Does Right Matter?

It is hard not to write about the impeachment of Donald John Trump, President of the United States. It is one of the most historical events in the history of the republic. Yet, too many are not listening, too many are divided on the issue and too many don’t care. However, we must care!

I have watched the first half of the Senate trial for hours. I keep switching the TV from CNN to Fox News to MSNBC and back to CSPAN. I’m a political junkie, always have been. I taught high-school Civics back when they did that, so the addiction is long, deep, and wide. We saw and heard the House Managers’ presentation and we must gird ourselves for the President's defense. Each side gets 24 hours to make their case.

There isn’t any dispute of the facts of the case, yet. The House Managers presented a marvelous civics lesson on the constitution’s impeachment clause, the Framers’ arguments for and against it, the meaning and power of its inclusion, and the actions that rise to its use. Law School classes on Constitutional Law will, for generations, read and study the presentation of the case; how it was formatted, how each action that constituted an infraction of our governing document was illustrated, and how the actions of the President were considered impeachable. No matter if you are '
Republican, Democrat or Independent, if you agree or not, Representative Schiff’s summation of the second day, was a tour-de-force. And the Senate listened.

At the end of the trial, after both sides present their case, after senators submit their questions, and perhaps after witnesses testify, the 100 senators will cast their vote, which will decide if a duly elected President of the United States should be removed from office for high crimes and misdemeanors.

Each Senator weighs the evidence; did wrongdoing occur. Each Senator will consider the reaction of their constituents; for many, a “wrong” vote could mean the loss of the next election. Each Senator will consider his or her duty to vote along party lines; for many that could mean the loss of committee assignments or lack of campaign funding. Each Senator will consider if the actions of the President rise to the level of removal from office; many don’t but for others there is no question. Each Senator will decide between right and wrong, between truth and lies. Each Senator will decide, for generations to come, the relationship between the Congress and the Executive branch of government. It is not an easy vote.

Franklin, famously, told us we have “A republic if you can keep it.” Can we? Alexander Hamilton wrote in Article 65 of the Federalist Papers that impeachment is for “those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.” It is interesting that one must not have broken some law to be impeached.

Adam Schiff, who led the group of House Managers making the case for removing the President from office summarized the second day of presentations in what some called “a closing statement for the ages.” Even those who disagreed with him were rapt. He proffered that right matters. “If right doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter how good the Constitution is. It doesn’t matter how brilliant the Framers were. It doesn’t matter how good or bad our advocacy in this trial is. Doesn’t matter how well written the oath of impartiality is. If right doesn’t matter, we are lost. If the truth doesn’t matter we are lost!”

Does right matter? Yes, it does. Does truth matter? Yes, it does.

There are other arguments and other facts to consider. The President’s team now gets to defend him.

Democracy isn’t easy!

Truth!

It’s not simple and it’s not easy. Truth is hard to get your hand around, yet, we must. It seems harder today than decades before. Some want to confuse us with misdirected facts, visuals that seem real but are photo-shopped. We have reached a point in public discourse where many accept leaders that lie blatantly, repeatedly, and with disregard for its effects.

Truth can be a noun, an adverb, an adjective, or a verb. Rhetoricians can worry about the distinctions. The public wants to assume a strong correlation between truth and reality when our leaders speak. We accept scientific facts as truth; light and heavy objects fall at the same speed in a vacuum, electricity is a charge moving through a wire, water flows downhill, and hot air rises. In the past, we trusted the word of our governmental leaders, most of them at least. We accepted the word of our teachers because they were better educated than most of us, at least when we were young. It’s not that easy anymore.

The powerful nations use the power of social media to create confusion about our democratic system, to lie to us about those they don’t like, and to influence our electoral processes. They did it in our last two elections and they did it this week during elections in Taiwan. We know this because we have the facts to prove it. Yet many don’t care.

