WE NEED TO TALK

It started in college.  I was news editor for our newspaper one year, and then moved to writing editorials and a column.  I wrote during my working life, but it was mostly business related.  I like to talk about the contemporary.  Maybe that’s it, I want to talk about things, not just write about them.  My list grows every day.

Hemingway said he tried to write “one true sentence,” and then the rest would follow.  He advised us not to stop writing until we knew what was going to happen next.  Easy for him to say, he was writing fiction.  (I’ve never written fiction.)  Profundity is different and writing a true sentence isn’t easy.  Moreover, I don’t know what’s going to happen next.

Recently, a commentator on Charlie Rose pointed out that people don’t talk much anymore; you know, have serious conversations.  Maybe we never did.  I learned never to discuss religion, sex, or politics in polite company.  I’m not sure that’s a good thing.  It doesn’t leave much.

I bring it on myself you know.  Most people only watch TV news programs with which they agree.  Some don’t watch any.  I try to listen to both points of view, Fox News and MSNBC for example or blogs of the same ilk, Red State and Huffpost and those in between.  Television reduces the ten-second sound bite to an art form.  The PBS News Hour seems to take too long for most people, an hour, with both sides of an issue having a dialogue.  Talk radio spews ad homonyms, which many people believe.

I’m guilty too.  More and more I want to hang out with those who agree with me.  I avoid discussing politics with most people for fear of offending them, or they me.  So much goes unsaid.  Part of the mess in Washington, I think, is that we don’t discuss the important issues. We talk around them, at best.

Health care is an example.  One reason for the national dysfunction around the issue is that we don’t discuss healthcare as much as we discuss how to pay for it.  Perhaps my left coast assessment is different from the heartland, but as a nation, I don’t think we have discussed what we mean by quality health care, or if everyone should have it.  What we do know is that Americans pay more for health care per person than any industrialized nation, and it has poorer outcomes by almost any measure.  Our infant mortality rate is fifth highest in the industrialized world.  Let’s talk about that before we talk about insurance.

Sound bites aren't discussion and are usually based on something less than factual.  What does science say about global warming?  Do humans contribute to it or not?  How many middle class jobs were shipped overseas in the last ten years, compared to how many jobs were replaced by robots?  Should our education system ensure our ability to compete in the world or should each of the nearly 14,000 school districts determine its own curriculum?  Are we satisfied that the U.S. ranks 14^th in reading, 25^th in math and 17^th in science on the worldwide high school test?  Should undocumented immigrants be deported or should we find a way to assimilate them over time?  Should we have a litmus test for judges and whose would it be?  How do we reduce gun violence within the confines of the Second Amendment?  Can we ensure job parity and pay equity for all races and genders?  How can we reduce the number of police killed in the line of duty and those killed by police?  Whew!  The list keeps growing!

Maybe we can ease into it.  Let’s start at the dinner table.  By sixth grade, at least, kids are ready for discussions about serious issues.  What do they think about current events?  By the time kids are in high school, they should be able to discuss comparative religions, international affairs, and legislative strategies.  Right?

Can we start at the coffee shop?  This latte is made from Fair Trade coffee beans.  Why is that important, Bob?  What do you think about sustainable coffee farming practices, Mary?  OK, I'm not putting those on my list!

In 2017, our nation is at a crossroad.  The extreme left wing and extreme right wing of our two major parties sow discontent and money across the land.  They “primary” those who vote against their views.  Both seem to hate moderates.  Our governance is in a stalemate.  People don’t talk to each other about important stuff.  Hate speech is more common than dialogue.  Politicians use talking points to talk at their constituents, not with them.  Constituents yell at congressional town halls.

If we used a fact-based approach, without sound bites and vitriol, we might develop a consensus about the issues facing our country.  We might reduce the hatred and extreme partisanship that is tearing us apart. 

Maybe my list will get shorter.

We really need to talk!

Everybody Has At Least One ....

At the age of thirteen, I knew one thing for sure; I knew you couldn’t add or multiply numbers and letters.  It didn’t make sense, and I told him so!  My all-boys small elementary school, staffed by nuns from Canada, taught basic arithmetic.  I hadn’t heard of algebra.  It was my first class on my first day in high school.  I sat in the front row, had a male teacher and there were girls in the room too.  What could go wrong?   Then he told me, “one half-hour detention after school for the rest of the week.” 

At the end of the day, I reported as ordered.  George Carnie was a big, driven, and sometimes grouchy man who didn’t suffer fools, but he spent the entire half-hour that day and the rest of the week, teaching me about algebra and he helped me understand that 2xN=4 really does make sense.  There were many other sessions throughout the year.  Math wasn’t my thing, still isn’t.  He taught me how to write formulas for an Excel spreadsheet fifty years before it was invented.  I still remember that first day, to this day.  I never told anyone Mr. Carnie really was a teddy bear.  

