sort that one out, but it did bring to mind the ongoing discussion about “assisted suicide.” 

            As of now, assisted suicide is legal in three states; Oregon, Montana and Washington.  (Interestingly enough, all up in the frozen Northwest.  Perhaps the long freezing winters add some clarity to the idea of death with dignity…).

            But if Dr. Alexander’s experience has any validity at all, why would there even be a question of helping some cancer-riddled pain-racked patient shuffle off this mortal coil?

            And most religions teach that what is to come beats the hell out of what is.  Which is probably why churches had to come up with the idea of hell, and the admonition that if a person chooses to check out early rather than further endure a life of torment and pain, they would end up in the aforementioned hell, rather than paradise…which prohibition keeps church members present and tithing.  Or why stick around?

            And the admonition becomes further codified into secular law.

            Hence the laws against even physician assisted suicide.

            Hospital administrators want to keep a body on life support as long as possible of course. At tens of thousands of dollars a day in intensive care units, there is no practical reason to pull the plug on the stream of money coming in.  That was the experience of my good and close friend when her step-father was put on life support when she happened to be out of the room, despite a living will requesting no extraordinary measures be used to prolong his life, a copy of which was at the bedside, at the nurses’ station and filed with his attorney.  His body kept pulling in money for the hospital for another week until she herself forced the decision to cease and desist. 

            I know I have no desire to enrich the current system.

 

            Mostly questions, no answers, but food for thought.

Generations

            It’s only as we age that we comprehend that the only constant is change.  Yet as we age it becomes increasingly difficult to keep up with that change.  And as we struggle with keeping up, we turn increasingly to the comfort of the past we know.  The danger is in allowing that drift into nostalgia cloud both our understanding of what was and our ability to see the possibilities in the future.

            Our bodies become less flexible, so too our thinking.

            We become the elders, pondering and pontificating, some slowly realizing the opportunities we had, the mess we made, and at once glad to hand off the weight of the present to the next in line while distrusting their ability to rise to the occasion.

            The truth is the young have always had to clean up the mess left by their elders.  And with enthusiasm and electric brains sparking with life and energy they embrace the mess and wrestle it into future.

            And just about the time that next exuberant generation realizes that they are making another mess, their own babies are becoming children, becoming young adults, questioning the very life and style they are being handed by those struggling with each day’s sunrise wrested from sleepless nights.

            It is as it is.

            Our parent's generation was handed a growing, formidable Great White Fleet USA, a country building railroads and empires, conquering the Western Frontier, planting the Great American Desert into rolling fields of wheat and corn, giving birth to aviation and the automobile and the right of women to vote... and given the Great Depression, the Teapot Dome scandal and Tammany Hall, bank foreclosures, the Dust Bowl thirties, the abysmal Treaty of Versailles leading inexorably to the next great war.

            They took on those challenges and built up out of the Dust Bowl a new generation of farmers and families and factories, took on Hitler’s armies and sent them to hell, built an interstate highway system and put one or two or three cars in every new garage, strengthened unions, gave birth to a social security program … and gave our generation the quagmire of Vietnam, Chicago politics, the atomic bomb, a deeply segregated South, factories pouring pollutants into rivers on fire, strip malls and concrete and Wal-Mart and McDonalds, and billboards blocking the beauty of the very country we love.

            Our generation took that on, exposing the folly of the Vietnam War, gained more equality for women, fought for civil rights across race, cleaned up polluted rivers and wilderness, embraced trees and cultures across borders, built the Internet and PCs and cell phones… and set the Mideast on fire, invaded Iraq, build a world infected with terrorism and fear, destroyed a public education system, dug and drilled for oil in any country, province or wilderness we could bully, buy or steal, saddled the next generation with incredible debt and thousands of tons of toxic nuclear waste…

            Despite the best of plastic surgery, we age.  Our eyes, despite the promise of medical priests, dim.  We came up with solutions to vexing problems, a legacy of our parents, and theirs, and theirs, and we leave vexing problems behind.

            Our children are justified in shaking their collective heads at our follies while all the same benefiting from our strength and resourcefulness.  They will understand that, as time moves and they too stand at the edge of now, their feet incased in the weight of their past, their bodies bowed as the future recedes from their grasp.

            All that to say that much of the bloviating about how bad things are is much the same as bloviating has always been.  I am encouraged and heartened by this new generation of problem solvers, amazed by their intelligence and stamina, amused by their wit.  I have no idea how they will take on the mess we made.

            But I am convinced that they will.