A third to nearly half of the American population, including members of Congress, refuse to believe that Russia interfered in our elections or that they are doing it again as we prepare for the 2020 election. The Congress, even with the urging of the Department of Homeland Security refuses to pass laws or allocate money sufficient to secure our electoral databases and systems. Even with the overwhelming evidence that electric companies are shutting down fossil fuel generating plants because of high costs, the government continues to support the coal mining industry instead of alternative sources of energy. The cable news channels sell their viewpoint on current events rather than sticking to facts. Government spokespersons call lies alternative facts.

At the highest levels of government, it seems acceptable to lie several times a day to millions of followers. Our leaders lie not only to their own citizens, but also to the leaders of the rest of the world, and god knows who else. Does it even matter anymore?

I guess it depends on who you ask. We assassinated a military leader of Iran last week, who by all accounts deserved what he got. Our leaders, however, could not come to us with one voice and tell us why we killed the despotic general when we did. On Face The Nation, yesterday, Secretary of Defense Esper stated that he had not seen any credible intelligence that indicated that the Iranians were about to blow up four of our embassies. He stated that Trump merely said he “believed” that there “probably could have been” attacks planned. What was the urgency? Does it even matter? Yes! If the government is not telling us the truth, it matters!

Foreign leaders don’t trust our government anymore because of the lies that have come from our leaders. It matters. The fourth estate is labeled as fake news. The media, whose job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, all the while getting to the truth, is called the enemy of the state. Those are words that Hitler and Stalin used on their way to creating dictatorships.

Presidents who lie to the public are not the creation of the current times. Nixon lied to the American people about the Watergate break-in and tried to cover it up. It resulted in his resignation. Lyndon Johnson lied about our involvement in the Vietnamese war. He did not seek reelection. Senator Gary Hart dared the press to find him committing adultery. They did. He, a leading presidential candidate, dropped out of the race and changed forever the relationship between the press and the private lives of politicians. John Kennedy lied about his serious health condition and his dalliances with movie stars and other women of note. He died before the truth became public. However, there is something different going on today. Too many people are buying the lies, drinking the Kool-Aid!

The bromides tell us that the truth will set us free. Not today! Another says that if you tell the truth you won’t have to remember what you said. Nobody cares! Another tells us that in the end truth will prevail. People ignore it for a better story! It is too simple to blame it on social media. Not enough bother to check the daily news anyway! It is too simple to blame it on 24/7/365 news updates. Too many cable TV and talk-radio shows spew lies and hatred, not the truth. It is too simple to blame it on low attendance at weekly religious services. That phenomenon started in the ‘60s. It is not a simple problem but it needs fixing.

The American experiment relies on the populace’s strong belief in our republican democracy. It requires a belief that our leaders, at all levels, will be square with us, that what they say can be trusted. The system can tolerate some misspeak because of a lack of data or understanding. It can tolerate some exaggeration to make a point, up to a point. It cannot, however, sustain for long, barrages of daily lies from our leadership cadre or the lies of other nations trying to influence our thinking and blending reality with myth.

We believe in free speech, strongly. People can say nearly anything they want, true or false, mean or nice, hate-filled or commending. That doesn’t mean that they should lie, convolute the facts, brag about accomplishments not attained, or threaten non-believers.

It’s not a simple problem, but it starts with us telling the truth and then demanding that our leaders tell the truth when they speak to us or tweet to us. It’s a simple start, but most are.

The Propensity Model!

I don’t know how to code!!! There, I said it, Step 1. There must be a Twelve-Step program for people like me; “Non-coders Anonymous?” The last time I had anything to do with code I was working on my Boy Scout First Class badge. We had to learn to send Morse code with a key and with two flags. A lot has changed since then.

I read an article recently that asked a simple question: what is the most important thing we should worry about related to the future of our country. Assuming that we do a good job reducing greenhouse gases and we are still here in ten years, it suggested that we should concentrate on AI because it will change how we live, work and think.