My daughter left private industry eleven years ago to become a high school math teacher (Mr. Carnie would appreciate the irony).  She just accepted a job with another school district.  When she posted about her last day at YVHS, her page lit up with messages from students and fellow teachers thanking her for her contributions, the help she gave others, and the impact she had on them.  It got me thinking about great teachers.  Everybody has at least one.

Professor Massey at the University of Colorado at Boulder wrote a book titled You Are What You Were When.  His theory was that students learn values differently at different stages of life.  Students in middle and high school, especially, need great teachers, not just to dispense facts, figures and dates, but also to teach and model values, build character, create passion for life-long learning, and to set people on course to a life well lived.  My high school had a one-hundred-ten year tradition of strong academics taught by really good teachers.  A few stood out from the good, the great ones.

Bob Dickson’s Plane Geometry class covered the usual angles, theorems, postulates, and proofs.  Sprinkled in all that math were lessons about how to think, how to approach a problem, and how to prove a point.  He taught us strategies for life. 

From her wheel chair, Dorothy Clark, our Senior English teacher, wasn’t confined by the classical curriculum.  The usual senior English subjects; Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, Greek and Roman Mythology, Shakespeare, English Literature, and Grammar were just her clay.  She fostered wondering about things, doing research, constructing good sentences, and being articulate.  We all knew that if we remembered half of what she taught, we would be the better for it.  She was as good as they get. 

Francis X Ryan, (“the X stands for X”) knew every student by name, knew what kept them going, and always had sage advice, usually hidden in humor, slight sarcasm, or some quote from obscure writers.  At his young age, he was the soul of the faculty, the epitome of the great teacher even if you never took a class from him.  You could hear him coming down the hall between classes, louder voice when needed, in a rumpled coat and tie askew.  We dedicated our yearbook to him!

My dad was an electrician, and I helped him wire houses, but I still wonder if atoms really do march through copper wire to illuminate bulbs.  Science isn’t my thing either.  But, Bill Stowe’s passion for Physics and Chemistry, two courses required for college prep, made them captivating for those who preferred history and Latin.  He was a young man when he taught us, but no one will forget his skill, passion, and caring.  He built a love of science and learning for a couple of generations of northeastern Vermonters.  The quad, in front the newer buildings on campus, is named Stowe Green.

Two teachers had a passion for America’s experiment in self-government and its history that forms my beliefs and actions today.  George Plummer brought the creation of the country and its struggles to life for all of us.  He believed in Locke’s propensity for self-rule, Jefferson’s declarations of freedom, and Hamilton and Madison’s arguments for a federalist system.  Cedrick Pierce Jr’s Problems in American Democracy course nurtured inquisitive minds that wanted to know more about how our nation works, how people think, why they believe what they believe, why they vote the way they do.  These two men were the reason I became a Social Studies teacher.  I was good at it, not great.  Other career opportunities lured me away.

These great teachers influence me today as much as they did back then.  Would I remember my first day in high school if not for a great teacher?  My working life would have been different if not for the love of strategy and problem solving introduced by my geometry teacher.  Would I love research and the written word as much if not for Miss Clark?  Would I be the political junkie I am if not for Cedrick Pierce Jr. or a history buff if not for George Plummer?  I had some good teachers in college too, but those that formed me were my great teachers in high school. 

Who were your great teachers?  Everybody has at least one!   

That’s where I was when!

You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught!

“You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear.  You’ve got to be taught from year to year.  It’s got to be drummed in you dear little ears…  You’ve got to be taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made, and people whose skin is a diff’rent shade…You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late…To hate all the people your relatives hate.  You’ve got to be carefully taught!” 

Rogers & Hammerstein – South Pacific[i]                 

It was 1932, deep into the Great Depression: high unemployment, lost savings, long bread lines and no hope.  Franklin Roosevelt told us “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  His inaugural speech raised the nation’s spirits.  Once again, in our short national history, the nation is fearful.  I’ve struggled for weeks to put thoughts to paper about this fear and hate. After too many revisions, I still hadn’t nailed it.  Was I the only one paranoid about the state of our country?  Was I sounding like, well, an old curmudgeon convinced that life was better when…? 

The answer was yes!  Then I awoke one morning to headlines that a man had shot members of Congress, their staff, and Capital Police, because they were Republicans.  There is a high level of fear across the land, much too much hate, and I liked it better before.  I also liked it better when we had a president who could raise our nation’s spirits. 

  

At the Democratic Party baseball practice, they stopped playing and circled together to offer a prayer.  A picture of them praying, posted on line, drew a steady stream of hateful comments because they were Democrats and because they prayed.  Former Congresswoman Gifford, herself shot in the head for being a Democrat, offered empathy, and consolation to the members of Congress.  Her Facebook page lit up with hate messages, calling for her to be shot too, and calling her names that you can’t print.  Even in the midst of tragedy, the air is toxic.  Who taught us to hate and fear like this?  [ii]

 A recent national survey[iii] showed that too many Americans are afraid.  They fear a corrupt government, one that will restrict firearms, and they fear losing health care.  They fear unemployment, and the inability to get jobs in small town mid-America because of plant closings and lack of technical skills.  They fear terrorist attacks, biological warfare, another world war, or a pandemic.  When a third of the nation or more is afraid about the basics of life, we have a problem.  Who teaches us to be afraid?

Fears are incubators of hate.  Evil is relatively rare, ignorance is epidemic.  We see this so often that it’s the new normal.  People all over the country marched to protest the election of a duly elected President to demand an end to Sharia Law in this country even though we don’t have it, and White Supremacists and neo-Nazis demanding a White America.  Our president tweets everyday to tell us whom to fear and whom to hate. [iv] Science is true even if you don’t believe it.  Yet the chattering class has demonized the idea of climate change.  Schoolyard bullying is on the rise, based on perceived permission granted by our nation’s leaders.[v]  Members of Congress run attack ads against each other to try to force favorable votes.  The level of incivility in the nation is a rancid stew of fear and hate that is taking the country down.  It needs to change, but it won’t, until those responsible admit complicity.

MSNBC and Fox News came on the air in 1996, each with an agenda.  MSNBC advocated for ultra-liberal causes and Fox News for ultra-conservative causes; neither is “fair and balanced” or pretends to be.  Bill O’Reilly was the top cable show for years with an obvious right-wing agenda.  Now Rachel Maddow, an ultra-liberal holds the honor.  Jerry Springer and Maury Povich display hate and low-life on their daily shows.  Talk-radio, conservative and liberal hosts alike, seem to have license to lie and fulminate against their opponents.  Rush Limbaugh’s daily audience of 13 million people believe him and end up afraid and hating everyone who disagrees with him and them.  Listen once or twice to understand.  Goebbles once said, “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”   

SCOTUS ruled that Citizens United could raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to buy candidates.  Money is the mother’s milk of politics, but it’s getting ridiculous.  Maybe Members of Congress should wear jackets with their sponsor’s logos sewn on them like racecar drivers.  These huge sums skew the political elections and give weight to the wishes of the top 1% of the population who own nearly 90% of the wealth.  Candidates spent nearly four and half million dollars on the Congressional race in my district last year, most from outside the district.[vi]  Both parties operate call centers near the Capital where members of Congress spend up to three hours each day dialing for dollars.[vii]  That is more time than they spend in session each day.  What can we do about the situation?  How do we stop carefully teaching each other to hate and fear? 

The Congressional baseball game saw Speaker Ryan and Minority Leader Pelosi making nice to each other.  They said they are Americans first and Democrat or Republican second.  They can set an example by agreeing to work together for the benefit of the nation.  The party in the minority has to be the “Loyal Opposition, “not the party of obstruction.  The majority party can’t be the party of obstruction either.[viii]  Sometimes you have to compromise even when you know you are right.[ix]  Radio talk show hosts and cable TV agenda shows need to start being civil and adult in their behavior and discourse.  Each of us should consider calling out our friends when they say unkind things and ask them to restate their opinion in a nice way.  What if we and I’m guilty too, didn’t have phones and tablets at the dinner table?  What if families sat down to dinner two or three times a week?  Is competitive soccer more important than carefully teaching the family?  In the end, I think it’s we parents who cultivate fear and hate or allow it to exist.  Our actions speak volumes: whom we watch on TV, whom we listen to on the radio, and whom we elect as representatives.  It’s where we take the kids for entertainment, what movies we watch, and the music to which we listen.  It’s always been that way.  You’ve got to be carefully taught!

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[i] Rogers and Hammerstein, South Pacific 1948

[ii] Facebook,  June 2017

[iii] The Chapman University Survey of American Fears Wave 3, 2016

[iv] Trump Attacks Media for Its ‘Agenda of Hate,’ Daily Beast May 2017

[v] The Kids Are Alt-Right, BuzzFeed News, May 2017

[vi] California’s 7^th Congressional District election, 2016, Ballotpedia 2017

[vii] Are members of Congress becoming telemarketers?  Sixty Minutes 2014

[viii] U.S. Senate, “The Ev and Charlie Show” January 1961

[ix] Charlie Rose Show, June2017

Make Your Bed First Thing Every Morning!