AI (Artificial Intelligence), in the simple terms I can understand, is a set of algorithms that allow machines to think and learn in much the same way humans think and learn. A friend defines artificial intelligence as “when the computer disobeys the programmer.” At this point, I’m a bit confused because …  

If I can’t code, imagine how trying to understand the world of AI makes me feel. Anything beyond point-and-click is confusing. Most of us just need to be able to download an app that will help us get through our day, like counting how many steps we took this week compared to last week. The more I read about AI, however, the more I’m intrigued by its goodness and suspicious of its ability to control everything important. I can’t define the future, but I will know it when I see it.[i] I’m convinced that it involves AI for many years before it too is replaced.

Computers changed the world in a few years and even more quickly with the universal introduction of Windows for desktops and then laptops. Today, nearly all of us use computers on a daily basis. Some of us call them telephones, but they really are just platforms for apps: games, maps, search, and yes, a phone. Somebody decides what we might find interesting and writes some code that makes the magic happen. I have all kinds of apps on my phone. I bank on my phone. I pay bills on my phone. I goggle on my phone too often, I text other people too much. I use my phone to reserve parking spaces in downtown garages or feed the parking meters and sometimes hail rideshare drivers to give me a lyft back to the parking garage. I buy plane tickets on my phone and store my boarding pass on my phone. Well, you probably do all that too, so you know what I’m getting at. Most of these things happen because of AI and 5G networks.

To do all these things, people who code use a “Propensity Model.” The sophisticated algorithms decide what needs to be learned based on the propensity of previous actions. Knowing how some people think and make decisions, I’m not sure about the basic concept of the Propensity Model. Those of you who really understand the technology of all this can stop laughing at this point

AI already powers everyday activities, such as the map on your phone that shows a red line where traffic is slow and for how long. That line is produced by some magic machine that measures the speed with which phones are moving down the highway and sending that information to other magic boxes that post the information on electronic signs along the highway. Grocery stores can eliminate checkout lines because once you sync your phone to a shopping cart the items that you put in the cart are added up and charged to your credit card when you exit the building. I’m not sure how well that operates at the outdoor farmers market. We use Clipper Cards for rail and subway use. Airline tickets and boarding passes go directly to your phone – no more paper. Bridge tolls and some HOV lanes use pictures of your license plate to adjust your Fas Trak or E-ZPass account or fine you if you aren’t in the system. We experience these things on a regular basis and don’t think much about them, but they wouldn’t happen but for AI. The new 5G networks allow all of this computing to happen 100 times faster than the 4G system most of us still use.

A recent article pointed out that within three years US manufacturing workers with college degrees will outnumber those without one.[ii] That has serious implications for workers without a college degree and for those with low-skill levels. McDonald’s is experimenting with AI-powered kiosks for ordering and with robots that will cook your happy meal. However, those with degrees or even advanced degrees aren’t exempt from the effects of AI. Lawyers, for example, are threatened by AI’s ability to do better research and write better briefs than humans. Doctors should be nervous about AI’s ability to do robotic surgeries from an office across the country. Smart walls are causing an evolution in teaching methods to ripple slowly across the country and the profession. Innovation is changing the world of work as well as making it more convenient to get through life.

The Brookings Institute points out that the concentration of innovation in only a few areas of the country leaves the heartland with a dearth of new opportunities. Ninety percent of the nation’s innovation-sector economic growth in the last few years is concentrated in only five metropolitan areas: Boston, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, and Seattle.[iii] As a result, their share of the innovation employment sits at 23%. The bottom 90% of metro areas (343) lost one-third of the innovation jobs in the last 12 years. That economic division cannot be sustained if we want equality of opportunity for all our children.

Most jobs, as we know them, will go away. We, of a certain age, who saw the high school diploma give way to the college degree or advanced trade skill certifications as the basic licenses for a good job is about to see robotics take away employment opportunities. Politico recently indicated that the slowness of the US transition to 5G has more to do with the lack of a trained workforce than with technology. Today we are short at least 20,000 skilled pole climbers who can install the needed cells.[iv] So, what to do?

The most logical place to start is in the PreK-12 school system. It may require nationwide retraining of our teachers to use the new technology. They must understand coding so they can teach it from the early grades on, be able to use AI every day in the classroom, communicate with kids using the new technology, and be comfortable with rapid change. The blackboard gave way to the greenboards, which gave way to the whiteboard. Those obsolete systems are now giving way to the whitewall, connected to the internet. If our schools don’t operate in an AI/5G modality, how will our country make the huge leap that we need to make to catch up with other countries of the world? It may have taken nearly 120 years to replace the typewriter with the home computer, but yesterday’s computer is already obsolete. Big changes come about when people take big steps forward with big ideas. We, as a nation need to take some big steps.

Brookings Institute suggests that the government develop a competitive program to identify a few metropolitan areas into which they would pour billions of dollars for innovative projects, business development, and scientific development. The idea is that big projects will attract even more companies to fill the supply chain. The idea is that larger metro areas would encourage people to stay in their heartland areas and attract people back from coastal cities. This is a novel idea, but a big idea. Can the country still think big? Do you remember when JFK suggested that we put a man on the moon in a decade? It galvanized the nation. Would that audacious goal be acceptable today? We know that Space is the next war zone, yet we scoff at the idea of a Space Force as a new branch of the armed services. We know that we need to get gas cars off the road and planes out of the sky, yet we debunk the idea of a system of fast trains linking major cities of the US. We don’t think big anymore.

In 1978, 80% of Chinese people lived in rural areas. Today 60% live in urban areas, where the jobs are located, where innovation takes place, where it is easier to make a good living. The migration to the cities has left the rural parts of the country poor, without innovative companies, and with a lack of jobs. China’s problems are very similar to ours. Could we learn from them? Their national government has decided that they need to create metropolitan areas in their heartland.[v] These will be large urban areas of about 120 million people, almost as large as the total population of Japan, and larger than most European countries. To make these large metro areas clean and safe, the government is investing $800 billion in the high-speed rail, so that no one will commute more than 15 minutes to work, they are moving toward autonomous electric vehicles, smart grid technology, powerful 5G networks, and big data technologies. Homes and apartments will be built with AI capabilities. Each one will contain appliances and other objects all tied together with IoT.[vi]

In 2008, China built a 70-mile demonstration line of fast-trains for their Olympic Games. Since then they have built 15,000 miles of fast-train tracks that connect the nearly 200 cities of over one million people each. The trains travel at 180- 200 miles per hour on average. Think of going from New York City to Chicago in three or four hours, think LA to Chicago in 12-13 hours. Think 35 trains a day from Paris to Nice in about 5-7 hours, think Beijing to Shanghai in 5 hours. The US does not have one mile of fast-train track. We certainly do not have the technical knowhow to build a new train system. We don’t think big anymore.[vii]

One has to wonder what the US must do to train hundreds of thousands of its youth to become facile with the burgeoning AI technology, how schools and universities must change what they teach and how they teach it. Technical schools will change how they train practical skill sets. The government must set national goals for developing and installing new technologies. We really don’t have ten or fifteen years to think about it. Our competitors are already well beyond us.

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[i] Mr. Justice Potter Stewart – Jacobellis v. Ohio, 1964 – “I may not be able to define pornography, but I know it when I see it.”

[ii] American Factories Demand White-collar Eduction for Blue-collar Work – Austen Hufford – Wall Street Journal, December 9, 2019

[iii] Atkinson, Muro and Whiton – The case for growth centers: How to spread tech innovation across the country, December 9, 2019

[iv] Politico – December 29, 2019

[v] The Rise of China’s Supercities: New Era of Urbanization – Morgan Stanley – October 10, 2019

[vi] The Internet of Things is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects,   that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.

[vii] Countries with high-speed trains: Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan.

The Occasional Rant!