Commencements have an interesting tradition.  College Presidents ask a successful person to give an address, for which they receive an honorary doctorate degree.  The speech contains meaningful bromides to reassure parents that their kids are smart, above average, and will provide a good return on their investment.  I can’t remember who spoke at my commencement or what he said.  It got me to thinking.  Is there a reasonable return on a college’s investment in commencement speakers? 

By happenstance, I watched Sheryl Sandburg^’s 2017 address at Virginia Tech.  It was light hearted, warned the students that they would have successes and failures and those needed to be lived to the fullest.  She asked the graduates a simple question: “What will you be thankful for?”  Thanks to You Tube and lots of retirement time, I watched several more commencement addresses, fifteen or twenty of them

The President of Harvard introduced Bill Gates, listing his accomplishments and how he changed the world.  He jokingly asked how much more he could have accomplished had he stayed two more years and finished his degree.  Bill talked about how the students would face the world, succeed sometimes, and fail sometimes; but if they had resilience and persevered, they would be successful.

Admiral William McRaven, head of the Navy Seals, spoke to the graduates at the University of Texas a few years ago.  Seal training is rigorous beyond belief, designed to weed out all but the best; those who persevere.  He listed ten lessons he learned while becoming a Seal.  A first step to success was that you should make you bed first thing each morning.  It gets the day started with an accomplishment that helps you persevere. And, at the end of a day of near failures or successes, you can collapse into a nice clean, comfortable bed. 

Matt Damon told MIT graduates that they needed to turn toward the problems they see in the world and do something about them.  He works at bringing clean water to isolated communities in Africa.  Success comes when he is resilient and perseveres.

Robert DeNero faced the graduates of NYU TISH School of the Arts congratulated the students, and then told them they were screwed.  They chose a profession in which failure happens daily: auditions with no callback, galleries that don’t accept their paintings, movies that can’t find backers, and scripts nobody wants to use.  Only those with the resiliency to persevere will be successful.  His is among the “ten best” commencement speeches listed on the web, along with President Obama, Randy Prause, J. R. Rawlings and others.  

David McCoullough, Jr., famously told Wellesley High School graduates they weren’t special, they were among a group of 300,000 other seniors across the country graduating that month, that there was no center of the universe, so they couldn’t be it.  He told them they were among millions who will strive for success and that if they persevere and follow their dream they will make it.  All the speakers, in one way or another, say the same thing: life is tough but you have to dream, you are blessed, you may fail, but if you persevere, if you are resilient, you can succeed.  Hang in there.  Just do it!

 What does success look like?  When you search for the meaning of success, few people equate it to the dictionary definition: money and power.  Arianna Huffington says it has to do with well being, wisdom, wonder, and giving.  Maya Angelou spoke of liking what you do and how you do it.  Churchill suggested that to be successful you had to go from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.  Robert Reich, in his 2014 Last Lecture at U.C Berkeley, talked about how success and failure are not the issue, but resilience is.  Success comes to those who can take failure after failure, continue the quest, and turn it into a positive. 

I consulted with two groups of CEO’s, founders and presidents, of their own companies.  All were very successful business people with affluent lifestyles.  At one meeting, I asked them to list ten things they wanted to do before they died; a bucket list.  All wanted to spend more time with their family, travel the world, sit on nonprofit boards, and more.  Not one of them listed anything to do with business, with power, or with money.  Those were simply a means to an end, a way to measure achievement in their chosen field.  Money and power didn’t define success for those company presidents. 

The question remains – what will be our contribution, for what will we be thankful, for what will we be remembered, will we be resilient, will we persevere.  Teachers influence thousands of people over a career.  Researchers find cures for disease and engineers build great buildings designed by great architects.  Social workers help millions of people get through the day.  Pastors counsel troubled parishioners.  Bill Gates transformed the world with Microsoft.  Steve Jobs changed the world again with the Iphone.  Martin Luther King brought a nation a new idea of humanity.  President Obama proved that government could be a help rather a hindrance.  Millions of people go about their business every day contributing to their world in small and large ways.  They are all successful.  They raise families, they master their trade or craft, write books, volunteer, nurse the sick, entertain others, provide needed goods and services, manage governments, or work for companies that improve lives.  Other millions, however, work only for the money and the power they can accumulate, but don’t contribute.  For what will they be thankful, what will be their legacy?  Perhaps Nelson Mandela said it best: “the greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall.”

Are commencement speakers worth the investment?  I doubt it!  But, I’m a traditionalist.  What would commencement be without a speaker?

By the way, I found a copy of my commencement program.  The speaker was Harry L. Bain.  I don’t remember what he said, but I’ll bet he told us we needed to be resilient and persevere!  And it all starts with making your bed first thing in the morning!