I like to keep up with current affairs. I like to do modest research on current events. My high school teachers made me this way, what with required subscriptions to US News and World Report or Newsweek magazines, and their weekly quizzes about the current goings-on. It stuck. I did the same thing to my students when I taught high school Social Studies; weekly quizzes about current events. That's all to say that I think I keep up pretty well. This isn't about current events. It illustrates, however, that if one spends too much time spouting off on one subject, it's easy to miss other issues hiding in plain sight.

A friend asked me, in so many words, why I didn’t rant about the Congress sometimes, instead of just grumbling about the current administration. I gave it some thought. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I hadn't kept up on the current goings-on in Congress. Then I recognized that the Congress hasn’t done much to keep up on, nothing that would get your attention anyway. I am trying to avoid talking about the impeachment proceedings. Herein begins the harangue.

We the people send 535 plus people to the Congress: one hundred Senators and 435 voting members to House of Representatives. (There are others in Congress that represent our territories, commonwealths and the District of Columbia, but they don’t vote.) We send them to make laws, provide oversight of the Executive Branch, approve federal judges and generally do our bidding. Henry David Thoreau said, “That government is best which governs least.”[i] The resident of Walden Pond might think that the 116^th Congress is doing just fine. Some say the country is safest when Congress isn’t in session. I don’t know who the “some” are, but I tend to agree with them.

As of last month, the House had passed 400 Bills and sent them to the Senate where they languish. The Senate leadership has sent 72 bills to the President for his signature. [i]Ten of those bills involved renaming post offices and Veteran buildings. The Majority Leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell doesn't pay much attention to the bills coming from the Democratic-controlled House. Put another way, over 300 bills have been Mitch’ed.

The nation has infrastructure problems. The roads and bridges are crumbling from neglect; the electric grid is old, unmaintained, and insecure. The cost of drugs is too high, hospitals take the majority of the healthcare dollars, family-practice doctors are underpaid, and our mortality rate declines each year. School outcomes trail other developed nations, colleges are too expensive, and student debt mounts. Heavy manufacturing is down by historic levels. Technology reduces the need for low and moderately skilled labor, puts the mom-and-pop businesses out of business and rural small towns lose reasons to exist. Other countries are surpassing our ability to lead the AI revolution, and we aren’t ready to utilize G5 fully. Homelessness is on the rise, homebuilding is too slow to meet the need, and current laws limit the government’s ability to address the issues. That’s just for starters.

The first bill sent to the Senate during the 116^th Congress was HR1. It would outlaw all of the various state laws limiting the right of people to register to vote and to actually vote. It would appropriate money to help reduce the hacking of voting machines by the Russians. It also includes provisions to better control election financing and ethical practices. HR5 provided anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans. HR6 provided protection of “Dreamers,” young immigrants who came to the US illegally with their parents. There were other bills that dealt with background checks for gun purchases, lowering prescription drug prices, the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and a bill to ensure internet neutrality. That's just for starters.

Maybe I shouldn't blame the Congress, but save the wrath for the Senate. The House is doing its job. Mitch McConnell isn’t doing his. This Congress has accomplished almost nothing of substance, except the overwhelming partisan approval of 150 new judges by the Senate that will change the course of jurisprudence for the next thirty years. They don’t even take votes on many things they agree on. They seem to be afraid to tackle the serious problems of the nation, so they work at the edges rather than grappling with core issues. The drive to impeach the President doesn’t encourage members to work together, but still… The most important accomplishments of this Congress bolster the argument for term limits.

Harry Truman called the 80^th Congress the “Do-Nothing Congress,” even though they passed 906 public bills. Perhaps we ought to dub the 116^th the “Mitch Doesn't  Want To Do Anything Congress.” They’ve accomplished their goal, with another year to go. Who knows, they may have an epiphany before the next election. My friend was right. The Members of Congress are not doing what we send them there to do.

Thus ends the rant!

I feel somewhat better!

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[i] Ella Nilsen – Vox – 11/29/2019

 [ii] Henry David Thoreau – Walden – Ticksor & Fields, Boston – 1854

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A Tale of Two Countries

Is this the winter of our despair,[i] the winter of our discontent?[ii] 

I am a recovering political junkie. Social media and 24/7 cable TV are not helping. It’s a bit like the alcoholic who spends all day in a bar refusing drinks from everyone who knows his name.

I watched most of the impeachment hearings. The majority party got to call the witnesses, determine how the hearings were conducted, who could speak when and for how long. The minority party got to ask questions and fulminate about non-related conspiracy theories since they were not allowed to call witnesses or enter much evidence. I suppose that for a partisan event, it was reasonably even-handed.

The witnesses were highly respected professionals from the State Department or a national security organization. Like most people in the Foreign Service, they’re always among the best and the brightest. The one exception was a pay-to-play ambassador with no experience in foreign affairs who it turns out gave some of the most damning testimony.

The prepared statements and answers to questions were lucid, thoughtful, and in some cases emotional. The evidence they presented is undisputed. The President is accused of withholding military aid to a foreign government unless its president was willing to call for an investigation against one of Trump’s political opponents.

Bad things happened, the President and his staff admit it. So, where is the “so what?”

The minority House members appeared unwilling to accept under-oath evidence and continued to broadcast factually debunked conspiracy theories. The President blocked other people with firsthand knowledge of the alleged abuse of power from testifying. That in itself is obstruction of justice. The first article of impeachment against President Nixon was the simple act of refusing to allow his staff to testify against him, enough to force his resignation. I was gobsmacked by the President’s twitter intimidation of witnesses while they were testifying. Presidents aren’t expected to intimidate witnesses.

  

Discontent permeates the nation. Polls indicate that the nation is divided almost fifty-fifty on the question of impeachment and the question of removal from office. Trying to remove a duly elected sitting president stirs emotions, upsets the initial will of the people, and divides the country to a greater degree. Educated people on both sides of the issue have deep-held feelings and convictions.

Despair has the nation in its grasp. Those who pay attention fear for the future of our democracy and the disruption of our national values.

Watching the hearings in real-time, and then watching the talking heads in the evening makes you wonder if they watched the same hearings. Hannity, on Fox News, and Rachel Maddow, on MSNBC, represents two different Americas and they report the news in two different ways. It’s no wonder that the nation is divided. CNN looks downright moderate in comparison. During some of the televised testimonies, I flipped back and forth between Fox News and MSNBC. Both carried the same pictures and sound, but the ribbons going across the bottom of the screen were totally different. It was as if I was watching two different hearings at one time. Am I sounding like a political junkie?

The hearings have concluded for now. The Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence will send its findings to the House Committee on the Judiciary, which will decide if there is enough evidence to impeach. If it believes there is sufficient evidence, it will recommend Articles of Impeachment to the full House, which will vote whether to send them to the Senate for a trial. Think of impeachment as an indictment by a Grand Jury.  

Impeachment is as much a political issue as a legal issue. While many see the President’s actions as a minor lapse in judgment, others see it as a major diminution of the nation’s status in the world. They argue that if a president has a State Department and national security apparatus going in one direction and a rogue group of personal representatives going in another, seeking political favors, who will trust the US again? How will we, the world’s icon for freedom and rule-of-law, ever regain our reputation? How can any nation, especially NATO member states, ever trust us to come to their aid, to invoke Article 5, when Russia invades them as it is now doing in Ukraine?

US foreign policy ebbs and flows a bit with each new administration, but our values should stay the same. People should know that we believe in and strive to bring freedom and democracy to all nations of the world. Nations should know that we will protect them against involuntary border changes by an invading country. Today, those values seem to be in flux. That cannot be good for the US or the world.

Irrespective of how the impeachment process ends, it has and continues to divide the nation. Few people will change their minds about impeachment regardless of the facts presented. The bases of both parties will stick to their beliefs and the division will expand.

This is, without a doubt, our winter of discontent and our winter of despair.

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[i] “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities - 1859

[ii] William Shakespeare – Richard III – 

Seed on good Soil!

Son of a Sharecropper Eulogized by Presidents! The Axios headline told the story. I did not know a lot about Elijah E. Cummings, but in his death, I became aware of his greatness in the eyes of many. I watched most of his funeral. He died early, only 68. He represented his home city of Baltimore with pride and they returned the love. The day before, he had lain in state in the rotunda of the Capital, only the second Representative granted that privilege.

Former presidents, a former vice president, former members of the cabinet, senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle, state and local dignitaries, and religious leaders of many faiths filled the 4000 seat New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore with an overflow crowd. You knew a giant had passed.

President Clinton spoke words from the Book of Isaiah: “When the Lord asked, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for me?' Isaiah said, 'Here am I, Lord. Send me.' Elijah Cummings spent a whole life saying, 'Send me.' An entire lifetime...”

Family, friends and staff members told of how Cummings helped young people with sage advice, served those in need in his community, and fought for the betterment of the downtrodden. President Obama used the parable of the sower, suggesting that Representative Cummings exemplified the idea that good seed sown on good soil will produce good results. He said that Cummings proved that being kind to others, being polite toward others, and being respectful of others were not signs of weakness, but of strength. The Speaker of the House called him the North Star of his caucus. Without really knowing the man, the funeral left you wishing you had known Cummings, wishing that everyone could have someone like him as a mentor, a visionary, and a moral compass.  

For a couple of hours last week, we heard about goodness, kindness, humility, and results. We saw battling members of Congress sit side by side to honor one of their own. If they could do it that day, and the day before in the rotunda, why can’t they behave that way on a regular basis? Why can’t they behave that way this week, and next, and the next?

The funeral service was for Elijah E. Cummings, but it was meant for us as well to show us what greatness really could be if we put good seed in good soil. It drew a sharp distinction between that and seed sown in the thicket that is so much of today’s state of affairs.

His contemporaries remembered him as Matthew would have described him, a “good and faithful servant.”

Elite or ...

“ I’m just an ordinary man,”[i] The political turbulence of the last few years, created an eddy about the idea that educated people who live in large metropolitan areas, or near the coasts are elites and elitists, and that that is a bad thing. I don’t understand why they became a pejorative. In a vain attempt at full disclosure, I did grow up in the East, although 120 miles from any saltwater, went to a great high school, and got a college degree. I’ve also worked in two large metropolitan areas in the last forty years; brace yourself, one of them was on the left coast. Still, I don’t consider myself elite or an elitist; just a regular guy.

America is experiencing rapid change, technologically, socially and morally. Advancements in artificial intelligence reduce the need for low-skill jobs. When manufacturing leaves the smaller towns and cities because the product is no longer needed, productive people are replaced by robots, or the jobs moved to the large city or another country, certain desperation sets in. Without jobs, life becomes a  struggle, stores close, the population dwindles and division begins.

Those who cause disruption tend to be well-educated technocrats who use high-skill abilities to create new products and services. Long-standing industries become obsolete – think taxies, small hotels, or assembly lines. Change has brewed for a few decades but is now in a fast boil. Our national DNA is steeped in a them-vs.- us divide. Those who don’t have the opportunity or the will to keep up need someone to tag with the blame for their lot in life; perfectly understandable.

One of the things I learned early on when I was a teacher was that a lot of “smart” kids were smart because we told them they were because we treated them as if they were and set higher expectations for them. Children from poorer families were not grouped with the elites; race made a difference too, social standing made a difference, and behavior made a difference. The problem was that those kids were smart too but we treated them as if they weren’t. The self-fulfilling-prophesy was at work. G. B. Shaw was right.[ii] He still is.

America rid itself of royalty at its founding but kept its elites: Washington, Jefferson, the Adam’s, the Lowell’s, Cabot’s and Lodge’s[iii], the Roosevelt’s, Kennedy’s, Bushes and other politicians. We have a pantheon of corporate moguls: Carnegie, Stanford, Hearst, Ford, Mellon, Gates, Jobs, Buffet, and Ellison. In a meritocracy, we will always have those who, through family position, luck, or pluck, will rise above others.  

What do most people do as they accumulate success and excess money? They move to neighborhoods that reflect their view of themselves, associate with others like themselves, buy bigger toys, vacation homes, join organizations with similar folks, and go from there. They seek out the best schools for their kids, foster competitiveness, push academics, and urge them on to independence with the best of intentions. Why is that bad? That is the American dream, isn’t it?

Some say that we need just plain people running our nation because the elites have not done so well by us. I am not sure I agree. Contemplate our country governed by poorly educated people, with diplomats who lack a basic understanding of the forces of hegemony, the value of alliances, with leaders who disdain expertise and experience, or lack social graces. Think of schools led without a passion for learning. There seems to be something happening that does not like education, which does not believe science, does not like the traditional definitions of success, that can’t cope with the sea change flooding our lives.

We live in a global economy whether we like it or not. That means we compete with people from countries that place a high value on educating their elite students: those who can pass the entrance exams and move from one level to another. India has 260 million high-school students, China has about 300 million, and the US only 11 million. Let’s put that in perspective; The top 10% of high school students in India or China are larger than the entire high school population of the US. Their elites will be kicking our butts in a few years.

So, who are these elites that have everyone up in arms? They are mostly people who went to college, and let’s face it, went to elite schools like Harvard and Stanford. All of the current Supreme Court Justices, for example, went to Harvard Law School or Yale Law School. (RBG transferred from Harvard Law to Columbia Law School.) They excelled and they succeeded. Most Fortune 100 CEOs have graduate degrees from highly rated schools. Highly educated and skilled individuals lead most major non-profits. They are all members of the elite class. That seems like a good bargain for the nation. Yet, as no good deed goes unpunished, the elites are blamed for the economic disparity in the nation, the educational disparity, and the social class disparity. They may deserve it, too. But … but!

Too few of the elite class own too much. We have too few willing to share the spoils of success with those who helped them rise to the top. Worker wages really haven’t gone up much in the last twenty years while the very rich are even richer by many folds. This creates a natural dislike for the haves by the have-nots. The divide showed its power in the 2016 election when a conservative nationalist game-show host with no governing experience was sent to the White House because many people were willing to vote for anyone other than more of the same. The elites do rule the country at local, state and national levels; they always have. Most have no concept of life in mid-America or the problems it faces. So, they focus on the needs of the people in the cities, on issues of no concern to the mid-west or the northern plains. They forget that 80% of the Senate represents only fifty percent of the population and their states have the same percentage of the Electoral College.

I am comfortable with highly educated up-to-date visionaries leading the country, up to a point. The wealth of the nation needs to be better distributed. We need to ensure that every American has access to good healthcare at an affordable price. We need to insist on schools that educate and train people for the jobs of the future, not the last century. We need those jobs in this country even if it cost a little more. We need a company’s value measured by more than its stock price.

We have been through these cycles before; the agricultural society suffered through the industrial revolution, we endured a half-century or more of wars, lived through a postindustrial world, and are now working our way along a technological road to the next disruption. The elites led all the movements and recoveries, though with restraints by the masses. That’s where we are today: pulling the reins on a runaway, unregulated economic system that encourages greed and oligarchy. The pendulum will swing back, led by a new batch of elites. If we don’t let them become elitists, we’ll be fine.

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[i] Lerner & Loewe – My Fair Lady – 1957 – I’m an Ordinary Man

I’m an ordinary man

Who desires nothing more than just an ordinary chance

To live exactly as he likes and do precisely what he wants

An average man am I, of no eccentric whim

Who likes to live his life free of strife

Doing whatever he thinks is best for him

Well, just an ordinary man

[ii] George Bernard Shaw – Pygmalion – 1913

A play on which My Fair Lady is based

[iii] A well-known toast to the city of Boston  – 1910 - “Here’s to the beans and the cods, where the Lowell’s speak only to the Cabot’s and the Cabot’s speak only to God. The Lowells never get a look in.”